Mini Bokeh Effect

Sorry I have not done much this week but health issues are bothering me these days and so I am not very energetic right now. But over the week I did manage to do a bit each day on this simple card and create a little note card.

I thought it would be cool to try and created a mini Bokeh Effect background with a stencil I purchased last week from the Stampinback line from I Brake for Stamps called Dots. I used various colors of ink and did a layer of one color at a time.  After I cleaned the stencil off and dried it, I proceeded to add another layer of a different color by moving the stencil slightly. I kept repeating this and each time using a different color. My last little white dots were added with a Q-Tip.

My bold flowers and sentiment which are also from Stampinback and available at I Brake for Stamps were inked in black ink and added to the front panel of the card. My sentiment was stamped on white card stock and then layered onto a black piece of card stock.

Well, just a little bit of creativity each day helps to make me feel better. Well, guess it is back to the recliner now. Don't worry about me. I am going to be fine but some antibiotics affect me in a negative way sometimes. LOL

I hope all of you are having a great week. And thanks for stopping by to see my blog.

God bless,

Verna

Embossing Folder Background

Some time ago I saw a technique video on how to make a background using inks and your embossing folders at Splitcoast Stampers.  I admired the look achieved with that technique and also liked the fact that I could use my embossing folders for more than just regular embossing.

This is my first attempt with the technique and I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Celtic Knot. It involved using Distress Inks in the colors of Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn. I simply directly added the colors by swiping the ink pads across the folder and then spritzing with water before I placed my white card stock on top.

Once the background was dry enough I stamped the sentiment from Embossing Arts called Favorite Lucky Charm. It is available at I Brake for Stamps. The card was completed by adding the panel to layers of complimentary card stock and adding a few dark green pearls for embellishment.

Well, I made several of these and will be using them for my shut-in friends for St. Patrick's Day.

Have a great week and thanks so much for visiting my blog.

God bless,
Verna

Splat! I Have a Background!

I just had to join in the  Scrapy Land Challenge which advocates making your version of Splats! on a background or card design. And there is nothing more fun to me then getting out any inks, paints or other mediums to make a background. For this card I chose to use alcohol inks.

I chose to use dies from Cheery Lynn Designs for my card. And, I cut them all out in black card stock except for the angel wing die that goes under the butterfly and the center panel for the sentiment. The angel wing was cut from my Splats! background and then glued to the black overlay butterfly die. I popped the butterfly up to give the card more dimension.

Below I will show you my backgrounds I made before I finished them into a card design.

First of all I used white glossy card stock. The colors of alcohol inks I used to drop some splats were Andirondak Willow, Shell Pink and Cloudy Blue. I just dropped the inks randomly and watched the magic begin.

The dies from Cheery Lynn Designs I used were FRM132 French Lattice Small Frame, DL 156 Small Lace Butterfly with Angel Wing, and an older die of Cheery Lynn Designs which I have used over and over to get perfect layers called ST 014 Card Maker's Stacker's Nesting Dies. That was how I die cut the rectangles for the sentiment and the black layer.

I chose to use a complimentary light blue card stock for the base card and also for the rectangle where the sentiment from I Brake For Stamps was stamped in Gina K. Designs Black dye ink.

And, of course, this is my usual style of a more clean and simple look for a card. Good thing I restricted my die cutting to a few only a day as my arm and shoulder still bother me some. But I find it so fun and love to see how the dies one uses really make a beautiful addition to a card.

I am also entering this in the Cheery Lynn Blog Challenge to make a card that is not square. I think this qualifies since it is rectangle.

Thanks for looking and I hope your week has been going fantastically!

God bless,
Verna

More Bokeh Effect!

This morning I worked with some glossy white card stock, the Andirondak alcohol ink colors of bottle, stream, lettuce and butterscotch along with the blending solution to make a background. I used a round sponge applicator to apply the inks. That looked great in itself but I carried it a bit further and made it look like the Bokeh Effect by taking a sponge dauber, a finger dauber and a pencil eraser tip to create the look by stamping them onto the background randomly with Gina K. Designs White pigment ink.

I layered this bokeh panel onto Gina K. Designs Honey Mustard card stock before adding it to the white base card. My center panel was stamped with images using Gina K. Designs Black dye ink from the Gina K. Designs Birthday Blessings set. I then used Copics to color in my image. Lastly I stamped the sentiment onto the center panel before I layered it onto the Honey Mustard card stock.

After all layers were assembled I added a Honey Mustard color ribbon to the front and also added a strip of some of the background paper and Honey Mustard card stock inside to tie the front panel to the inside.

One can never have too many birthday cards on hand and it seems since the family keeps growing I will certainly find a use for them. And, the last TV kit from Stamp TV is all about birthdays. I really love that kit.

Thanks for looking and I really appreciate your comments too.

God bless,
Verna

By The Sea

Sometime ago I did a background using the Bisters and since that time was wondering how to use it. It sort of looked like a sea scene background so that is what I did with it. Colors used were Mahogany, Brown and Blue.

The sea bird and the sentiment are both from the Gina K. Designs By the Sea set illustrated by Theresa Momber. I also used layers of Chocolate Brown and Faded  Brick Gina K. Designs card stock. My scene was stamped with Versamark first and then inked again over the top with Gina K. Designs Black ink so that I could emboss it. My embossing powder I accidentally grabbed was Gina K. Designs Chocolate Brown instead of the Black but I still thought it worked well. I stamped the sentiment also in Versamark and then in the Black as well and embossed it.

Once I had the stamped bird and sentiment embossed, I then took an old blender pen and dipped it in bleach to lighten up the bird image. I still did not think it white enough so I used a white paint pen to color over that to make it look more realistic in color. Also with the white pen I added some more movement in the water by the post trying to get a crashing wave effect. I then colored over it with my Copic markers to blend it in more.

Making the background with Bisters is so easy. You just tap some of the granules on your paper and then spritz with water. And, once the background is dry you decide how you want to use it. It is always a fun surprise to see the end results.

Thanks for looking and I hope your week is off to a great start.

God bless,
Verna

Love Arrangement Wedding

Saturday I got a new die in the mail and so I decided today I would work up a card for a wedding using that die cut. I went with the colors of Gina K. Designs Edible Eggplant and Lovely Lavender card stocks along with white for this card. I also used Edible Eggplant dye ink to stamp the sentiment which is an old one I purchased years ago and is designed by Annette Allen Watkins and put out by Stampworks.

The die is called "Love Arrangement" DN-1136 and is from Die-Namites. I had ordered this in January and it arrived on Valentine's Day so I decided it would not work this year for a valentine so I went with a wedding theme. Oh, and the extra hearts along the edges are the ones that fell out of the die cut. I figured I might as well use them too!

I punched out a heart shape with a Marvy Uchida Punch from the Lovely Lavender card stock and placed it behind the die design. Over this I added my ribbon. In order to get the ribbon to match I took Copic Marker BV08 Blue Violet which matched the Edible Eggplant fairly well and colored along the edges of it. I also used the marker to color the little gem hearts and the gem in the center of the flower.

Below is the photo of the die I used on this card.

And here is the sketch which I loosely interpreted for my card design. My card is more of a flip of the sketch below. Hopefully, this will still be acceptable.

I am entering this into the challenge at the Die-Namites blog for February which requires one to use hearts on their entry and the sketch design.

Thanks again for checking out my blog post and I hope your week will be a wonderful one.

God bless,
Verna

Another Acrylic Block Watercolor Background

One of my favorite things you all know by now is to do CAS cards. Well, believe me nothing is so clean and simple as using an acrylic block to capture a colorful background for a silhouette stamp. By swiping colors onto a block and spritzing with water you can make beautiful backgrounds.  Here is one I did this week.

The silhouette family image and sentiment are both from I Brake For Stamps. I layered the white, black and blue card stocks to showcase the focal image. I also carried the card stock layers over to the left bottom inside panel to tie the colors together. I used ink pad colors which I thought might look like a sky at dawn. I suppose it could also work for a sunset as well.

My arm is still bothering me somewhat but I am able to do layering much easier than using my Big Kick to crank out die cuts. And stamping does not seem to bother me either. I think in the last few weeks I overdid it with cranking out dies  and so therefore I injured it. But it is slowly getting better so I am hoping by another week I can be back to normal.

Well, here it is the weekend again. It seems time flies by with so much speed these days. Guess I am having too much fun! LOL I hope you have a great one,

God bless,
Verna

Sidestep Birthday Card

Now don't laugh! This is the very first sidestep card I have ever done and I know it is not the best but for a first try I was pretty happy with it. For some reason it took me a long time as I was not even sure how to do the folding of it. And, then it involved a lot of measuring to be sure it went into an A2 size envelope when it was folded up.

The only stamped image used on it is the bunch of balloons from Stampendous. I colored them with my Copics.

I computer generated the Happy Birthday sentiment on white card stock. I then layered it on the Jelly Bean Green card stock from Gina K. Designs.

 I used pattern papers from Gina K. Designs for the cup cake liner. Then I made frosting by cutting a circle with a punch and cutting it in half with a decorative scissors.  I added sprinkles with the Copic markers to decorate the cupcake. The last thing for the cupcake decor was to add a candle cut from card stock and decorative paper. This cupcake was then layered to Gina K. Designs Bubble Gum Pink card stock and again layered onto the Jelly Bean Green before adding it to the card base.

The bottom of the card also has some of the orange striped pattern paper.

I am entering this in the Mod Squad Blog Challenge for this week. The challenge this week is to make a pop up card and I think this will qualify.

Thanks for looking and I so appreciate your comments too. Have a great weekend and a wonderful Valentine's Day too!

God bless,
Verna

Yippee! I've been published!

I found out last week and was so anxious to let people know but waited until I got my issue in the mail so that I would not spill the beans too soon. I am featured in the Scrap & Stamp Arts April 2015 edition on Page 52 entitled In The Kitchen. Below is the card I sent in that was used for the publication.

The huge cherry pie image is from I Brake for Stamps and I used the Spellbinder A2 Fancy Weave die. My image was colored in with Copic markers and I mounted the whole thing onto a red plaid pattern paper from Gina K. Designs. My base card is ivory card stock.

Below is the photo proving it. I got an extra copy so I could do an outside view of the magazine and also the inside page showing my card.

I just had to share my good news. Thanks for looking and I am all of a sudden hungry for a piece of cherry pie. LOL

Oh, and a box of chocolates came from my grandsons in Japan for hubby and me to share. So another wonderful surprise and we already ate one and they are delicious. So it has been a great mail day! Thanks for sharing my happiness!

God bless,
Verna

CAS Shabby Chic

Normally, I am not into shabby chic and thus I am not even sure if this really qualifies as I am so inexperienced with it, but I tried my best to create a combination of shabby and chic with this card. And, due to a sore shoulder blade and arm I made it fairly clean and simple since it was very hard for me to crank my Big Kick this week. Maybe it is the weather affecting it as we are in a cloudy dreary type of weather pattern now. We even got freezing rain over the weekend.

Since there are many weddings and anniversaries coming up I decided to use the most recent incentive stamp from Gina K. Designs which is called Love Is along with a past Gina K. Designs incentive stamp called Congratulations. I simply stamped both of those in black ink on the center panel of white card stock which was die cut using the Cheery Lynn Designs DL 183 Oval Doily Stacker One. I used the middle sized one and sponged it with Gina K. Designs Bubble Gum Pink and Kraft inks but also added some Wink of Stella in clear which gave it a golden shimmery look.

Also incentives from Gina K. Designs are embellishments from Sweet Forever called mini heart spangles. I chose to go with the gold ones which also worked with my choice of a gold bow.

To complete the chic look I added a shabby flower which was gifted to me in a prize package. I thought it made the simple design look more complete with it's addition.

This card will be entered in the Mix It Up Monday Challenge at Stamp TV this week and it calls for using hearts but not on a valentine. I am also entering it in the Cheery Lynn blog challenge in which we are to use pink.

Cheery Lynn Card

Once again I pulled out some of my dies and did some cutting of great designs to create a card for someone who is feeling ill. Those are more of a type of card I use a lot too, so figured I might add a few of those to my card supply too. I started out with a different idea in mind, but along the way I changed the design and as a result I ended up quite pleased with it.

All the die cuts are from Cheery Lynn Designs. They have some magnificent die designs and I have been a fan of theirs for a long, long time now. My sentiment is from the Gina K. Designs Vertical Greetings 2 stamp set illustrated by Theresa Momber. I tried to find a sentiment that would work well and finally decided a vertical style was the best considering there was limited room for most of the sentiments.

The background is also a Cheery Lynn die called Large Window. I cut that out in brown card stock. That was layered onto the white card base. Next I cut the Swedish Spring Oval Frame from Mango card stock. That was layered onto the Large Window die panel.

My daisies from Cheery Lynn were cut from Sweet Corn card stock from Gina K. Designs and then I took sponge daubers and add extra color from dye inks until I found a combination that I liked. I then shaped them before I layered them together to make the blossoms. I added green card stock leaf flourishes to complete the flowers. These were placed along the left edge of the Swedish Spring Oval Frame.

I added some brown pearls to the blossoms and along the right side of the oval frame added white pearls. The brown double loop chiffon ribbon bow was added to finish the design.

Here is a list of the dies I used:
Large Window FRM113 (an A2 Frame Die)
Swedish Spring Oval Frame FRM135
Daisy Strip B259
Flourish Leaf Strip B178

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 170-Add a Flourish
Scrappy Land Challenges (Anything Goes)

Easy Peasy Birthday Card

This card was so fun to make and so easy too! One needs an acrylic block, dye ink pads, card stock and water to make a wonderful background on which to add silhouette stamps. That is exactly what I did for this simple card today!

My main panel starts out with white card stock. Then I took a rectangular acrylic block and swiped inks across the top of it. I used the Gina K. Designs dye ink colors of Fresh Asparagus, Grass Green and Powder Blue for my background, Once I had the color on I took my Mini Mister filled with water and spritzed lightly on the block and then placed it ink side down onto the white card stock. I did this a couple times until I was satisfied with the colors of my background.

Put this aside to dry for awhile and do something else, or if you are in a hurry like I always am, take the heat gun and give it some shots of that until it is dry. Now you can work with your little canvas and add the silhouette images to it.

I chose black dye ink from Gina K. Designs to add my images. They are all from the Happy Birthday to You set from the latest Stamp TV kit called Birthday Essentials. In that kit there are images that work wonderfully and also lots of inside verses to accompany the outside sentiments. I just love that kit. Oh, and dies. I have not worked with them yet, but be sure that fun is still to come for me.

I layered my design once I had it stamped onto Gina K. Designs Black card stock and Jelly Bean Green before adding it to the white card base. My card was finished by adding the flowers across the bottom of the card along with an inside verse.

I hope that you like this idea and if you have not tried it, give it a go. By changing the colors around you can make fantastic backgrounds on which to add stamped images. I know I had fun with it and I hope you do as well.

I am going to enter this into the Mod Squad Challenge for this week in which we are to use water. I believe this qualifies since I wet my canvas with water.

Until next time, take care.

God bless,
Verna

Summer Birthday

Still into a scene making mood and today I used a new set of images from Gina K. Designs which is called Northwoods 2. These are great scene making designs and I love that nice big sentiment on the set. I also grabbed those birds from the Gina K. Designs By the Sea set. Both these sets are illustrated by Theresa Momber.

I stamped the scene in Gina K. Designs black dye ink. I then used a combination of Copic markers and sponging to color the scene. My base card was a light blue and I thought it matched up quite nicely with the ink colors. To enhance the scene even more I layered it onto black card stock to frame it before adding it to the card.

This card will be entered into the Mod Squad Challenge for this week in which we are to use water in any way we can think of. It could be stamping some water like I chose, or using water colors or water colored markers. Any form of water used is acceptable. Hey! Even spritzing with water I am sure works. So it is really a fun and many faceted challenge this week. Hope  you can join in!

Thanks for stopping by. I am going to spend my afternoon writing out Valentines so that they are ready to mail this week. You have a wonderful day too!

God bless,
Verna

Winter Birthday

I am in need of a few birthday cards so I decided to make one that would be more masculine looking and for a winter birthday celebration.

For this simple scene I used the Gina K. Designs stamp set The Northwoods which is illustrated by Theresa Momber. I stamped it in Gina K. Designs black ink and with an aid of a permanent black marker extended the snow line behind the big tree and also below the deer images to make them appear to have found a few sprigs of grass peeking from the snow.

I then used Copic E33 Sand to color the tree trunks and Copic B00 Frost Blue to color the snow line. My sky was sponged in with Gina K. Designs Ocean Mist dye ink.

My simple scene was then finished by placing it over a die cut frame of Ocean Mist card stock using the Spellbinder Card Creator A2 Fancy Weave set. This frame helped to showcase the scene better before I layered it onto a white card base.

Thanks for looking and as always I love your comments.

God bless,
Verna

Whimsy Hearts

Well, the Super Bowl is on and since I am not that big on football I decided to make a couple cards at least. I wanted to make some masculine designs for the gentlemen shut-ins to whom I will be sending valentines. So I remembered I had this neat Heart Border Die by Whimsy Stamps and thought it would work great with an inlaid design. So that is what I did.

My base card is kraft card stock. I then cut out a border with the red and the white card stock and combined the colors together to create some clean and simple cards with an inlay of the hearts in the opposite colors. 

The sentiment is from Gina K. Designs Stately Flowers 6 set by Melanie Muenchinger. I think I have used this on almost all of my cards this year as I just love the pretty font design. I used embossing powders to make the sentiments pop more too!

My card was then finished by adding some red and white twine and tying a bow on the top of the card. I think twine is a good way to add fiber to a masculine card. 

Well, since we were not attending a party tonight or having one it was a "given" I would have to do some Super Bowl Card Making with my own type of party. And, I enjoyed every bit of it too.

I hope you are having a good Sunday evening no matter what you are doing as well! Time now for some Super Bowl munchies.

God bless,

Verna