Birthday Greetings

Hello and happy Monday to all! Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  It was sunny here for a change but cold north winds.  I was still wearing my winter jacket in the mornings as I was outside working in the gardens.

Today's card is one that I made for my card order for my friend.  I'm using Reverse Confetti Tall Blooms.

I started by embossing with white ep on some canson watercolour paper.  I then coloured the blooms using my Zigs.  I then cut them out by hand as I do not have the matching dies.

I also cut two different size tags from the Memory Box Pinpoint Mainstreet Tags - one from vellum and one from white c/s.  I smooshed some distress oxide inks onto my craft mat, spritz water and then tapped my paper in it. (sorry never wrote the colours down I used).

I used the greeting from the stamp set and stamped it onto some white c/s using Archival ink - vibrant fuchsia, then cut it out using the Simon Says stitched banner.  To make the flag banner at both ends, once I cut it the first time, I then removed the die, turned it around and placed the die close to the end of the sentiment - the stitching will line up from the precut stitching to the die, and then I ran it through again. If you don't have a die that fits your sentiments perfecting, this is a work-a-round, I do it all the time.

I adhered the flowers to the tag, then added some foam tape behind the sentiment for some dimension.  I made a double fushia bow from silk ribbon and adhered it to the top of the tags. The yellow gingham paper is some I had in my scrap basket.  I think it might be from Yellow Bicycle.

To finish off I added some clear sequins.

Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping in today.

Pauline

Theories #1

Hello all.  Does everyone struggle with masculine cards as I do?  I recently purchased as Tim Holtz - Theories stamp set from Simon Says Stamps when they had a sale, with masculine cards in mind.  I wanted to use my distress oxide inks so this stamp set was perfect for stamping over the background.

I started by applying my distress oxide inks to my glass mat, spritz with water then tapped my water colour paper into it, heat set it and repeated until I was happy.  Once it was completely dry it was a bit darker than what I had anticipated, but went with it anyway.  I stamped one of the images form the stamp set, using my Misti as I knew I would probably have to stamp it a few times to get a nice dark impression.  I used black archival ink for this.

I cut the image out using MFT wonky stitched rectangle, then used another die I purchased from Aliexpress (the rust colour paper in behind). I stamped Happy birthday (Simon Says Stamps) onto a piece of the rust paper and then used a stitched banner to cut it out -(also Simon Says).  The blue paper in the background is from Basic Grey, just some scraps I had in my basket, sponged some distress oxide vintage photo around the edges, then distressed them. Layered all this onto SU Not Quite Navy.

To finish off I added a couple of small enamel dots and a copper dot. Just finishing up another masculine card from the same set.  There are 4 images so my goal is to make a card using each.

Thanks for stopping by, have yourself a fabulous day!

Pauline

Lily of the Valley

Well, hello everyone! Today's card I made with Easter in mind, as well as I made a few of these for Mother's day and birthdays.  I ended up making 3 of these and boy were they easy.  I love dies when  they do most of the work for you.

I'm using Memory Box "Lilly of the Valley Frame" for my card. I started by die cutting it from white cougar 100 lb c/s. There are 2 pieces to this die, the outside square frame and the lily circle.

I coloured the lily with copic markers, a few shades of green and a few shades of the lilac. I also sponged some distress oxide ink onto a piece of white c/s to put behind the lily's. I used spellbinders circle die to cut out the distress background to adhere behind the lily frame.

I find lilac/mauve/purple designer papers hard to match up with inks, but I found some MFT papers from the Tranquil textures paper pack that seems to match quite well with the mauve c/s and the lily's. I added some silk ribbon to cover the transition between c/s and deisnger paper, then added a small bow on the side.

For finishing touches I used my clear wink of stella pen for the lily's, clear sequins and some pearls for the corners of the square frame.

I'm off for 4 days, but it doesn't look too promising for Bill and I to get out for some spring migration birding.  It's been raining since last night and rain today and tomorrow and Monday, so looks like our only good day will be Easter Sunday.  On the bright side, maybe I'll be able to create a few more cards this weekend.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend everyone! Wishing your a wonderful day!

Pauline

Simplest of Gifts

Well here we are in the middle of April, one would think we would be seeing some warmer temperatures and sunshine, well we've had nothing but cold temperatures and lots of rainy days. Looks like another week coming up of rain every day, very little sunshine this week. It's not blustery cold by any means although we woke up to some freezing rain/snow mix yesterday morning, and it's still cold enough to have the heat on.

Rather than share a pretty flowery card I decided to share my first Christmas card of 2019!! This is a digital image from Sassy Cheryl's called Simplest of Gifts, and you can find it here.

I pulled out my polychromos pencils to colour this one. Once coloured I sponged some SU lost lagoon ink around the edges. I then  trimmed it down to fit behind my frame. 

I stamped and embossed the sentiment onto some lost lagoon cardstock with white embossing powder.  Snowflakes were also cut from lost lagoon and some bazzill quartz c/s.

I added some foam tape behind the frame and popped this over my image.  Snowflakes were added on top and under the frame.  The sentiment was trimmed and added some foam tape to that as well on one end and adhesive on the other.  Twinklets diamond dust & Tim Holtz rock glitter were added to the ground area, and pearls to the centers of the snowflakes.

I'll list the supplies below.  Thanks for your visit today. Have yourself a fabulous day!

Pauline

Supplies:
Stamp - Sassy Cheryl's - digital Simplest of Gifts, Simon Says Stamps - tiny words christmas
Ink - versamark, polychromos pencils & gamsol, SU lost lagoon
Paper - Simple Stories - winter wonderland, white, SU lost lagoon
Dies - MFT - stitched rectangle frame, IO snowflake die
Misc - pearls, twinklets diamond dust, TH distress rock glitter, white ep, foam tape

Spring Cardinal

Hi there! You know how much I love birds and nature in general, well my co-worker asked for a special Mother's Day card for her Mom.  She asked if I could do something with a Cardinal on it.  Of course I can - right? Card makers can do anything! LOL.  So I was on the hunt for a cardinal image.  I have a few but they are Christmas/winter images and didn't think that would go so well for Mother's Day in May!

So, I did a search on Pinterest, looking for digital cardinal images and came across one that thought might work.  I resized it and then scaled down the darkness of black to light grey, printed it off and went with it.

I coloured the image using copic markers, and added some shading doing the pointillism technique.
From there I did some die cutting for the layers.  Designer paper is from Memory Box.

Finished off with some silk ribbon and double bow. pearls, Tim Holtz rock glitter, and a flower from Wild Orchid flowers. I was thrilled on how this one turned out!

Yesterday, we had the most beautiful day - it was 23C (almost 70F).  Today calling for some rain, and snow rain mix for tomorrow.  Winter just doesn't want to leave!

Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

Pauline

Supplies:
Image - digital off of Pinterest
Ink - copics - cardinal - R24, R27, R29, R59, beak- YR22, YR24, branch - E49, feet - YR24, flowrs - R000, R02, R05, YG13, YG45, G28, Y38, dots for shading - R01, G00, BG000, Y23
Paper - Memory Box, white, bazzill - quartz
Dies - MFT stitched scallop circle, Spellbinders circle, Joy craft - Square frame
Misc - pearls, silk ribbon, tim holtz rock glitter, quickie glue pen, wild orchid flower

Bowl of Beauty

Hello there!  Today I'm sharing Power Poppy's newest digital image called Bowl of Beauty. Marcella has outdone herself once again!

I was going to go with the no-line image, as I had printed both out, but decided to go with the black outline one.  I used copics to colour this.  I found this a bit of challenge especially for the large peony.  Large flowers intimidate me especially when colouring with copics, but I think I did alright on this one.  Wasn't really sure where I was going with the colours, as the colour yellow was not what I was thinking of for the Hellebores, but that's what I ended up with. I added shading under the bowl with prismacolour pencils.

Image was cut using an MFT scallop rectangle die.  I added some wink of stella to the centers of the flowers and some enamel dots.  The peach background paper is from SU (a few years old). I wasn't sure if I wanted a sentiment on the front, but came home from work yesterday and decided it did need something, so embossed  PTI birthday wishes onto some black c/s using white embossing powder.  I then used a banner die to cut one end and the scallop die to cut the other.

Also, many thanks for all you wonderful comments on our bird photography (previous post).  Your comments are greatly appreciated and most welcomed. I'll have more to share shortly.

Wishing your a fabulous day, thanks for visiting today!

Pauline