Listen from Within

Hi everybody!  Hope you have had a great weekend!  I have a card to share for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge.  You can find out all of the details here.  This weeks challenge is to frame it.  I used my new Bees and Blooms stamp set from Flourishes for this card.  It kind of has an Asian feel to me so I paired it with some really pretty paper from Authentique's Carefree 6 x 6 paper bundle.  I scored and masked my image panel then stamped the blossoms.  I colored the image with Copics but kept the colors very simple so the stippled blossoms could really shine.  I sponged some Chamomile ink over part of the image and used a Atyou Spica clear pen to add some sparkle to the flower centers.  The card layout is very simple and I used my good ol' gold leafing pen again....still loving it!  I did a little stitching then added some gold photo corners to further frame things in.  The sentiment font is just gorgeous in this stamp set!  I am so glad I was able to play along in this challenge.  This card is really outside of my usual decor, but I have been striving to push my boundaries a bit and I really like how this turned out!  I hope you all have a great week and thanks so much for stopping by!

Katie

Supplies:  True Black, Vintage Cream papers from PTI; Authnetique 6x6 paper pad; Bees and Blooms stamp set from Flourishes; Krylon Gold Leafing pen; Copics; Tuxedo Black ink-Memento; Chamomile distress ink-PTI; Scor-Buddy' Singer Sewing Machine; Gold photo corners

Purple Rose of Sympathy

Good evening!  At least where I am it is evening.  I am squeaking in at the last minute with a card for JustRite Stampers' Challenge.  This time it is a sketch challenge.  You can find out all of the details by going to their site here.  I decided to make a sympathy card using my With Sympathy clear stamp set from JustRite.  I  love that beautiful frame and the rose is also a personal favorite.  I recently had made it a goal to use some colors that I don't usually use, so I chose purple.  I wasn't sure how I was going to color that rose purple, but I really like the way it turned out.  Now, on the screen it may have more of a blue appearance, but it is actually violet.  I colored it using Copic colors V20,22,25,28 and a bit of V17.  For the leaves I used G40, and BG93,96,99.  Part of the challenge was to use one of JustRite's background stamps, if you have one....which  I don't...yet.  So, in the meantime, I made my own background by stamping the roses as my background.  I matted that with some purple cardstock, inked and stitched it, then wrapped some ribbon around it.  This is not your ordinary ribbon, and I am wondering if my friend Kush is going to recognize it...lol.  It is recycled from when I went shopping and the retailer tied a ribbon on my bag.  It just so happened to be the perfect color for my card!  :)  The rose was trimmed down from it's original 2 bloom size to fit this frame edge.  I pulled out my new find....my Krylon Gold Leafing pen and went to work on most of the edges.  I tell you, I want to gold leaf everything now...lol...my dachshund is getting nervous!  Nah, I wouldn't gold leaf him....hmmm.  Anyways, I finished it off by adding some pearls.  Thank you to JRS for a really great sketch to play with this week!  And thank you for stopping by!  See you soon!

Katie

Supplies:  With Sympathy stamp set, Nested Oval Medallion Label dies-JRS; Small Oval die-Spellbinders; Classic White, Classic Ivory cardstock-Flourishes; Elegant Eggplant ink and cardstock, Crumb Cake ink, pearls, foam dimensionals-SU!; Ribbon-stash; Krylon 18KT Gold Leafing Pen; Chamomile and Chai inks-PTI; Peeled Paint Distress Ink-Tim Holtz; Singer sewing machine

Mother's Day Blossoms

Hi there!  Hope you have had a great weekend....I know I have!  I got to spend some time with stamping friends at a get together yesterday and this afternoon I have been able to play with some stamps!  I thought I might get my Mother's Day cards started and I really wanted to play along in Flourishes' Timeless Tuesday challenge this week because it sounded so interesting.  You have to use something on your card from around the house. You can find out all of the details by checking out their site here.  I really was stumped for a while when I looked on my craft table and saw wax paper...duh....lol. I use wax paper when I die cut really intricate designs because it releases from the die so much easier....most of the time.  Some dies are just going to try your patience no matter what you do, I think.  Anyway, I used my wax paper to cut out this really beautiful gold paper I got a couple of weeks ago.  I thought that would be the end of it, then decided that I really needed to use it somewhere on the card too, so I adhered it down over the gold paper.  I used my heat gun on it and it laid right down beautifully.  I used some Ranger glossy accents to anchor it in a few places to make sure it didn't peel off.  I really like the effect it gave...it toned down that really shiny gold paper and gave it more of a brushed gold appearance.  I did not adhere it all the way to the edges because I didn't mind it rolling up a bit around the frame.  I edged it out with my new Krylon Gold Leafing pen....where has this thing been all of my life?!  I love it and you will be seeing more of it in the near future!  Anyway, the main image is stamped with Summer Blossoms from Flourishes and colored with Copics.  I sponged Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and Chamomile Ink on it to give it a vintage feel.  I really wanted this card to look like a vintage card.  The sentiment is from Flourishes' Motherly Love stamp set and I stamped it in Versamark ink and embossed using gold embossing powder.  I added a few more layers to this card and pretty much gold leafed all of them....I LOVE this pen!!  I sponged the layers with more ink, and ran one through Stampin' Up!'s Fancy Fan embossing folder.  I finished it with some pearls and hit some of the flowers with a Atyou Spica clear pen.  I resisted the urge to add ribbon on here somewhere and backed away from the table...lol. I hope you have been able to have some crafting time too, this weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Katie

Supplies:  Classic White and Classic Ivory cardstock, Summer Blossoms and Motherly Love stamp sets-all from Flourishes; Copics; Krylon 18KT Gold Leafing Pen; Grand Squares, Labels One, Decorative Labels One dies-Spellbinders; Tumbled Glass Distress Ink-Tim Holtz; Chamomile Ink-PTI; Fancy Fan embossing folder, Gold Embossing Powder, foam dimensionals-all from Stampin' Up!; Versamark Ink

Zinnias for You

Happy Friday, Everybody!  Hope you all have big plans for the weekend!  I am planning on some crafty time this weekend....yay!  I wanted to share this card and play along with the Flourishes' Summer Lovin' challenge.  You can check out all the details here.  When I think of summer, I can't help but think of all the brightly colored zinnias in the nurseries.  I just love going and looking at all  those beautiful flowers!  I couldn't decide what color was my favorite so I colored them up in a variety of colors using my Copics.  This stamp set is called Zinnias and is from Flourishes....isn't it gorgeous?  I just love their illustrations because they are so detailed.  Definitely fun to color!  The rest of the card is very simple...I used a Spellbinders die for my card shape and then just matted my colored image with some blue paper from DCWV.  Oh, I also played around with a new goodie I ordered a couple of weeks ago...see that sweet little tag?  That is the Classic Tags die from Flourishes....so cute!  The sentiment is from another Flourishes set called Tag Lines.  The ribbon and buttons finish this card off.  I am so happy I could play along this week and look forward to seeing what everyone else created!  Have a great weekend!

Supplies:  Zinnas, Tag Lines stamp sets, Tag die and Classic White cardstock from Flourishes; Blue textured cardstock from DCWV brights 12 x 12 paper pad; Very Vanilla ribbon, foam dimensionals-SU!; Buttons, twine, Chamomile ink-PTI;  Large Labels, Lattice Rectangles dies-Spellbinders;  Tumbled Glass Distress Ink-Ranger; Tuxedo Black ink-Memento; Copics

The Tale of the Little Card that Almost Wasn't...

Hello everyone on this cold and rainy day, at least where I am it is, and that is perfect stamping weather!  I love to get cozy in my craft room and watch the rain fall through the window while I stamp the day away.  The card I am posting today is one I stamped with a JustRite Stampers set called With Sympathy.  I really wanted to try my hand at coloring those beautiful roses.  Well, I don't mind telling you...it was not so great at first.  I think I ended up coloring about 4 of these before I got the pinks I wanted .  Then, I decided to die cut it after I had colored it.  I usually try not to do this because terrible things have happened on occasion which rendered the colored image pretty much useless, but I did it any way.  So far, so good....then, the unthinkable happened.  While I was deciding which ink to stamp my sentiment in, I accidentally got some on my colored image.  Oh my word, I was sick.  I tried gently erasing, but it was hot pink ink and it was not coming off very well.  So, I resorted to my craft knife and tried to gently scrape off the ink, which worked but left me with a little gouged out place on my image.  Now if I had Photoshop I bet I could've  fixed it on my photo somehow and everyone would've been none the wiser, but I don't, so if you look closely... it is there.  I still like the way the card turned out, but it was definitely a round about way of getting there.  A few lessons learned here:

1. Don't use a craft knife on your finished colored image
2. Don't use a craft knife on your finished colored image...lol, seriously
3. Die cut the image first, then color to avoid the anxiety of possibly trashing my finished image
4. Clean off my craft desk before starting another card project...ok, in all honesty, this will probably not happen...I just can't craft neatly

Anyways, I would like to enter this in the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge for this week.  The challenge is Wrap it With Ribbon.  You have to use two or more ribbons layered together on your project. You can find all of the details here.  I know that this is not a Flourishes stamp set, but those wonderful ladies do not mind, you can use whatever stamps you have, so go check them out!  I hope everyone has a great day!  

Katie

Supplies used:  With Sympathy stamp set-JustRite Stampers; Classic White cardstock-Flourishes; Ocean Tides cardstock, Chamomile ink-Papertrey Ink; Designer papers from My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pads; Spellbinders' Oval-Small, Deckled Oval, and Floral Oval dies; crocheted lace trim-Melissa Frances; pink velvet ribbon-Michaels; Eyelet Border punch, Early Espresso ink, pearls,and foam dimensionals-Stampin' Up!; Copics; Iced Spruce Distress Ink-Tim Holtz; Espresso Truffle ink-Memento; Singer sewing machine; Scor-Tape