Flowers

I had fun making this card for a friend using SSS Long Stem Florals watercolored with Magicals from Lindy's Victorian Bouquet set.  

I black embossed and die cut 3 of the florals from watercolor paper.  Four of the Magicals were mixed with water and used to color the blooms and leaves.  I also splattered the Magicals on a white panel matted with glossy black.  Both panels were die cut with Gina K Master Layouts. 

Love the shimmer and shine from the Magicals.  It show up better in my IG post video.  I tied on white crochet thread and attached them to a white card.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  I'm entering JUGS 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.

Butterflies

Here are my latest cards--both with one or more butterflies, thanks to the SSS IG Challenge theme for April.  First is the card I made using the piece of cardstock I embossed at the same time as the vellum card in my last post.  The folder is Altenew's Dreamy Daylilies.  

I messed up part of the panel, so switched gears and die cut a small rectangle from the center that was fine.  I ink blended with Altenew's Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart and Purple Wine.  The raised edges were swiped with Brilliance Starlite Black--a soft Pearlescent black.  I added silver splatters and attached it to a black mat.  Then I glued it in place--lining up the image on another embossed white panel.  Love the look of the wide white border.  The double vellum butterfly is from SSS Stitching Butterflies.  I added matching ink to the center and covered it with Silver Stickles.  The sentiment is from SSS Anna's Flowers and I added 3 silver glitter dots.  I'm entering DCD, WAW from Flickr and SSS Flickr.

Next is my card inspired by the new combo of Fuchsia and Navy at Color Hues.  Hopefully my Lindy's Magicals High Maintenance Magenta works for fuchsia. 😊

I silver embossed PFS Small Butterflies and die cut them.  Then I watercolored them with the Magical powder mixed with water.  After they dried, I added more color.  The shimmer is so beautiful, as seen in my IG video.  For the card front, I white embossed PFS Lush Vines, brushed on the Sapphire ink and then wiped ink off the embossing.  Lush Vines is definitely one of my favorite stamps!  The butterflies were glued to PFS Elongated Oval Blanket Stitch, stacked 2 high and brushed with the same ink--darkest on the edge.  The sentiment is from PFS Perfect Sentiments.  I added navy dots to the background and silver glitter dots to the butterflies.  I'm also entering Pinkfresh April Challenge 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.

Winter Birthday Card

Here's the card I made for the January JUGS challenge--use a cover plate die.  I ran Poppystamps Heart Pattern Plate through my machine with a panel of watercolor paper.  It's easy to see in person and the close up photo gives you a little better look.

Next I played around adding Lindy's Magicals Butter the Bread Blue and Tibetan Poppy Teal--spritzing with water and moving color with a paintbrush.  Then I covered the whole panel with Distress Spritz Weathered Wood.  Our dark, cloudy day wouldn't let me get a picture really showing the colors, but I can tell you there's definitely teal shimmer in the darkest areas.  It's beautiful in person and you can see it in my IG feed.  I stamped the very old woodmounted image in black.  Really wanted to add random stenciling, so I used Snowfall Distress Grit Paste through Miss Ink Stamps Square Dance stencil in a few random areas.  In person it gives some fun texture and sparkle.  Amazing the difference brushing the panel edges with black ink made!  I also added some small black splatters--just for good measure! 😊 

My new SSS Lea Snowflake was die cut from vellum 6 times.  I attached 3 snowflakes to the panel and then glued the other 3 on top, but only put glue in the centers.  The stamped images are a softer black, so I used gray enamel dots to embellish the snowflakes.  The Alex Syberia sentiment was die cut from white cardstock.  I stacked the word 2 high and brushed it with a shimmer pen.  I'll put the birthday sentiment on the inside.  I'm also entering SSS Monday.

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

Thanksgiving and Christmas

I've had this card in mind for several weeks.  The Stamp Market Mini Autumn Leaves and some Lindy's Magicals have been sitting on my table.

The die cut leaves were simply watercolored with Lindy's Magicals Ponderosa Pines Olive, Canna Lily Burnt Orange and Poutine Gold.  You can see the beautiful shimmer in my IG post.  Love the texture from SSS Refracted embossing folder on another of my newly discovered terra cotta note cards.  I brushed brown ink on the edges.  The SSS sentiment from Full of Thanks was stamped in Versafine Clair Pinecone and clear embossed.  Embellishments are SSS Mocha Java sequins.  I'm entering Time Out Challenges #300 with the Fall Thanksgiving Celebration in the US and TTTC282 using Leaves/Free/Die Cuts from my friend Betty's board.

Christmas Kickstart Snow Alert! challenge is about to close.  Again, I finally made a card that's been in the back of my mind for weeks.

Box 12 that Your Paper Insider generously sent to me contains a beautiful shimmery light blue cardstock called Aquamarine Curious Metallics.  I thought it'd be perfect embossed with SSS Fanciful Flurries folder.  It's really gorgeous in person!  I have several snowflake dies and purposely chose the one from Uniko because it has large enough sections to show off the Holographic More Dots cardstock.  Check out the video in my IG post.  I stamped the W&W sentiment in Versafine Clair Blue Belle and used the same ink to color the edges of the mats.   I'm also entering SSS Monday, 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.

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.

CCC Reveal and a Floral Friendship Card

One option every month for CCC is to make a friendship card.  The Memory Box Magnolia Leaf Branch diecut had been sitting on my table for weeks.  Decided to use it for the card going to my friend in Greece, Mia.  We've been on-line friends for quite a few years now, so I was very happy to send her this card. 

The cute SSS Layered Bird Branch had also been die cut awhile ago and stored in the envelope with the die.  Thought it'd be fun to use them instead of flowers on the branch.  I used the same inks to get 3 different birds:  Altenew's Pink Sand, Toasted Mauve, Redwood, Caribbean Sky and Persian Blue.  Really love the bit of sparkle from adding green Stickles to the layered leaves and blue Stickles to the bird wings.  The sentiment from Altenew Sweet Bouquet was stamped in Versafine Clair Acorn and I ran a marker along the diecut edges to give it the hint of a shadow.  Amazing how much difference that made.  The card front was sprayed with Distress Spritz Weathered Wood which gives a nice shimmer in person.

My second card is made with Memory Box Floral Bud and Stems and Enchanting Poppy Stems.  I mixed Lindy's Magical Prima Donna Purple and Drop Dead Gorgeous Green in a palette with water so I could paint the white diecuts.  So Beautiful in person and you can get an idea from my IG post video. 

The background is made with Poppystamps Double Diamond Lattice Plate.  Memory Box Friend Daily Script is a die I keep reaching for as I really like the font and it's the perfect size for a card.  The little sub-sentiment is from PTI Simple Stems.  I just added a few black enamel dots for embellishment.  I'm entering Memory Box, JUGS and SSS Wednesday challenges.  

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 Hello

When I saw Kristin's inspiration card for AAA Cards Challenge, it reminded me of the 2 SSS Rustic Sprigs diecuts sitting on my table for weeks.  They're multi-colored because I die cut them from a panel I made using several Lindy's Magicals.  You can see the shimmer in my IG post. 

Decided to make a frame from PFS Nested Hexagons: Double Stitch and inked it with DO rustic wilderness.  The card is PTI Rustic White and the old CAS-ual Fridays sentiment was stamped in Versafine Clair Acorn.  No embellishments, as this is for a male relative.  

Next is my card for the Altenew March Inspiration Challenge using Altenew's Bursting Dahlia stencil, Handwritten Hello die, inks (Coral Berry, Rose Quartz, Fresh Lemon, Just Green, Aqualicious), Jet Black ink spray and Smoky Quartz Gem Sparkles.  

Really happy with the look blending the 2 pink inks on the petals and the green and blue on the leaves.  I tried using a darker yellow ink for the dots in the flower center, but they didn't show nearly enough over the Fresh Lemon.  Then I thought it'd be fun to use gold embossing paste and that looked great.  Plus it added texture and shimmer.  There's a video in my IG post.  

I covered the center before splattering with the black ink.  Love having a variety of "hello" dies in my stash.  I chose this one because I wanted to outline the letters, but not cover up much of the background, like many shadow dies do.  These beautiful Sparkles have a bit of a pink cast in the light, so were the perfect embellishment for this card.  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.

Greta