NASTURIUMS

Have an "any occasion" card for you today which I designed using the new Hero Arts floral nasturtiums stamp and die.

The background was stamped repeatedly in a light gray ink, cut to 4x5.25 and mounted on a pale gray card base.  Over that is a piece of 3.75x5 vellum.  I did a Google search of nasturtiums to get an idea of colors for my flowers and leaves and used copics to color them.  

A new challenge begins tomorrow on A Blog Named Hero so be sure to check it out and enter your card for a chance to win a gift certificate from Hero Arts. 

I am entering my card at Time Out Challenge where the theme is "Nature".

Thanks for visiting today and your comments make my day!

LAYERED OMBRE LEAVES

The challenge this month at CAS Mix-Up is ombre.  Have been wanting to try out my new Pixie Spray with some stencils so this was the perfect opportunity.   I must say it worked really well, although it did leave some residue on the card - easily removed with an adhesive eraser - stencil cleaned up great with soap and water.  Anyway, on about my card.

I began by blending iced spruce distress oxide using a blending brush on my white card front.  Then stenciled on the leaves - again going from dark to light.  After die cutting the matching leaves, I lightly added ink keeping it all very subtle.  Attached the die cut with glue only on the stem.  After giving it all a little splatter with water, I added the sentiment and some silver Nuvo "berries" to the leaves and done!  The stencil and die are very old Memory Box called "garden friends".  Wish I could have shown the pretty blue from the iced spruce ink in my photo - really hard to capture that color.

Besides the ombre requirement - which I think I covered from top down on the card base and from bottom up with the three layers, I used stamping, stenciling, ink blending with a brush, splatter and die cutting.

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

 

MORE ALCOHOL INK

I've kind of been obsessed with making alcohol ink backgrounds lately (and having lots of fun!!) and then creating cards with them.

All are on regular yupo paper and I used pearl alcohol inks on the one with the black flower.  The pink card uses the layered floral die from Altenew.  I'll put a sentiment on it when I need it.  A friend loaned me the die for the black flower and she didn't know where it was from.  The vellum flower was embossed with white and fussy cut.  I put double sided adhesive on the back. 

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

 

ALTENEW CHALLENGE

Altenew has a lovely, soft inspiration photo for the May challenge.  I'm too late to put it in the challenge, but here it is anyway.

For my take on it, I started by stamping the leaves onto some patterned paper.  I used forest glades ink and stamped several times using my MISTI.  Next I stamped over the images with Versamark and clear embossed.  Using some industrial diamond ink, I blended over the upper corner.  Stamped the sentiment also in industrial diamond.  Matted it with a darker shade of gray and mounted all on a light gray card base. Added a few rosewater Nuvo drops and done.  The paper and the Nuvo drops both pick up the pink from the inspiration photo.

Thanks for stopping by today.

CELEBRATE!!!

In honor of Hero Arts 45th anniversary our card challenge this month is "celebrate".  We're using some of our faves from the past and it certainly was difficult choosing.  

The hibiscus layering stamps have been a favorite of mine because they're so easy to layer and I used them for both my background and the floral arrangement.  The second layer of the flower was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white satin powder for a subtle background.   The sentiment is from a fantastic versatile set that I've used many times over the years.  The mat is the new peony cardstock and love love that color.

Be sure to follow the Hero Arts blog for their 45th anniversary and to enter our A Blog Named Hero's "celebrate" challenge this month for a chance at winning a gift certificate form Hero Arts.

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

ALCOHOL INKS

I have a couple of friends who want to learn all about stamping and creating cards. So we sometimes get together on a Sunday afternoon and I demo a technique and then make a card with them.  This Sunday the topic is alcohol inks.  I made  a bunch of backgrounds to demo how differently they turn out and also made a few cards to show how to use the backgrounds.  I used yupo paper (translucent and regular), Ranger AI and copic refills.  Am also going to show them how to add a little foil for some sparkle.

 

The green background was die cut with a wonky rectangle die and I used two layers of vellum for the SSS leaves.  I made the frame for the blue one with two HA rectangle dies.  The little sentiment is from Betsy Veldman's new line of stamps.

 

I am entering the green card in the SSS Flickr challenge #124 - "anything goes" is the theme. 

 

Looking forward to a fun Sunday afternoon with friends.  Thanks for stopping by.