Time Out #305 - Favorite Technique

Time Out is giving you a chance to show us your favorite technique.

Whatever it is that you like to do to make your card special is what we want to see.  One of my favorite techniques is Ink Smooshing.  Like this.

Some people put ink on their mat, add water and slap the cardstock into it.  Some take a piece of acetate and dip it into watered down ink and placed on cardstock repeatedly until they get the look they want.  For me, it's easier to use a pouncer I made by wrapping acetate packaging around a ball of paper towel and securing it with a rubber band.

The panel was then used to make this card.

The smooshing adds dimension and color to the background of The Greetery Hollyhocks, making it look like more flowers in the distance.  The flowers and leaves were colored with Dried Marigold, Pealed Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, the same ink used to smoosh. 

Top Flight is the sponsor for this challenge and they will award our winner a $25 store credit.  To win you have to enter so let's get making those cards with your favorite technique. 

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Just Us GIrls #773 - Die Week

I'm the host for die week at Just Us Girls and I would like you to use a flower die on your card.

April showers bring May flowers so I thought this would be a great challenge for the first of May.  And since it is a new month, I'd like to welcome Rosemary Dennis as our guest designer for May. 

For my card I decided to use the hollyhocks from The Greetery.  They are cut from C9 Pink Lemonade and inked with Aged Mahogany DI.  The leaves are PTI Green Parakeet inked with Rustic Wilderness.  For the background I used a handmade smoosher that I saw Ardyth use on one of her videos.  The sentiment is a BetterPress from Spellbinders.  

It's made by wrapping plastic bag material around a wad of paper towel and securing with a rubber band.  All you do is water down your ink, pounce the smoosher into it and then onto your card.  I know a lot of people use an acetate sheet but I found this to work well for me. 

The Design Team and I would love for you to join us and Rosemary for this challenge and have inspiration for you on the blog.  I hope to see you there.

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The Flower Challenge #94 - Reminder

There is still time for you to make a card for The Flower Challenge.

The Design Team has more inspiration for you using these colors.  Be sure to check them out.

I always loved making Hollyhock dolls when I was growing up so when The Greetery came out with the Hollyhock dies I had to have them.  They were cut in white and colored with Altenew inks.  The back panel is a coverplate from Stamplorations. 

I hope we see your card in our gallery.

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Twofer Challenge #18

With my love of flowers I don't know why the first thing I thought of when I saw the challenge at Twofer was vegetables and how I don't have any vegetable stamps. 

When I got my brain in gear 

I pulled out my PTI Garden Gate set and made these.

I used to love hollyhocks 

and I remember making little dolls out of the blossoms.  

For my prayer card I used just one set of flowers and added some wisteria on an MFT die cut that was embossed with a SU folder and popped up on lavender cs.

The sentiments on both cards are part of the set.  

The next one is a birthday card.

I cut three layers of the gate, cut off the doors, glued them together and heat embossed them with platinum.  Distress Inks were blended on the background and then three sets of hollyhocks added in various colors of Altenew ink.  The MISTI really came in handy in lining up the layers and stamping multiple flowers.

I'm so glad I had time before I go on vacation to get a card made for one of my favorite challenges.  Thanks for dropping by to take a look.  You'll definitely want to look at what the Design Team has made too.  Head on over to the Twofer blog.

Time Out #109

I'm off to the lake this morning to help get the dock in and do some cleaning but wanted to post my card for Time Out before I go.  This is their theme.

It was the word 'garden' that caught my eye and when I saw the sentiment from this PTI set I knew I had a card.

Popped up wisteria hang over a garden full of hollyhocks in various colors, all Altenew inks.

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great weekend.

CAS(E) This Sketch #258

Sketch challenges are one of my favorites and I love playing along with CAS(E) This Sketch.  This is the sketch for this week.

It was like a lightning bolt hit when I thought of the idea for my card.

I've long neglected the PTI Garden Gate set (that I HAD to have) and those hollyhocks seemed like the perfect image for my card.  A little grass die from MCS (closed) and a sentiment from HA grounds them.

Stately flowers hollyhocks are but I remember making dancing ladies out of their blossoms.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope flowers bring fond memories for you.

CAS Mix-Up July

July is almost half over and I just got a card made for the July CAS Mix-Up challenge.  I had so much fun with the tissue paper techniques that Loll showed in her video but I should have worn gloves.  I had as much ink on my fingers as on the tissue.  I planned a panel that I hoped would look good as a die cut flower and I'm happy with the result.

The dies are from Altenew and the sentiment from EBE.  I finally got a chance to use one of the embossed panels that Bonnie so generously sent me after I gushed over it several times.

In a conversation with Loll, she mentioned using a paper towel that had mopped up leftover ink from her craft sheet to make a background by laying it down on hot press watercolor paper and spraying it.  I quickly pulled my paper towel out of the wastebasket and loved the pattern that was on it. I tried the technique with mixed media paper and it didn't come out very bright so I came up with another technique. Introducing "the paper towel background".

I thought this looked like a flower garden so using a sponge I spread school glue all over my cardstock and glued the paper towel to it.  When it was dry I popped up the frame and added the hollyhocks from PTI and sentiment from EBE.  From now on I may be saving all my mop towels.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you take time to try a new technique.

CAS(E) This Sketch #317

I must admit the first thing I thought of when I saw the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch is Woody Woodpecker's topknot.  What do you think?

The more I thought about it I knew I could use a stamp set I HAD to have but haven't inked up yet.  

I love these multi-layered hollyhocks from PTI's Garden Gate Market Kit.  I used PTI Inks and a sentiment from the same set.  The front two are die cut and popped up.

Now that I've pulled out this set, I'm going to stamp some of the other images from it so stay tuned.

Thanks for dropping by.