Three Cards

I'm not big on orange, but I do love peach combined with pink.  Color Hues challenge #112 gave me a chance to try it with Cobalt.  Must say, I really like that combo, too! 

I used direct to paper with MFT Peach Bellini and Versafine Clair Blue Belle.  Prima blue watercolor was used for the center rectangle.  I love IO Woodgrain Frame and it was the perfect size for SSS Bright Blossoms diecut.  I stacked the frame 2 high and left the center flat.  The sentiment is from PTI Scripted.  The petals are stacked 2 high and covered with Shimmer Pico Embellisher.  Finished with MB clear Fairy Drops.  You can see the beautiful shimmer and shine in my IG video.  

Next is my entry for Stay Crafty with Hero and Woodblock Wednesday.  I used the words ...in the park... from the HA challenge song along with their 2010 Wild Flowers and 2004 Sketch Butterflies woodmounted stamps.  

The flowers were gold embossed and the butterflies were white embossed.  I used the emboss resist technique with old favorite Brilliance Pearlescent ink pads to represent grass, lake/river and sun.  The flowers have clear dots in their centers and the butterflies have Frosted Lace Stickles.  You can see the shimmer and shine in my IG video.  The mat was also gold embossed.  The little white dots represent Cottonwoods which are abundant in our parks this month.  Decided against a sentiment and will use this for a notecard.  I'm also entering SSS Wednesday.

I've been wanting to make a pastel rainbow card and here's the result using Lawn Fawn ballet slippers and peach fuzz along with Altenew Citrus Burst, Sweet Leaf and Wisteria.

I die cut my panel with PFS Slim Braided Circles and added 2 additional layers to the inside circles before gluing them in place.  Gold splatters are always good, in my book!  PFS Small Butterflies were gold embossed and the bodies were colored with the same inks using the matching stencil.  I gently lifted the wings and added the gold embossed sentiment from Sweet Friend Floral.  I'm entering PFS June Challenge via Flickr.

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

I will visit you.

Birthday and Anniversary

I used a favorite Altenew stamp/die/stencils set to make a card for the Altenew June Inspiration Challenge.

The Altenew inks are Fresh Lemon, Maple Yellow and Sunkisseed.  I also used Distress Oxide crackling campfire, Memento Pistachio and CN9 Artichoke.  The cardstocks are cream and Classic Kraft.  I stacked the bouquet 3 high and Altenew Essential Sentiment Strips Happy Birthday was stacked 2 high.  The background has a light coating of Distress Spritz Vintage Photo and the focal point has brown splatters.  You can get a better look in my IG video.  I finished off with yellow gems and green pearls.  I'm also entering SSS Monday.

My next card was inspired by 2 challenges:  Time Out photo inspiration and Die Cut Divas color challenge.  Instead of seashells, my heart was made with Poppystamps Potpourri Flower Set and I filled the center with SSS Leaf Tumble embossing folder.  

DCD requires the use of at least 3 of the colors.  I used 4 starting with the card, PFS Nested Diagonal Stitch Square and embossed square done with GKD Whisper cardstock.  I made my own colored cardstock for the flowers by using direct to paper (Bristol) with VersaMagic Pink Petunia and Red Brick plus Altenew Velvet.  The sentiment from Altenew Sweet Bouquet was stamped in Versafine Clair Morning Mist.  I added tiny clear gems in roughly a heart shape to help your eye see the heart.  What do you think? 😊 It was fun to make an anniversary card that's a little different. 

Edited to add:  Also entering Tic Tac Toe 273 using anniversary, free, square. 

I'm improving, but the strained muscle is still slowing me down.  Sometimes it doesn't bother me and other times I just have to lay back in my recliner.  Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.

Cheerful Birthday Card

Bold are not my go-to colors, but thought I'd try them for a cheerful birthday card.  

The SSS Cherry Blossom embossing folder comes with 3 individual blossom dies--so fun!  It was actually very easy to emboss them without needing to tape them in place.  I love the font of PFS Perfect Sentiments and thought it worked great for this card.  You can see sparkle from Stickles on the colored blossoms and shine from clear embossing on the sentiment in my IG post.  I'm entering Time Out Challenge: Pick 2 using bold/repeat and The Flower Challenge.

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

Thanksgiving in June

I know it's a little weird to make a Thanksgiving card in June, but that's what came to my mind for the Coral and Green challenge at Color Hues.  Definitely a non-traditional look, but I actually like it.

I used Gina K Wreath Builder template with her Autumn Wreath Builder stamp set.  The sentiment is clear embossed, which you can see in my IG post.  The second sentiment is from SSS Full of Thanks.  I used Altenew Rouge and Forest Glades inks.  I inked the Rouge mats and used matching cardstock for the green one.  Stardust Stickles in the flower centers adds some sparkle.  I'm also entering SSS Wednesday and WAW.

I've been dealing with a strained muscle for over a week.  It has improved, but I'm still having to spend time doing nothing.  Makes it hard to keep up!  I do appreciate your visits and will return the favor when I can, if I have your blog address.

Memory Box and Poppystamps

What a time to be an American.  RFK in charge of our health?!  I told myself even Trump wouldn't do that.  But turns out sometimes things really are going to be as bad as you think.  

The background of my card for the Memory Box Monthly challenge was an experiment with gesso and Lindy's Magicals using a brayer over a stencil.  Need to try again without a stencil, but I didn't want to waste the panel. 

I used a splatter stamp with Versamark ink and Wow! Sea Turtle embossing powder.  Really like the result.  I used the same powder for Memory Box Verdant Leaves.  The sentiment from PTI's Essential Sentiments was stamped in Versafine Clair Acorn.  Really like PTI Rustic Cream cardstock with the soft green.  Usually my sympathy cards are simpler, but I think this soft, monochromatic look also works.  I'm also entering WAW. 

Simple, elegant cards are my favorite, so this one makes me happy.  It's prettier in person, but this gives you the idea.

Memory Box Blooming embossing folder is definitely one of my favorites!  It's white here, in case you can't tell.  Poppystamps Dream Butterfly was die cut from cardstock covered with a double sided adhesive sheet so I could cover it with WOW! Celebration Sparkles--a bit chunkier, champagne glitter.  The butterfly needed something solid behind it and I ended up using Spellbinders Labels 18.  Instead of leaving them white, I brushed Altenew's Minty Mint ink on the larger one.  I used the next darker shade, Hunter Green, to stamp the PTI Scripted sentiment.  I'm entering Poppystamps and TTTC272 where my friend, Betty, developed the board.  I used Layers/Free/Floral-Foliage.

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

Christmas and Friendship

Hurrah--Indiana Pacers are in the NBA finals!  My folks were both born in Indy and so was I.  My dad played college and semi-pro basketball when he was young and was a radio sportscaster most of his life.  I grew up loving sports and going to lots of games.  Basketball was always my favorite and that's probably in my blood as Hoosiers are absolutely crazy about basketball!  So fun to have something positive to think about right now. 

Time Out: Your Favorite Winged Thing challenge inspired me to make my first card using PTI's Angelic Sentiments Die.  I do love angel ornaments and have a few in my collection.  

I die cut 3 angels so it's like a chipboard element.  I painted her with white metallic watercolor, using a swirling motion on the wings.  You can see the shimmer in my IG post.  Picking the background took awhile as I held the angel over multiple cardstocks and specialty papers.  I kept coming back to the CN9 pack of red and green foil paper which I've barely used.  Love the green which can look blue depending on the light and angle.  The die is my very old Spellbinders Labels 18.  You may know dry embossing is one of my favorite elements for cards and this old Cuttlebug folder gave just the elegant look I wanted without distracting from the focal point.  Found the perfect sentiment in Honey Bee's Rejoice stamp set.  Not sure why the strip looks gray as it's actually the same white cardstock.  I'm also entering SSS Wednesday.

Edited to add:  I'm also entering NBUS 75th Challenge with my first card using the PTI angel.

 

It's time for the reveal of cards exchanged in May by those of us participating in The CCC.  I used the colors and friendship theme.

I'm still loving layering stencils, including SSS Layered Flowers.  The inks are Memento Sweet Plum, Lilac Posies and Desert Sand plus Delicata Golden Glitz.  I've been wanting to use the Scrapbook.com Hi Cover Plate and love the fun look.  I inked it and the Birch Press Simple Butterfly Contour Layers with the same inks.  I did add Stardust Stickles to the flower centers after I took the picture.  

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

Birthday and Christmas

I had paint still in my palette from swatching Autumn Leaves set of Lindy's Magicals.  Decided to use it  on a Scrapbook.com Cozy Wreath.  The beautiful shimmer can be seen in my IG post video.  

Tim Holtz Bricked Texture Fade folder was used to emboss a panel of PTI Classic Kraft.  I rubbed over it with Altenew Pink Sand ink cube twice.  It dried very light, but actually does add a bit of shadow to the bricks.  The wreath includes a circle die which I used for the 2 sentiments from a very old PTI set.  I added a couple cardstock layers and inked the edge in Versafine Clair Acorn.  I really like having just a tiny bit of the cream card front show.  I'm entering Inkspirational, SSS Monday and WAW.

Woodblock Wednesday gives me a reason to pull out some of my many woodmounted stamps.  It also means I see if they still stamp well.  If not, I take them off the block and see how they work in my MISTI and toss the ones that are bad.  This time I wanted something that would also work for the Christmas Kickstart Winter Warmers theme.  I was delighted to find that the 2007 Hero Arts Stove-Pipe Snowman stamped perfectly! 

After heat embossing, I used Hero Arts Liquid Metallic watercolors in Red, Green and Blue, Gansai Tambi white metallic watercolor and Distress Oxides vintage photo and spiced marmalade to color the image and make the background light blue.  The shimmer is amazing in the light and you can see it in my IG video.  I used Fairy Hugs Fairy Snowflakes stencil with Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue ink for the background and added Baby Blue Stickles to the snowflake centers.  

Love the mixed font of Hero Arts 2007 Traditional Messages set of 3 stamps and they still stamp perfectly.  Really wasn't needed, but I did heat emboss the sentiment to match the snowman.  This was a fun card to make and hopefully will brighten someone's day in December.  I'm also entering SSS Monday 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.