Altenew Homework

Somehow I missed the info regarding Therese's Altenew Academy 3D Floral Focus class.  Luckily, Betty posted some of her homework, so the next day I signed up & started watching the videos.  Love the class & I watched all the videos in 2 days.  Not sure when I'll finish the homework, but I do have cards made for the first 3 lessons.  I used Altenew Fantasy Floral Die set & Altenew Painted Greetings stamp set.

Day 1:  The Basics

I had fun making a red, white & blue card for my sister & brother in law who are both dealing with some health issues.  This will be instead of a July 4th card this year.   

The background was done with a Hero Arts stencil & Heidi Swapp Art Screen Ink.  The screen ink has a beautiful metallic sheen & I added some PPP clear confetti.  I'm also entering Inkspirational & SSS Wednesday.


Day 2:  Monochromatic

I used the same blue & white cardstocks I had out for my next flower.  Gotta say, I really love the look of this one.  For added fun, I covered the 3rd layer with prisma glitter--so beautiful!

The card front was splattered with the same blue ink I used for the sentiment.  I'm also entering ModSquad, WAW & SSS Wednesday.


Day 3:  Inlay Die Cut

This one was a bit tricky to do with the Fantasy Floral blossom die.  I almost gave up, but did end up with a flower I liked.  Hard to tell, but the bottom layer & card front are silver metallic cardstock.

Great to have used a lot of my bits & pieces, so I have fewer scraps left over.  I decided embellishments weren't needed with the sparkle from the metallic cardstock.  I'm also entering 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.

Friendship Cards

There are lots of great products in my sale pages--take a look!

It's been awhile since I posted, but I have been making some cards.  I got to meet up with my friend, Rosemary, again for lunch & a bit of crafty shopping--alway a treat!  Can't put off writing a post any longer as the deadline is almost here for ITP LFF with the theme to case a project done for the June release.  Laurie's final card on Day 3 inspired me to get out PTI Watercolor Wonder--a set I seldom use.

 
I didn't want to totally copy what Laurie did, so I decided to use a color combo of Berry Sorbet, Pale Peony, Fine Linen, Classic Kraft & Cocoa Bean.  Making the background was really fun--just random stamping of 3 different images.  Then I added brown splatters.  Laurie used new oval frames which reminded me of PTI Twig Wreath, so I die cut the wreath from Fine Linen & Classic Kraft.  I die cut a variety of the flowers & branches in Twig Wreath from colored cardstock matching the inks & arranged them on the wreath.  That was the hardest part of making this card!  The little tag was stamped with a sentiment from Twig Wreath & I added Wedding Dress Pico Embellisher dots.  I'm also entering WAW. 



Next is my first card made with the Pinkfresh Studio die called Hello with a Bouquet.  I attached the die cut to a panel of PF paper from the Happy Things collection which was in a prize package I got a long time ago.

The letters were inked, covered with Nuvo Glaze & then with White Blizzard Nuvo Drops.  There's plenty of dimension & texture without needing to stack the letters.

The little word is from W&W The Big, the Bold & the Happy.  I stamped on a scrap of the printed paper & matted it with another scrap.  Finished off with clear sequins.  I'm entering the June Pinkfresh challenge, Virginia's Show & Share & 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.

Purple and Teal

I wanted to combine JUGs, SSS Flickr #125 & Die Cut Divas challenges, so started by ink blending a panel of white cardstock using Altenew purple inks.  Hopefully you can see that I blended light, medium & dark shades from the center out.

My sweet friend, Betty, sent me some of the HA floral die cuts.  I covered one with shimmer & glued it to the panel.  SSS Painted Happy Birthday was stacked several high & the top one was inked with purple & covered with Nuvo Glaze.

The shadow layer was inked with the lightest purple.  Beautiful shimmer & shine in person.

I actually "ruined" my first stacked Happy Birthday die cuts.  I covered them with Stickles that turned out to have teal flecks as well as clear & I didn't like it on my blended panel.

So, I made a new panel by stamping images from SSS Sketch Ranunculus in Encore Ultimate Metallic Purple & Teal inks I've had for many, many years & they are still great.

I finished off with Pico Embellisher Wedding Dress dots.  I'll add this one to Die Cut Divas & Inkspirational.

My final card began by ink blending stripes of the purple & teal inks while they were still on my table.  Then I stamped the smaller circle image from SSS Sketch Ranunculus (I've had since 2016) in Versafine Clair Morning Mist--a nice gray ink.  The gray frame is made with Poppystamps Double Stitch Scalloped Rectangle frames.
 

I stacked SSS Painted hugs & sponged the top one with the teal ink & the shadow with the purple ink.  The top layer was also heat embossed with Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder.  The little branch from Sketch Ranunculus was stamped on the matching die cut in Morning Mist & embossed with clear ep. 

I brushed the die cut lightly with the teal ink since the white cardstock was too stark.  Finished with a bit of stickles on each berry & attached it behind the word.  I'm entering SSS Flickr #125 & Retro Rubber.


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

Joy

I'm so happy to be Jo's Guest Elf at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge.  The theme is right up my alley:  Glitter, Sparkle & Shine!   I began by using Jennifer McGuire's stencil wreath technique.

The MFT stencil reminded me of retro Christmas ornaments.  I used Distress Inks barn door & worn lipstick through the stencil & blended on a scrap I die cut with a circle.  Fell in love with the MFT Joy die when a friend used it on the Christmas card she sent to me.  I've actually had it in my stash for over a year & finally used it!

I stacked several die cuts & then covered the top one with Nuvo Silver Moondust Glitter Drops.  I can't seem to make drops with this product, but it works great used like Stickles & has tons of sparkle.  The little sentiment strip is from Winnie & Walter's In Bloom: Frenchy's Festive Florals.  Hope you'll head over to the challenge blog & see what inspiration Jo has for you.  Why not add a Christmas card to your stash & join in the challenge?

I'm entering Virginia's Show & Share.

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

Big Butterfly

I'm finally making some progress cleaning out & organizing.  Still a long way to go, but I'm feeling less overwhelmed.  As I was going through my stamps, I came across an old Penny Black clear set called Butterfly Symphony.  Not sure I've ever stamped the large butterfly image & thought it might work to enter the nature challenge at Time Out.

My sister loves butterflies & the color blue, so that was my inspiration.  I stamped the butterfly & the Altenew Painted Greetings sentiment in Delicata Sapphire Blue & heat embossed in Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder.  I did a couple layers for the sentiment to make it stand out a bit more.  The sparkle & shine is so beautiful in person as you can maybe see in this close up shot taken at an angle.

For just a bit more blue & definition, I watercolored the openings on the outer edge of the wings using the same ink.  I die cut the card front with the largest rectangle in the Lil' Inker set as it just does the stitching.  Love having that option for a one layer card.  Finished off with little blue splatters & Pico Embellisher Wedding Dress dots.  I'm also entering PB&M, SSS Work It Wednesday & Die Cut Divas.


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

Couple Cards

I love a lot of Reverse Confetti products, but don't have many in my stash yet.  I'll be entering all the monthly challenges I can & luckily the June Stock Your Stash theme is Hello/Just Because.  Next to Christmas cards, they're my favorite to make.  Tall Blooms is the beautiful stamp set in my stash & it happens to include a sentiment perfect for the challenge.

I have a whole drawer of embossing powders as I loved heat embossing the first time I was introduced to it.  Most of the bottles are nearly full & still work great.  I pulled out 2 from JudiKins:  Malachite & Metallic Bronze.  First I stamped on white cardstock, but the powder didn't show up very well using these outline images.  I switched to kraft & that made all the difference.

Originally I planned to put a sentiment strip over the images, but I really didn't want to cover up any of that beautiful heat embossing.  Ended up with a traditional layout that always seems to work.

Next is my entry for AAA Cards Challenge: One Layer with Optional Twist only Black & White.  I had lots of ideas running through my head & this wasn't one of them--haha!  However, I pulled out Winnie & Walter's In A Word: Thanks stamp set--one of my newest & a favorite.

I decided to just stamp the sentiment using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.  I used my Mini MISTI, but one inking is all it took.  Sure sign of the quality of the stamps & inks.  This set includes 4 large words, companion words & 5 small images.  I took out the little branch & thought it would be fun to add it to one of the letters.  Wasn't sure I could make it work, but it's only paper.  I held my breath & stamped.  Gotta say--I love the result!  Both of these cards are already in the mail & I hope the recipients enjoy them.
Edited to add: Also entering Virginia's Show & Share.

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