More Twofer Bubbles

Hey everyone - hope you're having a wonderful weekend! I had a great Father's Day with my family except for one sister who's in AZ. We played our favorite card game (Phase 10) and Dad won, coming from way behind to wipe the floor with the rest of us!

I was excited to get out into the world to have lunch with a friend last weekend - take out food eaten at a park, but hey - new normal... JoAnn's has a store near the park so I made a shopping run - hadn't been to JoAnn's in ages and I'm not one to use their online store. Anyway, since I last visited, JoAnn's expanded their Hero Arts stock - yay!! In the Hero Arts store I'd been looking at the new HA/Sweet Petunia MISTI in black (so classy, though why would I need another MISTI, you ask). JoAnn's had one - score! Plus I got the matching mouse pad so I didn't have to laminate another SSS grid - it's the little things, right? Anyway, I also spotted a 6x6 cling stamp with, you guessed it, bubbles! So I had to make another pair of bubble cards for the current Twofer Challenge. Here's my Twofer:

Jennifer McGuire had a fun video June 11th on faux monoprint (see her full post here). I decided to give it a whirl with my new bubble background. After clear embossing the image I laid down a lot of ink on it, then spritzed with water and ran it through my diecut machine with another paper atop. See the results below, far inferior to Jennifer's but I probably should've picked a different ink for my lighter shade - Tumbled Glass came out too light on the monoprint side. I thought I had enough water but maybe that was part of it.

No matter - I cut the light part off (you can see the pattern, oh so subtly) and used it for sentiments. I used the darker part (still quite light compared to the ink-to-paper side) and die cut some circles. Wasn't sure what I'd do with the circles at that point but I moved them around a card base several times. The original embossed piece was die cut with a stitched rectangle for my fish. Here's a closer look with supply list:

Supplies: Paper - Neenah Black and Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb; 

Paper Studio Turquoise A2 card;

Momenta watercolor print 8x8 (for seaweed)

Dies - My Favorite Things Blueprints (retired) and 

Leafy Greenery (retired but they sell similar greenery);

Memory Box Seaweed Stalks (retired)

Stamps - Hero Arts Color Layering Goldfish and Bubbles Bold Prints

Inks - Memento Dandelion, Cantaloupe, & Tangelo; Versamark

Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon, Pumice Stone

Other - Ranger clear ep; Copic black pen; Hero Arts lacquer, foam tape

When I made my previous entry (see it here if you missed it), I mentioned having stamped a couple of extra fish. I intended to use a similar background to the one I used previously but now I had a fun bubble background to try. It's busy, but I didn't care a whit!! Die cut some seaweed and a couple mat layers, & stamped a sentiment. Put it all together - done! Sent this one to Darnell and her hubby who have received it - yay!!

On to my Peace card (sympathy for a chorus friend whose mom passed). I had a plain card with the circles arranged but didn't like it. Noticed an Altenew flower stem left over from another sympathy card, laid it on the circles and viola - it tied it together. Gave the stem a quick color with Copics to coordinate with my card colors. Decided I needed a pale background paper and chose a winter paper but it works! Diecut a circle from the light monoprint for the sentiment, put it together, and done! Here's a closer look with supply list:

Supplies: Paper - Paper Studio Turquoise A2 card; 

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White110 lb

Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh in the Snow 6x6

Dies - My Favorite Things Blueprints (retired) and 

Hero Arts - Nesting Circle Infinity Dies

Stamps - Hero Arts Bubbles Bold Prints; 

Stampendous Encouraging Words

Altenew Floral Sprig (with matching die)

Inks - Hero Arts Intense Black

Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass & Mermaid Lagoon

Other - Copic markers; Michael's gems, foam tape

That's it for today! Will also enter Darnell's NBUS challenge since my bubbles are newly used. Thanks for two fun challenges, Darnell and crew. As always, thanks to you for stopping!!

         

Up in the Air scene

Hey everyone - I received the May 2020 My Monthly Hero kit this week - yay! With the virus and shutdowns in California, Hero Arts had been carrying on with just the family doing the work. Things will improve for them, thankfully, now that businesses are starting to reopen. I'm just so grateful to Aaron and his family for processing orders!! Will have to send them a card but today I'm sharing one for a friend - a little sky scene with an airplane pulling a banner. This one will fit with Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge 10 (ending June 25th 5PT) to create a scene. Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Momenta Water Color 8x8;

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Stamps and Dies from May 2020 My Monthly Hero Kit 

Dies - My Favorite Things retired Blueprints;

Hero Arts Nesting Cloud Infinity Dies

Other - Copic Markers; foam tape; Hero Arts Lacquer pen

and an old star gem from 2008!

This kit hasn't sold out as of this post's publishing so you'd still have a chance to order one. It's so cute I'm surprised it hasn't sold out yet!! I added a few bigger clouds using Hero's cloud infinity dies - love them and so handy for skies!! The HELLO banner is just an interior cut with no matching frame. No worries, I found a good match in my stash - it's an orphan though so I don't know which set it's from. The sky is simply a stitched rectangle die cut from a watercolor pattern paper - I have about 6 packs of it because I keep using up the blue pages - love them!!

I'll also share my card at the NBUS Challenge even though the May kit is a new never-before-used item versus an ancient one (I have plenty of those too!) On another note - over on The Card Chain Challenge we're celebrating 3000 cards sent around the world. Gail asked us to share a favorite card we received in the chain. I went back to THIS CARD  that Anette Hjerpaasen from Norway sent me back in January 2011. I loved Anette's trio of flowers and the big ribbon; wish I knew where she went - no cards posted since 2012... If you've ever played in this challenge, be sure to stop and check it out! Maybe it's time to start playing again - you have until July 6th to sign up for August.

That's it for today! Thanks to Hero Arts and to Darnell for the fun challenges and thanks to you for stopping by! Hope you're enjoying a crafty weekend!!

Purple roses and a pair of bells

Hey all - good to "see" you! Today I'm sharing a card for my old - oops, should say "former", lead singer from my retired quartet. Her birthday comes at the end of the month and we're getting together for a "deck chat" (outdoors with physical distancing) on Friday. Thought I'd save postage and take the card to her then!

Supplies: Paper - DCWV Ms Sparkle A2 card & teal wood grain; 

American Craft A2 card cut for the music panel;

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Momenta watercolor 8x8;

purple/teal patterned - Prima Royal Menagerie 

Dies - My Favorite Things Blueprints (retired);

Spellbinders Petite Labels One (retired)

Stamps - Sunny Studio Everything's Rosy (with matching dies);

Hero Arts It's Your Day (retired);

Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental

Other - foam tape; Hero Arts inks

Heidi loves purple, as do I! I may have mentioned before that, whenever the quartet rec'd a gift with four different colored items (such as vases, Christmas bells, etc), she & I had to bargain over any purple item - LOL. I hadn't tried the Sunny Studio roses in shades of purple yet and had a great time with them! I'm getting better at aligning, even if there was an oops now & then (I made two sets). When I went to stamp the fifth layer in a deep purple, it didn't show up well. So I went ahead and used black - worked great, I thought! I found one lonely piece of beautiful patterned paper in purple and teal to go atop my card base. I couldn't find the 6x6 pad anywhere but I know I bought it at Hobby Lobby some time ago. Wish I had more!! ** Update - found a card I made four years ago using a piece of it; updated the supply list - it was Prima, thought so!** I used a variation of the sketch by Julee Tilman as seen on the Hero Arts blog here.

Thinking of Christmas bells, I made the fourth and final bell card with the remaining two bells I had left (of the 9 I cut on Monday). Don't know what possessed me to use gold mirror cardstock for the card base so please excuse the phone shadow on the card (artfully? disguised by my name). I first cut a stitched rectangle and dry embossed it with an old Cuttlebug folder, matted in black, to cover most of the mirror card. A glittery oval frame grounded my two bells and I used another AJVD jingle sentiment. I had stamped a sheet of several for Betty and did one for myself before I put the set away. I've already entered the limit of three at the current CAS Christmas so I'm just sharing for fun...

Supplies: Paper - Mirror card from a Hero Arts MMH kit; Tim Holtz Metallic Jewels 

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Paper Studio Glitter

Dies - AJVD Jingle Bells Die Set and

My Favorite Things retired Blueprints 

Stamps - AJVD  Jingle All the Way

Embossing folder - Cuttlebug Kitchen Weave

Other - foam tape, Hero Arts Intense Black ink

And in the continuing saga of the washing machine, a different new one was delivered yesterday (one from Tuesday leaked & went back to the store). All seems well so far - no leakage or other problems noted during the test cycle - whew! So I went ahead and started the oodles of laundry I've been saving for my new washer. Very nice - I'm so happy to have another item checked off my to-do list! Now to Misty-proofing. My brother's cat Misty will take a vacation with me in a few weeks and I'm trying to clean up all the crafty messes around here that she might get into. Problem is, the more I put away, the more I take out - when will it end?!

Thanks for listening to my craziness stories and for checking out my cards! Hope your having a great week!!

Jingle Bells - again!

I had some time last night after a frustrating time with a washing machine yesterday (more on that later). So I picked up some more of the bells I had die cut (three were used on yesterday's card) and made another card to share for the latest CAS Christmas Card challenge. I also cut a bunch of bells for my friend Betty - they went out in the mail today!  Here's my Jingle all the Way card:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Tim Holtz Metallic Jewels 

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Dies - AJVD Jingle Bells Die Set and

Stitched Plaid Cover Plate

Impression Obsession Pine Branch

Stamps - AJVD  Jingle All the Way

Other - foam tape, Hero Arts Intense Black ink;

Distress Inks - Gathered Twig and Pine Needles to shade the branch

I decided to try a single bell as an ornament on a branch. The stars stuck in when I removed the paper from the die so I decided to leave them in. Plenty of room for a sentiment and I chose a large one from the AJVD set. I used the plaid die from yesterday's card to dry emboss a panel - really liked this quilted look. Sorry Betty - this panel was going to you but the envelope got too bulky so I'll send you some later if you'd like....

And now a twofer - a variation on yesterday's card. I used a different color combo of bells from yesterday (I had cut all three sizes of bells in three colors to mix and match). Which combo do you prefer? I also added a second set of pine branches - I like this fuller look. And I squeezed a sentiment on - thought this Keep Calm and Jingle On was a fitting one.

Supplies: Paper - Tim Holtz Metallic Jewels and Kraft Metallic

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Dies - AJVD Jingle Bells Die Set and

Stitched Plaid Cover Plate

Stamps -  AJVD  Jingle All the Way

Other - foam tape, embroidery floss, Hero Arts Forest ink,

Pine Needles Distress Ink

So - the frustrating washer story: My washer developed a leak last summer so I spent the summer going to the laundromat (kinda fun; I met some nice people). Didn't want to deal with getting a new washer because I wasn't home that much then. So this summer, I decide to deal with it and bought a fancy new Speed Queen. The installers set it on a wash cycle to get the box dust out of it and headed out. Wasn't 5 minutes in and the washer was leaking - yikes! Called them and they took it away. A different new one should arrive today. Keep Calm and Jingle on indeed!!

That's it for today, friends - have a calm and crafty day!! Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Jingle!

Hey everyone - hope your week is going well. I received two things yesterday - a reminder from CAS Christmas for their current challenge Bells & a package from A Jillian Vance Design containing, you guessed it, bells! So I got busy with bells! Here's my card (had to finish it this morning since we had chorus last night on ZOOM):

Supplies: Paper - Tim Holtz Metallic Jewels and Kraft Metallic

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Dies - AJVD Jingle Bells Die Set and

Stitched Plaid Cover Plate

Stamps - Hero Arts CL889 Holiday Pine Branches (retired) 

Other - foam tape, embroidery floss, Hero Arts Forest ink

For years I've been following my friend Rosemary's blog "Hey There .... rosigirl!" She makes amazing cards and has been a designer for many teams, including her current stint with A Jillian Vance Design. Last Wednesday Rosemary wrote their blog post with a lovely cup card she designed. She enabled me to finally buy something from AJVD, despite my resisting to add another company to my list of loves. They were offering 21% off in celebration of Jillian's birthday so I jumped right in and bought the cup set. Since CAS Christmas had a bell theme, I searched AJVD for bells and found the fun Jingle Bells Die Set and the Stitched Plaid Cover Plate which reminded me of some trellis dies I've seen on other blogs. Kudos to AJVD - I ordered Wednesday night & received my package on Monday - great service!! I'm sure I'll visit again!!

I cut the entire bells set out of three TH metallics, then decided the color combo I wanted for this card. I'll create other cards with the rest of the bells someday... Since I had my new cover plate, I decided to try the bells on it - liked it! Stamped and fussy cut a couple pines (too few?) and added to the plate. After arranging the bells, I carefully slid them out one at a time and tied embroidery floss to them (gluing the knot and trimming it so no dangles). Used the amazing Gina K. Connect Glue - love that stuff!! Added ultra thin foam. Slipped bell carefully back into its spot, then stretched the floss taut and glued the top in the center of the pines. Covered the top of the floss with the little bow. Added to a top fold A2 card - done! I also bought the Jingle All the Way sentiments set but I'll stamp the sentiment on the inside of this card - there just didn't seem to be enough room on the front!

So, thanks for the enabling, Rosemary!! I mentioned in my order comments that I love your cards and they wrote back that they love you too!! If anyone's interested, check out Rosemary's post using the jingle bells which I apparently missed back in 2018 (found it on a search after I bought the set). Darling tags on that post which could give you more inspiration for the latest Christmas Kickstart challenge!

I'll enter this to Darnell's NBUS challenge too since, not only are the bells and cover plate new, I've never used the Metallics Jewels paper (hmmm, it's been around here for over a year!). Thanks to the CAS Christmas team and to Darnell for fun challenges!! And as always, thanks to you for visiting!!

       

A Christmas Scene for Stay Crafty with Hero

Not quite Christmas in July but, hey, I need to build that stash of Christmas cards! Hero Arts posted its latest Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge to build a scene - I love it!

Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Neenah white and black

Stamps: Hero Arts CM119 Holiday Cheer, CL541 Snowman Christmas, 

CL800 Frosty Wishes, & DI36 Thank You Messages Frame cuts (all retired),

and CM379 Hero Greetings Christmas Messages

Other - Copic Markers; Stickles; Joy ultra thin foam tape

Hero Arts black gems and Intense Black ink

I really got a chuckle from Daniel's post on the HA blog for this challenge. He used an oodle of sets on his card - hey, maybe that should be the challenge - use at least 5 or more sets! While I have a lot of Hero Arts stamps perfect for scene-building, I started with a fun snowman set without any scene elements. I liked it so much when HA released it in 2013, I bought two sets of the dies just so I could cut two twig arms at the same time! Funny thing, this time I used no dies and the big snowman has no arms!!

When I opened my stamp set, a bunch of little masks fell out. I remembered doing a crowd scene with snowmen for a Merry Monday challenge back in 2017 (see it here if desired). I decided a trio of snowmen with a little house behind might be fun. Luckily I had saved a sample panel for arrangement of the snowmen, making it very easy to set up on the MISTI. I stamped the scarf, masked it, then stamped the two smaller snowmen. Added masks to the two snowmen and stamped the big one. Stamped the house, masked it and stamped the trees. It was a bit rough over the stitched rectangle I'd already cut so I filled it as needed with pen & pencils. Stamped the hills and removed masks. Ugh - didn't like the lower hill so I carefully trimmed around the bottom of the snowmen, hand cutting hills on either side. Die cut a second white panel, traced the cut hills on the back and carefully trimmed them. Added black line to the main piece and glued to a black mat, then added the new trimmed piece onto it. Boo-boo fixed!! Colored everything and added stickles to the snow lines. Had stamped and die cut a hat for big snowman - didn't like it. Spotted a birdy in the set with the two smaller snowmen & decided he would look cute atop big snowman's head! Colored him &, since his beak was open like he was speaking, he got a speech bubble with the sentiment. Woo hoo - used 5 sets, even though that wasn't my goal....

Thanks to Daniel for the scene inspiration (really amazing!) and to Hero Arts for the challenge!! You can play along until Thursday June 25th at 5pm PT for a random chance to win a prize - I'd love to see your scenes! Thanks for stopping and I'll see you in blogland!

Bubbles Twofer!

Hey everyone - TGIF!! It's another beautiful day to enjoy - hope you have one too!

I'm sharing cards I made for the current Twofer Card Challenge whose theme is Circles/Bubbles. I chose a Christmas tree for one of my cards to fit the theme at Christmas Craft Creations. Here's my Twofer:

When I saw the Twofer theme I immediately thought of a Hero Arts turtle set - was sure it had bubbles on it. Nope - it was the goldfish set!! Luckily, I had that one too. ☺ I decided to use the goldfish for an underwater scene with the bubbles. Then I spotted Trina (Phamtastic Design) from the CAS Christmas team who is guest designing at Christmas Craft Creations, somewhere I'd never been. She inspired me to make the Christmas tree card with the bubbles for baubles (say that three times fast!). Their June challenge theme is Christmas Trees and it can be any type of Christmas craft. though mostly what I saw posted so far were cards. More inspiration for me and a chance to add to my Christmas card stash - yay! Here's a closer look, starting with the tree card:

Supplies: Paper - Paper Studio cardstock; Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh in the Snow 6x6

Dies - Hero Arts Fir Trees and Nesting Ovals Infinity Dies;

My Favorite Things Blueprints (retired)

Stamps - Hero Arts Hero Greetings Christmas Messages and

Color Layering Goldfish

Other - Colored Pencils; Hero Arts lacquer pen & Intense Black ink;

Versamark ink & Ranger Princess Gold ep; foam tape

Ugh, I left my LF stitched hillside dies at my "satellite studio". My sisters want to craft when visiting this summer so I left them a spare die cutting machine and a box of dies. Guess I'll have to reclaim some when I visit my parents! I improvised and used an oval die (mostly off edge) to cut a little snowbank to ground my tree. I cut two trees, one green and one woodgrain. Trimmed the stump off the green one and layered to get the woodgrain stump. As I eyed my bare tree thinking how to add baubles, I spotted the seaweed in the fish set. Hmmmm, my mind went to those gorgeous trees you see in Hallmark movies with the ribbon wrapped around. Tried stamping seaweed on a "test tree" - loved it, so embossed with gold on the card's tree. Then I arranged the three bubble sizes on my MISTI and stamped them randomly, masking off when one of the bubbles ran into a "ribbon". Colored the bubbles with pencils and covered with lacquer. Very dull in the photo but lovely in real life! I also left my star gems for my sisters so recruited a Hero Arts five sided flower for the tree's star. Diecut a soft bokeh background, put it together and stamped the sentiment. Ooops - bit of a black dot by the C - no problem, added a few more dots. Done! Now to the fish card:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Momenta Watercolor 8x8

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Dies - Hero Arts Fir Trees and Nesting Ovals Infinity Dies;

My Favorite Things Blueprints 20 retired

Stamps - Hero Arts Hero Greetings Christmas Messages and

Color Layering Goldfish (with matching die)

Other - Hero Arts lacquer pen & Intense Black ink;

Memento Dew Drop inks - Pear Tart, Tangelo & Cantalope;

Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Mowed Lawn & Pumice Stone;

foam tape & colored pencil for shading; black pen

I'm making weekly cards for a friend and thought she'd get a kick out of this one. Planning ahead I stamped some more fish for another card (not finished yet), one for a couple. I did a male & a female fish for that card, giving the female fish eyelashes. Decided that would be a great idea for this fishy too! I gave the fishy bubbles on this card some lacquer for a lovely glossy dimension. The MISTI worked great to repeatedly stamp the rocks and seaweed at the bottom edge of my stitched rectangle "fish tank".

That's it from here - thanks to Darnell and crew for inspiration & a fun challenge & same to the team at Christmas Craft Creations. Thanks for stopping & enjoy the weekend!!