PDCC100

The color challenge ending soon at PlayDate Cafe is yellow, orange, and green. I wanted to use these colors to make a sunflower card for my husband's grandmother's birthday. I always think of bright yellow when I think of her.

I used PTI simple sunflower, which I love. I inked the flower with yellow and then rock-n-rolled in orange. I masked the large flower before stamping the smaller one. Then I masked them both and stamped the leaves in green.

I wasn't thrilled with the vertical orientation of the card, so I made another one using a horizontal orientation. On this card I used brown for the flower centers, fussy cut them out, and popped them up on dimensionals. I like this one much better!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI
Stamps: PTI simple sunflower, PTI sentiments
Ink: Brilliance sunflower yellow, pearlescent rust, pearlescent ivy

One Layer Wednesday 65

The One-Layer-Wednesday challenge at Styles Ink is to make a card where the sentiment is the focus or shares the focus with the image. I have several of the PTI think big sentiments, and I knew I wanted to use them for this challenge with an image stamped lightly in the background. It took a while playing around to settle on this pretty flower from Hero Arts real flowers.

It's a dreary day in Western Washington, and my cards didn't photograph well. The birthday sentiment looks brown, but is really a pretty shade of purple. The flowers on the sympathy card are a very soft blue, which doesn't show well in the photo. I hope you can see them. The birthday card is on PTI white and the sympathy card is on PTI vintage cream.

Supplies:
Paper: PTI white, vintage cream
Stamps: PTI think big favorites, Hero Arts real flowers
Ink: Memento lulu lavender, sweet, plum, VersaMagic ocean depth, Aspen mist

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

I haven't played along in any of the Papertrey Ink Make-It-Monday challenges or monthly blog hops in quite a while. When I saw the September Blog Hop inspiration photo and those fab stripes, I knew I wanted to play along. As luck would have it, I had a little crafting time today!

I started out by cutting strips of red, yellow, aqua, and black paper and creating a panel of stripes. Of course my plan changed during the process, and I ended up with a card that doesn't show the black stripes, but I think I like it this way. Clean and simple.

It is a beautiful, blustery day in the Pacific Northwest. It really feels like fall today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ann

Supplies:
Paper: PTI white, colored paper from scrap box
Stamps: PTI fillable frames
Ink: Brilliance graphite black

Fall Birthday Cards

I'm still finishing up my fall birthday cards for all the October birthdays in my family. I needed a couple of cards that were more masculine, so I used fall colors and my Hero Arts leaf prints set to make the following two cards.

I stamped a pattern of leaves across a PTI rustic white panel. For the sentiment, I used PTI fillable frames popped up on dimensionals and finished it off with some embroidery floss.

The second card is made using the beautiful fall colors from CR84FN39. Orange, yellow, and brown were perfect for my fall leaves.

Supplies:
Paper: PTI
Stamps: Hero Arts leaf, prints, PTI fillable frames
Ink: Memento

CFC20 and Less is More 33

The theme at CAS-ual Fridays is to make a mini card (no larger than 4x4) and give the dimensions. At Less is More it is Anything Goes in an attempt to have 1,000 CAS submissions.

This card is 4x4 square. I paper pieced a Studio G cupcake, added pink glitter to the frosting, and clear sparkle to the candle flame. I stamped the sentiment across the card base multiple times to anchor the image.

There are multiple birthdays in my family in the month of October, so I'm busy making birthday cards these days. This card is for my niece, who will be turning 9 in just a couple of weeks.

Thanks for your visit today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Studio G
Ink: Stazon black, Memento Rosebud
Paper: PTI white, colored papers from scrap box
Other: Martha Stewart glitter, Marvy sparkle clear pen

Less is More 33

At Less is More the challenge this week is anything clean and simple, and I knew just what I wanted to do. A few weeks back I admired this gorgeous card of Lisa's. Her blog is full of equally beautiful cards. Check it out here. I loved the three large leaves falling down the left side of the card. When I found this gorgeous Inkadinkado stamp recently, I knew I had to CASE Lisa's card.

I stamped the leaf three times in Brilliance ink (pearlescent olive, pearlescent ivy, and pearlescent poppy). Then I simply added a sentiment, rounded the corners, and was done. Holy cow, I love this leaf stamp!!!!

Paper: PTI rustic white

Stamps: Inkadinkado, PTI sentiment
Ink: Briliance

One Layer Wednesday 64

When I saw Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge for this week, my heart sank. Use an outline stamp and color it. I don't color. I paper piece to avoid coloring. I generally avoid outline stamps to avoid coloring.

I always admire the beautifully colored images on other stamper's blogs, but sadly, I do not own a single Copic marker. I do have a very old box of Prismacolor pencils, so last night I pulled them out to practice my coloring skills while hubby and I watched a movie.

A few months ago I bought this gorgeous Hero Arts Long Stemmed Flower stamp. I usually avoid stamps like this because . . . I don't like to color. Have I said that enough? I love these gorgeous poppies, though, so I decided to be brave.

I used four shades of red on each flower and then blended them with baby oil. It took forever, but I'm pretty pleased with the results, and I always love red on kraft.

Go easy on me, all you fabulous Copic certified stampers extraordinaire! :)

Ann

Supplies:
Paper: PTI kraft
Ink: Brilliance graphite black
Stamps: Hero Arts long stem flowers, butterfly, PTI sentiment
Others: Prismacolor pencils, baby oil

Card Patterns 132 and ColourQ 102

Apparently I skipped Halloween and Thanksgiving and went straight to Christmas this week. I liked simplicity of the sketch at CardPatterns this week, and decided to use the beautiful PTI Mehndi Medallion to stamp the panel.

I started out with red, green, and pink, and then remembered the colors from the ColourQ challenge. I loved the addition of blue, but I had a hard time incorporating the gray. I decided to use gray for the two tabs on top of the panel and for the sentiment below. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I think it's growing on me a little bit! :)

Supplies:
Paper: PTI white, blue from scrap box
Stamps: PTI Mehndi Medallion, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink: Brilliance rocket red, ColorBox

Less is More 32

The Limettes are seeing double this week for Less is More # 32. The challenge is to use two of something on a one-layer card. I've read that odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye than even numbers, and I often stamp in threes, so I wasn't sure how I wanted to use a double image. I had to spend a good while thinking it over. :)

That said, I poked through my stash and came up with this very old sunflower stamp with two blossoms. I paired it with a PTI 2-part sentiment that says "Just a little note to say . . ." and on the inside "You're in my thoughts today."

Since sunflowers were on my brain I pulled out my brand new sunflower set from PTI. With a little masking, I stamped two blooms in the corner. I masked both flowers and stamped three leaves. Then I added another PTI sentiment. For both card I used the rock and roll stamp technique to add a little rust color to the ends of the petals. This is just a gorgeous stamp set from PTI.

Paper: PTI white
Stamps: PTI simple sunflower, Lily of the Valley, Floral Frenzy, Rubber Stampede garden sunflower
Ink: Brilliance sunflower yellow, pearlescent rust, pearlescent ivy, coffee bean

Make-It-Monday 31

It's been quite a while since I've played along with Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge. The challenge this week was to use non-background stamps to create a background.

I used a couple of the smaller stamps from Mehndi Medallion to create a background for my first card. It is somewhat hard to see, but I stamped the sentiment over the larger medallion, which is stamped lightly in lavender. I love the look of this sentiment over that medallion, and I know I will be making a set of clean and simple cards in a variety of colors, with just this element surrounded by beautiful white space!

For my second card I used a small image from Damask Designs for the background. I wanted to try black on kraft, but I stamped the image off on paper first before stamping on the card base. I wanted a weathered look to it. I used some orange-red flowers from my stash to finish it off.

My cards usually have more white space than these do, but it was fun to play around with using small stamps to create backgrounds. I know I'll use this technique again.

Supplies:

Paper: PTI

Stamps: PTI Damask Designs, Mehndi Medllaion

Ink: Memento lulu lavender, sweet plum, lilac posies, Brilliance graphite black

Other: KaiserScrapbook flowers, Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones

Less is More 31

The challenge at Less is More is to use something metallic on your clean and simple design. This was a difficult theme for me. I was determined to play along, so I pulled out some ancient penny copper embossing powder and set to work.

I used an old Stampin Up set called Mostly Flowers that I picked up on eBay a number of years ago but hadn't really used at all. I embossed the image on PTI vintage cream cardstock and carefully cut out the squares. I popped them up on dimensionals and stamped the sentiment in Brilliance coffee bean ink.

I had intended to use three squares in my design, but not necessarily in this arrangement. As I was playing around with them I remembered this horizontal sketch challenge I had seen on the Moxie Fab World blog. I thought the Merci sentiment fit nicely, with the large 'M' taking the place of the flower in the sketch.

Thanks for visiting today, and thanks to Mandi and Chrissie for showcasing my card from week 30. What a thrill to see my work among so many other beautiful entries. I don't know how they choose each week; there is always such beautiful inspiration at Less is More.

Supplies:

Paper: PTI vintage cream

Stamps: Stampin Up Mostly Flowers, PTI sentiment

Ink: Brilliance coffee bean, top boss embossing pad

Other: Stamp-N-Stuff penny copper embossing powder

One Layer Wednesday 63

Hooray! I'm so happy that Susan and Jennifer are back with the One Layer Wednesday Challenge. This is the challenge that inspired me to start a blog in the first place. The challenge this week is to make a one layer baby card.

I've been planning to make a baby card with these two banner triangles for quite a while. My original intent (which is half completed) was to paper piece the bunting out of pastel colors on kraft. Since this is One Layer Wednesday, I colored my bunting with Prismacolor pencils instead of paper-piecing.




Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts kiss for the sun, PTI mega mixed messages
Ink: Memento rich cocoa
Other: Prismacolor pencils