FEBRUARY CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

This month my Card Chain Challenge partner is Dawn Turley in New Zealand - Dawn is one of the first stampers I met when I first started joining this challenge so it's great to be sending her a card again.  I used the colors (aubergine, rose and cream), sketch and theme (friend) for her card.

I white embossed some of the flowers from Altenew's Adore You set onto black cs and then watercolored with Kuretake metallic colors.  I put some score lines for texture down the left side of the card, but they didn't photgraph very well.  Added a few Nuvo gold drops and the little sentiment and done.

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

CASEING YANA

The other day, I watched Yana color this gorgeous card and immediately thought of a new background stamp called Riotous Wildflowers I just won from The Ton.  So to initiate it, I just tried Yana's design and coloring techniques.

I don't have any polychromos so had to use my Prismacolors but think they worked pretty well.  I used PTI soft stone cs for the background and embossed it all in liquid platinum.  Added it to a white card base with the little sentiment and some Nuvo drops.  

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

WATERCOLOR HEART

Concord & 9th and CAS Watercolour both have the same theme for their monthly challenge - so made one card for both.  This also fits Just Add Ink challenge to use the letter "H" (happy and heart).

I stamped the Concord & 9th You Are Here heart in liquid platinum and loosely watercoloured.  Added the sentiment and stripe detail on the side and done.

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

FEBRUARY TWOFER

Hearts are the challenge theme for both Darnell's Twofer and HLS CAS this month.  Darnell's challenge wants two different cards using the same stamp or die and HLS needs a CAS card.

For both cards I used Concord & 9th's lovely heart stamp.  The prayers card was stamped and embossed on a piece of vellum and then colored on the back with alcohol markers.  The birthday card was embossed in gold on black cs and then colored with Prismacolors.  

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

 

STENCILED TREE

The challenge this week at Merry Monday is stencils.  Created a very CAS card with the Tim Holtz woodland stencils.

The green is DO peeled paint, the gold is Modellier Creme and then added some gold Nuvo drops.

 Thanks for stopping by...

 

ALCOHOL INK STAMPING

Today I had an idea spurred by a post on Pinterest about making your own ink pad using reinkers on baby wipes.  So wondered if that would work with alcohol inks.  Didn't actually make an ink pad - just put alcohol inks on my blending tool with a little blending solution.  Here's the result...

I used Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp set - inked just the second layer of the stamp with a mixture of shell pink, salmon, watermelon and mountain rose.  On the leaves are citrus, lettuce and meadow.  All were stamped on yupo paper.  I used my MISTI so I could get a better variation in the colors.  This worked really well for the leaves and was able to stamp multiple times without reinking the felt or adding more blending solution.

Now I'm wondering what effect the alcohol ink has on the clear stamps???  I cleaned them off really well and they're stained, but no more so than with ink.  Did a Goggle search but didn't find a definitive answer.  

No matter what, I had fun experimenting.  Thanks for stopping by today - and if anyone knows whether I've ruined my clear stamps, let me know!!!

EDIT:  have been told that stamping first in Versamark will protect the stamp and the stamping with the alcohol ink will be fine - sounds like a good idea to me.

TEAL BUTTERFLY

This past weekend, I managed to create a couple of cards that will fit into several challenges.  

I wanted to play around with my alcohol inks and made some backgrounds using yupo paper and also a piece of thick vellum.  For my card, I used the vellum piece on the back side for a softer look.  I adhered the vellum to cardstock with some wide scor-tape and then die cut it with a rectangle die.  Cut the butterflies from PTI's Life is Beautiful in white and also another piece of the vellum.  Put it all together with a few Nuvo drops on the body of the butterfly.

I am entering this in the PTI challenge (use only dies), HLS Mixed Media challenge (butterfly) and Addicted to CAS (teal). 

Made a second card with the vellum piece.

Just used it for the background and embossed the butterfly and added some white Nuvo drops and the little sentiment.  I really like the soft look of the alcohol ink on the vellum - maybe even better than on glossy or yupo paper.

Thanks for stopping by...

PASTEL POINSETTIA

On this cold, snowy, freezing, northernly wind blowing Sunday, I decided to make a last minute card for the Merry Monday challenge for this week.

Used EH mondo poinsettia stamped on vellum in silver and colored on the back with copic markers.  Finished it off with the little silver sentiment, silver thread and some Nuvo silver drops in the center of the flower.

Now I'm off to watch Nebraska women's basketball game against Maryland - they're #1 and we're #2 in the Big Ten - so should be a good game.  Go Big Red!!

Thanks for stopping by.

 

INSPIRED BY...

Altho I'm not much of a vintage card maker, the challenge today at Inspired by All the Little Things made me think of a stamp I've never used - probably bought it 'cause it had a bicycle in the set.  The bicycle, brick wall, polka dots and all the hearts were my inspiration.

Stamped the little bicycle across the bottom, embossed the brick wall and sponged some distress ink to give a somewhat vintage look. Put it on a polka dot background, added the  sentiment and the hearts - done.  My grandson is a bicyclist so this card is going to him.

Glad you stopped by today - have a great weekend.

HOMEWORK

Last week I took another class from Altenew Academy - this one was taught by Lydia Evans and every day had a wonderful die cutting technique.

For the first card, we learned how to do hinged letters using the Bold Alphabet dies - I did a very simplified version with only patterned paper behind my die cut letters.

The second card used die cuts on a piece of acetate for a lovely see through effect - I CASED Lydia's card using some die cuts from Winnie and Walter (Maggie's Blooms) as I didn't have the Altenew Rose Filament dies.  I used spray adhesive for the first time to adhere the dies cuts - worked really well. I needed another valentine, but think this would make a beautiful wedding card - it was pretty fiddly to make but love how it turned out.

I have enjoyed every class I've taken from AA and would highly recommend them - great price point too!

Thanks for stopping by...

THINKING OF YOU

Just getting in under the wire for Ellen Hutson's PInsights challenge for this month.  

 

I used the EH sentiment from the Mondo Hydrangea set and the flowers are from Alternew Fantasy Florals. Paint chips (Glidden Panetone colors) were used for my florals - so really authentic colors.   There's some Spectrum Noir on the flowers - it didn't go on very well cause the paper has a slight sheen to it, but in the right light, it's really quite pretty.

 

Thanks for your visit today...

 

 

BE MY VALENTINE

Yesterday I had a lot of fun playing with Jennifer McGuire's alcohol ink lifting technique.  So today made a card for the The Paper Players sketch challenge using one of my hearts.

The heart was die cut from one of the HA Infinity Hearts and added to the doily embossed background.  Finished it off with a little sentiment and some gold thread (haven't used thread in a long time and forgot how much it adds to a card).  

Just finished this card so decided to add to this post - it was done with leftover inks from when I was doing the alcohol lifting.  Jennifer shows how to do this in her video.

Glad you stopped by today and always appreciate your kind comments.

LOVE

The challenge this month at Concord & 9th is to use your first set from them.  Unfortunately, I don't have my first one any longer (Tree Ring) - I gave it to a blog friend when I was destashing.  So I used the next one that I bought and it worked out perfectly for a Valentine (really need to get more done anyway).

I made a peachy pink blend of Kuretake Gamsai and loosely watercolored a background and then die cut the piece with a wonky rectangle.  In this piece I die cut the C & 9th Layers of Love.  From the center leftover piece I cut another heart.  Put this all together on a cream card base.  Added the sentiment, some gold Nuvo drops and a gold thread double bow.

This week the Wednesday challenge at SSS is "layer it up" and using Concord & 9th products, so will enter my card there also.

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

OMBRE LOVE YOU

While a blizzard was blowing around Nebraska yesterday, I hibernated and created some Valentines which fit into a couple of challenges.  CAS Mix-Up wants us to use cling wrap and Addicted to CAS's theme is ombre.  These also fit into The Paper Players "love notes" challenge.

I first created the background for the pink card with Tsukineko frost ink and sponged the ombre background with picked raspberry distress oxide ink.  Made it into a shaker using Altenew's bold alpha dies.  For the second card, I gave the letters left over from the first card a little more color, mounted them on a soft gray background and added the little silver embossed flowers from Altenew's Adore You stamps.  A few silver Nuvo drops finished it off.  For the CAS Mix-Up challenge these cards use cling wrap plus die cuts, sponging, stamping and embossing.

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments are so appreciated.