Whoosh....It's Almost Christmas!

Seems as though we just got started on 2016....and here we are at Christmas 2016 already!  WHERE does the time go!  I've been SO busy since Thanksgiving!  There were presents to buy, house to decorate, food to cook, presents to wrap, company coming, baking yet to be done, birthdays galore...and more! I hosted the annual Christmas party for the widows group from my church...we had 16 in attendance.  I cooked a great meal for everyone, we played games, wrote Christmas cards to the home bound folks from church, and did a lot of talking and visiting.  After 4 hours, I was exhausted!...but a good kind of exhausted ♥

In between all these chores (okay, some of the chores were fun☺), I managed to make a few Christmas cards (which I've yet to address and mail!)...Thought I'd share them with you today.  This will be a PHOTO HEAVY post for sure! To view any of the cards larger, just click on the image.

 
I'd list all the products used for the cards, but you'd still be trying to read through this blog post next week!  So....if you have any questions about products or techniques on any of the cards, just click on the envelope at the top of the blog that says contact me, and shoot me an email with your question and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

If you've hung in this long...you're a real trooper!  Thanks a $Million!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

LIM #299 - Acetate or Vellum

It's been a while since I've played along with the Less is More Challenge.  This week the challenge is to use acetate or vellum on a card.

Here's my take on this week's challenge...

I guess it's been a while since I made a card...this card took me ALL day long to finish!  I have no idea why it was so slow!  

This is a new die from Hero Arts...cut twice (once in red and another in white) and layered slightly off center.  I cut an aperture from the center of a card panel with a stitched circle die (also cut the edges with a stitched-edged rectangle die).  The holly leaves were cut with a very OLD die that I'm not even sure where I got it! I backed the circle with a piece of vellum, then stamped part of the sentiment with Stazon ink and added the layered "joy".  The leaves were colored with Copics and I added some Wink of Stella for a little shine. For berries, I used red pearls.  Popped the panel with craft foam....and done!

I really loved the end result...just took me a while to get there! LOL!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #32 and The Flower Challenge #1

This is my second post for today....I have a two cards to share with you...one for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #32 and the other for a new challenge at The Flower Challenge #1.....So let's get started!

     

This was a fun card to create.  I haven't done much ink blending lately (mostly because I've been playing with my water colors!).  I masked off the rectangle in the center with some post-it tape and blended some distress inks (candy apple red, carved pumpkin, and squeezed lemonade).  I removed the post-it tape and stamped the silhouette image from Paper Smooches in versafine black.  After making sure the distress ink was completely dry, I stamped the sentiment from SSS and heat embossed it in white. I added the faux stitched border with a dark orange memento marker.  Super simple card...but I love how it turned out.

And now...here's the card for the Flower Challenge....

I absolute LOVE this flower from Penny Black!  I stamped it on Bristol paper and colored it with Zig Clean Color Markers.  Then....I fussy cut this flower!  Those tiny stems are VERY fragile!  I also used a black marker to color all of the edges of the image after I cut it out.  I cut a panel of white card stock about 4 x 5.5 inches and used an embossing folder (Tim Holtz, I think) to emboss the bricks.  I cut the center of the panel out using an oval die from Spellbinders BEFORE putting it in the embossing folder.  I used a little distress ink on the card base for the background and some splatters from the ink as well as some water splatters.  The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter...stamped in black.  I fussy cut the word hello and then cut a small rectangle for the word friend. Both words are adhered directly to the brick panel. I slipped the flower behind the oval and popped ups the blooms with some foam tape. I added a dark pink border down each sided of the card (it actually matches the blooms IRL!).

I know I'm going to ♥love♥ this flower challenge!  It seems that most of my cards feature a flower of some kind! ♥

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

CAS Watercolour Challenge #1 and One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #32

There's a new challenge this month - the CAS Watercolour Card Challenge.  I've been working on my water coloring skills.  I'm beginning to see some improvement.  I also love the colors of Autumn! The second card also meets the requirements for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge this month.

    

Here's my first card for the challenge....

I LOVE this card.  The colors are so rich and vibrant!  For the water color on this card, I used a panel of Bristol paper and stamped the image multiple times (using a mask for some of the leaves) in Versafine black ink (which is a great ink for water colors).  I colored the leaves with a red, orange, yellow, and green Zig Clean Color markers, then used my Silver #4 brush and water to blend the colors together a bit.  You might notice that there is one leaf popped up over the other leaves...that one was stamped on another piece of Bristol paper and hand cut.  The stamp is from SU...one I've had forever in my stash...but I use it often. After coloring all the leaves, I used a stitched rectangle for SSS to trim it down a bit.  I backed it with a piece of dark brown and adhered it to a white card base.The sentiment is also from SSS. It's a little difficult to see on here, but I added some Wink of Stella to each of the leaves.  

And...here's my second card for the CAS Watercolour Card Challenge...which also works for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge this month.

Same leaf stamp...different water coloring technique.  I colored the leaf with water color crayons in red, orange, and yellow.  I haven't really tried using the water color crayons before and wasn't sure what I would get.  I practiced on some scrap card stock first...and trust me...it makes a LOT of difference how much water you spritz on the stamp after you color it with the crayons.  You really need to let the water sit on the stamp for a little bit before you try to stamp with it.  You can also get second and third generation images with this technique.  After I had stamped each of these leaves, the card just seem to need something else, so I added some splatters with "ink" I created with the same crayons used for coloring the stamp. This is also a one layer card.

I'm really going to love this challenge because it keeps me using my water colors!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Lots to Share....

First of all...I must warn you....this is a VERY photo-heavy post! 

I've been extremely busy making cards, and just never could get around to posting them.  I needed quite a few cards for the widow's group meeting this month, as we ended up mailing out almost 30 cards to the home bound members from our church.  

So...off we go...and I'll give a brief description for each card, but as always, if you have specific questions, use the contact me button on my blog and I will get back with you as soon as possible.  

Water color with Zig clean color brushes on Bristol paper, mounted on a pink background. Added drops of irResistable.  

One layer card, stamped with Harvest berries from PTI in shades of blue from Hero Arts.  Sentiment is from a very old Flourishes stamp set. Berries are coated with glossy accents and a little wink of stella added to the leaves.

Image cut with Silhouette Cameo, colored with Copics and adhered to card base...with flowers popped off the paper with foam tape.  Sentiment is from SSS.

Image from SU on Bristol paper, and colored with Zig Clean Color brushes.  Sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Added wink of stella on the blooms.

Same image...another color and colored this time with Copics.

Image from SSS and sentiment is from PTI.  Stamped on Bristol paper and colored with Zig Clean Color brushes.  Popped on a deep purple background.

Image from Power Poppy, brought into Silhouette program and made a cut file to cut the flowers out. Printed the sentiment from Silhouette and cut out the oval on the card panel. Put the flowers inside the oval and inked the card base (background) with Distress Inks.

Image from Uniko. Stamped the flower in black, and added the stem with a Copic multi-liner pen. Sentiment is from Jillybean Soup and is stamped in Versafine black.  Added quite a few dots of irResistable drops.

LOVE this (digi) image...from Power Poppy.  I also have this as a Flourishes stamp that I bought years ago (same artist), but I'm able to resize the digi to fit (can't do that with a regular stamp).  Printed this out on water color paper (Canson), and colored it with Inktense water color pencils and then used a water brush to smooth out the pencil and add shading. Sentiment is part of the digi image download. To be able to print both the image and the sentiment at the same time, use something like Photoshop Elements to change the background on the apples to transparent, then when you put the sentiment to the back layer, the two images do not overlap.  When changing the background to a transparent background, you have to save the image as a .png file.  I wasn't able to change the background on the sentiment as the lines are so small, but just taking the white background off the apple image allowed me to print both images at the same time.  I'm sure to some of you this sounds like a foreign language...LOL! But...to those of you that use Photoshop Elements, you'll know what I'm talking about.  Remember...you can learn almost anything watching YouTube videos!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

More Water Coloring....

Still playing with my water colors.  I'm also loving the digi Power Poppy Tulip I just got!  It's so easy to color!  So, if you can stand a little more water coloring...here we go..

I printed the image with my laser printer in the center of a landscape piece of water color paper.  I sized the image to about 5 inches square.  I colored the image using my Koi water colors, which I haven't used very much at all, but I wanted to see if they blended as well as the Zig Clean Color brushes.  After coloring, I cut the image in half.  By printing in the middle of a piece of water color paper, I had enough white space on either side for the card.  It's a bit of a waste of water color paper, but definitely worth it!

When I colored this image with the Zig Clean Color brushes, I painted pink and purple-ish tulips, so this time, I decided to go with tulips in shades of yellow/peachy/golden.  I also painted the pitcher kind of like an earthenware color.  I might just master (okay, that's a little strong!) get better at this water coloring if I keep practicing!

This is another image from Power Poppy - Rose and Chamomile Digi.  I printed the sentiment and the image on a piece of water color paper, then printed the image one more time on water color paper.  I colored the image with Koi water colors, then cut it out and popped it over the printed image on the card panel. I added a light wash of light blue to the background, and a few dots of Nuvo.  There are also some "dew drops" on the petals of the flower, but they didn't photograph well.

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

LIM 291 - Let's Use Stickers!

The challenge this week at Less is More is encouraging me to reach back into my stash and find those stickers (that I just HAD to have) I've had for years!  And do I have a stash of stickers! I must have thought there was going to be a shortage of stickers in the future! As many of you know, if you normally read my blog, I can rarely just stop at one card....so, this time I've made 4 cards for the LIM challenge!  Let me show you....

Making the card wasn't nearly as difficult as deciding which stickers I wanted to use! LOL!  This card features a single tulip bloom.  I stuck the sticker on a piece of white card stock, then cut it out with a MFT double stitched die.  I backed it with a thin strip of red, then another of white before popping it on another MFT double stitched square.  The sentiment is from SSS Uplifting Thoughts.

This card made me happy when I finished it.  The flowers are one big sticker that I adhered to the corner of a white card panel. I cut the panel with a stitched border die (SSS), then added a tiny red border to the panel (to bring out the red lady bugs).  Sentiment is from SSS Uplifting Thoughts. I absolutely LOVED how that sticker looked once the panel was trimmed!

My photographing skills definitely need some work!  My Ott light that I normally use when photographing my cards, suddenly went out and I don't have a replacement bulb.  So...I had to improvise! All the card stock used for these cards are a bright white...not a dull yellow/beige! The peace sentiment is a sticker on this card.  I cut the oval with a Spellbinder die, then cut another oval slightly larger and popped the sentiment on the second (gold) oval.  I dry embossed the card panel with a snowflake embossing folder that I really like. (I have NO idea who makes this embossing folder!).  I added a small gold border with the same card stock that I used for the larger oval and adhered it to a white card base.

This is actually the first card I made, and I wasn't overly thrilled with it.  I have a MILLION (well, maybe not quite that many!) of these Me and My Big Idea stick children.  I love the cute images, but I don't like that the edges of the sticker show.  Sentiment is from PTI.  I inked a small hill with distress ink so that she didn't look like she was just hanging in the air. I cut the card panel with a stitched rectangle die from SSS and adhered it to a white card base.

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

A Little More Practice with Water Colors

I watched a tutorial over at Splitcoaststampers called Palette Blending by Dina Kowal.  This is the same image she used.  I learned quite a bit from this video...you might want to check it out.

This is actually one digi image from Power Poppy called Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher.  She really has some beautiful digi images there.  I printed this image on water color paper on my laser printer.  I printed it rather large and printed it in landscape mode so that I would have plenty of white space on either side of it, because I wanted to be able to cut the image in half and make two cards with the one image.  Dina Kowal also cut her image in half and made two cards.  

I used my Zig Clean Color markers to color this image and it actually went fairly quickly.  The sentiments are from PTI - Everyday Blessings.  I felt like this bit of water coloring was a little better than previous efforts.  I'm slowly but surely getting there!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Addicted to CAS and LIM 290

I spent a little time in my craft room today...and made a card for the challenge at Addicted to CAS and the current challenge at Less is More.

As it turns out, I made a card with a "silhouette" on my Silhouette Cameo for the challenge at Addicted to CAS!

I cut the beach scene with the Cameo. The design is from the Silhouette store Design #2666.  I cut it from black card stock.  I used distress inks to blend the background, masking off the sun with a circle cut from a post it note.  After I finished inking the background, I removed the mask and added a bit of mustard seed DI to the sun so that it wouldn't be stark white.  The sentiment is from TPC Studio stamps and is heat embossed in white on the black silhouette piece.  The silhouette was popped off the sunset panel with foam tape. 

The second card is for the challenge at Less is More.  The theme this week is Exotic.  That was definitely a brain teaser for me!  Of course, after I made this card, I remembered that I do have some panda stamps! Duh!  Anyway, this image is a coloring book image I downloaded from the Internet.  I printed the image and the sentiment and colored it with Copic markers.  This is a one-layer card. I had to look up the bird to see what color they actually are, so he's probably not perfect, but he's close!

I used Aloha for the sentiment, thinking it meant "hello" or "goodbye" in Hawaiian, but then did a little research and this is what I discovered.  "The real meaning of Aloha in Hawaiian is that of Love, Peace, and Compassion.  It’s the guidelines of how to live – a life of Aloha is one when the heart is so full it is overflowing with the ability to influence others around you with your spirit."

I like Aloha even better now that I know that it's not used to mean hello or goodbye!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!