Hello There Sunshine!

ETA:  At Pamela's kind request, I've edited this post to add captions on the photos with the Distress Oxide inks used.  I didn't write down the colors and so I am guessing from my recollections.  Forgive me an inaccurate or incomplete descriptions.  

Crushed Olive, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet, Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass

I am ever so delighted with my latest The Greetery purchase.  This set of cards was made out of a plethora of bits I stamped during a frenzied, quarantine induced stamp session one weekend.  Now I'm left trying to use up those pieces so that they don't sit like an unwanted toy three days after Christmas.  Use them I did...

Mowed Lawn, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass

Crushed Olive, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass

Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, Wild Honey, Spun Sugar (stamped multiple times)

Mowed Lawn, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet, Wild Honey, Spun Sugar

Peeled Paint (I think?!), Spun Sugar, Festive Berries, Shaded Lilac, Wild Honey

Mowed Lawn, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet, Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass

Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, Spun Sugar, Wild Honey

I'm so pleased with how these cards turned out.  The inks are all Distress Oxide inks and the sentiment are stamped with my WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello which I then fussy cut out.  The backgrounds are stamped using my The Greetery Print Shop Fresh Floral stamp and stencil and the tiny flowers were created using my The Greetery Alphabuds stamps and dies.   The card base and the sentiment strip were all ink blended with Distress Oxides as well.  All in all, a lot of crafty fun!

Pretty Pansies Notecard Set

Sharing a set of cards created using my Pretty Pink Posh Stamptember 2018 Pansies stamp and die set.  The pansies were stamped onto Bristol cardstock and then colored with my Inktense watercolor pencils which I did use water to blend out. 

I paired these beautiful pansies with a ink blended, stenciled background stitched rectangle and a WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello stamp and die cut sentiment. 

I love how the different color combinations were able to create very different look and feel to the cards.  The stencil changes also helped to create a different look.

Yellow is decidedly not my color, but I am loving these yellow pansies.

One last card featuring all the leftover bits.  Definitely a fun set of cards to make.  Hooray for using old stamp sets (nearly 10 months without seeing the ink?!?) and making something pretty.

A Set of Sunshine Cards

I decided to play around and make a few notecards as a stress reliever.  In this case, I used an old technique from my Creative Chemistry online card class - Distress Highlight Stamping.  Only I didn't use any Distress Ink this time.  I simply stamped with white ink onto Kraft paper and then used my colored pencils to color the white ink.  This allows for a handmade look to the stamped image.  I had to give up a little on the perfectionist side of me, but it is good to let her have a nap once in a while.

I white embossed the sentiment using my WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello stamp set.  It was the perfect offset to this image and these A2 sized cards.

I finished the card front using a stitched die - just a straight edge that created some interest so I could keep the card simple, but also a bit dressed up.

These notecards will go in the stash and probably end up a gift at some point.  They served their purpose during a stressful time - giving me a creative outlet and using some of those supplies that have long gone unused.

What do you have in the stash that needs to see the light of day?

I'm linking this card up to the following challenges:

City Crafter Challenge Blog Week 355 - In Bloom

The new-to-me Try it on Tuesday challenge: Botanical

A Shaker Card

I used this post as inspiration for today's card.  I had need of an encouraging card for a lady at work and thought that this vellum shaker card would be perfect.  The flowers were stamped with black Archival Ink and die cut with my Arianna Blooms stamp and die set.  The flowers were shipped and put together with Glue Dots.  I used the same technique for creating the vellum shaker element found in this video.  I used my WPLUS9 Hand Lettered Hello stamp set and Lilac Hybrid ink to stamp the hello onto white cardstock and fussy cut the sentiment out.  The same stamp set was used with white embossing powder onto black cardstock to create the sentiment flag.

On the inside, I adhered the inner rectangle cut from the white frame used to create the shaker element.  Since I wanted to write a sweet note to my coworker,  I left this space deliberately blank.

I am very pleased with how this card turned out.  It is a great technique and ultimately a stunning effect.

I hope your July is going well.  It's nearly half over and my daughter is beginning her senior year in high school in a little over a week.  To quote Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

I plan to spend now until June next year when she graduates stopping once in a while to look around.  I don't want to miss a thing.

Come join the fun!