Hey friend! Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

Today, I'm playing along with Freshly Made Sketches #631 Challenge.  A sketch always helps me with a starting point for my cards. There was so much inspiration from the design team, that it was easy to come up with some ideas.  Here's the challenge sketch, below.

I looked through my dies for something to use as a focal point and spotted this new envelope die from Concord and 9th.  It's such a fun element to add to a card.  Then I die cut all of the blooms and leaves from white card stock and blended ink onto them, to get variations in color.  This card came together quickly and turned out just the way I had planned.  That doesn't often happen!

The greeting is from Pinkfresh; the dies and inks are Concord & 9th.

Thanks for taking a look!

With Sympathy - Color Hues Challenge

 I'm playing along in the current challenge at Color Hues #83 Cream and Blue challenge.  The inspiration provided by the design team were so pretty and gave me a lot of inspiration! The link is above, if you want to take a look.

It seems that I always need a few more sympathy cards in my stash and these two soft colors were perfect for the card I had in mind.  

I embossed the stamped image with cream EP, then die cut the image and added to more underneath, to add dimension.  Then I stenciled only the hummingbird, with two shades of blue ink.  I added some white metallic ink splatters with a fan brush.  All of this was placed on a cream color die cut panel, then onto the blue card base.

Here is what I created.

 

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I used dies and stamps from Pinkfresh, ink from Condcord & 9th, cream embossing powder from SSS and cardstock from SU!  Let me know if you need any details.  You can comment below or look for the "contact me" option along the right side of this blog page.

Thanks for stopping by!

How much you're loved!

 Hey all,

I've been creating a lot of cards, but seldom take the time to post them here.  Who knew I would be so busy after I retired?  Actually, sometimes I'm not "busy", but I'm doing many things that I enjoy.  I've been walking every day, for several weeks now.  That's something I want to continue, year round.

I'm doing a lot of reading, too.  There are SO many great books.  I've been a member of a book club for over a year now and I enjoy it so much.

Well, onto the card I made this morning.  😀

I used some stamps and dies from Concord & 9th.  First time using these, even though I've had them since mid-December!  The set is called Parcel of Petals.  Even the little envelope die is included. 

Since my favorite color is purple, I looked through my stash of card stock for shades that would work together for this bouquet.  I used a neutral cardstock for the envelope and the card base.  Sahara Sand (by Stampin' Up!).  I've had most of my colored card stock for so many years, that I don't know which ones are still available or discontinued.  Apparently, I need to get busy using up what I have on hand.  Right?

        Thank you taking a look today!

        

 

Hello!

It's been a very long time since I've shared anything on my blog. Life just got very, very busy.  I've been continuing to create cards, but I've not taken the time to photograph my cards or share them.  Now that I'm retired (YAY!) I hope to get back to blogging regularly.  Fingers crossed!

Anyway, if you're still subscribing after all these years, here are a couple of cards I created recently.

This is a card I made for one of our great-nephews.  He's turning two years old in just a few days.  That cute patterned paper is from Simple Stories.  The critter is by Reverse Confetti and the die is from PTI.  I don't often color images, but I challenged myself to use my Prismacolor pencils and some Gamsol to blend the colors.  I definitely need to practice!

Now, I'm finally getting into Christmas card mode.  It seems early, I know.  But it takes quite a while to make the number of cards that I need.  So, earlier is better.

Both the background stamping and the heat embossed greeting are from Simon Says Stamp.  Ink from Concord & 9th.  I popped up the greeting panel on some foam tape to add some dimension.

I used an embossing folder on the focal panel, then did some subtle ink blending on the pinecones and branches.  The embossing folder and greeting are both from Simon Says Stamp.  I don't have the dies for the sentiments, so I fussy cut it.

That's all I've got for today and I'm feeling VERY rusty at blogging.  I feel like I'm learning from scratch all over again.  Yikes!

Thanks for taking a look.  See you soon!

Susie

Ahhhhh, Neutrals

I'm trying something a little different for me.  No paper crafting post this time.

I've always loved photography.  Most of my cousins probably remember me taking a lot of photos at family gatherings, over the years!  I've not taken any photography classes, although I would like too.  I saw the following link-up over at Apple Apricot.  It's a blog I've followed for a long time, because of the beautiful photos everyone links up.
This link up seemed like the perfect excuse for me to head outdoors to look for some photo opportunities!

The theme for the July party is - Simply Neutrals #46

Use the links I've provided to head over to the blog and see some amazing photos taken in Switzerland!

Below, is my neutral photo.  I took this a couple of days ago, in a local park, during a very early morning walk.  The weather was warm and humid, but the sunrise was beautiful as I made my way back home from the park.

I am such a morning person; always waking early.  So, on the weekends I head out the door at sunrise to enjoy all that nature has to offer.  The fresh air, sunshine and the sounds of many bird songs.  Beautiful!

Thank you for stopping by,

Distress Oxide Inks - I'm hooked!

I bought a few Ranger Distress Oxide Inks a few months ago, but hadn't experimented with them much.  Since I already enjoyed using distress inks, I KNEW I wanted to do more with the oxides.  So, I've been watching videos by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner to learn as many techniques as I can.  A few weeks ago, I attended the StampScrapArtTour.  The Ranger booth had so many more colors of oxides, than I can find locally.  I took advantage of the opportunity and picked up a WHOLE lot more of those inks.  I also bought the Tim Holtz glass craft mat.  After using my new inks and the glass mat all of yesterday afternoon....I'm hooked.   These inks blend like butter and look so soft, but yet rich.  Wow!

For three of the cards I'm sharing, I used techniques that I learned from videos by Jennifer McGuire.  HERE is a link to her YouTube channel.

I used ink blending over heat embossed images on this first card.  After blending the ink, I painted the leaves and flowers using just water.

For the next two cards, I blended several colors of distress oxide ink onto a card stock panel, then spritzed a stencil with water and placed it onto the inked panel.  I pressed and held it in place for a minute or two, to wait for the water to be absorbed into the ink.  The result is a "lifting" of color where the stencil was placed.  It's subtle, but very pretty.  You may have to click on the photos to get a larger view.  It's much prettier in real life.

This was such a fun technique and much easier than I thought it would be.  I looking forward to doing more of this!

My last card today is much different than the previous cards.  For this one I heat embossed my image using clear embossing powder.  Then, using a water brush, I colored the image with distress inks.  Just smoosh some onto a craft mat and pick up color with a wet brush.  I rarely color on black card stock, so this was quite an experiment for me.  It's something I might have to play around with a bit more, to see what else I can do.

Well, now you know how I spent my Saturday afternoon!  I had planned to host a crafting day at my home yesterday, but the snow storm that was forecast changed those plans.  Thankfully, we didn't get any snow.  That was a very NICE surprise!

Thanks for stopping by!

Crafting Time....Finally!

I know that it's been a very long time since I posted on my blog.  I've missed it so much!  I did make some Christmas cards this year.  But not nearly as many as usual.  Life has just been so full!

Anyway, during this break from work I've managed to carve out some time to spend at my craft table.  I'll share what I created this weekend...most of them I made today.

Here you go.  Be prepared for lots of photos.  You've been warned!

 All of these cards feature some of Stampin' Up's designer series papers.  The patterns are so varied and so pretty.  I think my favorite of these cards is the masculine one, using the Wood Textures dsp.  On two of the "wood" strips I layered two pieces of cardstock beneath the panel to add some dimension to the card.  That card was fun and SO easy to make.

The other papers are from Stampin Up's Painted Autumn DSP, as is all of the cardstock.  All of the sentiments are Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for taking a look!