A Sketchy Birthday

Hello! It's a long weekend here in the states. And we're having HOT temperatures over the next week. That means chances to stay cool in the craft room in the afternoon.

 Just so I'm not always playing with the new stuff, I am working through some older stamps and using them to make one or two new cards. First up, the Sketch Ranunculus set from SSS. I forgot how fun these flowers are to color! 

I embossed them in white onto Ranger watercolor paper and colored them using Zigs. 
I loosely modeled this after the sketch below and blended Distress Oxide inks on the the main panel. 

CAS(E) This Sketch 

 I may want to try this sketch again with a more graphic design.
Hope you're having a beautiful day! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 
         Make something beautiful!

Fun Filled Birthday Wish

I have a fun card for a child's birthday today! It began with the frame that was inked and sat around on my desk for a couple of months waiting to be caught up in my creative process. 

Today was the day! 

Although the frame was inked in pale pink and blue, I wanted to use critters. I combined Avery Elle More Stories for the hedgehog and bunny. The other images and sentiment are from WPlus9 Curious Forest Friends.  Using a stencil I added clouds to the top panel behind the sentiment.

I used watercolor for the hedgehog, bear and raccoon. The bunny was cut from a piece of the inked paper and I dotted his tail with a white gel pen. 

I'm happy to be playing along with the Fusion Card Challenge for May. It gave me great motivation to pull out the hedgehog stamp! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

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.

Mixed Bouquet for Papertrey's Favorites Challenge

Hello, how have things been going with you?

I've been absent for most of March and April for happy reasons but I've been missing my stamping and sharing on my blog!

 Nothing like a challenge to help me get back in the game. For Laurie's Fabulous Favorites challenge she asked us to make a card with a different shape or size. I made a note card, using a scalloped edge note card die. 

On top I placed a shape cut from Shape Shifter's Circle 4 Die and layered flowers stamped in yellows and shades of purple with the Mixed Bouquet Stamp set. 

The sentiment was added from the Huge Sentiments stamps and die. To balance things out, the sweet butterfly I added is from Stampin' Up!'s embosslit called Beautiful Wings. It's been forgotten in the drawer for way too long, and it's really such a pretty embellishment.

I really enjoy challenges and I'm happy to have a card ready for someone special. 

Hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks for visiting. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

sending you Sunshine!

Hi there, I do want to send you some sunshine! It's much needed in our state. Can you imagine there were snow flurries in our state today? Snow on April 2 in NC is a bizarre twist since our dogwoods and azaleas have just started blooming. 

Bringing some flowers your way today so that I can play along with Laurie's Favorites challenge on the PTI blog before it ends tomorrow. 

We were to choose any past Make It Monday technique to use for our card. I chose to use  MIM #312  featuring a framed sentiment. I also was highly influenced by THIS card of Laurie's because I just love her color choices. 

I began by using the stencil and inking it lightly with Midnight Muse ink from Stampin' Up! I stamped the images using additionally Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal, Harvest Gold and Honey Nut. I used the Stitching Garden and Sending You stamp sets adding a bit of sparkle with yellow sequins. 

Hope you have a great day! I'm wishing you a burst of goodness and happy hugs. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!