sending hugs...

 Hello!  Popping in to share a card for a few challenges all of which will be closing very soon!  I have tried for days to get a card, any card made.  Finally, this one came together for me.   Let's have a look.

About a month ago I got this sweet little personalized stamp set in the mail from Altenew.  This is the second one they have sent me as I got the one they sent out last year.  It is a little surprising to me that I have gotten these sets as I don't often buy from Altenew.  They have beautiful products, but I find their selection overwhelming and honestly, I don't have a lot of money to spend on crafty supplies.   Anyway, this little stamp is so pretty that I just had to get something made with it.  Along came the current Color Hues challenge of coral and green.  Perfect!  Then I saw that the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge was feminine.  What is more feminine than a little flower cluster?  Then I decided to check out the Altenew April challenge.  The colors in the challenge work with my little flower!  Yay!

I stamped the flower using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored it with Copic markers.  I had to come up with my coral color myself and thankfully I had Copics that worked.  I think I did a pretty good job, too.   After I finished coloring the image I stamped it again to make the black lines a little bolder.  I did leave the image in my stamp positioner for that purpose.  I fussy cut the image which wasn't too hard to do.  Hoping they come up with a matching die.  The set I got last year has a matching die set so I am going to try to pick that up eventually.  I used my Simon Says Stamp Scalloped Arched Frames dies to cut white glitter cardstock and fog cardstock (both from Simon Says Stamp).  I adhered the glitter frame to the white cardstock panel, then added thin foam squares to the gray interior piece and inserted it into the frame.  I added the floral image using thin foam squares, as well.  I finished with the sentiment that is also in the set.  I die cut it with a labels die from my stash.   A simple card, but sometimes that is all you need!

Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

wishing you a beautiful day...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Altenew monthly challenge, Just Us Girls - Stencils and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Let's have a look at what I made.

I went back and forth as to whether or not I would try to make something for the Altenew challenge as I wasn't really feeling the colors.  Don't get me wrong, I do like the combo of orange, green and kraft, but nothing was inspiring me.  I was going through my Altenew products and came across the Daisy Craze stencil set.  I decided to challenge myself to see if I would make that combo work and I think I was able to make it work!  I used Pinkfresh Studio inks in the kraft and orange and Altenew's Forest Glade ink for the green.  I used two shades of orange to give the flowers a bit of variation.  I used a sentiment from the Altenew Craft Your Life Watercolor Flowers stamp and die set.   I added the bit of twine around the card so the sentiment wouldn't look so lonely, lol!   Let me know what you think.

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

last minute cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards that I made at the last minute for two challenges:  Pinkfresh Studio May challenge and Altenew monthly challenge.  Let's have look at what I made.

My first card is for the Altenew challenge.  Back at the end of April I received a surprise in the mail.  A personalized stamp set from Altenew!  That is the stamp I used for my card.  Sadly as I was stamping the image I realized that there is a flaw in the image.  I was able to fix it so I will still be able to use the stamp in the future.  I stamped the image on watercolor cardstock using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink, applied clear embossing powder and heat set.  I colored the image with Tonic Studio Aqua Flow pens.   Once the image was dry I die cut it with a Memory Box arched die.  Two more of the arched dies were cut and adhered behind the main one.  I adhered the panel to the kraft cardstock base and then added my sentiment.  I used the Altenew Fancy Thanks die and cut it from glossy black cardstock from Memory Box.   Two additional layers were cut and adhered for a bit more dimension.  Will add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. 

My next card is for the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge that is closing tonight!  Yikes... talk about last minute, lol!  Let's have a look.

The challenge at PFS is frame it up so I pulled out a couple of my favorite PFS stand alone dies and the pretty Amazing Things suite of products.  I used the Fancy Rectangle Frames and Nested Rectangles:  Postage Edge dies to frame up my floral image.  I stamped the image using Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copic markers.  I layered up the frames and then added the die cut image and the sentiment.  The Fance Rectangle was die cut from pretty white glitter cardstock from Simon Says Stamp.

Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

happy holiday...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for the Altenew November challenge.  I will also be posting it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Haven't done an Altenew challenge in several months, but couldn't pass up the chance to use my favorite poinsettia stamp set that just happens to be from Altenew!  

I love the Altenew Festive Poinsettia stamp and die set because it is one of the most realistic poinsettia stamp sets out there.  Most poinsettia stamp sets depicit the poinsettia looking more like a traditional flower.  The flowers on a poinsettia aren't the red bracts, but the tiny yellow dots in the center of each plant.   Anyway, like I said, the Festive Poinsettia is a very realistic depiction of a poinsettia.  I stamped the image twice with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink on watercolor cardstock and then used my Jane Davenport watercolors to color in the images.  Once they were dry I splattered them with black paint, let them dry, again, and then die cut.  I layered them together for the front of my card.  I used Antique Linen distress oxide ink and the MFT rectangle stencil to create the background for the flowers.  I love the soft golden background it created.  I stamped the sentiment from the set in the Nocturne ink, die cut it with a tag die, inked the edges with the Antique Linen DO and then added the little red twine bow.  Another Christmas card done!  Since I did stencil the background I will also add this to the last JUGs challenge for the year.  

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

masculine... feminine...

 Hello and happy Wednesday!  I'm popping in with two cards to share today.  One is masculine and the other is very feminine.   First up is my masculine card for the current Altenew April challenge.  Take a look.

The inspiration photo for the April Altenew challenge is of the ocean/beach at what I believe is sunset.  The colors in the photo range from a fiery orange and yellow to white, gray and black.  There are also several different textures present and I tried to capture all those elements with my card.  Starting with the stamping I used Altenews' Terracotta and Snapdragon Fresh Inks to stamp the two Triangle images from the very old Trigonometry stamp and die set.   For one triangle I used the Terracotta at the top and the Snapdragon at the bottom, making sure to blending the colors in the middle.  I did the reverse for the other triangle.  I stamped both triangles using an acrylic block because I wanted a less than perfect image to sort of mimick the broken up look of sky/clouds in the photo.  I then used Altenew Industrial Diamond and Pure Graphite inks for the other triangles using the same technique done for the first two.  I die cut with the maching die.   To bring in the look of the beach with the snow, as well as the ocean I used the Altenew Dotted Waves cover die to emboss a panel of white cardstock that I then die cut down with a rectangle die.  A larger panel of light gray cardstock was die cut, as well.  I layered the panel on a white cardstock base and then added the triangles.  Originally, I had the triangles arranged so that the terracotta/snapdragon triangles were next to each other with the other triangles as their silhouette below.  But I didn't like how it looked and so I decided to arrange them the way you see.  I liked it much better.  I finished with a Memory Box happy birthday sentiment tab.

 Obviously, my next card is the feminine one.  Let's have a look at it.

At the end of March I was the lucky winner of a Waffle Flower Sneak Peek kit!  The kit contained the pretty Wild Flowers four piece stencil set, Small Sentiments Bloom stamp set and Subsentiments Bloom die cuts.  The stencil set is so easy to use and Waffle Flower even provided a color combo etched into the stencil.  I didn't go with the color combo as I wanted to use the colors from the current Paper Players challenge.  So that is where this card is headed.    The color combo at the Paper Players has four colors in it so I just made sure that I tried to keep the colors I used for the flowers in a pleasing arrangment.  I used Altenew Teal Cave for the Bermuda Bay color and then Pinkfresh Studio inks in Sweet Mustard, Marigold, Grassy Knoll, Sparkling Rose and Bubble Gum for the rest of the colors.  Once the stenciling was done I used a Waffle Flower frame die to cut out the frame and the center rectangle.  I adhered the frame directly to my cardstock base and then popped up the center panel with foam tape.  I made a mistake.  Can you figure it out?    I finished off the card with a sentiment from the Small Sentiments Bloom set and some pretty diecuts my friend Greta sentiment.  The diecuts were originally white and I colored them by simply using the residual ink left on the blending brushes I used for the stenciling.  I love how they look with the stenciled background.   I'm also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of stencil it.

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

thanks...

 Hello!  Popping to share a card for a couple of challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches and Altenew February challenge.   Love the fun, bright colors in the Altenew challenge so I had to get something made before the month was over.   Take a look.

I used the pretty Altenew Sketched Florals stamp and die set along with their fun Dotted Waves debossing cover die.  I stamped the flowers using Pinkfresh Studio inks and then die cut with the matching dies.   I used the Memory Box curved capped dotted layering dies to die cut the panel from glossy cardstock.  I then debossed it with the Dotted Waves debossing cover die.  The sentiments are also from the Sketched Florals set.  I stamped both on vellum, applied black embossing powder and heat set.  The word 'thanks' has a matching die so I used that to cut the word and a thin labels die for the subsentiment.   Adhered everything to the black panel and then added it to a white die cut panel and card base. 

Pink Poinsettia

 Hello friends.  I'm popping in to share a card for the November Altenew challenge.  I love the pretty color combo that is offered and challenged myself to use them with one of my favorite stamp sets, Altenew's Festive Poinsettia.  

To color the poinsettia I pulled out my Altenew gouache paints.   I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to coloring with different mediums, but it is fun to try your hand at something outside your comfort zone.  I wanted to see if I could manage to combine the pink and soft purple colors in my poinsettia and I think I achieved that goal.   It was definitely interesting coloring with the gouache paints as the color seems to be a bit flatter to me than with watercolors.   To create a bit more separation when some of the bracts overlapped each other I used a medium pink Polychromos pencils.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

hug enclosed...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for the Altenew monthly challenge, as well as Freshly Made Sketches.  I don't often get time to participate in Altenew's challenge so when I had the chance this week I took it.  Here is my card:

I pulled out the Altenew Cattleya build a flower set for my card.  I stamped the outline image using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and then used inks from the Pinkfresh Studio Rise and Shine ink cube set.  The leaves were inked with the Pinkfresh Studio Over the Hills ink cube set.  I then die cut it with the matching die.  I trimmed a piece of white cardstock to create the angles from the FMS layout and adhered that to a panel of white cardstock with thin foam squares.  I adhered the floral image using a combination of thin and thicker foam squares.   The sentiment is from the Paint a Flower Coral Sunset stamp set and was heat embossed in black on vellum.  I then die cut it with a banner die.  I added a thin foam strip to the back of the sentiment and then wrapped the rest of the banner around the panel and secured it in the back.   I finished the card with some iridescent pink/purple sequins.  

Affiliated linked supplies list:

Platinum 6

Altenew BAF Cattleya

Altenew PAF Coral Sunset

Pinkfresh Studio Over the Hills ink cube set

Pinkfresh Studio Rise and Shine ink cube set

Scrapbook Adhesive by 3L Thin Foam Squares

VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink

WOW Ebony embossing powder

Spellbinders Essentials Rectangle dies

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hello friend...

Hello!! Popping in on this second to last day of 2017 with one more card for the current Altenew  year in review challenge.  This time I picked the January color palette and did some coloring on kraft cardstock with my Prisma pencils.  I need more practice, but I think things turned out fairly well.  I used the Altenew Bamboo Rose stamp set and stamped all the images using Simon Says Stamp white pigment ink.   Then colored up the images with the pencils you see in the photo.  Once I was done I went over the outlines with the white Prisma pencil.  I decided to trim out what I colored and then popped it up on an off white cardstock base that I stamped with the word hello from the Altenew Flower Arrangement set.  The hello (from Altenew's Halftone Hello) was stamped on vellum, embossed in white, trimmed out and popped up.   I really liked coloring on kraft so will definitely be doing more in the future!   I'm also going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.
 

PTI and Altenew...

Hey there!!  Popping in to share two cards I made on Christmas day.  I had the time to make cards on Christmas day because for the first time since 2008 we got snow on Christmas day.  My in-laws live north of us and usually get more snow then we do so I decided that we would stay home instead of making the trip to their place.  We will get together with them later this week.  First up is a card for the PTI December blog hop.  For my card I tried to pull out colors that I was in this gorgeous heart wreath.  I used the Floral Sketches stamps and dies (first time I have ever used them I think!) and several different inks (PTI Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, MFT Bubblegum, Memento Angel Pink, SU! Pear Pizzazz, Memento New Sprout) to create my flowers and leaves and kept things very muted.  I stamped the floral sprays in the lavender inks and the large flower with the pinks.  Once I had most of the images stamped I die cut my panel with the Herringbone Mix & Mat die and then cut a layering mat from a bright green cardstock using the largest die from the Double Ups die collection.  That  was adhered to a white panel die cut with a rectangle die from AJVD and then the stamped panel was adhered on top with foam dimensionals.  I adhered a leaf I had stamped along with the large flower and then added my sentiment that I had embossed in white on PTI vellum.  Finished things off with some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins.

The second card is for the Altenew monthly inspiration challenge.  The challenge for December is to use one of the previous inspirations from 2017.  When I first started looking at the Altenew inspiration challenge the first one I saw was from August.  The inspiration photo was of a card created by Erum Tasneem one of the Altenew design team members.  I was pretty awe-struck by that card and really wanted to play along, but at that point I didn't have many Altenew stamps, it was summer and so I never made anything.  Thank goodness the December challenge gave me the opportunity to use the color combo!!  My colors are a bit more muted and instead of teal I used blue (I was looking more at the colors in the flowers), but overall I love how everything turned out.  To bring in the gold I embossed the flower, leaves and stem in gold embossing powder and then colored them with Daniel Smith watercolors using the palette I got from Simon Says Stamp.   The leave were done with a combination of two browns from the palettes and a little bit of gold.  The flowers were colored with two shades of blue along with a touch of turquoise.  I watercolored the background with a mixture of the blues and then added in some gold.  I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors in dark brown and gold to add splatters to the watercolor panel as well as to the flowers and leaves.   I placed everything where I wanted it so I could determine where to stamp my sentiment.  Added that and then adhered everything in place.  The stamp set I used is Beautiful Day along with the matching dies.

Hope you have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:  PTI card:  Cardstock:  PTI white, SU! green, SSS fog; Stamps:  PTI; Dies:  PTI and AJVD; Inks:  MFT, PTI and Stampin Up!

Altenew Card:  Cardstock:  PTI kraft, Ranger watercolor; Stamps and dies:  Altenew; Ink:  VersaMark watermark, VersaFine Onyx Black; Embossing Powder Tsukineko gold; Watercolor medium:  Daniel Smith and Kuretake

two very different cards...

Hey there!!   I have a couple of cards to share and they couldn't be more different!  First up is a card for the current MFT sketch challenge and the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (furry friends).  I love this cute MFT Otterly Love You stamp set.  We live pretty close to the water and from our neighborhood you can hear the seals calling to each other out on the water.  One of my friends lives right on the water and she routinely has otters coming up into her yard.  Otters are cute, but I can tell you... they are very messy!  I have been doing some coloring again. This time with color pencils.  I stamped the little otter and colored him with three shades of gray and then added in a touch of brown.  The rocks he is sitting on were colored in two shades of gray as well.  I trimmed both out (I don't have the die yet... but they will soon be in the mail and on their way to me... YAY!) by hand.  I die cut the white panel using a MFT Inside Out Stitched Rounded Rectangle and the heart using an AJVD Stitched Dot heart die.  The two were layered together and then I adhered the otter and the rocks.  The sentiment was stamped in gray and then die cut with a MFT fishtail flag stax die.  Everything was adhered to a light gray panel and then the panel was adhered to a white cardstock base.  I need to continue working on my coloring, but I do really like how this little guy turned out!

My second card is for the November Altenew inspiration challenge, as well as the current Freshly Made Sketches and as you can see it is very different from my first card.  I recently got the Altenew Coral Charm stamp and die set and have been wanting to make a card with it using the Altenew inspiration colors.  The FMS layout was the perfect opportunity.  Because the color palette is limited I knew I did not want to use the solid floral image, but only the outline and the two filler images.  I initially tried out my idea on white cardstock and decided to switch to cream because I knew it would tone better with the warm colors in the palette.  I stamped the outline in brown and then used a warm yellow for the largest filler image and a pumpkin orange for the second filler.  The leaves were stamped in brown using the outline and filler image.  Once everything was die cut I had to figure out my arrangement.  I fiddled around for a bit and then came up with an arrangement that I like that included some additional stamping in the warm yellow.  After that was done I figured out where the sentiment would be, stamped it and then added in the flowers and leaves.   I'm pretty darn pleased with how this one turned out!

Have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card 1:  Cardstock:  MFT, Simon Says Stamp, Stampin Up!; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  MFT, AJVD; Inks: VersaFine Smoky Gray; Prisma color pencils

Card 2:  Cardstock:  PTI; Stamps:  Altenew; Dies:  Altenew and AJVD; Inks:  Stampin Up! So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie, Memento Rich Cocoa

just because...

Happy Monday... ha, ha!!  Stopping in with a card for the current Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up (mixing it up with Altenew) challenge, as well as the October Altenew challenge.  Since I'm trying to use my small stash of Altenew products more often combining the two challenges was the perfect opportunity.  I used Altenew's Layered Lily stamps and dies for the flower and a sentiment from the Essentials by Ellen Lovely stamp set.  I used inks from Altenew, Memento and Stampin Up! to create the flower and the leaves.  I did stamp the little stamens in the center of the flower, but I used a really light gray ink and so you can't see them in the photo.   The sentiment was stamped on vellum and heat embossed in white.  Before adhering the flower and leaves to the die cut circle I added a little nest of silver thread.  The layout comes from CAS(E) this Sketch so I will be adding it there.  I'm going to add this to Simon Says Stamps Word Card Making Day gallery, as well.

Have a wonderful day... 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, pink, light gray, woodgrain, vellum; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen and Altenew; Dies:  Altenew and AJVD; Inks:  Stampin Up!, Memento, Altenew, MFT; DMC silver thread; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts white

cards to share...

Hello!!   Stopping in with a couple of cards for several challenges two which close very soon.  First up is a card for the current Altenew challenge.  I have never played along with their challenges, but  recently decided that I needed to so that my little collection of Altenew stamps and dies gets used.  When I saw the challenge inspiration photo I had an idea that I wanted to give a try and I am pleased to say that my card turned out almost exactly as I thought it would.  It was also nice that my idea dovetailed rather nicely with the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  Since the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is anything goes I will post it there, as well.   After I finished my card I realized that I mostly pulled out the blues from the inspiration photo so hopefully that is okay.  I stamped the roses and butterfly from the Bamboo Roses stamp set on watercolor paper with watermark ink and then heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Once that was done I watercolored everything with Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  When they were dry I trimmed them out (I don't own the dies).  I used the large half-tone hello image to sort of mimic the background.  Once all the bits and pieces were done I watercolored a panel with a light blue and let it dry.   The panel was then trimmed down and then everything layered up.  I finished with the birthday girl sentiment embossed in white on vellum.

The second card is for the current Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try, as well as the current Color Throwdown.  I pulled out two Reverse Confetti set (My Heart Trusts and Whole Lotta Thanks) to create my card.  I stamped the flowers and leaves from Whole Lotta Thanks and die cut with the matching dies.  The sentiment was stamped on aqua cardstock and die cut with an AJVD circle die.  The tag and layer are from Reverse Confetti.  The tag was die cut from woodgrain cardstock and the layer from orange.  I found some green patterned paper that matched the mossy green ink I used and cut a piece to fit my cardstock based.  After layering up everything on the tag I adhered it to my card base and then added a little bit of rust colored ribbon.

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Card 1:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, Ranger watercolor paper, PTI vellum; Stamps and dies:  Altenew; Ink:  Watermark, Embossing powder:  Hero Arts; Watercolor medium:  Kuretake Gansai Tambi

Card 2:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Patterned paper:  Stampin Up!; Stamps: Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti, AJVD; Inks:  SU! Real Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke, Coastal Cabana, VersaFine Onyx Black; Ribbon:  Ellen Hutson