Papertrey Tuesday: Stitched Stems

Hello, and welcome to a new week.  I'm getting my stamping done on this coolish cloudy day because I have some extra fun happenings coming up at the end of this week. Don't worry, I'll clue you in as the day gets closer. 

Today is my day to make something with my beautiful Papertrey products and again, I'm stamping along with the Make It Monday challenge, hosted by Michelle Leone. Her video showed us the fun technique of stitching with thread or floss along the stem for a lovely textured accent on a floral card. 

I realized that in my frenzy of purging sewing supplies, I had very few options left so gold thread was my best pick. I used it to backstitch along the center of the largest leaves, adding lines drawn along the sides with a gold Spica pen. With the same pen, I added dots to the flower centers. 

In keeping with the gold elements, I also embossed the sentiment and added gold die cut leaves. 

I'm happy to have a Mother's day card ready well in advance of the day. Now I must just manage to get it mailed on TIME, lol! 

Thanks for visiting me, I really love hearing from you! I've listed most of the supplies below. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Stitching Garden and matching dies, Sentiment SU - retired

Paper: Neenah Solar White, SU - Coastal Cabana (placed inside card back)

INK: PTI - Pale Peony, Berry Sorbet, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Hawaiian Shores Versamark

Accessories: Gold embossing powder, PTI - Shape Shifters Oval 1 Die used to cut foil die cuts and die cut card front

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Take Out Thursday: Bits and Pieces

Hello, and welcome to my weekly post called

Take Out Thursday 

When I serve up something simple and easy.

Take out a stamp set for a spin, spice it up.

I am having so much fun preparing for these posts I'm featuring weekly. Are you enjoying the variety and frequent posts? 

Today's "takeout" includes bits, pieces, and BUNNIES. 

• the bunnies are leftovers from last week's card (HERE) that were hanging around on my craft table
• I took out an older set to mix it up with hats and accessories
• a brand new die and 
• scraps of DSP. 

The result of this mix it up challenge? 

I had so much FUN making this! 

Want to know more about the supplies?  The bunnies are from Somebunny Special by Simon Says Stamp and were colored with Copics.  Also by SSS is the Cuddly Critters Accessory set that provided the hat, sign, sentiment, bow tie, star and balloon.

The new die is the Papertrey Ink Shape Shifters Circle 1 die. I placed patterned paper in purple behind it, and added patterns in bright colored scraps. I  have so much paper and these are tiny bits, but hey, I used some UP!

My bunnies seemed to need grounding, so I wrapped twine around the card and tied a bow. 

That wraps it up for me today! Have fun with your crafting.

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

 

What I love Wednesday: Watercolor

Hello! Happy Wednesday to you. 

Welcome to my Wednesday blog feature where I get to use something I love, do something I love or share something elegant with you. 

I've been happy as a clam getting to do what I love - watercoloring! Today I'm happy to share the Bouquet: Ranunculus stamp set 

from W PLUS 9. I love butterflies and gold too. 

The wonderful thing about this stamp set is that the flowers have already been arranged for you. They're not too large so they can be stamped more than once on your card front, allowing for different arrangements.

I embossed them in white and colored them with Distress Inks on Ranger Distress Watercolor Paper. I added some shading and a bit of ink spatters to complete the design. I've had this set for way too long and what I love about the blog itinerary is that I set aside time to color it for today's post. And watercoloring to me, is the most restful thing to do! This was my third take on it--Just so you know. 

My only embellishment was a butterfly embossed onto vellum, and the sentiment die cut out of Gold Foil card stock.

In case you didn't notice - NO SEQUINS!  Although I did pull them out and decided to let the florals shine. Alone.  

The Hand-Lettered Hello set has smaller sentiments that I can add on a thin banner under the Hello when I decide who will be receiving this card. 

Thanks as aways, for stopping by. Your kind comments make my day! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Wplus9 - Bouquet Ranunculus, Flora and Fauna, Hand-Letterd Hello

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Ranger Distress Watercolor, vellum, gold foil card stock

INK: Versamark, Distress Inks

Accessories: White Embossing powder, Die: Hello di from WPlus9

Papertrey Tuesday: Fresh Bouquet

Good morning!

I hope your day is off to a good beginning. 
I'm glad that you came by to see what I'm sharing today for the Make It Monday Challenge at Papertrey Ink using the Fresh Bouquet Stamp set. 

The challenge Stephanie gave us was to use outline images with a splash of color behind them. 

I loved the airy feeling of her card and wanted to give it a try. Fresh Bouquet is one of three sets I have from PTI with line art so that choice was pretty easy. Stamping the bouquet in black ink was too stark, so I used blue and yellow inks for a softer version. 

I combined sets so that the outlined images and the background pops of color were similar but not matching.
I love this sentiment! I embossed it on a strip and layered it diagonally across the card design. I've listed the supplies below. 

Thanks so much for coming by! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Fresh Bouquet, Floral Sketches, Happy for You Mini Stamp Set

Paper: Neenah Solar White, SU - Tempting Turquoise

INK: PTI - Harvest Gold, Aqua Mist, SU - Tempting Turquoise, Versamark

Accessories:  Tempting Turquoise Embossing Powder, twine, sequins

Take Out Thursday: Somebunny Special

Welcome to my blog today! What I said yesterday about Thursday Play Day? Scratch that. Now it's

Take Out Thursday 

When I serve up something simple and easy.
Take out a stamp set for a spin, spice it up.

Here's what I've come up with for the first Take-Out Thursday with  Simon Says Stamp Somebunny Special  set.

I've been wanting to use these cute bunnies forever.

 You know why I didn't? I kept thinking I had to do something never-seen-before with it. One of my reasons for Take Out Thursday is to use a set or product without having to re-invent the wheel. You know? Take Out food is not gourmet. Not perfection.Designed to get you out of the kitchen quickly. 

These bunnies are meant to be colored and made into something cute! I think someone special will love opening this from his Mimi.

I stamped and die cut the images onto watercolor card stock and colored them with Zig markers. The background features blended distress ink and spatters. The sentiment has a popped up heart accent. I stamped hearts and colored them on the large white panel, and backed it with a Soft Sky (SU!) card base. 

Hope you enjoyed my posts this week, see you on Tuesday! Hugs and bunny love - Are your ears twitching? 

Keeping happy thoughts. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

What I love Wednesday; He is Risen from W Plus 9

Hello friends, I hope your week has been going well. We are finally getting WARM temps here and I can't wait to get outside for some sunshine! 

Just a brief note of explanation about my blog. It seems on a recent post that I had gotten a bit bogged down. In thinking about it I've realized that I need to focus on the JOY that stamping brings me, and reflect that more often here on my blog. I got this great idea from Leslie Miller, to plan out my stamping itinerary to help keep my focus and to help keep it fun. ( In case you haven't yet discovered Leslie's blog I will invite you to check it out HERE where you will be inspired to learn, laugh, and love her amazing work and happy outlook.) 

Back to the blog planning. I've come up with posting three times weekly with the following themes. 
  
Paperytrey Tuesday - where I share work done for Papertrey challenges

What I LOVE Wednesday - where I share a favorite set or technique, new or old, in my favorite elegant style, using flowers, butterflies or other things I love as elements.

Playday is Thursday or Friday. You can expect simpler cards and my intent is to keep it light, easy, and fun! Fun for me = fun for you. 

For today's card, I fell in love with the He is Risen stamp set from W Plus9 after seeing this 

card by Dawn and decided I must make my Easter cards using it. 

What I absolutely love about this set are the large floral background that covers the whole card front and can be stamped tone on tone, and the fabulous sentiments that speak of my Lord and the real meaning of Easter. Of course there are beautiful lilies to love too!
Here's my card. 

I used PTI card stock in Harvest Gold, stamping the background floral in W Plus 9 Queen Bee ink. Dawn's photo shows this beautiful color much more accurately. The individual flowers were inked onto white card stock and embossed in white. I sponged Distress inks to fill them in with color. 

The pretty banner is called Bold Banner from W Plus 9, and there's a sweet coordinating set of sentiments. I used the MISTI to stamp my sentiment, and curved it a bit to fit the banner. 

How often do I mention that I love SEQUINS? I just felt this card needed some sparkle. I couldn't stop at 3. 

I'd love to hear from you and will take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Easter. Will be back tomorrow or Friday for Play Day. 

For now, I'm off to play outside while the sun is still shining. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Papertrey Tuesday Brushed Birds

Hello all, here I am popping in at the end of the day with a card to share with you. I'm calling this post Papertrey Tuesday. 
I'm really happy to pull out the Brushed Birds set from Papertrey Ink and use it for the Make It Monday Challenge. 

Lizzie instructed us to use a stencil to pull the eye towards the focal point on our card. It was easy to do and it does make a difference. I'm always happy to do some ink blending. I also used a sponge to dab inks onto the the bird images. Each bird has 3 stamps to layer and sponging the inks allowed me to blend in additional colors for a soft look. The MISTI was helpful for the multiple stamping. 

Also new is the Shape Shifters Oval 1 Die, and I used all three layers. Under the pretty oval with the tiny cut outs, I cut an oval of white card stock inked with Nuvo Mousse. What a sheen it adds, as you can see in the close up. 

The birds are snuggled among die cut leaves and a banner with the sentiment. I love that this can be used for any kind of occasion I may need later on. 

That's it for me today, I hope you'll be back again soon. Have a great evening. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Brushed Birds

Paper: Neenah Solar White,

INK: PTI - Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold, W Plus 9 Warm Wool

Accessories: Stencil, sequins, Nuvo Mousse