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

Soft and pretty

 The inspiration for this card comes from the mood board at Beautiful Blossoms challenge. I love the soft, pretty pinks and turqoises, and wanted to play with those colors. 

I die-cut the flower spray and used a blending brush to add pink and pale green ink . The main panel was cut from watercolor paper, and a turqoise-ish ink was diluted and applied as a watercolor wash. Using the same ink, undiluted, I stamped a script stamp on a white panel. It seemed too stark by itself, so I took the cloth Is used to clean off the stamp  (which still had a lot of ink on it) and dabbed it on the panel. The script panel was trimmed, applied to the main panel, and die-cut with a Penny Black edge die for the fancy bottom edge. A thin strip of ribbon and a ribbon buckle were added, and the entire panel was adhered to a blue card also cut with the fancy edge die.

 This card is entered in these challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms #24 -- use flowers/optional moodboard

Die-cut Divas -- use a fancy edge

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- use dies

Double Trouble #181 -- 2 challenges elements -- do anything and use a ribbon

Word Art Wednesday #679 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2450 -- anything goes

Red and gold Christmas

 I watched a video earlier this year that suggested you could use any flower on a Christmas card as long as you color it red. I don't have a poinsettia die, so I cut two different sizes of stitched flowers and stacked them to create this faux poinsettia. Does it work for you?

Everything on this card was created with snippets. (In fact, as you can see from the photo, I maximized how much I could get out of a small snippet of red and one of gold.) The red mirror snippet was salvaged from a Christmas card -- it was the lining in the envelop, which seems almost better than using snippets up.

The gold diagonal strips are simply gold washi tape.

 

 

This card is entered in these challenges:

Snippets Playground #495 -- use snippets

Simon Says Stamp Monday -- use dies

ABC Christmas -- favorite color combo (red and gold)

Word Art Wednesday #677 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2449 -- anything goes