Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Using Capsule Crafting by Andie

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title:  Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.  As the quarantine process has extended and even though there are re-openings everywhere, out of an abundance of caution and love for our fellow citizens, we continue to isolate to help slow the spread of the virus.  As such, we decided to modify the challenge for the month of June.  Instead of a weekly challenge, we determined to use a capsule crafting approach.  Capsule crafting was created by Kristina Werner and you can see her take in these posts.  I explained how I chose my capsule supplies in this post.  

I decided to have one more crafty session with this month's capsule crafting using Brandy's delightful mood board.  These cards were made with the SSS Beautiful Day stamp set which I stamped and colored with my Distress Oxide inks and then fussy cut the images out.  I  ink blended a background with Distress Oxide inks to be the ombre sentiment strip stamped with my Clearly Besotted Simply Said stamp in black Versafine ink.  

For this one, I played with the placement of the strip, but I like the first one best.

Here I tried my hand at a bit of a round shape.  Not sure I like how it turned out, but it isn't awful so I kept the card.

For this last card, I stamped using Distress Oxide ink and my Simon Says Stamp You Are background stamp.  I was just playing around, but in the end I like how this one turned out too.  So much fun to be inspired by and challenged to use some of these older supplies.  I have one more post to edit and get up before I'm done with my capsule.  I've had a blast this month.

Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Week 8 by Andie

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title.  This is our eighth week of challenges.  I present to you Week Eight of the Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.

Brandy's Challenge for Andie:

Cool/sweet Treats with a summer pallet. 

Your color pallet and inspiration photo are provided.

I had so much fun with the challenge this week.  Again, this challenge caused me to think outside my typical box.  I remembered a free 6 x 6 patterned paper pad with coordinating ephemera in the stash.  I pulled that out with the intention to use it to make cards just using the ephemera in a collage style card.  However, the ephemera didn't have a lot of sweet treats so I went searching what to add.  I had my Silhouette machine out for another project and so I just decided to search for a cut file that fit.  I found these delightful popsicles and away we went.   

The sentiments are from two different stamps sets.  "Happy Birthday" is from the Simply Said stamp set from Clearly Besotted and the "today is all about you" is from the Reverse Confetti Word Up stamp set.  Other than that, it's a patterned paper show.  A couple of the cards I added Crystal Accents to create some shine.  Otherwise, the cards seem to make themselves.

I'm not sure we meant to have these challenges go on so long.  Arizona is opening back up, but both Brandy and I are being cautious about how much we expose one another until we see a little more concrete data.  As such, we continue to miss our time together.  We've decided to shake up the challenge a bit for the month of June.  More on that next week.

Happy June, everyone.  It's officially here.

Welcoming a Baby Boy Amidst Tragedy

The friend of an acquaintance recently had a preemie baby boy.  The family then, tragically, lost a close family member.  This sort of tragic situation brings home the concept of a bittersweet blessing.  This baby boy is so sweet and brings joy with his (early) arrival, with steady progress towards health and coming home.  When you lose a close family member, death is not sweet in any way and the providence of a newborn baby takes on a bittersweet sentiment.

Even more reason to celebrate the new arrival.  My friend and I decided to create a basket of gifts and I made this card using my Hero Arts Fun in the Sun stamp set. I watercolored the images stamped onto watercolor paper and die cut using my Waffle Flower Moon and Stars die to create the visual interest in the front of the card.  A little bow and some foam squares and this simple, but pretty card is completed.  We purchased some rubber duckies for the basket and this seemed appropriate.

I also went into the stash and found some soft, pretty yarn that matched the rest of the gifts and crocheted up this blanket for the baby and mama.  So fun and I hope a blessing in the midst of their sorrow.

Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge Week 5 by Andie

During this time of quarantine, Brandy and I miss crafting together.  It isn't that we did so often - we didn't see each other every week sometimes.  It's more that we can't see each other.  So I had an idea to create a challenge each week - one just for Brandy and she could create one just for me.  Brandy has to amp the idea up and came up with our official title.  This is our fifth week of challenges.  I present to you Week Fiveof the Better Together - A Mix and Match Challenge.

Brandy's Challenge for Andie:

Your challenge this week is Wild Flowers. The beauty of wild flowers is they are like sprinkles of color always different and never the same scene twice. This challenge is about being unique. You can free hand watercolor, draw with pencil, or use stamps to make your unique card scene. The only catch is you can't use a Bouquet stamp that already puts the flowers together for you. You can create your own by masking, but you have to create the flower design. It can be a field of flowers, a custom Bouquet in a jar, die cuts put together just as long as it is one of a kind, just like you.

This is an opportunity to use random embellishments like ribbon, twine, or even buttons, and brads.

The general color pallet is provided, but add colors as you like. The inspiration photo is provided.

I hope you enjoy the challenge!

This challenge took me about three or four rounds of painting to get there, but these "Spread Cheer" freehand watercolored scenes are the cards I'm most proud of because they are freehand. I doodled on the second card with a black pen. It was going good until I did the yellow flowers. Then it slid down the hill. However, I still think they are pretty in their own way.

This Kindness Blooms card was my first original thought, but it seemed to comfortable - so I went out of the box with the freehand stuff. Once I finished my freehand watercolors, but couldn't finish the card as it had to dry, I went ahead and created this die cut heavy card.  The flowers and leaves are both Spellbinders dies.

These Thinking of You cards were an attempt at a combo of free hand backgrounds and some Rubbernecker wildflower stamps - my attempt to avoid focus on the freehand. I used my Prima Oil Pastels, but unfortunately picked the wrong green and so I'm not pleased with the colors in the final analysis. However, the cards are not awful so I finished them off into a final card.  This challenge was once again a bit of a stretch for me, which I loved!  I'm so grateful for a bestie who will play along with me!

Happy Mother's Day Cards and Some Watercolor Painting

I picked up The Ton Amazing Gardenia stamp set.  I was so enamored with the large floral which so fit the front of an A2 card.  I promptly stamped onto watercolor paper with a couple of different media.  This first card was stamped and clear, sparkle heat embossed.  When I did the watercoloring of the image, the outline sparkles in real person and the white lines create a perfect accent for the petals.  The watercolors I used are my Mission Gold watercolors. 

I also stamped several with plain black ink.  For this purple version, I ended up stamping over the image using my Simon Says Stamp You Are background stamp and white pigment ink.  I love how this turned out - the purples with the offset of the letter is delightful.

White acrylic paint spatters accent this pink floral image.  Probably the poorest watercoloring job in the bunch, but I still like the final product.

I'm not sure what I like best about this last card.  The yellow accent to the blue, the You Are background over the top or the contrast with the black and white sentiment.  In the end, this is my very favorite of the bunch.

So very much fun!

Pretty Birthday Card Set

Brandy was feeling the rainbow and so she put together this delightful card using her MFT Party Balloons stamp set. A good single layer card requires some solid design and I think she hit just the right note.  The ink includes Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks for the colors and Jet Black Archival (Ranger) Ink.  The sentiment is Avery Elle Cake and Candles stamp set.

These next cards were created using the same inks and added a sentiment from the Clearly Besotted Simply Said stamp set.

So fun to have the different styles.  A great set of cards.

Andie for