A Birthday card for Carson

 

23 years ago today, my eldest daughter gave birth to our grandson.

Masculine cards can be challenging, and especially so for this card

maker that loves frills, layers and bright colors.

I think I got it whipped with The Greetery's new Urban Jungle.

Masculine colors, the fabulous large leaves collection and my

favorite, the Woven Cane die! 

And what's better than one tear strip tag? 2, of course!

All leaves watercolored, and the stencil strip was from an idea

from Betsy during the release. I love the layers! 

Can't wait to play with more from this fabulous release!

Enjoy the day! Craft!

Christmas Cards with Leaves All Around

 

Playing with The Greetery's Leaves All Around, and this time created a Christmas

card using half of the diecut.

I'm behind on my Christmas cards this year, so the previous few I have will

soon be joined with a growing stash. (Christmas in August?)

The background panel is stamped several times with Windowpane, a large

rubber stamp. The merry sprigs are from Hoop Wreath and the sentiment

from Opposites Attract 

I had the bottom die cut left over, and created a second card, this time with a

panel white inked stenciled and then cut from Nordic Frames.

I also try to personalize Christmas envelopes to coordinate the Christmas cards.

Tucked in some leftover pieces from the first card, and added some Nuvo drops.

Well, my Christmas stash has officially begun!

Time to put Leaves All Around away for a while. This lovely frame die packs a 

wow on a card, and has so many design options! 

Have a great week!

Sending Blessings

Happy Sunday, all!

Part 2 with the new Leaves All Around stencil and die set from the Greetery's 

newest release. This time with dimension, and the Jumbo moth.

I love the framing of any element, especially a sentiment. And this beautiful die

does it perfectly. I tried to mute my citrus colors, but it just wasn't happening.

 Kept going brighter and brighter, and then defined the leaves and blooms with pencil, 

for even more color.

I go where the card leads me. Sometimes, it's an idea that comes alive just as I planned.

Truly, most of the time it's an evolved effort!

Loving this release. It's brought such joy to a busy, stressed summer!

My moth used both wing dies, and like I said went from a pale guy to this 

bright showoff.

Hard to see, but the embossed copper sentiment is on a piece of vellum. Such a 

sweet script, rather animated like the fluttering moth!

I know of so many that could use a blessing right now. May have to do 

a few of these cards!

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

Birthday Butterfly

Good Saturday Morning! Have to say, we're having the strangest weather here in

my valley. Normally, end of July... hot, dry, and did I mention hot?

We're at the base of Yosemite, and the mountains are cloud covered, the air is

humid, and, still hot. We're also battling a fire in the Yosemite area. (Don't get me

started on poor government management).

Doing what makes me happy indoors, making cards.

When the Greetery has a release, I have no willpower. There I've said it.

This card is all newbies from their Sweet & Sunny collection. 

I've done several cards, and love every set! 

The butterfly, once cut, is stenciled, and I did it 4 times before I ended up with 

what I liked. The card grew around it. Not sure why I've been on a pink and blue

theme lately.

The Leaves All Around stencil is such a beautiful frame. Love how Betsy's sentiments

and butterfly fit perfectly within. I 'borrowed' Betsy's idea of adding Hollyhocks

to the leaf garland.

This card's going in the Birthday stash. I can't ever, ever, EVER have enough 

Birthday cards on hand!

Enjoy your weekend! Stay cool, and craft on!

The Card Concept: Harvest Adventures

 

You've picked a wonderful day for a visit! The Card Concept has a new challenge, and it's 

full of Autumn inspiration!

Colors? Leaves? Truck? Fall Season? Like I said, lots of inspiration.

My style is full of layers, and it's not really clean, so I'm going with 'stamped and layered card'.

Perfectly alright to choose your own style (or make one up!).

I definitely stuck to the color swatches on the inspiration photo.

Here's a closeup of how I arranged some of the Greetery's Botanicuts under the stamped leaf.

Hope to see you in the lineup on the challenge blog, and hope you're enjoying

a wonderful autumn season!

All products used: The Greetery

Harvest Home, Botanicuts: Ginko, Curio Autumn Foliage, 

Rustic Wreath Twigs, Let's Have a Word: Autumn Die.

  The Card Concept #161 {Harvest Adventures}

Double D Challenge: Leaves

 

Hi there! I'm playing along with a new challenge (to me), called Double D. 

I found it while visiting my friend Birgit Norton's blog. She's on their design team. 

The theme is 'Leaves'.

Thankful for the Greetery's new release, and this awe inspired sentiment, 'Grace Upon Grace'.

I chose an oldie from the Greetery to accent my sentiment, Autumn Sketches. It's a 4 step

stamp. I wanted the actual leaves to have a watery effect, so I sponge daubed the stamp

while still in the Misti before stamping. That way I could blend my colors rather randomly.

The challenge run for 2 weeks, check it out here:

LEAVES

Greetings from Central CA, where the rain is coming down, (praise God in Heaven!),

and I'm playing with the Greetery's new goodies, which arrived 2 days sooner than

was planned. Another reason to rejoice!

My daughter is celebrating a birthday at the end of this month, and the new

Heart Leaf Posey Pocket dies were just aching to be played with!

The layout of cascading hearts was inspired by one of Betsy's photos during

the release. Such a lovely layout, with bright new shaped dies! And that 'love'

script! Gorgeous!

I plan to make valentines with the largest Heart Leaf Jumbo die, but meanwhile

a much needed birthday card is off to a very special daughter.

Thanks for visiting! Don't you just love the newest Greetery release? I was

hooked with the first sneak peek!

 

The Card Concept: Autumn Blessings

 

Autumn Blessings my friends! Hope you are enjoying cooler weather, and all

the blessings that come with the season. 

Speaking of Autumn Blessing, we're starting a new challenge at the Card Concept

that just happens to be titled, Autumn Blessings. Here's the photo

Rich colors, textured contrasts, and full of inspiration!

Julie Gearinger picks our photos, and she's been hitting it out of the park!

I zoned in on that silver aluminum pail, and all the layers of flora in the

photo.

Style? Mixed media; watercolor, embossing and stencil paste, and lots of layers too!

I used a couple of sets from the Greetery, (supplies at end of post), and used the pitcher 

from Pitcher-esque.

You barely see it, but on the left of the card is a pewter pitcher, that was a gift to my

mom from her great aunt in Boston. We used that pitcher every Thanksgiving, and

it graced our table during the holidays. I loved it so much, my mom gave it to me, 

and it continues bringing beauty to my table on special occasions. 

The pitcher is filled with watercolored autumn leaves, and I brushed on embossing

ink along the edges before adding gold embossing powder. Just couldn't be 

happier with this inspiration photo. There's so much to be inspired by, and I 

can't wait to see what you all create! 

Have a wonderful creative, crafty week! 

Supplies:

The Greetery: Pitcher-esque stamps and die, Bittersweet Bouquet, Botanicuts

Mighty Oak Die, Berry Branch Stencil

Winsor Newton Watercolors, Nuvo Dream Drops: Indigo Eclipse,

Strathmore Watercolor Cardstock

Stampendous: Detail Silver Embossing Powder, Ranger: Gold ep. 

Dreamweaver Embossing Paste

The Card Concept #142 {Autumn Bounty}

Autumn Blessings

 

Hi and welcome to fall! And it's fall at the Card Concept Challenge blog, 

where our inspiration is this photo:

Fanciful Fall! All the colorful patterned leaves were my inspiration. 

The leaves from the Greetery's Botanicuts Mighty Oak, are such 

a fun leaf set to color, and I cut the dies from watercolor card stock

 before inking with Distress Oxide Inks. When you spritz them with water, 

the random droplets appear. They rather reminded me of the

polka dot patterns in the inspiration photo.

Shiplap Die holds the Autumn sentiment from Bittersweet Bouquet, 

another set from the Greetery's Autumn release.

Style? Layered, Elegant and some Mixed Media with the Oxide Inks.

Will you join us for the challenge? I'd love to see what inspires you!

Blessings

 

It's a gloomy gray Thursday today where I live. The fires to the north of me

are 18%  contained, and we are living with the most toxic air I've ever seen.

What to do with a gloomy gray day...  craft!

Blessed to have my Greetery order, and blessed with a day to play!

The new Botanicuts are a mushroom lover's fantasy. I kept them rather white for

this card, but I'm not done playing with color. 

I'll list all the new stamps and dies at the end of this post. Let me just say, it's way too

hard NOT to push that 'bundle' button!

Hope your day is clear and full of Blessings!

The Greetery

Toadstool Garden, Botanicuts: Mighty Oak, Mimosa Musings, Blessed Blooms.

Altenew and Distress Oxide Inks