Stamps, Paper, and Ink

Friends Make the World a Better Place

Hello everyone! I'm glad you are here for my post for Fab Friday!

I'm loving critters and cute cards lately, and the Woodland Critters set from Pretty Pink Posh made it's way to my stash this week. I just needed a few more furry friends for my cards *wink*. Aren't these two adorable? I love the way they look like they're smiling.

I began by stamping the images in black, then die cutting a bunch of them. I colored them using Copics and added highlights with my white gel pen and the Wink of Stella to add shimmer. The banners, grass and background were made by sponging distress inks: Scattered Straw, Tattered Rose, and Evergreen Bough. I spattered some of the ink color and some water droplets to add texture. 

The "friends" sentiment was white embossed onto black card stock and then fussy cut. The sentiment at the bottom is from the Simon Says Stamp You Matter set. 

Here's the sketch for this challenge.

I hope you'll join in the fun and play along at Fab Friday!

Need more inspiration? Thanks so much for visiting today, have a great weekend!

Mindy Backes
Heather Heroldt
Amy Koenders
Brian King
Justin Krieger
Amanda Mertz
Brenda Myers
Janine Tinklenberg
Wendy Weixler

 Thanks so much for visiting today, have a great weekend!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

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Stamps, Paper, and Ink: Lots of Hugs

Lots of Hugs

Hello dear stamping friends!

Today I'm sharing a card I made using the Lots of Hugs stamps from MFT and the darling bear from the SSS set called Abby's Spring Showers. 

I began by sponging light blue ink to highlight background area of the card front and adding a strip of gingham DSP down the side. The images were colored with Copics markers, then touched up with the white gel pen. Brushing on Wink of Stella added shimmer to the hearts and the umbrella. Lastly, I covered the hearts and the bear's nose with clear Nuvo Drops.

This card is made with love for a recipient in a children's hospital so I had to keep embellishments to a minimum. 

I was inspired by the wonderful talent of the CAS(E) This Sketch team, I loved their sketch this week. 

 I so appreciate your coming by my blog today. Sending thanks and a hug to you!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: MFTstamps - Lots of Hugs, Simon Says Stamps - Abby's Spring Showers and coordinating dies

Ink: Memento Black, Distress Ink - Broken China, Versamark

Accessories: Wink of Stella, Nuvo Drops, White Embossing Powder

 

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Beautiful Day. Doodle Buds.

This is really a BIG smile...

Blissful Birds

Beautiful Berries to Brighten Your Day

 Hello friends, and welcome to my crafty blog today. 

With the gorgeous days we've had recently, I've been doing a bit more fishing on the lake than crafting, and loving it! We also had a wonderful celebration for Mother's Day and our granddaughter's Bday. She has turned 2, can you believe it? 
 

 Today is the special day at Papertrey Ink called Create Along with Us and we're invited to share a card inspired by one of their designs from the new products release. I just had to play along!

The beautiful  card made by Nichole inspired me with it's clean lines of the graphic die cut. I also loved the way she combined a die cut word with a sentiment strip in the photo below. You may find her post HERE.  

Here's my full card using the Beautiful Berries stamps and the Mix & Mat Flourish Die.

I added Wink of Stella to the You die cut. Then I painted Glossy Accents on top to seal in the pretty sparkles, and used it to add a few dewdrops to the berries too. 

This close up shows the textures. I just love the warmth and freshness of yellow and blue together. I only wish you could see the real hues as yellow is a bit hard to photograph. The berries are stamped in layers for more detail. I look forward to stamping them in many color combos. 

Thanks for visiting me today! Hope your day has been brightened too. 

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Beautiful Berries - Spring Stamp Set and Dies ; Scripted Stamp Set and Dies

Paper: SU - White, PTI - Harvest Gold, Blueberry Sky

Ink: PTI - Blueberry Sky, Amethyst Allure, Green Parakeet, New Leaf

Accessories: PTI - Mix & Mat Flourish die. 

 

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The Stamp Review Crew: Butterfly Basics Edition

It's Your Day

Awesome Day

 Hello, my stamping friends! 

It's time for another new challenge at Fab Friday to use Dapper Denim, Calypso Coral and Rich Razzleberry for your project.

I have to tell you that I like sketch challenges much better than color combos which I sometimes find to be well, uh, difficult. Ahem, a challenge. These colors threw me for a loop, so I did what so often happens with me and colors - I went for it boldly!



I guess what surprised me most was how dark the stamped images were with the Coral. I do LOVE these funky flowers and how the Denim worked as an accent color. The word awesome is die cut and popped up. WPlus 9 dies leave only a very slight border and they are a breeze to line up with the stamped image. 

Can't wait to see what the others on the DT came up with! 

Mindy Backes
Heather Heroldt
Amy Koenders
Brian King
Justin Krieger
Amanda Mertz
Brenda Myers
Janine Tinklenberg
Wendy Weixler

 Hope you can't wait to give this a try too. Till next time, hugs~

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: WPlus9 - You Equal Kind, and dies

Paper: Whisper White

Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Dapper Denim, Calypso Coral

Accessories: MFT - Dienamics Stitched Scalloped Basic Edges

 

Polar Pal - Thinking of you!

Hello crafty friends, 

I hope today finds you well at the start of a new week! 

I've been grabbing moments when I can to color and today's card features the adorable grinning bear from the Polar Pals stamp set from My Favorite Things. This set has been on my favorites list for a long time. When I inked it up for the first time and colored with Copic markers I was grinning too. 

Just sitting here thinking of you. I love that sentiment!  And the expectant look on Mr Bear's face. I added Nuvo crystal dots in white to embellish, and in black to accent the eyes and nose. A dot from my white gel pen was added to the cheeks. 

I'm playing with the MFT Weekly Sketch Challenge 331 and was so inspired by all the cute entries. Especially admired the way Wanda used a double circle to add dimension to her focal point. I gave that a try and really like the result and the double rows of stitching. 

That's it for me today! Thanks to you for coming by! I've been loving your comments and friendly support. 

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

All supplies are from My Favorite Things stamps. 

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Pretty Patterns for Make It Monday

Hello to you, are you having a good week so far? 

Our weekend was wonderful, we had almost all the family here for Easter! Our grands always make the gatherings more fun, they are 15 months and 23 months now. I loved having them! Getting the house back in order and the laundry done today is also good. 

Had a little time to stamp something for Make It Monday today, using the Don't Forget to Write kit. The technique is using or creating  a pattern behind a window. 

I combined patterned paper and die cut flowers for my card from the kit, stamping the sentiment on the striped paper. 

I drew a rectangular border around the card. It was one of Nichole's tips from the new release at Papertrey, and I wanted to try it while it was still fresh in my mind. (You can find it HERE)

I just could NOT stop until I flecked some gold from my Gansai Tambi watercolors on the panel and added Nuvo drops. I just had to dirty it up, if you know what I mean?  All that white was entirely too clean for this girl, lol!

Have a wonderful day and I'm so thankful you came by to visit. Come back again!

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

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This is really a BIG smile...

The Stamp Review Crew: Painted Petals Edition

A Rainbow of Bitty Butterflies

Every month fans of Papertrey Ink have a chance to CASE the designers with their Create Along with Us feature. I pulled out the Bitty Butterflies dies and stamps to create a BOLD and colorful card for spring. 

I die cut the butterlies from a rainbow of shades of Papertrey Ink card stock and then stamped the butterfly details over each image in matching inks. Click to enlarge the photo to see them better. 

Next I arranged the butterflies and placed each into the negative space of die cut white card stock using the inlaid die technique. IRL the colors are bright and jazzy! I added a black sentiment die cut, hand drawn accents (antlers), stamped dot clusters and added a black twine bow. I was inspired by the card by Laurie Schmidlin. She used a bold black sentiment with a wash of color and black accents, including striped paper. You can see Laurie's beautiful card HERE.  I've been a fan of Laurie's since I started posting cards over 13 years ago. So happy to see her designs on the Papertrey blog! 

If you ever see a rainbow of butterflies, make sure to look for the black dots. I just know they will be there! 

Just kidding. 

Thanks to you for visiting and spending time here on my blog, even putting up with my silly jokes. What's really funny is that I. laugh. out. loud. at. them.

Have a great day, friends!

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

You Have My Heart

Hi, happy Monday to you! 

If you've been following my blog you probably already know that' I'm a dog lover. I've posted photos of our beagle Josie (see sidebar) since she was 6 weeks old and soon she will turn 7. I have always had a soft spot for the darling stamps in You Have My Heart from My Favorite Things, especially the adorable image of the girl and her dog sitting together. 

I did a little masking of the image to create the sponged background using Distress Inks, then colored the image with Copics. The heart was die cut from Crisp Cantaloupe card stock (SU) and brushed with the Wink of Stella pen for shimmer and sparkle.

The dies and patterned paper are from MFT, and their Weekly Sketch Challenge was my inspiration. 

Thanks so much for your visit today. Sending big hugs your way!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

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Quilted Summer for Fab Friday Color Challenge

 Hey, hey! It's F-ri-i-day! I had summer on my mind today, and I whipped up a flowery quilt. Out of paper, of course. 

 The color challenge at Fab Friday this week is fun and reminds me of sunshine and flowers!

I admit I got a little carried away with the quilt theme, once I'd decided to use the Quilted Summer set from Papertrey Ink. Another one of my sets I've not used yet - or at least I don't remember using this one. The photo below gives the truest hues of the colors. 

If you click to enlarge the photos you may see the deeply embossed stitched squares on the white background panel. 

I made it look like patterned paper by stamping the small pinwheel image in So Saffron on each square. It does remind me of a homey fluffy comforter. Continuing with the sewing theme, I added a clear button and gold thread for embellishments to the popped up floral spray. 

For more great projects, check out the blogs of the Design Team. Come stamp with us at this week's Fab Friday challenge.

Mindy Backes
Heather Heroldt
Amy Koenders
Brian King
Justin Krieger
Amanda Mertz
Brenda Myers
Janine Tinklenberg
Wendy Weixler

 Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you will come again. Have a great weekend.

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink: Quilted Autumn (and dies), Mama Elephant: Charmed and die (banner)

Paper: Whisper White, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, In Colors Envelope Paper

Ink: Peek-A-Boo Peach, Calypso Coral, Mint Macaron

Accessories: We R Memory Keepers Next Level Embossing Folder: Quilted, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Square Dies, Stampin' Up! - button and taffeta ribbon; gold thread

 

Transformation - a card makeover for Papertrey Ink

I love games. Card games, board games. Kid's games or party games. My husband's sister said she never knew the real me until we played the friendly family card game. I guess the word I am looking for, is competitive. Yep, that would be me! 

So when the kind folks at Papertrey Ink give us an opportunity to win our $300 wish list of their stamps and wonderful products, I say, count me in!

For this contest (you can read about it HERE), we are to pick a card we weren't totally pleased with, and using tips from the fabulous projects they posted today, we are to remake our card. 

Here's my transformed card for the contest. A random drawing, btw, so everyone can have a chance to win just by trying. Don't you love that? Don't you hope I win? (giggle)

I made a little list of the tips I gleaned from the designers. Michelle used black paper behind a dotted die to add a great accent to her focal point. I added a black circle behind the die to add interest to the focal point, and used a twine bow to adorn it at the top. That was another tip. Lastly, I die cut the group of flowers in the cluster, and then die cut the two largest flowers to layer on top for dimension.

Here's the card I originally made. It always bothered me that the sentiments were a bit out of balance, although I did it intentionally to take part in a sketch challenge.

 I think the extra details really do add something special to the makeover card. I also added pearls and the sparkle of Wink of Stella on the sentiment die cut. The stamps and die cuts used are from the Don't Forget to Write Kit from Papertrey Ink.

I love learning from other designers and trying to improve at this craft is always a fun challenge. Thanks to you for visiting today. I hope you've been inspired.

I'd love to hear from you!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!