fallish wreath...

 Hello!  Can't believe that September is almost over.  Fall is definitely in the air here in the Pacific Northwest.   The rain is falling, the wind is blowing and that means I had to get out my warm coat when I take our dog for a walk.   I don't walk when it raining hard, but I do love getting out once the rain has passed as the air is so fresh, clean and full of the smell of falling leaves!  Anyway, on to my card.  It is for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.   Will also add it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes. Take a look.

As I have stated in the past, Scrapbook.com often has freebies and about a week ago they offered this die wreath.  I couldn't resist so I made a small purchase.   When I saw the FMS sketch I thought the wreath would be fun to use.  I die cut mossy green and rust colored cardstocks with the wreath then glued them together.  The is a separate circular die that I cut from kraft cardstock and stamped with the sentiment from a Simon Say Stamp with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink.  I die cut off white cardstock with a rectangle die and then adhered the wreath and sentiment.  I found a piece of mossy colored twine that I wrapped around the panel and tied in a bow.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  September is almost over and today I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog.  Here is a little look at my card:

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

two cards...

 Hey!  Look at me posting two days in a row, lol!   That hasn't happened in a very long time.   Today I have two cards to share for two challenges that I normally combine:  Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.    First up is the card for FMS.

I recently got this fun jack-o-lantern die from Simon Says Stamp.  I wanted to use it for the sketch that FMS featured last week, but I just never got around to it.  Too busy cross-stitching and other things, lol!  When I saw this week's sketch I immediately knew I would be able to use the jack-o-lanterns with the sketch.  And I continued my love affair with distress mica sprays.  I used Harvest Moon and Mulled Cider mica sprays for the jack-o-lanterns.  Once my cardstock was dry I die cut them and then backed their faces with glossy black cardstock.   That was the easy part.  Then I had to figure out the sort of artistic portion of the sketch.   I wanted to use a mica spray, but sometimes things can go awry when trying to get the spray where you want it.  So I tried out a couple of stamped images, but didn't like any of them.   I die cut a piece of white cardstock, placed it in my splatter box, took a deep breath and sprayed.  It came out exactly as I wanted it to the first time!  YAY!    I placed the pumpkins approximately where I wanted them and then stamped the sentiment using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I thought the card needed a little something else so I pulled the spider web image from the stamp set that the sentiment came from and stamped it with the Nocturne ink.   I piled on the pumpkins and I was done.  I really like how it turned out.  Clean and simple, but with a bit of mixed media!

As many of you know Stamptember is happening right now at Simon Says Stamp.   Lots of different stamp companies collaborate with Simon Says Stamp on limited edition stamp and die sets.  In 2021 Concord & 9th collaborated with Simon Says Stamp to create the stamp and die combo called Double the Thanks.  That is what I used for my card.  I have to be honest and tell you that after I got the products I wasn't really sure that I should have even purchased them.  Do you ever do that?  Get caught up in the moment and buy something that in retrospect you probably shouldn't have?  Anyway, I decided to get it out to make a card using the CTD colors.   And I have to say that I like how it turned out.  To jazz things up a bit I added the background that I embossed with a WeRMemorykeepers embossing folder.   I used all Pinkfresh Studio inks for the stamping.  The finish touch was Nuvo drops in Morning Dew to the center of the flowers.  I had to do the drops in stages on the sunflower as the dot are tiny and very close together!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

so very...

 Hello!  Seems like it has been awhile since I lasted posted.   Honestly, haven't felt much like making cards.  I would rather be stitching, lol!   But I did make something to share.  This card is for a challenge that I rarely get the opportunity to participate in... JUGs!  Loved the inspiration photo so just had to make something.  I also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use a background stamp.  The circular image in the back is small, but it is a background stamp.  Take a look.

Last year I fell in love with distress mica sprays.  I hadn't really been that interested in sprays of any kind because they tend to be a little messy and I don't like to get things messy.  But for whatever reason I decided to buy a couple and the rest is history.   I own all of the sprays that came out last year (except one) and several of the sprays that were released this year.  For this card I used two new sprays (Fallen Acorn and Flickering Candle) and one old (Burning Ember).  I used all three on the bottom die cut leaf and Burning Ember and Flickering Candle on the top skeleton leaf.  The leaf die, circular background image and sentiments are all from Concord & 9th.  The leaf die and sentiments are from the Thankful Leaves turnabout bundle and the circular background image is from the Eclectic Garden stamp set.  I used Scattered Straw distress ink for the background image and VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink for the sentiment.   I thought the card was a little too plain so I added some splatters using the Flickering Candle mica spray and a small paintbrush.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Birch Press Design Wednesday

 Hello!  I'm up on the Birch Press Design blog today.   Here is a little look at what I created:

I hope you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog to check out what I made.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day. 

just because...

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick post of a card I made for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  Still not making any headway on cleaning up my crafty space.  Hopefully that will happen soon, lol!  Here is what I made.

Went very simple with this card.  I used a Poppystamps die called Maple Symphony to die cut my little maple leaves.  I used distress inks in Carved Pumpkin, Aged Mahagony and Festive Berries on white cardstock to get my colors.   The Aged Mahagony is coming across as a bit brown, but in real life it is definitely maroon.  Anyway, I used a very old PTI die that cut this little notebook page as the backdrop for my leaves.  I die cut it from white, a strip from kraft and then glued them together.  I popped the piece up on a white card base with foam tape.  I added the leaves and the sentiment that is from the Simon Says Stamp Happy Hello stamp set.  I cascaded the leaves down the notebook page ending with the gold glitter one that I placed directly on the card base with foam squares.    Took me no time to put together!  Since I did stamp the sentiment I'm going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

sympathy...

Hello!  Hope all is well in your world.  Popping in to share a card that I created for Color Throwdown.  I will also be posting it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   I have been making a half-hearted attempt to get a handle on things in my crafty space.  However, what keeps happening is I'm finding things that I purchased in the past and have never used... Yikes!   Today's card features one of those newly found products.  Take a look at what I made.

I was going to try to make a card that used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and so I thought I would go through my PTI products to find the background die you see.  It is Border Bling:  Blooming Hearts.   As I was going through things, I found PTI's Into the Blooms:  Fun Flowers.  I had purchased it a long time ago, but never used it.  So, I decided to remedy that situation on the spot!   So, I started by die cutting all the piece from white cardstock and then I inked up the flowers in a light pink and a darker more magenta pink.  The leaves and stems were inked in a bright green.  Then everything came to a halt until the next day.  The I layered all the pieces and started figuring out my arrangement.  Then another work stoppage ensued until Saturday afternoon (September 2nd) when I finally finished the darn card, lol!   I finished the card with a sentiment from the PTI Just Sentiments:  With Sympathy set, pink Nuvo drops to the centers of the flowers and the little white twine bow.   

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

It's STAMPTEMBER!

Hi everyone!  September has arrived and that means that STAMPTEMBER has arrived, as well.  If you haven't heart of Stamptember I will fill you in.  Stamptember is Simon Says Stamp's celebration of all things crafting.  The month is filled with special collaboration releases from many of your favorite stamp companies, special edition crafty kits and so much more.  Today Simon Says Stamp is kicking things off with a blog party (not a blog hop)!  You can see the list of all participants on the Simon Says Stamp blog.  Each participant has a special code to share.  Using my code will allow you to get the Fancy Love die set for free with purchase!   See the graphic below for the code:

The code is good until September 3, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET.  

Simon was so kind and sent me the super cute Happy Hauntings stamp set to create with.  I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but I now have one great nephew and three great nieces and the cute little dragon images are perfect to use to create Halloween cards for all the littles in your life!   Take a look at what I created.

There are four images in the stamp set and lots of fun sentiments.  I stamped all the images using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink on watercolor paper and then watercolored them with my Jane Davenport watercolors.  I was going to color two of the dragons purple, but loved the first two so much in the bright green that I did all four that way.  How cute are these two little witch dragons?  I just love the one with the balloon.  I have never seen the Nightmare Before Christmas, but I'm very aware of the main character Jack Skellington and the balloon face reminds me of him!  

I love pumpkins so I was happy to see two of the dragons carrying pumpkins.   Once all the images were colored and dry I die cut them with a small rectangle die and then moved onto creating the backgrounds.  I used the SSS Ticking background stamp from the July release and stamped it using Spiced Marmalade distress oxide ink.    I distressed the edges of the rectangle using Peeled Paint distress oxide ink and a very light distressing of  Black Soot distress oxide ink.  I layered the backgrounds on lime green cardstock.   For a little more interest I stamped the spider web in the corner of each piece and then added some silver stickles (which you can't really see in the photos).   I love how they turned out!

Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy the Stamptember release blog party!  Don't forget you can see the entire release right here.