Frosty Pine - Year in Review Challenge - Altenew

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! I am playing along with Altenew's December Inspiration Challenge one more time. I chose the colour scheme from August 2016 for this card. I created it about the same time as the last card but have been having some difficulty photographing it. It is so pretty in real life.

I used the Pine Tree stamp set again, building my tree from the top to the bottom with Versa Mark and embossing with white EP. I received the pretty rose gold sequins as a prize and wanted to use those so went with the pink and grey colour scheme of August's challenge. I wanted to make more of these in different colours but ran out of time. I think mixing glitter in with the white embossing powder would be nice as well.

Supplies:
Stamps - Pine Tree (Altenew)
Paper - Sweet Blush CS, Smokey Shadow CS, True Black CS (PTI)
Ink - Versa Mark, White and Silver EP
Other - Rose Gold sequins (PPP), foam tape

Silver Pines - Year in Review Challenge - Altenew

Today I created a card for Altenew's monthly challenge. For this month we are to select any of the inspiration photos from the past year of challenges. For this card I selected the colour scheme from April 2016. I am also participating in CAS(E) this Sketch challenge #200 - congratulations!

 

I flipped the sketch 180 degrees and used some of my newly acquired products from Altenew and Pretty Pink Posh. Thank you Altenew for your generous prize. I had a lot of fun using the Pine Tree stamp to create a number of A2 sized cards. For this card I taped off a section with painters tape and sponged a winter scene. I then started building my pine tree from the top using Versafine Onyx Black. I stamped the top using the full stamp then worked my way down the sides being sure to only ink up 1/2 to 2/3 of the bottom of the stamp, then filling in the center of the tree. Once the ink was completely dry I repeated the process with the other stamp in the set and VersaMark ink, then heat embossed with silver. A silver sentiment and some glittery snow flakes from PPP completes the card.

I created a similar card with only one tree - 

Supplies:

Stamps - Pine Tree (Altenew)

Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI)

Ink - Gypsy, Lagoon, Moonstruck, Outdoor Denim, Grey Wool (CTMH), VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx black, Silver EP

Other - painters tape, snowflake sequins (PPP)

Watercolour Birthday

Hello all, I am getting this one in under the wire. This is my second entry into Altenew's monthly inspiration challenge.

I used a water colour wash technique described in this video. I white heat embossed my stamped images and then painted with distress inks. I spattered yellow, blue and black ink over the piece and went over the flowers with Wink of Stella. I think this method would have worked better if the images had larger open spaces. I didn't get the contrast I wanted with the distress inks since I don't own a lot of colours, so I went in with a coloured pencil to darken some of the shadows.

Supplies:
Stamps - Remember This, Birthday Greeting, Peony Bouquet, Freeform Greenery (Altenew)
Dies - Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers), Building Blocks (PTI)
Paper - Watercolour Paper (Ranger), Black CS, White CS (PTI)
Ink - VersaMark, White EP, Distress Inks - Cracked Pistachio, Mustard Seed, Candied Apple, Peeled Paint, Wink of Stella, Prismacolor Pencils
Other - Clear Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), fun foam

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop - Celebrate the Season

I hope that all of our American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Today, I am playing along with Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop.

 

  

There are so many directions that you could go with this beautiful holiday photo. I was inspired by the turquoise boxes with gold dots, the shimmery white of the tree and the stocking.

  In the closeup you can better see that I coloured the stockings with a Copic marker, gold pen and Wink of Stella on the toes, heels and cuffs.

Supplies:

Stamps - Wet Paint Holiday, Tremendous Treats Holiday (PTI)

Dies - Birthday Cheer, Building Blocks (PTI)

Paper - Neena Classic Crest Solar White CS, Hawaiian Shores CS, True Black CS (PTI), Gold Foil CS (DCWV)

Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic - BG13, Gold pen, Wink of Stella, VersaMark, White EP

Other - Gold sequins

It's Your Birthday!

Today I have a card for this month's Inspiration Challenge at Altenew. I also used this week's sketch at CAS(E)thisSketch! I stamped my images onto Neena Classic Crest Solar White and coloured with  Copics. I created some Peerless Watercolor splatters and added the heat embossed sentiment raised on fun foam.
 

Here is the pretty inspiration photo:

 

and a great sketch:

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Persian Motifs, Birthday Wishes (Altenew)
Dies - Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers)
Paper - Neena Solar White, Lagoon CS (CTMH), textures black CS (stash)
Ink - VersaMark, White EP, Copics - Y11,15, 17, R20, 14, 27, BG10, 13, 23, Peerless Watercolors
Other - fun foam, rhinestones

Fall Blooms

Happy Halloween everyone! Today I have a card for the monthly inspiration challenge at Altenew. I have had this card sitting on my desk for over a week waiting to be photographed, then when I had the time had no sun. Thankfully mother nature co-operated today and brought me some sun.

Here is the inspiration photo:

I have a limited supply of Altenew stamps, am waiting anxiously for my latest order to arrive. I inked up my Peony Bouquet stamp set for this challenge, love this set.

Supplies:
Stamps - Peony Bouquet, Birthday Wishes (Altenew)
Dies - A2 Basics (Spellbinders)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI)
Ink - Buttercup, Chocolate, Brown Bag, Garden Green (CTMH)
Other - Fun foam, rhinestones

Birthday Balloons

This month at Altenew, May Park has provided us with a 'Craft Room' inspiration photo. You can check out the challenge here.

I was inspired by the colours, the circular shape of the washi rolls and the stripes. 

I stamped the balloon image from 'Birthday Wishes', inking with the lighter shade first, rock and rolling one side in a darker ink, then spritzing with water before stamping, which gave each balloon a cool marble look and made them all slightly different. After die cutting my card front, I lightly sprayed with home made shimmer mist. The sentiment was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, the word Happy coloured in with a copic marker and Wink of Stella. I popped the sentiment up on foam and adhered over a die cut piece of vellum. You can see the shimmer in the picture below.

Here is the inspiration photo:

Supplies:
Stamps - Birthday Wishes (Altenew)
Dies - Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers), A2 Matting Basics (Spellbinders)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI), vellum
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Cotton Candy, Tulip, Crystal Blue, Lagoon, Sunkiss Yellow, Sunflower (CTMH), Perfect Pearls, Wink of Stella, Copic BG01

Papetrey Ink August Blog Hop - Bold Bloom

Hello all, today is the day of Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop. Nichole gave us an inspiration photo with some beautiful colours and texture.

Here is my card:

and here is the inspiration photo:

I created a few watercolour panels the other night with the intent of using one of them as a background for a card. When this particular panel dried, it looked so much like a flower that I decided to make it the focal point. I drew in some lines for petals and stamens (I feel that I should do more but am afraid of ruining it) and stamped the sentiment in Navy ink (I really do need to get myself a Misti - crooked again).

Supplies:
Stamps - Hands of Time (PTI)
Paper - Watercolour Paper (Strathmore), Stampers Select White CS for base (PTI)
Ink - Peerless Watercolours, Outdoor Denim (CTMH)

Peony Birthday Wishes

Hope you are enjoying the last days of summer. Haven't posted in a while. Today I have a card for Altenew's August inspiration challenge - you can find details here. I love the look of greys and pinks so when I saw the inspiration photo I knew I had to play along.

I stamped the beautiful floral image from Peony Bouquet in pinks and heat embossed the outline after the ink was dry with Silver EP. I die cut a card stock frame and heat embossed it with silver to match. Stamped my sentiment on vellum with StazOn ink, glued it between two frame die cuts then popped the frame up with 3D foam. I didn't have any black enamel dots so I heat embossed some green ones I had with black EP.

Supplies:

Stamps - Peony Bouquet, Birthday Greetings (Altenew)

Dies - Keep It Simple Frames (PTI)

Paper - Stampers Select White CS (PTI), Vellum

Ink - Morning Mist, Evening Gray, Lava Rock (Altenew), Baby Pink, Blush, Hollyhock (CTMH), Versamark, Silver EP, Black EP

Other - Enamel Dots

Making Changes

Edited Sunday August 31 - So I have changed my header once again, actually to something a little simpler and what I was initially looking for. When I have more time I will figure out how to change the colours for my titles etc. to match my header. Hope you are having a good day.

Change is good right? So, I got it into my head yesterday that I wanted to update my blog header. Using Photoshop Elements and an image of a more recent card, I created a new header that I was fairly happy with. I wanted to see how it looked on my blog, so I removed my old header, added the new and wasn't 100% happy with it. When I tried to put my old header back into place it didn't fit properly and for the life of me I could not remember how I had resized it so many years ago. I have just enough computer knowledge to get done what I have to and just enough to also get me into trouble. So the new header it is. I wanted to change the colours for the rest of my blog, but again could not remember how I had done this in the past and did not want to find myself in the position of totally messing up my blog. Oh well, hopefully I can tweek it here and there in the next while.

Hope everyone is having fabulous long weekend!

Papertrey Ink July Blog Hop - Watercolour Wishes

I didn't think I was going to be able to get a card in for this month's hop at Papertrey Ink, but managed to make a quick watercolour card using Kay Miller's method from this past weekend's Stamp-a-Faire event. I was inspired by the colours and the florals in the pillow.

For the first card I created using this technique I used Distress Inks and for this one I used regular dye inks. I prefer the results with Distress Inks, need to get more colours.

Thanks for visiting!


Supplies:
Stamps - The Sweet Life, Hooray (PTI)
Dies - Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers)
Ink - Lagoon, Tulip, Sunset, Baby Pink (CTMH), Versafine - Onyx Black
Paper - 140 lb. Watercolour Paper (Strathmore), Stampers Select CS (PTI)
Other - raindrops (PTI)

SAF 2016 - Farewell

This year's Stamp-a-Faire event at Papertrey Ink is coming to a close tomorrow morning. I didn't complete as many of the challenges that I had hoped to, but did enjoy all of the inspiration and videos from the design team - I think this was my favourite year yet. Fabulous job girls! Here is a picture of what I did get done. I started a card for Lexi's Color Blocking, but just as I was finishing it up I messed up on my inking and didn't have the opportunity to start over. Great techniques and ideas to try in the future.

Thanks for visiting.

SAF 2016 - Watercolour Like A Master

Well, it is Monday afternoon and I only managed to complete one more challenge from this weekend's Stamp-a-Faire at Papertrey Ink. Kay Miller has a fabulous video on creating a watercolour masterpiece. This was so fun and I love how easy it was to create a pretty card.

I used 'The Sweet Life' stamp set for my florals and Ranger Distress inks. The sentiment is from 'Hooray'.

Supplies - The Sweet Life, Hooray (PTI), Watercolour paper (Strathmore), Versafine Onyx black, Copic black, Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron, Antique Linen, Picked Raspberry Distress inks (Ranger)

SAF 2016 - Masterpiece Inspiration

The 2:00 p.m. challenge is to be inspired by one of the Masters. I chose the beautiful floral piece by Georgia O'Keefe. I love large floral paintings and her poppy is gorgeous. The largest PTI floral image stamp that I have is Peonies on Parade, so I stamped it onto watercolour paper with versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I then watercoloured with my Peerless watercolour paints. I love the vibrant colour you can get with these paints.

 Supplies: Peonies on Parade, Hooray, Royal Velvet CS (PTI), watercolour paper (Strathmore), Versa Mark, White EP, Peerless Watercolours, Versafine Onyx Black, Black shimmer tape

SAF 2016 - Gilded in Gold

The 10:00 a.m. tutorial and challenge is all about gilding in gold. You can see Danielle's tutorial here. I created a birthday tag. I have a Krylon gold leaf pen that I haven't used for a while and first tried to use that, however the tip had dried out and I couldn't get good results. I then use some Testor's gold hobby paint that I have had forever and it worked beautifully.

I cut my tag from a coaster and my Branching Out die cut from heavy watercolour paper. Using post-its I gilded the bottom of the tag with gold and also painted the leaf die cut.

Supplies - Tulip Time stamp, Branching Out Die, Tag Sale Die (PTI), Versafine Ink, embroidery floss.

SAF 2016 - Starry Night

The 8:00 a.m. challenge at Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire features a video by Amy Sheffer on how to create a night sky. My first attempt ended up in the trash bin. When I added the water I didn't like how it affected my ink blending and my painted trees at the bottom didn't look much like trees by the time I was done. So I started over blending inks until I was happy, stamping images from Meadow Greens for my trees and spattering with white and metallic silver acrylic paint.

It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the upper right corner of my night sky shows pretty shades of pink, purple and green in real life.

Supplies - Meadow Greens stamp, Birthday Cheer Die, Soft Stone CS (PTI), various inks, silver foil CS, sequins, rhinestones, silver thread

PTI Stamp-a-Faire 2016 - Masterpiece Gallery

Get your creative juices flowing everyone, it's time for PTI's yearly Stamp-A-Faire event! Tomorrow is a day packed with fabulous inspiration, tutorials and chances to win from Papertrey Ink.

To kick off the event tonight there is a Gallery Reception for us to share a project that we are most proud of. I chose the card below which I created for MIM#131 from September of 2013 - Striped Embossing by Betsy Veldman. I had just started using Papertrey products earlier that year and used two of my favourite stamps from my limited Papertrey supply at the time. I can't access the link any longer but I am pretty sure this card was highlighted in the newsletter for that month.

If I recall Betsy demonstrated how to create an ombre or striped effect with heat embossing. I used three shades of blue embossing powder to create the stripes in the title. Then I created stripes in the round on my blooms.
Thanks for visiting.

Pretty Vellum Wedding Wishes

Today I have another card for Altenew's July Inspiration challenge.

For this card I stamped two of the images from Persian Motifs onto vellum with Versamark and heat embossed with Silver Pearl embossing powder. I coloured the images from the back with Copic markers. The vellum panel was so soft and pretty that I kept the rest of the card fairly simple. I trimmed the vellum panel, adhered it to a A2 card base and added a cardstock frame and silver embossed sentiment on vellum.

Supplies:
Stamps - Persian Motifs (Altenew)
Dies - Double Ended Banner (PTI), Labels 18 (Spellbinders)
Paper - Stampers Select White CS (PTI), vellum
Ink - Versa Mark, Silver EP (CTMH), Copics - Y13, Y35, YG03, YG17, RV02, RV13
Other - snaps

Magnolia Wedding Wishes

I have another card for Altenew's July Challenge. Below is the inspiration photo and the theme is - Weddings. I recently received a couple of Altenew stamps in the mail and have been anxious to use them. My card features Magnolia's For Her - such a pretty set and one I am enjoying playing with.

 

I stamped my floral images with VersaMark ink onto Ranger's watercolour paper and heat embossed with a pretty silvery white embossing powder. I watercoloured using Peerless Watercolours and also spattered some yellow watercolour onto my linen textured A2 card base. After fussy cutting the images I adhered them to my card base using foam adhesive. Added a vellum embossed sentiment and some raindrops and rhinestones. 

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies:
Stamps - Magnolias For Her (Altenew)
Dies - Double Ended Banners (PTI)
Paper - Fine Linen CS (PTI), Watercolor Paper (Ranger), Vellum
Ink - Peerless Watercolours, VersaMark, Silver Pearl EP, Silver EP (CTMH)
Other - rhinestones, raindrops