Black & White Card

Hi, the current challenge over at the Unity (Shoe & Tell)

Facebook page is to make a card using only black & white.

It sounded interesting so I thought I would give it a try

and here is white I came up with. 

The flower image is from the Dec 2017 KOTM called 

"Start of Something New" and the sentiment I

stamped and heat embossed, is from the set

called "Butterflies and Sunbeams"

The lacey back piece is a die from Gina Marie and it

cut from a pearly white piece of paper, the sentiment is

on the same paper. You can't see it in the picture but

the whole center piece is pop dotted for a bit of dimension.

Now I thought it would be fun to do one with the colors

opposite, so here it is.

So tell me which one do you like better.  I think I

am leaning towards the first one.

Thanks for stopping by.

Playing with my Distress Oxides (again)

Hi, I had a little fun yesterday doing some

ink smooching with Distress Oxides.

 The colors I used are Squeezed Lemonade, Candied Apple and 

Faded Jeans.  I smooched some of each color onto a 

piece of acetate, sprayed it liberally with water and then

turned it over and placed on watercolor paper.  I put a large

clear acrylic block over the acetate so I could get even pressure and

since it was a clear block I could see the colors moving.

I stamped the flower from the Unity Stamp set "Rebuild Your Life" and

heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.

I went back after it was all dried and re-wet the flower area

with a water brush, let it sit for about 20-30 seconds and then

dabbed it with a paper towel to lift a bit of the color off.

I hope you like my card.

Challenges entered

Unity Show & Tell - CAS - Facebook page

Addicted to Stamps - CAS - ends 7/10

Crafting by Design - anything goes - ends 7/31

Creative Moments - anything goes/summer - ends 7/9

  

Sparkly Bettie Bow

Hi, it is that time of the month again over at the 

Crafting Circle for this month's Crafty Awesomeness Challenge.

This month our challenge is Digistamps4Joy and I have to tell

you I had never heard of them till they came to be our sponsor.

There is pages and pages of images to chose from, make sure you

go check them out.

So here is my project using the Bettie Bow image, she is

just so sweet.

I wanted to do something a bit sassy so I chose some bold

colors.  I love the combination of red & turquoise.   I knew I wanted

red and something, I tossed around yellow or blue in my head but I

am glad I decided on this combination.

I colored her using my Copic markers and then add some sparkle

to the bows with my SpectrumNoir Sparkle pen, unfortunately,

 it does not show up in the picture.  I stamped a Penny Black sentiment

using Catherine Poolers ink called "All that Jazz" and then heat embossed it with sparkle embossing powder on the circle die cuts.  I then cut out the image using a wonky stitched die and mounted it on to red & turquoise paper which

I distressed the edges.  The base of the card are papers from an

old DCWV pack. 

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog, make sure you go

and play along with the 

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge.

Silver & Gold Christmas

Gosh, has it really been that long since I posted last? 😏

Well Thanksgiving time kept me pretty busy, then

I had a surprise visit from my son and his fiance, it was a 

fabulous surprise and it was so nice to see them.  

Once I got back to crafting after all that it took me a bit to get rolling again.

I was able to get this Christmas card done using Unity stamps

and "no red or green" for their current challenge on Facebook.

Every year I usually make a Christmas card without the traditional

Christmas colors, but for some reason, this one stumped me

until I ran across this beautiful papers that my son-in-law 

had given me.  He works in a print shop and everyone while in a while

he will bring me some fabulous papers.  The silver paper on this

card has a metallic pearl-like finish to it and the gold is very

sparkly.   I stamped the tree and the saying using Versamark

ink pad and then embossed with a golden champagne-like color.

Both of the stamps are from the September Kit of the Month

from Unity stamps. Now parts of the merry didn't stamp out

all the way or very clear but that is the way the stamp

was made, it kind of messes with my OCD on everything

be stamped perfectly.

I embossed the silver panel and then added a  strip in

ribbon/chain along the side of the card.

Thank you for stopping by, I am so behind on my Christmas cards

I really need to get going. 

Snowman Couple

Hi, it is that time of the month again (oh no not that time lol)

for the Bugaboo Crafty Challenge over at the 

Crafting Circle.

Each month starting on the 15th we have a challenge that is 

sponsored by Bugaboo where you just need to color up a

Bugaboo image and enter it in the challenge. 

Don't have any Bugaboo images, no problem Bugaboo offers

                         a freebie every Friday and if you look around I am 

                                sure you will find some images you like. 

So for my card this month I chose to use this adorable little

Snowman Couple.

 Aren't they just the cutest?  Well there is a reason I chose this image

beside their cuteness is, recently my son got engaged and I thought this

would make the perfect Christmas card to send them for their

1st Christmas as an engaged couple. 

I struggled so much on how I wanted to do this card, first I was going to

put them in a snowglobe and make a shaker card, but decided not too

because I didn't want them to be covered with things.

I was trying to keep it rather simple.   I randomly stamped on white paper

with a couple of snowflake stamps from the October 

Unity Kit of the Month and also some Hero Arts stamps

then I heat embossed them with white glossy

embossing powder.  

I colored the snow couple using my Copic markers and accented with some

glitter pens on the ornaments.  Her hat I added white fluff to

the band and the ball on the top, a couple details that are hard

to see in the picture.  Then I cut the image out using a

Gina Marie die that actually embosses the edges.

I then created a label in Cricut Design Space and wrote

out the Merry Christmas using my Explore and a black

Pilot Precision V5 pen.  Then fit right in your Explore

and I love the fine line they write with.

I pop dotted both the image and the label to give it some dimension.

Well thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and visit my

blog.  Head on over the Bugaboo Crafty Challenge and join in

the fun. 

Coloring on Red

                    You know all the rage right now is coloring on kraft cardstock me

included love it.  I love the look, I love the way the color lays down, 

I just love everything about it. 

So I recently ran across where someone colored on colored paper,

I believe what I saw was blue.

Well I recently got my Perfect Poinsettia set of stamps from

Gina K so I thought it would be perfect to give it a try

to color on red.  So for my project this month over

at the Crafty Awesomeness Challenge I made this card.

I stamped the poinsettias and heat embossed them in gold.  This set

of stamps is actually a multi-step set of stamps, much like the truck one I did HERE.  For this card, I only used the lined/detailed stamp.

I colored in the poinsettias using my Polychromo pencils.

I love pink poinsettias so that was actually my driving factor

to color on red paper.

I die cut the Merry Christmas using a GinaMarie die.  I thought it needed something so I covered it in Versamark ink and then heat embossed

it using clear embossing powder.  It made it stand out a bit more. 

I then mounted the red panel on gold foil paper to pick up the gold

embossing.  I am slowly making a dent in my Christmas

cards but still have a way to go.

Sorry this post is late, it was just one of those times where

I couldn't get it together in time.  I had the card all finished

but had to sit down and type up this blog post.

Thanks for stopping by and remember to head over to

the Crafty Awesomeness Challenge where it is

and anything goes challenge so come on over and let's see what you got.

A Couple of Christmas Cards

Hi, I have two Christmas cards to share with you.

Well, they are pretty much both the same just in different colors.

I created the card following the sketch this week over at

Retro Rubber Challenges.

I was looking at the sketch trying to figure out what I was going to do, I actually set up a cut file in Cricut Design space.  Then I was looking through my Christmas stamps when I ran across this Unity Stamps Christmas tree
stamp from last year, so I thought well I will just flip this sketch on its side.
I rarely do this, normally I follow the sketch to a "T" but I thought
this was the perfect stamp. 
So here is what I came up with.

Red version, trees are stamped using the trees that were in
the Joyous Season set from October of 2016.  This one was stamped
using Catherine Pooler ink "Rockin Red" and heat embossed with clear.
The Merry Christmas is from a Hero Arts set from 2014, that I heat embossed with gold.

And the green version, I stamped using Distress Ink "Mowed Lawn" and
heat embossed with clear.  The Merry Christmas on this one I cut from gold
foil paper using a Gina Marie die.

The background paper on both cards is from a paper stack
from K&Company named Yuletide.  I have had this paper for several years.

This card was easy to create and I can see mass producing these to get
ahead on my Christmas cards for this year. 

Challenges entered:

A Snowflakes Promise - anything goes - ends - 11/13

Creates and Makes - anything goes - ends 11/27

Lemon Shortbread - anything goes - ends 11/6

Hot & Spicy - Color Challenge

What a fun challenge this is.  Over at Less is More color challenge

this time the colors are "hot & spicy".  As soon as I saw this I knew exactly what

stamp I wanted to use. 

We recently took a trip over to Hatch New Mexico to pick up some chile

peppers (they are the best from there), once you see those strings of

red chile you know that Fall is here.

First off this challenge is all about simple or less is more as the

name states so I kept these cards as simple as possible. 

The string of chiles is a stamp from Mark's Finest Stamps, I bought this several years ago with the intention to use it on a Christmas card.  Living in Arizona I thought it worked well.

I colored the chiles with my Zig Clean Color brush markers, I tried

to leave some yellow showing but got a little too heavy handed with the red but it still looks good.  The Merry Christmas is a Hero Arts stamp

that I stamped in black and then heat embossed clear.

The second one I wanted to try and add a little more sparkle or elegance

to it, so I stamped it and heat embossed it in gold. I colored this

one using several Copic markers.

I fussy cut out the peppers but am going to work on trying to

scan in the image and cut it out with my Cricut Explore or Silhouette Cameo.

I would like to mass produce these so it would be very helpful if I can

get that figured out.

So what do you think, is that Hot & Spicy enough for you.

Leave me a comment and let me know which you like better.

I am so sad to say that when I went to link up Mark's Finest Stamps I

discovered that they have closed, such a shame but glad I

have the stamps I do have.

Challenges entered:

Less is More - hot & spicy colors - ends 10/13

Aurora Winds - clean & simple - ends 10/14

Color Inspiration - hand-colored image - ends 10/31

Scrapbook Stamp Society - anything goes optional Autumn - ends 10/22

Oh What a Challenge!

Oh, boy what a challenge our fearless leader from the 

Crafting Circle put on us this month. 

You know you see all these white on white card (which I

really love) but I struggle with sometimes.

Well so being the person our leader MsWipz is she

has placed a challenge on us to use

BLACK on BLACK!!!!  Or she gave us some lea way

to do any tone on tone color if you got too freaked

out from black on black, LOL.

Me being me I had to follow the first challenge that she placed

on us, black on black.

Here is what I came up with.

Can we say, WOW!

I was so pleased, thrilled, overjoyed and shock at how well this turned out.

I Just made a black card base and then randomly stamped an image

from the Beautiful World stamp of approval collection, after I was

done stamping I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

In order to carry out the black theme, I stamped my sentiment in white on

a stitched die from Gina Marie. 

I got so excited on how this one came out I thought I would try it

with another color.

For this one I stamped on royal blue with a background stamp

from The Ton, this stamp is called Peony Garden.

You have to go and check out their stamps, they have some amazing

background stamps and they are a full 6 x 6 so it will cover your entire card.

I stamped my sentiment this time on a piece of pearl vellum.

Well this is really a fun challenge so head on over to the 

Crafting Circle and join in the Crafty Awesomeness Challenge. 

Kraft and White Challenge

Hi, the card I have to share with you today is for the color

challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays.

The challenge is to use 

What a great combination, lately I have really enjoyed working

with kraft cardstock.  You can get some really neat effects coloring on it,

but for this one there is no coloring.

A very simple card but I think has a big impact.

I embossed the background with a Cuttlebug folder, then the kraft panel I cut out using a Gina Marie cross stitched die.  I stamped the flower using a Unity stamp and heat embossed it in white.  The sentiment is from the last Stamp of Approval box that was also heat embossed in white.  I added a few sequins to give it 

just a touch of sparkle.

Well that is it, head on over to CAS-ual Fridays and join in the fun

and see what you can come up with.

Challenges entered:

CAS-ual Fridays - kraft & white - ends 9/5

Scrapbook Stamp Society - anything goes - ends 9/10

Pammies Inky Pinkie - anything goes - ends 9/3

A Very Large Poppy

Hi, I have a couple cards to share with you today that are using the

same stamp.  The poppy stamp is from IndiGo Blu and is very large.

The first one I stamped and heat embossed in black on watercolor

paper and then let the water and my Zig Clean Color do the

magic and work together.

The colors look so much brighter in person.  After it was all colored I

hand cut around it and then pop dotted it onto black card stock.  I mounted

the whole thing onto some salmon colored card stock to pick up some of the colors from the poppy.

The second card was also stamped onto watercolor paper and this time heat embossed in gold.  I am not real wild about it embossed in gold as there is so

much detail on this stamp that you just lose some of the definition.

Ths one I colored using Ken Oliver Color Burst powders.   I think I will have to try this again using a different color embossing.  I like to heat emboss when I use

water and watercolor as it somewhat contains the colors when they flow. 

I stamped the birthday wishes then cut them using a Gina Marie die and pop mounted them.

Well thanks for stopping by and checking out my two cards using the same stamp

but with totally different looks.

Challenges entered:

Pink Gem Challenges - birthday wishes - ends 8/17

Crafty Friends - anything goes - ends 8/24

Scrappers Delight - anything goes - ends 8/21

Beautiful You Flowers

Hi I have a shaped card to share with you today.

I love how it turned out.

I set up the cut file in Cricut Design space and cut it out with my Explore.

I then used temporary adhesive and stacked the 3 white pieces and stamped them

with stamps from the Catherine Pooler "Beautiful You" stamp set.

I stamped and heat embossed in white then using a technique I learned from

I thought from Laurel Beard but I could not find it to link it here.

Anywho, I randomly scribbled down colors I wanted to use then liberally sprayed it with water and let the colors move and blend on their own.

I then layered the white pieces onto the matted pink layer.

And that is it, hope you like my card, would love to hear your thoughts.

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

It is that time again for a new challenge over at the

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge.

Here is my project I created using a Unity Stamp from

the "Remembering You Blooms" and background

paper from A Bit More Time to Craft.

I was able to combine both my 1st of the month DT projects into one,

love when that happens.

I stamped the flowers and heat embossed them in gold, then watercolored them 

with a combination of Catherine Pooler Inks and my Zig Clean Color markers.

I backed the image using an oval die from Gina Marie dies. 

I cut the tab/banner at the bottom using another Gina Marie die and stamped

it and heat embossed it in white.  I edged the pattern paper using a Fiskars

punch to give it a bit of interest.

And that's it!.  So head on over to the

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge and join in the fun.

Also, make sure you go and check out the great digital papers over

at A Bit More Time to Craft and join in the challenge there. 

Naturally Inspired Card

Well hello, everyone.  I am super excited because my

new Stamp of Approval box arrived yesterday.

This "Naturally Inspired" collection has so many awesome

goodies in it the possibilities are endless.

I had a sketch I wanted to do and it was PERFECT for using

some of the goodies on the box.

Here is the sketch............

I knew the Lattice die was exactly the shape of that center piece.

I stamped the background piece of the panel using the cross-hatch
stamp in the new Catherine Pooler ink color All that Jazz that came
in the box.  The flowers were stamped and cut out using the matching dies.
Then I stamped the "birthday wishes" and heat embossed it in white.
All those things came in the SOA box and oh so many many more.
I am sure I will be back soon to share another project I make using
some more of the elements int he Naturally Inspired box.
Thanks for stopping by.

Wishing you a Beautiful Day

Hello everyone, hope you all are having a fabulous weekend.

Here is Arizona I am so ready for Summer to be over and

finally have our temperatures drop below 100.

I recently saw a video on Catherine Pooler's blog where she 

made a card using Brusho Powders. Well, I don't have any Brusho but I do have Ken Oliver Color Burst which is basically the same thing.

Here is a link to her video if you want to check it out, click

HERE to watch it. 

Since I recently had surgery on my hand and can't really color I thought

this was something I could do because it just has to be sprayed with water.

So here is my take on it. 

The feathers are stamped on Canson mixed media paper using a Unity Stamp and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I then wet the stamped area with

plain water then sprinkled my Color Burst powders on it.    I sprayed it with more water to make the colors blend and move some more, then to add more sparkle I sprayed it with diamond Glimmer Mist spray.  Lastly, I splattered some

dark gray spot on it.  I have to tell you then when I finished with the coloring

I thought yuck, this came out awful.  I went ahead and mounted the piece on a piece of very dark gray paper and I think it made the whole thing pop. 

I stamped the sentiment in white on the same dark gray paper and pop dotted it 

on the front.  After it was all together I really liked it.

The colors are so much prettier in person and sparkly.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you think of my version

of watercoloring with Color Burst powders.  

Challenges entered:

Creative Artist - Anything goes mixed media ends 8/29

Creative Fingers - Anything goes ends 8/31

Patties Creations - Anything goes ends 9/1

Simply Create - Use feathers ends 8/31

Art by Miran - Anything goes ends 8/31
Tuesday Throwdown - Make it Sparkle ends 8/30

Tulips for your Birthday

Hello, well here we are at August 1st already, it's my birthday month.

Today I have a card to share with you as part of the 

Design Team at the Crafty Awesomeness Challenge at the Crafting Circle.

This month our sponsor is PowerPoppy so I used the Tulip image

to create this card.

I just love this image and it was so easy to color.  I used my Zig Clean Color markers to color the tulips and boy do I love them.  The more I use them the more I like them.   Once I colored them I used my Spellbinders to cut them out.

The banners at the time I cut using my Cricut Explore and the side green piece was cut using a corner die from My Little Paper World.  I really like these corner dies.  

The happy birthday is also a die cut out that I heat embossed using gold embossing powder.

I made the card following last weeks sketch over at

Mojo Monday.

Also, I am hosting the sketch challenge this month on the Crafting Circle message board and this is one of the 4 sketches I am using.  

We always have an extra credit or two to help inspire you and

learn new things.  My extra credit to add some shiny gold to one

of your cards.  So that challenge is just getting started so head

on over and enjoy the fun.  You have all month long to play along.

So there is a lot going on but mostly head on over and check out 

PowerPoppy's stamps.  Marcella has both digital format and 

clear stamps.  I am sure once you go there and take a look around you will love what you see.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you join in on one of the challenges.

Heat it Up!.............

.....................that is the challenge this week at Crafty Creations.  Heat embossing, use heat embossing on your project and enter it in the challenge this week, our sponsor is Pattie's Creations.  You could win some of her digital images.
PATTIES CREATIONS:

This is a great challenge at least for me as I heat emboss 99% of the time I stamp.  But to make it a bit more challenging I wanted to use one of the digital images from Pattie's Creations so I printed it using my home printer on heavy vellum and immediately sprinkled it with black sparkle embossing powder as soon as it came out of the printer, then heat embossed it.  This works with paper that does not absorb the ink right away, but you have to be fast with the embossing powder, best to have it ready with the lid off and sprinkle it on.
Here is my card.

I place the printed butterfly vellum over a pretty piece of flowered paper from the K&Company "Best of Brenda Walton" stack, punched the corners and accented it with a piece of lilac ribbon.  The "with sympathy" was stamped and heat embossed.
Here is a close up of the butterfly, maybe you can see the heat embossing here.

It is always nice to have sympathy cards on hand when the need arises and I thought the butterfly image was perfect for a sympathy card.

The inside was done very simply to write a hand written note or stamp a sentiment later.
So glad you stopped by, be sure and leave me a comment so that I know you were here.  And would love to see you join in the fun at Crafty Creations Challenge this week.

A Lovely Simple Card

I had such a hard time putting this card together but in the end I am happy with how it turned out.  I guess I had a hard time because my mojo was a bit gone and my mind kept jumping around.  Yikes!
This card was made following one of the sketches this week at Raqs Challenge on the Cricut message board.

 

I cut out several things as I was trying to make a decorative frame around the card.  So here is what I did and I wish I had taken photos as I went along (I will try and remember to do that), I love using Stretch Your Imagination for its frames.  The loopy white area is one of the frames on Stretch Your Imagination but the center of it is rectangular and I wanted it to be oval so using my Gypsy I placed an oval shape from George over the rectangle and hid some of the cuts I didn't need cut.  When I do something I usually cut it from just plain inexpensive white cardstock  to see if it is what I really want.  I have a hard time just seeing it on the screen, I need the actual piece, I know the Gypsy is suppose to help you not have to do that to save paper but I still like to see it, plus having a cut out helps me pick out my papers to use.   I liked the way this one looked and liked the size which is 5 1/2 inch square so I decided to use this and started to look for papers.  Well still I am always trying things and playing around I took the frame cutout and covered it with Versamark watermark ink and sprinkled it with white pearl embossing powder and heated it.  I like the way the color looked so I found a paper that went well with the pearl look.   So in this case my sample cut was not a waste.  Of course they never are a waste as I have a tray I throw them in and then split them up and give them to my two sister-in-laws that I got into card making.  The love getting their packets now and then. :)  The background paper I chose is from DCWV Luxury stack, as it has a pearl like shimmer to it.
For the center oval I did the same thing, cutting it out of plain white paper till I got the size and shape I wanted.  The scalloped part was cut from Ashley's Alphabet , and the back part from George.  What would I do without good old George.   The center part I did cut out on an iovry pearl paper and then stamped it with a Gina K stampe from the Hugs & Paryers set and heat embossed it with Champagne Pearl powder.  The scalloped part again I covered with Versamark and covered it with the same Champagne powder, however I did it three times on this to give it a very smooth almost look of metal.  I pop dotted the oval to give the card more depth.  Here is a closer look.

Now I wish I would have given the frame an additional coat of powder.   I also saved the negative cuts (pieces left on the mat) using tacky drywall tape.  I will use it someday on another card.  Here is a picture of it on the tacky mess, I also prayed it with Glimmer Mist to give it a golden orange color.

Well thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my card.  I would love to hear what you think. Thanks

I will be putting this into the following challenges.
Crafty Catz - Anything goes
Paper Play - Sparkle Galore
Paper Pretties - Flowers
Papertake Weekly  - Grow - Bloom

Fall Birthday Card

This card was made following the Ad Color Challenge and using one of the sketches from RAQs Challenge this week on the Cricut message board.  I loved the way the colors looked together and my son-in-laws birthday is in November so I thought it would make a perfect birthday card for him.  I did use the Cricut to cut the rectangles because you are suppose to use your Cricut in these challenges.

It is a very simple card, but I think very comforting looking (I almost made it a Sympathy card), the colors just give it such a soothing look.  I stamped the leaves with a Martha Stewart leaves set, the white leaves on the brown is embossed with white Puffs embossing powder, it puffed but not too much, this was my first time using it.  The off white paper I stamped with Pumpkin ink and heat embossed.   The happy birthday is also stamped and embossed.  I rarely stamp without embossing unless, I am going to be coloring the image.  I just prefer the look of embossed stamping.  I then used my i-Rock :) tool to added orange jewels place around on the card.  The happy birthday and the off white square are pop dotted so they stick out a little.
I did the inside and will stamp a sentiment when I am ready to use it.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peak at my blog.  I would love to have you as a follower.