Birthday Water colored Tree

Happy Friday! Thanks for dropping by. I hope I've got my return visiting caught up, so I wanted to post another card. Remember this post where I said I'd done 2 water color Rubbernecker trees, misplaced them? Well here's one, that I finally got made into a card. (Still got one more to use up!) This will be for our neighbor's November birthday; she has a gorgeous maple tree in her front yard, that we probably get to enjoy more than she does, as it's very visible from our windows.

The Rubbernecker stamp was inked with Distress markers in fall shades, then spritzed. I think some Zig markers were also brushed around to add more color after stamping/spritzing - in places that looked like they needed it.

A stitched frame die was adhered over top of the stamped piece (because I had cut it too small...had to fiddle to get it to fit inside this frame). Then an old Tim Holtz 12x12 Fall pack was cut up to create the mat behind. Used VOS Paper Studio card pack of vintage sepia colors, to get the other design papers. Top right stitched rectangle cut from Sue Wilson Noble die, and an MFT angled die cut the spotted paper. The sentiment was embossed with Brutus Monroe Detail Copper. Tha's all folks!

Hoping that you have a wonderful weekend, with great weather. Our humidity has been less, and the morning & evening temps much cooler - but the day still warms up nicely. With less humidity, though, it's quite pleasant!

Big hugs - God Bless.

A Sunflower Wreath for a 90th Birthday

Hi there, and sorry to have been MIA with posting and visiting for the last week or so. Just been busy. I think I've said we go to exercise 3 days a week, plus we've had some doctors appointments to work in there as well. Right now, having family visiting for #1 brother's 90th birthday, (which is Monday). We all went out to eat as a family tonight, to a restaurant of his choice. Hard to believe the guy is 90 pretty soon, but then our Dad nearly made it to 90. And both parents had siblings that lived into the 90-s and 2 paternal aunts passed the 100 mark. So I guess good genes run in our family.

Had this card posted as a draft, as I was so far behind in comment visiting. I think I have caught up, but if I missed anybody, I do apologise!

Anyway, here's the card I made for our senior family member. I'm not sure he's that into flowers, but I had a pretty sunflower wreath stamp I wanted to use. So here it is:

Northwoods wood stamp - 

Memory Box sentiments and numbers

Crafters Companion Countess Crown die for edging

Copics, WoS, pentel gold slicci pen and Sakura white gel pen for highlights

Brutus Monroe Gilded Gold for embossing

Fussy cut the wreath and considered adding an orange mat. Decided to leave it simple since the edge is a bit ornate. I'm happy to say this was another Tuesday Morning bargain die. I used a new heavy metal shim from my friend Nancy, and with a couple of passes, this cut extremely well for such an intricate die.

On the inside I used a piece of fall colored DP to glue to the inside, then used a Penny Black birthday die.  This die was coated with versamark, then sprinkled with one coat of Brutus Monroe Gilded Gold and adhered to the pattern paper.

The happy sentiment is 3 layers, the 90 is 2 layers of the cream paper used for the top fold card. Used Versamark, heat embossed with Gilded Gold. There are 2 layers of the gold embossing on the 90, and 3 on the happy. These really do give the look of metallic embellishments!

Thanks for joining me today. Hope you had a fabulous weekend. Hope to catch up my visiting real soon! Hugs & Blessings.

Christmas Card Club Challenge #21

Good Morning. Here's hoping that you've had a good weekend so far;  for my American friends, I pray you were safe if you were in the path of our most recent storm, Michael. So many folks in that Florida Panhandle area had such devastation. It will take a long time for those communities to recover. So many prayers go out to them, and many thanks go upward that the rest of us were kept safe. In our area, we had been told to expect heavy rains and winds. We did get some good rains on one afternoon, then it stopped. Next morning, we had some good rain again, but in the afternoon, sun was back out. We did need the rain so it was good to get what we did. We've had 2 very pleasant days that have been more like what we normally experience at this time of the year.

Today is our Christmas Card Club Challenge, and our Kate chose today's theme of monochromatic. As always, we have the option of Anything goes. I was a little surprised to find myself struggling as to just how to do a monochromatic card...I hope Kate will approve what I did! (It was a good challenge to take me out of my comfort zone as I don't think I've ever done a monochrome card. I didn't use any copics!!!)

Stampendous wooden block - a very old NBUS stamp

Distress Inks Shaded Lilac and Chipped Sapphire

Paper Studio Blue Rose Cottage small paper pack

Used Shaded Lilac DI to sponge a white Bristol Vellum smooth cardstock. Dried the sponging with heat tool, then used the Bag Buddy so that I could do some embossing. After treating the sponged piece, stamped this fairly large block with Chipped Sapphire ink, as that stays wet enough to emboss with Ranger Clear Detail powder.

This was slow to emboss, and that's why there is a little yellow bit up in the branches. I decided I would leave this instead of trying to redo it. It sort of looks like the sun breaking through.

IRL the embossing has a nice shine, and added a narrow black mat to frame it... then placed on the blue dp that covered the side fold white cardbase.

My first effort, I used versamark to emboss a sponged piece that I'd made quite dark, using several blue shades of DI, along with a couple of the purple tones. I was pleased with that deep night sky look. But then I tried embossing with some dark blue cobalt glittered EP, and because the branches have so much tiny detail, that EP just stuck too much to even show the intricate tree branches. Other than the 'burn sun spot' I liked the final result on this effort, though.

Please take time to visit my fellow card club members. Their blog links are listed on the right side bar.

Thanks for visiting and apologies for being so behind once again in returning visits. I hope I can catch up this week. Have the birthday cards caught up until December!!! Have a great day, and God Bless.

A Cup of Birthday Flowers

Good afternoon on a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon. Sunny, but I think the air quality might not be quite so humid as usual. Been doing some bill paying, making phone calls about stuff. Two things I purely detest doing! But - needs must.

Here's a card that has been sent & received (and I hope liked!) so I'm sharing today.

Inky Antics Image

Gina Marie hexagon dies and background overlay

Crafters Companion sentiment die

Image colored with copics, WoS and some Pentel pens.

The sentiment is one that was purchased on a good sale at our local Tuesday Morning store. (This is a store that gets merchandise that probably didn't sell well at other stores . I'm not sure about this fact, but the prices are supposedly discounted. Got this one on the same visit as the sentiment on this card...   which did not cut easily. ) Pleased to say this one cut quite nicely, and the problem one did better on a later card, where the nice metal shim was used. This sentiment has 3 white snippet layers(colored with yellows) built up, and the idea was to have the sentiment color compliment the colors used for the sunflowers.

Ya'll have a wonderful afternoon. Thanks for looking in, and big hugs!