Altenew's Pair a Flower Contest

I'm not sure this will qualify for Altenew's Pair a Flower Contest - perhaps because the 'real' bloom is no longer available for a pose!  Instead, I will share the photograph my husband took, which was my inspiration.  It is in black-and-white. Well what does a girl have to lose?  I'm starting with a closeup of my card!  That debossed panel was a stinker to capture in a photo!

You can see where my inspiration came from,

and my attempt at bringing this lovely photo to paper!

Here is my card with a 'stand in' for the gallery photo - 

taken in black and white, of course:

and finally, my card...

The star of my design is the lovely Sunflower Daisy - stamp & die bundle - stamped in a few of my favorite colors, of course those would be shades of grey!

The black card was cut using Altenew's Rounded Rectangles, and then

debossed with their Dotted Swirls die.  The very last items I should mention are the stem, and sentiment ... both borrowed from their Exotic Tulips set.  

That's it for today, thanks so much for dropping by.  I've had the pleasure of hosting a cousin for a few days.  Tracy is another crafter - we've found so many shared genes - she was kind enough to bring some of the wonderful die sets she has gotten recently from a few of her favorites from HSN.  However, you will have to wait until Halloween to see them - it's killing me not to share!

=]  Michele 

Inspired By #182 - M.I.C. K.E.Y. MOUSE!

 

Okay!  Are you all caught up with the fun new way to play at Inspired By??  We think giving you not one, but THREE ways to be inspired is a bonus - and what a great way to get your Christmas cards made?  OH what's that?  You don't know about that?  Get yourself over to the Inspired By #182 blog right away to learn all about it!

I just love the fun Disney arrangement of Mickey Mouse items in our IB182 photo, so I'm sticking with the original photo, and have a few favorite sets with mice in my stash to play along!  Today, Waffle Flower Crafts Little Artists, and Grow Happiness came together to provide all the little items I needed for this MOUSE'd fun slimline card...

Monsieur Mouse-net has a favorite bloom in my garden that got all the

paint on his palette!  The fun Whimsy Alphas are c. 2016 from Wplus9 - I'm happy to report they are still available, as are the dies!  I may have added a bit more doodling fun to a few of them.   Did you catch how I turned his ears into a Mickey Mouse Club staple?  "Here's your ears!"

Next month, I'll be using the C-option for my Inspired By cards - but for now, I sure do look forward to seeing how many of YOU will be switching over now!  It sure is a fun way to add to your Christmas card stash!  I wonder if my teammates have?  Let's go find out, shall we??

=]  Michele

Storybook Coloring with Daniel West

I attended as much of the Card-maker's Christmas Summit as I had time for.  The first session was taught by Daniel West of Del & Artie fame.  Daniel taught us how to use a storybook style of Copic coloring on a few of those darling Colorado Craft Company's Anita Jeram illustrated stamp sets.  I am the owner of a few - wink.

Here's are the two cards I made using Daniel's style - it's really about NOT blending, and perhaps exaggerating some of the shading.  He does it so much better so go looking for him, please.  @delandartie on Instagram... and blog:  Del & Artie (delandartie.com) 

I've had the worst luck.  After stamping these images, I lost the rest of the stamps for the set - oh you know I've looked everywhere.  I'm hoping some day they'll just magically appear, stuck to the bottom of some other set.  For these cards, I've borrowed some fun sentiments from another set - yes.  there are more.

We're busy blooming butterflies - so don't think I've disappeared again if I don't get to you right away!  It's a busy time on our front porch!  Stop over if you can!

=]  Michele

Inspired By #181 - Fintastic Birthday!

Hello my dear friends!  We sure missed hanging out with you all!  I'm well rested, and ready to start playing cards again, even though I've got lots of cobwebs to clear!

 

Before I show you my card for IB#181, I want to tell you that there is something a little different about Inspired By starting with this first August post!  SO be sure to read all about it at the Inspired By blog for all the extra fun you can have playing along with us!

I have a fun birthday card for you - I've been inspired by that shark, and his ocean-scene cake!  

Will you be inspired as I was?  OR will you choose from TWO other options now available through December?  Curious?  Let's head over to the IB#181 post to check out what's new, and also to see which option my teammates have chosen, shall we?

=]  Michele

AveryElle Sea-Prise! stamp, and Make a Wish die.

The Flower Challenge #59: Use a die!

 

Welcome, my friends!  I've been away for so long - I've almost forgotten how to do this blogging thing!  I'm happy to be back in my craft studio, and couldn't be happier for our August's theme for The Flower Challenge:  use a die!  I have so many gorgeous dies, and aren't afraid to admit that it might be a favorite crafty supply.  So let's get to it, shall we?

I'm using the option of making a slimline card today ... you don't have to, but I found it gave me more real estate for this gorgeous Altenew Craft-a-Flower: Cistus!  You know I have to say it again:  with CISTUS LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS BROTHERS???

My die-cut Cistus were started with half-sheets of Ranger water color card stock, a few favorite colors from my Altenew water color pan set, which were applied rather willy-nilly to the card stock with a big wet brush.  After it dried, I picked up a scripty background stamp, adding it here and there with grey Versafine ink.  I then arranged my dies, and ran them through my Platinum 6 die-cut machine, layered up my blooms, and arranged them to my liking.  

You'll see just a bit of grey peeking through... it's actually my card base, and the background panel is another piece of water color card cut in two using a simple swoopy hill die from Paper Smooches - sadly no longer available.  A smattering of Pinkfresh jewels, and my card is complete!

Here's a peek at my lovely left-overs ... 

I hope to see you in The Flower Challenge #59 gallery!  Won't you also join me as I take a look at all the loveliness my teammates have creating here?  We have a wonderful guest this month - I'm so happy to also call her my friend:  Therese Calvird!!!  Oh my goodness you won't want to miss her fabulous die-cut card!

Thank you for stopping by!

=]  Michele

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #53

 

By now I've figured out what most inspires me to make a card: a photo inspiration!  I'm so loving all the bits of inspiration I found in Christmas Kickstart's Challenge #53 photo inspiration ... here's a closeup of it:

Right down there in the bottom right corner... that shaggy stool just called out for my Pinkfresh Studio Festive Llama!  complete with his colorful poms!  I'm so surprised they pulled this one from their product line.

I also had an impromptu play date with my friend Cat!! 

Thanks for being so willing to answer my video-call, my friend! 

As Cat and I chatted, I showed her my 'what do I do with it now?' bin of wonderful

snippets - I found this fun white-on-white heat-embossed panel!  

Kismet, I think!  It's an after-Christmas 2020 purchase from 

SSS called Outline Merry.

I'm going to get this card into the Christmas Kickstart Challenge link, and then I'm going to see if Cat has her card posted - why not come along?  Hey, and play along, too!!

=]  Michele

CAS Mix Up August 2021 - Guest Designer!

Jenny is our host for CAS Mix Up August 2021, and I'm so pleased to be invited to be her guest!  Thank you, Jenny!  Here is the fun technique Jenny has chosen for us:

 

After looking through my stencils, I found a few open enough to make this technique work well.  Jenny has shared a few videos to watch over at the CAS Mix Up blog post.  But here is how I found stamping through a stencil worked best for me:

    Step one:  cut an A2 panel of card stock, apply a bit of repositionable tape to the 

    back, and adhere to a sheet of MISTI grid paper, centering as best you can.

    Step two:   Add your choice of stencil [an open design is recommended] and use     washi tape to keep in place.  This is also a good time to position your chosen                stamp, too - today I'm using MFT's Roses all Over cling stamp today.  

    Step three: I then picked up the grid paper, with stencil attached, and fit it into         a clipboard for blending. 

    Step four:  After blending, place the grid paper back into your MISTI, and stamp     repeatedly, right through the stencil, until you are happy with the coverage.  It is      imperative that your blended ink is completely dry before stamping!!!  

My panel was trimmed down using a Pinkfresh Studio Stitched Rectangle die.  I found a fun die for my sentiment, and here are the results!

Here's a look at my inks, and the embossed panel I use for a little lift, 

without adding foam squares.  This Altenew Happy Birthday die has such a fun font - I did a mop up of water-spritzed Scattered Straw ink to add the color.  Leave it to Waffle Flower Crafts to have enamel dots to match!

and a closeup:

Okay, I'm so excited to see what Jenny and the CAS Mix Up team has created, aren't you?  See you there!?  Thanks again, Jenny!

=]  Michele