CAS Mix-Up - October 2021

I tell you those gals at CAS Mix-Up can come up with some fabulous ideas for getting us to try new techniques.  I had so much fun with this month's Mixed Media challenge that I couldn't stop until I needed to get my Halloween cards done.  Now that they are I may make even more botanical prints to enter.  There are a number of videos linked to give you ideas.

I sometimes forget about the "other elements" when I'm making my cards but since die cutting is an option all my cards should qualify.  I'll start with the first one I made.

I took leaves from the Ash tree in the back yard and pressed them with my BigShot on watercolor paper.  I didn't get a lot of color but you can see the veins.  I fussy cut them out, put them on Altenew Spicy Yogurt cs and attached a sentiment strip with tiny staples.  I thought this made a great masculine card.  

Card 2:

For this card I ran an Impatiens blossom through my BigShot.  I got a little more color with this one.  I cut a Lawn Fawn scalloped circle from lavender paper, making a 4 1/4 inch square card. 

Card 3:

This one features a Coleus.  I love how this color came out.   I did add paper towel to the sandwich to keep the juices from flowing down the card.  I die cut with an MFT square and roughed up the edges with a TH edger thingy.  I used the same watercolor paper for my card front and stamped the Altenew sentiment in purple. 

Cards 4, 5 and 6:

For these cards I used my Gel Press.  After braying a variety of Distress Inks, I laid on some Ash leaves, pressed down the paper, removed the leaves without disturbing the paper and pressed it down again.  I wish there had been more color variation on the backgrounds but I will try this again to see what I can get.  The panels and borders were cut with WF A2 dies and the sentiment from PTI was stamped directly onto the panel.  I have a number of Thanksgiving cards to make for my homebound people so this gives me a good start. 

Have you tried to make botanical prints?  I tell you it can be addictive.  The Design Team has some wonderful cards to inspire you.  Which one of these do you think I entered in the CAS MixUp gallery?

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Inkspirational #237

It's time to squeeze the day!  So says my card for Inkspirational.

The background was made on my gel plate, bordered in black on a white card base.  To replicate the taxis in the photo I used lemons from Concord & 9th, colored with Zigs.  If you're going to squeeze lemons you'll get juice so I made a couple of drops using a die from Sunny Studio.  The sentiment was computer generated.

Have a great day!

Just Us Girls #580 - Color Week

Lisa is hosting Color Week at Just Us Girls and she has chosen these colors of Distress Ink but you may use any ink of similar color.

I thought the colors would make a good mix on my gel plate and so I had a little fun playing.

I ran the Distress Inks across my gel plate, smoothed them with a brayer and laid some linen cardstock on it to pick up the color.  I took an old HA background stamp, inked it with Abandoned Coral and pressed it onto the linen panel.  All that was needed to finish was a bold sentiment from MFT and a card base of PTI Berry Sorbet.

What will you do with the colors?  The options are wide open.  For inspiration why not check out the Design Team and guest designer on the blog.

The Flower Challenge #55 - Reminder

There is still time to get your pastel flowers made and into the gallery at The Flower Challenge.

Most flowers are generally pastel but when I stamp them they come out too dark so I decided to watercolor my Altenew Canterbury Bells using Distress Inks.

In order to fit them on, I made a mini-slimline card with a background done on my gel plate, popping up the pink ones on foam tape.  My first attempt at a sentiment didn't stamp correctly but fortunately I had a scrap of the background to stamp and place over the mistake.

The rest of the Design Team have cards over on the blog for your inspiration.  We hope you'll join us for this challenge.  

Freshly Made Sketches #480

This is the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week.

I thought I'd give it a go.

I had this panel made with my gel plate and a stencil from Funky Fossil.  I cut it with a die from SSS, inked the center of the card base with Distress Ink and added the leaves from Catherine Pooler.  I thought it would make a good masculine card so I added a birthday sentiment.  

Thanks for dropping by.

CAS Mix-Up - April 2021

I remember years ago when we used to paper piece Holly Hobby dolls.  Does anyone else remember or am I dating myself? I haven't done much paper piecing since then except maybe in a card challenge or two and that is what CAS Mix-Up is asking for this month.

I went through my stacks and stacks of flowers and found one I thought would look good paper pieced.  Then I went through pads and pads of paper until I found something to cut it from.  

This is Altenew's Gardenia stamped three times on various parts of the winter paper so I could cut it apart and layer.  I've said many times I'm not a good fussy cutter so thankfully my Hickory Smoke Distress Marker around the edge covered any bad cuts.  For my other mixed media requirements, I used a panel I made on my gel plate for the background and then die cut the Lawn Fawn scalloped circle on another panel and popped it up with foam tape. The sentiment is also from Altenew.  

Haven't tried paper piecing in a while either?  There's plenty of inspiration from the Design Team over on the CAS Mix-Up blog.

Time Out #183

Time Out wants us to be different.  So here's what I did for the challenge.  Something I've never done before.

I've always liked interesting backgrounds so I decided to get a gel plate.  This is not the best example of the panels I made but I had fun doing it and you will be seeing more on my blog later.  

I needed a masculine card and so I put Speckled Egg, Weathered Wood and Iced Spruce Distress Oxides on the plate, ran the brayer over it to smooth out the inks, and pressed my cardstock onto it.  I reapplied the inks and then laid my MFT Houndstooth stencil down and pressed the same paper into it.  There's not as much color variation as I wanted but I rather like its subtleness.  I stamped the PTI sentiment in Charcoal and bordered the panel with dark gray.  

I'm glad you dropped by today.  Have a wonderful week.