CARD FOR CAT

For the February CCC challenge I am sending a card to my friend, Cat Craig.

I used the Altenew Layered Floral Elements dies for my flower arrangement - die cut all the pieces from some patterned paper.  The stripes are a piece of washi tape.  After I had everything on the card front, I decided it need a little something, something - so got out the watercolors and gave it some black spatters (put a post-it note over the flowers as I didn't want to spatter them).

I used the challenge sketch, colors and theme (friendship) for my card.

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

MORE CHALLENGES

Seize the Birthday's current challenge is "anything goes" while The Flower Challenge wants us to use our latest stamps or dies, so here's another floral card.

After embossing the Perfectly Perfect from Altenew flowers with gold, I watercolored them with my Zigs and fussy cut them. The background was made by dry embossing with Altenew's fine frames rectangle dies.  Added a few sequins and a little sentiment and done.

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

A COUPLE OF CHALLENGES

Found a few challenges to enter that were intriguing - so with my usual flowers here are my cards.

For Retro Rubber's tic tac toe I chose blue, birthday and textured embossing  I used my old PTI Rosie Posie stamp (2012).  For the background I used Altenew's Fine Frames die and dry embossed with it - difficult to see in the large photo - maybe a bit better in the closeup.  

The code word at Addicted to CAS is "grid" and used Altenew's gradient stripe die for my background and their Perfectly Perfect stamps for my flowers.  I am also entering my first card there as it has a grid background.

 

Thanks for stopping by - always love to read your kind comments.

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

I hope all of my blog friends have a lovely day today with their friends and loved ones and that you enjoy the Valentine card I've created for you and for my A Blog Named Hero post.

For my flowers I used the Color Layering Hibiscus - a super easy flower to layer.  I stamped the centers in HA black and went over them with a black gel pen for some shine.  The leaves were stamped in moss and forever green.  I used a dark red copic marker to give the blooms a little extra dimension.  The heart die cut for the shaker is from the January 2017 My Monthly Hero Kit and is filled with some ombre blush sequins.  This heart die or any heart/shape die would work really well for making the shaker opening.

I am entering my card at a2z Scrapbooking challenge (colors and theme), LaVon's Love Challenge (anything goes) and The Card Concept (colors and theme).

A Blog Named Hero will be back tomorrow with a great new challenge and more prizes to be won from Hero Arts so be sure to check us out!

Thanks for visiting today - Valentine hugs!

PTI WIN IT WEDNESDAY

Yesterday Papertrey Ink began a new challenge page and one of the challenges was to use your favorite PTI stamps.  No problem with that - Rosie Posie which unfortunately is no longer available!

I had fun stamping out flowers in various colors - mostly variations using their melon berry and sweet blush inks.  I used copic markers to give a little extra depth to the shading.  For the backgrounds I used Altenew's watercolor stripes die which I spattered with some gold metallic watercolor. The card base on the left card is PTI's soft stone - another favorite!

I recently found a new (to me) challenge via Dawn Turley - Watercooler Wednesday and am linking up there also.

Thanks for stopping by today - love to read your kind comments.

A COUPLE OF MORE VALENTINES

Was playing around with another Altenew layering stamp today and decided to make it into a Valentine.  I'm also going to add into the All About Layering (class I took a few weeks ago) student gallery.

I first dry embossed a heart die onto the white background, then added it to a soft gray card base.  Arranged my flower and leaves on top along with the little sentiment.  Embellished with a few Nuvo gold drops and done.

My next card uses the same idea of dry embossing with the die and then I added some of those Altenew painted flowers I've fallen in love with again!!

All for now - thanks for stopping by today.

WATERCOLOR & SALT

The other day Betsy Veldman did post about using colored salt with watercolors to create a background.  I had tried just salt before but never colored and it intrigued me and so had a go.  Used some copic ink refills to color some coarse salt in blues and greens.  After doing a wet on wet background, added the salt and let it do its work.  Really wasn't sure if the alcohol inked salt would work, but it did a good job - no problem at all.

Die cut a frame for the salted piece, added the sentiment and the flower and done.  

Thanks for stopping by - have a good weekend.

BE MY VALENTINE

Just a quick post today - trying to get some valentines done since I wasn't able to send out Christmas cards this year. 

Didn't really have a plan when I made the background - just that I had never used the stitched heart die - so randomly die cut and then pieced them back into place for the background.  Had the painted flowers already done so arranged my bouquet and added the little sentiment.  Used my white gel pen for the little added dots in the centers of the flowers.  Must admit adding the white dots was influenced by Joan's post today and really am amazed how much they add.

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

 

CRAFTER'S CHOICE VALENTINE

Valentine's Day is fast approaching! Since the current challenge at A Blog Named Hero is anything you choose, here's my inspiration for you

I stamped the pretty heart from the January 2017 My Monthly Hero Kit and colored it with my Zigs.  Die cut it (also a piece of matching fun foam) and added it to the patterned paper background.  Stamped the little sentiment in HA gold embossing powder and done!  A quick and easy design - these HA hearts would work equally as well.

Join the challenge at A Blog Named Hero (you have until February 10th) for a chance to win a $50 or $25 gift certificate from Hero Arts.

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

ALL ABOUT LAYERING

Have been taking the Altenew class "All About Layering 3" all this past week and finally managed to get a couple of cards for homework accomplished!  This is a great class and Lydia not only has a video on layering the actual stamps, but also then creating a card.

I stamped and die cut the Peony Blossom stamps and then put them on a background of the Leaf Frame die.  Added the little sentiment and done.  Basically I used the same card design as Lydia did for her card 'cause I liked it so much.

For my next card, I used my very first Altenew stamp set - Painted Flowers.  Love, love this stamp set but I have always had difficulty layering it.  I know it isn't supposed to be perfect so decided to use it again and practice.  Lydia used a very large single letter die cut with flowers around it for her card.  I used some skinnier letters and arranged my flowers around them to make a card I could use for Valentine's day.

All for today friends - thanks for stopping by.

PINK BOKEH

The January challenge at CAS Mix-Up is to use the bokeh technique - check out the above link for more info and ideas for using this fun technique.

I have had the Concord & 9th notecards (on sale now at a fantastic price) in my stash for awhile and used one of them for my base by watercoloring over the embossed dots.  I next made myself an acetate stencil using Hero Arts circle dies and used it to sponge bokeh dots over the background with HA unicorn white pigment ink.  Mounted this on a white card base, stamped the little "with" sentiment and added the die cut "sympathy", a few sequins and done.  Besides bokeh there is watercolouring, stamping and die cutting on my card.

I am also entering my card at a2z Scrapbooking challenge for "anything goes".

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

FUSION BUTTERFLY

The Fusion Challenge features butterflies this time and I haven't done a butterfly card in ages!

When I took out my PTI Life is Beautiful stamps there was a butterfly already die cut that I had smooshed in some bright pink watercolors.  So I took my copics and added some shading in the colors from the challenge photo.  I created the background on soft gray cardstock by stamping various butterflies in clear embossing powder and put it on the same color card base.  Added a silver thread nest behind my butterfly and done!

I like the way the watercolored part of my butterfly is sort of spattered and gives some added texture.

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

MESSY SNOWFLAKE BLIZZARD

Awhile back Dawn from WPlus9 had a video using snowflakes and heat embossing - and I thought it was such a cool look.  So did a CASE of her card.

I stamped a variety of HA snowflake stamps with Versafine ink on navy cardstock and heat embossed them with HA silver embossing powder.  Then I sprinkled more embossing powder around and heat embossed starting on the back so the powder didn't blow all over the place!!  Trimmed my panel down to 4x5.25 and added to a soft gray card base.  Added the silver sentiment and some blue sequins and done.  Trying to capture all the shine in the photo was difficult, but you get the idea I'm sure.

As a side note - if you are in the market for an embossing gun, this one from Hero Arts is worth every penny - I have had mine for over twenty years and it still works like a charm!!

A new challenge starts tomorrow at A Blog Named Hero so be sure to check it out. 

Thanks for stopping by.

STENCILING + SPONGING

CAS Stencil is a new challenge that just began this January and had a go at it with these cards.

I used Altenew's Sketchy Floral stamp and the coordinating Floral Drape stencil for both cards.  The stamp and stencil are very large and I was able to get two cards out of the piece.  After stamping on white cardstock, I used the stencil and sponged in the color with a small dauber.  I added the gray shadow on the first card with a small flat brush.  The card base on both cards is a soft gray.

I am entering my card in CAS Stencil (sponging) and The Flower Challenge (pink and gray). 

 

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments make my day!