Classy & Fabulous

I've been wracking my brain for an idea ever since I saw the theme of "shoes" at Twofers.  Yesterday after 1/2 day at work I finally found a fun sheet of Penny Black stickers with the darling high heel & lady all dressed up.  

I matted the stickers with kraft & covered the shoe with Diamond Glaze. Clearly needed sparkle--right?!  Star Dust Stickles was added to the bows on the shoes, the skirt, the jewelry & the purse handle.  I knew somewhere I had a stamp with the Coco Chanel quote & finally found it in the Fresh Squeezed Stamps set I won before they went out of business.  Gotta say, this was fun to put together! My first college roommate is a shoe fiend & is turning 65 this year.  Think I'll surprise her with this card.  I'm also entering Retro Rubber (sentiment over 2 years old), SSS Wednesday & Time Out (used the word woman). Thanks so much for taking time to stop by. 

Springtime Wishes

Spring Break is over so now we have a week of sun--haha! Feels & looks like Spring with all the trees & flowers blooming.  The gorgeous inspiration board for the Ellen Hutson Pin Sights challenge is perfect for a Spring card.  I used 4 of the colors: black, gold, cream & mint along with the picture of gold flowers.
The die cuts are EH Bold Blossoms & the sentiment is from my newly won Verve New Beginnings set. I die cut the flower from self-adhesive fun foam & covered it with Elizabeth Craft Champagne glitter--gorgeous, smooth & sparkly! I ended up loving the look of the frame not going to the card edge for THIS recent card, so I did it again with the Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles. Finished off with black Enamel Dots. I'm also entering ATCAS, The Playground & Uniko.  Thanks so much for taking time to visit my blog.

Easter Blessings to You

1. Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!
   Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
   Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
   Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply, Alleluia! 
2.                                     Charles Wesley

This hymn was one of my favorites growing up & it's been in my mind ever since I started my Easter cards.  Before heading to work today I want to wish everyone a lovely Easter. I made a one layer watercolor card with the smooth side on the outside. The Impression Obsession Three Little Twigs was white embossed & color was added using Distress Inks scattered straw, spiced marmalade & peeled paint using the acrylic block technique.  I splattered each of the inks over their corresponding areas. The IO Easter Blessings sentiment was stamped in Memento Espresso Truffle using my Mini MISTI to get a nice dark inking.  I'm entering these challenges: Impression Obsession, Chouxchoux, & CropStop.  Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll catch up with you soon.

Orange for Christmas?!

I did not have this color in mind when I started making my card for PTI MIM (ink blending over embossing also known as emboss resist) & Rudolph Days, but have to say it is festive & it's growing on me!  

The stamps are all PTI Snowflake Flurries.  It's going into The Vault--must not be a big seller, but it's still one of my favorites! After white embossing the 3 different images I began sponging with Raspberry Fizz trying to be darker close to the images & fading out.  It was not looking good!  Instead of starting over, I sponged on more ink & then blended with Orange Zest. I ended up with a beautiful panel in a very non-traditional color.  Love how Frosted Lace Stickles picks up the ink color.  I heat embossed the sentiment & lightly sponged the edges with the same 2 inks.  I do have a friend whose favorite color is orange, so maybe this will go to her.  I'm also entering ABC Christmas Challenge with my No Frills card.

Thought you might also like to see my last Hero Arts Scramble card which I created 2 days before the MIM Challenge posted.  I do love emboss resist! Thanks so much for stopping by.  

Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge

Sometimes a challenge theme immediately inspires me, but to be honest, that didn't happen when I saw the PTI Blog Hop photos! I used to do cross stitch, but never embroidery. I have made French Knots so decided to use them with colors from the inspiration. Well, it turns out making French Knots is not like riding a bike!  I did finally get 9 French Knots made after 2 hours & decided to change my design to 3 flowers instead of 7--haha!  Actually, I like the final card better anyway & since I used the sketch at Share Joy I'll enter there, too.

The floss I used was pink for the red flowers & light blue for the blue ones, even though it looks white.  Fun to use some of my felt again which I glued to a panel of PTI Soft Stone.  The flowers are Friendly Flowers & the leaves are Lovely Leaves.  The sentiment from Friendly Flowers was stamped on a scrap of Soft Stone in Versafine Smokey Gray.  I cut the white stitched frame twice to make it a little thicker & love how it looks with the Soft Stone.  I already have a friend in mind to mail this to.  I'm also entering at Dies R Us & Word Art Wednesday.  Thanks for taking time to stop by--enjoy the hop!

Just for You

One of my co-workers from years ago sent me a Christmas card last year letting me know they had moved back to Oregon.  

When I put her new address in my book, I saw that her birthday is coming up.  Good reason to make a card!  I'd been trying to come up with something for A Blog Named Hero (rainbow) & SSS Flickr #41 (anything goes). Kept thinking about The Hero Arts Bold Pop Designs & thought the cute little bird would be great for a rainbow design--plus I've never used it!  I stamped the die cuts with Memento Grape Jelly, Cottage Ivy, Nautical Blue, Love Letter & Dandelion using my Mini MISTI to get darker inking--love it!  Took awhile to figure out what to do with the birds, but finally decided to use the SSS Ring Frame.  Hero Arts Envelope Pattern was stamped in matching inks for each bird.  The sentiment is an old one I've never used from HA Happiness Messages.  It was heat embossed and then covered with Versamark & clear embossed a couple times to make a tile.  

The birds & plain circles are brushed with WOS & tiny gems are used for the birds eyes.  Echo Park's Random Dots embossing folder was used on the card front, but might have been better left plain.  My friend will probably get a kick out of it anyway.  I'm also entering the embossing challenge at a2z Scrapbooking.  Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.

Coffee Card!

Happy Spring!  I finally bought a coffee-themed stamp from Stampendous last year to use for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hops so didn't want to miss the Spring Hop.  My layout was inspired by the Viva la Verve March Sketch 2.  I used some of the beautiful papers from the MME On Trend pad--perfect for a Spring card. I gold embossed the coffee stamp on a vellum circle & colored the cup & saucer on the back side with Distress Ink abandoned coral. Hard to see that I brushed Wink of Stella on the front side.

Pure Glitz Champagne glitter glue (one of my very old favorites) was used to "color" the letter F.  I was a lucky winner of some newly released Verve stamps & dies. Two of the flowers from the New Beginnings set were die cut.  The small one was cut twice, stamped & clear embossed.  I used a gold gel pen on one center & punched a light green circle from a scrap of the paper pad for the other one which I embellished with gold sticker dots. The larger flower was stamped in abandoned coral on another scrap from the pad, colored with the gold gel pen & die cut with a small circle.  I'm also entering CropStop, Dies R Us, The Playground, SSS Monday, Stamping Sensations & Uniko. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Easter Wreath & Bunny

Just not right for my Impression Obsession bunny dies not to be used this year for Easter & fortunately the current IO challenge theme is Easter Fun!  I also wanted to play along at Freshly Made Sketches.  My friend, Rosemary, made a wreath for the sketch & that gave me the idea for my card.  I stamped 2 of the images from IO's Petite Flowers set in Memento Espresso Truffle in the shape of a wreath.  

The standing bunny from the IO Bunny Set was cut from self-adhesive fun foam & glittered with Elizabeth Craft Cool Highlight--the most beautiful, smooth, sparkly glitter after it's burnished.  I masked "to you" & stamped the rest of IO's Easter Blessings sentiment in Brilliance Pearlescent Jade & used an applicator to add just a bit of the ink to the flowers. A black gem is used for the bunny's eye & she's dressed up with her pretty twine bow. Finished off with a couple PPP Marshmallow sequins.  This was so fun to create & I love how it turned out! I'm also entering Taylored Expressions Share Joy (Top Horizontal Row) & Chouxchoux.  Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.
Edited to add: also entering SSS Wednesday.

Penny Black with Burlap & Zigs

My card is to remind you of the current Easter theme at Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  

I stamped the image from Penny Black delicate florals (from 2012) on a watercolor card in Encore Ultimate Metallic Honeydew & clear embossed.  Then I watercolored with green & yellow Zig markers & a water brush.  It's such a fun & easy technique I'm glad I gave in & got the 24 pack. I added a few splatters of the Honeydew ink--a color I need to use more often. Also fun to get out my burlap which hasn't been used in ages. I attached it to cardstock before cutting it with the PTI Take 3 die. The greeting is very old (over 10 years) & is stamped in VersaMagic Jumbo Java.  I finished off with 3 green Enamel Dots.  My card cases this one by Leigh Penner & I'm entering these challenges: AAA Cards, National Craft Month Celebration, CAS Mix Up, Double D, Retro Rubber & Stamplorations March theme.  Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.