Sketch Challenge and Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday, time to show some love for your old supplies.  The challenge at Paper Players this week is a sketch so I decided to use it for my inspiration for this card.

I found these solids in a 12 x 12 pad that is very well aged.  The grey is actually a light blue.  I am working on some cards for a foster care home and have been trying to make some male cards.  I thought these colors worked well.

The sentiments and speech bubble are new stamps from My Favorite Things.  A fun stamp set to make cards with.  I have already made one graduation card with the set.

Thanks for stopping by and remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Gina K Products

I have been painting some of these beautiful florals from the latest kit from Gina K.  I have just used this particular set in the kit.  There are two more stamp sets in this kit.

I colored two large floral images and two of the smaller floral image and some leaves.  I did stamp and die cut more leaves but those will be for another day.

For this card I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for my starting point.  As you will see, I did take a little bit different turn with the sentiment. 

 The images were stamped with Versafine Black Ink.  I watercolored the image and leaves with Zig watercolor markers.  The black stripe is washi tape wrapped around a piece of card stock.  For some reason I wanted to use some of my wide washi tape today.  The white background was smooshed into some Zig marker which is scribbled on cellophane and spritzed with water.  (I have problems with pure white backgrounds.)

The flower was added with foam tape and the leaves were tucked under the flower.  I stamped the sentiment on a colored piece of card stock and then fussy cut it out.  This is where I deviated from the sketch - I did not like covering up any of the beautiful coloring I did on my flower so I glued it below the flower.

Thanks for stopping by.

Another Tic Tac Toe Challenge

I am playing with this weeks Tic Tac Toe Challenge. 

I chose to use the diagonal row:  polka dots, coloring and sparkle.

I first smooshed my card stock in watered down ink.  After it dried, I took a polka dot stencil and added color through just a small portion of the polka dots.  I just wanted a partial covering of my background.  I then took some clear Stickles (sparkle) and dotted on top of each polka dot.  (Confession I was planning to use some glitter paste but I couldn't get my stencil lined up correctly so went with the Stickles - whew - design idea saved).

I stamped the little owl from Paper Smooches and colored it with a Zig marker.  I also painted a branch and then fussy cut both the branch and owl.  I glued the branch on the front and then added the owl with some foam tape for dimension.   The sentiment was stamped below the owl and branch.  I adhered the panel to a Kraft card base.  After I took the picture, I decided to add glossy accents to the eyes and then redo the dot with my black gel pen.

I really do like how my card turned out.  Thanks for stopping by.

Purple Happy Birthday

Sometimes the hardest part of writing a blog post is thinking up a title.  Don't you think I did a stupendous job with this title.  It is descriptive so we will leave it at that.

I decided to play along with the weekly sketch at My Favorite Things. 

I had this flower sitting on the design table almost all fussy cut out so I finished the cutting.  A couple weeks ago I made a card with this same flower and left it just black and white with only minimal coloring (the center of the flowers).  I decided to do the same thing this week.

You can interpret the flowers or the purple in the background as the rectangle in the sketch.  Please stretch your imagination.  The purple color is watered down acrylic paint smooshed onto the front.  I matted the front with the MFT black and white diagonal stripe.  After I painted the floral centers, once the paint was dry, I came in with a black gel pen and added the dots back in so they stood out a little more.

I really do like the contrast of black, white and purple. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I now have a birthday card made for a November birthday.

Zebra Fun

This card was inspired (as was yesterday's) by someone's I saw somewhere.  I don't know if they had used the zebras on their card but I knew I would.

I first did a little ink smooshing to give color to my white background.  I stenciled the three stripes on the front blending two colors on each front (pink and purple and blue and purple).  The backgrounds have then set for a couple days until this morning I got up and got busy and finished them.

I will be entering the cards in the current challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters where the challenge is Stencil.  The stencil I used is from My Favorite Things.  It is amazing what three rectangles can add to a card.

These cards will be going to a foster care home in South Carolina.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hello Giraffe

I am working on a number of children cards to send to a foster care home in South Carolina.  I send children cards for the kids and also thank you cards for the staff to use to thank all their wonderful supporters.

This card was inspired by a card I saw on Facebook, Pinterest, a blog - I don't know where - but I remember the idea of it and this is the card I created.

I am entering the card in the current challenge at Paper Smooches where the challenge is "anything goes".

I die cut two frames out of kraft card stock and glued them together.  The giraffe was stamped and colored with Copics.  I looked in my background box and found a blue that would work to go behind my frame.  I die cut the three leaf clusters and colored them with Zig Real Markers.

The card is very simple but I know it will brighten some child's face.  We take receiving a card for granted - but think - what if you had never received a card and one day you get one.  How special would you feel?

Thanks for stopping by.

Tic Tac Toe Challenge

I have found a new challenge board - Tic Tac Toe challenge.  I like the challenge because it pushed me way outside my comfort zone.  This is good.  We need to try creating with new recipes for supplies used.

This is the current Tic Tac Toe Challenge. 

I chose the middle row: pink, gold and twine.

It is so hard to photography shiny gold.  I die cut pink flowers from three different pink scraps.  The flower dies are from My Favorite Things.  The circle, sentiment and some leaves were gold from gold mirror card stock.  Twine was attached to the center flower.

I decided to pair my design with kraft paper.  I dry embossed a piece of kraft card stock and added it to my kraft card base.

To complete the card, I splattered pink acrylic paint and gold watercolor.

This card will be mailed to my Aunt.  Try to send her a card each week. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Another Hero Card on Oldie Moldie Monday

One last card created to go in my box to my friend who will send it off to a group of Minnesota Guard members who have been deployed.

It is Monday so I am showing some love for some old supplies.  It is old (well aged) patterned paper. 

I am using the sketch from Mo Jo Monday.

 Patterned paper was my first love when I started paper crafting (making cards).  You can see that if you visit my studio.  I have way too much patterned paper but it is hard to part with any of it.  The paper still makes beautiful cards.  I need to just sit down and dedicate myself to using up a pad on numerous cards.  I get very bored with using the same supplies.

I do love this sketch.  I love all the layers.  The die cut word is from Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by.  Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Miss You

I am continuing to work on cards for the troops and I am making Miss You cards.

I used the weekly sketch from Case This Sketch. 

I used a Spellbinders die to cut the focal image.  I stamped the image and colored it with Zig Clean Colors.  It is very simple coloring.   I have been having fun using my watercolor markers the last few days.  I like to sit down in the evening and color.

The sentiment is a die from Simon Says Stamp.  The stamp is also from Simon Says Stamp.

I decided to add my white floral image on a light grey card base to make things a little different.  To add some interest to the card base I scored lines along the center of the card base.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Cards for Heros

I am currently trying to finish up a box to send to a friend.  She is collecting cards to send to a Guard unit from Minnesota that is being deployed.  Many of our card making friends met doing cards for Operation Write Home so if we can continue to send cards to troop members we are happy to help.

I am trying to make "miss you" cards so that is my goal to make a few this week end so I can send my box off to her this week.

I chose to use the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to help me make my card.

The flower image is a stamp from The Ton.  The sentiment comes from a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp.  I stamped the images on Bristol smooth cardstock and colored with Tombow water color markers.  I decided to shake things up a little and use kraft card stock to finish my card.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

Sweet Peony Perfection

I have been playing with my stamp from My Favorite Things - Sweet Peony Perfection.  It is a red rubber stamp and has such wonderful detail and stamps like a dream

I decided to use one of the peonies I stamped on the weekly sketch from My Favorite Things.  This is a very versatile sketch.

I stamped the head of the peony in distress oxide ink Abandoned Coral.  I left my stamp in my Misti and colored the image.  I then restamped the image and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  It gives it a little more detail in real life (very hard to see in the photo).  I fussy cut the bloom out.  

I took the Rectangle Trio Stencil and stenciled the design on the background panel.  I had to stencil it twice to cover the width of the panel.  I added some splatters of the same color to the stenciled area.  

I stamped the stem on another piece of card stock which I had smooshed in the same color ink (have you gotten the picture that this is mostly a monochromatic colored card).  I  then colored the stem and leaves with a very light wash of coral.  The sentiment was stamped on a piece of colored card stock.  I added black striped paper to the back of the sentiment to shake things up a little.  Both panels were matted with black.  The panel the bloom is on is layered with foam to give it a little dimension.

Of course, I had to add a few black splatters.

This is a fun sketch to play with.  Thanks for stopping by - I must go I am coloring more peonies tonight.  I have my watercolor brush markers out. 

Twofer Challenge

I try to do the challenge at Twofer each month.  It makes me think outside my box.  How can I use the same design element in a different way and two distinct different cards.

This month the challenge at Twofer is circles. 

 I used a stencil in which my circles were a little wonky and this is what I came up with.  One card is a graduation card for a neighbor who graduated from college.  The other card is a funny Thinking of You card and I don't know who the lucky recipient of it will be.

This is my graduation card.  I used the stencil in the normal way as a stencil.  I first ink smooshed color onto my paper.  Once it had dried, I laid the stencil over my paper and used a blending tool to add  the design to the card front.

The sentiments and speech bubbles are a new set of stamps from My Favorite Things.  I think they will get lots of use.  The speech bubbles paper was another piece of paper which had ink smooshing on it.

On this card I used the stencil wonky circles to draw my flowers.  I show some examples below of how I did it.  I used my inkintense pencils to color my flowers which were drawn on a gessoed sheet of dictionary page which had been adhered to some card stock and a light color of blue was added for some background color.  I did doodling with different pens.  A die cut and a stamped sentiment completed the card.

Here is a picture of the stencil I used. 

Here are ideas of how I used the stencil to draw my flowers. 

This was a fun project to do.  I had not done any drawing and doodling for a long time so it felt good.

I hope you enjoy my cards.  Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday, time to show some love for your old supplies.  Usually my old supplies are patterned paper because I have so much of it.  Today I made two birthday cards for a friend.  She is collecting birthday cards for a niece who works at a nursing home.  They will be given to the residents on their birthday.

I used a large scalloped die to make my card base.  You just put one edge off the edge of the fold so it does not cut and you get a cute card base for your card.  It is not quite 4.25 inches wide but fits well in the standard A2 envelope and just makes things look a little more classy.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

New Stuff to Play With

I got my new toys from My Favorite Things.  They have such fantastic handling of orders and speedy delivery.  I ordered Tuesday and they were delivered on Thursday.  Of course, I was out of town so got them Saturday when I returned home.  Today I decided to play with them for the current Tic Tac Toe Challenge.    These kind of challenges really make me think hard.

I chose to do the bottom row.  Black and White, Single Layer and Free.  My free was splatters.  Who doesn't love a good splatter. 

My card base is Bristol smooth cardstock.  I first stenciled on the background stripes with distress oxide ink.  The image was stamped in black ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I smooshed some of the ink, added water and made my splatters.  I think it is hard to make a true one layer card but I have done one the last two weeks so maybe I will get better.

I will send this to a friend who "surprise" you are getting a stent because you have a clogged artery.  I think it will cheer her up.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Make It Colorful

I was attempting to play along with several challenges but the sketch challenge at My Favorite Things closed a couple hours before I got around to posting so I waited to post my card today.

I have been looking for some new challenge blogs to jump start my creativity some days.  I hate when your creative mojo took a walkabout on you.  I try to create every day in some form. 

One of the new challenges that I found is a monthly challenge and it is  Stamping Sensations.  The challenge for the month of June is Make it Colorful. 

The colorful on my card is my background.  I pulled the background from my treasure box of backgrounds.  It probably was a clean up sheet when I was creating something else.  Many of my excess backgrounds are clean up sheets.  I can not waste leftover inks or not have a catch piece of paper when I spray things.  Did you see that one lone little spot of green up by the flower.  Because of the sentiment placement, I could not cover it up.  It adds just a little more color to the card front.  I decided to leave my stamped image white with only the centers the approximate same color as the blue in the background.  I did fussy cut the image out.  I kinda like the contrast of the black and white to the colored background.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day.

Using Bits and Pieces

Many times I will just create backgrounds and I finally organized them in one box and the majority are sorted by color.  I also have a box of images that I have water colored.  I have several other boxes of card making treasures.

Today my boxes came in handy to create a card using the new sketch at  Freshly Made Sketches. 

The bird is a stamp from Dina Wakely which was stamped in black ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The colorful square behind the bird is from a large sheet of paper that caught the excess sprays from previous projects.  I hate to waste inks and sprays so you know why my box is so full - many of the papers are mop up papers (the big background).  The sentiment was white heat embossed on black cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day.

Single Layer Card

Single layer cards scare me but today I decided to bite the bullet and try to make one.  I knew if something happened I could always cut off the front and still make it into a card.  I was so happy with the way my card turned out.  Oh - the other thing I have problems with is color challenges.

The challenge for the next two weeks at AAA Cards is a single layer card with an optional twist of colors

I guess I was totally inspired by the graphic because I have a butterfly with orange and yellow spotlight coloring.

This is a new stamp right out of the mailbox.  I have looked at this stamp for months and finally decided to buy it.  I am so happy with it - it is so beautiful.  I can't wait to play more with it.

I made my card base out of Bristol smooth card stock.  I folded it and put it in my Misti.  I stamped with Versafine Black Onyx ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I then used a set of watercolors from Altenew to add color to my butterfly.  I put down a light wash of a tealish blue around the image.  I then added orange and yellow watercolor to three flowers and two segments of the butterfly.  On the large yellow flower I came back in with a Inkintense pencil and added some shading.

The sentiment was heat embossed.

I liked this card so well I stamped four more.  I did stamp these on watercolor paper to see how that works for a one layer card.  This card will be sent to my Aunt who is in a nursing home and I have not been able to see her since March.  I send her a card almost every week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tic Tac Toe Challenge

I recently ran across a new challenge blog to me.  It is called the Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  Each week they give you a Tic Tac Toe board with different options on it for making a card.

This week at Tic Tac Toe the board had some great choices for designing a card.

I am behind in my birthday cards.  My MoJo seemed to have taken a little walk and I am trying to get it back.  The one row on the board (Rainbow, heart and stripes) was perfect for one of my belated birthday cards.  My friend loves rainbows and hearts and she loves when I get artsy for her cards.

I painted wonky stripes with a watercolor set for the front of the card.  I die cut the hello out of several layers of paper and stacked them on top of each other.  I laid the hello on the card for placement of the hearts and birthday sentiment.

I matted it with some orange card stock and added to a white card base.  I then added a few black splatters because I just love splatters and I thought the card needed just a little bit more black on it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

This week I let the sketch at Sunday Stampers be my inspiration for this week's creation. 

I love all the layers in the sketch.  I had played with this 6 x 6 pad of paper from Simple Stories with a date of 2013 on it recently and decided it had lots of lovely papers for the sketch.  For the focal point which is the larger square on top I cut the patterned paper with the large rose on it.  I did add some sparkle to the flower.  It is added to the card with dimension.  I did place a piece of gray card stock behind it so it would not blend into the background.

I tried three different papers for the sentiment before I settled on this pink one.  This birthday die is from Penny Black.

Thanks for stopping by and remember to show some love for your old supplies. 

Coming Up Roses #2

This is my second post this week end using the beautiful rose stamp from Paper Smooches.

The current challenge at the Paper Smooches blog is flowers. 

I stamped and colored the rose with my Zig Markers.  I then fussy cut out the rose.  It is a very easy image to fussy cut.  I took the rectangle die from Paper Smooches and cut it out of a piece of card stock and made my own stencil.  I laid the die cut piece of card stock over my ink smooshed colored background.  I took a brush and added the oxide ink color on the inside of the rectangle opening.  I got the background color by accident because there was color already in the brush - but this was a happy accident.  Once I was done with my stenciling, I stamped the sentiment.  I found a colored card base in my supplies that matched beautifully with my stenciled rectangle.  The rose was pop dotted onto the front of the card in the lower right corner.  The blues in the background and card base make the pink rose pop.  I added some black splatters.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Coming Up Roses #1

I stamped a beautiful rose image from Paper Smooches.  I stamped three of them on Bristol smooth card stock.  I got out my Zig Markers and colored them.  I then fussy cut them out.

The first card I made with one of the roses used the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. 

I took the lightest Zig marker and scribbled it on a piece of plastic and sprayed with water.  I dipped my card front in this to add some color to the background.  I also colored two strips - one with the light color and one with the dark color. 

I took a piece of silver sparkle washi tape and added it to the left side of my card front.  I then glued the light skinny stripe next to the silver washi tape.  The darker strip I glued to the top of the silver washi.  I stamped the sentiment in black ink and added the card front to a black mat.  The flower was pop dotted onto the front of the card base. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Little Stampers June Christmas Challenge

Wow how did it become June but it is and it is time for a new Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers. 

The challenge for June is Anything Goes with the optional twist of Deck the Halls.

 I just did a regular Christmas themed card.  Snowflakes are a pretty safe subject for a holiday card when you live in a cold state and you get snow quite regularly.  Of course as I write this, we are suppose to have temps at almost 90 degrees this week.

I used a new product Nuvo Glacier Paste.  It comes in approximately six colors.  The color used on this card is Sea Sprite.  I used a stencil to get the all over snow flake pattern.  The panel was matted with a tealish card stock and mounted on a white card base.  The die cut is from Paper Smooches cut from the same card stock as the mat.

The glacier paste has a pretty shine and in this picture you can see the beautiful shine.

I have a couple other colors of this paste I need to play with.

Please come play with us for the Happy Little Stampers June Christmas Challenge.