Butterflies

Hi everyone. Today I managed to get in a little stamping time and made two cards for Gina K's October release challenges, one required something popped up on the card and the other was a color challenge.

Although I used the same butterfly stamp on both cards, they are very different.

For the first card, I stamped the butterfly from Take Flight (Gina K) in black stazon two times on whisper white cardstock and sponged on apricot appeal and dusty durango ink. Then I cut them both out and sponged a little more dusty durango along the outer edges of the wings.

I stamped the different plants from Autumn Days (SU) in apricot appeal, dusty durango and chocolate chip on a piece of apricot appeal cardstock. I also stamped the butterfly again on this piece and a sentiment from the butterfly set. I backed the apricot piece with basic black and tied a ribbon (Michaels) around it and then glued it to a dusty durango card base.

I glued one butterfly directly over the stamped image and the second one was only glue along the body. I added some dimensional tape under the wings to pop them up.



For the 2nd card, the required colors were cranberry, black, gold and vanilla. I used the same butterfly, stamped on vanilla with black stazon ink. I used three prismacolor pencils with gamsol to get the color to match the cranberry cardstock. I die cut the butterfly piece using my cuttlebug and labels four nestabilties (Spellbinders). After sponging a bit of black around the edge, I added some dots and doodle lines with a black marker. I wanted to mat this on black, but the next size die in the set was much larger than I wanted, so I just used a black rectangle instead. Gold brads eliminated the blank space in each corner.

Since I had a piece of black with gold embossing (antique background - SU) left from Saturday's inspiration card, I thought it would work for this challenge. After playing around with some different layers, I decided that I liked the cranberry, vanilla, cranberry option, with the butterfly and the gold/black pieces on the front.

With all the gold embossing, the butterfly looked rather bland, so I colored over it with versamarker and clear embossed it, although that doesn't show up very well in the photo.

I wanted to use a black card base, but it looked too plain, since the design on the front piece was a bit busy, so I pulled out another retired background - Filigree (SU) and embossed it with gold as well.

The sentiment is from Everyday Flexible Phrases (SU), die cut with a smaller die from the same labels set, sponged with black and doodled with black marker. I used a strip of cranberry crisp as a faux ribbon and popped up the sentiment.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

inspired by beauty

Happy Saturday, everyone. Although we had a few peeks of sunshine this morning, it's another gray, windy day. For the past couple of days, we've had strong winds and most of the beautiful colored leaves are now on the ground.

Today's inspiration challenge on SCS targeted a site called Precious Possessions, which sells Franz Porcelain. I looked around the site a bit and came across some gorgeous pieces. I chose this stunning black vase as the inspiration for my card.

I started with a piece of black cardstock that was 5-1/4" x 4" and embossed antique background (retired SU) in gold. I trimmed off the left side to mimic the shape of the vase. I was going to layer it on a white card base, but realized that I shouldn't have trimmed it down from a quarter sheet of cardstock, so I decided to back it with a layer of white and put both on a black card base.

I chose a flower from Stampendous, which I stamped twice in black stazon on white and colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Because of all the little squiggles around the petals, it took forever to cut out the flowers. I then sponged some real red ink on the edges of the petals and shaped them a bit with my fingers for some dimension. I layered them so that the petals underneath weren't the same as the top ones. There is dimensional tape between the layers. I added a small amount of dazzling diamonds glitter to the flower center.

The sentiment is from a Cornish Heritage Farms rummage bin set called beautiful.

I really love how this card turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonder-filled day.

Oh, no, more pink!

Hi everyone. I have another card from Saturday's mini VSN challenges. This one was inspired by the beautiful dress & hair adornment worn by the young lady in the film linked here.

The background is stamped with French filigree (SU) in regal rose on pretty in pink. Flowers from paint prints (SU) were inked in pretty in pink and then rock & rolled in regal rose and cut out. I glued 5 layers together and manipulated the petals so they would stand out from the card. A pink jewel is glued in the center.

The leaf from paint prints was also rock & rolled in certainly celery & old olive and stamped many times and cut out. I just kept adding until I thought there were enough.

The wide strip is white, black and regal rose. The photo corner punch is certainly celery, black & regal rose. Some dots were added with white gel pen.

The sentiment is also from paint prints.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

pink and purple

Pink -- Look what I received on Tuesday! Along with a set of texture plates and a whole bunch of dies from Sizzix. Now, if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I don't care for pink, but this was such a great deal (a weekend clearance sale - it was 60% off - yay!), I decided I could live with the color. This is the Hello Kitty line, with a cute kitty, jewels, & lots of PINK! I've played with it just a bit and I like the way it feels with the bigz dies - very sturdy, but it does take up a lot of counter space. Since I already have a cuttlebug, the biggest reason I wanted this was to use the longer dies, so now I will have to get the long cutting pads to go with it.









Purple - That's the ways to use it challenge today on SCS. Purple is another one of my not so favorite colors, but I figured if I can get a pink Big Shot, I could certainly play along with a purple challenge. And to make it easier, I used yesterday's sketch challenge for the layout.

I decided to use some paper that I picked up for pennies when a local craft store was closing. I got a whole stack of it and it doesn't match my inks very well. I paired it up with elegant eggplant and pale plum cardstock. First I used friendly words jumbo wheel (SU) in eggplant along the bottom of the pale plum card base. Along the top edge of the wheeled strip, I placed a narrow strip of eggplant cardstock. Then at the top, I put the smaller pieces of designer paper backed with eggplant. I sponged eggplant all around the outside edge of the card.

For the main image, I stamped a flower (Inkadinkadoo) twice on white cardstock in jet black stazon and colored it with mustard in the center and the petals with lavender lace. Since the lavender didn't really match, but neither did any other color, I sponged perfect plum over the petals to get a better color match. After cutting out the flowers, I sponged eggplant around the edges. I stamped both flourishes from priceless (SU) in always artichoke on white, sponged the edge with eggplant, and adhered the flowers, popping up the one in front. I backed the white panel with eggplant and added a knotted eggplant ribbon and popped up the panel.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

how many layers?

Hi everyone. It's another gray, cloudy day here today. I would really like to see some sunshine. I have another card that I did on Saturday for the VSN mini on SCS. This challenge was to make a one layer card. Yup, just one piece of cardstock. I didn't even add any extra embellishments like ribbon or brads, etc. Just ink and paper.

I started with a vanilla card base. I used my cuttlebug and a nestabilities label to make a mask, which I used both parts. I masked the outside and sponged on the inside in chocolate chip and stamped the oak leaf from autumn splendor (SU) in really rust.

Then I removed the outside mask and used the inside one to draw around and make a border. I should have used another size die to make it easier, but instead I did it the hard way and had to pen in the color very carefully.

Leaving that mask in place, I sponged more mustard over the rest of the card.

Using some post-it notes, I left just a narrow strip open for a faux ribbon and sponged on really rust. I added stitches with a white gel pen.

I used my mat pack and a chocolate chip marker to make faux brads, which white gel pen highlights.

The sentiment is from pocket silhouettes (SU).

Thanks for stopping by today. Be blessed.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Ha! I'll guess you are wondering if I've gone crazy! Well, no, I haven't. But I do have a fun green card to show you today.

On Saturday, my sister and I spent the morning at a stamp/scrap expo here in town, and we both managed to spend a bit of money. Yesterday's card showed one of the items I purchased, an embossing folder from Quikutz. I got three of those, plus a few from Sizzix. I also found a Sizzix Bigz ornament die that is exactly the kind I was looking for (for 40% off, too). I wanted one that I could cut chipboard with. This has 2 ornaments, a round one and a fancy one - perfect - and a nice size as well. I think I will be able to make stencils to play with, too. I found a few stamps and embellishments as well. I was happy with what I found. Anyway, I'm a little off track here.

Saturday evening was a mini VSN on SCS and I got to play. I did 4 out of the 5 challenges. By the time I finished the 4th one, I was ready to go to bed, too tired to even upload that card until the next morning.

The first challenge was make a card with a holiday stamp masquerading as a different holiday. So I used a pretty heart stamp to make a shamrock and made a St. Patty's day card.

I stamped the heart 4 times in garden green on gable green and cut them out. I arranged them as a shamrock on white cardstock and drew in the stem. I then used my ticket corner punch on all four corners and sponged the edges with green galore.

I printed the sentiment on the computer and die cut it with a spellbinders label die. I then added some sponging to the edges. I cut a few 1/4" strips of green galore cardstock and glued them on at an angle. The brads are 1/4" circle punches with a white gel pen highlight. The sentiment piece is raised on dimensional tape. The card base is garden green.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

neglected

Yes, that's what my blog has been - neglected. Sometimes life just gets crazy busy and something has to give.

Hi everyone. Today I made a card for the technique challenge on SCS called retiform. This one was a little bit different from how I had done this technique before, but actually much faster and quite easy. You start by choosing 3 or 4 ink colors. Using the lightest color first, in this case summer sun, brayer over the cardstock. Then place a few small post-it notes randomly on your cardstock and brayer the next darker color, only orange. Add some more post-its and brayer the 3rd color, really rust, and then once more with close to cocoa. Then remove all the post-its. Since I had never done this version of retiform before, I was unprepared for the result. There was more summer sun showing than any other color and it was very bright, most definitely not the result I was expecting. I wanted to tone it down, so I used my cuttlebug and a new embossing folder called leaves from QuicKutz and then I sponged over it with chocolate chip, enhancing the embossing at the same time as toning down the brightness. I also sponged the edges with chocolate chip and then layered on vanilla and a chocolate chip card base.

For the main image, I stamped 2 of the leaves from autumn splendor in chocolate chip on more mustard and really rust cardstock and cut them out. I sponged chocolate chip around the edges and popped them up on a piece of more mustard layered on vanilla and chocolate chip. I left the chocolate piece a little longer so I could add a row of gold brads.

I stamped a phrase from pocket silhouettes and punched it out with my word window punch, added some sponged chocolate chip and popped it up.

I really like how the card turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by.