It's another Birthday

Hi everyone.  I'm back again with a birthday card for MIM #253 and for SSS Wednesday Challenge: Add some shimmer.


For Make It Monday challenge this week, Betsy has us using the reverse stenciling technique.  I have stencils, but not from PTI, so I used one of my latest from Hero Arts.

SU's Green Galore CS
Gina K Pure Luxury White CS
PTI's Amethyst Allure and Vintage Jadette inks
Hero Art's Bold Floral Stencil
Memory Box Isabella Butterfly die
PTI's Big Basics Birthday Die
PTI's Tip Top Die
Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter Pen

The Green Galore CS looked too plain, so I did stencil it with the same HA stencil and also used my new Clarity brushes, too.  They give such a soft look. 

After I put the card together, I decided it needed some glitz, so I pulled out my new favorite Glitter Pen by Spectrum Noir and glitz the butterfly and the birthday wishes sentiment.  I like it better then Wink of Stella.  I think it has more shimmer.  Little did I know that Simon Says Wednesday challenge was add some shimmer until I looked before starting my blog post.  Yea!  my card works for two challenges...love it when that happens.

Thanks, Betsy, for a great technique, and for making me pull out my brayer!  I had to search for it, though!  Thank you for stopping by, I love it when you do and have a great week.

PTI's June 2016 Blog Hop

What beautiful artwork "The Reef" is by Yellana James!  I just fell in love with the colors and the movement.  Just stunning.

Here's is my take on our inspiration photo.  I instantly thought of the technique Jennifer McGuire calls "Watercolor Lifting".  You can see her youtube video here.






Peerless Watercolors
PTI's Floral Sketches stamp set
PTI's Super Swoosh Dies
Gina Marie Design Dies
Gina K Pure Luxury White CS
Tim Holtz's watercolor paper
VersaMark ink
Hero Arts Pigment White ink
White & Clear Embossing Powder

My colors didn't quite turn out like Yellana's, but I really liked how my watercolors blended together.  I won't lie, it did take a few tries to get the blending I wanted.  My embossing wasn't perfect, but I still like really like the way my card turned out.



Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do.  Happy hopping!  I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with either!

Create-a-card background

I picked up this stamp last week after taking a class with Marcia at a local stamp/needle works store.  We love to take classes there to keep our mojo up and running.  We didn't get to play with this particular stamp, but Kris had some cute samples for us to see.  Marcia, another friend, Julie, and I got together on Friday afternoon and decided to use this stamp to make a couple of cards. 

Gina K Pure Luxury CS
SU's Perfect Plum CS
IO Create a Card - Leaf Flourishes
SSS Circle Sayings stamp set
VersaMark
Wow! EP in a mix of Vintage Peacock & Vintage Amethyst
White EP
PTI's Branching Out die
WPlus 9 Happy Trio Dies

Gina K Pure Luxury White CS
SU's Marina Mist CS
Vellum
VersaMark ink
 IO Create A Card - Leaf Flourishes
Wow! EP in Verdigris
PTI's Branching Out die
White EP
Wplus 9 A Whole Lotta Happy stamp set









 Of course, I just couldn't put the stamp away and made another card with it today for this week's Color Throwdown #393, using Blush, Rose, Gray and White.

TH's Watercolor panel
SU's Smoky Slate CS
IO's Create A Card Leaf Flourishes
White EP
TH's Distress Inks in Tattered Rose, Festive Berries and Hickory Smoke
Cas-ual Fridays Love Ya Fri-die


I even made a few more card panels with this same stamp for future cards.  Such a fun background stamp. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do.  Have a great week. 

Crazy cats for a birthday

Hi everyone, I based the card on last week's MFT's sketch challenge, MFTWSC280.  I thought I had scheduled this card to post last Monday, but, alas, I forgot to schedule the time for it to post.  Oh well.  

SU's Cajun Craze CS

Gina K's Pure Luxury White CS

TH's Water Color Paper

MFT's Modern Mosaic

TH's Crazy Cats

PTI's Stylish Sentiments: Birthday

SSS Happy Birthday die (SSSD111559)

PTI's inks in Canyon Clay and Terracotta Tile

Alltenew inks in Ruby Red and Crimson

SU's inks in Real Red, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Baked Brown Sugar

Copies in E30, E31, E41, R00 and BG90

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your week.

MIM #248 - Sending Smiles

This week, Lizzie Jones showed us how to ink blend through a die cut mask.  I decided to use flowers instead of butterflies, even though I was quite tempted.   Here is my take on the technique.  

  

PTI's Beautiful Blooms, Wet Paint Cuts III and Doodie-do dies 

PTI's shakers and Sprinkles stamp set

PTI's inks in Vintage Jadette,  Amethyst Allure, Hibiscus Burst and Summer Sunshine

Gina K's Pure Luxury CS

Purple card stock (from a local store)

Sequins

You can watch Lizzie's video http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2016/05/make-it-monday-248-ink-blending-through-die-cut-masks-.html

I am also entering this card into Simon Says Wednesday challenge-flowers.  http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-flowers/

Thank you for stopping by and have a great week.

Peonies for Mother's Day

Wow!  Time is flying by at record speeds now!  I really meant to post this last weekend, but life got in the way.  My baby is graduating from HS later this month so I had to get the invites in the mail and I was already a week late on doing that because I still hadn't ordered wallet prints from Snapshot and of course USPS didn't cooperate either.  I am so far behind the 8-ball that none of this really surprised me. Oh well, the invites should be hitting mailboxes between now and the end of the week.

So here's my Mother's Day cards for two wonderful ladies who have always been our cheerleaders throughout our entire lives and our children's lives.  We are truly blessed to still have them in our lives.  I know Mother's Day and Father's Day are very hard holidays for many.  Please know, I've been praying for everyone who has lost one or both of their parents.

I just had to have Altenew's Peony Bouquet when I saw this card by Tasnim Ahmed.  Utterly beautiful!!!  As I was struggling with making a card, I went back to this one and decided to CASE it.

I never met Al's Grandma Rose, but her peonies were in the front yard of their home and Grandpa Rose was just so proud of those peonies.  I, too, loved them and now wish, I had asked for clippings to replant in my garden before they sold his house.  As they say, hindsight is 20/20.



Grandma Rose's peonies were pink, but I don't have a lot of pink inks that I really like, so I went with yellow, which is both of my moms' favorite color.

Gina K's Pure Luxury White CS
SU's Smoky Slate and Daffodil Delight CS
PTI's Lemon Tart ink
SU's Daffodil Delight, So Saffron, Crushed Curry and Smoky Slate inks
Tuxedo Black ink
Altenew's Peonies Bouquet
PTI's Keep It Simple: Mothers Day Stamp Set
Sequins

As you can see, I couldn't decide if I like the card on the Smoky Slate or Daffodil Delight, so I did one of each.  They didn't turned out as pretty as Tasnim's, but IRL them and our moms did, too, which is what means the most!

5 yrs old

You probably won't hear from me much for the rest of May and into June as we get ready for Tim's graduation and open house.  I'll post when I can.  Here's a few senior pics of my baby!!!










These were taken at our friends (Tim's Godparents' home).  Tim has grown up on their little hobby farm and we thought it would be a perfect setting for his pics.

The cow wanted her pic taken, too!

Our dog had to meet the cows, too!

Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do!  Have a great rest of your week.

Fluttering by...

I think I'm hooked on butterflies.  Most of my posts lately have been with butterflies.  This card is for MFT's Sketch Challenge #277.  I'm cutting it close to the deadline this week.  Sometimes there is just not enough hours in a day, let alone a week.  I apologize for the poor quality of this picture.  It's what I get for taking the picture at night and not having a nice camera set up.

Gina K Pure Luxury White CS
Pink CS (unfortunately, I'm not sure what color it is)
MFT's Painted Prints - Smitten 6x6 Paper Pack
MFT's Fly by Friends Stamp Set and dies
Lil' Inkers Stitched Circles
SSS Intense Black ink
SU's Soft Sky and Blushing Bride inks
Copics - RV25, R81, R83, R85, Y02, B12, B32 & T7
Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen to finish off the card!

This was a fun sketch to work with again, even though I had a hard time figuring out what to do with this sketch.  Once I got going, it became much easier to work with.  Thanks again for another wonderful challenge.



Thank you so much for stopping by.  Enjoy your week!!!

PTI's April 2016 Blog Hop

Good Monday morning, everyone!  It's time for PTI's April 2016 Blog Hop.  I don't know about you all, but this month's inspiration photo wasn't one of my favorites, but that's what is fun about art, including card making, we are all inspired by different things.  It was hard to come up with an idea.  It took me until Saturday to figure out what I wanted to do.  I'm happy with the completed card.  It did come out like I envisioned it.

This painting reminded me of the 70's.  My mom had brown appliances, one aunt had Avocado Green appliances and another aunt had a red/orange shag carpet in her living room or the rec room that was in the basement.  I don't remember which room.  When Al and I moved into our house in 1987, about 6 months after we were married, we bought a well-used refrigerator and stove in Harvest Gold and in that deal for $150.00, we also got a white washer/dryer set, too.  The stove didn't last too long, neither did the washer & dryer, but that fridge wouldn't die!!  I had to beg for a new one and finally got a stainless steel french door fridge back in 2007.  The fridge did die as soon as we moved it into the garage, though.  I'm not too anxious to bring these colors back anytime soon.


Gina K's Pure Luxury White CS
SU's Mossy Meadow CS
SU's Crumb Cake Ink
PTI's inks in Ripe Avocado,  Canyon Clay, Harvest Gold and Terracotta Tile
PTI's Friendly Flowers stamp set
MFT's Hello There Die

I lightly sponged the white card stock with Crumb Cake ink.  I did think the flower I used from the Friendly Flower set screamed 70's to me.  When I showed my finished card to Al, he asked me if I was trying to bring back the 70's.  He made my day.  He got what I was going for and he hadn't even seen the inspiration picture at that time.




Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do.  Happy blog hopping!  I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with.  Have a great week!

Faux Brush Lettering

Hi everyone.  It's been a busy weekend, but I did get to sneak in a few hours to make a few cards.  I have another in the works, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

This card is for Make It Monday #246 - Faux Brush Lettering.  Amy Sheffer showed us how to make our lettering look more like we painted it ourselves.  Mine didn't turn out as nice as Amy's.  I couldn't quite the variation in the color as I wanted.  I'll have to practice this technique a bit more.

I used Gina K's heavy weight Pure Luxury White CS
PTI's Wet Paint, Bloomin' Cute and Color Pop Butterflies Stamp Sets
PTI's inks in Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Amethyst Allure, Spring Rain and Blueberry Skies
SU's Lavender Lace ink
PTI's Color Pop Butterflies stencil
PTI's Rainstones


When I was sponging the lighter colors of the butterflies through the stencil, I think there was still a bit of purple left on the stencil as the Spring Rain color came out with a purple tint (oops).  It was fun to use the butterflies stencil from the new mini market kit from this month's release.   I am also entering this card in SimonSays Monday Challenge - Butterfly Beauty and SimonSays Wednesday Challenge - Make It Girlie, too. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I love it when you do.

So cute...

Hi everyone, I'm back again with one card that works for two challenges this week.  MFT Sketch Challenge #276 and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let's do the Polka.

What a great sketch this week and I'm having fun seeing everyone's interpretation of this sketch.  And I just love SSS challenge this week, using polka dots.  I really struggle using patterned paper, so I thought I should try this one just to challenge myself on how to use polka dot paper that is so cute no matter what color it is.

SU Barely Banana CS (retired)
Gina K Pure Luxury White CS
PB Holiday Trimmings paper pad (yup, the green is from a Christmas paper pad)
Simple Stories Snap Color Vibe paper pad
TH Tumbled Glass and a bit of Chipped Sapphire Glass inks
Tuxedo Black ink
MFT I'm Tweet On You stamp set
MFT I'm Tweet On You, Tree-mendous and Blueprints #20 dies
SSS Wavy Scallop Stitches dies
Copics - R02, Y13 & Y08



I didn't order Tree-mendous on release night, but did within a day or two after seeing so many adorable cards using these trees, I caved and purchased them.  I'm so glad I did.  The card is too cute!  IRL!

Thanks for stopping by, I love it when you do.  Have a great week!