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.

Birthday and Christmas

I had paint still in my palette from swatching Autumn Leaves set of Lindy's Magicals.  Decided to use it  on a Scrapbook.com Cozy Wreath.  The beautiful shimmer can be seen in my IG post video.  

Tim Holtz Bricked Texture Fade folder was used to emboss a panel of PTI Classic Kraft.  I rubbed over it with Altenew Pink Sand ink cube twice.  It dried very light, but actually does add a bit of shadow to the bricks.  The wreath includes a circle die which I used for the 2 sentiments from a very old PTI set.  I added a couple cardstock layers and inked the edge in Versafine Clair Acorn.  I really like having just a tiny bit of the cream card front show.  I'm entering Inkspirational, SSS Monday and WAW.

Woodblock Wednesday gives me a reason to pull out some of my many woodmounted stamps.  It also means I see if they still stamp well.  If not, I take them off the block and see how they work in my MISTI and toss the ones that are bad.  This time I wanted something that would also work for the Christmas Kickstart Winter Warmers theme.  I was delighted to find that the 2007 Hero Arts Stove-Pipe Snowman stamped perfectly! 

After heat embossing, I used Hero Arts Liquid Metallic watercolors in Red, Green and Blue, Gansai Tambi white metallic watercolor and Distress Oxides vintage photo and spiced marmalade to color the image and make the background light blue.  The shimmer is amazing in the light and you can see it in my IG video.  I used Fairy Hugs Fairy Snowflakes stencil with Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue ink for the background and added Baby Blue Stickles to the snowflake centers.  

Love the mixed font of Hero Arts 2007 Traditional Messages set of 3 stamps and they still stamp perfectly.  Really wasn't needed, but I did heat emboss the sentiment to match the snowman.  This was a fun card to make and hopefully will brighten someone's day in December.  I'm also entering SSS Monday and 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.

Couple of Cards

The Caffeinated Christmas Card Snowflake challenge is about to close and I did finally come up with a card.  I messed up stamping the Sweet 'n Sassy Knit Background using white pigment ink on gray cardstock.  Luckily, it was just one spot near the bottom of the panel, so I cut it into a smaller rectangle.  I love the look of wider margins on cards, especially when using smaller images. 

I've had Hero Arts metallic watercolors for a very long time and decided to play around with them.  No luck with trying an artist's technique I saw, so I just painted the red watercolor onto a white scrap.  I'd call it a burgundy red and it has a beautiful shimmer.  My scrap was big enough to die cut Trinity Stamps little cup (a freebie) twice, as well as the Impression Obsession snowflake.  

Luckily there was one edge of the scrap that worked to mat the PTI sentiment.  An old Darice snowflake embossing folder was used for the cups and I added a dot of Shimmer Pico Embellisher to the snowflake centers.  Yay for a nearly flat card ready to mail this Christmas.  I'm also entering Snippets Playground.

Next is a card inspired by a recent one made by my in real life friend, Lin.  She reminded me of the Gina K Video I saved to my favorites two years ago. 

I white embossed a very old wood mounted French script stamp.   It doesn't completely cover the panel, but I actually like the look.   I used Uniko's Flower Power #8 stencil with Distress Oxides Abandoned Coral and Saltwater Taffy.

The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said blocks.   Love that enamel dots are flat enough to not need extra postage.   I'm entering Inkspirational and Just Us Girls.

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

End of the Month

Challenges are about to end with July just around the corner!

First is my entry for the Sunshine theme challenge at Pinkfresh Studio.  Unfortunately, I missed the deadline.  They included "bright, summery colors" when talking about what would qualify for the challenge.  I used Copics for my bright rainbow of colors along with some beautiful flowers that bloom with the summer sun.

My favorite PFS Dainty Blossoms were die cut from white scraps & brushed with shimmer.  Love the font of PFS Perfect Sentiments & this cute little black embossed "hi" was just right for this card.  I added a crochet thread bow & some white sequins.

Next is my entry for the Just Add Foil challenge at Poppystamps.  My good friend, Rosemary, inspired me to emboss watercolor paper with BirchPress Prem Layer C die & to add a flower to Poppystamps Dream Butterfly.  

The butterfly was die cut from PTI Dark Indigo cardstock & I used the matching ink to stamp the sentiment from Altenew Painted Greetings.  I restamped in Versamark so I could add clear embossing powder.  I die cut Poppystamps Layered Lovely Flowers from a gorgeous blue foil cardstock in an old paper pad.  Just seemed like too much white, so I splattered Hero Arts blue metallic watercolor which happened to exactly match the blue foil cardstock. 

I lifted up the petals & added a tiny gem in the center.  My sister's favorite color is blue & she loves butterflies, so this one is being saved for her. 

My last card is for the Memory Box challenge to use dies for the focal point of a card.  One of my latest MB purchases was Floral Bud and Stems die set.  I'm trying to use up some of my old single cardstock sheets kept in a plastic tub.  I found the orange & teal that made for a summery bouquet.  

The background was made with Memento Dandelion ink brushed through SSS 2013 Moroccan stencil.  The frame is Poppystamps Double Stitch Scalloped Rectangle Frame stacked 2 high.  I stamped the sentiment from Poppystamps Grateful Heart in Versafine Clair Nocturne. 

Orange Stickles add a bit of sparkle to the petals & I brushed Poppystamps Grosgrain bow with shimmer.  Finished off with 3 Memory Box yellow Fairy Jewels.

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

Update and a Valentine

I'm doing well after my hip replacement surgery.  Everything takes me a long time, but I know things will improve.  Thank you for all the prayers & well wishes.  It took several days, but I did complete a card--yay!  My friend, Betty, encouraged me to try the watercolor bubbles technique.  I used Hero Arts red liquid metallic watercolor which gave a lovely pink result.  

The floral dies are TH Cutout Blossoms & the white embossed sentiment is from IO Valentine Hearts.  I found a red scrap in my stash that was just the right shade to go with the pink bubbles background. 

I used thin foam adhesive to mount the sentiment strip.  Love the bit of sparkle from my old white glitter dots.  I'm entering Color Hues, SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, DCD & Snippets Playground.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  I'll be stopping by your blogs as soon as I can.