Pretty Patterned Paper

Hello!  I would love to share with you a happy card that I made for CraftyHazelnut's October Patterned Paper challenge!  Anything Goes with patterned paper, so here is your chance to start working through your stash.

I used a pretty silhouette stamp as my focal image. I feel that that solid image helps ground all my patterned papers and keeps this from being too busy.  

Supplies: Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Girl with Umbrella and Sentiments 1 stamp sets, Hero Arts Navy Inkpad, Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Rectangles die set, My Mind's Eye Stella &Rose - Hattie papers.

Thanks for stopping by!  I will be back again tomorrow with another post!

Watercolor Birdhouse Card

Edited to add: I was so happy to be chosen as the TOP SPOT at Art Impressions Flowers and Foliage challenge.  Thanks so much!

Hello and happy Saturday!  I hope you are doing well today.  Last night, I got out my Art Impressions watercolor stamps and got working.  It usually takes me a little practice to get back into the technique, but it does not take a long time, and luckily, watercolor paper is very forgiving because you can stamp on both sides.

I used stamps from several sets, and then added two straight lines to make the pole for the birdhouse to sit on.  I like to use dry embossing, using my scoreboard, to create a frame on my mats.

I am including a little photo of my practice attempts, too.  I wanted to share a tip and tell you how I went wrong in these.  First off, I was adding too much marker and too much water.  I learned  to be careful with the marker (or stamp off once) and to really keep the brush dry.  My tip is to use a fine liner brush when working with the little animals. (You can see how many times I practiced the bird to get it right!) That way, you do not lose the detail.  Also, I used a black marker to emphasize the bird's eye.  It makes a difference.

If you have some AI stamps and have any trouble at all, I hope these tips might help.  But definitely watch their YouTube channel and then go practice!  

Supplies:  Art Impressions Bird Bath set, Flowers and Foliage set, Tombow water-based markers, Pebbles Family Ties 6x6 paper pad, Spellbinders Labels 4 dies

I would love to play along with the Art Impressions Flowers and Foliage challenge and The Flower Challenge Tic Tac Toe Challenge (I used embossing, watercolor and blue).  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Chinese Lanterns

A couple years ago, we had some Chinese Lanterns growing in the garden as weeds.  That was a fun surprise, although they have not come back again.  

I used colored pencils on this beautiful stamp.  It was such a lovely day yesterday, I was able to sit outside with a few pencils to color.  How is the weather where you are?

Supplies:  Power Poppy Sunny Day stamp set, Sentiment is from Simply Camellias, Versafine Onyx Black ink, Prismacolor pencils , My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose 6x6 Paper pad.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I am happy to participate in the Power Poppy Power and Spark Cozy Crafty Coloring challenge and The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

Peacock Feather notecard

Hello!  Thank you for visiting today.  I am not sure if my blog reader is working correctly, there haven't been as many posts as usual and I feel like I might be missing some.  If I haven't come to visit you lately, leave me a comment.  Hopefully that will clear up soon!

I have a very clean and simple card today.  I used three colors of Distress Oxide - Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers -  today to stamp this pretty peacock feather.  I knew that these would look great on colored cardstock.  I know that Tim Holtz recommended not contaminating the inkpads this way, but I have not had any problem with it. If another color gets on the inkpad, I just wipe it right off with a baby wipe.

Supplies: Just for Fun Rubber stamps Peacock Feather, Just a Note wordblock, Distress Oxide Ink Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Versafine black ink, Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Rectangles die, cardstock and embellishments from my stash.

Have a wonderful day!

Autumn Birthday Card

Hello stamping friends!  I hope you had a good weekend.  Ours felt busy with sports and other events, but it was lovely weather with a bit of time to relax too.  I made a card yesterday afternoon that I think will work well for my mom's fall birthday.

I kept it very clean and simple. I colored the image with pencils.  After experimenting with different colors for the word die, it worked out well to just layer the green happy over a black happy.  A few Nuvo glitter drops finished off the front.

I do not often share the inside of a card, but I especially like this one. I used the second generation stamping of the wreath.  The happy die I have is part of a combo stamp set, so I was able to stamp that on the inside along with the word, "birthday."  It was easy and it goes perfectly.

Supplies:  Power Poppy Sunny Harvest stamps set, Hero Arts Happy stamp n cut set, Versafine Onyx black ink, Prismacolor pencils, Avery Elle Wonky Stitched rectangles dies, Nuvo glitter drops in Copper

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

I am happy to enter these challenges: SimonSaysStamp Wednesday - Clean and Simple, Tuesday Throwdown - Happy Birthday, The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Eggplant, Green & Gold

Hello!  Yesterday, I decided to do some heat embossing.  Although I love the look, it is not my favorite technique to do.  BUT, totallly worth the effort at times. I am going for FALL colors, maybe a strange color combination, but I love the look.

The heat embossing is done on eggplant cardstock.  It is very dark, but is a nice alternative to black.  I then cut an oval out of it with a die.  I originally heat embossed the sentiment, but it did not show up as well as I would have liked on the green, so I got out my matching eggplant ink and used that.  

The butterflies are stickers.  I did stick the big one onto green cardstock, trimmed it out and put gold stickles inside.  

Supplies:  Hero Arts? Flower background, Verve Stamps Brighter Days set, Versamark Ink, Gina K Edible Eggplant cardstock and ink, Recollections cardstock from an old autumn mix, Spellbinders Oval die, other items from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I am happy to enter these challenges!

ModSquad Challenge Blog - The Heat is On

Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes

You are a Rare Bird Card

Update 9/14/17: I was so thrilled to see that my card was chosen as an Honorable Mention at Art Impressions' Off Kilter Challenge!  Thanks so much!

Hello cardmaking friends!  I originally was going to make this another teacher thank-you card, but at the last minute, I remembered this fun sentiment I have in my stash, and used it instead.

The owl was colored with alcohol markers and then trimmed out.  The woodgrain is a stamped panel I had in my scrap box.  I altered that with distress ink.  The rest of the card came together with the help of a sketch.  I am just starting to feel ready for fall crafting.  

I had really wanted to pop that owl up with one of those Action Wobbles, but I absolutely cannot find the little package of them!  I hope by posting this, that they will somehow magically show up. I have only truly lost one crafting item ever (it was a doily die) and everything else was just misplaced.  I think I accidentally threw out that die.  

Supplies: Art Impressions (with Hampton Art) Stamp and Die Fright Night set, Great Impressions Rare Bird sentiment stamp, Hero Arts Woodgrain background stamp, Memento and Versafine black inks, Distress ink Tea Dye, My Mind's Eye Darling Dear paper pad, Gina K Honey Mustard Cardstock, Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Rectangles dies, Gina Marie X Stitched circles dies, other products from my stash.

I would love to play along in these challenges:

Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring challenge

Art Impressions Off-Kilter Challenge

Cute Card Thursday - Autumn

Teacher Card

I sortof missed the back-to-school crafting (and I am really not quite ready for the fall holidays) BUT I am using this period to get excited about making some teacher thank-yous for later use.  I combined several challenges to make this card.

I colored the image with alcohol markers and then cut the cardstock with a tag die.  I also cut a scrap of red cardstock with the same die and trimmed it out to create a sort of border.  

The papers are all scraps and I was able to get just enough to follow a sketch.  In the end, I tilted the tag a bit, just because it felt right at the time.  

Supplies: Stampendous School for Changito stamp set, Versafine and Memento Black inks, Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, Tim Holtz tag dies, My Mind's Eye Summer Fresh 6x6 paper pad, other cardstocks from my stash.

I would love to enter these challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches #419

The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Word Art Wednesday  - Anything Goes

SimonSaysStamp Monday Challenge - Stamp It

Pixie's Snippets Playground

I truly appreciate your visit today and especially to those of you that follow my blog and/or left a comment today.  Thank you for your time!

At River's Edge - Anniversary Card

Hello and thank you for taking time to visit my blog today.  My kids are back in school now and I am planning on getting in a lot for crafty time this fall.

I am sharing a card today made with lots of patterned paper.  I stamped this romantic silhouette stamp onto patterned paper.  It looks like I made a watercolor background, but the paper did all the work for me.  I did sponge dark blue ink around the image and matted it in black to give it a finished look.

The floral paper is from the same pack and I also stamped the sentiment right on a scrap from the paper pack, anchoring that in place with a heart rhinestone.  

Supplies: Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Couple At the River's Edge, Sentiment Set 1, LoveNicole Aquarelle 6x6 Patterned paper pack, Distress Oxide ink Black Soot, Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire

Have a great day!

Sketch Challenge Announcement!

I would love to announce the Just for Fun Rubber Stamps September Challenge.  This month, we have a fun sketch challenge!  The design team was very creative this month, I hope you will check it out, and hopefully enter, too!

Here is the card I came up with for the sketch.  I used another one of my floating alcohol ink backgrounds and stamped over it.  The main background panel isn't splattering, it is a splatter background stamp.  I found that much simpler (and tidier) to do than using a paint brush!

Supplies: Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Rainy Walk in the Wildflowers, Spatter Background, Sentiment 1 Unmounted Sheet, Ranger Archival Ink, Distress Ink Twisted Citron and Tumbled Glass,   Adirondack Alcohol inks, Ribbon from American Crafts, Gina Marie X Stitched Rectangles die

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!  I would love to hear from you in the comments or have you follow my blog (if you don't already).  I hope you have time for creativity today!