Happy Little Stampers February Watercolor Challenge

It is February (well in Australia it is) and time for a new watercolor challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  The challenge is anything goes with the added option of bling.

My bling does not show in my pictures.  I used a clear silver colored spray to add shine to my card front.  I colored the background for my card base and the tag with a pink distress oxide ink.  The "water" was the clear spray so my color instantly had shine.  After I finished the card, I also sprayed with additional spray.

I stamped the image with black VersaFine ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder so the image also has a nice shine to it.  I colored a strip of card stock with the same pink and stamped the sentiment in the same manner.  I cut the sentiment in two so it would fill the upper left corner of the tag.  I used a nest of thread to anchor the sentiment.

I tried to add black sequins.  Did not like.  I looked at the card for half a day and finally decided to go with black splatters.  This made me happy.

I also did a coordinating envelope for the card.  I colored it in the same way I did the card base.  I then stamped the image on the front of the envelope.  I did not heat emboss this image.  Hopefully the mail man will enjoy the pretty envelope as it travels back and forth across the state of Wisconsin.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers for our February watercolor challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.

I had pieces of these patterned papers lying on my design table so I decided to cut random sized strips from the paper.  I then just applied them to a cream background paper and after this was done used a rectangle die to cut out the card front.  I matted it with a piece or coordinating card stock.  To be frugal, on the cards where I used a die cut, I die cut the sentiment out of the middle of the card stock mat. 

Just think if I grabbed each of my 6 x 6 pads and just cut a strip off eight different patterns, I would have a billion (OK maybe not that many) cards I could make.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.  They still make wonderful cards. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.

I used some older Christmas paper to make lunch bags into attractive gift bags.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Christmas Card #3 for 2020

I am trying to make Christmas cards all year long so I don't run into "not enough cards in December" and no time to create.  I just made about 20 winter cards to finish up my cards for Christmas.

Several challenges encouraged me to get started on this challenge to myself.

The first challenge is the great sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch. 

Paper Smooches has  their second challenge for 2020 and it is Anything Goes.  Since I still had the snowmen on my design table, they were used on another Christmas card for next year.

Another challenge is CAS on Friday where the challenge is Winter.  What is more winter than a couple cute snowmen and a snowflake.

I also stumbled across this new challenge where people are trying to get ahead on their Christmas cards for 2020.  Get Cracking on Christmas.  

 If you look at the sketch, you can see that my snowflake is the rectangle in the sketch.  The sparkle embossing paste represents the splatters.  I really do like how this very CAS card came together.

Here is a close up of the corner of the card with all the elements.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Let's Party Celebrate You

It is time to play along with a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

A 6 x 6 pad of paper was laying on the design table and it was double sided so makes designing a coordinated card so much easier.  Add a big sentiment and you have a card.

Thanks for stopping by. 

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge

I am trying to play along with My Favorite Things Weekly Sketch Challenge.  I am on a roll - this is my second week of doing it.  HaHa such a roll. 

Here is the challenge.  I had to think about this sketch for a little while but I finally came up with something.  I think I need to do more shopping at My Favorite Things.

I flipped the sketch and Smile is the third strip of the sketch. 

The paper is from My Favorite Things also.  I have their black and white stripe pad which I love but this paper is fun to play with also.  I love the flower dies.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Dear Brother

My baby brother is having a birthday.

I have been having so much fun with my Gnome die from Simon Says Stamp that I decided to use it on Todd's birthday card.  It was something different to create with.  (I am still trying to figure out a Valentine card design using the Gnome die.)

The current challenge at The Male Room is Anything Goes.

The card is in the mail and hopefully it makes it by his birthday.

I am also entering it into the current challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  Their current challenge is to use a Gnome.  I do have that covered.

Thanks for stopping by.

Floral Watercolor Card

While I was puppy sitting in Florida for a month, I took my watercolors with me and colored many images and also did some freehand watercolor which was mostly inspired by Pinterest.

I decided to use one of my pieces on a card for a special friend.  I knew she would also appreciate my somewhat original artwork.

The sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch was used to create this card.

I found some card stock in my stash that coordinated with the light and dark colors of the flowers.  I used the card stock to make a card base and also matted the floral image with another shade of card stock.  The piece of black stripe patterned paper is from My Favorite Things.  (they have an entire 6 x 6 pad of just black and white stripes - so nice.)  The sentiment was heat embossed on a piece of the same card stock.

I really like how this card turned out.  The colors of pink with the black and white stripe make me happy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies. 

These are cards fronts I had made from a watercolor class I took.  You cut a mask from vinyl with a die, put it on your watercolor paper, and then color around it.  I finally got them made into cards. 

I have been trying to organize some of the things I have created and not completed.  By doing this, I find I can look in that container and do some creating.  I needed Thank You note.

I was glad to use these images up.

Remember to show some love to your old supplies, your old creations - they still make wonderful cards.

Sweet Baby Girl Card

My daughter and her husband just became Aunt and Uncle when Craig's sister added a baby girl to her family.

I had a lovely day buying baby girl clothes and needed to have a card to add to the box.

I recently got the stamp set from My Favorite Things - Zippy Zebras.  I had stamped an entire sheet of zebras, colored them (they are so easy to color - yay) and then let my Scan N Cut cut them all out.  I have a lovely bag of zebras ready to create with.  I decided they would make a wonderful addition to a baby girl card (I really don't have baby stamps and if I did - where the heck would they be).

My Favorite Things has a sketch challenge each week.  I don't think I have played along so decided to use the current challenge and create my card.

 I did not have any MFT paper to use on my card so I found a double sided dotted paper.  This way the colors matched perfectly for my card.  I die cut the circles and added a white rim around each cut out circle.  The zebras peek out of the circles.  The sentiment adds the final design element for the sketch.  The sentiment was generated on the computer.

Now I need to get a box from the post office and pack up all those cute clothes along with this fun card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Winter Wishes

I just keep playing with my new Gnome die from Simon Says Stamp.  I am trying to get a few more cards sent to people who sent me Christmas cards.  I really do like this Gnome die - he is so cute and so east to put together.

I am entering the card into several challenges.

The first challenge is a sketch at Try Stampin' On Tuesday.

The next challenge is Tuesday Throwdown where the challenge is Something New.  It is my new die. 

The next challenge is Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  The challenge here is something new.

Here is my card.  I used some very well aged pink and green winter papers.  It is a soft color challenge for a winter card.  I used grey to mat the distress oxide background and the sentiment is stamped in grey also.  I added a couple small snowflakes to the card to complete the details.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Paper Smooches Monthly Challenge

I am glad to see that Paper Smooches is bringing back their Monthly Challenges.  I use to play along many years ago.

The monthly challenge is Anything Cold. 

All my Paper Smooches stamps are in a container and it was like visiting old friends when I opened up the container to choose a snowman.  I love  the snowman from early sets.  They have been well loved in the past.  I found some other stamps in there I want to use in the future.

I tinted a piece of white card stock with a light pink oxide ink to give it a little color (I have a problem with plain white backgrounds.).  I matted this with a teal colored mat.  The little strip of paper was my color inspiration for the card.  The snowman was stamped and colored with Copic markers.  I die cut a snowflake from some sparkly paper.  I stamped the sentiment and colored the strip of paper with Copics.  I have my first Christmas card made for 2020.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercolor Fun

When I was hanging out in Florida puppy sitting, I took lots of stamped images with me to watercolor so I had something creative to do.  I had lots of fun.  I have a huge stack of images already colored and also images that I drew and watercolored myself.

This little bird is an image that I colored nine of.  I have made all nine images into cards.  I feel good about it. 

I am entering the card into two challenges.  The first challenge is is CAS Watercolor where the challenge is to use cool colors.  My bird and background are cool colors. 

The second challenge is from Happy Little Stampers where the monthly CAS Challenge is Wings.  My bird does have wings.

The bird is stamped and water colored.  The background was done on a die cut rectangle of water color paper.  I blended two shades of oxide inks together to match the bird.  The sentiment was die cut from the same grey card stock used to mat the image and rectangle.

I really do like how this card turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.

A New Man In My Life

I have so many friends who would get excited if I said that statement thinking it was a real life flesh and blood man but alas it is not - it is one of the Gnome dies from Simon Says Stamp.  I just want to keep playing with him.  He is so much fun and if I get bored - back in his pouch he will go - there will be no sad ugly endings to our relationship.

I was inspired by several challenges this last week for the card plus I needed to send some cards to friends who did not get Christmas cards.  I still need to make more but at least I have made 5 and they will go in the mail this week.

The first is the Sketch Challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.  I am pretty close to the sketch. 

The second challenge is from The Paper Players.  Their challenge is Something New.  Well I do have a new man in my life - he is the large gnome die from Simon Says Stamp.  The snowflake die is also new - it is from Simon Says Stamp also.  Now that I think of it - the sentiment is from a new small set I purchased recently. 

The last challenge is from the Wednesday Challenge Blog at Simon Says Stamp where the challenge is to use Something New.  I think I covered that with the sentiment and their two dies.

He is so cute.  I love how adding just some colors to his nose and beard just bring him to life.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.  This is a grouping of cards I made from a collection from We R Memory Keepers.

Remember your old supplies still make great cards.

Masculine Birthday Card

I have three birthdays in January that I need to make cards for.  This is the second card I have made.  This card is for my niece's husband.

I had stamped this image in 2019 and colored it with distress oxide inks when I was making a birthday card for my son in law.  This was my practice coloring and it was OK so I decided I could use it on a card.  I stamped the Happy Birthday right on the image (thank goodness for my Misti which makes this so easy).  I then went to my scrap bin and found several different pieces of card stock that worked for layering up matting for the stamped image.

The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is layers.  Layers is the  "Toppings" option.  I do love layers.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Little Stamper's January Christmas Challenge

It is time for the first Christmas challenge for 2020 at Happy Little Stamper's.  We need to start working on our Christmas cards to send next December so we are ready and not stressing out.  Our monthly challenge will help you meet this goal.

The challenge as always is Anything Goes with the optional twist of Trim the Tree.  I did not go with the Trim the Tree option.

I was inspired by one of Kristine Werner's cards from her Holiday Card Series for 2019.  On Day 4 she created a card using metallic watercolors on black watercolor paper.  

I did not have the metallic watercolors she was using and I did not have black watercolor paper.  I did have Twinkling H2O's (from way back when) and some heavy black card stock.  I thought what the heck - I will try that and it worked.  The paper was a little warped but some heavy books helped take care of that.  I used a color palette of blues and greens.  I die cut lots of snowflakes.

I used a rectangle die cut to cut my color base for the card.  I matted the panel with black.  I glued the snowflakes to the front of the card with Gina K Connect Glue (my favorite glue).  I heat embossed the sentiment on the black card stock.  Some little gems were added to the front of the card also.

This is another card I made using black card stock colored with the Twinkling H2O's.  I heat embossed the ornaments and die cut them.  I would just draw in the hangers or mount the ornaments with foam tape.  (I have been trying to make flatter cards.)

I would love to try some different color combinations and maybe even buy some black watercolor paper.  I should have asked Santa to bring me some.

Please join us at Happy Little Stamper's for our January Christmas Challenge. 

Stamping a Background

I have been working on Thank You notes for a nonprofit I am involved with.  I have had floating around my design table a card that was made by my friend Annie and I wanted to CASE it.  I finally got around to doing it.

I knew exactly what stamps I wanted to use so I just went to my box of Gina K Stamps and got out two sets of leafy stamp and my tins of Gina K Ink.  I have several large thank you stamps that I like to use for this type of card.

I stamped the images (4 in 4 different colors) all over the background of my paper.  Before I stamped the images I had smooshed my paper in some light blue oxide inks just to give the background a little depth (I admit it, I have a problem with plain white backgrounds).  I think the colors work so well together.

The current challenge at Mod Squad Challenge is to make your own background paper. 

I made four of these cards.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Cool Watercolor Challenge

I am going to try to do more blog posts this year and participating in different challenges is a good way to jump start your creativity.

I decided to participate in the challenge at CAS Watercolor where the challenge is to use cool colors.

 I spent a month in Florida during part of November and December and the crafting that I took with me was water coloring.  I stamped many images that I colored and I also did some freehand water coloring which was mostly Pinterest inspired.

This is one of the images that I colored.  I used several different colors of water color to achieve the look on each leaf.  I had lots of fun painting the image.  (I must confess I painted this same image in pinks and reds for a set of gift thank you cards.)  The image is from Altenew.

Thanks for stopping by.