cards to share...

Hey there!!  Wow... the Patriots did not win the Super Bowl!  I did not watch the Super Bowl, but found out what happened when I went on line, but given just how well the Patriots play I was surprised that they lost.  Anyway... during the time I was not watching the Super Bowl I made a couple of cards and took my antique loving child to the antique store!  First up is a card for the soon to be closing Color Throwdown and this month's Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try.  I  created a little swag of flowers and leaves using the Reverse Confetti Whole Lotta Thanks stamp and die set.  I can honestly say that this is the first time I have used these stamps and dies even though I have had this set for over a year!  The light blue squares were die cut using the Reverse Confetti Shakers 'n Frames die set.   The flowers and leaves in the set have an outline image and a solid image.  I stamped the line image using the lime green, yellow and dark pink inks and then did second generation stamping to stamp the solid images.  I finished off the flowers by stamping the center of the flowers with the same ink.   This was a pretty labor intensive card to make with all the die cutting that happened, as well as getting everything arranged, but I think it was worth it.

The second card is for the current Essentials by Ellen Mix it Up challenge (combine EE products with Hero Arts) and the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.   I recently made a trip up to Issaquah, WA where Ellen Hutson LLC is located to pick up a few things I had purchased.  One of those items was the fun EE set Snailed It.  I combined that set with a Hero Arts set I got last year called You're A Fungi.  The mushroom images are from the Snailed It set.  The sentiment and the little grass images are from the You're a Fungi set.  I stamped all the images with VersaMagic inks and then colored in the grass with a couple of green Prisma color pencils.  A little bit of ground was added using a couple of brown Prisma color pencils.  The sentiment was embossed in white on vellum, trimmed down and adhered with rolled up glue dots.  I finished with a little bit of twine.   Think I will add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Card 1:  Cardstock:  MFT white; RC light blue; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  VersaFine Onyx Black, SU! Melon Mambo, Lemon Lime Twist, Memento Dandelion

Card 2:  Cardstock:  PTI rustic white, kraft, vellum; Stamps:  Essentials Ellen and Hero Arts; Ink:  VersaMagic, VersaMark; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts white; Recollections twine

time to bloom...

Hey there!!  Popping in with a card for two challenges:  Essentials by Ellen Mix it Up and Color Throwdown.  I had hoped to get this card done and posted on Sunday (yesterday), but my antique toy loving 11 year old wanted to make a trip to his favorite antique store in the beautiful little town of Snohomish, Washington.  So being a good mom we made the trip.  It was totally worth it because we got to see the beautiful North Cascade mountains in all their glory!  Mt Baker (the furthest north of the mountains in the Washington portion of the Cascades) was absolutely covered in snow!! Unfortunately by the time we got home light was fading fast and while I did get the card done I wasn't able to get a good photo of it.  Color Throwdown closes in mere hours so I'm cutting things a bit close, but oh well... that is the way it goes.  The EE Mix it Up challenge this month wants us to combine our EE products with Concord & 9th... sign me up!!  I used the C9 Beautiful Branches stamps and dies along with the EE Lovely stamp set.  I know you can't set any stamping except for the sentiment, but I did stamp on the little blooms... it is very subtle and looks really pretty in person.  The label is from the C9 Fill In Blooms stamp and die set.  I die cut it from white, aqua and navy cardstocks, the aqua and navy were cut in two and then one of each adhered as you see.  I then adhered the branches, leaves and flowers.  The sentiment was stamped in navy ink and then the label adhered.  Finished off with some little Pretty Pink Posh marshmallow sequins in the centers of the flowers and some white twine.

Have a wonderful day!  Would love to hear your thoughts on my card!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI rustic white; SU! Powder Pink, Coastal Cabana, MFT navy; Stamps:  Concord & 9th, Essentials by Ellen; Dies:  Concord & 9th; Inks:  SU! Pretty in Pink, Night of Navy; Twine:  SU! white baker's twine; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh

celebrate...

Hey there!!!  I  have another card for the current Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up challenge.  I used current MFT sketch so I will be posting it there, as well.  This time I combined the EE Mondo Peony stamp set with MFT's celebrate die and a sentiment from the All Smiles stamp set.   I stamped the peony and the leaves on watercolor paper with VersaFine Smoky Gray and then watercolored everything with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I found some MFT plaid paper that had a bit of the color I used for the flower running through it and trimmed it to fit my card front.  I then trimmed down some MFT Sweet Tooth cardstock and adhered it with foam dimensionals to the card front.  I die cut the word celebrate from more Sweet Tooth three times, adhered them together and adhered to the plaid portion of the card front.  The sentiment was embossed in white on vellum and adhered to the word.

Have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  MFT, Ranger (watercolor) and PTI (vellum); Patterned paper:  MFT:  Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen and MFT; Dies:  MFT; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts; Inks:  VersaFine and VersaMark; Watercolor medium:  Kuretake

grateful...

Hey there!!  Popping in with a card for the current Essentials by Ellen Mix it Up challenge.  This month we get to mix up our EE products with MFT products... YAY!!  I have been wanting to ink up the MFT mini stamp set grateful ever since I got it (about a month ago!!).   I knew it would work well with the EE Mondo Hydrangea since both are rather large.  I stamped the hydrangea on watercolor paper with watermark ink and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  Once that was done I watercolored the hydrangea with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I stamped the little single flower three times, heat embossed in gold and watercolored them.  When they were dry I die cut them with the matching die.  I stamped the word on vellum and heat embossed it in gold then trimmed it out.  The little for you is part of a sentiment that is found in the MFT Geometric Leaves stamp set.  That was embossed in white and trimmed down.  I layered everything up and adhered to a kraft cardstock base that I wrapped with a bit of gold twine.   My layout is based on the current CTS sketch so I will be adding this to their gallery, as well.

Hope you have a wonderful day!  We are having rain mixed with snow so a perfect day to stay inside and craft!!

Supplies:  Cardstock: PTI kraft and vellum, Ranger watercolor cardstock; Stamps:  My Favorite Things and Essentials by Ellen; Dies:  Essentials by Ellen; Ink:  VersaMark watermark ink; Embossing powder:  Ranger gold, Hero Arts white; Twine:  Stampin Up!; Watercolors:  Kuretake

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

a couple of cards to share...

Hey!!  I have a couple of cards that I got made over the course of this last week.  The first one is for the current Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up challenge to combine EE products with Avery Elle products.  I don't have many Avery Elle products, but I do have this lovely With Sympathy die set that my sweet friend, Greta, sent to me.  I combined the dies with the EE Mondo Peony stamp set and did some watercoloring.  The color combo is the current one from Color Throwdown so I will be posting it there, as well.  I used the four ZIGs that you see in the photo for the watercoloring.  The peonies were stamped in VersaMark on the smooth side of the Tim Holtz distress watercolor paper and then heat embossed with platinum embossing powder.    Because the watercoloring is so soft I decided to go with a soft gray cardstock to die cut the words from.  The with was only cut once and adhered to the panel.  The sympathy was die cut twice, stacked and then adhered.  Sadly I am in need of this sympathy card as someone I know recently lost her daughter to a tragic accident.

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches.  They are celebrating their 300th sketch and I just had to play along.  Many thanks to the FMS team for all the wonderful sketches and inspiration they have provided!!  When I saw the sketch I immediately knew I wanted to use my Stampin Up! Oh So Eclectic stamp set and the companion Eclectic Layers die set.  The patterned papers are from an older Stampin Up! designer paper pad that has an aqua, red and kraft combo.  The kraft cardstock I used is also Stampin Up! I die cut the cut out from the kraft cardstock and then backed it with a piece of the patterned paper.   That piece was then die cut with a rectangle die.  The polka dot paper was die cut and adhered per the sketch.  The leaves were die cut from the aqua paper and adhered.  I stamped the flower on white cardstock using SU!'s Real Red ink and adhered.  Originally I had stamped the sentiment on vellum and then attached it, but that turned out to be a big mistake. Hate it when that happened, but thankfully I was able to remove it without ruining anything and replace it with the one that is there now.

Have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white, SU! Crumb Cake, Ranger watercolor; Patterned paper:  Stampin Up!; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen, Stampin Up! and AJVD; Dies:  AJVD, Avery Elle and Stampin Up!; Watercolor medium:  ZIG Clean Color markers; Embossing powder:  Ranger Platinum; Ink:  Stampin Up!, VersaMark and VersaFine

for a special teacher

Hello everyone!!  Popping in with a card for the current Reverse Confetti Sketch For You To Try as well as the current Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up challenge because this month's challenge is to mix Reverse Confetti with Essentials by Ellen.  This week has been teacher appreciation and so I used the RC sketch to create a card for my son's teacher.  I used the RC stamp set All Apples as well as the matching dies.   Two apples were die cut from a RC quick card panel as were the leaves and stems.  The apple with the sentiment "for a special teacher" was stamped with a matching red ink and then die cut with the apple die.  Another quick card panel was trimmed down for the bottom of the card and then I added the red/white baker's twine.  I added the apples and I was finished with the front of the card.  For the inside I stamped a trimmed down piece of white cardstock with "thank you" from the Essentials by Ellen Fancy Thanks stamp set and the little heart.  A strip of the same black gingham paper was added to the bottom and then the piece was adhered to finish off the card.  I hope my son's teacher likes it!  I think I will also add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of the great outdoors.

Have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, Reverse Confetti quick card panels; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti and Essentials by Ellen; Dies:  Reverse Confetti; Ink:  Stampin Up! Real Red; red/white baker's twine

with sympathy...

Hello!!  Stopping in with a card for a few challenges: Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up, CAS(E) this Sketch and Color Throwdown.  The Mix It Up challenge this month is to combine Essentials by Ellen products with Avery Elle.  I have some older AE products, but recently was blessed to receive from my sweet friend Greta the "with sympathy" die set from AE.  I decided to combine that die set with the EE Mondo Peony stamp set.  I stamped the peony on watercolor paper with watermark ink, applied white embossing powder and then heat set.  Some simple watercoloring (my favorite technique right now) was done using ZIG markers in two shades of yellow.  Once it was dry I trimmed the flower out.  I die cut the word sympathy was die cut from a medium blue cardstock twice and adhered together and the with from black cardstock three times and adhered together.  I adhered the flower to the white cardstock panel that was die cut with an AE rectangle die and then added the sentiment as you see.  I finished things off with the two black enamel dots.

Hope you have a wonderful day...
Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, black, blue and watercolor paper; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen; Dies:  Avery Elle; Watercolor medium:  ZIG markers; VersaMark watermark ink; My Mind's Eye enamel dots

joy to the world...

Hello!!  Popping in with another card to share for a couple of challenges.  With the weather being so rainy and windy staying inside and paper crafting is the name of the game for me right now!!   The current Essentials by Ellen challenge is to mix it up with Pink Fresh Studio.  I don't have any of the new Pink Fresh Studio items, but I do have several things from their Christmas Wishes line from last year so I teamed them up with an Essentials by Ellen die.  The layout is based on the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge.  As I was looking through the bits and pieces I have from the Christmas Wishes line I found a scrap of the patterned paper with the phrase "joy to the world" printed multiple times in one corner.  Perfect to team up with the EE Brushstroke Joy die.  After trimming the piece to the size I wanted I die cut joy from it.  Joy was die cut several more times and then all there stacked inside the negative finishing up with the original word on top.  That was matted with some additional paper from the Christmas Wishes line.  It was a bit of a trick for me to figure out how to add the two strip elements from the layout, but I think I worked it out nicely.  I added the red hemp twine and then a thin strip of Tim Holtz glitter washi tape that I adhered to some of the patterned paper and then trimmed down to fit.  More of the Christmas Wishes paper was used for the background.  After laying everything up I added the little dove from the Christmas Wishes Studio Puff.

Hope you have a wonderful day...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS red; Patterned paper:  Pink Fresh Studio; Die:  Essentials by Ellen; Red Hemp twine; Pink Fresh Studio puffy sticker; Tim Holtz glitter tape 

bloom...

Hey friends!!  Popping with a card that I made for several challenges.  The current Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up challenge is asking us to mix our Essentials by Ellen products with products from Concord & 9th.  I recently got some happy mail in the form of a new EE stamp set (from the late summer release) and several stamp sets and dies from Concord & 9th.  I combined the Mix It Up challenge with the current Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches challenges.  Since the Simon Says Stamp Monday and Wednesday challenges are "stamp it" I will also be adding my card to those line ups.  I cut a piece of white cardstock and then stamped it with the Barnwood Background using light grey ink.  The large blossom from the Brushed Blossom stamp set was stamped using yellow ink and then the leaves were added using aqua ink.  I then overlaid the die cut on top and stamped the sentiment from the Essentials by Ellen Lovely set in black ink.  The Barnwood Background was stamped again using the same aqua ink and trimmed to fit my yellow card base.  I finished things off by adding some pale yellow Pretty Pink Posh sequins. 

Hope you have a wonderful day...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, PTI Lemon Tart and True Black; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen and Concord & 9th; Dies:  Concord & 9th; Inks:  VersaFine Onyx Black, Memento Dandelion, SU! Coastal Cabana, SSS fog; Pretty Pink Posh sequins

hello, gorgeous...

Hey friends!!!  Back from my vacation to the Washington coast and trying to get back into paper crafting mode... boy is it hard!!  I loved waking up every morning and taking a walk along the beach and seeing all the sites, but I'm glad to be home!   Playing along with a couple of challenges:  Color Throwdown (which closes in mere hours!!) and Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up challenge.  I wasn't going to play along with this month's Mix It Up challenge because I don't own anything Winnie & Walter, but thanks to my sweet friend, Greta, I was able to get something made... YAY!  Greta offered to send me some of die cuts using her Winnie & Walter "hello" die and I immediately said "yes!!"  I paired the hello up with some die cuts from the EE Bold Blossoms stand alone die set and a sentiment from the EE Hello, Gorgeous stamp set.  After stacking and gluing several hellos together I colored one with a yellow ZIG and then carefully blended out the yellow to create an ombre effect.  I die cut the large flower from Bold Blossoms from light aqua cardstock and the leaves from light green.  I adhered the leaves together and they layered them with the flower.  The stacked hello was layered on top and then I carefully stamped the sentiment in Onyx Black ink.  Some Pretty Pink Posh sparkly clear sequins were added to cover up some boo-boos!  

Thanks for stopping by today... thought I would share a few pictures I took last week.  The first photo is of the Oregon coast taken at the jetty at Ft. Stevens state park.  The views of the Pacific were amazing and all the more so because the sun had come out!   We were staying in Long Beach, WA which is very close to Oregon so we spent several days making trips to Oregon to visit Canon Beach, Tillamook and the area around Astoria.  Ft. Stevens is just outside Astoria.

This next photo was taken at Cape Disappointment state park in Washington.  When we got to the park it was rather cool and cloudy, but as we were walking up to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse the sun came out.  We came around a bend in the trail and this beautiful little cove came into sight.  Just had to take a picture!  Cape Disappointment State Park is about 5 miles from Long Beach.  If you go to Long Beach definitely head to Cape Disappointment State Park. 

As is typical on the Washington coast our weather was rather spotty.  Most of the time it was cloudy most of the day and so capturing a sunset is pretty hard.  Finally on Thursday the weather cleared up and I was able to get some photos of the sun setting on the Pacific from the boardwalk at Long Beach, WA.  The condos we were staying at were just a short walk from the beach and the boardwalk.   My little guy, Gabriel, was with me and he was absolutely captivated by the way the sun seemed to slowly sink into the Pacific.

Supplies:  Cardstock: white, aqua, light green and light grey; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen; Dies:  Winnie & Walter, Essentials by Ellen; Inks:  VersaFine; ZIG clean color marker; Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins

discover your wings...

Hey friends!!  It is a gorgeous day here in the south sound region of the PNW!!  Took the boys for a little drive up to Black Diamond and made a stop at the Black Diamond bakery for some yummy treats.  After that little road trip I was ready to make a couple of cards.  My mojo has been missing for several days and so I'm happy that it seems to have made an appearance, again!!  I love the bright sunny colors in the current Color Throwdown challenge and I really wanted to make something using them.  I pulled out the super fun Essentials by Ellen Up the Happy stamp and die set and got to work.  I tried to keep things fairly CAS so that I can enter this into the new Paper Players challenge (butterflies).  I die cut some green polka dot paper from Echo Park using an AJVD rectangle backdrop die.  Some white cardstock was die cut using an AJVD Polka Dot rectangle backdrop die that fit inside the larger one and then the panel was stamped with the clouds from the Up the Happy set using Memento Bahama Blue ink.  The butterfly was die cut from yellow and green polka dot paper (from Echo Park), the yellow one was stamped with the corresponding image using black ink and then the two butterflies were adhered together.  A strip of the yellow polka paper was cut and stamped with a sentiment from the Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings stamp set so I will be adding this to the Essentials by Ellen Mix It Up challenge.  And since I used polka dot paper I will also add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (let's polka).



Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI snow white linen; Patterned Paper:  Echo Park Dots & Stripes; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen Up the Happy, Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings; Dies:  Essentials by Ellen Up the Happy, AJVD Polka Dot Rectangle and Rectangle Backdrop dies; Inks:  VersaFine Onyx Black, Memento Bahama Black

mondo hydrangea...

Hey friends!!  Well... the weekend is coming to an end and so is my boys' spring break.  My little guy is pretty bummed that he has to go back to school, but I know he will be happy when he remembers that on Friday he gets to go on a field trip to NW Trek!  I had some time and wanted to get something made using the current color combo from ColourQ before the challenge closed.  When I saw what the new Essentials by Ellen Mix it Up challenge was I knew just what I wanted to do.  Recently I was finally able to get my hands on the gorgeous Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea stamp set and I just had to ink it up for this challenge.  This month's Mix it Up challenge is to combine Essentials by Ellen products with products from Taylored Expressions.   Taylored Expressions used to have a stamp of the month club and the set I used called Make it Memorable was the March 2013 stamp of the month.  You could also get the matching dies and I used those as well.  I stamped the Mondo Hydrangea using VersaMark watermark ink on Ranger watercolor paper, applied black embossing powder and then heat set.  Followed the same procedure with the leaf.   Once that was done I taped the panel to my little wood cutting board and then did some very simple watercoloring using two of the colors.  The butterfly was stamped in the Pumpkin Pie ink and then die cut.   The layout is based on the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and boy did Karren provide a tricky one!  I had a bit of a challenge when it came to adding the angled piece, but I think it came out fine in the end.  A strip of black cardstock on the opposite end balanced everything out nicely.  Before adding my butterfly I adhered some clear rhinestones to the body.  I didn't have enamel dots in the dark orange so I colored a couple of rhinestone with a dark orange Copic as a finishing touch to the sentiment label.  I 'm going to post this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  The SSS Wednesday challenge is celebrating its 7th birthday so I know there are a ton of cards, but with the chance to win one of 7 gift certificates I just couldn't pass it up.  Also posting this to Creative with Stamps challenge #1 - butterfly.  If you haven't checked out this new challenge, you really should!

 

Thanks for stopping by today...