Altenew Poppy Garden with Watercolors

Greetings, friends! I am playing along with the color challenge from Shopping Our Stash:

You have to use at least 3 of these colors...I believed I used them all. 

I make cards for my daughter's shop, The Toadstool Shoppe, at The Cotton Company in Wake Forest, NC. One of the requests I've received is for cards that say "Let's Celebrate You" instead of "Happy Birthday". So that is what determined the sentiment on this card.

The background is an embossed resist using Altenew's Poppy Garden Stamp set and Altenew's liquid watercolor from their Brush Markers sets, Spring Garden and Tropical Fiesta. I really will just buy the liquid next time for I prefer to use my own watercolor brush for better control. I was inspired by an Altenew class created by Laura Bassen called Creative Watercolor Media. I used Altenew's Crystal Clear Crisp Embossing powder, Arches 140 lb. cold pressed water color paper and #8 Black Velvet Silver Water color brush.

Once dry, I splattered with both white acrylic paint and Altenew Gold Metallic ink spray in my Splat Box to reduce the mess of splatter! The sentiments come from My Favorite Things' More Essential Sentiments and the die cut is from Altenew's Bold Greeting Die Set. I die cut the word "you" 3 times - 2X in black and once in white. Glued the 3 pieces together, offsetting the black a bit for a shadow.

I've paired my card with an orange envelope from My Favorite Things set. I like having the Rainbow set of envelopes in my stash to change it up from a plain white envelope.

Thank you for visiting today and thank you to Shopping Our Stash for the challenge. I hope you give this technique a try. Check out the class at Altenew - there are 6 classes for about $8.95 and even if you are a seasoned card maker, you will learn. I promise.

*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.

Lighthouse Slimline Card with Creek Bank Creations

Hi friends and welcome to a quick post with a slimline card for CCEE Stampers challenge:

Also, NBUS, too!

Several years back my daughter and I went to a Stamp Show at the Raleigh, NC Fairgrounds. Creek Bank Creations was one of the booths there and I was fascinated with their slimline dies and stamps. I was a lucky winner of $100 door prize and headed over to their booth and  bought several, but sadly never used them. But now I have!

This card was stamped onto Ranger Inkssential Water Color Paper with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink. For me, this is the perfect combination of paper and ink for water coloring. The ranger paper has a textured side and a smooth side and it runs perfectly through my printer (when printing digital images). And it is bright white. I water colored the image with Derwent Inktense Water Color Pencils which you have seen me do numerous times. I just lay a light line of the color along the edge and pull it out with a damp brush.

The stamp set is large to fit a slimline card front and is called CBC Lighthouse Stamp. I also used Creek Bank Creations' Slim Stitched Rectangles. They are 6 dies and measure between 9" X 3.75" and 6.5" X 1.25". They seem larger than the ones I have in my stash from other suppliers. I also have their Ovals Stitched Slimline Dies which are unique. (Note: I am not affiliated with Creek Bank - these are just links so you can easily see and purchase if you'd like!)

No liquid glue was used at all for this card. I like a double-sided super adhesive as shown below for thick water color paper. Holds it nice and flat.

Thank you for joining me today and I hope you've been inspired to try a slimline card! They fit into a #10 Business Envelope and require 1 stamp in the US (if 1 oz. or less), Of course, you can make you're own envelope or buy them. MFT Stamps has just come out with a nice line of envelopes, Rainbow Garden Slimline Envelopes. Just waiting for mine to come in the mail. This won't be NBUS, for sure!

*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.

CAS Christmas Challenge Sept 2020 with #lotvcrafts

 

It seems to be Christmas all year round at my house. I think every other card I make is Christmas themed, but that's OK. They are so colorful and fun to make, I really enjoy them. This card is my submittal for the CAS Christmas Challenge: Christmas Tree.

Also, Never Before Used-Schtuff...keeping my stash moving along out of this category!

I have been following #livefall on Instagram lately. Her name is Lisabeth Vefall and she is Norwegian (http://lizland.net). Lisabeth does the most beautiful coloring of adorable digital images from an etsy shop called: Lili of the Valley (#lotvcrafts).

Here is the digital image I purchased from Lili of the Valley:

I scaled the image using Microsoft word and printed on my Brother Laser printer onto to Ranger Inkssential Watercolor paper - smooth side up for printing. I fed it through the manual feed and changed the print to "Thicker" paper. It printed perfectly!

Before I colored, I used my Glimmer Hot Foil System with an Essential Glimmer Rectangle and Silver foil to run a nice bead of shiny dots all around the perimeter of the card. I wanted to do this first because I am new to this system and didn't want to have all the coloring done and then mess it up somehow! Spellbinders is having a sale through Sept. 15, 2020 with some great deals:

I colored this busy little guy with my Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils. I really like the texture it gives on this Ranger Watercolor paper. I love to use my Black Velvet Silver watercolor brushes for they have a wonderful pointed tip and make it easy to get into the smallest corner.

The sentiment came from Altenew's Happy Holidays stamp set. I liked the whimsical font to go with this image. Since this is a Clean and Simple card, I did not used any more embellishments or glitter.

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you enjoyed our little boy! It was fun to use a digi stamp and look forward to creating more from the Lili of the Valley Shop. 

*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.

The Card Concept 139 Summer Harvest

 

Welcome to the first challenge for Fall 2020: Summer Harvest! I am so excited to be a part of the Design Team for this year. I am sure you will see some amazing work from my fellow designers and participants all year long.

For those that are new to this bi-weekly challenge, please provide in your blog what inspired you from the inspirational picture, and which one of the following styles did you make:

The styles are divided into seven style themes:

• Clean & Simple (CAS)
• Clean & Layered
• Clean & Graphic
• Freestyle Collage
• Shabby Chic
• Classy & Elegant
• Mixed Media 

The styles are more defined on the Card Concept Challenge Blog under "Styles Defined."

Is this not the most beautiful inspirational picture? The colors just pop and they were my inspiration: black, white, yellow and green. My card is quite literal and I consider it a Clean & Graphic card.

It's funny when you look at inspiration photos, usually an idea starts to form right away. It doesn't always work out with my first thought, but I have a quote by Kristina Werner that I always think of when I am struggling: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." That's so true.  Just start working and things come together!
I wanted to use my Altenew Smile More, stamp and die bundle to create the flowers. It ended up being only one, but I like a graphic card.

For this card I used basically all Altenew products: Watercolor paper, Artists Watercolor 24 half pan set, Essential Rock Collection 6 X 6 paper, Obsidian Black Ink and Crystal Clear Crisp Embossing Powder. Only the card base was paper from my stash.

The sentiment also comes from Altenew's Crafty Friends Stamp Set:

If you love good, unusual sentiments, this is a great set. I have been working on my Altenew Educator Certification Program and have fallen in love with their products, quality, offerings, inspiration and great customer service.

Finally, I decided not to add any more embellishments, but keep this card on the simple side. Yes, sometimes, less is more.

Please plan to join us for this challenge...you'll be amazed at what will inspire you to create!

*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.

The Stamp Market for Inspired By Challenge

 

Happy Labor Day crafty friends! It is the most beautiful day here in Durham, North Carolina. No humidity, high 70's - we have the windows open and it feels wonderful! I wanted to play along with the current challenge from Inspired By...

You can use the inspiration photo and the sketch or either separately. I decided to use both.

I broke out my Hot Foil Glimmer Machine from Spellbinders that I had purchased a while ago. More NBUS, but I am working on using it all!

I spent a good part of yesterday playing around with the machine, watching You-Tubes and ended up making a few sentiment banners. I feel bad that my pictures aren't picking up the quality. This is silver foil on black card stock and came out perfectly. This may replace my heat embossing life.

I started by using the Leaves Stencil from The Stamp Market. More NBUS and I don't know why I haven't used it. Very good quality stencil and today it is showing a $3.00 price! With my Wendy Vecchi Make Art-Stay-tion and Altenew's Silver Lake and Gary Denim Crisp Ink, I ink blended a A2 sized piece of Bristol Smooth card stock.

I trimmed out the panel with Kat Scrappiness' Double-Stitch Rectangle Die and then cut out the center with Honey Bee's Rectangle Window Trio. I cut the Window Trio 2 more times (from gold card stock) and glued all three layers together. I nestled the panels into the 3 slots and adhered with Lawn Fawn Liquid Adhesive.

I die cut 3 leaves (from my stash) from Altenew's Warm Sunshine card stock. Adhered flat to the panels with the Lawn Fawn glue. I popped up the Hot Glimmered Sentiment with 3m Foam Tape.

The inside sentiment is from Right At Home's Script Greetings, another NBUS and I don't know why. I love this script. Well, that's it for today. I think this could be a masculine card, so I left off any other embellishment. This was a great challenge, classic colors and fun designs. Thank for sticking to the end and be well, friends!

*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.

i-crafter and Art Impressions Get Well Card

 

I know, I know, more NBUS? How can it be? There is a lot my friends in my craft room and I want to use it all!

This stencil from i-crafter called Cosmic Flare is my NBUS for this card. I bought it a while ago, but until I used it, I didn't realize how cool it was!

Don't you just love the positive and negative spaces of this stencil? So many possibilities. I only used one color, but by keeping it heavier in the middle and lighter at the edges, it gives lots of dimension. And there is free shipping this weekend!

So perfect for any friend:

The little sloppy dog and sentiment is from the Art Impressions Doggy Kisses set:

This is such a fun set. I've used it many times and have just sent a card to a friend who had surgery recently. The images and sentiments are perfect for a get well card especially for dog lovers! 

The dog was stamped onto Bristol Smooth Card Stock and colored with Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Makers. I cut it out with my Brother Scan 'n cut, but it could easily be fussy-cut. I used Distress Oxide Wild Honey with Scrapbook.com's foam ink blending tools for the stencil. Of course, I used Wendy Vecchi's Make Art Stay-tion to hold the stencil while ink blending. I am not a big fan of stencil sprays, so avoid them if at all possible. The Make Art Stay-tion works just fine.

Here is Wendy Vecchi's photo of her Make Art Stay-tion:

MORE ABOUT I-CRAFTER.

For those of you not familiar with i-crafter, Lynda Kanase, owner and designer has a very interesting background and story. You can read about her here. Lynda will introduce her new line of products on You-Tube. There she shows her sketches and the evolution of the design. She has innovated products such as:

i-mend self healing mat for your die cutter:

How clever is that?! A self healing mat for my Big Shot. Yah! I have this and use it all the time now.

i-brush blender brushes:

These are brushes, not foam, that can be stacked and used anyway which is comfortable for you. One for each color family and perfect for traveling. Here is a You-Tube video where Lynda demonstrates these brushes. On my wish list!

Here is a die I just bought (free shipping, Yah!), Butterfly Burst, and am anxious for it to arrive:

I want to create water colored backgrounds and let the butterflies pop up! But Lynda includes not only the main die, but separate butterflies and their bodies to make it so versatile. Her designs are so well-thought out.

Well, I appreciate you sticking with me if you have gotten this far. I love mixing and matching different products and styles for unique looks. The stencil was actually for a comic book look, but I like it with my doggy! Be well, friends.

*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.