Birthday Botannicals

It's a new day and I have another card to share with you! Making pretty things in the craft room is keeping my spirits up. Today was especially fun using the Botanicuts Rose Dies to make pretty aqua and teal blossoms for a birthday card. 

I used varying shades of blue card stock to make the roses, adding sponged ink in places for dimension. The leaves were die cut of white card stock blended with green inks and accented with colored pencils. Three rectangles are layered on the card base. 

 Two diagonal edges of the bottom layer were stamped with the outline images from the Sketchbook Roses image. The Nordic Frames dies created the smaller rectangles, which were mounted with foam tape for dimension. The smallest was also lightly inked. Pure Sheen Gemstones from Nuvo were added for sparkle. 
I have so appreciated your kind comments! I've loved hearing from you and each one has been such an encouragement. I can't thank you enough!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Dear Friend Written in Ribbons

I love make ahead meals, don't you? It's my favorite kind of dinner to make when I'm having company. Having the main dish ready-made helps keep the last minute stress at bay. 

It was similar with today's card! I paired an ink blended background that I had made last week with a watercolored image panel I made last month. 

     The images from Summer Sketches were stamped onto watercolor card stock in light ink for the no-line watercolor technique, which I then colored with my Altenew watercolor set. Then I die cut the panel using the Nordic Frames dies. The focal point is the Hello die cut sentiment from the Written in Ribbons set. All stamps and dies are from The Greetery. I tucked in blooms and a leaf to accent the sentiment. 

The inked background uses Distress Oxides in Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, and Squeezed Lemonade. The white spatters are there too. I added the darker blue, Chipped Sapphire for the second layers of the sentiment.

I am enjoying making a few more involved cards using supplies that are in the "use me" bin on my table. Trying to really explore my own style with them is satisfying, but I am just scratching the surface. 

Hope you're having fun with your crafting today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Make It A Beautiful Day

How did it get to be Monday again? Hello, friends hope you're having a beautiful day. I think our warm weather is finally here to day and hopefully spring will hang around for awhile before it gets too hot.

I do love roses, and pulled out my Zig Clean Color markers last night to color for fun using the gorgeous Sketchbook Roses stamps from The Greetery. These are layering stamps and I look forward to the loose flowing watercolor look achieved by stamping the colors. 

I was thrilled with the vibrant colors of the markers. After coloring I added white gel pen accents. I complemented that element by tapping spatters of white gouache onto the gray textured DSP used behind the bouquet. 

Sentiments are all from the same stamp set. I had to make myself STOP before adding a few black dots or even sequins. The die cut florals are exquisite on their own! The Halfsies die cut was used to create the pretty frame. 

Did you notice? No challenges today. I may roll this way for a few days.

I know time is hard to come by in our busy lives. Thank you for spending time to see my project today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Twice is Nice for Freshly Made

It's early Saturday evening and I have just one more card to share. You know, I thought about the sketch at Freshly Made all night and just had to give it a second try. I always thought making two cards with one sketch is a great idea. If one is good, then two are twice as nice! (HERE is my first take if you missed it.)

See what you think. 

I found that the lemons leaves and flowers were easy to arrange in order to accommodate the design of the sketch. I wish the details of the stamping layers were more clear in the photo. I placed them on an inked background and embossed the sentiment in white. I got carried away with the ink splattering, I just love to do that!

That's the end of my crafty play for this week. Thanks so much for your visit! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: The Greetery - Lemon Blossom

Paper: Neenah Solar White, 

INK: Gina K Black Amalgam Ink; Distress Oxides for BG - Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen; die cut elements inked with Altenew Ink Cubes

Accessories: White EP, The Greetery - Postal Frames Die, Nuvo drops

Showers and Flowers for Freshly Made

Welcome back and happy Friday! It's almost evening and I want to wrap up my stamping week with one more card  made for the sketch at Freshly Made. 

I had such trouble with this sketch! Most of it involved choosing the stamps to use and I still felt the balance wasn't right. 
I used the SSS stamps called Showers and Flowers, coloring the image with Zig Clean Color markers and  a paint brush, then fussy cutting it. The border is from Lawn Fawn Just Stitching Double Rectangles dies. 

There are great samples from the DT for this sketch, you will be inspired! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Meadow Greens

Hello again! It's been quite a low key week for me. Some chronic health issues have returned lately so I'm curtailing some of my other activities in order to get more rest. That also means more time at home and more time to make. Being on a creative roll always makes me feel better. 

Today I pulled out an older set that I've never used and just experimented a bit with colors and design. Here's what I came up with. 

I first created a background using Spun Sugar and Squeezed Lemonade DOX inks, but rejected that combo and subbed in Tumbled Glass for the Spun Sugar. A much better result, I think. The flowers were stamped in Artic Iceberg (Altenew) and again with Versamark. The heat embossing was done on the blooms using WOW Spring Rain EP, which gives a nice iridescent sparkle to whatever color it is used with. It looks pretty neat with the tiny dots in each cluster having shine and texture.

I added a Soft Sky card front and the sentiment embossed on vellum plus a few small pearls to embellish. 

The Paper Players have a theme challenge this week, so I'm joining right in. Now you know why I just had to try one of my new to me embossing powders. 

Hope this inspires you to get crafty! I will be back soon.

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI  - Meadow Greens and dies

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110, Bristol Smooth, SU - Soft Sky

INK:  DOX, Altenew, Versamark

Accessories: Vellum card stock, pearls

A Trip Back: Tea Garden

Hello, crafting world! 
You remember how I mentioned in my last post - wanting to use flowers and layers? That's exactly the direction my creating took today! 
I was inspired to use patterned paper for today's card. I pulled out the Tea Garden papers from Basic Grey - over 5 years old! Almost using up that pack made today's card fun! 

I got the idea from Tina Smith's recent video at Cards and Coffee Time. She's begun a series on DSP and if you haven't checked her videos out, I highly recommend them!

I used the same sketch she did but came up with my own take on it. The only stamping is the embossed greeting on the vellum, from WPlus9's Hand Lettered HELLO. SU provided the punches for the butterflies. I use dies so much now. It's been a LONG time since I've punched anything.

Playing with paper was good therapy for me today. I may just do this again tomorrow, HA! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!