I really like my Prickley Pear stamps. I’m not sure why i don’t pull them out more often. They stamp so nicely and the designs are a bit vintage with a bit of whimsey. I pulled the sweet pumpkin set out today and inked up one of the non-halloween ones. I wish I had pulled them out for my Halloween cards. Maybe next year I’ll remember that.
Simon has a Thanks/Thanksgiving challenge this week.
Crate Paper – Farmhouse Collection DP
MFT stitched flourish
Hero Arts Sentiment
Simon’s Monday Challenge: Make your own background. I used a Tim Holtz stencil with my favorite life changing blender brushes to apply the soft colors.
Trying my hand with some oxide inks with brushes. I used Faded jeans and wilted violet to get a night time effect. My star is from Prickley Pear and cut out of foil with adhesive on the back. The sentiment is perfect for this. Reminds me of the hymn It came upon a midnight clear. I looked through everything I had for a stamp like that. I don’t have one.
This pretty card is being entered into Simon’s Monday Challenge and ABC Christmas Challenge U for Upon. I should have photgraphed this on a white background but I didn’t realize i had the black there until i loaded it to my computer. The shimmery layer sits atop a navy blue base.
The background is embossed with clear ink over white pigment. oops, i grabbed the wrong jar. 
Challenge: ABC Challenge T is for Teal
ABC Christmas challenge is almost done for this month. I still want to add two teal cards that I have done. I absolutely love this die I got in a basket of rummage goodies.
Friend Angie does fabulous work with angled pieces on her cards. I’m wanting to use up lots incorporate designer papers into my creations and always find myself grabbing them and then shying away. I wondered if angled layers would be helpful for me and I decided to jump in with that idea. I’m loving the result. This creation has some tiny little bling added to the DP and on the butterfly and I am entering it into Simon’s Wednesday Challenge. It IS a sympathy card, after all, and I couldn’t do too much bling with that.
Never say NEVER. I thought making your own plaids looked so difficult.
I used a Tim Holtz distressed lines stencil and a plain line stencil to create this and i was smugly pleased with myself. I used the "Life Changing" Blender Brush set to create the plaid and i love the softness of the colors with those brushes and no harsh lines.
hmmm…i also made my own faux stitching and my own candies. I’m just being little miss thrifty today. 
If you click on the link for the brushes, my friend Angie gets a little bit of compensation with no extra cost to you, and they are SO amazing. Simon Says Monday Challenge use more than one stencil
I embossed my die cut with a Ranger folder as my DIL loves Paris and coffee and this is for her upcoming birthday. It was such a fun challenge to create the cappuccino inspired back ground. I had seen a coffee mug on a video on FB and wanted to recreate it for a card background. I was very pleased with how it came together. I had to think about it overnight though.
Simon’s Monday challenge to create an Autumn card reinforces the reality. I used Gina K Designs stamps with Altenew inks. I made my pumpkin into a wobbly squash to give a little interaction for my 90 year old mom. She loves the simple interactive cards.
Background is an embossed die from Spellbinders. Ran it through my cuttlebug with an embossing mat. copic colored
Simple white embossing on teal cardstock and popped a ribbon on.
Thanks for stopping by, as always. Here’s to more stamping time for all of us.
For this challenge from SSS creation i used the Best Blender Brushes in the world from PIcket Fence studios. The color was so easy to apply even to the tiniest areas because the brushes come in so many sizes.
I’ve been noticing shadow dies popping up as an on trend focus. I made my own with this large FRIEND die from MFT. I embossed the die onto some dark brown card stock and then cut it out. I then die cut it the regular way in my big shot and laid it on top and wow, perfect fit. I was so happy with my experiment. Thanks for stopping by.
Ombre has always intrigued me. the soft fade of colors, light to dark. Using an ombre pad is a very simple way to get this wonderful techinique. Penny Black images and Simon sentiments. 
The sun stencil is definitely MFT. It says so right on the stencil. You can find it here.
Anyway, I astounded myself with how this turned out.
Simon’s Monday Challenge has me pulling out all my shiny things. I added some Heidi Swapp Color Shine drops , in Citron, to give a little sparkle to my underwater scene. This was so fun to do. Swipe some gesso onto cardstock, let dry and then use distress crayons to blend the colors. I stamped over it with Altenew inks but I would suggest StazOn. I used Glaze over the scene and i hope my color shine will dry on top of that. I love the added sparkle.
Simon’s Wednesday Challenge is fun in the sun. i have typed this and now I am going to create a card. Let’s see how that goes. My only idea right now is to use the Sunshine die I bought quite a while back. Tha’ts more like it. One hour from thought to finish. Using a brand new stamp that’s been sitting on my desk. He’s so cute.
Simon’s Monday Challenge for summer fun. Is there anything better than listening to all those sweet summer birds chirping away in the early mornings and evenings? I love to sit out on the deck in the evenings and just hear their various songs. These images are from Gina K Hearts and Flowers kit. I used a die to emboss the rectangle and then masked off the area to do a bit of sponging with oxide inks. Hand drawn music notes. Thanks for dropping by. You’re tweet!
Complementary colors, those that sit across from each other on the color wheel. This is the MFT school lesson for Day 4. I have an old colorwheel that i bought from SU many many moons ago. I still pull it out for reference more than I would have guessed. All Items except Nuvo drops are MFT. Using MFT Morroccon Tiles plastic stencil run through my Big Shot gave some dimension to the first layer.
I think the reason I have such a difficult time with this technique is because I am such a messy stamper. It seems I so often get smudge marks, ink marks, bent edges or what have you, somewhere on my project and then i need to cover it up with ribbons, sentiments or whatever. It happened here too. The grass is colore in because I somehow had a green smudge on the left corner. Otherwise my intention was to leave it white. Up above the sentiment, I used a white gel pen and lightly dotted over some crazy light blue line that appeared. I didn’t even use blue!!!! Any way, I love my sweet littl PI girl holding her harvest in her paper pieced dress.
