Birthdays and Christmas

Sometimes I make wintry themed cards for December birthdays, but here's one that looks more summery. 

Thought my friend might enjoy a break from the weather--in a card, at least!  I gold embossed Alex Syberia's Spring Garden & used the coloring stencils with PTI Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Honey Nut, Simply Chartreuse & Ripe Avocado.  The PTI Essential Sentiments word fit perfectly.  I made the card from PTI Classic Kraft & splattered with gold Gansai Tambi watercolor.

I like the softness from the kraft & the Altenew matte gold sequins.  Fun to get a different look from the same stamp by changing colors.  I'm entering Die Cut Divas & The Flower Challenge. 

My hubby's birthday is also in December & I knew I wanted to use SSS Forest Border embossing folder.  I started by inking a panel in DO prize ribbon, lucky clover & vintage photo.  After using the folder, I lightly rubbed the raised edges with white pigment ink & heat embossed with WOW White Twinkle powder. 

You can see the beautiful sparkle in the short video below or in my IG post.

I added TH Snowfall Grit Paste to the bottom of the panel & splattered white gouache.  The Uniko sentiment was double embossed on vellum with Versafine Clair Blue Belle & clear ep.   I really like how the blue frame makes the tree panel stand out & hubby loves his "fancy" card.  I'm entering Time Out & Inkspirational.

I fell in love with Poppystamps Pine Needle Shoots die as soon as I saw a wreath made with it.  I wanted to put my own spin on it & this is what I came up with. 

I die cut the one piece die with 5 shoots from 2 shades of green cardstock.  All but the smallest diecuts were arranged on a PTI Twig Wreath die cut from brown cardstock.  The little red dots were in my stash. 

I stamped HA sentiment on a Memory Box white woodgrain panel using Versafine Clair Nocturne.  Turned out to be one of my favorite cards!  I'm entering Poppystamps Cool Yule, Christmas Kickstart & TTTC238 using December Holiday/Winter Foliage/Red or Green.

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

Floral Cards

Last month I forgot to entry my card, so decided to get my April Altenew Challenge entry posted while I'm thinking about it.  The photo inspiration showing a beautiful red rose made me immediately think of the Rose Bouquet embossing folder. 

I embossed a panel of Bristol cardstock & colored using sponge daubers with Distress Inks Fired Brick, Barn Door, Mowed Lawn & Cracked Pistachio.  I used the 2 lightest colors just outside the raised areas.  I splattered with white gauche & attached the panel to silver & black mats.  

One of the Essential Sentiment Strips was die cut from a black scrap & attached to silver & black mats.  Finished off with black enamel dots.  I'm also entering TTTC204 with Enamel Dot/Free/Floral.  Mailing this one to a friend with lots going on.

I also recently made a card inspired by the flowers theme for the Pinkfresh Studio April Challenge.  I used PFS Modern Layered Florals, Dainty Blossoms, Braided Tag & Sweet Friend Floral. 

The Altenew inks are Fuchsia, Baby Pink, Aqualicious & Dew Drops.  Glad I thought to add some vellum diecuts behind the bouquet for added interest.  Always amazing what a difference it makes to add white gel pen dots which I did to the tiny flowers.  The rest of the flowers have some brushed on shimmer.  

The card front was splattered, pink gems were added & the sentiment strip was added.  This one was already sent to a friend recovering from surgery.   

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

Three More Easter Cards

I really enjoyed making Easter cards this year.  Here's my entry for TTTC 202 using the diagonal line of Gold, Free, Easter from the board created by my good friend, Betty.  

Some time ago I made several HoneyBee Stamps Lovely Layers Tulips buds from yellow & green scraps.  Couldn't get my idea to work, so they've just been on my table.  Luckily, there was enough cardstock to also die cut the closed tulip.  That gave me a little bouquet which resulted in this card.  I splattered gold watercolor over the tulips & the white panel embossed with SSS Refracted folder.

Poppystamps Happy Easter Curve was stacked several high with the top layer cut from gold metallic cardstock.  I finished off with the beautiful Lucy's Cards gold & clear sequins from my favorite Champagne mix.

Next is a beautiful card, thanks to Stamplorations card fronts.  I thought this one would be great for an Easter card.  

All I did was splatter gold watercolor, attach the IO gold metallic diecut sentiment, add gold sequins & attach the panel to a burgundy mat.

I was running out of time to get cards in the mail, so having the card front was a wonderful option.  In case you haven't heard, Shery Russ, the owner of Stamplorations, recently had a PET scan that showed no signs of her stage 4 breast cancer.  Lots of joy for that family this Easter.

My final card was inspired by the photo inspiration for Time Out Challenge 235.  As many of you probably know, I love wreaths & the color pink.  So no surprise I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous grapevine wreath with pink flowers. 

I actually have a couple wreath dies that would have worked, but my first thought was PTI Rustic Wreath.  It was die cut 3 times from a dark brown scrap & I glued them not lined up in order to make a little fuller wreath.  I knew several of my Spellbinders Small Die of the Month kits had blossoms & branches.  These 3 had just what I needed: March & July 2020 and December 2021.  I pulled out a bunch of my beautiful pink scraps & a sort of mossy green one for the branches.  Only got a shot of the pink scraps--still lots to be used.  

Love the white bricks in the photo & I remembered my old Magenta stencil which I used with Golden Light Molding Paste.  I've had that jar for years & it's still just as good as the day I opened it.  Really love the texture it gives.  This card is completely opposite of the last one--took me forever!  

I'm not good at fiddling with little die cut pieces, but finally got everything attached where I wanted them.  The Poppystamps Serene Rabbit diecut is the last one from a scrap I embossed with Stampendous Sparkle & Puff ep.  I substituted him for the white "Hi" in the photo.  The sentiment from my old TPC Studio set was stamped in Versafine Clair Pinecone on a white scrap.  I added tiny clear gems to the big flowers, used a black Glaze pen for the rabbit's eye & added a piece of white crochet thread around his neck.  The crochet thread was a scrap, too!  

If you want to see the sparkle, there's a short video in my IG feed.  Too late for this year, so I'll put this card on display for now & mail it next year.  I'm also entering The Snippets Playground & 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.

Birthday & Hello Cards

Finally sitting down to post 3 cards.  I'll start with my second card for the Uniko 11th Birthday challenge.  This time I used the wonderful Nature's Treasures II stamp set for a masculine card.  

The inks are Pigment Craft Co Eucalyptus, Aloe & Balsam with Altenew Dusty Rose for the berries from Rustic Wreath & the sentiment from Floral Vines.  I haven't entered The Male Room in a very long time, so happy to see the current theme is Nature.

Next is the card I entered in the PTI Birthday Sweet challenge.  I only have 1 PTI stamp set that fits the theme & it's called Your Beautiful Birthday.  Such a unique, fun set I should pull out more often. 

I had someone in mind who loves blue, so I used Blueberry Sky & Enchanted Evening inks & cardstocks.  The cake plate & flames are stamped in Delicata Silvery Shimmer & Soft Stone.  I used a small paintbrush & diluted ink to connect the 2 cake layers.  Fun little sentiment from Scripted which fit perfectly.  I used Mix & Mat Flourishes die for the dots & backed the panel with silver metallic cardstock. 

The frame is Pierced Feature Frames & I used a Quickie Glue pen to add fine glitter to the dots & flames.  I also entered SSS Monday Frame It challenge & Time Out 9th BD challenge.

Next is my entry for the Altenew February Inspiration Challenge.  The photo this month is of a strikingly beautiful sky.   I decided to see if I could use the colors for my neglected Fantasy Floral dies.  I have tons of white cardstock scraps, so I just die cut a bunch of the flower layers & leaves.  After going through all my ink pads & markers, I finally decided on Copics R81, RV04 & RV19 for the flowers & C3 for the leaves.  After trying out all the layers in each color, I chose this one as my favorite.  

Some of the practice diecuts may still end up as flowers by using different colors for the other layers.  I splattered white gouache on the flowers & leaves which really does make a difference in the look.  Before putting the card together, I took time to do some foiling.  I couldn't wait to see if the new Poly Glaze sheets really do completely foil without missing areas which often happens with the toner sheet designs--at least in my experience.  Oh boy--what a game changer for those of us without foiling machines!  I did 2 of the designs & both came out perfectly.  As I was looking at the pink one, I realized it would be a great background for my roses.  

The beautiful Altenew Fancy Hello was die cut from white & silver metallic cardstock scraps so I could stack it 3 high.  When I first put the roses together, I wasn't sure that I liked them.  But now that the card is finished, I actually love it!  I'm also entering The Snippets Playground & TTTC 197 using the diagonal row of word die/pink/flowers.

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