sketchy watercolored holly

3 Responses »
Apr 242015

Hello!  The current challenge at The Paper Players has been intriguing me all week.  It’s to create a clean and simple styled card and incorporate watercoloring into it.  Since the challenge closes this afternoon, I figured this morning it was now or never if I wanted to join in.  The current CAS(E) this Sketch! layout seemed to lend itself well to including a watercolored background so I’ve combined the two challenges in today’s card.  I started off with a wash of green ink on watercolor paper, which turned out pretty light, but that was OK because I didn’t want it to obscure the image.  Once it was dry, I stamped the holly image.  Then I used a damp paintbrush to trace over the lines, blending in all the little shading lines and softening the edges of the image.  I stamped a cherry colored ink pad on acetate and used the ink from there to color in the berries.  I accidentally tapped the brush over the cardstock as I was finishing up the berries, splattering a bit of the watered-down red ink near the bottom edge of the watercolor paper.  So I made a last-minute decision to add some more splatters randomly over and around the image.  I chose a green cardstock for the base and here’s the final result:

CTS120

I realize it probably seems a little weird to have a Christmasy design in April, but none of the previous ideas I had came together very well for me.  It still makes a good card for me to stockpile for Operation Write Home.  Since there’s no sentiment on it, the person who chooses to send it can use it for any occasion during the holiday season.  And Christmas Eve is just 8 months away from today!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  All comments are read and appreciated!  (Well, not the spam comments.  They are read, but they are not appreciated unless the content or grammar strikes my funny bone – like the poorly worded one that talked about testing traffic lights.  LOL!)

Supplies:
Stamp: Christmas Blueprint 4 (Tim Holtz)
Cardstock: Garden Green (Stampin’ Up); watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler (SU)
Other: paintbrush

Posted by PH in VA at 11:00 am Cards, CAS(E) this Sketch!, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up!, The Paper Players challenges, Tim Holtz

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - April color challenge

9 Responses »
Apr 112015

Hello there!  It’s the second Saturday of the month, and that means it’s color challenge time at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  This time we’re asking our challenge participants to be inspired by the colors of coffee and cream.

I am not a coffee drinker – I like the smell of it (most of the time, at least), but I don’t care for the taste.  But with the challenge colors stated the way they are, I couldn’t resist using the Stampin’ Up color called Early Espresso.  It’s a very dark brown, so I guess that goes along with my husband’s preference to drink his coffee black.  It doesn’t show up very well because the cardstock is so dark, but I stamped it with a background stamp to (try to) give it a little extra visual interest.  I stamped the toy soldier stamp with Early Espresso ink on watercolor paper and then used a slightly damp paintbrush to blur some of the lines and give the image a bit of color.  The layout for this card comes from this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge.  The sentiment is from a long-retired Stampin’ Up stamp set.  I thought it was especially appropriate for a card that’s going to be donated to Operation Write Home.

52CCT 04-11-2015

Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team has made.  Then show us what you can create with these colors!  We’d love it if you joined our challenge this week.  You have until 7:00 pm Eastern time Friday, April 17 to link your card at the 52{C}CT site. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Blueprint (Tim Holtz); Wishes Awash, Sanded (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs); Early Espresso (SU); watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Other: brads (Recollections); paintbrush, water

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am Cards, Christmas Card Throwdown, Freshly Made Sketches, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz

otterly great

2 Responses »
Mar 242015

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably figured out that I seriously love the adorable animal stamps from Lawn Fawn.  Each year to commemorate the company’s birthday, they put out a new little celebratory set.  As soon as I saw this year’s set, I knew I had to have it – not just for myself, but also for a dear friend of mine.  I preordered it from one of my favorite online stores, and waited patiently, and finally received the stamps a few weeks ago – one set for my friend, and one for me.

Then I had the dilemma of when the best time to give my friend her set would be.  Her birthday isn’t until September, and I didn’t think I could wait that long.  So I did a little calendar math and reasoned that since March and September are six months apart, I’d send it to her for her half-birthday.  I thought that a half-birthday gift would be a much more unexpected surprise than a birthday gift, and that just seemed like a really fun thing to do.

So I sent my friend’s set to her recently, tucked inside of the card I’m sharing here today.  I used a wash of distress ink on watercolor paper to create some variegated blue paper and then cut it with dies, using the darkest blues for the waves and the lightest blues for the sky.  I toyed with the idea of coloring the otter with distress inks too, but I haven’t done any detail painting like that for a while, so I decided to play it safe and color the otter with markers instead.  Once he was colored, I fussy cut him so I could place him floating among the waves.  The sentiment stamp actually reads “have an otterly great birthday”, but that didn’t seem exactly right for this particular purpose.  So I inked it selectively and fit the wording into the space available, using my trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up neatly.  I used OWH Stars & Stamps sketch #184 for the layout of the card.  Hopefully I’ve used enough distress ink for the card to count toward the current Lawnscaping challenge, too.

102 - distressed otter

I hope my friend enjoys using this stamp set as much as I enjoyed making this card for her!  She’s an “otterrific” lady and I hope she realizes how much our circle of friends loves her.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Year Five (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Kraft (Stampin’ Up); watercolor paper (Artist’s Loft); designer paper from Nature’s Whisper paper pack (Creative Memories)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Faded Jeans Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
Other: markers (Copic); stitched circle Stackables die (Lawn Fawn); Landscape Trio die (Mama Elephant)

Posted by PH in VA at 8:00 pm Cards, Lawn Fawn, Lawnscaping challenges, Mama Elephant, OWH Stars & Stamps sketches, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz

happy birthday, Lawnscaping

4 Responses »
Feb 242015

Hello!  If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you probably know that one of my favorite stamp companies is Lawn Fawn.  They have all sorts of images that are adorable, and I use them pretty regularly.  You also probably realize that I enjoy participating in various card making challenges.  There’s a challenge blog called Lawnscaping, which is a huge proponent of Lawn Fawn.  And Lawnscaping just happens to be celebrating their 100th challenge!  How fun!

To celebrate this event, Lawnscaping’s current challenge theme is Birthday Celebration.  I’ve created today’s card using two of my oldest Lawn Fawn stamp sets and one of their dies.  I did quite a bit of masking to arrange the dogs so that they look like they are posing for a photo while showing off their party hats.  (I am old enough to remember being fascinated by Polaroid photos ejecting from my uncle’s camera and developing magically in front of my eyes!)  The hats were stamped onto a scrap of cardstock, colored, fussy cut, and glued into place.  Then I drew the little frilly things on top of the hats back in.  I used an embossing folder that looks like bubble wrap on the red cardstock strip to tie in with the polka dots on the hats.

100 - birthday dogs

So, congratulations to Lawnscaping for reaching this milestone!  I’m looking forward to the next 100 challenges (and hopefully more) and will try to be a more active participant!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Critters in the ‘Burbs, Hats Off to You (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Real Red (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Say Cheese die (Lawn Fawn); markers (Copic); bubble wrap embossing folder (Tim Holtz); dimensionals (SU)

Posted by PH in VA at 8:00 pm Cards, Lawn Fawn, Lawnscaping challenges, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - February color challenge

7 Responses »
Feb 142015

Hello, and Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope you’re able to spend the day with someone you love.  At 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, we’re sharing our love of the Christmas season.  This week’s challenge is a color challenge with some very classic colors:  white, silver, and grey.

There’s a fairly popular saying that “the third time’s the charm”, and that seemed to be true as I was trying to make a card for this challenge.  My first attempt involved heat embossing, which didn’t turn out too well.  My second attempt probably would have worked out all right, but I started getting impatient and felt like it was a bit too much to fuss with.  I had this week’s challenge from CAS(E) this Sketch! in the back of my mind, so I decided to combine the sketch with the 52{C}CT colors.  I ended up rotating the sketch 180° so that my card makes it upside-down from the way it’s drawn.  I did that because the snowflake image I chose has words written around it, blueprint style.  In order to keep the words right side up, but to have the image going off the corner like the sketch shows, the beginning of the word “shiny” was likely going to be off the edge of the cardstock – and I just couldn’t have “hiny” showing on a Christmas card, right?!  As it worked out, the “real” sentiment on the card almost obscures it, but if you look closely and read it all together, it’s “Happy wonderful shiny Christmas”.  LOL.  My shiny silver element for the card is the eyelet in the middle of the snowflake.  I also sprayed the white cardstock with some pewter shimmer mist, but because the mist is so fine, I wasn’t able to capture the shimmer in my photo.  So the cardstock just looks speckled.

52CCT 02-14-2015

Now it’s your turn to show us what you can make with these colors!  If you need more inspiration first, go visit the 52{C}CT site and see what the rest of the design team has created.  Be sure to link your card at the 52{C}CT site by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, February 20.  We look forward to having you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Blueprint (Tim Holtz); Wondrous Wreath (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Smoky Slate (SU); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Smoky Slate, Basic Gray (SU)
Other: pewter Perfect Pearls Mist (Ranger); snowflake eyelet (source unknown)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am Cards, CAS(E) this Sketch!, Christmas Card Throwdown, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - January Pick a Previous challenge

6 Responses »
Jan 312015

Hello!  We have a fifth Saturday this month, which means that at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown it’s “Pick a Previous” week!  This week, we’d like you to pick one of our previous sketch challenges from the archives and use that to inspire your Christmas or winter-themed card.

I went back a few years and chose the sketch from May 2012.  It’s been a while since I’ve created a card with this many panels and mats and such, so that was a fun twist for me.  I used a stamp from one of my newest stamp sets for the focal panel and chose my color scheme from the strip of tree print paper.  The horizontal strip is green cardstock stamped in chocolate brown with a random “scratchy” print stamp that I felt coordinated well with the sketchy look of the tree image.  The sentiment stamp I used is actually a long narrow stamp, with the words next to each other, but it was a bit too long to fit nicely in the space I had available.  So I stamped each word separately, centering “Merry” over “Christmas”.  I have to admit I’m pretty pleased with the completed card.

52CCT 01-31-2015

Which sketch will you pick?  There are over 30 from which to choose, so have fun deciding!  Then be sure to share your card with us at the 52{C}CT site by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, February 6.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Mini Blueprints (Tim Holtz); Sanded (Stampin’ Up); sentiment stamp (Purple Onion Designs)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Naturals Ivory (SU); designer paper from Nordic Holiday 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am Basic Grey, Cards, Christmas Card Throwdown, Purple Onion Designs, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - November theme challenge

10 Responses »
Nov 152014

Hello there, and happy Saturday to you!  It’s time for another theme challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown:  Christmas windows.  The perspective can be either looking into the window or looking out from the window.  So long as the window is the main focus of the card, it’s good.

I’ve owned this cute rubber stamp of a boy and his dog looking out a window for… um… let’s just say a pretty long time.  Even though I think it’s adorable, I’ve always been rather intimidated by it because I worry that my coloring skills won’t do it justice.  Well, this challenge provided me with the opportunity to push myself past that fear.  I guess I did OK.  One of the reasons the stamp has bothered me is that there is no background to the window – so that way, the user can choose to put it on whatever type of building he or she pleases.  I decided the easiest thing to do would be to add it to cardstock embossed with the brick embossing folder.  I highlighted the bricks with a few swipes of my white ink pad.  I was trying to follow the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the layout, so I tried making the one rectangular element into a snowdrift up against the side of the building, under the window.  I put a few scrap cardstock shims behind the window to give it some dimension, but in hindsight I’m not entirely sure that was the best idea.  Then there was the horizontal twine-like element of the sketch.  The realist in me couldn’t figure out a logical reason for that in my scene.  So I opted to just add a simple little bow to the snowflake, which takes the place of the button-like sketch element. The sentiment is made up from two different stamps. Since it seems to me like the boy is looking out of the window, perhaps missing somebody who is far away, it made me think of kids whose parents are stationed overseas with the military. Even though it’s too late to send this card to Operation Write Home to be used this holiday season, it’ll keep for next year.

52CCT 11-15-2014

Go check out the other design team members’ windows – this is one time where it’s okay to be a “peeping Tom”, LOL!  🙂  Then create your own card featuring a Christmas window and share it with us at the 52{C}CT site.  We’d love to have you join in the fun and creativity!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Edited on November 19, 2014:  I’m so honored to have been named one of the “Perfect Princesses” at Freshly Made Sketches!  Thank you to Linda for choosing my card!

Supplies:
Stamps: Billy and Sparky at Window (eat cake graphics); Trendy Trees (Stampin’ Up); Christmas Tags (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Soft Suede (SU); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Craft White (SU); Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Brick embossing folder (Tim Holtz); Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Hampton Arts); snowflake punch (EK Success); Cherry twine (Really Reasonable Ribbon)

Posted by PH in VA at 1:00 am Cards, Christmas Card Throwdown, Eat Cake Graphics, Freshly Made Sketches, Operation Write Home, Stampin' Up!, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, Tim Holtz

dynamic quiet sketchy wreath

2 Responses »
Oct 092013

I’ve managed to combine several challenges for today’s card.  The colors are from the current Dynamic Duos color challenge of Cajun Craze and Island Indigo.  I have to admit the colors had me puzzled for a while, trying to figure out what to do with them.  Then I thought about how one of them is a rather good brick color, so I’ve used my brick embossing folder on a Cajun Craze panel and highlighted the texture by swiping my white ink pad across it.  The current Freshly Made Sketches layout, rotated so that the embellishment is in the top left corner instead of the bottom right, lent itself to being a brick wall with a wreath hanging on it.  (That’s not too weird, is it?)  All of the flowers were stamped in Island Indigo ink, but two of them were stamped off once to get the lighter color.  I trimmed the two on the ends down quite a bit so they’d be smaller than the others.

I can’t give too many hints, but this card just might qualify also for one of the upcoming Hope You Can Cling To challenges at Splitcoaststampers.com.  😉

Thanks for stopping by today!  Comments are always read and appreciated!

Supplies:
Stamps: Best Blossoms (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Island Indigo, Naturals White, Cajun Craze, Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Island Indigo, craft White (SU)
Other: brick embossing folder (Tim Holtz); grapevine wreath die (Memory Box)

Posted by PH in VA at 10:00 pm Cards, Dynamic Duos, Freshly Made Sketches, Splitcoast challenges, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz

OWH quadruple challenges... whooooo!

3 Responses »
Jul 312011

Yes – I have combined four different Operation Write Home challenges in both of the cards in today’s post.  Yay me!  🙂

I’ve had some of the challenges from the 4th of July weekend in the back of my mind for the last few weeks.  I finally pulled out this owl stamp set and decided to mask a moon behind the owls for Marianne’s Howl at the Moon challenge.  The sentiment I picked met the Play on Words challenge that Lisa hosted.  I also decided to step up to Sandy’s Two Cards challenge – to make cards for two different seasons using the same stamp image.  I did all of that with the OWH Stars and Stamps Blog sketch #79 layout.

I had summer in mind when I created this card, but I suppose it could also work for spring:

… and now, you need to imagine that a few months have passed.  Now it’s fall and the leaves have turned colors:

I had fun combining these challenges… and it’s nice to have two more cards for my OWH stash!

Supplies are listed for Summer/Fall:
Stamps: Owl Always Love You (Gina K. Designs)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream [for image panel] – Papertrey Ink; Daffodil Delight/Close to Cocoa (Stampin’ Up); Moss/Sage designer papers from Green at Heart 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); Summer Sun (SU); Faded Jeans distress ink (Tim Holtz)
Other: markers (Copic); sponges; Stamp-a-ma-jig

Posted by PH in VA at 8:00 am Basic Grey, Cards, Gina K Designs, Operation Write Home, OWH Stars & Stamps sketches, Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz
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