HAPPY EVERYTHING

My card today is Jerrie in Wisconsin as part of the June Card Chain Challenge.  I went with the suggested colors of sage, baby blue and pine green and a theme of friendship.

The wreath and sentiment uses C & 9th Wreath Turnabout in various shades of green and the baby blue flowers are from EH's Courage set.   Nuvo drops were dotted here and there and the sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed.  

The Card Chain Challenge (link to 2018 dates) is a fun way to meet new stamping friends - every month is a sketch, colors and theme from which to choose - you don't have to use them all.  So come and join in sometime!

Thanks for visiting today.

 

 

SUMMERTIME FUN

Last summer I made this card for A Blog Named Hero when the theme was florals.  Thought something similar would work again with the "Summertime Fun" theme for this month.  Ice cream, flowers and summertime certainly go together!!  What is your favorite flavor???  Breyers ice cream with Heath Bars added in is mine!  Love blue hydrangeas, but thought this peach color was a better fit!

I stamped the hydrangea with fresh peach on a heavy piece of vellum and then clear embossed.  All the stamping was done that way - it gives such great shine and texture.  After fussy cutting the flower, I colored a bit on the back with some alcohol markers. The cone was stamped in soft brown and cup o' joe, the little leaves in field green and the sentiment (this is a fantastic set if you need a variety of holiday stamps) in black.  The cherry on top was a fun afterthought - it's also stamped on vellum and colored with red royal.  The little pink accents are Nuvo rosewater drops.  The focal point piece and mat were both cut using the rectangle infinity dies (these are on my desk all the time).

Join our "Summertime" challenge this month here - Hero Arts has a $50 and $25 gift certificate for our winners!

Had fun making this card and hope you like it - and enjoy your summer too!

BEAUTIFUL DAY

My card today is for Altenew Academy - day 5.  It involved some masking and then several coloring techniques with alcohol markers.

One of the things Kelly had in her lesson was a gradient background for her flowers.  My colors that I chose for both the background and the flowers were running dry so didn't do any shading of the blue and really had tough time with the flowers.  I couldn't bring myself to do the sentiment the way she did it - I am too much of a perfectionist and didn't have the guts to do it in case I messed up my coloring.  I did add drop shadows though and other details which I really like.  I will finish this card when I need it for something special  as I think the coloring took over an hour.

EDIT:  A friend need a 50th anniversary card - I die cut "50" from gold metallic paper and placed that in the middle - added a nice anniversary sentiment inside - done!!  And Susan loved it!

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

SENDING YOU PRAYERS

This week Altenew Academy is having another class and this time it's with Kelly Latevola doing one-layer cards.  Yesterday I worked all afternoon on the first lesson and thought for sure I flunked the class right off the bat.  So not being one to give up, I started entirely over with a new card today.  

 

Kelly's card used background stamping with individual stamps and that's where the problem was yesterday - I am just rubbish at that and getting something to my satisfaction. Today I used the Sketchy Flower (very large) stamp for the background.  Used the Altenew alcohol markers in the soft greys for shading in the flowers and also for the bit of green on the leaves.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts as I had nothing from Altenew that would work for this technique.  A few black Nuvo drops covered up a few little smudges.  Am way behind in the homework department for this class, but will carry on!  

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

 

HAPPY

CAS Colours and Sketches has a sketch challenge this week - so made this card.

Stamped the flowers in the corners and then masked and stamped smaller flowers and leaves to fill out the space and colored with my Zigs.  Die cut the rectangle and added the larger piece with foam tape to a gray card base.  Inserted the smaller cut out piece back into the space along with the sentiment.  Colored the stamen of the flowers with a glossy black gel pen.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

BUTTERFLY

Even though our A Blog Named Hero's current May/June watercolour challenge is over and a new challenge begins tomorrow, I'm still playing with watercolors - it's Brushos this time.

I first sprinkled a piece of watercolor paper with blue and green Brushos - and then heavily spritzed with water.  It turned out way darker than I like - so die cut with the HA butterfly which lightened it up a whole lot. Stenciled a background with HA rain dance using some light grey ink. Had the black die cut striped piece sitting on my desk and wondered what it would look like on a shaker??? Decided it would work - used HA ocean sequins.  Added a little sentiment (stamped in black and clear embossed) - done and dusted.

Check out A Blog Named Hero tomorrow (15 June) for a new fun challenge with great prizes from Hero Arts.  Thanks for visiting today and love to read your kind comments.

PRIZE STAG

Decided to have a go with CAS Christmas Challenge this month - make a masculine card.  A long time ago I won the stag die from Ellen Hutson and he hasn't seen much love - mainly because I don't do that many guy cards.

Cut the stag from some gold foiled paper and then 3 more times with white - stacked them all together and used a gold pen around the edges.  The holly leaf wreath was die cut, sponged with distress inks (shabby shutters and peeled paint) and used the gold pen again on the stitching lines.  Put it all together with some red sequins, patterned paper and a little sentiment.

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

BLUE PEONY

Some of my blog friends are so skilled at making a card to fit multiple challenges - me, not so much.  Today though I'm getting this one in five!!!! 

I did some coloring with copics on the peony - works for Kathy Racoosin's Coloring Challenge; the design will fit the sketch from Cas(e) This Sketch; spattered some alcohol blending solution and foiled some gold speckles on the background piece - fits Just Add Ink's spots, speckles and splatters;  the colors are from Color Throwdown; and finally The Love Challenge #30 is anything goes.  Karren mentioned Just Us Girls wants alcohol inked cards so am adding it there also.  I used copic reinkers to make the background and then colored the peony with the same colors.

Thanks for stopping by - always really appreciate your visits and kind comments.

CARDS FOR KATHERINE

My daughter, Katherine, teaches at the University of Texas-Arlington and likes to send cards to her music theatre students - good thing she has a mother who likes to make cards!  Several weeks ago I saw a set of alcohol inked cards on Sue's blog and thought they would be perfect - Kath likes bright colors and that's what she's getting!!  

I also made little sentiment strips with double sided tape on the back so she could add if desired.  Used gold foil on my cards also to give them some glitz (Kath likes that too).  Made fifteen total for her and all different (due to the wonders of AI) - had such fun making them!!  Thanks Sue for the inspiration!

So pleased you stopped by today and love to read your kind comments.

BUTTERFLY SQUIGGLE

CASology's challenge this week (squiggle) made me think outside my "flower box" and finally came up with something.  Had a small alcohol inked piece on my desk, so die cut the PTI butterfly as my starting point.

The gold embossed flourish is also from PTI.  I cut out three more butterflies to give my butterfly a little weight and backed it with some more gold as there was gold foiling on the AI piece.  Sponged on some broken china DO, spattered with water, added a few Nuvo drops and done!  The CAS in my card is mostly monochromatic with lots of white space.  Definitely an easy card to reproduce and great for using up scraps.

Thanks for stopping by and always enjoy your kind comments.

 

PENGUINS FOR MERRY MONDAY

Surprise!!! No flowers!!!  Penguins are the theme for this week's Merry Monday challenge - and just happened to have a few courtesy of Linda W.  

Watercoloured a sky and added some torn snowbanks on the bottom of the card.  Used a stencil, Versamark and white embossing powder to do the snowflakes.  Also added some Nuvo glitter snowflakes in the sky and some Spectrum Noir to the tops of the snowbanks.  The little sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed.  Sorry it's so difficult to see all the shine and sparkle (poor photography skills).

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