Beekeeper's birthday

My BIL's birthday is coming up. He took up beekeeping a few years ago, so I decided to make a bee themed card for him. I came across these cool postage stamps featuring a bee on a flower and decided to use them as an interesting art element.  To create the card, I stenciled hexagons for a honeycomb background, mounted that on  gray card stock cut with a stitched die, and attached that to a black card. The sentiment is black embossed next to the postage stamps, then mounted on a black piece of cardstock. It's pretty simple, but it meets my idea of a masculine birthday card.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #619 -- anything goes

Stencil fun -- use stencils

Double Trouble #150 -- (no patterned paper, flower,, garden insect; plus entered at partner site)

Crafter's Cafe #302 -- flowers

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2342 -- anything goes

Pink Christmas

 I love it when a couple of challenge themes work together to suggest a card. ABC Christmas and the Jingle Belles did that for me. ABC Christmas has the theme "U for Use it Up" and I went digging through my file of stickers and embellishments (some which have moved house with me three times). The Jingle Belles wanted pink Christmas, which led me to these sparkly pink and green stickers. All I had to do was arrange them on pink cardstock, matt that on green cardstock, add some sequins, and draw in a slim border. Presto-change-o, it's a retro pink Christmas card.

This card is entered n these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Christmas

ABC Christmas -- U for Use it Up (stickers)

Jingle Belles -- pink Christmas

CRAFT #694 -- nontraditional Christmas colors

Word Art Wednesday #617 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2340 -- anything goes

 

C.R.A.F.T Challenge #692

 

I am the guest designer for the C.R.A,F.T challenge this week, thanks to having been named a top pick for a previous challenge earlier this year.

This week's C.R.A.F.T. Challenge, #692, has a theme of wedding/anniversary. The sponosr is All Dressed Up, which offers some really cute digi stamps -- including this one, called Just Married. The winner of the random draw for this challenge gets two images of their choice from All Dressed Up.

Entries via the linky on the C.R.A. F.T. Challenge blog page are due by 6 p.m. GMT Wednesday, Oct 4.  Hope you can play along.

For my card, I colored the All Dressed up image with simple colored pencils and framed it with a silver stitched frame. The sentiment is silver-embossed of vellum, and a few heart-shaped sequins finish the piece.

In which the stamping platform comes in handy

 

You know how an idea sometimes just appears in your brain? Well, that happened here. I'd been vaguely thinking about Mrs. A's butterfly challenge -- to include lots of butterflies, and thought of this stamp From Hero Arts. I decided to make it into a rainbow of color. But I knew it would be tricky to get it right.

This is where I really apprecaieated the utility of a stamp platform. YTruth is I'm a creature of habit, and it's much easier just to grab an acrylic block than to use the stamping platform. But for this, I took the time to set up the platform, inked up the stamp (and those are ancient pigment inks I used, so wow to them) and stamped.  Several of the butterflies had to be inked and stamped multiple times to get the depth of color I wanted before clear embossing everything. 

The image was the perfect size for a mini slimline, mounted on purple and then on the card. Gold splatters fill in some bare spots, and a ribbon with a rainbow of colors complements the butterflies.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge # 187 --  butterflies galore

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- Take Flight

Word Art Wednesday #613 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2336 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations #210 -- use a stamped image.

Pumpkin season (it's not just for lattes)

 Here's another fall card for you, this one featuring a mass of fussy-cut pumpkins. In my ongoing crafty cleanup I've uncovered supplies I've had for ages, including this excellent plaid patterned paper and a variety of pumpkin stamps.  I used pumpkins from three different sets to create this scene, by stamping, coloring, fussy-cutting and arranging the gourds on a strip of brown. I'd used the scallop border die before, but I've never used the insert that cuts the holes in the scallops until making this card.  The green acrylic dots also have some age on them. The sentiment is heat embossed in a weird embossing powder that dries in a textured and not shiny manner (kind of like the Distress EP that I don't think lasted on the market too long.)

This card is entered in these challenges:

Double D -- Fall plaid

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Stamp it. 

Inspiration Station #56 -- Gourds (inspired by the variety of colors in the inspiration photo)

 

Double Trouble #147 -- All three twists (green/yellow/orange; gourds; entering partner's challenge)

Word Art Wednesday #611 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2336 -- anything goes

 

Lots of Leaves

 I don't know about you, but I am ready for fall. This is my first fall card of the season, featuring a lovely maple leaf die from Poppystamps. Every time I use it, I mentally debate if it's border or just a leaf die, and this time, I used it both ways. After cutting the column of leaves, mounting on a white base and adding the sentiment, I decided the card was too flat and needed texture, so I embossed the leaves and added them. The card still needed something, and after giving myself time to ponder it, I added the white lines around the edge. Honestly, that thin white line made a huge difference.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Die-Cut Divas -- anything goes with die-cuts

Colorful Options -- orange

Can you handle the pressure -- machine embossing/embossing folders

Word Art Wednesday #611 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2335 -- anything goes

Pretty poppies

 

Poppies aren't  very common garden plants where I live; I'm not sure if they don't like humidity, if it's too hot, or some other reason. However, they are beautiful flowers associated with remembrance =. So, it made sense to pair this poppy image with a "remember" sentiment from Stamplorations.

The image is colored with pencils and cut with a stitched-edge label die. The image is mounted on a red panel that is embossed with a swiss dot folder. The sentiment is black-embossed on vellum, which is wrapped around the red panel and adhered to the back, so no worries about adhesive showing through the vellum. The butterfly helps hold the vellum in place.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Butterfly Challenge #186 (center column -- flowers, die cuts, spots)

Can you handle the pressure -- twist of poppies

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

The Paper Shelter #565 -- add a sentiment

Word Art Wednesday #609 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2334 -- anything goes

Double Trouble #146 -- anything/everything (twists 1 and 3)

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #8 -- focus on flowers