March 2016 Blog Hop

This month's inspiration photo didn't grab me, at first, because I'm not into stitching or embroidery. However, after seeing some of the wonderful cards other people are doing (Donna Phalen, especially), I was inspired by the colours, especially in the following photo.

So I found some time while the turkey is cooking to go down to my craft room and "play".

I used Lace Bouquet stamps, which I haven't used in a long while, and embossed it in white. Then I painted Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink over it all, then coloured in the image with my Copics. The sentiment was also embossed, and it's from Birthday Classics: May.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Make it Monday #243 - Ink Blending Over Embossing

Over at Papertrey Ink, Dani shows us how to ink blend over embossing powder (shown here), a tried-and-true technique for many people. I went for an ombre look, from light blue down to dark blue, for my rainy sky. I'm not crazy about this card, but I wanted to finally bust open this stamp set from PTI (Rainy Day Sentiments).Besides, it's been raining a lot lately, so making a card about rain seemed timely.

Other PTI products used were the Tip Topped dies, the die for Banner Sentiments (one end was trimmed off) and some Stamper's Select cardstock. The design paper is from my very first Patterned Paper pack from PTI--so many years  ago now, that I have no idea what the name of the pack is!

The umbrella die is from WPlus9 and the raindrops background is from Hero Arts.

Make it Monday #242 - Sponged Stamping

Over at PIT, Dawn has us sponging our stamps with a second colour of ink before stamping (video shown here). I used the same stamp set, but made a "robin red breast" for my bird. I put Bright Buttercup ink on his throat, then sponged Orange Zest on the bottom of the stamp. For his tummy, I stamped in Kraft ink, then dabbed on some Canyon Clay ink for the ombre look. This card is going to my husband's niece for her birthday.
My husband said he likes this card better than any of the others I've done... Ok...  I think it's alright--I like the simplicity of it--but I wonder if it's just the simple bird, "cute" appeal? I can't figure it out, but I'm glad he likes it!

And here's a close-up of the bird.

Make it Monday #241: Ombre Stencils

This is a remake of a card I did for the last blog hop. I liked the colour combination so much that I tried it again. I had some of the fern panel left over, so used up the bits on this card. The flowers (Vintage Linens) are a brighter pink this time, though, because I used watercolour paints instead of Pink Lady re-inker. For the ombre-stenciled background, I used a Tim Holtz stencil "Dot Fade" , which is a type of ombre, in that it goes from light, scattered dots, to larger dots on the bottom, which I sponged on using Lovely Lady ink. It's a light pink ink, which is difficult to see in this photo, but they're there! The sentiment is from the "Swoosh" dies and stamps. Thanks for looking!