Showers and Flowers, hop stuff!

Hey there! 

Remember our puppy Josie? see her HERE. She debuted on my blog when she was only a few weeks old. Soon she will turn 8! She sleeps lots more than she used to, but the other night we had a bunny in the backyard when I let her out. The bunny froze and when Josie spotted her a frenzied chase ensued around our fenced lot. They circled it four times before said rabbit ducked under the fence somewhere. What a race! I like the happy ending.

The bunnies in my stamp stash have been multiplying. I love this one from the Simon Says Stamp Showers and Flowers set!

I added shading and layered it with vellum, DSP, and die cuts according to the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch. It makes me smile! Hope your day is hoppy too. (Like the bunny I also could not resist the pun.)

Thanks so much for your visit to my blog. See you Monday!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Showers and Flowers 

Paper: Neenah Solar White, DSP from PTI, vellum

INK: WPlus9 - Silver Lining, COPIC markers, Versamark

Accessories: White embossing powder, sequins, Poppy Stamps - Flower Dies

Lilies of the Field

I often remind myself that I have so many flower stamps. And I don't need to buy ANY more! Then along comes one that is just not like anything I already have  - and I buy it! That is the story of how I recently came upon the Lilies of the Field stamps in my recent order. 

And the Make It Monday Challenge gives me a great chance to use it! Betsy asked us to do some Masking and Stacking of the cutest stamp we could find. Unable to find any critters from PTI I used flowers instead. 

Using a die to cut the masks surely makes this a much easier technique to use. I began with the tall flower in the center and continued to fill in by masking and stamping. I wanted to keep it clean and crisp, so I nixed the idea of adding shading to the background but stamped a few dots in Old Gold to fill in some of the spaces and add dimension.

Thanks for visiting my blog today! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Lilies of the Field, Banner Sentiments

Paper: Neenah Solar White, PTI - Sweet Blush, Bitty Big - Green Parakeet

INK: PTI - Sweet Blush, Pale Peony, Berry Sorbet, Green Parakeet; WPlus9 - Old Gold

Accessories: Border die from MFT

Let's Make It Again! Take Two

Have you ever completed a card, and as you are seeing it come together you have an idea for making it better? That often happens to me, but I rarely re-make it.  Sometimes I rip it apart and fix a thing or two. At other times I leave it alone and get busy with photos and posting it for a challenge.

Speaking of challenges, there is a new one at PTI called Transformation Tuesdays. To take an old card, change it up and make it new! 

So I got busy with yesterday's card. See that post HERE. 

I felt it was too busy. The placement of the sentiment and the flowers in the frame was awkward. 

I began by deciding to shift the frame to the landscape position. Using sponging in the soft blue for the sentiment die cut and the card base, helped simplify the focal point and add cohesiveness.

 I added shimmer to the die cut and spatters in blue as well. Lastly, I used a scalloped rectangle die cut to repeat the scalloped edges inside the small frame.

Using colored card stock on the base pulls in another layer of color. 

I'd love to know what you think of the changes. I always love hearing from you. Thanks for visiting!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps:  Quilted Summer, Inspired: Lord Mini Stamp Set 

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Aqua Mist

INK: Simon Says Stamp - Intense Black, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Green Parakeet

Accessories: Wink of Stella Shimmer Pen

Framed Sentiment

Happy Friday! How is everyone doing today? 

I was itching for a chance to stamp today and just had fun puttering in my craft room. I wanted to play along with the Make It Monday Challenge where Laurie encouraged us to use a frame to highlight a sentiment or images. 

I used the Inspired: Lord Mini set to create the focal point for my card, using the die to cut out the word Lord. I sponged this with inks blended to create an ombre effect. I also inked up the background using a stencil behind the frame in the same pale yellow. 

I really love this concept for a card and want to use it again. I'm not really sure how much I like this color combo but you know what? I made it up as I went along and it's a bit brighter than the photo show. 

I'm happy that you came by! Thanks for taking time to visit and for your fabulous comments.

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Quilted Summer, Inspired: Lord

Paper: Neenah Solar White,

INK: PTI - Leaf Freen, Raspberry Fizz, Gravest Gold, Summer Sunrise

Accessories: Dies for Frame from SSS,  English Brick Stencil from MFT

Merry Christmas Kisses

I'm popping in for a quick post tonight with a card for two challenges that end soon. This cute pair of foxes from Neat and Tangled (Merry Kisses set) have been on the top of my craft table since Christmas just waiting to be colored. I got busy with my Copics while the Olympics were on coloring the foxes in warm browns and adding a red stripe to the scarf.

I placed them on a Distress ink blended background and using a falling snow stencil, I added Nuvo Embellishment Mousse in Mother of Pearl.

I'm playing along with the challenges at Cas(e) This Sketch  and Merry Monday #271 {stencils} I did turn the sketch on it's side. 

Thanks so much for your visit today! 

Thanks! Watercolored Peonies

Hello! Happy Valentine's Day! 
I got in some stamping time this afternoon and I'm making my last entries in honor of the challenges at Papertrey Ink for their 11th Anniversary celebration. 
The first card was made with the Peonies on Parade set. I embossed the flowers in white and colored them in using Real Color Zig markers in red, yellow, mid-green and mustard. 

This challenge was to use stripes! I blended ink using a stencil to add stripes to the card base. 

The second card is for the No Stamps challenge to use only dies for your project. I wanted to do something using dies in a different way. I began by using the die to dry emboss on a pastel card stock panel. Next I did cut the butterflies from a card stock scrap, and used it as a stencil, filling in the butterflies with a thin layer of Nuvo Mousse in Pearl. 

The soft shimmer and texture is so pretty! I blended ink to color the die cut sentiment and butterfly used for accents and coated them with a Wink of shimmer as well. 

That wraps it up for me today. I hope that you're having a good day, thank you so much for coming by! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Floral Heart Wreath Thanks

Hi everyone! 
The 11th Anniversary celebration at PTI is in full swing, and today's challenge asked us to use florals on our card. No problem there! 
I wanted to  use the Gathered Garden set for the first time, so I  had two tries that ended in the trash played around with it bit and decided to make a wreath. 

These stamps are easy to manipulate so you can bend the stems either way as you place them on the block. This makes coming up with a rounded shape so much easier. 
I'm keeping this quick so as to get on with my weekend activities. Hope yours is going well! Thanks so much for taking the time to swing by. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

ETA: If you'd like to feast your eyes on gorgeous floral designs at the challenge, here's the LINK  I promise you won't be disappointed!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Gathered Garden

Paper: Neenah Solar White, PTI - Berry Sorbet

INK:Simon Says Stamp - Intense Black, Papertrey Ink - Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Green Parakeet, Berry Sorbet, Pale Peony, Winter Wisteria

Accessories: PTI - Fun Frames  and Notecard Dies