a few cards...

 Hey there!  I'm popping in to share a few cards.  One card is for two challenges and the other two cards are ones that I made last week, but only shared on Instagram so I thought I would share them here, too.  First up is the card for the challenge and that challenge is Freshly Made Sketches and the Flower Challenge.  Will also add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to put a sentiment on your card.

Back in July I purchased a Hero Arts card kit that is available only through the Joann's website.  I couldn't resist the gorgeous floral image and the fact that it came with lots of beautiful cardstock and a dot palette of Daniel Smith watercolors.  After stamping the image in black on watercolor cardstock I watercolored the image with the Daniel Smith colors.  When it was dry I die cut it with the matching die.  I used the layout from FMS, but obviously didn't make my card square.  To get the triangles in the layout I scored the cardstock panel  in opposite corners and then using the score lines as a guide wrapped the panel with this pretty variegated hemp twine that I have had for ages.  A small bow was tied with another piece adhered.  I stamped the sentiment in black ink and die cut it with an AJVD labels die.  That was popped up on the card front along with the bouquet and then I finished with some sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

This card came about because I wanted to use some Stencil Butters that I had gotten from A Jillian Vance Design and I don't think I had ever used the Tumbling Leaves stencil from Simon Says Stamp.  Their current Instagram challenge is to do stenciling and so I made this card.   Since I had never tried the stencil butters before I got just two of them.  One blue and one green.  As you can see I used both and they really spread just like nice soft butter!  I really need to get more.  After my stenciled panel was dry I trimmed it down and adhered it to my card base.  The butterflies were trimmed out of some patterned paper that I had and adhered along with the sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio that I foiled in black.  I finished by adding some Trinity Stamps Rainbow Fish pearls to the bodies of the butterflies. 

This card is a simplified version of the card I submitted to the Freshly Made Sketches challenge last week.   This card happened because when I started making the other card I made what I thought at the time was a mistake.  I had foiled the wreath and then started to do the stenciling.  Unfortunately I started stenciling the leaves with the blue ink!   So I put the first wreath aside and foiled the second one and finished that card.  I almost threw this wreath away, but I learned that the challenge at Less is More was shades of blue so I finished off the wreath in shades of blue, foiled the sentiment, added it to my card and posted it to Less is More through Instagram!   

Well... I hope you enjoyed seeing my cards today.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!