"We do not remember days, we remember moments." Cesare Pavese

Friday, May 31, 2019

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

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Happy Wednesday!

Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  Hope your week is going well.  I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design today and here is a little peek of my project:


Can you guess what it is, lol!  Hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project.  Have a wonderful day!


Thursday, May 23, 2019

so special...

Hello!   Wow... I'm posting again, lol!  I have been busy lately doing more coloring with my ZIGs!  This time I used some of the images from the Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers stamp set that is part of the SSS May card kit.  I also used a piece of the Moda Scrap patterned paper that comes in the kit.  I am beyond pleased with how the flowers turned out!  I keep looking at them and reminding myself that yes... I did color them!  And this is all thanks to the amazing Kristina Werner and her fabulous video!  I used another one of the color combos that she used in the video, as well.   I stamped the images on smooth  bristol cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink and then colored them with the following ZIGs:  Light Carmine Red, Wine Red and Dark Brown.  The stems were colored with Mid Green and Olive Green ZIGs with a touch of dark brown.  I then trimmed out all the images.  The patterned paper was die cut and I stamped it with one of the leaf images from the set using the Acorn ink.  The flowers were arranged and then I added the sentiment (from the stamp set) that I heat embossed in white on vellum and trimmed down.  I'm sending this off to the following challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches (sketch), Time Out challenges (inspiration photo) and Simon Says Stamp (inspiration photo as well).  I colored these images on Tuesday and had no idea that the flowers would work for both Time Out and Simon Says Stamp!  Don't you love it when thinks work out that way?!  So happy to play along with Time Out as my sweet friend, Greta, is guest designing for them!




Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS dark brown, Strathmore smooth bristol, Vellum; Patterned paper:  Moda Scrap; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp; Inks:  VersaFine CLAIR, VersaMark; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts white; Watercolor medium:  ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Happy Wednesday!

Hello everyone!  I'm back to my regularly schedule Wednesday post over on the A Jillian Vance Design blog.   Here is a little peek of my project:


Thanks for stopping by today... I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see my project and to let me know what you think.   Also wanted to let you know that AJVD is having a huge sale.  Please see the information below.    Have a wonderful day!


Monday, May 20, 2019

bloom and grow...

Wow!  I posted two days in a row!  Got a little crafting time in today and made a card for a few challenges:  Pinkfresh Studios monthly challenge, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (use stitching... mine is faux), the Paper Players (clean and simple w/plants) and Fab Friday (sketch).   I used papers and puffy stickers from the Pinkfresh Studios let your heart decide line and a sentiment from the Pinkfresh Studios Bloom & Grow stamp set.   The papers and stickers were part of a Simon Says Stamp monthly card kit and I won the stamp set and matching dies from a Pinkfresh Studios Instagram contest last December.   I used A Jillian Vance Design and My Favorite Things dies for all the stitched elements in the card.   I originally had a different piece of patterned paper die cut for the rectangle element, but it was too busy and the stickers got lost so I switched it out for another pattern that worked better.   Per the Paper Players challenge of clean and simple I layered everything on a plain white cardstock base.




Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Supplies:  Cardstock: PTI white; Stamps:  Pinkfresh Studios; Dies:  AJVD and MFT; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR; Embellishments:  Pinkfresh Studios puffy sticker; Patterned paper:  Pinkfresh Studios

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Ciao!

Hello!   Popping in with a fun card I made using the Spellbinders small die kit for the month of May.  I used the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the color combo from Color Throwdown to help me along.  If you have not taken a look at the Spellbinders monthly kits you really should.  There are several to choose from and each kit is jam packed!  Right now I only get the small die kit, but I'm seriously thinking about their monthly card kit.  The amount of supplies you get in each kit is amazing... you could use it to make cards for months!   Anywhoo… this month's small die kit features a cute little scooter!  I could not wait to get my kit and when it arrived on Friday I was excited to get something made right away.  I die cut the scooter from gray and blue cardstock and then pieced together the various parts to create the main body of the scooter.  I did through in a little black, white and a tiny amount of yellow and red.  The balloons were die cut from green and then I used the letters from the kit to cut out the word Ciao.  I then die cut white balloons and adhered them to the back of the green balloons.  I used my Spellbinders plain circle dies to die the blue, white and green cardstock and a Spellbinders long rectangle die to cut the gray cardstock.   Each balloon had a string attached and then I got started layering up all the elements.  Building the scooter was a little time consuming, but so worth it in the end!



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

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white, green, SU! gray, SSS blue; Dies:  Spellbinders; Thread:  SU! metallic black

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

hello... lovely

Hello!  Hope your week is going well.  I'm popping in with a card that I made for a few challenges:  the Paper Players (colors), the Flower Challenge (embossing) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (stitching - mine is faux stitching on the die cut rectangle).   Several months ago I got the dies that match the Concord & 9th Hello Lovely stamp set and ever since then I have been trying to get something made with them.  Well that day finally arrived when I saw the color combo at the Paper Players.   I heat embossed the floral image on some watercolor paper in white and then colored everything with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.   I let the piece dry, splattered on some black paint and then die cut the piece when the splatters were dry.  I die cut some Simon Says Stamp fog cardstock with the largest A Jillian Vance Design stitched dot rectangle die and adhered that to a white cardstock base.  The die cut floral image was adhered with foam dimensionals.  I die cut the word lovely from Fog and Pool Party cardstocks, adhered them together and then adhered to the floral piece.  The word hello was heat embossed in white on vellum, die cut with a little banner die and then adhered with glue dots.



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

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white and vellum, SSS fog, SU! Pool Party, Arches Hot press watercolor; Stamps:  Concord & 9t; Dies:  Concord & 9th and AJVD; Ink:  VersaMark watermark ink; Watercolor medium:  Kuretake Gansai Tambi; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts 

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Happy Tuesday!

Hey everyone!  Popping in today to let you know that I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today.  Yep... that's right... today instead of my usual Wednesday.  I switched days with my teammate Tracey this week.  I will be back to posting on Wednesday next week.  Here is a little peek of my project:


Thanks for stopping by... I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project!  Have a wonderful day!

Saturday, May 11, 2019

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


Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Happy Wednesday!

Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  Mother's day is just around the corner and I have a couple of Mother's day projects up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today.  Yes... you read right I have two projects to share!  Here is a peek:



I hope you will head over to the A Jillian Vance Design blog to see both of them and to let me know what you think.  Have a wonderful day!

Saturday, May 4, 2019

happy birthday x 2...

Hello!  Popping in today with a couple of clean and simple cards that I made for a few challenges.  First up is a card for the current Freshly Made Sketches, as well as the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   I made this card using several of the images from the Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers stamp set that came in the SSS May card kit.  I stamped the images on Strathmore smooth bristol cardstock with VersaFine Onyx Black in and then colored them with my ZIG markers.  Once they were dry I trimmed them out with my detail scissors.  I cut a piece of white cardstock with an A Jillian Vance Design stitched dot rectangle die and then cut the rectangle with an A Jillian Vance Design edger die.  I adhered the die cut panel to a white cardstock base and then arranged the flowers and leaves so I could determine where the sentiment would go.  The sentiment was stamped with VersaFine CLAIR in Nocturne and then I adhered the flowers and leaves.  Finished with some Pretty Pink Posh clear jewels.



The second card is for this week's Color Throwdown, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  I recently purchased the MFT Blended Happy Birthday stamp and die set and used it to create this super simple shaker card.  I cut some white cardstock with an AJVD stitched dot rectangle die.  I arranged the dies on the panel, taped them in place and then ran it through my die cutting.  I then used the die cut openings to get the correct placement for the stamps.  I used pink and brown inks to stamp the sentiment.  Once that was done I adhered actetate behind the die cut opening, adhered foam tape around the sentiment to create the area for my sequins and then added black and a few white sequins.   I removed all the liners from the foam tape and then adhered the die cut panel on top.   Super, super simple.


Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI white, smooth bristol; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp; Inks:  VersaFine, VersaFine CLAIR; Watercolor medium:  ZIG clean color markers; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design; Jewels:  Pretty Pink Posh

Card #2:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  My Favorite Things, A Jillian Vance Design; Sequins:  Ellen Hutsom, My Mind's Eye

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day everyone!  Hope you are having a good week so far.  Since it is Wednesday I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today and here is a little peek:


I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project and to let me know what you think.  Have a great day!