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!

birthday ballloons...

Hey there!!  Hope everyone has all their Christmas preparations done and are finding time to make a card or two.  I found some time to make a card for a few challenges that are running right now:  Freshly Made Sketches, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights challenge.   Inspired by the colors from the Pin-Sights challenge  I did some stamping and masking with my EE Up the Happy stamp set to create the balloons in the background.  Once the stamping was done I  water colored them with my Daniel Smith water color palettes from Simon Says Stamp.  Three additional balloons were stamped, colored and then die cut.  I arranged the die cut balloons on the background balloons and then stamped the strings (rather badly I might add, lol).  The die cut balloons were then adhered and a little twine bow was added to the strings.  I then did a light wash of blue around the balloons so they look like they are floating in the sky.  I matted my little panel with black cardstock and as I set about assembling things per the sketch I realized that I didn't really have a good place for the sentiment other than on top of the balloons so that's where it went!  The sentiment is from the EE Lovely stamp set.  I added my strip of black cardstock, the panel and I was done.

Have a wonderful day and Merry Christmas!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, black and water color; Stamps and dies:  Essentials by Ellen; Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black; Water color medium:  Daniel Smith; white baker's twine

two cards to share...

Hey there crafty peeps!  I have two cards to share today.  I made them for the current Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge, but thought I would go ahead and share them here in the old blog.  Both cards were made with some fantastic Simon Says Stamp products.  The first one uses the Wise Men Still Seek Him die.  When I saw that die I had to have it and I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it as soon as it arrived in my mailbox.  I started by inking up a white cardstock panel with Distress Oxide inks in Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, Salty Ocean, Broken China and Black Soot. Once that was done I splattered on white acrylic paint that I mixed with some water.  Once the panel was dry I die cut it with an AJVD Stitched Dot Rectangle die and then stamped the Nativity scene (from an older Hero Arts set) in VersaFine Onyx Black.  Then I die cut the sentiment four times from scrap cardstock and then once from my panel.  This was a little scary because I didn't want to have to start all over again.  Thankfully I got it right the first time.  I covered the back of the panel where the die cutting was with washi tape and then inserted all of the words and little bits.  This took a bit of time, but was totally worth it!   I love how this card turned out!!  Going to add this to the current Fab Friday challenge of free for all

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The second card was made using the Simon Says Stamp Fractile Leave and Stained Glass Greetings stamp sets.  I fell in love with Fractile Leaves stamp set when I debuted in September and finally made it mine during Simon Says Stamps Black Friday sale.   I suppose this is more of a spring, summer, fall type of stamp set, but I wanted to use it to create a wintry design.  I stamped the leaves in watermark ink and then embossed with white embossing powder.  I have two of the Simon Says Stamp Daniel Smith watercolor dot palettes (Holiday and Shari Carroll) and I used a blue from each palette to color the leaves.  I then added the gray/blue color around the leaves.  The word peace was embossed in white on vellum and trimmed down to fit the panel.  I finished with the little word strip sentiment that was embossed in white on dark gray cardstock and some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins.  Going to add this tone to the current Fusion challenge as this works for the color inspiration portion of the challenge.

Have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Card 1:  Cardstock:  White, kraft; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Dies:  Simon Says Stamp and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Distress Oxide and VersaFine

Card 2:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, Ranger watercolor, dark gray; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp; Ink:  VersaMark watermark ink; Embossing Powder:  Hero Arts white; Watercolor medium:  Daniel Smith watercolors; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear