ITP & MB

It's sunny & warm here today, so Fritz & I enjoyed our walk.  A few more people were out, so we just kept changing direction or stopped to be sure they got well ahead of us.  Neighbors behind us again had people over last night.  We've noticed the groups are smaller, so maybe some of the usuals are smarter than the people hosting & don't attend.  I got a little teary listening to Queen Elizabeth speaking to the people of The British Commonwealth & pretended it included me.  Refreshing, to say the least.
I was thrilled to see the challenges at Ink to Paper.  Still really miss all the ones I used to enter at PTI.  First up is Project Reach Out: Just a Little Thank You.  I started with one of the PTI scalloped die cuts a friend sent to me long ago.  She was very generous, so there's no reason to be hoarding them--haha!

Next I pulled out my only ITP stamp set--Bold Blooms.  I masked the bottom of the note card along the stitching line & then stamped 2 different leafy branches & a stem in Prairie Grass. The blooms were stamped in Scarlet Jewel & the sentiment in Cocoa Bean.  I used a white gel pen for the dots & tied on a crochet thread bow.  There are lots of people this could go to, so I'll decide & mail or deliver it this week.

For Melissa's Fab Friday Feature, we're to make a Thinking of You project & give it to someone special.  I've had PTI Fancy Foliage stamps & dies a long time, but have only used a couple of the images.  Now I've added the Thinking of You sentiment to that list.

I stamped a die cut in Versafine Vintage Sepia & attached it to a fun foam die cut since it's my focal point.  Fun to have some little matching leafy images in the set.  Here's a close up so you can see that the leaves were colored with a metallic Spellbinders Golden Age pen.

The PTI Pierced Feature Frame was die cut from Dark Chocolate cardstock.  I really had fun making the background.  An image from Bold Blooms was inked in Harvest Gold & edged with Summer Sunrise before stamping randomly on a white panel.  Then I splattered with a dark brown Zig & attached it to a panel of Harvest Gold.  This one goes to a special cardmaking friend.  I used white & gold scraps, so I'm also entering The Snippets Playground.

Finally, another Easter card with my left over Memory Box die cut eggs (Classic Egg & Filagree Egg) after making THIS card.  The grass is made with my new IO Grass Border die.  I wanted the eggs to provide the color, so I die cut the grass from white scraps.

I arranged the eggs in the 3 rows of grass & trimmed the excess from each side of the card.  Hard to see, but the top egg layer is brushed with a sparkle pen.

The sentiment from Stampendous was stamped in Versafine Morning Mist & rounded the top corners.  I'm entering Memory Box Spring Fling, DRU & ModSquad.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.

No Stamping

Hello to everyone staying isolated & safe.  Honestly, there isn't a huge difference in my daily routine as I'm home most days.  But the unknown & constant frightening news can sure play havoc with your mind. We haven't gone into buildings in over 3 weeks.  Yesterday I was wondering how it will feel when I finally do.  Of course there are good stories in all of this & we were thrilled to see that one 104 year old Oregon veteran survived the virus.  Then I see people allowing neighborhood children to play together & I can only wonder--do you just not get it?! 
My attention span seems to have shortened, so I do spurts of reading blogs & will get to you as soon as I can.  Making cards continues to make me happy & here's my entry for IO Easter Fun.

A friend let me borrow her IO Leafy Background die & I loved it so much I got one!  Here I cut it from light & dark green cardstock.  Then I turned one around before attaching them together & I decided to let that beautiful background be the star.  Previously I had painted a scrap with my grape acrylic paint & die cut IO Easter Joy 3 times.  The top one was covered with Nuvo Glaze, but it just didn't work for the card I was working on then.  Luckily I noticed it still on my table & it was just what I needed once I attached it to a vellum strip. 

The panel was mounted to a white card base & I added Pico Embellisher dots & a crochet thread bow.  Another flat card ready to mail.  I'm also entering DRU, the newly revived NBUS, ModSquad & Time Out.  My leafy background was a pretty recent addition to my unused stash, but that shows what a good purchase it was to make it onto a card already!


Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.

Fun Making Cards

Hope you're all staying home & staying safe.  We're staying out of buildings & so far I've done 2 grocery pick ups.  Neither order had everything I ordered, but we're not going to starve.  Seriously, we are more grateful than ever to be in a fairly unpopulated area.  Our neighborhood is quiet even with kids out of school.  Guess the parents really are making them study at home during school hours.  We're also grateful our Governor ordered everyone to stay home 3 weeks ago, except for essential services.  Hopefully it will pay off here.  I'm just sorry so many people in this country continue to behave irresponsibly.  OK--off my soapbox & onto cards!
The MFT Cross Stitch tag I showed you here did indeed make it onto a card.  I dry embossed a blue panel & added the cute bunny from Spellbinders March Small Die of the Month.

I was lucky to win a gift certificate last month at Stamplorations.  Usually it takes me forever to spend a gc, but I knew immediately what I wanted.  I loved every card made with the Layered Vase stamp set during the February release.  Here's my first card using VersaMagic Pink Grapefruit & Oasis Green along with Delicata Golden Glitz.

  

The sentiment is from an old TPC Studio set.  I love overstamping in the gold which has a beautiful shimmer in real life.  I added splatters & decided against any embellishments.  As you can see in the close up, the image & sentiment are gold embossed.  Most of the time I use white cardstock, but this time I used cream.  Think it was a good choice with these colors.

I'm entering Stamplorations Theme, Stamplorations Never Ending Anything Goes & SSS Wednesday.

Next is a notecard I'm sending to Darnell's 95 year old friend, Verna.  I made one last entry for the Gina K March Monthly Mix challenge where the theme is rainbow.

The design is one of my favorites--simple & effective, I think.  After masking the strip in the center of the card, I brushed on DI festive berries, dried marigold, squeezed lemonade, mowed lawn & salty ocean.  Then I stamped the Gina K/Hero Arts Friendship Blooms image in Versafine Clair Nocturne.  I decided against a sentiment & just added some black Pico Embellisher dots.  I'll write a note inside & include a picture of Darnell & me.  Thought Verna might get a kick out of that.  I'm also entering WAW.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.

Easter and Christmas

I decided to try taking my pictures near a different window & so far the colors are much better.  Yah!  Now I can show you the Easter projects I finished a few days ago.
Thought I'd send my sister some MFT cross stitch tags to help her pass the time.  That inspired me to stitch one myself & here it is.

I chose one of the MFT Easter Egg patterns & just reversed the colors so I have more blue.  The sentiment is from PTI Mat Stack 3 & I used a bit of lace at the top instead of twine or ribbon.  I may attach it to a card like I usually do with tags.  I'm entering SSS Wednesday.

You may remember my acrylic paint flowers card inspired by my friend, Helen.  Before I bought that set of paints, I tried making a panel with some Distress Paints.  One of the colors was really light & the panel didn't look good to me, so it just sat on my table.  That was some time last year!  After making the card for CAS Mix Up, I decided to black emboss images from Poppystamps Little Kindness & see how they looked, rather than throwing away the panel.

Surprise, surprise--enough of them were worth using to make a card!  I fussy cut the images & splattered them with Distress Stain tarnished brass.

The purple textured scrap was also on my table & this time I remembered that Helen had stamped foliage in black before adding her flowers & leaves.  I used PTI Turning a New Leaf & absolutely love how it looks!  The black embossed sentiment is a very old one by Stampendous & I'm not sure it had ever been used.  The panel was matted with black cardstock & I added gold sequins.  I'm entering Poppystamps, SSS Wednesday & WAW.

I took a break from making Spring/Easter cards to get back to Christmas for Rudolph Days.  Most of you know I really love classy, elegant cards.  That's what I made using Uniko stamps Winter Foliage & Season of Beauty with a color combo of ivory, gold, green & red.

The holly was inked with Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy & Thyme.  For the berries I used Brilliance Rocket Red & Pearlescent Poppy.  The last time I actually went into a store before the virus attacked, I bought a gold Pentel Sparkle Pop pen.  I held my breath & used it to color the lines & dots.

You can't believe what a difference it made!  I've tried to use glitter glue in the past for little areas where I wanted gold sparkle, but the pen works so much better.  I gold embossed the sentiment & the edges of the mat.  I'm trying to make flat Christmas cards & really I don't think the focal point needs to be popped up.  I'm also entering ABC Christmas & SSS Wednesday.


Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.  Stay Home, Save Lives!

Happy Easter Card

Hope everyone is staying safe & sane!  I seem to be moving in slow gear, but have made more Easter projects.  Unfortunately, I'm having a terrible time getting good pictures.  The colors are blah in spite of being quite vivid in person.  At least one card looks pretty good, so I'll show you that one. 

I cancelled my Spellbinders Small Die of the Month club at the end of 2019.  However, I absolutely loved the February 2020 kit, so I signed up again.  Naturally, it's still unused--haha!  But the March kit has adorable bunnies & I die cut one of them for the TPC Tuesday Challenge: Furry Animals.  The greenery from TCP Simple Blooms was inked in Brilliance Pearlescent Lime, Thyme & Ivy.  The sentiment is from an old TPC Studio set & the embossing folder is by Darice.  I'm also entering SSS Wednesday, Allsorts & DCD.  Hopefully I'll get some better pictures & post my other projects soon.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.

Friendship

I've always appreciated my blogging friends, but now even more!  Here are 2 cards with that theme.
There have been a lot of multi-colored wreaths in blogland recently & I love the look.  Of course, I pretty much love every wreath I see--haha!  Thought it might work for the PFS March Challenge using the Delicate Wreath stamp set & the inspiration colors.  Finally sat down to give it a try & hope you like it as much as I do!

I used DI markers scattered straw, spun sugar, bundled sage & tumbled glass to ink the stamp.  Then I spritzed lightly with water before stamping.  I repeated the process until I was happy, thanks to using my MISTI.  Then I stamped in Versamark & embossed with HA Sparkle ep.

The sentiment from the set was stamped in Versafine Clair Morning Mist a couple times.  For the dark rose color, I splattered DI picked raspberry.  I usually avoid the bumps from pearls these days, but they've always been my favorite embellishment.  Couldn't resist using one for the center of my crochet thread bow.

My dear friend, Rosemary, is GD for CTS.  They're revisiting the very first sketch & it's a fun one.  I was also excited to see the Hero Arts Stay Crafty Challenge.  When I started stamping 20 some years ago, the only challenge I knew about was HA.  At that time, you actually made & mailed a card to HA each month.  Yep--the good 'ole days--haha!  The challenge theme is Encouragement & I pulled out a set from 2009 with a sentiment I don't think I've ever used.  The set also has this sweet little butterfly.

I grabbed some of my kraft cardstock scraps & made a card plus a smaller panel.  Again I used the MISTI to stamp a row of white butterflies, leaving space for the one angled to the right, stamped in VersaMagic Perfect Plumeria & embossed in HA Sparkle ep.  I colored the dots of that butterfly with a Gelly Roll Clear Star pen.

The sentiment was stamped in Versafine Clair Acorn.  I went over the word "special" with the pen & didn't like it at all!  Luckily, I was able to fix it by stamping & embossing the word just as I had done the butterfly.  Then I trimmed it & popped it up.  All the edges were inked with Versafine Clair Acorn & the big panel was mounted with a couple extra cardstock layers.  Both cards are going in the mail & will hopefully bring some joy.  I'm also entering The Snippets Playground.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.