You Are So Loved

Today I have a card made for the latest 'Flower Challenge'.

Each month they challenge us to use our flower stamps with an emphasis on different

techniques 'celebrating cards using floral images.' ~LOVE~

Honestly, what brings more stamping joy than using florals?

I hadn't used Vintage Flower Stamp Set from Concord & 9th yet, and loved an excuse to 

get it inky.

1st stamping a large floral image with Hero Arts Wet Cement, and coloring in only the top left

image, then adding a medallion of the floral image, with a few added pieces fussy cut, 

to the top corner. The initial cardstock color is white. A favorite technique is to color in the

 bg with soft grey to make the stamped images stand out. So vintage!

You can see how the corner piece is popped up with foam and a few berries were added

If you love using your floral stamps as much as I do, play along at the 

Flower Challenge. You can enter 5 times, and this month there's a 

prize for the winner!

Enjoy your week! Hope it's full of crafty goodness.

The Flower Challenge #33 'Focus on Background Stamping'.

Love You

Day 5 of Papertrey's Anniversary celebration asks us to pick from a list

of retiring sets and use them on our cards.

I chose one of favorite sets: Love & Marriage.

It's been my 'go to' set when I make a wedding card. Just love that 

lovely tree. And it has so many images and sentiments to create a card

full of well wishes, both for Valentines and for a happy couple.

This card isn't for any couple in particular. I'll save it and have it when needed. 

One of the things I love to do is stamp the open heart

from the set and add the initials of the two getting married .

I stamped the tree with platinum powder, and put it over a dotted vellum.

Over it is the Ivy & Bloom die cut with a few of the flowers in the corner.

The sweet little love you tag sentiment is also in the set.

Are you playing along with all the challenges? 

Many of the sets that are being retired, I have in my collection.

Looking forward to seeing what you all used on your cards.

           11th Anniversary Day 5: 2018 Retirement List + February Sneak Peeks + 2 Challenges!           

Love You

It's such a beautiful day today. Not at all like our winters in the valley.

Plenty of cool, crisp sunshine has me dreaming of my roses' first blooms.

PapertreyInk has a sketch challenge on their blog celebrating their 

11th Anniversary!

Each of the team members has a sketch recipe for us to choose from,

and I chose Dawn McVey's.

I loved Dawn's arrangement of flowers and layers on a stenciled 

background, and had fun with combining Farmer's Market Florals with

Dawn's own Gran's Garden leaf fronds.

I created the stenciled bg with one of the Modern Background Stencils,

inked with Distress Oxides: Peacock Feathers & Frayed Burlap.

The 'love you' banner is from Stemmed Statements with a sentiment from

You Have My Heart.

Here's a peek at the inside, stamped with images from You Have My Heart.

Sending this card out today, so I did a coordinating envelope, and inked the edges.

Thank you for visiting today, and hope your day is a 'crafty' one!

Love Birds

It's a gray morning here in my neck of the woods (valley),

perfect for staying indoors, watching the cooking channel, 

and being creative with PTI's latest stamps and dies.

Stephanie Gold's video for MIM this week, 

shows us it's OK to use many different kinds of papers for our cards.

My colorful bg paper is actually a napkin. Bright and bold, with b&w dots, I decided to

bring out all the brights from PTI.

The sentiment die is Enclosed: Heart, cut from glitter paper and Raspberry Fizz

cardstock. 

I have a stash of vintage music papers my daughter gave me, and among them was

one with the words, 'sweet - heart'. 

(I know, you don't luck out with that happening often, right?)

I pink inked the edges before all the gluing.

Next was to take my pink crepe paper, gather it, and heat emboss with 

Stampendous: Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel.

I've seriously crushed over every card I've seen made with the new Brushed Birds set.

These 2 are the small birds stamped with PTI Pinks. 

Speaking of crushing, the Farmer's Market Florals? It's going to be hard not 

to use them for ALL projects! Gorgeous. I stamped the leaves, first with Fine Linen

then with Vintage Jadeite. Made for an interesting color combo.

The sweet ferns are from Make It Market: Wonderland Kit. (Olive Twist ink).

A sprinkling of sequins, because, why not, and my card is ready for 

someone special. Probably the DH. He's a keeper!

Interlocking Hearts

2 Posts in one day, whoo hoo!

Don't you love that sentiment die?

Just perfect for the Fusion Card Challenge,

where the photo features this beautiful quilt with interlocking hearts. 

I cut Text Block: Love from PTI's Sweet Blush, 

slightly elevated with foam tape

over dp from Vintage Linens (also PTI).

PTI: Vintage Linen stamps and dies

Spending the day tomorrow handing out Valentines to family.

This one might just go hubby.

What an adventure we've had over 47 years! (Next month is

our 47th).

NBUS Love

Squeezing under the wire to post a card for Darnell's 5th Blog Birthaversary!

Challenge #8 is to use pencils on Kraft.

NBUS or Never before Used Schtuff, means anything you've 

not yet used, which is the perfect reason to use it!

I haven't yet inked up Maile's new Splits set, With Love (PTI),

nor used my pencils, so anxious to use both.

Kept it very CAS. No time for frills. Like I said, just in time. 

The challenge closes in a few hours.

         Blog Birthaversary SURPRISE! NBUS Challenge #8!

MIM #208 Ombre Stamping

This week's Make It Monday, Laurie shows us how to ombre stamp

with our inks and makeup sponges.

So glad to finally have some use for those tiny sponges I've had in the back of the drawer!

Apple Prints stamps and dies, Cover Plate: Stitched

Inks: Scarlett Jewel, Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, New Leaf, Limeaid Ice, Harvest Gold,

 True Black.

Fireworks! Bamboo Leaves spray

It was hard to capture the subtle shimmer of the Fireworks! spray,

But the effect is so lovely on the stitched cover plate!

Come play along on Nichole's blog:

Make It Monday #208: Ombre Stamping

MIM #206 Stamping and Mixing Patterns

This week's MIM is sheer joy!

Loving patterns and layers, it tickles to have Danielle

show us how and what and some of her tricks to create magic on a card.

1st off, create a coordinating set of papers.

Danielle suggested starting with the larger imaged paper.

Danielle's signature style is using bright clear colors,

and I tried to keep that look when I chose yellows, aquas, and Berry Sorbet.

The large group of daisies is from Friendship Jar Fillers, and the smaller posies

from Brushed Blooms.

First stamped the daisies and colored them with Loew Cornell Watercolors.

Smaller triple blooms stamped in Hero Arts Wet Cement.

I ended up with 5 stamped papers, just because I was in my happy place doing them!

Didn't use all 5 in my card, but I have plenty do 3 more cards for sure!

Starting on left, Arrows from Heather's new Noted set,

so is the grey chevron pattern, splashed with Yellows.

Top patterns from Happy Trails,  and Melon Berry dots from Polka Dot Basics.

Used 3 of the 5 pattern papers, and a cutout of the daisies.

Also added a fussy cut of the top daisy.

Had some tags from Cuppa Love die left over from the Blog Hop, so stamped a heart

from Bubble Talk in Aqua Mist, and 'you're Super' in Smokey Shadow.

Glossy Accents on the daisy centers.

Can't wait to do this again with other stamps!

Like I said, pure joy!

You need to see Danielle's video, to catch her tips, here:

Make It Monday #206: Stamping and Mixing Patterns