Two-fer Card Challenge: Zoo Animals

It's time for the Two-Fer Challenge, and the subject is Zoo Animals.

Flamingos are a favorite to visit at our zoo.

1st card is a birthday card.

All Reverse Confetti 

A single pink flamingo within a Floral Gem frame. Popped up a few of the florals.

Embossed Scalloped Confetti Panel.

2nd card is a thank you card, with a pair of coral flamingos.

Background is Floral Background from The Stamp Market.

The fun florals are from My Favorite Things: Stitch Blooms & Wild Greenery.

Thank You Banner was a free gift from MFT, and is hand cut.

Lots of pretty jewels from Lucy's Cards (Rainbow Sparkle Mix).

Plenty of time to join the Zoo Challenge! 

Play along through the 24th!

Win It Wednesday with Laurie

Win It Wednesday is Papertrey's new challenge... on Wednesdays.

Laurie asks us to choose a favorite PTI color and create with it. 

Once again, how do you pick from all the wonderful colors in

the PTI line up? 

Laurie narrowed it down to 2, so I chose 2 too.

Scarlett Jewel is one I thought no one would pick, and I decided to give it some love.

And Honey Nut is so rich and vibrant, I picked it as well.

But don't tell Laurie, I love all the PTI colors... equally. It really just 

depends on season and mood, and whether it's Christmas or Easter, or 

maybe if I'm using white or Kraft. See what I mean? 

I love winter, and the deep rich colors that go with it, so Scarlett Jewel it is!

Play along for the week of the 13th - 20th. 

Stitching Garden Stamp Set

Papertrey Ink - Stitching Garden Die

Papertrey Ink - Window Works Die

Papertrey Ink - Shape Shifters: Oval 2 Die

Gather With A Grateful Heart

Hello, and thank you for visiting! I have a post today for MIM's challenge

featuring Laurie Schmidlin and Faux Gilded Leaves.

My DH and I are visiting our daughter, and I brought some supplies to play with 

while away. Fortunately Leaf Prints was one of the sets I brought along.

Laurie mixed her embossing powders to create a gilded look on her leaves. So 

much fun, I can't wait to do this again!

Forest Floor: August had this cool shaped banner, and I loved the sentiment,

and the darling acorns, so they got some gilding too.

Text and Texture: Leaves and Pierced Rectangle Frames.

The powders I used are from a set I've had, of course with no names on them. 

The iridescent aqua looks so good with the copper, I love using them together.

Then there's the gold and a touch of silver, just pure richness!

Laurie, thank you! Your card and tutorial were fabulous!

Have fun, and play along on the PTI blog.

Two-fer Card Challenge: Leaves

It's time again for a Two-fer Challenge: Leaves!

Honestly, what's better than one card for a challenge? 2, of course!

Love playing along with Darnell and the talented crew at the Two-fer blog!

2 cards, 2 different occasions, 1 image used 2 ways.

Concord and 9th's Thankful Leaves dies provided the window for my shaker.

Lindy's Stamp Gang Autumn Mix powders

Thankful Leaves Turnabout: Sentiment (C9)

That's copper embossing powder embossed onto heat resistant acetate.

And my 2nd card is a birthday card.

The 2nd card also used the leaf die from C9, but this time with the veins in place.

Glittered by adding packing tape to the back of the die and pressing glitter onto the top of 

the die. 

The pattern paper was a leftover piece made with C9's Turnabout, with some added

copic coloring. I embossed the tips of the leaves, and the stamped panel with 

copper embossing powder. Also copper embossed the sentiment (PTI's Initial Thoughts)

You have until Sept. 24 to play along, and there's lots on inspiration

from the team.

Have a wonderful week of crafty goodness!

Twofer Card Challenge #9

So Very Thankful

Greetings C9 fans! 

Playing along with their latest challenge:

A Color Challenge!

I had so much fun playing with C9's new set Thankful Leaves Turnabout.

Are you familiar with their turnabout stamps? Using a misti or other stamping device, you

stamp the aligned image and turning the stamped cardstock, stamp again, and 

again, achieving an all over pattern.

My first stamping was with versa mark and bronze embossing powder.

Next came Catherine Pooler's Sauna Ink, followed by the Ton's Peach Blossom.

Finally the 4th stamping was with PTI's Melon Berry.

The leaf, (Thankful Leaves dies) was cut with it's skeleton image in place, embossed 

several times with colors from Lindy's Stamp Gang,

Mermaid Seashells Set, and finally on the stem with bronze ep.

(Lindy's Midnight Copper)

I cut the leaf again, minus the veins, with vellum, and sponge inked the back, then,

clear embossed it.

The sentiment and several others come with the Turnabout set.

Play along on the challenge blog, Where Creativity Meets C9, here:

Challenge #25 – Color Inspiration

Thanks for the visit, and Happy Crafting!

Transformation Tuesday: Ever So Grateful

For this week's Transformation Tuesday, at PTI, Lizzie Jones shows us an older card

which disappointed her, and then her freshened up version with an updated

twist.

Looking through my stash of cards, I found a never sent card, probably because it

didn't please for several reasons.

The Super Succulents set I used for my old card came with matching dp, and I love all the patterns.

But my card looks dated, not to mention the sentiment is hard to read.

Let's re-do!

Super Succulents has some timeless stamps and dies, and succulents are so 'in vogue'

right now. They're right at home here in my valley, and do well with our hot

summers.

I snapped a picture recently of a cactus I have that is so happy, it bloomed!

Did you know all cacti are succulents? 

Honestly, I think the colors are endless, and they are super simple to propagate.

Anyway, back to the card.

Much easier to read the sentiment (Glorious Globes: August)

And the framing gives the elements more importance. 

Hope you enjoyed my card's transformation. 

Play along on PTI's blog post: Transformation Tuesday.

Grateful for You

Hi and welcome to one more post for Concord and 9th's challenge, Anything Goes.

You know how you visit one friend who leads you to another, and another...

Well that happened to me and I ended up finding a friend hop where there are prizes 

being given for comments, and I ran across a favorite, Jessica Frost Ballas.

(By the way, there are many favorites on the list!)

Just had to try a series of techniques I learned while visiting Jessica's blog.

The spray of fall florals is a stamp called Grateful For Everything, (C9).

Sentiment is from their Grateful Dies set.

Here's a short version of Jessica's steps: (she explains in detail)

smoosh colors on watercolor cardstock.

I used Distress Inks: Mustard Seed, Candied Apple, Ripe Persimmon

Using my Misti, stamped the image in Hero Arts' Wet Cement, for a no line

watercolor look.

Then I colored the image loosely with copics.

Back into the Misti, which still had the image in place, and stamped with Versamark.

Like Jessica, I sprinkled on Gold Embossing Tinsel. 

I added some Stickles and my die cut sentiment, and mounted onto a 

black card base.

I LOVE this technique, and can't wait to do more with it.

Check out Jessica's blog here:

Rubeena’s Crafting Anniversary Blog Hop (+GIVEAWAYS!)

By the way, you might find some new friends going down the hop list!

Challenge #24 – Anything Goes

Thankful for You

It's time for another MIM at PTI, and I don't know how she did it,

but after a smashing Stamp-A-Faire, Lexi came up with a technique

with some bling for all of us who love to play along!

Thank you Lexi, always enjoy your tips!

Lexi calls it 'Glitter Inlays'. Loved playing with my Martha Stewart glitters. Way back

when I started card making, Michaels had the set of multiple colors half off. Couldn't 

resist that! The color I used for my Leaf Silhouette dies is Copper.

Background stamped with Text & Texture: Leaves

Frame: Double Up: Rectangles

PTI SAF '18 Watering Our Flowers

It's Stamp-A-Faire time at PapertreyInk, and I've set aside the day to

watch live videos and play along at home.

1st card done, is with Betsy Veldman, and Watering my Flowers.

Of course that's a nod to watercoloring, and Betsy  is a master at 

technique. Watch her video on PTI's blog for insight and instruction.

Playing with PTI stamps I already have. This one's the poppy from Stemmed

Statements. Single flower was first stamped, then masked, and stamped 

twice again. I've used my own pan watercolors, purchased years ago, most are

Windsor Newton. 

Sentiment: You Made My Day

One down, several to go! Check back often if you'd like to see more.

SAF is throughout the day, and you have until the 30th to complete projects.

Happy Crafting!

MIM with Michelle: Petite Pattern Play

Michelle Leone shows us how to create pattern in our background on this

Monday's tutorial at PTI.

I loved this easy and quick way to make an impact on our cards.

Out came the new Orchid Expressions. I played with the flowers, changing

the colors of the petals. The options are endless!

I think I used every shade of PTI ink! Really easy to stamp with my Misti.

In case you don't know this little trick, here's a way to stamp a bunch of the same images 

quickly and perfectly. 

Die cut the image.

Place it back into the cut cardstock, held in place with your misti magnets.

Line up your stamp,

And... stamp! Replace with next die cut, and the image is stamped perfectly,

over and over and over.

This was my favorite orchid color combo. First stamped with Orchid Allure,

then Raspberry Fizz. The blend of the 2 inks made this gorgeous plum on the die cut.

A left over piece from Pierced Feature Frames provided the rectangle

and I drew the inside lines with a pencil.

The butterfly from Quilted: Summer reminded me of a mini block print,

and lined up well within my masked off rectangle.

So quick and easy, I did a 2nd card using kraft, and the 'thank you' setntiment.

Such a fun technique! Can't wait to 'plant' more orchids!

Friends, I'm sure you've heard of the horrific fires here in California.

They say 20% of our state is on fire. Our home is in a valley near Yosemite, where

one fire is close and hardly contained. 

Our air is so bad, and the heat doesn't help those poor firefighters.

Please pray for containment, relief from the spread of more destruction,

and especially for those heroes on the front lines.

Thank you! 

Orchid Expressions Stamp Set

Papertrey Ink: Orchid Expressions Die

Quilted: Summer Stamp Set

Papertrey Ink - Pierced Feature Frames Die

12 Kits of Occasions July Summer and More

Hi, and welcome to the July post for 12 Kits of Occasions!

Our hostess this month is Marybeth Lopez from Marybeth's Time for Paper.

She sent us a wonderful kit full of summer goodies! And a bit of 

vacation too!

Settle back, grab a cuppa, and enjoy a bit of summer fun!

First off, Best Wishes and Fuchsias. Do you grow them? The day we hit 100, it's only 

a matter of time until my fuchsias say good-bye! Folks we in the Central Valley 

 broke a record for 100+ 21 days in a row... no happy fushsias here!

I tore the paper card with flip flops and added the palm tree and surfboard to 

a PTI die cut I had on hand. (Do you save your extra die cuts? Think I need another 

room to hold all of mine!) Marybeth included the darling tiki paper.

Tucked this little guy into the embossed wreath Marybeth had in our kit.

Popped up outer paper and added the tag cut from one of the sentiments included.

These bunnies from Purple Onion just might be my favorites. Added them to the

Poppy die cut.

Once again, with a ready made PTI die cut, the lemon lime duo goes with

one of my favorite PTI sentiments.

All these summery cards came together so quickly.

Easy breezy and fun!

Be sure to stop by and give some commenting love to each of the 

designers. Can't wait to see what they all did with July's kit!

Thank you, Marybeth!