Magical Butterflies

Hi everyone.  This card is a reminder for the CAS Stencil August Challenge.  There's only a week left to play along before the challenge closes.

This month is hosted by Robyn, and she wants us to use sprays through a stencil for our cards.

I used a new-to-me stencil to create a beautiful kaleidoscope of butterflies soaring through the air.  I added some magical powders to a mister to create a spray for the stencil.  It turned out well, but very soft purple, with lots of liquid, so I sprinkled more powder over top.  Once completely dry, I tapped off the excess powder so the background remained white.

I added a clear heat embossed black sentiment on a torn vellum banner to finish the card.

Close-up ...

We are joined by our wonderful Guest Designer, Hilary and Amy this month.  Check out the reminder post to see their beautiful sprayed stencil card, along with the amazing cards from our designers.

I hope to see you in our gallery!

Adding this to the CAS Watercolour August Challenge - Colourful Butterflies.

Stamps:  Up, Up and Away Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.); Vellum
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories & Tools: Water mister, Lindy's magicals (Witch's Potion Purple), Butterfly stencil (Funky Fossil), white embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
CAS Stencil August Challenge - Sprays
CAS Watercolour August Challenge - Colourful Butterflies

With Love

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a card made with a beautiful die-cut sent to me by my good friend Barb.  Isn't the die-cut gorgeous??!!

I coloured it with my zigs, and then went about figuring out what to put in-behind. Nothing seemed to look right.  A few days went by ... then a week.  At the same time, I was playing with Stencil monoprinting and made this pretty background. Couldn't figure out what to do with it, so it was sitting on my work table as well ... for several days.  Then today I glanced and saw both of them sitting there ... I had a light bulb moment. :)  They work so perfectly together.  I was so excited I had to show hubby right away.  He loved it and said he thought it was like looking through trees at a city landscape in the distance.  It kinda does! :)

I have to say that I was impressed with his interpretation. :)  He is a mechanical kind of guy, not artistic at all.  But he has been exposed to so much art because of Jeremy being an artist and art teacher and me with my cards, that he has developed a love of all things artsy. :)

Thanks to all of you for coming by for a visit.

Stamps:  The Big, the bold and the happy (Winnie & Walter)
Paper:  White card stock die-cut; Mixed Media monoprint panel (Strathmore 140 lb. - 400 Series)
Ink:  Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Mermaid Lagoon; Zigs (Kuretake); Early Espresso (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  water mister, Mini Tile Texture stencil (The Crafter's Workshop),  In the Wood die (Papertrey Ink)

Gifts from a Sweet Friend ...

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a card I made with a beautiful 2-layer die-cut butterfly that was sent to me by my sweet friend Barb (Barb's Studio Creations). Not only did she send me this butterfly with the watercolour paper body and vellum intricate topper, but she sent me a huge package of goodies for my birthday back in the summer.  Lots of butterfly die-cuts in card stock, watercolour paper and vellum ... also some die-cut words, flowers, scribble circles and leafy frames ... and pieces of matboard.  Barb, thank you again for your most generous gift.  I'm finally getting a chance to play with all these gorgeous die-cuts.  Thank you, thank you!! :)

Today I used my two favourite colours of sprays (magenta / orange) to colour this large butterfly.  I spritzed them onto my mat and "smooshed" my butterfly.  Love how it turned out.  For the background, I used two of the Gorgeous Grunge stamps from Stampin' Up!  Love this set!  I sprayed them in bright yellow and stamped onto my card stock base.  I think spraying them gave them even more of a fun, random design. :)  And it created this bright sunshiny background to highlight the butterfly. I stamped a simple sentiment in soft brown to finish.

I'm going to enter this into the ATS&M Challenge #164 - CAS. :)

____________________

Coming soon!!

The Twelve Tags of Christmas Tag Event is returning again this year. :)  I'm so excited to announce the tag event will be starting on this blog on Wednesday, November 4th and will run for Twelve Days.  I will be posting a Mixed Media Christmas tag made by me each of the twelve days along with two other tags made by my very talented friends.  There are 25 Guest Designers that I know will inspire you.

A link-up will be set up so participants can add their mixed media Christmas tags as well.  The link-up will be open during the twelve days of the event (Nov. 4 - 15), and will remain open for an extra week to give participants lots of time to play along. There will be prizes as well with the winners being picked by an independent judge as well as random draw prizes. :)

I hope you'll check back on Nov. 4th for the launch of the Twelve Tags of Christmas and follow along ... and join in with your tag (or tags!).  It's going to be lots of fun! :)

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge (SU!); A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted)

Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Watercolour; Vellum
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Life is Beautiful Butterfly Dies (Papertrey Inc.), Watercolour sprays in Magenta, Orange, Yellow (Dick Blick)

Challenges:

ATS&M #164 - CAS

Life's a Beach

Hi everyone.  I had so much fun making this card today!!!!  I used my new Surf's Up! Shapeabilities again to make the flip-flops and beach ball ... and rolled up a piece of bright blue felt for the "towel".  I made my own beach bag using the Square Lattice embossing folder, shaping and gluing the embossed yellow cardstock into the shape of a bag and adding orange suede strips for the handles.  I added a small flag with the only stamping on this card "beach" ... which qualifies this card for entry into the latest CAS-ual Fridays challenge (CFC104 - banners and flags).

Hope you like this card ... it's a hint of what's to come for my next card candy! :)

Stamps:  Beach Sentiments (Amy R)
Paper:  White, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo (SU!)
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Surf's Up Shapeabilities (Spellbinders), Linen Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink), Crystal Effects, 8 Petals & Branches die (C.C. Designs), bright blue felt, mini half pearls, orange suede strips, paper piercing tool, Mini Wavy Pennants die (MFT), Square Lattice embossing folder (Sizzix for SU!), hole punch, glue dots, glue, sticky strips, and dimensionals

Here's a close-up:

Summer Fun!

Hi everyone.  I'm entering today's card into the latest challenge at Inkspirational - Color Challenge #23.  When I saw the colors, I immediately thought of summer ... bright, fun and hot color palette.  And I'm entering it into the Paper Players Challenge (PP148 - Summer Holiday).

I used the Summer Starfruit cardstock to create a "beach mat" ... at least I hope that's what it looks like :)  I embossed it to give it a woven texture and then cut a fringe at each end.  I used my new Spellbinder's Shapeabilities - Surf's Up! for the flip-flops and added a perfect beach-y sentiment from Amy R.  Hope you like.

Stamps:  Beach Sentiments (Amy R)
Paper:  White, Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo (SU!)
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder (Sizzix), Surf's Up dies (Spellbinders), Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink), sponge, glue, sticky strips, and dimensionals

Here's a close-up:

Vase of Flowers

Hi everyone.  Today's card is for two challenges:  SCS's CAS challenge (CAS210 - color challenge - night of navy, cameo coral, certainly celery, white) ... and Clearly iStamp (CIC70 - Die-cuts).  This is such a beautiful color combination  and I immediately thought of using the celery and coral for the flowers ... that left the navy for the vase.  A simple sentiment and a doodled border and the card was finished.  Fun and easy!!

Stamps:  Autumn Sentiments (AmyR)
Paper:  White (C.C. Designs); Night of Navy DP (retired), Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral (SU!)
Ink:  Night of Navy (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, 8 Petals & Branch die-cut (C.C. Designs), Mega Gracious Vase die-cut (Papertrey Ink), Stamp-a-ma-jig, Crystal Effects, white gel pen, stylus & mat, pencil, eraser, glue, adhesives, and dimensionals

I cut the vase out of the DP and covered it with Crystal Effects.  I die-cut the petals and branch dies and then shaped the small flowers using my stylus and mat.  After gluing the flower heads onto the branch (and letting it dry), I used my white gel pen to add dots to the center of each flower.

For the border, I used a pencil to lightly draw a square and then stamped my sentiment before using the Stampin' Write Marker to hand draw the rest of the border, using the pencil lines as a guide to keep the basic square shape.  I erased the lines before attaching the vase and flowers.


Here's a close-up view of the main image: