Autumn

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year.  The weather starts to get a little cooler, and I don't mind sitting out in the yard. Sometimes in the fall I miss living up north.  The nip in the air. The leaves changing color.

I love sitting out in the yard in the evenings with my 2 chickens. They enjoy getting out of the coop and catching bugs and worms, and eating yummy weeds. This is Pearl and Harriet.

I fell in love with a Hero Arts stamp set.  I fall in love with stamp sets often, but this is fast becoming one of my favorite stamps. The name of the stamp set is Color Layering Fall Leaves, and features a bare tree with branches, 5 sets of leaves, and 3 sayings.  In the card below, I used all 5 sets of leaves.

I stamped everything on watercolor paper, using different fall colors for each set of leaves; browns, red, yellows and oranges, and greens.  When I was done, I used a waterbrush to add little bits of water so the leaves would become fuzzy but not muddy.  I left a little bit of white in the tree just to add interest.  With the color that was left on the brush I added the ground beneath the tree. The Happy Fall is one of the sayings in the set.  I was so happy with the results that I made several more. I layered it on a black circle, then layered the whole thing onto a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 card base that has been embossed with leaves. 

I am envisioning it becoming a spring tree with perhaps some pink or purple flowers, or a summer tree with multiple shades of green.  You don't have to use all 5 sets of leaves, you can add as few or as many as you want.  You could even use the bare branches for a winter tree, with some snow.

I hope you enjoy my tree as much as I do.

More Things With Wings...

To continue on with the theme from yesterday, I made the following cards using digi images. I don't usually use digital images, I prefer rubber, but these begged to be used with this theme, so I gave it a try.  These were all free digital images, and I'm sorry to say I can't remember where I got them.

I loved this little girl, and I love the background paper.

This bird is not a digital image, it was a clear stamp image (I still prefer rubber), but I liked the way it turned out anyway.  I think I should have used a more colorful background paper.

Of course, we can't forget a mama duck and her baby ducklings. I made the background paper by scoring it in 1/4 inch increments, then running a yellow inkpad over the whole thing. I like the shabby look.

I used chalk for the sky. The blue stuck on some of the glitter on the wings and gave it a cool look.

And last, but not least, I also used chalk on this fairy, and her wings look really fabulous in person.

I hope you have enjoyed my offerings today.  Do something crafty today.

Things With Wings

Hello!

I love butterflies.  I have lots of butterfly stamps, dies and punches. I just don't use them often enough.  I needed to make a card that contains something with wings, so it was a good excuse to pull out my butterfly stamps.

Here is the card I made:

It's a pretty simple card.  I masked the left side of the card with torn post it notes, then sponged the yellow ink on the right side of the white cardstock.  Then, with the mask still in place, I stamped a music stamp.  I removed the mask and stamped the roses and leaves (Gina K Designs).  It's 2 step stamping, and gives a beautiful look.  I stamped the butterfly in a dark brown ink over orange cardstock and then die cut it out.  Glued it to the card front and flexed the wings (which you can't see in this flat scan).

The card is versatile and can be used for a birthday card, a sympathy card, a get well card or a thinking of you card.  I am posting this card in the Mod Squad Challenge for The Wing's The Thing challenge.

Hope you enjoy!

Father's Day

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I thought I had already posted it, but it is showing up in my draft folder.  So.....this is the card I made for my hubby for Father's Day.

Good morning!  Glad you could join me today. Grab a cup of coffee and I'll share my latest creation with you.

 With Father's Day fast approaching, I thought it would be prudent to get busy and make a card for my hubby. Even though he isn't my father, he gets a card from the cats and chickens.  :-)

I had already made the card during my watercolor experimenting, so I just had to add the sentiment. He likes to fish, so I know he will love the card.  I have a ton of sequins, and I thought the different sizes added a nice touch for the air bubbles. I always stamp bird tracks and paw prints on the inside from our feather and fur kids when they send him a card.   Yes, I know it's corny, but I get cards from them, too.  And it makes me smile.

My friend, Donna Ellis, has made me a beautiful sample card using my Special Place stamp, #275J-10.

Isn't this card gorgeous? She always makes such beautiful cards.  Why don't you go on over to her blog, Creative Smiles, and leave her a little love.

Hello from hot-hot-hot Florida

Hello!  It's been awhile since I posted, but it's been a busy summer. And hot. Extremely hot. The temps have been hovering near the 100 degree mark for a couple of weeks.  It's brutal.  So I made couple of seashore cards to help cool off.

This card was mostly sponged for the sand and the sky. The lighthouse was stamped and cut out and has pop dots to give it dimension.

The adirondack chairs are embossed with white embossing powder. The rest sky, sea and sand are watercolored. The sea gull is stamped with white Brilliance ink. I used a white Pitt's artist pen to make the white caps and the waves breaking on the shore.  The sea oats are stamped with kraft dye ink.

Pretty simple cards.  I hope you enjoy.

These cards were submitted to the Mod Squad Challenge.

Birthday Challenge

Good morning!

I am having so much fun entering challenges at the Mod Squad Challenge Blog.  The challenge this week is to make a birthday card.  Here are the two I made. I hope you (and they) like them.

For the first card I masked off a piece of white cardstock and sponged ink on the right hand side. Then I used a script stamp and stamped over the sponged ink. I wasn't careful and didn't care if the script stamp was perfect or not, but it gives the look two layers, a white one that's stamped over a tan one with script. The other stamps were stamped on the white cardstock and colored with copic and spectrum noir markers. The flower, sentiment and butterfly are Gina K. Design stamps, the flourish is Cherry Pie Art Stamps, and the script is unknown.

For the second card I made a latch card, which was just featured on Splitcoast Stampers yesterday.  It was fun to make, and in retrospect I would put a butterfly where the latch flower is, but since this was my first attempt, I'm happy.  The flowers and sentiment are from Gina K. Designs.  

Hope you like my entries.

Another challenge entry

Good morning.  I got to play some this weekend (it was my birthday), and I made another card for the Mod Squad Challenge .  I never really entered challenges before because I just didn't have time to figure out what I was doing, then do it, then post it, but these are kinda fun.

Anyway, the challenge was to use 2 or more sets of stamps in the entry.  I used two of Melanie Muenchinger's stamp sets, which are available from Gina K. Designs.  The first was Triple Play Frame, and the other was Gifts from the Sea.  I love both sets, so it was easy to combine them.

Here is my entry:

 

I embossed the turquoise cardstock then bunched it with a circle punch to fit in the circles.  The shells are cut out and popped up, and the gems between are turquoise.  I put a tiny bit of glitter on the sand part to reflect the light (but you can't see it here).  I love the way this card turned out and have just the person in mind to receive it.  :-)

My other entry I made last week also uses the Triple Play Frame, Fabulous Frame, and the Flowers and Frame Stamp TV Kit. I don't know who made the script stamp.  I just rotated the Triple Frame Stamp to get the side view.  I punched the butterflies and but little gems on them. The flowers have gold micro beads for the centers.  They are popped up off the fram.

I hope you have enjoyed, and I hope you get to do something crafty today.

More watercolors....

I had to do it....

I made a couple more watercolored DTS (Direct-to-stamp) cards for the challenge over at the Mod Squad Challenge Blog.

The first one uses the carnation stamp from the Frames and Flowers Stamp TV kit from Gina K Designs.  I used markers to watercolor the image and spritzed with water before stamping on cardstock.  I like the crisp, clean image and the clean and simple card.  I bought this set as an anniversary present to myself. (Today's my anniversary).

The next card features the same seashell stamped 3 different times with different colored markers. I matted on black then on white cardstock. 

The last card also features a rose stamp from the Frames & Flowers Stamp TV kit, Gina K. Designs. The underneath part of the rose is stamped with inks that have been spritzed with water, then the top part used a different color ink. The same goes for the leaves.  Two-step watercoloring. 

 :-)

I hope you have enjoyed my final watercoloring endeavors. I really like the look, so I'm sure you haven't seen the last of it.  But enough for now.

I hope you get to do something crafty today.

Watercolors

Hello!  I've been playing with my watercolors again.  There is just something that I like about the look that I love, and even though I haven't mastered the technique yet, I'm getting closer.  I just need to practice more (a good excuse to stamp, I'm thinking).

I wanted to enter the Mod Squad Challenge, so this is what I came up with:

I used a Hero Arts stamp and colored it with markers.  Then I spritzed it and stamped it on a watercolored background.  I spattered the blue with my paintbrush.  I love the softness.  It's just a clean and simple card, and I like that the watercolored image is the focal point.

The next card is on a watercolored background.  I used the flowers from Gina K Designs Frames and Flowers kit and a Heidi Swapp sentiment.  The centers of the flowers are watercolored and I used gold micro beads for the centers.

The next card is also from the Frames & Flowers set from Gina K. Designs.  I colored the carnation stamp with markers and stamped, then I stamped the jar with a black Palette stamp pad and watercolored the water, along with more watercolors on the carnation.

On the following card I heat embossed the image with black embossing powder then watercolored the background.  I like the way it turned out.

The fish stamp from My Paper Moon was stamped with Noir (black) Palette ink. I have found it doesn't run like the Memento ink when it's spritzed with water.  I watercolored the fish and his background, then matted it and placed it on a watercolor splatted background. I used various shades of blue sequins for the air bubbles.

So, as you can see, I got to play a little bit this weekend.  Practice makes perfect, so I'm hoping to get a little more practice in this week.  :-)

I hope you get to be crafty this week!

Watercolor Drips

Good afternoon and Happy Friday!  I hope to do some stamping and crafting this weekend, but we shall see...I also would like to go fishing with my husband and just chill out.

I was looking on the internet for some techniques to use with my Gelato's, and I fell in love with this technique. And it's really simple.

I just applied gesso to plain white cardstock, and let dry. Then I scribbled different colors of gelatos on the top.  I kind of blended them together with my fingers a little bit so there wouldn't be any bare spots.  Then I spritzed with water and held the cardstock up so the water would run down the page. Let dry. While I was waiting for my card to dry, I punched butterflies from white cardstock and colored them with markers to match the water drips. I added a few sequins in the same color to add a little texture and interest.  I stamped "fun" on white cardstock with a blue ink, but it didn't show up very well, so I overstamped it with black ink, punched it out and layered it on a larger circle.  Card is complete and can be used for a birthday, anniversary, mother's day, thinking of you, or just about any occasion.  You could use any color scheme for the drips, then punch out or stamp flowers, leaves, balloons, or other fun images to make fun cards.

I hope you've enjoyed my card today, and you have a fabulous weekend. Till next time...

Envelope Art

Hello.

I love making decorated envelopes, and found myself with a little time recently, so here are my latest two creations.  I hope you like them.

I colored both envelopes with markers. The bottom envelope also has glitter on the bubbles and some of the seashells.

Gelli Prints

Hello, once again.

Here is the latest project I have been working on. I used one of the background papers from my gelli plate to make the background for the flowers. I wish the scan had been better, but it is really pretty in real life. There are greens, browns, and honey colors on white cardstock, and it makes a striking background.

The butterfly is also punched from a piece of paper made with the gelli plate. I had enough to punch a few butterflies, but only used the one on the card.  

The top of the card was a part of a die cut where I had used the rest of it for another project, so I stamped it with script then sponged some brown ink on it.

I wanted to mail the card, so lumpy was out. Therefore, I punched some centers for the flowers and put some glitter glue on them for some sparkle.

Now it's your turn to make something crafty.

Playing with the Gelli Plate

Good morning!   I hope spring is finally around the corner for you, wherever you may live.  I think we are totally skipping spring here in Florida and headed straight into summer.  I already miss the cooler weather.

I have been playing with my gelli plate recently and wanted to share some of the backgrounds and papers I have made with you.

It's so much fun, I could spend hours just playing around with it, but then, what would I do with all the papers?

These are made using acrylic paint. Some of them also use stencils.

You are only limited by your imagination.  I love the mixing of colors. 

No two pieces are ever alike.

These pieces all use stencils to add or remove paint.

These make beautiful backgrounds, and are also good for using with your dies.  They make beautiful butterflies and flowers, and are great for stamping.

I can make these while sitting outside at my picnic table supervising my free range chickens in the afternoons, so I multi-task.  :-)

See you soon!