Make It Monday #251: Gradient Watercolor Die Cuts

Dear Ones~
Oh my gee - tomorrow is June 1st!! We are almost 1/2 way through 2016 - WOW!!!
Today I have tried a technique that was showcased over at PTI's Make It Monday. You can see the video HERE. It really is a lot of fun, and pretty easy. I encourage you to try it!!

Here's my card:

I got out my Zigs and scribbled across a piece of watercolor paper cut to an A2 size. Then I used my water brush to blend all the colors together. Easy peasy. I used the PTI Hexagon Coverplate to die cut the paper, kept all the bits in their places, put glue on them, and then applied the whole thing to a card base. Then all I had to do was lift the frame out and the bits stayed put.

Here are the Ingredients:
GKD White Heavy Base Weight Card Stock
Strathmore 140# Watercolor Paper
Zig Clean Color Brush Markers
PTI Hexagon Cover Plate
HOTP Artful Affirmations Stamp
GKD Silver Embossing Powder
Stash Silver Foil Card Stock
Stash Silver Thread 
Stash Gemstones


Hope you are having a good week. I have been able to play quite a bit in my craft room lately......makes me happy. Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments!

Tutti Designs

 Dear Ones~

Just a short post to share some news about a new die company in town.  They will be starting their blog on June 1, and I know you will not want to miss the inspiration from the design team. Two of the Double D  owners are on the design team and they are both offering a Tutti Designs die to one lucky winner who leaves a comment. So head over to their blogs Darlene and Diane and check out the info. You should also take a look at what Tutti Designs has to offer. You are going to love their products.

Hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Take a moment to pause and think about those, known and unknown to you, who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Our freedom was won by them!

Just Us Girls #345 - Photo Week

Dear Ones~

This week over at Just Us Girls it's photo week, 

and Lisa is our host.

 

Here is a closer look:

 

So many possibilities with this one. 

Just look at all that lovely, beautiful color!

 

 

Here's my card:

I found this patterned paper and I thought it would be perfect, it reminds me of the wall paper in the photo. I loved the roses on the desk, so I used those as the focal, and that panel on my card behind the roses reminds me of the pattern in the vase. What fun!!! And those wonderful leaf sprig die cuts are a gift from one of my online BFFs. Thanks, Donna!!!!

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD White Heavyweight Card Stock

GKD Bubblegum Pink Card Stock

Recollections Garden Fleur Patterned Paper

PTI The Sweet Life Roses Stamp

GKD Innocent Pink, Bubblegum Pink & Dusty Rose Inks

Top Dog Flower Lace A-2 Mat Die

Paper Smooches Leaf Die 1 & 2

Martha Stewart Lace Punch

Flourishes Mother's Words of Wisdom Stamp for Greeting

 

Please visit the JUST US GIRLS blog to see the wonderful cards that the rest of the team, and our May Guest Designer Aileen, have made this week.  I hope to see you there.

And remember, if you win Chic of the Week in any of our May challenges, you will be in the running to be chosen as our Guest Designer for the month of July!!  Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!!

 

Make It Monday #250 - Masked Backgrounds

Dear Ones~
This will be a quick post tonight. I just wanted to get a card entered into the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge. This week it's masked backgrounds.  You can see Laurie's video on this technique HERE.

HERE'S WHAT I CAME UP WITH:

 

I folded my base card stock to an A2 card, masked it with painter's tape, and sponged with 3 Distress Ink colors. The flowers are stamped and punched with SU products. The greeting is PTI's Graceful Greetings stamp set.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD White heavy Base Weight Card Stock

Barn Door, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed Distress Inks

PTI Graceful Greetings Stamp Set

GKD Black Onyx Ink

Stampin' Up Flower Shop Stamp and Die

Stampin' Up Petit Petals Punch

Martha Stewart Flower Punch

White Gel Pen

Black Nuvo Crystal Drops 

This was pretty fun to do....lots of possibilities with different colors. Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments. Have a wonderful weekend dear readers.

Double D Challenge - Patriotic/Support Our Troops

Dear Ones~
With Memorial Day soon upon us, Double D Challenge has asked us to create a patriotic card that shows support for our troops. Look at this wonderful grouping of inspirational tiles.

 

Here's what I came up with:

I thought that rose in the photo was super pretty, so I copied that theme. I stamped the rose and then fussy cut just one side to expose the inside of the card. And I couldn't help but add those sparkly little stars all over the flower. Fussy, but fun.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD White and blue Denim Card Stock

Basic Grey Life of the Party Patterned Paper

GKD Stately Flowers 6 Stamp Set

GKD Mountain Wilderness Stamp Set for Greeting

Cheery Lynn Designs Burlap Border Die (thanks, Kathy)

Copic Markers

Stash Star Border Sticker

Stash Star Sequins

That's it for me. I'm heading to Midland tomorrow to visit my dad, so no crafting for me. Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments.

Cheery Lynn Challenge - Red, White and Blue

Dear Ones~
Just resting up today from my trip to Lansing last weekend for the Art Festival. A good time was had by all.

Today's offering is for the Cheery Lynn Challenge - using red, white and blue. Easy, peasy. This card was made for our little grandnephew who just turned 6. He's crazy about baseball....can you tell?

 I used the Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Baseball stamp set for this. The bat, baseballs and glove are all done with several stamps layered in different ink colors for dimension. I made it a shaker card, with the baseball in the middle inside the shaker. Only thing I wish I would have done differently is put more shaker bits inside. I should have really loaded it up. The glove is popped up on a bobber so it jiggles when you tweek it.

Here are the ingredients:

GKD Red Hot and White Card Stock

DCSV Stardust Stack Patterned Paper

Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Baseball Stamp Set

Cheery Lynn Designs Burlap Borders Die

Memento Inks in Various Colors

Quick Kutz Nesting Stars Die

ART-C Letters Dies for Name

Glossy Accents

Stash Star Sequins

It's been sunny and warm the past few days, I think summer might be thinking about making an appearance. I'll take it. Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments.

Just Us Girls #344 - Color Week

Dear Ones~
This week is COLOR week over at Just Us Girls. Sue is our host, and she has picked PLUM, IVORY and OLIVE for our colors.

 

What beautiful colors to work with!!

Here is my card:

I have used an embossing folder for the background to give it texture, and those flowers are from Stampin' Up.  They have a companion punch, so easy peasy!!

 

Here are the Ingredients:

Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry Card Stock

GKD Fresh Asparagus and Ivory Card Stock

Spellbinder's Beautiful Borders Die

SU Build a Bird Stamp Set

SU Boho Blooms Punch

Darice Basket Weave Embossing Folder

Zing Brown Sugar Embossing Powder

Martha Stewart Butterfly Punches

Martha Stewart Branch Punch

Nuvo Crystal Drops

Stash Ribbon

Please visit the JUST US GIRLS blog to see the wonderful cards that the rest of the team, and our May Guest Designer Aileen, have made this week.  I hope to see you there.

 

And remember, if you win Chic of the Week in any of our May challenges, you will be in the running to be chosen as our Guest Designer for the month of July!!  Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!!

 

 

Power Poppy - May Power and Spark

Dear Ones~
I am heading down to Lansing today to spend the weekend with our daughter Sarah and her family. We are going to the East Lansing Art Festival tomorrow, but I wanted to get this entry in to this month's Power Poppy Power and Spark Challenge. This month the theme is flowers.......easy, peasy, right???

 

And Here's My Card:

I love coloring Power Poppy flowers. Marcella is a brilliant illustrator, and her images are just beautiful. Here I used my Zigs on watercolor paper.  So much fun!! I just divided my panel in 4ths and mounted them on a square piece of black card stock for a window pane look.

Here are the Ingredients:

*GKD Black Onyx and Red Hot Card Stock

*Strathmore Watercolor Paper

*GKD Free Black Pinstripe Digi Patterned Paper

*Power Poppy Country Garden Digi Stamp

*Spellbinders Grommet Tag Die

*GKD Fanciful Tags Stamp for Greeting

*Zig Clean Color Markers

*Nuvo Crystal Drops 

Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, dear readers. I know I will!!!

Make It Monday - Make it with Money

Dear Ones~
Well, we are having some fun over at Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday Challenge this week. We have been invited to make a card using money on the front. Money Origami, as it were.

Here's what I came up with:

This is a fold that I have used before for my grandsons when I have given them a Valentine and included a little money. They love it, and that makes me smile. I learned this fold on YouTube, of course.

Here are the Ingredients:

PTI Ocean Tides Card Stock

GKD White and All Spruced Up Card Stock

PTI Harvest Berries Stamp & Die Set

Memento 

One Dollar Bill and One Quarter

Paper Smooches Foliage 2 Die Cut

Martha Stewart Pine Branch Punch

GKD Silve Embossing Powder

PTI Vellum

Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments! I'm heading to Lansing tomorrow to spend the weekend with our daughter and her family. 

We are going to the East Lansing Art Festival...always fun!!!

Mod Squad Challenge - One Layer Birthday

Dear Ones~
This week Vicki Dutcher and I are hosting the Mod Squad Challenge. Our challenge to you is to make a one layer birthday card. Just one layer, no cheating.

One of our sponsors is the wonderful stamp company  

Kitchen Sink Stamps.

 

Kitchen Sink Stamps offers us a discount CODE: ModSquad15.

  These stamps are amazing. Most have a multi-stamp feature that lets you get great detail in your images using several colors. There is real dimension with a 3-D effect! And one of the best features of this stamp company is that there are color recipes for most of the multi-step stamps, so you don't have to guess what colors to use. There are even alternative colors if you don't have the inks that are suggested. Maria from Kitchen Sink Stamps is a member of our Mod Squad Challenge Facebook Group so feel free to say Hi or ask any questions.

 

THE PRIZE

A $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE to the store. 

You can pick your own goodies and there are lots of choices!

Here is a sample for you:

A trick to making an image look more dimensional is to use a very light color to add shadows. On this card I used the Kitchen Sink Stamp Set 3-Step Butterflies. There are 3 separate stamps used on each butterfly, with each stamp using a progressively darker color. Then I took a gray alcohol marker and outlined the image just in the places where shadows would be. The result is that the image looks dimensional, but is really only one layer.

Here is a close up so you can see the shadowing.

 

The Ingredients:

GKD White Heavyweight Card Stock

GKD Ocean Mist Card Stock

Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Butterflies Stamp Set

Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Baseball Stamp Set for Greeting 

Tim Holtz Multi Media 2 Die

GKD Ocean Mist, Turquoise Sea & Blue Denim Inks

MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink

Nuvo Crystal Drops

 

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to head on over to The Mod Squad Blog Challenge and play along. I can't wait to see your wonderful creations!! Oh, and I adore your comments!

Altenew Inspiration Australia

Dear Ones~
I am missing my old pals right now!!! You know them....Mo and Jo??? I guess they decided to take a vaca. I'll just have to muddle along without them, but I hope they come back soon.

Today's offering is mostly for the Altenew May Inspiration Challenge. Here is the photo:

 

YIKES.....I had a terrible time coming up with anything from this photo. It was such a challenge for me. Well, maybe that's why they call this a challenge.

Here's what I came up with:

I love that mosaic, and all those beautiful colors. I finally decided to white heat emboss a background stamp called Faceted, and color it with Brushos.  I used a Spellbinders circle die to imitate the brown circle in the photo.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD White, Blue Denim and Kraft Card Stock

GKD Warm Cocoa Card Stock

Neat and Tangled Faceted Stamp

Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Brushos Crystal Colors

Zig Clean Color Brush Markers

Spellbinders Splendid Circles Die

Just Right Topsy Turvy Cakes Stamp For Greeting

This card will be entered in:

Altenew May Inspiration - From Places Abroad-Australia

Simon Says Wednesday - Flowers

Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments!! We are expecting some warmer weather this weekend. Sure hope so!! We had snow flurries day before yesterday.....geesh!!!

 

Just Us Girls #343 - Trend Week

Dear Ones~
This week is TREND WEEK over at Just Us Girls, and I'm the host. The trend I picked is VELLUM.

 

 It seems that vellum is all the rage right now. You can do so many different things with this amazing paper, from coloring it, to die cutting, to dry embossing and using it as a background, to heat embossing and making your image the focal point. 

So our challenge is to use vellum somewhere on your card.

Here is my card:

I had some colored vellum in my stash, have had it forever. So I used my Heartfelt Creations Botanical Rose stamp set, heat embossed with white powder and then die cut. I love the delicate look.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD Heavyweight White Card Stock

Blue and Green Vellum from my Stash

GKD Garden Silhouettes Stamp Set

Heartfelt Creations Botanical Rose Stamp Set

GKD White Embossing Powder

Cheery Lynn Allison's Ribbons Die Set

Spellbinders A-2 Bracket Borders Die

Spellbinders  Framed Tags Die

Stash Pearls

Please visit the JUST US GIRLS blog to see the wonderful cards the rest of the team, and our May Guest Designer, Aileen Ryan, have made this week.  I hope to see you there.

And remember, if you win Chic of the Week in any of our May challenges, you will be in the running to be chosen as our Guest Designer for the month of July.  Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!!

Double D Challenge - Happy Birthday

Dear Ones~
This card was made for the Double D Challenge. Below are the beautiful inspiration tiles. We are challenged to make a Mother's Day or Birthday card using this inspiration. Aren't they beautiful photos?

 

Here's My Card:

This is a digi stamp by Power Poppy called Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher. I thought the image was perfect for this challenge. I colored them with Copics, sticking to beautiful pastels to reflect the flowers in the inspiration photo.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD White Heavy Weight Card Stock

Bazill Mint Card Stock

Power Poppy Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher Digital Stamp

Spellbinders Splendid Circles Die

Paper Wishes Botanical Blooms Stamp for Greeting

Copic Markers

Nuvo Crystal Drops

Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments. Tomorrow is Monday, and a whole new week. Oh, and happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! HUGS!~

Just Us Girls #342 - Word Week

Dear Ones~
This week over at Just Us Girls it's Word Week, and Sharyn is our host. She has chosen the word BUTTERFLY for our challenge. What fun....so many possibilities with this one.

 

And here's my card:

To do these butterflies I used the Kitchen Sink Stamp set 3-Step Butterfly, which is stamped using multiple layers for a dimensional effect. I colored each layer directly to the stamp with various Zigs, and then spritzed and stamped on watercolor paper. Each butterfly is in it's own square, which I matted with black and mounted on my card. The Circle Saying is from Simon Says Stamp.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD Black Onyx and Ivory Card Stock

Strathmore Watercolor Paper

Stampin Up Vellum

Spellbinders Scalloped Circles Die

Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Butterfly

Simon Says Stamp Circle Sayings

Zig Clean Color Brush Markers

GKD Black Embossing Powder for Greeting

Ivory Seashell Crystal Drops

Please visit the JUST US GIRLS blog to see the wonderful cards that the rest of the team, and our May Guest Designer Aileen, have made this week.  I hope to see you there.

And remember, if you win Chic of the Week in any of our May challenges, you will be in the running to be chosen as our Guest Designer for the month of July!!  Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!!

 

Make It Monday - Watercolor Cards

Dear Ones~
What a beautifully gorgeous day it has been. Sunny and about 70 degrees. And why am I always compelled to give you a weather report...ha ha. I dunno......

Today's offering was made for the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge. This week we are making a set of note cards using water color. My FAVORITE medium!!

Here's what I came up with:

I just adore this stamp! It's from PTI's  collection called What The Doodle, and this is the feather image. With a fine marker, I drew a frame around the image connecting the hello greeting. Got the idea from France Martin when I was watching one of her videos. It was really fun to pick different colors for each card!

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD White Heavyweight Card Stock

PTI What the Doodle Feathers Stamp

SSS Handwritten Borders for Greeting

Zig Clean Color Watercolor Markers

Nuvo Crystal Drops

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by, I love and appreciate your comments!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary~Dies R Us

Dear Ones~
It's been a few days since I have been in my craft room. Today I finally got some play time. This one is for the Dies R Us Challenge. Dies R Us is turning 2....congratulations. Happy anniversary and well done!!

Here's my card:

I have been playing with a couple of new Altenew stamp sets I got recently, Beautiful Day and Peony Bouquet. They are both beautiful multi step stamps. However, here I stamped just the outline of the Beautiful Day flower on watercolor paper with Old Paper Distress Ink so it was really light, and then colored the image with my Zigs. I love the soft look. The background die cut is from the Tim Holtz Mixed Media 2 set.

Here are the Ingredients:

GKD Ivory Card Stock

Colorbok Textured Card Stock

DCWV Butterfly Garden PP

Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp 

Beautiful Day Coordinating Dies

GKD Fanciful Tags for Greeting

Tim Holtz Mixed Media 2 Die

Martha Stewart Micro Beads

 Zig Clean Color Markers

Thanks for stopping by, I adore your comments. 

Hope your week is going well.