Six New Cards

 

I finally had time to take photos of the recent cards I created!

I was working on them before I went on a road trip over Labor Day to Kentucky to visit family. I just didn't get a chance to photo and blog them.

I'm happy to be back in the North where we don't have the humidity that they have in the South. It just about kills me, I hate it! I know we have humidity here in Minnesota, but nothing like they have there. Normally when we visit we either go in May, June or July when it's even worse. We had one day that we could tolerate and that was the first day we were there! Anyway, it was nice to see family.

Moving on.....my first card the background was created blending distress oxide inks - fired brick, worn lipstick and fossilized amber. I then spritzed the background with water to get the droplets where the water reacted. The leaves are from a die called Outline Clustered Leaves from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment is from a stamp set by Reversed Confetti called The Most Beauty.

 

For the card above and below I used a stencil called Wonky Grid from Altenew. 

I used Brusho Crystal Colours (which are similar to Ken Oliver's Color Burst). I used the colors gamboge, turquoise and cobalt blue. I laid my stencil down then sprinkled the power over the stencil and spritzed watered over it. I set a stamp block on top for a few minutes then lifted it. I cut the panel in two for two cards. The stamp used on the top card is called Bold Colour by Visibile Image. The sentiment used on the bottom card is from Simon Says Stamp called Handlettered Encouragement.

 

 

For the card about and below I used a stencil from Altenew called Ombre Stripes.

I applied distress oxide inks over the stencil on both. The colors used for the top card are cracked pistachio, salty ocean and blueprint sketch. For the card below I used blueprint sketch, hickory smoke and wilted violet. After I blended the inks I spritzed both cards with water to get the inks to react. 

The top card uses a sentiment from Visible Image called So Much Stronger. The card below uses a stamp for Gina K Designs called Lettered and Lovely. 

 

 

For my last card I used a stencil from Gina K Designs that I applied distress oxide ink through. The colors I used are fossilized amber, ripe persimmon and candied apple. I die cut my panel using a die called double stitched rectangles from Our Daily Bread (they've changed their name to Divinity Designs LLC now). The sentiment is from Gina K Stamps called Lettered and Lovely.

I am working my way through the pile above. I'm basically just deciding what sentiments to use on them. I may decide at last minute to add stenciling, embossing paste or die cut into flowers......the possibilities are endless...... I'm trying to keep the pretty clean and simple.

I've been working on the details for a crop I'm hosting the end of October/beginning of November. This will be our second year going to this particular retreat. It's always so fun to get together with others for three nights. I never get anything done, but that's okay! I hope we keep going year after year. The place is always booked so you reserve it a year in advance. 

This year I'm going to be doing a very casual card class. So, I'm thinking of ideas so that I can make a few sample cards for them look at. We'll be doing watercolor, stencils, paste etc so all cards will turn out different. 

We also have one of the ladies doing a Chalk Couture class, so that will be fun. I took her class back in April and loved it!

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Creativity Takes Courage

Hello and happy Monday! Is there such a thing as happy Monday?! I didn't used to think so. Now that I don't have to get up and head to work, I believe there is!

I haven't posted anything on my blog for about a month. That's because I really haven't created anything. I'm never not doing something in my craft room, I just either haven't finished a project or I'm putzing around with something. 

I've been in sort of a creative slump lately though. I always know what I want to do, it's just getting it done. I'm also guilty of having too many projects going on at once, which is what I have going on right now. 

I always sift through the emails that I get for card challenges. I love card challenges so much! Over the weekend one caught my eye for The Paper Players. This one is a color challenge. You are to use black, white and one other color. Well, I knew right away that I would be doing this challenge because it's a no brainer for me. These are the kind of challenges I like.  

While I was at it, I looked to see if there were any other challenges I could submit my card to. I found that I would be able to add my card to The Flower Challenge. Flowers have to be the main focal point and my card fits the mold for that one. 

For my card I used an older Tim Holtz embossing folder from Sizzix for the background. I don't know what the name of this folder is as I don't have the packaging and I neglected to write the name on the folder. 

I've been die cutting tons of Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets Wildflowers #1 and #2 and watercoloring them for use in future projects. I decided that Rusty Hinge Distress Ink would be the color that I would go with for this challenge. I love the color rust. I just watercolored a sheet of watercolor paper, let it dry naturally and die cut the wildflowers. 

For my sentiment I used a sticker from the Small Talk sticker book from Tim Holtz Idea-Ology. I diecut a banner using the Simple Strips Banner Die from Taylored Expressions. 

My card is linked to the two challenges below.

The Paper Players

The Flower Challenge

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Cards 2018

Christmas cards are one of the occasions that I love to create cards for. 

I've downsized my card list considerably. I used to attempt to make every card I sent out different. This year I decided to do something different for me. I created a small amount of one card design and then moved on to another design. 

I created these wreaths but changed up the background paper for each card. I didn't purchase any new Christmas cardstock this year. I just used what I had on hand. All of the cards shown below with the exception of the snowflake cards use Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash Tidings cardstock. I've had it for awhile and I love it. It's pretty much used up. I'll have to see if I can find another pad of it or see what other Christmas cardstock Tim Holtz has available. I love his products because they are so vintage. 

For my wreaths I die cut circles using the Double Stitched Circles from Our Daily Bread. All of the greenery was die cut using Sizzix Thinlits products. I used Tim Holtz Alterations Retro Merry Christmas, Holiday Words: Script - Christmas and Garden Greens. I used some miscellaneous poinsettia's that I picked up last year at Hobby Lobby. 

I did make my own poinsettia's using a Sizzix die. After I had them all together and I had sprinkled some Papericious Frosting Powder on them, I didn't like them. I just set them aside for another project. 

I used glitter cardstock for the sentiments. 

After the wreaths had been assembled I splattered them with Perfect Pearls. This card was my favorite!

For the next card I used the same paper. 

I heat embossed the sentiments using Hero Arts Gold and Silver embossing powder. 

All of the sentiments are from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Doodle Greetings stamp set.

I bought this set and the larger set last year and this is the first time I've used them!

I added a strip of Tim Holtz Idea-ology gold deco tape to each card. 

For the greenery on my cards I used Concord and 9th's Take A Bough Die. 

I used Rangers Tim Holtz Distress collage medium that I spread on with a brush and then sprinkled on frosting powder from Papericious. I first saw this stuff at a stamp show I went to this past summer at the Heartfelt Creations booth. The poinsettia is from Hobby Lobby. 

This card again uses the same paper as the two cards shown above.

For the sentiment I diecut Merry Christmas using the Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Retro Christmas die. The greenery is Holiday Greens and Garden Greenery. The same dies I used above on the wreath card. For both cards I added Ranger Ruby Red Liquid Pearls to the Kraft colored cardstock. I again spritzed perfect pearls over the greenery. 

For my snowflake cards I heat embossed snowflakes using the Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes stamp set. I stamped them with Distress Oxide ink in evergreen bough and then used Hero Arts clear embossing powder. 

I cut a strip of patterned cardstock from a paper pad by The Paper Studio called Old World Winter.

I added a strip of Tim Holtz Idea-ology gold deco tape.

The stamp and die are from WPlus9 called Hand Lettered Holiday. 

I cut three Merry die cuts. Using one I added VersaMark several times and kept heat embossing it with Hero Arts gold embossing powder until I was satisfied with how it looked. I then adhered three die cuts together. I then stamped the Christmas sentiment and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. 

I happened to be up in Plymouth last Saturday so I popped into Anchor Paper.

I found this die from Hero Arts called Snowflakes & Ornaments Fancy Die. 

There's another piece to the die so that you can make the snowflake look like an ornament.

I chose not to use that piece for this card. 

I watercolored two pieces of cardstock. One with Distress ink in candied apple and one in mowed lawn for each card. I die cut the circle snowflake out of the candied apple cardstock and then adhered it to the mowed lawn cardstock. 

I then die cut three circles for each card using white cardstock and the double stitched circles die from Our Daily Bread. After adhering them together I added them to the front of the card piece around the snowflakes.

I added a few silver sequins to the front of each card and they were done!

I still have a few cards that I'm working on but this is the majority of the cards I made this year. 

I'll post any others I send out in another post. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge

 

This weeks Simon Says Stamp Challenge is Anything Goes using their products. 

I definitely don't have to worry about not having any of their products, because I love them!! So I'm linking my card to their challenge!

I had created this panel awhile ago. I just didn't know what sentiment I wanted to use with it to make a card. I've looked at it many times and just couldn't make a decision. I also didn't know if I wanted to add color around the image or not. I finally just pulled out a stamp set and randomly chose a sentiment. I don't know why it's so hard to do that sometimes. 

 

I heat embossed my image with white embossing powder and then watercolored the image with Zig Clean Color markers. I'm still learning when it comes to coloring images, but I think I'm getting a little better. 

The stamp sets I used from Simon Says Stamp are the Handlettered Encouragement for the sentiment and Sketched Flowers for the image. I have seen so many gorgeous cards using the Sketched Flowers stamp set. I'm normally drooling over them because they are just amazing!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

CAS on Friday: Thank You Card & Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge

I'm back in my craft room!

I had started this card and two others using the same stamp set but didn't get to finish them before I left on vacation. Once I finish the other two I'll be posting them this week in some challenges I'm going to participate in. 

I spent some time over the weekend going through the challenges I want to play along with this week. We'll see how many I can actually do!

I'm linking this card to the CAS on Friday challenge. The card has to be clean and simple and be a thank you card.

The other challenge I'm linking to is the Simon Says Stamp Flicker Challenge. This challenge is for cards using Simon Says Stamp products and the theme is anything goes which is one of my favorite themes!

CAS on Friday: Challenge #143 Thank You Card

Simon Says Flickr Challenge #108 Anything Goes

 

The stamp set used for this card is by Simon Says Stamp and is called Sketched Flowers.

I love this set!

For the sentiment I used the stamp set Thank You Flowers also from Simon Says Stamp. 

My background was created using ripe persimmon distress oxide ink.

I stamped the image using versamark ink and then heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Be sure to check out both challenges and see all the beautiful cards that have been created!

Thank for taking the time to stop by!

Through The Purple Haze Challenge #147 Make It CAS

 

I love clean and simple cards.

Today I'm linking my card to the Through The Purple Haze Challenge #147 Make It CAS challenge.

This is a new challenge for me. I've not participated in their challenges before.

 

For this card I used Peacock Feather Distress Oxide ink for my water color background.

The thanks die is from Simon Says Stamp. 

 

I use this color a lot. I love it!

 

 

This card uses Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink for the background.

After the background had dried, I laid a PaperTrey Ink stencil over my panel and spritzed it with water. 

 

I also used the same thanks die from Simon Says Stamp on this card.

I make a lot of thank you cards. I'm not sure why, but they are one of my favorites to create along with a few others. I need a few thank you cards this fall so I'm making a pile of them so I have some many choices to choose from!

Again, this card is linked to this challenge:

Through The Purple Haze Challenge #147 Make It CAS

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Throwdown Challenge CTD505

 

I'm participating in the Color Throwdown Challenge this week!

I do like this color combination.

 

The sentiment on the card is from the Flower Turnabout Stamp Set from Concord & 9th.

I used the Double Stitched Circle die on this card and the one below from Our Daily Bread Designs. 

 

 

 

Distress oxide inks were used to watercolor some mixed media paper.

I pulled out an older Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Frameworks die for my background.

The greenery was die cut using Sizzix Tim Holtz Garden Greens. 

 

Since I have extra die cut pieces and greenery I decided to make a second card.

I set aside the rest of my pieces to create more cards later. 

 

The sentiment on this card is from the Wreath Builder Set from Gina K Designs.

 

Be sure to stop by the Color Throwdown Blog to check out all the cards that their Design Team created and all the entries from the challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Funky Glasses

This card is my favorite!

I've had the die for the glasses for some time.

When I went to a stamp show here in Minnesota in June I bought two sentiments that work perfectly with the dies. I went through my stamps and found that I like the sentiment above also.

Here's the crazy part. I have a stamp set that I bought a few years ago at the Taylored Expressions booth at one of the stamp shows I went to. I have the stamp set logged in my Evernote program (I am terribly behind in organizing my stamp sets etc in!) and I can't find it! It's a perfect set to use with this die, which is why I bought it in the first place. I've been looking through everything and I haven't come across it yet. I have no idea where I have misplaced it. 

Backgrounds for all cards were created using distress oxide inks and water.



For the glasses I used some watercolor panels I had previously made.

I used more distress ink and a stencil to add patterns to the paper and then die cut the glasses.



On this card I used a Paper Trey Ink to add interest.







I used a Tim Holtz stencil over the background on this card.

Such a fun die! I'm continuing to look through my stamp sets to find more sentiments that I want to use. Hopefully I'll come across the set I can't find!

Products used:

Endless Creations Stamps: F295 Make It (spec) & F294 Have (spec) Birthday

Distress Oxide Inks: mermaid lagoon, picked raspberry, twisted citron, wild honey, peacock feathers

Stencils: Paper Trey Ink, Tim Holtz Dot Fade

Impression Obsession: Lg Glasses Die

The Ton Stamp Set: Get It Girl