On the Bright Side Butterflies

In one of my recent orders, I tucked in the Memory Box Devyn Butterfly Trio.  I don't know if it's a new or old die but its loopy open butterflies caught my eye.  So of course, I have to play along with the CAS on Friday Butterfly Challenge.  Then to make it even better, The Paper Players came out with a color challenge using a trio of oranges and yellows.  It was all meant to be!!


The sentiment is from Neat & Tangled and I thought it was perfect for these bright butterflies.  I also threw on another new-to-me product - the gems.  These are Buttercream from Pretty Pink Posh.  I think I'm going to like this new trend with gems.  I like clean cards and I think a clean card really benefits from just a bit of sparkle!

It's Friday - so I'm definitely looking on the bright side!
SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Neat & Tangled So Many Sentiments Dies: Memory Box Devyn Butterfly Trio, My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 (the stitched rectangle) Cardstock: Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody, So Saffron Patterned Paper: Taylored Expression Playful Patterns - Black and White Embellishments: Pretty Pink Posh Buttercream Jewels

Freshly Made Sketches: A Shaker Balloon

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Narelle.

I've been somewhat uninterested in making cards for a few months now - probably due to life getting insane with moving (after 27 years in the same house), my youngest graduating high school, my husband in a new job, and more.  (Hopefully my disinterest hasn't shown too much!)  Life is finally settling into a groove and I've done multiple cards and posts in the last few weeks just because I wanted to!  I've also had to place multiple orders for new products (maybe I should stay less interested!)  Here's a few items from one recent order.


I ordered from Impress Cards & Crafts on their recent big birthday sale.  A couple items from this order are the balloon shaker die which is their own product and the jotted birthday by Memory Box.  I already had the little pearlies in my stash but they'd never been used.  (I got four different full sets of shaker fillers by Queen & Co and none have been opened - I'm thinking there will be some shaking on my blog over the next few weeks!)


I hope to see you playing along with us this week!!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Clearly Besotted Happy Birthday (retired)
Dies: Memory Box Birthday Jotted Script, Impress Balloon die, Taylored Expressions Double-Ended Flag Stacklets
Paper: Taylored Expressions Confetti Cake (my new favorite blue!) and Playful Patterns Black & White, Doodlebug Swiss Dot Rainbow Petite Prints (the yellow)
Miscellaneous: Queen & Co Pearlies Bright, Pretty Pink Posh sequins

Taylored Expressions: Watercolor Hydrangea

I'm still having a wonderful time playing with watercolors.  I know that I'm late to the party - but quite frankly, I've been intimidated. I am so not an artist - I can't draw a stick figure that can be recognized.  Don't get me wrong - all of us who make cards are creating little works of art.  But a big reason I'm drawn to this hobby is that someone else drew the image and designed the papers and created the dies.  All I have to do is put them together!!  Until watercoloring came along.

But I've been practicing and my comfort level is growing.  One of the things that has helped me is coloring heat embossed images.  Then I can apply little pools of color and it spreads out all by itself up to the embossed lines  I love it!  It's fairly easy to do and it gives a wonderful natural look.


I watered down some Plum Punch Liquid Watercolor and added it to the petals first.  Then I did a slightly stronger version on some of the petals.  Finally I decided I wanted some slight color variations, so I added a small amount of Cookie Monster to my Plum Punch to give a few petals just a bit of a blue cast. 

I'm happy with it.  I'm not there yet, but I get more and more comfortable each time I pull out my watercolors.  In fact, sometimes I even look at an image and think how nice it would be if it were watercolored and that's a new thought for me!
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Fusion: Rustic Flowers

The sketch and inspiration at the Fusion Card Challenge was just perfect for a new-to-me stamp set that's been sitting on the corner of my desk for way too long.  It's a dainty floral bouquet with multiple layered color options. Thanks to Fusion, I opened it up, paired it with some woodgrain and I have a sweet card!


Here's the challenge. I think you can see why I credit them for the inspiration!

There are actually three layers for the flowers but I didn't want my flowers to get any darker so I skipped the top layer. The colored layers of the leaves are split into multiple stamps so I did the leaves closer to the flower in a slightly darker color. 

I found the sentiment from a different set by the same company.  I do tend to stick with one company on a card.  It has nothing to do with the company - and everything to do with narrowing down my search for sentiments.  I can really obsess over my sentiment.  It has to say the right thing, be the right size, and match the style.  If I mentally limit myself to the same company as the image - it limits my time to obsess!  I'm only telling you this today because this is one of the times that I'm extra thrilled with the outcome - I love everything about that sentiment paired with the flowers!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Altenew Ditsy Print, Painted Encouragement

Dies: Altenew Ditsy Print

Cardstock: MFT Coral Crush

Patterned Paper: MME 6x6 Wood Necessities

Ink: MFT Peach Bellini, Coral Crush, Simon Says Stamp Sparrow, Cobblestone and Stone, Versamark

Misc: Gold Embossing Powder, sequins and vellum

The Paper Players: Unsupervised Child

I had a couple of sets on the corner of my desk that I just had to use - and they were absolutely perfect for the current challenge at The Paper Players: Humorous.

Here are Fluffy Friends and Binge Worthy.


I love these - that is so me.  I am not an adult when it comes to my treats.  I'd take a Hostess Ho-Ho over a gourmet brownie.  My favorite treats right now are SweeTarts Whipped & Tangy Chewy Bites (They are not easy to find so I'm guessing other adults aren't as enamored of them as I am and they will soon be a thing of the past.)  Don't even get me started on need for potato chips!!  So I feel like that "unsupervised child" - and unfortunately, my cheeks look a bit like the bunny's cheeks!!

SUPPLY LIST

FYI: I used a frame from Frame in Frame 2 but I cut it down a bit.  I cut about half of it, then slid the die down to shorten it and cut the other half.

Freshly Made Sketches: Joy

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Karren.

I love the possibilities with this sketch.  I had a tough time deciding whether I want to do a pattern across that strip - or a big word.  As you can see, the big word won (but only because I picked up my mail as I was deciding this and had an order with "joy". It's an older die but new to me.)


I broke into some of my favorite Christmas paper that was retired years and years ago.  I use it sparingly but felt strongly about backing "joy" with something that made a statement. Fabulous soft colors mixed with some gray and silver.

And since I had cut into my stash of paper, I did two others - so my Christmas card stash is up to twelve.  Woo-hoo!!
I hope to see you playing along with us this week.
SUPPLY LIST
Dies: Simon Says Stamp Big Joy and MaryAnne Snowflake Patterned Paper: Martha Stewart Snowflace (this is not a typo!) Cardstock: Stampin' Up Mint Macaron, My Favorite Things Gravel Gray Embossing: Stampin' Up Softly Falling Embossing Folder Other: Your Next Stamp Magical Pastel Gumdrops

Taylored Expressions: Leafy Backgrounds

I've been doing quite a bit of playing with watercolors lately. It's been a difficult medium for me to embrace because I have to let go of some control which is not my best thing! You have to be able to embrace random puddles, splatters and swooshes of color but generally I want to know where everything ends up.  Having said that, there really are fabulous uses that work even for me (and as I play more, I find that I am becoming more and more comfortable)!  I like a simple wash of color in the background.  I like painting in a heat embossed image (where the embossing holds the color in one place).  And it turns out I love creating nature scenes - because random works for that!

As I was playing around with Taylored Expressions new Liquid Watercolors, I found a way to create leafy backgrounds for those nature scenes.


I did it with a plastic sandwich bag.  If you lightly paint some color on a plastic bag, it beads up - then use the bag to smoosh the color in the area you want on a dry piece of watercolor cardstock. You get leaves!!  I did some leaves in Peapod, then I added some Lemon Meringue to another drop of Peapod to get yellower leaves and smooshed that on. Finally I loosely painted a light wash of that yellower green over the tree tops and a light wash of Chocolate Truffle mixed with some Candy Corn to get the ground. (I love that  you can mix to get the color you want!).  And of course, a watered down wash of Cookie Monster for the sky.


I pulled out some of my all-time favorite nature products from Taylored Expressions to finish up the scene.


I am really looking forward to playing around with an autumn scene using this technique!  I love that I can embrace the random look of watercolors in a controlled way!!

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