Art Inspiration, Cards, Slimline Cards

Retreat Surprise Slimline Cards

Hi Friends!

I usually plan a little gifty for everyone while we are on retreat. This time I designed a whole class kit including the main stencil, precut card kit and confetti & snowflake sequins to embellish with for each Angel attending.

The plan was for 4 cards but I didn’t quite like the color combo on the first Let It Snow card I designed but decided to turn it into a card anyway so bonus 5 cards instead.

I used the new The Crafters Workshop Layered Slimline Stencils Merry Snowflakes and Holiday Words. These easy to use stencils design the cards for you. We used a variety of different stencil pastes for the words on each card and embellished with lots of sequins. So much fun and a great start to our holiday card stashes.

Find some time to plan your holiday projects this week. It’s always fun to plan things to bring smiles to family & friends.

Blessings,

Art Inspiration, Cards, Gina K Designs, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Anniversary Hearts

Hi Friends!

I am back after some much needed healing time for my allergies & asthma and a fun unplugged retreat with the Angels. I limited my social media & news while away. I highly recommend it. It is easy to get overwhelmed with all the news & chaos in this world.

Before I left, I created this card for my oldest son & his beautiful wife for their 2nd wedding anniversary.

I used Gina K. Designs Layered Hearts stencil for the background and You Are Enough stamp set for the silver embossed flowers. The card background features Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Bitty Hearts stencil. The sentiment is from an old FSJ set.

I hope you are having a wonderful week after the time change. I certainly enjoy the longer daylight hours. More time for sunshine.

Blessings!

Art Inspiration, Cards

Jigglypuff Birthday

Hi Angels!

We spent some time with Little Miss Zoe for her 3rd birthday party yesterday. She had an Elsa party but I know she likes Pokemon too so I made her favorite character, Jigglypuff, into a birthday card.

With the help of a lightbox and the Pokemon coloring book I picked up for her, I transferred Jigglypuff to a piece of 140lb watercolor paper & painted her with some Twinkling H2O’s. I used a star stencil & Bo Bunny Sugar Diamond Paste for the background, then added a Happy Birthday diecut.

The happy birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles.

Enjoy your children & grandchildren every moment you can, they grow up so fast.

My creating may be a little rough around the edges the next few weeks. I’m restricted to my glasses before my cataract consult in 2 weeks and they are only for distance vision. So mid vision is a struggle & close up isn’t a problem since I’m extremely near sighted, I just flip my glasses up. I had to increase my computer screen to 130% to type. Sigh, was not the 60th year birthday gift I wanted but God is good and it will be fine eventually. My right eye can no longer be corrected because of the fuzz of the cataract.

Have a fabulous week ahead and don’t forget to spread some kindness.

Art Inspiration, Cards, My Favorite Things, Penny Black

Ribbon Tree

Hi Angels!

It’s been a wee bit. I think I’ve caught up on rest from taking care of Reilly, who is doing great by the way & sees the vet tomorrow to get his staples out. Almost 3 weeks of doggy care.

While I haven’t been creating a whole lot, I have been sorting, organizing, doing some hand sewing & we got the new rug down on the studio floor. I have a couple of projects in the works and hopefully will be back on track to regular creating.

I was finishing up one of the classes from Crop & Create & stopped to create this card using the Trinity Stamps Ribbon Swirl Tree stencil that came in an order today.

I love designs that offer a modern twist or different perspective on the holidays and this tree is just perfect. I used Wilted Violet & Salvaged Patina Distress Oxides, some glittering snowflakes and the sentiment from My Favorite Things Merry & Bright set.

I hope your are looking forward to a wonderful weekend and a bit of kindness sharing along the way.

Art Inspiration, Cards, SCT Crop & Create Delivered

Beautiful Color – Crop & Create Delivered Cardmaking

Hi Angels!

Last Saturday’s classes were filled with rich color including The Stamp Market’s class. My favorite of course is the ink blended leaves with glitter paste.

The Stamp Market provided us with a stamp set A Bit of Everything with matching dies, a beautiful leaf layering stencil and a selection of their colored cardstock we used for the die cut hearts card. These cards were so fun in their bright fresh colors.

Have a great Friday and share a bit of light & kindness.

Art Inspiration, Cards, Gina K Designs

Hello Sunshine – World Cardmaking Day

Hi Angels!

It’s has been a long fun creative day between Crop & Create and World Cardmaking Day.

I only got 8 of 16 cards done today with 5 more in various stages of completion. Not only was my first class of the day with Gina K. Designs, but she did a special World Cardmaking tutorial over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today Facebook page.

She shared this technique a couple weeks ago and did a different variation of it today which I had so much fun creating.

What can be better than ink blending, stencils & die cuts? I just love this wonderful sunshine card and it’s sure to bring a lot of light to someone’s day.

Off to get some rest, I still have 4 more classes tomorrow.

Have a Blessed Sunday!

Art Inspiration, Cards, Catherine Pooler Designs, Whimsy Stamps

Starry Christmas

Hi Angels!

I sure was hoping to get more done today but a migraine just put a stop to that. I will be so glad when allergy season takes a break.

I did make a 2nd card from the Verity Biddlecombe class video. She encouraged looking at your everyday stencils to see if they can be used for Christmas.

I came up with this neutral beauty.

I don’t often work in tone on tone but I was watching a video a week or so ago and the idea popped to try the Champagne Mist Decofoil Metallix on craft cardstock. It’s been hard to find lately so if you have Nuvo Mother of Pearl Embellishment Mousse it’s a very similar shade. After applying it through Whimsy Stamps Star Dangle stencil, I thought maybe Christmas red or green would be great but I actually love the tone on tone look. Very country elegant. I used Catherine Pooler Designs Merry Christmas sentiment die and found a scrap of cream metallic paper in my scraps to match the cream card base. The overall subtle metallic shimmer makes the card.

I hope you are looking forward to some crafty fun this weekend.

Art Inspiration, Cards, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamp-a-thon Stencil Fun

Hi Angels!

The weather & allergies are just slowing me down this week, I feel like I should have a lot more done than I do.

I had fun creating these cards but actually had entirely different ideas for 2 of them. Will have to revisit them later because they just weren’t jelling.

The 5th challenge was stencils with 3 different techniques presented and of course I did all 3.

Tone on Tone stenciling. Darker over lighter ink blending
Stencil “stamping” or what I call reverse printing
Stenciling with water over water reactive inks

I put the technique under each card. Card 1 uses SNSS Autumn Gnomes & Blessings & Thanks. Card 2 features Flowers in Bloom and card 3 Blooming Anemones. On card 3 the sentiment didn’t stamp well so I did a smaller matching piece with the same technique to re-stamp the sentiment on & added it onto the card. Sometimes it just takes a little thinking to successfully rescue a card.

I hope you have a great Friday, the weekend is almost here.

Art Inspiration, Cards, Challenges, Simon Says Stamp, Taylored Expressions

Simon Says Stamp 5 Ways in 5 Days- Day 2 Sparkle

Hi Angels!

Busy day & I’m tired. I got more sorting done in the studio, the new carpet was put in & the bedroom is almost back together and I got one of the 2 cards I started done for Simon Says Stamp 5 Ways in 5 Days.

Today Yana Smakula shared different ways to add sparkle to a card and I managed to get 3 different sparkles from my supplies on this card.

It’s very glittery so it’s hard to photograph. I didn’t have the medium Yana used but I did have Taylored Expressions new Glitter Grab that I hadn’t tried yet. I applied it through Taylored’s Winter’s Beauty Stencil then I grabbed some glitter I’ve had forever and tried for a striped effect. The outside edges are a light lavender glitter but just looks like a different white in the picture. The center is a mixture of white & silver glitter. Not perfect but very cool. I added a glitter rhinestone in the center & die cut peace out of glitter paper.

I will try & get my second card I started done soon but it may be after this week. I’d like to try & get something done for tomorrows 5 Ways and it’s an errand day so time will be short.

Have a Great Wednesday!

Cards, Challenges, Penny Black, Simon Says Stamp, Taylored Expressions

Simon Says Stamp 5 Ways in 5 Days – Day 1 Ink Blending

Hi Angels!

I hope your week is off to a great start!

No art sorting done today because we were clearing the master bedroom for new carpet tomorrow. But I did get a little more sorting done there.

I popped in on Simon Says Stamp new Summer Crafty Series 5 Ways in 5 Days today & decided to play along as the week allows. I didn’t have the Simon Says Stamp products that Laura Bassen used in today’s video so I challenged myself to use what I have.

I love clean & simple graphics. I used Taylored Expressions Masking Stencils Rectangle & just shifted it a bit to get the layers for the first card along with Pink Fresh Studio’s Happy Birthday. For the 2nd card, I created circle layers with my Hero Arts Infinity Dies Nesting Circle set & Yupo paper. Yupo makes great reusable stencils with your diecuts. The celebrate is from Penny Black.

So much fun but it’s off to bed, the carpet guys will be here bright & early in the morning.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!