Cheery Wishes Card

Today is the longest day of the year.  Tonight the sky will show off a strawberry moon, which happens only when the full moon coincides with the summer solstice.

I don't know why I felt compelled to share that with you, but, hey, why not?!  

So, on to today's card....

 

I stamped the pussy willows from the Penny Black delicate florals 40-103 cling set onto a distressed white panel using permanent ink.  I rubbed some bundled sage distress ink onto my craft mat, and  used a watercolor brush to apply the ink to my card.  I added some peeled paint ink to the base of the pussy willows, and to the leaves.  I added the verse, and some clear sequins, and that was that.  Clean and simple.  

Just some layering onto soft green textured card stock, then onto a white card finished off the card.

I am adding my card to these challenges:

Penny Black At Allsorts - Flower Power

Addicted To Stamps Challenge - Anything Summer

Allsorts Challenge - How Does Your Garden Grow

Thank you for visiting today.  Enjoy the rest of this longest day!

Blessings,

lynda 

 

Impression-Obsession and Watercolor Lifting

Ah, what a glorious late spring day!  The sun is shining, and it's not too humid, but comfortably warm with a slight breeze.  The hummingbirds and our oriole visitor have been busy around our feeders all morning.  They're so fun to watch.

So, with birds on my mind, I created today's card using Impression-Obsession 's birdhouse die (DIE156-H), and their stamps.  On the colorful background I used one of their awesome cover a card background stamps (CC224 Fancy Leaves).  The sentiment is from the square frames set (WP128).

I totally cased this card from Jennifer McGuire's post HERE.  Click on the link (the highlighted word 'here') to learn the watercolor lifting technique that I used on the rainbow panel behind the bird houses.  Jennifer is an excellent teacher, and the instructions are clear, concise, and easy to follow.  It's a really fun technique, and I know I will be using it to make lots more backgrounds.  I made my card different from hers, but used her general idea and technique.  

I decided to go with rainbow colors, in support of the victims of the Orlando tragedy.  My prayers and condolences go out to their families.

I am adding my card to these challenges:
Impression-Obsession Challenge - Summertime
Virginia's View Challenge - All About Colors
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge - Watercolor

I hope you're having lovely weather where you are, and that you can get out and enjoy it.  Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  Be sure to check out the inspiring cards entered in these challenge blogs, and visit Jennifer's blog to see how easy this watercolor lifting technique is.

Blessings,
lynda

Enjoy The Ride

Hello!  I am stamping and working on a couple of cards for the blog, but today has been so nice, I've just been enjoying the weather.  I do, however, have a card to post today.  I made it a couple of weeks ago.  

 

 The stamp is from Technique Junkies, #SD605 Like a Roller Coaster.  I fell in love with it, and it came home with me from a rubber stamp show recently.

I created the background with the watercolor smoosh technique, using Ranger Tim Holtz distress inks.  When the panel was completely dry, I stamp and embossed the roller coaster in black embossing.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the panel.  I liked the look of the scalloped edges with the curves of the roller coaster.  

I embossed the thinking of you on a scrap piece of black, used a punch to cut it, and adhered it to a blue scrap, then attached it to the card.  

The card base is watercolor paper, with a matching blue panel along the left side.  I adhered the roller coaster panel to black card stock, rounded the corners, then onto watercolor paper, rounded the corners, then onto the card with foam for dimension, and, you guessed it, rounded the corners.

The final touch was to use my Spectrum Noir clear sparkle brush along the roller coaster.  You can't tell from the picture, but it is really shimmery and kind of jumps right off the card!
Love my sparkle brush!

That's it for today.  I am going to make dinner now, and after dinner I will head up to my craft room and work on these two cards I have going.

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  Hope to see you back soon.  

Blessings,

lynda  

Purple Poppies Birthday Card

I can't seem to stay away from purple!  I love it with greens and blues, purple and white, purple and gray.  All shades of purple....but I'm especially fond of eggplant, and some of the muted shades, with touches of gray and black.....

 

Today's card features Penny Black stamps.  I stamped the purple poppies (40-372 Divine) onto linen texture card stock with my favorite permanent black dye ink (India Ink Black by Superior), inking only one part of one flower of the stamp, then masked the flower, and stamped the other right over part of the mask to make it appear to be behind the first flower.  I really wanted to focus close-up on the flowers for this card.  

I used Tim Holtz distress markers in dusty concord, seedless preserves, and milled lavendar on the poppies.  I start with the lightest shade (milled lavendar) and color an entire petal.  Then I add the medium shade, and kind of flick it into the lighter shade about half way up.  Finally, I add the darkest shade and flick that part of the way up the petal, then go back to the lightest shade and blend it all out.  I add water to soften and complete the watercolor look. 

This works great with these distress markers, because they are made to react with each other, and with water.  When finished, I realized I needed some darker shades near the bottom of the petals and where the petals overlap, so I added tiny touches of black.  I decided not to blend out the flicked lines, as I liked the way they look like veins of the petals.

I shaded the background with a very light coat of seedless preserves, using a Clarity brush and a very light touch.  I stamped some parts of various PB stamps lightly on the background, including 1999L letter background, 2007E scroll border, 1989E harlequin border, and 30-014 salutations (best wishes).  Finally, I dusted in some hickory smoke along the edges of the panel. I adhered teh panel to black, then onto a white linen card.

Best wishes is embossed in white on a piece of black scrap, and adhered with dimensional tape.  Black rhinestones complete the card. 

I am adding my card to the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps Challenge  - Flowers

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Birthday (in honor of their 8th birthday as a challenge blog - Congratulations)!

Penny Black At Allsorts - Flower Power

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge - watercolor

Thanks so much for stopping in.  Be sure to check out these challenge blogs...it's not too late to enter! 

Blessings,

lynda 

 

Stand Tall And Be Strong

I am loving this new stamp I got at a stamp convention in Syracuse NY a couple of weeks ago, and had to use it.....

The stamp is by Technique Junkies (SD601 Stand Tall).   

I used a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop (TCW461s Mini Rosetta), and my Clarity brushes to softly brush distress inks in crushed olive, wild honey, and wilted violet onto white card stock.  I love, love, love the Clarity brushes....they are so soft, and are wonderfully tapered, so you can get the softest, almost air-brushed looking results.  Or, you can apply more ink, and get a darker look.  And they don't tear and push at the stencil.  Love 'em!

Making sure the stenciled background was dry, I embossed the stamp with black in the bottom right corner.  Then I added some black spatters, and a black strip of paper along the left edge to balance the composition. 

Finally, I cut a piece of white seam binding, and 'dyed' it by rubbing the distress colors onto my craft mat, spritzing with water, and dabbing the ribbon into the colors.  I scrunched it up, and dried it with my heat tool, very carefully.  Then I ran my tape runner along the edge where the black strip met the background, and stuck the ribbon to it, sort of pushing it here and there to create a sort of ruffled look.

That's it!  Easy-peasy.  And so fun.

I am adding my card to these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - For A Guy

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Use bows or ribbons

Virginia's View Challenge - All About Colors

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I will be back tomorrow with a watercolored card.

Blessings,

lynda