Birthday Cards

I embossed white cardstock and yellow vellum at the same time using SSS Blossom Swag folder.  The pieces were attached together and trimmed with scissors to fit on the card.  

There's Yellow Stickles in the flower centers and Frosted Lace on the berries.  The birds from Poppystamps Nordic Majestic Bloom were inked with PTI Spring Rain and Blueberry Sky.  I brushed the wings with shimmer.  You can see the sparkle and shimmer in my IG post.  Fun to use the PTI patterned paper for a different look.  The sentiment from Altenew Modern Dahlia Bunch was stamped in Versafine Clair Blue Belle and embossed with matte clear ep.  I brushed the sentiment diecut and the card front edges with PTI Lemon Tart.  Finished with a few tiny blue pearls that matched.  I'm entering Die Cut Divas, SSS Wednesday via IG and SSS Flickr.

I often use generic sentiments on the outside of cards, like the Hello from PTI Essential Sentiments.  That way I can use the card for any occasion.

In this case, I knew it would be a birthday card, but none of those sentiments fit as well as Hello.  Stencil Week for JUGs inspired me to get out my favorite Taylored Expressions Modern Eucalyptus.  I have Foil-It cards that go with the stencils, but I've used up the one with circles.  Decided to see if I could make my own using a circle die and Sparkle Pop gold pen.  Have to say, I love the result!  I also used the pen on the darkest green sprigs and the flower centers.  You can see the gorgeous sparkle in my IG post.  The inks brushed through the 4 stencils are Altenew Silver Sprout, Sagestone, Olive Grove and Mossy Granite.  Poppystamps Little Layered Asters were brushed with Altenew Strawberry and Dusty Pink.  Hello was stamped in Olive Grove, die cut and stacked 2 high.  I brushed the card front edges with the Olive Grove.  I'm also entering SSS Wednesday and Color Hues.  I'll let the CH team decide if my flowers are close enough to a soft coral. 

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Birthday and Friendship

When I saw the Time Out Challenge Sweet Treats, I immediately thought of PTI Your Beautiful Birthday.  It's such a fun mini set that lets you build an artsy cake--totally different than most of my stamp sets.  I pulled out my sack of die cut panels and frames--determined to use some of them.  

Many friends send me die cuts and unfortunately, I'm not sure who gave me the heart bordered panel.  I love it and still have a couple more to use.  I did have to trim down the silver metallic panel to the size I wanted, but one less in the sack!  Really happy to be able to use one of the many smaller rectangles left from die cutting frames.  

I silver embossed the cake plate and then double stamped the solid cake layers in Altenew Pale Mauve.  The dots were stamped in Amethyst and the center of the candles in Grape Agate.  The flames were stamped in Amethyst and the glow in Delicata Silvery Shimmer.  I inked the card front edges in Grape Agate to show through the hearts.  The sentiment from PTI Scripted was stamped in Grape Agate and I silver embossed the edges.  I'm also entering DCD and SSS Wednesday. 

The challenge at JUGS is Spotlight Technique.  That is basically what I did for the first card in my last post, so I wanted to do something different.  IO roses background stamp is a favorite I haven't used in ages.  I black heat embossed a panel of Bristol cardstock so I could use another neglected product--Zig Watercolor brush markers.  

After diecutting the small label, I colored it with Light Carmine and Pink Flamingo, using the Zig blender brush and no water.  Then I spritzed with shimmer, added a cardstock layer for dimension and glued it into place.  SSS Painted Hugs and the mat were cut from glossy black cardstock.  Finished off with a tiny black wooden heart and 3 clear sequins.  I'm also entering WAW. 

Edited to add:  I am not a "radical left lunatic" but I'm absolutely repulsed by Trump's blasphemy, as well as his speech and actions.  Not all Christians support this administration. 

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Easter and Birthday

Happy Easter Sunday.  I have many happy memories of Easter's growing up.  Often it would rain, so my folks would send the 3 of us to the basement while they hid the eggs inside our house.  Our church youth group always went to the community-wide sunrise service together.  Then we met at one kid's house for Easter breakfast prepared and served by the parents before church.  Such love I probably didn't really appreciate at the time.  Today, I wake to an unhinged rant including an expletive by the US president.  I can only pray that God opens the eyes of my fellow Christians.  The character of our president does matter.

A friend recently sent me a card she made using multiple thin Washi tape strips.  That inspired me to pull out my box of tapes I pretty much never use.  I didn't find a variety like she used, but I did see 3 beautiful ones with gold foil.  So I switched gears and made a card with my new SSS Nested Eggs.

I covered a scrap of cardstock alternating the 3 designs.  I had already planned which egg dies I wanted to use for the focal point, knowing the Washi egg would be the top layer.  I dry embossed the white egg and cut the largest one from a soft gold glitter paper.  The very old sentiment was gold embossed, including the top and bottom edges of the strip.  I can't wait to make some more cards with this die set and be ahead for next year.  I'm entering JUGs, SSS Monday, WAW and SSS Flickr.

I watched Jo Simons video a long time ago, thanks to someone referring to it in their blog post.  Unfortunately, I can't remember who it was.  Finally decided to make a card using her technique of embossing cardstock and vellum at the same time.  It truly did work perfectly.  Here's one of the cards I made using Altenew's Dreamy Daylilies folder with a satin vellum.  Soon I'll show you what I did with the cardstock embossed in the same run through my machine.

I used the matching lily stencils and very lightly brushed on pink, green and yellow inks.  I added Champagne Stickles to the ends of the stamens and used a PTI frame diecut.  Altenew's Essential Sentiment strip was die cut from matte champagne and white cardstocks.  Another Spring BD card ready to mail.  I'm entering DCD and WAW.

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Wild Blooms

Loosing myself in cardmaking, as much as possible.  It's been quite awhile since I used PTI Wild Blooms layering stencil set, so pulled it out for stencil week at JUGS.  

I used a cream panel laying on my table with Altenew inks Blush Rose, Wisteria and Sagestone plus CN9 inks Pink Lemonade and Artichoke.  It was night when I finished stenciling and I wasn't sure I liked it enough to use it for a card.  Decided to leave it overnight and see what I thought in the daylight.  Next day I cut it down and brushed the edges with the Sagestone ink.  Then I used my finger to apply gold wax through the stencil for the flower centers--so beautiful!  Now the panel was growing on me, so I mixed a bit of water with some of the wax and splattered it over the panel.  I picked up the leftover with a small brush and went around the edges.  The mat was brushed with Blush Rose to match and I attached the panels to the center of a cream card.  Debated about the sentiment and decided on an old Winnie and Walter stamp/die set.  The little word was stamped in Artichoke and spring was die cut twice and brushed with a shimmer pen.  Pulled out the new to me Poppystamps Bunches o' Butterflies.  I chose one, inked it with Pink Lemonade, dabbed a bit of gold wax on the tips of the wings and attached a gold glitter dot to the body.  You can see the shine and shimmer in my IG post.  Glad I didn't toss the stenciled panel as I ended up with a card I really like.  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.

Christmas and Valentine's Day

Since pink is my favorite color, I couldn't miss Christmas Kickstart Dreaming of a Pink Christmas!  I've been wanting to use the little PTI angel in place of an O and here's the result. 

My sweet friend Maria gave me Poppystamps Seed Snowflake Joy a long time ago and I love how versatile it is.  The J and the Y can be used with the snowflake or separately.  I die cut the angel from CN9 pink glitter I've hoarded for years.  It's gorgeous when the light hits it!  You can get an idea from my IG video.  I brushed the white letters with Memento Angel Pink and stacked them 2 high.  I glued the angel to a vellum oval and then attached everything to a panel embossed with SSS Holiday Greenery folder.  The thin mat was inked to match.  I'm also entering SSS Wednesday.

Years ago another sweet friend, Cat, gave me a wonderful American Crafts Valentine pad.  I love the papers and have used some, but I struggle using printed papers.  A video by Juliana Michaels for the current Craft Your Stash event gave me just the inspiration I needed.

I pulled out 2 papers I liked together and cut them like she did.  The seam was covered with white and pink thin grosgrain ribbon--also in my stash for years.  Love SSS Simple Valentine's Day die and knew it would work for this design.  Tried a few options and decided on a shimmer vellum shadow with light pink letters stacked 2 high.  Then I pulled out various flower dies and thought the smaller one from SSS Dreamy Daisy Layers worked best.  The solid layers were inked light pink and the detail layers were die cut from the same shimmer vellum.  I attached the layers purposely not lined up and added the white centers brushed with a shimmer pen.  Really love how this one turned out!  I'm going to use some of the other papers while I remember what to do with them. 😊 I'm entering SSS Monday and Word Art Wednesday.

Edited:  Something was bothering me about this card.  I pulled it out 2 days later and immediately realized that the flower centers needed to be red to tie in with the text paper.  Easy fix and now I love it!

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Catching Up

I've been making cards, but just haven't blogged them.  I'm finally done mailing Christmas cards, so I'll start catching up on blog reading.  Love having my Christmas decorations up with lots of lights.  It's been so dark, I have the lights plugged in all day!  Lots of terrible flooding in the Pacific Northwest, but no problems here.  We are expecting heavy rain this week, so I'm glad our river isn't high before it hits.

Here's a Thanksgiving card I made using PTI Text and Texture Leaves which I don't think I'd ever used. 

I stamped in brown Versafine Clair.  Then I brushed on the colors and finished by restamping in brown.  The sentiment is from the same set.  Really love the PTI frame.

So happy Shery of Stamplorations is able to reopen her shop!  I pulled out my nativity die that I've used many times.  

This year I die cut it from Alex Syberia black glitter cardstock.  I mounted it to the MFT square diecut that I ink blended with Altenew Persian Blue and Sapphire.  The white edge was done with a gel pen.  The background was made by debossing a panel I had lightly inked in blue with SSS Dimensional Stars folder.  Then I brushed more blue ink over the stars and tapped the edges on the ink pad.  Looked through all my Joy to the World sentiments and this one was what I had in mind.  Pretty sure my sister and brother-in-law will love this card.  I'm entering Die Cut Divas through Flickr.

One more card for this post and no surprise, it's another Christmas card. 

I white embossed SSS Poinsettia Background and sprayed with Peppermint Distress Mica Stain, I think.  Forgot to write it down.  I spritzed and brushed the Stain until the panel was completely covered.  The shimmer is gorgeous in person and you can get an idea from my IG post.  Really love this SSS sentiment die I got in January.  The card sat for days--needed something.  Finally I finished it with the tiny poinsettia on sprigs and the PTI sub-sentiment.  I'm entering Die Cut Divas and SSS Wednesday.

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Thanksgiving and Christmas

I was intrigued by Brenda's recent card using a real leaf as a "stamp."  Plenty of leaves laying on the ground, so I picked up a few and gave it a try.  My first attempt went in the trash--used way too much water.  I tried again with a smaller leaf and Distress Oxides spiced marmalade and crackling campfire on a cream panel.  

The very old PTI trees were stamped in Versafine Clair Pinecone--a very dark brown.  Added some small splatters and used gold metallic cardstock for the mat.  The sentiment is from SSS Full of Thanks.  I covered the card front with slightly lighter brown textured cardstock.  I'm entering Color Hues and WAW.

I love layering stencils and really had fun using the Miss Ink cups set.  Decided to make a red, teal and silver Christmas card.  

The inks are CN9 Poppy, Oceanside and Delicata Silvery Shimmer.  The little snowflakes and berries are Uniko.  The Precious Remembrance Shop sentiment was embossed with Sparkle powder and I added Stickles to the snowflake centers.  I'll put a Christmas sentiment on the inside.  I'm entering Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

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

WCMD

I was so happy to see 2 companies sponsor challenges for WCMD:  Uniko and SSS.  Years ago there were quite a few.  Took awhile to come up with something that worked, but I did finally get a card made on Saturday. 

Therese's video on stencil techniques inspired my background.  I colored molding paste to get a soft brown which I spread through Uniko's Winter Foliage stencil.  The holly leaves and berries from the stamp of the same name were stamped in CN9 Clover and Poppy.  I used the matching dies and glued the leaves just at one end.  The berries are covered in Christmas Red Stickles and are slightly raised.  The sentiment from Season of Beauty was stamped in Versafine Clair Acorn.  I'm entering Uniko via IG, SSS WCMD and DCD.

On Sunday I made a birthday card using an embossed panel I made months ago with Memory Box Blooming folder and Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide ink pad.  

I cut a 2 inch strip and matted it with black cardstock and white cardstock inked to match.  The sentiment from PTI Tuck it Sentiments was stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne.  Really love the size and font, so it will get lots of use.  I added clear drops for a subtle embellishment.  I'm entering SSS Wednesday, SSS WCMD via IG and DCD 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.