Love and Hugs NBUS

When Darnell's NBUS challenge #9 went live last Monday, I was in the middle of 

packing for a little trip to Virginia.

I kept thinking about the technique she challenged us to do.

(This is an optional challenge BTW.)

It was one I'd never tried before.

To be honest, I don't usually see those hidden words until I read the blog

and read that it's there.

Darnell has called the challenge "Hidden Word", "Camouflaged Word" or

"Stenography".

Since time was short, I found a Brusho background I could use,

 my NBUS image from Penny Black's Love and Hugs set and 

inspiration from this card that Heather T. had done recently.

My MISTI was a big help as I had to stamp and emboss several times

to get a good strong image on the bright pink.

I die cut the love from the stamped image and again from a snippet of white,

layered them up and popped it back in.

I also did Darnell's optional 2nd challenge to CASE a card.

I CASEd hers.

Here's the link to Darnell's challenge

and since this is Penny Black, I can enter at  

   

Penny Black Saturday Challenge            and          Penny Black and More 

ANYTHING GOES                                             ANYTHING GOES

                     

and

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

ANYTHING GOES

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Love & Hugs (PB), 

Ink:   Whisper White (SU)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Watercolor (Arches 140 lb. CP) 

Other:  White EP (SU), Heartfelt Words Die (PB), Stately EF (CC), Sequins (SSS)

Inspired at Merry Monday

So far I'm keeping up with my Christmas cards.

I'm kind of glad to get away from snowflakes now.

My dear friend, Hazel (My Card Attic)
recently sent me a surprise package with some beautiful die cuts.
This was one of them.
Thanks so much, Hazel!

I glued it on a piece of wood grain cardstock and
used some Prismacolor Pencils to color through the bird and flower.

This week's Merry Monday challenge was chosen by Deanne.

I used the colors and texture on the cup as my inspiration.

I'm going to tell you a secret.

It's something I'm not proud of and glad I was able to fix it.

I put the glue on the top side of this die!

It's cut from shiny cardstock so luckily it wiped right off.

Whew!  I thought I'd messed up this beautiful die cut!

Glad I didn't!

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Paper:   Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Wood Grain (TH)

Other:   Die (?), Prismacolor Pencils, Blender Pen (SU)

Blue and Yellow for The Flower Challenge

This card was inspired by a card my friend Karen did as a reminder at

The Flower Challenge

Now that I've done it, I'm wondering if these are flowers or weeds?

Does God differentiate between flowers and weeds?

I'm going to hope it works for their challenge.

I started with a background piece that had been colored in the

wet on wet technique by wetting the paper a lot and

dropping re-inker drops into the water.

It had the blue and yellow.

I die cut it, stamped the flowers and cut another piece a bit larger to mat it.

A simple sentiment and another card for

CAS Mix Up

Using stamping, re-inkers as my liquid colour, and die cuts

Challenge open through the 24th.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

ANYTHING GOES

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Nature's Paintbrushes (PB), Dandelion sentiment (Technique Tuesday)Ink:   Archival Black (SU)

Paper:   Watercolor (Strathmore 140 lb. cold press)

Other:  SU Re-inkers (Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight), Stitched Squares Die (LI)

Another Snowflake Card

I think this is my last snowflake card for this winter.

My friend, Nance, came to visit around Christmas time and we had such a lovely time chatting.

She brought me a delicious chocolate pie and some die cuts.

My mouth still waters thinking about that pie!

As you can imagine we made quick work of that!

This snowflake background was from one of the die cuts.

It's a background die from Lil' Inker.  I cut it down to keep my card CAS

and put it on a piece of watercolor I had in my stash.

(The watercolor piece wasn't what I'd hoped so it was perfect to put something big

over it to cover up the lousy creative painting job.

Then I decided I'd add some Wink of Stella to the largest snowflake.

It didn't go well!

It kind of looked like someone had spit on the snowflake.

Maybe I need a new WOS?

There was another die cut in the package and this was cut from vellum.

So I surgically removed the big vellum snowflake and stuck it over the offender.

AAA Cards Game #82

Since I used re-inkers as my color medium when I watercolored that background, 

and the color started as a liquid, no additional water necessary,

I'll take it to the gallery at

CAS Mix Up

My mixed media are stamping, re-inkers as my liquid colour and die cuts as my choice.

and

CAS Watercolour

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Festive Snippets (PB)

Ink:   Whisper White (SU)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Shimmer (SU),

Other:  SU Re-inkers (Soft Sky, Marina Mist), Cover Up Snowflake Die (LI), Pin Point Mainstreet Tags Die (PS), Twine (Michaels), Basic Rhinestone (SU)

Snowflake Ribbon with Inka Smoosh

It's really hard to get a decent picture of sparkle and shine!
This is the best I could do.

I found this piece of Inka Gold Smoosh in my background basket
and die cut this gorgeous snowflake ribbon and the sentiment
from some Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.

The center of the snowflake is punched from a snippet of silver Glimmer paper
with a punch from my stash.

Flat for mailing which is a bonus!

Poppystamps January Challenge

I think this snowflake is silent. It's been sitting on my desk for a few days 

and I haven't heard anything.

And since the Inka Gold requires water to smoosh, I'm sharing this in the gallery at

CAS Watercolour Card Challenge

Challenge closes on the 24th.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore), Solar White (Neena (110 lb.), Dazzling Details Glimmer (SU)  

Other:  Snowflake Ribbon Die (Poppystamps), Holiday Words Script Die (TH), Inka Gold (Steel Blue, Jade, Gold)

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #8

Our good friend, Darnell is celebrating her Blog Birthaversary and more

To celebrate she's having a NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge.

No, wait, she's going to have 3 back to back weekly challenges!

This week, January 16 - 22 she has challenged us to use a NBUS item and

an optional theme...

This is a technique I've been meaning to try for quite some time.

Thank you, Darnell, for giving me the push I needed to pull my pencils out and color!

My large butterfly stamp was a NBUS.

I had used the smallest stamp in this trio.

Now I need and excuse to use the last one in the set.

Hmmm...

I stamped with Memento ink and used my Prismacolor pencils for color

and odorless Turpenoid to blend.

Guess what it says inside?

Very appropriately it says

AMAZING

because that's what our Darnell is!

The sentiment was also a NBUS.

I had fun coloring this card and was amazed at how the color showed up on the Kraft!

And I even added some WOS all over the butterfly, because I know how Darnell loves that sparkle!

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Butterfly Trio (PB), Appreciated (TT)

Ink:   Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper:   Crumb Cake (SU)

Other:  Prismacolor Pencils (Spanish Orange, Orange White), Odorless Turpenoid (Weber), Cosmetic Applicators (Dollar Store), White EP (SU), Wink of Stella (Clear)

Little Reindeer

Even though I'm not on the Design Team at Merry Monday anymore,

I still need to get those Christmas cards done.

This week challenge is hosted by Colleen

I didn't use this little reindeer last year so I was determined to show him some love.

Unfortunately this die doesn't provide any antlers for this little guy.
I used my holly punch as a base and cut some out.

I had been playing with my alcohol inks and the background is a piece from my play.

I added drops of alcohol inks directly to Yupo paper.
Loll did a fantastic tutorial on this technique.

I used Copper Mixative so I used a piece of metallic
copper cardstock from my stash to die cut the reindeer.

His antlers were cut from a snippet of hammered gold paper.

Since I used alcohol ink which is a liquid color, I'll add this to
the CAS Mix Up gallery

Using Stamping, Alcohol Inks (liquid colour), and Die Cutting for my choice.

He's going to CHILL OUT with
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge too

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Christmas Joy (Verve

Ink:   Soft Suede

Paper:   Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Yupo, Metallic Amber (Paper Co.), Hammered Gold (snippet stash)

Other:  Alcohol Inks, Rectangle Peek a boo Window Die (MFT), Mini Reindeer & 25 (Sizzix Movers & Shapers), Holly Punch (MS)

Snowy Grove By the River

This is the card I made for DH's birthday.

I knew a snowy card would make him feel cold so I tried to show the sun coming up.

Of course I had to add ducks or geese.

I stamped the Snowy Grove stamp on Arches Watercolor paper with Pumice Stone ink 

and used my Aqua Painter to move the color around the trees.

The ink was still wet enough to stamp again which added a bit of extra texture.

When the ink was dry, and the stamp cleaned, I stamped with Versa Mark

and clear embossed to mask the trees.

I used re-inkers and a wet on wet technique to color the background. 

 I put drops of re-inker in the wells of a palette and used a brush with clear water 

to wet the sunrise area.  

Using a damp brush dipped in the re-inker,

 I dropped color until I was happy with it.

Then I moved to the top of the sky and repeated with blues.

When the sunrise was dry, I painted the ground using the same technique.

I used the bush stamp from another set to stamp some brambles and add more depth 

to the ground.

Finally, I sponged some more color around the edges to add depth.

This is relatively clean and not too simple, but I wanted to share it with you.

There's still time to enter at
CAS Mix Up
Challenge is open until January 24th.

My mixed media are Stamping, Watercolor with Re-inkers for my liquid color, Masking and Sponging

Penny Black Saturday Challenge            Penny Black and More

       ANYTHING GOES                             ANYTHING GOES

                             

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

WINTER BIRTHDAY

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Snowy Grove, Nature's Friends (PB), Pines (retired SU)

Ink:   Pumice Stone, Brushed Corduroy (Distress inks), VersaMark, SU Dapper Denim, Distress Brushed Corduroy for sponging

Paper:   Watercolor (Arches 140 lb. cold press), (Strathmore 140 lb. cold press for base)

Other:  Clear EP (SU), Re-inkers (So saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Old Olive) SU, Sponge Daubers (SU)

Snowflake CAS Watercolour Reminder

We're halfway through the month of January already.

At CAS Watercolour this month we're doing snowflakes.

I used this technique by Nina-Marie Designs to add watercolor over my stencil.

The stencil is one that Loll sent me.  I believe she cut it with her Cameo.

I did find that you need to use a stencil that has lots of negative space.
I tried this technique with a dainty stencil and it didn't work well.

I smooshed some Distress ink on my craft sheet and spritzed it with water.

Using a foam brush, I picked up the ink and dabbed it over the stencil.

As I changed colors, I tried to blend each into the last.

When it was dry, I spritzed with a bit of water, let it sit about 30 seconds
and dabbed with a paper towel.

Pretty easy and lots of fun to splat that color on!

The CAS Watercolour Card Challenge
is open until the 24th.

I'm going to take this over to
Time Out Challenges
where the theme is WINTER.
I'm not using the optional twist of white on white.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  

Ink:   Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch

Paper:   Watercolor Paper (TH), Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Thick Whisper White (SU)

Other:  Stencil (Cameo), Kars Snowflake EF (retired Cuttlebug), Sequins (SSS), Silver Twine (retired SU)

Liquid Color for CAS Mix Up Reminder

January is half over already!

There's still time to enter at CAS Mix Up

Here's something I hope will inspire you.

Using Stamping, Alcohol Ink and Acrylic Paint (as my liquid color), Stenciling, Die Cutting, Splattering and Heat Embossing

I laid my stencil down on some coated paper and used the felt applicator 

to dab Alcohol Inks through the stencil.

I went back over it after adding a little blending solution to my felt pad.

I topped the flower off with some Pearl Mixative.

I splattered first with some Black Soot Distress ink smooshed and watered down.

I didn't like that at all.

I found a bottle of Licorice Acrylic paint and used a drop of that to dilute with

just a bit of water and splattered.

I liked that better but still had all those splatters I didn't like.

So it's no longer a one layer card!

Dies are wonderful ways to rethink a design!

Here's another that I did but using Distress Stains instead of Alcohol Ink.

But that flower was so bright!

So I dabbed a little Picket Fence stain on my craft mat and used a

dry paint brush to add it over the pink.

I still didn't like it so I dabbed a bit of yellow on my craft mat and 

repeated the process.

I like it better now.

I really had to work for these 2 cards!

I hope you'll join us at CAS Mix Up.

The challenge is open until the 24th.

Remember your color needs to start out as a liquid.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe (card 1)

Stamps:  Endless Thanks (SU)

Ink:   Whisper White

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Basic Black (SU), Woodgrain (TH), Coated Paper (stash) 

Other:  Lovely Large Flower Stencil (Wendy Vecchi), Adirondack Alcohol Inks (Shell Pink, Wild Plum, Lettuce, Pearl Mixative), White EP, Licorice Acrylic Paint (Plaid)

Card Recipe (card 2)

Stamps:  Script Sentiments #1 (Inky Antics)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper:  Neena, Basic Black, Heavy Whisper White (SU), Paper Vellum (retired SU)

Other:  Distress Stains (Worn Lipstick, Mowed Lawn, Picket Fence, Squeezed Lemonade), Stitched Mats Rectangles Die (LI), White Gel Pen

Heart for Class

Here's the last card for this week's class.

I had a messy but fun time smooshing some Lava Red and Platinum Inka Gold.

I put some on my craft mat and spritzed with water, then smooshed some Mixed Media paper in it.

For class they die cut the hearts from the smooshed pieces, dry emboss a piece to place it on

and glued a ribbon flower and punched leaves.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what we did in class.  

I usually don't post these cards but thought you might like to see what I've been up to.

They all liked the cards and we had such fun catching up since we didn't meet last month.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  

Ink:   

Paper:   Thick Whisper White, Real Red (SU), Mixed Media (Strathmore)

Other:  Inka Gold (Lava Red, Platinum), Sunshine Wishes Dies, Seaside EF (SU), Ribbon Roses (Wal-mart), Leaf Punch (EK)

Winter Birches for Class

Here's another card for today's class.

It can be used for a Valentine or not.

Some stamping, heat embossing and die cutting to do for this one.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge (SU), Eloquence (PB)

Ink:   Whisper White, Real Red (SU)

Paper:   Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Smoky Slate, Real Red snippets (SU)

Other: Birch Dies (IO), Stitched Snowdrift Die (MFT), Heart Border Punch (SU), White EP (SU)