Christmas Card Club - Challenge 22

Good afternoon and welcome. I'm a bit late with my CCC post. Today Christine selected the theme as Winter Wonderland for our group of card makers who share Christmas cards every 2 weeks all throughout the year. One member decides what the theme will be for that week, but we have the option of "anything goes" if we don't have the necessary supplies, or want to take a different approach, as long as it's a Christmas theme.

My card was the usual last minute decision scramble as to what to make. After looking at Pinterest, Youtube and other time wasting places I enjoy...I searched through lots of stamp sets and decided on a 'look'. Combined 2 Penny Black clear sets to create today's card. I hope Christine will like it.

Penny Black Prancers Transparent set (trees)
Penny Black Nature's Silhouettes set(stag)
Sizzix Word Set

Created the sky using DI Shaded Lilac and Stormy Sky. At first created the snow drifts - which I thought looked pretty good (I rather struggle with creating snow drifts and it shouldn't be _that_ hard! Watched a couple of youtubes on that technique). Found I had trouble placing the trees well, even  using post-it mask. I did see one video that suggested starting from the top, and doing the sky first, and that was helpful. First effort not great with the tree placement & snow drifts, so flipped the Bristol Smooth Vellum c/s over, and started again. After creating the sky, this time I put the trees around first. Used different greens for depth, and Memento Gray Fog to create the background trees. Once I had the forest created, then used the torn hill/sky mask to brush some Shaded Lilac around to create the snowy drifts. Found that using a Inkylicious dual ended brush to swipe the 'snow' around, I was able to achieve a lighter touch than with using a dauber/blending tool.

Inked the stag with Black Versafine, stamped & used a black copic marker to touch up. A piece of double stick Sookwang was laid over the finished effort; added Cool Diamond Ritz Glitter & burnished well. Hope this finished look evokes a snowy forest wonderland. The sentiment was from a Sizzix words set, cut from some hologram glitter c/s.

Hope you have time to visit my fellow team members, whose blogs are listed on the left side bar.

The wedding came off nicely, although it was held outside (the actual ceremony part). While it was sunny, the skies had some dark clouds rolling up, and it was quite windy. The bride looked beautiful in a gorgeous dress. Lots of our extended family showed up, and the groom had an even bigger family. Food was delicious (southern bbq fare, with all the fixin's). Don't know any scan results yet; hopefully tomorrow will have a report from the GP. Appreciate all the good wishes on that.

Thanks for joining me today, and God Bless. Hugs too.

Christmas Card Challenge #20

Good Morning, welcome to Challenge #20 for our Christmas Club Challenge. This time our challenge theme was selected by Rachel. Rachel wanted to see turkeys, camels or sheep. As always, if a member does not have any supplies that fit with the particular challenge for the week, it can be anything goes. I have plenty of turkey images, but they are for Thanksgiving or Fall cards, rather than Christmas. Discovered I don't have even any digi images of a sheep! So it had to be camels. As for those, only have camels with 3 Wisemen riding them.

So here's the card I made for today. As usual, it didn't end up as I'd envisioned when I started out.

SU Come to Bethlehem set for the 3 Wisemen and the sentiment

Die-Versions Bethlehem die

Taylored Expressions Poinsettia EF
Cuttlebug Snowfall EF

DI Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves (DOX) and DI Chipped Sapphire for the sponged sky, and Aged Mahogany DI for the ground.

Brutus Monroe Copper Penny, Gilded Gold EP -(Star) and Ranger Queen's Gold

After sponging the watercolor weight c/s, stamped the SU image and heat embossed. My idea was to mask and have the city of Bethlehem in the distance. That didn't work. Sponged another c/s, used just the wisemen to stamp part of the image and again emboss. Die cut the Die-versions City of Bethelem and that didn't fit my idea. Decided to fussy cut the Wisemen from the first boo-boo. Cut the City die and placed it on the card so that I could layer the Wisemen in front of the buildings. Used some dimensional foam behind part of that die. Placed the cut out Wisemen over the stamped Wisemen- which created a shadow effect.

Edged this piece with some more Copper Penny to frame it. Cream lightweight c/s was embossed with a Taylored Expressions Poinsettia EF, and another cream piece embossed with the Cuttlebug Snow EF. Cut a border from the Snow EF, adhered all to a tent fold card base. Lastly the sentiment from the SU set was heat embossed with Queen's Gold, and colored with gray & lavendar copics, hand cut to fit the space, and edged with Queen's Gold.

Please take time to visit my CCC team members to see their ideas on this challenge. Their blogs are listed in the right hand sidebar. As always, thanks for taking the time to visit, and have a wonderful Sunday. Hugs

A House Mouse for Rudy Day September 2018

Hap-PY Saturday! Checking in with the September Rudolph Day card (will be back later for a Christmas Club Card post).  For any readers who don't know about Rudolph Day (or as I call it "Rudy Day") - it's a Christmas themed Anything Goes challenge that opens each month on the 25th and runs until the end of that month. There's always lots of inspiration from the cards submitted and our Dear Hostess Mo has some nice prizes as well. So if you have never played along with this challenge, give it a checkout, using the link above, ok?

We have an 80th surprise birthday party to attend in a little while, so best get to it. Here's the Rudy Day card:

Stampabilities - House Mouse Monica - You Cane Light the Way

Spellbinders Super Ellipse Die (S5-188)

Memory Box Holly border die

Cottage Cutz sentiment die

Copic coloring, used the Gina K Amalgam black ink - I'm liking this ink, and have been using it along with the Momento Tuxedo Black that I normally use with copics. So far, have had no bleeding problems.  This also has some WoS on candy cane, and Nuvo Crystal Glaze on the lights to give a 'glass' effect.

Die cut the image with the S/B Ellipse. Red mat done with drawing the _inside edge_ of the next size larger die, then trimmed a little off where needed. The red paper was a snippet that was just large enough to cut this mat.

VOS red & white stripe paper.

- snippet of Coordination green cut 2 Holly borders, then added some red Nuvo drops for the berries.
- snippet of same green cut the Ho Ho Ho (left off the exclamation points) and under top layer, had 2 white snippet layers which were colored a dark green). Applied Nuvo Crystal Glaze once this was down. On the first "H" too much glaze came out, and had to try to pick it away with a straight pin. The photo picks it up, but not noticeable IRL. Sometimes the ease with which this product comes out of the tip, is not always a blessing. But guess it's better than fighting with the clogged Glossy Accents, ...maybe!

For the lights glow: Yellow copics colored around the lights, then added versamark and some Chunky Glitter mixed with white EP, and heat embossed. After I had the holly borders down, I remembered that I have a border die that has little bulb lights on it. Story of my life!!!

Off to link up with September's Rudolph Day, and hope to see you there. Back later with the Christmas Card Club post, due tomorrow! Ya'll have a wonderful afternoon, and thanks for joining me. Hugs

A Crazy Dog Birthday

Good evening, and welcome. We've had cooler weather the first 2 days of the week so far(75F), and it's been quite overcast. Today there was just a tiny sprinkle of rain. Had I not been driving, wouldn't have known it was raining, except for seeing some drops on the windshield. We were out early for me to have a 'swallow' test - trying to find out why my voice has gotten hoarse. Was expecting it to be most uncomfortable, with nasty tasting stuff. Nope, none of that...the different liquids I had to drink (different consistencies I mean) were not anything I'd want a lot of, but it didn't taste terrible. Some kind of machine - sort of like an ultra sound type - showed the liquids & solids as it went down my throat. Weird to watch. Nothing was uncomfortable, and no abnormalities were apparent. I have a tendency to get choked or strangled very easily and when I was seeing the specialist for the hoarseness, he sent me for this test.  That's my exciting social life- medical stuff.

DD's 51st birthday is October 1 and she loves dogs. So of course she gets 'dog themed' cards usually. DH & I both thought she'd like the THoltz Crazy Dogs - which is why that set found it's way home with us. Here's the card:

Had the elements colored (Copics) and couldn't think of a single idea as to how to use them - did some Pinterest searching. I saw something with this goofy dog holding balloons on his bone, (don't remember who had it pinned, else I'd link to that  card). That gave me the balloon idea. Found some pattern paper snippets. Sky background, then the 'grass' to create the card front. Hunted up a SU balloon set that I knew I had. Used a metallic water color set (VOS) to watercolor these fussy cut balloons after heat embossing with a gold twinkling EP. And when that got embossed, no twinkling did I see. The same EP was used for the Elizabeth Craft Birthday sentiment.

Dog did not die cut well on first effort, so stamped, colored and die cut another pooch. Layered the boo-boo doggie underneath the 'good doggie' - raised up with dimensionals. Food bowl and ball also popped up. The big red balloon is just adhered, but the lavender and blue balloons had some dimensional foam. Cut under his nose, so the bone could hang out of his mouth. The hardest thing about this card was trying to glue the balloon strings under the balloons - should have done that first!!!

Thanks for joining me this evening, and hope your week is off to a great start. Big hugs and lots of Blessings - We can ALL use some of both of those things I'm sure.

Christmas Card Club - Challenge #19

Good evening, and it's my 2nd post of the day. We're still quiet weather wise here in my area, and thankful to be so. Hope it stays that way overnight. We're expecting some rain (according to MSN, but MSN has predicted rain all week, and we got none)

It's time again for the Christmas Card Club Challenge, which is a group of card makers who share cards every 2 weeks on a theme selected by one of our members. We also have the choice to do 'anything goes' if we don't have the particular images needed for that week's challenge. Mrs. A chose a theme of Polar Bears or Teddy Bears. Had images for both but there's a NBUS set I've had for a while, found while looking (of course) for something else. So I decided on Polar Bears.

 

 

MFT Stitched Rectangle Frames

Avery Elle Snow Much Fun stamp and die set

Hampton Art Tree Die (this has some clear patterned tree  images with the die)

 

Frame die cut was versamarked, and heat embossed with Sparkle n Sprinkle EP in a dark blue, then re-inked and sprinkled an icy blue over the darker blue.

 

- snippet of snow flake paper added to make a sky background. Used the center piece cut from the frame, just covered it with the DP.  Various snippets of Christmas paper used to cut the trees. The solid green tree is the reverse side of the circle pattern tree. I decided to go for whimsical trees rather than make realistic ones.

 

- white c/s embossed with the C/Bug snowflake EF (it's called snowflake, but it looks like dots to me) Tore this embossed c/s to make snowbanks. Adhered, then tucked the trees around. Lastly added the polar bear and bunny on the sled, which was done with copics and WoS. The frame was adhered to the card base, then inlaid the 'created scene' inside the frame. Sentiment & sled popped up on dimensionals.Thought about using some Nuvo drops to put ornaments on the green tree, decided to stop. Sometimes I have a problem knowing when to quit :-)

 

Team member blog links are on the right sidebar. Hope you'll give them a visit and see what they've shared for Mrs. A's Bear Challenge.

 

On another note: Blogger is once again not sending all comments to my email. Some are coming in, some are awaiting publication. I don't know why. But I'm trying to be sure I don't miss anyone.

 

Ya'll take care and hope you have a wonderful Sunday. Be safe if you're having weather issues. God Bless and thanks for visiting. Hugs too. 

Thank You

Good morning. Seems I'm doing Sympathy or Thank You cards this week. Still need to work on birthday cards, and hopefully some Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving cards too. Recently we had a good visit with a blog friend, and I wanted to say Thank You for some wonderful hospitality. The overspray waste from using brusho and other products still has a bit of paper left. Thought this would make a nice background sky for a Loon die that I have.

- Your Next Stamp border stamp...used some cube inks in shades of blue and purple, to complement the background of the Loon.

- Gina Marie Loon die

- Crafters Companion Thank You Die - 3 layers of white snippet stacked, then colored with shades of Copic Blue Violet...

I didn't think about this until DH mentioned it...the folks we were visiting have some very nice Duck decoys decorating their home. I hope they will enjoy this card!!!

Just for grunts and giggles, I changed the email addy for the comment notification to my old Hotmail address. Which I can now see in the Outlook that was in the Windows 10 operating system  as well as my other email addy which I normally use. My guru set up accounts so that I can see these 2 inboxes, along with 2 other email ID's I had him set up because of these blogger problems. After trying many, many tiresome times to get blogger to send me a new subscribe message to that address, I changed it to Hotmail, and Voila, shortly thereafter, got a subscribe message, which of course I DID! So hopefully I may start seeing the comment notifications there. Fingers X'd!

Thanks for visiting, and ya'll have a great day. Blessings.

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 16

Hello and welcome to a new Christmas Card Club post. Challenge 16's theme was selected by our Scrappymoi (Maureen, she of the Rudolph Day fame). Maureen wanted to see  winter activity themes such as sledding, skiing, or sleighs. As always, we members have the choice of 'anything goes' if we don't have suitable images for that challenge's theme, which is helpful. Anyway, when I saw the challenge theme, I immediately remembered an old Penny Black Snowie, which I've always loved to color. In looking for him, discovered another old wooden stamp, no manufacturer name on it, so made 2 cards this time. I needed a bit of copic coloring therapy.

 

 

 

The 'icy snow' on the hillside looked a bit pink when I spread it out with my fingers for 'snow'. It's Stickles Stardust. All of my stickles are pretty old stash, so I don't know if this product discolors with age...It doesn't look pink in the bottle, and didn't at first when I was smooshing it around. As it dried, it has a pinkish look.

 

Some Impression Obsession and Sue Wilson die trees cut out of snippets, colored with various copic greens. The die is a Memory Box one, cuts 3 pieces. Adhered the larger rectangle to Snowie, then inlaid the outer rectangle, finished with the oval center. The DP is from an older 6x6 winter pack. Since I knew I'd be using the additional trees for dimension, thought it would work.

 



 

 

No idea who made this cute little sled of mice, but it was fun to color. Did some cloud practice on the sky and added white flocking for the snow. Again, some stardust stickles right around the sled, and this didn't look pink (same Stardust bottle though). MFT stitched frame with red & white dots. Hmmm...then tried to find something besides plain white to use as DP. Thought the blue snowflakes DP would work, then added the MB Christmas die in the leftover red from cutting the frame. After I looked at this one for a while, sort of wished I had stayed with just plain white, maybe embossed with a snowflake EF. Oh well....Sometimes what is in my creative thinking doesn't turn out as I hoped it would!!!

 

Hope you have time to check out the other team members interpretation of this challenge. Their links are in the right side bar. Wishing all of you a happy Sunday and our heat is back. I will be doing some blog visiting this afternoon to see what lots of you have been sharing. Thanks for joining me, and big hugs coming your way

 

 

 

 

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 15 Carolers

Good Morning, and welcome to another Christmas Card Club post. This week our theme was chosen by Margaret  and the theme is Carolers.  I chose a Penny Black image, colored with copics.

After coloring the image with copics, some Nuvo Crystal Glaze was used on the Mouse glasses, a white gel pen to add a pattern to the turquoise scarf and Sakura Silver glitter pen on the book pages.

A S/Binder die shape to cut out & emboss the image, edged with DI tumbled glass while still in the die. A green, red and white stripe glitter paper was cut from a larger size of the same die used for the image; then inlaid the image into the stripe frame. The center portion of the stripe shape will be used on the inside of the card.

Red cardbase was debossed with a holly EF that had been inked with Delicata gold.

- used red and green cardstock to stamp Heartfelt Poinsettia set with a red and green ink. Heat embossed the wet ink with Ranger Queen's Gold, then die cut and formed the poinsettias using the Heartfelt Poinsettia mold. Added gold rhinestones for the centers.

A simple sentiment stamped in Gina K red velvet, heat embossed with clear EP to make it shiny, and it's done! I hope you'll visit my team members to see their inspiration on this theme. Their blog links are listed in the right side bar.

Also there's a new card on the Cards by Friends page that I think you'll feel is as beautiful as we did!
So thanks for joining me today, hope your weekend has been good. We had a fairly relaxed weekend, but were a bit busy over the past week. Trimmed some tree limbs and then had to clean up the mess. Took 2 days to recover from our labors.

Hugs & Blessings. Come again when you can.

A Hedgie for a Birthday

Hi, and welcome. Back with another Penny Black themed birthday - so on to the show:

- Another previously colored PB Hedgie from a clear set. Used some Nuvo glaze on the balloon.

- edged the oval shaped hedgie with some ink and placed it over a snippet left from using a stitched die. I was trying to get an oval that had all the stitched lines - but of course, the center portion cut out. Left a negative with stitches around the edge. Hand cut around this shape, hoping to use that portion for something else. It didn't 'quite' fit this oval Hedgie, but I tried it anyway, and decided it would work.

- Poppystamps Happy Birthday background die - and even though this was thin paper, still had to do some surgery getting all the letters out. Did 2 passes, (no shim as I thought it would cut easily)...I think rotating the plate and doing 2 more passes would probably work without shimming.

- a bright aqua c/s behind this background, as I thought it looked pretty with the balloon blue. Added some sequins, and called it done, except for the insert.

Hope you like this one. The recipient is a bear lover, and usually the card I do for her, will have a bear. I hope she likes Hedgies too!

Hugs and thanks for visiting. Need to do a sympathy card for a cousin, so I'm outta here.
Blessings & Hugs

A Birthday Mouse

Good afternoon and welcome. Still not getting comment moderation emails, so I hope I'm not neglecting a return visit to anyone. I've tried the different suggestions people have offered to try to fix this problem, but so far...nothing has worked.

Some of our visitors have left us, some still here til the weekend. Doing bed and bathroom cleanup as is usual after visitors. Mr and one of our visitors had gone on a 10 day trip to visit their old navy buddy in Boston, so it was good to see them safely back home again. Daytime is nice 'me time', but the nights alone are a little nervous for me. I survived though. We've had some warm sunny weather after so many rainy days. And it's just time for Life to settle back into a normal routine here at our house.

Several family birthdays coming up this month. So here's a start on one of them:

- Think this is a clear PBlack stamp from a set - this was colored ages ago. The cake and candle flames have some Nuvo clear glaze added.

Darice die cut the image out (snippet)...edged the oval center and the outer with a sponge and ink.

- gray mat (snippet) embossed with a THoltz 3D leaf folder, then used the same sponge and leftover ink to highlight some of the embossing. Also put some of the Nuvo glaze into the little cutouts of that frame oval.

- VOS 6x6 pad of brightly colored papers were sliced into strips, adhered on a white card base at an angle.

- S/Binders cardmaker rectangles cut the outer black frame, and then used the inner piece to trim a mat for the focal center piece.

- sentiment die cut from black snippets and the very bottom layer was from a white snippet. A bit of that shadow white shows IRL, but I'm not seeing it in the photo.

Just checked and it seems that Pixie's Snippet Playground, Challenge #327 is still open. I don't seem to be able to play there much these days, and since I have quite a few snippets on this card, I'm winging over the Pond to see Pixie & Parsnip. (Doesn't that sound as though it should be the name of a fun tv show?!) Ya'll c'mon.

And come back to visit here when you have time. It's nice on the front porch swing still.

God Bless and Many Hugs.

Ducks for May Rudolph Day

Hi, and it's time for Rudolph Day for May 2018. In case you don't know about this challenge, it's a Christmas Challenge hosted by Scrappymoi (Maureen). It starts the 25th of each month and runs until month ending. The only rule is that the card must have a Christmas theme ...of anything you wish. There's always some good prizes, and lots of participation & inspiration from the Design Team. So I urge you to check it out, if you're not familiar with it.

Now my card was started for a previous Christmas Club Challenge but I didn't get this one finished in time. Brilliant idea: save it for Rudy Day. It's an old Penny Black image, which I think was an eBay purchase. Just cause I think these silly ducks are adorable. But...the image is long, so it was a challenge for me to think of how to use the finished image as I normally make card sized 5.5x4.25.

Colored, of course - with copics and some WoS. Die cut & dry embossed with a S/B long rectangle and did some antique distressing along the edges while still in the die so there is a white outer frame on the image.

Cut mats - each one successively larger but trying to keep it from growing way too large. The mat closest to the image was edged with double stick tape, then applied a Rose Copper Glitz Ritz. Burnished and thought that looked pretty ok with the colors in the image. Next mat did the same, using a gold Ritz, etc. The outer mat was cut from white (as were the other 2 mats), but then used the same copic reds in the Noel letters to color the edges. Inked with WOW embossing ink, and applied 3 coats of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). Heat the first application, and immediately re-ink and add another coat of UTEE, heat emboss. I did 3 layers to get the shine I want, and the gleam that is visible in the top right corner - is from the UTEE, and the light reflection. Actually I think it looks quite nice with the enameled mat combined with the glittered mats. The card base is white, and it WILL fit into a size 10 envelope (a business size). It's not quite as long, so I may choose to make an envie that it fits better.

Please do look in at Rudolph Day, it's a great way to build your Christmas card stash, and who knows, perhaps you'll win the prize Mo has on offer for this month.

Take care, God Bless and come again when you have time. I've been MIA on the posting & blog visits of late. Just been busy. (Oh, yes, for all those who were kind enough to ask about all the medical tests...they are finished - we hope! - and all went well. Thank goodness).


NOTE:  Today it seems I'm having the same problem with comments coming into my email. I just happened to think to check the Awaiting Modification section, after I'd done the Christmas Card Club post, as no comments were being notified as of late evening. No biggie, I was late with my post; just thought nobody had seen it to comment. Then when I was getting ready to publish this draft I'd done earlier, I thought to double check the awaiting section, and there were about 13 to be published. Not sure why this is happening again. I've changed nothing. I'll call my provider tomorrow. I did already check to be sure I've not blocked anything. I think it's Blogger, as another blog pal had asked me how I fixed it last time. Don't think I fixed anything, honestly!!! I just don't want to miss returning visits to someone who was kind enough to spend time looking at my post :-).

April's Twofer Challenge - Pets

Hiya! Hope you had a nice Monday to start your week off; we had rain most of the day. I've been in the process of trying to finish up a few cards, and trying to think of something that would fit April's 2fer Challenge with Pets. Here's what I finally came up with...nothing like linking in at the last minute!

Here's the solo pic of the 2 cards, and then below will be individual pictures.

Well, here we are. Now for the individual cards, and a little explanation of how I did #1.

 

Doggy image from an old set of clear stamps by DmD (pets). Used a stencil to create some clouds on a white c/s. Memory Box tree cut from white, colored with copics. A snippet of spotted green DP cut the stitched grass hill that covers the tree trunk. Impression Obsession dies cut the different layers of grass from 2 different snippets of green dp. Tucked the dogs in behind the grass but over the spotted dp hill. The branch in the dog's mouth was hanging down in the way of placing the dogs, so tucked in his mouth. I used this video to do the reverse imaging using my misti. Took about 4 tries before I got a result that I could use. The woof stamp was from the set, embossed with Ranger Seafoam white on a vellum snippet. Frantic Stamper Howdy image die cut from another green snippet and a white snippet. Gluing this down over the vellum circle helped hold it down, plus added some drops around behind the Woof. Added google eyes with the jewel picker, (got from Amazon...I'm liking it better than that pick stick that's been around for a while)

 

Had created this scene as the first card, then tried to think of a way to reuse the dog in another way.
Some flowers & insects from another small stamp set added to the scene after masking the dog. Colored the insects using a BG000 copic, then spread some Liquid Pearl opal over that for shimmer. Which of course, covered up the outlines a bit, so used a Copic multiliner to redraw. This panel was cut out with a small pierced rectangle die, mounted over a MB postage die cut from some floral green that was a small piece in the snippets box. Placed on a black card base. Tried to white emboss over the black card base using the Seafoam White...did not look all that great. Restamped the sentiment on a white snippet using the Misti and black ink; die cut with a Darice rectangle. Smudged some DI Shabby Shutters around the edges to tone down the white. Sprinkled a few sequins round.

I'll be linking this to the April Twofer Card Challenge.  Additionally linking in with Pixie's Snippet Playground, Challenge 324,  just cause there's quite a few snippets on these cards, and I'm missing my little friend Parsnip, whom I don't visit often enough these days. So why don't you just c'mon along and add your cards too? You still have time to participate in both challenges, and there's some great inspiration and lovely people who have already entered.

Thanks for joining me, and God Bless.

PS...I've been getting comments from someone who signs as Anonymous. I don't know if this is a real person who is asking these questions, but since I'm afraid it might be a spammer, I've not been publishing these comments. So if it should be you, and if it's a legitimate comment, try to leave a message with your name or some way I can contact you, ....please! And thank you.

CAS Mixup Card Challenge for April 2018

Happy Friday - gosh just realized the date is the 13th! Oh well, I'm not superstitious - very much, anyway! There's a neat challenge going on over at the CAS Mixup for April...using rubber bands. Finally had a chance to have a play, but this past week was rather busy for us, so just got a card made with one of my efforts.

First, though, I'd like to welcome a new follower, Louise of Cards4ubyLouise and Other Treasures.
I happened to spot Louise on a visit to my blog pal, Brenda of Inkspired to Stamp, as Brenda had shared a lovely card using the Black Ice technique. Louise's comment indicated she was going to try the technique, so of course I paid her a visit, enjoyed her cards, and there you go. It's interesting how  visiting various blogs can often lead you to a new friend. So if you've the time, I urge you to visit both these blogs to enjoy some really pretty cards using this 'new-to-me' Black Ice technique.

Now on to the CAS Mixup Challenge for April 2018:

 

 

Edit: A nifty video by Loll shows off this neat & easy technique.

 



My effort at this technique.

 

 

- 2 medium size rubber bands wrapped round a brayer roller.

 

- inked with versamark, WOW white pearl embossing powder for the resist.

 

- DOX smooshing with Twisted Citron, Broken China. Looked at this for a bit, thought it was too greeny, so went back and did a couple more layers with Blueprint Sketch, drying in between the smooshing. DIe cut with a stitched rectangle die

 

- MB Koi die cut from a previous background made with Dylusions sprays

 

- mirror gold overlayer cut and adhered.

 

- Sentiment stamped and then added some Nuvo Grey mist for water bubbles. Hope I left enough white space to consider this a CAS!

 

I'll be back later - hopefully before the challenge closes - with another card made using thinner rubber bands wrapped over a small ink block.

 

CAS Mixup Card Challenge for April 2018

 

Ya'll have a good afternoon, and come back when you can! Hugs & Blessings.

 



Happy Easter Chicks

Good morning, and a big Happy Easter to you all! Just wanted to pop in to wish the Blessings of this day to all of you, and share a card, that will be for the Mr. As usual, his the last made, since I don't have to consider the time aspect of mailing.

- background was sponged DOX in colors that were on the focal image. Stamped and embossed the stamped egg that is also on the front of the card. Used Detail white, then did the sponging. Used a water brush to go over the inner design, which lifted some of the DOX color.

Penny Black transparent set for the Easter Chicks. Aren't they just so cute?

- DP snippet from some earlier Easter cards, colored the image, diecut with a S/B die.

- IO wooden image of the egg, colored with copics, then applied Glossy Accents, fussy cut.

- Stamp Doc image for the sentiment.

 

 

The last of the Easter cards, which were mailed late. This was a cling Penny Black image, colored with copics.

 

I must apologize that I am woefully behind in returning visits, but don't give up on me. I'll get round though it may take me a few days. I'm appreciating all the wonderful folks who stop & take time to leave encouragement and kind words.

 

Just have a wonderful Blessed day. We will be with the family who are here locally, and plan to go out for dinner.  Big hugs. Thanks for stopping in. 

Christmas Card Club Challenge #7 - Animals

Hello. It's time again for our bi-monthly Christmas Card Club Challenge...#7 for 2018. This time our Kate selected the Challenge theme of Animals.  This challenge is a group of cardmakers who share cards every 2nd Sunday during the year, and each member takes a turn to pick a theme...something related to Christmas. If you'd like to join in our group, let me know, as we'd love to have you join us. It's a good way to build a stash that come December, you'll be happy to have ready.

 

 

This trio of dancing penguins was one I found in the UFO box. I thought these little guys could fit the bill of 'animals' for the challenge (guess they could rightly be called birds too- but I decided for this card, they are definitely animals! I hope this is ok, Kate ).

 

The image had been colored with copics, so just added some colored gel markers on their hats & scarves, added some Sakura Silver Star to the snowflakes. Mixed some Stickles Star Dust & Liquid Pearls opal and brushed on under their feet. IRL it's quite irridescent. Added some glossy accents over that, to look like ice (looks a bit yellow in the photo, but looks 'slick' IRL).  Added some Hero Arts Silver stars and sequins.

 

Background was DOX blues applied with a large sponge dauber.

 

- Poppy Mod Snowflake Background coverplate die over the blue background. Applied WOW embossing ink, then WOW Clear Glitter EP. This is very sparkly, as the EP is translucent, and you can see the color behind the EP. Had meant to do this over the sponged blue background, then had a change of plan to use the coverplate. Some of the Hero Arts sequins were added to the die cut snowflake centers. I'm not sure why the snowflake die & 'ice' have a yellow look in the photo. It looks white IRL.

 

- The sentiment was stamped with  Memento Teal Zeal  ink, then applied a WOW blue pearl EP over the ink to get a nice gleam.

 

I hope you'll take time to enjoy the cards my fellow team members have shared today. Their blog links are shown in the right hand sidebar.

 

Thanks for joining me - I'm a bit behind in returning comments. Been a little busy and will try real hard to catch up in the next few days. Don't give up on me!  Blessings & Hugs. Come again when you have time.

 

 

Bunny Hat

Hi Ya...here's the 2nd YNS bunny image that I thought was so cute, and it was uber easy to color. Don't you just love the expression on this little bunny's face?

 

 - YNS clear stamp
- Cheery Lynn egg die
- SW stitched hill die
- MS border punch
- Memory Box sentiment die

The same Paper Studio DP that was used on the previous YNS bunny card. Again,one that made me happy while coloring as it was so very easy to color.

Thanks for popping in to visit, and ya'll come back when you have time. Still having a little problem with the email notification of comments, but I think it _might_ be getting better. I wish I knew why some comments come in as they have always done, and some are still sitting awaiting comment moderation. Which is what the email notification should be doing! I'm also getting comments from Anonymous which look like spam type of comments, so I'm just deleting those.

Hugs

Bunny Hug

Good evening, and welcome. I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was pretty quiet & relaxed, but Friday was busy with domestic goddess chores. Didn't quite finish all that was on the list, but they can wait til another day. It got a bit brisk weather wise here, but at least no snow. Today was spent with the extended family, ending with a shared supper with Brother #2.

Have been trying to finish up the Easter cards. Here's one I hope you'll like. The image is from Your Next Stamp and when I saw this one and another one that I'll share later, I couldn't resist.

 

 

- YNS image, colored with copics.

- Cheery Lynn egg die

- SW stitched hill die for the gingham grass (The Paper Studio)

- MS border punch to cover the join

- Paper Studio DP

- Memory Box sentiment, 2 layers cut with white snippets. top layer with the same DP as the punch trim. Ended up coloring with a pink copic as the white under layers showed too much.

 

Ya'll come back when you have time, and thanks for joining me this evening. Big hugs and blessings to all who may be in need of such.



 

 

A St. Pat's Bunny

Good morning, and welcome. Still working on St. Pat's cards and hope to get a few mailed today, so they will be received in time.... I just don't know where my time goes, as I don't seem to accomplish very much some days. Today's card was an image I colored while we were in Florida, but it finally got put on a card last week. Here goes:

Tried a little Mixed Media on this one. The white trellis was a snippet that's been hanging around for a bit (cut from recycled product cardboard - the backside was a nice white, just a little glossy) and the bubbles stamping is from a Carabelle art printing texture stamp.

The card front was assembled with the design papers, and then decided to do a little stamping with the texture stamp. Thought the little leprechaun leaping in the corner would give a clue as to what the sentiment should be, so I didn't add another one. That will go inside.

- Whipper Snapper Miss Patty
- Carabelle Studio Texture stamp (AP60012)
- Kaiser die for the trellis

That's it for today, thanks for visiting & I'll do my very best to get back to your blogs to see what you're up to. Sure wish I could figure out what's with the commenting issue. God Bless and Hugs.

Easter Egg

Good afternoon and welcome to a scheduled post. Hope you're having a great day.

- Cheery Lynn bunny (from the same die set as the egg shape) cut from a very old piece of card stock. The material has a mottled color, and think it came from a long ago class. It's a bit thick and I wasn't sure this wafer thin die would cut it well. It did though. The only thing I did to this shape was add a tiny Nuvo eye - thought the color of the c/s would be fine to show texture.

- Cheery Lynn egg shape cut a previously created Brusho background. Added some Judikins Diamond Glaze with a round blender tool and sponge, then buffed it.

- Ali Express floral die cut white snippet, which was colored to be an Easter Lily. This material was a 'stabilizing cardboard' from the bottom of a shopping bag. Decided to leave the centers of the blossom part of the die inserted, rather than removing as they are meant to be.

Memory Box sentiment die, and on this card, decided not to add back in the cutout bits of the letters, but let the blue gingham material show.

Blue gingham is from a Michaels 6x6 pack, on sale, and the paper is very thin. (This would make great Iris fold paper I think!)

Ya'll come back again when you have time. Hugs & Blessings.