On one of our theatre trips to Vancouver we had dinner at our friends home before heading back to the ferry. She had napkins that featured these chickens and I thought they could be used on a card. I brought home a new napkin and did the usual separation of layers before adding it to some card stock using ModgePodge. When it was dry I fussy cut each chick and set them aside to be used as embellishments or, as is the case here, as the focal point for a card. Each chick had spots on the wings already and I enhanced them with Nuvo Crystal drops.

The card base was already done with the sentiment as I was unhappy with a card I had done sometime ago and decided to deconstruct it. The sentiment was already embossed in rose gold and one of the chickens has rose gold dots to match. The die is from Kokorosa and I cut the stripes in one piece and added them to the white layer. Actually this layer has a wash of blue over it to make it less stark. Once the chicks were on the layer it was added to the card front and I added a few Pops of Color dots near the beak of each chicken.

I am entering it into the Inkspirational Dots and Stripes challenge. This is the first card I’ve made since Monday, as one my friends was visiting from the mainland and I spent the last few days with her. Thanks for stopping by and have fun till next time.

A while back I made a series of pet sympathy cards for a friend who isn’t a fan of what is currently available in the shops. Although I did them as a favour with no expectation of anything in return, she decided to buy me some supplies. All except one were unbranded dies and stamps and this little book die is one of them.

I thought a shelf of books would be fun for a spines can be bright colours so are good for a colour challenge such as this one. I cut several so I could stack them for some dimension and I coloured them with a paintbrush and inks. The shelf they sit on is an MFT die from a recent kit. I lengthened it by gluing 2 side by side. I used a polka dot embossing folder on a scrap piece of CS and added a strip of green to it. Then I added it to the card front and added the focal image on top. The sentiment strip is from a pad by Tim Holtz – Idea-ology. I thought it was perfect for a book card and personally, most of what I know comes from reading and basic curiosity. A few embellishments finished the card nicely.

I know unbranded dies aren’t really the way to go as so many are outright copies of local artists, but when they are given as a gift one doesn’t comment and of course now I have them I am using them.

To make this card, I pulled out an old MFT stamp set called Sushi Date and chose these few stamps from the set. This was intended to be a one layer card, but I made a small mistake in stamping so used the lantern die to cover it up. Everything else was stamped and coloured using inks and pencils. I stamped everything through a circle template and added some brushed background the same way.

Its a very simple card and the only embellishment I added was the tiny bow holding the lantern. I’m quite happy with the end result and it works nicely for the JUG’s current challenge. As well, I have a male friend who is married to a Japanese and loves Japanese food, so I think this will be his birthday card which is coming up soon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week everyone.

Cocktails are the theme for the challenge this session and I chose a Penny Black stamp set called Love and Happiness for the focal image on this card. Who doesn’t like a glass of champagne or a mimosa? And these little bears just make it sweeter. The sentiment stamp comes from a Joy Clair set and the PP is from StampinUp.

I stamped the image onto some watercolour CS so I could colour it with my watercolour pencils. When it was dry I fussy cut it, including the negative spaces between the rungs of the ladder. I decided on a mini slimline base so the card measures 6″ by 3 1/2″. After adding the image to the card base I added some Trinity Stamps bubbles and some crystal glaze to the glasses.

This card can be a wedding card, a birthday or an anniversary so it is quite versatile to have in my stash. Thanks for stopping by and your comments are always appreciated.

The stamp set I’ve used here is from StampinUp and is one I’ve had for a short time. I think I purchased it during the pandemic. Although I have used it, I don’t use it often so it was time to pull it out. I have some precut and pre embossed panels so I decided to use one for the background and I jazzed it up a little with a gold sparkle pen from Spectrum Noir. I used a scrap piece for the look of a sky and dry embossed it with some rays from a Taylored Expression’s folder. The kite was stamped and coloured then fussy cut and I did the same with the tail. Added a bit of glitter with Sakura pens and popped it up as you see. I also fussy cut the sentiment and softened the printing with a silver pen before adding Nuvo Crystal drops and also to the kite. Even with all the embossing it still manages to be CAS and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for taking a peek and any comments are really appreciated.

Although I have a few gnome stamps none are specific to Christmas so I improvised. The gnome with the green hat originally held a garden spade which I cut off and replaced with the tree. The other gnome is more generic so I left him as is. I used an MFT stitched circle die to create the apertures and backed it with some gold plaid PP. This was added using foam tape so the front panel is slightly lifted. Gnomes were stamped cut and coloured before popping into the circles. Stamp sets are from MFT, SSS, Woodware and Gina K. I fussy cut the tree and the gifts and all are coloured with Inktense pencils and a Sakura glitter pen. I also used some snowflake stamps from the Gina K set to stamp faint snowflakes on the white panel. The plaid is slightly stronger in the background than I realized initially so I decided not to add any embellishments to this card.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope the weather in your corner of the world is beginning to be pleasant.

Anyone who knows me, would be sure that this challenge was one I would enter just because of the colours. I am a sucker for any shade of purple. I have this new 3D folder that is unbranded and I’ve been playing with it recently. This panel was already embossed and all I needed to do was add the colour. I chose several purple shades of inks and a light green. With a water brush I added colour to the raised sections and when it was dry I brushed shaded lilac to the background. Then using a brush and purple Perfect pearl powder over the flowers I got deeper colour and some shimmer.

Before gluing the slightly cut down panel to the green background I added some purple ribbon from which I hung the Hampton Art sentiment. I did add some Nuvo Chrystal to the gel pen coloured word for more definition.

Thanks for popping in and all comments left are appreciated.

The mood board at JUG’s, features gardens and pastel colours and I remembered this old wooden block stamp that I thought would be perfect for it. Stamp is by Stampendous and is called Cottage Path, so I titled my post the same. The idea also fits the Paper Dragonfly challenge too.

The sentiment and dragonfly are from a Catherine Pooler set that are perfect for this garden card. I fussy cut both as the sentiment is quite big.

I am so used to using my Misti and clear stamps that it took 2 tries to get a good image. I used Hickory Smoke so I wouldn’t have harsh lines and added a bit of clear embossing so I could watercolour it. All coloured with watercolour pencils keeping it very soft looking. Perhaps I should have used Hickory Smoke for the sentiment so it would be softer, but it is too late to change it now.

Thanks for popping in and for any comments too.

This challenge intrigued me enough that I put my thinking cap on until I came up with this idea. I thought doing a rainbow effect with actual torn strips would be a bit different and then that the idea of adding them behind a negative opening would also work. I actually like the look and it worked better than I thought it would.

After going through my scraps, picking out those that would give a rainbow effect, I tore them roughly. Using a Hero Arts infinity heart die I cut the heart shape out of the same CS as the card front and lay the aperture over the now glued scraps. Although it isn’t showing in the photo, there is a slight shimmer to both the CS and the rainbow bits. Once it was added to the card front I thought about the sentiment, which in retrospect I should have decided on prior to gluing the focal image down. Fortunately the focal image wasn’t so dimensional that I couldn’t add the sentiment underneath.

It took me a while to find the right sentiment but in the end I chose this one from Hampton Arts as it seemed the best one. I added some tiny pops of color around the frame for added interest without detracting from the CAS look. I’m quite happy with how this one turned out, which is always a bonus to my mind. Thanks for taking a look.

With purple in any shade being a favourite colour, it was a given that I would enter into this challenge. Recently I had been playing with a new unbranded 3D folder and I already had this card front embossed just waiting for me to decide what I wanted to do with it. I decided to colour the raised areas using purple inks and a pretty green. When I was happy with the amount of colour I let it dry and then added some shaded lilac to the background just to take away the bright white. With some purple Perfect Pearl powder I went over the flowers and the result was that the inks darkened and shimmered, as you can see on the photo. I really liked the result.

In my stash I found a piece of ribbon in a shade of purple and added it to the panel before I glued it to the green background. I wasn’t too sure about a sentiment, but in the end decided on the word Hi which I coloured with a Sakura gel pen and added Nuvo Chrystal on top for some shine and dimension. I let the word hang off the ribbon so it wouldn’t hide the flowers. The entire panel was then added to the card front. I thought about adding some other embellishments, but decided against it as the flowers are strong enough to stand on their own.

I have to say I’m quite pleased with this card. As this card works for the challenge at CYHTP as well as Color Hues, I’m adding it to both sites. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.