Freshly Made Sketches #741

Not having a lot of supplies is really stretching my creativity and such was the case for Narelle's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I must have gone through my stash three times trying out things and finally settled on this.

The flowers are from Penny Black's Love Blooms, stamped on watercolor paper and colored with Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Rustic Wilderness.  The frames are from their Frame It, watercolored with Scorched Timber.   The background is SU Timeworn Type and the sentiment is a BetterPress.  

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Time Out #314

It's an Inspired by Challenge at Time Out.

That's right.  Make a card using your favorite beverage.  Or any beverage that you have stamps/dies for.  I got a little inventive with mine.

I actually mostly drink water but a good old Arnold Palmer quenches the thirst once in a while so I thought it would be fun to go with that beverage and make it into an anniversary card.  The glasses and ice cubes are from Your Next Stamp's Cup of Cheer and the lemons from Newton's Nook Cocktail Mixer.  They were stamped on Bristol and colored with Zigs.  I added the math signs by hand.  The sentiment was computer generated and the panel cut with a SSS Stitched Rectangle before adding to some patterned paper from my stash. 

The winner of this challenge will receive a beverage bag made and donated by team member Carol McFarland.

We are joined for this challenge by the talented Joanne James, winner of challenge #309.  Check out what she and the rest of the design team made for inspiration.

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Just Us Girls #812 - Stencil Week

Ina is the host for stencil week at Just Us Girls.

It's Anything Goes with a stencil so get yours out and start creating.

I love this Pinkfresh Studio hot foil plate (Birds on a Branch) for anniversary cards and the stencil makes it easy to color. This one uses bronze foil, Altenew inks and a border of SB Cascade cardstock.  The bronze foiled sentiment is BetterPress.  

I can't wait to see what you make for the challenge.  The Design Team and our guest Denise Morgans have wonderful inspiration should you need it.

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Freshly Made Sketches #723

The sketch from Freshly Made Sketches has me going back to one of my older Concord and 9th stamp sets and a play with Zigs that I hadn't done for quite a while.

The Happy Day cake was stamped on Bristol, colored and die cut.  Though not the same size, I thought the cake plate looked like the oval in the sketch.  To emphasize that, the dark gray was cut with a SSS curved die, stamped with a sentiment from My Sentiments Exactly and embossed with SU Tasteful Textiles.  When June comes I need a number of anniversary cards so this will help fill my quota.

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Just Us Girls #772 - Stencil Week

It's Stencil Week at Just Us Girls with our host Ina.  

I had the Cosmos Backdrop BetterPress from Spellbinders just itching to make a card.  So I made two.

This one was pressed with VersaFine Toffee ink and stenciled with Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Brushed Corduroy.  The panel is bordered with Lawn Fawn Fake Tan and the sentiment, also a BetterPress in Toffee, was stacked for dimension.  

This one was pressed with VersaFine Smokey Gray and inked with Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Everygreen Bough, Pine Needles and Hickory Smoke Distress Inks.  The stacked sentiment is another one from Spellbinders. The border is PTI Raspberry Fizz. 

The stencil challenge is one of the favorites so I hope you'll join us.  For inspiration, please check out the blog to see what the Design Team did.

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Freshly Made Sketches #593

I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw Jennifer McGuire's pop-up card video and thought that it would work perfectly for Karren's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  

First I went looking for a die that would be wide enough to cover the bridge and found it in Honey Bee's Dogwood.  Then I looked for some patterned paper and thought this lacy look from Honey Bee would go well with the dogwood and make a nice anniversary card.  The stem is colored with Zigs and the flowers are accented with colored pencils. I doubled it up but it still needed something more for stabiity so I added the label die from Altenew cut from the same patterned paper, layered and stamped with a sentiment from Hero Arts. 

I hope to make a few more of these when I have more options for dies to bridge the gap and more patterned paper to decorate with. 

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great week!

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Double D - Fresh Picked & NBUS #50

Double D has a Fresh Picked challenge.  Anything fresh picked except flowers.  Flowers are my 'thing'  but I did have other images I could use. Like these pears. 

I recently got the wooden crate from Honey Bee and was anxious to try it out.  I cut it from Linen cs and dragged Distress Ink over it to enhance the wood grain.   The pears are from Sunny Studio and so is the sentiment which I stamped crooked because I wasn't sure I could get it in a straight line, and I rather like it that way. 

Since the crate is new I'm sending my card to NBUS #50.  

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The Flower Challenge #67

April's prompt at The Flower Challenge is Add a Heart.

In my resolve to use older stamps, I pulled out one from SSS that I have hardly used since purchasing six years or so ago.

It's actually a bouquet of flowers in the shape of a heart.  I heat embossed the image in silver and watercolored with the new Salt Water Taffy DI.  I wasn't sure the heart shape was apparent enough so I added a tiny one at the base of the image and cut around it all with a braided circle from PFS. The heat embossed sentiment from  is from Hero Arts and the card base is Berry Sorbet from PTI. 

To show our support for the people of Ukraine, Viv made us all watermarks featuring their national flower and the colors of their flag.  We will be using these for the duration of the war. 

Esther Asbury is our guest designer this month.  She and the Design Team have some wonderfully creative cards to inspire you to make a card for the challenge.  We hope to see you there.

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Just Us Girls #624 - Color Week

It's the third week of March and time for the Color Challenge at Just Us Girls.  Our host Lisa E has chosen 

Such lovely colors prompted me to make this.

The WPlus9 roses took three different ink brands to get this look.  Altenew Pink Diamond, Catherine Pooler Pink Champagne and PTI Autumn Rose.  Autum Rose is also the border color.  Gina K ivory cardstock was embossed with a 3D diamond folder from WeRMemorykeepers and the sentiment was cut from a PinkFresh die. 

What do these colors inspire in you?  The Design Team and our guest JoAnn Burnham will show you what they did when you visit the Just Us Girls challenge.  Then we hope to see your card in the gallery. 

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The Flower Challenge #65

This month's challenge at The Flower Challenge is an easy one. 

Everyone has occasion stamps and as long as a flower is the focal point on your card and you've included a sentiment stating that occasion, you're good.  I decided to make an anniversary card.

I HAD to have this stamp set from The Greetery because I thought the flowers were so cute and then wasn't real happy with it the first time out.  I decided to give it another try and I'm loving it now.  The problem was with ink choices.  I thought the colors of the flower petals had too much contrast.  I used Altenew inks for  stamping out three flowers. (Just so you know, I make a copy of the flower and note the colors I use to keep with the stamp set.) They are placed on a background from my Bits box with the sentiment from PTI that I cut around by hand. 

Our guest designer this month is Trina P and she and the Designt Team have wonderful cards to inspire you. I hope we see your card in our gallery.

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CAS Mix-Up June 2020

I had a difficult time photographing my card for CAS Mix-Up.  In the end I used my iPhone on my kitchen table with natural light and it's not bad.

The vellum is embossed with a paisley folder and placed behind a frame from PTI.  I noticed the little hearts in the design so I cut the RC heart border in silver and embossed the HA sentiment in silver for an anniversary card.  My card has embossed vellum, stamping, heat embossing, and die cutting.

Thanks for your visit.  Please leave a comment to let me know you were here.

Twofer Card Challenge #24

I was really excited when I saw the prompt for the Twofer Card Challenge this month.  Flowers.  Flower stamps are my favorite and I have a ton of them.  I decided on Beautiful Peony from Altenew for my cards.

I already had the flower on the sympathy card colored and waiting for a chance to use it.  I added it to a gray card base stamped with the diamond background from The Stamp Market and clear heat embossed.

I thought the image would make a lovely border, so I stamped around the edge of Bristol cs and colored the blossoms with Zigs in a color similar to the peonies my mother used to have.

I needed a rather large sentiment to fill the space and settled on this one from PTI that I thought would make a great anniversary card.  I have four anniversaries in June so it will come in handy.

So there you have it.  Two cards using a peony for two occasions -  Sympathy and Anniversary.  I hope you have a chance to play along.

Color Throwdown #591

I thought Color Throwdown had a great color combination for a floral card and I aim to please.

Altenew's Sweetest Peas were white heat embossed on Bristol and colored with Zigs, after the edges were inked with Tattered Rose DI.  I think it looks like the peach that is one of the challenge colors. I used a neutral gray for the leaves and for the sentiment strip although it looks black. 

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you have a good week.

Kraft Chicks Challenge #504

It's the fourth week of April and time for the All Occasions theme at Krafty Chicks Challenge.  My granddaughter's 10th Wedding Anniversary is coming up in June so I made a card for them.

Her colors were pink, black and white and all the girls carried pink Gerbera daisies.  I stamped the mondo Gerbera from EbyE and painted it with Altenew watercolors.  The bottom was cut with a die and placed over polka dot paper from Altenew.  I curved the sentiment from The Greetery and added splatters as a final touch.

What occasion will you pick?  Why not check out the Design Team for some inspiration.

Twofer #23

It's Happy Blogaversary time for the Twofer Challenge.  It's been two years since Darnell had the wonderful idea of having us make two cards using the same prompt but for two different occasions with two different layouts.  For challenge #23 the prompt is

How appropriate for this time of year when we're all busy making valentines.  But that's only one occasion.  What else can you do?  For me it was an anniversary card.

I hate to tell you all I went through to make this card presentable and that was before the aggravating time trying to photograph both cards.  Let's just say I'm glad I have some hair left.  I knew I wanted to use my new pearl vellum and cut it with a die from The Stamp Market. Then came the problem of gluing them down.  I finally put it onto white cardstock with Stick-It and then cut them out.  You can't see the texture in the background and can barely see that the sentiment from CB was heat embossed in silver.  For all the trouble it caused me it looks rather nice IRL.  And then there is the valentine.

I actually had this idea first and thought of the other card while making this one.  Don't get me wrong.  I still had troubles with this one too.  Glue is not my friend. 😜 The little hearts in the shakers are from a card Darnell sent me ages ago and she was kind enough to include all those little pieces.  I colored them with Zigs and add a few seed beads to keep them moving.  The sentiment is an oldie from My Craft Spot (nlib).  Here they are side by side.

The photos don't do them justice but it's the 4th time I tried, finally resorting to my iPhone.  They'll have to do. 

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do.