Friendship and Sunshine

This creation is for the LIM challenge this week which is masking.  Well, I have been swooning over the inking styles of Chrissie Stokes, Heather Telford and Theresa Momber for a while.  They often involve masking and sponging, brayering or dusting.  The incredible talent of the aforementioned inkers has been a little daunting to me. Recently, my dear friend Jenny sent me a wonderful gift of Ink Dusters from the UK.  Chrissie had mentioned them in a couple of her fabulous inky posts, and I really wanted to try them.  When I saw this week's LIM challenge, I decided to jump in head first.  Out came my Ink Dusters and some distress inks, some masking paper, and then I went over to THIS tutorial from Theresa Momber for a little help and confidence boost.  This card is the result.  Hey! I can do this! I really like the way this turned out, and now I am hooked.

Supplies:

Stamps~Penny Black Winter Sky, PTI Lovely Leaves.

Ink~Ranger Distress Inks : Barn Door,Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed; Memento Tuxedo Black; PTI Chamomile tea dye.

Paper~Taylored Expressions Buttercream, textured cream

Accessories~inkylicious Ink Dusters, Poppystamps Grand Window and Grand Flower Box dies,

self adhesive rhinestones, Dimensionals.

Thanks so much for coming by today.  Spring has really sprung here in northeastern US.  I hope we don't get a freeze now since the flowering trees are all in bloom!  Have a lovely day.

Top O' The Mornin'

There is a great new challenge out there - Retro Sketches. Today's creation is made from inspiration from Retro Sketches and Colour Q.  I turned the sketch on its side.  The Colour Q colors screamed St. Paddy's Day, and so I pulled out this digi stamp I had for a year and put it to use.

Supplies:
Stamps~  Heather Ellis - Pure Innocence #24 Digi, Just Rite Happy Everything Tag Making Kit.
Paper~Certainly Celery, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety, White, DCWV Textured Cardstock.
Ink~VersaFine Onyx Black, Garden Green.
Accessories~Dimensionals, Copic markers, Nestabilities, Sponge, PTI Background Basics Diamond Impression Plate.

YOU are awesome.

Clean & Simple Stamping FTL181

As I was thinking about what I could hang on a string for Clean & Simple FTL 181, the clothesline from PTI's Hanging Out kept calling me.  While perusing blogs, I saw that the Passion For Papertrey challenge this week is to make a card, or other paper-crafting project, using black, a white and a pop of colour.  I thought about blackbirds sitting on a wire, and THEN I saw a cardinal in my yard.  It all came together with this creation.  I love that bold red birdie standing out among the rest...

Supply list:
Paper-PTI White.
Stamps-PTI    Hanging Out, Little Bitty Bird, Simply You.
Ink-PTI True Black, VersaMark.
Accessories-Twinery baker's twine, Filigree white embossing powder, Little Bitty Bird dies, Dimensionals, Tombo Mono Multi Liquid Glue, corner rounder.

Thank you for coming by today.

Thinking About You

This creation was inspired by Moxie Fab World's "The Cure For The Winter Blues" challenge.  I am getting this in just under the wire.  Loving all of this blue... The inspiration photos and the DT creations are awesome. Check them out!

Supplies:
Stamps~WMS Fancy Phrases, All Night Media Paisley, PTI Delightful Doilies.
Ink~PTI Hawaiin Shores, SU Night of Navy, VersaMark.
Accessories~Scor-It, white embossing powder, Dimensionals, PTI Delightful Doilies die, Nestabilities.

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.

So Sweet

I really like this Clean & Simple design of FTL180, so I used it again along with this week's Color Throwdown 181 to create this project.  I am in love with Memory Box dies, and have aquired several new ones.  I really love this Dancing Tulip die, and the weather here in Northeastern United States has been so mild,  I saw tulips popping from the soil yesterday.  Just had to make something with tulips.  The polka dot paper is from Memory Box.  The label is from PTI's Happy Day, and the sentiment is from PTI's Signature Greetings.

Thanks so much for coming by!

A Little Note

My time for art has been so sparse lately.  Today I had a few hours alone, which is very unusual.  I went right to work on this week's "Less Is More" challenge, which I have not been able to do for a couple of weeks.  It's the first week of the month and so it's a color challenge: NEUTRALS.
This could be anything from off white to black with any shade of beige, brown or grey in between. 
I used Clean & Simple FTL180 as inspiration for my layout.  When I looked at it, the lamps from PTI's Lighten Up came to mind.  I die cut the lampshades from scraps with the matchng die.  The border is cut from PTI's Filigree Border.  The edges of my 5 1/4" card base are inked with PTI's Vintage Tea Dye.

Thanks so much for coming by today.