The Flower Challenge #83 Add Spots or Stripes

Welcome! The Flower  Challenge asks you to create a card  using spots or stripes for

the month of  August.

My card features a Tim Holtz multi layer die set, and an Altenew Background stamp.

You have all month to play along!

Show us your stripes... or spots!

The Flower Challenge #83 Add Spots or Stripes

Easter

 

The end of March brings the beginning of April, and all things Easter!

Sending out the last of my Easter greetings today, and sharing this one

made with The Greetery's Spring Meadow Background, Bountiful Wreath

and, some blooms from Spring Meadow.

The sweet Easter eggs are from a group of eggs from SSS.

Springs of spring are Tim Holtz Thinlits called Flower Field.

And of course a favorite from Tim Holtz, Mr. Bigz Bunny Die.

I love putting scenes like this together. So therapeutic!

Wishing all of you a blessed spring and Easter!

3 Lattes, Please...

Hi there, and Happy Holidays... almost.

Seriously, with Christmas season sneaking in, my craftroom is all set for Holiday card making.

I transformed the new, Warm and Wonderful from the Greetery,

into 3 Christmas card greetings.

This first card mounts the coffee mug on The Greetery's large Wood Slice, and

I stamped my sentiment on the smaller one.

Background was created with Tartan Builder Diagonal. I also added a few florals

from Merry Sprigs.

With a background made from Tartan Builder Diagonal again, this mug is 

mounted onto a vellum oval, and the sentiment from Hug in a Mug is 

embossed onto it.

I added a floral bouquet to this one made from Merry Sprigs, and some greens and berries

from Warm & Wonderful. Frosted Frames finished the card.

The third card is stamped with The Greetery's Print Shop Calico, and stenciled with 

reds and greens. The little tag is from Hug in a Mug Sweets. The oval is stenciled 

with Berry Branch, one of my favorites to use on cards. Stitched framed is from 

Spellbinders.

Back to the craft room, it's going to see a lot of me for the next few months!

 

A Trio of Joy

 

A Trio of Joy cards with the Greetery's Joy Hot Foil and stamp and die sets.

Playing with the new Glimmer Hot Foil system is just too much fun!

Christmas Joy began with the Fond of Foliage stamp. It's a big red rubber stamp, 

and I selectively inked the stamp with shades of light and dark Oxide inks. Then

sponge inked the panel in red and pink, darker and heavier on the corners.

Joy is hot foiled with copper foil onto PTI's ripe avocado. I've used the Winterberry 

Bouquet set before, and love the steps of first stenciling, then stamping the colors.

The 2 thin stitched frames are Poppystamps, and Christmas is the Greetery's 

Opposites Attract Holiday. A few Pine Wisp branches too.

I just bought a Lightbox, and learning to use it is a new challenge. It's only 12 x 12", and

I wish I had bought one larger. 

Anyway, Hope you enjoyed the first of 3 cards made with the Joy set. 

I'll post the other 2 tomorrow. 

Thanks for the visit! And I hope you're enjoying cooler weather. We had a 

great wet past 2 days. So needed in our dry valley! 

Peony Dreams

 

Summertime, and the living is hot! We're at 106 today, and the only sensible place to be

in indoors. 

Greetings to you! I have a post today sharing 3 cards created with The Stamp Markets's

 new Peony Dreams.

I've added dies from other companies, and hope it inspires you to do the same. So many

possibilites!

Take a look...

C9's Peony Dreams is a 4 step stamp for the bloom, 3 step for the center of the flower, and 3

step stencil for the leaves. Sounds like a lot of work? It is, but...

so worth it! It's a large bloom (see below), with graceful leaves that cascade off an A2 card.

See the leaf tips and how they hang off the edges?

The card I made is 4 3/4"x 6", and I made a matching envelope from 12 x 12" dp. 

The lacy edging and black strip are also from C9, a die set called Lace Border.

Birthday sentiment from the Greetery.

Another card 4 3/4 x 6", with a window.

This time I trimmed the overhang so the card would fit another hand made envelope.

The sentiment is from Poppystamps, a new one called Art Deco, embossed with a deep

green embossing powder.

I 'borrowed' a design from Kelly Lunceford, which used the Greetery's Crimped Circle

and Crimped Slimline dies for the next card.

Although the long leaves are off the card's border, it still fits in a slimline envelope.

The small grey blue posies are also included in the stampset. 

If it sounds like I'm a fan, I am! This gorgeous bloom was created over and over

in an air conditioned craft room, while the heat outside was just too hot to enjoy the 

outdoors. All in all, a perfect day!

Thanks for visiting, and hope you got some inspiration with multiple stamping,

along with stencils. Stay cool my friends!

Easter Cards

 

Easter cards are some of my favorite cards to make. Full of Spring and colorful florals,

and of course faith. 

This latest release of the Greetery's goodies were full of joy... spring, florals and 

Easter symbols and sentiments!

This past weekend I spent some time creating with the Greetery's Print Shop: Florals

Frames and the sentiment Empty Grave. 

The 3 cards are more or less experiments with the stamp set, playing with Betsy's enclosed

stencils and dies.

 A one layer card with blues and greens, and a little marigold for berries. You can't miss

with the stencil layering, so easy, and the center is perfect for your greeting.

2nd card was done with the die that cuts the floral frame, and I stamped some 

enclosed berries in strategic places around and under the leaves and flowers. I added some 

Nuvo drops, (wish I hadn't),  and lifted the die cut with foam.

3rd card is a mix of stenciling and stamping first on the card base, upside down, then

attaching the foam lifted top right side up onto the card. The idea wasn't mine, I 

found inspiration from the Greetery's 'Lookbook'. I masked off the center sentiment,

and added a few splatters.

The sentiment is gold embossed, and I'd love to share a shade of gold I found, new

to me, from Ranger, called Princess Gold. It's the best gold I've used yet! I found mine

at Hobby Lobby. 

Have a wonderful week, hope your Easter season is full of God's Grace!

Keeping Christmas: September

 

Hello and welcome to Keeping Christmas September, a blog hop of 

holiday cards and projects to inspire you to get going on your

greeting cards!

I have a trio of cards today, so let's take a look.

There's a list of designer friends at the end of this post, so you

can hop along.

It's been a while since I've used Betsy's Make It Market: 

Fairy Tale Christmas.

The year it was released, I must have made a dozen cards. She included 

designer papers with the kit, along with stamps, dies, cutouts, stencils, 

even elements to create fairy tale books and projects that light up! For my cards today, I used the enclosed 

stencils, stamps and die cut outs.

The corner dies are the sweetest! I set up an assembly line and turned up

 the Christmas music (Pandora) on the computer. 

3 cards with the same layout moves along quickly, and is a wonderfully

relaxing way to spend a day in the craft room!

Slight differences like color variation on the holly, and where the 

side sprigs were placed were really the only differences.

And... matching envelopes, something I'm trying to do with all the cards I 

make. Makes it so easy when they're ready to send.

I usually send out Christmas cards on or around the 10th of December. 

How are you doing with your holiday card making? No pressure, but, 

only 2 more months of keeping Christmas inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, check out what the other designers have for you!

Kelly Lunceford (Creator)

 Claire Broadwater

 Lori Tecler

 Nance Salkeld

 Nina Forsyth

 Nancy Guse

 Marybeth Lopez

 Nancy Penir

 Carol Hintermeier 

Just Peachy

During the Greetery's latest release, Betsy created a stunning card using the rails from

the Create-a-Crate die set.

And I did something I never do... I just had to case that card!

Betsy's started with a crisp white background, and she dry embossed it with one of the 

dies in the set. I used Kraft card stock, and stamped a wood grained image from a 

Concord & 9th set, with white ink. 

Then from there it's pretty much Betsy's card! The peach lineup, the droplets 

of white, even the triplet die cut sentiment. I thought, 'why mess with 

perfection'. 

The peach stamp is a 3 step process, and half way through several

peaches, I thought of lifting some of the ink with a small dauber. It

becomes even more dimensional with that small step.

We care for and nurture a half a dozen peach trees on our property, 

that ripen throughout the summer. Peach jam, peach crisp, peach syrup, and

peach tea, are just some of the goodies to make with peaches.

The Greetery's Peachy Keen is a stamp set that's dear to my peach

loving heart! 

Are there summer fruits you wait all year for? Apricots, plums, nectarines

and peaches, and don't forget cherries and figs... seriously couldn't live without

them!

Blessings friends!

Happy Birthday

The Last Card I'm posting today is actually the first one made of 3,

using the Greetery's newest stamps and dies.

Birthday cards are always needed, so I added the sweet banner and plan to send

this to my daughter-in-law at the end of the month.

The background was stamped with Fresh Floral Background stamp, a

favorite, using Altenew's Misty Morning Ink. The grey is slightly

grey, green and blue all rolled into one. Just a perfect color for a 

soft background.

Some of the designers, and some of you added splatters to your watering can, and I loved

the effect! Betsy's 3 part stamping makes me LOVE stamping all the more!

The banner from the birthday set is just the sweetest touch tucked into the

bouquet! 

Just can't get enough of these new sets. Did you get them? 

The flowers, the watering can, and the map is next on the list!

Have a great week, friends, and may you enjoy every moment!