Birch Press Design Friday

 Hello!  Hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!   It was also my older son's birthday and so we had that to celebrate, as well.   I do have a post upon the Birch Press Design blog today and here is a little peek:

Hope you will head over to the blog to see what I created.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

More Christmas cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with a couple more Christmas cards to share.  The first card is for the Paper Players challenge to create a clean and simple card with a tag on it.  I also used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches so will post it there.  Take a look.

I made the tag several years ago for Ellen Hutson's annual Christmas tag challenge.  I used one of her stamp sets for the images.  I don't know which one because I was too lazy to dig through everything and find it, lol!  Anyway, I stamped a starry background on watercolor paper and then did a galaxy background with watercolors.  I die cut the tag from that and then added a little snowy hill for the deer to stand on.  The deer was stamped, embossed and then watercolored, too.  Die cut with the matching dies.  I stamped and embossed the moon on vellum.  Die cut it and then added some sparkle with glitter glue (I think!)  Finished with the sentiments and some sparkly eyelash twine.   For the sketch I added some strips of patterned paper from La La Land Crafts that went well with my tag.  The back panel was embossed with a Simon Says Stamp snowflake embossing folder.   Adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to make it sparkle.

My second card is for the Color Throwdown challenge and I used a Stampin Up! stamp and die set that I recently purchased.  Take a look.

I stamped the sentiment using Memento Pear Tart and then applied the same ink to white cardstock to create matching cardstock.  That was die cut with a Memory Box arched die.  The smaller arched die was cut from dark green cardstock and stamped with an image from the stamp set using a dark green ink.  I adhered the sentiment and then added the little pine branches that I die cut from black metallic cardstock using a die from the coordinating Stampin Up! die set.  The little berries were also die cut from the cardstock that I created with the direct to paper inking.  I added some glossy accents to them for a little shine.

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

tiny trees...

 Hello friends!  I'm popping in to share a card that I made for the current Color Hues challenge of red and gold.  Classic Christmas colors and so I made a Christmas card!   I used a Waffle Flower Crafts stencil called Duo-tone Christmas Tree and the 0+ blender brushes.  

The stencil is unique in that you stencil a set of trees and then shift the stencil over to the open area and stencil a second set of trees to fill up your card front.  For my card I used Lumberjack Plaid distress ink to stencil the trees and then added some Aged Mahogany to the bottom of each tree.  I then moved the stencil over and added the second set of trees using Ranger Lunar paster in Slippery When Wet (a bright gold).  I removed the stencil, cleaned it off and let the panel dry.  Once dry I die cut it with a Memory Box arched rectangle die.   The large Merry Christmas is also from Waffle Flower and that was stamped using Lumberjack Plaid and then Aged Mahogany pounced on in certain areas of the stamp and then layered on the Lumberjack Plaid.  Gives it a bit of an ombre look.  I die cut dark red cardstock with a rectangle die, adhered it to my white cardstock base and then adhered the arched panel.  The sentiment was added along with tiny gold stars to the little red trees. 

If you are on Instagram I'm having a giveaway of a sample set of Waffle Flower's new blender brushes over there.  The giveaway is sponsored by Waffle Flower.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Happy Christmas...

 Hello!  I'm back with a clean and simple little card for the current Color Throwdown challenge.  Haven't played along with that challenge in weeks.  The colors for the current challenge really pulled at me so I had to make something.  A few new products from Simon Says Stamp arrived in my mailbox this week and one of them was the Wonky Tree-O die set.  I just had to use the dies for my card.  My card works for the JUGs challenge so I will be adding to their gallery.   I used two of the colors (pink and green) and my card features trees.

I diecut the trees from white cardstock and inkblended on Pumice Stones, Spun Sugar and Evergreen Bough distress oxide inks.  I die cut the little tree stands from kraft.  I used a very old Memory Box die to create my little snowy background, die cut the bottom with the same Memory Box die I used to die cut the woodgrain cardstock and adhered the two together.   The trees were added and then I decided that I wanted to add a little Rock Candy glitter.  So I dapped on some distress collage medium and then poured on the glitter.  I added some Snowfall grit paste around the bottom of the trees and to the sentiment for an extra little touch.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Pink Poinsettia

 Hello friends.  I'm popping in to share a card for the November Altenew challenge.  I love the pretty color combo that is offered and challenged myself to use them with one of my favorite stamp sets, Altenew's Festive Poinsettia.  

To color the poinsettia I pulled out my Altenew gouache paints.   I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to coloring with different mediums, but it is fun to try your hand at something outside your comfort zone.  I wanted to see if I could manage to combine the pink and soft purple colors in my poinsettia and I think I achieved that goal.   It was definitely interesting coloring with the gouache paints as the color seems to be a bit flatter to me than with watercolors.   To create a bit more separation when some of the bracts overlapped each other I used a medium pink Polychromos pencils.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design Friday

 Hello and happy Friday!  I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of my card.

Hope you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog to see the full card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

sending a bouquet...

 Hello... boy it has been awhile!   Haven't really felt like creating that much lately and so I have just been working on a few cross-stitch projects that I have going.   In an effort to get back into a creative mood I made a card for the current Sunday Stamps challenge.  The have a beautiful fall color palette to work with.   This is what I made.

If this card looks familiar that is because it is very similar to the last card I made for my Birch Press Design blog post.  I liked the look and thought I would make it again, but with a little change.  I created an arched frame instead of using a solid arched panel.   The majority of the products are from Altenew.  

The teal flowers and leaves from the Altenew SketchedFloral stamp set were stamped using Altenew Fresh inks in Aqualicious, Teal Cave and Galactic Stream.  The orangy-rust foliage was stamped using Pinkfresh Studio Clementine and Persimmon inks.  Everything was diecut with matching dies.  I used VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink for the sentiments.  They were also die cut.  I die cut white cardstock with a rectangle die and then used the Altenew Dotted Wave impression plate to added the dotted background.  The arch frame was die cut from a teal cardstock using Memory Box arched dies.   After I layered everything onto the main panel and added it to my card base I thought I might add something else, but decided to keep things the way you see it.  Also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since technically the dotted waves pattern is embossed. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!