Seconds, anyone?

A few more flowers couldn't hurt, could they?  A duo of cards using what are considered fall flowers around my neck of the woods.  Mums from Alex Syberia Designs to be exact...

My hues of yellow and orange get a little dark - but AT LEAST I didn't

forget NOT to use green! lol

And yes, my friends, all of those little ASD die cut +'s are still sitting on my desk!

I love this deep orange cover panel, don't you?  When you've pressed but are

too lazy to die cut, those Betterpress sentiments still make a 'banner'

statement IMHO!

Off to Color Hues #93 then it's back to the laundry - I'll be packing for a little excursion this week with my bestie - on his birthday!! 

=] Michele

Just us Girls #741

Hey, my friends!  I have one more post for you today - then let's get on with the weekend, shall we?

My friend Stephanie is the host at Just us Girls this week - I totally dropped the ball last week during my funk!  

It's stencil week and I have TWO beautiful cards today using stencils for coloring the images without the outline stamps! A lovely set from a suite of Pinkfresh products called Garden Roses.

First in those blues that have convinced me to love them!

 Look closely and you'll see I have used

Spellbinder's Nature's Botanical Wreath embossing folder to provide a little lift!

And sentiment from one of their Betterpress sets.

Thanks, Stephanie for the win!!

Next up: some pinks and those scrumptious yellow/curry colors from Pigment Craft Co....

No ink wasting around here - I just spritzed my stencils and press the

leftover inks onto a panel of Bristol card stock.... you can just see it

in the background.  I waited until it dried and then used my favorite debossing plate

to add interest and to mimic the movement of those trailing roses.

That sentiment is just so beautiful - from LDRS Creative - inked with an Altenew ink.

Now. How do I decide which to send to the challenge - I think I'll ask Tom who just got home to start our weekend a little early!

See you in the JUGS #741 gallery - and have a great weekend!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches #650

Judy's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is open to SO many possibilities... take a peek:

 

I still had Alex Syberia's Heartfelt Blooms set at hand - it was time that image saw some water coloring!

My little Distress ink cubes are always my favorite for water coloring... let me tell you it was a little scary cutting that piece into three!

However, I had no problem finding a beautiful sentiment from another ASD set...

Another day of inspiring help from a friend - thanks, Judy!

=] Michele

Inspired by Marcia!

On Monday my friend Bonnie inspired me to take another look at my embossing folders - thanks again my friend!  TODAY, I was inspired to make a few Christmas cards based on the incredibly cute cards created by my friend Marcia!  What in the world would I do without you girls?

I have had a self-imposed moratorium on buying for the last month, but when I found this Penny Black trio of carolers on sale it was time to hit the pause button - I've been searching for this Sing Joy set for a very long time, and it looks like I got the last one from Scrapbook.com's clearance section... see! I think it was serendipity!

Are you ready?  You'll see how Marcia influenced my card bases with her lovely, embossed panels... I pushed myself to explore some unusual Copic color combos:

Of course, I HAD TO sneak in a little grey for the guys!

This combo with lavender made my heart sing...

My sentiments were found in several sets - perfect lines from some 

of our favorite Christmas carols are perfect for these little elves!

Yes, you caught me - there is a NEW frame premiering here today:

Penny Black's Classy Frames to be exact.

I took a chance on creating some snowy twilight scenes on my cards today... I'm no Sandy Allnock believe me, but the simpler the better is best for me.

Okay, one more - the gang had to get together for one more song:

My friend Therese suggested we look over our stamp sets for little accents - I found just the right sized stars/snowflakes/musical notes for this little mini-slimline scene!

Thanks, Therese!

Thanks so much to my wonderful, talented friends - and YOU TOO for stopping by today!

=] Michele

Color Throwdown #806

 

A quick post between loads - I was inspired by my friend Bonnie today - thanks, Bonnie!  A little mindless water coloring on a beautiful, embossed image from Lisa Horton was just what I needed on a Monday!  

Color Throwdown #806 held the colors my heart reached for via these inks:

Rusty browns, deep browns, deep yellows, and a sage-y green for the eucalyptus!

With a little splatter of dirty water, and another SB Betterpress sentiment

my panel was ready for a card base!

It's great to have friends [and challenges] to show you the way!

=] Michele

Hey wait!!  This is perfect for Darnell's I.D.E.A.S., too! E = embossing!

Color Hues #93

Tracey has a wonderful color combination for us at Color Hues #93!  It seems to be cooling off a little but I'm not quite ready for Fall!  

 

Those cute little ditsy flowers from The Stamp Market seemed like just the die to reach for as I have lots of birthdays to plan for in the coming month:

I love them planted in one of Wplus9's postage dies!  I'm off to plant this in the gallery at Color Hues!  

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

=] Michele

The Flower Challenge #94 - Reminder

My fellow TFC teammates and I are back with lots more inspiration as a reminder that you still have lots of time to COLOR those florals for our challenge this month! 

This time I have concentrated on the first few colors in our inspiration photo:

I found them in these inks:

Thank you, Marcia, for the Floral Delicacy hand-me-down from The Greetery!

I used its layering stencils to make two of the clusters then

stacked them together for a 'fuller' look. BTW if you own this set and are

wondering where those 'lines' came from - the end of my fine line marker!

My card base got its texture from SU's Tasteful Texture.

The green panel is one of the dies from PTI's Love to Layer: Delightful Brackets.

There's one of those fun Betterpress-ed sentiments again!

Did you catch how I sneaked that grey in there?

Okay, now we're passing the 'ball' to you - there's always room for seconds in The Flower Challenge gallery!

=] Michele

A post for three seasons!

I have a bit of a mashup for you today - three seasons are represented ... let's start with Summer as I'm just not willing to let it go quite yet!  

Marcia's lovely PFS Honeysuckles got 'pressed' again before they have to go 'home'... and before I even think about investing in the liquid watercolor inks from Pinkfresh, I decided I should try water coloring with their inks...

Not only did they perform well, but I was also even able to mix them for 

the green I was looking for!

Here's a tip: use your press plates to dry emboss - 

HOWEVER, cut first, then press!

This gorgeous detail on yellow was completely destroyed when cutting it using 

the PFS Framed Floral Arch die.

  So, for my next arch I used the lesson I had learned the hard way!

The mid-sized arch die was cut then debossed with my 

PFS Ornate Medallions cover plate.

The smallest of the arch dies was cut again from white and a lovely

sentiment from PFS Detail Leaf set was stamped in black.

A sprinkle of PFS Jewels and my card is complete!

Thanks again, Marcia, for sharing your wonderful kit with me!

I'll share this one with my friends at Four Seasons- Summer:

It's nearly the season of BOOS... here's another Halloween card made with some seriously old supplies in my stash... Altenew Alphas and MFT's Trick or Treat!

I split the sentiment by masking and added the ? with a marker.

Then it's back to Christmas in August!  First up a little 'kraft-y' mini slimline card...

Then an afternoon's batch of Gina K Precious Poinsettias!

I stamped the layers and used a finger-dauber to add a little 

shadow to the center of all of these - except for the first...

...that first? My favorite: Copic colored - but it's hard to color as many as I need!

Quite the 'potpourri' of cards, right?  This is how my crafty days have been lately - I think it's just too pretty outside to be inside for long!  I'm really missing shopping, too!

Thanks for spending a bit of your time with me!

=] Michele

You're a Scream!

I have to thank Carol for inspiring my Halloween cards - it gets harder every year to come up with a fresh Halloween/birthday card for my oldest friend ... and I NEVER will let her forget she's seven days older than me - and yes, she is a scream... and the only one I'd 'customize' paper for...

Do you see them?  Okay, Tom didn't either.  I added the eyes to some fun 

EH toner paper for my take on Munch's The Scream.

Sometimes my humor is very subtle...

This image was MADE for JUGS #739!

OR maybe this one will be better?

I guess you'll just have to go see for yourself which one made it to their gallery!  While you're there, maybe add one of your own framed cards?

=] Michele

You've been framed!

I have a card for Just us Girls #739!  It's word week and Carol has chosen a fun one for us: 

Back in June I indulged in a few Spellbinder Betterpress: Halloween Icons plates on sale - I couldn't resist:

xoxo from Gram-boo and Gramp-boo! lol

Somehow, that pretty Leafy Frame from Altenew translates to Halloween when sponge-colored in Villainous Potion and Black Soot!

Have a fun weekend, my friends!

=] Michele

Did someone mention strawberries?

I'm in - and had the cutest set that hadn't gotten the love it deserved... thanks Color Throwdown!

This Berry Patch set is from Pigment Craft Co... I sure wish I knew what is happening with that company and its darling owner!  I combined my stamped/die cut berries with a few dies from Pinkfresh Studios and here are my Catherine Pooler inks:

You know my rule - a second card was brewing before the glue was dry!  These primary colors and the bowl from that Berry Patch set called for ice cream:

A fun quote bubble from Altenew says it all: ice cream in ANY flavor is good!

My scoops were created from EH cloud dies - tell me you haven't thought of ice cream

while cloud gazing!

Narelle's stack of squares in her Freshly Made Sketch #648 was all the inspiration I needed to use them on a card!  Sprinkles anyone?  all those little dots from that cover die from The Stamp Market came in handy... here's how I custom-colored them:

My little grip mat came in handy to keep them around while drying! Stickles Diamond Sparkles

was the glue that kept them from melting off the ice cream!

It's been a really strange week here - nothing bad, just not my usual crafty week.  I'm so happy you stopped by today and to have fun challenge inspiration to make cards again!

=] Michele