Time Out Challenge #258

We have a Photo Inspiration for Time Out Challenges #258.  Since today is Leap Day, we have a fun photo of a frog!  You can see a larger picture with more detail on the challenge blog.   

Our challenge winner will receive a $25.00 Lawn Fawn store credit and an offer to Guest Design at Time Out for a future challenge. 

My inspiration was the color combo of red and green along with images from the animal kingdom.  No frogs, but I did go for cute! 

A sweet friend gave me Lawn Fawn's Winter Sparrows stamp set & matching dies a long time ago.  I'm not much for coloring, but these are little and not so intimidating.  I covered them with glaze and glitter on the wings.  The vellum circle worked great to make them stand out from the embossed background. 

Great to have another Christmas card ready to go.  I'm looking forward to seeing the variety of cards in our gallery and hope you'll join in.

Edited to Add: I'm entering Christmas Kickstart and 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.

Couple More Cards

I've seen a lot of cards with pretty containers filled with flowers, but now I remember why I don't usually make them!  Days later and it's finally finished!😊 

Poppystamps Potpourri Flower Set and Memory Box Backyard Floral Stems were die cut from PTI Lilac Grace and white cardstock.  The PTI Vogue Vase was die cut from cardstock covered with vellum.  I used Copic BV00 to color the center of the vase and to add shading to the flowers.   Poppystamps Heart Pattern Plate, a gift from a friend, was die cut from PTI Mint Julep.  If you have that cardstock, you know it's definitely a soft mint color.  The only way I could get it close in the photos was to have the white a bit warmer than it actually is.  A sentiment from Birch Press Marzipan Greetings was double stamped in Versafine Clair Morning Mist and die cut with MFT Fishtail Flags.

Another friend gave me MB clear Fairy Drops and I thought the tiny ones made great drops of dew.  I'm entering Color Hues and Poppystamps February Challenge.  

I just discovered that Distress Oxides tattered rose and saltwater taffy go together beautifully!  That's what I blended on Memory Box Magnolia Blossom diecut for this card.

The little center was inked with PTI Bright Buttercup and Harvest Gold.  For MB Magnolia Leaf Branch, I blended DO antique linen, vintage photo, bundled sage and rustic wilderness.  A sweet friend gave me MB woodgrain cardstock and I blended DO speckled egg very lightly where I was going to attach my focal point. 

I'm currently on a white sentiment with vellum shadow kick and MB Hello Friend Posh Script is a favorite.  Wish I'd picked up more of these beautiful, tiny irridescent gems years ago when they were just $1.50!  I'm entering Memory Box February Challenge, SSS Wednesday and WAW.

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

I continue to post pretty much all my cards in IG and some of them are also in my blog.  Please do not feel the need to leave comments in both places.  That only makes sense, as we all need to conserve our time for creating!😊

Here's the card I made for a friend going through a difficult time.  I used Rose Gold powder to emboss Pigment Craft Co's Delicate Floral Background stamp.  

Took me a few tries using the matching stencils with mostly Pigment Craft inks to get it right, but glad I persevered.  The panel edge was embossed with Rose Gold powder after I die cut it with MFT stitched rectangle.  The scalloped rectangle is Elizabeth Craft Design, the diecut sentiment is Memory Box Just a Note Posh Script and the sub-sentiment is from PTI Simple Stems.  

I'm entering The Snippets Playground as I used only scraps for the die cut and stamped sentiments.  Finished off with the beautiful, yet subtle, Lucy's Irridescent Jewels.  

Kelly took a wonderful photo for this month's Altenew Inspiration Challenge.  I love the colors and dark background.

I was fortunate to get Altenew's Floral Acanthus product bundle when I had a gift certificate and it was on sale.  For this card, I stamped, inked the matching stencils and used the dies.    

I used a variety of my inks from Altenew, PTI and Hero Arts to get as close as possible to the photo.  I'm thinking it would have been better to use the pink in the graphic, rather than the color of the flower in the photo.  For some reason, I literally took over 30 photos in every room of the house with all different lights to try and show the soft, dusty pink & purple flower I inked.  The pictures looked good on my phone and in IG.  For some reason, they were not good transferred to my laptop.  Anyway, I finally got one that is pretty close, so called it quits!  The little white flowers are from Layered Floral Elements.  I used a detail blending brush with yellow ink to color the centers.  Deck Planks embossing folder is a favorite and I thought it made the perfect dark, gray background.   I remembered to blend out the color from the bottom to the top of the word for a look I really like, but seldom do.  I used soft yellow and crystal loose glitter for the stamens and flower centers, which you can see by enlarging the photo.  I decided against splatters and just added a few black enamel dots.

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

Time Out Challenge 257

Time Out Challenges is celebrating their 10th birthday with a birthday theme challenge!  I think you'll want to play along as there are 10 generous sponsors providing 11 fabulous prizes.

The challenge winner chosen by the DT will receive a $25.00 Lawn Fawn store credit.  Ten additional winners will be chosen randomly to receive the other prizes in the order of their listing on the Time Out Challenge post.

My birthday card to inspire you was made with sponsor Uniko's Beautiful Blooms III and Floral Vines.  

I love the beautiful, modern design of the blooms and leaves.  There are 4 layers for the blooms, but I just stamped 2 of them using VersaMagic Eggplant and Purple Hydrangea.   The leaves and veins were stamped in Versafine Clair Morning Mist and Lawn Fawn Manatee.   I brushed the panel edges very lightly with the gray inks which makes a surprising difference.  Couldn't help myself and had to add Eggplant splatters.  Since this is a celebration card, I decided to give it a good spritz with shimmer mist.  It's so gorgeous in person and you can see it in my IG post video.  

I added a gem to each flower and attached the panel with a couple cardstock layers under it for dimension that doesn't need extra postage.  The sentiment was stamped in Morning Mist and matted with a scrap colored with Eggplant.  Hope you'll check out the inspiration from my teammates and join the gallery.

I'm entering Uniko's 12th Birthday Card Linky Party and Seize the Birthday.  

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

More Valentines

I've had so much fun making Valentines this year.  A couple challenges want red and pink cards which I'm not sure I've made in the past.  Decided it'd be fun to use IO Lacy Hearts die.  

I decided to use Distress Oxides candied apple and kitsch flamingo, so I inked a white panel with each one.  Then I die cut the panels, saving all the little heart pieces and tossing out the rest.  I didn't look closely at the die and was thinking the little hearts were all the same.  That is definitely not the case--haha!  I started with putting the pink hearts into the red panel.  I'm not very good at puzzles, so it took me awhile.  But I wasn't about to give up and love the end result.  It was a bit quicker to put the red hearts into the pink panel, since I had the other one for reference.  

I wanted a subtle shimmery background, so painted white metallic watercolor onto 2 slightly smaller white panels--so pretty in person.  SSS Simple Happy Valentine's Day words were die cut from black and the shadow from vellum.

I'm entering the pink with red hearts at Just Us Girls and SSS Wednesday.  I'm entering the red with pink hearts at Color Hues.

I also made a non-traditional Valentine for a special friend who likes the color green.  I used my very old rubber brayer to ink the flat side of Memory Box Blooming 3D embossing folder with Pigment Craft Co Eucalyptus ink.  I love that shade of green, but hard for me to photograph.  Before adding the white panel to the folder, I die cut the shadow from the SSS sentiment set I used above.  The inking worked great and I'll definitely use this technique again.  

I inked a scrap with the Eucalyptus to put behind the shadow opening.  The words were die cut from white scraps, stacked and covered with a shimmer pen.  You can see the shimmer in my IG post.  I'm entering SSS Wednesday.

Edited to add:  Also entering 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.