Monday, February 27, 2017

Pink, You Are the Bestest!

The focus in this lesson is using pink to bring about feelings of sensitivity, caring and sweetness.  If you haven't tried Altenew Academy's classes, you should.  They are very reasonably priced and quite informative.  I can see using many different brands of stamps and dies with the techniques I've learned.

I actually made two pink cards.  Here is the first.  I really love working with texture paste and stencils.  Mixing it with some ink makes it even more fun!



This next card is one that looked better in my mind than how I think it turned out.  I fiddle-diddled with it so much and just can't figure out what isn't working for me.  I decided to break out some of my stash of patterned paper to go with the pink, sweet theme.   Since I was using long neglected paper, I broke out my bling and added the butterfly swirls in pink rhinestones.  The bottles are vellum that I colored on the back with Spectrum Noir markers and then backed with white card stock.  It's not horrible, but I just feel like something is off.  Oh well, maybe I'll pull it apart and try something different.


 Thanks for looking! 

Supplies:
First card:
Altenew stamps/dies:  Beautiful Day, Floral Shadow, Bottleful Of, Botanical Garden
Inks: Spun Sugar Distress Ink, Hero Arts Soft Pink & Bubblegum, Versafine Onyx Black
Ranger texture paste
Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets
Want2Scrap pink rhinestones










Sunday, February 26, 2017

Yellow, Thanks a Bunch

The lesson for Day 4 of Altenew Academy's In the Mood for Color focused on yellow.  Our homework was to use yellow to show energy, cheer and optimism.


After stamping the daisies, I used a few Zig Clean Color pens to color and fill in the petals and flower centers.  I've always liked yellow and think it is a happy color!  Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies:
Altenew Spring Daisy stamps and dies
Altenew Halftone Thanks and die
Inks:  SSS Lemon Zest, Green Leaf, Jellybean, Versafine Black Onyx, Hero Arts mid-tone Charcoal
Zig Clean Color markers: 50, 51, 52, 41, 45
Gingham paper: My Favorite Things Tiny Check



Friday, February 24, 2017

Green, With Every Difficulty...

Day 3 of Altenew Academy's In the Mood for Color focuses on green giving a soothing, natural feel to our cards.



I've used Distress Inks on stamps in the past, but not this exact way of stamping the image and using a wet brush to move the water and ink.  This really does give it that watercolored look, even though it really isn't!

I really had to hold myself back from adding anything more to this card, but I'm glad I did!  Thanks for looking, I really appreciate it!

Supplies:
Altenew Floral Shadows
Altenew Remember This for sentiment
Distress Ink:  Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron
NUVO Crystal Drops-Apple Green



Thursday, February 23, 2017

Red, Beautiful Day

This is my card for Altenew Academy's In the Mood for Color, Day 2.  The focus is on the color red and how this color can bring energy, love and passion to your cards.

I really loved the stamped leaf edge that Stephanie Klauk, our instructor, did on her card so I CASE'd that part of her card.


I stamped and die cut an extra flower, stem, and leaves and popped it up on my card for dimension.  I really love how this turned out and think the leaf edging gives it that extra "something"!!

Thank you so much for looking and if you leave a comment, a BIG thank you for that!

Supplies:
Altenew Remember This stamps & dies
Altenew Beautiful Day for sentiment
Inks: Distress Ink Spun Sugar, SSS Jellybean & Green Leaf, Hero Arts for medium & dark red shades
Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Blue, Miss You

I'm taking Altenew Academy's class In The Mood for Color.  This class relates the colors we use for cards to the mood and feeling it may invoke.

Day 1's lesson is using blue and creating calmness and tranquility.  Here's my take:


I decided that instead of coloring the flower, I would put color around it.  I created masks, stamped, then used a stencil with an ink dauber.  It's so fun to peel up the masks for the reveal!!

Thanks for taking a look!  I love comments and thank you for them!

Supplies:
Altenew Beautiful Day stamps
Altenew Floral Shadows for sentiment
Hero Arts Baby Blue pigment ink
VersaFine Onyx Black ink
Simon Says Stamp fine detail clear embossing powder
Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins
Tim Holtz stencil THMS019

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Coral/Mint Green Happy Birthday

I like to have a stash of birthday cards on hand and needed some inspiration to get going.  My Favorite Things Color Challenge 63 was just the thing and will enter my card!  I really LOVE these colors!

Find the details HERE.
I pulled out some MFT stamps and dies that I got last year and hadn't used in a while.  I wanted to make something bright and cheerful and that reminds me of spring!!




Here's a look at the inside.  (There's a story about how this came about that I'll post about another time!:) 

I really enjoyed creating this card!  Thank you for stopping to take a look & your comments are so appreciated!

Supplies:
MFT Scattered Surface background stamp
MFT Striped Sentiment Strip die
MFT Flashy Florals stamps and dies
MFT Celebrate You stamps
SSS inks: Mint Candy, Scuba, Apricot, Sunkist
Spellbinders Labels 4
Art Glitter Gala Glitz white
Pretty Pink Posh sequins
paper doily from my stash




Sunday, February 5, 2017

Bubbles, Bubbles...

Darnell at djkardcreations.com is having her NBUS Challenge #10.  As usual, we should use something we have, but have never used.  You need to go look at what she created for the optional part of the challenge!  She used bubble wrap to stamp and also to create a card!  I never ever would've thought of that!  Thank you Darnell for having these fun challenges to celebrate your 5-year blogaversary--it's been fun!

Well, being the non-packrat that I am, I have no bubble wrap to be found!  I wanted to participate in the optional portion so I chose that part to use bubbles.  I remembered a workshop I took one year at a Scrapbook Expo where we used Distress Spray Stain, water and Dawn dish soap in a shallow cup with a straw.  You blow bubbles until they are piled up and then put your watercolor paper on them.

As you can tell from these photos, I was just having too much fun!  I made several backgrounds and got 3 of them turned into cards so far.  (Yes, I'm so slow at deciding how to put a card together!)


Just a bit of water w/a couple drops of Dawn.  The bubbles look clear at the top but the color is there!

You can see from the top one that I used Candied Apple & Blueprint Sketch.  The one on the right is where I dumped the leftovers from both colors together--it made kind of a grape color.

Here are the cards I made.  I've listed my NBUS in the captions.
NBUS: hearts, flowers, sentiment from My Monthly Hero January 2017 kit
NBUS jar, flowers, bow from My Monthly Hero January 2017 kit
NBUS Spellbinders Die of the Month January (DOM-JAN17).
On a sentimental note, the lace in this card is some that was my mother's.  It was in her sewing cabinet along with several others.  I love finding a way to use it.

I'll also be entering two of these cards into the Flickr group Love!--Handmade Cards, ATCs & Other Crafts group's February challenge:  Hearts & Flowers.

Thanks so much for taking a look and leaving a comment! :)