Autumn Blessings

For this monochromatic card, I chose to stamp Gina K’s Better with Age grape stamp as the focal and for the sentiment I used Autumn Blessing’s from Theresa Momber’s Fanciful Fall stamp set.  I stamped the image and sentiment using Memento Espresso Truffle, but the image out with Spellbinders and then went about shading with Memento Toffee Crunch and Morocco.  Love those colors.  I layered that onto a pumpkin colored piece of cardstock from my stash that had been embossed using a Darice embossing folder called Fall Leaf Background.  Added some pretty matching ribbon from my stash and there you have it.

Time to decorate!

This little snowman scene is direct from Great Impressions Stamps and is called Decorating Snowman.  I tried to make a night scene around him by shading with a couple of Memento blue inks, but instead of night, I think it looks more dusky, if that’s a word.  Colored the image with Copic markers, added copious amounts of Stickles diamond glitter glue, a snowflake corner from Memory box and some papers from my stash to pop him up on.  A sweet little winter scene, don’t you think.

Merry Christmas

This little tree trio is from Gina K Stamps called Merry Tree and the sentiment is also from that set.  I stamped the trees and sentiment using Memento Tuxedo Black and got my quickie glue pen out and added lots of fine glitter to those trees.  Love that sparkle!  What I like most is that this little trio of trees scene has a clean and simple, uncluttered feel to it.

Golden Skates

When I saw this beautiful image, I was drawn back, way, way, way back in time.  Is anyone out there old enough (and would you even admit to it) to remember the book Golden Skates, the story of Carol Heiss, a true teenage phenomenon in the world of ice skating?  Well I do remember and as a matter of fact I got the book at school through the Scholastic Book program, I would have been 10 years old.  After reading that book, the only thing I wanted to become was an ice skater.  Well that didn’t happen!  Moving on…that’s what this image reminded me of and I had to make a card using it.  The skates are placed on the image so beautifully, all I had to do was a little shading and coloring and add a little Sakura Clear star and it was done.  This to me is a beautiful memory and a wonderful winter scene.  Oh, I almost forgot to give credit to The Graphics Fairy for this wonderful image.

 

 

Winter Wishes

I used this pretty snowflake stamp from Gina K Stamps called Snowflake and borrowed the sentiment from Snowman Wishes for this card.  I stamped the snowflake using Tim Holtz Distress Ink Weathered Wood and glittered those little snowflakes all up, then embossed that panel using a Darice embossing folder called Snowflake Flourishes and then layered that onto a coordinating piece of card stock.

 

 

 

 

Thankful For You

Out came the Gelatos again, this time using the Neutral set only.  Blended them onto a heavy weight card stock and set it aside to dry.  Using the Signs of Autumn stamp set’s maple leaf and the sentiment from Thankful for You, I inked it up with VersaMark and StampinUp’s Classy Copper embossing powder.  Thought it made a pretty combination of color tones.  Popped the focal over papers from my stash and added a ribbon/button treatment.

Thankful for You

I finally inked up my Friendship, Family, Love stamp and the sentiment from Thankful for You, from Gina K Stamps, but before I did that, after joining in all the blog hops using Gina’s stamps and Faber-Castell Gelatos and all that wonderful inspiration, I decided to open up my “Neutral”, and Metallic packages of Gelatos.  I cut some heavy white cardstock from Classic Crest, got out my mister and got to work.  How fun was that, its finger painting for adults, OUTSIDE THE LINES!  After the background dried, I got the VersaMark pad out and inked the focal image and sentiment and then sprinkled fine gold embossing powder on.  Ran the background papers through the Cuttlebug with Musical Flourish embossing folder, added a little white ribbon and that was it.  Not sure how successful this is, I'm thinking it needs more embellishments.

Warm Winter Wishes

This cool Christmas winter scene is a stamp from Penny Black called Village Christmas if memory serves.  I found an example already colored on her site, so used that as my guide because I liked the color tones used.  Mine turned out OK, but definitely not as professional as the one that served as my example.  This is the first time stamping and coloring a whole scene.  The sentiment is a digi from SKDigis, I put a little shading on it and topped with a couple of rhinestones, attached that to a ribbon band and that was it.  The pretty patterned paper is from Graphic45’s 12 days of Christmas.

 

 

Wishing you joy!

This cold snowy Christmas scene was created using a penguin stamp and sentiment from Gina K Stamps called Penguin Joy.  Colored him up with Copic markers and then fussy cut him and glittered him all up to match the Tim Holtz Alterations/Sizzix BigZ die called Pine Tree.  I glittered that tree all up with Stickles Diamond to reflect a snowy cold day for the little Penguin.  The background paper was embossed with a Darice embossing folder called Snowflakes and Flourishes (a favorite), then popped everything up on pop dots after adding a little ribbon band.  Hope you enjoy.

Oops!

Merry Christmas Luke!

This little winter scene was created from a Sassy Cheryl’s digi stamp called Getting Stuck Boy and this one is going directly to my Grandson Luke for Christmas.  He’ll love it and it fits him to a tee.  I colored it especially to conform to his favorite college football team, the Oregon Ducks, their colors are green and yellow.  I did find a Graphic45 Christmas paper pack called 12 days of Christmas, that echoed some of the Ducks colors, so I got Christmas into this after all.  The sentiment is from TLCCreations and thought it fit perfectly.

Merry Christmas

This fun little winter scene was created using a snowman stamp from Gina K stamps called Snowman Wishes.  I colored him up with my Copics, fussy cut him and then went about adding lots of glitter glue to make him sparkle.  I love the Darice embossing folder called Snowflakes and Flourishes for the background, making this little guy feel right at home with all those flakes swirling around him.  A simple Merry Christmas sentiment finished it off.

You are so cool!

This is a sweet little Penguin digi image from SKDigis called Chilly the Penguin.  Colored her up in non-traditional Christmas colors, pastel greens and pinks are Ella's favorite colors and added some pretty background papers that I embossed with a Darice folder called Snowflakes and Flourishes, fun die cuts and lots of glitter and sparkle.  I thought my Granddaughter would like the “cool” sentiment and this fun winter scene theme.

 

 

Let Your Dreams Take Flight

For this card I used the gorgeous dragonfly and sentiment from Gina K Designs Dreams Take Flight stamp set.  I’ve loved this dragonfly since the day Gina introduced it.  I stamped it onto card stock with VersaMark and then added silver embossing powder.  But before that, I got my set of Gelato metallic’s out and went to work blending them on the cardstock.  This is a fun product to use.  You really can’t see the pretty shine that the metallic Gelatos adds to the card stock, but in real life it has a very pretty luster.  I matted the focal image onto black cardstock and that onto a textured silver cardstock and back to black again.  Photography and silver embossing powder is a hard combination to overcome as you can see.

I'm Guest Designer for SKDigis "In the Spotlight Monday"!

Hi, I’m Barbara and I’m "addicted to digi stamps".  I don’t think I need a 12 step program YET…SKDigi’s have too many cute images I need to try.  What a privilege to have been asked to be a guest designer there, I am honored, thank you Sonia.  I have been a card maker for three years or so and my husband of 46 years (and counting) encourages me in this.  He’s known for bringing me a glass of wine to my craft room in the afternoon and therefore...I'm Happy as a Clam in White Wine Butter Sauce. 

I chose to make two cards with this wonderful Christmas digi called Mistletoe.  The first card is very traditional in style and color.  I printed and colored the image using Copic markers, the leaves are done using G07 Nile Green and G14 Apple Green and the berries with R37 Carmine.  Used Spellbinders Classic Squares to cut and then layered that image onto white cardstock that was embossed with a Darice embossing folder called Snowflake Swirl.  I added glitter to the Mistletoe image and also to the Memory Box Frosty Border die using Glitter Ritz Cool Highlight.  Layered some pretty green ribbon over the red ribbon to back the Frosty Border die.

 

My second card using the Mistletoe image and greeting I made by taking the image and shrinking it down to create a border band and printed and colored with Copics YG03 Yellow Green for the leaves and for the berries I used R32 Peach.  I used Stickles Diamond to add a soft glitter to the images and then layered that atop white card stock and that onto peach cardstock that also had been embossed with the Darice embossing folder Snowflake Swirl.  I added a peach ribbon for interest and there you have it. 

So as you can see using the same image in two ways (and counting) gives you a completely different look and feel making it a very versatile digi. 

An Autumn Note

This is a “thumper” card.  I had so much fun the other day, decided to do it again.  Another virgin stamp met ink; this one is from Theresa Momber’s ElegantFlorals.  There is such a graceful flow to this stem I couldn’t pass it up.  I have several colors of Memento marker pens going on this one and also topped it with Stickles Diamond, which really made those colors pop, the greens, oranges, browns, yellows and reds.  Popped that onto an embossed background.

Give Thanks

Sometimes a cards simplicity speaks louder than an elaborately embellished one, and that’s how I feel about this card.  Sean Fetterman’s challenge this week at StampTV is all about falls colors, foliage and blooms, so when I saw this K&CO patterned paper patiently waiting to be used, I thought Ah Ha!  I added a sentiment band and used 2 black brads from one of my Gina K StampTV Kits and called it good.  The sentiment from Theresa Momber’s Autumn Beauty was stamped with Memento Potters Clay.  I put pop dots under the band and popped it atop the card for a little added dimension.

 

 

Like a fine wine...

This one’s for you Donna!  This is one amazing stamp set from Gina K Stamps, Better With Age, and would be my perfect interpretation of all that represents fall…the gorgeous leaves with greens and oranges and a gorgeous cluster of grapes in shades of purples, all succulent and ready to munch or to stomp into that wonderful liquid that I’m served every evening at five.  Stop laughing Donna, Gerry and Barbara!  Seriously!  This card is a CASE from a very creative gentlemen on StampTV, Sean.  His card using this glorious grape stamp is gorgeous, from his coloring to the layout design.  I colored the grapes with a combination of Copic and Memento markers and added a touch of Sakura Stardust pen for a little sparkle and because I love them, put a copper dragonfly brad on for extra interest. The papers are from my stash, I added pop dots to the back of the focal image and popped it up.  Thank you Sean for providing your wonderful inspiration for my card and to you too Donna for chiding me into using this fun stamp set.

 

 

Birthday Wishes

For this card I used Theresa Momber’s stamp set Elegant Florals, what a pretty stamp set.  I used the thumping and direct to stamp techniques using Memento Dew Drops for the leafed stem in Potter’s Clay, Lady Bug and Cottage Ivy.  The thumping was used on that little dragonfly from Dreams Take Flight, also a Gina K Stamp set, with Memento water based markers using Bamboo Leaves from the Greenhouse marker set and Tangelo for the top wing and Cantaloupe for the smaller bottom wings from the Camp Fire marker set.  And finally I stamped in Potter’s Clay that pretty Birthday Sentiment from Theresa’s Elegant Florals set.  All of this was stamped onto watercolor paper and popped onto patterned paper from my stash, tied it with a pretty orange ribbon and there you have it.

Happy 9th Birthday Aidan

We as you can see have a Pirate themed card going on.  That cute pirate ship is a digi stamp and I created the HO, HO, HO sentiment in Photoshop Elements 9.  I found some cute background papers and popped it onto an Action Wobble spring, always a fun thing to do.  The sentiment on the inside is all pirate speak, it seems there was a big thing about pirate speak a while back, so I got online and found some fun words to incorporate into the verse.

Thankful

I have some very talented card makers that have signed up to follow my humble little blog.  Thank you all for this and know how appreciative I am for you and your wonderful inspiration and creativity that keeps me focused and growing with the cards I make.  Love all that fabulous sense of humor too, who can't use a good chuckle from time to time, certainly not me.  Thank you all.