Yellow.

 Not a colour that I reach for - ever!  Yet I recently bought 2 colours of yellow cardstock, and I've been using it in a lot of my ink blending, as you see here?  Feels good to try something out of my comfort zone.

I used the Beautiful Word Die & Leafy Branch Die from Pinkfresh Studio, Crimped Rectangle Die from The Greetery, and background paper is ancient Close To My Heart.  Distress Oxides are Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Abandoned Coral.

Happy Everything!

 I was able to complete 6 cards this afternoon to add to my pile for donation.  I bought several small sentiment dies by Creative Expressions (from the Papercrafter's Workshop!) especially to use on cards like this.  I am happy to use up a portion of an old paper pack, and make some happy, spring-y cards:

Other dies are Memory Box (butterfly) and Verve for the background shape.  Papers and embellishments are Close To My Heart.

Second Coffee Lover's post

 I have a second card to post in the 2021 Spring/Summer Coffee Lover's Blog Hop today.  I've been inspired by patterned papers lately, so here's my card using Flower Market by Carta Bella:

Dies are Leafy Branch from Pinkfresh Studio, Cups of Cheer from Memory Box, and Say it With Stamps from Photoplay.

You can see the rest of the hop here!

2021 Spring/Summer Coffee Lover's Blog Hop!

 It's here!!  And I'm all prepped and ready to go with my (first?) post...  Visiting a couple of old favourites, as nothing beats Verve coffee stamp sets:

                     

Patterned paper is from Home Again by Carta Bella.  Dies are Cups of Cheer from Memory Box, Hexagons from MFT and A2 Double Stitched Rectangle Die from Art Impressions.  Stamp set is Better With You from Verve.  You can find the rest of the hop here!

Watercolour Weekend: Mask It Up!

 It's Watercolour Weekend on the Art Impressions blog, and our theme is 'Mask it Up'!  I'm using one of the new die-only sets from the Fall release for this week's project.  Here is 5367 - WC Birdcage Dies:

I started by diecutting the larger birdcage die from some Masking Paper, then placed it onto my Canson XL Watercolor Paper.  Be sure to stick it down firmly, as you don't want paint or water seeping under the mask.  I began stamping with my flowers - using the small daisy bunch from 4052 - Flower Set in #993 Chrome Orange, then used the circle of V shaped flowers from 4868 - WC Flower Set 2 in both#533 Peacock Blue and #565 Deep Blue, stamping multiple times in a circle to create my clusters.

To add the foliage, I used the two trailing ivy stamps in 4867 - WC Foliage Set 2 New, in #249 Hunter Green, stamping in and around my flowers.  To fill in any empty spots, I used the tiny green in the set with #126 Light Olive - which gave my scene a nice bright punch of colour.  To finish, I picked up #565 from my palette and painted in the background - carefully making sure to paint right up against all of the birdcage bars, so that when the mask was removed, the white 'negative' of the cage remained.  With my fine #1 paintbrush, I painted thin lines around my birdcage to create shadows, and the suggestion that it is a 3D object. 

                           

I added a sentiment from the Exclusive Daisies Set available at Scrapbook.com in Versafine Onyx Black, then die cut my scene with a decorative die.

Beautiful Slimline

 You're in for a whole bunch of slimline cards from me over the next while!  I had a fun afternoon playing with my new Pinkfresh Studio products, and will be gradually making them up into cards over the next while.  

I ink blended some Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink onto my cardstock, and then used the Diamond Motif stencil to add a little more Faded Jeans over it all. I die cut the panel out with a dotted slimline die from Photoplay, and used a smaller shaped one to cut out the middle of the panel, which I raised up with 3D adhesive.  

The Beautiful Word Die was cut in metallic silver cardstock, and the Leafy Branch Die was cut from white.  I used my Sticky Specs to glue them down and added a few tiny sparkles to finish it off.

I'm loving making slimline cards!

Beautiful You

 I had the best time putting this card together...the inks blended together so beautifully, and my new Pinkfresh Studio dies made such a fun design possible in a couple of minutes.  The 'Beautful' word die is also from Pinkfresh Studio, and I found the word 'You' in my stamp stash and gold embossed it on my background.  I raised my panel up with some 3D adhesive tape, and adhered it to my white background.

I was inspired by a beautiful card I saw on the Pinkfresh Facebook page - but couldn't find the name of the artist.

My background was made by blending Distress Oxide inks: Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry and a touch of Wilted Violet.

Road Trip

 Road Trip is the name of the paper pack I'm using today.  It's a bit of a mission of mine to use up older supplies that I've had sitting around, with the plan being to have a good stash of cards to donate - either to a charity or some local long term care homes in my area.  So this group of cards was a great boost to my collection of masculine themed cards:

Just about all of my supplies are from Close To My Heart (anyone recognize these papers??)  I kept my designs pretty simple, and used mainly diecuts as embellishments.

So happy with my results!

Every Bloomin' Thing

 I love this quote from the Exclusive Hydrangea Set by Art Impressions, and made this special card for a friend having surgery.  My flowers are coloured with Tombow Dual Brush Markers, stamped onto watercolour paper, and then touched with a damp paintbrush, and fussy cut.

I've used two new (to me!) slimline dies from Pinkfresh Studio - love them, and added my gold embossed sentiment on a strip of vellum overtop.

The stitched frame is actually a matte gold cardstock, so has a little more glimmer in real life versus the photos.

A few clear enamel dots finished things off.

Watercolor Weekend: Green

I will be on the Art Impressions blog on Saturday for their Watercolour Weekend post, and we've started to have themes.  I went CAS for my 'green' card this week! 

I began by taping a piece of Ranger Watercolor paper onto a board, and after masking off the top 2/3, I ink blended some Crushed Olive and Mowed Lawn Distress inks for my grass.  I switched the mask to the bottom 1/3, and blended Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean, keeping a white area just off-center. (This paper is a bright white, and kept my ink colours bright and clear!)

                           

I used the smaller bicycle from 5124 - WC Bicycle Set, coloured it with my #N45 Cool Grey 10 Tombow marker and used my Stamp Positioner to place it where the white 'halo' area was, making sure that it sat just above the grass line.  I used my damp brush to pull out the colour in all the metal bars, then picked up #N25 Lamp Black and painted in the wheels and seat.  I added #856 Chinese Red to the handlebars and fenders.  With the small leafy green from 5074 - Bible Flower Set, I masked off the basket, then stamped it repeatedly in #177 Dark Jade.  I used the same #177 and the grass from 5372 - WC Mini Foliage Set to stamp grass around the tires.  A touch of #565 Deep Blue added shadows to the white basket, and on the bike.

I used the green and black ink on my palette to spatter some ink on my scene, then stamped the sentiment from the Exclusive Daisies Set and die cut it with a decorative rectangle die.  The scene is adhered to my white card base with 3D foam adhesive.

Wood Slices Part 2

 This die set from The Greetery comes with both a large (yesterday's post!) and a small wood slice die.  So here is pretty much the same card as yesterday, but this one is 5 1/4" square, and uses the smaller flower images from Oopsie Daisy:

I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge!  It's all about Blooms this week.

Wood Slices

 Check out my new Wood Slices Dies from The Greetery!!  I've been coveting these dies for awhile, and they showed up in my mailbox recently :o)  You can expect to see a lot of them...  I've paired them with all kinds of other Greetery products: Oopsie Daisy, Petite Eucalyptus, Tie One On dies and the sentiment is from Pitcher-esque:

I ink blended some Mowed Lawn ink onto my card base, and added a few black ink splatters and black Nuvo Drops.  All of the inks used are Distress Oxides.

Happy with my first efforts!  Practise does make perfect, though.