Easter Daisies

I'm madly making Easter cards to both sell at my church as well as send out to relatives and friends.  Today I have a floral card (rather than eggs or bunnies) with an Easter sentiment, since in my part of the world, Easter comes at springtime!

I used a watercolor technique to stamp my Dancing Daisies onto vellum.  I placed the stamp in my Stamp Platform, colored over the stamp areas with 4 colors of Ranger Distress Markers (Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany, Shabby Shutters and Forest Moss), spritzed with water lightly (as I was stamping on vellum that obviously won't absorb the water!) and pressed it onto the vellum. 

I let the vellum panel dry, then I die cut the vellum panel as well as a white panel using Scallop Stackers: Small from PTI.  I adhered the two die cuts together using 1/8" Scortape just around the outside edge and adhered that panel to a white card base.   I stamped the sentiment from Easter Alleluias from PTI onto a punched oval and adhered that directly onto the panel.

I'm linking my card to several challenges:

CAS Watercolour Card Challenge

 The Flower Challenge

Simon Says Whatever the Weather Wednesday Challenge

Sunday Stamps 200th challenge

my sketch fits accept for the one daisy that goes off to the right!

Stamps:  Dancing Daisies - Penny Black, Easter Alleluias - PTI
Paper:  vellum, white, Lavender Moon - PTI
Ink:  Autumn rose - PTI
Accessories:  Ranger Distress Markers Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany, Shabby Shutters, Forest Moss, Stamp Platform - Tonic/Tim Holtz, water mister, 1/8" ScorTape, oval punch - SU.

Three for Luck!

So I need to make some St. Patrick's Day cards for a sale at my church next month -  people mostly buy the chocolate shamrock pops my friend Jeannine makes but some also want to buy cards.

I looked to the challenges out in blog land for inspiration for my designs and, of course I found some!

My first card design was inspired by the February CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.

 The Love Notes die from Reverse Confetti has score lines on it so the edges can be folded up to make the die dimensional - sort of little tray!  I die cut it out of Translucent Alcohol Ink Yupo.  I colored it by pouncing one the new Alcohol Pearl Inks called Sublime onto it.  I stamped the sentiment from Irish Blessings (retired from Waltzingmouse) on a white strip and added a die cut Memory Box clover - both up on foam dots.

My second card was inspired by the Sunday Stamp Challenge.

 I die cut a scallop heart Nestability and layered a die cut clover over it.  I put a strip of washi tape behind it.  I used the Pierced Feature Frame Rectangle die from PTI for the background and framing. The sentiment is another one from Irish Blessings. 

My third card was inspired by the Country View Challenges: Black and White Plus One color.

So this is very similar to my first card above but I stamped the circles on the white card die cut and added a piece of washi tape behind it.   The sentiment is from Irish Blessings and the dots are from Off Beat Backgrounds - both retired from Waltzingmouse.

So now I have 3 St. Patrick's Day cards for my church sale! 

Hinges of Friendship
Stamps:  Irish Blessings - Waltzingmouse (no longer in business)
Paper: White, Pine Feather - PTI, Translucent Yupo - Ranger
Ink:  True Black - PTI
Accessories:  Ranger Alcohol Pearl Ink Sublime, Lucky Leaves Die - Memory Box, Love Notes Die - Reverse Confetti, foam dots.

Slainte
Stamps:  Irish Blessings - Waltzingmouse (no longer in business)
Paper:  White, Simply Chartreuse, Pine Feather - PTI
Ink: True Black - PTI
Accessories: Scalloped Heart Nestability, Lucky Leaves Die - Memory Box, Pierced Feature Frames: Rectangles - PTI, washi tape, foam dots.

May the Road Rise
Stamps:  Irish Blessings - Waltzingmouse (no longer in business)
Paper:  White, New Leaf, True Black- PTI
Ink: True Black - PTI, Ranger Distress Mowed Lawn.
Accessories: Lucky Leaves Die - Memory Box, Love Notes Die - Reverse Confetti, washi tape, foam dots.

Drink Me

I recently won some really fun vintage Alice in Wonderland stamps from Stamplorations and they've been sitting on my work table patiently waiting for me to ink them up.  So today -  I pulled Alice out of her packaging, stamped her and colored her with Distress Markers and a watercolor brush and popped her on a tag!

The two part tag is Tag Sale Die #8 from PTI.  I stenciled the base tag with Check Mate and Watering Can Archival Ink - both by Wendy Vecchi and the front smaller tag with Add a Stencil and Cornflower Blue Archival Ink.  I brushed the bottle with Glitter Glaze from MFT.  I sponged all the edges with Archival Tree Branch Ink. All layers are popped up on foam dots.

I'm linking my tag to the following challenges:

Tag You're It! 

I was inspired by the stenciling (I used ink instead of paste) and the drink theme (my image is holding a bottle rather than a cup of coffee!)

Sunday Stamps - Color Challenge

Stamps:  Alice In Wonderland #16 - Stamplorations
Paper:  White Watercolor paper
Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Wendy Vecchi Archival Watering Can, Tree Branch, Cornflower Blue, Ranger Distress Markers - Milled Lavender, Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw, Spun Sugar, Glitter Glaze - MFT, Wendy Vecchi Stencils - Add a Stencil and Check Mate, foam dots, waterbrush, Tag Sale #8 die - PTI.

Mittens and Candycanes

Am I in the Sound of Music and starting to sing "These are a few of my favorite things"? Well, no,   I'm describing the subject matter of my  cards today - both made for challenges, and although, as I stated in a past post, I'm done with this years' Christmas cards -  I have created two more - and they will go in the box for next year (unless I need one suddenly for a new card exchanger! i.e. not on my list!)

I had a lot of fun making these rather whimsical cards today.   The Merry Monday challenge this week was to use mittens or a mitten shape for your card and the Seize the Sketch challenge had a fun banner on it.

And here's my card combining the two challenges.   I bought this cute banner die from Savvy Stamps  last year on sale at the end of the season and forgot to get it out for this year until now, thanks to the challenge!  When I went to look for mittens - I found I had several stamps to choose from - who knew!  I decided to go with these stitched mittens from Waltzingmouse that I paper pieced.  The stitched flag sentiment strip is from Lil' Inker Designs and the stamped sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly.

I made my second card for a new challenge I came upon while visiting blogs - it's called Sunday Stamps and this week it's a sketch challenge.

And this is the card I created using the sketch.  More stamps from Waltzingmouse and  WMS dies as well.  I colored in the stripes on the candy cane with a Red Spica pen so it's a little glittery IRL

Here's the inside - continuing the peppermint theme!

Don't forget to check out the WMS Inspiration Blog -  where the Design Team posts something every other day that is sure to thrill and inspire you!   I'll be posting the 15th of each month over there so I hope you'll take a peek!

We had our first appreciable snowfall today -  I actually had to scrape it off the car in the lot I park in where I get the subway to work.  And they are predicting really cold temps in the 20's and more snow in the next few days - 2" - 4",  so no blizzard but enough to shovel!

Mittens
Stamps:  Sewing Box Christmas - Waltzingmouse,  sentiment - My Sentiments Exactly
Paper:  White, Hawaiian Shores - PTI, DP Sn@p - Simple Stories
Ink:  Archival Jet Black
Accessories:  maraschino twine - the Twinery, Happy Holidays Banner Die - Savvy Stamps, stitched sentiment flag die - Lil' Inker Designs, glue Pen, foam dots.

Candy Jar
Stamps:  Candy Jar Christmas Fillers, Merry Christmas from Alpine Christmas - Waltzingmouse
Paper:  White - PTI, Basic Grey - SU, Dp Sn@p-Simple Stories.
Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Memento Love Letter
Accessories:  Red Spica Pen, foam dots, Enamel dots - My Minds Eye, Jar Essential dies - Waltzingmouse.