you've been on my mind...

Well... I think that title says how a lot of us feel right now about our friends and family!   So many people have been on my mind lately as we all adjust to what is our new normal for the next month or so.  But being able to do some crafting is really helping out.  This card is for the Hero Arts Stay Crafty with Hero Arts challenge to using something that had never seen ink.  Sadly I think I have several items from Hero Arts that have never seen ink and this Hero Arts/Gina K Design collaborative stamp set is one of them.  I stamped it in Memento Tuxdeo Black on white cardstock and then colored with Copic markers.  I do not think I have ever colored something this large with Copics and the only reason I gave it a go is that I think I finally know how to color well with Copics (thanks to watching many, many, many videos!).   Once I was done I die cut the piece with the largest plain rectangle die from A Jillian Vance Design.  I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark watermark ink on vellum, applied black embossing powder from WOW! and then heat set.  The strip was then wrapped around my panel and adhered on the back.  The panel was then adhered to a dark pink cardstock base.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, as well.

Thanks for stopping by and please stay safe!

it's a party...

Hello!  Since just like everyone out there I have a lot of time on my hands I decided to try making a slimline card.  Slimline cards are kind of the rage right now and there are tons of fabulous ones out there.  I made this card over the course of two days.   I'm right handed and several years ago I had surgery on my right shoulder.  Most of the issues have been resolved, but I still have to take it a bit easy when it comes to things like coloring or ink blending.  I have to do that sort of thing in stages.  Anyway... I stamped almost all the images from the MFT/Stacey Yacula Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes stamp set in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then let them dry.  Once they were dry I colored everything with my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils and water.  I let everything dry and then die cut them with the matching dies.  That all occurred over the course of the day on Saturday.  I finished up the card on Sunday morning.  I did the ink blending using Antique Linen distress oxide ink leaving the very center without any ink.  I then positioned all my little images so I could determine placement of the sentiment.  At first I was going to have it on the bottom, but then decided to place it in the area I did not ink, but slightly off center.  I stamped it in the same Nocturne ink and then adhered the banners and the little attendees to my little party.  Isn't that turtle just too darn cute?! The image panel was then adhered to my card base with foam tape.  It was a lot of work, but I'm pretty darn pleased with how it turned out!   I'm going to send this card off to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since it is anything goes.  I just noticed that this would fit the challenge over at the Card Concept as it is full of critters.  I guess my card would be clean and layered.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe!

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!

It's Wednesday...

And that means I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today.   I hope everyone continues to stay safe and healthy.   Here is a little peek of my project:

 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you will head over to the blog to check out my project!

hello...

Hello... hope everyone is doing well and keeping busy while at home!  In that regard I have been trying to make some projects.  I finished up a card that was pretty labor intensive, but won't be sharing for awhile, only to start on another labor intensive card that I'm sharing today.  This card is for someone who will really not be expecting it, but I hope that it makes their day!  The card is heading to the following challenges:  Altenew March Inspiration challenge and Fusion.  Even though I used the Altenew Mega Succulent stamp set for my Altenew February Inspiration challenge card when I saw the inspiration photo I just had to use it again!  I stamped it on watercolor paper with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then on white cardstock with same ink.  The one stamped on watercolor paper was then colored with my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils in a minty green, light blue and purple.  The blue sort of got lost between the minty green and purple, but you can just barely see it in person.  After it was dry I added a little shimmer using my Altenew Metallic watercolor paints.  That was done the previous night and left to dry.  Today I did the part of the card that turned a little labor intensive, but in the end I like how it turned out.  I used a die to cut my strips from the watercolor piece, trimmed down the image stamped on white cardstock and then lined up the watercolor strips.  I adhered them with foam tape.  Because the blue got a little lost I added it back in with my hello from the Altenew Half-Tone Hello set that I stamped using Altenew Sea Breeze ink.  The finished panel was adhered to a white cardstock base.

Thanks for stopping by today!

tropical thank you...

Hey there!  Popping in with a quick post of a card that I made for Freshly Made Sketches.  Fighting a lack of mojo right now.  I have been working on another card and was going to post it along with this one, but have kind of lost my drive to get it done.  Maybe tomorrow.   I made this card with some products from Stampin Up!    When I first started stamping I found Stampin Up! and I have continued to purchase their products.  My demo, Jenna, is fabulous and Stampin Up! has so really cool stamps and dies.  I actually bought the products I'm using today last summer, but because of other projects I was never able to get around to using them.   But when I saw the FMS layout it made me think of the set because it is full of tropical images and the leaf in the sketch looks tropical to me.  I purchased the stamp and die set as a bundle and the cardstock and patterned paper that matched, as well.  The set is called Tropical Chic.  The dies are really cool in that you can die cut stamped images with them and you can also die cut cardstock and use an interior die to cut out the interior of the leaf.  I die cut the leaves from dark green and lime green cardstock so that I ended up with a lime green interior piece for the dark green leaf and vice versa for the lime green leaf.  I trimmed a strip of matching pattern paper down, adhered it to my white cardstock panel and then die cut it.  The leaves were then arranged so I could determine where to put the sentiment which was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne.  I adhered the leaves and a flower that I stamped with a pink ink from SU!

Thanks for stopping by.

celebrating your special day...

Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Color Throwdown, MFT sketch challenge and MFT birthday challenge.   In my last MFT order I got the Freshly Picked Die-namics die set so I pulled that out and created a little pitcher of flowers in Color Throwdown colors.   Since the theme for the MFT birthday challenge is flower posting it there made total sense!   I found scraps of the colors from the CTD palette and a piece of patterned paper from MFT for all my colors.  I did end up having to use more of the coral cardstock as I decided to create a mat for the main panel, but I did manage to use up a lot of scrap cardstock!   After I finished all the die cutting and assembly of the pitcher of flowers I die cut the rounded rectangle die (no longer available from MFT) from off white cardstock and the green plaid strip of green paper.  I adhered the strip of patterned paper to another piece of off white cardstock and die cut it with a stitched rectangle die (from AJVD).  Then I layered up the smaller rectangle and the pitcher.   A sentiment banner was die cut from the teal cardstock, stamped with the sentiment in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and adhered to the pitcher.  I then die cut the second rectangle from the coral cardstock, adhered the two together and the adhered everything to an off white cardstock base.

Thanks for stopping by and please stay safe!

Guesting at CAS(E) this Sketch!

Hey everyone!  I really hope that everyone is following the guidelines set out by the government (for those here in the US) and are staying safe!  As my post title indicates I'm guesting today at CAS(E) this Sketch!   This time around they are using a retro sketch (one that has been used in the past).   As I was trying to think of what to use for my card I did a little cleaning on my desk and came across a bunch of butterflies that I had foiled with my Spellbinders Glimmer and hot foil plates.  I have created several other cards with those same butterflies.  Since I had three pink ones I decided to use them for my cards.  I die cut white cardstock with a rectangle die and then foiled the sentiment using the same pink foil as the butterflies.  A butterfly was adhered on either side of the rectangle equal distance apart and the center butterfly was adhered with foam tape.  I finished things off with a few iridescent sequins from Simon Says Stamp.  I love it when I can create a card using things that I had previously made, don't you?!

Hope you will play along with CTS this week.  Have a great day and stay safe!

Wednesday with AJVD...

Hey there!  Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.  I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog and here is a little peek:

I hope you will check out my post.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

more copic coloring...

Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges and as my post title indicates I did some more coloring with my Copic markers.  I'm going to post this card to the following challenges:  The Flower Challenge (anything goes), Freshly Made Sketches and Time Out (I fussy cut the flower and it is a birthday card).  I have always been scared of coloring with reds.  They can be so unforgiving if they bleed and you try to clean it up.  But I decided to be brave and color with a red combo courtesy of Kelly Latevola.   The flower I used is from the A Jillian Vance Design Dear Daisy stamp set.  I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored it with the following markers:  R32, R35, R29 and R59. The center was colored with Y02 and Y08 and the leaf with YG03, YG05, G17 and G28.  I fussy cut the flower out and then outlined the flower and cleaned up the white edges with a black Mircon pen.   I kept everything regarding the sketch very simple as I really wanted the flower to be the focus.  The sentiment is also from A Jillian Vance Design (Make A Wish) and the dies I used are also AJVD.  I must say that I'm really pleased with my coloring.  I managed to create a consistent highlight area on the petals giving them a slightly rounded look.  Never thought I would be able to do something like that!

Thanks for stopping by today... stay safe and well!

green leaves... and flowers!

Hey there!  I hope everyone is staying safe during this uncertain time!  My kiddos are both officially out of school for the next month.   Thankfully it seems our school district has tried to be proactive about everything and we already have information on ways to keep our kids engaged in learning!  Yay!  Anyway... I have a card to share that I made for several challenges:  CAS(E) this Sketch, Color Throwdown, Time Out and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Time Out is celebrating their 6th birthday!  Time sure does fly when you are having fun, right?  So they want birthday themed projects and they have a "twist" option of fussy cutting.   I was able to get my hands on the Simon Says Stamp March card kit, but not the matching dies so I was able to get that option in on my card.  Like many crafters I have lots of different coloring options.  One of them is Copic markers.  I jumped on that bandwagon and purchased quite a few pens.  I tried working with the pens and even took a Copic coloring class, but eventually I fell off that bandwagon as I just was never comfortable coloring with them.  But recently I have been watching a few videos by the incredibly talented Kelly Latevola and in one of them she mentioned that she had a list of color combos.  That has always been my biggest stumbling block... figuring out color combos.  So, the other day I copied down some of her combos and I used one for today's card.   I stamped the long vine image from the Stronger Together stamp set from the kit in Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored the leaves with the green combo of YG03, G05, G17 and G28.   I then stamped the little single flowers from the set in Tuxedo Black (2 of the larger one, 1 of the smaller) and colored them with the same combo.  Those were fully cut out and the edges colored with a Tuxedo Black marker.  I die cut the panel with the leaves, stamped the sentiment from another SSS set and then popped up the little flowers.   Thanks to watching all those videos and Kelly's color combo I think my coloring turned out pretty well!  This is also going to the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil Sale!

Hey there!  I'm popping in to let you know that Spellbinders is having a fabulous sale on many of their Glimmer hot foil products including a super awesome deal on the Glimmer hot foiling system!  Click on the banner below to head to the sale.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Wednesday!

Hey there!  Happy Wednesday!  I hope your week is going well.  So far so good for me!  I have a post up on the AJVD blog and here is a little peek:

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

Flowers!

Hey there!  I'm popping in to share a couple of featuring flowers.  First up is a card that I made this afternoon using the beautiful Simon Says Stamp Stronger Together stamp set from the SSS March card kit.  When I sat down to start this card I saw a piece of Simon Says Stamp fog cardstock and decided to use that to do some coloring with my Polychromos pencils.  I stamped the image from the set using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then picked out a nice purply-blue to color the flowers and two shades of green for the leaves. I laid down a layer of white before adding the colors and then blended out the purply-blue with additional white to tone down the color.  I did the same thing with the leaves.  Once I was done with the coloring I positioned sentiment and stamped it with the Nocturne ink, as well.  The layout for my card is based on the CTS layout and so I added some scoring to frame out the stronger together portion of the sentiment.   The piece was then die cut with an AJVD stitched dot rectangle and adhered to a white cardstock base with foam tape.  Finished with various different jewels in blue, silver and white.  Also going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge because what is more feminine then flowers?

This next card was made using one of the floral prints from Suzy Plantamura that were included in the SSS March kit.  This one I colored with Faber-Castell watercolor pencils.  I had tried watercoloring with pencils several years ago and was never really happy with how things turned out.  Thankfully I have learned alot since then and I gave my watercolor pencils another try.   To color the daisies I used a combination of a bright yellow and a yellow that bordered on orange.  I colored on the two colors at the base of the petal and then blended out with water making sure to leave the center of each petal with a highlight area.  I colored the center of the flowers with two shades of brown and the stems with one shade of green.  Once I was done I die cut the piece with an AJVD stitched dot rectangle die and then I used the little hello die from the kit to die cut it out of the panel.  I placed some washi tape on the back and then filled in the opening with two additional hellos that I cut from scrap cardstock.  I finished off with the original die cut.  I then stamped one of the small label sentiments on white cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne, trimmed it out and them popped it up with foam tape.  This one will also be going to the SSS flickr challenge to use dies.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

More Spellbinders Fun!

Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards that I made with a set of dies that I recently purchased from Spellbinders called Kaleidoscope Petals.  They have several different kaleidoscope die sets and I have most of them.  I just love the look they create.  Since I just got them I wanted to put them to use and so I did... twice!  For the first card I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the colors from Color Throwdown.   I will also be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  The die set has three different dies:  a top, middle and bottom.  I cut the top and bottom dies from the same color of cardstock (pink, orange and blue) and the middle one from white.  I then layered all the pieces together and arranged them on a die cut rectangle of white cardstock.    Since I have been using butterflies a lot lately I decided to not use one for this card and instead I die cut a Spellbinders layered flower and leaf from light gray cardstock.  I thought about using white, but I decided to try something a little different by using the light gray and I really like how it turned out.   I stamped the sentiment in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and then adhered the flower and the leaves.  The panel was adhered to a card base made from the same light gray as the flower and then I finished off the card with tiny sparkling clear Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

The second card is going to the current Sunday Stamps challenge and the Paper Players challenge to use heat embossing.  I only embossed the large sentiment so hopefully that is enough.  I die cut the petals from purple, green and gold mirror cardstock (although in the photo it doesn't look gold) and then adhered them together.  I used a circular kaleidoscope die set to create a piece made from yellow and green cardstock.   I then die cut a strip of white cardstock and then stamped the sentiment (from Spellbinders) in VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed in black embossing powder.  That piece was adhered to a white cardstock panel and then I layered on all the petals to make it looked like a half flower finishing it off with the circular piece.   The rest of the sentiment was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne on white cardstock, trimmed down and adhered.

I just want to remind you that the pre-Spring Surprise Bundle offer is still going on at Spellbinders.  You can click here to find out all the details.  The is also a special clearance section where you can get up to 70% off tons of different items.  Click here to go to the sale.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy March!

Hey there!  Wow... March is already here!  Where is the time going?  It is Wednesday and that means that I have a new post up on the AJVD blog and here is a little peek:

Hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out the full project.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!