floral cards

Hello everyone!  I have a several cards to share and they are all made with supplies from a Spellbinders card kit that I recently picked up.  Spellbinders has several month kits to pick from and one of them is a monthly card kit.  A week or so ago Spellbinders had some of their past kits on sale and if you were a club member you got them at an even better price.  I decided to pick up the May 2019 KOM called Stay Wild.   If you join the club (click here to check out this months kit), you will receive a box jam packed full of supplies.  The kit includes 10 cardstock bases and envelopes so you will be able to make 10 cards right out of the box plus more with all the supplies left.  The kits also include a set of dies and the die set for the Stay Wild kit included a layered flower (looks like a rose to me), leaves, stems with leaves and several other pieces.  I used the flower dies, as well as the leaves and stems to make two of the cards.  The first card that I'm sharing was made with some of the ephemera that is included in the kit.  I used the Paper Players sketch so I will be posting the card there.  There were also chipboard photo frames so I used one as the square element.  I die cut some of the cardstock included in the kit with a large rectangle die (the only think not a part of the kit) and then layered on all of my elements that came from the kit.   After adhering all the elements I finished things off with a few sequins that were also included.   The value of these kits is amazing!  If you are interested in any of the Spellbinders kit clubs you can check each one out here:   Small Die Kit, Large Die Kit, Amazing Paper Grace Die Kit, Card Kit, Glimmer Hot Foil Kit, Fun Stampers Journey Stamp Kit

The second card uses the dies that I mentioned above.  I die cut the flower from some of the cardstock from the kit and then adhered them together.  The leaves and stems were also die cut from cardstock from the kit.  Another piece of cardstock was die cut with a large rectangle die, as was patterned paper from the kit.  I used another chipboard frame from the kit and layered up the flowers, leaves and stems.   The word smile (also in kit) was die cut four times from cardstock, adhered together and then adhered to the panel and I was finished.  Think I will add this one to the Simon Says Stamp anything goes challenge.  I just love the flower die from the kit and I can seeing myself using it a lot in the future.

The last card is uses the layout from Freshly Made Sketches.   Because I was using supplies from the kit I did not make my card a square.  And I have to be honest and say that I like this card the least of the three.    The flower, leaves and stems were die cut from pieces of watercolor paper that I had smooshed in the leftover distress inks from a project that I had watercolored.  I had sprayed the inks with Prima Color Bloom spray in Pearl White before I smooshed the panels so there is some shimmer to the flower and leaves that you can't see in the photo.  I die cut a rectangle and then added the strip of patterned paper (from the kit).  I used another piece of ephemera from the kit (the circle with the gold foil) as the starting point for layering the flower and leaves.  I think the reason I don't really like the card is because I did not arranges the stems behind the flower correctly and there was this huge open area.  I ended up filling it in with the butterfly (a sticker from the kit) and while it doesn't look bad it doesn't look great to me.   The sentiment is also from the kit.  Anyway, it is what it is...

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Happy Day Before Halloween!

Hello and happy day before Halloween!  If you walked in to a local store close to me you would think that Halloween happened a week ago because all of the Halloween products are mostly gone and are replaced with Christmas decorations, toys, etc!  What happened to Thanksgiving?!  Anyway... since it is Wednesday that means I have a post up on the AJVD blog and here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project and to let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and have a very happy Halloween!

Final CTD Guest Designer Post

Hello friends!  As my blog post title indicates today is my last day as a guest designer for Color Throwdown.  I have had so much fun being the guest designer and it has helped me improve my coloring skills! A big thank you to the gals at Color Throwdown for having me!  I started the month with a pumpkin card and I'm ending the month with a pumpkin card.  This time a teal one!  The CTD colors for this week are teal, rust, olive and navy.  When I saw the colors I immediately decided that I wanted to color up a teal pumpkin!  In my first CTD post I indicated that I was inspired to create my pumpkin based on a Reverse Confetti stamp set that I didn't own.   Well.... now I do own that stamp set and I used it for my card today.  I practiced my no line watercoloring and used distress inks in Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge, Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire.   The images were stamped with the Antique Linen on Canson watercolor cardstock and then die cut with the matching dies when I was done with my coloring.   I went heavy with the teal and used the other colors in smaller amounts and maybe should have used one of the other colors a little more, but overall I really like how the pumpkin turned out.  The layout is based on the current Sunday Stamps challenge so I will be posting it there.   Below is all the information regarding how to play along with this week's challenge.

Once you’ve finished your card or other paper-crafted project, add a direct link to your creation using the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the Color Throwdown post. And, don’t forget to use the keyword CTD567 if you upload your project to an online gallery, or hashtag on social media with #ctd567 and/or #colorthrowdown.  

Challenge guidelines are in the right sidebar on the Color Throwdown Challenge Blog in case you have any questions.

The rest of the team...

Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits

Broni Holcombe - Splashes of Watercolor

Lori Tecler - Inking Aloud

 Wanda Cullen - Cullen-ary Creations

 Jodi Collins- Stamping a Latte

Lynn Putt- The Queens Scene 

Lisa Henke- My Little Creative Escape

Amy Rysavy - Prairie Paper & Ink

 Amy Rohl - Ink About Me

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you will play along with Color Throwdown this week!

flowers and leaves...

I have been pretty busy lately making cards.  Not sure what happened other than maybe I got some inspiration because normally I only make about two cards per week.  In the last two weeks I have made about 10 cards and a lot of them have involved coloring.  More specifically watercoloring.  Today I have another card that I created using the beautiful MFT Fresh Cut Flowers background stamp (which is on sale right now for 20% off).  I did some practicing of my no line watercoloring and while there were a couple of areas that didn't go so well overall I'm pleased with how the image turned out.  I used the layout from Freshly Made Sketches for my card so I will be posting it there.  I stamped the image on Canson watercolor paper using Antique Linen distress ink and then colored the smaller flowers with Worn Lipstick distress ink and the bigger flowers with Festive Berries distress ink.   The leaves were colored with a combination of Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint distress inks. When I was done I did try to add a little bit more shadow using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils on just the flowers.  I used a red and a pink for this.  I die cut the image with a rectangle die and then foam mounted it on a light gray cardstock base.  The sentiment is from an older MFT set called Amazing.  I heat embossed it in white on vellum and then die cut it with the MFT Slanted Sentiment Strips die (these are no longer available as a two die set like I have, but you can get them in a set of 3 dies set.).  I adhered that with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive to the card front.  When I saw the new Time Out challenge I thought this card would work so I will be posting it there.

The second card is all about die cutting.  When I originally started the first card I had thought I would die cut the large Thank You word die that I had gotten from MFT from the center of the flower, but after spending all that time coloring the image (I worked on it when I had a free moment so it took two days!) I decided that I didn't want to die cut it after all.  But I still wanted to use that die as I had never used it before.  So I went the patterned paper route and pulled out the pretty Fall Market pad from Carta Bell.  I did the inlaid die cutting technique for this card using two different patterns from the pad.  Once I had that done I thought the card needed something more so I added the little leaves that I die cut from the scraps using the AJVD Leaves and Petal die set.   I'm posting this to this week's Paper Players challenge to make the sentiment the focus of your card, but now with the leaves I'm wondering if it distracts too much from the sentiment.  You be the judge.  I'm also going to add it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use fall colors.  Die cutting done with my Gemini Jr. and my Big Shot Plus.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.  

Wednesday with AJVD

Hello!  Hope your week is going well.   We are having a rainy one here in the Pacific Northwest, but that isn't out of the ordinary for the end of October, lol!  I have a card up on the AJVD blog today and here is a little peek:

Hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project.  And do forget that the WOW!/AJVD blog hop is still going on right now so don't forget to comment to win!

Color Throwdown #566

Hello!  Hope your week is going well!  I also hope that you have checked out the WOW!/AJVD blog hop that is going on right now.  You can find out all the details here.    The CTD colors this week are orange, gray and cream and given the inspiration photo and my love of pumpkins I might have gone that route... but I didn't, lol!  I decided to color up some more flowers using this unique color combo.  The flowers I used this week are from the Honey Bee Stamps Winter Anemone set.  I stamped the large cluster that I used on Canson watercolor paper with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink and then colored the flowers with Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon distress inks and the leaves with Weathered Wood distress ink.  When everything was dry I die cut the piece with a large rectangle die.  The sentiment is from another Honey Bee Stamps Friendship stamp set.  The word was die cut with the matching die set from gray cardstock and vellum.  I stamped the sentiment using the Morning Mist ink and then adhered the die cut sentiment.   I quite pleased with how my coloring turned out.   All die cutting done with my Gemini Jr.  (Compensated affiliate links used in my blog post where possible at no expense to you.)

Here are all the details regarding playing along with Color Throwdown:

Once you’ve finished your card or other paper-crafted project, add a direct link to your creation using the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the Color Throwdown post. And, don’t forget to use the keyword CTD566 if you upload your project to an online gallery, or hashtag on social media with #ctd566 and/or #colorthrowdown.  

Challenge guidelines are in the right sidebar on the Color Throwdown Challenge Blog in case you have any questions.

The rest of the team...

Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits

Broni Holcombe - Splashes of Watercolor

Lori Tecler - Inking Aloud

 Wanda Cullen - Cullen-ary Creations

 Jodi Collins- Stamping a Latte

Lynn Putt- The Queens Scene 

Lisa Henke- My Little Creative Escape

Amy Rysavy - Prairie Paper & Ink

 Amy Rohl - Ink About Me

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you will play along with Color Throwdown this week!

A Jillian Vance Design and Wow Embossing Blog Hop!

Hey there!  A Jillian Vance Design and Wow Embossing are teaming up today for a fun blog hop featuring tons of inspiration and prizes!  More about the prizes at the end of my post!  You should have arrived here at my blog by way of WOW! design team member Verity Biddlecombe.   I have three cards to share today.  First up is my favorite card from the group.  For this one I die cut the oak leaf from the Grand Leaf Trio from cardstock and then adhered it to a piece of ThermoWeb purple tape so I could hold it in place.  I then used some washi tape to hold that in place on thin white cardstock so I could ink up the entire leaf with embossing ink.  I used a small tray I have to combine three different WOW! embossing powders (Primary Apple Red, Aztec Glintz, and Metallic Gold Rich Pale) and then poured the mixture on my leaf.  I heat set it and then repeated the process.   I love the way the leaf turned out!  Once the leaf was completely cooled I adhered some loops of gold thread to the back of the leaf.  A piece of kraft cardstock was die cut with the largest Stitched Dot rectangle die and then I arranged where I wanted the leaf so I could figure out placement of the sentiments (from the AJVD set Hello Fall).  The leaf was removed, the sentiments inked with embossing ink, WOW! Metallic Gold Rich Pale was applied and then everything was heat set.  The leaf was adhered and I then adhered the panel to a kraft cardstock base.

My next card had originally started out to be a Christmas card, but in the end I turned it into a sympathy card.   A Jillian Vance Design recently released some fabulous new cover plate dies and one of them is the Floral Flourish.  Ever since I got this die I have been wanting to use it as a stencil and the WOW!/AJVD hop gave me that opportunity.  I die cut the flourish from scrap cardstock and then adhered it to a piece of aqua cardstock with removable tape.  I really need to get ThermoWeb's Pixie Spray because that would have made things alot easier I think.   After adhering the stencil I smooshed embossing ink all over the flourish.  I really had to work to get it into the small places and did miss a few tiny spots.  I then poured WOW! Opaque Seafoam White Regular and heat set it.  I will admit that I wasn't really happy with this first run and tried the process a few more times, but in the end went with my first try as it turned out the best!   I finished the card by simply embossing one of the sympathy messages from the newly release With Sympathy stamp set on a strip of vellum using WOW! Metallic Gold Rich Pale and then adhering it to the card front.   The card was then adhered to an aqua cardstock base.

My final card is all about C H R I S T M A S!  I recently saw a card done in the style I used and I loved the way it looked so I decided to create my own version using the AJVD Headline Type Alphabet die set.  I die cut the letters from thin chipboard and then using the same method I used with the first card I adhered the letters to strips of ThermoWeb Purple tape.   Then I smooshed on the embossing ink and then poured on WOW! Primary Evergreen embossing powder.  I heat set the letters and then repeated the process.   I cut a piece of white cardstock and then stamped the poinsettia image from the AJVD Elegant Christmas stamp set across the card stock piece with embossing ink, applied Aztec Glintz and then heat set.  I absolutely LOVE the soft almost peachy gold color of the Aztec Glintz embossing powder.  It is so gorgeous!   The panel was die cut with the largest Stitched Dot rectangle die and then I set about adhering all the letters to my panel.  This involved two rulers and a lot of patience, lol!  I used foam tape to pop up the letters for dimension.  Once everything was adhered I stamped the word merry (from the AJVD Just beCLAUS) stamp set on vellum and embossed it using WOW! Sparkling Snow embossing powder for a tiny bit of sparkle.

Thanks for sticking with this really long post!  Now for all the information about how to win PRIZES!!  YAY!  In order to win one of 2 $25 gift certificates (one from A Jillian Vance Design and one from WOW! Embossing) you must simply do the following:  Comment on each blog post.   That simple and you have until October 28th to complete the hop and leave your comment!  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!   Your next stop on the hop is WOW! design team member Jaine Drake.   If you started at my blog you can find the full blog hop list on the A Jillian Vance Design blog or the WOW! Embossing blog.  

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post!  I'm glad you stopped by and have a wonderful day! 

giving thanks for you...

Hello there!  Hope you had a good weekend.  I did!  I got a lot of crafty time in and made the card I'm sharing today, as well as got portions of two other cards completed!  That is a win-win in my book, lol!  Today's card is for the October Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge, as well as the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.  And... once, again, I went with leaves for my CTS card!  That is three times now, lol!  Anyway, I like my previous CTS card I did some no line watercoloring and used the Reverse Confetti Fall Foliage stamp and die set.  This time it was a little more time consuming because I used three leaves from the stamp set that have small leaves.  I stamped all the images using Antique Linen distress ink and then got to coloring.  The larger leaf cluster was colored with a combination of Fossilized Amber, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge and Ripe Persimmon.  The smaller leaf clusters were colored with a combination of Fossilized Amber and Peeled Paint.  The smallest leaf clusters were turned into berries by coloring them with Festive Berries and the stems with Gathered Twigs.  The stems for the other leaves were done with Fossilized Amber and Peeled Paint.   Once everything was die cut I set about figuring out how to create my wreath.  I used a Reverse Confetti stand alone die set called Leafy Wreath for the base of my wreath and die cut it from a piece of watercolor paper that I had smooshed with all the distress inks that I had used to color all the leaf clusters I created.    I then layered on the largest leaf clusters and filled in with the smaller ones and my 'berry' clusters.  I tied a multi strand bow using some twine from Spellbinders that is a beautiful golden yellow and adhered it to my wreath.  I then used another stand alone die from Reverse Confetti (it is no longer available) and die cut it from vellum several times then stacked together.  That was tucked into the wreath as shown.  I determined where I was going to place the wreath and then stamped the sentiment from the RC With a Thankful Heart in VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink on a die cut panel of off white cardstock.  I adhere the panel to a light gray cardstock base.  It was time consuming making this card, but I just love how it turned out!

Well... that was a long post, lol!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Rustic White, SSS Fog, Canson watercolor; Inks:  Distress Inks, VersaFine CLAIR Acorn; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti and A Jillian Vance Design

happy halloween...

Hey there!  Popping in with a Halloween card that I made for my little niece using dies from Spellbinders, the colors from the current Paper Players challenge and the layout from the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge.   Spellbinders is currently having a sale on their past kits and you can save up to 40% off!  Check out the sale here.  The dies that I used are from the Spellbinders September 2018 small die kit.   I think the card is pretty self-explanatory.  Just die cut all the pieces from cardstock in the PP colors although I did use a lighter gray than the one called for since I decided to use it to cut out the little ghosts.  I brushed the ghosts and black cat with Diamond Stickles before adhering them to the white cardstock panel.  Once everything was arranged and adhered I attached the panel to a card base made from the sale cardstock I used to die cut the ghosts.   I'm including a photo that shows the sparkly up close.   I will also be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   (Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.)

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and don't forget to check out the Spellbinders sale!

Happy Wednesday!

Hey there!  If you want to check out my Color Throwdown card scroll down or click here.   I also have a post up on the AJVD blog today and here is a little peek of my card:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project and to let me know what you think.  Have a great day!

Color Throwdown #565

Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  Before I tell you about my card for this week's Color Throwdown I wanted to let you know that Spellbinders is having a sale on various kits from all of their clubs.  Click here to save up to 40%!  I have really been enjoying my time as a guest designer for CTD.  This week the colors are lavender, gray and black.  When I first saw the colors I initially thought of doing something with a Halloween theme, but them I decided to use the combo to color the large floral image from the Simon Says Stamp October card kit.   I stamped the image on smooth bristol cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink and then colored the image with ZIG markers in English Lavender and Gray and clean water.  I started out very light with the English Lavender and then added depth to the shadows by adding more of the color and not blending it out as much.  I finished up the flowers by adding a little amount of the gray to the shadow areas, as well.  The leaves were colored in the same manner just using only the gray.   I really like how they turned out.   To finish the card I die cut the piece with a rectangle die and then stamped the sentiment from the same set as the floral image using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then adhered the panel to a light gray cardstock base.  Going to add this to the current Time Out challenge.

Here is all the information regarding the challenge:

Once you’ve finished your card or other paper-crafted project, add a direct link to your creation using the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the Color Throwdown post. And, don’t forget to use the keyword CTD565 if you upload your project to an online gallery, or hashtag on social media with #ctd565 and/or #colorthrowdown.  

Challenge guidelines are in the right sidebar on the Color Throwdown Challenge Blog in case you have any questions.

The rest of the team...

Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits

Broni Holcombe - Splashes of Watercolor

Lori Tecler - Inking Aloud

 Wanda Cullen - Cullen-ary Creations

 Jodi Collins- Stamping a Latte

Lynn Putt- The Queens Scene 

Lisa Henke- My Little Creative Escape

Amy Rysavy - Prairie Paper & Ink

 Amy Rohl - Ink About Me

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!