Tuesday Alchemy #53 - Over the Pastel Rainbow

Hello!

It's time again for another challenge at Tuesday Alchemy.  The theme for Challenge #53 is Over the Pastel Rainbow, and who doesn't love using pastels! 

The prizes are awesome and are as follows: 

Di's Digi Downloads - $10 store voucher

Stitchy Bear Stamps - $10 Store Voucher

LEJDesigns - 4 Digital Images

The DT was challenged to choose a color and do a monochromatic card in that color, and I chose green.  Huh??  What was I thinking?  Green butterflies?  Green flowers?  I must have REALLY been in the mood for a true challenge.  LOL!  But not being one to back down, here is what I came up with:

How's that for some green?  There are green flowers out there, and who knows, maybe somewhere in the tropics there may be some type of green butterfly.  (These almost look like the common sulphur yellow that are soon to be seen in the garden.)

The image is from Stitchy Bear and is "Floral Swirl," which you can find here.  I paper pieced the flowers with scraps of green printed CS and popped them up on dimensionals, and the butterflies were white which I colored with yellow-green and green Copics.  There are butterflies printed which are part of the floral stamp, but I felt like going the 3-D route this time and covered them with my embossed die cut lovelies.

I glittered the stamens on the flowers.

I applied SU Shimmer Paint to the debossed areas of the base layer.  Why debossed?  Because I was sloppy in applying the paint to the embossed side and thought I'd give the debossed side a try before trashing the piece, and turns out I preferred the look! 

I made a nice, squashy bow out of hand dyed seam binding then added a custom charm which I already had on hand - perfect match!

And that, dear friends, is my monochromatic pastel card.  Thank you so much for joining me today, and do stop on over at Tuesday Alchemy to play along and see what the rest of the lovely DT has made for your inspiration! 

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Swirl (Stitchy Bear)
Paper: Always Artichoke, Wild Wasabi, Subtles Stack (SU); white scraps, green print scraps
Ink: printer
Extras: Dies: Ovals Stax 1 & 2 (Dienamics); Embosslits Beautiful Wings (SU), Copics, rhinestones, seam binding, custom charm, Shimmer Paint (SU), ef (unknown)

Challenges entered:

SCS TLC422 - Monochromatic Madness
Incy Wincy - Pastels
Love to Create #58 - Pastels
Inky Impressions #102 - Flowers
Charisma Cardz Challenge #11 - Diecuts
3 Girl JAM #14 - Green w/Ribbon
Frosted Designs - Up, Up and Away
Really Reasonable Ribbon #68 - Flowers & Ribbon
Red Carpet Studio #29 - The Secret Garden
613 Ave. Create - Anything Goes

Spring Fuchsia

Hello!

Today's card is, lo and behold, just because.  Not for a Design Team Challenge nor Guest Designer spot but Just.  Because.  Woohoo!  Ever since getting the puppy, I've had few days to do JB (Just Because) cards, so it was refreshing to get to do this one thanks to DH taking her on some errands and letting me have some crafting time all to myself yesterday.

It's pretty straightforward.  The image was colored with Copics and layered onto an embossed vellum layer, which I promptly covered up with a chipboard frame that I painted pink with CI paints in "Blush."  The embossed base layer was swiped with white pigment paint to enhance the design and give it a slightly whitewashed look.

The bow looks lavender, though originally it was white and I dyed it with two shades of CI paints, "Blush" and "Sky Blue" using the plastic bag squish technique.  (Put damp seam binding in small ziploc bag, put a bit of paint in there, then squish around.)  I was going for a mottled, pink/blue watercolor effect, but I guess I over squished, because guess what - pink and blue make...lavender!  Who knew.  But there is purple in the image, so it works. 

A pearl button and a couple of my small custom stickpins, plus some pearls at the upper left corner and this card was finished.

Thank you so much for taking the time to join me, and I wish you a lovely, leisurely day of crafting or spending time with your family, whatever floats your boat.  

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps: Old Fashioned Florals (Flourishes)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, white pigment
Paper: X-press It Blending Card, Basic Gray (SU), Annalee (Prima)
Extras: Dies: Ovals Stax (Dienamics); Classic Ovals Lg. and Floral Ovals (SB); Swirls ef, CI paints, Copics, stick pins, seam binding, pearls.

Challenges entered:

Oozak #12 - Anything Goes w/Spring
Love To Create - Pick Two (ribbon/pearls)
Timeless Tuesday #210 - Cards with Cardboard (chipboard frame)
Creative Card Crew #31 - Ribbon
City Crafter #149 - Shades of Pink
Simon Says...A Bit o' Green
Allsorts #197 - Springtime
Divas By Design - Buttons and Bows
Crafty Ribbons #40 - Anything Goes w/Ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. #197 - Easter/Spring
Delightful Challenges - Buttons, Bling, Embellishments
CI Paints - Anything Goes

MOJO Monday Sketch

Got Cake? Digi Darla Challenge Day

Hello!

It's challenge time over at Digi Darla's again, and this week's theme for Challenge #50 is "Food for Thought" which means an image which is either food or beverage related, and a sentiment.  One winner will receive 5 Digi Darla images, and any entries using a DD image get entered into a SECOND drawing for 3 images, so you could conceivably win 8, yes, eight Digi Darla images.  Very cool!

My card today is of one of my favorite subjects - cake.  Is there anyone who doesn't like cake in one form or another?  My favorite is layer cake, though I don't have a specific favorite cake or frosting.  I like them all.  Today's special is strawberry cake with chocolate frosting, topped with strawberries and slightly whipped cream.  YUM.

 
  
I colored the image, "Digi Darla's Cake Topped with Strawberries," with Copics and used the tip of a Blender Pen to add a bit of texture to the cake part.

I used several dies and punches to make the layers with the addition of a couple of pearls on the sentiment.

This is my favorite part, the bow.  I always love adding ribbon in one form or another to my projects.  This is a "messy" bow with a small crochet lace rosette on top and a small vintage button added to that, then topped off by one of my handmade stick pins.  

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope to see you over at the challenge where you can see what the rest of the lovely DT have come up with.

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps: DD Cake with Strawberries, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink: printer, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Blushing Bride, Whisper White (SU); X-Press Blending Card; Prima Sweet Fairy
Extras: Edgelits Adorning Accents die (SU); MSPAP, Labels One and Fancy Labels One dies (SB); Copics, seam binding, crochet lace, vintage button, Scallop Oval and Large Oval punches (SU), handmade stick pin, pearls.

Challenges entered:

IBS February Blog Hop (Bows)
Tuesday Throwdown #134 - Anything Goes
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Pink + ??? (in this case, blue)
Delightful Challenges - Frilly (Scallops and Lace)
IIC97 - Ribbon or twine
Really Reasonable Ribbon #66 - Spring colors and ribbon 
Crafty Ribbons #39 - Button Up
Pals Paper Arts #152 - Spring Fresh Colors (rose, aqua, red)
3 Girl JAM #12 - Anything Goes w/Ribbon
Sugar Creek Hollow - Metal Mania (the stick pin)
Pile It On #7 - Clips and/or pins

My Heart's All Aflutter

Hello!  

Time for another challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy, and this week's theme is "My Heart's All Aflutter."  Your project must contain hearts AND/OR things with wings.  How fun!  I loved this challenge and knew exactly what I was going to do because I had the perfect stamp with which to do it.  There are prizes involved, and these will be from A Creative Need (3 digital images), Bugaboo Stamps (7 digital images) and LEJ Designs (4 digital images).  So hurry on over and start playing - you have two weeks to get crafty!
My card was made using the digital stamp "Letters" from A Creative Need.

The image was colored with Copics and a small clear rhinestone heart was adhered in the middle.  The wings are grungeboard, covered in metallic gold paper with a bit of glitter added to them.

All of the papers, including background, letter background, and rose images, are from Gecko Galz with a little glitter added.

The "Love" stamp was heat embossed with my own blend of embossing powders and glitter.

Another rose peeking out.

A seam binding "messy" bow with a vintage button.  I dyed the ribbon using my new Copics airbrush system - can you spell F.U.N.?  And it got the ribbon the exact salmon-y color I wanted it to be.  At last!

And that, dear readers, is my card for this week's challenge.  Please pop on over to see what the other lovely Design Team have come up with and join us - it's a fun challenge and we'd LOVE to see what YOU create!

Have a lovely day, and happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps: "Letters" (A Creative Need); Love (Michael's dollar bin); Creative Elements (inside stamp, from SU); alphabet stamps (Recollections)
Ink: Versamark, Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Paper: Very Vanilla; Gecko Galz digital papers (Vanity Fair)
Extras: TH grungeboard wings, glitter, rhinestone heart, custom blended ep, Copics, seam binding, vintage button. 

Challenges entered: 

Incy Wincy Designs - Add Texture (heat embossing, decoupaged/glittered wings, bow) 
Love to Create #52 - Feelin' the Love 
Tammy's Scrapin' Corner #49 - Handmade Embellishments (bow and wings) 
Crafty Cardmakers #84 - Vintage Love 
Simon Says...Have a Heart 
Divas By Design - Winged Things 
Inky Impressions #96 - Love 
Crafty Ribbons #38 - Anything Goes w/Ribbon  
Frosted Designs - Love + Heart 
Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #24 - Non-traditional Valentine 
Allsorts #193 - Valentine 
My Sheri Crafts #103 - Valentine 
Sugar Creek Hollow #48 - Feathers and Fur 
RCS#23 - Where the Heart Is 
Creative Inspirations - Valentine's Day 
Eclectic Ellapu - Girly
Tuesday Throwdown #134 - Anything Goes

Shabby Ornament, and Challenge Day

Hello and good morning!

It's time for a new challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy, and this week's challenge is #45 - Anything But a Card.  How fun - you can make ANYTHING, so long as it's not a card.  The prizes are awesome:

5 digital stamps from 

and
$10 store voucher to 


So start crafting and let us see what you can do!

My project is another rosette, this time a cone ornament consisting of rolled squares of CS.  I learned this from my good friend Catherine Pooler over at StampNation (members go here, non-members here).

It was a little tricky to put together, but the end result is so worth the glue all over my fingertips.  Just ask my DD - this ornament now resides in her apartment.  

You can achieve different sizes of ornaments with different sized squares.  Mine is approximately 5.5" across, which was achieved with 2" squares.  They get a bit fiddly when trying to roll and glue them, but stick with it - it's worth the effort.  All papers except for the snowflakes were inked on the edges with distress ink.

For the centerpiece, I used Robyn's Fetish digital image "Gilded Dove." I printed it on white shrink plastic, then cut it out, shrunk it and colored it with Copics.  The jury's still out on whether it's better to color an image pre- or post-shrinkage.  I'll keep you posted.

Tip: Line art images are better for shrink plastic projects than silhouette images as there isn't as much ink to shrink.  That ink has to go somewhere, and too much of it in the initial stage can lead to smearing after shrinking.

Look closely and you can see the glasslike finish - this was achieved by flooding the colored piece with Ranger Glossy Accents.  It was my first time using it, and I LOVE it - it dries very quickly and with a wonderful hard shine.  I applied a ring of ostrich feathers behind the image, gluing it to a doily die cut (which you can barely see).

 I added some snowflakes to the lower right hand side that I first painted with ivory paint, then glittered and added pearl centers...

 ...and a soft, squashy messy bow with an antique brad to the upper left hand side for balance.  And I lightly glittered inside the points of the cones all the way around, then added a narrow gold ribbon for the hanger.

This is a Christmas ornament of the shabby chic ilk, but it doesn't have to come down after Christmas as it has winter appeal as well, and my DD plans to leave hers up until spring, unless I fail to come up with a spring/summer replacement, at which point she'll leave this up until I do.  Oh, the pressure.

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you'll hie yourself over to Tuesday Alchemy pronto and put yourself in the running for some neat prizes!

Happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamp: Robyn's Fetish Gilded Dove
Paper: K & Co. Classic K dp
Ink: printer, Ranger Distress Tea Die (inked edges of papers)
Accessories: Dienamics Let It Snowflake and doily dies, seam binding, pearls, Copics, Glossy Accents, SU Antique Brads, ClearSnap Fairy Dust Glitter "Pralines and Cream," gold ribbon, Creative Inspirations Ivory paint.

Challenges entered:

Simon Says...What's Your Favorite! (tool, stamp, product) - my faves are glitter and ribbon.
Delightful Challenges - Very Blingy
Charisma Cardz Challenge #49 - Christmas Makes
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #62 - Anything Goes & Ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #185 - Winter
3 Girl Jam Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #200 - "Deck the Tree Trimmings"
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Anything Goes at Christmas

Frosted Designs On the 8th Day of Christmas - 8 brands/products - Mine are:
Designer Paper, shrink plastic, feathers, Copics, glitter, ribbon, antique brad/pearls (counts as one), Ranger Distress Ink Tea Stain (for inking the edges of the papers).