Hello Monday!

Just a quick post before work for a card I made this weekend that was influenced from the current CTS challenge.  I used my new Neat & Tangled stencil, Geometric Blooms to layer some background colours with MFT Blue Raspberry  and SU Bermuda Bay.  I stamped the Happy from W&W (The Big, the Bold & the Happy) and added a Paper Smooches bird die cut and a Memory Box? layered petals flower. 

Have a good one!

Happy Birthday, Friend!

I made this card for a dear, sweet friend's birthday (a late mailing...) and I see that it can qualify for a few challenges!  Bonus :)
I was quite anxious to use this new to me stamp from Concord & 9th and I have so many colour combos swirling in my head.  I first white heat embossed onto bristol card.  The detail on this stamp is amazing and I used a WOW superfine white EP.  It worked like a charm!
I used my Zigs to water colour the tiny images.  The Happy is a Memory Box die that I cut from the same bristol and again applied the colour with Zigs in a gradient fashion.  The birthday is from Winnie & Walter and the Friend is a PTI stamp.  The main panel was cut with an Avery Elle Elements die.  
Happy to finally send this card out and it is also on it's way over to the following challenges.  Oh, Happy 4th of July !

Curtain Call 

Memory Box sketch

Simon Says Anything Goes

CAS-ual Fridays Colour Challenge

Masculine Birthday

My son's birthday is tomorrow and we will be celebrating his 25th!

I made a card for him this morning, playing with stencils and distress inks.  I used a SU stencil for the background that I placed on an angle and applied the cracked pistachio and mermaid lagoon inks lightly with an ink blending tool.  Over that, I used a Heidi Swapp triangles stencil and applied a dark grey ink on a few and the same distress inks.  I cut out some numbers from Bristol board that I had applied the inks to, some blended and some just direct to the Bristol and arranged.  The Happy is a Technique Tuesday die and that was cut from black mirror card, as were the PTI t and h letters.  I am happy with the outcome and the process reminded me how simple it is to create with stencils.  Must play some more with these!  I am entering into the SSS http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-anything-goes- challenge where "Anything Goes" and featuring Technique Tuesday products.

Thanks for stopping by...have a wonderful weekend!

Chriss

PS (Petals & Scribbles)

Happy Friday!

It is a gorgeous day here today with unusually high temps in the 80's and that gets me thinking of Spring clothing.  It just so happens that the latest Nordstrom catalogue arrived earlier in the week and I spied this darling little dress that I thought would be a perfect inspiration for my PTI challenge where we are asked to create a card from a piece of clothing in our closet or an online retailer!

 Here is my finished card with a pic below of the inspiration piece.

 I used the Circle Scribbles, 
two leaves from Beautiful Blooms II and one of the Keep it Simple sentiments from the Happy Birthday set. This was a blast to make and it really did not take me more than 30 minutes!  
I used Winsor & Newton professional Quinacridone Magenta to paint over the Scribbles.
EASY PEASY!
I love how it turned out :)

Happy Week-end!

I am also adding this to the 30 Day Coloring challenge

Winked Masculine Birthday

Onward with the Belated Birthday Bash and the challenges!

Gayatri has created a gorgeous background on her card!

Her blending is superb!

I attempted this technique to create a background for a masculine Birthday card using the Confetti cuts stamp set and some more masking.  I did have a little trouble with my blending and the tiny masks that I made with the Confetti die cuts in that my masking paper was not adhering as well as hoped (maybe I could have chosen larger  images for this technique) and I could not really work the ink blending very well, so it is a little swirly, but I think it adds a little more movement to the card overall?  I started by stamping the selected images with Memento black ink and then masked them,  I blended a few DI's of blues and purple, removed the masks and then applied WOS white and clear to the stars, WOS black to the other shape.  The big Happy was die cut twice from black CS and the top 3rd layer is an enameled looking black CS.  I added a vellum banner that I stamped/black heat embossed the birthday word from The Big, The Bold & The Happy and wrapped around the front panel.  The little star confetti sequins are from my last order from W&W.  

I will be using this technique again and making more backgrounds!

Here is a close up...can you see the winking?

Thanks for stopping in!

30 Minutes to a Fabulous Floral

Spending some time this morning getting to know my Zig brush pens...
I thought a good place to start would be with this fabulous floral background Cling stamp from Hero Arts (no name on the packaging).  I embossed in white on bristol board and started to colour...
Still not quite sure of what colours actually "blend", but I am pleased with the colour combo, although it is darker than I hoped!  I stamped the sentiment in Versa Mark ink onto a strip of black CS and white heat embossed, cut a wide angle fishtail on one end and adhered to a strip of vellum.  The vellum was wrapped to the back of the floral panel and mounted onto a fun foam rectangle, then adhered to an aqua card base.  Fun and easy!  
Are you colouring every day?

I am offerring this up for Kathy's 30 Day colouring challenge and the 

Hero Arts Fabulous Florals challenge.

A Time Out Birthday

Good morning everyone!
I took a break (my Time Out) from Valentine card making and shifted to making some birthday cards this morning for the current 















Time Out

I did some spongeing with the hearts (SU Bermuda Bay sponged through an acetate stencil that I made with a SSS die) on my rectangular panel and "winked" them for some sparkle IRL.  I used patterned papers for my background and did some die cutting to look like streamers with one of the W&W Goldie Trim dies.  My birdie is MB, cut once from the polka dotted paper and layered onto another cut from coaster board.  The heart stamp is from PTI Heart Prints and white embossed.  The sentiment is also W&W from the Big, the Bold and the Happy stamp set.

and Seize the Birthday  Anything Goes challenge.  Below is a close up of the WOS, but it barely shows on the photo.
Anyway...another birthday card later to post.  
Thanks for stopping by!
Chriss

Runway Inspired Birthday

A second post for today!

I have not been able to play along with quite a few challenges in the last few weeks, Runway Inspired being one of them and I am catching up this week!

Here is what I came up with for the latest Sophie Theallet RIC #86.

I sued a Hero Arts background stamp and heat embossed with gold.  I water coloured with various distress inks and then heat embossed the sending(PTI) and wishes(Ellen Hutson) sentiments and then die cut the birthday twice.

I am also offering this up for the Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe challenge.  I used the diagonal line with heat embossing, birthday theme and water colour.  Loving the water colouring these days!

Thanks for stopping in...quick post, but I may be back tomorrow!

Summery beachy birthday!

Well, Howdy there!  It has been a while since I have been able to create or post anything as I took a road trip with a fellow WINO and although I have been back for almost a week...chores and a long list of other things had to be tended to first!

I saw the Curtain call challenge with Beach Ball as the inspiration word and I have been hoarding saving this darling sheet of bathing suits PP for just the right card.  Today is the day!  I did not have a beach ball image, so I cut out 3 circles and coloured them with Copics to match the colours in the paper.  The sentiments are SU, old and wood mounted, so not a perfect or easy alignment...the sun is heat embossed with a pastel yellow ep.  

It feels good to be back in the craft room!

Thanks for peeking in!

Chriss

Butterfly Birthday

Happy Monday!

Frigid temps here today and looks like tomorrow too. A couple of great days for staying in and crafting.  I have been having fun with watercolouring "parts" for future cards and today's card uses one of these so called parts.  The fabby 

Miss Darnell is hosting over at Inkspirational and the inspiration photo had me pondering from day one.  

I have come up with the above. All parts of this card have some sort of texture and that's what I was aiming for based on the inspiration.  I started with a sheet of card stock in my stash from PTI.  It's hard to see, but it has a grey-ish blue tint from the pattern on it.  I believe it was some sort of a grid cs to use with their Guide Lines stamps.  I was never able to quite figure out how to use the stamps with it, but lets just say that this is a NBUS item now put to use.  I used an old EF called Debossed Exotics for even more texture and then used an old SU Linen background stamp and stamped over the whole card front with Dove Gray from Staz On.  If you click on the pic you can make it out.  The PTI butterfly was cut twice, once in grey vellum and another time in a metallic chartreuse.  After cutting the chartreuse, I also used the die with a tan embossing mat to dry emboss the butterfly.  The butterfly's body is made up of one of my watercolour leaf sprigs that I heat embossed with Ranger liquid platinum and used distress inks on watercolour paper.  This little leaf sprig is quite old and I don't remember if it was from a Hero Arts set or a K & Co. set.  If anyone knows, let me know...pretty please.  I hand cut the sprig and layered over as the body.  It has a slight arch to it and I like the organic feel.  The PTI Birthday wishes sentiment is also heat embossed with Ranger LP onto a scrap vellum strip and a little sewing on the edge with metallic silver thread finishes it off.  The card is also headed to the following challenges.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you are having a great start to your week!

Hugs-Chriss

Less is More is looking for wings

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday is looking for texture

Celebrating You Fern die cut

Happy Saturday!

I am behind with my homework for the Clean and Simple 4 OLClasses that I have had the pleasure of taking this past week...lots of good tips, tricks and easy techniques.

My card today incorporates two techniques that I have been exploring and a little one of my own thrown in.  I decided to use this intricate Memory Box "Eva" stem/fern die to make a masculine birthday card.  I started by die cutting from Fun Foam and I was quite surprised at how well the intricate pieces came out of the FF.  Yes, I am using the Fun Foam again as shown by Karolyn.   I adhered to a long rectangular acrylic block with some mono adhesive.  Now, to stamp this fern image, I used a home crafted ink pad made with the following re-inkers,  PTI Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse and SU Smoky Slate and Groovy Guava.  Laura Bassen showed us this fun technique!  I squirted these onto some folded baby wipes in bands of about one inch each and then stamped my fern like a regular stamp. I wanted to add a little something to the left edge of the card and improvised a technique that I will call "dip and drag".  Yes, I dipped the edge into my home made ink pad and with a slight angle, dragged a little ways over top of the multi coloured ink pad.  I trimmed the panel down a quarter inch and adhered to a top fold card and placed a thin linen textured strip of card stock for a bit more grounding.  My SSS sentiment from Birthday set was stamped onto a piece of white card stock that I had coloured in Aqua Mist with my Aqua Mist ink pad. This card is headed over to CAS-ology for their Birthday cue and SSS Wednesday "Anything Goes".  This is my "second cup" for both challenges.

Thanks for taking a peek today and hope that you have a fabulous weekend!

Chriss

Lovely Leaves

Happy Friday!
Just a quick post for now with an Autumn birthday and leaves theme.  I made the card with a single leaf stamp, origin unknown (maybe Making Memories).  It has such a fine detail in the veining, really beautiful!  I used SU inks (Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard & Cajun Craze) and PTI Canyon Clay. Just plain stamping and masking.
Simple as that.  The sentiment (Happy Birthday) is PTI that I cut apart and the Autumn stamp is a SU from a Season's set that I have had in my stash for quite a while.  Glad that I have held onto some of these older and very useful stamps!

I am linking up to the latest Curtain Call- Lovely Leaves, 
SSS Monday (Bold stamping) and SSS Wednesday Challenge to create a project with stamping on it. 
Thanks so much for stopping by...have a wonderful day!
hugs, Chriss

Pretty Pink Posh Hop

One more for the Pretty Pink Posh Cutting Edge Blog Hop...and just under the wire :)

I had time this morning to make another and this time I used Memory Box dies (the tea cup and Happy and teensy tulips) and a fern punch from MS.
I placed a thin vellum circle in bag of my Happy that is suspended.  It's a first time for me to try this technique and it worked out easily enough.  That doesn't always happen :)

Hope that you have had time to enter and hop along!

Thanks for taking a peek!
Chriss
ETA  I was too late for the hop entry.  Oh well, I did get to try a new technique !

Best Birthday Ever

Happy Sunday!

I made a card for the Pretty Pink Posh

Cutting Edge Blog Hop going on right now.  There are some amazing participant entries from the DT and people like you and me.

I went out of my comfort zone on this one for the colour theme...in honour of PPP.   After all, they are the hosts!

I used PTI Hibiscus burst for the card front, a PTI photo frame and sentiments and a camera stamp from the local ss.  I coloured with a cerise and warm gray Copic markers and added metallic silver ZIG pen to the camera parts.  I cut apart a stamp to create the corner sentiment.  I could not resist adding some PPP sequins in the marshmallow colour (2 sizes) and I also had a few shocking pink sequins in my stash.  I really had fun creating and I love how the sequins remind me of confetti!

This is such a fun hop and there is one more day that we can enter...so hurry!

There are some amazing prizes up for grabs!

Thanks for taking a peek!

I am also offering this card for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, Anything goes!

hugs, Chriss