Purple Sympathy

I tried a different watercolor medium this week -- Ken Oliver's Color Burst powders. I've used the powders before to make beautiful abstract backgrounds, but this is the first time I used them with a brush to color "inside the lines." The colors are super vivid, and I found myself adding water and blotting to try to tone down the color a bit. It's amazing how far a few tiny flakes of powder could go! When I finished coloring the flowers ("Flower Fields" by Stampendous), I used the paintbrush "tap" technique to add sprinkles of color to the background. To do this, I got plenty of the color on the brush, held the brush firmly over the paper horizontally, and then tapped the handle of the brush with the index finger of my other hand, which allowed the color to be flung around a bit. I added the tag with the sentiment by Verve, and framed out my picture to complete it. This is an easy way to use some of those larger images, and is quick when you need a card to send out on short notice.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Out on a Limb

It's been a while since I've used my Hambo Stamps, mostly because I've been concentrating on making card ministry cards, and I lean towards more elegant images and sentiments for those. But then I have to remind myself that different people enjoy different things, and maybe a pun will be just the thing to brighten someone's day!

Here, I've used the Hambo clear "Owl" set, and colored the owl and the branch with copic markers. I'm identifying with this owl, as I too am feeling extra "fluffy" around the middle. Summer is a time for ice cream and milkshakes, and, well, you know how that goes. But I digress... The beautiful leaf print is another design in the "Aquarelle" pad, by Love Nicole. I popped up the sentiment with dimensionals, thus satisfying the "Ways to Use It" challenge for this week at Splitcoast. I love using dimensionals, so there was really no challenge in it for me. Perhaps I should push myself a bit harder next time.

Hope your weekend is a HOOT!!

Plaid with Flowers

This week's CAS challenge at Splitcoast asked us to use plaid in our creations. I actually had a piece of plaid out on my table with this teal textured cardstock that I thought could work together, and when I found this scalloped circle in a baggie of leftover elements, the card came together.

The flowers are from the "Enamor" clear set by Penny Black, and the sentiment is from "Kind Words" by Verve. I used copic markers to color the flowers. The plaid paper is from and American Crafts 6x6 pad called "#summer" -- which is filled with some of the brightest colors and designs I've ever seen in papers! Just using a small strip like this helps to tone it down a bit.

I have a special coupon code for Hambo Stamps that is good thru the rest of this month. Mention "CAS35" when you order to save 35% on all Hambo stamps thru next Tuesday (31st). This code is not referenced on the Hambo website anywhere, and is a special code just for my blog readers.

Have a great day!

Lacy Grace

Here once again is this beautiful "Grace" saying by Verve. I just love the typewriter font that the word "grace" is in! To make this clean and simple (CAS) card, I layered the floral designer paper (from Teresa Collins "Stationery Noted" 6 x 6 pad) over gray card stock, with a little strip of paper lace, made with a Crafter's Companion die. This is a design that would be so easy to mass produce, and you could use any print with coordinated card stock. Yep, I'll be doing this again...

Have a great week!

Abstract Hello

I'm having fun playing with my new "Floral Squares" dies from Pinkfresh Studio. One thing I like is that you can use the negative (cut out) portion of the die as well as the regular framed flower die, so with each cut, you have two die cuts you can create with. Here, I've used the negative portion, so the flower has been punched out of the purple paper.

The designer paper is from the "Aquarelle" pad by Love Nicole. Yes, I know I've used these papers a lot -- just a testament to how much I like them! This print is kind of wild, so I used a strip of vellum underneath the "hello" die (Hero Arts) so that it stands out a bit more.

It's the weekend! Hope you all have a great one!

Faith Hope Love ... and Persistence

One day I was playing around with Distress Oxide inks, and while not everything I made turned out the way I wanted, almost all produced something that could be salvaged. Such was the case with the colored panel above. The distressed piece as a whole was kind of crazy, but trimmed down, I liked this smaller panel. I embossed the Stampendous agapanthus flowers in white so they would stand out from the multicolored background. The sentiment is from the Penny Black clear set called "Faith."

I have to be honest: I had originally used this flower panel on another card that I'd made for my card ministry. I have a card rack in the lobby at church where people may browse the cards, and take any cards that they'd like, with the purpose of sending to a church member or friend who could use a lift in spirits.

Mostly I put general "hello/thinking of you" themed cards, with a few "get well" or "sympathy" cards thrown in, and the cards are usually chosen fairly quickly. Occasionally, though, there are "duds" -- cards that no one wants. The original one with this panel was one of those duds. I'd liked the card I made, but for some reason, no one else did. I got tired of seeing it left on the rack week after week, so I eventually brought it home. Not wanting to throw the whole thing out, I pulled this colored panel off the card and saved it, until I decided to use it on the card above. I put it back in the card rack the next week, and it was chosen immediately. This card wasn't that different than the original, but for whatever reason, this one must have spoken to someone, whereas the other one just sat there being aloof. LOL

I guess the lesson to be learned is to never throw anything away ... uh, be persistent! :)

God of Hope

Cards don't get much easier to make than this one -- even with the added step of framing the designer paper with a solid color of cardstock. This is more of that gorgeous paper from the Love Nicole "Aquarelle" pad. The stamp is from a set called "Gifts From Above" by Penny Black.

Short & sweet -- just like any Monday workday should be. Have a great week!

Branching Out

Here's a quickie I put together with three different dies. The leaf die originally had three leaves, so I trimmed one leaf off to give the little birdie a place to stand. I paper-pieced the bird like I did before, to give her some added interest. I say "her" because the brown and red reminds me of a female cardinal. I LOVE seeing these in my yard, and we usually have a pair of cardinals nesting in one of our trees each year. The label die is from a Becky Higgins set and is a great size for many of my scripture and sentiment stamps, though it also proved to work well for this bird and a saying. The sentiment is from the "Be Kind" set by Verve.

Can you see the texture on the leaves? There was a paper insert in a box of soap I'd bought, and rather than throw it away, I knew I'd find a use for it one day -- and that's how it became a branch with leaves. I like re-purposing things like this, but it's a slippery slope between saving things you'll use, and saving things and having them pile up, up, up! The trick is to actually USE it once you've saved it. :)

Have a happy and safe Friday the 13th!

Sailboat Peace

I played along with the Splitcoast "Clean and Simple" challenge #489, which was to make a "tropical" CAS card. If I went on a tropical vacation, I'd hope it would be like this "Beachfront Boat" stamp scene by Stampendous. Whether on that boat or on that beach, it looks so quiet and peaceful, I could think of no better sentiment! And because I will be using this in my card ministry, I paired the idea of peace with the inside scripture "Be still and know that I am God. - Psalm 46:10"

I'm also submitting this to the Dragonfly Journeys "Summer Lovin'" challenge. I'm sure everyone has some kind of summer stamps or dies, so link it up so we can see what YOU made! :)

Supplies:

Stamps - "Beachfront Boat" by Stampendous; "Holiday Word Borders" set by Hero Arts
Paper - "Aquarelle" (6 x 6 pad) by Love Nicole
Ink - Versafine onyx black; Ranger Distress Oxide inks for watercoloring 

Watercolor Sympathy

Today's card features an old stand-by stamp set, "Close as a Memory" by Stampin' Up. This set is so old, it's wood-mounted! I've become so spoiled by clear stamps, I'm not used to the guessing game of stamping and hoping I've lined it up straight. But besides that, this set is a great go-to for sympathy cards, because it's kind of fool-proof with the flowers and the great sentiments.

I started with Tim Holtz's "speckled" stencil and rubbed distress oxide ink to get the random spots in the background. I also used the oxide ink to sponge around the edges. Next, I inked up the flower stamp using Tim Holtz distress markers, and spritzed the inked stamp with water before stamping it. The sentiment was stamped onto the "Classy Label" die by Verve, and popped up with dimensionals.

Here is the inside sentiment:

I love the wording of both of these sayings!

About my cardstock: Like many, my first introduction to stamping was through Stampin' Up!, back in 2001. At the time, I bought a lot of packs of their cardstock families, and inherited more when my sister retired as a demonstrator years later. Since then, SU has gone through so many "in colors" and have retired and replaced colors, but I still have my original stash. This blue cardstock is from SU, but I don't know the color, and even if I did, chances are good that it's either retired now or called something different. So please forgive me in the future for not giving the name of the color of cardstock, because frankly, other than a few of my favorite classic colors (old olive, eggplant envy, chocolate chip), the names really didn't register with me.

Have a great week!

Collage Duo

REMINDER: Now thru July 8, enjoy 40% off ALL Hambo stamps! See our SALE page for details. 

I had this "collage" page in my Pebbles paper pad that I wasn't sure how to use. It's kind of busy to use as a background, as I normally do my designer papers. But then instead of seeing the page as a whole, I started seeing the smaller squares and rectangles and ways I could divide the paper, and I came up with two designs:

Not only did dividing up the squares make them more manageable, but I still have enough squares left over that I could make a third card -- just not today!

The first card uses two rectangular sections that I cut out:

I framed these two sections with another coordinating paper from the same pad. For some added interest, I used a couple of dies to cut out a red heart, which I popped up on the bottom, and a yellow flower, with a little jewel center.

For my second card, I centered a larger portion of the collage on my white card stock base:

I framed it out with a coordinating turquoise solid paper, and then added a Hero Arts sentiment to the bottom. Very CAS (clean and simple)!

This keeps happening to me, where a design that I originally skipped over because I didn't know how to use it, ends up making cute cards that I want to duplicate! Maybe some day the lesson will sink in, and I won't immediately dismiss something that is challenging.

Have a great weekend!

Supplies:

Stamps - sentiments on both cards by Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings"
Paper - "Garden Party" by Pebbles
Ink - Memento "Lady Bug" red (top); Memento "Teal Zeal" (bottom)
Dies - heart & banner (top) by Becky Higgins

Stenciled Leaf

REMINDER: Now thru July 8, enjoy 40% off ALL Hambo stamps! See our SALE page for details. 

Now on to today's card:

I'm very happy with how this stencil (Carabelle Studio) worked! I didn't have to adhere it in any way; I just held it down with the tip of one finger, and sponged the Tim Holtz distress oxide inks around it. It stayed in place without slipping, and I got this really crisp image.

I layered this on a print from Love Nicole's "Aquarelle" pad for a cool monochrome look. The finishing touch was the Hero Arts sentiment, which was embossed in white.

Happy 4th of July!

Making Some Noise

REMINDER: Now thru July 8, enjoy 40% off ALL Hambo stamps! See our SALE page for details. 

Now on to today's card:

While on a stamp retreat years ago with some of my Hambo Stamps designers, I was privileged to receive a tutorial from card-maker extraordinaire Melissa Edwards. She is a master of coloring, but the technique she showed us was using markers on an acrylic block and spritzing to do easy water-colored backgrounds. I've since made dozens of cards (you can see some here and here) using her technique, because not only is it very easy to do, but the results are STUNNING. But we didn't merely lay down the watercolor -- she taught us to add "noise" to the color, which kicks it up a notch.

My card above demonstrates such "noise." Although this time I used a swatch of designer paper instead of using markers to make the water-colored strip, I still started with basic variations on a color:

Above is the paper I chose from Love Nicole's "Aquarelle" pad. I cut it down so that I just had purplish strip on the left. I could have left the strip as it was, glued my die cut on top and finished the card, but it would have looked a little more dull than it does with the added "noise." I started with a script background stamp, and stamped it in an ink that coordinated with the paper's design, but wasn't too dark. You want the noise to be there, but not stand out too much on its own. Next, I chose another coordinating color to stamp some leaves randomly over the script. The paper already had some white spots included in the design, so I was satisfied to stop there. You can see a close-up of the noise below:

With the paper now jazzed up, I was ready to glue it to my white card base, and add the "Prim Poppy" die cut. Finally, I finished the card with a scripture stamp from Verve. The noise adds just enough extra drama to help the die cut stand out a little more, and leads to a more interesting card.

Do you like to add noise? If you've never tried it, give it a shot, and feel free to link up your result in the comments below.

Happy stamping!

Supplies:

Stamps - scripture from "Scripture Medley 4" by Verve; script background by Recollections; leaves from "Fanciful Filaments" set by Hero Arts
Paper - "Aquarelle" (6 x 6 pad) by Love Nicole
Ink - Memento "Lilac Posies" for sentiment and leaves; "Sweet Plum" for script background
Dies - "Prim Poppy" by Memory Box 

Hambo Summer Sale!

Now thru July 8, enjoy 40% off ALL Hambo stamps! See our SALE page for details. Spread the word!