Monday, March 18, 2024

With Sympathy - Color Hues Challenge

 I'm playing along in the current challenge at Color Hues #83 Cream and Blue challenge.  The inspiration provided by the design team were so pretty and gave me a lot of inspiration! The link is above, if you want to take a look.


It seems that I always need a few more sympathy cards in my stash and these two soft colors were perfect for the card I had in mind.  

I embossed the stamped image with cream EP, then die cut the image and added to more underneath, to add dimension.  Then I stenciled only the hummingbird, with two shades of blue ink.  I added some white metallic ink splatters with a fan brush.  All of this was placed on a cream color die cut panel, then onto the blue card base.

Here is what I created.

 

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I used dies and stamps from Pinkfresh, ink from Condcord & 9th, cream embossing powder from SSS and cardstock from SU!  Let me know if you need any details.  You can comment below or look for the "contact me" option along the right side of this blog page.

Thanks for stopping by!




Thursday, February 29, 2024

How much you're loved!

 Hey all,

I've been creating a lot of cards, but seldom take the time to post them here.  Who knew I would be so busy after I retired?  Actually, sometimes I'm not "busy", but I'm doing many things that I enjoy.  I've been walking every day, for several weeks now.  That's something I want to continue, year round.

I'm doing a lot of reading, too.  There are SO many great books.  I've been a member of a book club for over a year now and I enjoy it so much.

Well, onto the card I made this morning.  😀

I used some stamps and dies from Concord & 9th.  First time using these, even though I've had them since mid-December!  The set is called Parcel of Petals.  Even the little envelope die is included. 



Since my favorite color is purple, I looked through my stash of card stock for shades that would work together for this bouquet.  I used a neutral cardstock for the envelope and the card base.  Sahara Sand (by Stampin' Up!).  I've had most of my colored card stock for so many years, that I don't know which ones are still available or discontinued.  Apparently, I need to get busy using up what I have on hand.  Right?

        Thank you taking a look today!

        




 



Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Hello!

It's been a very long time since I've shared anything on my blog. Life just got very, very busy.  I've been continuing to create cards, but I've not taken the time to photograph my cards or share them.  Now that I'm retired (YAY!) I hope to get back to blogging regularly.  Fingers crossed!

Anyway, if you're still subscribing after all these years, here are a couple of cards I created recently.

This is a card I made for one of our great-nephews.  He's turning two years old in just a few days.  That cute patterned paper is from Simple Stories.  The critter is by Reverse Confetti and the die is from PTI.  I don't often color images, but I challenged myself to use my Prismacolor pencils and some Gamsol to blend the colors.  I definitely need to practice!

Now, I'm finally getting into Christmas card mode.  It seems early, I know.  But it takes quite a while to make the number of cards that I need.  So, earlier is better.


Both the background stamping and the heat embossed greeting are from Simon Says Stamp.  Ink from Concord & 9th.  I popped up the greeting panel on some foam tape to add some dimension.

I used an embossing folder on the focal panel, then did some subtle ink blending on the pinecones and branches.  The embossing folder and greeting are both from Simon Says Stamp.  I don't have the dies for the sentiments, so I fussy cut it.
That's all I've got for today and I'm feeling VERY rusty at blogging.  I feel like I'm learning from scratch all over again.  Yikes!

Thanks for taking a look.  See you soon!
Susie


Friday, July 6, 2018

Ahhhhh, Neutrals

I'm trying something a little different for me.  No paper crafting post this time.

I've always loved photography.  Most of my cousins probably remember me taking a lot of photos at family gatherings, over the years!  I've not taken any photography classes, although I would like too.  I saw the following link-up over at Apple Apricot.  It's a blog I've followed for a long time, because of the beautiful photos everyone links up.
This link up seemed like the perfect excuse for me to head outdoors to look for some photo opportunities!

The theme for the July party is - Simply Neutrals #46

Our monthly link up party


Use the links I've provided to head over to the blog and see some amazing photos taken in Switzerland!

Below, is my neutral photo.  I took this a couple of days ago, in a local park, during a very early morning walk.  The weather was warm and humid, but the sunrise was beautiful as I made my way back home from the park.
I am such a morning person; always waking early.  So, on the weekends I head out the door at sunrise to enjoy all that nature has to offer.  The fresh air, sunshine and the sounds of many bird songs.  Beautiful!

Thank you for stopping by,

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Distress Oxide Inks - I'm hooked!

I bought a few Ranger Distress Oxide Inks a few months ago, but hadn't experimented with them much.  Since I already enjoyed using distress inks, I KNEW I wanted to do more with the oxides.  So, I've been watching videos by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner to learn as many techniques as I can.  A few weeks ago, I attended the StampScrapArtTour.  The Ranger booth had so many more colors of oxides, than I can find locally.  I took advantage of the opportunity and picked up a WHOLE lot more of those inks.  I also bought the Tim Holtz glass craft mat.  After using my new inks and the glass mat all of yesterday afternoon....I'm hooked.   These inks blend like butter and look so soft, but yet rich.  Wow!

For three of the cards I'm sharing, I used techniques that I learned from videos by Jennifer McGuire.  HERE is a link to her YouTube channel.

I used ink blending over heat embossed images on this first card.  After blending the ink, I painted the leaves and flowers using just water.


For the next two cards, I blended several colors of distress oxide ink onto a card stock panel, then spritzed a stencil with water and placed it onto the inked panel.  I pressed and held it in place for a minute or two, to wait for the water to be absorbed into the ink.  The result is a "lifting" of color where the stencil was placed.  It's subtle, but very pretty.  You may have to click on the photos to get a larger view.  It's much prettier in real life.


This was such a fun technique and much easier than I thought it would be.  I looking forward to doing more of this!

My last card today is much different than the previous cards.  For this one I heat embossed my image using clear embossing powder.  Then, using a water brush, I colored the image with distress inks.  Just smoosh some onto a craft mat and pick up color with a wet brush.  I rarely color on black card stock, so this was quite an experiment for me.  It's something I might have to play around with a bit more, to see what else I can do.
Well, now you know how I spent my Saturday afternoon!  I had planned to host a crafting day at my home yesterday, but the snow storm that was forecast changed those plans.  Thankfully, we didn't get any snow.  That was a very NICE surprise!

Thanks for stopping by!



Monday, January 1, 2018

Crafting Time....Finally!

I know that it's been a very long time since I posted on my blog.  I've missed it so much!  I did make some Christmas cards this year.  But not nearly as many as usual.  Life has just been so full!

Anyway, during this break from work I've managed to carve out some time to spend at my craft table.  I'll share what I created this weekend...most of them I made today.

Here you go.  Be prepared for lots of photos.  You've been warned!









 All of these cards feature some of Stampin' Up's designer series papers.  The patterns are so varied and so pretty.  I think my favorite of these cards is the masculine one, using the Wood Textures dsp.  On two of the "wood" strips I layered two pieces of cardstock beneath the panel to add some dimension to the card.  That card was fun and SO easy to make.

The other papers are from Stampin Up's Painted Autumn DSP, as is all of the cardstock.  All of the sentiments are Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for taking a look!





Saturday, July 1, 2017

Mini Album Baptism Gift

I recently needed a baptism gift a sweet little girl.  For several weeks I tried to decide what kind of gift to buy.  Something a little different; not wanting to give a duplicate of what someone else might have chosen.
Finally I had an idea.  A mini album.  It would be a personal and unique gift AND I love creating these little albums.  This is only the third one I've created and I learn something each time I've created one.  Little tweaks to help the process and, hopefully, improve the final product.
These are so much fun to create.  But if you decide to give it a try, be prepared to devote quite a few hours to the process.  It really can't be hurried and, personally, I wouldn't want to hurry it.  It's a labor of love and the entire process brings me so much joy.

A couple of years ago I came across a video tutorial by Wilna Furstenberg.  HERE is a link to her blog post, which includes the video.  I had never even thought about attempting to do scrapbooking, much less create a mini album....from scratch.  Her project originally caught my attention because it was coffee cup themed.  That's what hooked me.  Then I realized what a unique gift a mini album could be.  And, since this was a small album.....maybe I could attempt this.  One thing led to another and now I've made a total of three albums.  I've strayed far from the coffee theme, though!

Well, I got quite wordy.  Enough talk.  How about a few photos?  Actually, quite a few.
You've been warned.  :)


For the recipient's privacy, I've blurred the name on the album cover.  This album measures approximately 5" x 7" closed.  The first album I created was smaller.  Since I was new to mini albums, a smaller project wasn't quite so intimidating!
The lace I used on this cover, I also used on the baptism card I made.

The following photos are the pages.  I've included a couple of closeups of some of the smaller details or textures.  You can click on each photo to see a larger pic.
That adorable little girl is the recipient of this album.











That's K and her baby sister J. So sweet!





On most of the pages I used a combination of quotes (found on Pinterest and printed on photo paper), stamped images and die cuts.  A few pages have "gems" for a bit of bling, and one page a piece of lace and some pink tulle (tucked behind the top of a quote).  That page is one of K standing in front of a window in a pink tulle dress.  She's absolutely adorable.  I can't even describe what a blessing she is to her family and all of us around her.

If you stayed with me throughout this long blog post...thank you.  I hope you enjoyed taking a look at what I created.  Maybe you'll try your hand at creating a mini album?   I hope so.





If you have questions about any of the supplies I used, you can contact me through the Contact Me section in the sidebar of this blog.

With Sympathy - Color Hues Challenge

 I'm playing along in the current challenge at Color Hues #83 Cream and Blue challenge.  The inspiration provided by the design team we...