Flower Shoppe

Welcome to May 2024 Paper Funday Challenge where I am creating with the Twist! I have been on The Paper Funday Design Team since June of 2021 and this is the first time using the twist (I think!). The twist is Flower Shoppe.

I recently acquired this lovely stamp and die set from Concord & 9th called Flowers A La Carte. It seems to be retired, but available on reseller sites.

I did the usual - stamped with Altenew Obsidian Black Pigment Ink onto Ranger's Distress Watercolor Card Stock on the smooth side. Before it had a chance to dry I sprinkled with Altenew's Crystal Clear Crisp Embossing Powder and heat set.

Now I can just have fun watercoloring with my Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors and die cut all the images with the coordinating die. The background was made with the same stamp . It has a brick stamp and a "road" stamp. Stamped with a brown and lightly ink blended with Distress Ink Tea Dye.

The Happy Birthday sentiment comes from Honey Bee Snarky Birthday stamp set and coordinating Honey Cut Die. Black onto kraft color paper for a change.

I like to add an extra image to the inside, too.

Here's my second card: 

The awning is colored differently and I used a sentiment from the Flowers a La Carte stamp set.

Another extra colored set of images on the inside!

Flower Shoppe is such a good twist and so much fun to create! Thanks for joining me today and come play along at The Paper Funday Challenge for April 2024.

I will also be submitting to:

for I have not used this in the past.

*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 Blossoms Aug 2023

Hello friends and welcome to my blog for the August 2023 Beautiful Blossoms Challenge.  I loved the sunflowers and yellow-blue theme of the inspiration photos and pulled out a digital stamp I have from Mo's Digital Pencil called Flower Jar. If you have not visited Mo's Digital Pencil website you are really missing out! Such wonderful ageless designs.

If you follow me you know my routine with a digital image:

1) Using Microsoft Word Insert Picture onto a blank page and manipulate to the size, etc. I want.

2) Print this with a laser printer onto Ranger's Tim Holtz's Distress Watercolor Cardstock - this time on the rough side. 

3) Watercolor with my Silver Black Velvet #8 round brush. This time I used a new to me watercolor set by Mungyo -  48 colors and a great variety. I swatched them first before I used them to see how they work and their color. These work so well for my lunchtime coloring - very easy to travel with this set. Also not very expensive and seems to be a great quality. Shout out to Dawn from W Plus 9 for introducing her followers to this great set.

Nothing new about this design - it is one I often use. Cut the watercolor image with a circle die, preferably one with a bit of texture. The back ground was made with Impression Obsession's Houndstooth background stamp. I'm sorry I can't tell you which teal is the background. I tried about 10 different colors and liked this one the best - might be an old My Favorite Things ink pad.

I almost always use a die to cut the background - anything with some design to add to the edge. A sentiment die cut and some rhinestone bling from my stash finished off the card. 

Here is the second card I made. Similar but different edges. I thought I try yellow for the sky instead of a blue. The digital stamp is from Lili of the Valley Digi Stamp Sunflower. This is one of my most favorite shops. Her designs just appeal to me.

Hope you enjoyed my beautiful blossoms for this month! Thanks for stopping by let's see your gorgeous work!!!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you c and lick 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.

Sunny Sunflowers

Hi friends! I am so excited to share my Design Team card for The Card Concept Challenge #160: Sunny Sunflowers! Look at this gorgeous picture! It's hard not to be inspired...and remember you can use the colors or the image or both for your creation!

My card would fall under the Mixed Media style - embossing powder and watercolor...pretty much my go to for every card! I used both the colors and the image to create 2 cards:

I have had this Stampendous Stamp & Stencil in my stash for years and never used it (NBUS!) so I really wanted to finally get some use out of it for this challenge. I do see it is still available at Amazon and some other online shops.

My background was stamped in a pale grey ink using My Favorite Things Woodgrain background stamp, now retired. The floral image was stamped with Altenew's Black Obsidian Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Clear Crisp Embossing Powder while set wet and then heat set.  All on Ranger's Watercolor Paper.

I colored with Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and fussy cut all the images. I am not a fan of fussy cutting, but these were quite easy to do.

All in all, pretty quick and easy cards. Perfect Fall card for birthdays or even get well. 

Thank you for joining me on my blog today and I am hoping to see YOUR work! 

I am also submitting to:

1) NBUS

2) Colour Crazy Craft Challenge - AG

3) Crafter's Castle September Challenge - AG

4)  A Perfect Time To Craft

5) Four Seasons Challenge

6) Classic Design Challenge Blog

*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.

Lots of Love

In the world of card making florals are always very popular and this challenge brings out the best in florals! Welcome to my Design Team card blog for The Card Concept #154 Happy Mother's Day:

I was inspired by the jar of flowers and the colors of pink and green for my Clean and Layered Card. 

The overall size of this card is 8 1/2" X 3 1/2". I used Whimsy Stamps Slimline Scenic Countryside Die Set to create the frame with mitered corners!

I made the background (using the center panel of the slimline die) with Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Cable Knit stencil and Scrapbook.com's Diamond Stitched Stencil. I had to double up the Cable Knit stencil since it is 6 1/2" long, but I knew the jar and flowers would cover any mismatching. Ink blended Distress Ink Twisted Citron with Altenew's Large Ink Blending Tool:

I only have one of these large ink blending tool and find it works very well. I save it for when I have a large area in basically the same color. In this instance it was perfect.

The jar was cut with Sizzix's 2 pc. Jar Framelit #664890. I used The Stamp Market Bubble Gum Premium Dye Ink to ink blend in from the sides in an attempt to make it look more rounded. The sentiment was from The Stamp Market Most Wonderful 8 pc. stamp set that came with a recent card kit and is unfortunately no longer available.

The flowers are from The Stamp Market Field Flowers Stamp set and coordinating die.

To stamp the flowers and leaves I used all 5 of my colors from The Stamp Market: Cotton Candy, Peach, Bubble Gum, Raspberry and Leafy. I love pink and green together and was so pleased with the way the flowers turned out. This stamp set has 21 pieces with 2 to 3 stamps for each flower. By layering colors you can give more dimension to the image.

My one suggestion for these type of flowers with long stems, is to die cut the flower first before stamping. Use a stamp positioner such as the MISTI to place the negative piece in the corner and then the put the positive piece back. Line up the stamp on top of the positive/negative set, close the lid, open and ink and stamp. 

Why this way? Long images in photopolymer or clear stamps are flexible and may not get stamped perfectly to fit the die. If you like to mass produce images, the is a quick way to get the job done perfectly. 

I tied some gold twine around the jar and adhered a tiny bow cut from gold glitter card stock. Lastly the 2 cute little butterflies came from SugarPea Designs Floral Envie set. Don't overlook the tiny images in your sets. They can add so much to the overall design of a card.

Thanks for sticking to the end with me. I hope you have a chance to play along with us at The Card Concept #154 Happy Mother's Day!

*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.

Flowers with Tim Holtz Sizzix

Welcome friends. Today I am playing along with 3 challenges: The Flower Challenge #55:

NBUS: 

This is the first time using this die set from Sizzix, Brushstrokes Flowers #1 by Tim Holtz:

And the 3rd challenge is Happy Little Stampers, Anything Goes with Dies:

Sometimes you just fall in love with a card when it is finished and I did with this one. My plan was just to die cut all the pieces to try it out and see how it worked. First time out with a new set isn't always my favorite, but not in this case!

To begin, I die cut all the pieces out of Bristol Smooth card stock with my Big Shot because I knew I want to ink blend the colors and I have the most success with Bristol Smooth. I used various Ranger Distress Ink Colors (not the Oxides) because I love their vibrancy: Cracked Pistachio, Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord and Rusty Hinge.

I popped the die cut pieces back into the negative slot and used Scrapbook.com's Foam Blending Tools, even in the small areas to ink blend. If you use the edges of the foam tool you can get into corners, etc. I do have smaller tools, but when I am working in front of the TV with hubby, most times I do not want to run upstairs for a tool.

Ranger has just come out the domed replacement foam heads. They were out of stock for a while, but are back in stock and I just received mine. Anxious to try them out.

I used Studio Katia Square Brick Stencil with Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink onto a panel of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80 lb. cardstock:

I turned the Square Brick Stencil on its side and lightly ink blended so that it faded out towards the edges. Of course, I always use Wendy Vecchi's Make Art-Staytion to hold the stencils! So much easier than spray adhesive.

Next, I almost always like to use a frame die to give the edges a little interest. This is my go to from SugarPea Designs - CF Element Builder II. I just love the tiny little dots all around the edges.

To put the card together, I created the floral images exactly as the packaging shows using some foam squares and some liquid adhesive. I positioned it on the card without adhering, so I could get a sense of what sentiment I wanted to use. I choose the Hero Arts/Gina K Designs collaboration set called Friendship Blooms:

I've used this set many many times and particularly love the font on the sentiments. I stamped with a nice crisp black ink, Altenew's Obsidian Black so that it stood out from the background.

Then I simply adhered the floral bundle to the front. I debated about some bling, but decided to leave it all pastel and matte in tone.

I can't wait to try more colors for this die set and maybe watercolor, too! Thank you for joining me today and thank you to the challenge sponsors.

*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.