MFT and SSS

Hello!  Today's card is being entered in the current My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (anything goes).

When I saw the MFT sketch it reminded me of a tiered cake, which brought to mind the cupcake stand from the Sweet BD Wishes stamp set.  To make this card I stamped the cupcake image and sentiment using MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink.  To "color" my cupcakes I used one of the little splatter stamps from Distressed Patterns.  I used Wplus9 Storybook collection inks, I love these inks because they work so beautifully together, no thinking necessary as to what colors go together.  If you look closely you can see that I used another of the splatter stamps to stamp around the outside of the cupcakes.  I used the Fairy Dust color ink pad for that which is why it's so light, but I love the magical quality of that ink (guess that's why Dawn named it "fairy dust", hee hee!)  To add a bit more to this very simple card I brushed the frosting on all of the cupcakes with some clear Wink of Stella, and I added Glossy Accents on top of the cupcake stand.  I couldn't get a great shot to show this detail well, but it looks so pretty in person!

That's all from me today, thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend!

You are my person

I'm popping in with a card I made for the Essentials by Ellen January Pin-Sight Challenge using CAS(E) this Sketch #157.

This card was made mostly with dies, the heart die is from MFT, the flower dies are from Essentials by Ellen Wild Garden, and the leaf die is from PTI.  The sentiment, which I embossed in white is from Essentials by Ellen Mondo Magnolia.  For the colors I used PTI Autumn Rose ink to make the splatters on the background, PTI Ripe Avocado card stock for the leaves, Lavender Moon for the flowers, and Scarlett Jewel for the heart.  And now that I finally bought myself a bag of those tiny clothespins I seem to want to use them on EVERY card I make lol!  I've always really loved what they add to a card but never bought myself any until now.  Of course they're not very practical when it comes to mailing a card, but they sure do look pretty :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

You are my happy

Hello there!  I'm sharing a card that I made for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (love is in the air + use red).

To make this card I used the Layers of Love stamp set and dies from Concord & 9th along with MFT's Watercolor Stripes background stamp.  That's the short of it, if you'd like to know how I made that background, the LONG version, I'll explain lol!  It was rather a comedy of errors ;)

So I was playing around with a technique I saw on the internet.  I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and I applied Worn Lipstick distress ink directly to the paper, quite heavily, so the whole sheet was solid pink.  Next I laid a heart stencil on top of the paper and sprayed it with water.  I let it sit for a bit and then laid a paper towel on top to remove excess water.  When I removed the stencil I was "supposed" to see the hearts appear on the paper.  Well even after drying with my heat tool the hearts were so faint I could barely see them.  Now this technique involved applying a second coat of ink in another color over the first, so I decided to cover the paper with Candied Apple distress ink just to see if anything happened.  It didn't.  Not wanting to waste a sheet of watercolor paper and all that ink I decided to carry on.  My next move was to use the Watercolor Stripe background stamp.  At first I was going to try and stamp with Versamark ink and apply white embossing powder but I was afraid that because the paper was SO saturated with inks that I wouldn't be able to get it dry enough to keep the white embossing powder from sticking everywhere.  So I decided instead to use SSS White Pigment Ink and stamp the stripes.  After doing that I put my heat tool to it but I knew that pigment ink was not going to dry no matter how much I heat it.  At that point I let it sit for a few hours to air dry.  When I came back to it it still wasn't completely dry, and even a day later it wasn't dry.  I still proceeded to make the card, I did like the way the paper looked.  When I die cut the heart I made sure to place a piece of typing paper over the card stock, and sure enough there was a nice print of those stripes that showed up on the typing paper lol!  I decided to make the card into a shaker, and I really do LOVE how it turned out, despite all the pitfalls!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today :)

MFT Sketch Challenge

I'm doing a quick post here with a last minute entry to the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge.

I used Adorable Elephants and Distressed Patterns for this card, along with Wplus9 Storybook Collection inks for this quick and easy card!  Sorry for the "not so great" photo, it's quite dreary here today and I wanted to get the picture taken so I could enter it ;)

Have a good one!

The Challenge #58

Happy Monday!  It's time for a new challenge at The Challenge!  This week we have some masculine inspiration for you.

This challenge was a bit of a challenge for me, I don't find masculine cards particularly easy for some reason, but I'm pretty pleased with the card I came up with here.  I used some patterned paper from the Pebbles Lakeside 6X6 paper pad that contained some of the inspiration photo colors.  The mustache die is from Paper Smooches and I used PTI Canyon Clay card stock for it.  The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Incognito stamp set (such a FUN stamp set, I highly recommend you check this one out).  I added some stars and some strips of the Canyon Clay card stock, and the card base is PTI New Leaf.  The flag banner is from MFT.

The design team has come up with quite a variety of card styles to get your creative juices flowing, please be sure to hop over to Lesley's blog and check them out.  And since I need all the help I can get for masculine cards I'm looking to be inspired by YOU this week, hope you'll join us!

Love

This is my 3rd post for today!  With the weekend snowstorm I've had plenty of time to play because we've been housebound since Friday evening.  Thankfully our power stayed on so we stayed toasty warm and I spent most of the weekend at my craft table :)

I'm entering this card in 3 challenge, Newton's Nook Designs Inky Paws Challenge #28, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Create with Critters, and CAS(E) this Sketch #156.

To make this card I first did all of my stamping on watercolor paper.  The alligator is from Newton's Nook Beach Part, the "balloon strings" are from Newton's Nook Winged Wishes, and the heart balloons are from MFT's Adorable Elephants.  Next I did all of my watercoloring with distress inks.  I added Glossy Accents to the balloons and the alligator's glasses, and finished the card with some sequins.  Such a fun card to make, I really love creating with critters :)

This is definitely my last post for today, but I'll be back tomorrow with a new card for The Challenge.

Freshly Made Sketches #220

Hello!  I have a card to share that I made using the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

To make this card I started by doing some ink blending on white watercolor paper, I used 3 shades of distress inks, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Peacock Feathers.  It gave a very subtle color difference top to bottom, but I didn't want the background to be overly "loud".  Next I splattered some water drops on the background, then cut it with a Winnie & Walter scallop border die.  The hearts were cut with a PTI heart die, and stamped with some PTI stamps for the patterns.  The dies in the corner are from Concord & 9th Layers of Love die set, I cut 2 of them and offset them a bit and tied some black and white bakers twine around them and made a bow.  The sentiment was stamped with the Concord & 9th Sophisticated Script stamp set.  I added a tiny heart after the Mr and Mrs (PTI).  I'm really loving my Concord & 9th stamps and dies and have made quite a few cards with them that I've only posted on Instagram, I'll try and do a blog post soon showing them so those of you who don't use Instagram can see them :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

CAS(E) this Sketch #156

Today I'm sharing a sympathy card that I made using the current sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch.

For this card I used Papertrey Ink's Life stamp set for my main panel.  The ink colors are Wplus9 Cockleshell, Little Piggy, and Beanstalk.  The sentiment is stamped on PTI Soft Stone card stock, embossed in white, using Winnie & Walter's A Tree for All Season's stamp set.

I've had to make several sympathy cards this week, all for tragic situations where men died much too young and left behind wives and small children.  It fills my heart with pain for those families, and extreme gratitude for all that I've been blessed with.  Hug your families today and tell them that you love them, for none of us are promised a tomorrow.

A couple of cards...

Hello!  I wanted to share a couple of cards here on my blog that I had posted on Instagram, but since they weren't for challenges I didn't post them here on my blog. 

I received the large floral stamp (along with another floral stamp), from THE Jennifer McGuire!  This was the first time I won anything from Jennifer's blog, and I was thrilled!  This card was actually very simple to make, I embossed the flower and sentiment (from MFT) in gold, and then used distress inks and my ink blending tool to color.  Then I added some water and ink splatters.  I wish you could see this in person, my picture does not do it justice!


This next card features ink blending too.

All of these products are from Simon Says Stamp.  I embossed the stamped images in white and then did some ink blending to add the color.  This has become one of my favorite techniques to add color to my cards.  It's easy to do yet gives very dramatic results.  I'm also crazy about adding Glossy Accents to my die cuts, as I did here.  I love the shine it adds.

Hope you're having a wonderful week, thanks so much for stopping by!

You fog my spectacles

Hello there!  I have a super fun card for you today that I'm entering in a couple of challenges, the Paper Smooches January challenge to use 4 colors from the inspiration photo, and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, create with critters. 

This card was a blast to make!  I colored the cute dog from Paper Smooches Comforting Hugs using Copic markers.  For the glasses I used one of the dies from PS Glasses dies and die cut 3 of them from white card stock.  I colored one of the die cuts using distress inks (Festive Berries, Mowed Lawn, and Blueprint Sketch), and my ink blending tool.  I glued the 3 die cuts together to give the glasses more dimension and then I coated it with Glossy Accents.  After it was dry I decided to add the gems on the corners of the glasses, if I was doing it again I'd probably place them down in the wet Glossy Accents so they were embedded, I think that would look better.  One thing I love about this is that it looks like the dog is holding the glasses with his paws, so funny!  The sentiment is from PS Incognito stamp set.  There are so many FUN sentiments in that stamp set, I just love it!

That's all for now, thanks so much for stopping by today!

The Challenge #57

Hello there and happy Monday!  This week at The Challenge we have a lovely inspiration photo to share with you!

I have to admit that I haven't been making many vintage, shabby chic cards lately, so I really had to stretch out of my current comfort zone to design this card.

I was inspired by the text pattern, the lace, and the "wedding feel" of the photo, so that's what I worked with when designing this card.  I started off by using a text embossing folder and cream card stock for my background.  The heart dies are from Simon Says Stamp.  I die cut them from white card stock, then I removed the center portion and stamped them with a lace background stamp from Impression Obsession and Tattered Rose distress ink.  I placed the centers back into the outer part of the hearts and popped them up on some foam tape on a white doily.  The sentiment was stamped using PTI Smoky Shadow ink and a stamp from Winnie & Walter.  I finished the card with some sheer white ribbon and a few pearls.  Even though I didn't use any flowers on my card I still think it captures the essence of the photo and I'm pleased with how it turned out :)

The design team has created a wonderful variety of cards to inspire you, I hope you'll stop by Lesley's blog and check them out!  And then be sure to play along with us, I can't wait to see what you create!!

It's a Boy!

I have another card to share today using the very sweet Adorable Elephants stamp set from MFT.  I combined the MFT Sketch Challenge and MFT Color Challenge for this card.

To make my watercolor base panel I used Cracked Pistachio distress ink for the light green and my Gansai Tambi watercolors for the light blue, and darker blue splatters.  For the panel that the elephant is sitting on I used a brush and made random watercolor strokes (the dark green is Evergreen bough distress ink and the blue is Gansai Tambi).  I think it loosely resembles tall grasses.  The elephant was watercolored using Hickory Smoke and Worn Lipstick distress inks, and the butterflies were watercolored using Gansai Tambi.  I used MFT Blueprints 20 for all of the die cut pieces.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn, I don't have any MFT baby sentiments and I'm going to need to remedy that ;)

So that's all for today, I'm off to get ready for dinner at a fabulous Japanese restaurant!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I LOVE YOU

Hello, peeps!  I have a card to share today that I'm entering in 2 challenges, the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #36 (one layer card), and CAS(E) this Sketch.

I was inspired by a card made by the talented Deepti of Dee's Art Utopia, you can see it HERE.  Deepti's brushstrokes are much more artfully done than mine, but this was my first attempt and I took the easy route, making a rainbow :)  I used my Gansai Tambi watercolors here and a wide flat brush to add the color.  I left an open space to add a sentiment which is from Simon Says Stamps Roses For You stamp set.  I added a few white embossed hearts to the card because I felt it needed a little something extra.  I also added some clear Wink of Stella to the inside of the sentiment although you can't really see that in this photo.  I like the fun, playful feel of this and I want to experiment a lot more with making brushstrokes.  I own several brushstroke stamp sets but there's something very rewarding about making your own!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sparkle & Shine Challenge #22

I'm so happy you stopped by, there's a wonderful new challenge beginning today over at Sparkle & Shine!  We also have a new sponsor for this challenge, Right at Home!  The winner will receive a $15.00 gift card to the Right at Home store and be asked to join us next month as our guest designer.  Now how is that for incentive to play along :)

Isn't that a beautiful image?  For my card today I was inspired by the grey tones, the wood, and of course that beautiful red bird!

I'm really crushing on the new stamp company Concord & 9th at the moment, and I was thrilled to have another opportunity to play with some of their wonderful stamps and dies.  First I stamped the Tree Ring Background stamp on some watercolor paper 3 times using Hickory Smoke distress ink.  Next I took a wet paintbrush and added more of the Hickory Smoke color, and also some Pumice Stone distress ink to add a subtle variation of color.  Then I splattered some of the Hickory Smoke on the background and stamped the sentiment from the By Your Side stamp set with black ink.  The birds were die cut from the By Your Side Bird Die, I simply cut the branch off of the birds.  I colored them with Festive Berries and Fired Brick distress ink and my ink blending tool, then popped them up on some foam tape.  I trimmed the watercolor panel slightly on one side and placed it on a black card base, and added a few Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins to finish the card.  I do love how this one turned out, the grey, black and white with the red pop of the birds is so pretty.

Be sure to hop on over to the Sparkle & Shine blog to check out what the other design team members created, I'm sure you'll be very inspired to play along!

Hello

Well hello there!  I have a card to share today that I made to enter in two challenges, the Winnie & Walter Rerun No. 8 challenge using The Party Hangover, and the Simon Says: Ombre challenge.

This was a really fun card to make.  I LOVE finding creative ways to use my stamps and I was able to do that with Winnie & Walter's The Party Hangover stamp set here.  I started by stamping a bunch of the chain link stamp on white paper (using my Misti made this job very easy).  I stamped 5 rows using PTI Melon Berry ink, 5 rows using PTI Berry Sorbet ink, and 5 rows using Hero Arts Fresh Peach ink.  This gave me the ombre affect.  Next  I stamped the large outline flower from Winnie & Walter's Big Bloom stamp set over the ombre stamping using black ink, and fussy cut.  For the card base I used the same chain link stamp but formed it into a circle on my Misti lid.  I randomly stamped that image using Hero Arts Mint Julep ink on white card stock.  Then I used the largest open circle from Winnie & Walter's Scenery: Bigger Bank Confetti and stamped that with the Hero Arts Fresh Peach ink in the middle of the green circles.  The big "hello" sentiment was die cut from black card stock, and I placed my panel on a black card base.  The card was finished with some black sequins.

I hope my card inspires you to look at your stamps in new ways and try something fun!

The Challenge #56

Happy Monday!  We have a fabulous color challenge for you this week over at The Challenge.  I LOVE this color combination and hope you will too!

I was itching to play with my new products from Concord & 9th, the By Your Side sentiment stamp set and By Your Side bird die, and thought they'd be perfect for my card today.  I used Spiced Marmalade distress ink to color the birds, Gathered Twig for the branch, and Peacock Feathers above the birds.  The card base is PTI Enchanted Evening card stock and the sentiment is stamped with Enchanted Evening ink.  I did some splatters with water and various inks, and then I thought it needed some white on the top so I stamped a few tiny dots from a Winnie & Walter stamp set and embossed them in white.  I seem to have mixed results trying to do white splattering on my cards, sometimes it's just not white enough for me.  In that case white embossing to the rescue.  If anyone has any tips as to how to get really white white splatter on a card please share!

Be sure to pop over to The Challenge blog to see what the other design team members have created, and then be sure to play along with us! 

MFT Sketch Challenge #262

Hello there!  I have a card today that I made for the current MFT Sketch Challenge.

Lots of watercolor on this card (a bit too much perhaps ;)  I used watercolor paper and distress inks, Sketched Blueprint and Lucky Clover for the base and Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed for the words and balloons.  I used MFT's Snow Drift Cover Up, and the sentiment is from Label Maker Sentiments.  I finished the card with some clear drops. 

That's all for now, thanks so much for stopping by!

STAMPlorations Challenges

Hello!  I'm playing along with several of STAMPlorations challenges today, the January Challenge - Theme and Sketch, and the January CAS Card Challenge.

I have to give credit for my color combination on this card to the very talented Stephanie Klauck.  I loved the card she made HERE, the colors really spoke to me and I thought they'd look beautiful with the lovely Trendy Feathers from STAMPlorations.  To make my card I first heat embossed the feathers in white on some PTI white card stock.  Next I used my ink blending tool to add the color, Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, and Peacock Feathers distress inks.  The sentiment is also from Trendy Feathers and is stamped in black.  I added some water droplets to react with the distress inks, along with some Dylusions White Linen Ink Spray.  I placed the panel on a black card base to finish the card.  There was a lot of temptation to add something more to this card, because that's just how I roll, but since the challenges call for "CAS" I made myself stop lol!  I'm letting the feathers, sentiment, and background speak for themselves ;)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Essentials by Ellen January Mix it Up Challenge

Howdy!  I'm here today with a card for the January Essentials by Ellen Mix it Up Challenge and the current CAS(E) this Sketch!  This month Essentials by Ellen is mixing it up with one of my favorite stamps companies, My Favorite Things, so I was eager to create a card for the challenge.

To make this card I first swiped some Wplus9 inks direct to paper (Beanstalk, Falling Star, Little Piggy, Cockleshell, and Bo Peep).  Next I added some of the flower die cuts from Essentials by Ellen Wild Garden and coated them with some clear Wink of Stella.  The white panel is cut with a scallop border die from Winnie & Walter.  The sentiment is from MFT's Amazing stamp set and dies.  I die cut 4 of the word "amazing" from black card stock and glued them together for dimension, then I added Glossy Accents on top.  I stamped the rest of the sentiment, "you are way", using Cockleshell ink.  I added a shiny heart accent over the "i" and some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to finish my card.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!