Happiest of Birthdays to You - Pink Flower

The flowers and leaves in this are from the Simon Says kit "Look for the Rainbows." The sentiments in the stamp kit didn't fit the space I was aiming for, so I used one from SSS "Sketched Flowers." I was working with Mojo Monday Sketch 521. I also was inspired by Addicted to CAS theme Pink and Purple. I wanted to add more purple to the sentiment, like purple ink or purple paper, but I was afraid it would overpower the flower which I really wanted to be the focal point.

Oh My Gosh Happy Birthday Panda

It's taken me awhile to get around to using the recent panda and birthday themed kit from Simon Says. I really love that layout challenges help me get to my desk and craft. They make it a little easier to spend time actually making cards -- otherwise I keep getting overwhelmed with ideas. Challenges help narrow my thinking down a lot. This layout is from CAS(E) this Sketch #336.

With the panda stamps, I am really glad for having a MISTI. It's nice to stamp the solid black areas of the panda over and over until it's good and dark. I stamped the panda in Memento ink so I could color with alcohol markers. Memento doesn't always stamp large solid color areas without spots or texture. So re-stamping that was great. 

For once I also did the inside of the card!! I inked the balloons in gray Staz-On, and they came out a little darker than I liked, so I decided to color them with colored pencils. I find colored pencils work better over colored paper as they are opaque. They are also safe with Staz-On, which is alcohol ink so alcohol markers wouldn't work.

Hope you enjoy my card!

We Bee-long Together

I am not a huge fan of bees, but I love all the hexagons in the "Bee Yourself" kit from Simon Says. For this card, I wanted to combine the TGIF Challenge #220 with Color Throwdown #551. How do you work pink into a card with bees? I debated doing the background with a gold foil paper and pink honeycomb, but I decided to reverse it, because yellow hexagons is more believable. 

I stamped the honeycomb in Tsukineko Galaxy Gold ink. I stamped a few times with the MISTI to make sure the gold came through. The bee-heart is in Memento black over top. I think Staz-on black would have worked better over top of the gold ink, but my pad dried out!! I filled in the bee with Zig Wink of Stella gold pen and a white chalk marker, then I covered it with Glossy Accents. A few filled in honeycomb, and some white hexagon enamel dots completes it all. I really like it, and I hope you do to.

Good Day Sunshine

I remade this card twice. I liked the layout challenge, but for some reason I could not translate it into a card that looks remotely decent. I'm so glad for Un-Du glue remover! I tossed out my original base (it was blue) on which I had tried two different types of washi tape, and decided to go with a white base and a lighter color tape. I think it works the layout, which is what I wanted to do.

The layout is from Freshly Made Sketches #396. Papers and embellishments are from the August 2014 Simon Says kit. I can't remember where I got the washi tape, sorry! 

Celebrating This Life

I wanted to play with the current Fusion Challenge: Triangle. I had this kit from Simon Says that I never really liked, called "Together." I was hoping that the kit would inspire me to do some things I wouldn't normally do. That never happened... until this challenge. I wanted to find a way to use triangles, which there were a lot of in this kit, so it made sense to combine the two. The stickers are foam, and a word of warning, they were SMELLY. I have never experienced that in a paper craft supply, other than glue. I put up two photos because it was hard to get a good shot because there's so much white.

There's Gnome Place Like Home

A friend of mine requested a gnome, so I got the Lawn Fawn Gnome Sweet Gnome set out and paired it with Mojo Monday #519.

Papers are from Avery Elle Everyday Collection. Embellishments from My Mind's Eye.

Kiss the Bride

For this card, I decided to combine Addicted to CAS Challenge #162 - Wedding and CAS(E) this Sketch #329. I felt like a clean and simple wedding card would be a nice thing to have in the stash. A lot of wedding cards, heck, wedding anything, is over the top. 

This card was hard to photograph because of the gold foil. But I will say, because there's no stamping, just paper and embellishment, that it was super easy to make. 

I did add a bit of ink on the edges of all the paper because I generally dislike white edges. 

 

Watercolor Flowers – With Sympathy and Love

This layout is a combo for a few challenges. I wanted to use the layout from Freshly Made Sketches #394, but with the stamps I wanted to play with it made sense to me to center the banner/sentiment area. My real goal was to play along with TGIF Challenge 218: With Sympathy. I knew I didn't have any sympathy cards in my stash so I thought I should get on it in case.

Stamps are from Simon Says kits (two different sets -- Flowers from June 2019 I think, and the sentiment from an older set. I'll update with the name later). Watercolor done with Zig Clean Color brushes. I have a love/hate relationship with watercolor, and the Zig Clean Colors make it easier, however, the color always comes out stronger than I intend.

Bee-spotted Hello

It's been five years since I've used my blog. I keep taking photos of my cards, but never posting them. Time to try again!

This layout is from CASE(E) This Sketch #328. Stamps are from Simon Says: Bee Yourself and Flip Flop Season.

I like this one because it was fast, simple, and the Bee set from the July kit works really well with the layout. Bees are not really my thing, but with the minimal color, I think I like it!