Orange- love it or hate it

Orange seems to get a bad wrap. Folks either love it or hate it. I happen to love it. It is bright happy color that doesn't apologize for itself. It plays nice inn the sandbox with other colrs such as blue, red, and yellow. Blue and orange is a favorite color combo of mine. So striking.

Diana of the blog-"that creative feeling" posts an article called "Ode to Orange, a color we love to hate". Check it out.

This month's challenge at the Rainbow Card Challenge is "orange opulence". We are asking you to put all your negative feelings if you have them about orange and embrace it. Create an orange forward card.

 When deciding on a direction for my card this month, I immediately grabbed "Beautiful Butterflies" from My Favorite Things. I haven't played with it much. This was the perfect challenge to show it some inky love.

I stamped the butterflies with a variety of orange inks from Altenew. I stamped the sentiment and then die cut the butterflies and used foam tape to raise them. I know this technique has a name but I am at a loss. I am sure Jennifer Maguire has shown us this technique.

So now it's time to dust off your orange inks and show them some love and create an orange card. Be sure to link it up to  the Rainbow Card Challenge. You have all month to play along!

 

Flowers and friendship

I have been on a kick lately where I grab one stamp and try to use it as many ways as I can. Today I pulled out an old wooded stamp from Hero Arts. (I betcha some of you don't even own a wooden stamp!!- talk about old school!!) I paired it with the stitches cover plate from Ellen Hutson. Something old and some thing new. 

I felt it needed one other element, so I added the butterfly. The saying could is from one of my favorite sentiment sets-  Penny Black's Friendship. 

I am submitting this card to the challenge at Time Out. They have an inspiration quote for the challenge.

When the card was done I added glitter with my nuvo aqua shimmer pen. 

Lots of folks are playing along, so head over to Time Out for some awesome inspiration!! 

May showers bring June flowers?

Yesterday was a free day for me. I spent it with my bestie stamping. The fun thing about stamping with a buddy is you get to use their stuff!! I "borrowed" her Altenew Botanical Gardens set. I stamped every darn piece and embossed with gold and watercolored the images with bright sunshiney colors. I then die cut the images and had fun placing them in a pleasing design.

playing with placement

 

 

My buddy Pat looked at the finished card and laughed. She said that is soooo not you. Where did this come from? She is right. I am more CAS and whimsical. This classic and elegant creation my have come from an alter ego.

We have had so much rain this May that I am hoping it will bring June flowers. Because of that I am entering this card the Time Out challenge.  The there is: 'May All your weeds be wild flowers'.

I am also entering this card at The Card Concept .

Sunshine brings flowers and my flowers are sunshiny colors, so why not enter this classy and elegant card!

 

 Done playing, time to get back to work! The pharmacology and pathophysiology of reflux and Barrett's esophagus. Woo hoo!!

Butterflies at Laura's Loft

Well it is a busy week for me in blogland this week! Lots of stuff happening. Today I am sharing with you a card that I made using Altenew's Painted Butterflies stamp set that I ordered from Laura's Loft.

What with Jonas going through my neighborhood a wee bit of spring in the form of butterflies is a welcome reminder that spring will be bursting out before you know it.

I stamped the butterflies with the Altenew mini cubes- "cool summer nights", "shades of purple" and "summer afternoon". These inks go on flawlessly and smoothly. The colors blend together perfectly. If you don't have any they are a MUST HAVE new ink!

To add a wee bit of interest, I shaded each butterfly with a some colored pencil. A bit of shine with a glitter pen and each butterfly pops!

So if you want a bit of spring like me, head over to Laura's Loft and find your springtime! 

Happy Little Stampers CASE challenge

Happy New Year's to all my friends in the down under. It is already 2016 for them. For us in the states we have several hours yet.

This year brings a new type of challenge to Happy Little Stamper. It is CASE the designer challenge. Each month one of the CASE team will post a card for inspiration and you will CASE that design.

Kylie our fearless leader and owner of Happy Little Stampers stamp company is starting out this fun new challenge.

Here is her inspiration card:

What a CAS and yet classy card!

Here is a wee tutorial on how I made my card using my misti. 

I stamped my sentiment first on my card so I could work my butterflies around it. Next I placed a butterfly from HLS's birthday butterflies upside down on my misti so you have the flat bottom up. Make sense? Then I inked up the stamp with distress ink and lightly misted it.

I closed the misti and stamped the butterfly bottom.

Cool huh, you get a rough shape of the butterfly!

I positioned the second butterfly, closed my misti so it would attach. I opened it and inked this one up same as the first.

Closed the misti and stamped the second butterfly.

I repeated the steps for the last butterfly.

When I was done I inked the top of the stamp with black ink and added the definition. Cool huh? Your stamps can do double duty! 

Hope you try this cool technique and join in the fun for HLS new CASE the designer challenge!

House of Cards April

Soooo this card is kinda like find Waldo, or an optical illusion. Can you see the flight of butterflies? Just keep looking and you will see them. I saw this technique at the Online Card Class Stretch you Dies. While the technique was not that hard it was a bit time consuming, but the results are way cool, dontcha think? 

This month is a photo color challenge at House of Cards. I used both the colors and the idea of the butterflies in flight.

Here is another view, maybe it is a bit clearer.

I hope you will join us at the House of Cards  this fun photo color challenge. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

old school, retro, dated......

you decide. I'd like to think maybe retro. I used a variety of old stamps and ideas. I mean hasn't the butterfly with the gem bodies- isn't that so dated? But ya know what? I still like it. Its fun especially when aired with this old StampinUp set "flight of the butterfly".

It day after our first and last I hope major snow storm and I am wishin' for spring. the card inspiration at Tag You're... It made me feel all springy. 

So whether it is old school, retro or even dated, this tag made me happy, warm and giggly. Check out Tag You're... It and see how the DT and others were inspired.

Duo of Butterflies

Ahhhhhh, Sue V. is hosting a great color challenge at Just Us Girls this week. Well if you know me, you know that I think green is the most beautiful color in the world (sorry Margarita- it isn't pink!) and pair it with blue- well what can ya say- I am in heaven!!

I had made another card, when I wasn't sure I was going to have time to create this week. It was kinda crappy and a cop out. I came across this video from Dawn at Wplus9 and knew I had to try this technique. I didn't have the butterfly from Wplus9, but I did make do with this stamp from Hero Arts- an oldie but goodie that has always survived my purges.

There is something so zen about watercoloring especially when its dawn and the house is quiet and some soft music is playing in the background. I couldn't screw it up with all those peaceful and creative vibes going on around me. Check out Dawn's video, she really makes these butterflies look easy and they are.

While I was surfing the net before I started on my project, I remembered today is the August release day at Papertrey Ink. I came across this card by Nicole Heady and loved the look of copics on the kraft paper. I pulled out another oldie but goodie from Hero Arts.  I stamped and embossed with white and just colored the image in with the required colors. Easy- peasy.

If you ever watch any of those cooking competitions, many of the cockier chefs will try to make a duo of something and it often turns around to bite them in the butt. I hope that this isn't the case with my duo.

I hope to see your creations this week at Just Us Girls!

Card Inspiration

I know this isn't very patriotic but I really wanted to join in the challenge over at Muse. This is my first time playing along with them. 

The card challenge from Jen Wills spoke to me and I used it to inspire me but went in a different direction. 

The "rhapsody" stencil from Memory Box is my most used stencil. I just love it! I created a negative mask a sponged through the stencil on the mask and with an extra fine sharpie I outline the design. To finish the card off with a die cut butterfly.

I hope you see how Jen's card inspired mine.

Thanks for stopping by and if you are in the US- have a Happy 4th of July!!

Orange is the New Challenge

This week's color challenge at Just us Girls just breathes hot sunshiney summer days with a tall glass of lemonade in hand. Orange yellow and a neutral color. Just perfect for this time of year.

I went with my favorite trend right now-ombre. I created a yellow orange ombre card. Please disregard the ink smudge. I do not know where that came from. I didn't even have a black pad out!! Don't you hate when that happens!!??!

Anyway today's card uses two Memory Box products. The "floating butterfly background" die and the "garden peony blossom" stencil. I cut the butterfly twice, save both the positive and negative pieces.

 I colored the butterflies with copic markers using yellows and oranges, creating an ombre effect.
The negative piece, I put through my big shot with the peony stencil to emboss the design. See this post for a how to.  Then I put the whole thing back together with foam tape.

Here is another look in pinks. this time I embossed the butterflies and not the background.

 Hope you enjoyed my creations and will join us at Just Us Girls for this week's color challenge!