Hello Texture Square

Baseball on TV? No thanks! I'll play in my craft room instead. LOL Here's what I came up with today. It's my attempt at mixed media. I'm new to this, but I sure like the way this turned out!

I am entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ADD SOME TEXTURE.

For this card, I started with texture paste and a big background stamp with a small dot design applied to water color paper. After it dried, I added some water and Distress Paint in several colors. Next came a layer of clear gesso and a bit of Distress Crayon in Spiced Marmalade, rubbed on with some water. I wanted to add lots of different elements including die cuts, wooded elements, and a stamped panel which resembles a window. I also punched a few holes in several corners to match the tiny circular depressions. Most of the colors are shades of pink, purple, and orange, but the contrasting black hummingbird,window frame, and "Hello" help give more dimension to the piece. I really like the way this turned out. It represents so many elements I love! Thanks for reading my blog today!

Just For You

  

Hooray! It's the weekend so I hope you all have a chance to craft in the next two days! 

I finished another card for the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #291! 

You can see the sketch below. I turned it sideways for my card design

 and have listed the products below. Have a great weekend, bloggers!

Stamp sets: MFT Beautiful Girl, MFT So Much Love, MFT Spring Wreath; Dies: Die Namics Blue Print #27; Punches: scalloped heart from Martha Stewart and lattice from EK Success; Wink of Stella, Copic markers, Distress Inks, and various other inks and paper.

A closer look at the fairy and glittery heart,

These stamp sets are some of my favorite ones!


 

Hello Feathers

Another card completed today! This card evolved because my crafty friend Cindy (find her HERE) let me borrow her FEATHER STAMPS, and I wanted to use them before the summer ended! I wasn't sure how I was going to do this because nothing else in my craft room has feathers! Well, I played around until I came up with an idea.

Lots of texture and dimension on this one so I am entering it in the 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Texture."

Look close and you will see a tree trunk - a red tree in front of lots of black and white trees! This die from SAVVY stamps has texture built in. Check out the close up view below. I made a "bunch" out of the feathers, after adding some distress ink, and adhered a piece of red and white twine at the top of the bunch. A little red for accent and a greeting finished the card. Thanks for reading my description and viewing my blog!

So Fairy Sweet

Hello all. Here's a card inspired by Jenn Shurkus -FIND HER HERE - and a class she taught at Big Picture. com called Distress Ink Card Techniques. You'll see that I used several colors of Distress Inks for the night sky. Before I applied the ink, I stamped and masked the images. I used masking paper as well as masking liquid. Both work fine.

These pixies are from Avery Elle and the Toadstool house is from Purple Onion Designs. Lastly, I applied Snowflake Paste from Prima Marketing which gives the card dimension and texture. Now that I look at it, I definitely need some sparkles... so I'll go add them!

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Texture."

Hope to See You Soon

Good afternoon, Bloggers. It's been a while since I entered one of the MFT challenges and I love their products so much!! Here's a card for the Sketch Challenge # 291

and I'm entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes.

    

Rather than list all of my products (which were mostly from My Favorite Things,) 

I'll simply describe my process for this card. I stamped the Pure Innocence little girl and colored it with copic markers. Next, I masked the image and used a home-made stencil from the bricks die to create the red brick background. Then I used about three MFT flower stamp sets to create the floral panel on a separate piece of card stock. I drew in some leaves and stems with a green copic. I used one of the sentiments from the Pure Innocence set at the bottom and created a border by using the Cornflower ink pad directly on a piece of card stock. Lastly, I adhered the die cut sun in the corner. That's it for today!

Brighten Your Day

Lots of sunshine to brighten your day!

This week has been so much fun! I have had lots of time in my craft room. Here's a card I put together for the Sugar Pea Design Mix it Up #7 for July.  You will see that I used the design, not the colors.

All of the elements are from Sugar Pea - sentiment and suns. Additionally, the striped paper is from one of their paper packs. See the products below and visit their online store if you are interested.

       

Go Nuts!

Hello again. I finally had a chance to play with some new stamps from Sugar Pea Designs! This cute set has the most adorable squirrel which can be used for many occasions! Today I decided to use him for a Birthday card and followed the sketch from Mix It Up Challenge #9.

                  


I used some paper in my stash with picked up on the reds, browns, and leaves in the stamped image. I added a bit of jute at the end to keep it simple with a touch of nature. It's got some white space, but I like it. Thanks for viewing my blog today! Check out Sugar Pea Designs HERE for some great stamp sets and dies.

Hello Card Using Stamp of Approval

Hi Blogging friends! Here is a card I made recently using the Spring Stamp of Approval Kit. I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes!

I started with the flowers from Sugar Pea Design, created just for the Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval Box. After stamping them and coloring with water colors, I used the matching dies to cut them out. 

For this card, I die cut a green frame using the Die Namics Stitched Rectangle Scalloped Frames and cut a piece of dark orange card stock to pick up the orange in my sentiment. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink "Stacked Statements." I had stamped it with one of the ombre ink pads and adhered it to a piece of water color paper upon which I had lightly applied water colors. To pick up the lavender color in that water colored paper, I found a piece of lavender card stock and ran it through an embossing folder from Taylored Expressions called Garden Party. I'm sorry that you cannot see the valendar paper in the photograph! Then it was time to put all the elements together. For more detail I die cut tiny holes in the rectangle around the sentiment.

Flowers & Texture

Here's a card I created with the Stamp of Approval Box from Catherine Pooler. 
I really like the contents and know I will use them a lot in the future. Flowers, yes please! 
Included in the box was a stamp set from 
Sugar Pea Design. I have a few of their sets
 and always like to follow their blog and face book page. So the first thing I did when I got the set was stamp and water colored several different flowers and leaves. Here's one of the cards.

I am entering this card in the Sugar Pea Design Mix It Up Challenge #9

 and the Simon Says Stamp 
Monday Challenge ADD SOME TEXTURE

For this card I wanted more texture than usual, so I took a piece of Tim Holtz Wood Grain Water color card stock and applied several colors of Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Scattered Straw, Tea Dye.
The challenge inspired me because I liked the warm browns with the pinks, although I made flowers not ice cream! I placed the flowers in a design I liked across the paper and adhered them with some Ranger multi medium glue. For the sentiment I die cut a piece of vellum with a Die Namics Traditional Stax Tag and heat embossed the sentiment which came from the Stamp of Approval kit, adding one of the small flowers in the middle. The green background panel is one of Gina K Design's colors called Fresh Asparagus. That's it. I hope you like my card today. Thanks for viewing my blog!

Welcome Little One

I just loved these little koala bears when the set was released, but it took me a while to purchase them. Naturally I wanted to use them for the Reverse Confetti July Sketch for You to Try!

Here's my card. I rotated the sketch to the right 90 degrees... I think that makes sense! The patterned papers in my stash really came together on this one and I like the final card A LOT!

I am also going to enter this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ANYTHING GOES

Hugs

Hi Crafters and Bloggers. I have been so lucky lately to have lots of time for making cards! 

I decided to make another card for the Essentials by Ellen July Pin Sights Challenge.
And, I am entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ANYTHING GOES!

You can see from the pinned sights panel below that Red, Blue, polka dots, herringbone, stripes, ribbon and twine were all part of the challenge. I started with some water color card stock, a stencil with polka dots, and distress ink to create a panel with red polka dots. I went through my paper stash for some solids to use. I knew I wanted to use Essentials by Ellen "ALL INSIDE" stamp set and matching die since I had recently purchased it, and was anxious to color and cut that cute bear!

Thinking this was going to be a birthday card, I searched around for something small for him to hold, thinking a cupcake or candle might work. That's when I remembered the small bouquet of flowers from Open Studio called "GNOME ONE LIKE YOU." That little item is colored with copic markers. The bear was colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers from Kuretake. "Hugs" is from the ALL INSIDE set and "It's Your Birthday" is from a Lawn Fawn set. I also used a MFT cover up die for that panel with the windows. You can purchase all of these items at the Ellen Hutson Online Store! I hope you like my little critter "bearing" flowers! I think it turned out perfect!

 

Sending Hugs

Happy Tuesday Blog land. I finished one more card for the 

Lawnscape Challenge #134 Rainbow and Rainbow Inspired Colors!
And, I'm entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes!

As you can see I used a stencil (Mint Owl Studio) for the background and some images (Lawn Fawn) for the focal point. The little envelops are actually from Technique Tuesday stamped in rainbow colors to match the background. I really like the way this card turned out and am happy that I can use it for many occasions.

    

Be Merry

Christmas in July? Yep, like many crafters, I get a head start on my holiday cards WAY BEFORE the holidays!! Today's card uses one of the Holiday Stamp/Die sets from Essentials By Ellen called Mistletoe and Holly (see the set below.) Red and Green? Yes, of course, but also blue, silver, aqua, gold - there are lots of holiday colors. So when I saw the Pin Sights Challenge from Ellen Hutson I knew I wanted to use this stamp set. Here is my card for the Pin Sights Challenge!

         

Rainbow Smile

Rainbows! Lately, everywhere I look I see crafty artists using rainbow colors - 

backgrounds, focal images, water colors, copic coloring - lots of rainbows and rainbow hues.

 Aren't they SO pretty! Lawn Fawn is sponsoring a challenge using Rainbows and Rainbow Colors. You can find the details and the entries for the challenge right HERE!

Here is my entry for the challenge-

       









   

Reasons to be Happy

Happy Sunday! I worked on a few cards this weekend. 

Finished up this one for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge #14 using the right side vertical 

details on the Tic Tac Toe board. See the details and products below.

         


For the Dimension on this card, I popped up the sentiment which is from Simon Says Stamp on a Die Namics die called In and Out Stitched Rounded Squares. I colored a piece of ribbon with one of the copic markers I used for the flowers. The flower stamp is Dahlias from Penny Black (colored with copics.) For the Intricate Die I used Spellbinder's Victoria Corner. All of the green paper is from Gina K. "grass green."

I liked how this card turned out, and I can think of several people I know who could benefit from receiving it in the mail! I hope you have had a great weekend. Thanks for reading my blog!

My Anchor

Here's a card I made a month or so ago using the paper I created with the gelli plate! The pattern from the stencils reminded me of the ocean. I used several stamp sets for the different elements and cut out a cloud in the sky where I stamped the sentiment.

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - BY THE SEA/ NAUTICAL.

Thanks for checking out my blog the past few days! Have a great weekend everyone.

Bee-long Together

Bugs & Kisses - this is not a new set from Lawn Fawn, but it's fairly new to me! I love the jar and all the different bugs you can use from this set. I created a fairly simple card using some patterned paper which had little bugs on it for the jar, colored a few of the bees from the set and used a sentiment from it as well.

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Things With Wings!

Feeling Down?

Good Friday Bloggers! Do any of you have stamps from Great Impressions? I think they have the cutest stamps, and they sell small single stamps so if there is a particular item you are looking for, such as an animal, check out Great Impressions! Here's a card I made with two of their sets, the birds, and the sentiment. I also used Technique Tuesday Garden Flowers Die on polka dot paper for the large flower and Lawn Fawn Scalloped Rectangle Stackable die. I am entering this card in the

SIMON SAYS STAMP  Wednesday Challenge THINGS WITH WINGS!

Thank You Chickadee

Happy Thursday! Here's a card with a water colored image from W Plus Nine, "A New Day." I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color this image. The sentiment is from Mint Owl Studio. I picked it because I thought the simplicity of the cursive writing complimented the little chickadee!

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Things With Wings!

 If you know me, you know I love birds! I am always feeding them and trying to attrack them to my yard. And chickadees are one of my favorites! Earlier this past summer, I had a pair actually make a nest in a birdhouse behind my house, but after about a month, they were completely gone! My husband thought they had babies and all flew away (yea, very optimistic!) but I didn't feel like enough time went by for all that to be accomplished. I think they changed their minds and found a different nesting place. The "door" on this particular birdhouse was a little too big for Chickadees in my opinion. But it was sure nice watching them up close for a few weeks!

Friends

Hi Blog land... it's super late, but I couldn't resist adding this card to my blog. I made it for a special friend who is also a card crafter! Now I see that Simon Says Stamp is featuring THINGS WITH WINGS for the Wednesday Challenge! How perfect!!

 
For this card I used MFT "Things with Wings" stamp set and colored the images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. The sentiment is from Stampendous "Spring Sentiments." I also used two inks, Brutus Monroe Jurrasic and Versa Fine Toffee (sentiment and leaf outlines.)


I popped this panel on a piece of patterned card stock from my stash and added some jute. I also used a die for the holes along the sides of the panel, from Paper Smooches. I love these little "Straight Lines" and use them a lot.

I love these little owls - and the friendship they represent reminds me of my new friend, Cindy Rapson. You can check out her cards here:
                    Cards by Cindy!

MFT Camp Create Coloring Challenge

I'm back with another card creation for My Favorite Thing Camp Create: Coloring on Kraft. MFT has shared some wonderful techniques here in the middle of the summer, making "going back to school" so much fun! The main focus for this challenge was to color; it didn't necessarily have to be on kraft card stock. I used a new stamp from the latest release, Beautiful Girl!

Here's my card for the challenge. I am also going to enter this card in the 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Things With Wings!

      In addition to Beautiful Girl, I also stamped some elements from MFT Things on Wings stamp set (tree, flowers, sun, leaves.) I used copic markers to color the elements on this card and Die Namics Blueprint #26 for the scalloped rectangle in blue behind the colored panel.