APRIL CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

Lavon has received her card for this month's challenge so now I can post it.  I followed the sketch, colors (yellow, aqua, pink) and added fiber.

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI; Wplus9
Inks: HA; PTI
Other: Doodlebug twine

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.   Betty

WATERCOLOR AND SUNFLOWER

I am signed up for Jennifer McGuire's new Online Card Class - Watercolor for Cardmakers - which starts 5 May.  There is a pre-class gallery so decided to give that a try, plus do it in yellow for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

The sunflower stamp is probably one of the first stamps I ever bought from Hero Arts.  I smooshed antique linen distress ink on an acrylic block with lots of water to make the background for the tag.  Stamped and embossed the sunflower.  I used gelatos and water to color the sunflower.  Put the tag to the side (although that was hard for me to do - have to get out of the box sometime!!!) and not too sure I like it. 

Supplies:
Stamps: HA; Wplus9
Inks: Ranger distress
Other: Doodlebug twine; Ranger liquid platinum embossing powder

Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.  Betty

SIMON SAYS YELLOW

The week's challenge from Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is to use yellow.  Since I had made yesterday's card in several colors, I decided to enter the yellow version.

Used the same technique (stacked inlaid).

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI; Technique Tuesday
Inks: HA; PTI
Other: PTI die; SU cardstock for base

Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.  Betty

STACKED INLAID STAMPING

I have been wanting to do a card like this for ages and finally got around to doing it.  There are many examples out there - here, here, here, and here.  Basically, I just stamped the flowers, die cut "birthday" from the stamped part, then layered white cardstock (4 layers - 2 at a time), die cut and glued it all together.  Next I stamped "wishes", taped my stamped piece onto the base, and then inlaid "birthday".  When you die cut the stamped layer be sure to keep all the little bits because you need to put them back in at the end.  Simple card but very effective.  It wasn't easy to photograph so I did a close up also.

I am entering this in ABNH's layer cake challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI; Technique Tuesday
Ink: HA; PTI

Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.  Betty

MAKE IT MONDAY #161 INK SPLATS

PTI's challenge this week is to ink your paper and then add droplets of water to create a background.  I taped my card with post-its, sponged and blended colors and added the water.  Let it dry, cut out my poppy, adhered it and stamped the sentiment.  Pretty quick card once I had the design done.

Supplies:
Inks: PTI & Ranger distress
Stamp: Hero Arts
Other: MB "prim poppy" die; SU & HA cardstock

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments.  Betty

CAS STENCILED BUTTERFLY

For this card I first stamped with Hero Arts flourish in white ink to make a background.  Then I made a stencil from Hero Arts butterfly die and used a dauber and ink to make the butterfly over the background.  Added a bit of glitter to the inside of the butterfly, added a sentiment and done and dusted! 

It was difficult to get the background and glitter to show in a photo, but it really quite pretty in real life!  I have left the inside blank for the time being as there are a variety of sentiments that could be added inside.  A gift set with strips of sentiments like "happy birthday", happy day", "happy spring", or whatever could be added with the set so the recipient could use it for whatever.  Will enter this in Virginia's View stencil challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps: Wplus9 "Easter Bunny"; HA CG119 flourish
Inks: HA soft pool; Colorbox frost white
Other: HA D1078 butterfly die; Wink of Stella

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.  Betty

MAKE IT MONDAY #159 AND DYNAMIC DUOS

I have never entered Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge but decided to give it a try this week as I thought the no sew quilt technique looked like a lot of fun.  Once figured out it was very easy to put together - but that part plus deciding on which papers to use took a lot longer - and I'm still not sure I got it right!  I am also entering it in Dynamic Duos challenge for this coming week as the colors are light purple and yellow.  I think a set of quilted cards would make a fun gift.

Supplies:
Stamp: HA birthday
Papers: PTI "winter wisteria" and vellum; MME "in bloom"
Other: MME enamel dots; Ranger liquid platinum embossing powder; CB embossing folder

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.  Betty

ANOTHER BUTTERFLY

Decided to try another butterfly card today for Card Concept (clean and layered) and had made the stenciled background a few days ago.  Also had some vellum butterflies left over from yesterday's card and so began this card.  Colored the backs of the vellum butterflies with distress pen in same color as the stencil color.  Made the stencil from a PTI die and sponged the color, adding some ink spots by flicking my brush.

Added some yarn from my stash and the sentiments (happy birthday inside) and done!  Think I will also enter this in Virginia's View challenge to use a stencil and also Moxie Fab's Stencils: Styling with Stencils Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Supplies:
Stamps: Technique Tuesday (wishing you); HA (happy birthday)
Other: SU beautiful wings die; PTI vellum; Ranger distress pens (tumbled glass and shabby shutters)

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.  Betty

BUTTERFLY

I wanted to try a die-cutting technique Amber demonstrated the other day on her blog - it worked really well although my cutting away with the craft knife wasn't up to my standards - I think my blade wasn't sharp enough.  So I covered it up with vellum - there's usually a way to fix a mistake. 

Then I continued the vellum in the leaves and layered butterfly.  It's not very visible but I used a bit of Wink of Stella on the smallest butterfly.  I am entering this in the Card Concept challenge - use a butterfly theme and the style (I think) is "clean and layering".  This is another card for my file as a variety of different sentiments could be used inside when the need arises.

Supplies:
Paper: HA grey layering paper; PTI sweet blush and vellum
Dies: SU Beautiful Wings; PTI quatrefoil; Sizzix leaves
Stamp: Technique Tuesday
Other: Wink of Stella; Ranger liquid platinum embossing powder

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.  Betty

MEADOW LEAF AND SHADOW

I cased this card by Doni - I loved the simplicity of it and wanted to use my revived shadow stamp again.  The watercolored paper was just a scrap I had left over from something.  I love using the liquid platinum on die cuts - makes it all look so elegant.  No sentiment on this one.  Probably could be used for a sympathy, thinking of you or just a notecard - would be fun to do in different colors as a set of notecards for a gift.  I used some dots I bought from Deanna Dean to adhere the leaf and give it a little lift.  These are great to raise an image to give a bit of dimension and are small enough or can be cut to fit lots of spaces.

Supplies:
Stamp: HA shadow stamp
Inks: HA silver shadow ink; Versamark embossing ink
Other: MB meadow leaf die; SB rectangle die; Ranger liquid platinum embossing powder

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.  Betty

MARCH CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

Here is the card I sent to Helen in Ohio for the March CCC.  Colors were mint, navy and periwinkle and a sketch of which I used both.

I stamped and embossed the flower in white on navy cardstock and used papers from Graphic45.  Used a pale grey Copic to shade the flower and leaves.

Supplies:
Stamps:  PTI "Delightful Dahlias"
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Graphic45 "Botanical Tea"
Other:  MME enamel dots; HA embossing powder

Thanks for looking and your kind comments.  Betty