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!

Fall and Christmas...

Hello there!  I have two cards to share for challenges that will be closing in a few hours.  First up is a card for Freshly Made Sketches.   A few weeks ago I colored up the large oak leaf image from the beautiful Colorado Craft Company stamp set called Oak Leave & Acorns from their Big and Bold line of stamps.  At the time I colored up the larger image I had also colored the smaller oak leaf and acorn image, as well.  I set that image aside, forgot where it was, found it, then forgot it again, and finally found it one last time!  Determined to not have it disappear again I die cut it with one of the rectangles from the AJVD Stitched Dot rectangle die set and then adhered it to a kraft cardstock base pursuant to the FMS layout.  I then stamped the sentiment on additional craft cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink, trimmed it down and adhered it to the image panel.   It has been so long since I did the coloring in this card that I don't remember what exactly I used, but I think it was my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.   The paper used was Canson watercolor paper and the image was stamped in Acorn ink.

The second card is for a few challenges:  the Paper Players, Color Throwdown and Inspired By.  For the Inspired By challenge I was obviously inspired by the large lawn ornaments.  After embossing the ornament from the Simon Says Stamp Ornate Ornaments stamp set in silver I did some very simple coloring with my ZIGs and a little bit of water.   The ornament was die cut with the matching die and the little string from some silver glitter cardstock.  I then adhered them together with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive.  Strips of orange and silver glitter cardstock were cut and adhered to a white cardstock panel that I die cut with a rectangle die from AJVD.   The strips were adhered along with the ornament and then I added the sentiment (from a now retired SSS stamp set called Gifts of Love) that I stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  Super quick and easy and now I have one more Christmas card!

Before I go I want to let you know that Spellbinders' Pre Black Friday blow out sale has started and runs through December 3rd at midnight MST.  Here are some of the deals they are offering:

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    •    Merry Everything Christmas Kit – Now $60

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    •    Holiday Clearance Savings - Deals from $1

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Just click here to find all the deals.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

floral cards...

Hello!  Hope everyone in the USA had a wonderful and safe 4th of July!  I'm popping in with a couple of cards that I made over the last few days.  First up is a card that I made for the Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches challenges.  Back in May I won a gift certificate from Pinkfresh Studios and purchased the beautiful Hanging Florals stamp set and matching Hanging Florals dies.  I die cut the main image from Canson watercolor paper and then stamped the die cut with images in VersaMark Onyx Black ink and then watercolored with Distress Crayons in Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint.   I die cut some white cardstock with the largest Stitched Dot rectangle from Jillian Vance Design and then adhered the image to the panel with foam dots.   The sentiment was embossed on vellum with WOW! Embossing powder in black and then trimmed down to fit the card front.  I used Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive and medium Zots that I rolled up to adhere the vellum to the image.   The panel was adhered to a light gray cardstock base and then I added some tiny Pretty Pink Posh jewels in white, silver and clear to the image for a tiny bit of sparkle. (Compensated affiliate links used when possible at no cost to you.)

The second card I'm going to send off to this month's Flower challenge to use pastels.  I colored up the Missing You Peony from Colorado Craft Company's Big & Bold line with my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers after stamping the image with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist on smooth Bristol cardstock.   After die cutting my panel I adhered it to a cardstock base and then embossed the sentiment from the set on vellum using Hero Arts white embossing powder, trimmed out the sentiment and adhered it with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive.  Added a few sequins and I was done!  I must admit that it took me several days to color this image because of its size, but boy was it worth it!  (Compensated affiliate links used when possible at no cost to you.)

Thanks for stopping by today!

fiesta and a flower...

Hello!   Once, again, it feels like ages since I last posted, but it has only been a few days.  I have been busy doing some coloring lately and the images I have been coloring are rather large so that is taking up a lot of time.  I'm sharing one of those cards today at the end of the post.  First up though is a card for the My Favorite Things sketch challenge and color challenge.   I love that fun little piñata die from the April, 2018 MFT release and decided to use that along with the fiesta word die.  I seem to like layering the word over the little piñata because I came across a card that I had made quite awhile ago where I did the same thing!  Hey... if it works go with it, right?  I die cut all the main body of the piñata from white cardstock and all the pieces from purple, coral and red cardstock.  Then I determined how I was going to layer all the pieces and adhered them to my base.  Finished things up by adhering the teeny tiny eye!  Last weekend my boys and I made a little trip down to Vancouver, WA to meet up with my friend, Greta.  She lives in Oregon so we meet up in a place that is about half way for each of us.  She took me to one of her favorite crafty shopping places Craft Warehouse where I was able to purchase the Glue Sponge.  I used that to help me adhere the teeny tiny eye pieces together.   It works pretty good!   I die cut a rectangle from white cardstock using the largest MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle Stax die.  I attached some white twine to the back of the piñata and then attached that to the back of the rectangle.  The rectangle was adhered to my white cardstock base using foam tape.  I die cut the word from light gray cardstock three times, adhered them together and attached to the piñata using a combination of glue and foam tape.  When I was done I realized that I forgot to give the piñata its tail!  Oh well...  Sending this off to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes, as well.

The second card was created using a stamp set from a newer stamp company called Colorado Craft Company.  They have a line of stamps called Lovely Legs and recently started a new line called Big & Bold.  All the stamps in this line feature big and bold floral images.  When I saw the images I couldn't resist picking up the Get Well Hydrangea and Missing You Peony.  Today I'm sharing a card I made with the Get Well Hydrangea.  I stamped the image with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist and then colored the image with my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers in shades of blue and green.  When I started the card I knew I was going to send it to a friend for her birthday so I used a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Flowers stamp set.   VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne was used for the sentiment.  After die cutting the card with the largest die from the Jillian Vance Design basic rectangle backdrop die set I adhered the panel to a blue cardstock base and then added sequins.  I used the Glue Sponge for this task.  I really like how the coloring turned out.  Stay tuned as I will be sharing a card I made with the Missing You Peony stamp set!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI white, Bazzill coral, SU! purple and red, SSS Fog; Dies:  My Favorite Things; SU! white baker's twine

Card #2:  Cardstock:  Reverse Confetti light blue; Strathmore smooth bristol; Stamps:  Colorado Craft Company; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR; Sequins:  Verve; Coloring medium:  ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers