flowers and bunnies...

Well... even though I have lots of time on my hands (just like everyone, lol!) I have been having a hard time getting things made.  Finally in the last couple of days I got several cards made including the two I'm sharing today.  First up is a card for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  I got my Spellbinders March small die kit recently.  I made a card with it that I'm not sharing at this time so I decided to use the kit to make this card for FMS and CTD.   I decided to just have the color in the bunnies and kept everything else white or light gray.  Aren't those little bunnies so cute?  Cutting them in pink and purple kind of reminded me of Peeps.   The set comes with the fun little sentiment "what's up?" so I decided to use that as well and have a totally die cut card.  The light gray rectangle was die cut using a classic Spellbinders rectangle die.  After assembling my bunnies and the carrot I adhered then to my rectangle using foam tape for one of the bunnies and the carrot and then adhering the other bunny with glue.  After adhering the sentiment I popped up the panel on the white cardstock base.

After creating with cute bunnies I decided to pull out my ZIGs and do a little coloring.  I stamped the MFT Flowers in Bloom in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and then colored the flowers using one yellow marker and one bright blue marker.  Once I was finished coloring with my ZIGs I added some shading and details with Polychromos color pencils.   The image was die cut with the matching die and then I die cut the celebrate sentiment from dark pink cardstock three times and adhered them together.  I popped up the flowers on a white panel that I die cut with a AJVD rectangle die and then adhered the celebrate over the top per the sketch.  I then stamped the sentiment on vellum with VersaMark watermark ink, applied white embossing powder and then heat set it.  The strip was trimmed out, wrapped around the panel and adhered on the back.  I then adhered the panel to a white cardstock base.   This card is going to the following challenges:  MFT color challenge, MFT sketch challenge and MFT birthday project challenge.  I will also be posting this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and please stay safe!

love & hugs...

Hello!  Popping in with a super clean and simple card that wasn't so simple to make, lol!  I started working on this a few days ago and if it weren't for the fact that I got sidetracked a few times I would have finished it on Saturday.  But here it is Sunday and I finally got it done.  I'm glad that it took so long to make because it is perfect for the new Paper Players challenge!   I used the layout from CAS(E) this Sketch and the color from Color Throwdown so will be posting it there, as well as the SSS Wednesday challenge.   I love the CTD combo of red, light gray and dark gray as it is perfect for a guy and even though I used a heart for the focal image it still remains pretty masculine I think.  The heart die cut is the Deco Heart from Simon Says Stamp.  I have had this die for a long time and have never used it.   I have been doing to reorganizing and when I went to find the die set it had seemingly disappeared!  Then when I went back for the third look through all the dies I found it hiding behind another die set!  Anyway... die cut it twice from my favorite red cardstock, Stampin Up! Cherry Cobbler, stacked them and there adhered to the solid heart cut from a gray cardstock.    Three strips of light gray cardstock were cut and adhered to a white cardstock base with foam tape.  I adhered the heart, the sentiment strip (from the SSS stamp set Beautiful Flowers) that I stamped in VersaFine Morning Mist and I was done!  Finally... lol!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

you can do it...

Happy Friday everyone!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Color Throwdown and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.    My card today uses the Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Day stamp and die set.  I have used this set a lot recently... not hard to do as it is so pretty!  For this card I did some simple watercoloring with my ZIGs and then die cut the images with the matching dies.  To add some interest to my card I used a piece of Tim Holtz distress woodgrain cardstock.  Since it is hard to stamp on woodgrain cardstock I decided to emboss the sentiment on a strip of vellum cardstock.  The images were stamped in VersaFine CLAIR and the sentiment was stamped with VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed with WOW! black embossing powder.    I added some Wink of Stella to the butterfly and then adhered all the pieces finishing with some Pretty Pink Posh white jewels.  This is also going to the SSS Flickr challenge.

Thanks for stopping by... hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SU! Crumb Cake, Tim Holtz woodgrain, PTI vellum, Strathmore smooth Bristol; Stamps and dies:  Simon Says Stamp; Inks:  VersaFine CLAIR and VersaMark; Embossing powder:  WOW!; Watercolor Medium:  ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers; Pretty Pink Posh jewels

cards to share...

Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards that I made for a few challenges.   That seems to be the way I'm blogging lately... so much easier to get it done in one post!   First up is a card for the Altenew May inspiration challenge, as well as Freshly Made Sketches.   Love this week's FMS layout.  In fact I used it to make a card that I can't share just yet.   When I saw the layout I thought it would be perfect for the Altenew inspiration challenge.  As the main colors in the inspiration photo are light gray, medium gray and green I decided to go with a light gray cardstock card base and then added the medium gray in with the little banner elements and the green with the small leaf cluster from the Altenew Leaf Canopy stamp set.  I stamped it in VersaFine Onyx Black on smooth Bristol cardstock and then colored it with one ZIG marker in medium green.  When it was dry I die cut it with the matching die.  I adhered the banners with repositionable adhesive so I could make sure I got the sentiment stamped relatively straight.  Once that was done I adhered them with permanent adhesive.  Added the leaf cluster with foam dimensionals and then added the enamel dots for a pop of the pinky-purple color found in the flower in the inspiration photo.  Pretty happy with how the card turned out.

The second card is quite a departure for me.  I made this one for the MFT sketch challenge, as well as the MFT color challenge.  I recently purchased the MFT Fresh Cut Flowers stamp set and wanted to have a go at coloring it.   So... I decided to make things a little hard for myself and use the colors from the MFT color challenge!   I decided to color the flowers using a dark blue ZIG combined with a teal ZIG with the teal only appearing on the tips of the flowers.   It is hard to see the teal color on the smaller flowers, but it is there.  I also went very unconventional with the leaves and used a combo of the orange and kraft colors for them (used ZIGs in orange and tan).  The image was stamped on smooth Bristol cardstock using VersaFine Onyx Black ink.  Took me a long time to color the image and while the colors are not what you would see on a flower and I have lots more practicing to do I'm pretty pleased with how everything turned out overall.  I die cut the image using a fishtail flag stax die that is no longer carried by MFT.   The banners were then adhered to a kraft cardstock base using foam dimensionals and the interior piece with regular adhesive.  The sentiment is from the MFT Sweet Forest Friends stamp set that I heat embossed in white on black cardstock.  Kind of dramatic don't you think?   Going to add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, PTI Weathervane, Strathmore smooth bristol; Stamps:  Altenew; Dies:  Altenew, My Favorite Things; Ink:  VersaFine; Watercolor medium:  ZIG Clean Color markers; My Mind's Eye enamel dots

Card #2:  Cardstock:  PTI kraft, Strathmore smooth Bristol; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  My Favorite Things; Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark; Hero Arts white embossing powder

floral cards...

Hello!  Seems like ages since I last posted anything.   I have been busy making things just haven't had the time to sit and do a post until now.   First up is a set of cards that I made using the colors from Color Throwdown and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches.  I will be posting this card to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, as well.    Originally I was only going to make one card, but I ended up not really like the card with two flowers on it so I decided to make two cards.  The flowers are leaves were created using the Spellbinders April small die kit.  I cannot say enough good things about these die kits.  They are packed with dies and only cost $12.50 per month (shipping included!).    This month's kit is all about layering flowers and leaves.  I started my card by scribbling orange, yellow and two different shades of green ZIG markers on watercolor paper and then blending out the color with clean water.  Once the paper was dry I die cut all the flowers and leaves.  Because originally I thought I was going to use both flowers on the card I had all the yellow pieces layered together and the same for the orange, but I didn't really like that look so I alternated each flower between the two colors.   The leaves were also done in the alternating shades of green.  As I laid out the flowers and leaves I realized that have everything on one card didn't look right so I decided to create two cards.   I cut strips of navy blue cardstock that I had embossed with a Stampin Up! embossing folder.   The sentiment is from a Spellbinder's stamp set that I received in December of 2018 as a thank you for being a club member.   I arranged the flower and leaves where I wanted them, placed the stamp where I wanted it, removed the flower and leaves and then stamped the sentiment.  Layered up all the elements and then adhered the panel to a neutral card base.

The second card is for the MFT sketch challenge and color challenge.  I recently purchased the MFT Painted Petals stamp and set set and had been wanting to use that for something.  The two MFT challenges were the perfect chance.  I stamped all the flowers using just one color of ink for each flower using the multiple stamping technique to get a darker version of the main color for the lined image portion of the flower.  The leaves were actually stamped with two different colors of green ink.   Quite sometime ago I discovered that I had purchased a brick wall style cover die that I think is from MFT.  I hope I'm not the only one who buys something and then totally forgets that they even purchased it!  It was been sitting out ever since I found it waiting to be used!  So I decided to use it to emboss my white cardstock panel as a background for the flowers.   After embossing the cardstock I die cut the panel with the largest AJVD stitched dot rectangle die.   The flowers were arranged and then I heat embossed a sentiment from the MFT Springtime Blooms on vellum with white embossing powder and die cut it with an MFT Slanted Sentiments Strip die.

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI white and indigo, Canson watercolor, SU Sahara Sand; Stamps:  Spellbinders; Dies:  Spellbinders; Embossing folder:  Stampin Up!; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne; Watercolor Medium:  ZIG Clean Color markers

Card #2:  Cardstock:  PTI white, vellum; Simon Says Stamp fog; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  My Favorite Things and AJVD; Inks:  Catherine Pooler, Stampin Up!, VersaMark; Embossing Powder:  Hero Arts

a clean and simple card...

Hello and happy April!  It is already April?!  Where has the time gone?   I have a clean and simple card to share today that I will be posting to the MFT color challenge, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes) and the Paper Players (tic-tac-toe... I went with diecuts, embossing and florals).   I  also entered this in the MFT sketch challenge, but I did that last night using Instagram as I knew I wouldn't be able to get it posted before the link closed.   I used an older MFT floral set called Plentiful Petals (I think it was actually part of a card kit) for the flowers and a sentiment from the MFT Amazing stamp set.  You can just see the embossing peeking out from behind the flowers.  I used one of those embossing folders that is only about 1 1/2 inches wide to emboss the strip on a panel that I die cut with an AJVD Stitched Dot rectangle die.  I then layered the flowers on top and added the sentiment using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.   I adhered the panel to a light gray cardstock base.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  Recollections white, SSS fog; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  My Favorite Things and AJVD; Inks:  My Favorite Things, Catherine Pooler, VersaFine CLAIR

more cards to share...

Hello!   Wow... time sure is flying by isn't it!?  We are already at the end of March and Easter is just a few weeks away!   Sharing a couple of cards today.  One that I actually made a few weeks ago and one that I made just the other day.  First up is the one I made a few weeks ago.  This is one final card for the Reverse Confetti March stock your stash challenge to make a spring or Easter card.  This one is an Easter card that I made using the Cross Confetti Cuts die and the Easter Blessings stamp set.  I also used some patterned paper from the pretty Reverse Confetti Pattern Play 6x6 pad.  I cut a piece of the patterned paper to fit my card front and adhered that to the card base.  I then cut a piece of light gray cardstock to cover one half of the card front.  I positioned the stamp I wanted to use on the piece and stamped the sentiment using VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  I then placed the cross over the sentiment and die cut it from the panel.  Additional crosses were cut from white cardstock.  I then adhered the die cut piece to the card front.  I started to inlay the pieces by using one of the white crosses I had cut and then adding in the light gray interior pieces that had the stamping on them.  I added the remaining crosses finishing with the light gray one.  I did this so that the cross actually has some height to it.  I finished off the card with light pink sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.  A very clean and simple design.   I'm also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The second card is another card for the March Altenew Inspiration challenge as well as the Paper Players.  I recently purchased three sets of Altenew mini ink cubes one of which has different shades of red.  I used that set to stamp the flower from the Build a Flower: Chrysanthemum.  I then die cut it with the matching die.   One of the things that I like about this set is that it has a die that allows you to cut portions of the flower so that you can lift those petals up to give the flower more dimension.  The leaves were also stamped with Altenew inks and then die cut with the matching dies.  I cut some light blue cardstock and dry embossed it with a woodgrain embossing folder.   That was adhered to a white cardstock base.  I then worked to figure out what I was going to use for the other two elements in the sketch.  I decided to go with a strip of silver glitter cardstock because who doesn't like glitter?  I adhered that and then arranged the flower and leaves.  I didn't want to totally cover up the flower so I used vellum and embossed the sentiment on it using WOW! black embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI white, SSS fog; Patterned paper:  Reverse Confetti; Stamps and dies:  Reverse Confetti; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh

Card #2:  Cardstock:  Recollections white, Reverse Confetti light blue, MFT silver glitter, PTI vellum; Stamps and dies:  Altenew; Inks:  Altenew and VersaMark; Embossing powder:  WOW! black

cards with just a splash of color...

Hello!  Today I have two cards to share and both have just a splash of color on them.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown, Fusion (I mainly used the Fusion sketch) and Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge.   When I saw the color inspiration photo for CTD I noticed that there was woodgrain in the background behind the string heart so I looked through my patterned paper collection and finally found a piece with a woodgrain design.  I die cut that with the smaller scalloped square from the Reverse Confetti Scalloped Squares Confetti Cuts.   Some white cardstock was die cut with an AJVD rectangle die and then I adhered the scalloped frame to the white panel.  The center cut piece was adhered with foam tape for dimension.  The floral image from the RC Something Wonderful was stamped on white cardstock with Catherine Pooler Flirty Fuchsia ink and die cut with the matching die.  I adhered that to the raised square.  I placed the panel in my stamping tool and stamped the sentiment from the Mod Floral Stack stamp set.    I finished things off with a little black twine bow and then adhered to a light gray cardstock base.

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (black, white and one color).  I have to admit that when I see a sketch I often can't get past the shapes that are used for the sketch and really have to push myself to use other shapes.  However when I saw the FMS layout I immediately wanted to make a card using triangles!  I have a set of triangle dies from MFT that I have never used so I pulled those out to make my card.  The floral image is from the beautiful Honey Bee Stamps Winter Anenome set.  I decided to use the largest image from the set, but didn't need part of it as it would have gone off the edge of my panel and did not look right.  So I did a little masking on my stamp and then inked up the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Before I started coloring the image I laid out the larger triangle and then placed the smaller one on top to determine where I would need to die cut the second image that I needed to stamp.  Once everything was stamped I colored the one flower with Marvy Uchida alcohol ink markers.   Then I die cut the large triangle from the main panel.  I die cut the smaller triangle from the second image and then colored it.  Finally I die cut the main panel, stamped the sentiment and assembled everything on a light gray cardstock base.   I'm pretty pleased with how my idea turned out.  I only wish that my triangles were just a little bit taller and thinner.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI white, SU! Smoky Shadow; PP:  My Mind's Eye; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti and AJVD; Inks:  Catherine Pooler and VersaFine CLAIR; Black twine:  Stampin Up!

Card #2:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SSS Fog; Stamps:  Honey Bee Stamps; Dies:  MFT and AJVD; Inks:  Memento and VersaFine CLAIR; Coloring medium:  Marvy Uchida alcohol ink markers

Thanksgiving and Christmas...

Hello!  Popping in with a Thanksgiving card, as well as a Christmas card.  First up is the Thanksgiving card that I will be adding to the following challenges:  CAS(E) this Sketch,  Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.   This card came about because I decided to die cut the fun wishbone die from the Spellbinders small die kit for October out of a piece of fall patterned paper that I had floating around.  Once that was done I had to build my card around it and boy was that hard!  Took me the better part of a day to get the right color combination.  Originally I had a lot of kraft cardstock involved, but things were just not working.  I brought in a green cardstock in the same color as the patterned paper and that seemed to make things work so much better.  One of the background ovals was die cut from an alcohol ink background that I created on some Yupo paper.   To create a little bit more interest in my card I embossed the green cardstock panel with some burlap.  I love the subtle interest that it brings to the card.

Now for my Christmas card.  This one is for the following challenges:  The Paper Players (colors), Time Out (colors) and MFT sketch challenge.   I have played along with an MFT sketch challenge in ages and I was determined to make something with the current super clean and simple sketch.  I almost went with stars (so original, lol!), but decided to pull out the beautiful Simply Snowflakes stamp set and the Layered Snowflakes die-namics dies.  After trimming down a piece of white cardstock per the sketch I stamped the snowflakes from the Simply Snowflakes in SU!'s Smoky Slate ink.   Then I die cut additional snowflakes from Poppy Parade and So Saffron cardstocks and layered them over the stamped snowflakes.   The sentiment from the Snowfall of Blessings stamp set was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne.   The panel was finished by adding a thin strip of silver glitter cardstock and then adhering to a Smoky Slate cardstock base.  Love the unconventional colors for the snowflakes!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card 1:  Cardstock:  PTI fine linen; SU! garden green; Yupo; patterned paper:  Dies:  Spellbinders; Inks:  Ranger alcohol inks; Lawn Fawn leaf sequins; twine; burlap

Card 2:  Cardstock:  MFT white, silver glitter; SU! Poppy Parade, So Saffron, Smoky Slate; Stamps and dies:  MFT; Inks:  Stampin Up! and VersaFine CLAIR

yay! yay! yay!

Hello!  Hope you are having a wonderful week!  We are having lovely weather this weekend which is awesome for the Pacific Northwest at the beginning of June!   The other day I found some time to do a little coloring and created this card for several challenges:  MFT sketch challenge and birthday project challenge (cupcakes & candles) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes).    I'm not a huge "critter" person... meaning I don't own a lot of stamp sets that feature animals, but when I saw the super cute Birdie Brown Birthday Chicks stamp set I had to have it.  I mean seriously who can resists those sweet little chicks?!  Not me, lol!  I stamped the images on Canson watercolor paper with Ranger Old Paper distress ink so I could start to figure out the whole no line watercoloring thing.  Obviously you can still see a very light line, but you have start somewhere, right?  All the images were colored with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers and clean water.  Once the images were mostly dry I die cut them with the matching dies.   I used a MFT Fishtail Flag stax die to create my banners.   It was a bit of a trick to get all the dies the same length, but I got it worked out... thankfully.  Since this card is going to be going to my great niece who is turning 2 at the end of the month I decided to use some soft pink cardstock for the main panel and I really like how it turned out.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  Stampin Up! white and pink; Canson watercolor; Ink:  Ranger distress ink; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  My Favorite Things and A Jillian Vance Design; Watercolor Medium:  ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers