When I was making my Summer Blooms cards at Pinkfresh Create & Connect, I immediately thought how fun it would be to use all of those great stenciled branches to make a wreath.
So today, I did just that ... combining them with designer paper from Pinkfresh Let's Stay Home collection.
I used three shades of orange for my leaves and some teal for the tiny blooms. I finished with Pinkfresh Studio hot foiled Perfect Sentiment in rose gold & some Pinkfresh Studio Essentials Jewels.
My next class at the Pinkfresh Create & Connect Event was a Watercolor Lesson by Manushree Mishra.
Unfortunately I had a really hard time seeing which flowers she was painting when she started (because she recommended stamping in a really light ink, which made it hard for the camera to pick-up), so I was way off on which flowers I was painting with the directions she was giving (and I was also way to heavy handed with my watercolor paint), but I still learned and will do better next time. I'd like to try this stamp and die using an ink smooshing technique.
I'm linking-up at the Allsorts Challenge where the theme is Anything But Birthdays.
And with the wonderful frames on this card, I'm linking-up at the Frames Challenge at the TGIF Challenges.
Our fifth and final class was Summer Blooms with Angela Simpson. She taught us some new ways to line up our stencils and also how to produce more of a directional gradient of color, which I really liked.
I didn't have the shades of green she used for her leaves, so I switched it out for a teal palette and I really loved the effect.
Here was our second card from that class. These were fun and different since there wasn't a coordinating stamp set - just using layered stencils and die cuts.
Love the pop of those pretty purple blooms and how we layered the inside piece from the larger frame die cut as a mat.
We're creating masculine holiday cards at Jingle Belles this week (with our lovely Guest Designer (and my dear friend) Bev).
I started with some handmade paper that almost has the look of tree bark. Next I layered on one of my gel printed tags in greens.
Next up was a 3-D glittery jar tag from my stash (candy & a gingerbread man felt masculine to me), a Dymo-like Label Sentiment sticker and lastly instead of ribbon at the top of my tag, I went with a Santa Hat Sticker. I love the traditional holiday green & red for masculine designs.
I'm also joining the Masculine Challenge at Inspire.Create.
I hope you'll figure out what you like for Masculine Holiday cards and come join us.
Another week of blogland discoveries:
Have a tremendous Thursday!
The third class of the Pinkfresh Studio Create and Connect was Butterfly Garden taught by Heather Hoffman. I'll confess, when I looked through the class instructions prior to the weekend, I thought this might be my least favorite because it seemed pretty fussy ... it turned out to produce my favorite card of the weekend.
I loved the simplicity of the layering stencils with this set as well as the color combination I chose for the design. I also loved how she used the flower die cut as a *vase* for arranging all of the sprays and blooms.
This card is also perfect with the Paper Craft Crew Tic Tac Toe Challenge with Die Cuts, Bling and Flowers.
Heather taught us a tip that made assembling the second card much simpler than it looks.
I loved how switching-up the colors gave the cards completely different looks. Thank you Heather for helping me fall in love with this design.
Our second class at Pinkfresh Create & Connect featured Peony Fantasy taught by Channin Pelletier.
I really love the dimension from stenciling the blooms, as well as the unique way of layering the detailed circle frame die cut.
She also had us splattered with watered down black ink which produced soft grey splatter.
She's heavy with her ink blending (like I am) and used some bold color combinations. This time we did stenciled gold embossed images, which is perfect for this weeks Shopping Our Stash Challenge - Make Mine a Tall One - make a Slimline or Mini-Slimline Card
More embossing with the hot foil plate and layering the two slimline frames.
I had so fun to making these two lovely cards.
I love creating with my Gel Press, but my rate of creating prints far exceeds my rate of using prints. As I was surrounded by all of the recent prints from the #birgitkoopsengelprintingchallenge, I decided to find a way to use a bunch of them in a card.
I started with the Essentials by Ellen Abstract Mountain Cover Die and decided to use it with a mix of prints.
Then I saw Ellen has a May Essentials Composition Sketch Challenge on her blog, so I decided to incorporate that as well.
I love the fun & funky landscape I ended-up with. The top sky piece is a roll-off scrap where I cleaned the alcohol inks from my brayer ... I thought it had sort of a northern lights feel to it.
For the Circle Element of the sketch, I punched three different circles from Gel Press prints and layered them behind the Essentials by Ellen Nice of You sentiment.
I had the joy of participating in the Pinkfresh Create & Connect virtual event with one of my crafty besties here in town (she's the one who invited me to my very first ever crop where I learned about card making). We had a lot of fun creating together.
The first class was taught by the talented Lea Lawson with the new Whimsical Blooms stamps, stencils and washi tape. I really loved these colors and the mix of blooms in the set.
I didn't completely follow the instructions on any of the cards (which my friend reminded me has been my style for over 20 years.
We started with a washi tape card to get warmed up for two days of creative fun. I loved the gold Mini Slimline frame frame with the pre-printed gold sentiment.
We also learned how to emboss with a hot foil plate, which is the wonderful texture on the background.
For the second card we combined stamping and stenciling.
I love layering and ink-blending the circle frame for a background. We used the fun Pinkfresh Studio Gems in the centers of the blooms.
So much fun for class number one.
We're still having fun with the #birgitkoopsengelprintingchallenge.
The Stamp Challenge made me smile ... but the challenge to me was which stamp to use. I decided on a vintage Three Ferns stamp from Hero Arts with two colors of Distress Oxide Ink.
Next up was Packaging Materials. I sorted through things I had kept in my stash for future packing, and found this sheet of differently shaped bubble wrap that I tried.
You can barely see it on the second print on the left, but I loved that effect too.
Next was buttons. I tried inserting the buttons in a rolled-out piece hand-exercise clay thinking I could stamp with that, but the buttons refused to stay embedded (I got it sort of done in the red print). After that I used the individual buttons to stamp into the pink paint covered plate (and basically got my hands completely covered with both colors).
I was able to wash all of the paint off my buttons, so they can be used again.
Next Up was Feathers. I decided to use my favorite Feather Stamp from Tyggereye (Gina).
I liked how they stamped off with the Acrylic Paint better than the prints itself, which was a reminder that I could cover the plate in medium and use it like a giant stamp pad (love thinking about different ways to use products I already have). Still one of my favorite stamps.
Next up is using a Brush. I used Dina Wakley's Media brush to apply the paint by swiping horizontally on the plate.
Love how the paint blended and the brush strokes (particularly in the second print). The vibrant colors make me smile.
We're celebrating a Masculine Merry Christmas at Jingle Belles - making cards for the men & boys on our Christmas card list.
Some of the men on my Christmas Card list really love winter sports like skiing and snowboarding, so I thought this card and sentiment would be perfect for them.
I used the Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Stitched Snowflake Backdrop for the background, added a frame from Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Say Cheese and finished with Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts Stitched Snowflakes in two shades of blue glitter cardstock before finishing with my holiday sentiment.
With my blue holiday card, I'm also joining the Double D Challenge where the theme is Monochromatic.
And I'm joining the Dies Only Challenge at the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge.
