The Gina K Designs image used on this card is the bear. I altered it to hold a heart, rather than the pumpkin it stamped with. His scarf is paper pieced to match the paper used in the hearts. The heart the bear is holding is from the set hearts2diefor from The Stamps of Life. The hearts dies are also The Stamps of Life, Love/Heart dies. The background is stenciled with a SU stencil. I enjoyed creating something different using something that I owned, specifically the bear. I had never masked what the bear is holding and having an image that fit perfectly worked great.
I have been taking a break from stamping this week and did other things. Today is the Featured Stamper at Split Coast Stampers and I found a card to CASE.
Cornflower Hello
I used and old stamp set from Gina K Designs called Heartfelt. Mine is red rubber and I remember purchasing it around 2013 or so. The Spellbinders Nestabilities were being sold out at a discounted price, so I added quite a few to my cart and placed my order. Then I got a note that one was not available and I could get a refund or select any stamp set that I would like, so I chose Heartfelt. We had a neighbor who used to have a large amount of coneflowers growing in his yard, and I would walk by and look at those flowers on a regular basis.
MaryJo used punches or dies for her flowers and I chose to stamp and color. I popped the colored flowers up with foam adhesive. I really like the card I created. I can’t remember cutting and popping flowers up like this, and it was fun to try something new.
This was a fun card to create. I pulled out every tropical set that I can remember owning and used stamps from three companies. The particular entry is for the Retro Rubber Challenge of Summertime.
The flamingo is from The Stamps of Life, dated May 2016 The large tropical leaves are from Leave Me in Paradise, Catherie Pooler Designs, July 2018. There are small tropical leaves from Hero Arts, dated 2019. I used my MISTI for the background, placing the leaves on one half of the paper, stamping, then turning the paper and stamping again. All of the inks are from Gina K Designs.
I have been creating cards for challenges on Split Coast Stampers lately. Here is a card for the MISTI challenge and a Thursday challenge.
Butterfly Window
This month’s MISTI challenge is to make a summery window card. Then there was a Thursday challenge to make a one-layer card, so both challenges work perfectly together.
The windows were cut with SU dies that match the Butterfly Basics stamp set and the Watercolor Wings set, all retired product. I began with the windows then placed the matching butterfly in front of the window opening in my MISTI. I opened the card front and leaving it flat. I stamped the butterflies in bright colors. Then closed the MISTI, laid the body on the butterflies, then opened the card again to stamp it. I wanted the body there, but not on the colorful images. I added a flower from the Layered Daisies set from Gina K Designs along with the sentiment. I popped the small butterfly on the flower and walked away.
I came back the next day or so, kept looking at the white background and didn’t like it. Then I remembered a cloud stencil, from Bonnie, that worked perfectly. I added blue clouds to the sky, then needed green for grass. I didn’t have a grass stencil and didn’t want to keep thinking of ways to get grass and leave the card flat. I have a punch and a die, but both will give elevation to the grass and I was thinking I didn’t want dimension on the grass, so I used the cloud die. I thought it gave the illusion of grass.
I like the card. It took a while to finish, but I think whoever I send it to will enjoy it. Thanks for reading my process.
This is an SU set from the 2011 Occasions Mini, meaning Spring Catalog. I thought this flower sprig would be easy to use for this challenge. My original idea was to space the flowers apart, cut into three parts, than have flower panels on the card front. Well, I didn’t get them spaced far enough, so I left them be. The red flower is all Poppy Parade, both ink pad and marker. The center flower is stamped in Gina K Designs Peach Bellini, with the marker used SU Grapefruit Grove. The third flower is stamped in GKD Sweet Mango with the Mango Melody marker. The stamp seemed to have a rough part in the center of one of the leaves, so I used the marker to help fill it in. I used the sentiment from the set for the greeting centering it in the flowers, stamped in Memento Black ink.
The white is Hobby Lobby heavy weight cardstock, die cut with The Stamps of Life Stitched Rectangle die, layered on a piece of SU Grapefruit Grove. The cardbase is MFT Poppy, which is the perfect match for Poppy Parade.
I added sparkle to the flowers, but that never shows in the photo. I like the colors, but really wanted to add green. Thanks for looking.
4. cardstock: SU Pretty Peacock (current in-color 2019-2021), mixture of white
5. ink: GKD Plum Punch substituted for SU Rich Razzleberry, GKD Fresh Asparagus substitute for SU Old Olive, SU Pretty Peacock, Memento Tuxedo Black
Dates are listed for the Retro Rubber Challenge of anything goes. All stamps used are definitely over one year old; I have used them many times over the last few years.
Monthly Mix Challenge from Gina K Designs is to add texture. I used the embossing folder to add texture to the background.
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to add a sentiment. I added Hello Friend.
I found a card made by Sherri Gilson that I used for inspiration, but can’t seem to locate it to link. I enjoyed creating this card and finding several challenges that it would fit. Thanks for looking.
I watercolored on Ranger Watercolor Paper. The stamp set is Flowers in Bloom from My Favorite Things. I used SU Watercolor Pencils, then markers, then a bit more pencil. I used Spellbinders dies to create a frame. The frame is GKD Tomato Soup which is a close match for Poppy Parade. My neutral is black.
Each month there is a MISTI challenge at Split Coast Stampers. This month it is to use the Pantone Color of the Year, Brilliant Blue. After thinking in blue tones for several days, I looked in my drawer and found a pretty good match.
Bird Birthday
The blue embossed background, is The Stamps of Life Blueberry cardstock. I saw the idea for birds on these trees from Darlene DeVries of Live Love Cards. I went with larger birds than hers, from Toucan Do It from Catherine Pooler Designs. I colored those birds with Tombow markers. The sentiment is from a set called Bird Banter from Stampin Up. I mounted the sentiment on Calypso Coral cardstock, as it seemed to go well with the pink colored bird. I used Gina K Design Key Lime for the cardbase. I enjoy these birds and this was fun to create.
This card has been entered in the Mod Squad Challenge and the CAS Colors & Sketches challenge. I posted both from Split Coast Stampers and wanted to share it here.
Birthday Ballons Trio
The inks remained on my desk after finished the last birthday card posted to these challenges. I decided to ink blend the colors to see how they would blend. They did okay, but I had a blob and couldn’t get it to blend more, so I finally decided to emboss the panel and see how it looked. I couldn’t decide what to place on it, then remembered this Lawn Fawn balloon die set. I cut the balloons, then got busy arranging. I decided on a greeting, then colored it with markers in the challenge colors. I have enjoyed creating with these colors.
Stamp Buddies 