Three Cards

Boy is this month going fast & we're more than ready for cooler temps!  Behind on posting cards, so here are 3 of my latest.
First is the one for my BIL which uses the Altenew Pegboard Canvas die & a pattern from cathycarlson21 on IG.  She did a rainbow pattern, but I think he will prefer the blue & green.

I also used silver for the eyes instead of black.  It took me awhile, but I really enjoy combining cross stitch with cardmaking.  The Impression Obsession sentiment die cut was mounted on a strip of vellum.  Cathy also has some Christmas patterns I plan to use.
I used my new GK stamp set called A Happy Hello to make a card for the GK Monthly Mix: White Space.  The inks are PTI Enchanted Evening, Blueberry Sky, Spring Rain & Stormy Sky.

The panel is attached with thin fun foam & the dots are Pico Embellisher Wedding Dress.  I'm also entering NBUS 17.
 
The July/August Uniko challenge, In My Garden, is about to end.  Finally, I got a card made using the optional twist of Hot Summer Colors.  I've seen several cards made with only 1 layer of a layering floral stamp set.  Uniko's Beautiful Blooms III has just the right image with the thicker lines.

I began by stamping a very old wood mounted circle stamp in Distress Oxide fossilized amber, spiced marmalade & abandoned coral.  The flowers were stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne & I used circle dies to cut the flowers & the black mats.  The same inks were blended on scraps & the sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks was mounted with foam tape.  Finished off with clear sequins.  I call this modified slimline as it's 3 1/4x6 1/2.  I'm also entering Virginia's Show & Share 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.

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!

Anniversary, Christmas, Friendship

Check out my sale pages if you're looking for bargains.  

Hard to believe it's almost the end of May.  Hope everyone in the US enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend & remembered the men & women who died for our freedom.  Roses are in full bloom, so I had some work to do after the rain.  Of course, I also did some cardmaking!
First up is another card with MFT cross stitch tags.  I used one of the patterns on their website to make an anniversary card for hubby's daughter & her husband.

The little sentiment is from SSS Sentiment Strips & they can be foiled using a laminator.

It's hard to see, but so fun to have a bit of metallic sparkle.  The card front is debossed with little hearts & circles.  I'm entering DRU.

I cross stitched a Santa tag for one of the cards I sent last year, but didn't get it posted.

It's also a cross stitch tag & pattern from MFT.  I used little stickers for the sentiment & I'm entering Rudolph Days.
This time of year I love seeing all the hanging baskets in the neighborhood.  My favorite is one with flowers in shades of pink & purple.  That's my inspiration for LFF at Ink to Paper where the challenge is to use your favorite summer color combo.

I made a CAS, one layer card stamping images from PTI Corner Adorner: February in Lovely Lady, Scarlet Jewel, Winter Wisteria & Vintage Jadeite.  The sentiment from the set was stamped in Versafine Clair Morning Mist.  The flower center was covered in Shimmery Pico Embellisher & I added additional dots for embellishment.  I'm also entering ModSquad.


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

Having Fun!

I keep adding items to my sale pages, so you might want to take a look.

Well, the laptop saga continues.  The replacement part was damaged when it was soldered, so now the waiting starts all over again.  Apparently, soldering is almost never required which tells you how old my laptop is.  Trying to think positively as I still hope he will be able to do the repair.  Next time, I'll just give in & get a new laptop.
On a happier note, hubby has finally turned the corner after 3 days of antibiotics.  Luckily the rain returned, so he hasn't been tempted to work outside.  Fritz is slowly finishing each of the additional meds he was put on for the gastroenteritis.  So far, so good.  Time will tell if he needs to take any of them on a permanent basis.
The "having fun" title of my post applies to the card I have to show you.  I can go to Instagram on my phone, so have looked at it more while I don't have my laptop.  I was inspired by some cross stitch I saw @dsiegel27.  I die cut Altenew Pegboard Canvas & pulled out teal & lime craft cord.

Instead of my original idea, I just stitched a simple frame.  Then I covered the center area with a piece of white cardstock.  SSS Painted Thanks was die cut from white cardstock & silver glitter paper & glued together.  The little words stamped in gray are from PTI Counting My Blessings & the silver splatters are done with stamps in PRS Fall Colors.  I seldom use SSS Sketch Ranunculus dies, but now I'm glad I have them.  The smaller flower was stamped in Memento Teal Zeal & then I brushed on additional color so that the center area was the darkest.  Love these sweet leafy branches which were stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Thyme.  I colored in the leaves with the same ink using the smallest brush in my $9 set from Amazon--same as the $50 ones.  Just got Tsukineko Silver Shimmer Stix, so tried it out on the flower.

It's the same sparkle as the spray, but is a tube with a dauber end for control.  The flower is mounted with foam tape, so it's a bit higher than the stitching or the die cut word.  By the way, Score Tape on the back of the stitching worked great to attach the panel to the card front.  I'm entering RRCB (PTI stamp 2012, Floral 2016), SSS Flickr & SSS Wednesday.
Edited to add: I forgot to enter Virginia's Show & Share which I had in mind when I started the stitching.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.  Just know that right now it's taking me a lot longer, so I'm behind.

Happy Easter

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.  Matthew 28:6

Wishing everyone a happy Easter.  Here are a few more cards I sent this year.
As you know, I've been having fun doing some cross stitch.  Still need to finish the Oregon sampler I was working on before I started making cards.  It's in the closet somewhere--haha!  I found a free DMC pattern & thought I could use it with my Altenew Pegboard Canvas die.

I knew it was a little too big, but turned out it was WAY too big.  This is the first time I've altered a pattern--other than changing colors.  I was too far along to scrap it, so went with 1 flower & did the best I could to make the grass look OK.  The pattern called for 1/2 stitches to get the angles on the cross--first time for that, too.

I didn't have much room, so decided on a simple white cross stitch frame.  My sister & brother-in-law love it, so that's what matters.  I'm entering Country View Challenges Easter/Spring, Viriginia's Show & Share & WAW.

Next is the card I made from the light version of the monoprint technique I did to make THIS CARD.  Love these Distress Inks together: mowed lawn, lucky clover & twisted citron.

I dry embossed the panel for added interest & attached white leaves & silver thread behind the IO sentiment done with the same inks. 

Finished off with Pico Embellisher drops & a PTI frame.  I'm entering Time Out .

One of my sweet blogging friends passed on to me some goodies that were given to her.  I used the wonderful Taylored Expressions My Redeemer Lives set of stamps, dies & an embossing folder.

I began by inking a panel with distress Oxide inks fossilized amber, spiced marmalade & abandoned coral after noting where the embossed design would be.  After dry embossing, I added some water splatters.  I gold embossed one of the crosses, used the matching die & blended the edges with fossilized amber.  The panel was mounted to a vanilla card whose edges were also blended with fossilized amber.  I used a single gold adhesive dot for embellishment & put the sentiment on the inside. 

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