The Flower Challenge #85 - our 7th birthday!

Yes, you read that right - we are celebrating seven years of challenges using florals at The Flower Challenge and we want to make sure it's extra special by inviting YOU to party with us!

Since it's a birthday party one might think I'd have made a birthday card - nope!  Our challenge for this month: Mix or Match - stamp sets, dies, or companies!  For my card, The Greetery + Pinkfresh Studio came together seamlessly to add to my Christmas card stash!  Don't believe me?  Take a look at my card...

Here are the inks I've used for stamping today - I like that I 

didn't use one bit of black on my Christmas card!

It all began by stamping a few images from Pinkfresh Studio's 

Modern Layered Florals

in these dusty greens right onto my card base.  I then added two sprays of greenery and berries from The Greetery's Merry Sprigs - popped up for a little dimension - and stamping the berries in red for a little POP of color!

This wonderful sentiment can also be found in that set.  I've chosen to keep my cards as 'one layered' as they can be this year to help with postage - stamping my sentiment right on the card base helps with that.

SO, no matter what kind of card you make or whose products you combine - please be sure to use flowers as your main focus!  We can't wait to see you in our party gallery before October 25th!  We have another new teammate, and some wonderful guests this month!  Our design team has so much to be inspired by - let's go see, shall we?  Before you go, along with this happy celebration comes some not so happy news... 

Sadly, we are saying goodbye to Aileen who because of her love of flowers, started all the fun seven years ago, and to Viv who has stepped in when Aileen needed her!  All my love to you both for all the wonderful leadership you've shown this team ... I will miss you both dearly! xx

=] Michele

Doodlebugs Friday!

 

We've all heard that without rain there would not be rainbows, right?  I'm adding a twist to those rainy thoughts today over at the Doodlebugs Blog!  

It's the last day of the month already! Hopefully March is going out like a lamb in your neck o' the woods!

=] Michele

Doodlebugs Friday!

 

Hello friends!  I'm not going to blah, blah, blah on my blog today!  It's weekend eve, and I really can't wait to show you how I brought a Christmas stamp out to play with a new wreath in the first week of Spring!   Here's your peek...

Come see the entire card at the Doodlebugs blog today!

=] Michele

More from Pinkfresh!

There is sooo much to love in this fabulous prize package I won recently from Pinkfresh Studio - well I have to share, right?

Remember my first card? It left me with such a beautiful scrap of aura foil that I had to use it... I found that blending a little ink over the panel can fill in any of those areas that don't foil perfectly when using the negative foil plate.  This time I reached for an ink that 'matched' my cardstock.

Lots to love about this fun sentiment die - and those holographic colors - 

with a few blooms from Spellbinders - snippets from my bin!

Next: the reason I sent Kelly that thank you - this Wonderful in Every Way suite of products were substituted for the part of my prize package that was taking a little longer to arrive in stock than Kelly wanted me to wait for!  

This first one will be heading over to the Pinkfresh March 2023 Inspiration Challenge, and the next was inspired by my Insta friend Raquel @rachelrdesigns   Not nearly as beautiful as Raquel's but I love the bright colors that were blended together through the coloring stencil set in the suite with the aqua foiling!

The Stamp Market's Happy Heart cover die and a dash of black enamel dots

were just the right finishing touch with the black-stamped sentiment from the set.

Hope your week has gotten off on the right track - back to those LOADS of fun I have on Mondays!!

=] Michele

Doodlebugs Friday!

Hello, my friends!  Here we are nearly mid-October already!

True to the saying time really did fly while I was having fun with this week's

Doodlebugs project!

Here's my sneaky peek - would you believe it started as a simple piece of yellow card?

I'd love it if you stopped by!

=] Michele

CAS Mix Up September 2022

 

I dug really deep to find that tube of Dina Wakley gesso that was included in a Simon kit YEARS ago!

I've only ever used it to create white splatter, so I was happy when Hilary chose it for their CAS Mix Up September 2022 challenge!  Then I watched all the videos to see the possibilities... the very last video sparked a little idea!

Out came a never-before-used stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio called Wintry Forest - intended for ink, I just used gesso for every layer and ended up pouring fine glitter over the last one for a little sparkle.  Yikes! it took more than a day as each layer of gesso had to dry before I could add the next!  When all the drying was done, I blended Speckled Egg DOX over the entire thing, then spritzed it with water [good thing I started off with watercolor paper!] and dabbed off the excess.  The skyline took the ink beautifully but the gesso-ed areas were just a bit stained by the ink ... here's the result:

A quick cut to finish the edge and a sparkly sentiment leftover from 2021

finished my card.

I'm not thoroughly convinced this was a huge success, but it is kinda pretty.  One more card for the Christmas stash - that's always a good thing!

=] Michele

I couldn't be happier to win - thanks, Hilary!

And thank you to CAS Mix Up for inspiring me for 6 years!

Doodlebugs Friday!

More of my loose, messy water coloring today over at the Doodlebugs Blog!  This time using a lovely new to me set from Pinkfresh Studio:  Beautiful Blooms - and a wonderful place to plant frame them... hope you'll stop over!  thank you!

=] Michele

Playing Cards with Friends - April 2022

Here we are, the first week of April and YAY I'm Playing Cards with Friends, again!  

I met this month's friend while hanging out on a YouTube LIVE with a mutual friend of ours [Therese in case you're wondering] she became a regular in the Inspired By gallery - loved that!  and shares her beautiful creations at Perry Papercrafts.  After getting to know her better, I asked for her address and we realized that she lives less than 10 minutes from a childhood friend of mine from Michigan in Idaho!!  The world gets smaller every day!

Stef Perry, I'm hoping you had fun with our assignment - though I do know it gave you pause, and me too, if I'm being honest!!

• April, according to my research, is the NATIONAL MONTH OF HOPE -April 2022 - so our cards will have a theme of HOPE! [my word of the year!]
• You’re welcome to think Easter, if you’d like, or April showers.  Flowers are not quite blooming in Michigan, so NO FLOWERS!
• Dies, stencils, embossing are all approved!

Wait!! It's April!!! NO FLOWERS??? Yep. Them's the rules! lol  You may already know this, but Stef and I are teamies at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE,  so we share a love of everything floral - but not today!

Okay.  Enough chit chat - you're here for the card, right??  Here you go...

My chosen inks:

Pinkfresh Studio - Small Butterflies hot foil plate, stencils, and dies are

the main players here.  But I managed to tuck in a die-cut leafy branch from The Stamp Market, a wonky-stitched square for this HOPE-FILLED sentiment from PTI Just Sentiments - Spring Blessings - another one borrowed from Marcia! 

Dry embossing compliments of SU tasteful texture.

I'm very happy to have these darling butterflies - they are a beautiful stand-in for flowers!  

Thank you so very much, Stef, for joining me today - I look forward to SEEING you one day on our next stop in Idaho!

Now I do hope you'll join me as I dash over to Stef's blog - it's SO HARD to wait to see what my friends make!

=] Michele

Color Hues #37 - Yellow and Pale Teal

 

Oh yes, these are definitely my favorite Easter egg colors!

Thanks Color Hues #37!

It was a pretty good time to use these colors to stencil-color a favorite from 

Pinkfresh Studio: Miss Your Smile and layering stencils.

You might notice I added a few shadows with a neutral grey marker.

Hope you have a beautiful, Spring-like weekend!

=] Michele

Angela made me make it!

PinkFresh Studio sponsors a fun hour on YouTube hosted by Mr. Jeff Lindberg - it doesn't happen every Saturday, but oh you don't want to miss even one!  Jeff is joined by some of the most wonderful crafters in our blog-o-sphere!   You can find the replay here!   

Last weekend Angela Simpson was Jeff's guest - a fabulous card-maker who guest designs for many of our favorite companies and shares her work on Instagram @mycraftyperspective, and her blog: My Fresh Perspective 

Okay, you came here for a card, right??  Here is my playful take on Angela's card:

PinkFresh Studio: Garden Roses stamped on vellum and white heat embossed;

Braided Oval cut from Neenah #110 Solar White - I used another oval, 

from Spellbinder, to cut out the center.  A few green enamel dots from Altenew.

All stripes are cut from The Stamp Market card stock using my paper trimmer.

The greeting is also from The Stamp Market, silver embossed.

I know you're dying to see Angela's card, so I'll just say thanks for stopping by, and send you on your way to YouTube where you'll see Angela's card, and one from Mr. Jeff, too!

=]  Michele

Pinkfresh Studio October 2021 Challenge

 

I am so happy that I had a little time on Saturday to play cards!  Sunday arrived, and brought with it a new computer - how shall I say this?  It wasn't pretty!  Everything new isn't better, in my opinion... perhaps I'm just resistant to change?  lol

At long last, I was able to edit some photos of the cards I made for

Pinkfresh Studio's October 2021 Challenge  One card uses a wonderful sentiment die from The Stamp Market that I bought at the end of year 2020 - not sure if it is allowable.  So I just made another!

Questionable Card #1:

Card #2 is heading for their gallery!  This sentiment is from Merry Little Christmas!

Both were made using Pop-Out Folk Christmas - a wonderful set that stamps all of these darling characters, while the die cuts ALL of them at once!  I just love that!  I would never have chosen these colors for a Christmas card, but now that I've used them, I can't wait to use them again! 

So happy that you stopped by - thanks so much!

=]  Michele

World Card Making Day 2021 with Pinkfresh

A few of you know we took a little 1500 mile drive over World Cardmaking weekend!  Lucky for me, I had some new Pinkfresh goodies to play with when I got home, and a few more days before this challenge ends!

Without further ado - here is my first go with PF Garden Roses layering stencils, stamps, and die set:

I started with the lightest color, and worked my way up to the darkest which gives all the gorgeous depth to the roses - Pinkfresh makes layering easy with their numbering system right on the stencils.  After all the stenciling was done, I die cut them out using the dies, and then ran the 'leftover' through my die-cutting machine with that favorite SU subtle texture EF.

The sweet sentiment is also in the Garden Rose stamp set.  It was cut with a die from their Basic Label Frames set.  A few of their gorgeous gems, and it was done!

Okay, I'm heading over to the Pinkfresh WCMD gallery - 

wish me luck, my wish-list is VERY long!

=]  Michele

Here are the inks I used today: