Hello Friend!

Stencils...I bought quite a few in the last few months, and have only tried two.  This one is Ombre Stripes from  Altenew and the Penny Black and More Challenge to use 'Summer Colors' moved me to try it out with a few Distress Oxide inks. I used Scattered Straw, Shaded Lilac, Worn Lipstick, and Tumbles Glass.   **Summer Colours**

Just Us Girls #496 this week challenges us to make the sentiment the focal point of the card. This beautiful font is from a favorite Mama Elephant set. I stamped it with Versafine black. Splatters are water, Zig white ink, and CTMH Black re-inker.

       

Atlantic Hearts #325

A new sketch week, and a tale of ink woes...I want so much to be able to love my Altenew Layered flower stamps and new ink sets. But it is very difficult.  I am so challenged to get them aligned properly.  I thought I finally had practiced enough (lots of once lovely white card stock in the trash bin), and also marked the block side of my stamps with permanent ink dots to help...I cut masks for the flowers using the coordinating dies out of Inkadinado mask paper, and began stamping. Two terrible things occurred which required either giving up and adding to the trash, or problem solving.  I opted for problem solving. The result is far from perfect, but must do. 

 First, I stamped the outline with Memento...when I added the layers of dye ink, it bled. The second flower was stamped with Simon Says Intense Black and that worked much better. Then when I masked and inked the leaves, they did not print all the way to the flower.  So I smooshed some of the green inks on my work mat and used a water brush to fill in the gaps.  I tied some twine and added a few Nuvo drops. 

Go to Alantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and play along with us this week!  

Sorry

I rarely make square cards, and I'm not sure why.  It was very nice to make one today using the Freshly Made Sketch #395. I used Altenew's Dahlia set for the flower and leaves and colored them with Copics.  The sentiment is from a Close to My Heart set stamped with CTMH New England Ivy ink. Clear drops are from Studio Katia. The textured pink card stock is from the stash, and is very pale - difficult to photograph, but a lovely match to the flower's lightest shade.

Summertime Strawberries

At the end of last summer, I purchased these sweet little strawberry dies, but never used them until today.  I cut two colors of leaves. The sentiment is a Simon Says Stamp die as is the stitched rectangle die.
 My garden has two large containers of strawberries that delight my littlest grandchildren. They inspect them on every visit and are excited to find  treats they can pick. The 1 1/2 year old adores this fun!  And I do, too, because of his sweet delight.

A CAS card that I am linking to Addicted to Stamps challenge blog - #176 Summer

Smile

My craft room has been busy...and once again I've neglected the blog.  Made 28 baby invitations for a friend hosting a shower, made several anniversary cards, made 6 birthday cards for late June early July birthdays...My dream would be to be able to create a card binder for the year with special cards ready made for sending each month. Anyone else do that?

When I got back from Japan, I was greedy for some new supplies. So for today's card, I managed to use quite a few of them.   The inspiration is Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #323.  Being on their design team really keeps me posting on the blog. And I love using Brandi and Michelle's wonderful sketches.  I didn't add the flower on the center panel in the sketch since I had a stencil flower placed in that spot anyhow.

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Difficult to photograph the shimmer on the smile sentiment. I stacked three together for dimension. The flower stencil panel and the strip sentiment were popped up with foam tape.

Products used today are:

Altenew Floral Garden stencil with Distress Oxide inks:spun sugar, abandoned coral, crushed olive

Gina K designs smile sentiment and die set

My Favorite Things skinny strips die

Altenew Square Weave Pattern stencil with CTMH Pixie ink

Close to My Heart colored card stocks

Nina Solar White card stock

Life saving brushes from Picket Fence

foam tape

Wink of Stella pen

Pretty Pink Posh sequins

Gina K Connect glue

Perfect Popsicles

Here with my take on the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #321.  This is a great sketch that is beautifully versatile. It will be very fun to see how crafters create with this!  Go here to link up your version, or to check out inspiration of the design team. We post on Wednesdays on the AHSC site.

I used Distress Oxide inks on the popsicle and sun burst, CTMH inks on the stick. Card stock is CTMH and Nina Solar Crest. The images and sentiment are from a new to me set Perfect Popsicles, by Sunny Studio. The sun behind the image is a Simon Says Stamp stencil, Solar Burst. Embellished with some enamel dots from CTMH.

AHSC #319

Wow, things have been busy and I totally lost track of time. 

So here is my card for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge design team.  This challenge was posted Monday and will close Sunday June 9th.

Go check it out and play along.  My card will post on their blog this morning with the design team inspiration.

I used a favorite older CTMH set,  Remarkable Wreath, stamped in CTMH chocolate and Distress Oxide Spun Sugar. Card base and paper used for the die cut sentiment are CTMH. The sentiment stamped and die cut from Hero Arts. Ribbon a serendipity find in my stash. I added some Liquid Pearls to the flower centers.