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. 

Happy Little Stampers January Watercolor Challenge

How did it become 2020?  Wow - time flies - can't always say it was fun but we survived. 

Let's start out the new year of 2020 with the January watercolor challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  As always, the challenge is Anything Goes with the option of using Die Cuts.

 I recently spent approximately a month in Florida puppy sitting for some friends.  I was unable to take my studio with me so I narrowed my creative soul to watercolor.  I stamped many images and colored them but I also cruised around Pinterest and found creations I wanted to attempt to try.  This is one of the little art pieces I did.  It is amazing how some black doodles will bring a blob of paint to life.

This is a very odd sized card because who was thinking of making a card when you were playing.  I liked it so well I wanted to make it into a birthday card for my daughter.  I think she will like it and appreciate it.  She was a very good artist when she was in high school.

The die cut is a circle birthday sentiment from My Favorite Things.  The entire circle did not fit on the card any place but if I cut it in half I had a couple spots I could add it without covering up the birds.  I added the black and white stripe paper from My Favorite Things and then since it is a birthday card, I had to add just a little bling - a tiny strip of blue glitter paper.

Here is some close ups of the birds.

I am so glad Pinterest is out there to help us "wanna be" artists have a starting point.

Please come play with the January watercolor challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I am still making cards for the foster care home. 

I had this wonderful sentiment that I wanted to use on a card so found some patterned paper that worked with it.  Fly - hot air balloons - seemed like a great combination.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.