Sanded embossing

Hey crafty friends - I'm a bit washed out from watching too many 9/11 documentaries. Ones I picked, though, focused on survivors and it was great to hear what they've done with their lives in the past 20 years! I also celebrated my baby sister's birthday and she enjoyed the cake (no candles) I got for her.

Today I'm sharing a card inspired by the Let's Squash It!! Challenge #12 Sand It! **Update - it can't be for the challenge because my embossing folder doesn't have a number. I don't have any of those with me at present.

Supplies: Paper - Ms Sparkle A2 kraft card; 

Tim Holtz kraft metallic; Neenah white 

Embossing Folder - Taylored Expressions Nordic Holiday (retired)

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Sweet Gingerbread Add On Set &

Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop;

Taylored Expressions - Birch Tree Accessories;

Hero Arts Nesting Oval Infinity Dies

Other - Parklane gems; Stamp on It vellum;

Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips Extra Large Christmas

I started out with a stitched rectangle embossed with the Nordic Holiday. The pattern seemed crooked so I trimmed it and backed with white and adhered to kraft for the Scandinavian look. Was going to just add the deer with a merry die cut but decided to put vellum behind him. Ugh, the background still looked crooked so I added some snowbanks and then a long, printed sentiment strip to cover up a wrinkle. 

I definitely don't like how the vellum looks pink atop the metallic red - not just in photo but in real life - darn it!! Oh well, another Christmas card for the stash and I really love the sanded kraft metallic paper. I'd not done it with this paper until now - great effect!! 

Thanks for stopping - hope you have a crafty day!!

A Retirement Bouquet

TGIF crafty friends! Hope you have a special weekend planned - those of us in the US will be observing Patriots' Day tomorrow in remembrance of the horrendous events of 20 years ago. It's also my baby sister's birthday so we have joy from that dimmed by the deep sorrow from 9/11/2001. But we will celebrate her birthday with a cake - no candles, she said.

For today I have another card featuring the Hero Arts Togetherness Bouquet - this time I stamped it onto watercolor paper and colored with Distress reinkers. You can see a mini slimline version I did last month HERE. The new version will go to my neighbor Therese who's retiring this month. She loves flowers and maintains a stunning garden that I envy.

Supplies: Paper - Neenah white; Momenta watercolor print;

Paper Studio silver A2 card; scraps of various greens;

Strathmore cold press watercolor paper; Co'redinations White Glove

Stamps - Hero Arts Togetherness Flower Bouquet;

A Jillian Vance Design Tweet Words; Altenew Floral Frame

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Plaid Coverplate;

Hero Arts Togetherness Bouquet Frame Cuts;

My Favorite Things Blueprints 28 (banner - retired);

Spellbinders Sentiments One; CAS-ual Fridays Garden Fri-dies (retired)

Taylored Expressions Rustic Floral

Other - various Distress Reinkers; Michael's gems

I had to go on the hunt for white glitter paper today since my Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby) Christmas pad mix didn't have any left. Well, didn't find that Christmas pad at the Hobby Lobby I visited and they didn't have any single sheets of white. Then I tried Michael's - no luck. Finally found some at JoAnn's. Die cut Congratulations from the white glitter (it's a very subtle one) and then stacked atop some plain white ones. The little flagged banner is a really long one and I just did the trick of cutting down the end. The sentiment stamp actually says "Congrats on your retirement" but I just did some surgery and snipped off the Congrats - it'll come in handy as a single word later. I also stacked some white die cuts behind the watercolored bouquet for some dimension.

That's it for now. I'm sending this card to Watercooler Wednesday - All About Occasions Challenge and the current NBUS Challenge since my Tweet Words stamp set is new. Hope that's not too little of an NBUS, Darnell...

Thanks for stopping & happy crafting!

 

 

What the Elf?!

Hey crafty friends - it's always hard to get back on track after a holiday weekend. Luckily, a new Christmas Kickstart Challenge has posted today! After my early morning dental check-up I hurried home to start something right away. Challenge 54 asks for a funny card so I went with a 2017 Hero Arts stamp set with puny elf messages.

Supplies: Paper - Sunny Studio All is Bright;

Paper Studio teal and red; Neenah White

Die - My Favorite Things Blueprints 2 (retired)

Stamps - Hero Arts Irreverant Elf Messages (retired)

Other - Copic Markers

Besides the puny elf messages like "but first lemme take an elfie" and "no elf'n way", the set contains oodles of little icons & elf heads. I first stamped a grid of 9 (3x3) heads using a MISTI. Then I spotted an old film strip die with 5 openings. So I added 2 more heads to vertical row 1, colored them with Copics (hand drawing the bodies), and put them behind the grid windows. Added a candy striped panel, solid strip and the sentiment - done! Thanks to Jo & elf Anesha for a fun challenge!!

More Christmas cards

Happy Labor Day to those celebrating in the great USA!

I'm still working on my Christmas stash - in barely 3 months we'll have to begin mailing them! I'll start by sharing another poinsettia card with plaid for the current CAS Christmas Challenge.

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Pink & Main Jolly;

Paper Studio Holiday & glitter; Neenah white

Dies - Hero Arts Paper Layering Poinsettia

Stamps - Simon Says Stamp Diagonal Stripes;

Hero Arts Candy Stripe Bold Prints

Other - CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Reverse Christmas;

Hero Arts red and green inks; Twisted Citron Distress Ink

This time I used a solid but two toned poinsettia with some green plaid leaves atop a stamped plaid border. My intention was to stamp plaid through a forest stencil - it turned out badly, take a look:

Last Thursday I received a Sunny Studio order with a new forest stencil set - love, love, love it. Had to give it a go and made the card below yesterday. So today I thought it would be fun to try stenciling a plaid through it - nope, too small a stencil area for those big red rubber stripes. Oh well, I used the bottom plaid panel for my poinsettia card and the rest went to recycling. I even had to cut off the nice white area above the tree since my inky fingers blobbed it, sigh... I used two brands of diagonal striped backgrounds, each in its separate MISTI. Made it so easy to ink with one color then pop the panel into a second MISTI for the other stamp with a different color.

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; 

Neenah white & black; Paper Studio glitter

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Sweet Gingerbread Add On Set &

Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop

Stencil - Sunny Studio Forest Trees

Other - CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Reverse Christmas;

Mowed Lawn, Evergreen Bough, & Pine Needles Distress Inks

The Sunny Studio stencil set contains three panels and I used all three multiple times with three different Distress Inks to create my forest. Thought it would be fun to add a die cut tree from a new die set I bought from AJVD recently. I'm adding my stenciled forest card to NBUS 30 since the stencil set got first use here. ** Update - Jennifer McGuire shared a different forest stencil card here today, with a video - love how hers turned out although she wasn't the inspiration for mine. These layered forests have been done before - I don't claim mine was the first :)

That's it for today, friends - have a wonderful day!!

Plaid poinsettia

Hey everyone - it's a gloomy day here in Minnesota but the September CAS Christmas Challenge brightened things up! Theme = plaid, how fun!! I still had a bunch of materials out from a previous poinsettia card and decided to make a CAS plaid version!

Supplies: Paper - Neenah white; Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid - Winter;

Pink & Main Jolly; Paper Studio Holiday & Old World Winter

Dies - Hero Arts Paper Layering Poinsettia;

A Jillian Vance Design Mini Slimline Backdrop Set;

Other - Honey Bee gems;

CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Reverse Christmas

The plaid poinsettia has two layers of the red plaid from Old World Winter and the middle layer is from Pink & Main's Jolly. I used the AJVD slimline set for my trio of rectangles; the plaid one is from Lawn Fawn's Winter plaid. Sorry if the photo is bad; it is VERY gloomy & rainy today! 

If you checked out my previous slimline poinsettia card, I'd be interested to know which one you prefer. The Hero Arts poinsettia die I used is a fave and I use it often every year - first year for mini slimlines though!

Julia, one of the CAS Christmas DT, wonders how the Christmas card production goes. Well, with this one I'm up to 47 so better than one per week but nowhere near where I should be! Thank goodness for CAS Christmas to inspire me!!

That's it for today! Thanks for stopping and happy crafting!!

August 2021 Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Hey friends - It can't be September 2nd already, can it?? Oh my, this year is flying by!! Today we're revealing cards sent around the world for the August Card Chain. Twenty-five people participated; see the entire chain HERE. My card went to the delightful Joanne (Ambrosia and Iron) in the UK.

Supplies: Paper - Anchor Paper & Paper Studio (solids);

Carta Bella Devoted (patterned/retired)

Dies - Taylored Expressions Rustic Layered Floral

Avery Elle Pierced Hexagon (retired)

Other - Park Lane gems;

CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Reverse Happy

I used the colors and the sketch (modified a tad).

The sketch seemed to call for a square card which was perfect for my overly large Avery Elle hexagon, used in lieu of the sketch's square element. I got the AE set half off on one of my summer shopping sprees at Anchor Paper - couldn't resist it after Jeanne (Reba Li Creates) enabled me! While it is retired at Avery Elle, I spotted it back in August at Frantic Stamper (go here if desired - there weren't many left, though, so it may be gone by the time this post runs). I searched my patterned papers and found the perfect piece - luckily there was enough for a small strip! Next, I looked for a flower to be the circle element from the sketch and came across a fave TE flower. Now the funny part - Joanne received my Feb 2020 CCC card and I used the same flower!! Sorry about that, Joanne - you'd think I could've found something else in my tons of stash!! At least it was a slightly different color....

I received this darling card from Lia (Lia's Design) in the Netherlands. I just love the seagull with the shells and glittery waves!! Thanks Lia and thanks too for the darling travel stickers!!

Thanks to Gail & Jo for continuing the Card Chain Challenge - quite a challenge with the delays in the various postal services!! You have until September 7th if you'd like to sign up to participate for September - details HERE.

Thanks for visiting!!

Butterfly on Black

Hey crafty friends - I'm glad you stopped by! I'm sharing this butterfly card for inspiration at Die Cut Divas along with the entire team. We're using digital images by our sponsor Morgan's ArtWorld this month but they're not required for the challenge - Anything Goes which starts today!! Besides the card details, I have a bonus card below!!

Supplies: Paper - Hero Arts Dove White;

Paper Studio Black

Digi - Morgan's ArtWorld (Creative Art Design Studio) Fae 18

Embossing folder - Altenew Decorative Florals 3D

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Background

Stamps - Hero Arts Color Layering Dragonfly

Other - Copic Markers; foam tape; white gel pen;

Color Infusions Memory Thread;

Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips Thanks

To purchase our sponsor's images, please visit 

their website at Creative Art Design Studio.

Visit Morgan's ArtWorld Facebook Group HERE.

Our random prize winner (to be announced 10/3) will win some digi images from our sponsor!

Here's a photo of the Copic Markers used plus the inspiration for my butterfly colors:

I received some handmade earrings as a gift and the business card of the jeweler contains a beautiful butterfly. I did my best to copy the colors and love how it turned out! I doodled some extra white dots and added a body (trimmed from a dragonfly stamp) with antenae. Hard to see in the photo but the antenae are a thick thread you can shape - very fun! I twirled them on a paper piercer.

Next, I die cut a stitched rectangle and embossed it using the Altenew ef. I inked first with white ink and then with some black on the raised parts. Please note that my sandwich wasn't thick enough and the 3D embossing didn't reach its full potential. I had embossed these panels before I made some other cards with this ef back in August - see the full 3D embossed effect here & here if desired. Adhered the embossed panel to a top fold A2 card, added the butterfly and sentiment strips - done! I left off any additional embellishments so as not to detract from my colorful butterfly.

And here's a bonus butterfly card:

Supplies: Paper - Ms Sparkle A2 card; Paper Studio black;

Momenta watercolor print

Digi - Morgan's ArtWorld (Creative Art Design Studio) Fae 18

Embossing folder - Altenew Decorative Florals 3D

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Background;

Elizabeth Craft Designs Small Butterfly (retired) but 

Frantic Stamper had a couple left HERE

Honey Bee Bitty Buzzwords & A2 Thin Frames

Other - Copic Markers; foam tape; white gel pen;

SSS sentiment strip

I love the digis for the variety of sizes you can print; thanks to teamie Arlene for printing them! Thought this smaller butterfly was so darling but also thought it needed a body so I gave it a die cut one! I attempted to ink the ef when I embossed the panel for this card too. Guess I chose the wrong ink because it got smeared but I continued blending until I got a usable background. The smaller butterfly looked adrift on the big background so I corraled it with a Honey Bee frame. My friend Betty (created by bjk) sent me some and enabled me to buy the die after I tried her cuts!!

Looking forward to seeing your Anything Goes creations using a die cut or embossing folder in our Diva gallery by 9pm Pacific time on 9/30/21. Thanks for visiting!!