Foiled Christmas Card

Today I am playing along with the Non-Traditional Christmas challenge over at Mod Squad Challenge.  I used Gina K foil-mate products in Holiday Flora and Joyful Holiday for the background and sentiment respectively.  I layered everything with Gina K Plum Punch and Black Onyx cardstock.  A very simple design but the gorgeous foiling packs a lot of punch though difficult to photograph.

Happy Stamping,

Dana M

Mixed Media Challenge

I am playing along with the September Challenge at Pinkfresh Studios.  You can choose to include the tag line, color palette or both.  I chose to go with the tag line and included mixed media in my card.  I created the background with Distress Oxide inks.  I die cut the Botanical Branch die from Pinkfresh Studios 3 times and layered them for some dimension.  Once I adhered that to my background I trimmed the excess.  I added a simple sentiment from the Pinkfresh Studios Scripted Bold Sentiments 1 stamp set.  Well there you have it, a clean and simple card with a mixed media element.

Happy Stamping,
Dana M

PinkFresh Studios Frame Challenge

Hi All!  Today I am playing along with the April Challenge at PinkFresh Studios.  The challenge this month is frames and shakers and/or a lovely color palette.  I decided to use both on my card.  I began by die cutting the beautiful leaf frame and then aligned and stamped the oval in the center of the frame.  I stamped the sprigs and selectively stamped the dots from one of the sprigs to get the bit of orange splatter.  Finally I stamped the sentiment and mounted to a pink panel.  A pretty straight forward card, the hardest part was getting everything positioned as I wanted it.

Supplies
Stamps
  PinkFresh Studios: Oval Foliage Wreath & Magical Christmas
Dies
  PinkFresh Studios: Oval Foliage Wreath
Ink
  Stampin' Up: Marina Mist, Lost Lagoon, Flirty Flamingo, Primrose Petals & Peekaboo Peach
Paper
  Neenah: Solar White #80 & #110
  Stampin' Up: Flirty Flamingo


Happy Stamping,
Dana M

Simple Love

Hi, today I am playing along the April Theme and Sketch Challenge at Stamplorations.  I decided to follow both the fun sketch and the theme to use stamps and watercolors.  I'm not much of a watercolorist so I opted to watercolor wash a couple of panels.  I was the lucky winner of a super playful and sweet sentiment stamp (Typografia Romantique: I Love You) by Stamplorations and I chose that as my focal image.  On the background panel I stamped & embossed a couple of leaf images from the Awesomely Artistic Stampin' Up set to represent the arrows in the sketch.  I love the movement of the watercolor but in hindsight I would have made the focal panel darker or perhaps embossed in black so it would stand out more.  All in all I am happy with the card and had fun playing with the watercolors.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

CAS Smile

Hello!  I'm playing along with the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge again as I had so much fun with the faux stained glass technique with the card from my last post.  The challenge requires that you make a clean and simple card using the 3 prompts on the badge.  The March challenge is to create a card using a faux stained glass technique, stamping and at least one of the mixed media options listed on the blog.  For my third element, I used an alcohol panel I created on Yupo paper and ink lifted with the Botanical Background stamp by Brutus Monroe/Unity.

I used a bold smile die by My Favorite Things to die cut 4 white panels.  I layered them over the alcohol background and flooded the "SMILE" with Crystal Glaze.  I added a thin strip of the alcohol panel below the sentiment.  I battled over adding a little something more but decided to keep it very CAS.  I hope you can see the subtle but fun effect from the lift ink and the shine from the Crystal Glaze.

Happy Stamping!

Dana M

Art Deco For CAS Mix Up Challenge

Hello!  Today I'm playing along with the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.  The challenge requires that you make a clean and simple card using the 3 prompts on the badge.  The March challenge is to create a card using a faux stained glass technique, stamping and at least one of the mixed media options listed on the blog.  I added die cutting, heat embossing, alcohol inks and metal (if metallic paper counts).

I started by embossing one of the Divine Deco dies by Spellbinders to create an impression of the image on my cardstock.  I colored it in using brown and teal Copic markers.  I cut a few dies and layered them on top and filled in the spaces with Crystal Glaze to create the faux stained glass effect.  It is wonderfully shiny IRL.  I topped it with another die cut from copper metallic cardstock.  I heat embossed the sentiment from Hero Arts February 2019 My Monthly Hero Kit and used some strong adhesive to attach my Art Deco embellishment.  That was layered on a thin border of the copper metallic cardstock and finally added to a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card base.  I have been enjoying playing with Art Deco elements these days and the faux stained glass technique is so fun.

Happy Stamping!

Dana M

Deco Dance

Today I'm playing along with the challenge at A Blog Named Hero.  The prompt is Love is in the Air with an inspiration color challenge.  I immediately fell in love with the Hero Arts February My Monthly Hero.  It has a beautiful Art Deco theme and I have always been drawn to that style. I created a blended Distress Oxide panel and die cut it with the Dancing Music Notes add on die that coordinates with the kit.  I layered that over a black panel on top of the card base.  I die cut a heart from a white panel, added some black splatters, a sentiment (Hero Arts Everyday Sentiments) strip and a scattering of the music notes from the background panel.  Finally,  I stamped the dancers from the kit and remembered AFTER I fussy cut them that the kit has coordinating dies.  The dancers were layered that on top with some foam squares.  I always seem to be short on anniversary cards so I'm glad to add another to my stash.  I usually try to keep anniversary cards fairly gender neutral, but I like the pink and purple colors here.

Happy Stamping,

Dana

STAMPlorations Digi

I'm playing along again in STAMPlorations Hey, Love Linky Party.  Today I played with Copic markers.  I'm still new to Copic coloring and have just a small collection and am doing my best to get some depth to my images.  STAMPlorations is offering 3 free digi stamps in which to play in this linky party and I selected one to practice my coloring.  When I decided to get 2 for one and create spotlight coloring cards.  I layered up the panels with borders and some dimension before adding them to card bases.  I can't decide which one I like better.

Happy Stamping,
Dana M

Altenew and Stamploration Challenges

Today I'm playing along with 2 challenges, Altenew's Inspiration Challenge and Stamplorations Hey, Love Blog Hop & Linky Party.  I had such fun with both!

Altenew's challenge utilized colors that are a bit out of my comfort zone but I totally love the combination.  I stamped the background panel with the Leaf Medallion stamp set in die inks and trimmed it with a slim black border.  The sentiment was heat embossed black on white and white on black.  Initially I only wanted the thin black strip with "kindness" popped up on top but it got lost on the background so I added an orange and black strip to help it stand out.  The sentiment is from the Build-A-Flower Carnation stamp set.

Stamplorations is having a fun blog hop in addition to the linky party and the "Love" theme is so appropriate with Valentine's Day right around the corner.  I started by applying Pearl Texture Luxe to the Bubble Dance stencil.  I stamped, colored and die cut the adorable heart balloons from the Tweet Love stamp set.  I added a couple of pieces of 110 lb cardstock behind the embossed panel for a little bit of dimension, my trick to add dimension that is a little slimmer than foam tape.  The die was popped on top with some dimensional squares and the sentiment (also from the Tweet Love stamp set) was added in black.  I like the clean design and playful feel of this card. 

Happy Stamping,

Dana M

Thistles in Black and White

Today I'm playing along with the "it's all black and white" challenge over at Retro Rubber.  I used an older Stampin' Up set from 2016 for the 2 floral images and a sentiment from a Hero Arts set that I have had for at least 3 or 4 years.  I stamped and heat embossed the floral images multiple times on black card stock with white embossing powder.  I trimmed the panel down and adhered to a standard card base.  I trimmed a couple of very thin strips of black card stock and adhered them as well.  A final stamp of the sentiment and the card was complete!

Happy Stamping,
Dana M

Sunshine for Gina K Designs Challenge

I'm playing along with the Gina K Designs Challenge.  This month the challenge is "My Sentiments Exactly!"

I started by stamping and heat embossing the sentiment around the outside of the card base.  The main panel was also heat embossed in white and then I blended on the yellow.  I topped the card with sentiment on a clipped circle.  All stamps are by Gina K Designs.

Gina K Designs Monthly Challenge

Happy Stamping,
Dana