GILDED LILIES

This past week I received some new stamps from my friend Lisa Haines, who is selling many of her dies and stamps here at very good prices.  She is adding items all the time, so check it out often.  Many are unused and still in the package.  One of the sets was Altenew's Layered Lilies and I did a Pinterest search to get some ideas on how to use this set.  One of the ways was by Marika in this video.  I basically followed her technique of watercoloring, but since I'm no where near the talent she is, I kind of did my own thing in slightly different colors.  

The distress inks I used were pumice stone, victorian velvet and gathering twigs.  Instead of adding detail with colored pencils, I used my gold Kuretake watercolors and added strokes around the stamen and also spattered with the gold.  The sentiment was stamped with gold embossing powder - added a few sequins and done.

Thanks for visiting today - love your kind comments.

RAINBOW FLOWERS

I'm using my new Layering Flowers stamps over at A Blog Named Hero today.  Our challenge theme this month is  

and I did my flowers in rainbow colors.  I have always had a hard time remembering these colors and found a mnemonic to help me - "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain" - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.  Love the new flower layering Hero Arts stamps - easy peezy to line up!

Hop on over to A Blog Named Hero and check out my card - and there's still time to enter the rainbow challenge and a chance to win a prize from Avery Elle.

Thanks for visiting today and love reading your comments.

AQUA EGG

Last week I was delighted to learn that I had won Color Throwdown#383 and consequently am their guest designer this week.  And how lucky I am to create a card in my favorite colors - wouldn't you just love to be having your cuppa in that gorgeous mug??

I smooshed a piece of watercolor paper with Ranger salty ocean and broken china spritzed with water.  While that was drying, die cut the egg in Michael's gold metallic paper.  Attached a piece of acetate to it and then cut out 3 more eggs which were then glued together.  Sprinkled some MS glitter in this and adhered the watercolor piece to it.  Carefully cut away the excess watercolor paper and was left with my lovely blue egg.  Finished with a stitched rectangle for a mat.  My inspiration was the shape of the scallops and glittery bits in the cup photo - and of course the colors.

Check out Color Throwdown#385 and join their challenge this week.  Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.

MERRY MONDAY SILVER

Silver, grey and black are the colors for this week on Merry Monday's weekly challenge - and I'm just getting this in under the wire - life was a little complicated last week!

Stamped the trees in various shades of grey and added some clear WOS on top for some shimmer.  Added the silver metallic Neenah card on the bottom with more silver WOS to define some snowbanks and then the sentiment stamped in black and clear embossed.  Die cut that piece and a piece of black for a mat, popped it onto the card and added a few silver sequins and done.

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments.

CONGRATS

Our sponsor this month at A Blog Named Hero is Avery Elle and I got to play with one of their newly released stamp sets, Hats Off!.  Since my grandson is graduating from university this May, I used the graduation cap from the set.

There's a great selection of hats in this set and lots of potential for creating variety of cards to fit special occasions.  The challenge for this month is "rainbow" so check the blog often for rainbow and Avery Elle inspiration from our design team - and enter the challenge here for a chance to win a great prize from Avery Elle.

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

BOLD BLOSSOMS

I have been spending a lot of time coloring the Bold Blossoms from PTI - they are so easy to color mainly because they are large images.  I used my Kuretake watercolors for this card to enter in the Color Throwdown #383.  I am also entering it CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.

The gold and stripe papers on the side were scraps and the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.  MME enamel dots and some Pico dots finished the card.

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NBUS & NBUT

Darnell has had a challenge going for the past ten days or so and everyday I meant to do something for it - finally today I had a play day with "never before used stuff" and a "never before used technique.

My first card involves NBUS.  Around Christmas my blog friend Hazel was using some stuff called Sparkle Gel from Imagination Crafts which is in England.  It comes in tons of colors and Hazel was working on buying them all:-)  Problem for us in the USA, they only sell in the UK.  So while in London for Christmas I HAD to buy some - decided on the diamond as it's pretty pricey when you add postage even over there.  Brought it home and never touched it, until today!!  What a dream it is for spreading on through a stencil.  It takes a bit to dry but after it was, I die cut it with the stitched rectangle.  Mounted it on my card with fun foam and added the flower arrangement (used a variety of Altenew inks) and sentiment and done.  You can see how sparkly that stuff is in the closeup!

My second card is a NBUT. 

I have had some foil for ages and finally gave it a try using glue and a stencil.  Believe me, I wasn't going for the messy look, but decided to work with it anyway.  I used the sketch from MUSE challenge and also camouflaging the sentiment.  It took a bit of fiddling around but figured out a way to get the look.  The sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed.  Not too sure about this foiling technique, but glad I gave it a try.  Used some gold foil cardstock from Michael's for the bottom half of the "birthday".

Had a fun play day and am pleased with how my NBUS and NBUT turned out.

Thanks for visiting today and love your kind comments.

BUTTON BUTTON...

do I ever have buttons!!!  Haven't used buttons on cards in ages and really tend to hoard the pretty ones.  So dug out the stash and found these lovely vintage buttons.  First I die cut the tree from silver metallic paper.  Arranged everything and stamped the sentiment with silver embossing powder.  Glued the buttons with glossy accents.  Doubt whether they'll hold up in the mail tho.  Voila! a CAS card for Merry Monday's button challenge.

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

PEARL HYDRANGEA

Can't seem to stop making cards with this hydrangea and when I saw Happy Little Stampers faux mother of pearl challenge, I got it out again.  Actually it has never left my desk since I got it!!

I white embossed the flower and then sponged distress spun sugar all over it having it darker in some places.  Then I used some cling wrap and frost white ink and added the mother of pearl effect.  Using the spun sugar ink, I made a watercolor shadow all around the flowers and stamped the sentiment  in black ink and embossing in clear.  Lastly, sequins were added for a little bling.

I am also entering this in Ellen Hutson's  mix-it-up challenge to use EH stamps and Pretty PInk Posh sequins.

Thanks for stopping by and all your kind comments.

MARCH CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

This month I"m sending my card to Greta for Deb's card chain challenge.  I chose to do an Easter card in the colors and loosely interpreted the sketch.

For the background, I cut down one of the Happy Hues cards from Concord & 9th - these cards are a wonderful value and make such a quick and easy background.  Die cut the wreath and then added the floral arrangement.  I used Laurie Willison's technique of using Press 'n Seal to keep my arrangement in place for gluing onto the wreath.  This is such a slick way of attaching little flowers like this.  Before putting anything down permanently I used my MISTI to add the sentiment.

Thanks to my friend, Becca, I am also entering this in Caseplorations challenge for Betsy Veldman's card.  

 

Thanks for visiting today and love reading your comments.

EASTER HYDRANGEA

A new challenge blew in with the March winds yesterday (at least that's the kind of weather we had in Nebraska!) - it was started by two wonderful cardmakers/bloggers, Bonnie Klass and Loll Thompson and it's called CAS MIX UP.  Their first challenge is use stamping, watercolouring and your own choice of a technique.

The hydrangea was stamped with Versamark and white embossed.  Then I colored the flower and leaf with Zig clean brush markers (lt. carmine, tea rose, mid- green) and used a wet brush to blend the colors.  The background piece was made with the embossing folder technique in seedless preserves and a bit of water and then die cut.  The sentiment was also stamped with Versamark and silver embossed.  Finally added a little bling with clear sequins. 

I am also entering this in the LOVE challenge "Bring the Spring Bling".  

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments.