Color Hues #39 - PURPLE & GREEN

Hello friends.  Playing along with the current Color Hues Challenge where they are looking for PURPLE & GREEN this time around.

Have I mentioned how in LOVE I am with The Greetery's new BotaniCuts: Crocus dies??  I just can't seem to stop inking up these sweet little flowers that welcome in Spring, and are just perfect for this color challenge!  Take a look:

I started by die cutting the flowers in white cardstock and then inked them up using a sponge dauber and Wilted Violet, Peeled Paint, & Rustic Wilderness DOX inks.  I set them aside to dry and die cut a rectangle opening from a white card layer, and then embossed it using SSS's Vine Canopy embossing folder.

Once I adhered the embossed panel over my top folding white card base, I arranged and glued down the flowers into the rectangle opening, leaving a few petals and leaves unglued so that I curl them a tiny bit for some added dimension.  I did a tiny bit of white splattering (white acrylic paint) and when dry, added my strip sentiment (Gina K's pre-printed sentiment strips) and a few white gems from PFS.

There's still a week left to play along with this beautiful color combination, so check out all the inspiration from the DT, and then play along right HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

The Great Cover Up Challenge

Hello friends.  I'm playing along with Papertrey Ink and The Great Cover Up Challenge today.

Kelly's card was absolutely FABULOUS for this challenge, and I pretty much CASE'd  it with a few small exceptions!  Take a look at what I came up with:

I started by switching up my background with a dotted dsp in Soft Stone as opposed to Kelly's gingham in light gray, and then added the Cover Plate: Decorative Circles die cut in white over the top of the dsp.  For all the little diamond shaped die cut pieces, I colored them with a Copic (Y13) before inserting them back into their openings.  Since the challenge calls for YELLOW flowers, I thought coloring in the little diamond shapes was a good way to coordinate with my Tulips.  I love, LOVE the die cut Tulips Kelly used on her card, but since I don't have those and didn't want to completely copy Kelly's card, I pulled out an oldie but a goody with the Tulip Time stamp and die set.  I'd forgotten how much I love this stamp set and it looks wonderful against the die cut cover plate background!  (IMHO)

I finished this cheerful Springtime card with a sentiment from Just Sentiments: Spring Blessings (LOVE this set!!) and a few clear sequins.

You can check out Kelly's AWESOME card and play along right HERE...this challenge is open till the 20th at 7:00AM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

SPRING

Hello friends.  Playing along with a couple challenges today...Double D is looking for EASTER cards, and a new to me challenge (The Four Seasons) is a Anything Goes SPRING.

Aren't they both such pretty inspiration boards?!!  Spring is always slow to come to Michigan (we woke up to snow this past weekend!), so sometimes I have to create my own Spring in my craft room until the real thing arrives!

My card today uses another new set from The Greetery called Curio: Spring Findings, and is just dies...NO stamps!  I had a great time using my sponge daubers and blending brushes along with DOX inks and regular inks to create all these little images that say Spring and are perfect for Easter too!  Take a look:

 I started with a white layer that I embossed using SU!'s Subtle embossing folder, and then added a die cut rectangle frame from MFT (Blueprints #27) that I stamped with a SU! Hardwood background stamp onto kraft cardstock to give the look of a curio cabinet.  I cut a few more of the rectangles in white that I glued under the kraft layer to give a bit of dimension to my curio cabinet.

The die also cuts out the 3 little squares and the long rectangle too, and I ink blended those in pink, aqua, & green to add some background color for my die cut images.  My favorite is that tiny snail popped up on the colorful leaf, although the sweet little Lily of the Valley comes in a close 2nd!

My "Spring" die cut comes from the Let's Have A Word: Spring die from The Greetery, and it was die cut 3 times and stacked for some more dimension, and then I also used my WOS pen on it to give it some sparkle and shine.  My Easter greeting is on the inside and of course I forgot to take a picture of that!

The Double D Challenge is open till the 17th, and The Four Seasons Challenge is open till the 25th, so still time to play along with both challenges!  :0)

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

For You

Hello friends.  Playing with a new stamp & stencil set today from The Greetery called Print Shop: Spring Mix, and actually came up with my Mother's Day card early!  Take a look:

I started with a background of foiled hearts from Pinkfresh Studios (Heart Grid) using iridescent silver foil, and then got to work on the stenciling and stamping of the next layer.

 I did all my stenciling, and then while stamping the details, I made a big oops...vellum to the rescue!!  The little group of flowers under the "For You" sentiment has a stamp to put dots in the centers of the flowers, and there's quite a bit of open space between all the dots on the stamp...yep, I got ink on the open area of the stamp and of course it all transferred to the card when I pressed my stamp down...grrrrrr!

  It worked out fine to silver heat emboss my sentiment on the vellum though, and then wrap it over the oops!  After using foam tape under the die cut flower layer, I finished by adding some clear gems (PFS) and very thin strips of pink cardstock at the top and bottom of my card.

The Color Hues Challenge is looking for PINK & GREEN this time around, so this card will fit in perfectly for the challenge.  The Flower Challenge is looking for HEARTS along with your flowers this month, so I think I've got that covered with my foiled background too!  Always love it when I can combine TWO challenges!!

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Just Us Girls #626 - WORD Week

Hello friends.  Playing along with the Just Us Girls Challenge where it's WORD Week!  And the WORD of the week is...

It just so happened that I've had some ink blended and foiled eggs sitting on my desk for a few weeks now that I wasn't quite sure what to do with.  Inspiration finally struck, and this is what I came up with:

I ink blended some white cardstock with greens and blues and pinks and oranges, and then foiled and die cut using Spellbinders Glimmer Kit of the Month from March of 2020.  I also ink blended a bit of the Turquoise blue ink onto the card base and then added PFS's Geo Tiles die cut cover plate in gold mirror cardstock.  

I die cut my bunny from a Tim Holtz's Bunny Hop die and kraft cardstock, and of course added a small white pompom for his tail before adhering to the Geo Tile background.  I added the colorful eggs next.

I finished this sweet little Easter card by adding my sentiment (SSS) to a flag die (Gina K) along with a bit of Turquoise ink blending around the edges and some gold cording.  Pretty simple to put together, but nice and bright and cheery for Easter and Springtime!

Lots of wonderful inspiration from the DT and their GD (Mac Mable) that you can check out right HERE if you'd like to play along.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Precious Poppies

Hello friends.  Have a few cards to share today using a new (to me) layering stencil set from The Ton called Precious Poppies.  I've heard of The Ton company before, but had never really looked at any of their products until my cousin told me to check them out...I'm so glad I did!!  I LOVE layering stencils, and The Ton definitely knows what they're doing with these.  Check out this link for a video they put out back in January when they first released these stencils (HERE).  I personally think they're a little pricey, and using a bit of Pixie Spray on the back of the stencils is definitely helpful, but otherwise these stencils make the most BEAUTIFUL images!  I started with just the one set because of the price, but I definitely want more!  

I have 3 cards to share with you today and I made them all into mini slimline cards.  My 1st card is the one I learned on, and I almost threw it away, but after fixing a few boo boo's, I saved it and I think it came out quite nice!  Take a look:

 The image comes out quite a bit larger than what you see here...in fact it would probably fit a 5 x 7 card really nicely!  I'm really hooked on mini slimline cards right now though, so I used Gina K's Master layouts #7 to die cut my stitched rectangle and the black layer behind.  This stencil has 4 layers plus the flower centers, and I used shades of pink, red, & green inks (Gina K & Distress inks).  I layered my sentiment (Gina K) over one of my boo boo's and a few clear sequins over a couple of the other marks that shouldn't have been there.  TIP: Wipe off each stencil prior to pulling it off to avoid inky fingers putting marks where you don't want them!!

 This is the 2nd one I did and probably my favorite because of the colors!  And I used ink that had been leftover on my orange ink blending brush to get all 4 shades...started with a very light hand that came out looking almost yellow, and then used a little more pressure with each consecutive stencil.  The die cut "birthday" and "wishes" strip come from Gina K's Lace Flowers kit.  I used a few PFS gems to finish off this card.

My last card is actually for my mom who celebrates a BIG birthday tomorrow...she turns 90!!  I decided to make this card an eclipse card, where I cut out the 90 from my finished stenciled layer, and then cut the 90 out 3 more times from white cardstock and glued those back in to the stenciled layer before adding on top the stenciled portion of the numbers.  Here's a closer up so you can see the 90 better:

My mom's favorite colors are purple and yellow, so I used mostly Lilac Grace and Amethyst Allure inks (PTI) for the flowers, and the birthday die cut is once again from Gina K.  My mom didn't want a big party for her birthday...just a mailbox full of cards rather than bills and advertisements, and she has already started receiving cards and is totally loving the handmade ones that some of you have already blessed her with...thank you, thank you dear friends!  :0)

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

The Great Cover - Up March 28

Hello friends.  I'm playing along with The Great Cover - Up Challenge where they would like us to use a Cover Plate Die on our card.

I just so happened to receive PTI's newest Cover Plate in the mail this week and couldn't wait to try it out!  Here's what I came up with...

I started with a Spring Rain card base, and then added the new Cover Plate: Decorative Circles die cut in white over the top of the card base.  I then cut the cover plate out again in kraft cardstock and added just the small diamond shapes to the white cover plate die cut.  I thought it might be a lot of fussy work, but it really went quite quickly and gave me a beautiful background to work with.  Next I stamped a sentiment from the Just Sentiments: Spring Blessings stamp set onto a crimped circle die cut and add to my card base.  The little birdie is also new this month from PTI (Feathered Friends Mini #21), and I stamped and die cut him to match along with my background.

And of course I had to use a little bit of floral on my card, so I went to my go to favorite lately...Into The Blooms: Dahlia.  For the flower, I die cut from white the 3 layers, and then lightly blended on some Spring Rain ink and some glitter of course!!  The leaf was die cut from the same kraft I used for the diamond shapes in the background.  I also added just a touch of glitter to the bird for a bit more sparkle and shine, along with a few clear sequins.

Check out what Dana and Amy did for inspiration for this challenge right HERE, and then play along...this challenge is open till April 4th at 7:00AM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!