Sending Hugs - (CTD390)

Hello there!  It's Wednesday and time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge.

 Today I'm sharing two cards that I created for our colors this week, for both cards I used the Concord & 9th stamp set Wildflower.  For my first card, I used the inspiration photo (above) I liked the clusters of flowers flowing down the cake.  I stamped my flowers using Versa Mark ink and heat embossed them with white embossing powder, then used my Gansai Tambi to watercolor.  For my sentiment I used the My Favorite Things stamp set Label Maker Sentiments which I stamped in enchanted evening ink.  I trimmed down my watercolor panel and adhered it to a more mustard card base and added some white sequins to finish it off. This second card I almost didn't post, then I thought why not, it might not be my favorite of the two cards but I had fun playing and exploring with a few techniques.  Like my first card I heat embossed my flowers with white embossing powder and then watercolored them.  Then surrounding my flowers I added in a wash of dark blue watercolor.  Once all of that was dry, I used a MFT Diagonal Bars stencil and some chipped sapphire distress ink to stencil ink over top of the dark blue watercoloring.  To make the flowers a little more intense in color, I also sponged on some wild honey distress ink over the yellow flowers and the same chipped sapphire on the blue flowers.  For my sentiment I used the Concord & 9th Sophisticated Script set on vellum and heat embossed in white and used the same Label Maker Sentiments from my first card for the "sending". For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Amy Rohl - April Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Flourish - (CTD389)

Hello there!  It's time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge.

For my card I used the new Concord & 9th, Flourish stamp set along with Sophisticated Script for my sentiment.  There was just something about this pretty floral set that made me want it, it has a romantic old fashion feel in my opinion and I love the fact that you can build using the different stamps from the set.

To create my card, I inked up each of the stamps, one at a time with the following distress ink colors and then misted the inked up stamp with water before stamping: crushed olive, picked raspberry, worn lipstick and spiced marmalade.  I also cleaned the large stem stamp and inked up just a portion of the leaves and added two extra leave images and flowers.  Once my stamping was done, I misted my watercolor paper and took a paint brush and ran it around the edges of some of the flowers to soften the edges.  When I first saw the Sophisticated Script set I was a little intimidated thinking it would be hard to line up and stamp with but boy was I wrong, it was so easy stamping the hello sentiment on my card.  I know I'll use this set for years to come, it has such a beautiful handwritten look to it.  Once all of my stamping was done, I used foam tape and adhered it to my card front which I had added a strip of black cardstock to, and then I added on some iridescent sequins.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Amy Rohl - April Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Happy Birthday Cheeky Monkey

Hi there!  I'm popping in with a quick card that I created using the My Favorite Things Cheeky Monkey stamp set and the current MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #276. I started out my card by stamping and die cutting these cute monkey images along with the bananas and then coloring them with Copic markers.  I kept my card clean and simple with the focus on the images.  On my main panel, I stamped the happy birthday from the MFT Adorable Elephant set and then only inking up a portion of the "you're a cheeky monkey" sentiment from the Cheeky Monkey set I stamped under the happy birthday.  I added a strip of orange polka dot designer paper along with some orange & hot pink cardstock to the bottom portion of my card and two pink banners along the top and then added some pink and white bakers twine.  Next I added my monkey's, popping up the bottom one with foam tape.  To finish off my card, I added the bananas and a few yellow enamel dots. Thanks for stopping by!

Wildflower in Blue

Hi!  Today I've got a watercolored thinking of you card that I'm sharing using the Concord & 9th stamp set, Wildflower.   My card is pretty straight forward, I started out with a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2' square piece of watercolor paper that I stamped my images on, then watercolored using my Zig Clean Color brushes.  After watercoloring, I sprinkled on some water droplets, let it set for a few minutes and then blotted them up with a paper towel.  Then I used a fine point black pen and drew lines around the outside edge of my watercolored piece, added some Wink of Stella glitter pen to the flowers (see above photo) and some dots of white gel pen to the centers of each flower.  I also added some silver and royal blue sequins scattered throughout the image.  I matted my watercolor piece to black cardstock and adhered it with foam tape to a piece of brilliant blue cardstock trimmed to show my white card base on each side.  I ran two horizontal score lines under under my watercolored piece and added my sentiment from the MFT Label Maker Sentiments set. Have a great day!

Petite Pots - (CTD388)

Hi there!  It's my turn over at the Color Throwdown to host this week's challenge and I've chosen a springtime inspiration photo and colors.

For my card I used the Papertrey Ink stamp sets, Petite Pots (last years anniversary set) and Garden Variety for the watering can.  I used a piece of watercolor paper to watercolor some brocade blue ink for my background, then once it was dry I stamped my happy birthday sentiment and matted my watercolor piece to a die cut scalloped mat.  I die cut all my pieces and stamped the watering can, bird and flowers using daffodil delight, going gray, summer sun and new leaf.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

 Amy Rohl - April Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.

Sweet Friend

Hi there friends!  Today I'm sharing a duplicate of a card that I created and posted a few days ago using the Spotlighting Technique because I had several questions on the steps I used to create it.  You can see my first card here or if you're visiting my blog you can scroll down below this post.
I actually made an attempt to do my FIRST craft video which you can watch below.  Please be gentle because it is far from perfect and I'm still learning how to create a video.  Also I must warn you that this video has NO SOUND because I ended up having to speed up the whole video to shorten the length of it and in doing so it of course affects the sound.  I'm hoping that even without the sound that you can at least see the steps I used to create my card.  And of course since this video is not edited you can see how I smudge ink on the edge of my card and how I conceal it (real life stamping in action, lol)

I used the stamp set Wildflower from Concord & 9th for my flowers and stems and the My Favorite Things, Label Maker Sentiments set for my sentiment.  I stamped on a piece of Strathmore watercolor paper and I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brushes,  an aqua brush, Zig Wink of Stella glitter pen, Sakura silver gelly roll pen and circle dies. Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Friday, crafty friends!  Yesterday I was in the mood to create something on the cute side so after looking on the sites I follow, I found two challenges I thought I would join in, and created a birthday shaker card.

I'm entering my card in this week's Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge with it's neon colors and the Lawnscaping Challenge which is to use flowers on your card.

For my card I used the Lawn Fawn stamp sets, Gleeful Gardens and Scripty Sayings along with the coordinating dies and the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders die and a MFT sun die.   To assemble my shaker card, I started out with a white card base and sponged some tumbled glass distress ink on the front of my card.  Then I die cut a rectangle from a piece of fun foam and another rectangle from white cardstock.  Basically my layers to create the shaker are, sponged card base, white fun foam with die cut rectangle, sprinkle in my shaker bits, a piece of acetate and my top layer which is a white piece of cardstock with a rectangle cut out.  I hope that makes sense.  Once I had my shaker put together, I added my die cut hillside from limeade ice cardstock which I stamped my sentiment on, my die cut sun and my stamped and die cut images which I colored using Copic markers.

Hello Friend

Hello!  Happy Thursday!  Today I'm sharing a card that I created for the Addicted to CAS Challenge which is to create a card using Inlaid Die(s). For my card I used the Concord & 9th stamp set, Wildflower and stamped only two of the images from the set on to watercolor paper, the stem and flower stamps.  After stamping my images, I used circle dies in three different sizes and die cut circles from my stamped panel.  On these circles I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brushes and an aqua brush to watercolor in some color.  Only adding color to the circles is the Spotlighting technique. The only color I added to the main panel other than the circles was to use a silver glitter pen on the stems and stamens of the flowers.  Next I adhered my stamped panel onto black cardstock adding the circles back in place and used foam tape to pop up the whole panel and added it to my white card base.  To finish off my card, I stamped my sentiment from the MFT Label Maker Sentiments and added some silver sequins. Thank you so much for your visit today!

Wildflower - (CTD387)

Hi there!  It's Wednesday and time for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge.  Before I get to my card, I'd like welcome this month's guest designer, Amy Rohl.

For my card I used a new to me stamp set by Concord & 9th, Wildflower.  I used a piece of watercolor paper and stamped my images using a Versa Mark ink pad and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I used some Tim Holtz distress inks, festive berries, spiced marmalade, mustard seed and cracked pistachio to do my watercoloring.  For my sentiment I used the My Favorite Things stamp set, Label Maker Sentiments and stamped them using a black Palette ink pad.  The whole watercolored panel was popped up using foam tape and added to my white card base.  To add a little shimmer to my card, I added some iridescent sequins scattered throughout my flowers.

For more inspiration, check out the design teams' blog links below OR you can go to the Color Throwdown blog for details on how to play along and you can see all the sample entries in one location.
Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders   

Broni Holcombe   

Joan Ervin

Jodi Collins 

Lisa Henke 

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put   

Vickie Zimmer 

Wanda Cullen

Amy Rohl - April Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to see what I'm up to.