Just paper

I found some inspiration from Pinterest

and decided to see with I could do

just using paper....no paint, no pencils, etc.

doing different folds.

I'm pretty happy with what I came

out with. I used a regular A2

top folding card, turned it on it's side

and went from there.

The sentiment will go in the 

middle in the top card.

Laurel Burch

I have loved Laurel Burch for years, I have

several pairs of earrings of her designs

and I use to have a purse as well.

I came across this stamp set and knew

when I saw it that I just had to have it.

I played around with the coloring

of the cats...the one on the top left

is with colored pencils

and gamsol.

Top right, is with

Copic markers, which

I don't have a lot of.

The bottom two are with 

Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.

The colors are bright, as required by

her designs, but I wasn't happy with

the 'finish' and blending of colors.

Then I decided to try my Prismacolor

Premier Water-soluble pencils.

I like the results, I was able to blend

the colors before I even started adding

the water, giving me a much

smother transition of colors.

This one, I made for a friend!

On a roll.....

So, I'm getting back into the swing of

card making.  Still trying to do some 

different things along the way.

First up, I decided to buy a Brothers ScanNCut

mainly to be able to use my stamps and cut 

around them without spending a 

fortuning on buying their matching dies.

The wheat stalk on the left side was my

first trial at doing this.  It came out

great and I wanted to use it.

The card is navy and the paper on the left

has touches of blue/navy in it. So I thought

the pops of blue on the 'laugh' and flowers

were perfect.

Now this one, I have to admit, is my favorite

of all time.

I had seen someone do this embossing technique

with gold embossing powder and fell in love

with it.  I had to give it a try!

I ordered some gold embossing powder

and gave it a shot.

WOW!!

I love this card, it is one a the

prettiest ones I've ever made, IMHO.

I had ordered a new peony die and decided to 

do something a bit different with it.  Instead

of tossing the pieces of the petals I took them

and used watercolor on them.  I put 

them back together (rather like doing a

puzzle) and this is how it came out.

Ok, so I may have been buying a few new

things lately.....here's a new stamp

set I purchased from Stampendous 'Build a Bouquet'.

Again, using my ScanNCut to cut around

the pieces I came up with two separate

cards.  Both using my Zig Clean Colors

Brush pens.

The first one is my favorite I think, but 

both are nice.

Hodge Podge

Once again, trying to challenge myself to

try something that I hadn't tried before.

Bargello.

While I have seen this concept in

quilting, I hadn't until recently

seen it done with cards.

So, I gave it a try, and I have to say,

I'm please with the way it came out.

Then I decided to step away from the

cards for a day and work on some

hydrangeas.

Aren't they awesome.

I purchased the file from DreamingTree.com

after seeing someone post theirs over on

one of the Facebook pages.

I knew then I had to give it a try.  Since

I didn't need the 'MOM' on the sides

I left that off and just duplicated another set

of the regular sides.

I love it!

Then I went back to my cards.

I needed one more Easter card

and I just had to pull out the

Crazy Birds set from Tim Holtz.

I love those little guys!

I made several purchases this week, mainly supplies

wise, paper, dies, etc.  

But I did make one purchase that I had been

mulling over for a while.  I bit the bullet

and made the call after hubby said 'get it already'.

Brothers ScanNCut350.

While I have a Cricut Explore and will continue to 

use it for main things, the reason I wanted this

thing was to scan and cut around my stamps, thus

not having to buy dies for stamps.

'

I got it a shot, and I'm please with the options I now have.

While I will continue to use the Explore, I will continue to

play with the ScanNCut and see what my options are.

Excited!!

Upping my game....

I have challenged myself to try and do some different techniques

that I hadn't tried before, no matter how simple or hard

they may be.

This first one is a simple thing really but

I hadn't thought of it before.  I stamped the image, colored it in, then

simple added a bit of 'shading' in a light gray around it 

edges of it.....I love how it came out...adds depth.

I'm a font addict, I purchase a lot of them

from The Hungry JPEG.com, but I don't get just

fonts from them. A lot of their packages

will have graphics included.  This card

is strictly fonts and graphics, printed then 

cut out with my Cricut. 

Ok, so this one was a bit more detailed. I found two papers

that I had that were quite similar.  I cut them in strips then

glued them to a piece of white card stock. Then I cut it

out with a stitched border die. I matched two of the 

strips of paper and added those to the red card stock

so it looked like it continues outs.  Die cut the circles, and 

Happy Birthday (in black and red), popped a button

on it and I called it done.

This one, I went on the bright side. I used MFT's Circle

Scribble Flowers stamp set and my Zig Clean Color Brush

Pens.  I found a piece of matching card stock and 

attached all to orange card stock.  Die cut the hugs

in two match colors and added a bit of string.

Gotta say, I love this card.

I wanted to do a different 'fold' card so I decided to

do a 'Swing' card and made it Easter themed.

I had a set of stamps form Hero Arts that I had not

used before....you know the kind, you stamp in three

matching colors and it gives you the completed image.

I actually like the way these came out, surprisingly for me.

A bit of paper to make it look like a trellis added to 

some butterfly paper.  I added the live laugh love

and called it done.

This one, I went simple. Used my Explore to cut

the images, and die cut 'Faith' in two colors

of red.   Used some Nuvo crystal drops and quit

while I was ahead.

I did use something that I had learned from one

of Jennifer McGuire's older videos.  I took some 

of my gray Zig pens and added some dimention

to the cut out flowers.  I like that, and I must

remember that!

Trying something different

I found the inspiration for this first card on

Pinterest.  Surprisingly, I had the same

stencil for the background. I used Faber Castell's

Glass Bead Glitter Gel on the stencil to

get the glittery background.

Then using my Explore I cut out the

hearts, varying sizes out of the white

cardstock, then cut the colored 

cardstock to fill in the blanks, a little

ribbon and I called done.

The next one was an experiment.  I uploaded

a graphic of the leaves that I had purchased

and used it to slice into a rectangle to

something similar to other cards

I had seen.  Then I cut the vine

out of green and used it to

fill in the slice, removing the bottom of the

rectangle so the leaves would stand free.

I heat embossed the bottom corner of the

card with a stencil that matched the

cardstock that I chose.

I used the Happy Birthday die

from Simon Says Stamp, cutting it 

twice, once in black to use

as a shadow.  There are also

several small hearts confetties that

I attached with glue to the card (very small ). 

Trying to get my mojo back......

I love card making, although I just don't 

have that many opportunities to send them

to friends and family.

I still enjoy making them!

This one is the Sketch Ranunculus stamp set and

I used Zig Clean Color pens to color them

For this one, I went back to my Faber Castell 

pencils and Gamsol. This was an old stamp

that I had and I can't remember the name of it.

It has been a while since I used my

Cricut Explore for anything so I decided

to crank it up for this one.  The background

paper did most of the work on this one, but

I cut out the flower and tag.  The colors

make this one come together.

This stamp set I recently purchased, it is

from Dina Wakely. I used my Prismacolor

pencils and a watercolor water pen.

Lawn Fawn dies for the border and frame.

I went back to the Sketch Ranunculus stamp

set and Prismacolors for this one.

Just for the fun of it, I put the watercolor and pencils

aside and went back to just plain paper.  The

background piece is from a  SSS monthly

kit and I have no idea what the name is. The

bicycle is from SVGCuts, part of their

Peony Cottage set.  I had to decrease the size of

the bike, but I think this one came out pretty cute.

The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Small Talk - Occasions

sentiment pad.

Back to the Cricut Explore for this one.  All images

are ones that I have purchased.  The green background

is on watercolor paper and I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks

like they were watercolors.  And the sentiment again is

from Tim Holtz Small Talk.