October 2014 Blog Hop

 

Well, I only have one Christmas card that qualifies for this month's PTI blog hop challenge, so here it is. I used most of the above colours, with the exception of the bright green (New Leaf) and Blueberry Sky. I'm just not a fan of bright green, and gravitate towards the yellow greens, and just didn't want to add in any more blues. Anyhow, I used Soft Stone to make stripes for the background, and silver glitter paper for the Fancy Flakes snowflake. The sentiment and die are from Wonderful Words: Holiday, and some Wink of Stella adds some glitz to the diecut. the sentiment is heat embossed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder.
Thanks for looking!

And just for fun, I am throwing in these two other cards, since I had need to make a birthday card  as well as a sympathy card. They fit the colour scheme above, but aren't Christmas related. The butterflies are from WPlus9, and both cards are a CASE of ones that Dawn W. has made. The sentiments are from PTI's Keep it Simple series. I do love watercolouring!

Make It Monday #185: Faux Stained Glass

Well, I tried... Several times. And this is where my adventure with stamping on acetate will probably end. I messed up with Stayzon ink, and another hybrid ink didn't work, so I ended up stamping with a black pigment ink, then embossing with clear. So it looks gray. I coloured with Copics, made it into a shaker card, using many layers of cardstock (I should have taken a photo of what was left of the skinny frame, using adhesive sheet...)  My hat is off to those of you who have produced such wonderful "Faux Stained Glass"!  Betsy--you made this look so easy!!!!

Stamp sets: "Stained Glass" and "Silent Night". Gold "Delicata" ink for the background swirls. I used some Prisma glitter inside the shaker portion, as well as some star sequins.

Make It Monday #184: Gold Dipped Die-cuts

Over at Papertrey Ink this week, Danielle has a wonderful challenge, which is to emboss diecuts to look like they've been dipped in gold. I immediately thought of my PTI set, "Year of Flowers - Poinsettia". I have definitely gotten my money's worth from this set! I still love it (although a new, multi-step poinsettia stamp set is about to be released, and I think I must have it, too!!)

I added some depth to the flowers with Copic markers, gold embossed the "Merry", and used my Wet Paint Holiday die for "Christmas". I layered it with 3 white die cuts underneath, to give it a raised look. I cut out a panel to add some patterened paper underneath, added some Silhouette gold foil paper to the edges, then attached a few green pearls to finish it off.

All stamps, dies and paper are PTI, with the exception of the textured green paper for the sentiment, which was in my stash. Thanks for looking!

Simon Says... Use Watercolors

I was glad to see this week's challenge from Simon Says Stamp, seen here, as I've really been enjoying watercolouring, lately. It does take a lot of time, however, so I can't do ALL my cards this way. So many cards to make, so little time!

This one uses a bird stamp from Hero Arts, which I watercoloured, while the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. The feather stamps/dies are PTI.

 This PTI poinsettia was watercoloured with deep roses and greens to resemble the pink poinsettias you can buy. The sentiment is also PTI.

 I used some new stamps for this card, from Art Impressions, along with some Distress Markers. The sentiment is from PTI.

This lilac stamp is from PTI, as is the sentiment and the patterned paper.

I had to try out my WPlus9 butterfly with my watercolour paints, using Dawn W's video as a guide. It was fun, and I actually made 4 different cards, using the same colour scheme (which I love!), but different sentiments, which are from PTI.

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday #183:Dry Embossing over Heat Embossing

Dawn McVey, over at Papertrey Ink, demonstrated a technique that adds lots of texture to one-layer cards. And since I mail most of my cards, I wanted to play along. I actually used two layers this time, as I wanted to add some twine. I used metallic embossing powders (gold and copper) as well as a Zing green for all the leaves (Leaf Prints). I used Basket of Blessings for the sentiment, and then dry embossed, using a PTI Impression plate. (I can't remember the name, and I can't find it on their website, either! Sorry! But it's a plate with a lot of little leaves, which I thought went with the leaf theme.) ETAdd: The impression plate is "Vineyard", by PTI. Thanks, Nancy!

All stamps are PTI, as is the cardstock. Thanks for looking!

Make It Monday #181: Paper Casting

Danielle had a unique and new-to-me technique this week--Paper Casting! It was kind of fun, but I think I'll need some practice...especially to get even near the great results that Nancy Penir had! Lol. Loved how all of hers turned out. Anyway, I made a couple of tags with my Stained Glass and Peaceful Pinecones stamps/dies.

And maybe I'll use these others to make more tags, or cards :)

Thanks for looking!

September 2014 Blog Hop Challenge- #3

Well, I had the urge to create, so made a third card for this blog hop. I used Beautiful Brushstrokes stamp set and dies, and a card of Danielle's for inspiration to make my card, but used the colours suggested in this blog hop.

Thanks for looking!

September 2014 Blog Hop Challenge #2

For this card, I watercoloured Botanical Blocks peony, using PTI inks. It was a lot harder to blend the colors, and gives a different look from watercolour paints. But at least I know I used the right colours! The background is watered down  "Enchanted Evening" ink, which I added to the above Color Recipe. I used Ranger's "Liquid Platinum" embossing powder to stamp the flower as well as the sentiment, which is from "Banner Sentiments".

Thanks for looking!

September 2014 Blog Hop Challenge

It's that time again--the PTI Bloghop for September. This month's inspiration photo did just that. What wonderful colours! I actually combined both of the following colour "recipes", and did not really use the sketches. I was really pleased with how this watercoloured poinsettia turned out. (I like it a lot better than the background, which went through 3 different re-makes before settling on the Darice embossing folder.) See full card below.

I used PTI's "Year of Flowers-Poinsettias" and stamped it in Versamark, then heat embossed using Ranger's "Liquid Platinum" embossing powder. Then I watercoloured it using my watercolour paints, mixing the colours the close as I could to make Autumn Rose and Avocado green. The sentiment is from "Silent Night", and  heat embossed with white powder. I used the new Raindrops to fill in the center of the flower. Cardstock is Soft Stone and Autumn Rose.

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday #178: Back to School Easel Card

Papertrey Ink's Erin Lincoln has challenged us this week to make an easel card, in honour of school starting this week. However, here in BC, the teachers' strike had delayed the start of school. But it will start at some point, right? So I made this card for my granddaughter, and will send it off to her once the strike is over. This card looks quite a bit like Erin's, so it's defiinitely a "Case", but her card was inspiring :)

PTI products used:

Stamps: Back to School, Teacher Tickets, Antique Alphabet

Inks: Fresh Snow, Pure Poppy, Limeade Ice, Simply Chartreuse

Dies: Back to School, Stargazer Additions (stars)