Sunset on the lake

 I hope to get out on my kayak over the holiday, so I've made a card with a lovely on-the-water scene. The orange setting sun is paper pieced over the main image, which is black-embossed. I was inspired to make the orange sun by the Inspiration Station's "cue" photo for this month, which you can see below.  For embellishment, I used baker's twine and an interesting flat bead that has been in my stash for years. (I went through a brief period of collecting beads until realizing they make cards hard to mail.) 

 This card is entered in these challenges:

Inspiration Station #50 -- sunset

Double Trouble #141 (all 3 challenges -- something, slimline, linkng with past partner)

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- vacation

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Simply Create -- lazy days of summer

Word Art Wednesday #601-- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #207 -- use an image

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2325 -- anything goes

 

 

 

Alcohol inks on vellum

I tried something different for this card -- I colored vellum with alcohol inks (a green and a blue AI, plus some blending solutions). 

To create this card, I began with a variety of snippets (see photo). The tree shape was cut from a large white snippet. The vellum (also a snippet) was placed behind the apperture (inked side down), then another white snipped was placed behind it to keep the green matting from showing through. The green mat was also a snippet. I went with blue ink for the sentiment to help the card from being too green (or to make the bit of blue in the tree make sense, however you want to look at it.)

 This card is entered in these challenges:

Rudolph challenge, June -- Christmas

CRAFT #682 -- Christmas

Snippets Playground #457-- use snippets

Word Art Wednesday #601 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2325 -- anything goes

Vintage book page

 Have you ever found out you were siged up for a  swap you don't remember putting your name down for? That just happened to me, Turns out I signed up for a "vintage" swap, and the deadline for sending cards out was already past when I realized I'd been assigned a partner. Time to figure out how to do vintage...

One fun way to do vintage is called vintage book plate -- it's an old Technique Junkies technique that I've had good luck with, so I decided to go down that route. It works well with botanical stamps, and since I'e been cleaning out my craft space I'd come across some stamps I haven't used int a while that I thought would work. 

The result is this citrusy, lemony and quite antique-looking bookpage/card. I used Distress antique linen ink to create the aged page, with Memento black ink for the script so I could color the lemons with regular markers.I used a fine back marker to create the page border, and I used a few brads for another pop of color.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Double D - Lemonade (the color yellow)

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- masculine

Word Art Wednesday #599 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2323 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #207 -- must use an image

All in a box of Kleenex

 A swap group I'm in has a challenge they're calling dumpster dive - the challenge was to use something you would usually throw away on a card. I used part of a flower-patterned tissue box -- it's the three-part panel in the middle of this card. (You can tell it's a box, because it has a bit of a sheen on it that resulted in a glare on the photo). It really made a nice background and pairs well with the die-cut flower too. (flower was in my stash, used the navy blue paper left from cutting the center panel to white-emboss the sentiment.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- flowers

Use your Stuff #486 -- flowers

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2323 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday # 599 -- anything goes