"We do not remember days, we remember moments." Cesare Pavese

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Easter Bird...

  Hello!  Hope all is well in your part of the world.  I have a card to share today for several challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Time Out, JUGs and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  JUGs and Time Out are doing a collaboration and the theme is "birds of a feather".   I recently received an order from Simon Says Stamp that included the sweet little bird die set called Sitting Sparrow from Memory Box.  Perfect timing, right? Here is what I made.


I used a MFT brickwall stencil and some grit paste that I tinted with Hickory Smoke distress ink re-inker for the background.  The little bird is sitting on the Memory Box Magnolia Leaf Branch that I die cut from watercolor cardstock and then colored with distress ink re-inkers in Brushed Corduroy and Bundled Sage.  I tried to do the same thing with the bird not once, but twice and both times it was an abysmal failure.  So, I went back to my tried and true technique of inkblending with my Waffle Flower 0+ blending brushes and distress oxide inks.  This time success!  Once the grit paste had dried (with a little help from my heat gun!) I assembled the card.   Since I wanted the card to be an Easter card I finished with the Happy Easter sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Bunny Love stamp set.


Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  Popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog.  Here is a little peek of what I created:

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Saturday, March 9, 2024

bunny kisses...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a card for Color Throwdown and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  I used a new Simon Says Stamp and die set called Bunny Kisses to create a little scene.  Take a look.


The CTD colors this week are peach, sage and cream.  I focused more on the peach and sage colors, although I do think my peach is more of a pinky peach than an orangy peach.  I used Pinkfresh Studio Coral Berry to stamp the larger (momma) bunny and then Stampin Up! Flirty Flamingo to stamp the inside of the ear, nose and cheek.  The smaller bunny was stamped using Bundled Sage distress ink and the inside of the ear was stamped with PTI's Ocean Tides.  Originally I had the nose and cheek for the smaller bunny stamped in the Ocean Tides, but I changed it to Coral Berry.  I think it looks better.  I used an MFT cloud stencil to add the background clouds using a warm grey ink and then an MFT grass line stencil to stencil in the grass using Bundled Sage.  I used a very light hand with both colors.  The little hearts were also stamped in Coral Berry.  I added little pom poms to the bunnies' tales for a little bit of fun.  The sentiment was stamped, die cut and adhered with thin foam squares.   Simple, but cute I think.  This will be going to one of my great nieces for Easter.



Thursday, March 7, 2024

turquoise flower...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Color Hues and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.  Couldn't resist the lovely Color Hues combo so I pulled out a pretty Memory Box floral die and made this:


Memory Box recently came out with 6x6 pads of beautiful color coordinated cardstocks.  I used the Lagoon and Greenery 6x6 pads to die cut my flower and leaves from.   The arched die cut is also from Memory Box.  After I die cut it from white cardstock I die cut it in half for the split element from the FMS layout.  After adhering all the pieces of the flower together I layered everything to a white cardstock panel that I embossed with a sweet floral embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp.  The embossing folder is a 3d one, but I ran it through my die cutting machine with only the embossing folder and my base plate.  The image was embossed, but not deeply and I really liked it.  I finished the card with a new Open Studio Greeting Tab Happy Birthday sentiment and some turquoise fairy jewels.



Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!


Friday, March 1, 2024

mixed media tag...

 Hello and happy March!  Can you believe it is already March?  Where is the time going?!  Spring isn't quite here, yet, but I'm definitely in a spring-like mood!   With that in mind, I decided to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of fur or feathers.  And I will add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  The amazing Emma William, who is on SSS Monday challenge design team, created a beautiful tag featuring a bird.  Her tag is a bit more moodier than mine, but I was 100% inspired by her tag.  Take a look at what I made.


I started off my tag by spritzing a #8 distress heavy stock tag with a combination of Speckled Egg, Salvaged Patina and Antique Linen distress spray stains and Frozen Fog distress mica spray.  I dried the tag in between the layers of color.  Once the tag was dry I uses a Simon Says Stamp pine bough stencil and some grit paste to add more texture to the background.  I also added some crackle paste.  Once both pastes were dry I scribbled some distress crayons in ground espresso and crushed olive onto an acrylic block, spritzed on some water, mixed the colors and then dabbed them onto the pastes with my finger.  I then adhered my tag to a #8 Etcetera thickboard tag.  Once that was dry I rubbed more of the ground espresso/crushed olive mix around the edge of the tag.   


For the bird I used my favorite Backyard Wren die set from Memory Box.  The twiggy wreath, feathers blossom stem and budding stems are from the Greetery.   For the wreath I sprized heavy stock with walnut stain and Crooked Broomstick distress mica spray.  I spritzed on water to move the colors around.  Once the panels were dry I die cut them with the wreath die and two dies that cut twiggy branches for layering on the wreath.  There is a wreath stamp that coordinates with the wreath base and I used that to stamp on some Scorched Timber distress ink.  Once that was dry I adhered on the branches.  The other pieces were inked with distress oxide inks in Speckled Egg, Pumice Store, Vintage Photo, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage.   I assembled everything, let them dry and then adhered them to the tag as you see.  I finished off the tag with some chunky twine and a small key that I tried to grunge up with some grit paste and ground espresso distress crayon.  A small pin was used to attach the key to the twine.    I'm super pleased with how my tag turned out.


Thursday, February 29, 2024

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  Wow, February is over and here in the Pacific Northwest we are ending February on a very wet note, lol!  It just keeps raining!   But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek.


I hope you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!