ladies ladies

Guess I’m into the ladies this week.  Isn’t this such a sweet image from Unity?  You know that background on the other card i just posted.  Well I had die cut this circle out to give me a circular area to use my stencil over on that card and this was the piece that I had used to mask the rest of my card.  So totally accidental.  I am in love with this back ground.  I popped it up with some extra thick pop dots and added a strip of washi.  She looks likes she’s sitting in a cafe and you’re seeing her through a window, doesn’t she?  So i LOVE this card.  
Simon’s Monday Challenge –die cut edge
Word Art Wednesday

unusual yee-haw

When I bought these dies from Spellbinders i knew I wouldn’t be using them much but they were so cute I just couldn’t say no.  Well really, they were 70% off and THAT’s why I couldn’t say no.  I had this vision of this card in my head and here it is come to fruition.  I used some Heidi Swapp gliter spray over a Tim Holtz stencil and after cutting, embossing and inking the die cuts I decided to splatter the left side of the cardstock with that pretty shimmery pink.  The sentiment is from a Unity set.  LOVE how this turned out so realistic.  I do have a couple of cow-girl friends that will appreciate this.  Thanks for stopping and for taking the time to comment.
Simon’s Monday Challenge  I pushed the stencil right along the edge to decorate that up a bit.  
Word Art Wednesday

making do!

Sometimes you have to make difficult choices.  Like this.  I was so intrigued with the new MFT card kit but it was just out of my price range.  I figured I had enough goodies on hand to similar cards out of the things i had on hand.  I was so happy to find out, i did , indeed, have a SMILE die on hand.  I just cut a bunch of those flowers out that I had won (stamps and dies last november at a craft show) I think i did well enough to keep me from purchasing the kit.  Now I know I really don’t need it.    that makes me happy and gives me money to spend elsewhere.  Well, i mean at another stamp store, of course.   I tilted this top layer to give the card an interesting edge and to enter it into Monday’s Simon Challenge. 
Word Art Wednesday

new stamps from Dina

I don’t know, I buy so much stuff when it’s on sale and come home and put it away and then later on I find it and I’m like, Wow, I forgot i bought that.  Or I buy it with the intent of making something i thought up in the store and then i forget what that was by the time I get it home and everything out of the bag.  Michaels and Hobby Lobby are dangerous places for me.  ONCE in a great while I go in and actually only purchase the adhesive or cardstock that i need.   
Here is one of theDina Wakely images i purchased a while back from a sweet set marked waaaaaaaay down.  That was fun.  I made this into a double edged card layerto fit into Simon’s Monday Challenge.  I added the polka dots on her top with a white gel pen and used a stencil over the background to add a bit of interest.  I stamped the gal first and then used rubber cement painted over her with a small brush.  It works just like masking fluid.  It rubs off really easily.  Before rubbing off the rubber cement i added a water colored back ground using my distress inks.

Word Art Wednesday

love you a ton

color challenge at MFT #73  I have so many new things to play with.  I’ve had these Unity stamps for quite some time and just didn’t get ink on them yet.  This elephant is so cute.  I first cut my Tropical Teal color with my MFT stitched rectangle die from one of the blue prints and proceeded from there.  I knew i wanted the gray piece to be the piece i stamped on.  I used my MFT mirror stamping stamp to get a reverse of the elephant and then i stamped on the back of the DP and cut it out to have the colors from the challenge be the paper pieced Ellie. 
I used some Viva Pearl pens to make the eyes for both elephants and that was it.  Used all the colors and it was super easy this time.  Oh right, i ran the teal piece through my Big Shot with a Tim Holtz heart die.  That was a challenge to get it to fit in the right orientation.  I also cut Miss Ellies ear and popped it up a bit for a little bit of fun.  isn’t she cute? 
Word Art Wednesday Simon Says Monday Challenge pierced edge die cut. 

the little things

there’s not much i can do to help stamp out cancer.  I can be a friend to those who are going through this experience.  We have and elderly friend that has chosen to forego anymore medical intervention on her journey.  It is the third time this hostile disease has returned to her.  i like to just send her a weekly card and let her know I am thinking of her always.  She’s a courageous woman.

WORD ART WEDNESDAY #292-293

Technorati Tags: SU,Brayer,Summer,The Journey,Bernice

O is for Old

This is one of my favorite old stamps.  I’ve had it about four years I think and i just love the peaceful feeling it gives me.  It’s also an “old” image with that parchment paper look to it.  I stamped with versafine and embossed with a mixture i have made up of detail black embossing powder and clear.  It gives a really nice look and covers better than detail black alone.  Water colored with pan colors and a water brush.  I added my own home made snowflakes in the corners with Nuvo Drops in Silver Lining.  ABC Christmas Challenge

N is for New

Still keeping up with ABC Christmas Challenge.   N is for new and after the challenge we had a bit ago to use a jingle bell, well, i found out i didn’t have a jingle bell in my stash.  I remedied that when Casual Friday had a sale on a sweet set with a die included.  SCORE!  The die cut bell and image are my NEW things for this challenge.

unusual design

MFT sketch 341 this week was a bit unusual.  This card took on a life of it’s own as i was intending to use the little fairy on this sketch.  Ah well, sometimes that just happens.  Using the Wild Flowers set seemed the perfect image for the square with the papers I had chosen.  Using MFT images and dies except for the sentiment label. (spellbinders)

More TCP

The Cat’s Pajamas stamps are so cute i wondered why i don’t use them more.  Then I realize that I only have four sets and two of those are summer only.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Here’s the other summer set.  I CASED this layout from Jo’s card that she entered as a DT member at Simon.  I thought her layout was so cute.  I still couldn’t get the hang of that partial die cutting.  I had to glue some cardstock pieces on the back so it looks like it’s supposed to.  (there’s always a way to fix it, eh? ) 

Simon’s Wednesday Plaid Challenge

it’s ice cream time

Are you doing your part to keep the cows happy?  I love ice cream.  Here in the dairy land of Wisconsin there are ice cream shops EVERYWHERE.  Some are open all year long.  Winter weather doesn’t seem to be a factor in diminishing the amount of ice cream served in our state.

Thought it was time to play with my Cat’s Pajamas and once again try that partial die cutting technique.  I still didn’t get it completly right but close and i was able to cover up my mistakes.

Simon’s Wednesday Challenge is to use Plaid.

Oxide Inks

I caved!  Had to try the oxide inks!  Are they the rave others seem to think?  Well, I don’t know about that.  They are fun to play with and I’ll try some other techniques but truth be told, at this point, i think i could have lived without them.  Will have to google some ways to use them. For this card, i used the oxides direct to paper.  I have the first batch of inks that came out and only eight of the colors, not all twelve.  I then took this stencil stamp that i always have trouble with.  Too big of spaces to work easily with.  The bird always comes up and product seeps under weather it’s inks or pastes.  Anyway, I thought I would try it.  I spritzed water onto the stencil and then pressed it onto the  water color paper with the oxide inks.  It didn’t turn out so well but i did love the way the leaves turned out by removing the color around them.  I dried the stencil and laid it back down and used a light touch with the oxide inks to give it a bit more definition.  I then spritzed the  entire piece with water.  Now, I love the soft look of it.  It’s going to a good elderly friend that is in her last months of life.  She’s a sweet soul and has chosen not to do any treatments for the cancer that has invaded her body once again.  Thanks for coming by. I always appreciate the visitors.

SUNSHINE

Simon’s Wednesday challenge this week is Sunshine and also to use Simon stamps if we had them.  This little set called Circle Friends hasn’t gotten much use and it felt the perfect time to use it.

With the striped circle looking like a sun and such a sweet little bear and sentiment in that set this turned out “oh so cute.” I stamped the bear twice on water color paper and cut him out and popped up the top layer. He’s got a bit of glossy accents on his eyes and nose.

I used the Simon Sunshine die and cut it twice.  Once in black for a teeny little shadow and then in white.  I sponged three distress inks on for an ombre look and took that look over to the hearts to tie it together.  The top panel is embossed with a Taylored Expressions folder called Weathered.

It was fun to play with some sunshine because here in the northern highlands of Wisconsin we haven’t seen very much of that yellow orb.  A week of clouds and rain is predicted. Please send sunshine our way, if you would.  Thanks so much.

Red White & Blue 2017

Some classic colors adorned the MFT color challenge this month.  I couldn’t let the month go by without a patriotic colored creation.

Using my Blueprints 5 and one of the sketches that i modified this came together pretty quickly.  The sentiment is from MFT flamingo set.

It’s simple and perfect for busy summer days.