Thoughts Of You

This is a one layer card made for this week's One Layer Wednesday OLW81 challenge hosted by Jennifer Styles at Styles Ink.   The requirements of the challenge this week are to use a cream base, black ink and just a hint of bling.  This gorgeous Winter Sky image from Penny Black immediately came to mind. 

My base is Taylored Expressions Choice Buttercream cardstock. I masked a sqare in the center and stamped the image with VersaFine Black Onyx ink.  I embossed a square around the image with a Nestabilities square die.  The bling is very hard to see in this photo, but the branches are dotted with Stardust Stickles which adds some lovely sparkle.  I struggled with the sentiment, but finally settled on this one from MFT Essential Sentiments.  Thanks for stopping in today.  Have a wonderful day.

be mine - stripes and circles

This week Mandi & Chrissie of Less Is More have challenged us to a one layer creation with stripes.  This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to use more than 5 circles on your creation.  I thought and thought about making something with both challenges in mind.

I decided to go for stripes of circles.  I used many shades of pink inks and various circle images on masked spaces in stripes.  The little stripe of hearts on the bottom is stamped in Real Red.  I like the result, but I have to say that I wish the "b" in "be mine" was either a little more to the left or to the right.  I don't have the inclination to do it again, and since this is a one layer card, there are not a lot of options to fix it!  The sentiment and hearts are from Verve, the rest of the stamps I used are PTI.

I peeked at the creations so far in the LIM gallery.  What clever creations as always!  I love to see all of the different ways challenges are interpreted.  I am heading over to check out more postings, then over to the OLW gallery.  Thank you for stopping in on this snowy night (here in northeastern US).

You color My world

I am excited about this card for 2 reasons:  #1- I completed the LIM challenge on day 1 (click HERE for details on this week's sketch LIM challenge).  #2 - I have been so taken with and inspired by Susan Raihala's work since I happened upon her blog a year or so ago. I feel that my inner Susan came out in this creation.  With that said, this is also a submission for One-Layer Wednesday 76: Color in Winter:  Make a one-layer card that uses white, gray, with a pop of one bright color of your choice. (If you must, you may use black for the sentiment.) 

I masked the area with the stamped geometric design per the LIM sketch and scored it on the sides.  I clipped the metal "legs" off of the rhinestone brad so that I could attach the brad with a glue dot to keep the metal pieces from coming through to the inside of the card.

Materials used:

Stamps~PTI Rosie Posie and Happy Trails

Paper~PTI White Paper Basics

Ink~Memento London Fog, SU Basic Gray

Accessories~Scor Pal, SU Rhinestone brads

Thank you for visiting my blog. I am so grateful for your feedback.

Twinkling Thank You

I have been so crazy busy since my kids got out of school - having lots of fun, but missing my ink time.  I finally got a little time to create today.  I combined this week's One Layer Wednesday and CAS-ual Fridays challenges for my creation.  I am so happy to be able to play both of these wonderful challenges this week.  I hate to miss them.

The awesome Girl Fridays over at the CAS-ual Fridays challenge blog have challenged us with CFC8  to use border punches, rip some cardstock, whatever your pleasure to add a fun edge to your Clean And Simple project!

 Susan Raihala's One Layer Wednesday challenge this week - OLW59 - is based on this photo. Susan of Simplicity by LateBlossom is an incredible artist.  Her work blows me away.  It is CAS at its finest, and I am always energized and inspired by her talent. 

This photo instantly put me in mind of Zinnias, an image from Impression Obsession that I have had for a while and never used.

I stamped the zinnias image on watercolor paper with Memento Tuxedo blank ink and then colored it with Twinkling H2O's.  They have such a beautiful sparkle that I can never really capture in my photos. I wanted to use Copics this time, but since they bleed paper a bit, H2O's were a better choice for my one layer card.  The bottom border was made with my new PTI Edgers 3 Collection border die, which I just love.  I finished my card off with a sentiment from Verve's Thankful Accents set  stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black ink.   I am happy with  the result of these combined challenges.  It is so good to have some time to focus on my art tonight.  Thanks so much for stopping in and taking a look!

Thanks With A Flourish

I work in a school library, and there is always a ton of work to do.  I have a helper mom who comes on Thursdays, our busiest day, to shelve books for me.  I am so grateful to her for all that she does.  Tomorrow is that last day of school, so I wanted to make her a card and give her a THANK YOU gift.  I got my inspiration from today's One Layer Wednesday Challenge which is to use a flourish in your project.  The beautiful SU set Baroque Motifs came immediately to my mind.  I then went to Color Throwdown #145 for my color inspiration.

I did not have Pear Pizazz ink, so I used some bling that is very close in color.  The sentiment is from PTI's  Blooming Button Bits.  I sponged around the edges with Ranger Antique Linen Distress Ink.  I love the way this turned out. Simple and poignant.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a lovely day!

Baby Cakes

This week's One Layer Wednesday Challenge (OLW54) is to make a one-layer baby card using this post of Sunday Sweets as your inspiration.  There are some amazing cakes to choose from - most of which left me thinking "how'd they do that"???  I chose this cake as my inspiration:

PTI's A Little Argyle came to mind right away and SU's Nursery Necessities is my go-to baby set.  I decided to make a little window and place that adorable little bird inside so it is there when you open the card.  I hope my Nestie frame around the circle does not count as a layer on my one layer card... I have always been one to push the envelope, and it really did not look right without the frame.  I added some glaze and sparkle to the little bird with a gel pen. Voila! One layer (and a frame) baby card!

Here is my recipe:

Paper ~ Taylored Expressions Buttercream.

Stamps ~ PTI A Little Argyle, SU Nursery Necessities.

Ink ~ Soft Suede, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red.

Accessories ~ Sakura Gelly Roll glaze pen, SU Pretty In Pink 3/8" taffeta ribbon, Nestabilities, Scor-It-All, glue dot.

New Home

This creation was made for yesterday's One Layer Wednesday challenge - OLW53, which is to "Make a one-layer 'New Home' card using at least two different coloured inks."  PTI's Love Lives Here collection immediately came to mind.  Again, I have to laugh at how simple this card is and yet how much I struggled with it.  For once, I knew exactly what I wanted to do; however, it took four tries before I got it right.  It was the frame that got me.  I planned to use Waltzingmouse Stamps' FRAME-IT collection to frame my little house and I love the way the sentiment fit into the open space on the frame.  Every time I stamped the frame on the card, I made a mistake of some sort - ink smudges, incorrect measturement, etc.  I finally got it right though, and I am happy with the way it came out.  I am really loving these challenges where less is really more - I feel like I am learning a lot. 

Here is my recipe:

Stamps ~ PTI-Love Lives Here, Waltzingmouse Stamps-Frame-It.

Paper ~ Gina K. Pure Luxury White.

Ink ~ Memento Tuxedo Black, So Saffron, Rose Red, Wild Wasabi.

Accessories ~ Rose Red marker.

Thank you always for stopping by.  I appreciate your comments so much.

Three of a Kind

This week's One Layer Wednesday OLW51 challenge is to make three one-layer cards. Yes, three. Make three cards all using the same image stamp but vary the occasion by changing the sentiment and/or ink colour and/or card stock colour. You must use the same image stamp on each card.

PTI's Mat Stack 2 collection came to mind immediately.  I just stamped one of the images from that set using VersaMark ink on Gina K's Pure Luxury White card stock (X3) and heat embossed them with Ranger Copper embossing powder.  Three different sentiments from the same collection are stamped with VersaFine Black Onyx ink to make each card different.

Thanks for coming by today!

One Layer Note

I just about never make 3 cards in 2 days, but I am on a roll.  My 11 year old boys are off from school this week, and so am I because I work there.  I have been in my craft room as much as I am able for the last 2 days.  Of course, I am totally neglecting my boys and they have not eaten since Sunday - LOL!  All kidding aside, I found another new challenge that I am going to love - One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Jennifer Styles of Styles Ink.  While doing some blog surfing earlier today, I stumbled on to the One Layer Wednesday challenge from last week OLW50 which was to use an old stamp.  As I was thinking of what to do with this week's Color Throwdown #139, my idea began to take life.  OLW50 is closed, but I made this card anyway, and used all of the colors for this week's Color Throwdown.

My stamped images are from a Hero Arts set called Circle Graphics that I have had for years.  My card base is piece of Gina K's Pure Luxury White card stock.  I masked off a 1 1/4" section toward the bottom of the card.  I randomly stamped with all 4 stamps and all 5 Color Throwdown colors inside the masked area.  The sentiment from PTI's Mat Stack 2 collection is stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink.  As a finishing touch, I scored one line below and two above the stamped strip.  I am so pleased with the results, and it was very quick to whip up.  Could I possibly be getting the hang of this CAS thing????? I surely am trying...

Thank you for stopping in.  I always appreciate your comments very much!