Thriving Art

Have you joined  The Flower Challenge?  there is still a wee bit of time for the Blue and yellow flower challenge. After all the holiday bustle I was ready to dig out some flower stamps and have a "play".   Here is the card I ended up with, and am quite pleased with it.  It took me a time to figure out the arrangement after stamping and die cutting the pieces.  I prefer to use 110 lb. card stock because it is a heavy weight, and I can use watercolor techniques on it without too much trouble. I inked the stamps, then spritzed with water, then stamped the images.....and before they were dry I die cut the pieces.  Amazing thing happened, the damp die cuts looked more like they were much thicker, as the edges seemed more bent than a very sharp cut edge......if that makes any sense???  It really doesn't show in the photo though....bummer!  Of course the cs did want to curl a little when it dried........all the more I liked it.........that doesn't show either.

  I'm not positive THIS card is the LAST of the FALL colors, but I'm pretty sure it will be...LOL! It was made with a stamp and die set I picked up for a song......well close to it.  It was regularly $15.00 but I found it on the sale wall at Hobby Lobby for $5.00!!  There is a die for all the shapes but I just used the small flower die and popped it up with a pop dot.  I mixed the orange and brown ink right on the stamp for the sentiment.   I am entering it in this challenge:   Challenge 274: Fall Colors I know this is a short post.....for me (grin) but I am doing some catch up blogging this morning BEFORE starting anything else.....LOL!

  I've only done a few Halloween cards this year ( so far).  I don't really send out very many, but this one is going to a friend of mine.  The inside reads "chocolate does the rest" and I'll glue in a chocolate candy. The die cuts came from a stamp and die set I bought on clearance last year.   The background is a fun technique that I learned from visiting Karen's Kreative Kards .  She is one of my new followers and is a DIE CUT QUEEN!  OMGosh, she has some fabulous cards on her blog.   The background is created by wrapping foil over card stock, rubbing with ink.....I used Stazon...placing in embossing folder and embossing.  A quick swipe with and embossing pad, then embossing power and heat!  I must warn you....this can quickly become addictive as each one turns out different!! Here is a closer look. Trying to photograph tin foil is tricky to say the least.....it loves to flash back at you!  So I filtered the flash with a coffee filter. N

  Well, here it is "hump day", middle of the week and supposed to be down hill from here to the weekend.  Up hill, down hill......the weeks are just flashing by, with no intention of slowing down!   I have been enjoying this stamp and die set from Stampendous.  The images.....one is the flowers and the other is the mason jar....can be stamped and cut from snippets that are just begging to be used...*grin*  I used marker to stamp to create the image and then marker and water to blend it all in.....doing away with the black outline and the color book look.   Once it was dry and die cut I added it to an embossed, die cut piece ( which the GDs were all to happy to make me a pile of).  To pull it "off" the white card base a piece of designer paper was used.    There are two fantastic challenges that I am going to enter this card in.   Hiding in My Craft Room #243     Pixie's Craft Workshop #221     I encourage you to drop by bot