You're the best!

 I saw a technique that's new to me and tried it out in this card. In a nutshell, stamp an image, then use a stencil to add color over select parts of the image. (this is not about having a matching stencil to color the image, you're just adding color without worrying about keeping in the lines or anything like that.) I saw this in a stamp company newsletter, and they were using organic shapes to add color. I have a stencil with a variety of geometric shapes, so that's what I went with. It was fund to match geometric shapes with bits of the image.

First, the image was black-embossed. Then I used a small circle stencil to colors some flowers pink, a triangle stencil to add some green to the bouquet, and a long, thin diamond shape to color the vase. I die thin circles in blue and pink and used them to frame the main image. The sentiment as also black-embossed, with a  pink stenciled circle emphasizing the "Best!" A few blue circles were sprinkled on as a sort of muted embellishment.

This card is entered in these challenges:

The Flower Challenge #100 -- add circles

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2510 -- anything goes

A Cut Above -- anything with dies

Word Art Wednesday #689 -- anything goes

 

Snippets strips

 I'm always on the lookout for interesting ways to use leftover bits of paper, so I had to try this technique I found on Splitcoast. It takes a couple of one-inch wide strips and two one-inch squares of snippets to create an interesting design with a pinwheel at the center. You could use a different width of strip, just adjust the size of the squares accordingly.  (I also used a white snippet for the main panel and a light blue snippet for the matting.)

Embossing the panel added some texture, with a flower and gem embellishment.  

This card is entered in these challenges:

Snippets Playground #501 -- use snippets

Word Art Wednesday #689 -- anything goes

Crafts Galore Encore #113 -- anything goes

The Paper Funday #74 -- anything goes

Digi Choosday -- anything goes

Creative Inspirations -- Anything goes 

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- your favorite technique (dry embossing)

Inspired dragonfly

 I saw this photo prompt  (photo below) at Inspiration Station and loved the composition of the photo and the contrast between the bright flowers and the dark wings of the butterfly, inspiring this card.

The flowers are from Catherine Pooler; The circle was diecut and put on a dark green panel. The diecut dragonfly has a blue shimmer o it. A few sequins add to the shimmer.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Inspiration Station Prompt 70

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #689: anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2508 -- anything goes

A Cut Above: Anything goes with a diecut

Paper Funday #73: anything goes

Gem of A Challenge #3: anything goes

Digi Chooseday #2: Anything goes

Blue Birthday Blooms

 

I started with a whole bunch of blue snippets and randomly cut out various flower shapes using a stitched flower set from MFT Die-Namics. I mixed and matched  pieces to stack up three multi-layer flowers (adding a snippet of pale taupe to the mix).

Used a stitched curve die from Whimsy Stamps on a snippet of off-white, then adhered it to a blue snippet to create the main panel. Arranged the flowers along the curve (popping up the smaller one in the middle) and added a couple of burlap leaves for some texture. 

The sentiment used a bit of the leftover off-white, with a sentiment from Printworks in navy. Everything is mounted on a navy card.

This card is for these challenges:

Snippets Playground #500 -- celebration theme

Allsorts #817 -- shades of blue

A Cut Above -- Anything die-cut

Word Art Wednesday #687 -- anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms #26  --  anything floral

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2507 -- anything goes

 

 

 

Birthday fun

 

I don't think I've made a straight birthday card for a while (meaning one that features birthday images vs. a pretty card with a birthday sentiment.). To make this card, I started with an assortment of patterned snippets and used the sketch #663 from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.

The birthday bear and sentiment are from Studio Katia. The balloon die is from Sunny Studios. The main  image is colored in pencils, and lavender ink is blended around the edge of the circle. 

This card is entered in these challenges:

Snippets Playground #499 -- use snippets

Double Trouble #184 (meets 3-2-1 requirements; balloon is the "in the air" element; also entering in TSOT partner challenge)

Try a Sketch on Tuesday #663 -- sketch

Word Art  Wednesday #687 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2506 -- anything goes

 

Ready for Spring

 I am so ready for spring. Right now, the best I can do is make a spring-themed card. For this card, I took a stamped image of a bare tree (from Stampin Up) which I masked while I stenciled a brick wall, then colored in the sky and grass with pencils. To turn it into a spring scene, I used Flower Soft to create the budding flowers and leaves. (I am not even sure if Flower Soft is still available; I've had this one jar of it for years).

The main panel is edged in a brown ink, and I turned it at an angle and matted it with a sweet flower print that also reminds me of spring.

This card is entered in these challenges

Crazy is Our Name, Stencils are our game -- anything goes using stencils

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2505 -- anything goes

Digi ChooseDay #1, week 4 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations # 227 -- anything goes with an image

 

 

 

Eat dessert first

 A couple recent challenges are looking for us to make them smile, so here we go.

I went with cute images, plus this fun sentiment -- life is short, eat dessert first.  I had intended to get the sentiment out front, but I ended up making rather a busy card front, so it's the inside sentiment (see right).

For my card, I used mainly Taylored Expression images and added the apple pie image, which I've had forever and have no idea of origin.

I used the sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday and stayed true to the layout. Since the main elements are circular, I chose circles and dots for my choices of patterned papers. (I chose the colors used to color the images based on colors in the main print, then so many of them got covered up...) For more interest, I matted the white circles on a patterned paper, as well.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- funny/punny

Double Trouble #183 -- (met all 3 requirements -- the 3 images/2patterned papers /1 sentiment recipe; food that goes with cheese (apple pie) and entered in TSOT)  

Try a Sketch on Tuesday #662-- use the sketch

Word Art Wednesday #683 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2504 -- anything goes

Cute cat

 I'm back with another cat card. Seriously, there's no intentional cat  theme here, but I was looking for an image featuring a heart and came across this cat image in my file of digis from the company From the Heart. I decided to paper piece the heart and found a lovely plaid snippet for the paper piecing. 

(You can see the snippets in the photo to the right, and get a sense of my process as well. I'd already progressed pretty far on completing the main image before deciding to use the rest of the plaid snippet on the mini slimline card. I needed another scarp, a coordinating light blue, to fill the space since the plaid by itself wasn't enough.)

The cat is colored with pencils.

This card is for these challenges:

Snippets Playground #498 -- snippets

Word Art Wednesday #683 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2503 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #226 -- use an image

Digi Choosday #1 -- anything goes

Polkadoodles challenge #2 -- anything goes

White on white

Today's project is white-on-white, so it's got layers of texture as well. After the base layer, there's a full panel that was embossed with classic-looking EF design. For the second layer, a filigree corner piece was added in the left upper corner. On top of that, die-cut flowers were stacked three high and leaves where added. The die-cut sentiment has an embossed pattern around the edge, and the sentiment was silver-embossed. A white organza ribbon with silver edging was tied around the embossed panel. (Looking at this, I'm thinking I'll add a touch of silver in the center of the flowers. What do you think?)

This card is entered in these challenges

Double D -- white on white

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- add some texture.

Can you handle the pressure -- use an EF

A Cut Above -- anything goes with die-cutting

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2502 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #683 -- anything goes

Digi Choosday #1 --  anything goes

Die-cut Divas -- something new (embossing folder)

3x3x3

 My swap group is doing a swap where you make three cards sized 3x3 all with a related theme. After seeing how small 3x3 is, I decided it would be a great way to use up some snippets, so I pulled out a few that I thought would work togehter and started crafting. I settled on a theme of cats and pulled out a variety of cat-related images and sentiments. Each card uses at least one snippet and a different technique or style. This turned out to be a really fun size to work with.

 

 The background is strips of patterned paper cut about 1/2 inch wide and adhered together on a sheet of copy paper. the cat was colored with pencils and fussy cut.

This card uses a diecut cut set on a strip of patterned paper with a bold sentiment and some acrylic docs

 For this card, there are two layers of patterned paper, with an aperture die-cut in the yellow layer to reveal a portrait of a cute tuxedo cat who is, in fact, pawfect.

Here is the selection of snippets I started with. All but the one at the very bottom were used, and I added another snippet, the black layer on the pawfect card.

These cards are entered in these challenges:

Snippets Playground #497 -- use snippets (see photo)

Doublc Trouble #182 -- You're Pawfect: meeting the requirements of the 1-2-3 challenge plus cuddly critter challenge

Pattie's Creations #226 -- Best friends: use an image

Word Art Wednesday #681 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2501 -- anything goes