#964 – Happy ‘Sketchy’ New Year!!

Hello and welcome!! Its pretty late in the year for New Year cards, but after forgetting to publish them in the beginning of the year, any time is just fine, I guess! 😉

I was very inspired by these set of cards that were made by Norine Borys. Love how she added her own ‘sketchy’ charm into simple stamped images. I mean, they would look so beautiful by themselves, but by adding the sketching, she added a beautiful charm of her own to them!

I tried applying my sketching skills with the Altenew Watercolor Wonders stamp set. I first stamped the images on the cardstock using distress inks. Of course, I misted the inked stamps before stamping them, so that the colors spread and mixed a bit. These looks absolutely wonderful by themselves, of course. I had half a heart of leaving them alone, afraid of ruining it, but I went ahead with it.

When I was done, I realized that the final result was making me less than happy. They weren’t look great at all! I stared and stared trying to understand why – what was different between what Noris had done and what I had done… and no, I was not thinking about my sketching skills being the problem.. Then I realized it. I had white space between my stamping! I then picked up my brush, and watercolored some green leaves between all the white space, and voila! It started looking a whole lot better! 🙂

Finally happy with the results, I proceeded to add some splatters once everything was dry, and then the frame, and finally the sentiment. That came from Paper Smooches Alphadot stamp set. I stamped the letters skewed, but mostly together. I felt it went with the ‘sketchy’ look of the flowers well. 🙂

And that’s my 2 cards done! I’m joining the following challenges with these cards –

Watercolor Wednesday challenge #323: Cathy’s Challenge: All Things Feminine

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Stamploration Summer challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#963 – Red as a Rose

Hello and welcome! I am showing off today a card I made, with my sister providing the gorgeous, cross-stitched roses!! We gave this card to our parents who celebrated their wedding anniversary a few months ago.

We started with the cross stitching. I die cut a panel of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Stitching Panel die. Passed this over to my sister so that she could cross stitch as she pleased. She made this beautiful rosy panel and then my adventure started! 🙂

I thought of making the card a sort of frame. After discarding a couple of options, I thought of using this one, where I cut out a panel of Fabriano Elle Erre Bianca cardstock and then dry embossed it using Spellbinders Elegant Twist Squares, by partially passing the cardstock through my embossing machine to get the rectangle. The texture of the cardstock added for some extra elegance. 🙂

I then adhered the cross stitched panel on a red card base, and foam mounted the frame on top. Since the my sister used wool than thread to cleanly use the larger holes, I need some extra dimension on the frame. Coming to the sentiment, I used red foil on a scrap piece of cardstock and then die cut it using Altenew Essential Sentiment Strips. I used a strip of white cardstock to cover up the base of the die cut and again, used foam tape to adhere the sentiment on the card. Finally, I used some white half-pearls as embellishment.

I love this collaboration between my my sister and me! Its rare but fun for us to work on a single project! 🙂

And I’m joining the following challenges with this card –

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #323: Cathy’s challenge: All Things Feminine

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Stamplorations Summer challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#957 – Berry Sweet!

Hello and welcome! Time or a new Tic Tac Toe challenge and this is going to be my last challenge as a part of the Design Team. Thank you so much, Felicita and the rest of the team for all the great time!

We are continuing the theme of ‘Summer Entertaining/Weddings‘ and this time JoAnne has created this board for us –

Chooing the diagonal from top left – Fruit – Pattened Paper – Shaker, I made this card –

My idea of using the fun strawberries for shaker came from this shaker card created by the fantastic Julie Ebersole, which actually has cute cupcakes for the shaker. It’s so much fun! I thought of using berries instead, thinking they would be perfect for the summer theme.

So I started with the berries from the Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Carolinas Florals stamp set and die cut them with the coordinating dies. I used an extra die for the berry itself, to add a bit of support and dimension. For the pattern paper, I used Recollections Blossoms & Bliss paper, adhered it above the entire card base.

For the shaker’s frame, I used Neat & Tangled Scalloped dies, cutting a few white cardstocks using it. I adhered them all together for the frame. Since I wasn’t going to use any foam tape, with the pattern being so thin at places, I didn’t want to take any chances. I adhered this on the card base and then added the sentiment from Honey Bee stamps Pearfect Sentiments

Finally, I added a few sequins, beads and the fruit die cuts, adhered the transperency using double sided tape and then placed the top frame, which I cut out from Fabiano Elle Erre Belle card stock, which has a little bit of striped texture to the card. And that finished my card!

Joining the following challenges with my card –

Addicted to Stamps and More #410: Die Cuts and/or Stencils

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #321: All Things Masculine

Stamplorations Summer challenge: Anything Goes

Checkout more inspiration on the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog, where you can see creations from the rest of the DT and our guest designer as well!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#953 – Birthday Tweetings

Hello and welcome! Half an year has already passed and this month’s first challenge at Seize the Birthday has a new Topping suggested by our local coloring genius TaeEun to be ‘Framed‘

And thankfully, it has nothing to do with pinning someone with something bad they didn’t do!! All is still well in cardland!! 😀

Keeping poor jokes apart, here’s what I created –

I’ve had these cute pair of Toucans from Reverse Confetti ‘Toucan of Friendship’ forever, and have neglected to use them in card. Here, though, they were a perfect pair to get framed. Small enough to sit inside the frame, and together, large enough to cover the card. 🙂

I stamped them in Versafine Onyx ink and watercolored them using distress inks. I was going for a messy look, but the images are so small, that it just wasn’t happening without leaving half the image uncolored. Instead, I just left a few bits of white showing from the coloring, and then used my white gel pen to add some highlights on the cute pair of birdies. I then fussy cut them and set them aside.

I used watercolor paper for the card, so I could get that extra bit of texture. For making the frame, I chose the largest of My Favorite Things Stitched Wonky Rectangle, cut out the outer border and then used a suitable die from Memory Box Rectangle Basics to cut out the inner piece. I then used Misti to stamp the sentiment from the same stamp set, stamping it after positioning the frame diecut on the card. Finally, I foam mounted the fraem, the birds and the rest of the pieces on the card.

That finished my card. Quick and simple! 🙂 And I’m joining the following challenges –

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #409: Any Occasion

CrafTangles July challenge: Birthday/Confetti/Sparkle

STAMPlorations July Summer challenge

Checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog to checkout what our Surprise Party Guest Melanie Hungerford and the rest of the DT have innovatively created for this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

#946 – Miss Your Face

Hello and welcome! Time for a new challenge at Tic Tac Toe and this time, we have a board prepared by LeAnne to play with –

I chose the mid row Blue-Circle-Floral Image to make this card –

I used the latest addition to my stamps – Altenew Calming Reverie. These gorgeous stamps are large and so easy to use – I just love them! I used inks on shades of navy blue for the flowers and leaves, varying the saturation to get a beautiful monochrome. But of course, the little bit of yellow and brown adds a spot of bright color to an otherwise dull tone.

Since I wasn’t going to use any dimension for the flowers, I thought of adding a little extra for the sentiment instead. I cut two strips of black cardstock and adhered them in parallel over the card. For the sentiment, I die cut a circle of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles, adhered it over another piece which I had cut out of scrap cardstock. I then stamped the “i miss your face” from Ellen Hutson Totally Random Sayings Vol 1 stamp set. I adhered this over two pieces of vellum that I die cut using Spellbinders Delightful Circles. The final part came from Altenew Bold Greetings die, which I die cut from a few scrap black cardstock and once from photo paper colored in black. The last layer adds some shine to the die cut, which I totally love! 🙂

And that’s my card! Joining the following challengs with it –

Color Hues challenge #19

Altenew June Inspiration challenge

Stamplorations June Theme and Photo Prompt challenge –

Stop over the Tic Tac Toe challenge for some more amazing inspiration from the rest of the DT!

And thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂