A Twist on a Class Project

 NEW PinkFresh from their Create & Connect event!

Hi all!

I had the absolute pleasure of being a participant in the Create & Connect event this past weekend!  It was the first one I have ever done with them, and I must say I am IMPRESSED!!!  The product arrived far in advance, the booklet explaining the projects and products was thorough and well thought out, finally the classes were tons of fun with lots of ideas and instruction.  Have you ever attended one of their events before?  If not...sign up for one...seriously.  They have posted their upcoming card classes for the year, and unfortunately I am out of town for two...  I may just sign up and watch the videos on my own time, I'm that excited about it!

This is a card I made using the new products from the classes.  For this card, I sort of follow one for the classes with the layout and shadowbox technique...which is SO cool... but I used my own colors and a different stamp and die set.  The colors are a perfect match for the current Inkspirational color challenge and I'm all about them...  And since all these products are new and never used before this weekend, I'm sharing with NBUS too!

How yummy is this?!?  I love the layout and the technique featured by Anett Gelencser...she's a smarty-pants that lady!  I will be using this more often for sure.  They haven't released the items from the classes except for one...which I'll share on another post... but they said they will come out in the near future, so if you like anything you see, keep your eyes peeled in the coming months.  The card started with die cutting several border panels, including the window box using the Notched Corner Frame.  It has a total of 10 dies for multiple options.  A fancy little zigzag fold was used to make the window box.  Let me know if you the instructions aren't on her site and I'll share them if you're interested.  

Next the flowers and strawberries are from the new Berries and Blossoms stamp set, which also has a coordinating die and a press plate!  The images were stamped, heat embossed with antique gold embossing powder and the coordinating stencil was used to add my peach, pink and mint colors.  I don't have a single Pink Fresh ink pad...which I just rectified with a purchase today...so I used my Altenew Pink Pearl and Coral Bliss ink pads for the flowers and the strawberries.  Minty Mint for the leaves and Sunray for the touches of yellow flowers finished off the colors for the card.  

Finally, the sentiment came from the new Extra Special Sentiments stamp and die set.  I opted not to use any embellies for this, I felt it had a LOT going on, and sometimes you just have to refrain from adding another element....or not...

That's it!  Check out all that Pink Fresh has to offer...I think they may have converted me...

Have a colorful day!

Curvy Stripes and Dots

Join me for the Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge!

Hi all!

Welcome to another Sisterhood of Crafters challenge!  The challenge this time is Dots and/or Stripes, what will you create?

I've felt like I've been in a creative slump lately, but this card brings me hope my mojo is returning!  Slim line cards are not a go-to for me, but each one I've made, I really like...so I will have to make them more often!  As I was creating, the current Tic Tac Toe challenge in the back of my mind as well, Flowers, Stripes/Dots and Green.  

Altenew's Double Rainbow Slim stencil was an alternative to the traditional vertical/horizontal stripe, it gives off stripes still, right?  The panel was first ink blended with Minty Mint Crisp Dye ink to make the paper a pale green.  Then the stencil was placed on top and ink blended with Sweet Leaf.  It didn't have the punch I was looking for, so I spritz it with some Fresh Leaf Metallic Shimmer Spray.  That definitely made the stripes pop!

Next, the flowers are from Altenew's Wildly Loved mini set.  If you haven't tried their mini sets, I highly recommend!  They usually a layered stamp set with coordinating dies and a die sentiment.  They're adorable!  Keeping in the same color family, the lighter flowers are stamped with Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf, and Just Green, while the darker flower was stamped without the Minty Mint, and finished with Hunter Green.  These flowers definitely give me Greenbriar vibes...  The leaves in green would have blended in, so instead Dew Drops, Aqualicious and Teal Cave to give a subtle contrast but keep the card as green as possible.

The sentiment is from the Wildly Loved set and so sweet.  'Loved' was die cut from some of the scrap of my ink blended paper with a little bit of Aqualicious and Hunter Green was added to the base to make it stand out.  The coordinating stamp was stamped in Hunter Green as well.  Finally, I've had these glitter gems in my stash forever and had to use them for my dots!!  How pretty are they?!

Now go make your card with stripes or dots, and if your a double challenge maker like myself, you could even head over to Tic Tac Toe...Hope to see you in our gallery!

Have a colorful day!

Minty Lavender goodness...

 Minty Lavender Color Throwdown Challenge accepted!

Hi all!

Do you stamp or make multiples of things as you're working?  Like extra sentiments or extra die cuts?  I ALWAYS make multiples of my extra pieces for my cards.  I have 4 different, organized scrap bins filled with my extras to be used whenever I need them.  As I was creating for a DT card...more on that on Sunday, so come back...I made a plethora of extra flowers and leaves.  Since they were Minty Mint Crisp Dye ink was one of the colors, I thought I'd make something for the Color Hues challenge, which then morphed into including the Tic Tac Toe challenge this go around as well...

 

I did use some other green inks in the Altenew Green Meadows family, like Sweet Leaf, Just Green and Hunter Green to make these flowers.  The leaves were the challenge...how to make green leaves stand out with green flowers?

I opted for some colors from the Sweet Dreams family with Dew Drops, Aqualicious and Teal cave.  It kept collection on the green side, but gave it enough contrast to be a little different.

The lavender shimmer paper was found in my scrap papers and I opted to use the Radial Circle cover die.  It was my first time using it, and you may be seeing more if it in the future...it's really fun!  AND since it's dots with green AND flowers, it fits in the Tic Tac Toe challenge as well!

The 'hello' was made from Sweet Sentiments and came out of my sentiment scrap bin...like I said, I have a ton of scrap pieces...so I added black enamel dots and a very small black border around the edge to bring it all together.

Keep those scraps around peeps, they do come in handy!  Have a colorful day!!!

Rebound heart...HAND STAMPED CHALLENGE ARTISTS PIC!

 Spellbinders Monthly Die Club take 2!

Hi all!

I had to rebound from my last card...it was killing me!  Since I had another die cut heart just sitting there, I decided to make a CAS card with it.

 

I've redeemed my self confidence and am entering this card in the Inkspirational, Hand Stamped Sentiments, AAA Birthday Cards, Simply Clean and Simple and the Flower Challenge challenges...there are little tiny flowers on the heart...can you see them?  

It was very simple to make, just a little pink and peach watercolor paint blobbed onto the bottom right corner of my card front panel.  This is a new cardstock brand for me and I'm experimenting with different techniques to see how it holds up.  Water is a no go...the results are only ok, and it took forever to dry since it's 140 lb paper.

After the initial paint dried, I added a few splatters of the colors I used along with copper metallic watercolor paint.  Can you see the shine?

Since I added the metallic splatters, a copper colored sentiment was called for.  Altenew's Sweet Sentiment was small enough and gave me a birthday theme as well.  It was finished off with some Copper Stickles.

I feel better having whipped this one out and officially consider myself kicked off the struggle bus for the day!

Have a colorful, struggle-free day!

Have a heart...

 My very first Spellbinders Monthly Small Die!

Hi all!

What do you do when you're having a hard time while creating?  Do you keep going through it, no matter what?  Do you set it aside and save for another day?  Do you toss it and start over?  If I set it aside, I'll think about it constantly.  Throwing away something that isn't working feels like throwing away a piece of time...and my time in my studio is valuable, so I can't to that!  I generally power through...not with great results most times, like today....

 

 

I'm trying to again make challenges a priority in my creating, and with February being the month of love there are MANY heart challenges happening right now!  With the inspiration from Inkspirational, Hand Stamped Sentiments, Just add Ink and the Flower Challenge; I decided to use my very first Spellbinders Monthly Small Die, a Lotta Heart.  It's no longer available, but it's new to me and is totally cute. 

I was riding the struggle bus with this one...front row...seat belt fastened.  I am not a fancy fold kind of card maker, but this die is perfect for creating a gate folded card so I had to try it.  I may have been a little distracted while making this so I overlooked the fact the paper moved on the die cut until after I started glueing down the pieces...and you can't really see the ink blending done on the pink paper behind the die cut ones it was assembled.  ***sigh***

Coloring the center floral die was also a struggle...What is your favorite coloring medium for little intricut die pieces?  Watercolors and beautiful and soft, but they're hard to control on small spaces.  Alcohol markers are wonderful with saturated colors, but can seep outside of where I want them to go since I tend to be a bit heavy handed.  Altenew's new Acrylic Markers are FANTASTIC, but the tips were too large for my little spaces.  So, colored pencils were the choice for this project...still up in the air about the results.

The sentiment was from my sentiment scrap bin and is from Altenew's Essential Sentiments foil set.  I cranked a bunch out and just have them in my bin for cards like this one.  It was finished off with my favorite satin gold sequins.  

So.....struggles are real...keep working through them.  It gives you a sense of accomplishment if you push through them...even if you don't like the results all that much.

Have a colorful day!

End of winter? - FESTIVE FRIDAY FAVORITE!

 Die cutting shaped cards for the end of winter...

Hi all!

Is it truly almost the end of winter?  Did Puxatawny Phil really predict that spring will come early?  It seems that way here in Northwest Ohio...40-60's predicted all week long!  It was a little hard to create this winter themed card with the gorgeous weather here today!  Usually we're bundled up until the end of March, just hoping for sun in an otherwise grey season. 

 

The challenges for Triple B and Four Seasons inspired the winter theme of this card, but the Festive Friday challenge had me add a few elements I wouldn't have normally tried.  For example...

A shaped card is NOT in my wheel house at all!  That is the point of challenges...to push you to create something that is yours but in a way that is completely different.  Creating a card not in a rectangle shape was simple enough using the Spellbinders Essential Four Petals Label die, and I may end up doing them more often...we shall see where the mood takes me.

To keep with the winter theme, and the 'white' & 'embossing' elements for the Festive Friday challenge, the inside die cut panel was embossed with Altenew's Starry Pattern embossing folder which has a subtle snowflake pattern.  The bird as a nod to the Triple B challenge, was stamped using Altenew's Birds of the Season stamp and die set.  The main body of the bird was inked using Morning Frost Crisp Dye ink and a blending brush to give it a touch of color so it still looked like a white bird.  The next two layers were stamped with Crimson and Permanent Black inks, then the bird was die cut.

During the holidays, I did a fair bit of die cutting and found the ginko leaves by The Greetery in my floral scrap bin.  The sentiment from Altenew's Sweet Sentiments was also in my sentiment scrap bin...yes, I organize my scraps, I'm kind of crazy about that...  Inspired by the Four Seasons photo the card is finished off with a few red enamel dots from Pink Fresh.   Adding some gold metallic splatters, as well as a little bit of sparkle using Icicle Stickles, for the 'glimmer' element with Festive Friday.

Whew!  That was a ton of information!  I hope you too are having unseasonably lovely weather to finish off your winter season, have a colorful, sun filled day!

Foil Fix

Figuring out Foiling hacks!

Hi all!

I'm beefing up my birthday stash and decided to use foils for a few of them.  I have to admit, I do tend to have some issues with foiling.   Sometimes it just doesn't want to play along with me.  With trial and LOTS of error, I think I may be on the right path for foiling perfection, but wanted to share the process of how I fixed some issues instead of just tossing the problems in the circular filing bin.  What tricks have you found work best for your foiling?  Please share them in the comments...we all love to learn!

Since I am in birthday card making mode, it's a perfect project for the Time Out Challenge since it's their 10th birthday!!!  Thanks for all the challenges and inspiration over the years!

I have found that using a heavier 110-140 lb white card stock works best for me, but my 80 lb colored cardstocks have little or no issues with the foiling process.  Not sure why that is since I've used the same weight papers, but I'm not one to upset the crafting Gods, so I just go with it.   For the Altenew Golden Days foil die, I did try using my 80 lb white cardstock with a shim, but alas...but I got over foiling in the negative spaces.  Instead of tossing the panel, fussy cutting the parts off that had the issue is a good solution.  Since the flower was cut before it was inked...I won't make that mistake again... it was smaller than the coordinating Golden Days #1 stencil, so it was not used.  Instead the flower was inked with the remaining stencils using Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss and Crimson Crisp Dye inks.

The background panel was foiled onto colored cardstock with zero issues using Spellbinders Simon Hurley Geo Snowflakes foil die with their Glimmer Opal foil.  It gives a very subtle shimmer while maintaining the background color.  A little ink blending of Coral Bliss behind the flower helps to make it pop off the background.

Finally, left over foil from a previous card using my trusted Versatile Greetings 2 was used for the sentiment...it pays to save scraps....  The flat Essential Glimmer Solid Rectangle hot foil plate allows the negative foil pieces to be used a second time...it's the beauty of using foil.  Those left over pieces come in handy in all sorts of ways!  They were then die cut and added to the card.  Finally, my favorite sequins from Altenew were added for even more sparkle!

Have a colorful day!

Birthday Love

 Ink Blending with Altenew's NEW Dainty Hearts!

Hi all!

It has been a CRAZY February so far.  LOTS of traveling by plane and car this week alone.  Part of my travel included a weekend in NYC for fashion week!!!  EEEKKK!!!  I'm obsessed with fashion, though my mom bod isn't 'high fashion' shaped, I swoon over the beautiful clothes.  I will say, shoes, bags and jewelry always fit and I did pick up my share of both over the weekend...can you blame me??

  

Although I was only home for 3 days this week, I was fortunate to spend one of those days in the studio getting out some of my creative energy.  Leaping off from Altenew's February Challenge colors and the arrival of my newest purchase from them, this card came together perfectly!  

The new Dainty Hearts foil plate and stencil combo was SO easy...they make a stunning background! The stencil is genius, it has 3 stencils, but when you flip them, it's like having 6...Altenew is so flippin' smart...  Using their mini blending and detail blending brushes with the Crisp Dye Inks Sweet Leaf, Pink Diamond, Pinkalicious, Sunkissed, Orange Cream and Wisteria, I was able to create this background in no time at all!  I'm excited to explore some new color combos with this set.  

This gorgeous panel needed a foiled sentiment!  Since I am very low on my birthday stash of cards, I opted to use the Versatile Greetings 2 foil and die set.  Keeping the sentiment simple allows the background to really shine.  The card was finished off with some pearl dots to highlight the flower centers of the hearts.

The gorgeous pattern from the Dainty Hearts would make a beautiful quilt dont' you think?  I wish I knew how to quilt,  maybe some crafty sewer could re-create this pattern?  Once this card was finished, I knew I had to add it to the Inspired By challenge as well.

That's it for me!  Have a colorful day!!

Birthday Bokeh

 A Bokeh Birthday with The Stamp Market

Hi all!

It's time for a new challenge over at AAA Cards Challenge blog!  The theme this time is Birthday themed Anything Goes.  So as long as its a CAS birthday card, you're in!  

I have to apologize for my photos, I have a new phone and new editing software I'm trying to figure out, so the photos aren't as crisp as I like them.  You'll get the general idea with them...I hope.  Any suggestions on editing software for an IMac?  I'm on the struggle bus here...

Any hoo...the card front was ink blended using The Stamp Markets Bokeh stencil set with Altenew's Frosty Pink, Sunkissed, Citrus Burst and Dew Drops Crisp Dye Inks using their fantastic mini blending brushes.  A background of the colors were added first, then repeated inking the colors using the 2 stencils in the set to create the colored panel on the card front.

The birthday sentiment is from one of my most favorite Simon Says Stamp sentiment sets, called Elegantly Modern Greeting.  It's a great basic set for any card maker, highly recommend.  It was stamped and heat embossed with Altenew gold embossing powder, then the 'birthday' was die cut with the coordinating die to create the window.  5 more pieces of card stock were cut and glued together to create the shaker element.  It's not how I would normally create a shaker card, but I thought I'd give it a go with this...don't think I'll do it this way again however.  Close up you can see the layers through the window, so I think I'll stick to my traditional foam core technique.  It also gives the shaker elements space to move more freely.

The sequin shaker pieces are iridescent in the same colors of the inks making it the perfect addition to the card.  The sentiment is finished off with a stamp from the same SSS set and a few confetti bits were added for more sparkle.

Now go whip up a CAS birthday card for your stash, and be sure to share it with us over at AAA Cards for a chance to be a guest designer!  Give those DT's some love too while you're at it...

Have a colorful day!

Late to the game...

Tim Holtz Distress Inks...who knew?

Hi all!

Welcome to another challenge with CAS on Friday!  I am so grateful you are here and hope you find inspiration for your personal creating.  Be sure to visit each of our DT's blogs and hear about their processes...you never know what you'll find out!

Like here's a little tid bit I bet you didn't know....I have never used Distress inks.  I know...for shame!  I am very late to the Tim Holtz Distress Inks game.  I purchased a bunch back in the fall, but just now pulled them out to see what the hype is about.  I don't understand the magic that these ink posses, but I think I get it!  The texture of the inks are so creamy without being sloppy and they do blend like a DREAM!  

Using Pickled Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, Faded jeans, Villainous Potion and Hickory Smoke with Spellbinders sponge applicators and the Altenew Circle Mask and Stencil, the little glimpse into space is the perfect backdrop for my 'vintage' rocket stamp.  The stars are water splatters as well as splatters from metallic silver, blue and black watercolors.

This stamp is one of the very few maculine stamp sets I have in my extensive collection.  I probably should get a few more with a hubby, dad, brother and 2 nephews in my life!  They are sorely neglected.  Any hoo, this is an old Papertrey Ink set called Out of this World.  They have a new one in its place if you're looking for a cute outerspace set.

After stamping the sentiment with Altenew obsidian ink, cute little enamel stars were added to complete this little space scene.  I think I'll pop this card into the mail to my little nephew, he fell and cracked his knee cap over the weekend and hopefully it will cheer him up!

Now go check out the other DT's masculine cards to help ignite your creative process, I know I will be!

Have a colorful day!

Embossing Love

Embossing with Altenew's Craft Your Life LOVING YOU set on the Sisterhood of Crafters challenge!

Hi all!

So happy you are here to join us for another challenge at the Sisterhood of Crafters!  An with today being Valentines day, what better theme for our challenge than LOVE!  I know you have all been out there working on those cards for your loved ones, so let's see them!

I made this card for my dad to give my mom.  He has pretty advanced Alzheimer's disease, but most days he knows my mom, but even on the days he doesn't, he knows she's important to him.  The body just knows things even when the mind doesn't, ya know?  He does get excited to give her things still, which is amazing!

This card is made from Altenew's recent Craft Your Life series release, Loving You.  It comes with the stencil and the embossing plate...which is GORGEOUS!  I just adore this set and I know I'll be using it for years!  The main image is stamped then heat embossed with gold embossing powder which just makes it pop off the card.  Next, using the stencil, the blue flowers and their stems were inked, then finished off with some colored pencils on the main flowers. 

After die cutting the image out, the white edge was then colored with a marker to make it match the background paper and 2 more die cuts were used cut from the same colored paper to make it stacked and pop off the card front.  The sentiment from the same set was also heat embossed.  It was a difficult decision on what color to make it, it started off the same color as the background, but ultimately the blue won out, although you can still see a hint of that purpley-pink color peeking out in some places.

Finally, the background was simply made with the embossing folder using some old SU paper I have still on hand, couldn't give you the name it's been so long, but I think it's rose something?   

That's it!  I hope you'll join us for this challenge, I'd love to see what you do for love!

Have a colorful day!