Thank you Kim

I wanted to play along with Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge for this month:

I follow Kim Singdahlsen's blog called Joyful Creations with Kim. I discovered Kim when she joined our Design Team at The Card Concept Challenges and I love her style and her homey blogs. At some point I entered a give away recently on her blog and won! The cards I am posting today were made with 2 of the dies which I won: the butterfly, Memory Box's Flitter Side Butterfly and their floral image call Small Lavender Butterfly Right Corner. Both are discontinued, but there are many similar ones on their website.

I made 3 cards using Sizzix's 3-D Adhesive, Effectz Gold Foil Sheets and Cas-ual Fridays Stamps Stencil called Swirls. The die cuts were cut from watercolored scraps I had in my stash. I also used Tim Holtz' Deckle Edge Trimmer. Love all 3:

Thank you, Kim for your generosity. I plan to use all the other goodies you sent sometime in the future!

*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.

The Little Ballerina

Well howdy friends! Not a greeting I normally use, but since this is a post for The Outlawz Progressive Challenge Sept. 2021, I thought I'd get into the Western spirit!

If you like to play along with challenges, this group has tons each month. This particular one is called Freebie/Progressive Challenge. Once you've signed up and posted your creation (a blog is not necessary) you automatically receive the free sponsored digital stamp each month. It's a good way to start learning about different digital companies and an easy way to create and post your work.

This month's sponsor is Hetty Clare Art, a shop from the UK (on Etsy), with a cute digi stamp called The Little Ballerina.

Isn't she darling? Also check out the challenge site, with all different creations using her.

I made 2 cards:

To create these cards I ran the digital image onto Ranger Watercolor Paper with a laser printer.  The pink ballerina is on the rough side of the paper and the green ballerina is on the smooth side. I like how the rough side takes watercolor, but sometimes the faces can get funky looking. In person she looks fine. 

I used my Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers for the watercoloring. They have a nice sharp point that gets into all the corners easily. I also like the flesh colors and use them frequently for skin tones.

To create the pink ballerina, I used this Swirl Stencil from Cas-ual Fridays Stamps:

I just love this stencil and have used it in many cards this year with Glitz gel, ink blending and now the Sizzix foiling with 3-D Adhesive. I also love Taylored Expression Confetti Toss Stencil for snowflakes or just sparkles in the sky!

To create the gold sparkles I applied Sizzix 3-D Adhesive through the stencil, let it dry until it was transparent and then rubbed Sizzix Effectz Decorative Foil Sheets in Gold. With this system any stencil can be foiled!

For this card I used Waffle Flower's Half-Half Dots Botanical Paper for the base. So easy - you just fold them in half and there is color on the front and back:

You receive 36 sheets of 12 designs and it makes card making so easy! I just added a watercolored piece behind out ballerina so that she popped against the background. I used Spellbinders Geometrical Floral Frames for the ballerina and the shadow.

I just stamped a simple "Let's Party" and "Celebrate" inside the cards. Pretty generic.

Well thank you friends for sticking to the end! Give this challenge group a try. What can you lose?

*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.

Sunny Sunflowers

Hi friends! I am so excited to share my Design Team card for The Card Concept Challenge #160: Sunny Sunflowers! Look at this gorgeous picture! It's hard not to be inspired...and remember you can use the colors or the image or both for your creation!

My card would fall under the Mixed Media style - embossing powder and watercolor...pretty much my go to for every card! I used both the colors and the image to create 2 cards:

I have had this Stampendous Stamp & Stencil in my stash for years and never used it (NBUS!) so I really wanted to finally get some use out of it for this challenge. I do see it is still available at Amazon and some other online shops.

My background was stamped in a pale grey ink using My Favorite Things Woodgrain background stamp, now retired. The floral image was stamped with Altenew's Black Obsidian Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Clear Crisp Embossing Powder while set wet and then heat set.  All on Ranger's Watercolor Paper.

I colored with Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and fussy cut all the images. I am not a fan of fussy cutting, but these were quite easy to do.

All in all, pretty quick and easy cards. Perfect Fall card for birthdays or even get well. 

Thank you for joining me on my blog today and I am hoping to see YOUR work! 

I am also submitting to:

1) NBUS

2) Colour Crazy Craft Challenge - AG

3) Crafter's Castle September Challenge - AG

4)  A Perfect Time To Craft

5) Four Seasons Challenge

6) Classic Design Challenge Blog

*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.

Orange & Purple with Polkadoodles

Hello Polkadoodles friends! It's Tuesday and that means a sale and challenge with DigiChooseDay from Polkadoodles.

The challenge for the design team today was to use orange and purple and I choose a Fuzzy Puffs digital stamp called Jasper Hot Air Balloon:

I printed the image onto Ranger Watercolor Paper on the smooth side with my Brother Laser Printer and watercolored with Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

I cut the image out on my Big Shot using Spellbinders' Picot Petite Ovals Etched Dies.

To create the black & white background I used a sentiment from Polkadoodles - Quotes - Winnie Special Moments - "Let's have fun on your special day". I saved it into a new Word.doc (Insert-picture) and copied it. Next I grouped those 2 sentiments and copied again for a full row. Grouped that. I copied and grouped until I had a full sheet of paper filled with this same sentiment. Printer on by ink jet printer on 80 lb. white cardstock. Probably took about a minute to create:

I really like how the simple black & white print pops against the orange and purples.

This is a 5" X 7" card, but the wonderful thing about digital stamps is that they can be resized to whatever size you want! I use them for all sized cards and art journal pages. They are so inexpensive, especially if you wait for DigiChoosDay (Tuesdays) and use the discount.

Thanks for joining me today. I am also submitting this card to the following challenges:

1) NBUS

2) Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge

3) 613 Avenue Create - AG

4.) A Place To Start

5.) Creative Knockouts - Furry Friends

6.) Paperbabe Stamps Challenge - AG

*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.

Hot Foiled Watercolored Colorful Fall

Happy September, friends and the Design Team is back from our summer hiatus and ready to inspire! Today's challenge is The Card Concept #159: Colorful Fall:

What a gorgeous picture and this year you can be inspired by the picture or the colors shown or both! I was inspired by the beautiful colors and leaves to create some Mixed Media cards and a bookmark using gold foiling and watercoloring:

When you start playing with your Spellbinders Hot Foil Glimmer Machine, of course you have to make multiples! It's heated up and ready to go, so I kept dropping plates and sentiments down until I had several to use.

They were foiled with Spellbinder's Gold Hot Foil onto Ranger Watercolor Paper - the smooth side for better adhesion with the foiling. I watercolored with The Stamp Market Color Crush Watercolor Palette. Lovely colors!

I tried to capture the beautiful shine from this foiling system in these pictures:

I love making bookmarks. I read books - just old school I guess!

Here are some of the rest of the products I used for these projects:

1) Spellbinders Picot Petite Rectangle Etched Dies

2) Crimson Fall, Glimmer Hot Foil Kit of the Month (plates only)

3) Autumn Leave Border - Glimmer Hot Foil Plate

I look forward to seeing your creations on The Card Concept site. The challenge is for 2 weeks, so come play along!

I am also submitting to:

1) NBUS

2) Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge

3) A Perfect Time To Craft

*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.