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

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

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

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

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! :)

Beyond Basics Backgrounds

This week I've been taking Altenew Academy's Beyond Basics Backgrounds.  Lydia Evans was the instructor and we had 6 lessons on creating different backgrounds.

Each day was very unique!  Some techniques I've seen, but none had I tried.  I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot!  I've only managed to get 3 of the days lessons done.  I'm not sure I have what I need to achieve a couple of the other lessons, but will be looking through my stash to see what I can come up with!

Lesson 1 is DIY Stencil and creating an ombre look for your card.

Supplies:
Altenew Freeform Greenery; sentiment from Floral Shadow
Ink:  Hero Arts Ombre tide pool to navy
Embossing powder:  SSS Fine Detail


Lesson 3 is Foiling Stamped Images without a Laminator.  Well, I have a Minc Mini so I used it for the butterflies as I just wasn't getting good results otherwise.

Supplies:
Altenew Botanical Garden; sentiment from Floral Shadows
Foil:  Heidi Swapp rose gold
Embossing powder: JudiKins Sticky Stuff, Stampendous Stamp N' Bond (similar results with both)


Lesson 5 is Water Bleaching.  I really enjoyed this one and I think this card is my favorite!

Supplies:
Altenew: Botanical Garden; sentiment is from Spring Daisy
Distress Inks: Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn
Embossing powder: SSS Fine Detail white


This was an awesome class and I would definitely recommend it!!  Thanks for taking a look!!

I'm entering the last one in Darnell's NBUS Challenge #9.  My NBUS for this is Altenew's Botanical Garden stamps.

Hidden Word Notecards

I'm participating in Week 2 of Darnell's NBUS Challenge #9.  Get all the details HERE.

The main part of this challenge is to use NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff).   One of the optional themes was to create a "hidden" word.  I've seen this done before but never tried it.

I had a few NBUS dies and embossing folders that I used on these.  I think they turned out adorable and would make a wonderful gift set.  I'll definitely be making more!!

NBUS: MFT Grateful die/Spellbinders embossing folder EL-003

Here's a photo of all three that I made:

Other NBUS: Simply Said Hello: Avery Elle; Spellbinders EF ES-014
Inks used: SSS Hot Mama, Mint Candy, Willow
Background stamp: Fun Stampers Journey Lacy Trim
Used fun foam for popping up the word die cuts.

Thanks so much for taking a look!  Your comments are greatly appreciated! :)

(P.S.:  Darnell, I hope you are healing quickly!)