Friday, June 9, 2023

Serene Stitches with MFT


Last month I was so delighted to win an MFT Sketch Challenge and spent my gift code on the new stitching kit from MFT called Everything Wonderful. This kit has some really great elements, and I also chose to pick up the extras to fill out the kit because it included some fantastic sentiment sets in beautiful script like this one Everything Wonderful.   The kit included 3 skeins of embroidery thread, so I let that pick my palette for the card.  I’m always a fan of soft blue-green.  So I die cut the elments from heavy cardstock, and added some greenery in vellum and cardstock too.  


After stitching, I arranged the flowers on a cardbase that has a frame from MFT’s Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge, and soft ink blending with Aged Patina Distress Oxide ink.  This is this week’s MFT Sketch Challenge as well.  


It really has a dreamy serene look, and the extra stitching really adds so much texture and softness!  
 

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Summer Magnolias with Pink Fresh Studios

 


Ah the Tropics....doesn’t that sound good?  We’re continuing with our heatwave here and these gorgeous colours make me imagine I’m on an island somewhere.  One of things I love the most about a destination vacation is the flora and fauna that I don’t have at home.  This beauty from PinkFresh Studios called Magnolia Pattern stamp set is a gorgeous one, and though magnolias don’t really bloom in Summer, the Simon Says Stamp Challenge on Instagram this month is to create with yellow, orange and teal, which is such a gorgeous summer palette that we’re going to pretend they do :)  


I recently picked up these awesome braided dies from PinkFresh Studios that I LOVE.  They’re the Rounded and Braided Rectangle and the detail is amazing.  I think they work beautifully on this slimline style.  I splattered some watered down white acrylic paint onto the card before I added the fussy cut magnolias (coloured with Copics).  


The sentiment is from a PinkFresh joint set from the pandemic that Simon Says Stamps produced.  I think it’s so encouraging.  A few enamel dots finish it off.  

Monday, June 5, 2023

Be Happy Blossoms from TCP

Floral Frame Card with Gold Embossed Sentiment

Hello TCP Friends! Im bringing you a new round of inspiration for the beautiful summer season of flowers!  

Today’s design uses the beautiful TCP Polymer set called Sketchy Flowers (retired).  Its one of my all time favourite sets from TCP with its loosely lined florals and leaves.  I stamped an arrangement I liked using my Misti Tool and Memento Desert Sand Ink to really fade away with a no-line look.  

Floral Frame Card with Gold Sentiment

But there is nothing fading about THESE blooms!  I gave them a lot of vibrant colour with Copics, and this time I chose not to blend out the colours as much  between the values as I usually do, and let it be really graphic, almost Andy Warhol illustration style.  It allows all those saturated colours shine! 

Flat lay view of floral framed card showing gold foiling and embossing

Once I was done colouring, I added a gold foiled frame over the flowers, cut out the centre of the colouring layer, creating a “floral frame”.  Beneath the floral frame, I used a cover plate to emboss the cardbase, and then embossed the pretty sentiment and heart from TCP’s Scripted Sentiments (retired) in gold.  

Flatlay Floral Framed Card

A few irridescent holeless sequins finish off that touch of sparkle!  Its a FUN summer design!  

Sunday, June 4, 2023

A Tropical Happy Day with C & 9th

 


We’ve got hot temperatures and some humidity in my corner of the world, humidity is not as usual for us, so we’re feeling a bit like the tropics right now!  And I have a very tropical card created with new goodies from Concord & 9th.  This design uses A Bit of Paradise Bundle with its awesome turn around stamp and coordinating dies.  I chose colours of yellow, orange and teal for Simon Says Stamps June Challenge and I love how the combo turned out!  


The sweet tropical leaf die cuts make great accents to the colourful background and I’ve added an embossed sentiment, as well as an Oceanside cardstock border from C&9 that gives the right amount of colouful framing.  A simple enamel heart accents the sentiment.  


Ready for summer!  Thanks for joining me!




Friday, June 2, 2023

Purple Prayer Bough

 


Hello!  Today is my last purple card day this week, and I’m bringing a lovely thoughtful card of support using multiple products from multiple companies, but I think they work together well.  Its fun when you can “shop you own stash”.  

I started with The Greetery’s stencil set Spring Sprays in lovely varied shades of purple, as well as a cool Evergreen Bough in Distress Oxide Ink.  I used the coordinating dies to cut out a few extra “blooms” to accent with the sequins.  


The prayer die cut (retired) from MFT is cut several times in white and then in ink blended cardstock so it’s raised well.  Then I just wandered through my Power Poppy sets to find a couple of words I could stamp that would create a great sentence.  


Seems like a great way to end off my purple week of cards!  Hope you’ve enjoyed it!   



Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Purple Nature with The Greetery


Hello!  I’m back with more purple this week.  And I think this one is pretty special.  I’ve seen more tone on tone layered cards with dark cardstock done with great effect in the past months.  The monochrome really packs a punch when it’s layered, so why not try it in purple?!  Today I leaned heavily on thse beautiful nature dies from The Greetery called Curio:  Summer Findings.  It includes a delicate selection of flora and fauna, perfect for that layer upon layer look.  The moth, dragonfly, bee and butterfly are all layered and glued, then placed on these great dies from Pink Fresh Studios, called Essentials Collection - Mini Slimline Bundle.  If you like to make mini-slimline cards, this is a great set that includes 7 types of circle dies and 7 slimline rectangle dies.  


I’ve layered them over a lovely coverplate die from PinkFresh Studios called Ornate Medallions.  The addition really adds to the sense of texture to the layers.  The pretty sentiment is letter pressed from Spellbinders Mini Everyday Sentiments.  


Want to know a fun trick?  With all the popped up layers of foam between the elements of the card there were spots where the foam was showing and it really distracted from the card.  Just a quick swipe here from a V05 Copic on the side of the foam dots and you’d never know they were there!