Triple Treat

Still in the clutches of old man winter-another 3" of snow overnight!

The challenge at "Less is More' #164 this week is 'Three" of something on your card.
I have been going through my paper stash this week, reviewing what I have (tons, don't you know). I came across this Hot Off the Press Pad, Icy Rainbow. Love the colors and patterns in this pad. As I was making this card I knew I wanted to 'showcase' the beautiful background paper, especially that big flower.

I cut the flowers & leaves out of white cardstock with the Memory Box Norland flower dies. Colored them with Copic Markers, layered them and added white pearls to the centers. Added the butterfly and words die cut and the 'fence' border along the bottom edge.

Ingredients:
Tools: Memory Box Norland Flower, Cheery Lynn mini butterfly & words, Martha Stewart iron fence punch
Cardstock & papers: Hot Off the Press 8x8 Birthday pack, white scrap, HOTP Icy Rainbow
Markers: Copics V22, V25, V17, YG17, YG23, YG67, TH Dusty Concord distress marker
Accessories: SU tiny pearls, white Liquid Pearls, Cuttlebug

A passion for purple

Beautiful sunny day, but cold again. The birds have been flocking to our feeders in droves. And over the last few days we have had a super cool visitor, a Pileated Woodpecker. Isn't he the coolest thing? He looks so prehistoric. He's about the size of a crow. I wondered why all of a sudden we were going through suet like crazy. He has a hearty appetite. Hopefully our little grocery store has more suet-I'd like him to stick around for awhile.

So, on to my card for today. I found these cool digi images of vintage ladies a few years ago from Imag-e-nations. There are 8 images in different poses and colors. I have made a few cards with them, and they are still my favorites. I am using the sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday #313.  It's a simple layout and that's the way I kept the card-simple. The cardstock is Paper Pizzaz Birthday 8x8 pad, background is Paper Pizzaz-Icy Rainbow, and the bubble look DP is from an old Provo craft paper pad-which long ago lost it's cover. Sentiment is from Impression Obsession stamped in Momento Grape Jelly, cut around and inked around the edges with Momento Grape Jelly marker. A little purple rhinestone to finish it off.
To me it says 'serene'. Oh, and those vintage ladies? I discovered I can recolor the whole page to one color-woo-hoo-whatever color I need. Yes!

Stippled Blossom Thank YOu

Today I am sharing with you the card I made using background piecing and SU Stippled Blossom flowers. Love that stamp set. The Designers Choice Challenge (#312) over at The House that Stamps Built this week is flowers.

Over the last week I have been playing with the sunburst background paper piecing. Once I figured it out, I made a bunch of cards using the technique. And I was then left with these scraps, not enough for the sunburst background, but they worked well just to piece a simple background. 

It's hard to see on this photo, but after fussy cutting the flowers,  I gave them a bit of dimension with a foam pad and stylus. 

Stamps: SU Stippled Blossoms, SU Express Yourself

Papers: SU cardstock basic black and whisper white.  K & Co (don't know their name-a friend shared a pad with me & of course I failed to take down the name!)

Inks: SU More Mustard, Summer Sun, Old Olive, Pear Pizzaz, Going Grey

Accessories: Spellbinders Petite Ovals, Cuttlebug (to cut out oval), scissors, Studio 18 rhinestones

Nesting Season!

Nesting Season? Really? Well, almost. If any birds were even thinking about it, I'm sure they changed their minds today! It's snowing again. I know, I know-it covers up all the dirty snow and makes everything white and pretty. But at this point I'd much rather see the dirty snow! Oh, spring, where art thou!

So, even though the birds aren't nesting yet, it is getting to that time of year-the male goldfinches are starting to loose their drab winter colors for bright yellow, and there were probably a hundred in our backyard today. So I thought a bright card with this little nest full of eggs was a look in the right direction.

The challenge over at Creative Knockouts this week (#29) is 'Border Time', to use a border or borders of some kind on your creation. This nice little punch border MS doily border) was a leftover from another project, but just perfect for this card. I cut a couple branches from white cardstock with the Impression Obsession Leafy branch and colored them with Copic Markers E57 & YG67. I added a bit of texture to the leaves with SU Wild Wasabi marker. The card base is SU Not Quite Navy, and I added a piece of DCWV Linen Closet, and the stripe piece is a scrap of American Crafts paper. I used the SU bird punch and some SU 'Just Add Cake' DP. I ran the Wild Wasabi marker around the bird and it's wing. The nest sticker is from  K & Co. Added the sentiment from Sweet-N-Sassy Stamps stamped with Not Quite Navy on a scrap of white cardstock and punched out with SU small oval punch, mounted on Not Quite Navy scalloped punch out. Some My Minds Eye rhinestones and gold border/line sticker to complete.

Going Dotty?

Well, welcome back to gloomy and cold-I sure wish winter would go away. I am so ready for spring and flowers and no jackets or boots or gloves. After our teaser yesterday it's really hard to go back to grey skies and below freezing. Spring will come when spring will come, I suppose.

Today's card uses the sketch from Seize the sketch #15.

I used some more of the CTMH 'Dotty for You' and MME 'Reunion' pattern paper. I stamped the sentiment and frame (The Crafts Meow-Timeless Tags) on a scrap of the MME paper with SU Calypso Coral ink and cut it out with the Spellbinders Tags die.The butterfly image is an acetate diecut from K & Co. I cut the base mats from SU cardstock. I punched the flowers from the MME paper with EK Success 5 petal flower punch. I formed the flowers using a foam mat and ball tip stylus.  I sponged the edges of the flower layers with some SU Lucky Limeade ink. I colored a couple brads with a Copic marker and attached them to the tag and the middle of the flower. I also used a gold peel-off line sticker between the 2 background papers for a bit more shine. I also distressed the edges of the polka dot papers a bit. Top layers all popped up with dimensional foam dots.

I've had all these K & Co acetate shapes for quite sometime. I am glad to finally figure out ways to use them up, so you'll probably see more of them in the days ahead:)

Sunburst butterflies

Good Tuesday morning to you all. We're having a heatwave-it's 46 F outside-wonder if the sap is flowing. Soon, I hope.

My card today is for the Just Add Ink Challenge , to add a sunburst. Now, my friends have all been making these cards, and they made it look so easy. ME? Not so easy. I don't know if I over-think things, or what. It took me forever to figure this out. But then, geometry was never my strong point. After many false starts I finally won out. I think.

I am trying to use up these K& Co. butterflies. They are so pretty, and these don't have any glitter on them, so my card will be going to Operation Write home-thus the sentiment. The design papers are from Close to My Heart-Dotty for Yiu, and MME-Reunion. The card base is Stampin' Up cardstock. I used the EK Success arch punch to make the border. I stamped the sentiment (My Favorite Things 'More Essential Sentiments") with versa Mark ink and heat embossed with brown embossing powder. I added some gold peel off line stickers, and some gold metal dots from Imaginisce with the heat tool.

Sending Love

My second post today is for the Fab Friday #36 challenge-a color challenge.

I stamped this image quite a long time ago, at least a year ago. I was cleaning up and found a file folder with all these images that I had stamped and embossed, but never  used. There was a whole 8x 10 page of just this stamp in different colors. This particular one is stamped with Momento Black Tuxedo and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I water colored it with Stampin' Up inks, and matted on a piece of Pink paper. I punched the corners with the SU Ticket Corner Punch, The yellow base is a premade card base, I stamped a border of summer starfruit on a scrap of yellow cardstock with the CTMH Geometric  backgrounds stamp. A scrap of stripe from my scrap basket that has the colors in it ties it all together. The sentiment is from Kaiser Craft, and is stamped in Black in.

                                                               

Sails UP

Just a simple card I originally made for the Stampin' UP only challenge, but of course I missed the deadline-again. But it does fit The Friday Mashup challenge-a masculine card.

I used the stamps from the Stampin Up set 'The Open Sea', stamped with Island Indigo ink, on whisper white and sahara sand cardstock. Design papers are from SU Sycamore street pack. Mats are cut from SU Island Indigo & Tangerine Tango cardstock. The flags are punched from scraps of Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango, and Pool party cardstock with the SU banner punch.

Pink Tulip Thank YOu

Well, sad to say, it does not look like spring, or anywhere near it, here today. SNOWING again-but at least it is a bit warmer-relatively speaking. 25 degree today, as opposed to hovering around zero forever, it seems. Even had a window opened for a bit. Ahhhhhhhhhh, fresh air-really, really fresh:)

Seeing we are lacking spring outside, I felt a bit was called for inside. The image on this card is one of the digi images I won from Creative Knockouts challenge #24 & Bug-a-Boo stamps, Tulips & Bugs. Really cute digis, by the way.

I used the sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #209. I printed the image onto Crafter's Companion white cardstock, and colored with Copic Markers. I cut the image out with Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles and sponged SU Bravo Burgundy ink (retired) around it while still in the die. I cut the mat with SB Deckled Rectangles from some Bazzil Burgundy cardstock. The design papers are from Close to My heart, a gift from a friend. I stamped the sentiment from SU 'Express Yourself' with Momento Tuxedo Black on a scrap of lavender cardstock and punched it out with S U Artisan Label Punch. I popped the image layers up with SU dimensional foam dots.

Think Spring, think spring, think spring. Nope doesn't help, snow is still there ;)

Dream of Spring!

Yes, I am certainly Dreaming of Spring, but I don't see any signs of it. Four foot high snowbanks, temps hovering around zero most days, although it is just a bit warmer today-might even reach 20 degrees by tomorrow :)
So, to help me FEEL more like spring is just around the corner-I think of butterflies -like the butterfly on this card I made for the Try Stampin On Tuesday challenge-the sketch here and the twist is 'I dream of Spring'.

I am not sure what the papers are, I got them from a friend for my birthday present. I'm thinking they might be Stampin' Up, at least the cardstock has that feel to it.
The butterfly is cut using the Memory box Darla (base) and Vivienne (filigree) butterfly dies. The sentiment is from SU Express Yourself, stamped in VErsa Mark ink and heat embossed with SU black embossing powder.

Stay warm-and don't forget the time changes this weekend-Spring ahead!