Spring Cards - Stencils, Wings etc

Here are three cards I've recently posted on my Instagram site vikkispapertrailetc. Too lazy to regularly blog I sometimes worry that IG may not be the best place to keep track of card details.  Thanks for joining me today.

Card #1

Card Menu: 

The Greetery: Always in Bloom stencil, 

PTI Scallop Stackers: Medium die

Card #2

Card Menu:

Hero Arts My Monthly April Kit: butterflies, sentiment

PTI: Songbirds die (negative panel)

Concord & 9th inks

Card #3

Card Menu:

Altenew Feathered Leaves stencil

The Greetery: Crimped Circle die

PTI: Butterfly Blooms, Palm Prints

SSS: Sentiment Strips

Cards 1 and 3 are linked to SSSWC: Stencil It. 

Cards 2 and 3 are linked to SSSMC: Things with Wings

Happy Easter & Hello

 Last minute addition and NBUS materials to boot for the Twofer Card Challenge! The Greetery and Altenew to the rescue and so much fun indeed! Sitting down with my new Altenew Craft-A-Flower: Poppy I chose several shades of red for the blossom, two greens for the leaves, and colored a white center piece with yellow Copics. I've had the NBUS Greetery Square Dance stencil set for a few months and dragged it out for my projects. I cut the panel with PTI's Feature Frames and used both the inside portion and the frame on my two cards. Card #1 uses a Petite Places: Church sentiment. Card #2 a SSS Hello die and a small sentiment strip layered over a stamped Altenew Leaf Canopy outline spray of leaves. Feeling happy with my results! And completely in love with this layering poppy die and the stencil background.

Card #1

Card #2

This duo is linked to the Twofer Challenge and NBUS

Two Rennie Rose (Altenew) cards

Recently our good blogging friend, Darnell Knauss, sent a reminder for the January Twofer Card Challenge #34 - Flowers. It's not difficult to find a set of floral stamps on our shelves, right? I chose an older Altenew set, Rennie Roses, for my flowers and also two differently sized cards, a slimline for encouragement and an A2 birthday card. 

Card #1

First I stenciled (Altenew Classy Stripes) a light yellow diagonal stripe on the upper two thirds of the white panel. Three Beautiful Day foliage die sprigs fan out around the flowers adding texture and visual interest. The orange blooms were each stamped in VersaMark ink and gold embossed on an watercolored panel (Altenew Watercolor 36 Pan set). The green leaves were each stamped in green DI, clear embossed, and tucked around the modern roses. More green was added with the Beautiful Day clear embossed sentiment. The white panel was glued to a kraft slimline card which fits nicely in my Paper Source slimline envelope.

Card #2

My dramatic black card focuses on a stamped background. I set up several stamps in the corner on the white panel and with the Misti stamped in black, rotated the panel and stamped the opposite corner. I repeated this with another group of stamps completing the panel with smaller images to fill the background.  Pink Fresh Studio's Lea's Ornate Uppercase Alphabet helped create the focal sentiment cut from black glitter foam. A small sentiment from SS Sentiment Strips was inked with DI to match the small Rennie Rose die cut. The inside of the black card was lined with a white panel for a message. Such a fun card to create.

Both cards fit the Twofer Challenge. Card #2 is also linked to SS - Make Your Own Background. 

                         

I'll see you around the blogs and always on Instagram @vikkispapertrailetc

Happy New Year a few days late!

Welcome to 2021 friends! Confession: I'm a very lazy blogger. I've viewed many of your blogs and have spent a lot of time on Instagram at vikkispapertrailetc the past couple of months as it is easier to post. The mail carriers have been kind to me with new products and new supplies of ink and glue to reinforce my stash.  Next week marks the end of our first year in Portland. We're grateful to live in a walking neighborhood after 40 years on a rural hilltop. It has made the difference in my outlook in this quarantine life. As a natural introvert it has been important to see people daily walking to and fro living the best they can in these circumstances.

I alluded to new items and the two cards in this post feature one of them, the Altenew Hanging Garden dies. My cards use the positive and negative parts of the die in an inlay technique with the additional touch of red to brighten the neutral gray and white. The Color Hues Jan. 1-14 challenge to use gray and red determined the colors of my paper and ink. The two grays vary in their cool and warm tones but work together, I think.

Card #1

Card #1 begins with a side folding PTI Weathervane gray card stock splattered with white. Textured gray woodgrain paper and a white panel were each die cut with the larger die. The positive parts of this process were inlayed in the opposite negative panel. The berry portion of the die was cut twice from red linen paper. The encouraging red sentiment is from a PFS Partial Cut Floral Frame set from 2019's SS Stamptember. A thin red strip on the left finishes the triangle of red areas on the card.

 

Card #2 

My second card uses a PTI soft stone card front and the gray woodgrain panel finished with the largest SSS stitched rectangle. A PTI Enclosed: Wreath's sentiment, Peace, die cut in red and embellished with Wink of Stella clear finishes this one. The texture is so pretty. Christmas card #1 done for the year. I almost wished that it was turned horizontally with the sentiment in another corner.

Both cards are linked to three challenges: 

Color Hues #TCH 9, SSW: Something New, and NBUS

                      

Thanks for your visit and again, Happy New Year! 

Moody Blues of all shades

We've been enjoying the lazy days of summer which in the pacific northwest can be heavenly. With the lure to be outside I have not been disciplined enough to write blog posts and thus have accumulated many cards not yet posted. So, today I'm sharing three different cards with a variety of products each with a major emphasis on blue shades. 

Card #1

After ink blending several blue Concord & 9 inks in an ombre progression, I stamped the Pink Fresh Studio hexagon outline. Then I used the hexagon florals and stamped inside each space using the same Cn9 order. I die cut the corresponding hexagon from navy card stock and glued it over the stamped outline. A gold love cut from a gold adhesive sheet was added along with the extra popped up sentiment.  The card was sent to good friends in Washington state who celebrate their 58th anniversary today.                                                           

Card Menu: PFS Pop Out Hexagons stamp & die, SSS Sentiment Strips, love die (a gift from a stamping friend), Concord & 9 inks

Card #2

A cousin celebrates her birthday tomorrow. She mothers 103 orchid plants through out her home, patio and greenhouse. Not having an orchid stamp, I used a watercolored panel to die cut the fabulous Altenew Fantasy Floral 3D rose and leaves from it. Next I loosely painted Altenew metallic watercolors on a die cut panel with additional streaks and splatters of gold watercolors. The gold leaf sprig was added to bolster the rose group. The bloom reminds me of my Chicago Peace rose bush at our former home.

Card Menu: Altenew Fantasy Floral 3D and Leaf Canopy dies and Beautiful Day sentiment, Altenew metallic watercolor pan set, The Greetery Nordic Frames die

Card #3

The final card was inspired by the current Fusion Card challenge. The picture's colors, water pattern, leaves and dragonfly were my inspiration.  I randomly ink blended the various DIs and die cut the panel. Then stamped the leaves with Brilliant Moonlight White ink over the blended panel. A variety of DOs were blended on another panel before stamping the dragonfly and embossing with sparkly powder. It was fussy cut and popped up with foam adhesive tape over the white leaves. 

Card Menu: PTI Palm Prints, The Greetery Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You, SSS Stitched Rectangles, a very old wood American Art Stamps dragonfly

All three cards will be linked to this week's SSSW Challenge: Anything Goes. The second card linked to Virginia's Show & Share challenge. The third card will be linked to the Fusion Card challenge. 

Colorful Cards

I saw the lineup of my favorite Clarks All Stars on the latest Inspired by Challenge Colorful Kicks (my pair are the Oregon Ducks' green) and wondered what to create. I don't recall any shoe stamps or dies in my storehouse but improvisation is part of a challenge. Using the PTI Brushed Off set I stamped two different rainbow cards. The rainbow lineup of the shoes inspired my design on both cards. Ranger Distress inks were used for the rainbow hues (the new Speckled Egg on the first card). BTW,  I also do not own rainbow stamps or dies.

Card #1

 Altenew Line Art; PTI Brushed Off

Card #2

Birch Press Celebrate; PTI Brushed Off & Circle Scribbles 

Flowers and Wings

Have you tried Altenew's metallic watercolors? They are dreamy colors. I recently brushed sky blue, aqua and gold on Bristol paper with the idea that their glow would beautifully support a simple floral line image. I used the Altenew Beautiful Day stamps for the focus and added a gold embossed PTI Walk by Faith sentiment. The panel was directly glued to a kraft card front.

It's one of my favorite cards this spring. Linked to Addicted to CAS: #184 - Flower

The next card uses all PTI products: Songbirds, Swoosh and a Linen impression plate. After impressing a piece of lavender card stock with the linen plate, I die cut the spray of leaves from the panel and replaced it with a Bitty Big Lilac spray of the same leaves. A nest of silver thread holds a small Songbird stamped in yellow. Linked to AAA Birthday #13: Things with Wings

happy birthday

Yesterday I brought out my Altenew Polish Papercuts 3D dies for their inaugural cutting and had so much fun. They are a kick! Having several relatives with December birthdays I've been aware that they sometimes feel cheated sharing their special day with all the Christmas stuff. A far-away blogging friend's birthday is next week so I cut yellow and green pattern papers and a bit of red glitter paper for my totally die cut flower. A light DI blending over the Altenew Feathered Leaves stencil adds a bit of depth to the scene. Other than the red glitter hearts, not a hint of Christmas for this December birthday celebration.

The current Seize the Birthday with an additional topping, a touch of red, ends tomorrow morning so this is a late entry for sure!

Linking also to

SS: Anything Goes and Time Out: #149 

Thank you for stopping by today. I'll be in and out over the next month as we begin packing for a move to Portland, a 150 miles away, to live near our oldest son. We're downsizing by more than half which means lots of dumping and donations before we can fill boxes. All of the paper crafting stuff is going (so far).

Thinking of you

Finally posting two cards that I made in September. I love leaf stamps and Altenew's Leaf Canopy has a lot of possibilities for spring through fall.  

Card #1

The outline leaf spray was stamped with distress ink on a white PTI Tipped Tops die cut panel. The solid leaf spray was inked with several distress inks, misted with a light water spray before stamping inside the outline image. A Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You (The Greetery) sentiment in the corner was embossed with Lawn Fawn rose gold. The leaf panel was foam mounted on a larger Tipped Tops panel cut from kraft Bitty Big paper. The two panels were glued to a brown card front.
Linked to SSSMC

Card #2

Both sizes of the outline stamps were stamped in brown and clear embossed on a white panel. Once again I inked the solid leaf sprays with several distress inks, separately stamping each ink until satisfied with the color combinations. I used a wet brush to soften the edges of the colors. A spattering of the same distress inks adds texture to the panel that was trimmed with a SSS stitched rectangle die. Two washi tapes were laid on a white card stock strip and die cut with the Altenew Fine Alphabet letters, totally inspired by Virginia Lu of Yes, Virginia. The washi hello was stacked with two more layers before it was glued on a dark brown banner. The panel was attached to a kraft card.  Linked to: Yes, Virginia's Show and Share