two cards...

 Hello, hello!  Can't believe that it is already August!   Where is the time going?  Anyway, I'm here to share two cards that I made.   Uusally I combine my two favorite challenges into one card, but this time I have a card for Freshly Made Sketches and a separate card for Color Throwdown.  Let's have a look at the FMS card. 

My love affair with 49th and Market's Summer Porch line of products continues, lol!  I recently purchased a package of their laser cuts.  I used several of the laser cuts, as well as pieces of patterned paper to create my card.   Not much to explain other than I cut the pieces of paper to fit the sketch and adhered them to the front of my card base.  I then chose the laser cuts I wanted to use and adhered them together using liquid adhesive.   I stamped the sentiment down in the lower corner and then added the focal element using thin foam squares.   The leafy branch and the berry stems are separate laser cuts that I layered together for a fuller look.  Going to add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes, as well. 

Now for the Color Throwdown card.  This color combo was a little bit of a challenge for me, but I decided that stamping was a good way to go.  Take a look.

I used a very old Concord & 9th stamp set called Beautiful Branches.  I stamped the branch and leaves using light brown and light gray inks.  I then stamped the little flowers in the challenge colors of purple, orange and yellow and arranged them on the panel after I had die cut it with a rectangle die.  I then stamped the sentiment using the light brown ink.  I finished with the little bow and enamel dots in the center of each flower.   

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

Guesting at Color Hues!

 Happy 1st day of June everyone!  Hope all is well in your part of the world.  Today I have the honor of being the guest designer for the Color Hues color challenge.  The color combo for the challenge is a bright and happy one of yellow and blue.    Take a look at what I created with this fun combo.

Right after I was chosen as the winner of Color Hues challenge #86 I was able to purchase a few items from Concord & 9th.   Two of the items were the new Filled with Joy stencil set and the matching dies.  I used both for my card.  I stenciled the flowers and flower centers in blue and yellow and then die cut them with their matching dies.  I used Pinkfresh Studio Lemon Whip and Blue Jay inks for the stenciling.   I layered the flowers up as you see and added Rocky Candy Stickles to the centers.  The vase is part of the Filled with Joy stencil set and I used Altenew Limestone ink to lightly stencil in the vase.   I stamped the sentiment from the C9 Blended Petals stamp set on the vase in black ink and then die cut the rectangle.  I adhered that to a light gray cardstock base and then layered on the flowers.   Very clean and simple, but packs a punch I think.  

I will be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Thanks to Color Hues for having me as a guest designer!   And thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

just a note...

 Hello!  I am popping in to share the card I made for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.    The CTD colors this week are similar to the color combo at Color Hues so I thought about entering it there, but decided that if I participated in the CH challenge, I would just make a different card.  I will also post this to the Flower Challenge.  It is their birthday and the last challenge that Viv, who helped start the challenge will be participating in.  I "met" Viv when I participated in the Less is More challenge.  She is a fabulous clean and simple card designer and will be missed!   Alright how about a look at what I made.

The CTD colors are coral, blue and navy.   As many people know Ellen Hutson is closing its doors except for their stamp and die line that will be available on Amazon.  I was pretty sad to read that announcement as Ellen Hutson is a local business that I liked to support.    I took advantage of the sale to purchase the Concord & 9th Eclectic Blooms stamp and die set that I used for my card.  I actually looked at a lot of different stamp and die sets that I had and even did some stamping with another set before settling on Eclectic Blooms.  I used Pinkfresh Studio inks for all the stamping.  After stamping and die cutting the flowers I die cut some PTI polka dot vellum with a circle die to provide me with the three elements on the sketch.  I used the polka dots to hide the glue I used to glue the circle to my white panel.  I adhered the flower and the sentiment that I stamped with the dark blue.  I added some dots of Nuvo drops in a pale blue to finish things off.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

two cards...

 Hey!  Look at me posting two days in a row, lol!   That hasn't happened in a very long time.   Today I have two cards to share for two challenges that I normally combine:  Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.    First up is the card for FMS.

I recently got this fun jack-o-lantern die from Simon Says Stamp.  I wanted to use it for the sketch that FMS featured last week, but I just never got around to it.  Too busy cross-stitching and other things, lol!  When I saw this week's sketch I immediately knew I would be able to use the jack-o-lanterns with the sketch.  And I continued my love affair with distress mica sprays.  I used Harvest Moon and Mulled Cider mica sprays for the jack-o-lanterns.  Once my cardstock was dry I die cut them and then backed their faces with glossy black cardstock.   That was the easy part.  Then I had to figure out the sort of artistic portion of the sketch.   I wanted to use a mica spray, but sometimes things can go awry when trying to get the spray where you want it.  So I tried out a couple of stamped images, but didn't like any of them.   I die cut a piece of white cardstock, placed it in my splatter box, took a deep breath and sprayed.  It came out exactly as I wanted it to the first time!  YAY!    I placed the pumpkins approximately where I wanted them and then stamped the sentiment using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I thought the card needed a little something else so I pulled the spider web image from the stamp set that the sentiment came from and stamped it with the Nocturne ink.   I piled on the pumpkins and I was done.  I really like how it turned out.  Clean and simple, but with a bit of mixed media!

As many of you know Stamptember is happening right now at Simon Says Stamp.   Lots of different stamp companies collaborate with Simon Says Stamp on limited edition stamp and die sets.  In 2021 Concord & 9th collaborated with Simon Says Stamp to create the stamp and die combo called Double the Thanks.  That is what I used for my card.  I have to be honest and tell you that after I got the products I wasn't really sure that I should have even purchased them.  Do you ever do that?  Get caught up in the moment and buy something that in retrospect you probably shouldn't have?  Anyway, I decided to get it out to make a card using the CTD colors.   And I have to say that I like how it turned out.  To jazz things up a bit I added the background that I embossed with a WeRMemorykeepers embossing folder.   I used all Pinkfresh Studio inks for the stamping.  The finish touch was Nuvo drops in Morning Dew to the center of the flowers.  I had to do the drops in stages on the sunflower as the dot are tiny and very close together!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

so very...

 Hello!  Seems like it has been awhile since I lasted posted.   Honestly, haven't felt much like making cards.  I would rather be stitching, lol!   But I did make something to share.  This card is for a challenge that I rarely get the opportunity to participate in... JUGs!  Loved the inspiration photo so just had to make something.  I also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use a background stamp.  The circular image in the back is small, but it is a background stamp.  Take a look.

Last year I fell in love with distress mica sprays.  I hadn't really been that interested in sprays of any kind because they tend to be a little messy and I don't like to get things messy.  But for whatever reason I decided to buy a couple and the rest is history.   I own all of the sprays that came out last year (except one) and several of the sprays that were released this year.  For this card I used two new sprays (Fallen Acorn and Flickering Candle) and one old (Burning Ember).  I used all three on the bottom die cut leaf and Burning Ember and Flickering Candle on the top skeleton leaf.  The leaf die, circular background image and sentiments are all from Concord & 9th.  The leaf die and sentiments are from the Thankful Leaves turnabout bundle and the circular background image is from the Eclectic Garden stamp set.  I used Scattered Straw distress ink for the background image and VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink for the sentiment.   I thought the card was a little too plain so I added some splatters using the Flickering Candle mica spray and a small paintbrush.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

two cards...

 Hello!  I'm popping in to share two cards that I created using my stash of Concord & 9th products.  One card is for Color Throwdown and the other card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Hues.   First up is the card for CTD.

I love this pineapple stamp and die set from C9, but often forget that I have it.   I have never been to Hawaii and probably will never get the chance to go, but with the wildfires that have been raging on Maui this set came to mind.  My sister-in-law is Hawaiian and so I checked in with my brother to make sure that her extended family on the island was okay.  Thankfully none of her family or friends appear to have been touched by the fires.   I stamped the pineapple in black ink and then used Pinkfresh Studio inks to stamp all of the images.  I die cut the image and then several blanks of the pineapple to layer behind.  I had a scrap of white cardstock that I had embossed with an embossing folder so I trimmed that down, added a little strip of gold glitter cardstock and adhered it to my card base.  I added the pineapple and the sentiment banner.  You can just barely see it, but I also added a little strip of gold glitter cardstock to the banner.  

I went really simple for the card for FMS and Color Hues.  I used the C9 Eclectic Garden stamp and die set.  I stamped the grid image in both corners using a teal ink from MFT called Tropical Teal on a white cardstock panel.  I die cut the main floral image from white and the flower from orange.  The flowers were adhered and I added the diecut to my panel.  I tried stamping the sentiment on a banner, but it didn't look right so I stamped the sentiment directly on the panel.  Thankfully it stamped perfectly the first time!  I finished off the card with some little clear gems in the center of each flower. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

hello friend

 Hello!  Popping in with a clean and simple card for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.   I used the Concord & 9th Eclectic Garden stamps and dies for this one.  Take a look. 

I like challenging myself to use colors in ways that are a little different, but still pleasing to look at.  T To that end I spent sometime thinking about how I wanted to use the colors with the hummingbird dies from the Eclectic Garden die set.  I finally settled on using pink, red and brown for the birds and brought the green in using one of the circle images from the stamp set.  I die cut the birds from a light brown cardstock and then alternated the pink and red cardstocks on each bird.   I trimmed a strip of white cardstock, temporarily adhered it to the white cardstock rectangle and then stamped the circular image.  I then popped up the strip with foam squares.  To bring in more of the brown I stamped the sentiment on the brown cardstock with watermark ink and heat embossed it in white.  That was trimmed down and adhered to the card front using foam squares.  I adhered the hummingbirds and then added some Memory Box Fairy Jewels in pink, red, green and brown to the card.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

oh happy day...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card that I created for Freshly Made Sketches, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and Color Throwdown.   The FMS layout is a very simple one this week and I just couldn't pass up the Color Throwdown combo so here we go:

I have had my eye on the Eclectic Garden stamp and die set from Concord & 9th for several years now.  Both are being retired and were on sale at Ellen Hutson.  EH had a sale recently so I got the dies for an additional 20% off.   Yay!   The dies came a few days ago and I just had to use them.  So I turned the FMS layout on it's side and created this card.    The sentiment is from another C9 set called Thinking of You.  I die cut it with a banner die that I have had for ages.   Ellen Hutson decided to have today only sale and so this coming week I will be getting the Eclectic Garden stamp set in the mail.  Yay, again!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Guesting at Color Hues!

 Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  I have the distinct honor and pleasure of being the guest designer at Color Hues!   If you haven't played along with Color Hues before you really should.  It is such a fun challenge, and it runs for two weeks giving you lots of time to play along.  This time the color combo is navy and pink.    My card for the challenge has a whole lot of diecutting and a little bit of stamping!   Check out the fun Color Hues animated banner.  

And here is my card:

Like I said there is a whole lot of diecutting and a little bit of stamping.  Back in July... yes, July of last year I purchased the Birch Press Tranquility medallion dies from a local crafting store called Impress Rubber Stamps.   Because of supply chain problems I did not actually receive the dies until September.  Then with one thing or another I wasn't able to create with them.   When I got the nod from Color Hues for the guest spot and received the color combo I knew just what dies I would be using, lol!  I die cut the bottom and top layers from dark blue cardstock and the middle from pink and then adhered them together.  I used the Dotted Lines cover die from Altenew for my background piece and adhered the medallion to that.  The large thanks is another die from Birch Press called Big Thanks Sugar Script.  I die cut the top layer from pink cardstock and the shadow from the dark blue.  I added that to the center of the medallion and then added a sub-sentiment (from Concord & 9th) that I stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Twilight on pink cardstock, die cut it and adhered it below the thanks.  I finished with some pink pearls from Trinity Stamp.

Thanks to the gals at Color Hues for having as a guest designer!  Thanks for stopping by and make sure you play along with the challenge!

a couple more cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards today.  I got my Spellbinders Glimmer club kit for October the other day and I could not wait to fire up my Glimmer machine and create a card!  I hadn't used my September Glimmer club kit yet so I combine the two along with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. 

I also did some embossing with this card.  I normally leave my background panel plain, but I decided to pull out the Spellbinders Falling Leaves embossing folder to jazz up my background.  I foiled all the images twice using Polished Brass foil, die cut with the matching dies and colored with Copic markers.  I should have colored everything before I did the diecutting, but it turned out in the end.  The sentiment and banner are from the September Glimmer club kit and I used kraft cardstock for the foiling.  I like how it turned out.  I assembled the banner and then adhered everything to the embossed panel.  I finished with tons of sparkly red gems from the Spellbinder Color Mix Red essentials gem pack.  

The second card is for Color Throwdown.  During Simon Says Stamp's Stamptember celebration I was able to pick up the SSS/Concord & 9th collaborative stamp and die set called Double the Thanks.  I really liked the uniqueness of the stamp set.  I stamped the two part thank you in dark brown and kraft, die cut it and adhered it to a white cardstock base.  I then tried to find an ink that I might have that was more on the green side of turquoise to stamp the sentiment and the leaves, but couldn't quite come up with one.  Oh well... that happens sometimes, right?  I added those to my card and it was done.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

color challenge cards...

 Hey there!  Hope everyone here in the US has a wonderful and safe 4th of July!  I think our 4th of July will be pretty low key like it is most years.   As the title of my post indicates I have cards for color challenges.  

I don't know why when I saw the colors at Color Throwdown I immediately thought of using the Concord & 9th Pineapple Perfection stamp set, but I did!  I just love this stamp set and don't use it enough (oops... I can say that about alot of my stamp sets, lol!).   So out it came and I stamped the pineapple outline in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then stamped the crown, flowers, leaves and berries with the colors from CTD combo.   The pineapple was die cut with the matching die.   During a crafty cleaning session I found two embossing folders that I had never used.   I decided to use the fun large polka dot folder with this card.  I die cut my panel and then embossed it with the folder.  I adhered the pineapple and added the little twine bow.  The large sentiment is from the Pineapple Perfection set and was stamped then die cut with the banner die from the set.  The smaller sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set and was stamped then die cut with a small banner die from Spellbinders.   Another fairly clean and simple design.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes, as well.

This next card is for the Paper Players, as well as Color Hues.  I had wanted to make a red, white and blue card for the previous Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, but didn't find the time to complete a card, but I did die the Concord & 9th Fresh Cut Florals Edition 3 from red and blue cardstock multiple times.  I even ran some of the resulting die cuts through an embossing folder and then created one flower.   Everything got put aside and I made the pineapple card.  Then I saw the new combo at Color Hues and I decided to put that flower to use.  I die cut a rectangle from the same blue cardstock I used for the flower and embossed it with a star embossing folder.  I adhered that to a die cut white rectangle.  The sentiment is from the C9 Eat Cake & Celebrate stamp set.  That stamp set is literally the first C9 set I bought.  I still love it!  I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed with red embossing powder.   The sentiment was die cut with a banner die and they I adhered everything on a light gray cardstock base.

I don't know why, but sometimes I don't like creating cards solely out of cardstock.  They just look too plain to me.  I think adding the embossing provides a little something extra.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

guesting at color throwdown!

 Hello!  I'm so excited to be guesting at Color Throwdown this week!   As many of you might know CTD is one of my favorite challenges to participate in.  Week after week they provide fabulous color combos and inspiration to get your creative juices flowing!   The color combo for this week is no exception!  I went with a clean and simple floral design using stamps and dies from Concord & 9th.   Specifically I used the Painted Peony stamp and die set.  I didn't use the gorgeous large peony bloom in the set, but a smaller floral image.  Inks from multiple companies were used to stamp the images.  Pinks from Hero Arts, reds and greens from Altenew and browns from Stampin Up!   I die cut everything and then got to arranging it on my white cardstock panel.  As I was creating my arrangement I decided that the geometric piece everything was arranged on looked a little plain so I embossed it with an old, but favorite, embossing folder.  That did the trick!  The sentiment is from Painted Peonies and was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne.   I added a few sequins in red and pink to finish the card.   Here is my card:

And here is the CTD color swatch for this week:

Just realized that the challenge this month over at the Flower Challenge is to create a clean and simple card.  Since my card is pretty clean and simple I'm going to post it there, as well. 

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely day and I hope to see your card in the CTD gallery!  Thanks to the super talented gals at CTD for having me!

thinking of you...

 Hey there!  Can't believe it is the last day of April!  Where is the time going?!  Popping in with a card for Color Throwdown and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  I recently had the opportunity to buy some new products from Concord & 9th.   One of the things I was able to buy was the Thinking of You bundle.  I pulled that out and did some simple watercoloring with my ZIG markers.  I die cut the frame from Bristol smooth cardstock and then stamped the floral image on the frame using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I let it dry for a little bit before coloring the images using the colors from CTD.  I die cut the frame several more times from scrap cardstock and stacked everything.  I then adhered the frame directly to my white cardstock base.   I used light gray cardstock to die cut the thinking of you sentiment so that it wouldn't detract from the color images.  I made addition cuts of that die and stacked everything, as well.  I finished off the card with little gems from Trinity Stamps.  They really sparkle in the light!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

we do not remember days...

 Hello!  Hope most of you had a good week.  I'm popping in with a card for a couple of challenges:  Color Throwdown and Inspired By.   The color combo at CTD this week is so beautiful I just had to make a card.  I recently purchased Concord & 9th's Fresh Cut Florals edition 3 die set and I used that to make my little flowers.  I didn't have a blush cardstock so I used the lightest pink cardstock that I had.   The leaves were die cut from gold mirror cardstock.  I couldn't find any cardstock in a sage color so I inked up some smooth bristol cardstock with Bundled Sage distress oxide ink and then die cut it with a die that is also from Concord & 9th.  I cut a thin strip of gold mirror cardstock and placed in along the edge of my white card base.  The challenge at Inspired By is to use a quote or saying.  Mine is the saying by Cesare Pavese "We do not remember days, we remember moments."   And I think that is so very true.  A long time ago I was able to find the sentiment in red rubber mounted on a wood block so when I stamped it on my vellum I had to make sure I did it perfectly.  Thankfully I was able to get a good impression with my watermark ink on vellum the first time!  I heat embossed the sentiment in gold and then trimmed it down.  I arranged the sentiment strip along with the sage colored die cut that I cut in half as you see on the card front.  I adhered the flowers and the leaves.  To add in a little more gold I added a gold flat back pearl to the center of each flower.  I was going to leave the card that way, but I thought it needed something else.  So I added lots of tiny flat back gold pearls.  Now I'm wondering if it was too much!   Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since die cutting is a favorite technique.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you 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!