Love Always

 

I made this card for the Die Cut Divas "Show Us Some Gold" and Show Us Your Pussy Cats "Love" challenges and waited to post it until after I gave it to my husband who sometimes reads my blog.  Then I forgot, so here it is just under the wire. 

I started by spraying a 9x12 sheet of bristol paper with Dina Wakely Turquoise and Ocean gloss sprays and Tim Holtz Tarnished Brass Distress spray stain and cutting out a square of it, saving rest to be used on other cards.  Eventually...  To add interest I inked the Sacred Spells stamp from Lavinia with Stampin' Up's Tranquil Tide ink and used second generation stamping on the right side and dabbed some of it along the bottom.  To gild the edges I held the panel upright and pushed each edge into Versamart ink and Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder and heated it.  I also heat embossed the sentiment using a stamp from Hero Arts' Smile stamp and cut set.

I stacked 3 die cuts made using Penny Black's Kitty Love die and colored the heart.  When I didn't like the colors I used I added a fourth layer with the heart colored using Spun Sugar, Abandoned Coral, and Festive Berries Distress inks topped with Wink of Stella and liked it much better.  I popped up the square with two more slightly smaller squares of cardstock and finished it off with an acrylic star.

My husband, known as Soft Touch to our cats, loved the card.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi 

Warm Desert Rays

 

One of my aspirations for the year is to stop collecting and start using the crafting supplies that I just had to have.  None of y'all have that problem do you, lol?  First up is this stamp from Hero Arts, issued to celebrate their 45th year in business in 2019, which I combined with this Freshly Made Sketch. 

I wanted a sun washed desert feel, so I searched through my stash and found a background created using Cape Cod Coral and Clam Bake Beige from the Lindy's Magicals' Nantucket Pearls set on watercolor paper which I trimmed down to 4 x 5.25 inches.  To create interest I inked the Sacred Spells stamp from Lavinia with Fired Brick Distress Oxide ink and used second generation stamping on the upper left and lower right sides.  I did the same thing using a stamp from Stampin' Up's All Adorned and Festive Berries ink in the lower right corner.  To complete the background I inked around the edges with Abandoned Coral using a small blending brush.

After stamping the sun in Ground Espresso, I used stamps from Stampin' Up's Desert Details set, my MISTI, and Salvaged Patina and Evergreen Bough inks to put down a base for the stripes.  I then randomly dabbed Evergreen Bough and Ground Espresso on the upper stamp and Rustic Wilderness and Ground Espresso on the lower stamp and stamped again to give them a distressed weathered look.  I stamped the sentiment using one from the same set in Ground Espresso.  To add dimension I cut the trimmings from the original background to make some narrow stripes.  I finished the panel with some clear acrylic drops I had on hand and popped it up on a card base with two extra panels of cardstock.

I love the seventies vibe of the stamp and the warm sun washed look of the finished.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Always in Our Hearts

 

The current Time Out Challenge is to CASE this card by Gina K: 

If you are new to the concept, CASE stands for Copy And Selectively Edit.  Gina has an easy to recognize style involving ink blending with stamping, often silhouette, over it, lots of white space, and a thin black mat mounted on a white card base.  This pet sympathy card, based on the comforting idea of The Rainbow Bridge, is my take on it.  I used small blending brushes and Distress ink with a stencil made with  a heart die from Stampin' Up and a piece of Gina K Masking Magic to create a rainbow heart.  The cat was cut from black cardstock using a die from Paper Roses and the sentiment is from an old Close to my Heart set, Big Hug.  I used a die from Altenew's Mix and Match Frame set to cut the black dots around the edge.

I also plan to enter this the Make My Monday All Creatures Great and Small and Allsorts A/G with option of All About Hearts challenges.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi