Stylish

Little Black dress, shiny clutch, matching pumps, and pearls....that's Style to me.  I have loved this Close To My Heart stamp set for many years. One of those you just can't bear to part with!
I stamped in Memento Black Tuxedo and the purse in Cranberry ink, glossed with Liquid Glass.

Linked to CAS-ology #139  and Just Us Gils #285
 

Spring in the Air

That's the saying....showers bring the flowers.  We just need to be patient.
This card uses a favorite pad of My Mind's Eye: Here Is Happy for papers.  I combined some old (retired, like me! haha) stamps from Close To My Heart sets for the umbrella and sentiment. 

Linked to Cards In Envy for their "Spring is in the Air' challenge.

Sweet Birthday Words

The March One-Layer Simplicity challenge (OLS #14) is to use words - no other stamps.  It occurred to me that I could mask off a cupcake shape and use as many of the Sweetest Cupcakes stamps as possible from the My Pink Stamper set.  I cut out a cupcake shape on a post-it and sponged a bit of Pixie and Chocolate inks around it. Then stamped a selection of birthday/cupcake words.  So, hopefully, it fits the rules!! 

 

My Boys

Loved this versatile sketch from Pal Paper Arts #244 this week.  I colored the Bug a Boo digital with Prisma colors.  The card base was random stamped with a Hero Arts bicycle and some sports stuff from a Close To My Heart set called Let's Play Ball (retired).  This card will go to my cute grandsons - I am looking forward to seeing them at Easter ♥

 

Inspiration

This card began with retrosketches #156 sketch.  I started stamping the circles from Doodled Designs (Close To My Heart) with Distress ink several times onto Holtz watercolor card stock.  I used a water brush to blend out the color. Then mixed a bit of the ink on a block, loaded a brush with color and tapped it for the spatter.  The flowers  (Lovely Birthday Occasions, CTMH) were inked with Distress inks - I masked the large flower- and water brushed.  The sentiment tag was punched and stamped using Thoughtful Florals set from Verve.  I cut the water color piece and used foam to adhere it to the card base.

This was fun to try - way out of my comfort zone.  Now that I look at the pictures, it feels that something should have been added to the yellow flowers. Do they just get lost??
Perhaps a flower with circular design would be better?  Kept it monochromatic?  I feel another attempt in the future...

A Little Spring

This week is going by too quickly!  I have been preparing for a regional theatre festival, and that has taken much time.  But there are several challenges I wanted to join, and so I will try to finish as many as possible and post them all today before I leave.

Tulips, like daffodils, are the essence of spring.  This little stamp is part of 'Pocket Full of Posies' from Stampin'Up! that I've had for years. The simple lines are so appealing. I stamped in Memento Black, and colored with Copics.  The card base was embossed using a Darice folder, Chicken Wire. The green printed paper is Basic Grey, and twine from LionBrand.

Linked to CAS(E) this sketch!

So Happy!

Die cuts with inset letters are so cool. I had fun making several of these cards using the CAS(E) this Sketch 112. I used 110# Bright White card stock for the cut, card base and cloud embossed panel. This made me high-in-the-sky happy to finally use this die and try out the embedded word technique I have admired on many blogs.

Linked to: CAS(E) this Sketch
                  Less Is More Week 213: "This makes me Happy" theme



Products Used
Paper: Hopscotch, Smoothie (Close To My Heart);  Bright White (Papertrey)
Tools: Happy Cloud die (Memory Box); cloud embossing folder (Darice); foam tape
Embellishment: Flamingo enamel dots (Close to My Heart)

Birthday Flowers

Playing with new stamps and papers tonight. The Atlantic Hearts sketch #97 this week seemed right for this effort.  There was embossing, die cuts, and some water brush coloring, fussy cutting, and layers!A crafty feast.
I think when I make this again, I will use the block stamp for the vase instead of water brush to keep the vibrancy of the blue. Hard to see in my photo, but I used a clear emboss on the whole vase after coloring which looks nice in real life.    But it's a school night for me...subbing middle school English tomorrow, so no time left to pull apart.  My goal this week is to just keep posting and pull out of the creative doldrums I've been in recently.


Products:
Stamps:  Happy to Be Friends, A Bunch of Thanks (Close to My Heart)
Ink: VersaMark ; Glacier, Sunset, Pondersoa Pine (Close to My Heart)
Paper:  Hopscotch  (Close to My Heart)
Dies: Spellbinders, Labels eleven
Embellishment: gold twine, Liquid Pearls; Gold and Clear embossing powder

Spring Note

Oh, my. It has been almost a month since I posted. Sigh.  For weeks I felt I had lost my mojo.  I have been playing with new products....without much success....and watching videos of incredibly talented people.  I have been both inspired by their creativity, and discouraged with my own efforts.  I know this must happen to other crafting people, but it has just stopped me in my tracks. 

It seems that perhaps I should just begin again and not wait for anything brilliant!  Back to basics. Coloring makes me happy and is a decent place to begin.

For this card I inked a new stamp, A Little Note from Close To My Heart. Daffodils are among my favorite blooms. They are just so hopeful!!  For Freshly Made Sketches 175 - though I did it upside down.