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.

Guest Designing for Color Hues

I was thrilled to win Color Hues Fuchsia and Navy challenge and now I get to guest design for Color Hues #132 Yellow and Blue.  

A good friend recently gave me Taylored Expressions Petal Party Layering Stencils.  You can make 6 panels at a time, but I just used the section that includes a vase.  What do you think?  I'm really happy with the fun, modern look.

I used these Altenew inks:  Citrus Burst, Fresh Lemon, Caribbean Sky, Persian Blue and Sapphire.   I inked the edges of the mat with Sapphire and used it for the sentiment from PPP/SSS.   Love SSS Dibble Tile embossing folder and thought it worked great with my focal point.  I love to add splatters and sparkle, but decided this card should be left as is.  Hopefully it will brighten my friend's day.  I'd love for you to check out all the great inspiration from the Color Hues team and then enter the gallery.  I'm entering SSS Wednesday and WAW.

Edited to add:  First time using the stencils, so I'm entering Darnell's NBUS.

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

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. 

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.

Valentine and Christmas Card

Continuing to escape the awful reality of my country's leaders by making and sending cards.  Here's my second Valentine and this time I used AJVD hearts.  

I inked them with Altenew's Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart and Purple Wine.  Love their ink sets, so I don't have to guess about shades that go together.  Couldn't resist brushing the hearts with a shimmer pen--so beautiful in person.  You can see the shimmer in my IG post.  Taylored Expressions Swiss Hearts embossing folder was used for the background.  I inked a gray panel and Alex Syberia Friend diecut with Versafine Clair Morning Mist.

I'm entering WAW.

The JUGS Mood Board challenge inspired me to stamp an Evergreen forest using three Trinity Stamps silhouette trees with Altenew Hunter Green and Fresh Leaf ink pads.  The photo second from the left in the bottom row of the mood board is what caught my eye.    

I spread Tim Holtz Snowfall Grit Paste at the base of the trees and added snow with a white paint pen.  My new Waffle Flower sentiment shadow was die cut from vellum and the words were die cut twice from white cardstock.  Hard to see, but they were layered so that the lighter green is visible on the left side of the letters.  The top layer was covered with glaze. 

I finished the card with a variety of translucent green enamel dots.  A simple card that is just my style! 

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

Christmas, Anniversary and Birthday

I decided to make a card from a leftover 2024 tag.  I added a gold glitter layer to the poinsettias from TH Seasonal Sketch dies.  I removed a green cord bow and left the TH Funky Wreath on vellum with Scrapbook.com words as it was. 

The focal point was attached to a circle dry embossed with TH Texture Fades Poinsettia folder.  That was attached to a slightly larger circle card.  Have to say, I like the card much better than the tag because of the glitter poinsettia layer and the dry embossing.  There's still time to join Jo and me at Christmas Kickstart: Wreath it Up.  I'm entering Word Art Wednesday.

Our 46th anniversary is next week and I wanted to make something different for hubby's card this year.  I HAD to have TE Create in Quads: Mistletoe, but hadn't yet opened the package. 😊 Thought mistletoe in his favorite colors would be perfect!  

The Altenew inks are Grass Field, Mountain Pine, Caribbean Sky and Sapphire.  I die cut AJVD "love" die from a vellum panel to use as a guide for where to place the die on my stenciled panel.  The word was stacked 3 high, covered with glaze and glued in place.  I die cut MB Parker Lowercase Alphabet letters to spell "you" and stacked them 3 high.  The card front edges were inked to match.  If you look close, you'll see 2 tiny Gina K white heart embellishments where a bow often goes.  Fresh and simple with interest, so I'm happy and think hubby will like it, too.  I'm entering Just Us Girls and SSS Wednesday.

I saw that my cardmaking friend, Linda, is the hostess at Seize the Birthday.  Her theme is Black & White, which I haven't done in quite awhile.  Always fun to combine challenges and FMS gave me a great layout.

The black and white mats were die cut with Gina K Master Layouts 1 & 2.  I used partial diecutting with a long stitched AJVD rectangle die to get the size I needed for my flowers which are from PTI Simple Stems.  I actually used acrylic blocks and Versafine Clair Nocturne ink for the stamping and had no problem.  The card looks very crisp and clean in person.  Took a bit, but I finally found exactly the sentiment I wanted in Uniko's Simply Said Blocks.  I added a tiny clear gem at the base of each bloom. 

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

Easter and Friendship

I missed the last Color Hues deadline, so this time I didn't put off making a card.  Color Hues: Orange and Teal was a challenge, for sure.  Honestly, orange is not a color I reach for very often.  Layering stencils are a big favorite, right now, but it's been awhile since I used TE Modern Eucalyptus.  I have 3 shades of teal ink with PTI Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores and Tropical Teal--just what I needed.  

I first tried using Orange Zest for the branches--way too much orange for me!  So I turned the panel over and redid it using PTI Terracotta Tile and that worked.  The rectangles were die cut with GKD Master Layouts 1 and 2.  Poppystamps Proper Happy Easter was just the right size.  The letters were covered with a shimmer pen which you can see in my IG post.  I found the perfect tiny gems in my stash and I actually do like how this card turned out.  Just don't expect to see me using a lot of orange now! 🤣 I'm also entering JUGS.

I haven't entered FMS in a long time, but the current sketch immediately caught my attention.  The IO branch cling stamp is one of my favorites, so always love using it.  

This time I first inked the branches and random parts of the leaves in Versafine Clair Green Oasis.  Then I inked the entire stamp in the lighter Grass Green--one of their newer colors.  Really love how it came out.  At that point, I realized I meant to stamp the splatters from Unity's Serene Silhouettes in Altenew Sand Dunes first.  The branch was still in my Misti, so I stamped in Versafine and clear embossed.  Then I could see exactly where I wanted the splatters, so actually worked out for the best.  

The rectangles were die cut with GKD Master Layouts 2.  The sweet Alex Syberia Friend die was the perfect sentiment.  I liked the white card front, but decided it was time to use an old favorite element of stamping the edges.  That really changed the look and I love it.  Not sure they were needed, but I ended up adding white sequins. 

Edited to add:  Also 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.

Greta