GOING BATTY

I rarely, if ever, create a scene (in any sense of the phrase) but thought this would work for several challenges - Curtain Call: Going Batty and the sketch from Happy Little Stampers for October.  

The background was made by playing around with colors with my Brushos.   After sprinkling on the colors I misted it with water mixed with Perfect Pearls so it has a slightly shiny effect.  After placing the bottom piece, I drew a pencil line so I could figure out where to stamp the trees - used the little houses also for this.  There are bits of gold paper behind the windows and glossy accents make the bats all shiny. Then just put it all together.

                                   

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

 

HERO ARTS SCRAMBLE

The challenge today from Martha was to create a card using grey, black, white and a pop of color - and as always, use at least one Hero Arts stamp.  This is a 24 hour scramble - meaning you may do your card in any 90 minutes you chose today - details here.

Designing, creating, uploading and posting a card in 90 minutes is not the easiest for me, but the design is the most difficult part.  So I used a design/layout I had done before but changed everything else - paper, stamps, inks, etc.  There are black seed beads in the flower centers.

Stamps: HA Hibiscus (CL868); Messages with a Flourish (CL738)
Paper: MME "Fancy That"; PTI soft stone (card base)
Ink: HA Butter Bar, Pastel Yellow, Black  

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

WATERCOLOR POINSETTIA

A few days ago I finally took my friend's (Barb G.) advice and signed up for Deepti Malik's watercolor class on Craftsy.  The half-price offer was also a strong motivator.  So far am so impressed - Dee is an excellent teacher - learned so much just from the first lesson!  My advice - run don't walk and enroll in this class if you want to learn more about how to watercolor on your cards!

Since the challenge this week at Merry Monday is watercoloring, I used some of my new found info on my card.

Used my Kuretake Gansai watercolors on some Canson paper to create the background.  First did the light in a wet on wet wash, and when that was dry added the darker shades.  The poinsettias were white embossed on vellum and then fussy cut.  The sentiment is three layers of die cut.  Added a bit of gold thread and some sequins to finish it all.

Am also entering this in the Addicted to Stamps Challenge #163 which is "holidays" and Time Out Challenge #40 which is "CASE Tracey".

Thanks for stopping by today and love reading your kind comments.  Betty

FALL LEAVES

Received a new embossing folder today from Stampin' Up called Woodland.  HAD to use it right away and so... a card for The Paper Players - Create a Fall Scene - ColorQ #309 - gorgeous fall colors - and CAS-ology - circles.

The leaves are from PTI - cut from some watercolored paper scraps.  Background card is HA wet cement and mocha die cut from MFT stitched circles.  Clearly Besotted sentiment is stamped and embossed with liquid platinum.  Used an emery board to rub off some of the paper on the trees to give them a little more definition.

Thanks for stopping by and as always, love to read your kind comments.  Betty

TWO-TONE SENTIMENT

This week's challenge on PTI's Make-it-Monday is to design a card with a two-tone sentiment.  Danielle demos step by step and it really is quite easy.  I didn't have the stripe coverplate she used, but did have the chevon and that worked just as well.  She does show how to do it without a coverplate die, but I probably would have gone looney tunes trying to get it straight, all lined up and perfect!!

 

The little flowers are from PTI's Rosie Posie and the sentiment is also PTI.   Altogether a fun technique and think I will be making some more of these with different sentiments and flowers.

Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.  Betty

CAT IN THE MOON

For some strange reason, I love making Halloween cards for my grandkids and friends.  Also there's a little shop in a rather posh retirement home where I sell my cards and they are always a sellout there.  So not sure where this one will go, but made it for three challenges - A Blog Named Hero (happy), CAS-ology (moon) and a2z Scrapbooking (shake it up).

 

The moon shaker background was watercolored with Brushos and filled with glitter and little stars.  The little cat (he looks a little cross-eyed??) is from PTI and covered with glossy accents as is the "happy" sentiment from Hero Arts.  Wet cement and mocha layering papers from Hero Arts were used for the background.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.  Betty

ANOTHER HERO ARTS MAKEOVER

Hero Arts has a new blog look - a great makeover - easy to navigate and looks fantastic.  They also are having a challenge for us to do makeover on one of our own cards.  I did one already and then went thru some oldies and decided to update one of cards with one of the HA all time favorites of mine - hydrangea.  

MAKEOVER

2012 ORIGINAL

Actually I like the coloring on the old version, but the rest of it is pretty scary - way too busy - no white space.  For my makeover, I stamped the hydrangea in distress pumice stone and then colored with Zig clean brush markers and water - I was aiming for no line watercoloring - didn't quite make it - but I like it anyway.  Instead of just straight line cuts, I used MFT stitched edges, added the little Clearly Besotted sentiment and some clear sequins - done and dusted!

I couldn't find the hydrangea (K5376) on HA website, but did find it in several places on the secondary market.  Think HA needs to make it in a clear stamp along with a matching die - would buy it in a minute!  I took mine off the wooden block and made it into a cling of sorts.

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments.  Betty

IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE...

My card today started out with the bulb in my Ottlite organizer burning out.   So I had to do something about that - tried to replace the bulb with the one from the Ottlite I had by my sewing machine (no organizer on this one) - bulb didn't work!  So had to move that lamp over to the work space.  What to do with all the stuff in the caddy part - reorganize the whole work space was the solution - throw out stuff, put stuff away, find stuff, store stuff that's hardly ever used away somewhere else, etc. etc. etc.  And in that whole process I found the watercolored piece that I used in my card today.  Thus the title of my post today - if you are familiar with children's book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff is darling, so fun to read to kids - a story of one thing leads to another!  Long intro for me!

So a card for three challenges came about!! Dawn McVey's "Make it Monday" technique was a camoflauged pocket insert card.  Virginia's View Challenge is to use geometric patterns and Darnell's Challenge #5 is "never before used stuff" and anything goes.

The NBUS is the watercolored piece using Brushos (new to me) and the PTI leaf silhouette die (also new).  The leaves are obviously geometric and also the chevron background.  Watch Dawn's video to see how I constructed it.  Supplies used: PTI Library pocket, PTI chevron coverplate, PTI patterned vellum and MFT stitched tag.  I think it's a fun card to make altho I did have to fiddle around to get the tag to go in the pocket just right and finding a sentiment stamp that would fit in the space took some playing around too!

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

 

SEPTEMBER CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

Sent this card to Judy for the September CCC - used the colors Deb suggested plus the Halloween theme.

  

Distress inks were blended to create the background and stamped the Hero Arts spooky trees in black on the bottom - used my MISTI to stamp them several times so they would be really really black.  The bats (Memory Box but no longer available) are coated with glossy accents.  The shaker part has MS glitter and little gold stars in it.  

a2zScrapbooking's challenge this month is "shake it up" so am entering it over there.

Thanks for visiting today.  Betty

A TOUCH OF HOLLY

The challenge this week at Merry Monday is holly.  Stamped Hero Arts Holly Jolly on Neenah metallic white gold card and colored with my Zig Clean Color Brush markers, using just a bit of water to blend.

 Closeup

I die cut "christmas" from Ellen Hutson's "Merry & Bright" twice from white card and then from the stamped area.  Adhered all three layers together and inlaid it back into the card.  The base is also Neenah metallic white gold.  Stamped "wishes" on the inside of the card and added a few champagne pearls (wanted to give those berries a little highlight and the dot on the "i" was just too tiny to inlay) from Michael's - done.

Will also enter this in Happy Little Stampers challenge which is coloring and Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge which is holly.

Thanks for stopping by and love reading your kind comments.  Betty

FRIENDS

My trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota has been just wonderful.  Over the weekend I went to my 60th high school class reunion from Aquinas High School in La Crosse, WI.  Stayed with a friend whom I've known since kindergarten - went thru elementary and high school together and then both of us eventually became library media specialists.  We don't see each other that often but when we get together it's like we've never been apart.  It was fun to see everyone from my class (218) but our numbers are dwindling and I was sad to see so many not in good health.  But we had many laughs and shared so many memories.

Linda, me, Jayne

Then yesterday I drove to Rochester MN where I met Linda and Jayne from the Hero Arts discussion group - and even tho we had never met personally it was like we'd known each other for a long time.  Had lunch at a lovely restaurant and managed to sit and talk for about 3 hours.  Stampers don't have a hard time finding something to talk about!!!

When I left Rochester, I took a wrong exit from I-90 and had a drive through the scenic countryside of southeastern MN.  After winding my way (no GPS on my car - also no phone service from ATT in that area) I finally found my way to Caledonia where my daughter-in-law lives - really was in no hurry and it was a beautiful day for driving.  Today Maria and I are meeting my sister-in-law for lunch and probably will have another 3 hour lunch.  Then it's back on the road tomorrow to Lincoln, NE.

Have a busy week coming up, but hope to get a few cards made - thanks for stopping by today.  Betty

POINSETTIA

My new stamp set, Mondo Poinsettia, arrived today from Ellen Hutson and couldn't resist trying it out.  First thought was to watercolor - so stamped it in distress antique linen and watercolored with Zig clean brush marker in carmine, olive green and water.  It looked rather blah and I had already fussy cut it.  Didn't want to toss it, so stamped over it with distress fired brick and peeled paint.  Much better - gave it some definition.

 

Had another piece of the watercolored background like I used on my previous card, so used that adhered to cream cardstock for the base (4"x5 1/2")  Added the sentiment from Jane's Doodles and some sequins - done.

Will enter this in Merry Monday's current challenge of red and two shades of green. 

I'm off to La Crosse, Wisconsin tomorrow for a big high school class reunion, so see you next week sometime.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

HOLLY

The challenge at Merry Monday this week is two shades of green with a bit of red.  

I stamped and embossed the HA holly with Ranger liquid platinum and used my Zig clean brush markers (mid-green, olive green and carmine) to watercolor.  I like to put down the color and then use my aqua brush to shade the colors.  The background is distress antique linen and water smooshed with a bit of metallic gold from my Gansai watercolor set.  Die cut the MFT stitched frame and popped it up with foam tape.  The sentiment is from Essentials by Ellen Merry & Bright cut from PTI gold foil.

Thanks for stopping by and always love your kind comments.  Betty

AUTUMN LEAVES MAKEOVER
  Hero Arts is soon going to launch a makeover of their website on 1 September.  As part of the celebration they are having a "makeover" challenge.  I have never done a makeover of one of my cards and it really is kind of fun - the hard part was choosing a card. 

Makeover Card

Original Card

The original card was done in 2011 - seems I was doing a lot of sewing and using patterned paper back then.  I still rather like it, but think the makeover is a little more classy because it is simpler.

I stamped the HA leaf on rice paper which my friend Cindy sent to me.  It is such fun to use - stamped the leaves with wild honey, dried marigold, peeled paint and seedless preserves distress inks - spritzed it quite heavily with water and just let the colors go where ever.  When it was dry I stamped a few leaves randomly on top of the colors and then mounted it on some Neenah gold metallic cardstock.  The HA sentiment was stamped on vellum with Versamark and embossed with HA gold.  The leaf (part of a Petite Prints set) is no longer available and the sentiment (CL380) has limited availability from Hero Arts.  Added some clear sequins and done.  

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy reading your kind comments.  Betty

JUST FOR YOU

Ellen Hutson's blog has a challenge to combine a Clearly Besotted stamp with one of theirs - closes tomorrow so I'm just getting in under the wire.

I found the wonderful card base at Michaels - a whole package of these cards with envelopes - with a 50% off coupon, what a deal!!!  Cut the Bold Blossom flower and leaves from PTI's gold adhesive paper.  Stamped the sentiment from Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental and embossed with HA gold powder.  Added the MME enamel dot - done and dusted!

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

BOOKMARK CARD

The current challenge at Addicted to CAS is "school".  When I was still an educator, the kids loved the booksmarks I made for them for various holidays.  I first made a card like this quite a few years ago and it was someone else's idea, but can't remember where I saw it.  This card is for my daughter with her initials on it.

It is constructed so that the bookmark just slips into the background piece.  Some old text paper, Graphic45 ABC Primer papers, and Hero Arts stamps were used.

Thanks for visiting today and your kind comments.  Betty

BUBBLES BACKGROUND

Stamplorations has a sketch and theme challenge for August - the theme is stamps and watercolor and here is my card with the sketch.

I smooshed distress inks onto the Stamplorations Bubbles stencil, spritzed with water and then laid a piece of watercolor paper on it - pressed it into the paper until the color was on the paper.  Here is a video of this technique if you would like a better explanation.  The background was then die cut with MFT stitched rectangle and bordered with SU crumb cake.  The Altenew flowers and leaves were white embossed on vellum and colored with Zig clean brush markers.  Sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.  Added a few clear dots - done and dusted!

MFT's Summer School this week is all about color so I am also entering this in their "cool" color challenge.

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

AUGUST CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

The month for Deb's CCC challenge I chose to use the colors (melon, mustard and grey) and flowers - and my card is going to our fearless leader for this challenge, Deb Nolan!!

I watercolored my peony with PTI melon berry ink and the leaves were done with Kuretake watercolor in gold (that's sort of a mustard color - right?) after embossing the flower and leaves with Ranger liquid platinum.  I die cut the center circle and then added the PTI shaker shape: circle on top.  The card base is HA wet cement and the other layer is PTI soft stone.  Added some clear gems (from HA and no longer available) and done.  The sentiment is from Stamplorations Blooming Buds.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

ANOTHER PUMPKIN SHAKER

Had another play at making a shaker card with the PTI pumpkin die.  This time I made it taller by cutting off more of the sides.   I think I like this shape better.

Sponged on some distress inks to shade the bottom and ground the pumpkin.  Added that cute little cat - he's very shiny from a coating of glossy accents.  The "happy" is from Hero Arts.

Die-Cut Diva's challenge this month is "holiday" so will enter it there.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comment.  Betty

PUMPKIN SHAKER

Loved all the shaker cards that Betsy Veldman created for her blog today with the new PTI dies that will be released on the 15th.  So decided to try to make a pumpkin shaker from a PTI die from several years ago. 

After cutting from some orange card, I reshaped the outline part by cutting off the outer sides.  Adhered that to a piece of acetate and then fit and adhered the outer sections back in, leaving the center clear.  Added foam tape to the back, dropped in the sparkly bits and backed it with a piece of orange glitter paper to put it all together.  Mounted this on a piece of HA black layering paper (4"x51/4"), added the "happy" and Wink of Stella - done.  It's really very sparkling and fun in real life!  Now that I have this figured out maybe I'll make a few more - or maybe just buy the new pumpkin shaker die which would be bit easier!!

PTI has a challenge called "Create Along With Us" using inspiration from their team so am entering this card.

Thanks for stopping by today and your kind comments.  Betty

JOY

As I was going through challenges to possibly enter today, I found I could design one card that would fit four of them - Color Throwdown and Merry Monday for the colors, CAS(E) #135 for the sketch and HLS Christmas for "sparkle".

The poinsettia, leaves and background were watercolored with my Zig clean color brushes.  Used HA gold embossing powder for the flower, leaves and sentiment.  My poor photography doesn't show the sparkle very much but there is lots of Wink of Stella sparkle on the poinsettia.  Hope maybe the gold will qualify for sparkle too.

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comments.  Betty

GOLD AND VELLUM BUTTERFLY

Today Karen challenged us to use gold or silver plus vellum on a card for Scramble115 in the Hero Arts discussion group.  Before the scramble started I had chosen some stamps that I would like to use if possible - so this butterfly worked perfectly. 

I stamped the butterfly in gold and fussy cut - then used the coordinating dies to cut another butterfly and the body/antenna.  The vellum dotted strip and the leaves are cut from DCWV foiled vellum papers.  Sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and the leaves are MB Fresh Foliage.  Base of the card is Neenah metallic white gold.  Rounded the card corner and done.  From start to finish, this took about 35 minutes (not including photographing and posting to the group). 

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy your comments.  Betty

BOLD BLOOMS

There is a new challenge called The Pinterest Inspired Challenge.  I was inspired by the colors and also the all over design of the photo they chose for their first challenge.

 

I have a new (to me) stencil from Stamplorations which was used with distress inks (scattered straw, tumbled glass, peacock feathers, shabby shutters) to create the background.  I added some black Pico Embellisher dots, mounted it on black, added the sentiment and then on a HA cerulean blue base.   Think it would be fun to make this card in a variety of colors for a gift set - it's pretty easy and fast although the Pico takes a bit of drying time and you have to be careful not to get air bubbles.

Thanks for visiting today and your comments always make me happy!  Betty

IN BLOOM

This month the challenge at Happy Little Stampers is masking.  I hadn't used this lovely flower from PTI in ages and thought it would fit the bill.

I made a mask with post-its for both the flower and large leaf and then stamped and embossed in white on watercolor paper.  The flower is colored with Zig Clean Color brushes in light carmine, tea rose and water - the leaves are mid-green and olive green.  The haze around the flower is pale gray.  A little sentiment from Clearly Besotted, some gold thread, sequins - done and dusted.  The design for my card was inspired by this one from Debby Hughes - she has a great video on coloring with the Zig brushes - it's basically the method I've been using with them.  By the way - one day I stamped and embossed a whole bunch of these little sentiments on black strips and it's so nice to have them on hand to pop up on a card.


Happy Little Stampers has a nice list of masking videos if you want some more info on this topic - the challenge lasts all month.

Thanks for stopping by and always love reading your comments!   Betty