Happy Birthday

Currently at ODBD there's a color challenge. You have to use at least 3 of the colors & I used all of them. Originally I planned to make a Christmas card, but then I realized we need a birthday card.  Isn't the font beautiful?  It's a sentiment in the ODBD set called Iris.  The flowers from ODBD Sweet William-Small were brown embossed on red cardstock & die cut with Spellbinders Blossom 3.

The leaves are a die by 4EnScrap which I cut from 2 shades of green.  The little doily is by Martha Stewart & the embossing folder is Cuttlebug Anna Griffin Feather Illusion--one of my favorites.  A red dew drop embellishes the flower & I finished off with small PPP Marshmallow sequins. So you ask, where's the gold?  I brushed gold Shimmer Spritz on the blossoms, leaves & doily.  Here's a close-up so you can get an idea of the shimmer.

My design is based on Karren's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Think the dew drop looks glossy so will also link up at SSS Monday & I'm playing just for fun at The Playground. Thank you so much for taking time to visit my blog.

Christmas Greetings

It's been ages since I entered a challenge at Our Daily Bread Design.  This week we are to use both heat & dry embossing--2 things I love. Also gave me a chance to use my new ODBD stamp set called Christmas Flourished Verses.  I gold embossed the greeting & then blended Distress Inks spun sugar & festive berries. Once again I brushed on Perfect Pearls.  I used one of my oldest embossing folders for the panel & sponged the card front edges with festive berries. Love this shimmery gold May Arts ribbon & finished off with Class A Peel gold sticker dots. I'm also entering SSS Monday Throwback (Holiday Cards, Dec. 1, 2014) & Anything Goes at SSS Wednesday.  Thanks so much for stopping by. 

He Is Risen

I actually made this card for the ODBD No Coloring challenge several weeks ago.  At the last minute I decided the cross needed to be colored, totally forgetting that wasn't allowed.  So I saved it hoping there would be an Easter challenge & sure enough, that's the theme for the current ODBD Shining the Light Challenge.  I wrote down the products I used, but for the life of me I can't find that note.  There are a variety of inks & sprays & the Tim Holtz stencil, which I don't think I've used before.  The cross is ODBD & the sentiment is from The Craft's Meow--now out of business.  
This is my first time using the stamp set from TCM, so I'm also entering Darnell's NBUS challenge. Thank you so much for taking time to visit my blog. 
Edited to add: Also entering Anything Goes at SSS Wednesday & SSS Work It Wednesday.
Edited to Add: Entering Word Art Wednesday.

UTEE ODBD Easter Card

When I saw the sketch for this week's challenge at ODBD, I thought it'd work great for an Easter card.  I decided to try one of my UTEE colors I've had forever & never used.  It's called Opal Green & came out very light.  I don't know if it's supposed to be or lost color with age.  ODBD Vine Cross was pressed into the warm powder & some green shreds were added.  After it cooled, I pressed it flat allowing some cracks to form & added Versafine Vintage Sepia to the cross & sponged it over the cracks.  The piece was matted with a purple scalloped oval.  I die cut one of the ODBD Beautiful Borders, backed it with vellum & added shimmery purple ribbon.  I love the striped paper which I've had for many years.  

The edges were sponged with Distress Ink antique linen & the TPC Studio sentiment is stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa.  A couple small brown pearls finish off the card. My weekend to work, so may be a little behind in reading your blogs. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Friend

I keep missing the deadline at ODBD, but this week I made it.  Had to play along in a challenge perfect for me--no coloring!  Watercolor paper was covered with Gesso before sponging on VersaMagic Pink Petunia & Aquatic Splash. The butterfly flourish from ODBD Friendship stamp set wass stamped in Delicata Silvery Shimmer & the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black. The panel was die cut with Spellbinders Labels One & matted with black cardstock die cut with Decorative Labels One.  One of the printed papers from ODBD Heart & Soul Collection was die cut with ODBD border die & then I added Gesso & the same 2 inks so it matched.  The paper flowers were watercolored with the pink ink & swiped with the silver. 
I splattered the pink, green & silver inks on the card front using a water brush & mounted the panel with foam tape.  I'm also entering Anything Goes at SSS Wednesday. Thanks for taking time to come by.

Christmas Card with Non-Christmas Stamps

I really wanted to play along with the Christmas challenge at ODBD. They have gorgeous holiday stamps, but I don't yet own any of them.  I pulled out 2 retired stamps:  Sweet William-Small & Vintage Border Background.  My color inspiration came from the current Merry Monday challenge & I used red for the 4th color.  I started by white embossing the background stamp.  Two flowers were stamped in Delicata Golden Glitz & one in Silvery Shimmer.  I sponged on more ink after they were die cut with the matching Spellbinders Blossoms Three.  I've been hoarding these beautiful Sparklers & the red velvet ribbon which help make this look like a Christmas card, I think.  
The sentiment is one of the words in the flowers set & is stamped in Golden Glitz.  Needed something, so I added the tiny gold sticker dots. What do you think? OK for a Christmas card? I've never played with The Paper Players, so this will be my first entry.


Happy day in Oregon as our wonderful Marcus was awarded the Heisman trophy.  I so love when one of the "good guys" gets recognition.  
Thanks for your visit--I know everyone is super busy with the holidays upon us.  

Grateful

My sister & her hubby left today, so I'll be catching up on your blogs soon.  We'd love to live closer to each other, but neither of us wants to be where the other one is.  We had a nice visit, but the bad weather kept us from any sightseeing or even shopping.  
Fritz did really well--not at all anxious about them & was glad to have more people to play with. Today was gorgeous, but freezing. Fritz is a sun lover & wanted to be on the deck like in the summer. Isn't he cute in the fleece jacket that kept Keesha warm for years?
I needed another Thanksgiving card, so made one that I'm entering in the challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs.  I really love the wheat stamp from the retired set, Our Daily Bread.  I stamped it in Distress Ink wild honey using the generational technique.  The full strength images are highlighted with Distress Stickles scattered straw. I added some splotches of Distress Stain tarnished brass.  The PTI word is cut from textured brown cardstock & mounted to another one cut from heavy weight cardstock.  That makes it thick enough to provide dimension without foam tape. 

Distress Ink gathered twigs was used to stamp the sentiment from PTI Counting My Blessings. The burlap was a last minute idea & gives even more texture to a basically flat card I can mail without extra postage.  I'm also entering the challenge at Words 2 Scrap By. Thanks so much for your visit.
Edited to Add: Also entering the challenge at Simply Create Too.

Tag Card

My friend, Martha, is known for her amazing tag cards. They have all the details & elements of a regular size card & that's not easy--at least not for me. Decided to give it a try, though, using ODBD stamps & one of the Beautiful Borders dies for the current ODBD SLC. The verse is heat embossed & I added Stickles to the wheat. Thanksgiving always sneaks up on me, so I'm glad to have another card ready to mail.  I'm also entering at SSS Wed & Pixies Snippets Playground.
I know there are hundreds of blogs & we can't read all of them, but you really should check out Martha's Creations.  Here's an example of her beautiful work--see what I mean?

Martha's Creations Tag Card

Let Us Begin

The deadline is almost here for the current ODBD challenge: Anything Goes with ODBD stamps.  I used the "Let Us Begin" stamp set & one of the Beautiful Borders dies. I added Stickles, pearls & satin ribbon to embellish my card.  Brown, cream & aqua is a combination that works anytime of year, I think. 
I don't usually participate in Our Beautiful World, as photography is not one of my strengths. However, I couldn't resist showing what Autumn is like in my part of the world--Western Oregon.
Here's the neighbor's tree I've been showing every few weeks & now you can see the one next to it also has color.

Here's a shot from our last camping trip with temps still warm, but you know it's actually Fall when you see the leaves changing color.

And here's puppy Fritz on Critter Watch! I admit he looks like this no matter what season we're camping, but the leaves on the ground show it's Fall. 

Thanks for sticking with me for this long post & I hope you enjoy the weekend.

Birthday Card for a Guy

My brother-in-law is about to have a birthday. He loves the outdoors, so thought I'd use this beautiful stamp by ODBD for his card this year. Found the perfect gift for him when we were at the coast--a really neat fish windsock! The current ODBD challenge is sponging or stencils. As you can see, I went back to one of my favorite techniques--emboss resist.  The image was black embossed & then I sponged on Distress Ink salty ocean, mowed lawn & pumice stone, using the new mini tool that I bought with a coupon weeks ago.  I hand cut the image a bit smaller than the blue mat which was cut with Spellbinders Curved Rectangle. The edges of the sponged image & sentiment (also ODBD) panels are black embossed. Now I'm wishing the water splotches were smaller--next time--LOL! Finally opened my bottle of Goosebumps texture spray & used it on the scene--really a nice effect in person.  The card front has stitching from Lil' Inkers & is embossed with a Tim Holtz folder.  SSS Wed is Anything Goes, so I'll enter there.  Since only the card itself was cut from a whole piece of cardstock, I'll take this over to Pixies Snippets Playground.  SSS Work it Wed theme is to use blue, so I'll add my card there. Hard to believe it's already August, although our weather has felt like August for weeks--LOL! Thanks for your visit which I always appreciate.

Love

I posted my patriotic ODBD project for the last challenge, so when sat down to make something for the current red, white & blue challenge my mind was a blank.  I saw my PTI medallion cards on the table--such a fun technique--may as well do another one! I used 2 of my newest ODBD stamp sets: Three Butterflies & Let Us Begin.  I inked the small end of the image in Memento Love Letter & Teal Zeal. Stickles was added to the butterflies, the corners of the panel were trimmed & the edges were inked.  I cut 4 corners using Spellbinders Parisian Motifs & inked them with Teal Zeal.  The panel was popped up on a slightly smaller square card.  The quote is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, matted & popped up.  Different looking card, but I think it will work to go to a blogging friend with one of my RAK packages.  May be a stretch, but there are dots in the flourishes & quote, so I'm entering at SSS Wednesday. Thanks so much for taking time to leave me a comment.

Faith Hope Love

White on white is a favorite, so when I saw it was this week's challenge at ODBD I decided to make a card & not wait until the last minute--for a change--LOL!  I recently re-read in an old stamping magazine that you add interest to an all white card by using various shades & textures.  I used 3 white card stocks--textured, regular weight & heavy weight.  I would love to add Verve products to my collection & I really like the Mojo Monday sketch. I've never entered that challenge--fun to try something new.  
ODBD Vintage Border 
Background is embossed with an old satin embossing powder, as are the Sweet William flowers. The image from Fancy Labels was embossed with white ep. The words are also from Sweet William & are stamped in Memento London Fog.  These leaf dies from 4EnScrap are really pretty cut from the textured paper. Pearls are still my favorite embellishment & are what I think of with white on white. 

I'm also entering SSS Wednesday & Pixies Snippets Playground since the sentiment strip, flowers & label are from scraps.  In this case, I'm proud of myself for finally cutting into that beautiful white textured paper!  Love that you took time to come by--thank you so much.

Another Mother Teresa Quote

I love my new ODBD stamp set--Let Us Begin. This is the second quote I've used--1 more to go. This week's challenge is to be inspired by one of 2 photos & I chose this one with it's beautiful, elegant look in ivory & lavender.  

I stamped the Sweet William blossoms in Distress Ink shaded lilac, sponged ink in the centers & then over-stamped.  I used Dawn's debossing technique with the matching Spellbinder Blossoms 3.  The scalloped edge is also a Spellbinder die.  The sentiment is stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate.  Tied on some ribbon & added ivory pearls.  Hope you like it.  I'll add this to SSS Wednesday: Anything Goes & Inkspirational: Bloom. Thanks for taking time to come by.

Love Just Gives

When I saw the recent clearance sale at ODBD, I knew it was time to use my gift certificate.  I bought 3 of the stamps & used 2 of them (Three Butterflies & Let Us Begin) for my card to enter the current Wing It challenge. I love the color combo of pink & green, so decided to submit my first entry in a ColorQ challenge. Hard to tell, but I did use 2 shades of green: Memento Pistachio on the solid swirls & Pear Tart on the dotted ones, plus the enamel dots are very close to Pear Tart. The pink inks are also Memento: Rose Bud & Angel 

Pink.  I sponged a little Angel Pink on the dry embossed strip for a tone on tone look & to highlight the beautiful roses. Not sure I've ever used my pink rickrack, but think it was meant for this card, don't you? I haven't played in a Muse challenge for awhile & I love Vicki's card. I loosely used her layout, including the lovely tone on tone side strip.  

Vicki's Inspiration Card

My little butterflies are coated with Wink of Stella & the wonderful quote is stamped in Distress Ink walnut stain.  Pretty appropriate, I think, with Mother's Day tomorrow.
I appreciate your visit--always makes my day.

Thank You Card

Not much chance for cardmaking lately. Hubby had outpatient surgery & Fritz hasn't quite healed up--probably got his activity restriction lifted too soon. Anyway, I'm being a nurse at home.  Hubby's improving every day & we're all sleeping better. Poor Fritz can't romp & jump--just walks. Tonight I finally put together a card for the 200th ODBD challenge to use Spring colors.  The sketch at FMS inspired me.  I used 2 images from ODBD Bird & Butterfly Labels & inked them both with the same Distress Inks (salty ocean, squeezed lemonade, mowed lawn) using a lighter touch on the top one which is mounted with foam tape.  I need a thank you card for my co-worker who bought me lunch while I waited for hubby to get out of surgery.  
Nice to actually use some of my 
alphabet stickers that fill a drawer! I added a touch of Stickles & used white paper twine. I'm also entering the Anything Goes challenge at SSS Wednesday.  
Thought it was time for another Fritz picture--he's such a cutie--not that I'm prejudiced!  Hubby thought I placed the bone on his paw, but he did that himself! So glad you stopped by.  Enjoy the weekend.

  

Pink & Green

Simple card, but feels good to just make one again!  My inspiration came from 3 challenges: ODBD, Dynamic Duos (not posted in time) & Freshly Made Sketches. Since I used snippets, I'm also adding this to the gallery at Pixies Crafty Workshop. Love my Lil' Inkers stitched dies (more on my wishlist!) & in case you don't know, the die used on the card front does only the stitching--no cutting. The stamps are all ODBD as that's the  
theme for the final challenge celebrating their 6th anniversary. "Each Minute" is inked with Versafine Vintage Sepia & heat embossed.  The 2 smallest blossoms from "Sweet William--Small" are die cut with the matching Spellbinders, stamped in VersaMagic Pink Grapefruit & covered with Wink of Stella. Only embellishments are the brown enamel dot & brown grosgrain ribbon tab.  All the elements are mounted with foam tape.
Forgot to tell you, Debbie (Flickr friend) is home from the hospital & currently doing better.  I know she appreciates your prayers & kind thoughts.

That's What Friends Are For

Last night I went back to Day 1 of the stenciling classes & today I finished a card made with Debby's technique of sponging over a stencil & using a vellum sentiment to let the inking show through.  I'm entering the challenge at ODBD where the requirement is to use only red, pink & white.  I sponged Tim Holtz bubble stencil with Distress Inks festive berries, worn lipstick & spun sugar.  The stamp was one of my first ODBD purchases, as I always loved that song.  Dry embossing wasn't part of the video & I wondered if it would detract from the stencil.  To my eye the card needed something so I did it anyway & I like it. Finished off with a pink & white floss bow, a pearl & 2 COPIC colored sequins.  

So much info just in the videos I've gotten to so far.  It's going to take awhile to try out all the techniques, but I already have another card started.  Thanks so much for visiting my blog.
Edited to add: Entering SSS Wednesday & SSS Work It Wednesday, since using stencils is new to me.

A Valentine

Another deadline is upon me, so I'm adding a 3rd post today.  I need my inspiration to come a bit earlier so this doesn't happen--LOL! Didn't really think I was going to get a card made for ODBDSLC--has to be 3D or not a usual fold--outside the box for me.  I do love these ODBD hearts, so stamped them last night & today I made it into a card. I used the beautiful colors of the Dynamic Duos challenge. Hopefully my medium blue is acceptable. 

The felt flowers are by MFT, the sentiment is from ODBD Sweet William, Small & the die cut heart borders are Memory Box.

I promise--no more posts from me today! Thank you for stopping by.

Red Flowers = Christmas Card

I wanted to use ODBD stamps for this week's challenge to make a Christmas card even though I don't have any of their Christmas sets. I finally remembered using Sweet William, Small for a card last year, so pulled it out again.

The smallest flower is embossed with Zing! Red Glitter powder on vellum & mounted to white cardstock with a brad. Spellbinders Blossom 3 makes this easy.  The sentiment is from the same set.  Finally cut this beautiful striped paper from Bo-Bunny to cover my card front.  The current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches gave me my layout--think I'll be using this one again.  
Hope you're having a great weekend. College football day--Go Ducks!

Easter card

I haven't played along with ODBD SLC in awhile & really wanted to this week since the challenge is to make an Easter card.  I have their lovely Vine Cross stamp to use.  Didn't expect to be down to the wire, but for some reason it took 3 tries to get the inking on the sentiment die cut good enough to use.  The stickers by Cosmo Cricket are kind of funky, but I decided I like them.  The dies are all Spellbinders & the background stamp is another one by ODBD called Vintage Border Background.  The sponging is done with Distress Inks old paper & crushed olive.  The cross & all the edges are done in my favorite gold--Delicata Golden Glitz.  If you'd like to be part of an Easter or Spring card exchange, check out threads at the Flickr Love! group. One more thing--I'd love to have you join my challenge celebrating one year of blogging--details HERE. Thanks so much for taking time to visit--love reading your comments.  I'll check out your work if you leave me a way to find it.