Penny Black Friendship

Hi friends. It's the end of May 2021 and we, The Card Concept, are onto our Challenge #156 Anchors Aweigh!

For me, to work with a photo for inspiration, I look closely at the photo, the name of the challenge and try to use something I have in my stash. For this challenge, it was the anchor theme and the blue colors that inspired me to create this Clean and Layered card.

I started with this set of sailing dogs from Penny Black called Friendship:

Our daughter in Phoeniz, Arizona has 2 energetic dogs. The grey dog popping up in the middle, is her dog, Bennett and the tan colored dog on the right is Cooper. Funny, how we usually, at least I do, color these images to match our real life pets.

My other die set that I used to add a few embellishments to the card is Art Impressions' Sail Mini Die Set. I love to be able to add bits and bobs to a card to make it cohesive.

The image was stamped with Altenew Obsidian Black Ink onto Blick Art's Bristol Smooth Paper, sprinkled with Altenew Crisp Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. I colored the images with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. They work perfectly on Bristol Smooth Paper.

I ran the images through my Brother Scan 'n Cut (I made 2 cards) for a nice clean cut. I can fussy cut, but don't enjoy it and it is never as even as the Scan 'N Cut.

I used 3 main stencils for the 2 cards: Taylored Expressions Go With the Flow, i-crafter Cosmic Flair and MFT's Cloud Stencil:

If I had to give my top ten items a new crafter should have it would be a few good stencils that can be adaptable. These 3 are on my list for sure.

I used 3 Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon for the waves and clouds and 2 Distress Oxides for the sun & rays: Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey. I used Ranger's new foam blending domes and like them as much as Scrapbook.com's! We will see over time which hold up better. I put a piece of washi tape around the handle of the Ranger domes, so I can tell the difference.

At this point it was just a matter of playing to get the layout I liked. I did cut the top of the waves on one card with a retired MFT wave die I had in my stash just for fun. One of the anchors from the AI Sail Mini Dies set was cut from Lawn Fawn's Silver Metallic Card Stock and adhered with a silver brad. The other was cut from a scrap of Bristol Smooth, along with a sea gull from the same set, and colored with a bit of grey.

Finally, the sentiments were stamped directly onto the front with Altenew Obsidian Black Ink and one image popped up with an Action Wobbler and the other with foam tape.

Such fun and colorful cards! If you haven't played along with The Card Concept's Challenges, I encourage you to try. There is so much inspiration in their photos! Thanks for staying with me today!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Happy Father's Day with Art Impressions

Hello friends! Welcome to my Happy Little Stamper Watercolour Challenge for May 2021:

Making a Father's Day Card with a couple of fun stamps. I started with this Happy Birthday stamp from Art Impressions called the Lawn Ranger.

I cut the sentiment apart (Yikes!) and removed "Happy Birthday". I used the bottom half of the stamp in my MISTI, with Altenew Obsidian Black Ink, without the pad, since this is a red rubber stamp. Also stamped the main image and colored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers on the smooth side of Ranger Watercolor Paper.

I did sprinkle Altenew Crisp Clear Embossing Powder on the image while still wet and heat set. I like to do that for watercoloring some images, helps keep the areas separated and not blend together.

I love to color a bit of sunburn on these fun images when they are in the sun. Zigs make it so easy! I used my Trinity Stamps Slimline Scenic Border Dies - the grass die by cutting a scrap of watercolor paper and coloring with various green Zigs:

I made 2 identical cards, so one strip of grass worked for both! This is a handy set to have in my stash for I can use it for both A2 and Slimline cards and also use the die cut as a stencil for hills, clouds and grass. I like to have supplies that perform multiple tasks.

The inside sentiments are from Taylored Expression Punny Man set wich I believe I received as a free gift for I do not see it available. TE has some other fun snarky type sentiments which I enjoyed using. I've linked to them HERE.

So this card could be for birthday, Father's Day or just a great card to send to a friend who loves to ride his Lawn Mower!

Thanks for joining me today and thanks to Happy Little Stampers for all the great challenges monthly!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Garden Pleasures

Welcome to The Card Concept Challenge #155 called Garden Pleasures. It is hard not to be inspired by this gorgeous picture:

Honestly, my first inspiration was from the Black-Eyed Susans which are my favorite flower, along with Red Geraniums. I knew I wanted to watercolor a grouping of flowers and chose Sugarpea Designs Floral Envie Stamp with its coordinating die to begin this Clean and Layered Card. It has a Black-Eyed Susan and Poppies, so I was happy with the bright colorful florals.

The die also cuts out the word "Smile" with a shadow, as well! Although I didn't use it on this card, I always like this choice, shadow/no shadow, for a word die.

Of course I used Ranger's Watercolor Paper (smooth side), stamped with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink, quickly sprinkled Altenew's Crisp Clear Embossing Powder on it and heat set. This is my go to start for most watercolor projects.

Why? I love the Ranger Watercolor Paper because of it's bright white, the options of smooth or textured paper, holds water beautifully and doesn't warp much for card making. Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink is a crisp, very black ink, which stays wet just long enough so you can clear emboss it. It's easier to watercolor with embossing lines separating the design.

To watercolor, I used Altenew's 36 Watercolor Pan set:

The background is this beautiful Cover-A-Card Houndstooth Stamp from Impression Obsession stamped with Scrapbook.com's Pink #1 Ballet Slipper:

What a pretty pink and these are hybrid inks so they dry very quickly - no smudging!

The sentiment of the envelope comes from SugarPea Designs Birthday Balloons stamp set. I love the font, a little funky, but not childish.

To put the front together I used a gold frame I had in my stash. My usual process is to color images and then figure out how to put them together with some bits and bobs on my craft desk. I try them out until I like what I see. Fun!

I cut the A2 front piece with SugarPea Designs Card Builder II which I've used many many times. Just love the delicate little pin dots around the edge of the panel.

You can see the tiny pin dots here and the shine of the gold frame:

Sometimes I like to have a serious card on the outside and a fun, punny sentiment on the inside for a bit of a surprise. This funny sentiment comes from Art Impressions' Never Too Old Laugh Lines stamp set:

Here is the set with it's fun sentiments:

Thank you so much for joining me today on my card making journey. I hope you have a chance to join in and create using The Card Concept's photo inspirations!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Mother's Day Card & an Announcement

Happy Mother's Day friends! So happy for all the wonderful mothers out there and remembering our dear mothers no longer with us. Today I wanted to share this card for Mom. I am playing along with The Paper Funday Challenges Anything Goes and their Optional twist: Florals.

I started with The Stamp Market's Ready To Bloom Cover Card and Ranger's Watercolor Paper. 

As of this writing, May 8, 2021 through tomorrow, May 9, 2021 The Stamp Market is having a sale. This would be a great time to pick up some of their high quality products:

Back to the card!

Once I ran the Ranger Watercolor Paper and the Ready To Bloom Die through my Big Shot Machine, I had several pieces to watercolor. Some of the die comes out in one piece, but then there are a few separate pieces which are nice for layering. I recently took a watercolor class and bought this Daniel Smith color-Permanent Violet so I thought I'd use it:

Such a pretty color, isn't it? Just dabbed on a bit of color here and there on the flowers using a Silver Black Velvet Brush which are my favorite for watercoloring for cards. I always try and leave white when coloring with any medium - it gives movement and sparkle! I learned that first hand from Judi Betts, a wonderful artist. If you have a chance, check out her site. I was fortunate to take a class from her here in Raleigh, NC with my daughter. There were only 4 of us in the class, so we got a lot of personal attention.

I placed the floral die cuts onto a ink blended background made with Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Cable Knit Stencil using Bearly Art Craft Glue. I have been using this glue for awhile and love the tiny tip and the great pin the keeps it from clogging.

The Cable Knit panel was from my stash, so I am not even sure what color I used, but it had the same tones as the Daniel Smith paint so I was happy with it.

The center of each floral die cut has a bit of Ranger's Golden Rod Stickles. The die cut word "MOM" is from Pretty Pink Posh Mom/Mother Scripts die. I cut it 3X from white cardstock and once from Spellbinders' Gold Mirror Cardstock then glued together with Bearly Art Craft Glue for a nice dimensional sentiment.

The inside sentiment comes from Stamping Bella Curvy Girl Holding Hands:

So that is my Mother's Day card for this challenge. Now for the announcement: I am so excited to share that I will be joining the Design Team for The Paper Funday Challenges! The challenges are posted the first Weds. of every month and I am working on the June 2021 now, so stayed tuned!

Thank you for staying to the end and hope that you will link back again to follow new challenges.
*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.