stenciled cards...

 Hey there!  I'm stopping in to share two cards that feature stenciling.  One card is for the current Color Throwdown challenge and the other is for the current Sunday Stamps and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenges.  First up in the card for Color Throwdown.

I love to cross-stitch and I like to stitch on cards, too, so when I saw the Waffle Flower Winter Floral stencil and stitching die set I had to get it.   I thought the colors for the current CTD would be perfect for a non-traditional Christmas card and I was right.  I love how this turned out.  I used distress oxide inks in Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet and Mowed Lawn for the stenciling.  Per instructions from Waffle Flower I used the stitching die first before stenciling.  Once the stenciling was done I went through my extensive collection of "fancy floss" and found three colors that worked well with the inks I used.  Fancy floss is different from regular embroidery floss in that it is dyed so that there the floss color is variegated.  You can see the variegation the most in the purple fancy floss I used.   I love how it looks.  Once the stitching was done I adhered the card to a light gray cardstock base and then added the pre-printed sentiment that is also from Waffle Flower.  One more Christmas card for my stash!

For my next stenciled card I used a stencil set from Altenew called Daisy Craze.  I watched Jennifer McGuire make a card using the stencils and I loved the unique look so I decided to purchase the set.  I thought the colors for the Sunday Stamps challenge would be perfect and they are!  Let's have a look.

I used mainly Altenew inks for the stenciling.  I don't have any brown Altenew inks so I used a brown ink from Pinkfresh Studio for the flower centers.  I love how bright and happy this card is.  The perfect way to show someone a little gratitude!  After stenciling I die cut the panel down and adhered it to a light gray cardstock base.  The sentiments are from a Simon Says Stamp set called Cozy Autumn Hugs that I got in the fall of last year.  Looking forward to using this set this fall to create cards with!  I stamped those in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and die cut them with the matching dies.  The top sentiment has two additional layers behind it and the bottom one a second layer to give them a little bit of dimension.  

That's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

masculine... feminine...

 Hello and happy Wednesday!  I'm popping in with two cards to share today.  One is masculine and the other is very feminine.   First up is my masculine card for the current Altenew April challenge.  Take a look.

The inspiration photo for the April Altenew challenge is of the ocean/beach at what I believe is sunset.  The colors in the photo range from a fiery orange and yellow to white, gray and black.  There are also several different textures present and I tried to capture all those elements with my card.  Starting with the stamping I used Altenews' Terracotta and Snapdragon Fresh Inks to stamp the two Triangle images from the very old Trigonometry stamp and die set.   For one triangle I used the Terracotta at the top and the Snapdragon at the bottom, making sure to blending the colors in the middle.  I did the reverse for the other triangle.  I stamped both triangles using an acrylic block because I wanted a less than perfect image to sort of mimick the broken up look of sky/clouds in the photo.  I then used Altenew Industrial Diamond and Pure Graphite inks for the other triangles using the same technique done for the first two.  I die cut with the maching die.   To bring in the look of the beach with the snow, as well as the ocean I used the Altenew Dotted Waves cover die to emboss a panel of white cardstock that I then die cut down with a rectangle die.  A larger panel of light gray cardstock was die cut, as well.  I layered the panel on a white cardstock base and then added the triangles.  Originally, I had the triangles arranged so that the terracotta/snapdragon triangles were next to each other with the other triangles as their silhouette below.  But I didn't like how it looked and so I decided to arrange them the way you see.  I liked it much better.  I finished with a Memory Box happy birthday sentiment tab.

 Obviously, my next card is the feminine one.  Let's have a look at it.

At the end of March I was the lucky winner of a Waffle Flower Sneak Peek kit!  The kit contained the pretty Wild Flowers four piece stencil set, Small Sentiments Bloom stamp set and Subsentiments Bloom die cuts.  The stencil set is so easy to use and Waffle Flower even provided a color combo etched into the stencil.  I didn't go with the color combo as I wanted to use the colors from the current Paper Players challenge.  So that is where this card is headed.    The color combo at the Paper Players has four colors in it so I just made sure that I tried to keep the colors I used for the flowers in a pleasing arrangment.  I used Altenew Teal Cave for the Bermuda Bay color and then Pinkfresh Studio inks in Sweet Mustard, Marigold, Grassy Knoll, Sparkling Rose and Bubble Gum for the rest of the colors.  Once the stenciling was done I used a Waffle Flower frame die to cut out the frame and the center rectangle.  I adhered the frame directly to my cardstock base and then popped up the center panel with foam tape.  I made a mistake.  Can you figure it out?    I finished off the card with a sentiment from the Small Sentiments Bloom set and some pretty diecuts my friend Greta sentiment.  The diecuts were originally white and I colored them by simply using the residual ink left on the blending brushes I used for the stenciling.  I love how they look with the stenciled background.   I'm also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of stencil it.

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

tiny trees...

 Hello friends!  I'm popping in to share a card that I made for the current Color Hues challenge of red and gold.  Classic Christmas colors and so I made a Christmas card!   I used a Waffle Flower Crafts stencil called Duo-tone Christmas Tree and the 0+ blender brushes.  

The stencil is unique in that you stencil a set of trees and then shift the stencil over to the open area and stencil a second set of trees to fill up your card front.  For my card I used Lumberjack Plaid distress ink to stencil the trees and then added some Aged Mahogany to the bottom of each tree.  I then moved the stencil over and added the second set of trees using Ranger Lunar paster in Slippery When Wet (a bright gold).  I removed the stencil, cleaned it off and let the panel dry.  Once dry I die cut it with a Memory Box arched rectangle die.   The large Merry Christmas is also from Waffle Flower and that was stamped using Lumberjack Plaid and then Aged Mahogany pounced on in certain areas of the stamp and then layered on the Lumberjack Plaid.  Gives it a bit of an ombre look.  I die cut dark red cardstock with a rectangle die, adhered it to my white cardstock base and then adhered the arched panel.  The sentiment was added along with tiny gold stars to the little red trees. 

If you are on Instagram I'm having a giveaway of a sample set of Waffle Flower's new blender brushes over there.  The giveaway is sponsored by Waffle Flower.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!