More Purple for March

Welcome friends to The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge for March 15, 2024!  Look at the lovely inspiration photo below:

We are collaborating with Double Trouble Challenge and here are the perimeters:

I used a retired MFT Stamp called Flowers In Bloom for my floral card this month:

Watercolored with my Mungyo Professional 48 Half Pan Set on Ranger Distress Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock. I use a text embossing folder and ran the card panel through for some word texture in the back. Any embossing folder would do. And lastly I used my favorite ribbon from Stampin' Up which I am sure is long retired. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Honey Bee Inside Snarky Sentiments and coordinating Honey Cut.

Overall a simple card, but I believe it has a big impact. Come play along with The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge and The Double Trouble Challenge - a 2fer! Thanks for joining me today, I truly appreciate it.

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Happy Birthday Beautiful Blossoms

Happy happy 1st Birthday to the Beautiful Blossoms Challenge! We are 1 year old! To celebrate we have 5 prizes, so we will have 5 randomly drawn winners.

This was such a fun card to make. I used 2 retired sets: The pitcher and flowers are from Gina K's Life with Zest and the balloons are from Honey Bee Stamps Celebration Box.

The images were stamped on Ranger Ink Tim Holtz's Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Crystal Clear Embossing Powder before the pigment ink had a chance to dry.

Once heat embossed, I watercolored with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors. Just lovely lovely colors!

The background was a watercolored panel I had in my stash. I "audition" panels I have made previously to find just the perfect match. I liked this one with green, blue and yellow with gold splatters. 

The Happy Birthday die cut comes from Pink and Main Stamp and Dies set called Surprise. One of those really good basic sets you can use for multiple occasions.

Happy 1st Birthday, Beautiful Blossoms Challenge! Come join us and play along!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Embossing Folder & Animal

Today I am playing along with a new fun challenge called "Let's Squash It"! which is an embossing folder challenge. My card will be submitted to Challenge #4: Use an Embossing Folder and an Animal.

Also submitting to NBUS Challenge #22 since I have never used this embossing folder before:

This is a Tim Holtz Texture Fade Embossing Folder by Sizzix called Crackle which gives the most amazing dimension. Right now Sizzix has a sale going on and it is less than $5.00!

I definitely thought of it when I saw the challenge - isn't that a fun name for a challenge, too?! I started with Neenah Solar White Classic Crest in 80 lb. and spritzed it with my Ranger Distress Sprayer - just enough to dampen the paper. This soften the paper fibers and keeps it from cracking (where you don't want it) when you run it through your die cutting & embossing machine. Just look at that dimension:

I gave it a few drops from my Distress Mustard Spray Stain for a little color. After I did it I thought, umm...does that look like the dog peed? I don't know, but I am going with it anyway. 

I had previously colored this cute dog from Tim Holtz's Crazy Dog and cut it out with the coordinating die. The coloring was with Derwent Inktense Colored Pencils which are watercolor pencils onto Ranger Watercolor Paper. Both are favorites of mine for cardmaking.

He is finished with Nuvo Crystal Glaze on his eyes and a large action wobbler on his back. Lots of movement!

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions' Noteworthy Stamp set. I stamped it with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink and quickly sprinkled Nuvo Crystal Clear Embossing Powder over it and heat set. Once cooled, I cut it out with the circle from SugarPea Designs Element Builder II. I've mentioned before this is one of my favorite dies for the tiny dots that go around the borders of both the rectangle and the circle:

I've used the banner die, many, many times, too. If you are not familiar with SugarPea Designs, please take a look. They have the cutest designs and if you want to see some wonderful creativity, sign up for their emails and follow their blog hops. If you are a stamp/die lover like me, you'll really enjoy it!

Here is the Taylored Expression set, Noteworthy. I watched a You-Tube where Taylor created a set of note cards for her sister and I had plans to do the same for Christmas. Haven't done so, but I still have plans - there's always next year!

I used double sided adhesive tape from Scrapbook.com to adhere the embossed panel to the card base of Neenah 110 lb. Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. Since there is so much dimension it really needed a strong adhesive.

The inside sentiment is a simple Happy Birthday stamp from Dare 2B Artzy You've Got Mail. I like the large simple font from this set.

So that's it for today, friends. A Clean and Simple card for a new challenge group and of course, some NBUS!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Beautiful Details with Altenew

Welcome friends to my continuing journey with Altenew Certification. I have taken a couple of months off with working on holiday creations, but have been watching this class called Beautiful Details and wanted to create a card, but not a floral card.

Marika Rahtu, the instructor, has very unique techniques for her designs. There are 6 classes and my card was inspired by the last class. She uses an alcohol marker base as an underlying layer with colored pencils on top. She felt it was faster and more effective than all colored pencils. If you have ever colored with just colored pencils you know that you use a very light hand and multiple layers. It can take a while.

I've done quite a few florals with Altenew and have Altenew's Hug Me Stamp and thought the (alcohol marker base coloring with colored pencils over top) technique would work well with the fox and balloons. Time for a change from Christmas cards!

I stamped 2 of the fox with balloons images with Altenew's Gray Denim Crisp Dye Ink and partially colored them with Altenew's Alcohol Markers as Marika demonstrated in her class. I have all of Altenew's Alcohol Markers and wanted a rainbow of colors for the balloons. I used colored pencils from my stash in coordinating colors in a gentle stroking motion on top of the Alcohol Marker base.  Finally, I used the coordinating die to cut them out. You can see that the die also cuts between the strings in the balloon, which is always a great feature. I did layer them with a slight offset.

I did want some interest in the background and used a favorite technique using a cover die  making my own stencil. I cover a piece of cardstock with Altenew's Peach Gold Washi Tape. It's wide enough to cover in one piece. I also like that it is somewhat neutral in color and doesn't distract from the ink blending.

Then I place a cover die over it and ran it through my Big Shot. In this case, I used Altenew's Garden Trellis Cover Die.  I then have my own homemade stencil which works like a charm for a subtle ink-blended background. Plus, it can be saved for many many uses.

I used Altenew's Sea Glass Crisp Dye Ink with Scrapbook.com's Foam Blending Tool to create the background onto Blick Studio's Bristol Smooth Paper. I buy the 11" X 14" pad and cut it down to card size. It blends perfectly and I not only use it for ink blending, but also with water color markers, such as Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

The Sea Glass Crisp Dye Ink is such a nice subtle color which doesn't distract from the focal image. You can see the pencil lines better in this close up:

I added a few gold stars and a "Happy Birthday, Sending the Biggest Hug Your Way" sentiment from the Hug Me set inside. Lastly, over the balloons I added some sparkle with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen. 

Thank you for joining me today on my Altenew journey and check out Marika's Class if you want to see some amazing "Beautiful Details"!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

MFT Sketch Challenge 504 Slimline Birthday

Hi crafty friends! Ready for another Wednesday Sketch Challenge from My Favorite Things? #504:

I am also playing along with Cupcake Inspiration Challenge for their 500th Challenge: Birthday Celebration! Wow, 500...that's a lot!

Also, another NBUS (I am starting to get worried...am I a stamping hoarder?)!

I started with MFT's Celebrate Speech Bubble, new to me, but unfortunately retired from MFT (I did find it on FranticStamper.com). 

Last weekend I cleaned up my desk area. I usually color all the images from a  stamp set at one time and have lots of images left over. I was keeping them in random little cups, but the walls started to close in on me! Umm...I thought if I put them in little plastic bags, they would take up so much less room, and they do! Also, I now know what I have. Now my goal is to try and use up all the bits and bobs in the bags! We'll see how that works out. 

I thought in lieu of the flag shown in the sketch, the speech bubble would be perfect. The stripes underneath are from MFT's card stock, Lemon Chiffon, Pineapple and Orange Zest, which matched my little "Sweater Weather" tiger guy perfectly (he was from my bags of colored images - Yah!). I had colored him on Ranger's Inkssentials Water Color Paper (love this paper!) with Derwent Inktense Water Color Pencils. Can you see how vibrant these watercolor pencils stay? They don't fade back.

In order for everything to fit in proportion, I made a portrait styled slim-line card. I used MFT's Cement Grey card stock and created a stitched border using Trinity Stamps Slimline Series: Stitched Frames:

The sentiment, from MFT's You WOW Me set (also retired from MFT, but available from Amazon), was white heat embossed on MFT's Orange Zest card stock. I used Honey Bee's Sentiment Banners die cut to cut out the sentiment. I have the hardest time cutting sentiments straight either by hand or my cutter. I much prefer to use sentiment banners and have several different sets in my stock. These particular ones have flag ends with a nice selection of sizes.

Both the sentiment and the little tiger were popped up with 3M foam tape for some added dimension.

Thank you for joining me today and thanks to the challengers: MFT's Weds. Sketch Challenge, Cupcake Inspiration Challenge and NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff)!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

MFT Summer School #4 Ombre

Hi friends - welcome to Day 4 of My Favorite Things Summer School:

Who doesn't love a big birthday card? I used the Big Birthday Wishes die to make this colorful card:

For the words I die cut 2 times out of plain white and 1 time out of Bristol Smooth card stock. The Bristol Smooth die piece I kept intact with purple tape on the back. Then using Scrapbook.com's Ink Foam Blending Tools and 3 Ranger Archival Inks, Sunflower, Carnation Red and Garden Patina, I gently ink blended each set of words. I kept the bottom of each set of letters darker and then lighter as I got closer to the top to give the ombre effect.

The 3 layers were stacked and glued together with liquid adhesive and adhered to the card.

I felt the card needed a little somethin-somethin... so I cut and colored 3 cupcakes from the Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes set.

I used my favorite Ranger Inkssentials Watercolor Paper, stamped with Altenew Obsidian Black Ink and colored with Derwent Inktense Watercolor pencils. I happen to have the coordinating die for this set which cuts the images perfectly. They were popped up with foam dots.

Lastly, I added some glitz to the cupcakes with Spectrum Noir's Sparkle pen. The base is a  craft color -  Neenah Desert Storm. That's it for Summer School Day 4 - ink blending for an ombre effect. Thanks for stopping by!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.