delightful...

Hello!!  Our wet and rainy weekend is coming to a close and it will turn into a rainy week!  Found some time this morning to make a card for a couple of challenges... ColourQ and Where Creativity Meets C9 - Sparkle and Shine.   I pulled out my C9 Brushed Blossom stamps and the coordinating die and did a little watercoloring.  I stamped the images on watercolor cardstock and then blended the colors out with a little bit of water.  To get more depth to the color of the flower I used my MISTI to add more of the rust color and then blended it out a bit.  Once that was finished I added the sentiment and then stamped the two little splatter images from the set using a light blue color.  The splatters were blended out slightly with more water. Once the panel was dry I die cut it with an AJVD Stitched Dot rectangle and adhered it to a light gray cardstock base.  The CT floral die was cut from gold glitter cardstock and adhered to the image.   For some additional sparkle I added some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins in two sizes.  I think I over did it a bit with the little splatter images, but live and learn... right?   I have included a close up of the floral image with the gold glitter die cut so you can see more of the sparkle... it looks so pretty in real life!

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, MFT gold glitter cardstock, Ranger watercolor paper; Stamps:  Concord & 9th; Dies:  Concord & 9th and AJVD; Inks:  SU! Real Rust, Old Olive, VersaFine Onyx Black, Ranger Broken China Distress ink; PPP clear sequins

two cards... two seasons...

Hello!!  The weekend is winding down here in my neck of the woods and after spending the last few days running around more than I like I had some down time today.  I took advantage of that down and made a couple of cards.  One a fall design and the second a winter design... thus my blog title.  First up is the card with a fall design that uses the current layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the color combo from ColourQ.  I have tons of quilling papers and had not quilled in ages.  I decided that today I would pull out all my quilling supplies and use them on my card.  I created a little corner piece in the style of a sunflower using the dark brown and orange colors and some leaves using the turquoise color.  I die cut the banner from kraft cardstock and then adhered my quilled pieces.  The thanks was die cut from dark brown and dark turquoise cardstock.  I offset the turquoise behind the brown, adhered them together and then to the banner.  Some patterned paper in a darker orange and cream was adhered to my card base and then finished with the banner.  

 

The second card is my winter design.  Each month I check out the MFT monthly kit and finally in September I took the plunge and got the Snowflake Sparkle kit.  I used it to create my card for this week's MFT sketch challenge.  I die cut one of the larger snowflakes from the blue glitter paper included in the kit and then two smaller snowflakes from white and stamped them with the coordinating stamps in the MFT Blue Breeze and Tropical Teal inks included in the kit.  I cut the panel from white cardstock and then die cut the center with the largest die from the MFT Stitched Inside Out die set.  The outer part of the panel was adhered to a card base made with MFT Cornflower  cardstock and then the inner panel was adhered using foam dots.  The snowflake was layered on and I added the sentiment that was stamped on a MFT Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax.   I am absolutely loving all the snowflake images in this kit and can't wait to make something else with it!

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Thanks card:  PTI kraft and Stampin Up! Early Espresso and Turquoise cardstock; American Crafts Halloween patterned paper; Quilling paper strips; Dies:  My Favorite Things and A Jillian Vance Design; Snowflake card:  MFT Cornflower and Recollections white cardstock; MFT blue glitter paper; Stamps and Dies:  My Favorite Things; Inks:  My Favorite Things

hello...fall...

Hello!! Yes... fall is officially here and with our weather being so lovely making fall inspired cards is not hard to do!!  As some of you might know my sweet friend Lisa and I have been doing a little personal challenge involving CASology.  I didn't participate last week because I just couldn't come up with a good idea for their cue word, but this week was totally different.  When I saw the cue word I immediately hit upon an idea and thankfully it worked!!  I don't know about you, but I have had a ton of "great" ideas that do not turn out great, lol!!  I will be posting this to ColourQ as I used that color palette (it is very fall inspired) and since I used Simon Says Stamp products for my card I will be adding it to this to the SSS flickr challenge.  As my starting point I die cut a frame from Ruby Red cardstock using two Spellbinders plain square dies.  I then stamped the leaves from the SSS set Apple of My Pie using the Hello Honey and Pumpkin Pie inks.  The outline leaf was stamped using Hero Arts Latte ink.  The glasses from the SSS set I See You were also stamped in the Latte ink and then die cut with the matching die.  The sentiment (also from I See You) was stamped in the lens.  I die cut the panel with the leaves stamped on it and then added the frame and the glasses.  I finished up by adding the sentiment "fall" (from a Hero Arts set) using Ruby Red ink.  So... I have some "frames" (glasses) within a frame! 

 Hope you have a wonderful... please let me know what you think and make sure that you head over to Lisa's blog for a look at her project... I know it is super clever!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, white; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp and Hero Arts; Dies:  Simon Says Stamp, A Jillian Vance Design, Spellbinders; Inks:  SU! Ruby Red, Hello Honey, Pumpkin Pie, Hero Arts Latte, VersaFine Onyx Black

love makes the world...

Hey friends!!  Hope your week has been going well.  We have been having some beautiful weather here in the Pacific Northwest!!  With all this good weather my crafting time has been cut down, but I did find time to create a little card for the current CASology challenge.  Yep... Lisa and I are continuing our personal little challenge revolving around CASology.   I also used the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the color combo from ColourQ so I will be adding my card to those lineups and the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   I have had the Concord & 9th Map Love stamp set for well over 6 months and have been wanting to make something with it.  When I saw the CASology cue word of Journey I immediately thought of this set.  I realize that some may not understand what connection my card may have to the cue word, but there is one, lol!  Obviously the earth journeys around the sun, but love is also a journey and one of the most rewarding journeys that we will ever take!!  I also think that stamping is a journey.  When I started my stamping journey I didn't know much, but as I have traveled this road I have learned a lot, had a lot of fun and met some pretty nice people!  So... there you have it... my take on the cue word.   Now that I have that explanation out of the way I will say a little bit about my card which is pretty straight forward I think. I thought the FMS layout was perfect for this type of card.   Lots of white space, a nice visual triangle created by the sequins and a pleasing arrangement of the colors.  Oh... and I managed to have pretty much everything in the lower third of my card!   This kind of card reminds me why I like clean and simple designs so much!

Thanks for stopping by today... would love to hear your thoughts on my card!  Please make sure you head over to Lisa's blog to check out her card.  I know it is going to something super clever!


Supplies:  Cardstock: white; Stamps:  Concord & 9th Map Love; Inks:  Stampin Up! So Saffron, Rose Red and Rich Razzleberry; Memento Tangelo; Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins; Die:  A Jillian Vance Design

PTI's Stamp-a-Faire Masters

Hey friends!!  I'm sure that many of you spent the day yesterday watching all the wonderful videos the PTI design team put together for Stamp-a-Faire Masters and then making cards.  I watched the videos, but didn't get anything made.  This morning I put together a card for Danielle's Gilded in Gold challenge.   I used the color combo from ColourQ and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches so I will be adding my card to their galleries, as well.  I noticed that the pattern in the inspiration photo from ColourQ looked like peacock featehrs so I decided to use PTI's Feather Finery for my design.  I die cut the smallest feather in the Feather Finery set twice and then stamped the feathers in teal.  The dots were added in dark navy to one and purple to the other.  The bottoms of the feathers were then gilded with the Liquid Leaf in Classic Gold.  All the other pieces were die cut and layered and then I finished things off with some sequins in teal and purple.   This may be the only project I get completed before the Tuesday deadline.  Tomorrow is the July PTI blog hop and I want to get something made for that.  

 Thanks for stopping by today...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white; Patterned paper:  My Mind's Eye; Stamps:  PaperTrey Ink; Dies:  PaperTrey Ink and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Stampin Up! Taken with Teal, Midnight Muse, Memento Grape Jelly; Plain Liquid Leaf; Sequins

a little sailboat...

Hey friends!!  Popping in with a super simple little card that I made using the current layout from Freshly Made Sketches as well as the colors from ColourQ.  I recently purchased the Stampin Up! set Swirly Bird and the matching dies.  I have been wanting to make something with them and thought the FMS layout would be the perfect vehicle.  I turned the sketch upside down so that my wave wouldn't look silly up at the top of  my card.  I die cut the waves from Pool Party cardstock and then stamped all the parts of the sailboat using all the other colors.  The little rectangle panel was die cut using one of the smaller Polka Dot Rectangle dies from AJVD.  As I was layout out my design I decided to emboss the waves on to the bottom of my cardstock.  Because I don't often use my dies to emboss I frequently forget how to do it.  Thankfully I remembered correctly this time and the embossing turned out perfect!  I slid the panel in between the die cut waves and then adhered the entire piece to my card front slightly overlapping the embossed waves.  Once I had that done I realized that I should have figured out where I was going to place my sentiment before I did that, but I was able to save the day by stamping the small "hello" sentiment from a MFT set down at the bottom of the panel.  I will also add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of create a scene since I did create a little scene with my sailboat. 

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, SU! Pool Party; Stamps:  Stampin Up!; Dies:  Stampin Up! and AJVD; Inks:  Stampin Up! So Saffron, Old Olive and Pink Pirouette and VersaFine Black Onyx

you made my day...

Hey friends!!!  Hope you are enjoying your weekend!!  On Thursday (July 7th) I got to see one of my most favorite people the super sweet and super talented Lisa Lara.   We usually meet somewhere for a walk and then lunch.   While we were having lunch Lisa put forth an idea that I thought would be a lot of fun.  Both of us would participate in the same challenge and then link our cards to each other's blog so you can see how we interpreted the challenge.  The challenge we chose to participate in this week is CASology.  The cue word at CASology is chevron so I really had to put on my thinking cap to come up with a good idea, but I was excited to give it a go.  When I got home I finished up a couple of other card ideas I had going (posted here) and then got to work on my card for the CASology challenge.  I used the color combo from ColourQ and so I will also be posting my card there.  I started by creating a chevron pattern on my white cardstock panel using a Memory Box stencil and SU!'s Marina Mist ink.  Then I layered on all the other images from the SU! set Timeless Textures using the rest of the colors from the ColourQ combo.  I finished by stamping the sentiment from the SU! set Best Day Ever in black and then die cutting my panel using an A Jillian Vance Design Polka Dot Rectangle backdrop die.   I have included a close up of the chevron background because it is so light. 

 

Thanks for stopping by today... I would love to hear what you think of my card and please make sure to head over to Lisa's blog to check out her fabulous design!


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white and SSS fog; Stamps:  Stampin Up!; Inks:  Stampin Up! Real Red, Marina Mist and Island Indigo, Memento London Fog; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design

two more cards...

Hey friends!!  Stopping by with a couple of more cards that I made today for a few challenges.  A little sore from physical therapy the day before and so I kept things very, very simple for both cards.  The first card is for the current CASology challenge.  The cue word this week is row.   As I thought about what I could make for the challenge I remembered one of the very first stamps I ever bought from Impress Rubber Stamps.  The image is of three little vases with a flower in each vase... a row of vases!  I pulled it out and did some simple watercoloring using Zig Clean Color markers.  I stamped the image in VersaFine Vintage Sepia and then colored the image with the markers and a water brush.  Once I was finished with the vases I added a light wash of grey around the vases to ground them.  The image was die cut with a Spellbinders plain square die and then mounted on a die cut panel of white cardstock that had been stamped with a row of three stripes in light grey ink.  The sentiment from the MFT set Pretty Poppies was stamped in black.  Adhered the white panel to a light grey panel and then to a light blue card base.  Not the most creative take on the cue word, but I really like how it turned out!  I will also be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The second card is for the current ColourQ and Freshly Made Sketches challenges.  I recently got some new dies from A Jillian Vance Design and one of them was the set of Daisy dies.  I used two of the dies to make my flower from navy blue and aqua cardstock and adhered them together with a foam dot.   The center was die cut from orange cardstock, adhered to the center and Glossy Accents added.   I die cut a panel of white cardstock, stamped the sentiment in black.  Some partial embossing was done to the top of the panel and then Diamond Stickles were added.  Finished off by adding the flower and some leaves die cut from a light green cardstock.  Again, another simple design, but I do like how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by today...

Supplies:  Cardstock: white, orange, navy, aqua, light green and light grey; Stamps:  Impress, A Jillian Vance Design and My Favorite Things; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design, Spellbinders; Inks:  VersaFine Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia; Zig Clean Color markers; Diamond Stickles 



what a day...

Hey friends!!  I have really had a crazy day.  Had to take my car to the dealership because the automatic lock on the driver's side door stopped locking... ugh!!  Find out that the dealership does not have the part so it can't be fixed until next week when the part gets here... double ugh!!  So... I have to manually lock my door until next Wednesday when it will be fixed.  Upside to all of this it falls under warranty so I don't have to pay for it.  But... I get to the dealership to pick up my car, get inside, turn the key and nothing.... absolutely nothing.... triple ugh!!!  The battery was dead and after they got it running, again, they did a diagnostic and I learned that I needed a new battery.  Unfortunately that wasn't under warranty and batteries for my car are not cheap... sigh...!!  But at least there is light at the end of the tunnel... I have a new battery and the lock will be fixed next week.  And I did get to make a couple of cards for several different challenges.  The first card is for the current ColourQ and uses Viva La Verve sketch #1 for June.  To make my card I searched through my enormous stash of patterned paper and found patterns from four different My Mind's Eye pad that fit all the colors in the ColourQ combo.   I used the Verve stamp set Better Together and some hearts from the Verve Hearts Quartet die.  Very simple and straightforward take on the sketch.  I think this would be a great card to give to a guy.   Since this is a bit more masculine I'm going to enter into the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: father's day/card for a guy.

 

The second card is for this week's My Favorite Things sketch and the new My Favorite Things color combo.  I do not own any of the MFT colors (ink, cardstock or otherwise) so I had to hunt around for colors that I thought were pretty close to the MFT colors.   Just like with my last card I used the MFT Mini Modern Blooms set, as well as a sentiment set from Amazing.  Instead of using a square for the central piece I used one of the Inside Out Stitched Rectangle dies and cut that from some blush colored cardstock.  For the circular element I used some loops of silver thread.   I used a Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax die to create the center strip element and the rectangle was die cut using an AJVD Polka Dot Rectangle Backdrop die.  For the blue flower and the leaves I did some second generation stamping (inking up the stamp then stamping it off before stamping the flower on the die cut).  The details for the blue flower and the leaves were added with the ink color at full strength.  The coral flower was stamped using two different shades of coral and the small flower was stamped with coral and blue ink.  After layering everything up I stamped the sentiment on a strip of cardstock using my mini MISTI, cut it in two and adhered it as shown.   Adding this to the line up at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge:  flower garden.

Thanks for stopping by today... tomorrow should be a better day, lol!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, light grey and blush; Patterned paper:  My Mind's Eye; Stamps:  Verve and My Favorite Things; Dies:  Verve, My Favorite Things, A Jillian Vance Design and Spellbinders; Inks:  Hero Arts Latte, Stampin Up! Cameo Coral, Calypso Coral and Gumball Green; Memento Danube Blue; VersaFine Onyx Black; Coates & Clark silver thread

thinking of you...

Hey friends... popping in with a card for a few challenges.  My sweet friend, Greta, is guest designing for City Crafter challenge blog this week and I just had to play along with the challenge... feathers!  I used the color combo from the current ColourQ challenge and the layout for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch challenge... haven't participated in their challenge for ages!   I used the fun Concord & 9th Grateful stamp set and did some layering of the images.  The set comes with two feathers and I used the smaller one stamping it five times, twice with Coastal Cabana ink and three times with Bahama Blue ink.  The sentiment was stamped over that using Calypso Coral.  I brought in the grey by stamping a little image from the Concord & 9th Painted Thank You set.  The piece was die cut and then mounted on a grey cardstock base.  I must admit that I had to fiddle around with the colors for a bit to get the layering right.   My shoulder is slowly getting better, but sometimes I feel like it has been "one step forward, two steps back" kind of process.  I have to keep reminding myself that it has only been 3 weeks since the surgery and that I need to take it easy... so hard to do... sigh!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, SU! Smoky Slate; Stamps:  Concord & 9th; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Stampin Up! and Memento

just a note...

Hey friends!!  Popping in with a card I made for several challenges:  Essentials by Ellen May Pin Sights, Freshly Made Sketches and ColourQ.   I was so happy to see that some of the colors in the beautiful pin-sights mood board corresponded nicely with the colors for the current ColourQ.  I used multiple Essentials by Ellen sets to make this card.  I started by die cutting a white panel of cardstock and then placing the panel in my mini MISTI.  The large flower from the Bold Blooms set was placed in the spot where I wanted it on the panel and then I used the "door" of the MISTI to pick it up.  The image was inked up with Delicata Golden Glitz ink and then stamped.  Since I was using the MISTI I was able to reink the image and then stamp again to get really good coverage.  The two flowers were cut from Calypso Coral cardstock using the Bold Blossoms dies and then the white flowers were cut with the Bold Blooms dies.  Those were then layered together.  The leaves from the Bold Blossoms set were die cut from light grey and adhered together.  The sentiment is from the Essentials by Ellen Fancy Thanks set.  I cut a strip of black cardstock, stamped the sentiment using watermark ink, applied gold embossing powder and heat set.  Then it was time to layer everything up, add a few sequins and adhere the panel to a card base.  I'm also going to post this to the current Time Out challenge as I used flowers on my card and there theme this time is to be inspired by the following quote: 'May all your weeds be wild flowers'

 

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white; PTI black, SU! Calypso Coral, SSS fog; Stamps:  Essentials by Ellen; Dies:  Essentials by Ellen and A Jillian Vance Design; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh; Inks:  Delicata Golden Glitz, VersaMark watermark ink

a vase of flowers...

Hey friends!! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  Hope you have a wonderful day.  We are going to head out later to spend some time up north of us in the little town of Woodenville, WA.  They have a beautiful nursery called Molbak's and we are going there.  And there will most likely be a few other stops along the way!!  Have a card to share that I made using the current MFT sketch and the colors from ColourQ.   Every week I take a look at the MFT sketch and tell myself that I'm going to make something, but it never happens.  I was determined to play along this week with some yummy new MFT stamps and dies.  I used the MFT Beautiful Blooms stamps and dies for the card.  Using my mini MISTI made it so easy to line up all the little flowers... love it!!   The vase was die cut from white cardstock and then I inked it with some Stampin Up! Coastal Cabana to look like it was full of water.  The flowers and stems were stamped using SU!'s Certain Celery and Rose Red inks, as well as Hero Arts Pale Tomato.   The panel behind the vase of flowers was die cut using an MFT Inside and Out die-namics die.   Love that stitched edge.  To break up all the white I added a panel of kraft cardstock that I embossed with some burlap for a bit of texture.  Finished things up with a little banner stamped with a happy birthday sentiment.  Hmmm... now I think maybe I should have found a "Happy Mother's Day" sentiment!  Since this is a pretty clean and simple card I think I will also add it to the Creative with Stamps line up.

Thanks for stopping by....


Supplies:  Cardstock: white; kraft; Stamps: MFT and AJVD; Dies:  MFT; Inks:  Stampin Up! SU!, Hero Arts and VersaFine; burlap fabric

happy birthday wishes...

Hey friends!!  Friday is here... yay!!  I'm especially excited for the weekend because my niece is here for her baby shower.  She lives in California and so I don't get to see her that often.  I'm sure that her mom, my sister, is working on trying to get her to move back here to Washington state once the baby is born.  Anyway... the card I'm sharing today isn't a card for her shower it is a birthday card that I made using the current layout from Freshly Made Sketches as well as the current ColourQ combo.  I pulled out three different Stampin Up! sets to create this pretty simple design.   I admit I love butterflies and flowers... my stamp collection is full of butterflies and flowers.  I could probably make a card a day for a month and make only a small dent in the number of flower/butterfly sets I have, lol!  And that collection is only growing... hee hee!   Before completing my card I fiddled around with the colors to get the layering right.   The hydrangea (from SU!'s Because I Care) was stamped in the coral color and then the little dotted strip (from SU!'s Watercolor Wings) was over stamped in black.  The butterfly (also from Watercolor Wings) was stamped using aqua and gold inks and then die cut with the matching die.  Stamped the sentiment (from Simply Sketched) , attached the butterfly and I was done.  I think I will also enter this in the current Paper Players challenge (CAS with a butterfly).   And since this is a rather feminine card I will also add it to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (girly).

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, Simon Says Stamp fog; Stamps:  SU! Watercolor Wings, Because I Care, Simply Sketched; Dies:  SU! Butterfly Thinlets, A Jillian Vance Design Polka Dot Rectangle; Inks:  SU! Calypso Coral and Coastal Cabana, Delicate Golden Glitz, VersaFine Onyx Black;