What I Love - Challenges

Hi there! 
It's Wednesday and I remember awhile back setting this as a day to post what I love. Today I'm focusing on my love of card challenges.

I especially like sketch challenges. They help me think outside of the box in choosing stamps and themes, and sometimes I'm surprised!

Sketches limit your supplies automatically. I looked through my stash for small images that would work with the sketch and buttons. 

The sketch is very straight-forward but my approach took some liberties. 

CAS(E) This Sketch   These images are great for creating scenes, but I went with a collage-y row of little things. 

I had in mind a few specific things for the Retro Rubber Challenge - buttons and bows! Working them in with the layout was easy with the set called Beautiful Ride from SSS. I think it's over 2 years old?  Glad to pull it off my shelf and use it again.

This card makes me smile. I hope you're glad you came by to visit. Make it a great day!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Circle of Love Watercolor

Hello, how are you today? 
We had a fun and busy weekend but in between the activities I found some moments to watercolor. I have two cards to share with you today.

I fell in love with the Circle of Love set from Papertrey Ink.  I know I'll enjoy using the solid fill-in images for this floral bouquet on future projects. My desire was to be able to watercolor the images and feel pleased with the results. It's a very humble beginning!

The first card is a CASE of this card done by Betsy Veldman. Nothing like trying to imitate a master, right? Stamping in pale ink, I used the no line watercolor technique, with loose coloring. What you see is my second attempt at this, and I am pleased enough to post it. Number one was for the trash can. 

I added a few sequins, keeping the card very simple. 

For the second card, I embossed the image in gold and then watercolored. While this was easier, I'm not as pleased with the result because the embossing seems to stand out more boldly and the colors seem to get lost. I paired the die cut image with some patterned paper, and added a bow from gold thread.

I chose the Oh happy day sentiment because the card could be for a birthday, wedding or anniversary depending on the greeting inside.  Stamping the trio of hearts was a fun addition. 

I am so grateful to be able to share here on my blog. Many thanks for coming by to spend a little time with me today. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps:  Circle Of Love and coordinating dies

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Canson Cold Press watercolor paper, DSP from Penny Black - Beau Jardin 

INK: Versamerk, WPlus9 - V.I.Pink, Bloomsberry, Fairy Dust 

Accessories: Watercolors - Kuretakd Gansai Tambi, sequins

Framing Summer Citrus

Do you love lemons? In your tea, in water, in a pretty bowl on your table? I do!

I bought the Summer Citrus set when it first came out last year. I googled lemon illustrations and although I found amazing ideas, I never got around to using them. You could say the card with this set and color combo has been steeping on the back burner of my mind for a year. 

Turns out I really like how it turned out. I call it SWEET when that happens!

I've been focusing on appreciating and using what I have. The result?  I've never had more fun creating projects.

Achieving the right mix of Hero Arts inks was important for the lemons to look real and bright enough. I stamped each image repeatedly to add more color and detail.

I took a second photo in better light today so you can see the tone on tone background stamped on the Night of Navy card stock. Thanks for your visit! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: WPlus9Designs - Summer Citrus, Tropic Fever, Welcome Wreath

Paper: Neenah Solar White, SU - Night of Navy

INK:Simon Says Stamp - Intense Black, SU - Night of Navy; Hero Arts - Butterbar, Lemon; Plus 9 - Wild Mango

Accessories:  WPlus9 - Welcome Die 

 

Framed Sentiments

Hello and welcome! 

I've been enjoying my stamping and have new-never-been-used-stuff to inspire me for today's share. 
I'm playing along with Laurie's Favorite Challenge to show our favorite way to frame sentiments. 

I love using an elegant die cut to provide impact for sentiments, and then surround them with flowers. You knew flowers were a favorite of mine, right? 

These flowers make stamp layering a breeze. I love that there is an outline as well as the solid stamps to add to their versatility. 

I'm also playing along with the Inspired By challenge for this week. I kept the colors fresh and summery and used the detailed circle die to represent the lacy fabric in the photo.

That's all from me today. Thanks so much for your visit and your kind comments! Supplies are listed below. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Sentiment is from PTI - Circle of Love; flowers from WPlus9 My Whole Life and companion dies

Paper: Neenah Solar White, PTI Bitty Big papers

INK:Simon Says Stamp - Intense Black, WPlus9 - Lake House, Hayride, Queen Bee, Lime Light Dye inks, SU - Marina Mist

Accessories: PTI - Shape Shifters Circle Die, black enamel dots. 

Layers of Ink - A Blending Technique

Hello, welcome to my blog! 
I have two cards to share with you today. I love ink blending but for these cards I took it just a step further. 
Both were done the same way using the same colors, but the fun of this layering ink technique is that no two cards will look the same! 

I began with Bristol Smooth white card stock, and added a light layer of inking in Twisted Citron and Tumbled glass Distress Oxide inks. Next I stamped and embossed clear the leaf images over the inked panel.

 Lastly, I added deeper shades of the first inks, plus Peacock Feathers over the first inking, and spatters of ink and water. I achieved a wonderful textured background rich in color variations. 
The second card has even more depth of color and the embossed resist design highlights the image details.

The leaf images are from PTI's Meadow Greens stamps. Sentiments are from PTI Inspired Prayer, and  WPlus9 Modern Pansies.

I have to say, the second card is my favorite. You know I love my sequins!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Rosy-patterned Birthday

I asked a sweet little girl I know what she would like for her birthday. "A glass with flowers all over it," was her reply. She will be four soon.  I don't know how she pictured the drinking glass, but here's the card I came up with for this little gal who loves pink. Think she'll like it? 

I began with cream card stock and stamped the entire background pattern using small flower, leaf and dots images in shades of pink and berry. I love doing this and made another couple of panels while I had the stamps out for later cards. 

The focal point is made up of a layer of vellum embossed with a ruffled edge, a white panel, and the sentiment panel stamped with a berry border, on top of foam tape. Added a few die cut images to embellish, and voila!

I just want to add, that I when I tried using only cream card stock to make everything matchy-matchy I really lost a sense of definition and contrast. In the case of this card, using cream and white together makes the sentiment panel pop and a gives a much prettier result. I think the off white almost takes on a pinkish hue with all the flowers stamped on it. I also dotted white gel pen onto the flower centers.

Thanks for coming by today! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

I'm playing along with the Krafty Chicks Challenge to make your own background and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge For A Special Lady and Addicted to Stamps and More, Anything Goes. 

Supplies used:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Let's Fiesta,  Stitched in Time and  coordination dies

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Papertrey Ink - Vintage Cream, Vellum

INK: Papertrey Ink - Berry Sorbet, Pale Peony, Simply Chartreuse, Versamark

Accessories: White embossing powder

Simply Striped

A rainy weekend meant I had time in my craft room to stamp and sunshine was on my mind! I chose bold colors, simple stripes and softly watercolored images for my clean and simple card. I combined a few sets to make this, and was so happy to find the envelope from the Somebunny Love set was just the right size to pair with the cute bird. 

It was a delight to make using the rectangle stitched frames layered on the card base. I love it when a card turns out quickly, don't you? 
I'm playing with these challenges.

Thanks so much for your visit, have a great day! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI Sending You, WPlus9 - Hello and Thanks, SSS - Somebunny Love (2 years old)

Paper: Neenah Solar White, PTI Bitty Big, Ranger Distress Watercolor paper

INK: WPlus9 - Warm Wool 

Accessories: Zig markers used for watercoloring, PTI - Pierced Feature Frames.

Stamping a Repeating Pattern

Hello and welcome to my blog today. While my husband and I watched our favorite team in the basketball play-offs over the weekend, I got in some stamping time. I was able to spend some time playing around with my inks since our team won by a good many points! Today I have a card to share!

I was intrigued by THIS video from Dawn Woleslagle, owner of WPlus9, showing how to make your own pattern for repeat stamping, and I admired the beautiful cards she made! Highly inspired by her work, I created my own patterns using different colors and sentiments. 

By creating a 6" square divided equally into 4 segments, you can easily repeat the same pattern by stamping and turning for each quadrant using the Misti. I can't wait to try this again with other stamps. 

After creating the patterned sheet I hated to cut it up but I trimmed it for an A2 card and die cut a hexagon from the center. I placed patterned paper behind it and used craft foam to lift the image. A die cut flower and leaves were added to embellish the layer. 

As always, I am thankful for each and every visit! I will list my supplies below. 

I am posting into three different challenges today. 
Virginia's "Show & Share"  for March,

the Double "D" Challenge inspired by gingham, 

and the Inspired By Challenge, Spring Lovelies. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used are from WPlus9 unless noted

Stamps: Happy Wishes and dies, Basic Banners

Paper: Neenah Solar White, PTI - Bitty Big Paper Collection

INK: Bloomsberry, Cockle Shell, Last Leaf, Wild Mango, Ocean Drive

Accessories: Clear Cuts Stacker Dies - Hexagon

Laurie's Fabulous Favorites

Hello! 
Surprised to see me post two days in a row? Well, I am surprised too. 
I'm inspired again by Laurie's Fabulous Favorites Challenge at PTI for this week. Stand alone dies? Count me in! I just got a brand new one in my order that arrived today and couldn't wait to use it. 

I paired the new die and sentiments set up with the beautiful Orchid Expressions set that I worked with yesterday. 

Now I'm delighted to have two anniversary cards ready for my stash. I don't often work ahead on Anniversary cards or send them often. But I love the choice of sentiments in the Huge Sentiments stamp set. I will get lots of use out of that as well as the Huge Banner Die and the Huge Congrats die.I love that this die is actually two dies so that you get a larger layer to use behind your word for extra depth. 

My colors are Soft Stone card stock, and Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Amethyst Allure, and New Leaf inks for the blossoms. You know I'm not much of a gray person, but I love the way the colors pop against this pale neutral gray. 

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

          Make something beautiful!

Other accessories: 
Mix & Mat Pretty Brackets Die, Cover Up Hexagons Stamp set

My Monthly Hero January Card Kit 2019

Hello! Happy Friday. I can't believe one more week has gone by! 

I created three cards over this past week using the monthly kit from Hero Arts, and I have to tell you how much I love this kit! The stamps and dies are super fun but you get many other supplies as well that make it a terrific value. I began by stamping the images, coloring them with Copics, and then die cutting them. 

The stamps involve a fabulous floral shop display that I featured in the first card. I just love that bicycle image, I know it will be handy for many types of occasions. 

The second card was inspired by the patterned paper in my stash. Framing the three images with die cuts, I added only small hearts and some ribbon from the kit as embellishments. This one is so simple but you know what? It's my favorite. 

For the last project I created a shaker card using the heart-shaped balloons for a Valentine's greeting. 

As always, I thank you so much for stopping by! Hope you have a really wonderful day. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Celebrate In Style

Hello everyone! 
I've been so caught up in Christmas preparations and events. Have really missed my crafting and regular posts. It's a busy time of year but I'm delighted to be able to stamp today as the featured guest stamper at CAS(E) this Sketch! I'm so honored to stamp again with this talented team of designers. 

I need a card to be on hand for a January guy birthday and I wanted to create a classy style. Choosing bold neutrals with gold gave me a great head start on a card that could also double as a New Year's greeting.

I'm way out of my comfort zone with two grays and black but they do look really good with lots of white and gold accents. 

Here's the sketch. 

You can find the challenge HERE and it will be in play for two weeks. Hope you will check out the wonderful projects and make your own to join in the fun! 

Thanks for your visit. Hope you have many good things to celebrate today.   

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: none

Paper: Neenah Solar White, SU - Basic Gray and Basic Black, WPlus9 - Fog, Gold Foil paper

Accessories: Sissix - Celebrate die, SU - Starblast Edgelit Die (retired) 

Christmas Reindeer

It's been awhile since I've posted but I have been busy.  Crafting has been happening sporadically in between lots of holiday preparations and family gatherings. 

We did however make time to boat on a warmer day this week, before putting the boat into storage. I don't want to ever miss a chance to be on the lake, you know? Others say we're CRA-ZY!!

Would you like to see my project? 
I'm in love with the Reindeer dies from Elizabeth Creations and featured them on my Christmas card. 

My background uses Distress Oxide Inks in Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Wilted Violet blended to 
create a night sky. Using a stencil from the Make It Market Fairytale Christmas from PTI, I slicked on embossing paste and glitter to make pretty falling snowflakes.

Silver accents include the embossed sentiment, a skinny strip of silver foil paper along the top of the panel, 3 rhinestone gems and a silver chord adorning the deer's neck. 

I am pleased to have another card added to the stash. Hopefully I will be getting them addressed to mail soon! 

Thank you so very much for stopping by to visit today! Hope you are enjoying some crafty moments too! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!