a three card share...

I almost put a three card monty as my title, lol!  I used to hear that saying, but never really knew what it meant.  So I looked it up and it is a confidence game or con game!  Learn something new, right?!  Anyway, I have three cards to share.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown.  Thanks to some enabling by the super talented Kelly Lunceford I finally broke down and purchased my first products from Ink to Paper.  I used the It's A Sign:  Love & Kindness set along with inks from Catherine Pooler.  The peach ink I used is called Bellini and is very dark so I did some second generation stamping so that the image had the light peach called for in the color combo.  I still have to do some work figuring out the correct way to die cut the little flowers, but felt they were good enough for now.  To make the sentiment stand out more I placed the second sentiment over the peach background and stamped with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist.  Arranged everything on a white cardstock panel and I was done.

The next card is for this month's Altenew inspiration challenge.  I wasn't going to enter anything as I couldn't figure out what the colors were, but decided to make something since I could use the sketch.  I stamped the Color A Flower Hydrangea with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne on watercolor paper, let it dry and then colored the image with Ranger distress inks in Bundled Sage and Chipped Sapphire.  I trimmed down the panel, added some score lines to mimic the sketch and adhered it to a light sandy colored cardstock base.  The sentiment is from the Altenew Label Love set, stamped three times with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist, trimmed out and popped up on the image to mimic the square element in the sketch.  I did manage to get gray in to my color scheme dispite not really know what the colors to be used were!  Think I will add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The final card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I had previously made a card using the gorgeous Floral Focus image, but had only used part of it because it is easy to cut the piece into two separate pieces.  I'm using the piece that I did not use on today's card.  I colored the image with Copic markers in shades of violet and green.  I die cut the banner using a MFT fishtail flag stax die and stamped the sentiment from another MFT floral set on the banner with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I adhered the image to the banner using glue.  The strips were cut from purple cardstock and for some reason I used the wrong purple!  I had another purple out that went with the colors better, but put it back instead of the one I used.   I adhered the strips and then attached the banner using foam tape and glue dots.  The panel was then adhered to a white cardstock base.  A nice clean and simple take on the sketch! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

A Glimmer Christmas...

Hello everyone!  I'm popping in with four Christmas cards that I made using my Spellbinders Glimmer hot foil system and lots of different Glimmer plates.   Spellbinders is currently having a great sale on the Glimmer systems as well as up to 40% off select Glimmer plates.  You can check it out here or just click on the banner.   There are lots of new Christmas Glimmer plates but the ones I'm using today were released last year.  I was able to purchase a Christmas Glimmer kit that included all the products I need to make the four cards that I'm sharing.  I had so much fun creating these cards and I think that I'm going to make additional cards based off of one of the cards I made.  This kit is no longer available, but there is a new Christmas kit featuring Glimmer products available on the Spellbinders website.

Now on to the card!  As I indicated above the kit included everything that I needed to make all the cards with the exception of one of the foils that I used.    Instructions are provided, as well.  At one point I thought I would just make my own cards, but then decided to go ahead make the cards per the instructions, with small changes to two of the cards.  The first card is the simplest one, but I think really packs a punch.   The stamp set that was included in the kit has two Christmas type trees in it and the instructions call for the largest one to be heat embossed in white on a light blue cardstock.  The banner was created by using foiling one of the included plates with red foil and then trimming out the banner portion, adhering it over the tree and then finishing off the card with gold flatback pearls.   This card would be so fun to create using several different foils and cardstock backgrounds.  Going to add this one to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The next card also features the Glimmer foil plate used in the first card, but this time you get to see the entire foiled image! The Glimmer plate used is called Merry Christmas Banner.  I made a couple of little changes to this card.  I foiled the image on the medium blue cardstock, but did not do any ink blending on the card as suggested in the instructions.  I die cut the piece and adhered it to a white cardstock base.  I foiled the sentiment, trimmed it down and then adhered it to the card front.  With the sentiment I also deviated from the instructions.  At first I wasn't going to add the leaves and little gold pearls, but decided to follow that part of the instructions and I do like how it turned out.   Again, this is a card that would be fun to foil in lots of different colors with different background colors.





The next two cards are definitely more involved and feature lots of die cutting.   The first one features the elegant Faux Script Holiday Cheer glimmer plate.  This is another card that would be fun to create using different foils and colored cardstock.   The large sentiment, as well as the smaller sentiment were foiled on the red cardstock and adhered to the embossed panel.  The smaller sentiment is from the Glimmer plate set called Holiday Sentiments.    The poinsettia, leaves and little sprigs were die cut from various cardstocks and adhered to the card front as show.  The dies used for the flower and leaves are from another Glimmer plate set called Ornament.  You will see the ornament plate in action on the final card.   I could see making this card and using the sentiment "and Happy New Year" instead of the Merry Christmas sentiment used on the card I made.

The final card is the most ornate of the four and was lots of fun to create.  I made a few little changes to this card.  The Ornament Glimmer plate set includes the large ornament glimmer plate and then all the dies to cut the poinsettia, leaves, berries and little sprigs.  You can still get this set at a great sale price.  This card also uses the Merry Christmas Banner plate.  It is only in the background mostly covered up by the large ornament.  The ornament is foiled in green on green cardstock and then trimmed out.  There is an oval die in the Ornament set and I used that to die cut the oval center from the ornament.  I then foiled the sentiment (also included in the Ornament set) on blue cardstock, die cut it with the oval.  The ornament was adhered to the cardstock piece that I foiled with the banner plate and then I popped the oval sentiment in the center.  The poinsettia, additional leaves, and sprigs were die cut, layered together and then adhered to the panel.   The finished panel was adhered to a cardstock base along with a strip of embossed cardstock.   There is a lot of dimension on this card so I think I will just hand deliver this card instead of sending it through the mail.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all the Christmas cards I made.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Hello there...

Hope your week is going well.   Since it is Wednesday that means I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog and here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out my card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a dragonfly and birthdays...

Hello!  Hope you had a nice weekend!  I actually felt like making some cards this weekend and I'm sharing three that I made.  First up is a card for Fusion card challenge.  I often forget about Fusion so I decided to see if what the current challenge was and just loved the inspiration photo.   So I had to play along.  I tried a couple of ideas that went into the garbage before settling on doing some very simple watercoloring with distress inks on watercolor paper.  I tried to make the area where I the watercoloring have some thing of an arc to it.   Once it was dry I stamped the hydrangea image from the Colorado Craft Company Big & Bold Get Well Hydrangea with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  The sentiment from the same set was stamped using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and then I die cut the piece with an AJVD rectangle die.   The dragon fly is from a Stampin Up! set called Dragonfly Dreams.  I stamped it using Catherine Pooler Suede Shoes ink, die cut it with the matching die and then die cut a detailed dragonfly from the pretty purple glitter cardstock that I used on another card a few days ago.  I adhered the two dragonflies together and then adhered it to my card front.  I finished with some purply-blue sequins.

The next two cards were created with the layout from CAS(E) this sketch in mind.   I created a card for the last CTS challenge and used the Concord & 9th Thankful Leaves turnabout stamp and die set.  There is a fun little banner die in the set along with dies that you can use to create a happy birthday sentiment.   I knew I wanted to use the dies on my card, but wasn't sure how I would use the dies that cut out birthday.  At first I did die cut them and was going to go with that, but then I decided to use the dies to hot foil the sentiment.  The first go didn't turn out well so I decided to try it again on light gray cardstock instead of the white that I had originally used.   The foiling went much better with that version, but I realized that I could save the first one and end up with two birthday cards!  I used the same purple glitter cardstock for the white version and black glitter cardstock from C9 for the grey version.    With both of them I die cut the word happy from the glitter cardstocks and then a second time from a scrap of white cardstock, layered then and adhered to the panels (after they had been die cut with an AJVD rectangle die).  The banners were die cut and then popped up with foam dimensionals.     Definitely very clean and simple!  That purple glitter paper is almost gone.  I really like it so I think I will have to purchase some more... now to remember where it came from, lol!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a simple card...

Hey there!  Have you ever created a card that when you were done you just weren't really very happy with how it turned out?  Well... this card is just that kind of card.  Overall there isn't any thing really wrong with it, but I'm just not super happy.   Maybe it is just too plain...  Anyway I used the color combo from Color Throwdown, the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the new Spellbinders/Becca Feeken Nested Clipped Squares.   After initially diecutting the squares I was going to use I decided that they were just way too plain looking so I die cut frames for the two larger squares.   I wasn't able to do that for the smallest square and I think that is part of the problem.  It just looks a little out of place without a frame.  The sentiment was hot foiled using my Glimmer and black foil.  I really like how it actually looks like stamping.   I adhered the purple square to my white cardstock panel and then adhered the blue one on top.  The yellow one was adhered with foam dimensionals.  I then adhered the frames to the squares so that they look like they are interlocking.  The sentiment was foiled, die cut and then adhered.  Still looked too plain so I die cut a small square from the dark blue cardstock and adhered it to the center of the large blue square.  Looked a little better, but still not happy.   But... I made it so I need to own it and just go with it!   Just wanted to mention that Spellbinders is having a deal going on right now.   Just click on the banner in my side bar to go to the Spellbinders website.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Wednesday!

Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today and here is a little peek of the card:

Before you head off to check out my card I wanted to let you know that Spellbinders has a new offer going on.  You can check it out here or at the link in my side bar.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!