Valentine

     Just a quick post today. It's 6*F here in Rochester with a wind chill of -16*F, Burrr……
Par for the course in Upstate New York.
     Todays card is a very quick and easy card that I created in about 30 minutes.
I started with Neenah Solar white #110 CS.  I cut 4 Heart flourishes from red CS and one from masking paper. I stacked the 4 red on top of each other and set it aside. Then I placed the mask on the front of my card positioning from top to bottom and to the right edge. Using my Make-up brushes and distress ink I shaded the area over the mask leaving white space to the left and bottom right of the mask. Then I splattered the area over the mask, leaving the top left white for my sentiment.

I removed the Mask and placed the stacked die cut over the white space left by the mask. I stamped the sentiment using my Misti and added a 1/4" piece of the red CS to the left edge for balance. I also stamped Happy Valentine's Day in the bottom right corner. 
     As usual for me I brought the die to the inside of the card, by placing the mask over the inside corner and shading with distress ink, and added a heart left over from the 4 I cut.

A simple quick card for my 15 year old Granddaughter, Gabby. 

Products used for this card:

Impression Obsession die #126-U

Impression Obsession sentiment More Today #C14534

Neenah solar white #110 CS

Altenew Apple Red CS #ALT1664

Altenew Permanent Black ink

Ranger distress ink (worn Lipstick & Fired Brick

Misti

I will be entering this card in these challenges:

Impression Obsession Challenge-All about love

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge-Anything Goes

crafty Creations Challenge- Anything Goes

Dragonfly Journeys Challenge- I Heart You

   

I Love You More

Hi all,
      Well Valentines Day is just around the corner and I find that I don't have many valentine stamps.
I searched through my stash and found these cute little Owls and a sentiment stamp from Impression Obsession that did nicely. Hope You Like it.

     I stamped the owls in brown Archival ink, masked them, then stamped the branch. I used a piece of vellum over it to position the branch. I had to stamp and move it a couple of times to get it right. (The vellum was placed over the image and then stamped until I was able to get the branch in just the right place). Then I positioned the sentiment stamp and stamped it in Archival black. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color the owls, and distress ink for the branch. Then a little edge of Tumbled Glass around the branch and Owls. Then using a Red Gelly Roll sparkle pen I wrote Happy-Valentines-Day-Be-Mine around the edge. I Matted in Red and attached to a white card.


Products used: Impression Obsession stamps- (Owls-E7760) and Sentiment (C14534-More Today)
                         Ranger Archival ink (black and brown)
                         Prismacolor soft core colored pencils
                         Canson watercolor paper
                         Gelly Roll sparkle pen (red)
                         Canson cardstock (red and White)
I will be entering this card in: Impression Obsession challenge(love is in the air)
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy crafting!
God Bless,
Karen

A Winters Walk

Hello again,
     I made several cards for Christmas this year and was so busy I didn't have time to blog so here's
one of my favorites.
     I will be entering this card in the Make My Monday Challenge( A Winters Walk) and Simon Says
Monday Challenge (Chill Out)

 Make My Monday
                                                                                 Simon Says Monday Challenge


      I used Stampendous' #CRP169 Cling Snow Bird, Ranger Distress ink, Farber Castell glass bead glitter gel for the snow, the sentiment is IO B5462 Christmas Joy, the snow flakes are unknown.








Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Crafting!


God Bless,
Karen







Autumn Colors

     I love the beautiful colors of fall, the gold, yellow, red, orange, browns and greens they make me feel warm inside.  Cooler days and crisp nights, cuddling with the one you love. Fire pits burning bright in the evenings, s'mores, a glass of wine, and good company. Taking a drive in the country to just look at the beauty of God's wonderful creation in full color, breathtaking! Halloween, all the kids dressed up in their costumes. Trick or Treat! We loved those days setting up all the decorations and carving pumpkins, fun times. Then there's Thanksgiving, friends and family getting together to enjoy a wonderful meal and being thankful for all the good in our lives, and Football, of course. Those are the things I look forward to when fall comes around.

     

     When making this card I was tried to capture some of the beauty of Autumn.

Products used:

Just Rite Shabby Chic "Autumn leaves" #CR-03870

Impression Obsession #E13185

Ranger Archival ink Black

Ranger distress inks

Canson watercolor paper

Canson card stock

Misti

     Using the Misti and distress ink, Carved Pumpkin, I spritzed with water and stamped the Chinese Lanterns. This is an outline stamp so next I took water and a brush and colored in the image, pulling the color from the stamped areas. I then stamped the image again after inking the stamp with a darker color, Rusty Hinge, no water this time. I pulled some of the darker color out for shading and then stamped it again for definition. I used a mask to cover the first stamping and added the lower branch using the same technique. The sentiment is from the Just Rite set. Then I used Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Carved Pumpkin and Fired Brick distress inks to blend the background.

     For the second panel I used the same colors to blend the background and the using Archival black ink I stamped the Leaves.

I will be entering this card in these challenges:

Make My Monday #30 Autumn/Fall colours"

MoJo Monday #466 Sketch

Time Out Challenge #66 "Photo Inspiration"

Color Q Challenge #360

               

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!

Karen  

 

  

Falling for You

     What a beautiful day it was yesterday! Fall is definitely in the air. It was Grandparents day and Chris and Lindsey invited us for dinner and Ice cream. It was so nice to spend time with them and the kids. the only low point of the day was the Miami Dolphins losing in the last minute of the game, Dale, Chris, Luke and Michael (from Hawaii) were very bummed.

     

       My card today is all about fall.  Recently I got some happy mail which included a background stamp from IO with large maple leaves. That's where my card began.  I came up with the idea for the background while trying to fall asleep last night. The rest fell into place when I decided to use the Sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. Some embossing powder, distress inks, spellbinders dies and some ribbon made it all come together.

Products Used:

Canson watercolor paper 130lb.

IO #CC067 C-A-C Maple Leaves

Inkadinkado Sentiment  #98555 Harvest Expressions

Versa Mark

Ranger Queens Gold embossing powder

Ranger distress inks ( Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Vintage Photo)

Spellbinders # S4-116 Standard Circles small

Spellbinders Nestabilities #S4-490 Triple Tear

Orange ribbon

     Using Versa Mark on my large IO background stamp I stamped (1) 41/4 x 51/2 and (1) 31/2 x 41/2 pieces of Canson watercolor paper and then embossed them with Queens Gold powder.  Then using my ranger blending tools I add Peeled Paint, Broken China and Vintage Photo to my background. I then used Rusty Hinge to cover and blend all. then I used a paper towel to remove ink from the embossing to make it pop.

     I used dimensional tape I popped up the smaller panel to give some dimension to the card; then wrapped the ribbon around both panels and tied it in a knot, and trimmed the ends.

     To finish the card I repeated the embossing with the sentiment and the distress ink on a piece of scrap watercolor paper. Then cut it out using my spellbinders die. It needed just a hint of a background mat so I used a scrap of burnt orange paper and my circle dies to make one. I added just a little Rusty Hinge to the edges and adhered it to the card. Done.

I will be entering this card in these challenges:

Impression Obsession Challenge "Falling For You"

Freshly Made Sketches #253

Time Out Challenge #65 "Inspired By Words"

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a wonderfully Crafty Day!!

Karen

Searching my stash

I spent the last week trying to better organize my stamps so I could find them by company. Unfortunately, last year, I took all my wood block stamps of the blocks. In doing so I have several, not several  a lot,  that I don't know which company they belong to. I also removed many stamp sets from they're original packaging when I opened them, so again I don't know what company they are from. So when looking for stamps to create a card for the IO challenge "Squared" I had only one choice, Christmas. I really love the traditional colors of Christmas, Red, Green, Gold and Silver, so I went to work. This is the result:





Products used:

IO stamp #F2268 Winter Wonderland (tree)

IO stamp #B5462 Christmas Joy

VersaMark

Ranger embossing powder Queens Gold

Queen and Comp. Sunflower Yellow Pearls

K&Comp. Christmas Cheer Gold Words paper

Paper wishes  Red Holly paper

Darcie 110lb. white card stock

Spellbinders curved rectangles #S5-006

I stamped and embossed the tree and on my white card stock and the cut it out with my spellbinders die. I wanted to mat it in gold so I traced the die on another piece of white card stock and fussy cut it out. I ran the edges over my VersaMark pad and then using the Queens Gold, embossed the edge. I matted my 51/2 x 51/2 card  with a 5/14 x51/4 piece of Christmas Cheer paper, then I matted the Embossed Christmas tree onto the embossed piece of white card stock. I cut a piece of  the red holly paper 1/4' bigger than the matted Christmas tree. Using dimensional tape I popped up the tree on the red paper and then adhered to the left side of the card. I stamped and embossed the Christmas Joy  sentiment on a piece of scrap paper and matted it in red and green cutting it to make a banner. I added the Pearls and banner. Simple but Elegant. 

I will be entering this card in: IO challenge "Squared" 

  

Watercolor cards using distress ink

I love to watercolor using my Ranger distress inks.  When I use watercolor paints or pencils I'm very rarely happy with what I've done. I can't quite get the shading right or I've used to much water and the colors run. I guess I just have to keep trying and I know I'll get the hang of it, eventually. However I love using my distress markers and inks to watercolor, I almost feel like a pro. The two cards I made today are both made using this technique and I do love the way they turned out. I also have to say that I love using my Misti, (for those of you who don't know what it is, you can check it out at SimonSaysStamp.com) it makes stamping a breeze.  

Card # 1



Products used:

PB #40-428 Scented Beauty

HA #CL401 Tapestry Background

IO #CL114 Sympathy Sentiments

Ranger distress markers and inkpads ( Spun Sugar & Forest Moss)

Ranger Archival ink (Black)

Ranger watercolor paper

Inkadinkado Masking Paper

American Crafts twine

Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen

Clarity brushes

My Sweet Petunia, Inc. Misty

I cut my paper to 41/4 x51/2 and placed it in the corner of the Misti securing it with magnets. Then I positioned my stamp and closed the lid, sticking the stamp to it. I opened the Misti and used my distress markers to color the stamp, and closed the Misti. I did this twice. I removed my paper, leaving the stamp in passion in the Misty. Using a paintbrush and a small amount of water, (I used the back of my hand to remove the excess water from my brush) I drew the ink out to the edges of each petal one at a time until done, repeating with the second flower and the leaves. When I finished, I placed my paper back into my Misti and inked the stamp once more very lightly and stamped the image again to add a subtle edge. Then I cleaned and removed the stamp and repositioned my paper to the center of the Misti. Using the masking paper I stamped the roses again and the fussy cut the mask out and placed over my finished image. I used removable adhesive on the back of my paper to keep it in place, since I was going to stamp over the whole thing. I positioned my background stamp over my paper and closed the Misti so it would stick. Then I inked it using the black Archival ink. I stamped it and there were some missing spots so I inked the stamp again and stamped it again, success. I love my Misti. I cut my paper to 41/4 x 53/8 then using my Clarity brushes and some Spun Sugar inked the edges, and wrapped the twine around the left side crossing it and knotting it. I stamped the Sentiment on some white card stock using black Archival ink and matted it on black card stock and adhered it to the top right of the panel. Then I adhered the panel to a black card.

Card#2

Products used:

PB #40-312 Sunny Pair

PB #30-358 Happy Snippets

Spellbinders #S5-218 A2 Devine Eloquence

Ranger Distress Ink ( Rusty Hinge, Squeezed Lemonade, Peeled Paint, Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo and Bundled Sage)

Ranger watercolor paper 

My Sweet Petunia, Inc. Misti

I did everything the same for this card up till the background stamp. Instead of using a background stamp I used some Squeezed Lemonade and water to go around the flowers leaving some white at the top and bottom. Then I cut it out using my spellbinders die. I used  Bundled Sage around the whole frame. I stamped my sentiment, "a little bit of sunshine for you" and used dimensional tape to adhere it to a white card. I didn't like that it was so white so I added just a touch of Squeezed Lemonade around the edges of the card.

As I mentioned at the top of the page my Favorite Technique is water coloring with Distress Inks.  

I will be entering these cards in:



Little Red Wagon "Sympathy"

Penny Black "Your Favorite Technique"

Penny Black "Anything Goes"