Taylored Expressions: Sketch, Selfie, Share

Here is the challenge.

And it is late here in Iowa and so sorry for the shadows!

This is my mother's birthday card, her birthday is on September 21. 

I hope she likes it! Have a great night! 

Side note: The sentiment is from an old TE stamp of the month set- In the Garden.

AEI♥U Challenge #15–Clean & Simple!

I am kinda new to Avery Elle but I love what I have seen so far and their challenge for this week is totally in line with my style- Clean and Simple. 

I am obsessed with texture paste and stencils right now, so I started with that for the background. Once it was dry I used Tim Holtz Spun Sugar Distress Ink and a blending tool to add a hit of color in the center. I used AE Petals and Stems Stamp Set and Die for the flowers (leaves were cut from vellum) and Oh Happy Day Stamp Set (my favorite AE set!) for the sentiment. I love the simple and soft look to this card. I hope you like it! 

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #179

I have done this technique in the past and I love it! Watch it here! I love having one more use for those kinda pricey cover plates (but PTI has the best price in the industry - HANDS DOWN!) I really have a clean and simple style and I am making this year (my year starts with the school year, not January 1) the year to really develop that. I find that I try to follow the crowd and get into all the new fads and I end up with a lousy card, that I really didn't enjoy making in the first place. Lets see if I can do it! Hope you like my first card of my 'new' year resolution!

SAF 2014 Explore the 1940s

This idea by Betsy is just adorable! It totally brings me back to the tablecloths and hankies my grandmother had. Oh, for the good old days! Thanks Betsy!

SAF 2014: Closing Ceremony

Oh what a fabulous day! I made these cards and had so much fun with my friends and my sister! I wish we could do this every weekend! I hope you all had as much fun as I did! Thank you Papertrey!

PTI 20 minute challenge

Okay so this has to be my favorite challenge of the whole day so I did a 2nd card. I just love the it is all so laid out for me- a map and the colors. Perfect for a tired mind! I used the PTI wet paint stamp set and the Lavender moon PP fro PTI!

August 2014 Blog Hop

I adore this challenge- Clean, simple, pink, gold, what more could I wish for. I used gold embossing paste and a polka dot stencil to make the background. I embossed the Think Big Favorites saying in gold embossing powder. And the flower from Happiness in Bloom was cut out of white CS and I dipped the edges in versa mark and added gold EP.  I say this too often, but I am not the best at getting good shots of my cards- it really looks better in person. Anyway-I love all the gold! But then again who doesn't!

SAF 2014 Explore the 1920s

Click here for- Explore the 1920s from PTI. 

I couldn't get a good photo of this card,  it looks so much better in person. 

The die shape is embossed in gold and and then I used a copic marker to color the rhinestones a gold tone. The Saying is from Think Big Favorites #19. Have a great day stamping!

SAF 2014 Ancient Rome

This is such a cool technique. I will have to try it again soon! I used a light gray for my 'grout'. I hope you like it! 

Stamp-A-faire Morning Timer Challenge

I love this, PTI gave me the colors and the layout! What could be easier?! Love it! I used Bigger Blooms and the PTI inks from 2nd color recipe. See the post here.

I hope you are having as much fun as we are here in Iowa!

Stamp-A-Faire 2014 Friday Night Meet & Greet

My sweet friend Kriss invited us to her house- about 6 of us. Most of us got her at 5pm so we have been stamping away. I have only completed 2 cards at this point because we have done toooooo much eating and visiting. I LOVE stamping at Kriss's house because she has entire room dedicated to stamping! We all get to stretch out and it allows me to bring too much stampin stuff. We are stamping in West Des Moines, Iowa. Hope you like the card I made! Good night!

Supplies-PTI Make it Market Shaker Kit

Stretch your stamps 2 Day 2

I made this card for a friend that gave me 40 gifts for my 40th birthday! Amazing right!!! I followed Laura Sterckx's idea but used a stencil. I love how Tim's inks blend together to make a new color. I used 3 colors but I think it looks like I used 5. I used a PTI die behind the sentiment instead of thread. 

Supplies: Sentiment is from Hobby Lobby brand unknown, Stencil from MFT, Ink Tim Holtz- Peacock Feathers,  Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, Tim Holtz Mini Blending tool, Enamel dots My Minds Eye. 

PTI Make it Monday #170: Masking with Die Cuts

PTI Make it Monday #170: Masking with Die Cuts

I wanted to keep it simple to bring focus to the masking. I want to try this again, I think the technique is really pretty. I masked off the leaves and the frame and then used Tim Holtz Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass to create the background (sky). The flowers are from Ruby Rose, stamped in Hibiscus Burst, and popped up with dimesionals 

Hope you had a great Holiday! 

PTI June Blog Hop 2014 #3

One last card for the PTI June Blog Hop. 

I used the 2nd sketch for this card. I really love embossing and I really enjoy these colors! I hope you have a great day!

Supplies: all PTI unless noted Circle Scribbles, Think Big Favorites #2, SU white Embossing Powder, Avery Elle winter Blend Sequins. Dies by Spellbinders-Scallop Square and Rectangles.  The Largest scallop rectangle is from Mana Elephant Femme Frames.

PTI June Blog Hop 2014 #2

This is the photo inspiration for PTI June Blog Hop. I love the colors!

I also used the 2nd sketch, but changed it up a little. I used watercolor paints to make the base of the flowers, and added the circle scribble dies over the top. I have to admit, I am kinda addicted to the watercolor trend. I hope you like it!

June Blog Hop 2014 #1

This is my take for Papertrey's June Blog Hop. I love the colors!

I cut out photos of bedspreads for color inspiration all the time! So I guess I am not alone!

Supplies: All PTI Card stock as listed on post, PTI Text block die, Winter Blend Sequin Avery Elle, 
SU Rhinestones.

Watercolor for Card makers #6

I previously posted the 2nd generation stamp, this is the 1st stamp and I really love the bright colors. I  changed the layout a little, I wanted more color to highlight the wildflowers. I used Tim Holtz markers and Hero Art Stamp. I think this is my favorite of the two. 

Watercoloring for card makers #5

 

Okay my second attempt at faux hand watercoloring. I am not sure I really have it yet, this is way more complicated then I usually do. I used Tim Holtz distress paints on my acrylic block as my pallet and the stamp is from PTI- Year of Flowers. I hope it at least a good start ;-)

Watercolor for Card makers #4

OH WOW is this technique fun, Laura B showed on the 1st day of class how to make a colorful background with your clear blocks and I love it! So very fun and simple! I used Tim Holtz Broken Glass and Peeled Paint to make the background. I embossed the sympathy sentiment with white embossing powder and the flowers are from memory box. I will be making more of these to have on hand. Make it a great day!

Watercolor class #3

I used Tim Holtz Distress markers on the back of the Hero Arts Wildflower stamp, misted it with water and stamped it on Tim Holtz watercolor paper- this is my 2nd generation. I love these Tim Holtz colors together- ripe persimmon, peacock feathers, seedless preserves, and peeled paint. The Dizzy Doily die is from My Favorite Things. Hope you like it! Thanks for checking it out!

Watercolor for Card Makers #2

I think this technique is soooooo cool! I stamped the Taylor Expressions Oops A Daisy, hand drew the stems and covered the daisies and stems with rubber cement and let it dry! Side note: Did you know you need to show and ID to buy rubber cement? I didn't! I guess you have to be 18 to buy it in Iowa. At twice that age and then some, it made me laugh! Anyway, once the glue was dry, I covered the background with watercolors (set from Hobby Lobby). I really don't like the hard lines that are around the edge of my background, I need some more practice with that. Once the background was dry, I rubbed off all the rubber cement. FYI--I did find that just using my fingers is better than an eraser. The eraser can rub off your watercolor if you go out of the lines. Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor online class #1

I LOVE this watercolor class, I am a very clean and simple card maker and I was worried it would be a lot of detailed and involved ideas but there is so many things that fit my style and lots of techniques that don't take an hour to make. Love it! Oh, I already said that ;-)

I just bought my first stamps from Rubbernecker last month (details below). And they just scream "watercolor me." So I did! I added 3 different Distress markers in 'red' tones to the back of the stamp, misted it and stamped it on watercolor paper. I let that dry, used my stamp portioner and added another layer of dark red to the center of the flowers. I used my paint brush to splatter green and and yellow speckles around the background. Again, let it dry, added the detail lines (stems & flowers) with Ranger black Archival ink. Last, I used black liquid enamel to add black dots to the center of the flowers. Hope you like it! Have a great day!

Supplies: Tim Holtz Distress Markers, Rubbernecker Layered Flowers, Verve Stamps (sentiment), MFT Leaf-filled Flourish, 6*6 PP Bo Bunny Zip-A-Dee Doodle.

Paper Smooches Card #2

I love embossing! I just love how striking it can be on a clean and simple design. I used Simply said and Friendly Flowers. I am so ready for spring and all I can think about right now is flowers and warm weather. 

Paper Smooches Guest Designer Search

I LOVE PAPER SMOOCHES and I would love to win and get to some serious designing! I also love stamping with pigment ink (memento Luxe) on Kraft CS. After it was dry I added accent dots with my white gel pen. I used my 2 favorite floral sets from Paper Smooches- Reflections & Bold Blooms.  And the sentiment is embossed with white EP and I used the Simply Said stamp set. I hope you like it and I really hope Kim like it! (wink, wink)

Textural Effects

I used post it tape to tape off a border (Stephanie's Ballon card was my inspiration). Then I used Tim Holtz Peeled Paint and Salty Ocean, that I brought in from the edges.  And finally I the stamped the hero Arts Wild Flowers in Black. I just couldn't leave it totally flat (sorry). It started as a one layer card but them I just wanted more and I love how the black and Pool Party (SU) CS make the main image POP. 

The only thing is I feel like I have seen this card before, even though I wan't copying anything. So if you have let me know. 

Faux Effects- Online Card Class

This card has been laying on my desk for 2 1/2 weeks now. I like the effect and how it turned out, but is just seems like it is missing something to me. I don't know. I used Gold Embossing Powder and a small star stamp from Paper Smooches to make the Faux Metal Effect. (Dots are from a PTI Polka Dot Bkgs)

March Blog Hop 2014

  

High Gloss is PTI's March Blog Hop inspiration. Love it!

This is my take on the inspiration collage. 

Even though the photo doesn't really show it, I embossed the petals with clear embossing powder and in real life it has an amazing shine. I used the Mighty Bloom cover plate to cut a 'stencil' out of scrap CS and then smooched versa mark over the stencil and embossed with clear embossing power. As always I left it simple because that is my style. I love the bright colors! Please come soon Spring! 

Supplies: Hello is from Think Big Favorites #3 (I omitted the Friend), PTI Mighty Bloom, PTI Limeade Ice & Raspberry Fizz CS, MME enamel dots.)

Clean and Simple Card Class #3- Creative Coloring

Unfortunately, I needed a sympathy card and I wanted to make something special for my aunt. I used a little of Dawn's idea about pushing ink around with the Copic colorless blender. I stamped the hero arts tulips (colored with 2 markers in purple tones) and then went over  the top of them with the colorless blender to mute the newsprint and to give them a more filled in (solid) look. I love the results but hate to have a reason to make a sympathy card ;-(

Clean and Simple Cards 3- Faux Effects

I  think the inlay idea is so much fun! I needed a card that used Iowa State University colors- red and yellow so this is what I came up with. The Thanks (Memory Box) is inlayed and the thanks is stamped over the top. My hubby really liked it and thought it really worked for a 'male' card. I am loving this class!

MFT Card Sketch 166

This is MFT's card sketch 166 and I really love the simplicity for showing off a large background. I used the MFT Stencil Scrolled bkgd, versa mark, and clear embossing powder (which is my favorite way to use stencils). I love the results of the background. I also embossed the greeting (MFT Celebrate Big) with black embossing powder and layered it with the die from Blueprints #3. Finally, the gold accents are punched gold paper from Michaels. Hope you have a great day!

Make it Monday #153

Love this technique Dawn featured this week for Papertrey's Make it Monday. I used water color paper and did the same fading effect Dawn did, let it dry and then die cut the paper with PTI Mighty Bloom cover plate. And then cut it again with a clean piece of watercolor paper and added the petals for an inlay look. I embossed the celebrate with gold EP on vellum (I really didn't want to cover up the bloom). The gold accents are from some gold paper that I punched with different sized circle and hole punches. If you scroll down my blog, I am obsessed with gold and this color combo. I really need to move on ;-)  Hope you have a great weekend! (Snowing yet AGAIN in Iowa.)

Bring on Spring!

I am desperate for spring to come! It has been very cold and cloudy
in Iowa and I just need out of this "Polar Vortex." 

Anyhoo, enough complaining from me....A simple card that I made for
a friend that makes me think of spring and I hope you like it!

My Favorite Things Card Sketch #164

I love this card Sketch 164-simple and classic! I also love this gold paper but it is really hard to photograph. Geesh!!!  I can see myself in this photo it is so reflective. I looked on Pinterest last night for gold color combos and this one came up a ton and I love it!!!

Make It Monday #152 Layering Dye and Pigment Inks #2

My second card for PTI make-it-monday-152 challenge.

So much fun!!!! I used PTI Polka Dot II for both layers. I used the small dot pattern first with PTI Fresh Snow pigment ink, let it dry, and then used the largest polka dot pattern over the top with some SU die ink (Peach Parfait, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, & Wild Wasabi). I also stamped the tag with pigment ink before I stamped the daisy and hello. I hope you like it! This card makes me think of spring and oh do I long for spring, it has been a long winter here in Iowa.

Other supplies all PTI: Fillable Frames 1, Heart 2 heart #12, Flower Fusion #9, Tag Sale #8)

Make It Monday #152 Layering Dye and Pigment Inks

This is a fun technique for Make it Monday. You can see it here:

Make-it-Monday-152

I just love the results! I stamped first with PTI chevron background stamp set with fresh snow ink and then used the new stamp set from PTI- Leave it Be with some SU inks I have (Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, and Calypso Coral).  I added little dots with the PTI- Polka Dots Basic II. And finally for the sentiment,  I used the new PTI - Keep It Simple Birthday set, embossed in white EP, and cut out with the banner basics dies (PTI). I love seeing the subtle chevron though the leaves. So fun!

My Favorite Things Card Sketch 162 - 2nd try

I hope it is okay for me to post another card for MFT's Sketch challenge. I LOVE this sketch! I really enjoy the gold trend that is so popular right now. I found this shinny gold paper at Michaels and I knew I had to use it behind the MFT Polka Dot Cover Up Bkg. I know I changed the Sketch just a little and I hope you like it.

Other supplies (all MFT unless noted): Happy Hellos, Fishtail dies, Pierced circle dies, SU card stock, SU gold sequins.

Papertrey Ink 7th Birthday

Okay, so I have to tell you a story.....I made this card and when I was all done I just felt like I had seen it before, that it really looked familiar to me. So I looked on the PTI gallery and found that it looks JUST like Jessica Witty's card from June 2012.

http://forum.papertreyink.com/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=170805

I guess her card really stuck in my head and I do love it!  Hope you like my version!

My Favorite Things Card Sketch 162

I adore these doodle stamps! They scream to be colored in! I hope some day MFT comes out with a basic set with - Happy Birthday, Thank you, Hello, etc in this style. I would be over the moon! Here is the orginial sketch (new favorite sketch)!

It is hard to see in the photo but I colored in the words with my new wink of stella glitter markers. So the saying is all glittery and fun! 

Other Supplies (all MFT unless noted): fish tail flags die, pierced circle dies, polka dot bkg, sunny day doodles, doodle bug enamel dots, unknown 6x6 pattern paper packs.

Stenciled Class #5

Okay one last card, I have learned a lot and I have more ideas rolling around in my head. I used Wendy Vecchi's silver embossing paste (so shiny). I love the silver chevron paper, I found it at Michaels. Have a great night! Other supplies- Flower and vine from MFT, Thank you stamp and die from PTI)

Stenciled Class #4

I have to try for a better photo tomorrow when we have some sunshine in Iowa. This card has way more shine and so much texture in person. I used Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing paste.  I have collected so many stencils and I am finally using them. This class has been so much fun!

Stenciled Card Class #3

I am in love with this stencil from Crafter's Workshop - Echoes! I love it! I used versa mark ink though the stencil, embossed and sponged on color with 3 SU inks (Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, & Calypso Coral). Other supplies - SU coral ribbon, Verve Stamp, PTI Fillable Frame Die #11

Stenciled On line Day 1 #2

I love Laura Bassen, she totally cracks me up, and I love her style. She did an amazing card for day1, so I tried my hand at her technique- Embossing with Versa Mark and a stencil. I used a doily stencil (I had to mask off the edges of the doily to create an edge). I then used Tim Holtz Distress- Peacock Feathers and Broken Glass to sponge on the background. I love the results! The sentiment is from Papertrey. I plan to make more of these. Simple is really my style- and I hope you like it!

Stenciled On Line class Day 1

This class has been even more than I excepted.  Jennifer showed an awesome idea of shifting your stencils and applying another color, so I combined that with Julie's spray mist technique and this is the outcome. I covered the hearts with glossy accent and the sentiment is a die from paper smooches. I hope you like it, I just can't wait for more ideas! (Sorry, I have been absent from my blog = Crazy life!)

Supplies: Spray - Heidi Swap, stencil-?, die- paper smooches, CS- Stampin Up, Heart die - Simon Says.