Happy Little Stampers: Watercolour

As February fades into March, it's time for the new round of Happy Little Stampers challenges to begin, starting with the Watercolour Challenge! Just to give myself a challenge, I decided to go for a no-line watercolour: 

Of course for inspiration, I had to look to the master, so watched a couple of videos by Debby Hughes. Mine in no way whatsoever compares, but I did pick up a couple of helpful tips. The flowers are coloured with Daniel Smith paints, and the watering can with a Gansai Tambi metallic watercolour. Using another master's tip, I darkened a few "nooks and crannies" with watercolour pencils - thanks, Kathy Racoosin! As I said, not even trying to compare my card to their work! 

Lots of beautiful watercolour inspiration on the Happy Little Stampers blog - you have the month to join us! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up grey cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Unity Tulips and Daisies & Waffle Flower Tankful Mouse stamps, Memento tuxedo black & antique linen distress ink, Daniel Smith & Gansai Tambi watercolours, watercolour pencils, MFT rounded stitched rectangle die, Marvy-Uchida corner-rounding punch, Little B washi tape

The QUEENS OF Snarky Stampers

It's time for a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers post! Our latest challenge: Q is for Queen. From Freddie Mercury to Elizabeth II, we are looking for your interpretation of the word QUEEN. 

I know it's a shock, but I went with a cat card:

Breaking out some older but NBUS (never before used schtuff) for this card: the cat, the crown and sentiment are seeing ink for the first time. Although my own cat is male (and generally known as LORD Duncan), the expectation to be treated as royalty work for all felines, I think. To start, I ink blended a panel with distress oxide inks, making sure to get purple in there for that royal touch. I splattered the panel with both plain water and diluted Lawn Fawn liquid stardust for interest. The cat, crown and sentiment are all stamped and embossed in black with clear embossing powder. 

Our newest Queen and guest designer, Tristan, and the Snarky Sisters have lots of interpretations to whet your appetite for this regal challenge! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Recollections black cardstock, Koh-In-Oor smooth bristol, Picket Fence Studios Cali Cat & A Muse Keep Calm stamps, Versafine black, tumbled glass, faded jeans & wilted violet distress oxide ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Lawn Fawn liquid stardust

Inkspirational: Tower

It's time for a new Inkspirational challenge! And our new word prompt is TOWER. I think it must be a symptom of the ongoing pandemic that I was completely at a loss for this theme for the longest time. I mentioned it aloud, and my husb reminded me that I have lots of towers! Skyline stamps and dies, an Eiffel tower stamp... with these things in mind, I made my card: 

This stamp has a few towers as part of its international skyline! Before I stamped it, I blended the background with distress inks. With an old-school wooden stamp, I got out my Stamp-a-ma-Jig to place the skyline where I wanted it. This could have perhaps been a one-layer card, but I'm rarely that confident. ;) 

Visit the Inkspirational blog to see just how many ways the word TOWER can be interpreted! Hope to see how the word prompt inspires you. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Hero Arts International Skyline & Neat & Tangled Origami Map stamps, Versafine onyx black, carved pumpkin, shaded lilac, blueprint sketch & chipped sapphire distress inks, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, MFT blueprints 29 stitched rectangle die

Seize the Birthday: Create a Scene

Yay, it's time for a new Seize the Birthday! It was my turn to pick our challenge *topping* and I chose CREATE A SCENE. (Of course I considered calling it "make a scene"... :D) I decided to create a little birthday concert scene: 

To start, I stamped, embossed and watercolored my trio of animals. Rather than layer die cuts, I stamped the maestro chick on top of the music stand, as well as the musical score. This meant fussy cutting it, but I was able to die cut the owl and raccoon. For the background, I very lightly blended ink for the floor, then added a little stencilling over top for a bit of hardwood texture. (So light it's not really showing up in the photos.) The stage background is sponged lightly in pale green. I used my thinner foam tape to pop up the maestro, and regular foam tape for the musicians. 

There are so many ways to create a scene on a card - in fact, I think I may be the only one of the team to have created an indoor scene! Lots of fun makes to enjoy from the DT and our current surprise party guest, Carol. Of course, as always, we love to see any birthday card in our gallery, so join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Stampin' Up basic black cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Lawn Fawn Critter Concert stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black, Catherine Pooler melon ice & antique linen distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolours, Memory Box scraped paint stencil, MFT blueprints 29 stitched rectangle die, pop dot tape
 

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, and this time we're looking for cards for Any Occasion! Having made more than enough Valentine's cards for this year, I moved on to an Easter card: 

Easter is such a good excuse to use bunny stamps! 🐰 This little cutie from Paper Smooches is coloured with Copic markers. I couldn't resist adding a little dimension to his tail. He's popped onto a panel I had from a playdate at Emily's from before the pandemic. (Sigh.) I lightly blended some pale green ink over the linen cardstock. White seemed a little plain, so everything was layered onto an orange card base. 

If you need a card for an occasion of any kind, we have the challenge for you! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white, white linen & Hero Arts layering cardstock, Paper Smooches Spring Fling stamp & die, Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamp, Simon Says Stamp intense black & bundled sage distress ink, Copic markers, Catherine Pooler Puddle Jumper mini cover plate & MFT blueprints 29 banner die, Nuvo gloss white crystal drops, foam tape

Color Hues: Peach and Green

It's time for a new challenge at Color Hues! And we have a pretty, springlike duo of colours for you: peach and green. It's far from spring where I am, but I went with flowers anyway:

I am using a stencil from STAMPlorations - I have the similar stencil with smaller images, but couldn't resist adding the larger version to my collection. I positioned it so I'd have one of the large flowers front and not quite centre, then blended peach and green inks. Once I'd removed the stencil and die cut the panel, I also added a little green around the perimeter of the panel, just with the ink still on the brush. I was also able to colour in the sentiments with the same brush - either it is perfectly saturated, or in need of a good cleaning. :D As a final step, I added a few clear drops to the flower petals. 

Lots of peach and green inspiration from my Color Hues teammates, and our guest designer, Chick! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, The Greetery Birthday Blooms stamp & die, Uniko Pure Florals: Gerbera & Hero Arts Color Layering Wreath stamps, Simon Says Stamp intense black, Catherine Pooler bellini, Memento cottage ivy & bundled sage distress ink, ARTplorations bold botanicals stencil, Winnie & Walter Katharine Cutaways rectangle die, Studio Katia clear drops mix 1

More Valentines

This year I've made more valentine cards than I usually do - but it's a good excuse to send cards to family and friends I haven't seen for a long time! And since there are lots of card challenges floating around right now celebrating love and hearts and all that stuff ;) I thought I'd make and share a few more. 

First, a couple I made when my Concord & 9th turnabout skills weren't at their best...

I do like turnabouts when imperfection doesn't really matter. :D For this one, I used pale pink and blue, along with a medium blue and red. The red ink, the one I did last, didn't want to stamp perfectly, of course, so I added a few die cut hearts, with one covering the worst of the mess-ups. I added some glitter marker to them for some valentine shimmer. For the sentiment, I die cut a large heart and heat embossed a simple sentiment. This is probably the most clean and simple of today's cards, so I'm adding it to CAS on Friday for their LOVE challenge, as well as Just Us Girls Valentine challenge and Shopping Our Stash for their Love is in the Air challenge. (I've had this turnabout and the dies for more than a year.) 

The second card is similar, but with different colours: two pinks, the same blue, and gold. 

This time I thought I'd try a horizontal design, adding a pink heart with sentiment this time, and gold pearl paper as borders. Hard to believe, but the sentiment is stamped in blue, but between the pink cardstock and the embossing powder, it turned quite a nice pink! I also added a heart gem. I'm adding this card to Just Us Girls and Shopping Our Stash. 

Next, a bit more masculine design: 

This one lets patterned paper do most of the work. In my bag o' die cut hearts, I found this perfect woodgrain kraft heart, so that, a banner sentiment, and a small gold glitter heart were the main additions. This card is being added to Cupcake Inspirations: For Those You Love. 

Finally, today I had better luck lining up my turnabout stamp: 

This time I used two shades of pink and two of purple. And then I used one pink with the two purples on the stamped heart before I die cut it and once again added the embossed sentiment. This is going to Just Us Girls and Shopping Our Stash. 

I think I can now put my valentine supplies away! :) 

Happy Little Stampers: Stencils

Welcome to the February Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge! Ever since I discovered the fun of foiling with stencils, I've wanted to foil all the (stencil) things, so that's what I did for my card this month:

I have had this little rainbow stencil approximately forever, and have attempted to use it several times in the more traditional stencilling manners, without success. It doesn't seem to matter how carefully I mask parts of it off, I just don't like the result. (I suppose I could try with just one colour, but... :D) I started by inking and heat-embossing the sentiment, so I had a guide for where I wanted my rainbow. After adding transfer paste through the stencil and allowing it to dry, I used the rainbow foil - success! I don't get all the colours of the rainbow from this, but I'm quite pleased with how it looks. And an extra added bonus - some of the foil also adhered to the sentiment! You can see a bit of that in the close-up below. 

Stencils are so versatile - you will see that from all the beautiful cards on the HLS blog today! Whether you pull out a favourite stencil, or try using one that doesn't get a lot of love, I hope you will join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & PTI soft stone cardstock, A Muse Birthday Greetings stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, Hero Arts clear sparkle embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp rainbow stencil, Thermo-web duo transfer gel, i-Craft rainbow shattered glass deco foil, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle die

The Sisters Just Say No

I'm back with a second Saturday post, this one for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, where our brand new challenge is N is for NO. Although we vote on our challenge themes, this one seems to have stumped a lot of the sisters. For me, I thought a cat would make an ideal representative for the concept of NO. 

For me, it's the little "nope" off to one side that makes the card. :D Four stamps from four different companies, and a little stencilled floor for my cat to sit on, and this card was simple and fun to put together. 

How would you interpret NO on your paper crafting project? Check in on the sisters as well as our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Rina, to see how they used this naturally snarky theme, and then don't say no, join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, MFT Cat-itude stamp & die, Ink Road The Struggle is Real, Lawn Fawn Meow You Doin' & Simon Says Stamp/CZ Designs Simple Sentiments No. 1 stamps, Versafine onyx black, Memento grey flannel & milled lavender distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Memory Box scraped paint stencil, Winnie & Walter Katharine Cutaway pierced rectangle die, foam tape

Inkspirational: Hearts

Happy Saturday! With just over a week to go before Valentine's Day, Inkspirational has a new challenge for you, HEARTS! It's a Designer's Choice theme, and I have to confess I am the designer that picked hearts - I suppose I could have realized that just about every other stamping challenge out there would pick a similar theme at this time of year. :D Just means you have lots of opportunity to make heart and love themed projects! Here's mine:

My plan was to make some eclipse cards using patterned papers from a 12x12 Martha Stewart paper pad I found at a dollar store a few years ago, thanks to a tip from my snarky sister Barbara. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I didn't really have any appropriate word dies to use for a Valentines theme! (I do have a scripty *love*, but it didn't seem to suit the papers.) So I decided to go for a heart die cut instead, and had to pick this complicated one. :D It's cut once from the paper and once from red fun foam. After putting the layers together, I tucked the simple sentiment banner under one corner of the heart. When I make more, I may decide to opt for a simpler heart. ;) I'm adding this card to three other similarly themed challenges: Simon Says Stamp Monday (Love/Hearts) and Wednesday (Love is in the Air) challenges, as well as Shopping Our Stash, where the challenge is also Love is in the Air. 

My Inkspirational teammates have lots of heart-y inspiration for you - and not just valentines! I hope you will visit their blogs as well, then join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Martha Stewart Crafts Love Notes patterned paper, Clearly Besotted Message Me stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp scribble heart & MFT diagonal stitched rectangle dies, red fun foam

Seize the Birthday: Hearts

Welcome to a new Seize the Birthday Thursday! In keeping with the month of February (and seemingly every other card challenge out there :D), our topping is HEARTS. However, if you don't want to add hearts to your card, we always welcome any birthday-themed project to our gallery. 

For my card, I used hearts, but not the usual colours: 

I was stumped for an idea for this card for quite a while, until I remembered I had these heart-shaped balloon stamps. A perfect way to use hearts with an obvious birthday vibe. They are stamped in pastels of green, blue and yellow. The strings are stamped in silver ink - I was worried that in adding the bows, I would mess up, but they add just the right bit of whimsy to the card. After stamping and embossing the sentiment, I added a few tiny drops of silver Stickles to balance everything. I think this card works for both the Monday and Wednesday Simon Says Stamp challenges. 

There are beautiful heart-themed cards on the StB blog by all of the design team, and our newest surprise party guest, my good friend Carol! Stop by to be inspired, and then I hope you will play along!

 

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Mama Elephant Party Kit & Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamps, Versafine onyx black, Colorbox silver & Catherine Pooler melon ice, stone blue & tiara ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, silver Stickles

ABC Christmas: C & D

It's the first Wednesday of February, and time for a new ABC Christmas Challenge! Second month, so our second pair of letters are C and D. I had so many ideas for our C prompt, C for Christmas Carols! Here's my first one: 

How have I never paired these two stamps together before? Next time I may try to make his surroundings a little more tree-like. :D I added some pretty patterned paper that just so happens to have music on it, for the perfect combination. 

I could not pass up a chance to use my A Christmas Carol patterned paper, so I made a second card: 

No specific song in mind with this one, but a group of carollers work! I also used a sheet from a Christmas choir book. The panel is lightly distressed with antique linen ink around the edges, but it's not showing up in my winter light photography. 

Our second theme is D for Diamonds, and this one had me stumped for a while. Finally I found some patterned paper I could build my card around: 

Diamonds in the pattern and glitter paper that shines like diamonds. :D I split my main panel with a die cut sentiment from Lawn Fawn, and added some snowflakes to the card base and as embellishments with more glitter paper.

There's something fun about developing ideas for Christmas cards in February! And then in December, you've got a nice stash of holiday card ready to send! If your thoughts of Christmas need a little nudge, you'll find all sorts of festive inspiration on the ABC blog. You have the month to join us! 

Supplies: (partridge) Neenah natural white & Recollections black cardstock,  Pink Paisley Snow Village patterned paper,  Essentials by Ellen Twelve Days & Unity sentiment stamp, Versamark onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copics, Pinkfresh Studio braided tag die; (joy is in my heart) Recollections black cardstock, Graphic 45 A Christmas Carol patterned paper, page from choral choir book, antique linen distress ink, Sugar Pea Designs card-builder elements stitched die; (Merry Christmas) Neenah white & scrap navy cardstock, diamond glitter paper, Echo Park winter wishes patterned paper, various Hero Arts & Hello Bluebird snowflake stamps, Catherine Pooler juniper mist ink, Lawn Fawn Merry Christmas, MFT stitched rounded rectangle & Sizzix/Tim Holtz mini snowflakes dies,