FMS569 - All Kinds of Wonderful

 Played along with this week's Freshly Made Sketches #569

I used the Gina K Designs Delightful Blooms layering stencil to play along.  Sometimes layering stencil can be tough to figure out, but this one is quite simple.  It comes with 4 stencil and it was very easy to line them up from one to the next.  I have started to build a nice collection of the Gina K Designs ink pads.  They blend beautifully and the colors are so vibrant!  The sentiment is from the Altenew Sentiment Strips stamp set.  

Here's the sketch:

CTD725 - Thanks for All You Do

 Since returning to crafting a few months back after a nearly 7 year hiatus, I have been doing what crafters do best........hoarding and overspending.   Now that I have accumulated a nice stash for myself, I am starting to play along again with weekly challenges to get back into the groove and get some visibility.  Ultimately, I want to get back to being on a design team again so I've got some work to do re-establish myself in the crafty world.

Today I played along with the Color Throwdown Challenge #725.

I just received this beautiful stamp set call Newsprint Floral Greetings by Unity Stamp Co.  I just love it and it is 50% right now so if you love it, too, now is a great time to get it!   I have a new rule for myself (that I sometimes ignore).  I have to ink something up 3 times before I can buy another stamp set from that stamp company.   This is the 2nd card I made with it.   

I stamped the image in ground espresso distress oxide ink onto water color paper and then watercolored the image with bundled sage and lumber jack red distress oxide inks.  I chose a sentiment and coordinating die from the Gina K Designs Doodled Autumn stamp set and heat embossed the sentiment.  I die cut the "thanks" 3 times and glued them together to add some dimension.   

#FMS578 - Butterfly Wisdom

 Played along with the Freshly Made Sketch #578 with the Gina K Designs Butterfly Trio stamp set , the current incentive stamp set that you can currently earn for free with a $75 purchase.  

Here is the sketch:

and here is my card:

Splurged and bought myself a bunch of Gina K Designs ink pads during the end of the year sale and I am SO glad I did!   They blend beautifully!   I used the Altenew Fine Tulle stencil and the Gina K Designs Wild Dandelion and Tangerine Twist ink pads to make the background pane.   I used the Gina K Designs Obsidian Amalgam ink  (highly recommend!) to stamp the butterflies and the sentiment and I colored the butterflies using my Arteza real brush pens to color the them,

 Today is my son Jack's 19th Birthday and so I created this card for him.  He is a Quarterback for Stonehill College so I created the card in college colors. 

I used the Altenew Fine Tulle stencil with some Dusty Concord and Black Soot distress inks. I used the MFT Pierced Fishtail Flag STAX die set to create the sentiment panel.  I die cut the word birthday using a die from the Concord and 9th Birthday Dies and used the negative and just layered a piece of black card stock under he white panel.  

Masculine birthday cards always seem tricky to me, but I think stenciling is the way to go!  Quick and easy in colors of your choice paired with a sentiment aaaaaaaaaaand DONE! 

Bright Birthday Wishes

 I ran out of time making a 5th birthday card for the "Party Time" theme for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, but the theme for the new challenge is make something bright to "Light up the New Year"  so I made one more birthday card in some bright colors to play along.

I chose and image by Tiddly Inks called "Birthday Wishes" and paired it with the new Penny Black You die.  I just love that die!   I blended some distress inks and and ran the card stock through the die cutting machine in the Altenew Mod Squares 3D embossing folder for a little texture. 

A Happy Happy Birthday

I created another birthday card to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (Party Time theme).  This time I did some stenciling and 3D embossing.  

I don't remember the name of this stencil and now I can't find it.  I've gone through my stencils 3 times.   I don't know what I did with it.  I used distress oxide inks to blend over the stencil.  I also used distress oxide inks to blend the background panel and ran that through my die cutting machine in the Altenew Ribbon Waves 3D embossing folder.  I used the Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Brush Script die for the sentiment.

Watercolored Pink Floral Birthday Card

 I have another entry for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge  ("Party Time"  theme) on this New Year's Day!   Happy New Year to you!   Thanks for being here!  Not sure who even visits blogs anymore, but I do like posting here again for old time's sake!   Since I have "un-retired" like Tom Brady from paper crafting, I am interested in stamps and techniques that I would have never paid attention to 7 year ago. This card is an example of that. 

I heat embossed this pretty image from the Altenew Paint-A-Flower: Rosa Floribunda stamp set in white and watercolored using my distress inks.  That sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn Tiny Tags Sayings: Birthday stamp set.   Wishing I had some dew drops for embellishments, but my order hasn't arrived yet.  Sequins it is!