Virginia's View #25: Plaid

When I saw the theme for this month's Virginia's View challenge was plaid or stripes, I was all in!  I have multiple stamp sets that include stripes in them, and it's really fun to construct my own plaid with them.

supplies: white, green and blue cardstock, stripes (most evidently retired) from Impression Obsession Painted Stripes, Simon's Cupcake Party, Nautical Borders, Winnie & Walter Scenery: Stripes, Hero Arts Cornflower, Navy, Green Hills, and Grass inks, Simon Stitched Rectangle die, Winnie & Walter In a Word: Merry cutaway, Spellbinder's Poinsettia dies, Paper Smooches Holly dies, Darice Holly embossing folder, Hero Arts light green pearl

After stamping my plaid panel, I trimmed it down, and then cut out my sentiment from it.  It was at that point that I decided to make 2 cards for this challenge.  I added the plaid panel to a white card base, then constructed my poinsettia and popped it above.  I think the 2nd card needs no explanation - I just added my die-cut plaid sentiment to an embossed card front and added some holly in the same colors.

Here are the 2 cards separately, if you'd like to see them closer:

You have until November 18 to make something using plaid or stripes, and Virginia has some pretty nifty prizes for 2 winners!

Hello Hollyhocks

Just sharing another watercolored flower die.  These were actually colored with pinks, but they're showing up as more peachy on my monitor.....whatever, I'm still having fun with them!

supplies: white, black, and Green Apple cardstock, watercolor paper, Impression Obsession Hollyhock dies, Spectrum Aqua markers, water, Hero Arts Hello Stamp & Cut, Tim Holtz Bricked embossing folder, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

If you missed my first watercolor use of this die earlier this week, you can see it here.

And Virginia's View is having a Link-Up Party, so I'm linking this card there.  She's asking for any kind of friendship card: hello, miss you, etc.

For my Sister

Jennifer McGuire has challenged us all to spread around the kindness by making and actually sending out handmade cards!  This is something I need to work on; as the years have gone by, I make more cards, but send out less of them.

This is a card I made for my sister.  She is living the closest of the 3 of us sisters to my Mom, and I want her to know how much I appreciate all that she does for my Mom.  I can rest pretty easy knowing that Nancy is nearby when Mom needs something, be it on a daily basis or in an emergency.

supplies: cream, kraft, and autumn colored cardstock, Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder, inked with VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink, Hero Arts Dictionary Greetings and Stitched Frame stamp sets, Simon's Big Hugs and Stitched Maple Trio dies, seqins

And since there's lots of texture on this, with the embossed woodgrain and the leaves and sequins, I'd like to enter this into Virginia's View challenge for this month.

Some birthday cards

I have several birthdays this month, and here's one I made for a sweet friend here in town.  This is a CASE of a card by Audrey Tokach - I just loved her idea of using a brush stroke stamp to make a striped background!

supplies: white cardstock for card base and Bristol smooth paper for watercoloring, Avery Elle's Brushed stamp and Simon's Audrey Blue ink, Wplus9's Doodle Buds, watercolored with my Spectrum Aqua markers, Simon's Sending & Wishing stamp set, moonshine sequins

And since this is 100% stamped, I'll enter this into Virginia's View challenge #16!

And here's another feminine birthday card, for my son's girlfriend.

supplies: white cardstock, various washi tapes, Hero Arts Zinnia Bloom, colored with markers and colored pencils, and Happy Stamp & Cut, Winnie & Walter's "birthday" sentiment from The Big,the Bold and the Happy

I ran across the floral and mint dot washis as a set on sale at Michael's and added the pink and black ones from my collection.  

100% stamped!

I've been playing around with this older Penny Black stamp set called Every Happiness, and came up with a summery design I'd like to share today.  I love these citrus colors for summer!

supplies: Penny Black Every Happiness, Avery Elle Brushed, Ranger Lemon Twist, Electric Lime, and Cheese Puff  dye inks, Simon's Watt's Up? sentiment

I find it very amusing that when these brush stroke stamps came out a couple of years ago, I wanted nothing to do with them; fast forward to today, and I can't get enough of them!  Guess I'm just a slow learner!  

Since this is 100% stamped, I'd like to enter it into Virginia's View challenge for this month.

Ombre

I've seen a couple of challenges that ask for an ombre design, so I stamped some more of my Altenew Painted Flowers using Simon and Hero Arts shades of inks ranging from mint to pool, then fussy cut them and assembled them against an embossed woodgrain background.

supplies: Hero Arts pool layering papers, the light and medium shades for my card and embossed panel, Tim Holtz Alterations woodgrain embossing folder, Altenew Painted Flowers, many mint and pool/aqua shades of inks, Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut, with Winnie & Walter's Big Bold Happy "birthday" sentiment, embossed in white on black cardstock, Simon's moonshine sequins

I'd like to enter this into Virginia's View Ombre/Monochromatic challenge:

and also into the Sparkle & Shine challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

Guesting at Virginia's View!

I am so honored that Virginia asked me to be a Guest Designer this month at her Virginia's View Challenge!  Her theme this month is All Things Embossed, and also, she's celebrating her 1-year anniversary of her challenge blog!  

I love embossing in all its forms, so I've made 3 cards today.  My first one incorporates an inlaid die into my dry embossed background.

supplies: Darice Flower Frenzy embossing folder, one of Simon's Stitched Rectangles dies, Hero Arts 3 Dotted Flowers and Hello Sunshine Daisies (sentiment), stamped in Hero Arts Bubble Gum ink, Penny Black's Painted Blooms paper pad, Doodlebug Cupcake Assortment sprinkles 

I cut a panel slightly smaller than my card base, and from that I centered and die-cut the stitched rectangle.  Then I embossed the "frame" that was left after removing the rectangle, and then, after stamping my sentiment, reinserted the stitched panel back into place before securing it all onto my card front.  The flowers and leaves were white heat embossed, fussy cut, and then attached to the front, adding some enamel dots.  

On my next one, I chose some of my favorite spring colors and brought an embossing strip into the mix.

supplies: Core'dinations sandable cardstock, Darice Simple Patterns: Checks embossing strip, Li'l Inker Spring Flower dies, white, yellow, and aqua cardstock,  Doodlebug enamel dot, Wplus9 leaf die from Folk Art Florals, green cardstock, Simon's Happy Birthday die

After trimming my Core'dinations cardstock panel, I embossed the check strip along the top edge and down the left edge.  I chose this strip because it overlapped nicely.  Then I sanded the cardstock lightly to bring out the embossed design even more.  Finishing the card was just a matter of affixing my die-cuts in a pleasing way.  

And my last card uses gold embossing powder for all of the stamping, and some vellum over the flowers.

supplies: pink shimmer cardstock base, watercolor paper panel, Technique Tuesday Two Steppin' flowers and leaves, and the sentiment is a mix of Hero Arts Luscious Patterned Flowers (sentiment) and Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold You small words, Ranger Super Fine Detail gold embossing powder,  spiced marmalade, picked raspberry, and mowed lawn distress inks, gold sequins

I stamped and heat embossed my flower and leaves in gold, masking as needed.  Then I used distress inks mixed with water to paint in the flowers.  Even though the watercoloring took the colors down a shade, I still thought they were too bright, so I embossed the flowers again on vellum with gold embossing powder, fussy-cut them out, and popped them above the main panel.  They give a kind of stained-glass effect now and I like this much better!  I sprinkled some gold sequins to finish.  

I hope these give you some ideas of your own and that you'll join us at the All Things Embossed challenge at Virginia's View this month!  As always, Virginia has a $25.00 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp for the winner!

Winnie & Walter's Sketch challenge

Another card for Winnie & Walter's Birthday Bash Celebration, ongoing all this month.  Joni gave us a pretty sketch, and here's my take on it.

supplies: W&W's The Big, the Bold and the Happy, a Hero Arts butterfly, Spellbinder's scalloped circle shaded with distress ink, sequins

I love these fresh colors, and with all the white space, I'm going to enter this also into Virginia's View current challenge : Clean Slate.  

Thanks for stopping by!

PlayDate #4 challenge

Here's another card for Winnie & Walter's PlayDate challenge.  I was inspired by the glittery gold and silver photo on the right.

I stamped a Hero Arts ornament on a small panel first, embossed it in gold, and added some glitter to the snowflakes.  Then I added some pine branches from Winnie & Walter's new Winter Wonderland set, stamped in VersaFine Olympia Green.  And to finish I sponged bundled sage distress ink in the background.  The sentiment from the same set was embossed in silver on vellum, and then the whole panel was framed in a silver glitter paper.  My card background uses more of the same pine sprig, and Winnie & Walter's snowflake from The Big, Bold Seasons set.  I embossed them in Ranger's Silver Embossing Pearl to give a nice tone-on-tone effect.  Then that panel was attached to a pearly gold frame.  

I'd also like to link this to Virgina' View Metallics challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today - I hope to see you again tomorrow for my regular Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog post!

Metallics

Virginia's View this month is all about metallics, and it coincides nicely with my receiving some metal sheets from Add a Little Dazzle for winning one of their challenges recently.

Here's my entry - it was really a fun one to make!

I used Simon's Layered Tree die and  gold, turquoise, and pink metal sheets to cut the parts for my tree (the trunk is kraft), then glued it to this little pale aqua dot background.  My sentiment is from Simon's Presents and Ornaments, embossed in Ranger super fine detail silver embossing powder.  Since the finished panel is alot longer than it is wide, I cut my card base down to  its dimensions. 

I'd like to enter this first one into Less Is More's Non-Traditional Colors for Christmas challenge.

These metal sheets are really fun to work with!  And I really liked this color scheme, so here's another card:

supplies: Aqua and white cardstock, pink and silver metal, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake and Penny Black snowflake, Memory Box Peace Collage, embossed in silver as above.  

I strung my snowflake with some of my husband's fishing filament across the opening, and then lifted the top panel above the rest of the card base. 

The smaller Penny Black snowflake fits exactly into the larger Lawn Fawn one!

A bittersweet wreath

Virginia has posted her newest challenge, and the theme this month is Clean and Simple.

October is my favorite month, so I am far from finished making fall cards!  I pulled out my fall supplies and chose a couple stamps that haven't been used in awhile.

supplies: Bittersweet Wreath, sentiment from The Craft's Meow Golden Days (now retired), Hero Arts Orange Soda ink, bow die from MFT Die-Namics Spring Wreath, Amuse dotted orange paper, cream and kraft cardstock, corner chomper

After stamping my wreath in brown ink, I colored in the berries with an orange marker and then added some glossy accents to them for a little bit of dimension.

Thanks for your visit today!

Guest Designing at Virginia's View!!

My sweet friend Virginia has asked me to be one of her guest designers for her September Virginia's View challenge!  It's called Pattern Paper, and I loved making something for it.

This whole card started with the mint and pink piece of 12" paper from Crate Paper's Oh Darling! collection, with assorted pinks from my scraps.  I made a patchwork background, then paper-pieced the Hero Arts Artists Butterfly and added some pink sequins for sparkle.  The strip background idea was taught to me by my friend Mary Anne many years ago.  And it'a great way to use up scraps, too!  I'll add a sentiment on this one when I use it.  

Virginia has lined up a WOW list of designers this month: Piali Biswas, Shelly Kurth, Tracey McNeeley, Iwona Palamountain, Vicky Papaiouannou, Miriam Pratner,  and Amy Tsuruta!  I hope you'll join us over at Virginia's View and then make a card using Pattern Papers!

Just Like You

I had an idea to group the flowers from Simon's Partial Cut Flowers on the front of a card, watercolor them, pop them and then add some leaves.  For once my card turned out just the way I envisioned it!

I used Sargent watercolor pencils to color in the flowers after making the cuts; it was fairly easy to "keep inside the lines" that way, and then I just went over them with a water pen.  The leaves are from Wplus9's Fresh Cut Florals stamps and dies, and I added various enamel dots to the center of each flower.  My sentiment is an old Hero Arts one, called To Be So Nice.  

I'll be adding this to Virginia's View challenge: Die Cuts.

Virginia's View: Die Cuts

Our theme this month at Virginia's View is die cuts.  I decided to use one of my newest ones, and I think one of my prettiest ones, to make a card for Virginia's challenge.

Isn't this Gorgeous Gardenia Outline die lovely?  Last time I used it I had a kind of stained-glass effect with a black outline, and then meticulously added back in all those tiny little pieces of the flowers and leaves - lots of work.  This time I'm using an idea by Jules I found on Pinterest.  I used the negative of the die cut to act as a mask over watercolor paper so that I could paint in the details with worn lipstick and peeled paint distress inks, mixed with water.  I went back in and added some darker areas with my distress markers in the same colors.  After it was dry, I cut it out, and then glued my gardenia die-cut on top.  I love this effect!  While my worn lipstick diluted ink was still on my acrylic block, I picked up some with a fine brush and splattered it over the card front.  Then I stamped my Technique Tuesday sentiment in charcoal ink, popped my die-cut up, and added some sequins.

........and then, I thought, why not try the same idea, except use some pretty printed papers?  Die-cut piecing, if you will!  So for this next card I pulled out a piece of 12" cardstock that I recently fell in love with (it reminds me of quilting fabric when I used to quilt) and pulled my colors from it.  Here's how that ended up:

supplies: Crate Paper's Dainty Darling from their Oh Darling collection, a green and a pink BoBunny double dot paper, Memory Box's Gorgeous Gardenia Outline die, Nesties Scalloped Oval die, Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold, and the Extras (banner) and The Big, the Bold, and the Happy (sentiment inside banner)

Which one do you prefer?

Just for you

Here's a tag for Virginia's View challenge.  I started with my recycled item, then found stamps and colors to go with it that made me happy.  Evidently this week I'm in a lace mood.....

supplies: Tim Holtz kraft tag, Hero Arts Circle Doily and script from Artistic Windows, sentiment from The Craft's Meow Simply Delightful, leaves are Wplus9's Fresh Cut Florals stamps and die, seam binding dyed with spun sugar distress reinker, My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart brad, PTI Beautiful Blooms II #1 flower dies

My recycled item is hand-dyed coffee filters, from my friend Mary Ann.  I cut 3 layers of 2 sizes of flower dies, then secured them together with a brad and fluffed them.  I used to have a poppy that looked just like this!

Thanks, Virginia, for a fun challenge - so glad to put these coffee filters to a fun use!

Scraplings!!

My sweet friend Virginia has posted her 4th challenge.  In short, we are to make a tag or a scrapling, which I'll explain further down, and use something recycled on it.  Fun!  I was so pleased to dive into my scrap basket and unearth lots of previously stamped panels and incorporate them into my entry.  I had so much fun that I made 3 of them!

Scraplings are what is left when you start with a 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" A2 card and trim it down to a 4 1/4" square card: a tiny folded piece that measure 1 1/4" X 4 14".  These would make great tags for gifts, or fun bookmarks.  

Here they are in close-up:

supplies: Hero Arts Tweed Background, sentiment from Hero Arts Frames and Messages, some applique lace from when I used to sew, and a button from my button collection

This next one is my favorite, because it uses my fave periwinkle color and a beautiful Hero Arts cling flower, along with a bit of tatted lace that my sweet friend Mary Anne gifted to me not long ago.  I believe it came from her Grandmother's pillowcases.  As I said above, the stamped panel is a trimmed piece from a previously stamped panel from my scrap basket.  I just added some tiny buttons to match.

supplies: Hero Arts Music Background and Wildflower Garden

And lastly, my recycled item is that flower, ribbon and brad embellishment, from a card that didn't work out.

supplies: Hero Arts pool layering paper, Wplus9 Backgrounds & Borders 1, 3 shades of aqua inks, sentiment from Hero Arts Mix & Match Elements

Some of the previously stamped items are so old that many of the Hero Arts stamps used on them have been long discontinued.  I think that makes these even more special!  Thanks, Virginia, for a fun challenge!  

Virginia's View: Stitching

Have you seen Virginia's latest challenge at her Virginia's View Challenge blog?  It is to use stitching in our creations, whether it be real or faux.

It wasn't all that long ago that I was stitching every day as a quilter, but since I began making cards, I haven't picked up a needle in a very long time.  So I thought I'd do a little hand-stitched card for the challenge.  I chose Wplus9's Blanket Stitched Blooms for my flowers and sentiment, and added the x's from Paper Smooches' Needle Little Love set under the sentiment.  And I also did some faux-stitching from Simon's Only Have Eyes for You set along the edges of the card.

Other supplies: papers from My Mind's Eye Bramble Rose, (there are lots of board designs in this pad, and I like them with these blooms), Simple Stories SN@P Color Vibe, and Echo Park's Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes, black thread, Nesties Scalloped Rectangles

I paper-pieced the flowers and leaves and then used the stamped lines on the flowers to sew the centers to the flowers and the flowers to the leaves, and then sewed the finished flowers to the scalloped panel, but did not stitch the leaves, allowing them to be able to be bent a bit for dimension.  I also stitched the xs.....You can see that I left a thread loose from one of them.

Would I do this again?  Not on such a small scale as these flowers.......but overall it was fun to revisit my roots!  

You have until the 18th of this month to add your entry to this fun challenge - can't wait to see everyone's ideas!

ETA: Since Kara asked, I thought I'd include a picture or 2 of one of my doll quilts, made in 2005, since it has buttonhole stitching on it, also.  Coincidentally, it is on a pale yellow background (gingham) also:

A glittered stencil

Here's another card for Virginia's View Challenge #2: Stencils.

I've been wanting to try glitter with this beautiful Texture Flourish by Memory Box.  I secured it down to some heavy-weight watercolor paper, then spread on a fairly thick layer of modeling paste, removed the stencil and sprinkled on this turquoise fine glitter by Martha Stewart.  It took a couple of hours to dry, during which time I pondered how best to use this panel, and decided in the end to just make a monochromatic card and let it be the star.  The sentiment is a Lil' Inker Darling Diamonds, stamped and heat embossed on vellum so it wouldn't smear, and I added some sequins from my friend Heather to finish.

And just a note: I originally tried this with a more chunky, tinsel-like glitter, because I had more colors of it, but it came out a big mess; you could hardly distinguish the design.  So, at least for a detailed stencil like this, save yourself the trouble and use the finest glitter you can find!

Wishing you all a glittery weekend!

Virginia's View Challenge #2: Stencils

After a wildly successful 1st challenge, Virginia has posted her 2nd one today and it's stencils!  I played around with the stencils I currently own, but nothing was floating my boat, until I saw what Jacqueline did.  She used a die-cut as her stencil, and then my world of possibilities opened wide!  Here's my entry for today:

I already had a die-cut of this Impression Obsession Floral Lace Heart, and thought it would be fun to use it as a stencil, coloring in all the flowers.  First I used the actual die to make an embossed impression on my card front, then I taped the die-cut over it carefully and colored through it, using distress markers.  Most of the flowers don't have centers, so I added them with my beloved pearls, and then stamped my Hero Arts sentiment to finish.

I love the way this turned out!  Thank you, Jacqueline, for the inspiration!!

I'd also like to enter this into the Moxie Fab World's Styling with Stencils challenge.