fall cards...

 Hello, hello!  Popping in with a couple of fall themed cards to share.  I thought our normal wet and dreary fall weather had arrived the other day, but nope!  We are back to sun and relatively warm temperatures.  It's a little annoying as I really want to wear my warm and cozy tops, but some days it is too warm!  Oh well, I'm sure the wet and cold will be here soon enough, lol!   And I should not be complaining anyway, my corner of the world has not faced the devastation that the southeast has!  Absolutely sickened by the response of the current administration, as well!   Anyway, you came here to see cards, so here they are.

This one will be heading off to Freshly Made Sketches.  I generally don't make cards as busy as this one, but felt in the mood, lol!  All the papers, stamps and dies are from a Simon Says Stamp fall themed card kit I got last year.  Finally putting it to good use!  I used distress oxide inks for the leaves.  I inked up the leaves using the tiny distress ink blenders and they worked like a charm.  I pounced on one color and then was able to add the secondary color exactly where I wanted it to go!  To make things easy on myself I die cut all the images first, left them in the cardstock and then lined up the images.  It worked perfectly.   I trimmed down the background paper, added some additional pieces behind it for strength and adhered it to my card base.  The gingham paper was die cut with a tag die from the kit, the leaves adhered along with the sentiment.  I finished everything off with the two little bows.  I really like how it turned out.  Will add this one to the current Time Out challenge, as well.

This card is for Color Throwdown and as you can see I used that pretty tag again!  It was right there at my finger tips so why not?   The mushrooms are from a die set from the Greetery.  I inked them up with distress oxide inks and then adhered them together.  I had the embossed background panel on my desk as well so decided to use it, too.  I went with the debossed side as sometimes I like that look better than the embossed side.  The embossing folder is from Simon Says Stamp and came in the card kit that I used to make the first card.  I die cut the tag from off white cardstock, inked up one corner with distress oxide ink that was left on the blending brush and then added the mushrooms.  The sentiment is from the Greetery Oakwood sentiment set.  I finished off the card with the double bow at the top of the tag.   More my usual clean and simple style!   Adding this card to the Simon Says Stamp World Card Making Day line up.  

 s

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day. 

two cards...

 Hello, hello!  I'm popping in to share two cards that I made recently.  First up is a card for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  Let's have a look.

I used the pretty CTD combo of light blue, kraft and cream with the Greetery Bittersweet Bouquet stamp set.  I thought it would look pretty stamped in the light blue with a light brown and I was right.  Once stamped I die cut the panel with a rectangle die and then trimmed the panel into three pieces.  They were adhered to my card front using foam squares.  I die cut the Greetery bow from the same cardstock used for the panel (PTI rustic white) and then blended some of the light blue ink in the center.  I finished with a sentiment from a Simon Says Stamp set and a few light blue and clear sequins.

This card is for the Pinkfresh Studio August challenge to use washi tape and for the JUGs challenge of anything goes with stencils.  Now, you might ask where is the washi tape?  Well, the entire background is washi tape!  I adhered it to thin white cardstock and then die cut it with a rectangle die. You can't see it in my photo, but I added some glossy accents to the fur on Santa's hat and sleeve, to the tree he is holding and some of the leaves on the left side and then added Rock Candy glitter.  I stenciled the Pinkfresh Studio Berry Branch image, stamped over the stenciling with the coordinating stamp and then added Rock Candy glitter to the berries.  The sentiment is from the PFS Folk Snowflake (I think that is the name) that I stamped in the same light green I used to stencil the berry branch and die cut it with the matching die.  I added the panel to my card base and then adhered the stamped image with glue.  Another Christmas card to add to my stash!

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

mixed media tag...

 Hello and happy March!  Can you believe it is already March?  Where is the time going?!  Spring isn't quite here, yet, but I'm definitely in a spring-like mood!   With that in mind, I decided to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of fur or feathers.  And I will add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  The amazing Emma William, who is on SSS Monday challenge design team, created a beautiful tag featuring a bird.  Her tag is a bit more moodier than mine, but I was 100% inspired by her tag.  Take a look at what I made.

I started off my tag by spritzing a #8 distress heavy stock tag with a combination of Speckled Egg, Salvaged Patina and Antique Linen distress spray stains and Frozen Fog distress mica spray.  I dried the tag in between the layers of color.  Once the tag was dry I uses a Simon Says Stamp pine bough stencil and some grit paste to add more texture to the background.  I also added some crackle paste.  Once both pastes were dry I scribbled some distress crayons in ground espresso and crushed olive onto an acrylic block, spritzed on some water, mixed the colors and then dabbed them onto the pastes with my finger.  I then adhered my tag to a #8 Etcetera thickboard tag.  Once that was dry I rubbed more of the ground espresso/crushed olive mix around the edge of the tag.   

For the bird I used my favorite Backyard Wren die set from Memory Box.  The twiggy wreath, feathers blossom stem and budding stems are from the Greetery.   For the wreath I sprized heavy stock with walnut stain and Crooked Broomstick distress mica spray.  I spritzed on water to move the colors around.  Once the panels were dry I die cut them with the wreath die and two dies that cut twiggy branches for layering on the wreath.  There is a wreath stamp that coordinates with the wreath base and I used that to stamp on some Scorched Timber distress ink.  Once that was dry I adhered on the branches.  The other pieces were inked with distress oxide inks in Speckled Egg, Pumice Store, Vintage Photo, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage.   I assembled everything, let them dry and then adhered them to the tag as you see.  I finished off the tag with some chunky twine and a small key that I tried to grunge up with some grit paste and ground espresso distress crayon.  A small pin was used to attach the key to the twine.    I'm super pleased with how my tag turned out.

dragonfly...

 Hello!  Hope your week is going well.  It is very cold here in the PNW and it doesn't seem like spring is coming.  In fact, this morning I was outside and thought to myself that it felt more like December than March!  Hoping it starts to warm up soon.   Today's card is all about pretty spring colors and a dragonfly.  Take a look. 

When I saw the color combo at Color Throwdown I knew I was not going to miss the opportunity to make a card with it.  It is just so bright and fresh.   I wasn't so sure, however, that I was going to make a card using the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.   Sketches with lots of things in the center terrify me, lol.  But I decided to give myself the challenge of coming up with something.   I think things turned out pretty well.   All products are from the Greetery, except for the ink which is from Pinkfresh Studio.   Toward the end of last year the Greetery had a sale.  There was one thing in particular that I wanted, but I didn't want to do an order by myself.  Then a friend contacted me about doing an order together and so I had her get me what I wanted:  Jumbo Curiosity: Dragonfly stencil and die set.  I thought that was the only Jumbo Curiosity stencil and die set that I owned.  As I was looking through my Greetery products I discovered that I also own Jumbo Curiosity:  Butterfly!  Had no idea!  Anywhoo...  I die cut the dragonfly from white cardstock, used some low tack tape on the back to keep them in place and stenciled them with the CTD colors.  Then I had to figure out the other shapes I was going to use.  At first I didn't want to use circles, but in the end they looked the best with the dragonfly.  The circles are from the Pinwheel Party suite of products.  I die cut the pinwheels from white cardstock and stenciled with the matching stenciled.  The smallest blue pinwheels were stamped with a image from the Pinwheel Party stamp set and then die cut.  I arranged everything on a white cardstock panel and then added some Nuvo drops in Morning Dew and Yellow Bird.  I wasn't going to add a sentiment, but then decided to add the small hello from the Bittersweet stamp set.  Simply stamped in black, trimmed out and popped up. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

believe...

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick post of a card that I made for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  Super clean and simple one!  Here it is:

I used one of the mushrooms from the Greetery Toadstool Garden Botani-cuts die set and the little fiddlehead die from the Greetery Curio: Spring Findings die set.  I die cut the mushroom pieces and the fiddleheads from cardstock and then ink blended on the color using distress oxide inks.  I die cut a circle and blended a little brown ink (I think Brush Corduroy) on the bottom and then adhered my little elements.  The mushroom is popped up with foam strips and the fiddleheads are adhered with glue.  I went through my collection of already foiled sentiments and found this one.  It is a Christmas sentiment, but I thought it went really nicely with my little scene and well... some people think mushrooms are magic, lol!   I adhered everything to a off white cardstock panel and then adhered the panel to a kraft cardstock base.  I finished with tiny green sequins. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

empty grave...

 Hello!  I'm popping in with a quick post of an Easter card that I made using products from the Greetery.  This is the only card I have managed to make for Easter and I really don't know why other than I thought I had lots and lots of time to make Easter cards (and initially I did, lol).   Even though Easter is kind of late this year all that time I had just slipped away.  Anyway, here is my card:

The card is very loosely based on the sketch from Sunday Stamps and the inspiration photo from the Card Concept.   I decided to not use a shape in the center of the card per the Sunday Stamps sketch as I didn't really like it with the nest and the feathers that I used from the Greetery Curio Spring Findings die set.   And the large sentiment from the Empty Grave set sort of served that purpose.  Regarding the inspiration photo from the Card Concept I did use some of the colors, but in a muted fashion, as well as the idea of a bird:  the feathers and nest.   I used distress oxide inks for all the inking.  I mainly used Gathered Twigs and Spun Sugar and then added the little pop of green with Mowed Lawn.   I guess the best fit for my card would be the clean and layered category.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

thanks...

 Hello!  Popping in with a clean and simple card for my two favorite challenges:  Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches!  I was able to purchase a few things from The Greetery before Christmas and I used those products for my card. 

One of the things I purchased from the Greetery was the Layered Leaves stamps and dies.  The Layered Leaves set is so very pretty, but I really had a hard time getting things to stamp correctly.  Once I finally got things stamped fairly well I realized that I had to die cut everything and the die is solid and not open in the center.  I got the die lined up fairly well thankfully, but it was touch and go!  I stamped the solid images in a light gray (which you really can't tell in the photo) and then the detail images in watermark ink.  I applied gold embossing powder and heat set.  The branch portion was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne.  I used my very old Spellbinders Nestabilities classic squares and rectangle dies to die cut the small rectangles from white cardstock and the squares from gold mirror.  I then arranged them on a panel of what cardstock.   The sentiment comes from the one of my other Greetery purchases.  That is the Rustic Wreath stamp set.  After adhering the squares and rectangles I nested the sentiment up against them and stamped it with the Nocturne ink.   I finished off the card by adhering the branch and adding some sequins.   Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge as well since I used new stamps and dies. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

autumn blessings

 Hello!  I hope your week is getting off to a good start.   I'm popping in with a quick post to share a card that I made for the Inspired By challenge.   Inspired By always has really fun inspiration photos and sketches.  Over the last few months I have often wanted to play along with their challenges, but due to other commitments I have not had the time.  But this weekend I was able to find that time... YAY! 

I love leaves and especially leaves during the fall.  I have several different die sets that I can use to die cut leaves.  For this card I used the BotaniCuts Mighty Oak die set from the Greetery along with sentiments from the Bittersweet stamp set from the Greetery.  I started by laying down water on watercolor cardstock and then adding in yellow, red and brown using Nuvo Aqua Flow watercolor pens.  I blended the colors to my liking and then dried the panel with my heat tool.  I die cut leaves twice and branches once and then assembled my leaves.  There are also cut little acorns in the die set!  There is some purply colors in the inspiration photo so to bring that in I watercolored more watercolor cardstock with purple and blue Nuvo Aqua pens.  My first panel was way too purple so I went back to the drawing board and made one with a more subtle wash of color.   Maybe this one was too subtle, lol!

After the panel was dry I die cut it and adhered it to a kraft cardstock base.  I stamped the word autumn using light and dark yellow inks and the word blessing in brown.  I then adhered my branch and the two additional leaves.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a blessing

 Hello!  Hope you are having a great week.  Popping in with a card for the Paper Players, as well as the Card Concept.  I have been on a clean and simple kick lately and just had to make a card for the Paper Players clean and simple challenge.   I loved the photo/inspiration colors for the Card Concept so I put them together.  

I hope my card has enough of a fall feel for the gals at the Paper Players.  I thought the sunny yellows that I used for my little acorns and flower along with the large sentiment stamped in brown gave it that fall feel.  I added some Pinkfresh Studio Espresso gems that my sweet friend, Greta, sent me.  I thought they provided an additional fall touch.   The stamps and dies are from the Greetery.    

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a couple of cards...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a couple of cards that I made over the last few days.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown.  I recently purchased a few things from the Greetery and pulled them out for this card.  I purchased the pretty Bittersweet  Bouquet stamp set which is more of a fall themed stamp set.  I used it to create a more spring like card.   It was really easy to stamp all the different layers in the image and then die cut it with the matching die.  All the inks are from Catherine Pooler.  The sentiment is from another new set I purchased called Simply Wonderful.  The set contains all of these beautiful scripty sentiments and then the large word "wonderful".  I picked the sentiment for the front of the card and stamped it.  I then stamped the word "wonderful" using the two green inks I used for the leaves on the inside of the card.  I finished off the card with the pink die cut bow (also from the Greetery) and some red jewels from Pretty Pink Posh.

Here is the inside:

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches.  I recently made a purchase from Scrapbook.com.  If you haven't purchased things from Scrapbook.com you should give them a look.  They often have a free with purchase item, good sales and other promotions and carry most of the major stamping brands.  When I made my purchase they were offering a 6x8 pad of paper from a company that I had not heard of called P13.  The pad of paper looked really pretty so I decided to add it to my cart.  I'm so glad that I did!  It is BEAUTIFUL!  So I used it to create my card.  I die cut some butterfly patterned paper with a fishtail flag die from MFT.  On the backside was a woodgrain pattern so I used that for my background and adhered the banner.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up! set called Floral Gallery.  I almost used the stamp set that coordinates with the dies, but just couldn't pass up using the beautiful papers!  I die cut the sentiment from another piece of patterned paper, additional die cuts from scrap paper, adhered them together for dimension and adhered it to the card front.  I trimmed out three of the butterflies, applied a little bit of Star Dust Stickles (looks very pretty in real life) and adhered them.  There are sentiments in the stamp set to use with the die cut sentiment.  I couldn't decide which to use so I will add something later.  Most likely inside the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

pinwheels and flowers...

 Hey there!  Popping in to post a couple of cards that I made today.   I seem to be in a clean and simple state of mind right now so both cards are pretty simple.  First up is a card for the current Color Throwdown challenge.  I love pink, blue and gray together so couldn't pass up this week's challenge.  I finally made something with my Pinwheel Party stencils, dies and coordinating stamp set from the Greetery.  I used Spun Sugar and Faded Jeans distress oxide inks for the pinwheels.   The sentiment was stamped using VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink and the panel die cut with a rectangle die.  I adhered the panel to a white cardstock base and then added the pinwheels.  I finished things off with sequins in white and blue to the centers of the pinwheels and a few pink sequins on the panel.  Super clean and simple!  I will also add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The second card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I have played along with an MFT sketch challenge in ages.  I almost combined it with the MFT color challenge, but decided to just do the sketch.  I stamped one of the images from the Magnolia Blossoms stamp set on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored very simply with Copic markers.   Once the image was colored I die cut it with the largest stitched mini scalloped oval die (no longer available).   The sentiment is from the MFT Flowers in Bloom stamp set.  I adhered the oval to a panel of light gray cardstock and then to a white cardstock panel.   Again, very clean and simple. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!