fabulous day...

Hello!  Hope you have a had a great week!  We had a teeny tiny polar vortex here in the Pacific Northwest at the beginning of the week.  It got super cold and we got snow.   Things have thawed a lot, but we are supposed to get more snow this weekend.  Good time to stay inside and do some crafting.   The other day I received some happy mail in the form of the Altenew Cattleya Build-a-Flower stamp set.  I pulled it out and worked on my watercoloring.  I stamped the image using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and then colored it with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I only used one color for the flowers and two colors for the stem and the unopened bud.   I really took my time as I colored the image and I really like how it turned out.  Once it was dried I die cut it with the matching die.  The colors come from this month's Altenew Inspiration challenge.  To finish the card I stamped the outline image on white cardstock in light gray ink and then splattered the image with some gray ink mixed with water.   Arranged where I wanted the image to be and then stamped the sentiment.  I adhered the image and then adhered the panel to a light gray cardstock base.  I will also be adding this to the current Flower Challenge to use your newest stamp set.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  MFT white, SSS fog; Arches watercolor paper; Stamps:  Altenew; Dies:  Altenew and AJVD; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne, Ranger Hickory Smoke distress ink; Watercolor medium:  Kuretake Gansai Tambi 

Wednesday with AJVD...

Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  Valentine's day is just a little over a week away and so I have another valentine to share over on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today.  Here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project and to let me know what you think!  Have a great day!

sending love...

Hello!  I have a Valentine to share today that works for several different challenges:  Paper Players, Just Us Girls (a challenge I have not participated in for ages!), Mojo Monday and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   My last Concord & 9th order included the little Sending Love stamp set.   I just love that big heart!  I stamped the heart using VersaFine CLAIR Tulip Red ink and then went on a hunt to find patterned papers that would work with that color!  Thankfully I found some papers from the My Mind's Eye On Trend 6x6 pad that worked.  I got a little crazier with the patterned paper then I normally like to do when I decided to use the diagonal striped black paper for the main background panel.  But sometimes it is good to get out side your comfort zone!  I trimmed out the heart and then layered up all the different die cuts.  I finished off the card by stamping the small sentiment from the set on white cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne, trimming it out and popping up with foam tape.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Concord & 9th; Dies:  Spellbinders, My Favorite Things, A Jillian Vance Design; Patterned paper:  My Mind's Eye; Inks:  VersaFine CLAIR

thinking of you...

Hello!   I'm popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Color Throwdown, Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   I used the beautiful Stampin Up! First Frost stamp set and the matching dies for my card.  I had to play around with the color combo a little bit to come up with a combination that worked well with the images in the First Frost stamp set.   Instead of using strips of paper for the diagonal element in the FMS layout I decided to use the vine image from First Frost.  After I finished the card I really liked how it looked, but when I took the photo I started to second guess my choice.  But no going back now... right?  The stamp set is part of a new line from Stampin Up! called DisINKtive.   I really like the way these stamps give you a variegated effect while using only one ink.   I used the aqua color for the large leafy/floral images and then stamped the two flowers using the yellow and saffron colors.  I brought in the brown by stamping the vine image one in brown, as well as the sentiment.   The twine looks black, but it is actually a very dark brown.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Stampin Up!; Dies:  Stampin Up! and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  VersaFine CLAIR Acorn, Stampin Up! So Saffron, More Mustard and Pool Party; brown hemp twine

It's Wednesday!

Hey friends!  It's Wednesday and that means I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of my card:

Hope you will head over to the A Jillian Vance Design blog to see the full project and let me know what you think.  Have a wonderful day!

more cards to share!

Hello!  Hope you had a good weekend!  This weekend I got the opportunity to make three cards!  For me that is absolutely amazing because for months I was lucky if I got three cards made in the course of a week!    First up is a card that I have made for the current Fusion challenge.  They have a cute inspiration photo of penguins so I immediately thought of the Simon Says Stamp January card kit.   The kit came with the super cute Snow Much stamp set that has two different penguin images in it.  I used the larger one.  Because I used patterned papers that came in the kit I decided to stamp my penguin in dark blue ink (Catherine Pooler Juniper Mist) to coordinate with those colors.  A little heart was stamped on the penguin's chest in the same blue ink, colored with a red marker and then covered with Glossy Accents.  I added googly eyes, as well.  Once everything was dry I trimmed out the penguin.  A piece of patterned paper was trimmed and adhered to a white cardstock base per the Fusion sketch.  Another piece of the coordinating paper was die cut with a banner die (from Verve), stamped with the sentiment in the same dark blue ink and adhered to the card base.  I then adhered the little penguin with foam tape.  Also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of have a heart.

The second card is for the MFT sketch challenge and the MFT color challenge.  I used the MFT Beautiful Butterflies and Amazing stamp sets for my card.   The butterfly was stamped using PTI Winter Wisteria and Catherine Pooler Black Jack inks and die cut with the matching die.  Black Jack isn't black it is actually a dark gray similar to the gray in the MFT color challenge.  Some light pink cardstock was die cut with the MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Oval die set.   The sentiment was stamped in Black Jack and then die cut with an MFT fishtail flag stax die.   I trimmed some white cardstock per the sketch and adhered that to a light gray cardstock base.  The oval was adhered along with the sentiment strip and then I added the butterfly with some foam tape.   Super excited that I was actually able to participate in the MFT sketch challenge two weeks in a row!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card 1: Cardstock:  MFT white; Patterned paper:  Echo Park; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp; Dies:  Verve; Ink:  Catherine Pooler

Card 2:  Cardstock:  MFT white; SSS pink and light gray; Stamps and dies:  MFT; Inks:  Catherine Pooler and Simon Says Stamp