Make it Monday, #120 Ombre No.2

Here is another effort at the overlapping Ombre technique. I used an old stamp, and a somewhat dated style, so perhaps that's why I'm not as crazy about this one as my last, even though this one was more work. I used 4 shades of ink for the leaves of the tree, and the scalloped background was a piece of brayered paper that I've had for a while, done with Kaleidacolor inks. I swiped the dark chocolate ink on the tree trunk, instead of tapping, to give it some "wood" texture, and used a sunburst for the background, to better fit the sentiment. The bottom left corner looked bare, so I put some Washi Tape on. Still looked bare, so I added some enamel dots--in three, ombré tones, as well. I like the dots, but wish I'd left off the tape... Not sure about this one, at all!

 Materials are PTI, unless otherwise indicated.

Stamps:Through the Woods, Hello Sunshine, Sunburst (unknown. Note to self-don't throw away the packaging!)
Inks: Dandelion, Potter's Clay, Summer Sky (all Memento), Spring Moss, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate
Paper: Spring Moss, Melon Berry
Other: enamel dots (MME), Nestabilities dies, Washi Tape

Make it Monday, #120, Ombre

Nichole has challenged us to make an ombre card, and once I saw all the beautiful cards she produced, as well as the cards already entered, I thought, "How on earth can I make mine just a little different?!"  Then I thought, "black and white"! But then I felt I had to add a punch of colour--red--just to make it a little more interesting, and not so "dark".
Thanks for looking!

Materials are all PTI, unless otherwise indicated.
Inks: Soft Stone, Soft Granite (Hero Arts), Gray Flannel (Memento), Smokey Shadow
Stamps: Wonderful Words: Memories
Paper:white (Staples), Red Poppy, Smokey Shadow
Other: twine and button

Make it Monday, #119, Flagged Cards

Over at Papertrey Ink, Dawn McVey has challenged us to make a card, using flags. (I knew it was Dawn this week, before I even watched the video. Wanna know how I knew? The card was bright green and blue! Those have to be Dawn's signature colours!) Anyway, I've done a shameless CASE of Dawn, and have produced the following card. I used the coordinating papers from Beautiful Beads (PTI). The stamp is from PTI's Stylish Sentiments:Birthdays, and the following sentiment is on the inside, "May your happiness multiply as each candle is added to your cake!" This really was a challenge for me, as I decided to do a "guy" card, and use flags, which is something I've never done before.
By the way, are you wondering what the die is for the red border? It's what is left in the middle, if you cut out two rows of the hearts border die! See? It doesn't just do hearts or tiny scallop borders :)
Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday, #118 No. 2

Here is a photo collage, with the face of our great-nephew, Blake, put onto a "certain" soccer player's body... Since Blake loves to play soccer, I thought this would be a fun birthday card for him. The sentiment is from PTI's "Birthday Basics".

BLAKE "BECKHAM"

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday, #118

This week's challenge at Papertrey Ink is all about photo postcards. Ashley demonstrated how to stamp right onto a photo, and then challenged us to create a postcard, or a card, made with our own photos. So I've made a card. I took this photo of my gardenia plant quite awhile ago, and always thought it would make a good card, so here it is! (Please note that the photo does not look as purple in real life!) The sentiment is from "Mini Blooms", by Papertrey Ink.
Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday, #117 Paper Piecing

For this week's Papertrey Make It Monday, the challenge is to use paper piecing. Since I needed a card for my great-nephew's 6th birthday next week, I decided to paper piece the airplane. I'm not one for cutting things out by hand, but I thought I'd give it a try. (However, I think I prefer the paper-pieced flowers I'm seeing on some other cards in this challenge.)

All stamps and materials are PTI, except for the alphabet stamp. 

Thanks for looking, and for any comments :)

Make it Monday, #116, Adding Texture to Stamps, No. 2

For this card, I used Watercolor Wonder, and swiped the ink pad across the stamp, rather than tap the ink on. I really like the texture this added. I hope you can see the texture in the central image, in Aqua Mist ink, but in real life, all of the images have this texture. It makes the swipes look more "painted", rather than stamped. (You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it.) The sentiment is from Birthday Sentiments.

All materials are from PTI. Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday, #116, Adding Texture to Stamps

I'm supposed to be getting ready and packing for my trip to Winnipeg on Thurs., but I wanted to try this technique before I went! (I can always find time for card making, but the dusting? Nope--no time)

For this week's Make it Monday challenge, Betsy has shown us a unique way to add texture to our solid stamps by using a comb. So I tried using a toothbrush to swipe the ink across. Unfortunately, it just removed some of the ink, and the texture I saw on the stamp didn't come across on the paper. So my Sweet Life flowers here don't really show any texture. So for the grounding oval and the leaves, I just swiped the ink pad directly across the stamp, then stamped. I'm happier with that result.

All materials are PTI. Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday, #115, No. 2

Here is another card, this time using foil tape and my Houndstooth cuttlebug embossing folder. I'm not sure if I really like this card--I'm definitely not used to this amount of "glitz"...
Thanks for looking!

All materials are PTI, unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Mehndi Medallion, Boutique Borders:Father
Dies: Sketched Shapes
Ink: white, versamark
Other: White embossing powder, houndstooth embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Make it Monday, #115

Heather Nichols, at Papertrey Ink, has challenged us to use material, other than paper, to emboss. So I asked my hubby if I could use some of his duct tape. (I was surprised to learn that I like the pewter, textured look of this tape!) I taped it to a piece of white paper, then embossed it with my Woodgrain Impression plate. I decided it looked too solid, so then I die cut the line of stars in the middle. I used the Stargazer stamp for the background, stamped with Versamark Ink, then rubbed Perfect Pearl powder over it. And since I used duct tape, I kind of thought this had to be a "guy card"! The sentiment is from "Happy Day".

Thanks for looking.

All materials are PTI, except for the Spellbinders Hexagon dies.
I am also entering this card in the Casology challenge:Hexagon