Ombre card

Busy, busy day ... I have both my kids home for dinner tonight and it's really warm today.  So I thought I'd make Chili early this morning so that I didn't have to have the stove on in the heat of the day.  I'll place it in the slow cooker later this afternoon to heat up - love the slow cooker on those hot days!  I also had promised Evan that I would make Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie today, so I've already baked the crust and it's ready to be filled with sweet deliciousness!  I also picked up a pound of organic basil from an Herb Farm on Westham Island yesterday.  Today my plan is to make several batches of Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto that I will freeze to use throughout the year.

I had an idea for a card for this week's Free For All Challenge at SCS (F4A129 - Ombre, mon amie!) - shades of color ... or gradation of color.  I made it a priority to spend time on the card before I head back to the kitchen.

I decided to pull out my brayer which I haven't used in some time.  I brayered several shades of green ink onto Whisper White cardstock to create a background for my negative die-cut card front.  Love the look!  Hope you like this clean and simple card.

"Just for You"

Stamp:  Just Believe (SU!)
Paper:  White cardstock (Neenah); Whisper White cardstock (SU!)
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  brayer, Big Shot, Meadow Leaf die (Poppy Stamps), Stamp-a-ma-jig, adhesives, glue and dimensionals

I brayered the green inks onto Whisper White cardstock, starting with the lightest and ending with the darkest.

I cut out two leaf images from my white card front using the Meadow Leaf die, staggering them slightly.  I lined up my brayered background behind the cut-out until I was happy with the shades of color (I have the lightest green at the top and the darkest at the base of the leaves), and then trimmed my brayered cardstock to size (I kept the trimmed pieces).

I mounted the brayered background onto my cardbase, and added the front panel on top, popping it up with dimensionals.

I used one of the trimmed brayered pieces to die-cut another Meadow leaf, which I glued to the bottom right-hand corner of my inside panel.

Quick and easy card.

____________________

I am determined to be more organized in my art studio (it's probably something to do with being a secretary for over 30 years - it's built in!).  So I was trying to think of what I call "time wasters" ... and it was going through my packaging to find the correct names for my dies.  Now that I have my dies all mounted on magnetic sheets (which are extremely handy, I might add), the packaging is thrown into a "barely used" cupboard ... but I want to make sure that I list the correct names of materials I use when I post my cards, and my memory isn't what it used to be :)

I decided I would take a cue from one of the scrapbooking stores in my area, and created sheets with labeled die-cuts.  I thought this would be a great time saver.  So I spent some time yesterday, making my first sheet (many, many more sheets to be done).  This is all my Poppy Stamps dies, with an example of each and the correct name listed.  My plan is to post these on a bulletin board above my computer for easy reference.  I think it will work really well!  The side benefit (once they are all done), is I will have a visual of all my dies that I can look at to be inspired - bonus!!

Blue and White Christmas Cards

A couple of cards to share with you today.  I actually made the background a couple of days ago, trying out the water stamping technique (click here for link to SCS tutorial).  I had made this type of background before (see last post with pond), by dropping water from a squeeze bottle onto my sponged background.  But I wanted to try the other variation of stamping with water using a wet paper towel as the stamp pad.

I randomly sponged a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of Whisper white with Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point inks.  Then I stamped snowflakes "inked" with water.  I had my paper towel quite wet, so the snowflakes blurred quite a bit ... I actually was really happy with the look.  I used the one sheet to make two cards.  This is for this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge (CFC65 - make a square card).  Hope you like.

"Joy to the World"

Stamps:  Flakier (GCS Artstamps); Merry and Bright sentiments (Amy R)
Paper:  White cardstock (Neenah); Whisper White (SU!)
Inks:  Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Versamark (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Postage Stamp Nestabilities die (Spellbinders), Star of Wonder die (Memory Box), sponges, paper towel, water, white embossing powder, heat tool, glue, and dimensionals

I randomly sponged Whisper White cardstock with Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point inks.  I stamped the Flakier stamp using water as the ink.  I let it dry and then ran it through my Big Shot with the postage stamp die.  I cut out two other layers of postage stamp die from white cardstock and layered them with glue, adding the sponged layer on top (this creates a thick panel).

I stamped the sentiments in Versamark and embossed in white using my heat tool.  I die cut the largest star and added it the main panel, popping it up with dimensionals.  The main panel was mounted onto the card base, again popping it up to add depth.

___________________

Here's the second card using the leftover piece of sponged and water stamped background.  This card was inspired by this beautiful card by SusanBri at SCS.

"Snowy Hills"

Stamp:  Flakier (GCS Artstamps)
Paper:  White cardstock (Neenah), Whisper White (SU!)
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Country Landscape and Star of Wonder dies (Memory Box), Sparkle Texture Effect (Martha Stewart), glue, and dimensionals

Die-cut the Country Lanscape from Whisper White cardstock and mounted onto my background paper.  Cut two more pieces to represent hills and mounted on top.  Placed a mask behind my scene to protect the background paper and added Sparkle Texture effect to the top of the hills, houses and trees.

Cut two more pieces of white cardstock the same size as my scene (4" square) and glued them together, adding the main panel on top (creating a thick panel).  Mounted the panel to the front of my card base, popping it up with dimensionals to add depth.  Glued the small Star of Wonder die to the top right hand corner.

Toadally Amazing

Today's card is for three challenges ... count 'em, three!!  Less is More #79 - Blue and Green ... CASology #5 - Pond ... and SCS Ways To Use It - WT387 - Something old (choose from something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue - do one aspect or all four).

Blue and green is one of my favorite color combinations ... especially if the blue is turquoise.  To make the pond, I simply sponged white cardstock with turquoise and then dropped water on top, absorbing the excess with paper towel ... love the look and have used this before.  I first saw it done many months ago by Karen Dunbrook - she is so creative!

For the Ways To Use It challenge, I only covered off three of the four - something old (my ink and sponge), something new (digi stamp of Hoppers), and something blue (of course, the pond!).  I have donated cards a few times to the B.C. Children's Hospital ... they collect hand-made cards for nurses and staff to give to the younger patients to celebrate their birthdays, special events and milestones.  I'm thinking this card will be perfect to add to the collection I'll be sending their way soon.  Hope you like.

"Toadally Amazing"

Stamps:  Hoppers - digi (Lisa's Doodley Doos - Clear Dollar Stamp); Chit Chat (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  White, Gumball Green (SU!)
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Gumball Green, Basic Black (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Printer, Big Shot, Grass die (Cheery Lynn), Nestabilities Oval die (Spellbinders), Tiny Bubbles embossing folder (Cuttlebug), sponges, glue, and dimensionals

I sponged a piece of Whisper White with Tempting Turquoise ink until it was fairly solid in color.  I dropped waterdrop on top, absorbing any excess water with a paper towel.  I let the cardstock dry and then cut it to size.

I die-cut the grass from Gumball Green cardstock and glued it along the bottom edge of my "pond"

I printed the "Toadally" sentiment from the Hoppers digi set onto white cardstock and used an oval die to cut out an opening.  I stamped the "you are" and "amazing" in black ink (paper smooches stamps).

I sponged a second piece of Whisper White cardstock with Gumball Green, ran it through my Big Shot with the bubbles embossing folder and then ran it through my printer with the toad digi.  I cut the toad out.

I mounted all the pieces, popping up the main panel with dimensionals as well as the toad.

Field of Poppies

Today has been a challenge.  My mom was scheduled for open heart surgery today ... and unfortunately, her surgery was postponed at the last minute, yet again.  She now has to wait until the end of August and we're hoping that third times a charm and the surgery will go ahead as scheduled.  For those friends and family who have been concerned, I thank you.  Please continue to keep my mom in your thoughts ...

On to the card for today.  I needed to come home and just chill out so I headed into the art studio - one of my favorites places to be.  I had die-cut  two poppies a while ago from watercolor paper and used the re-inker technique to color them.  I was happy with how they turned out, but just hadn't found the time to make them into a card yet.  Turns out that today's Color Throwdown Challenge #204 is Basic Gray, Poppy Parade, Very Vanilla and Pumpkin Pie --- perfect, I could use my poppies!  I decided I wanted it to be bolder than the two-poppy die, so I cut out three more sets and used parts of them to make a small field of poppies.  Hope you like.

"Field of Poppies"

Stamp:  Sincere Salutations (SU!)
Paper:  Watercolor
Ink:  Basic Gray; Re-inkers:  Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Real Red, Old Olive (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Prim Poppy die (Memory Box), water mister, Aqua Painter, Stamp-a-ma-jig, glue dots, glue, and dimensionals

I die-cut four sets of the two poppies from watercolor paper.  I cut three of them apart, creating individual stems, leaving one set intact.

I used the Re-inker Spread technique to watercolor the dies (see tutorial in Techniques section of this blog).

By combining Tangerine Tango and Real Red inks, I managed to get fairly close to the Poppy Parade color of the challenge.

I arranged the watercolored poppies on my watercolor paper card base until I was happy with them.  I glued down the stems and added dimensionals to the flowerheads and rolled glue dots to the buds.

I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement of the sentiment, which was stamped in Basic Gray ink.