May 2015 - Blog hop Challenge

This month's Blog Hop has the following inspiration photo for our cards.

                                                  

My cards are very loosely based on the rainbow cascade of the blocks. I went for a watercoloured background, choosing to not use the square shapes, focussing just on the colours. See that one rogue purple block in the lower right corner? I just had to put that in my first card ;)

My second card is a variation on this same theme/layout, since I needed 2 birthday cards for family this month! These are not my usual style, which is to gravitate for lighter, less vibrant colours. (Going a little out of the box, this month...)

Stamps: Brushed Blooms (and dies), Sentiment Strips (and dies)

Inks: Distress inks for the background, PTI inks for the flowers and sentiment, as well as Versamark ink and white filagree embossing powder

Thanks so much for looking!

Make it Monday #212: Fussy Cutting

Ashley has us digging out our scissors and fussy cutting this week! I never thought I'd see the day... However, it went just fine, and I may even try this again! Lol. Can you tell I don't like fussy cutting, as a rule? However, here is my effort.

The stamps (Brushed Blooms, Graceful Greetings) are from PTI, and all of the paper, except for that lovely lavender background paper, which is from Gina K. (Sure wish PTI would come out with this colour, as well as a true pink! Hint, Hint!) The striped background is from a Hero Arts stamp, I think. I no longer have the packaging...

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday #211: Using Gelatos with Stamps

I was intrigued with this week's MIM (seen here), where Melissa gently smudged gelatos over a stamped image. It produced a halo of colour and intensified the ink colours. Loved it, especially on the linen paper! Great texture! I was going to use some new stamps, but when I had a look at the gallery, it seems that everyone else had the same idea (and they are beautiful), but I wanted to do something different. So I dug out good ol' Year of Flowers: Sweet Peas.  I watercoloured the flowers with Distress Inks, then smudged the Gelatoes over top. The blue doesn't show up very well in the full photo, but it's there, giving a hint of sky in the background. Thanks for looking!

Papertrey's April Blog Hop

Welcome to PTI's April Blog Hop! We have the following inspiration photo to use for our cards.

And here is the card I've made. It uses the "You've Been Framed: Oval" die and stamps, as well as the flowers and stamps from Bitty Bouquet. For the ombre background, I used a sheet from the "Beautiful Brushstrokes" patterned paper. I felt a bit nostalgic, so dug out some pearl adhesives and an old flourish die for embellishments.

Inks: Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst, Berry Sorbet, Enchanted Evening, Limeade Ice

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday #209-White Die Cuts With a Pop of Colour

Oooohhhh....Loved the idea for this challenge! I do have difficulty leaving white space, so thought this would be a good challenge to enter.

I used "Zappy Birthday" for my card, and quite like how it turned out. I confess all the white space was kind of bothering me, though (sigh--just couldn't leave it alone), so I added a strip of washi tape to the bottom edge, and then stamped the zig-zag above the row of white "thing-me-bobs"... What do you call those..."star bursts"?? I also popped up the main image on some dimensional squares, for some added "POW"! (I wish this stamp set also included a "Pow!", and a "Bam!" They would have been fun stamps to put in the star-bubble, too.)

All stamps and card stock are PTI. Thanks for looking!

And here's a close up of the dimension.

Make it Monday #207 - Double Partial Die Cutting

Well, Laura Bassen has us kicking it up a notch with this challenge! I needed a masculine birthday card, so decided to try out this technique, for this card.
Oh, drat! I just noticed that one of the gold stars fell off! Hmmm...can you just pretend the turquoise balloon also has one? I guess I need to use a better adhesive on that clear embossing powder!

All materials are PTI, unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Birthday Style

Paper: Rustic White card base, Dark Chocolate, Spring Moss striped, Simply Chartruese, Orange (from my stash), Harvest Gold, Hawaiian Shores, Gold adhesive backed paper (Silhouette)

Dies: Mat Stack 1, Tipped Top, Birthday Trio, Star Gazer Additions, Birthday Style

Inks: Versamark

Other: Clear embossing powder, twine, Wood Grain Embossing Plate, dimensional adhesive, Clear Wink of Stella on the word dies

March 2015 Papertrey Blog Hop

The following photo is our inspiration for this month's hop.

I focussed on the colours in this photo, and chose to make a card using the turquoise, yellows and white, with a touch of green. And, since it's almost Easter, I made an Easter Egg card, Cas-ing Laura Bassen's wonderful card, found here, changing up only the colours. Loved hers, but I went with the colours in the above photo. I used my water paints on watercolour cardstock, then punched the eggs out with the egg die. I put a layer of plain vellum over top the striped paper, in order to soften it up, a bit. This card will go to my son and his family. One egg for each of them and the kids, plus one spare for the dog! Lol.

Thanks for looking! All materials are PTI.

Stamps and Dies: Etched Easter Eggs

And speaking of Casing, I also copied....er, Cas'd Betsy Veldman's card, shown here.  LOVED her card, using Easter Alleluias and Itty Bitty Bouquets. (Sorry about the poor photo--I took it on my iPad, not realizing at the time that I was going to post this.)  The colours suit this blog hop, too!

Make it Monday #205: Confetti Cluster Stamping

This week's Make it Monday has us stamping an image with a cluster of stamps, rather than a solid or outline image. I had in my head that I wanted to do balloons, so this is what I came up with.

I wanted to try this technique to make my brother-in-law a card for his birthday. He and my sister are vacationing down south, and won't be home until after his birthday, so I added a "belated" (Avery Elle) onto the "Birthday Wishes". I used PTI's "Birthday Style" stamps for the image and sentiment, and "Wet Paint" for the numbers. (He is turning 66 today.)

For the balloons, I used the confetti stamp from "Birthday Style", and the stars and tiny cluster of dots are from "Star Gazer Additions". I covered the one balloon with Glossy Accents. It's not dry yet, in the photo, as I wanted to get this posted online asap. Off to the PO as soon as it's dry!

Inks used: Limeade Ice, New Leaf, Simply Chartruese, Pinefeather, Aqua Mist, Blueberry Sky, Spring Rain, Tropical Teal, Smokey Shadow, and Hero Arts Soft Granite for the balloon strings.

Make it Monday #204: Smooshing with Ink

Ah yes. That highly technical term called "smooshing"...not to to confused with "smooching", as autocorrect would have us believe!

My first effort smooshing turned out quite pretty, but I used too much water and the colours blended seamlessly together, creating an almost sponged-ink look. Nice, but not what the challenge was all about, really.

I wanted to use my new "Scene It" dies, so I cut out a background from the smooshed paper, and built my scene on that. I used the new "Alleluia" stamps, as well as a sentiment from the "Etched Easter Eggs" stamps. Too bad you can't see the Wink of Stella glitter on the sun rays, nor the gold embossing on the "Alleluia" sentiment. It's been foggy all day, here! Love this new vellum from PTI!

My second effort was more what the challenge required, but I wished I would have omitted the Tropical Teal ink--it's too dark! So I tried covering some of it up with the gold embossing, and some flowers from Quilted Spring. I'm not too thrilled with this one...

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday #203: Doodling with Stamps

Ashley showed us a fun technique this week, using doodling over top of stamps, seen here. I used Botanicals Blooms ll. First, I stamped the image, then watercoloured it in. When it was dry, I doodled over top of the paint. Fun! I'll definitely try this again.

 And here is a close up of the detail. (All materials are PTI, except the sequins, paint and Watercolour paper.)