Happy Thoughts

Hello!  I've got another My Favorite Things card I'm sharing today, similar to yesterdays because I used the same stamp set and layout but different. For today's card I used the MFT Tweet Friends stamp set and dies along with my favorite stencil, Diagonal Bars.  I used this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #278 for my layout and the MFT Color Challenge #44 for my colors. I used all of the bird stamps from the Tweet Friends set and stamped them in black ink randomly on a die cut stitched panel.  Next I made my own circle stencil using a piece of cardstock and a circle die and lightly sponged distress ink in the following colors: wilted violet, shaded lilac, twisted citron and spiced marmalade.  This is another fun way of using the Diagonal Bars stencil (or any stencil really), I lightly sponged a color ink on and then laid the stencil over the circle stencil and sponged on more ink using a heaver hand.  This way you're getting some added texture or pattern in each circle you stencil.  Once that was done, I added my strips of cardstock, lovely lilac and limeade ice for my sentiment and then my die cut black bird cage with my Copic colored bird which was popped up using foam tape.

Birthday Tweetings!

Hello, crafty friends!  I hope you are having a good weekend!  Yesterday our youngest son had his first baseball game of the season after the last few week's of practices and he did great. Today I have a birthday card I'm sharing that I created with the My Favorite Things stamp set, Tweet Friends.  I used this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #278 for my layout and the Pinterest Inspired Challenge for this month as my inspiration which is rainbow colors.  I'm also entering this card in for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge with is Anything Goes. I had so much fun creating this card!  I have to tell you that I am really enjoying finding different ways to use this MFT Diagonal Bars stencil since I bought it, I love it!  And in today's card the stencil shines.  I used the stencil, a piece of watercolor paper and some distress inks to sponge on the rainbow color: festive berries, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, twisted citron and broken china.  Then I die cut the piece using a stitched panel die.  Next I die cut and stamped with black ink one of the bird cages from the Tweet Friends set and masked off the top ring and stem of the cage with some tape.  I lined up my stencil and stenciled in spiced marmalade, mustard seed & twisted citron.  Then I used the coordinating Cheerful Cages die and die cut a piece of white cardstock.  I used just the three horizontal bars and glued them over my stamped cage.  Next I lined up the stenciling on the bird cage with the stenciling on my panel and adhered the cage with foam tape (I hope that makes sense).I die cut, stamped and colored the birds using Copic markers and added them to the cage, popping up the red bird with foam tape.  I stamped and added my sentiment along with some rainbow colored enamel dots to finish off my card.
Thanks for your visit!

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.