Just Us GIrls #771 - Mood Board Week

Elizabeth has a fun mood board for you this week at Just Us Girls. 

I was inspired by the chicks and eggs on the bottom right two panels.

The image from Penny Black was stamped on watercolor paper, colored with Distress Inks and cut with their Classy Frame.  The remaining panel was embossed with Altenew's Dotty Circles and the frame stacked and inserted.  The sentiment is from PTI.  

What inspires you in the mood board?  Check out what the Design Team did and make a card for the challenge for a chance to be a guest designer. 

Edited to add: I was given a gentle nudge that my card fits the mood board at Inkspirational so I'm sending it there. 

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Freshly Made Sketches #626

Hey there friends.  I'm glad you dropped by.

My card for Freshly Make Sketches went through a couple of trials before I ended up with a finished card. 

When embossed circles didn't work out, I remembered the ancient Doily die from Catherine Pooler and used it for the circle portions of my card.  Several different flowers were auditioned before settling on The Greetery's crocuses.  They were cut from white and colored with Altenew inks.  The sentiment is from SSS.  This is nothing like my original vision but I'm happy with it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

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Freshly Made Sketches #625

Hey there!  I'm so glad you took the time to drop by.

Easter is early this year so I thought I'd better start on some cards.  I don't send Easter cards to my grands and greats but I do send them to the homebound people from my Michigan church.  It's a way to keep them connected to the church when they can't be there in person.  Freshly Made Sketches inspired this card.

It all started with Altenew's Stargazer Lily, one I had already stamped.  I embossed half of the card panel with Tasteful Textiles and inked the other half with Pastel Sunrise.  The sentiment from Jillian Vance was stamped in the same color as the spots on the lily.  I plan to use this sketch for a few other Easter cards using a butterfly as the main image. 

What about you?  Do you make Easter cards?

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Can You Handle the Pressure? - Easter

Just a quick post before things get busy today.  I made a lot of Easter cards and this one works well for the challenge at Can You Handle the Pressure?

The Greetery crocuses were colored with Distress Ink and placed on a circle cut with a PinkFresh Braided Circle. Another circle behind was inked in the same color and it's all on a panel using my ancient Swiss Dot embossing folder.  The sentiment is from PTI.

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great week!

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Double D - Easter and NBUS #48

I've been busy making Easter cards for the homebound members of my former church and wanted to share one today that I'm sending to the Easter challenge at Double D.

The crocuses from The Greetery were cut from white and colored with Distress Inks.  They are on a panel cut from Spellbinders Elliptical Ovals that has been stamped with a sentiment from SSS, and then placed on that wonderful polka dot paper. I don't know where it came from and it was all there was left of it. 😢

Since both the crocuses and the oval are new I'm sending my card to NBUS. 

I'm so glad you dropped by. 

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Just Us Girls #626 - Word Week

It's Word Week at Just Us Girls and the word our host Elizabeth chose is 

I used what I thought were my only eggs in a challenge a few weeks ago until I remembered this one from Penny Black.

I stamped the chicks with GinaK Amalgam ink and colored them with Altenew artist markers.  The panel and polka dot paper were cut with rounded corners from Hero Arts and the card with my corner chomper.  The sentiment is from SSS. 

MacMable is our guest designer for the month of April.  She and the Design Team have given you some examples of how to use eggs on their cards.  I hope they inspire you to make a card for the gallery.

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NBUS #37 - Guest Designer

The lovely Darnell has been having guest designers on her innovative NBUS blog.  That stands for Never Before Used Schtuff, in case you didn't know.  And if you didn't know, where have you been?  :D  I was honored to be asked to be the guest designer for April and here is my card using the newest product in my stash.

The new portion is the cross from the set Happy Easter - New Beginnings from SSS.  It was stamped with Memento London Fog and colored with Altenew artist markers.  I used scalloped and regular ovals from MFT to cut the image and border from PTI Lovely Lady.  The panel was debossed with Altenew's Dotted Starburst and bordered with the same pink cardstock.  

As some of you know, I send cards to the homebound people of my former church.  I made six of these to go to some of them and will use another couple of stamps from the set for the rest. I started this ministry while I was still a part of the church.  They don't know the cards come from me since I sign them "from your church family".  I knew that it was a way to keep them connected to the church and since I love making cards I decided to keep up the ministry.  I've lost a few and gained a few others but it brings me joy to know that several times a year they get a handmade card with a Bible passage inside.

If you haven't check out the NBUS challenge I hope you will.  It's a good way to share what you're working on with the new products you've purchased and see what others are doing with theirs.

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Krafty Chicks Challenge #505

There are 5 Thursdays in April so I got to make a fifth card as a guest designer for Krafty Chicks Challenge.  The fifth week is always Anything Goes and since I need more Easter cards that's what I made.

It's not a very Easter-y Easter card but I thought the Spring colors would work well for one.  I used the C9 Fill-in Bloom stamp and although it looks blue here, the background is actually HA Soft Lilac.  The rest of the colors are from Altenew, the sentiment from Jillian Vance and the die cut from The Greetery.

I want to thank Nance and the rest of the Design Team at Krafty Chicks for having me as their guest this month.  It's been a great experience and introduced me to a new challenge that I will be playing in whenever I can.  How about you?

Addicted to CAS #182

Jaydee has picked a fun and easy challenge for Addicted to CAS challenge this week.

I'm sure we all have a lot of animals to pick from.  I chose this darling bunny from Gerda Steiner to make an Easter card.

I ventured into coloring with the few Copics I have.  Add to that some glossy pen for the eyes and a sentiment from PTI stamped in a matching color and my CAS card is done.

The Design Team has cards to inspire you on the blog.  We hope you'll make a card for the gallery.

Just Us Girls #531 - Trend Week

It's Trend Week at Just Us Girls and Cécile has selected

Anytime I think of a square card I think of my GinaK wreath builder and that's what I used for my card.

There were some small images on Lovely Flowers by Catherine Pooler and I stamped them in a variety of Spring colors.  I stamped the sentiment from Jillian Vance on a square and then mounted both panels on SSS Lavender.

Our guest designer Cornelia and the rest of the Design Team are waiting to see your square cards.  You may be chosen Chic of the Week with a chance of being a future guest.

CAS Watercolor - April 2020

While I don't have any growing yet, I can make Spring flowers whenever I want with my stamp sets and Spring flowers is exactly what the CAS Watercolor challenge is looking for.

I decided to paint my Altenew daffodils to look like Jonquils using Distress Inks.  I first cut a panel using a Gina Marie die and added a little background ink with a blending brush.  I needed one last Easter card so used a sentiment from Jillian Vance.

It seemed so strange to celebrate Palm Sunday with my pastor on FaceBook live.  That's how we'll be doing all the Holy Week services and I'm just thankful for the technology to be able to do that as well as keep in touch with family and friends. 

Thank you for dropping by today.  I pray that you're safe and well and keeping in touch with loved ones, as difficult as that may be when you can't hug them.

 

CAS(E) This Sketch #365

CAS(E) This Sketch has quite the sketch this week.  Because I need more Easter cards I turned it upside down to make this card.

I started by stamping the eggs and animals from Gerda Steiner and coloring them with Zigs.  I needed something for the third panel and decided to make my version of an Easter basket by inking up a basket weave embossing folder with HA Soft Brown and running it through my die cutting machine.

Now that we're social distancing until the end of April, it's more important than ever to send out those cards we've been making to residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, friends who are having difficulty dealing with all that is going on in their lives, and those working on the front lines.

You are all in my prayers.

Just Us Girls #529 - Photo Challenge

It's officially been Spring here in the USA for a week now and we may soon see flowers pushing through the ground.  I bet Lisa was thinking about that when she chose the photo for this week's challenge at Just Us Girls.

It's easy to see what inspired me.

The Altenew tulips were placed on an MFT panel embossed with a chain link folder and then on a green card base.  I embossed a darkened scrap of the same green with a sentiment from PTI.

Want to see what the Design Team and our guest Vicky Hayes did with the photo?  Head on over to Just Us Girls.  They may inspire you to make a card and you may be our next guest.

Freshly Made Sketches #427

While eating breakfast this morning I had an inspiration for the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Fortunately it was a QACAS card that I could do and make the deadline.

And it adds to my Easter stash.  Recipe: MFT stencil with Distress ink, cross from PS cut from wood cardstock and a sentiment from PTI.

Stay in, stay safe and stay sane.

AAA Cards #161

I have an entry for AAA Cards based on this:

I chose not to do the option because I wanted to use my cute little Gerda Steiner peeking friends.

A little Copic coloring, a sentiment from PTI and another card is ready for Easter.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you're getting a lot of card making done during this time of social distancing.

Inspired by #114

Have you seen the photo inspiration at Inspired By?  It reminds me of the wonderful cubbies Dawn McVey decorates at her home.  You may want to check them out @dawnsing on Instagram.  I only picked one of the cubbies to base my card on. 

See the second one down on the left.  That light green pitcher/watering can?  Here's what I did with that.

The green of the actual card is much lighter and more like the photo.  I stamped and masked the PB lily before using Altenew watercolors for the background.  After removing the mask, I watercolored the leaves and stem and then used PolyChromos pencils on the center of the flower and for shading. I stamped the sentiment from Jillian Vance and cut the panel with my NBUS rounded rectangles from Hero Arts. That was almost a disaster!  Evidently there was some brown ink on the cutting plate that remained from a previous pass through.  I thought I had destroyed all my work but then decided it gave the card a more rustic look like an old tin watering can would have.  That's making lemonade. ;)

Thanks for dropping by today.  I hope your week is off to a wonderful start.

Addicted to CAS #179

Raga is our host for Addicted to CAS and her code word is

I figured that I couldn't go wrong using my Gina K wreath template to make a symmetrical card.

All the images are from WPlus9 stamped in Altenew inks.  The pastel colors reminded me of Spring and Easter so I added the sentiment from Jillian Vance.

The Design Team is ready to inspire you to make a card for our challenge.  Check out their cards at  Addicted to CAS.