two cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards.  One card is for the Altenew August challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  The other card will be heading off to the current JUGs challenge and Color Throwdown.  Let's look at what I made.

I often think I would like to participate in the Altenew monthly challenges, but then the month goes by and I don't.  I decided to make sure that I did participate in the August challenge and here I am, barely getting it in on time, lol!   Only took me four days to get the card done!  I used the Japanese Mum Build a Flower stamp set (Does Altenew even still have that line of stamps?  I don't know because all my Altenew products are several years old!).  It is a favorite.  I paired it up with one of their dotted impression plates (don't know the name because it is old, too, lol!) and a sentiment from their Versatile Greetings 2 die set.  That isn't super old having been released in 2023.  All the inks are from Altenew, as well.   Won't win any prizes, but I thought it turned out well.  

It is stencil week at JUGs and lucky for me I got the PaperTrey Ink In the Meadow stencil set this week!  I immediately put it to use with the Color Throwdown colors to create this card.  The sentiment is the January 2023 Psalms Reflection stamp.  This is one of my favorite Bible verses.  Sometimes when I'm having a not so great day, I remember this verse and it makes me feel so much better!   So you could still see all the stenciling I did with Altenew inks in reds and aquas I embossed the sentiment in white on vellum.  It was a bit tricky to get the panel adhered, but I think it turned out okay.  

That's it for me.  Don't forget about the sales at Birch Press Design and Poppystamps.  You just might find something fun to buy.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

fun, bright cards...

 Hello!  I'm popping in with a couple of fun, bright cards that I got a chance to make.  The first one is for Freshly Made Sketches.  Take a look.

Back in May I purchased the Simon Says Stamp June card kit as I thought it would be a fun one to have for making birthday cards for my little nieces and nephew.    This card will be going to my little niece, Mia, who turns three in September.  I used the Simon Says Stamp Instagram colors of aqua, pink and green for the card.  I stamped the cupcake and candle images on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copic markers.  I stamped the heart shaped swirled sucker on to a die cut rectangle with Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Copics, as well.  I stamped a confetti image from the stamp set over the sucker with VersaMark watermark ink, sprinkled on a glitter embossing powder and heat set it.  I then layered on the cupcake pieces and candles using liquid adhesive and thin foam squares.  Finished with the sentiment stamped in black.   Perfect for a little girl, don't you think?

This next card is another one for the Altenew July challenge and it was super quick to put together.  Have a look.

It was quick to put together due to the fact that I had created these pieces at the time I made the first card.  I used an Altenew debossing plate for the background and then simply layered on the different leafy pieces.  I finished with a sentiment strip from Memory Box.  Clean and simple!

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

a couple of very different cards...

 Hello!  Hope your day is going well.  I'm popping in to share two cards that couldn't be more different!  Let's take a look at the first one.

This first card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Just Us Girls.  The JUGs challenge is a word and the word is summer.  I think this card says "summer".   Yes, it is rather similar to the card I made for the last FMS challenge!  That is because I loved the 49th and Market Summer Porch chipboard ephemera pack I got for free from Scrapbook.com so much I had to order a paper pack.  Boy am I glad that I did as the papers in the 6x8 pack are absolutely gorgeous! I used three for my card and then several more of the chipboard pieces.  If I keep this up, I may have to actually buy another pack, lol!  Anyway, the card is pretty self-explanatory.   

My next card is for the Altenew monthly inspiration challenge.  I always tell myself that I'm going to try to play along and then the end of the month arrives and I didn't make anything.  I was determined this month and my dear friend, Greta, cheered me on in my effort!  I did some direct to paper inking of the three colors.  Boy are they bold and bright... a real punch in the face, lol!  I used the Altenew Zero Waste Leaf Pattern die, the Dotted Wave debossing die and a sentiment from the Craft Your Life: Watercolor Flowers stamp set.  I thought with the colors being so bright I would keep things simple by layering the three larger stems together and then adding them to the debossed background.  I also kind of turned the stem in to a flower stem by adding the fun little layered centers to each cluster.   Probably not going to win me any prizes, but I like the quirkiness of it.  

So, as you can see the cards are very different.  One is calm and serene while the other is bold and quirky!   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!

two cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with two cards today.  One card is for the Altenew monthly challenge and the other is for the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.  First up is the card for Altenew, take a look. 

The color combo this month for the Altenew challenge was definitely a challenge for me.  But I wanted to take up that challenge because isn't that what challenges are for, lol?   The colors are green and two shades of brown, but there is also a lovely old brick castle featured in the photo so I decided to take some inspiration from that and create a "brick" background for my green leaves.  I created my own stencil using a die that I have that creates a brick background.  I applied light brown ink first through my stencil and then blended on some light gray ink.  The inks I used are Pinkfresh Doe and Altenew Linestone.  I went back and forth between the two colors to get the look I was going for.  I stamped the leaves from the Leaf Canopy stamp set on watercolor cardstock using VersaFine Clair Acorn ink and then watercolored them with two shades of green from my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set.  Once everything was dry I die cut them with the matching dies.  I die cut down my background panel, stamped it with the sentiment from Mega Succulent stamp set with the Acorn ink.  The panel was adhered to the kraft card base with foam strips and then I added the leaf branches.  Now I have a nice masculine birthday card and I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Now let's have a look at my card for the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.

The last time I ordered from Scrapbook.com they had a free gift opportunity that I couldn't pass up.  I pretty 6x6 pad of paper from Dress My Craft called Hydrangea Lawns.   I decided to use that along with many different Pinkfresh Studio dies for my card.  The Pinkfresh challenge is layers and boy do I have layeres, lol!  I started by die cutting the Modern Mosaic coverplate die from some of the patterned paper.  Using a rectangle die that I have that is the exact same sizes as the cover plate die I die cut a piece of patterned paper with a script design on it and adhered it behind the mosaic panel.  I then die cut another piece of patterned paper with the Fancy Oval frame.  I die cut a second frame and adhered it to the main oval.  I die cut a scalloped rectangle using the Essentials Scalloped rectangle die, adhered that and then added the oval frame.  I added foam squares to the back of the fall out oval and set it back inside the frame.   I had previously foiled some of the Pinkfresh butterflies on acetate and then adhered them to some patterned paper I used two of those on the card along with a sentiment that I foiled in gold on acetate, as well.  Nice to be able to use up some of those bits and pieces we all seem to have!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

sylvan hello...

 Hey there!   Popping in with a card that will be heading to the Altenew January inspiration challenge, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   I haven't participated in an Altenew challenge in a very long time for various reasons.  But I have decided that this year I will try to participate more so that I can use the Altenew products that I have.  For this card I used a new to me 3D embossing folder from Altenew called Sylvan Baroque.  

When I purchased this embossing folder I specifically had in mind the idea to emboss the image using watercolor cardstock and then watercolor it.  I think for my first try at this technique it came out fairly well.  I used my Jane Davenport watercolors and tried to take my time in order to get a good result.  I did try to uses colors from the color palette, but in a more softer tone.  Once the panel was dry I trimmed it down and added it to a ivory cardstock base.  The sentiment is the Altenew Fancy Hello.  I die cut it from scrape cardstock and from Simon Says Stamp glossy black cardstock, adhered them together and then added it to my card front.   Sometimes simple is the best, right?

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hug enclosed...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for the Altenew monthly challenge, as well as Freshly Made Sketches.  I don't often get time to participate in Altenew's challenge so when I had the chance this week I took it.  Here is my card:

I pulled out the Altenew Cattleya build a flower set for my card.  I stamped the outline image using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and then used inks from the Pinkfresh Studio Rise and Shine ink cube set.  The leaves were inked with the Pinkfresh Studio Over the Hills ink cube set.  I then die cut it with the matching die.  I trimmed a piece of white cardstock to create the angles from the FMS layout and adhered that to a panel of white cardstock with thin foam squares.  I adhered the floral image using a combination of thin and thicker foam squares.   The sentiment is from the Paint a Flower Coral Sunset stamp set and was heat embossed in black on vellum.  I then die cut it with a banner die.  I added a thin foam strip to the back of the sentiment and then wrapped the rest of the banner around the panel and secured it in the back.   I finished the card with some iridescent pink/purple sequins.  

Affiliated linked supplies list:

Platinum 6

Altenew BAF Cattleya

Altenew PAF Coral Sunset

Pinkfresh Studio Over the Hills ink cube set

Pinkfresh Studio Rise and Shine ink cube set

Scrapbook Adhesive by 3L Thin Foam Squares

VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink

WOW Ebony embossing powder

Spellbinders Essentials Rectangle dies

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

alcohol ink cards...

 Hey there... hope you are having a great day!  I have been playing around with alcohol inks the last few days and here two cards that I created using the resulting backgrounds.  First up is a card for the Altenew monthly challenge.  Haven't played along with their monthly challenge in awhile, but I really liked the colors so I decided to create a card.    Earlier in the week I received the Paint A Flower Coral Sunset and so I used that set for my card.  I created the background using purple, blue and green alcohol inks.  Once I had the mix and look I was going for I added little bits of silver foiling to the areas where the alcohol inks were a little thick and sticky.  You can sort of see the silver in the card, but it looks really pretty in real life.  I then stamped the image over my background with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink, applied clear embossing powder and heat set.  I die cut the piece down and adhered it to a cardstock base.  The sentiment is from Altenew's Label Love stamp set... and oldie, but goodie!  I brought in a little bit more silver with some silver sequins.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to make a birthday card.  My colors are a bit more intense, but I love how the background turned out!

The second card is for the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.  For this background I used a pink alcohol ink and Gilded Alloy.   This month the challenge is to have gold on your project.  There are other colors provided to use, but to keep things simple I decided to go solely with pink and the Gilded Alloy.  I created the background and then spent time deciding what I was going to do with it!  At first I was going to stamp on it, but then decided that I didn't want to do that because I didn't know what ink to use!  So I decided to cut the piece with my PF Fancy Oval Frame die.   The Yupo paper I used is heavy weight and did not cut well so I ended up not using the frame, but simply the interior oval.  I learned that I do not like using the heavy weight Yupo as it is hard to die cut so I won't be buying that in the future.  I die cut the frame again from textured gold cardstock, twice more from thin white cardstock and adhered them together with spray adhesive.   The frame was adhered to an off white cardstock panel and then I popped up the alcohol ink oval with foam dimensionals.  The floral image is from the Choose Hope stamp set and I embossed that in gold on vellum then die cut it with the matching die.  I adhered that to the frame hiding the glue by applying it behind the embossing.  I die cut additional leaves using one of the dies from the Curvy Leaves die set and adhered those at the top of the card.  The sentiment is from the stamp set and boy did that give me problems!  I stamped and embossed the Hoping fine and then trimmed it out.  I adhered it with glue, but wasn't really thrilled with how it looked.   I stamped the "your birthday is wonderful" sentiment on cardstock and was going to heat emboss it, as well.  When I applied the embossing powder it was a mess!  At first I thought the stamp was flawed, then I realized that there was some residual photopolymer attached to it.  I pulled that off and started over.  Didn't like the sentiment on cardstock so I went with vellum and liked that much better.  Finished off the card with some light pink sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.   Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, too, but will do so through Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

pink sunflowers and purple leaves...

 Yep... you read that one right pink sunflowers and purple leaves!  First up is the card featuring purple flowers.  This one is for this month's inspiration challenge at Altenew.   I purchased the Altenew Paint a Flower Sunflowers stamp set back at the beginning of December.  It finally showed up along with the Fancy Hello die at the end of December!   When I saw the Altenew inspiration challenge I wanted to use the colors with the Sunflowers stamp set.  Finally got the opportunity to sit down and make the card.   Honestly I'm not really sure how I feel about this card.  It is definitely different and really outside my box, but sometimes you have to push yourself, right?   Stamped the image on watercolor paper with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then did the simple watercoloring using the Altenew 12 pan watercolor set.  Once I was done I added some splatters of black and white paints.  The Fancy Hello was die cut three times from heavy weight vellum and adhered together.  Once the panel was dry I die cut it with a Spellbinders Essentials rectangle die.  The Fancy Hello was adhered to the panel and I stamped the small sentiment from the set in Nocturne as well.  I added the panel to a black cardstock base.  

The second card is for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  The CTD combo is pretty bold and so I wanted to make sure that I used a simple design when creating my card.  The FMS sketch was the perfect vehicle.   I started by creating a swatch of color on watercolor paper using a purple from the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set.  Once the piece was dry I die cut the leaves using  the solid leaf dies from the Concord & 9th Leafy Layers die set.   The skeleton leaves were then die cut from black cardstock and adhered to their solid counterpart.  I die cut a couple of small berry stems from black cardstock as well.  All the pieces were adhered together to form a cluster.  I then die cut some off white cardstock with a Spellbinders rectangle die and strips of the same off-white cardstock with an AJVD sentiment strip die.  The strips were adhered to the panel and then I attached the leaf cluster with foam tape.   The sentiment (from a small C9 Turnabout stamp set) was stamped using Nocturne ink and the panel adhered to the off-white cardstock base.  I added a little bow tied with black twine to finish things off.   Just like the first card this one is a little outside my comfort zone, but sometimes you just have to push yourself, right?

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

washi flowers...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card that was super quick to put together thanks to some pretty flowers die cut from washi tape.  I have my friend, Greta, to thank for the washi flowers.   She had purchased the Painted Fantasy washi tape and the dies that can be used to cut the washi from Altenew.  I  had purchased the Calming Bouquet washi tape from Altenew and so we did a swap!   This card will be heading to Freshly Made Sketches, as well as the Altenew monthly inspiration challenge.   The inspiration photo for the Altenew challenge features bold flowers against a dark blue background.  I did incorporate the dark blue color into my card by die cutting the banner element from dark blue cardstock.   I adhered the washi tape flowers with foam tape to the banner and then added the banner to a white cardstock base.  The sentiment is from the Trigonometry stamp set.  I stamped that on a white banner strip using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink, trimmed down and adhered to the card front.  Love how quickly this card came together!  Decided to add this to the Flower Challenge to put a sentiment on it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

thanks...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a card that features more leaves, lol!  What can I say... it is fall and I love stamps that feature leaves!   These are from Altenew and this will be heading over to the Altenew Inspiration challenge.  I stamped the images using VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink and then watercolored the leaves and the background using the Altenew 12 pan watercolor set.  Once it was dry I die cut the panel.  I used the Altenew fancy thanks die (think that is what it is called) for the main sentiment and die cut it from very thick vellum three times.  After stacking the words together I placed them on my panel so I could place the smaller sentiment in the right spot.  That was stamped with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then I adhered the thanks.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

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!

cake and balloons!

Hello and happy Friday!  We are having lovely weather here in the Puget Sound region and that makes me happy!  The Mountain is out and that makes me even happier, lol!  Plus my niece and her little are visiting this weekend so now I'm really happy!  Anywho... I do have cards to share and they are both birthday cards.  First up is a card that I made for a dear friend who will be celebrating her birthday early next week.  She loves pink and so when I saw the colors from Color Throwdown I knew I wanted to use them to make her card.  I pulled out the Stampin Up! Sale-A-Bration Happy Birthday to You stamp set as it has that sweet flower covered cake.  I stamped the cake on watercolor paper with VersaFine Clair Morning Mist ink and then colored the image with distress inks in Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber (flower centers) and Broken China.  When the image was dry I die cut it with the insert die from the Becca Feeken Sentimental Finery Flourished Fretwork set.  I used the largest die from the same set to die cut the rectangle from off white cardstock.   I decided to emboss the sentiment from the set on vellum using white embossing powder, wrapped the strip around the panel and then secured it on the back.  I adhered the outer rectangle with glue to a pink cardstock base and then popped the image panel up with foam tape.  I finished off the card by adding some light yellow Pretty Pink Posh gems to each corner of the outer rectangle.   Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches and this month's Altenew inspiration challenge.  I used the Mini Delight Birthday Love stamp and die set.  I stamped the balloons using Altenew Starlight crisp ink.  The funny thing is two of the balloons are the same color, but the third one turned out a little darker! Anyway after diecutting the balloons I attached some brown string to the back of each one and let them dry.  I have had a hard time with the color combo for the inspiration challenge, but when I saw the beautiful card my friend Greta made using kraft cardstock I decided to give it a try. Glad I did!  I cut a piece of kraft cardstock and then did partial embossing using my craft hammer.  Once I had enough embossing I then swiped some distress oxide ink in vintage photo over the embossing to bring it out more.  I die cut some white cardstock using the largest rectangle die from the AJVD stitched dot rectangles die set and adhered the kraft strip.  To give it some height I added scrap cardstock strips to the back instead of using foam tape.   The balloons were adhered with a combination of glue and one well placed foam dimensional.  I stamped the sentiment from another Altenew stamp set on white cardstock with the same Starlight ink, trimmed it down and then adhered it to the card front.  I also added a dot of glue to the balloon strings to keep them in place.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!