Fun with masking

 

Ardyth has a tutorial at SCS where she uses masking and stenciling to create a sort of impressionistic holly wreath. I took her idea of masking (creating a reverse mask with the negative from a big circle and the positive of a smaller circle), but I stamped a small square stamp repeatedly instead of stenciling to fill in the wreath. I used about 4 different shades of pink ink. The result looks a little like a one of those wreaths made by weaving ribbon around a wreath form. Ardyth also suggested blending some gray ink on the inner and outer edges of the wreath, and it really does make a difference and gives the image some dimension.  To complete the card, I punched some small silver circles to embellish the wreath, added a pink-ombre bow and embossed a sentiment in silver.

I chose pink because it's breast cancer awareness months, and the Jingle Belles are donating to breast cancer research for every card entered in their pink gallery. Grab some pink supplies, create a card ad enter it.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Jingle Belles -- pink cards for the cure

ABC Christmas - U is for unusual Christmas colors

Word Art Wednesday #669 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2441 -- anything goes

Guitar celebration

 

 

Made a card for a friend who enjoys guitars. I didn't have a guitar image, so I found this clipart online and printed it on pale blue cardstock. Die-cut it into a circle, then die-cut several thin circles from snippets of different cool colored card stock. Used them as intertwined frams around the circle.  Found a really intersting piece of patterned paper wit some foil diamond shapes that provided an interesting contrast to all those circles and used that as background for the image.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- patterned paper

Snippets Playground #490-- use snippets (see photo)

Word Art Wednesday #669 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2440 -- anything goes

A cut Above -- anything goes with die-cuts

Crafts Galore Encore #128 -- anything goes

Fall leaves

We are currently getting a ton of wind and rain, so the trees may lose their leaves before the leaves actually turn fall colors. However. I made a card celebrating fall leaves.

This card employs a ton of colorful snippets (see photo at left), which were die-cut into a variety of leave shapes.

The idea for the card started with the frame, which is a piece of kraft-colored card stock embossed in a 3D wood-texture embossing folder. I rubbed a darker brown ink pad over the EF to get a better defined texture.) The center was cut out with a rectangular die to create the frame look. It's mounted on a paper with a fall leaf pattern on it, then the leaves were arranged down one side. I added the bit of ribbon on the top left side to balance it out. The card still felt like it needed something, so I added a small sentiment. Fall leaves make me happy, so I went with "happiness."

This card is entered in thse challenges:

Double D -- fall leaves

Double Trouble #175 -- punch or die-cut

Time Out -- inspired by words -- a quote about the beauty of fall

Snippets Playground #480 -- use snippets

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Harvest time

 It's time for my annual card with flocking. That's kind of a joke, but it does seem about once each fall I use brown flocking as a sunflower center. (And most springs, I used some pink and white Flower Soft for flowering cherry trees.) I bought those supplies, I should use them! If you have ideas for using flocking and Flower Soft outside those two scenarios, please leave a comment.

This is just a fun little autumn scene featuring lots of autumny stuff, like pumpkins, sunflowers, and the harvest moon. There's Wink of Stella on the moon to give it a little sparkle, using more supplies. (That little sentiment flag is another item that's been in the drawer for ages -- it's a blank sticker I stamped on.)

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2438 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #222 -- must use an image

Creative Inspirations -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #127 -- anything goes

CAS rower

 

Kayaking is a favorite vacation activity of mine, but I don't have a kayak stamp so I went with a canoe. The image is black embossed on a white snippet. Various distress inks were sponged on to create a glowing sunset, then the image was cut out with a stitched circle die, The sentiment is white embossed on a dark blue snippet cut to fit on a card.  Because of the simple, peaceful image, I decided to keep the card very clean and simple. (I considered adding sequins in the upper right, but they just didn't look appropriate.)

This card is entered in these challenges:

Paper Funday Challenge #68 -- Vacation

Die-cut Divas --  emboss (image and sentiment heat embossed)

Word Art Wednesday #663 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2434  -- anything goes

Double D -- use a shape (circle)

Pattie's Creations #221 -- use an image 

Snippets Playground #487 -- use snippets

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday --- anything goes

Sunflowers

 

How about a fall-ish card?  Not because it's feeling like fall yet,, although the leaves are showing a little red (probably due  to stress from 4 inches of rain one week, then none for a couple weeks).

I started by grabbing some snippets in green and yellow, as well as white to stamp on. (see photo on left; I pulled a couple of shades of each color so I could choose what to work with.) The sunflowers are from Clearly Besotted, with the flowers stamped in Chalk inks and the leaves in dye ink. The sentiment uses the same ink as the center of the sunflower.

The green layer is embossed with a leafy folder, and the yellow layer is stamped with a background pattern stamp in the same yellow ink used for the sunflower. Added a fall-ish ribbon and sentiment to finish it off.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Snippets Playground #468 -- use snippets

Die Cut Divas -- use embossing

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- add a sentiment

Can You Handle the Pressure -- machine embossing

Word Art Wednesday #661 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2432 -- anything goes

Paper Funday #68 -- anything goes

 

 

Snowman through a window

 I love it when a card just falls together. I knew I wanted to use this image, and I knew which die I wanted to use for the aperture to begin with. Using the snowflake EF was a last minute decision that worked out perfectly, with the red base caed for contrast. I used a ton of foam tape to hold up the embossed layer, but it's not super thick tape, so hopefully this will mail easily.

This card is entered in these challenges.

Can You Handle the Pressure -- use an embossing folder.

Double Trouble #171-- all 3 parts -- aperature/snow/partner site

Jingle Belles -- Dashing through the snow

Word Art Wednesday #657 -- anything goes

Rudolph Days -- anything Christmas

Patties Creations #220 -- use any image