BUBBLES BACKGROUND

Stamplorations has a sketch and theme challenge for August - the theme is stamps and watercolor and here is my card with the sketch.

I smooshed distress inks onto the Stamplorations Bubbles stencil, spritzed with water and then laid a piece of watercolor paper on it - pressed it into the paper until the color was on the paper.  Here is a video of this technique if you would like a better explanation.  The background was then die cut with MFT stitched rectangle and bordered with SU crumb cake.  The Altenew flowers and leaves were white embossed on vellum and colored with Zig clean brush markers.  Sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.  Added a few clear dots - done and dusted!

MFT's Summer School this week is all about color so I am also entering this in their "cool" color challenge.

Thanks for visiting today and love to read your kind comments.  Betty

AUGUST CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

The month for Deb's CCC challenge I chose to use the colors (melon, mustard and grey) and flowers - and my card is going to our fearless leader for this challenge, Deb Nolan!!

I watercolored my peony with PTI melon berry ink and the leaves were done with Kuretake watercolor in gold (that's sort of a mustard color - right?) after embossing the flower and leaves with Ranger liquid platinum.  I die cut the center circle and then added the PTI shaker shape: circle on top.  The card base is HA wet cement and the other layer is PTI soft stone.  Added some clear gems (from HA and no longer available) and done.  The sentiment is from Stamplorations Blooming Buds.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

ANOTHER PUMPKIN SHAKER

Had another play at making a shaker card with the PTI pumpkin die.  This time I made it taller by cutting off more of the sides.   I think I like this shape better.

Sponged on some distress inks to shade the bottom and ground the pumpkin.  Added that cute little cat - he's very shiny from a coating of glossy accents.  The "happy" is from Hero Arts.

Die-Cut Diva's challenge this month is "holiday" so will enter it there.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comment.  Betty

PUMPKIN SHAKER

Loved all the shaker cards that Betsy Veldman created for her blog today with the new PTI dies that will be released on the 15th.  So decided to try to make a pumpkin shaker from a PTI die from several years ago. 

After cutting from some orange card, I reshaped the outline part by cutting off the outer sides.  Adhered that to a piece of acetate and then fit and adhered the outer sections back in, leaving the center clear.  Added foam tape to the back, dropped in the sparkly bits and backed it with a piece of orange glitter paper to put it all together.  Mounted this on a piece of HA black layering paper (4"x51/4"), added the "happy" and Wink of Stella - done.  It's really very sparkling and fun in real life!  Now that I have this figured out maybe I'll make a few more - or maybe just buy the new pumpkin shaker die which would be bit easier!!

PTI has a challenge called "Create Along With Us" using inspiration from their team so am entering this card.

Thanks for stopping by today and your kind comments.  Betty

JOY

As I was going through challenges to possibly enter today, I found I could design one card that would fit four of them - Color Throwdown and Merry Monday for the colors, CAS(E) #135 for the sketch and HLS Christmas for "sparkle".

The poinsettia, leaves and background were watercolored with my Zig clean color brushes.  Used HA gold embossing powder for the flower, leaves and sentiment.  My poor photography doesn't show the sparkle very much but there is lots of Wink of Stella sparkle on the poinsettia.  Hope maybe the gold will qualify for sparkle too.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

GOLD AND VELLUM BUTTERFLY

Today Karen challenged us to use gold or silver plus vellum on a card for Scramble115 in the Hero Arts discussion group.  Before the scramble started I had chosen some stamps that I would like to use if possible - so this butterfly worked perfectly. 

I stamped the butterfly in gold and fussy cut - then used the coordinating dies to cut another butterfly and the body/antenna.  The vellum dotted strip and the leaves are cut from DCWV foiled vellum papers.  Sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and the leaves are MB Fresh Foliage.  Base of the card is Neenah metallic white gold.  Rounded the card corner and done.  From start to finish, this took about 35 minutes (not including photographing and posting to the group). 

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy your comments.  Betty

BOLD BLOOMS

There is a new challenge called The Pinterest Inspired Challenge.  I was inspired by the colors and also the all over design of the photo they chose for their first challenge.

 

I have a new (to me) stencil from Stamplorations which was used with distress inks (scattered straw, tumbled glass, peacock feathers, shabby shutters) to create the background.  I added some black Pico Embellisher dots, mounted it on black, added the sentiment and then on a HA cerulean blue base.   Think it would be fun to make this card in a variety of colors for a gift set - it's pretty easy and fast although the Pico takes a bit of drying time and you have to be careful not to get air bubbles.

Thanks for visiting today and your comments always make me happy!  Betty

IN BLOOM

This month the challenge at Happy Little Stampers is masking.  I hadn't used this lovely flower from PTI in ages and thought it would fit the bill.

I made a mask with post-its for both the flower and large leaf and then stamped and embossed in white on watercolor paper.  The flower is colored with Zig Clean Color brushes in light carmine, tea rose and water - the leaves are mid-green and olive green.  The haze around the flower is pale gray.  A little sentiment from Clearly Besotted, some gold thread, sequins - done and dusted.  The design for my card was inspired by this one from Debby Hughes - she has a great video on coloring with the Zig brushes - it's basically the method I've been using with them.  By the way - one day I stamped and embossed a whole bunch of these little sentiments on black strips and it's so nice to have them on hand to pop up on a card.


Happy Little Stampers has a nice list of masking videos if you want some more info on this topic - the challenge lasts all month.

Thanks for stopping by and always love reading your comments!   Betty

JULY PIN-SIGHTS CHALLENGE

Down to the last minute for posting this card to Ellen's Pin-Sights challenge - had the card finished, but just didn't get around to getting it photographed.  

Embossed Bohemian Garden flowers and leaves in white on patterned paper, arranged them around a PTI stitched circle, cut out the "happy", stamped the "birthday", added a few white dots and done.  The card base is Neenah astroparche.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

COLOR WASH

I have been hoarding some patterned paper (Color Wash by Pink Paislee) and when I received my new (to me) Penny Black stamp I decided to make good use of it.  These were 3" left over cuts, so stamped and embossed the flowers with Versamark and liquid platinum.  Then I colored in just a bit of the flowers using my watercolor pencils - I wanted soft colors to go with the paper and these were the best choice since I didn't want to use a lot of water and have the paper warp.

I have had these pencils forever - I think they should be called VSUS (very seldom used stuff - kind of like Darnell's NBUS).  Really love how they gave a hint of a coordinating color.

Then I created a card with one of the panels.  I popped it up with some foam tape (it looks like it's a bit taller than 5 1/2" but it's just my poor photography skills) and added the SSS sentiment.  Will add rest of the it on the inside like maybe "birthday wishes" or "best wishes" when needed.

Will enter this in SSS "Anything Goes" using Penny Black and Case Study #134 challenges.

Thanks for visiting today and love reading your kind comments.  Betty

EDIT:  Read Darnell's comment below - we decided that both Mt. VSUS and Mt. NBUS are definitely volcanic and have erupted all over the place!!!

STAMPLORATIONS INSPIRATION #29!

A new challenge went up yesterday on the Stamplorations blog - I chose Vicki's card to CASE as I love the black and white with the blue flowers.

 My flower is from Dee's Blooming Buds stamp set - colored with Zig brushes.  The die cut background is PTI's Mat Stack 3 embossed with a Darice embossing folder.  The sentiment is from SSS - I will add "birthday wishes" or "best wishes" or whatever is appropriate when I send the card.  The vellum leaves are a Sizzix Die - added those as an afterthought as I felt it just needed a little something else.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

LOVE AT CHRISTMAS

Another card for the Merry Monday challenge to use a heart on a Christmas card.  During the summer the challenge goes for two weeks, so there's still lots of time until Sunday (2 August) to enter your card.

I have always loved this quote from Christina Rossetti, but didn't have a stamp for the whole quote - so stamped the "love" and did the rest on the computer.  The wreath and the hearts are die cut from Neenah metallic paper, the little clear centers of the hearts were drops of glossy accents and red sequins are from my stash.  The background cardstock is also Neenah metallic (white gold).

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

PTI JULY CHALLENGE

The PTI challenge for today has a definite vintage look - something I haven't done in a long time, but had a go anyway tonight.

I stamped the gingko leaves from PTI Harvest Berries using my my MISTI so I could get the shades of green a bit varied.  Then I die cut the large butterfly (I honestly don't know where it came from), sponged it with distress inks and inlaid it partially.  The wings are popped up with two layers of foam tape.  Added the HA sentiment stamped on vellum and done.   I am also entering this in Just Add Ink's challenge #272 which is butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

WEDDING WISHES

Needed a wedding card for the friend for whom I made those 100 invitations and decided to use the Color Throwdown challenge and my new Peony Scrolls from Altenew.  Of course, the blue and green called to me immediately!!

I used my Zig watercolor brushes to color the flowers and leaves after embossing with Ranger liquid platinum.  The background papers are HA wet cement and PTI soft stone.  I used a Spellbinders circle to make the cut in the center, die cut PTI shaker shapes:circle and popped it up with another die cut in fun foam.  The sentiment is also from PTI.  Added the clear gems (from HA but no longer available) and done.

Since the couple didn't want any gifts quite a few of us have gone together and are making a nice donation to Matt Talbot kitchen in their name - MTK has been feeding the hungry of Lincoln for many years and also has multiple other outreach programs for the needy.  The inside of the card is plain so all our names can be added.

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

MERRY MONDAY GUEST DESIGNER

A few weeks ago my card was chosen as the winner on Merry Monday and consequently I was asked to be their guest designer for this week.  The challenge is to use a heart on a Christmas card and I did a pretty literal translation of the inspiration photo.

I die cut the pine branches (Sizzix TH Holiday Greens) and spattered with Tsukineko frost white ink - also did the card base.  The hearts were cut from a Cuttlebug die and the sentiment is from Ellen Hutson Cozy Christmas.  The card base is Sahara Sand from SU - cut 1/4" from the side so the branches could hang over a bit.

Merry Monday is a great way to get started on your Christmas cards so hop on over and join the challenge - you have two weeks to get a card done.

Thanks again to the Merry Monday team for asking me to be their guest designer this week and thanks for stopping by.  Betty

PRETTY PEONIES

Made this card for several challenges - the sketch is from Get Sketchy #2 and the colors are from Color ThrowDown #350.   Since there is quite a bit of stamping involved (layering those flowers and leaves is a challenge all by itself!!) will also enter this in Virginia's View #16 and Happy Little Stampers challenges - both stamping challenges.

The flowers are from Wplus9 Pretty Peonies stamped with PTI blush and melon berry - leaves with simply chartreuse.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  I used my MISTI to line up the layers on the flowers.

Thanks for visiting today and enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

JULY CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

This month I just used the colors and the friendship theme from Deb's Card Chain Challenge to make a card for Linda.  I stamped Altenew's Painted Flowers on a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of cardstock.  Then used an MFT stitched rectangle die to cut out the center.   Adhered the "frame" part to a card base, added fun foam to the die cut rectangle and fit it back onto the card.  Fussy cut the flower on the bottom, added the HA sentiment and done.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

GENTLE WHISPER CARD SET

When I made this card I thought it would make a nice gift set - so created my backgrounds with my MISTI and made various colored butterflies.  Added some Tsukineko Pico embellisher to the butterfly and dots around the flower for added interest.  The butterfly is popped up with foam tape.

Haven't decided whether to add sentiments or not - probably will wait and see until I give them away.

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

MUMS

Love the colors for this week's Color Throwdown #350.  Played around with my Zig watercolors and finally decided on tea rose and light pink for the flower and mid-green and olive green for the leaves.  Just stamped the flower with waterproof ink and blended the colors directly - no water.  Had the striped vellum on my desk from a previous card so just went with basically the same design.

 

The mum is from PTI Year of the Flowers series which I have not used for a long time.  I will add "birthday" or "anniversary" or whatever on the inside when I need the card.  A few clear sequins completed the card.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

FIVE SHADES OF GREY & A "POP" OF YELLOW

I made this card for three challenges - Card Concept (grey, yellow and white), Paper Players (the great outdoors) and CAS-ology #153 (the word "pop).

I used my MISTI to stamp the Penny Black Gentle Whisper flower in shades of gray - Mememto London Fog, Grey Flannel and HA Charcoal - stamped it several times until I was satisfied with all the colors.  The HA butterfly was stamped with Mememto Dandelion and more color was added with Zig Clean Color Brush yellow.  Added some clear sequins, Wink of Stella and silver wire to finish the butterfly.  Cardstock used was HA Wet Cement and SU Sahara Sand.  The HA sentiment was stamped on vellum.

The Card Concept style - CAS; Paper Players - flower & butterfly for great outdoors; CAS-ology - pop of color and the butterfly is popped up.

I think this will be part of a set of cards with different colored butterflies and sentiments.

Thanks for visiting my blog today and love reading your kind comments.  Betty

BOHEMIAN GARDEN

A last minute card for CAS(E) This Sketch #129 and Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights challenges.  I stamped the flowers and leaves in gold from Ellen Hutson's Bohemian Garden set and watercolored them with Zig Clean Brush markers.  The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. 

Thanks for visiting my blog today and always enjoy the kind comments.  Betty

BLOOMING BUDS

Stamplorations has had a month long challenge for June to CASE a card from their posts - and I'm finally getting in at the last minute.  I used Deepti's card which she had created to CASE Virginia's card - and I'm not sure if that's who I should be CASing but anyway...??

 my card

Deepti's card

As is quite evident, the flower, stripes and gold were my inspiration.  I used Deepti's stamp Blooming Buds and colored with Zig Clean Brush watercolors.  The tags are MFT stitched tags.  The sentiment is also from Blooming Buds!

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

CANDLES AND FLOWERS

The challenge for Merry Monday #156 this week is candles and flowers.  Plenty of flowers in my stamping stuff, but nary a candle.  So I cut a strip of patterned paper, cut out a flame and embossed it in gold, added the gold embossed poinsettias and some pine branches - done.  I was afraid to stamp the sentiment before not being sure where to put it exactly and then afterwards I was afraid I'd mess the whole thing up - so added it on a matching strip. 

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

SCRAMBLE 121 AND CARD CONCEPT CHALLENGES

Today Cecelia challenged us to make a vintage card on the Hero Arts discussion group.  Only I was in such a hurry to make a card and get it posted, I didn't read the instructions very carefully  - Cecelia's sample card used a sketch from A Blog Named Hero and that's what I saw - hence a card where I loosely interpreted the sketch.

I embossed the HA butterfly in gold and then colored with my Zig Clean Color Brush watercolors.  The striped paper is from a DCWV foiled vellum pad which I cut with MFT's stitched basic edges.  The vellum leaves were cut with MB fresh foliage die.  I left a sentiment off to be added on another day.  Even if I did screw up on the 90 minute challenge, I really like how this card turned out.

I was thinking of the colors in this week's Card Concept Challenge as I created this card, so will enter it in that challenge too.  Not sure which category it is, but will go with "classy and elegant."

Thanks for stopping by and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

PTI MIM #215 and JUNE BLOG HOP

Today is a card that I made for two PTI challenges this week - the June blog hop and this week's Make-it-Monday (bringing the inside out).

I have made an inside out card before and they are so fun to make.  I used PTI's Rosie Posie and Hero Arts Thanks Stamp and Cut.  The sentiment was cut from PTI's gold adhesive paper.

 outside

inside

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

FUSION BUTTERFLY

This past week my friend, Jayne, sent me an old Hero Arts stamp (1994) which I had admired on her Flickr page.  She even sent me the card which features amazing paper pierching!  When I saw the new Fusion challenge for this week, I knew just which stamp to use.

The colors in the challenge photo are way too bright for me, but I think I managed to use them with this stamp.  I used my new Zig Clean Brush watercolors to paint the butterfly, flowers, etc.  After stamping, I fussy cut the piece and mounted with foam tape.

The sentiment is from PTI and embossed in Hero Arts white embossing powder.  Card base is from Hero Arts too.  Added a few clear sequins and done.

Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.  Betty

WINTERBERRY/RED BIRD

The challenge for this week on Merry Monday is red and white.  My little perched reed bird from Memory Box was die cut from red cardstock and coated with glossy accents.

 
The winterberry sprig die is also from Memory box with MME dark red enamel dots.   The background ferns were embossed with white Hero Arts embossing powder.  The card base is soft stone from PTI.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

GIFT SET

I needed a little gift for someone who was especially kind to me, so made a set of cards.  I used Penny Black's Botanical Notes and my MISTI to stamp six cards with versamark which I then embossed with Ranger liquid platinum. Stamped a veriety of sentiments to add to the cards but only added a sentiment to one card.  The rest of the cards do not have a sentiment and I put double sided tape on the little sentiments so she can add whatever the occasion calls for.  All the sentiments are from Clearly Besotted and the cardstock is from Neenah metallics.

 

Thanks for stopping by and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

PINK BUTTERFLY

This afternoon I decided to make a card for CAS(E) This Sketch challenge - and after fiddling around with different ideas, I finally came up with something I liked.  I tried squares of paper with gold thread or the scribbles die and various butterflies and none of them worked for me - then I remembered my very old Hero Arts shadow stamps.  After experimenting with different colors, I settled on the ink and paper from the May SSS kit.

The dies I used were all from PTI - Life is Beautiful, Swoosh and Scribbles.  The base of the card is Neenah white gold cardstock.

I am also entering this in Time Out challenge - "happy the bride the sun shines on" (gold, the circle scribble and "congratulations") and a2z Scrapbooking's challenge for "new beginnings" (wedding card).

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

100 WEDDING INVITATIONS

A dear friend asked me to design and make her wedding invitations and here is the result!

I've erased their names for the photo from the top of the card but they were done in larger Edwardian script font and is a lovely contrast to the Ariel font block printing.

Since I had to make so many, it had to be simple to do and yet I wanted it to look quite classy also.  When I saw Julie Ebersole's Bold Blooms stamps and dies, that was it.  The invitation is printed on Neenah metallic white gold and the die cut is Neenah chalice silver cardstock.  I stamped the blooms in the corners with Colorbox silver pigment ink.  The vellum belly band holds both the invitation and the reply card.  Adhering the die cuts to the vellum band really went very quickly as I put some Glossy Accents in a Fineline bottle and was able to just use little dots of it.  This was thanks to Jennifer McGuire - see her video here.  Glossy accents dries so quickly that I didn't have to worry about having anything stick together when I stacked them.  I am doing the wedding program and will use the flower stamped in silver on that also.

Thanks for stopping by and always enjoy reading your kind comments!  Betty

HERO ARTS SCRAMBLE

Today was another 90 minute scramble at the Hero Arts Flickr group and Jayne challenged us to make a "card on a card".  I managed to make two cards although I didn't do the first one right.  Took me awhile to catch on and then did another.

Used the new HA hibiscus layered flower stamped with distress inks and a die cut sentiment from their Happy Stamp and Cut.

The backgrounds were pieces in my stash of playing around with watercolors which I cut from MFT stitched rectangles and tags.  Lift up the smaller tag on the second card and can stamp "birthday" or "anniversary" or whatever.

After being gone for two weeks this scramble was just I needed to get started again and way more fun than washing a suitcase full of dirty clothes!!!

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty