POLKA DOTS & A FLOWER

Just can't seem to stop creating with the flower from the Hero Arts Monthly Hero Kit from April.  I made this card for Lisa's scramble (make a card and post in 90 minutes!) but it is also applicable for the Time Out challenge (may all your weeds be wildflowers).

 

I heat embossed the flower and leaves on vellum, colored with copics and fussy cut. Stenciled the background with some salty ocean distress ink, added the sentiment and some raindrops and done.

Thanks for stopping by and also your kind comments.

 

NATIVITY

This week the challenge at Merry Monday is to use a nativity scene.  Right there was a huge challenge for me as I own nary a stamp or anything with a nativity and was not going to even enter this week.  Then yesterday happy mail arrived from Linda with these silhouettes.

Linda had cut them in black, so I smooshed them with Versafine and embossed in gold.  I made a background by dabbing frost white ink on cs and then when it was dry going over it with salty ocean distress ink.  I just used a brush to paint more ink on the bottom portion to mimic a snow bank.  Put it all together with the silver frame, stamped "believe" in gold and popped it up with foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by and love to read your kind comments.

 

CORAL FLOWER

Jennifer McGuire calls it distress ink lifting and Kelly Latevola calls it watercolor bleaching - and I call it lots of fun!!

Here's a sneak peek of my card today over at A Blog Named Hero.  Distress inks and that gorgeous flower from the April Monthly Hero kit are the combo!

The challenge this month is Tone on Tone and there are still a few days left to enter your card here.   

Thanks for stopping by today!

NO CARDS

I have never written about myself in my blog as I am really a very private person and putting personal stuff on a blog scares me - but then there's probably tons of personal info about everyone on the web that I don't even know about.  Besides I am suffering from card making withdrawal big time, in addition this being a very crazy week.

Last Thursday I drove to Fargo, ND (7 1/2 hrs.) so I could attend my grandson's graduation from NDSU.  A fun, happy, sad day - the end and the beginning for Matthew.  He graduated magna cum laude with a double major in landscape architecture/urban design and has a fabulous job in Baltimore, MD starting in mid-June. Katherine is on the faculty at NDSU so hence she's in cap and gown also.

John, Katherine, Matthew, me

Since the graduation I have been helping Kath and John pack their house as they will be moving to Texas where Kath has accepted a teaching position at UT-Arlington.  I think this is about the 14th time I've helped her move starting with moving into a dorm her first year of college.  This has to be the last time - I ache in all sorts of new places!!

Then I had to include this picture of my youngest grandchild, Katie - she is 13 and 5'11 and is a volleyball player as well as her 15 year old sister Anna.  They live in England, but are coming to the states this summer for a volleyball camp at the University of Minnesota - can't wait to see them play.  How about those legs???

So instead of making cards this week, I've been buying some new stamps I couldn't resist - bought the new daisy stamp set from Altenew and also the new floral kit from MFT - hope they will have arrived by the time I get home.  

Well, Kath is up and soon will put me to work - yesterday I packed 14 boxes of books among other things - have been sleeping very well at night!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hugs, 

PINK IS BEAUTIFUL!

The challenge this month at A Blog Named Hero is

and our sponsor is Gina K - a wonderful company with many gorgeous stamp sets.  I played with their Elegant Florals 2 for my post over at A Blog Named Hero.  

Here's a sneak peak

So hop on over and check out the details and also find some time to create a card for the challenge and a chance to win a great prize from Gina K.

Thanks for stopping by today and love your kind comments.

 

YELLOW PEONIES

I made my card for three challenges today - the colors are from Altenew's "From Places Abroad-Australia" challenge, the heat embossing, stamping and watercoloring are for CAS Mix-Up and Simon Say Stamp's challenge is "flowers".

I heat embossed the peonies and leaves in white and colored with my Zigs - blended out the colors with just a slightly damp brush.  The background piece was die cut and I added the blue dotted section.  I did my stamping of the sentiment before I put it all together tho - knowing me I would have stamped it wrong!  Also did the flourishes beforehand and then popped the piece up with foam tape. I arranged my flowers and added a few clear sequins and done!!

Thanks for visiting and love to read your kind comments.

MAY CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

This month my CCC card is going to my friend, Cat Craig, In Maryland.  I followed the sketch and the colors Deb asked us to use.

 

The flowers are PTI's "Bold Blossoms" which I colored with Zig tea rose and a damp brush.  The leaves were done the same way with mid-green and olive.  The oval is a piece of die cut vellum.  After putting it together I added the black dots with Pico embellisher.  The centers are seed beads adhered with Glossy Accents.

 

Thanks for stopping by today and also your kind comments.

 

 

FRAMED FLOWERS

I love the sketch this week at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colors at The Paper Players.  I used Michele Ferguson's card as my inspiration and also the card from Kay Miller which is the inspiration at Time Out Challenge.

Arranged the little flowers and used the "press 'n seal" method to keep them all together before I adhered them to the frame.  I embossed the card base with stitched rectangle dies.  The little frame was popped up with some foam tape.  Added a a few sparkly sequins and done.  Decided to do without a sentiment until I needed a card for something special.  

Thanks for stopping by today and love to read your comments.

CIRCLE TREE

This week's challenge on Merry Monday is ombre and glitter.

After seeing several people using Clarity brushes for stenciling, I broke down and bought a set - they are a bit pricey, but oh my!! are they ever great and make blending a breeze - I'm loving them.  So since ombre was called for I had to try these out!  I used distress inks in twisted citron, mowed lawn, shabby shutters and peeled paint with the circle tree stencil.  Die cut my piece with a stitched rectangle and matted it with another stitched rectangle.  Die cut the sentiment and star and all the little circles from some glitter paper.  Added on Spectrum Noir glitter to all the green circles which gives it all a such a pretty sheen.  Popped it all up with foam tape and done!

Since there's plenty of"shine" I'm also entering this in Happy Little Stampers mixed media challenge.

Thanks for visiting today and love your kind comments.

 

enjoy...

I needed a card for a dear friend who is retiring in a few weeks - the staff at her school are doing a card shower for her. 

Since I didn't have anything that said "retirement", I put the "enjoy" on the front of the card and then wrote "your retirement" on the inside.  The PTI Bold Blossoms were watercolored with my Zigs.  Used Pico Embellisher for the little black dots (and the dot for the "j" on the die cut - lost it somewhere on my desk).  Added some flourishes in PTI sweet blush.  Black enamel dot in the center of the large flower finished it off.  I also decorated the envelope and wrote her name using Concord & 9th's Sophisticated Script.

Am entering this in PTI's Make It Monday.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.

CAS MIX-UP DESIGNER

I am so delighted to be bringing this card to you today as the first winner in Bonnie and Loll's CAS MIX-UP challenge which they began in March.  The challenge this month is to use stamping, heat embossing and a third item which on my card is watercoloring.

I clear embossed the gorgeous Hero Arts flower and leaves from their Monthly Kit for April (unfortunately sold out) on Canson watercolor paper.  The watercoloring was done with the Daniel Smith watercolors which Hero Arts now carries.  I masked the flower so I could position the leaves behind the flower when I stamped.  The sentiment is also from the kit - I masked the word "wishing" on the stamp before stamping in black ink and clear heat embossing.  The wishing die cut was backed with Stick-It making it so easy to position over the stamped part. I backed the whole piece with 3M foam tape and adhered to a soft grey card base.  Added a few clear sequins and done!   

Be sure to enter the challenge here.  Thanks for visiting today and love to read your kind comments.