Butterfly Greetings for Sunday Stamps

Hello all, I hope you're doing well! It's time for a new challenge at Sunday Stamps and this week Annette has given us a fabulous sketch to work with.

Sunday Stamps

I'm also joining the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with a theme of Anything Goes and playing along with the Paper Player's where my card fits the left column of their Tic Tac Toe Challenge (blue, die cut, heat embossing).

PP 543

I think this sketch is so versatile, I know I will want to use it again in the future.  This time I reached for a background panel I'd made a couple of weeks ago using a stencil and embossing paste over a lightly water colored background.

To create the background panel, I took a piece of watercolor paper, taped it down to a board, covered it completely with water and dropped in some Salvaged Patina Distress Ink. This is definitely one of my favorite DI colors, along with the other two newer ones Rustic Wilderness (a gorgeous green) and Kitsch Flamingo, a fabulous bright pink.  Once the panel dried, I used embossing paste and that pretty stencil to create the design.  After the embossing paste dried, the panel was splattered with leftover Salvaged Patina, white gouche and black ink.

To create the butterflies, I stamped them on a scrap of the same watercolor paper with pigment ink, clear heat embossed then water colored them with a couple DI yellows and an orange.  When dry, they were die cut with coordinating dies.  Once the background panel was dry, I trimmed it down and added it to an Ivory card base with foam tape.  The sentiment sticker was adhered to a strip of card stock to give it a bit more girth, then it and the butterflies were popped up on the panel with foam squares. 

Thanks for taking time to visit my blog, I appreciate it!  Be sure to use the link above to check out the other DT member's beautiful cards and hopefully be inspire to join us for this sketch challenge!

Stef

Stamps:  Beautiful Butterflies (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper:  Ivory, Arches 140# Cold Press Watercolor, Tim Holtz Label Stickers 

Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Salvaged Patina, Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks

Other:  Boho Circle Stencil (SSS), A2 Rectangle Stax Set 1 (MFT), Beautiful Butterflies dies, Dream Weaver embossing paste, White Gouache, Jet Black Ink Spray (Altenew)

grill.all.the.things for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hello friends!  I hope you're doing well.  It's time for another Tic Tac Toe Challenge and this week Claire has given us a fun board that would be perfect for Father's Day or a masculine card.

tttc115

I'm also joining Addicted to Stamps ATSC #406  and the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where the theme is Anything Goes

For my card, I went diagonal - die cut, twine/ribbon, texture.

A while back, Ellen Hutson had a wonderful sale on all her Essentials by Ellen products, and I used the opportunity to scoop up some stamps and dies I have had my eye on for over two years.  I LOVE this cute bear and all the accessories you can use to create fun scenes! I started by stamping and coloring the barbeque, bear, sun and hot dog, using Copic markers.  After die cutting with the matching dies, I moved on to creating the background.

I used stencils to create the ink blended grass and clouds. Next a panel of Desert Storm cardstock was embossed with the Corrugated 3D embossing folder, then the stenciled panel was trimmed down and adhered to it.  Before adding to the Desert Storm card base, I wrapped some hemp twine around the panel and tied on a bow.  The BBQ, bear, sun and sunglasses were adhered directly to the panel.  The grilling fork was glued under the bear's paw (the die cuts the paws away from the body so he can hold things) but I used a small amount of foam tape to pop up the wienie portion.  The sentiments were stamped, die cut and added to the card front with foam tape, then the last step was to use my white gel pen on his sunglasses.  This will be perfect to send to one of our grill-loving friends!

Thanks so much for visiting, I really appreciate it!  Be sure to use the link above to check out the fabulous cards by the other DT members and hopefully join us this week!

Take care!

Stef

Stamps:  All Inside and Bear Ware 3 (EH)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White and Desert Storm

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black; Versafine Clair Nocturne; Fire Fly, Grass Field and Sea Glass (Altenew)

Other:  All Inside and Bear Ware 3 matching dies, Skinny Strips die (MFT), Grassy Edges and Rolling Clouds stencils (MFT), Corrugated 3D embossing folder (ret. SU), Hemp Twine

Copics:  E79, 57, 35, 33, 31,30, 29, 09, R59, 46, 24, 05, 22, 20, Y26, 19, 15, 13

Vitamin Sea

Hello friends, I hope you're doing well!  I have a card to share that I made for two challenges - Addicted To Stamps where the current theme is die cuts and/or stencils, and the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with a theme of using dies and/or punches.

ATSC #405

The lastest card kit from Hero Arts was just too awesome to pass up and I used it for this card, creating a slimline ocean scene.

The stamp set in the kit has one main image, the large coral reef, along with the fish, seahorse and jelly fish you see on the card.  I'm not gonna lie, this took me a couple of afternoon sessions to complete but I love how it turned out!  I started with the background, stenciling the "water" on a panel of white cardstock with three shades of blue, starting with the darkest at the bottom.  After washing the ink off the stencil, it was realigned to the inked portion and I used white glitter gel over the blue for some outstanding sparkle (in real life it looks amazing!).  While that dried, I colored the images with Copic markers then die cut them with the coordinating dies.

I search the internet for coral reef images so I could stay a bit realistic in my coloring and was amazed at the variety of colors of the coral reefs, especially in warm water oceans (obviously I've never done much diving lol!).  With the stenciled panel dry, it was adhered to the card base.  Before adding all the images to the base, I created the "sand" ocean bottom by smearing Versamark over a piece of white cardstock then heat embossing with Sand embossing powder.  I hand cut the embossed panel into a couple of pieces and layered them at the bottom of the card with foam tape.  I began adding all the colored and die cut images mostly popped up with foam tape. Lastly, I used a couple of Violet Copic markers to color a small panel of white cardstock.  The sentiment was white heat embossed on it, then it was trimmed down and added to the panel. 

Thanks for taking time to visit, I really appreciate it!  Take care and enjoy your weekend!

Stef

Stamps:  0521 My Monthly Hero card kit (Hero Arts)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White

Ink:  Versamark; Memento Tuxedo Black; Sea Glass, Ocean Waves and Dusk (Altenew)

Other:  Waterflow Slimline Stencil (HA), MMY card kit dies, Gina K White Glitter Glitz gel, White and Sand embossing powders (HA), Copic markers

Hello Flowers

Hello again!  I hope you're doing well.  Today I'm sharing a card made for three challenges - Color Hues, The Flower Challenge and The Paper Players.

TCH 18

The Flower Challenge #56

PP541

For my card, I did use a stamp with two of my very favorite flowers - anemone (I think that's what it is on the stamp lol!) and peony - and colored the images in teal and two shades of purple.  The stamp is a background stamp so I just used a portion of the colored image for my A2 sized card.

I love these huge floral images and they are so wonderful to color.  It was stamped on an A2 panel of white, colored with Copic markers then trimmed down to fit the card design.   A white gel pen added back the ends of the stamen that were muted by the coloring.

A separate panel of white was embossed with a large polka dot folder, adhered to a white card base, then the colored panel added to the top portion.  A strip of black was added at a slant, then the die cut sentiment was adhered on top.  I looked through my stash of enamel dots and was happy to find some in a teal shade. I love the embossed polka dots for the subtle texture they add, yet keeping things CAS.

Thanks for taking time to visit, I always appreciate it!  Take care!

Stef

Stamps:  Spring Blooms Background (Honey Bee), Perfect Sentiments (Pinkfresh Studio)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Black

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Other:  Perfect Sentiment matching die, Large Polka Dot embossing folder (ret. SU), Sea Shore Enamel Dots (Altenew), Sakura White Gelly Roll pen

Just A Note for Sunday Stamps

Hello friends, I hope you're doing well!  It's time for a new challenge at Sunday Stamps! We have a beautiful color board to inspire you.

Sunday Stamps

I'm also playing along with Watercooler Wednesday and Addicted to Stamps.

WWC315

ATSC 405

Recently I purchased a big, beautiful floral bouquet stamp from Altenew and thought a mini slimline size card would work to show most but not all the image (it is big!).

I love this beautiful floral image, it is definitely my newest favorite!  I stamped the image on a piece of  5 1/2" x 8 1/2" card stock, then trimmed off a portion of the image on the left so it would fit my card size.  I colored the image with Copic markers similar to the challenge colors, then trimmed off a bit more of the panel for a final size of 3 1/8" x 6 1/8" then adhered to the 3.25" x 6/25" white cardbase.

The sentiment was stamped with black pigment ink, then die cut with the coordinating die.  I die cut it twice more from white card stock, then layered them together for some nice dimension.  After adhering the sentiment to the card, I used a white gel pen to create the ends of the stamen on the poppies and create the centers of the small pink flowers.  Super simple, I didn't even add any bling!

Thanks so much for the visit, I always appreciate it!  Be sure to use the link above to check out the beautiful cards by the other DT members and hopefully join us for this color challenge!

Take care and have a good week!

Stef

Stamps:  Simply Spring (Altenew), Perfect Sentiments (Pinkfresh Studio)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White

Ink:  Gina K Obsidian Amalgam, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Other:  Perfect Sentiment die, Sakura White Gelly Roll pen

Copics:  RV14, R43, 32, 20, YR18, 07, 16, Y17, 32, BG18, 72, 70, W9, 5

More Than Coffee for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hello there, I hope you're doing well!  It's time for a new Tic Tac Toe Challenge and this week Tenia has given us this fun board to spark our imagination and creativity!

Tic Tac Toe Challenge

For my card I used Julee's fabulous Mojo Monday Sketch.

Mojo 559

I have to admit that I struggled with this Tic Tac Toe board a bit at first but came up with a fun solution using an older Hero Arts My Monthly Hero card kit from August 2018.  Julee's sketch certainly helped inspire me as well!

I ended up going down the left row (rainbow, purple coffee) and used a couple different patterned papers from my stash.  The cup and foam were stamped and colored with Copic markers then die cut with matching dies.  The purple plaid was trimmed down and added directly to the card base.  For the large square the rainbow paper was matted on a white panel then foam tape was used to add it to the base.

The small square was die cut from white and with a smaller square die, from a scrap of the plaid paper.  The square dies create a thin frame, so the purple plaid frame was adhered on the white square then the coffee and rainbow foam were popped up on foam tape (please ignore that the foam was adhered slightly askew - had to be the sloppy barista lol!).  The sentiment is from the same card kit and was die cut with a circle die and added to the card.  An aqua shimmer pen applied some sparkle to the foam and a few clear dew drops were added to finish things off.

Be sure to use the link above to see all the fun cards by the other DT members and hopefully join us this week!

Stef

Stamps:  August2018 MMH card kit (Hero Arts)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, retired 6x6 paper pads from Lawn Fawn (rainbow) and MFT (plaid)

Ink:  Gina K Obsidian Amalagam, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Other:  MMH matching dies, Nested Infinity Circle die (HA), Essential Squares dies (Ellen Hutson), Aqua Shimmer pen (Tonic), Small Clear Dew Drops (Honey Bee)

Copics:  R20, RV32, Y17, 13, YG03, 01, BG11, B00, V15, 12 01

Part of My Life

Hello friends, I hope you're doing well!  Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by the yummy colors at the current Color Hues challenge.  I'm also joining the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, both with Feminine themes.

TCH #17

WWC315

I recently acquired some stunning floral Color Panels that were illustrated by the immensely talented Emily Midgett, and just had to use one for this card.  Periodically she sells sets of her color panels and here's a link to Emily's blog post from April, the last time they were available.  If you're interested you could reach out to her and/or follow her blog to catch they next time she has them for sale.  

The panel was colored with Copic markers in the challenge colors of orange and red, plus I used warm grays for the leaves, stems and flower centers, and a light orange inside the framed portion of the background.  Originally I thought about mounting the panel on a light gray card base, but ended up opting for black.  I trimmed the panel down so it would have a nice black border and adhered it to the base with foam tape.

After the sentiment was white heat embossed on black, it was die cut and popped up on the card front with foam tape.  I used a black glaze pen to then bring the stamen ends to life as the Copic coloring made it hard to see them.  Lastly a few clear sequins were scattered about on the panel.

Thanks for taking time to visit, I appreciate it!  Take care and have a great week ahead.  And if you're a mom visiting on Sunday May 9th, Happy Mother's Day!

Stef

Stamps:  Build A Flower - Stargazer Lily (sentiment/Altenew)

Paper:  Emily Midgett's Coloring Panel on NSW, Black

Ink:  Versamark

Other:  Featured Sentiment die, Sakura Black Glaze pen, Sparkly Clear Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh)

Copics:  R59, 46, 24, 14, YR18, 07, 16, 000, Y17, W7, 5, 3, 1, 0

Special Delivery

Hey friends, I hope you're doing well!  I have a card to share with you that was inspired by the current challenge at The Paper Players.  Joanne has chosen a fun theme of cards for boys, which I never have a enough of, so this worked perfectly.

PP539

I'm also joining Addicted to Stamps, where the current challenge is any occasion.

ATSC #404

My husband and I have two great nephews that are young, so I'm constantly looking for fun stamp sets appropriate for their age.  Recently I found a cute space themed set at Ellen Hutson, which worked well for this theme.

I began by making an easy galaxy background.  I used Distress Oxide inks to blend the colors, starting with the lightest in the middle and working my way out to the darkest.  Next a Distress sprayer was used to add water drops to simulate stars, then I added white gouache splatter for good measure, with both a small paintbrush and a toothbrush for the smallest size dots.  I set that aside to dry and went to work on all the stamped images.

The rocket ship and planets were colored with Copic markers and cut out with the coordinating dies.  The thing that probably took me the longest was deciding what sentiment to use.  The stamp set has several fun sentiments but none for birthdays so I pulled out several other sets and finally settled on "special delivery", which it would be if it were from space, right?  

After the ink blended panel was dry, it was die cut with the deckled rectangle die and adhered to the white card base.  Next, all the images were positioned on the panel, adhering the planets directly to it, then popping up the rocket ship with foam tape.  The main sentiment was die cut then the birthday greeting sentiment strip trimmed down and both added with foam tape.  I still wanted more stars, so I tried making white dots with a white gel pen but it didn't stand out as well as I'd hoped.  Then I remembered I had some fun holographic stars, which ended up being the perfect final piece.  You can see them really well in the closeup below.

Thanks for coming by and taking a look!  Take care and have a great weekend!

Stef

Stamps:  Space Out (Ellen Hutson), Pickup Lines (Honey Bee)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Strathmore Bristol, Sentiment Strips (Simon Says Stamp)

Ink:  Gina K Obsidian Amalgam, Versafine Clair Nocturne, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot Distress Oxide

Other:  Space Out and Pickup Lines matching dies, Deckled Frames die (Waffle Flower), White Gouache, Sakura White Gelly Roll pen, Oh My Stars Confetti Mix (Trinity Stamps)

Copics:  R59, 46, 24, B28, 26, 24, 23, 21, 18, YG67, 17, 03, YR18, 09, 16, 21, 31, Y17, 06, 00, C5, 3, 1, 0

Beary Happy for Sunday Stamps

Hello friends, I hope you're doing well!  It's time for a new challenge at Sunday Stamps where Heather has created this great sketch for us to play with!

Sunday Stamps

I had a sweet little bear that I wanted to use for the vertical rectangle, so I took a little bit of liberty with the sketch to create a "scene".

Initially, I started by looking through the loads of pattern papers I have to use for the background, but nothing worked right, so I created a scene and used a puffy cloud instead of a half circle or doily.  I started by coloring the bear, flower and his little bee friend with Copic markers, then added grass and a blue sky behind him.  Next a panel of Tim Holtz Heavystock was ink blended with green and light blue Distress Inks then die cut to fit on the 5"x 7" card base.

Next the clouds were die cut, inked around the edges with the same blue ink as the sky, then adhered directly to the panel.  A strip of white woodgrain was adhered across the middle, wrapped with Linen Thread, then the panel was mounted on the card base with foam tape.  Our little bear buddy was matted on a slightly larger piece of white cardstock, the sentiment stamped on the panel, then the entire thing added to the card with foam tape to finish things off!  I really love the fun play on the sketch, the only thing I'd change is to darken the ink blending of the sky, because it really doesn't show up well in the photos.

Thanks so much for visiting, I really appreciate it!  Be sure to use the link above to check out the amazing cards by the other DT members and hopefully join us for this challenge!

Stef

Stamps:  Happy Days (Colorado Craft Company)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Tim Holtz Heavy Stock, White Woodgrain (Ellen Hutson)

Ink:  Gina K Obsidian Amalgam, Versafine Clair Nocturne, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress 

Other:  Linen Thread (SU), Simple Puffy Clouds (Lawn Fawn), A7 Layers die (Waffle Flower)

Copics:  E29, 37, 35, 33, 31, R22, 21, 20, Y06, YG67, 17, 13