lime and grape - yum!

Wings and foil - that's what it's all about at the Mixed Media Card Challenge in May. Butterflies, insects, birds, angels... find some wings and show us your mixed media skills.

We received a graduation announcement and it had a wonderfully 1960s/hippie vibe to it. I checked out the gal's school website for her colors and purple it was. Even found her class motto "live, love, dream".  (How did we ever live without the Internet???) So off I was...

Guess I don't have a "live love dream" sentiment, but thought this one from Freckled Fawn would do the job. So I heat embossed it onto a panel I'd watercolored and splattered lime green.

Stitched it with a layer of vellum to a cardbase that I smooshed and splattered with leftover watercolor before splattering some water droplets onto it which I covered with platinum embossing powder and heated. TIP: Heat from underneath the paper to melt the powder if it is only "attached" with water.

The feathers from Lifestyle Crafts (wings have feathers, right?) were die cut from watercolor paper and painted purple and blue before being edged with platinum embossing powder. A smidge of washi finished the card.

Voila! A somewhat unconventional, but very personalized graduation card.

Since I used NBUS - the feather die and the sentiment stamp - I'm joining the "New" fun at A Blog Named Hero.

return of the wonky cake

Wanted to share a card with you, very similar to this one. Seems to be the year for DD's friends to be hitting the magical sweet 16.

Stuck with the pink and orange color combo, multi-inking the STAMPlorations Birthday Cake stamp for the BG. Heat embossed the sentiments (Technique Tuesday and the numerals from We R Memory Keepers) on pink CS.

Added a layer of vellum and some sequins strung on metallic gold thread too.

Playing at:
A Blog named Hero where it's Bright and Bold  this time around.

The Card Concept #31 where it's about (cup)cakes! I've created a freestyle collage design.

Seize the Birthday where the focus is on the sentiment.

I'm pretty much over jet lag and can see the pinnacle of Mt. Laundry on my laundry/craft room floor (our washing machine went kaputt while I was in Michigan!) so I'm hoping the creative juices will get to flowing normally soon. Thanks for coming by today.

FYI, Here's the view that greeted me at 6 a.m. on my first day at my parents'. Whether reflecting off open water or jagged pieces of ice, the morning sun creates diamonds on the lake...

now you're vintage

Someone in the neighborhood is turning 50 this weekend! Welcome to the club. Or as my card says - "Congratulations. Now you are vintage."

I jumped on the glittered blues bandwagon at House of Cards January challenge. Those certainly look like milkweed pods to me. Milkweed and I go way back. As a kid on the shores of Lake Huron I would watch big, fat, green caterpillars disappear into and emerge from cocoons dangling on milkweed plants as Monarch butterflies. And at summer's end I would tear open those pods and blow the seeds to high heaven. Now? Now I spend a week pulling all the weeds on the beach every summer when I am there. Adios milkweed.

Back to the card at hand. The glittery blue was easy. Some bottles cut with my new SSS Adult Beverages die and labelled with personalized vellum labels. Just love this touch. And I'm playing at A Blog Named Hero - Personalise too.

The front panel (Stampendous Wine Labels) and the clear embossed, ombre stamped sentiment strip (Stempelküche Grüße II)) were inspired by the Heat Embossing challenge at Stempelküche.

Distress inking over the heat embossed panel with ombre blues was also inspired by Inkspirational #74.

And the entire theme of the card was inspired not only by the recipient (we've emptied many a bottle together) but by the great Cheers challenge over at City Crafter.

Phew! Just wanted to squeak this one in here. Do come back later today for the last installment of the STAMPlorations release.

a sympathy tree (SSS, ABNH, Friday Mashup, MIM)

Squeakin' in here with a card that has been in my brain for a couple days but just now came to life. It started when I saw this tree card of Shirley B.'s.

When I saw these challenges I had to give it a try:
A Blog Named Hero #44 - (em)Boss
Make it Monday #166 - deboss stamped images
The Friday Mashup - a tree or embossing or both
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Debossed the Mighty Oak from Papertrey onto watercolor paper.  Die cut a mask from vellum and put it over the tree trunk using temporary adhesive.  Splattered the heck out of it with greens and a blue Distress Inks. Mopped up excess ink with scrap paper and used a strip of it behind the focal image.

Tried to get a good photo and failed. Here is a close-up which shows the debossing.

Off to hook up.  Thanks for looking.

Supplies for with sympathy:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, watercolor paper

Stamps: PTI

Ink : various Distress, Versafine

Tools: die PTI

Other: 

exploration STAMPlorations sentiment builders: thank you (CASE, ABNH, SSS)

Back with the second installment of my exploration of STAMPlorations' latest release.  This time I've used the stamp set called SENTIMENT BUILDERS: Thank You.

Is that one versatile sentiment set or what?  Even an extra "s" so you can use the "thank you" or "thanks" version in combination with the other words.

So I found these challenges at A Blog Named Hero and CASE Study. And I'm hooking up once more to the Die Crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

And made this card.

Another CAS, like yesterday's, but with a couple more techniques. I heat embossed the large "thanks" sentiment in white on white (although it's lookin' gray here) three times before adding the secondary sentiments in gray ink. TIP: Using an acrylic block with lines on it makes lining up the individual words of the smaller sentiments a piece of cake.

Then I die cut the blooms twice and inked them with the colors of Wida's embellishments. TIP: Leave intricate die cuts in their negative when inking and use a pouncing rather than swiping motion to prevent them breaking. I rounded all the corners and voila!

So, stay tuned for my third and final card tomorrow.  Remember to come by and leave a comment and you might be the lucky winner of a stamp set from the latest STAMPlorations release.

Supplies for triple thanks

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps:  STAMPlorations

Ink : Distress Inks, Versamark, Hero Arts Granite

Tools: daisies die SSS, corner rounder EKS

Other: white embossing powder

be happy tag card (SSS, ABNH)

Hi. Had this tag staring at me - I'd tried some stencilling techniques on it - and decided to turn it into a card.

Boy, what didn't I do on this card?  Originally it was used to stamp off a BG stamp I had stamped with acrylic paint and then splattered and edged with watered down gold paint.  Then I decided to stencil on it. First I colored just the blooms through the stencil with watercolor pencils, then blended with a water brush. Then added some more accent color to the middles of the blooms. Then I sponged Distress Inks on the remainder of the stencil. Then I made some splatters with Glimmer Mist (which didn't turn out well probably due to the paint underneath?!?!). Then I colored some seam binding and vellum with Distress Ink and die cut the sentiment, also die cutting it from white CS and stacking before adhering. Scored a second tag at the top and glued to this one and tied the bow through both.  It's a card.

This won't be going into an envie, but maybe onto a present packed in cellophane...

It's also going into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Tag It
A Blog Named Hero - #39 Stencils

Happy Monday, friends.  Come by tomorrow to see if you were a winner in the WCMD  Winners or Card Creations blog hops!

Supplies for be happy:

Paper:  tag

Stamps: 

Ink : Distress Ink, Glimmer mist, watered down acrylic paint

Tools: stencil Crafters Workshop, die Simon Says Stamp

Other: seam binding

1,2,3... smile (STAMPlorations, ABNH)

So many roads lead to Rome... How do you like to achieve the oh-so-trendy watercolor look?  With good old-fashioned watercolors?  With stamps that look like brushstrokes? With patterned paper that looks watercolored? With mists? Dye inks used like watercolors?

I love the technique of applying Distress Ink to an acrylic block, misting it and then smooshing the block onto CS.  Like on my hello card in this post. There's always that one nice blob of water that leaves one nice blotch.  My artsy fartsy crafty heart just loves that.

So my heart, which also loves rainbows in any form, put down a few acrylic blocks of misted Distress Inks, stamped over them with a camera image from Amy Tangerine's Aspire stamp set and stitched on some teensy alpha stickers from KI Memories.

Stamping? check. Stitching? check. That's the theme of February's challenge at STAMPlorations:

Join us for the fun - you have all month.  While you're there, check out the bi-weekly sketch challenge too. Shery is so generous with her prizes.  Play along.

I'm playing at A Blog Named Hero too.  #38 is all about ROYGBIV.  Love that guy ;)

Keep your eyes peeled -  this card is in the Paper Crafts Stamp It! Techniques Vol. 2 ;)

Supplies for 123 smile:

Paper:  white CS Bringmann

Stamps: American Crafts

Ink : Distress inks

Tools: acrylic block, sewing machine

Other: alpha stickers KI Memories

polka dots for dad (Cloud9, ABNH)

My Dad can handle the fact that his Father's Day card has polka dots on it.  He knows me!  He'll think it's cool that I used this vintage stamp.  Kinda looks like him when he was a lad.  He was/is a handsome guy -  actually did some modelling back in the 50s for the J.L. Hudson Company store in Detroit if any of you remember that wonderful store.  I used to go visit Santa there in their wonderful fantasyland... but I digress.

Here's his card.  Gotta go get it into the mail.

I was having a play with some new paints from Paper Artsy.  Fresco chalk, they're called.  You can stamp on 'em no problemo!  Even on acetate.  The image is stamped with Stazon on the front of an acetate tag.  I painted the back of the tag and stamped polka dots on it with paints.  Love how they show through subtly.  Notice the paints on the paper tag?  The creme and blue are Fresco.  The brown standard acrylic.  See how smooth the Fresco colors are.  Fun, fun, fun.

Joining the fun here.

And here cuz it's the last big hurrah, themed Anything Goes .  Lucky me, I got to guest design with the lovely ladies this month.  You can see my card here.

Appreciate your visit, friends.

Supplies Dad:

Paper: Bringmann, recycled acetate

Stamps: image a la carte, polka dots KARS, sentiment from Fish More WPlus9

Ink: Memento, StazOn

Tools:  die MFT, paint brush

Other: Fresco paints, masking tape

june cloud9 blog hop (Cloud9, ABNH, SSS)

I'm a lucky girl.  Get to join the lovely ladies over at Cloud9 as guest designer for this month's blog hop.  Maybe I'm a jinx too, because this is unfortunately the last Cloud9 blog hop :(

Because it's the last hop, the theme is Anything Goes.  You won't be surprised to see that I've gone fishing.  Again.

Inspired by these double patterns, I stamped, masked and stamped again (on PP even) to create the focal image and then added some summery PPs too.  I ran my cardbase through my Big Shot using a piece of a plastic potato sack to create a debossed pattern mimicking the fish net!  TIP:  Two spritzer from a mini mister before embossing help get a good pattern on the CS but don't warp it.

A sentiment stamped two-tone and a few enamel dots (yep, I've jumped on the wagon) and voila!

Join the last hurrah fun.  Check out the design teams cards and then make a card using WPlus9 product and link it up.  There's a prize to be had.  And when the fun's over at Cloud9, check out the Monday Mood Boards over at Dawn W.'s WPlus9 blog.

Thanks for visiting.

p.s.  I'm also hooking this man-card up at A Blog Named Hero Challenge #25 and Simon Says Stamp Masculine/Father's Day.

Supplies enjoy your retirement:

Paper: CS Bringmann, PP American Crafts

Stamps: WPlus9, BG CHF

Ink: Jenny Bowlin, Versafine

Tools: fish dies WPlus9 (for masking)

Other: potato sack, enamel dots MME

sympathetic reject (ABNH, SSS)

Made by a local cardmaker.  Moi.  Intended for submission.  Rejected by a local editor.  Moi.  But that means a new blog post.  Check it out.

I was aiming for masculine and sympathy.  Wanted to use markers in blues and greens for the BG. Colored the stamp, misted, stamped, misted again, stamped again.  Had two panels.  That's where things got difficult.

This was my original design idea.  Nestle sentiment in with butterfly.  Butterfly stamped in gray on vellum.  OK, but the stinker went and warped on me overnight.  Might have been the extra misting for the second generation stamping???  No amount of foam adhesive was going to win the battle. Hmmm.

This was the first stamping, darker colors, see?  But then I got the crazy idea to kiss the solid butterfly stamp and stamp it onto vellum.  Didn't really like the result, but then I saw the inked area on the envelope pattern BG stamp and wondered what that would look like.  So I stamped.  In a sub-optimal place.  (Let's hear it for the advantages of clear stamps over rubber ones!)  And then put the sentiment below.

I do like the butterfly effect with the dark colors, but should probably have angled it to the right and then nestled the sentiment in more to the left.  Yes, we live and we learn.

Happy day to ya'll.  We actually have sunshine - yippie!  - although the Rhine is flooding many an area. Keeping our fingers crossed.

I'm playing at:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
A Blog Named Hero - Masculine

Supplies with sympathy:

Paper: Bringmann, vellum

Stamps: shadow and envelope BG Hero Arts, butterfly and sentiment Skipping Stones Design

Ink: Versafine and markers

Tools: scissors

Other: 

giving gallery idol a go! . one (PC, ATCAS, ABNH)

Morning.  Broke my heart to hear about the tornado victims in Oklahoma.   Cars and horses flying through the air???  Are we responsible for the crazy changes in weather recently???  Even got an email from Mom saying that in MI last night they had crazy storms and then a "totally pink sky" like she's never seen before...

Well, maybe it was the holiday weekend in Germany (the third this month already... can you say lucky?) but something moved me to create cards for this year's Gallery Idol competition over at Paper Crafts.  I'm not expecting anything out of it, but it's kinda like the challenge of all challenges in my book.  And as a wise man once said, it's all about the journey, not the destination.  Get your thinking cap on and give it a go too!

The theme for the Open Auditions is "Birthday Cards for Teens and Kids".  Now that is truly challenging for me.  Introducing "for-a-four-year-old-in-primary-colors":

The mug in the mirror - moi!  Just add a "9" to the "4" and it'd be true.  Playing in the Birthday challenge #13 at Addicted to CAS and the Clean Up Your Act challenge over at A Blog Named Hero.

Thanks for visiting and stay safe.

Supplies look who's 4:

Paper: CS Bringmann, mirror card

Stamps: Stampendous

Ink: J Versafine

Tools: square punch EKS, die Memory Box

Other: sticker Lego

took me... fishing (WPlus9, ABNH)

Here's Mood Board #12 at WPlus9.  At the risk of repeating myself...I love that company.

But alas, I'm still limited to my two and a half stamp sets.  So when Dawn said "use the mood board as a starting point for a card, tag, layout or any project...where ever the inspiration takes you! " it took me fishing.  Birthday, bold stripes, masculine, primary colors.  Never would have imagined how happy this stamp set makes me!

We've got a neighbor who loves to fish.  This card'll be bobbin' his way .  It's also bobbin' over to A Blog named Hero where the current challenge is Clean and Simple.  Yep.  Have a good one.

Supplies wiggle it:

Paper: CS Bringmann, scrap

Stamps: WPlus9

Ink: Jenny Bowlin, Versafine

Tools: 

Other: crochet thread

call me (ABNH)

More Inkadinkado nonsense coming at ya.  Actually, this is a pretty cool card.  The somewhat artistic style of the stamps allows for some haphazard stamping and cutting.  So without further ado...

The new "Golden Oldie" challenge at A Blog Named Hero is PERFECT for my little ol' card set...

I alerted you that I'm creating another card set.  This one for my BFF.  She's a hairdresser.  And mailable is a requirement...  More to come.

Supplies for Call Me:

Paper: Cardbase Papermania

Stamps: Inkadinkado

Ink : Versacolor, Versafine

Tools: 

Other: foam adhesive

springy window (ABNH, Moxie Fab, Hero Arts, APFP)

Here are a couple more cards from my card set I posted yesterday.  Changed up the colors a wee bit and used some Hero Arts stamps.

Used my homemade fun-foam-cut-from-a-die stamp to stamp the vines again, this time only three cuz I'm playing at this month's Hero Arts challenge:

and used the colors AND tried the new technique of die cutting fun foam to stamp with.  So I'm also playing at A Blog Named Hero where the challenge is:

And I'm hooking up to A Passion for Papertrey - Thank You since the vines are from PTI.  Actually yesterday's cards used even more PTI product, but oh well.

Thanks for visiting.

Supplies for cards:

Paper: CS Neenah

Stamps: Hero Arts

Ink : Cat's Eyes, gray Hero Arts, Versafine

Tools: die bloom Spellbinders, vine PTI

Other: fun foam

sympathy (CUYL, ABNH)

Had to replenish my stash of sympathy cards.  Motivated by A Blog Named Hero's challenge to redo an old card of yours, I went to a design that I actually like a lot and just gave it a new color combo.

Viva's 3D rose stamp meets Shaded Lilac and Broken China Distress Inks.  And a fabulous Technique Tuesday sentiment.

Also joining in at Challenge up your Life - Condolence.

Supplies for so sorry:

Paper: Papermania

Stamps: Viva,  sentiment Technique Tuesday

Ink : Distress Inks, Versafine

Tools: 

Other: 

just five little words (SCS, Lessology, ABNH)

Five little words that pack a really big punch, that is.  This card is for HYCCT#1203 - to make a card with five separate words on it.

Used recycled acetate and alcohol inks to create the die cut panel.  Stamped the sentiment with StazOn.  Added a couple die cut (the die cut hearts and the what-would-have-been-garbage-from-the-die-cut) border strips for interest.

Hooking up to:
Lessology - #20 Barely There
A Blog Named Hero #15 - Use punched or die cut elements

Thanks for looking.  And since Tim Holtz wasn't running, here's hoping the best man won...

Supplies for happy true love:

Paper: CS American Crafts,  PP Pink Petticoat, recycled acetate

Stamps: Kelly Panacci

Ink : alcohol inks, StazOn

Tools: border die PTI, Spellbinders

Other: 

ruff homage to kasia (SCS, Retro)

Have you seen Kasia C.'s card over at Retro Sketches #36?  One of my faves.  Ever.  Maybe  when you find a card that you go gaga over, it helps you define the kind of cardmaker you want to be.  (I know Wida has been giving this subject a lot of thought lately...)

So I analyzed why I love Kasia's card so much.  First, white space.  I am a total sucker for white space.  Next, the amazing bright and cheery colors.  Get me every time.  Then the element of unexpected - the piece of kraft up top and the washi and twine combo.  And finish it off with a killer sentiment - meaningful and a good font.

So why aren't all my cards like this?  Hmmm....  Maybe that's a subject for another sitting.   I have figured out that less is more - a small touch of PP can be better than covering an entire card in it.  IMO.  However, that doesn't put much of a dent in my stash.  Yikes.  It's a never-ending battle...

My card:

Not going to bore you with the details.  Except one... See the black strip at the top?  DD and friends had mutilated some pieces of PP while decorating school notebooks - punched circles and flowers pretty much all over the PP piece.  I was going to cut it apart to get my strip for the top when I thought, "Why cut it away?"  Use it.  Was it the "go for the unexpected" or my thriftiness at work?!?!?  Unfortunately I ended up covering up the cool spot where a flower had been punched with the vertical strip when I decided to put the "day" of the sentiment on the right edge.

Entering these challenges:
Papertrey MIM #90 - Sentiment Focal Point with dies and stamps
A Blog Named Hero #15 - Use a punched or die cut element
Retro Sketches - #36

This was my last creation for HYCCT.  (#1226 - Who let the dogs out).  Now to pack up 30-some cards and ship them off to TX.  Have a great day.

Supplies for ruff day:

Paper: cardbase Papermania,  PP KI memories

Stamps: Inkadinkado

Ink : Versacolor, Versafine

Tools: alpha die PTI, Spellbinders

Other: washi