Cascading Joy

| Gayle Chrvala
Peace On Earth Christmas

My card today will be entered into the Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge #21. Using the inspiration mood board, I focused on JOY image and used my favorite Memory Box Snowflake Joy die for my focal point. Instead of the snowflake, I opted to stamp and white heat emboss an ornament from Gina K Designs Season’s Greetings stamp/die set. The background cascade is a Gina K Designs/SimonSaysStamp STAMPtember set and the snowflake background design was heat embossed in silver and the top section was clear heat embossed.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay COOL.

DOS Chuckle

| Gerry Morse

Hello and welcome.

Today’s card is dear old sister’s chuckle of the month. Frame is Rectangle Stitched Framelits from SU. Image and sentiment (“I was taught as a child to “speak your mind” I was also taught “If you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all”. Inside “can you see my problem here”.) were found online.

Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate you taking the time. Have a great day and stay healthy & safe.

Gerry

Lazy, Hazy Days

| Gayle Chrvala
The Four Seasons Challenge

My card today will be entered into the August Anything Goes Summer for the final summer season challenge with The Four Seasons Challenge. I was inspired by the colorful mood board for this challenge and decided it must be Happy Hour somewhere with my very colorful martinis. Although I do realize that martinis are not “umbrella” drinks, I could not resist adding some more color to this card. Sentiments are from Gina K Designs Lazy Days of Summer, The images are from a stamp set named DMD Happy Hour which was probably in clearance from one of the local big box stores. Patterned paper was from my stash and just added more of summertime fun. So I added a little bow because the martini glasses looked like they needed something more…so the bow is the more!!

Inside sentiment is: 1 Martini, 2 Martini, 3 Martini, Floor….lol!

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay Cool.

Money Holders

| Gerry Morse

https://colorfuloptions.blogspot.com/2022/08/august.html

Hello and welcome. This will be entered in Colorful Options Aug. challenge.

Today’s post shows the two money holders I made. These are very simple. The pattern I followed had the cs measure 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 but I wanted them to fit in a regular letter size envelope, so I cut the cs 8 1/2 x 6 1/4. I scored the 8 1/2 side at 3 & 6 1/2. The die cut starbursts are from the Silhouette, flowers are a small hand punch, center of flowers are Opal Rounds by SU. Flowers are popped up. The pp is very shiny, so it was hard to photo without getting glare.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day and stay healthy & safe. And cool.

Gerry

Turquoise and Gray

| Gayle Chrvala
Colorful Options

Tranquil Turquoise is the August Colorful Options challenge this month. Love turquoise, teal, blues/green colors. I even like the soft gray with the turquoise which along with white are my neutral colors for this project.

Since it’s so stinking hot, I had more time to play with layering stamps and was really happy with the way they turned out. The stamp set I used was Gina K Designs Layered Carnations from the her Watercolor Spring kit. This kit sold out so quickly that Gina actually restocked for those who wanted it. My flowers were stamped in GKD’s Turquoise Sea, blue Lagoon and Tranquil Teal and my leaves in Soft Stone and Turquoise Sea. I lightly sponged soft stone over portions of the Bodacious Blooms stencil from the same kit and did direct to paper for the layering panel. Taylored Expressions sentiment and die was stamped in the Turquoise Sea ink. Gosh I was very matchy-matchy on this card.

Awesome inspiration mood board….I definitely do not remember a turquoise can of coke but look at those gorgeous colors.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay cool.

Faux Case

| Gayle Chrvala

I really love to try new techniques suggested by our Buddies and to be inspired by their makes. Today, Lisa K posted a Faux Wood Burning Technique that looked very interesting. Lisa’s card was gorgeous. After watching the YouTube video Lisa linked to in her blog post, I got to work and this card was my third attempt. The first time I used SSS dark chocolate and after multiple stamping did not get much movement of the ink after brushing liberally with water. Second attempt I used GKD dark chocolate ink and maybe I added too much water because it turned more pinkish than brown and the image lines were very blurred and sentiment was a mess. On to the third and final attempt, which was Tim Holtz Distress ink in Walnut Stain. I figured the water brush would definitely move this ink. I did use watercolor paper on all three attempts but maybe I should have used the smooth side. To add to the wood grain look, I embossed my Hero Arts woodgrain fancy die then added a little more ink and waterbrushing over top of it.

Thanks so much for sharing this technique, Lisa, maybe I’ll try your alcohol markers on vellum techinque. I too enjoy Lisa Curcio.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay cool!

Alcohol ink on Vellum

| Lisa K

I tried a newer technique this weekend. The featured stamper on Splitcoast Stampers is Lisa Curcio who I learn a lot from. She shares several videos a month, blog posts, and special cards for newsletter subscribers. I was thrilled to select a card to CASE.

https://lisasstampstudio.com/2021/07/4-ways-with-alcohol-markers-to-create-unique-and-easy-greeting-card-backgrounds.html

I linked the blog post that shows the video used for the card that I CASED. My card uses a die from My Favorite Things. I think it might be called Contemporary Rose. I stacked it two times. I used Spectrum Noir markers and 99% alcohol to create the background. I placed the alcohol in a small spritz bottle; I have never done that before. It really made the alcohol ink move a bit. My vellum is thin from Hobby Lobby. My paper is Spectrum Noir white cardstock. I chose a simple Hello greeting from the mini set Rose Bouquet from Gina K Designs.

I had fun creating this card. I made two pieces of alcohol inked vellum, so will use the other one hopefully soon.

Back To School

| Gerry Morse

Hello and welcome.

Today’s card is for our daughter who teaches 5th grade. Every year I make her a “back to school” card that we but a donation in to help her get her supplies. Teachers have to use their own money for a lot of their classroom supplies.

Background border was found online, sentiment is actually a Minion quote, teacher image is computer clip art fussy cut and popped up. I decided to use the same border pattern for the inside just to add a little more interest.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day and stay healthy & safe. Let’s hope all these heat waves are coming to an end.

Gerry

Faux Burned Rose

| Lisa K

I have been playing in techniques recently. This technique is called Faux Burned Wood and I chose to use a rose for this card.

https://ginakdesigns.com/2022/08/02/august-2022-monthly-mix-challenge/?v=7516fd43adaa https://www.retrorubberchallengeblog.com/my-blog/2022/08/challenge-188-anything-goes.html

I used the stamp set, Rose Bouquet from Gina K Designs, dated 2017. The woodgrained texture is from the SU embossing folder called Pinewood Planks, very retired. Basically to complete this technique, I used my MISTI and a dark ink stamping the image several times to make it as dark as I could. I used Dark Chocolate from GKD. Then while the ink is still wet, take a water brush or paint brush and drag it across the image. This makes the outline a bit fuzzy and moves the ink across the paper. I used Ranger Watercolor Cardstock to stamp and move the ink on.

Here is the You Tube video I watched to learn this technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIeWFPqWfTU&list=WL&index=21

I have spent the last six month’s being on the design team with Split Coast Stampers. I enjoyed the honor and learned quite a bit. My last cards will be posted on August 15. Thanks for reading and seeing what I am creating. If you try this technique, I would love to see it. I enjoyed learning something new and being able to share.