LEAFY GREEN BIRTHDAY CARD

I had a few gel prints on hand and I picked one that was very green.  I had used a very old background stamp from Impression Obsession called Boxwood that is one of my long time favorites.  On top of that I used the leaf layer from the Layered Leaves & Flowers stencil from Pretty Pink Posh.  I applied a coat of Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone.  Because that had a goldish tint I used Tonic Gold metallic paper for the sentiment using Tim Holtz Stretch Upper dies.  For the leafy boughs, I used the scrap paper that I cleaned my brayer on for the outline and the same gold paper for the 1st layer.  

The Birthday I layered with foam tape as I did with the leaves.  The panel was then mounted on kraft and the finished size was 5 x 5".

A HEARTFELT BIRTHDAY CARD

A 101 BIRTHDAY CARD

We are up in Mammoth taking a short vaca away from Los Angeles chaos.  I have a small corner of our master bedroom that I use as my craft area and have very limited supplies.  One of the cards I needed to make this week is a birthday card for a dear dear 101 year old.  One of the dies I have up here is the BIRCH PRESS CAPRICE HEART LAYER SET and after watching JENNIFER MCGUIRES DIE CUT  layering video, I knew I wanted to make a card using some of her techniques.  I brought up some TONIC GOLD HEARTED PAPER PACK and cut multiple hearts of 3 different gold papers.  I also used Neenah white 80lb as the middle layer of the die. I cut a white panel and die cut 3 hearts from top to bottom from Neenah 110lb and then splattered that with Kuretake Gansai Tambi gold from the Gem color set.  Once I glued and stacked all the hearts (while watching TV) I set them aside and cut a smaller panel of pink card stock that exactly matched my pink envelope( I believe I got this from the Paper Source).  I layered that under the card front so that the pink would show through as the base layer.

The final step for the card was to add some TRINITY STAMPS GEORGEOUS GOLD BAUBLES .  I love these! For the Envelope I used SSS LAYERING HEARTS stencil from the SIMON SAYS STAMP LOVE YOU release.

METALLIC OMBRE LETTERS BIRTHDAY CARD

I was watching this video by Kristina Werner and just loved the idea of metallic paints on black watercolor paper and decided to adapt that for a birthday card.   I used ALTENEW METALLIC WATERCOLORS on STONEHENGE AQUA BLACK COLDPRESS paper, the  ALTENEW BOLD CAPS dies for this project and the the balloon stamp from the Ink Road stamps.

I first did a wash of color onto the black watercolor paper, overlapping the colors a bit to blend.  While that was drying I did a wash of light purple, using the KARIN DECO PRO METALLIC markers and put that aside to dry.  I die cut the letters out of the black watercolor paper, making sure I lined up the letters so that the ombre effect would be the same on all the letters.  I stamped the balloon stamp and embossed in a fine gold embossing powder and then painted it trying to mimic Kristina's use of gold and color together.  When that was dry I fussy cut the image.  I then die cut the light purple panel using TRINITY STAMPS SLIMLINE DIE.  I adhered the balloon stamp directly to the paper and applied foam ounting tape to the letters and using a T-square, I mounted the letters onto the paper.  The panel was then attached to a black card base cut (finished size is 8.5 x 4.75).

ONLINE CARD CLASSES DAY 6

Going backwards, this is day 6 but I wanted to actually finish 3 of the cards before posting.

Karin Pro markers for the watercolors,  mixed golds for the background and Kremer pigments in star gold for the splatter.  Matted on gold foil paper on 5 x 7 110lb Neenah solar white card stock.  Altenew alpha dies, Tailored Expressions and Simon Says stamps for the sentiments.

I really had fun painting the back grounds ( I chose my favorite colors so differed from Kristina's).

ONLINE CARD CLASSES DAY 8

I am very slow in posting so here it is for day 8 of the on line card classes.  I used the MFT You Got Cake die, which made  my shaker much bigger than Cathy's.  It also changed the sizing on the 2nd card.  I used distress markers and then flecked with gold paint from Kremer Pigments.  I used Lawn Fawn gold speckled paper on both cards.

DISTRESS OXIDE WATERCOLORING

How strange to be posting again.  I have gotten so lazy (and it is just so easy to post to Instagram and not bother with all the writing) that it has been almost 3 whole years since I made a post.  Granted a lot else has happened to interrupt the flow but I am ready to jump in again.  About 2 weeks ago I saw this post on the SIMON SAYS BLOG and was totally inspired to try it myself.  Nina-Marie painted her stamp with distress oxides and they were so bright and cheerful that I wanted to use them for the card I was making for a special friend.  I used the STAMPENDOUS SPRING GARDEN background stamp as I felt it was similar in feel and had lots of potential for bright colors. I used about 12 of the Distress Oxides in bright colors and they were amazingly easy to paint with, just smush on a craft mat and paint.  I stamped the sentiment in Catherine Pooler Bellini ink and clear embossed on heavy duty vellum.  I didn't mind covering some of the image as the daffodils under the sentiment didn't stamp perfectly (I am not the best stamper). I trimmed a little from the edges of the card and mounted it on a piece of Neenah Solar white 110lb stock at 5.5" sq.  I added Nuvo drops in different colors to the centers of some of the flowers and was done.  

Hope you like this bit of springtime.

ONLINE CARD CLASSES: MERRY MAKING DAY 1

Hi Everyone,
So excited for another Online Card Class and for day one I decided to try Jennifer McGuire's technique of embossing over embossing but without using the snow effect cause it didn't seem to work with me card (trust me, I tried and had to lop off the bottom of the card!).  

I used Ranger's Queen's Gold  embossing powder for the base layer I then stamped MFT's Garden Flourish with versamark and embossed with WOW vintage peacock.  It worked just the way Jennifer said and melted slightly into the gold.  Unfortunately, it was too subtle and a little to elegant to add the white snow embossing so I cut off the mess I made while trying that and made a square card.  I used Avery Elle's Seasons Greetings die and embossed with the same gold.  I cut 3 more layers and adhered them together.  The die comes with holly leaves and berries but I used red glitter stickles for the holly berries which don't show up well at all in the photo.  A little WOS on the leaves and that was it. 
Card stock base is MFT Elf Green.