Emboss Resist with a Twist

Hi, welcome back! 
I am honored to be joining the group at Retro Rubber Challenge as guest designer today! This challenge is to use the colors red, orange and brown for your card. Definitely put me in the mood to make a fall card.

I used the emboss resist technique with a twist. Beginning with Distress Oxide inks in Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral and Candied Apple, I blended a background onto Bristol Smooth card stock. Next the leaves were stamped and embossed with clear powder. The twist, is to use a damp brush over the inked background and blot with a paper towel to remove some of the color. This leaves a soft wash while the stamped images retain the contrast of the darker color underneath. 

The stamps from Clearly Besotted have been on my shelf for at least 4 years. I love the variety of leaf images and they are perfect for making backgrounds.  Playing at Retro Rubber has opened my eyes to new ways to use my older stamps and I am always surprised to find new color combos or techniques for using them. It's  a win - win! We hope you will play along too! Give those older stamps a chance to shine again.

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Leafy Accents, PTI - Colorpop Autumn MIM sentiment die 

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Bristol Smooth, DSP from my stash, Gold foil

INK: WPlus9 - Coconut Husk, Gala Red, Versamark

Accessories: Bold Banner Die, gold cord

Out of This World

Hello, and good morning to you! 

It turns out this stamp set called Out of This World is also a blast from the past! So long past in fact, that it's no longer for sale.

No matter, I am into using things from my stash, the older the better! Some child will like the monster and ink-blended night sky. Right? 

I liked getting to add lots of WOS sparkle, clear Nuvo drops for the googlie eyes and spaceship windows, and all those iridescent stars. I just had to have them, you know? For THIS moment. 

This card is for the MFT Sketch Challenge. 

and I added it to the Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp: Stamp It! 

I am so glad that you stopped by today! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Autumn's Bounty

Hello! It's Friday afternoon and I've been doing some stamping today. It's nice having a chance to play with new stamps from The Greetery and a couple of fun challenges.

I couldn't wait to ink up the Bountiful Wreath stamp and select just a part of the die cut wreath to embellish this simple autumn card. I embossed a stitched circle on the card front, and added a circle of gold thread. A dollop of clear Nuvo Drops on each berry adds dimension. 

I was Inspired by the wonderful sketch at FMS

and these gorgeous colors from
Color Throwdown. 

I am so glad you came by! I hope you have a most wonderful weekend. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: The Greetery - Bountiful Wreath and dies

Paper: SU - Very Vanilla, Midnight Muse

INK: Distress Oxide - Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber, WPlus9 - Wild Mango, and PTI - Enchanted Evening, Versamark

Accessories: gold thread, PTI - Shape Shifters Circle Die 1, Princess Gold embossing powder, Corner Rounder punch

Special Day

Hi everyone! 
I made this card with the Special Day sentiment for a special day at Freshly Made Sketches that has come and gone.It was a great sketch so although I missed posting it in time, I'm happy to be sharing it with you!

I paired blooms from the Fleur Impressions set (The Greetery) with Bitty Big: Soft Stone Colored Collection patterned papers. 

I just love the way these flower images layer and add a dash of color and elegance to the card. I used inks from Wplus9. 

This card is flat for mailing since I didn't tack on pearls or embellishments. 

Hope you're having a wonderful day. Thanks for coming by! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Hi everyone! 

I hope your weekend was a good one. Today is still a holiday but it is also a Monday. Monday's for me are a pretty low key catch up day. Things were very slow moving by the time I got to the stamp room. You don't want to know how long this card took me to make, HA! Starting out, I made it much too complicated. Even though I knew I wanted clean and simple, I tried out new products and techniques, then scratched them and went with the basics. 

How basic, you say? Colored with Tombo markers, die cut and arranged on a card front with an embossed sentiment. Voila! 

The banner and the flower cluster above it were popped up to add dimension. I added brown sequins to give just a bit of contrast and shine. 

I made this for the wonderful challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.

and the Anything Goes at 

Thanks for stopping by! Til next time ~

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Wplus9 - Autumn Blessings stamps and dies

Paper: Bitty Big Harvest Gold Paper Collection - PTI

Fall Foliage Birthday

Hello everyone, how has your week been?

I've had lots of time to stamp. I finally gave up holding on to summer and made an autumn card. How could I resist the Fir & Foliage 1 stamps from The Greetery? 

Making this card was a delight with the easily layering tree images Betsy designed. Creating a masculine birthday card, I used Distress Oxide inks in fall colors. This tree can be created in many colors to reflect the seasons.

I'm squeaking this in to the challenge at The Paper Players on its last day, they had a great sketch. 

Thanks so much for taking your valuable time to visit my blog today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Stamps: The Greetery - Fir & Foliage 1, Sentiments Suite: Birthday stamps and dies

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Kraft

INK: Distress Oxide 

Accessories: embellishment is from SU

Watercolored Thanks

I pulled out the Look for the Rainbows Stamp set from the September Card Kit again today. 

This time I wanted to watercolor those gorgeous flowers. One thing that attracted me to this set was the large flowers with petals big enough to color generously. And that is what I did! 

I love to watercolor but I'm still in the learning stages. I used my Peerless watercolors but the colors were a bit more intense than I wanted. Once I realized that I was stuck with that, I added details over the blossoms with Copics, and flicked on spatters in black and metallic gold. I added a pale yellow background and black card stock with the sentiment embossed with Liquid Platinum. And I liked the results!

 Using a black mat, I mounted the card front onto Very Vanilla card stock for the base and added a few jewels.

Thanks so much for coming by today! Thank you for your kind words and comments. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!