Thank you

Greetings everyone! I needed to make a few thank you cards for the folks back at the home office that trained me last week while I was in Minneapolis. Here is the design I came up with for two of them.

I used the LJD Pretty Poppies stamps set from My Favorite Things to create this card. I stamped the first flower in red and then the second one in Chamomile inks.

The stitched panels are done using the rectangle mats from Lil' Inker designs. They are currently on back order and I'm still waiting for the round ones to become available. Love these!!!

I added a layer of color to corespond with the ink colors and then added a bit of ribbon on the side as well.

I really like the hand writing font used in the sentiments in this set.

Overall, this was a quick, clean and simple card to whip up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Belated

Hi everyone! Here's my take on this weeks Freshly Made Sketch.

Kept this one pretty clean and simple. Polka dot designer paper is from Lasting Impressions and layered in black.

The flower and button dies are from My favorite things. I used a bit of DMC pink floss to tie the bow. The flower is popped up using foam tape.

Sentiment is from Papertrey, Ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Entering this into the following challenges:
Freshly Made Sketches 146
Simon Says Stamp - emboss it
Less is More - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by!

You warm my heart

Hi everyone! I'm off to Minneapolis in the morning and thought I better get a card posted. I made this one a while ago and just never got around to posting it.

Coffee cup stamp is from PTI and the cup is colored with Copic's. The inner sleeve is stamped in Navy. I obviously went with the argyle theme on the rest of the card.

I used this die from Simon Says Stamp called circle card border. It allows you to mix up the base and the outline with different colored cardstock, if you prefer. I went with a navy border to match the coffee sleeve.

Sentiment is an old one from The Angel Company. The argyle back ground stamp is from PTI and stamped in navy. Added the argyle embossed craft cardstock to match the color of the coffee cup, a section of dark blue grosgrain ribbon and called it good.

I'll be back late Friday and hope to get back into the stamp room over the weekend. I'm going through inky withdrawals!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you the best

Hi everyone! Here is my take on this weeks Fusion challenge (see picture below).

I used the sketch and the picture for inspiration. I really liked the flower in the pitcher and tried to get as close to the colors in that.

The flower stamp is from the former Angel Company. I stamped it in versamark and then heat embossed it using white detail embossing powder. To color it I used the red tint from Pan Pastels. 

Sentiment stamp is from Papertrey, Ink as is the vintage cream cardstock.

The bottom half is done also using pan pastels for color and the background stamp is from Stampers Anonymous. Looking at this now I wish I would've put in a bit of turquoise to tone down the green a bit. Oh well, it is what it is.

Since I wasn't inspired to use cupcakes in the card, I however do like the texture of the cupcake papers and decided to dust off my crimper. 

OK, that is it for now. Gotta go vacuum up all the dog hair.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain clouds

Hi everyone! Whew! Now that I'm back home from a week in Alaska I can relax and get back to getting inky. Here is my take on week 181 theme over at Less is More. It's singin' in the rain....and I went with a rain/weather idea.

I cut out some white clouds (PTI die) and colored them with Copic markers. Popped a few up using foam tape after stamping the rain drops. I used shadow pastel violet ink from Prima marketing to stamp the rain drops, which is a stamp from MFT. You'd never know it was violet chalk ink from looking at it - it really appears gray.

Under the weather sentiment is from PTI as is the die that I cut out the frame with. I popped it up with foam tape to give this a 3D effect.

I think this looks real dreary and had to go with the get well theme on the sentiment.

When I was in Alaska I stopped at one of my favorite stamp stores called The Stamp Attic. Found out that she is closing her shop up the end of September to retire. Bummer! It was a darling little shop that carried a lot of different brands of stamps and what not.

That's it for now......thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor Thank you

Hi everyone! I guess I'm into pink lately and didn't know it! Funny!

Flower stamp is from Stampin Up! I used Memento markers to color the stem and flower petals and then did the huff method to stamp it. I used a water brush on the petals to give them a little bit more of a water color effect by smudging them up.

Sentiment is from MFT and the label die is from PTI. The wonderful white border die in the back ground is one of the newest border dies from Memory Box that came out a few months ago. I had to finally break down and buy the metal shim for this to work in my cuttlebug. What a difference that made to cutting!

I layered the label die in pink and then popped it up over the border die using foam tape. The pink paper is a bit off in the picture, but close enough in real life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mixed media canvas

Hello! I've been  playing around with some mixed media on canvas and finally got one done that I like.

I should've taken photos as I added the layers and different ways I colored this. Oh well, I was just really playing around anyway.

I started with tearing up some designer paper from The Paper Studio and gluing them down with Mod Podge. Then I added some texture using stencils and modeling paste.

Using mostly distress inks, dyes and paints and a few spray inks here and there, I added color where ever I wanted. 

Added a few die cut flowers, stems and swirls and then decided to add a few words as a title. the Dream and believe are made using Memory Box alpha's that I cut out of black cardstock. The "You" is a stand alone die that I think is from SSS. The ampersand is from PTI.
 
To finish things off, I added a butterfly cut out (Memory Box) and a corner guard embellishment from t!m holtz. 

There are no rules with Mixed Media and for a person like me that is a huge challenge. I tend to like things clean and simple, especially in card making, so this is kind of fun to let my creativity just fly.

I just bought a new journal and I'm going to try do some art journaling. Wish me luck in between making cards of actually getting one done.

I'd appreciate any feedback! Thanks!





 

Happy b earth day

Hi everyone! I just found this card that I did along time ago for earth day and never got around to showing it. Thought I might as well get with it!

Stamps are from Paper Smooches. I stamped the beaver in Versafine and heat embossed it with clear powder in order to color with Copic's.

The swirl cut out is a border die from Paper Smooches. I really like this die as it's a fun way to show off some paper and split up the sentiment from the main image.

Circle nesties used to cut out the beaver and the brown layer behind.

I really think this beaver is fun - his expression is too funny! Thanks for stopping by!

LIM - One layer card

I think you all will enjoy this challenge as much as I did. It's one layer week over at Less Is More and they want you to adapt a finder print. Here is what I did with it (twice).

I actually made the bottom one first and then realized that it was not one layer! Grrr!

Obviously I was just focused on using my finger prints!

I used Fresh Ink in Pink Lemonade and my pointer and pinky fingers to create the flower petals. Limeade ink used to stamp the stems using the LJD Pretty Poppies from MFT. The sentiment is also in the set.


I used a Copic marker to color a couple of pieces of white satin ribbon to match the ink color. The bow is tied using the bow easy and then stuck on with a glue dot.


I added some tiny black dots using the black distress ink marker on the flowers on both cards. I just thought they needed "something" to bring them out a bit. The pink cardstock is from PTI and cut using the 1/16th side of my mini layers tool

That's it for now! Back to work on my laundry. Thanks for stopping by!

FMS144 - Anniversary

Hi everyone! It's been super hot here in Washington state (in the mid 90's) and I sweated in my craft room to make this weeks card for Freshly Made Sketches! Just joking! Thank goodness for ceiling fans!

I just got the newest embossing folder from Spellbinders and had to try it out as soon as I unwrapped it. Well, I think I'm in love with it!!! It is from their Celebra'tions line by Richarad Garay called framed canvas.

The pink vellum is stamped in white using a very old lace background stamp. I also heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I'm kind of disappointed with it as I wanted it to be a brighter white! Oh well, it is what it is!

Sentiment is from PTI and cut out with the smaller fishtail banners from MFT. It's popped up with foam tape. White DMC thread used to tie the bow and the pink button is stuck on using glue dots.

That's about it for now! thanks for stopping in!

Beach scene

Hi everyone! I decided to play around with this Monday's Mojo Sketch and pair it with the Beach challenge over at The Paper Players. Here is what I ended up with.

It took me a few tries to get my mojo going on this one.

Dock and bird stamps are from Gina K Designs.

I made the sand using Versamagic wheat ink and a dauber. The water is done using a dauber with blue inks from Fresh ink and colorbox. White foam for the waves was done using a stylus and Copic opaque white paint.

Sky is also daubered on with Memento sky ink using my Picaso metal stencil. The stencil has several areas that I use pretty often, the circle and the clouds get the most use tho.

Lastly, I added the shadows in the water using a black Prismacolor pencil. The starfish is from TAC and fussy cut out and popped onto the corner using some foam tape.

Ok, that's it for me today! Thanks for popping in! 

Serenity

Hi everyone! Here is my take on The Less is More color challenge of using earth tones.

The main panel is done using distress inks, water and a acrylic block on water color paper.

I randomly stamped distress ink pads onto the acrylic block, spritzed with water and dragged the paper through. Then I used a linen background stamp with distress ink in pumice stone while the paper was still wet. This produced a mottled effect that I thought was pretty cool. I used my heat gun to dry it before stamping the leaf stems.

Leaf stamp is from PTI called turning a new leaf. I colored directly onto the stamp with distress markers and then spritzed them with water to continue with the watercolor effect.

The french script stamp is from Inkadinkado and is stamped twice (overlapping a little) in white and then heat embossed in fine detail white.

To finish this off, I layered it onto dark green cardstock and added a yellow organza ribbon, the attached it to an ivory card base. The title of this post came about while looking at the finished card, it just seamed calm and peaceful to me. What do you think?

Hydrangea Thank you

Hi everyone. I saw this sketch come across from My Favorite Things and thought I'd give it a try.

I used the felted cardstock technique to make the background for this card. You can find the instructions to do this at this link at Splitcoast stampers. I picked up the napkins from Joanne's about two months ago with the idea of doing this technique.

The sentiment and the background words on the white circle are stamps from MFT. I used thistle ink from colorbox to stamp the words as it is a really close match to the soft lilac colors within the hydrangeas in the napkin.

Sentiment is stamped on vellum and then two tiny lavender pearls are added to the end of the fishtail banner.

All purple cardstock is from Bazzill.

Thanks for stopping by!