not quite leger

The adjective "leger" in German means casual. In fashion, casual and somewhat sloppy. As in, laying around the house in your sweats. Certainly not what Herve Leger had in mind with this:

If you zoom in, there's a golden sheen to the dress which made me grab my shimmer CS from DCWV. I stamped some Inkadinkado mistletoe on it and then added some bling in a nod to the pink and orange on the rest of the dress.

Then I framed the stamped piece with black CS and heat embossed some beaded corners with gold in a nod to the studs running along all the panels of the dress. A WMS sentiment from Festive Foliage finished it off.

I'm also joining the gals at Time Out where #19 is about Embossing with the optional element of sparkle. Got both! Thanks for looking.

joyful and berried

Having tons of fun with the wreath image from the Joyful stamp set from STAMPlorations today. One Christmas card, one non-Christmas card.

I had an idea for wreaths dangling on twine in front of a wood wall - this is what happened.

I tweaked the wreaths, stamping them and then die cutting them with a Spellbinders inverted scallop circle and a normal circle in the middle to make them fit my design better. Put them on a wood wall. And dangled a sentiment. Oh, and a couple of pine cones die cut from chocolate brown Add a Little Dazzle metal sheets for added interest.

I just love all the berries in the image. I colored some of them with a red Sharpie and a few with a gold metallic pen. Added a heat embossed sentiment in gold too. I love the pizazz the gold brings to the rustic card.

I'm hooking up at:

Stamping Sensations - Simply Christmas
Festive Friday #44

Now for the non-Christmas wreath. You may have seen this card. Well today's is a distant cousin. I'm going to use it as a November birthday card.

Started by stamping the wreath with Antique Linen Distress Ink and then filling it all in with watercolors. When I was happy with the oranges and yellows, I second-generation stamped the wreath with brown. Then I spritzed it with water/Perfect Pearls and tore it out. I didn't want the stark, neatly cut edges and thought tearing it while wet would yield softer ones. I like the result.

Then I die cut the PTI Art Deco frame and lightly stamped the wreath three times offset. Splattered with Heidi Swapp gold and adhered the frames to a kraft base, popping the middle panel and then the wreath on top of that. Added a gold embossed sentiment on vellum and "berried" it with a few gems.

Another example of how a few gold splatters can really add some pop to a generally rustic card.

I'm joining the fun at:
Time Out #18

Virginia's View - Metallic (both cards)

Thanks for looking. CU tomorrow. And heads up - next week the STAMPlorations DT is hopping using the stamp sets from the new release (graphic in my sidebar). Be sure to come back for that too. Fun stamps. Great prizes to be had as always. And there may even be a special guest to delight you...

fall colors (AAA, Time Out, SSS, Make the Day Special)

Happy Fall, ya'll.

Inspired by a 6x6 pad from Simple Stories. Saw the label and decided to put it to use as the sentiment for my card. Next came the idea of mimicking the tree and leaves by using the PTI Mighty Oak and embossing it then applying some watercolors over the embossing. And because the "feel" of the card heads in the direction of warm and cozy... a couple buttons made an appearance too!

I'm playing (can you tell I'm in the challenge mode these days? ;):

AAA Cards - Fall colors

Time Out - #16 CASE Heather with a twist

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use Watercolors

Make the Day Special - Try a technique (I brought buttons back to life)

Hope you are enjoying a beautiful Fall if it's Fall where you are. I love this time of year. Thanks for coming by.

p.s. Did you see this post over at Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking? It's about using your tools wisely. They're featuring one of my cards that I really, really love:)

Supplies:

Paper:  Bringmann, PP Simple Stories

Stamps:PTI

Ink : Versamark, watercolors

Tools: rectangle die Lil Inker

Other: buttons, twine

exploration STAMPlorations sketched: daisy (Fusion, Sprinkle of Imagination, Time Out, SSS)

Have you seen the inspiration photo from A Sprinkle of Imagination?

"Ox blood red, regal purple, zest of lime" - reminds me of the colors I saw in the vineyards while harvesting Pinot Gris (on flat ground today, I'm happy to report). And to be truthful, the black and white were there too. In the form of mould that has to be snipped away from the good grapes before dropping them into the bucket. Eight people, eight hours, rain and shine. And even local TV. I'm pooped. But I've got a coolio card to share with you. And a story of how my cabeza works.

"Zest of lime". Made me think of Dylusions ink. And I was wondering how to create stems to turn the daisies into gerbera. Enter my SSS Wave stencil and clear texture paste, colored with a couple spritzers of ink.

I had heat embossed, watercolored and fussy cut the blooms. It was just a matter of bringing the blooms and stems together. Somehow.

Enter the current Fusion #25 challenge.

I'm gonna be daring and say I've fused photo and sketch!

Knew I wanted to use another of the cute sentiments from the Bloom Sketches: Daisy 1 on a die cut butterfly (from Clearly Besotted) but the finishing touch came about when I stamped a portion of the tail from PTI's  Happy Trails in red. Thanks for the idea, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

And I'm playing with some great gals over at Time Out #15 where it's about stamping this time around.

Come back next Monday when the new STAMPlorations sketch goes live to see more purple and lime and another twist on these daisies.

Stop by tomorrow for more daisy action and the last day of my Exploration of the September STAMPlorations release. Remember, I will be drawing a winner (from all comments left on my Exploration posts this week) who will get one of the sets I've used.

Supplies :

Paper:  CS Bringmann, watercolor

Stamps: STAMPlorations, PTI

Ink :  Versafine, Hero Arts, Versamark

Tools: butterfly die Clearly Besotted, stencil SSS

Other:  white embossing powder. watercolors, texture paste

32 to go (WW, Make the Day Special, Lawnscaping, CASE, Time Out)

I so loved the color combo from the Winnie and Walter Playdate #2 that I've four more invitations for you today. (Then I'm moving on, I promise.)

You saw my Distress-Ink-to-acrylic-block-misted-and-squished-to-paper technique BG yesterday. Well I made another while I was at it, just using the pink tones. That's what you see above. I used the sketch from the current challenge #3 at Make the Day Special. Because I embossed the words from W&W onto the vellum banner I'm hooking up to the current Lawnscaping challenge - Embossing too. And I'm going over to A Sprinke of Imagination one more time, too (peony, fuschia and lime)!

I only wanted the words for my sentiment above so I partially die cut them with my Dieversions die from a third panel I had created, the remainder of which you see in the next card.

Angled the panel,  heat embossed the cascading confetti stars in silver and die cut the sentiment from silver CS. Opted for a green base for this one. 

This BG I created by swiping Adirondack ink pads across normal CS then spritzing with water. The result is more vibrant but also watercolor-y. I die cut the sentiment from the center of the panel and heat embossed some of the twinkle confetti in gold on the cardbase before adhering the negative. I also heat embossed "birthday" and "anniversary" across the bottom cuz we are celebrating both events at our "161" party. I'm joining CASE Study with this one where Pamela H.'s amazing card is up this week (negative die cutting, birthday sentiment at the bottom).

So where did the positive die cut go from that last card? Funny you should ask...

Now doesn't that look like a party invitation? Totally inspired by Vanessa M.'s card in the W&W gallery, I changed it up a little and love the result.  I'm playing at Time Out challenge #7 where the theme is "summer" and this definitely says summer party in my opinion. Some of my DT teamies run Time Out and I've been meaning to join in!

Whew, that's it for today. TTFN. But I've still got 32 to go...

STAMPlorations sketch #10 (Time Out, DD)

It's time for a new sketch challenge at STAMPlorations. This is kind of a fun one.  Stumped me at first.

Used a stencil and acrylic paint to create a brick wall which I trimmed into two panels.

Before adhering the panels I stamped some splatters and splotches from Holiday Artsy and a sentiment from VIGNETTE: Chevron and Arrows, heat embossing the word "Great".  Something about the pink and gold with all that black makes me smile.

Will you join us for Sketch Challenge #10?  Hope to see you over at STAMPlorations.

I'm joining the fun at a new-to-me challenge, Time Out (what a great name for a cardmakers' playground), where the #3 theme is Birthday, although I have not made this with the masculine "twist".

And I'm going over to Dynamic Duos #99 where the colors are black, razzleberry and a touch of gold.  I think my pink is too pink, but oh well.

Hope your Easter was joyful.  Have a great week.

Supplies for have a great day:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: STAMPlorations

Ink : Aladine, Delicata Gold

Tools: stencil Dutch Doobadoo

Other: acrylic paint