Summer Roses

Last month when there was so much Christmas in July going on, I thought I'd use some Christmas supplies and try to adapt them to everyday.  This BetterPress Winter Rose plate was an easy one for that transition.  It's a beautiful rose background, so I colored it in pinks and yellows, my favorite colors for roses, using the matching stencils in the bundle.

supplies: white, pink, and vellum cardstock, Spellbinders Winter Rose pressplate/stencil bundle, Pink Fresh Studio Fairy Dust and Rise and Shine, Simon Spring and Dublin, and Altenew Sand Dunes inks, Winnie & Walter (retired) Noelle Scalloped Rectangle die, Simon A2 Frames die, Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice Sentiments

Summer is going fast - hope you're enjoying it!

More watercolor

I remembered this acrylic block stamping technique that I learned from Shari Carroll (look for a video there) and decided to make another card for Virginia's new challenge.  She has started a new blog devoted to her challenges and you can find it HERE.

I had my husband cut me a piece of acrylic from his vast array of supplies in our basement that is about 3" by 4", to fit easily on an A2 card, but you can use any acrylic block you have in your stash.  I inked it up with broken china and faded jeans distress inks, and then spritzed it well with water before "stamping" it onto my watercolor paper, and holding it firmly there for a bit to allow the inks to absorb into the paper.  I love how the inks spread and sometimes go outside the margins.  After carefully lifting my block, I then used a tissue to blot any big splotches of inks remaining, and then let my panel dry.  Next I inked up this Hero Arts Garden Bouquet cling stamp using Memento markers, spritzed the stamp lightly and then overstamped it onto my rectangle.  This is such a fun way to get more detail into your stamps!  My sentiment is from a retired The Craft's Meow Easter set.  The dried panel was then mounted on a card base of Simon's new Surf Blue cardstock, and I added a gingham bow centered with a button to finish.  

Distress inks

Anne Gaal is celebrating her 4th blogversary with a giveaway of distress inks, either the Spring or the Summer limited edition sets!  All she asks is that we make something using distress inks, and join and load it into her flickr Gallery.  Here is my 2nd entry:

supplies: white and dark aqua cardstock, watercolor paper, Hero Arts G2991 Friends Background, CL430 Real Garden Petals, 657773 Antique Butterflies & Flowers stamps and dies, broken china and peeled paint distress inks, VersaFine onyx black ink

I used a Shari Carroll technique, to ink up an acrylic block with a mix of distress inks, spritz very liberally with water, and then stamp the block onto watercolor paper.  I like the way it squishes out around the edges, giving a nice uneven edge.  After letting that dry well, I overstamped it with the friends definition stamp in black, and the dill image in peeled paint, then trimmed it out and placed it on my card front, adding a stamped and die-cut butterfly.

Anne is an immensely talented artist and photographer and freely shares her ideas.  Happy Anniversary, Anne!  Here's to many more!

World Card Making Day!

It's rainy and dreary here, a perfect day to stay in and play at our craft!  Hope you are able to do the same!  I have several cards I want to make for some challenges, so I'll just add to this during the day.

Here is my first, made for the Hero Arts Blog challenge this weekend:

supplies: red and white cardstock, The Paper Studio "Classic Snowflakes Blue" dp, Hero Arts CL558 Snowflake Ornaments, versamark ink and white embossing powder, CL462 Magic of Christmas, Memento Tuxedo Black ink and clear embossing powder, K5242 Big Pine Bough, Memento Cottage Ivy ink, glue pen and glitter, red embroidery floss


And a tag for the 25th Scramble at Hero Arts Flickr, hosted by Arlene:

supplies: tag, Hero Arts E3375 Fall Memories, CL338 Be Yourself, CG152 Two Birds, S5507 Envelope Pattern, Anita's Teddy Bear brown ink, lots of distress inks


I started this next one this morning, but had to put it aside to do the Scramble above.  It's for the Skipping Stones Design blog, using my new set of stamps that I received from Kryssi this week.  It's the first inking - I just made a simple 1-layer card, starting with the acrylic block technique to make the background rectangle, defined a little more with a blue colored pencil to bring out the blue in the bird.  Then I just added some heart buttons and a twine bow.  I love all the elements in this musical set and I know I'll use the sentiments often!

supplies: blue and ivory parchment card stock, Skipping Stones Designs "Heartsong" stamps, antique linen, tea dye and vintage photo distress inks, Memento Rich Cocoa ink, blue prismacolor pencil

Aqua, blue and grey

What fun colors to work with!  Here is the inspiration picture for CR84FN's challenge #19:

And here is what I did with the colors:

I'm still loving making these stamped layered backrounds, so here is another incorporating the colors for the challenge.  I started with white paper, mooshed some weathered wood distress ink onto an acrylic block, spritzed with water and stamped over my white-embossed top-half of the Music Collage.  Then I overstamped the Magical Backiground using faded jeans distress ink, and the real violet 3 times using broken china distress ink.  This panel was then framed in aqua cardstock, layered over a panel each of grey and darker blue, stamped with the same Magical Background, and inserted a doily in between to bring out the white embossing.  The ribbon is from Donna, the pearls from Virginia - thanks ladies!

supplies: white, grey, aqua and blue cardstock, Hero Arts S5501 Musical Collage, CG211 Magical Background, CL430 Real Garden Petals, CLCL307 SparkleClear Mini Messages, weathered wood, broken china, faded jeans distress inks, versamark ink and white embossing powder, hand-dyed seam binding, aqua pearls, Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch, white doily

Play Date Cafe #72

Here is the inspiration for the challenge this week at the Play Date Cafe.  Really interesting mix of colors, don't you think?

Here is my submission.  I really loved the script and again, these colors were surprisingly fun to work with.

Can you stand another stab using Shari's stamped layered background?  That's where I started.  Here is a closeup of that stamped panel, showing the results of stamping using an acrylic block and distress ink misted with water, and also my subtle stamping of the allover heart pattern:

Supplies: white, BoBunny slate and blush dot cardstocks, Hero Arts S4878 Old Letter Writing, stamped in VersaMark and white embossed,  background made using spiced marmalade and worn lipstick distress inks, overstamped with HA H3786 Tiny Heart Pattern in worn lipstick, overstamped again with CL428 Earth Flowers stamped in chipped sapphire distress ink, sentiment CL497 Find Joy, flower CL374 Big and Small Flowers, orange button, pink embroidery floss

Orange, yellow, and kraft

Here is the photo inspiration for this week's challenge at CR84FN:

I was having a little trouble with these colors early on in the week, but once I started playing with Shari Carroll's stamped layered background technique, it all came together in my card:

Briefly, the panel was made by first stamping and white embossing the bit of music on cream parchment cardstock.  Next I put distress ink directly on an acrylic block, spritzed it liberally with water, and then stamped over the music to make a block background, blotchy and uneven.  The next step is to overstamp the swirly background in a slightly darker brown ink.  And finally I added yellow, orange and green distress inks to an acrylic block, then "walked and wiggled" my flower stamp through, spritzing lightly with water, before stamping onto my background.  This panel was then trimmed, framed in golden yellow, and applied to my kraft card base which had been already stamped with the same swirly background.  To finish I stamped and cut out a daisy-like flower on orange cardstock, centered it with a button and twine, and added it along with a bit of lace. 

Supplies:  cream parchment, kraft, yellow and orange cardstocks,  Hero Arts S5501 Musical Collage (top edge of music only),  versamark ink and white embossing powder, antique linen distress ink for inking acrylic block for basic background,  CG211 Magical Background, inked with inked with AF184 Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink, CG170 Wildflower Garden inked with mustard seed, spiced marmalade and peeled paint distress inks and water, CL374 Big and Small Flowers, CH231 Hero Hues Woven Lace, brown button, twine

Stamped layered background

This month on the Hero Blog one of our challenges is to make layered backgrounds.  Here is a card by Shari Carroll which everyone has fallen in love with:

and here is her video explaining how she made it.  Here's my CASE of her card:

This was SO FUN to make!!  Please give it a try - you will love the "walk and wiggle"!

Supplies: white and pale aqua cardstocks, Hero Arts E3373 Spring Memories (discontinued text), S5507 Envelope Pattern, CG172 Garden Bouquet, tumbled glass, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, and peeled paint distress inks, lace from Carole, CH165 White Art Flower