Birthday, Friendship and Thank You

Here's my entry for JUGS Stencil Week. I used SSS Peony Bouquet stencil with Distress Oxides tattered rose, saltwater taffy, bundled sage and fossilized amber.

I laid the stencil over a watercolor panel, pressed the ink pads on the stencil, spritzed with water, laid another panel on top and pressed everything together with a brayer.  I just kept playing with inks and water.  When it was dry, I put the stencil back in place and ran it through my die cut machine with a rubber mat.  Decided to add a pink spray, but it was too much.  I saved the panel by doing a white metallic watercolor wash and now I love it!  SSS Happy Birthday Brush Script and Stitching Butterfly, plus gold splatters were added.  The sentiment, flower centers and butterfly body were colored with a gold glitter pen.  I'll post the card made with the other panel later.  I entered DCD and TTTC via Flickr.

Edited to add:  Entering Seize the Birthday without the topping.

Next is the card I made with my leftover PFS Small Butterflies and it's my last pink and turquoise card. 😊

In case you didn't see the other cards, the inks I used were VersaMagic Pink Petunia and Turquoise Gem.  The embossed panel was made with Memory Box Blooming folder and the sentiment is from TE Scripted Sentiments.  Finished off with a few white sequins.  

I'm so happy Shery has been able to reopen Stamplorations and now it's their 13th birthday!  For someone who doesn't color much, the Stamplorations Card Fronts make it easy to come up with a beautiful card.  

I thought the multi-colored bouquet of this one was perfect to say thank you.  All I did was use ECD scalloped rectangle to die cut the panel, stamp the sentiment from Stamplorations Bloomfully: Thankful, add black splatters and mat and use Stickles for the flower centers.  I'm entering Stamplorations Never-Ending Anything Goes Challenge.

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

Spring Cards

I love the color combo of pink and green, so definitely had to make a card for the May Altenew Inspiration Challenge.

It's been awhile since I made a card with Altenew's Climber Flowers die set.  It's not one of the newer keyhole designs, but the diecuts are fairly easy to put together by looking at the guide.  

I brushed the white diecut flowers with PTI Raspberry Fizz and the white leaves with Altenew Frayed Leaf and Lime inks.  I dabbed the flower centers with ink left in a brush for yellow inks.  Before gluing the pieces together, I splattered them with Altenew's gold metallic watercolor.  I dry embossed a 4x5 1/4 white panel using Altenew's Playful Leaves 3D folder and attached it to a white card.  Then I tried several layouts and decided on this one.  Using the slightly smaller background panel let me arrange the focal point going over the edge, but still inside the card edges.  I seldom put sentiments near the top of  a card, but really liked the look for this one.  So glad I have Altenew's Essential Sentiment Strips die set.  It gives me a die cut option that's smaller than most of my others and was just what I wanted for this card.  I die cut the birthday sentiment from white and gold cardstocks.  The gold frame competed with the flowers, so I used the white frame and inserted the gold letters.  Finished off with gold sequins.  I'm also entering Just Us Girls, DCD, TTTC (Floral/Free/White) and WAW.

Stamplorations is having a Spring Fling Linky Party and the May ATG Challenge, which can be combined.  Here's the card I made using Stamplorations Blossom Sprays #1 and Bloomfully: Thankful stamp sets. 

I began by ink blending a panel of Bristol paper with Lawn Fawn Ballet Slippers and Peach Fuzz plus PTI Lemon Tart.  I hadn't blended a panel like that for awhile and had forgotten how much I like the look.  After it was dry, I white embossed the floral image using my MISTI.  That let me just turn the panel to get the same stamping in each corner.  I used a shimmer pen to "color" just the blooms--so pretty in the light.  

The sentiment was white embossed on a vellum strip which I wrapped around the panel and attached in the back.  I came across these sweet little floral gem stickers given to me a long time ago.  The colors included the 3 I used and they were just what I wanted for a little embellishment.  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.

Easter Cards

I definitely waited too long to finish making Easter cards this year.  Should know to plan for unexpected delays, including a day sick in bed. 😞 So I ended up with some quick cards and put off making the card I had in mind when I first saw the Color Hues combo of Purple and Marigold.  I didn't pay attention to the challenge dates and it closed.  But luckily I combined it with JUGs Stencil Week and I'm also entering SSS Monday and WAW.  

A dear friend gave me TE My Redeemer Lives stamp/die/embossing folder years ago and I use it every Easter.  There are several crosses in different sizes, but I always seem to use this one.  I stamped the white diecut in Encore Metallic Purple and clear embossed.  Then I brushed it with PTI Amethyst Allure making the edges darker.  I stenciled TH Rays with PTI Summer Sunrise using a heavy hand at the top and lighter to the end of the rays.  I added small splatters of the ink and die cut with a Pinkfresh Diagonal Stitch Rectangle.  I had enough PTI matching cardstock to use for the mats and I remembered to cut out the centers.  A sentiment from the set was stamped in Amethyst Allure and cut with a small circle die.  A single purple gem finished off my card.  I'm glad to have this one ready for next year.

I'll share more of my Easter cards soon.  For now, here's one of the quick cards I made using one of Stamplorations beautiful card fronts.  

I embossed it with SSS Dibble Tile folder and rubbed over the raised edges with a white pigment ink pad.  I found just the right shade of blue cardstock in my stash and used it for the mat and Poppystamps Proper Happy Easter.  I'll enter SSS Monday from a different platform.

Basketball was my favorite spectator sport growing up and I still enjoy it.  We don't usually watch games, but this year it's a fun diversion from the sad times we're living in.  Would have loved to watch the Purdue men's exciting Sweet Sixteen win with my Dad.  He would have been so happy.  

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

Altenew, Stamplorations and Pinkfresh

The February Altenew Challenge has a beautiful color combo.  I used Altenew's Plants & Vases for my entry, along with their Nesting Oval dies.  

The inks I used are Altenew Blush and VersaMagic Oasis Green.  The cardstock is PTI Soft Stone.  I used a gold metallic pen to highlight the dots on the vase and randomly stamped little splatters using gold metallic watercolor.  You can see the shimmer in my IG video.

Next is my card for Stamplorations February Challenge.  I love the style of the Layered Vase stamp set.  There are solid images to use for adding color.  

I stamped the outline image in Versafine Clair Nocturne and used Altenew Blush Rose, Raspberry Sunset, Sagestone and Caribbean Sky for the color.  I stamped the water 3 times to get a slightly larger area colored.  The sentiment is from the same set.  I splattered black ink and added matching enamel dots.  Now I want to make another card with this fun set!  

My final card was made with the rest of my PFS butterflies that weren't used for the card in my last post.  The gold embossed Small Butterflies were stenciled with MFT Peach Bellini and PTI Tropical Teal. 

I cut off an inch of the card front and attached matching colored strips to the inside of the card.  The splatters were made with an old IO background stamp using the same inks and the butterflies were glued only in the middle. 

The sentiment is from PFS Sweet Friend Floral.  I'm entering PFS February Challenge and Color Hues Peach & Teal.

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

Valentines

I'm still working on Valentines.  Luckily, cardmaking friends appreciate happy mail whenever it arrives.

First is my card inspired by Color Hues Red and Pink Challenge.  Finally pulled out Uniko Layering Flower Fusion stencil set and I love it just as much as Picked Posies.  

My inks are CN9 Honeysuckle and Poppy plus PTI Weathervane.  I used Versamark through the flower centers stencil so I could silver emboss them.  SSS Layered Bird Bunch has just the right size little birds.  I colored one by brushing the pieces alternating with the red and pink inks--red being the head.  I used Stamplorations circles cover plate for added interest.  I flipped the cut down panel so the bird could be popped up on the branch next to the Alex Syberia die cut word.  I used vellum for the shadow and silver cardstock for the word.  The Valentine sentiment is inside.  I'm also entering SSS Monday and DCD, if I didn't use too much gray.

My next card was made with Gina K Wreath Builder Template and Sketched Wreath Builder stamp set.  Hadn't used the template in awhile and it really is such a fun technique.  

The inks are CN9 Sweet Pea, Ballet Slipper, Parsley and Sprout.  Even though I stamped the tiny hearts 3 times, they were barely visible.  So, I stamped over them twice using PTI Sweet Blush and got the look I wanted.  The embossed panel was done with a very old folder that has tiny hearts at each intersection of lines.  Love the difference it made compared to using a plain white panel.  I'm entering Time Out Challenges using the words Pink and Heart.  I have light pink hearts and darker pink flowers, plus the tiny white hearts in the embossed background.  

Last is another Valentine using a paper pad given to me long ago by my sweet friend, Cat.  I love the gold and kraft papers, but I struggle to use printed paper.  So glad I watched Juliana Michaels' Craft Your Stash video recently.  Again I used her basic sketch and this time covered the seam with a strip cut from one of the papers with the reverse side up.  

Couldn't come up with any additional colors I liked with these papers.  I found a yellow vellum that looked like gold and used that for the shadow of  SSS Simple Happy Valentine's Day.  The words were cut from the reverse side of the paper, like the strip.  Clear embossing the words let them stand out and perfectly match the card.  Gotta say, I love how this turned out, although I wasn't so sure in the beginning.  By the way, did you see the SSS tip to cut down a silicone basting brush to use with glue?  Check this out!  Someone recently gave me 2 of the brushes, so I tried it out.  Worked great to attach the words to the shadow.  I'm 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.

Silhouette Stamps

So wonderful that Shery of Stamplorations has no evidence of disease and has reopened the store!  Finally, something to be happy about it in this awful world.  The challenges are starting up, too, with Anything Goes for January.  I was inspired to pull out a stamp set with silhouette images designed by Deepti.  

This basic design is one of my favorites.  I forget to use my Pigment Stamp Company ink pads, but thought of them as I was looking for greens.  Aloe and Eucalyptus are beautiful and so similar you might not notice that my blending is darker at the bottom and slightly cooler and lighter at the top.  The images were stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne using first and second generation stamping.  I added little black splatters and trimmed the panel to fit inside the Pinkfresh Postage Edge panel.  The encouraging sentiment from Altenew's Sweet Bouquet lets me also enter JUGS.  And I'm 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.