Thinking of You

Today's post features a set of "thinking of you" cards, one of my favorite genres to make. They fit a lot of categories i.e. sympathy, birthday, encouragement. I've admired Julie Ebersole's "mondo" series of stamps for a while and recently purchased the hydrangea and amaryllis mondo stamps and dies.  I'm sharing three of the Mondo Hydrangea cards. Here we go!

I smooshed three distress inks on an acrylic block, misted them before laying down a piece of lavender cardstock. The hydrangea was stamped in black ink, clear embossed, and die cut. It was foam mounted on a piece of pattern paper glued to a white card front. Purple Stickles decorate the flower centers. The Greetery tag and sentiment was attached with a twine bow and a PTI Feature Frame finishes the design. 

The bloom and sentiment were stamped on water color paper and embossed with fine gold EP. After painting the various petals with four distress oxide inks, the bloom was masked and the panel was splattered with more DO inks. It was cut with a PTI Noted Scallop die and directly adhered to an aqua card. It reminds me of cloisonné and is stunning in RL. 

Once again I smooshed distress inks on an acrylic block, misted it before laying white water color paper upon it. The bloom was stamped with DI and clear embossed before it was die cut. A sentiment was stamped on a soft stone panel and an Altenew Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover die added texture to the panel. The bloom was foam mounted to the panel and clear rain drops were added . 

These cards are linked to Simon Says: Thinking of You

This week fog and smoky air gave us this impressionistic sunset.

Time Out Challenge #146 Encouraging

The latest Time Out challenge focuses on encouraging! 

I've loved this sentiment for a long time which encourages with a pun.

Being a bird-watcher's partner, I have more than my share of bird stamp sets. This was one of my first, a now-retired Hero Arts Color Layering Bird on branch. The branch and leaves were stamped on a sponged background with splatters added in the leaf colors. A PTI Pierced Feature Frame cut from woodgrain pattern paper frames the panel. After stamping the legs on the branch I added the fussy cut bird with foam. The panel was glued to a saffron spice card front.

Have a wonderful week. Today we had a chestnut-backed chickadee visit our bird feeder - a fun sighting! 

vikkispapertrailetc

Pink Card Take 2

My next pink card with white embossed resist ink blending was a mixed blessing to create. I have a young 39 year-old Australian friend battling ovarian cancer, a mom of three boys, 12 and under. Her family have been medical missionaries for the past 11+ years in Malawi and immediately returned to a southern California medical school for treatment after her July diagnosis. Her husband's family live in the area and work in healthcare. She's a gem and my hero!

PTI: Doodlie-Do, Fresh Bouquet-sentiment, 

Noted: Scalloped A2 die

Distress Oxide inks and Wow EP

Even though Shar does not have breast cancer, I am

linking this card to time out Challenges, SSSW Challenge

                       

Pink Cards Take 1

Last spring I made several cards from the January 2019 My Monthly Hero Arts Kit but never used the easel die. Jessica Frost-Ballas shared this project during the January countdown. Recently I needed a baby card and thought a pink easel would be fun to try. Jessica's instructions were easy to follow for non-mechanical me.

 Hero Arts MMH Jan 2019 stamps/dies; HA MMH June 2017 (elephant) 

   PTI Forget-Me-Not stamps/dies; PTI Penned Elegance II sentiment

While everything was out I made a second pink easel for a friend's birthday. This die would also make cute table decorations for many occasions with an appropriate sentiment.

 Hero Arts MMH Jan. 2019 stamps/dies; PTI Penned Elegance II stamp; 

Altenew Beautiful Day stamp/die (top spray of flowers)

Glossy Accents and Wink 'O Stella on balloons

These cards are linked to A Blog Named Hero: Inspired by Another Crafter, SSSW Challenge

                       

Happy Birthdays, "Leaves/Trees" and "Geometric Shapes"

 So many beautiful stamp sets, dies and other goodies lead to fun cards!

I've been having a lot of fun with die cuts, scattering them over a textured background instead of layering them. I was inspired to try this after seeing and later ordering the PinkFresh STAMPtember SSS floral frame stamp set. While waiting for their arrival I created two cards using stamps and dies from my stash. 

Card #1

 A mix of Altenew's Rennie Rose embossed in gold surround a Penned Elegance II sentiment popped up on an Altenew Dotted Swirls Debossing cover panel. I fussy cut a green shadow for the sentiment so it would show up better. The geometric shapes forming the florals and leaves should qualify for the Seize the Birthday topping, add a geometric shape. 

Card #2

 Stamped die cuts from The Greetery's Lemon Blossom and Sentiment Suite: Birthday are glued directly on an Altenew Pegboard Canvas panel. The panel was adhered to a lemon yellow card front. I figure the citrus slices are geometric shapes, circle & half circle and the lime/lemon look oval. ;-)

Linking these two to Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes + topping;

 Allsorts Challenge -Trees and Leaves; Simon Says-Anything Goes

Thanks for your visit.

vikkispapertrailetc

PinkFresh Studio STAMPtember cards

I'm dropping two cards on the blog tonight after a month of creating many cards but not posting any! Such a lazy woman, right?

I don't often buy SSS STAMPtember stamp sets but after seeing a project by Nina-Marie using the 2019 collaboration PinkFresh stamp set I made my order with a couple more items.

Nina-Marie's inspiration

The frame was stamped on watercolor paper and gold embossed before loosely watercoloring the images with my Altenew pan set. I finished the panel with a sentiment from The Greetery and die cut the panel with a SSS stitched rectangle. But remembering Nina-Marie's fussy cutting, I bravely fussy cut my panel staying inside of the stitching. It was attached to a green card front which was modified with a PTI linen impression plate for texture. A light rubbing of Delicata Golden Glitz ink around the card edges finished the card with a few clear droplets.

My version

 A second version was stamped in black ink, clear embossed and colored with Altenew watercolors. A SSS sentiment was stamped in gold but clear embossing unfortunately altered the golden sheen. Then I risked the entire project by stamping a PTI grid in light ink with some masking over the sentiment and finished with clear sequins.

Thanks for the visit.

You can find me on Instagram

vikkispapertrailetc

Happy 46th, Jim~

I noticed a couple blogging friends' cards this week entered in 

Laurie's Fabulous Favorites | Vellum. I made a card for my 46th

wedding anniversary in August which fits this theme and forgot 

to post it on my blog until now. 

I am the luckiest woman to have Jim as my partner for 46 years! 

He is kind, loving, tender-hearted, generous, and hard-working.

He enjoys ethnic foods, pastries and new restaurants. And lastly, 

he's an avid bird watcher who always has his binoculars nearby. 

His birding hobby with its world-wide trips permits me to invest 

in card crafting~if you get my drift.

 PTI: Choose Joy (heart), Frame It Out: Many Blessings die, Scripted stamp/die

PTI Weathervane card stock and vellum