Stampin with Anita

Rachelle Ann Miller

2024-10-02T02:00:00.070-04:00

It's October 2nd and as it is the first Weds. of the month we have a new Paper Funday Challenge.

I choose Rachelle Anne Miller as my sponsor this month and specifically her digital image called Animal Parade.

The image was printed on Ranger Distress Watercolor Card Stock with a laser printer on the textured side. I watercolored with Altenew 36 Pan Watercolor Set.

Such cute cute images it was easy and quick to bring them to life! The sentiment is from a retired clear stamp set from Spellbinders called It's Party Time STP-120.

I added a few butterflies from an MFT Rachelle Ann Miller stamp and die set I have which is now retired (Best Buds RAM-050) just for a little dimension. I hope you enjoyed my card, check out Rachelle Ann Miller's website and come play along with us at The Paper Funday Challenge this month!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Sending Prayers

2024-09-15T02:00:00.044-04:00

Happy September, friends and welcome to The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge for the 15th. Here is the gorgeous inspiration photo from which I chose my colors for this Sympathy Card:

I started with Ranger's Distress Ink in Mustard Seed, Lost Shadow and Spiced Marmalade and ink blended on an A2 sized panel of Ranger's Distress Watercolor Card Stock. I flicked lots of water for those lovely splatters.

The flowers are from Gina K. Designs' All Occasion Flowers and stamped with MFT Stamps Blue Beyond.

Really a quick and easy card that is so useful to have on hand. Thank you for stopping by and please enter this month in our challenge!

Combo for Sept. 2024

2024-09-04T02:00:00.114-04:00

Welcome friends! Welcome to The Paper Funday Challenge for September 2024.

For me it was time to combine our 2 sponsors and the twist to make these 2 fun colorful cards! I used both A Colorful Life Designs Stencil, Simon Says Stamp Stamp & coordinating Die Set and I made my own background paper.

I really love this stencil from A Colorful Life Designs called Messy Diamond Grid. It made a wonderful rainbow background. I tilted it so the critters could look like they were on a shelf or wall (at least in my mind!). Gina K. Designs inks blended so well...Coral Reef, Passionate Pink, Wild Dandelion, Sweet Mango, Turquoise Sea, Jelly Bean Green and Wild Wisteria.

The cute critters, images and sentiments are from a set by Simon Says Stamp called Critter Crowd. One of my favorites to use for birthdays. They were stamped on Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew Obsidian Black Pigment Ink and embossed with Altenew Crisp Clear Embossing Powder. I also used Altenew 36 Pan Set Watercolors for the coloring.

That's it for this month! Come play along at The Paper Funday Challenges and let see your creations!
*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Dusty Rose Florals

2024-08-15T02:00:00.084-04:00

Time for another Beautiful Blossoms Challenge and this one has such beautiful inspiration photos:

This reminds me of my granddaughter's wedding two years ago. Her bridesmaids' colors were dusty rose. So lovely!

I love the simplicity of this card and the softness of the colors. Here is what I used to make this card, but of course you can easily CASE this card with what you have in your stash:

1) Sentiment - Taylored Expressions On Occasions and Coordinating Die;

2) Sentiment - Hero Arts Embossing Powder Silver with Tsukineko Versamark Ink;

3) Background - Pinkfresh Studio 12 X 12 Xmas Paper (retired);

4) Flowers: Honey Bee Whimsical Spring Flowers and A Pocketful of Happiness Summer Floral (out of stock). Paper for the die cuts is Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz Water Color Card Stock.

5) Inks: Ranger Ink's Distress Ink: Tattered Rose; The Stamp Market: Cotton Candy and Blush Pink and Waffle Flower: My Pleasure. Not sure of what green I used.

6) Background Die: Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangles (retired).

Thanks for joining us and we look forward to see your Beautiful Blossoms cards!

Paper Funday with Newton's Nook

2024-08-07T02:00:00.095-04:00

Welcome to August 2024 and another Paper Funday Challenge! This month I choose Newton's Nook Designs as the sponsor to highlight.

The sets I chose from Newton's Nook were: Birthday Barks and Paw-Some BirthdayPaw-Some Birthday. I also had a pad of the Birthday Woofs 6 X 6 paper which I used on each card. Cute cute designs!

All of the images were stamped on Ranger Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew Obsidian Black Pigment Ink and sprinkled with Altenew Crisp Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. The water coloring was also all done with Altenew 36 Pan Watercolor Set. This makes it easier for me to watercolor at lunchtime at work!

I also used some new dies I just received from My Creative Time: Pretty Oval Layer Dies, Cute Bubble Cover Die and XOXO Border Frame Dies. I love adding new "foundation" pieces to my stash to help create cards.

Come join us at the Challenge - Anything Goes!

I will also be submitting to NBUS for much of these products are new to me.

Birds of Paradise

2024-07-15T02:00:00.071-04:00

Welcome back, friends! It's July 15th and time for a new Beautiful Blossoms Challenge. Here is our inspiration photo:

Gorgeous colors and I used the flower: Birds of Paradise as my theme.

Trying to capture the ombre in my card, but not being very successful.

I used the following to create this card:

-Hero Arts Birds of Paradise Bundle;

-Ranger Distress Watercolor Card Stock;

-Altenew 36 pan Watercolor Set;

-Altenew Elegant Sayings & Die Set;

-Altenew Obsidian Black Pigment Ink;

-Spellbinders - Embossing Folder of the Month April 2024-Faux Stitched Petal;

-Distress Ink Rustic Wilderness.

Thank you for stopping by and please come join us at the Challenge this month!

Lawn Fawn for Paper Funday

2024-07-03T02:00:00.141-04:00

Hi friends! Can you believe it is July already? I should be making Christmas cards now...but I was in a summer mood.

For this month at The Paper Funday Challenges one of our sponsors is Lawn Fawn! Who doesn't love all the cuteness of Lawn Fawn?

I choose 3 Lawn Fawn sets (stamps and dies): Gleeful Gardens, Oh Gnome and All the Speech Bubbles and mixed and matched them for these 4 cards. I stamped multiple images on Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew Obsidian Black Pigment Ink. I added Altenew Clear Crisp Embossing Powder while still wet and heat set. All images were water colored with Altenew Watercolor 36 Pan Set.

The base cards each have a different Masking Stencil from Taylored Expressions: Oval, Rectangles, Circles and Square Windows. I just bought a few Gina K. Designs inks and wanted to try them out with ink blending. I just used 2 on each card: Turquoise Sea and Jelly Bean Green. I really liked how they smoothed out after blending.

Then the fun began - just playing with the images and seeing what look good to me. So fun!

Thanks for stopping by and come join us over at the Challenge page this month and let's see what you create. Anything Goes!

I will also be submitting to NBUS for I have not used the Lawn Fawn or Gina K. products before.

Happy Peony

2024-06-15T02:00:00.068-04:00

Welcome to The Beautiful Blossoms June 2024 Challenge! Our inspiration photo for this month was striking:

The pinks, oranges, apricot colors with a touch of green were just beautiful. I had recently won a free stamp from The Colorado Craft Company and I choose Kris Lauren's Happy Peony. This is a large stamp and would probably fit better on a 5 X 7 card, but I kept with my A2 sized card and cut off a bit of the image.

My card today was an attempt at no-line watercoloring. Honestly, no-lines for this image was not my favorite and I went back in with a darker shade of the colors to add in the lines. I want to try again with my usual heat embossed lines on watercolor paper for my next card because this is a lovely image to color.

I choose a blue watercolored sentiment I had in my stash to add in more blue to the design. Not my most successful coloring, but we are always learning, right?

Come join us at the challenge this month and we can learn together!

I will also be submitting to NBUS, for I have not used this stamp before.

New Home Card

2024-06-05T02:00:00.141-04:00

Welcome to The Paper Funday Challenge for June 2024! If you have never heard of Dr. Digi's House of Stamps (One of our generous sponsors for the month) you really need to go check out his site! He has such fun and unique images...really unique...and if you love to color, his digital stamps will be perfect for you:

I choose a really inexpensive digital stamp, Paint Roller, for I wanted to make a New Home card and a paint roller was the perfect image to create a background. I downloaded the one image, copied into a Word.doc., resized into different sizes, turned and twisted, so I had a background of paint rollers. Then I printed with a laser printer onto Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock.

For each of my card I painted a swash of watercolor behind the roller and painted the handle grey. Any watercolor will do.

The "home sweet home" sentiment and die came from The Stamp Market's Happy Home & Die set. It has wonderful sentiments for a new home with coordinating dies (my favorite!).

"Congrats on the New Digs" from Spellbinders A Cut Above the Rest Sentiments was used on the inside of the card above and the outside for this card below:

The oval shape is from Spellbinders Essential Modern Ovals. I cut the paint brushes with it, as well as a background piece of black cardstock. I cut the black in half and layered the 2 pieces in the back for a modern graphic look.

This fun sentiment above comes from Simon Says Stamp set called Home Sweet Home.

Here are 2 cards I made with the same oval shapes, but layered differently. The paint swashes were my idea of what wall colors in a new home could be!

Thank you for joining me today and please stop by The Paper Funday Challenge this month and play along....Anything Goes!

I will also be submitting to NBUS for much of what I used today has been in my stash and waiting to be used:

Poppy Gems

2024-05-15T02:00:00.075-04:00

It's May 15th, 2024 and time for a Beautiful Blossoms Challenge! Here is our inspiration photo with burgundys, oranges, corals and dusty rose.

I used Penny Black's Poppy Gems stamp set, black heat embossed onto the smooth side of Ranger Ink's Distress Tim Holtz's Watercolor card stock. I bought the pack of 50 for I use it all the time!

To watercolor, I used Mungyo's Professional Half Pan Watercolor set. When I had finished watercoloring, I felt some areas were too light, so I went in with Distress Watercolor Pencils and darkened the inner corners, etc. I used Aged Mahogany, Rusty Hinge and Spiced Marmalade. Just colored with the pencils - no water.

To finish I used Gansai Tambi Starry Colors in #901 Blue Gold and my smallest stylus and just dabbed gold watercolor in and around the floral images. The Happy Birthday sentiment (from Honey Bee stamps - Inside Snarky Birthday Sentiments and coordinating Honey Cut Die) was stamped with Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink onto Lawn Fawn Black Licorice paper and sprinkled with Ranger's Princess Gold Embossing Power, then heat set. I do like white under the gold for heat embossing!

Thank you for joining me and I will also submit my card to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge!

And NBUS for I have not used the Distress Watercolor pencils before.

Flower Shoppe

2024-05-01T02:00:00.084-04:00

Welcome to May 2024 Paper Funday Challenge where I am creating with the Twist! I have been on The Paper Funday Design Team since June of 2021 and this is the first time using the twist (I think!). The twist is Flower Shoppe.

I recently acquired this lovely stamp and die set from Concord & 9th called Flowers A La Carte. It seems to be retired, but available on reseller sites.

I did the usual - stamped with Altenew Obsidian Black Pigment Ink onto Ranger's Distress Watercolor Card Stock on the smooth side. Before it had a chance to dry I sprinkled with Altenew's Crystal Clear Crisp Embossing Powder and heat set.

Now I can just have fun watercoloring with my Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors and die cut all the images with the coordinating die. The background was made with the same stamp . It has a brick stamp and a "road" stamp. Stamped with a brown and lightly ink blended with Distress Ink Tea Dye.

The Happy Birthday sentiment comes from Honey Bee Snarky Birthday stamp set and coordinating Honey Cut Die. Black onto kraft color paper for a change.

I like to add an extra image to the inside, too.

Here's my second card:

The awning is colored differently and I used a sentiment from the Flowers a La Carte stamp set.

Another extra colored set of images on the inside!

Flower Shoppe is such a good twist and so much fun to create! Thanks for joining me today and come play along at The Paper Funday Challenge for April 2024.

I will also be submitting to:

for I have not used this in the past.

Lilies for April

2024-04-15T02:00:00.137-04:00

April 15th 2024 - not only tax time, but also time for a new Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - where anything goes as long as a floral is the focal image. Here is our gorgeous inspiration board:

When I saw the lilies I knew I wanted to use the new Clear Stamp and Die of the Month Feb. 2024 from Spellbinders called Lily Arch. It is a really pretty set and I love when a die cuts out all the "in-between" bits of the image.

The teal set was stamped with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink onto Ranger's Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock. I used Altenew's Crystal Clear Embossing Powder over it while it was still wet and heat set. The image below was stamped on the same paper with Versamark Ink and set with Ranger Ink's Princess Gold Embossing Powder.

Both floral images were water colored with Mungyo's Professional 48 Pan Watercolors and Silver Black Velvet #8 and #6 watercolor brushes.

Both cards have an ink blended background over a stencil I found in my stash. Unfortunately it has no name etched in it. I do love a good circle stencil for a subtle background! I ink blended Ranger Ink's Distress Ink Tumbled Glass on the teal card and The Stamp Market Cactus on the gold/green card.

I almost always use a die with some sort of design texture around the edge...for 2 reasons: 1) I get a nice straight edges and 2) it brings interest and movement to the card. For these cards I used Penny Black's Creative Dies #51-706 semi-circle stackers.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog today. Come join us...we'd love to see your florals!

I will also be submitting to: NBUS

for this is the first time I've used the Lily Arch set.

RAM for Paper Funday

2024-04-03T02:00:00.242-04:00

Welcome to April 2024 Paper Funday Challenge where Anything Goes! Rachelle Ann Miller was one of our generous sponsors this month and I decided to use her digital image called Animal Balloons for some baby cards for my daughter's shop!

I want to show how to mask a digital stamp to be able to create a background over the images. First, I created the card by printing the digital stamp with a Brother Laser Printer onto Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Card Stock. Then I was ready to mask the background.

Start with an older brush that will fit your image. As a tole painter, I have a stash called "Seen Better Days" and I picked one from that set. Run the brush over a bar of soap, coating it, otherwise the brush you use will be ruined. I use Pebeo Drawing Gum and find it to work perfectly! Dip your soap-coated brush into the Pebeo (I like the blue color so you can see where you've applied it) and just paint all the images that need to stay white.

Get into all the little spots so that the background remains white. You can see how the images were completely covered. Let dry, but not for days and days. I gave it about a half hour.

Now to create the background, I used Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass with my sponges and A Colorful Life Designs Stencil called Cloud Edger.

I buy a set sponges from Amazon and cut into pie shapes. I make a "handle" with a punch I have from Stampin' UP and staple it to the top of the pie shaped sponge. I prefer to use these instead of blending brushes, round sponges, etc. Much cheaper and in my opinion work even better once saturated. If they get worn out, I just replace with a new piece of sponge.

Now to remove you can use a residue art eraser (as seen in the picture above) or just rub the blue Pebeo with your finger and pull it gently off the paper. You can see the hole in the balloon in the picture above where I started to remove the Pebeo Drawing Gum.

Once the mask is removed completely and the background was completed you're ready to color.

I watercolored the cute cute image with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Water Colors Set of 48.

The sides were edged with an eyelet border from Spellbinder Winter Borders Die Set. I love border sets and this one in particular has 8 different dies.

For the 2nd card it was created basically the same, but I use Distress Oxide Salty Ocean for a little darker background color.

The sentiments came from a retired RAM (Rachelle Ann Miller) MFT set called Number Fun 1. Here are the 2 cards together:

Thanks so much for sticking to the end. Hopefully this tutorial helped for those wanting to delve into digital stamps.

Come join us at The Paper Funday Challenges. We love to see your work!

Penny Black Guest Designer - 2

2024-03-16T03:00:00.115-04:00

It's mid month and time for a reminder to join in at Penny Black's Saturday Challenge where the theme is "Anything Goes" and "Optional -Easter". I used a stamp and a separate Creative Die today for these love themed anniversary cards.

The mini stamp set is called FOR YOU #30-801. I stamped it with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink unto Ranger Ink's Distress Tim Holtz Watercolor Cardstock and sprinkled it with Altenew's Crisp Clear Embossing Powder while the ink was still wet and heat set it.

I watercolored the image with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolor Set (48) for it has some lovely browns, perfect for our little mice. One card has a pink rose and one card has a red rose.

I used the sentiments from the stamp set, too. The little tag on the rose was blank, so I cut apart the word "Love" from the "Lots of Love" stamp and it fit perfectly into the tag. I can just puzzle the 2 parts of the stamp together next time I want to use the full sentiment.

I wanted the mice to be on something....something to ground them and I happen to have Penny Black's Creative Dies WOOD FLOORS #51-441 which I thought was just perfect! There are 2 dies in this set - the floor which embossed the lines and the separate baseboard. I cut 2 sets for each card and layered them up for nice thick floor dimension. It really gives the card some structure.

The floor boards were ink blended with Distress Inks: Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

I always have such fun creating with Penny Black products. They are really versatile and can be used for so many occasions...I can see the mice running on top of the IMMENSE LOVE Creative Die...umm, I'll have to try that next! Thank you to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge for inviting me to Guest Design this month. It was so fun!

More Purple for March

2024-03-15T02:00:00.052-04:00

Welcome friends to The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge for March 15, 2024! Look at the lovely inspiration photo below:

We are collaborating with Double Trouble Challenge and here are the perimeters:

I used a retired MFT Stamp called Flowers In Bloom for my floral card this month:

Watercolored with my Mungyo Professional 48 Half Pan Set on Ranger Distress Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock. I use a text embossing folder and ran the card panel through for some word texture in the back. Any embossing folder would do. And lastly I used my favorite ribbon from Stampin' Up which I am sure is long retired. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Honey Bee Inside Snarky Sentiments and coordinating Honey Cut.

Overall a simple card, but I believe it has a big impact. Come play along with The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge and The Double Trouble Challenge - a 2fer! Thanks for joining me today, I truly appreciate it.

Altenew for Paper Funday

2024-03-06T02:00:00.146-05:00

Hello my friends and welcome to March 2024 Paper Funday Challenge where anything goes! I choose Altenew as one of our sponsors this month. I had so much fun with a set I have had in my stash and has not received enough use...Golden Garden Stamp Set and Coordinating Die.

I made several cards, as usual, for once I have everything out I like to try different ideas. I used Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz Distress White Heavystock Paper for all the cards. It is a 130lb. smooth surface and takes mixed media well. In this case I watercolored on it and it worked perfectly! I used Altenew's Watercolor 36 Pan Set to drop in a little bit of sketchy color.

I also used sentiments from Altenew's Inky Bouquet stamp set. I like the unusual font in this set.

The card below uses Altenew's Dotted Tile Debossing Cover Die in the background with an Erin Lee Creatives Rattan Arch 4 Die. One simple flower die cut from the Golden Garden set and a sentiment from Inky Bouquet finishes the card perfectly for my taste.

A side image:

Another colorful version:

Love this set!

For the background of this next card I used MFT Stamps Colorful Confetti Background Red Rubber Background Stamp with Versamark Embossing Ink and heat set with Ranger's Princess Gold Embossing Powder. I like the subtle textured background.

The hexagon shape is a die from Spellbinders called Essential Hexi-Gems Dies. I cut the floral image from the Golden Garden Set with the Coordinating Die and also cut it from black cardstock. This way I created a shadow for the focal image. The cute little sentiment is from Honey Bee Stamps Inside Snarky Birthday set and the Honey Cut Coordinating Die Set. I am such a fan of sentiments with coordinating dies.

Thank you for sticking to the end. Come play along with us at The Paper Funday Challenge this month and check out our fabulous sponsors.
*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Penny Black Guest Designer

2024-03-02T03:00:00.164-05:00

Hello my friends and welcome to my Guest Designer post for Penny Black Saturday Challenges! Penny Black is one of my absolute favorite stamp companies and I love the opportunity to go through my Penny Black stash and create...in this case I made multiple cards. The theme for this challenge which begins Saturday, March 2, 2024 is Anything Goes with Optional Easter.

I needed some anniversary cards and thought the Spring Tulips and the love theme would be perfect!

I used 3 main Penny Black Die Cuts products for my cards today: The TULIPS #51-430, were cut out of Ranger Ink Distress Tim Holtz Water Color Card Stock, the YOU #51-760 and IMMENSE LOVE #51-760 were cut from Bristol Smooth Card Stock. All were cut three times each and layer together with Bearly Arts Glue for nice dimension.

Penny Black's Creative Dies set called CROSS STITCH BORDERS was used for the background for this card. I ran the largest die 3 times through the front of the card to create texture and movement.

The card below uses Penny Black's Creative Die DAINTY DASHES STACKERS for the edges which I personally love.

Here's a close up of the water coloring on all the tulips using Mungyo's Professional Half Pan Watercolors. Most of the sentiments come from Waffle Flower's Happy Anniversary stamp set.

Here are all 3 shown together: The large die cut words were ink blended with Ranger Ink's Distress Inks: blues were Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon. The Purples were Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord and Villianous Potion.

Penny Black's products are all high quality and well designed. They are so much fun to take a day or two and just mix and match and create! Thank you for joining me today and I'm looking forward to seeing your work at the challenge!

Purple February Flowers

2024-02-15T02:00:00.093-05:00

Welcome to The Beautiful Blossoms Challenge for Feb. 2024! For me, this challenge was all about the purple. I saw the image below, 2nd down from the right, and I knew I had the perfect digital stamp to watercolor!

I watercolored the Varada Sharma Flower Arrangement 2 digital stamp that I have used many times before. Here is a blog I did from June 2022 with the same digital stamp, but with text in the background and another card has it on top with gold for a different look.

The color is not coming out quite right in the photos. The card is a true purple but translating into a more lilac color in these shots.

What did I use to make this card?

1) Distress Ink Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper;

2) Brother Laser Printer;

3) Silver Black Velvet #8 Watercolor Brush;

4) Mungyo 48 Pan Watercolors;

5) Spellbinders Small Die of the Month May 2020 -discontinued (die cut at bottom);

6) Altenew Enchanted Garden Enamel Dots;

7) Honey Bee Stamps Snarky Sentiments;

8) Honey Bee Stamps Snarky Sentiments Honey Cut.

I love a Clean and Simple "ish" card and this one is perfect for purple lovers. Remember to "Always Leave White" in your coloring for movement and sparkle. Thanks for joining me today and I hope to see your "Beautiful Blossoms" at the Challenge!

Newton's Nook for Paper Funday

2024-02-07T02:00:00.131-05:00

Welcome all to the February 2024 challenge for The Paper Funday where Anything Goes. This is a monthly challenge which begins on the first Weds. of each month. We have sponsors for our challenges and this month I created a baby card with Newton's Nook Designs.

I am big fan of supporting small businesses and here is a short clip from Newton's Nook "About" page on their website:

"Newton's Nook Designs is made up of a husband and wife team located in Southern Wisconsin (Go Packers!) Our goal is to provide you with unique and whimsical stamp designs that are fun to use and make you smile!"

I often create CAS"ish" cards (Clean and Simple) for I find I am most happy with the design when it has plenty of white space. I used Newton's Nook Designs Bitty Bibs and the coordinating die called Baby Bibs for this card - Just love all the images and sentiments!

I stamped the images on Distress Ink Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Crystal Clear Embossing powder. They were watercolored with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors with my #8 Silver Black Velvet Watercolor Brush.

The simple ink blended background is from MFT Stamps called Cable Knit Sweater which seems to be discontinued, but really any design would do in the background. The background panel was cut with Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangles. The beautiful blue hearts are from Trinity Stamps - Berry Blue Mix Jelly Drop Hearts. Perfect for it has various sizes in the mix.

Is this just the cutest set? Thank so much for joining me and let's see what you create...just enter in The Paper Funday Challenge!

I will also be submitting to NBUS Challenge for I've never used this set before!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Blossoms

2024-01-15T02:05:00.011-05:00

Happy happy 1st Birthday to the Beautiful Blossoms Challenge! We are 1 year old! To celebrate we have 5 prizes, so we will have 5 randomly drawn winners.

This was such a fun card to make. I used 2 retired sets: The pitcher and flowers are from Gina K's Life with Zest and the balloons are from Honey Bee Stamps Celebration Box.

The images were stamped on Ranger Ink Tim Holtz's Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Crystal Clear Embossing Powder before the pigment ink had a chance to dry.

Once heat embossed, I watercolored with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors. Just lovely lovely colors!

The background was a watercolored panel I had in my stash. I "audition" panels I have made previously to find just the perfect match. I liked this one with green, blue and yellow with gold splatters.

The Happy Birthday die cut comes from Pink and Main Stamp and Dies set called Surprise. One of those really good basic sets you can use for multiple occasions.

Happy 1st Birthday, Beautiful Blossoms Challenge! Come join us and play along!

Jan 2024 Blue Challenge

2024-01-15T02:00:00.154-05:00

Hello my friends and welcome to January 2024 Beautiful Blossoms Challenge where Anything Goes as long as a floral image is the main focus.

We have a blue theme with our inspiration photo:

I started with Penny Black's Florescence stamp. I love this image! It's simple and yet easily takes up most of the real estate on an A2 card.

I stamped the image with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink and sprinkled Altenew's Crystal Clear Embossing Powder immediately on it. Obsidian Black Ink stays wet for a period of time, so if I am not not heat embossing over it, I just let it sit for about 15 minutes. When I'm crafting, I am not usually in such a hurray that I can't wait for the ink to dry.

For this card I used Acquarello Watercolor Paper - Artistico Extra White 100% Cotton Hot Pressed 140 lbs. Hot Pressed has a nice smooth finish and it is very good for stamping images.

To watercolor I used Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors for the blue background and Distress Watercolor Pencils for the leaves and the dark blue colors. A little splatter with a gold is from Kuretake - Gansai Tambi Starry Colors helped to break up the background. The sentiments are from Hero Arts - CM136 Birthday Messages Clear. This one is a keeper - it seems to be discontinued on the Hero Arts site, but I did find it several places including Walmart.com.

Thank you for joining me today and I look forward to seeing all the beautiful flowers at the challenge!

I will also be submitting to NBUS Challenge, for this is the first time for this Penny Black Stamp and the Distress Watercolor Pencils!

And also Penny Black Saturday Challenge:

Angie Blom for Paper Funday

2024-01-03T02:00:00.150-05:00

Welcome to the first Paper Funday Challenge for 2024! Another year...more opportunities to create, create, create!!!

The sponsor I choose this month was Angie Blom Digital Designs. I was in a Valentine's Day mood and wanted to work with her image called Sprinkle Love SK-200. If you love digital stamps, check out this shop. The downloads include a pre-formatted set of 4 images. You just print them off, cut apart and you have 4 cards! This is what I did with this set of 4:

If you follow me, you know I print the images with a laser printer and Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock. To paint I only use one brush - #8 Silver Black Velvet. It holds a lot of paint and comes to a very tiny point, so I don't need various sizes of brushes.

Today's cards were watercolored with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors. I watercolor at lunchtime at work...I do get quite a bit done every day in only 1/2 hour. I always look forward to my coloring time!

I like to add some extra details to a simple image on my card. Besides Glossy Accents on the hearts, I've used Penny Black's Creative Dies - Textural on the card above and the cut out border on the card below is from Spellbinder's Winter Border Etched Dies from the Tinsel Time Collection:

You can see the Glossy Accents better here. I bought the smallest bottle - .5 oz., for I found it has a tinier tip and works better for me than the larger bottle - 2 oz.

The heart edges are dies from Penny Black's Happy Heart Collection - Lovely Border:

This heart border on the card below is from a retired company called W Plus 9, Heart Border Die. Also, the stitched lines on the bottom of the cards is from the Spellbinders Winter Border Etched Dies from the Tinsel Time Collection run through my Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine 3 times. I like that texture on my cards.

Thank you for joining me today and come join us this month at The Paper Funday Challenge - Anything Goes!

Beautiful Blossoms Dec 2023

2023-12-15T02:00:00.080-05:00

Hi friends! Welcome to The Beautiful Blossoms Dec. 2023 Challenge where we love all things floral. I've made 2 cards, very similar but not quite the same.

Here is our lovely inspiration photo:

I was inspired by the pine cones. I knew I had a Sizzix Thinlit #666067 called Holiday Brushstroke #3 which I haven't had a chance to use yet. I just cut it from red, green and yellow card stock in my stash for a pleasing design.

The pine cones were die cut from Honey Bee Winter Bouquet Honey Cuts out of brown card stock and ink blended a deeper brown around the edges.

The 2 background panels are retired, one from A Jillian Vance Designs and one from MFT Stamps. I layered them over gold glitter card stock.

The sentiments are from my stash, one is foiled and one is stamped in brown and sprinkled with clear embossing powder.

I tried to capture the pretty gold peeking through the dots.

Easy cards to make, but I think they are eye-catching!

Thank you for stopping by, staying to the end and I hope we will see your lovely work at the Beautiful Blossoms Challenge!

I will also be submitting my card to NBUS Challenge for as I mentioned the Holiday Brushstroke #3 is new to me.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

HLS Stencil Challenge

2023-12-07T02:00:00.049-05:00

It's December 2023 and as I write this blog, sadly, I understand it will be the last month for the Happy Little Stampers Challenges. The challenge will close indefinitely.

For my last design team card, I choose A Colorful Life Designs Marvelous Masks Deckled Rectangles Stencil. I used the smallest size and ink blended 3 windows with Ranger Ink's Distress Oxides colors: Twisted Citron, Spun Sugar and Salvaged Patina.

Our cuddly little cats and dog are from MFT Stamps Peace Love & Paws with coordinating dies which, as I look now, appear to be retired. I used this MFT set many times. Just love these guys.

Colored with Olo alcohol markers which I am also enjoying for their ease of use.

The sentiment is from Altenew - Happy Holidays which has great versatility!

Thank you for joining us for our last month of a stencil challenge...Have a wonderful holiday and best wishes to all!

Happy 5th Birthday Paper Funday

2023-12-06T02:00:00.168-05:00

Happy 5th Birthday to The Paper Funday Challenge!

We are celebrating with giveaways....

I created this card with a stenciled/watercolor project gone bad. Never throw out your mistakes for they can be die cut and turned into something good! I used MFT Stamps Big Birthday Wishes Die-namic for this card. The great thing about a die like this is that you can make 2 cards using the positive and negative. Today I only made one. Shocking, I know!

The balloon die also comes from a retired MFT set called Balloon Besties.

The background is from Concord & 9th - Stitched Stripe Card Front Die.

I love the blues with silver stars!

Happy 5th Birthday Paper Funday and I hope you have many more!