Happy Birthday Flowers

There are a few more cards made with my SSS Favorite Flowers stamp set.  This cute little stamp set makes the most lovely single layer cards and, in this case, birthday cards.

The sentiments were made with my Penny Black Sweet Wishes and Sprinkles and Smiles stamp sets.

I think these are the cutest - loving the variation in color and the mix and match sentiments.

So fun and cute, I figure I must put this stamp set away and come back later just to make some variation in style and design.  No promises though, as I really enjoyed making these cards.

A Fabulous Birthday Card

I'm stopping in while out of town to share a card Brandy made.  She forwarded this picture to me and I gasped - I think this is such a wonderful card.  Brandy would tell you how easy it was to make too.  She followed the technique shared by Dawn Woleslagle from W Plus 9 in this video.  She used her Distress inks (Wilted Violet, Ripe Persimmons,  Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Peeled Paint)  to color the balloons and her Nuvo Crystal Drops to make those domed, pearl-like drops.  Easy and simple, but a fabulous birthday card to make someone feel special.  The sentiment is stamped in Archival Black Ink using a Penny Black Sweet Wishes sentiment stamp.  It is the perfect crisp finish to the card.

It seems that Brandy and I are off to a great, crafty start to the new year.  I'm out of town at the moment, but trying to stay up with your posts as well, so I'll be around soon.  Then, I hope to be home for a while with less traveling on the horizon so that I can share more crafty creations with you.

A Masculine Birthday Card Set

Popping in to say a quick hello and hoping that January hasn't been too cold or snowy for you this year.  Of course, here in Phoenix we don't have those sorts of complications, so I'll send some sunshine your way.

The card today is a very simple one - made for the gift exchange at Christmas and not shared because of lazy forgetfulness.  These photos were taken back when the Christmas tree filled the front room and all the good light was gone.  Still, one layer cards are always an inspiration.

The tree is stamped in green ink using Darkroom Doors Tree stamp, although any evergreen would do.  The sentiment is from SSS's Handwritten Sentiments stamp set in black Archival Ink.  I simply wiped off the left hand edge of the sentiment to make it fit and simplify the design.

All in all, a nice set for which I think the recipients will find a good use.  How's your crafting in the new year?  Inspired or tired?  I'm enjoying the less hectic pace of crafting - thus how I found these unedited gems.  Trying to stay inspired and engaged in my hobby includes some downtime as well.  Soon we'll be planning a milestone celebration in our family and then a graduation so there is much to craft about.  See you again soon.

Birthday Bowling Celebration

Hello everyone!  I get the pleasure of sharing with you today a card made by Brandy.  She's used Art Impressions Spare Me stamp set to create this funny birthday card.  The focal image was stamped onto Bristol paper and colored with Inktense watercolor pencils.  I think she got the shading beneath our bowling ballerinas just right and the picture doesn't do the sparkling bowling balls justice!  Brandy also created her own patterned paper using the bowling pin stamp from the set.  The shading and coloring on the pins is wonderful too!

Art Impressions stamps are super fun and easy to color making card assembly a breeze when the colored image is the star.  I'm so glad I could share this with you today!

Recycled Card

I had a container of ribbon that was a free gift from an Ellen Hutson with this pretty flower as a thank you.  I couldn't leave it alone and fussy cut the flower out to make this card.  I simply paired the flower with some green cardstock to frame the flower on a patterned paper glued to a kraft card.  A little organza ribbon as an accent and I have a cute little note card.  Perfect, don't you think?

A Flowery Thank You

I was fussing around with my kinda old SSS Favorite Flowers stamp.  This is a classic layering stamp set before layering stamp sets were cool.  I used a variety of inks and stamp sets to supplement this card.  A lot of fun that I wanted to share with you today.

Hope all is well in your crafting world.

A Birthday Set of Cards

I'm back today to share some more pictures of cards made with my friend Kyle for her Christmas gift exchange.  I'd apologize for the volume of photos, but that is the reason for my delay in posting and so I'll just say that this has taken me a while.

This card set was made with my Concord and 9th You are Enough stamp onto Bristol paper using black Archival Ink  and Prima Oil Pastel crayons .  The crayons made it easy to make multiple colors of card fronts pretty rapidly.  We scribbled the solid stamps with the crayon and then mopped the stamp with water and a brush to activate the oil pastel.  This made stamping with some variation in color easy to do.

After the flower was stamped, I die cut the card front with my W Plus 9 Sunshine Layers die and a sentiment using my Penny Black Sprinkles and Smiles stamp set.  The splatters were added by flicking watered down oil pastels onto the card fronts.  A very nice effect.

It has been a while since using my Prima Oil Pastels. A great tool though with wonderful effect and a very easy card to make multiples.  In the end, we made more than 20 of these.  I gave most away all ready, but hope to use this technique again.

By Your Side

This card set is from a design put together for my friend Kyle's Christmas gift exchange.   I needed to get some photos taken to make this post and it has taken me quite a while with the holidays, a trip to Las Vegas and a trip for work thrown in for good measure.  This card design was perfect for multiples and created a set that I thought was endearing.

The card front was made with a piece of kraft cardstock die cut with my Concord and 9th By Your Side die.  I cut another piece from white cardstock which we then used a Distress tool to color with Distress Ink.  We used Scattered Straw, Peacock Feathers and Walnut Ink to color the birdies
 

The sentiments on the outside and inside of the card were made using the By Your Side stamp set.  We made a total of 24 of these cards before it was over so I have a few in the stash and used some as gifts.  I'm in love with this die and plan some other cards for later in the year.

It is good to use the supplies in the stash and this is one I've meant to use for a while.  I'm still grateful for Kyle's extra work helping me to put these together even a month later!

Add a Little Birthday Sparkle

I've been in a watercoloring mood for a while now and this card set I'm sharing from you didn't dampen my spirits a bit.  Instead, they turned out so lovely that it spurred me on.  I'm expecting more for 2017 myself, but you never know what latest and greatest might catch my crafty fancy.

Today I'm sharing cards stamped in black Archival Ink using my new to me Rubbernecker Stamps Thorny Rose stamp.  I also used my new to me Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  I stamped onto Bristol paper because everyone says how easy the Zig markers are to use on that type of paper.  They were right!  I used the markers to lay down color in strategic places and a waterbrush to spread the color over all the petals.  The results are amazing!  A simple finish with a Spectrum Noir Glitter pen adds some sparkle to the page.  This is why I had to use my Penny Black Sprinkles and Smiles stamp set for the sentiments.

Wow - that's a lot of cards.  They, too, will go into the stash to be given away - probably as a set or in a card set for gifts.

12 Days of Christmas 2016 Style

 

I've enjoyed a season of gift giving over the past decade where I have made a set of 12 gifts for my niece and nephew's and a family friend.  This has been such a tradition that I don't know how to stop.  My niece and nephew's are approaching 10 years old - that magic pre-teen age where such things are seen as blase at best and a nuisance at worst.  Still, I think I have one more year in me.  This is the bags I stamped for this year's gifts.  I decided to stamp in black Archival Ink and they color with my Zig Clean Color pens and glitter.  Simple, but very effective decoration though the cloudy skies here didn't lend to very nice photos.

This first gift - pear hand soap for the kitchen.  A much needed post-holiday gift!

The second gift - a bag of turtle candies.  This year's gifts were heavy in the snacking - a reaction to the fact that most of the kids are moving to an older age...

Third day - dry chicken noodle soup mix in a jar with an adorable gingham fabric top.

Fourth day - a set of cards and some M&Ms for snacking while writing cards - pandering to the little ones!

















Fifth day - gold nail polish  for the girly girls in the bunch.










Sixth day - some goose turd shaped toys that expand into Christmas shapes when soaked in water.  I never said I didn't pander to the boys too!  I found these in the Christmas section at Walmart - meant less as goose poop and more as stocking stuffers :)










Seventh day - hot pads - there's no reason, just that I found a set that I thought was adorable and wanted to gift them...
















Eighth day - a small personal iron cast skillet to make a baked cookie for topping with ice cream.












Ninth day - some soft, fuzzy socks.

















Tenth day - aches and pains soak for those tender toes tired from all the dancing and leaping.












Eleventh day - Starbucks tin of cocoa and a bag of marshmallows.
















Twelfth day - Pretzels, peppermint chocolate melts and sprinkles to make candy melt pretzel bites.

I can see my days of creating this set of gifts is diminishing.  Life has and ebb and flow and probably will flow back my way if I am blessed with grandkids which I hope to be quite a few years in the future.  For now, I'm going to keep pinning ideas for next year and will look forward to the next opportunity at contagiously crafting.  Hope all your gifts were completed as desired.