Double D Sentiment/Quote Challenge

It's time for Team Darlene to present you with a new Double D Challenge!  This time around it's Sentiments or Quotes, whether it's the focus of your card or project or an important and prominent part of it.

I have many wonderful quotes in stamps, but the first one I thought of was this old Wordsworth Shakespeare quote.  I've always used it for Christmas cards, but it's been years so I'm thinking it's time to bring it out again.  Since these cards are so simple, I made two.  Merry, merry!

Pictured below is our mood board which you may use for inspiration.  I liked the simplicity and the white lettering.

As always, the Double Ds are giving away a prize to a random winner.  Favorites will be voted on by the team, as well.

The sentiment on each card is stamped in Versamark and embossed in white.

There's traditional red and green with gold highlights for the first card.  The gold mat is actually white card stock colored with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen.  No need to use a whole panel of gold card stock just for that itty bitty border.

The poinsettia is Poppystamps Small Blooming Poinsettia.  The red flower center is Stickles Candy Cane glitter glue.

The second card uses the Memory Box Gabriella Border with Stickles Silver glitter glue in the center of each snowflake.  The narrow silver edging is, again, white card stock, but this time colored with a Pilot silver marker.

Hop over to Double D to see samples by Team Darlene and Team Diane.  Now, show us your creation in our Sentiment/Quote Challenge at Double D!  Have fun!

Pure Prairie Spirit Blue

Hi there and happy almost fall!  I thought I'd give a little nod to fall today by using some turned leaves on my card, but I'm not ready to give up summer yet so I have flowers and a butterfly, too.

Actually, this card happened when I was trying to do something else entirely.  It's the salvaged end result of a two day stamping fiasco.  I think I'm a little too distracted lately.  The stamp is Power Poppy's Pure Prairie Spirit, watercolored with Gansai Tambi paints on Arches 140 lb hot pressed watercolor paper.  The watercoloring was enjoyable, but I ran into trouble with the design.  I know!  It looks so simple, but what a struggle getting there!

Long story and I'll spare you most of the details.  Can you tell the card base is navy blue?  Not black.  I was thinking I never use navy blue, but when I went to my folder of navy blue paper I found it almost gone.  Hmmmm...  must have liked it more at some point.  The oval frame was stamped in a lighter blue with Stampin' Up!'s retired Linen background -- still a favorite.

I had one too many leaves on the card so I used Un-Do to remove one.  Un-Do is usually my friend, but it betrayed me this time and ripped the paper, and that's how the flags come to be there -- a cover up.  The leaves looked bland and needed some help.  Maybe a bow would be pretty, but you know me and lumpy cards... we just don't jive, hence the butterfly.  It was die cut from one of the pretty alcohol ink-on-acetate backgrounds my friend made for me.

We brought our new travel trailer home after a three hour orientation and it's sitting largely in the middle of the driveway right now.  I'll get some pictures to share one of these days.  We shopped for a few things for it, but it's not yet fully stocked.  Lots of fun just getting it ready for a trip.  Unfortunately we discovered a rotten corner on our house where rain water ran under the siding and now that has to be fixed.  We've been having quite a time of it for about a month and a half now when ordinarily everything is so hunky dory here.  I guess it was our turn.  It will all work out.

Enjoy your day!

Stamps:  Power Poppy Pure Prairie Spirit and Dynamic Duos: Foxglove & Ranunculus (sentiment), SU Linen background  Paper:  Arches 140 lb hot pressed watercolor, SU Night of Navy, Neenah 110 lb white, BasicGrey June Bug designer paper  Ink:  Palette Noir, SU Brocade Blue  Coloring:  Gansai Tambi watercolor paints  Accessories:  Memory Box Oval Master Frame, Taylored Expressions Mega Leaves, Impression Obsession Medium Butterflies, Spellbinders Nested Lacy Pennants

Birthday and Christmas

Hi there!  I'm back today with three cards I made with my Power Poppy Under Glass stamp set.  They're all rather clean and simple.  Lots of white space, but color, too.  The first is a birthday card.  That's probably pretty obvious.

There's a cloche (or bell jar) with this set which I did not use for the birthday card.  Part of the beauty of the Under Glass set is that you can go either way.

I paired it with the Poppystamps Celebration Balloon Collage die, cut twice and layered.  On the top layer I used a craft knife to cut away the balloons so I was left with just the oval.  I colored the balloons on the bottom layer with Copics and then glued the second over top.  Nothing is popped up, but it appears to have quite a lot of dimension.  The card base was embossed with an old Cuttlebug birthday embossing folder.  Lots of sparkle was added to the birthday image with Stickles Stardust glitter glue.

Next are Christmas cards made from the same set.  I couldn't help but see Christmas bells in the cloche.

The card on the left mixes the cloche with Power Poppy's Merry Littles set -- the poinsettia, bow, and sentiment.  The die cut is Memory Box Frostyville Border.

The card on the right is mixed with a sentiment from Glistening Paperwhites.  The die is Memory Box Beloved Snowflakes.  The sun was wreaking havoc with my picture taking, so this wonky photo is the only one I ended up using.  There's too much going on at my house right now to be very picky about things like this.

The white on all cards is Neenah 110 lb.

On a personal note:

• My root canal was a piece of cake.  I still have two more appointments for the crown.
• Rich went to his family practice doctor for the obligatory follow up visit after his evening at the ER, and still everything is fine.
• LuLu (precious Golden Retriever) had to go to the vet on Wednesday after a night of vomiting and urinary urgency (feels like she has to pee a lot but hardly anything comes out).  It's a lot like a human urinary tract infection.  She's fine now.
• We did buy an RV and it's awesome!  We'll have an orientation and bring it home next Tuesday.  Now we'll start the process of stocking it up like a home away from home.  The one we chose is perfect for us.  King size bed (for two humans and two Golden Retrievers) and plenty of open floor space so the dogs won't feel cramped.  Roomy bathroom.  Polar package, meaning it's set up for cozy living no matter how cold it is outside.  Power awning with a row of LED lights.  Only 24' including the tongue, so it won't be like hauling a train down the highway.  Those were some of the main selling points, but it's so much more fabulous than all that.  I can't wait for our first trip!

I've been sitting here too long and must run now.  Hugs and happy wishes to everyone!

Double D Glitter Challenge

Hello there!  I'm playing along with Team Diane's Glitter Challenge at Double D today and I have a very easy card which was partly made for me.  I'll explain in a minute.  First, the card:

Now our very inspiring mood board:

And a super prize for a lucky random winner:

Now, to explain the card...  My friend, Nancy, came over recently and demonstrated alcohol ink backgrounds for me.  She left me with quite a few beautiful backgrounds, so they'll be showing up on cards in the days ahead.  It's easy to see how alcohol inks could become an obsession, sheesh.  This one is inks on acetate, glued to crumpled tissue paper with a little glitter sprinkled in between.

The dies are hers, as well -- Poppystamps "Floral Stem Collage" and "Scribble Thank You".  I pressed the "thank you" into my Versamark pad and then embossed with gold jewel embossing powder.  The flower is glittered up with Stickles glitter glue.  I had a few Nuvo glitter drops made up on an acetate sheet, and the color matched, so I added those, too.

The picture below shows a little more of the sparkle.  It wasn't easy to photograph in such a way as to show the sparkle yet avoid glare on the acetate.

Things are really sparkling over at Double D, so be sure and check out the team's cards.  Enjoy your day!

Colorful Birdhouses

I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen, but I finally finished a card.  Things got a little nutty around here for a while.  My face swelled up in a big ball of pain and after a dental appointment and some antibiotics I'm having a root canal today.  My first.  A crown will follow.  Sheesh.

On Sunday Rich collapsed in the yard and after checking his blood pressure and finding it frighteningly low we took him to the ER.  All the tests imaginable showed he was in good health, but dehydrated and maybe his blood pressure medicine was working a little too well.  All this going on while our son was down for a visit and we're in the process of buying an RV for travel.  Rich said his first thought as he was drifting to the world of the unconscious was "well, there goes the RV".  All is well, though.  He's in surprisingly good health.  He's not good about hydrating, but he knows I'll be keeping on him about that from now on.

So, how about that card?

I used an Impression Obsession stamp called "Birdhouses".  I bought it locally at a shop that's been closed for almost a year, but it can still be found at IO online which is what I linked to.   I do love the stamp.  The bird looks like she's house hunting, just like we're RV hunting.  So many choices!

I watercolored on 140 lb hot press Fluid 100 watercolor paper with only five markers -- three Stampin' Up and one Tombow.  Stitched a border and added three Nuvo Crystal drops which I managed to get fairly flat for easy mailing.  This card is for a birthday later this month.

We've had a few days socked in with smoke from the forest fires all around us.  It turns the sunshine pink and odd looking.  The sky appears to be overcast, but it's all smoke.    Even the moon glows orange.

That's it for today.  I'll be back tomorrow with a new Double D challenge.  Maybe I'll even do some more stamping this week.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  I appreciated every moment of mine, even with the upsets.  I can't help but think of the folks who have such a long way to go to recover from Hurricane Harvey, and everyone in the west who have lost their homes to the forest fires.

Stamps:  Impression Obsession Birdhouses, Stampin Up Bloomin' Marvelous sentiment  Paper:  140 lb hot press Fluid 100 watercolor, Core'dinations white card base  Ink:  Palette Noir  Coloring:  SU markers More Mustard, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Tombow marker N65  Accessories:  Nuvo Crystal Drops - Sugared Almond

Red Bee Balm

Enough clean and simple for a while; it's time to play around because 1)  I love to color,  2)  I love to play with design composition, and 3)  I'd like to use my designer paper before it goes the way of the dinosaur.

I've spent a fair amount of creative energy over the years figuring on how to make an easy-to-mail-one-postage-stamp card that still lets me do all of the above.  Die cuts have helped with that.  Layers made of designer paper.  Sequins, but not the cupped kind.  That sort of thing.  If any of you have ever received a be-sequined card from me that lost its sequins along the way, please let me know.  I once received a card whose sequins had mostly fallen loose in the envelope.  I use Aleene's Tacky Glue for sequins because it's tidy and strong, but since I've never mailed a card to myself... well, who knows?

The stamp set for this card is Power Poppy's Vibrant Thanks from their latest release.  I stamped the Bee Balm three times, masking the first image on the left.  Coloring was done with Copics on X-Press It Blending Card.

The designer paper is old My Mind's Eye "Rosy" from my vast collection.  I'll list the dies:

• Spellbinders Grand Ovals
• Cheery Lynn Dutch Daisy Boutique Stacker A2 Frame
• Dee's Distinctively Sm Pair of Leaves
• Paper Smooches Hearts

I'm linking up today to the following challenges:

 "Anything Goes" challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters
Tic Tac Toe Challenge #012  I chose the "die cut, sentiment, and floral" row.

Hope you're all looking forward to a nice summer weekend.  Enjoy it while you can!  See you again soon.

Ultra-Simple Sympathy and Get Well

A person sure can make a lot of cards quickly when you keep it ultra-clean and simple.  I recently made six or eight sympathy cards... I don't know... I've lost track.  One of them wound up in the garbage and I didn't photograph all of them.  I was in a hurry to finish up a batch I was giving to a friend.  There were two of these.

My friend likes crafty cards and there's not a lot of crafting in this design, but I think she'll like the butterflies.  I layered two of the Memory Box Waltzing Butterflies and glued onto a Neenah 110 lb card base.  The Power Poppy Soothing Sympathy sentiment was stamped in SU's Taken With Teal.

The second card has a touch more going on, but still very simple seeing as how I pulled out some leftover card parts for it -- an uninspiring brayered ink panel and three white "get well" sentiments.

Let's see if I can make it sound as easy as it really was:

• Cut white panel 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
• Position Memory Box Florina Corner and Impression Obsession Get Well Soon dies on panel.  Run through die cutting machine.
• Glue negative die cut panel to brayered background.
• Glue positive die cuts into negative space.  Layer two more Get Well Soon sentiments.
• Glue assembled panel onto A2 card front.

I added two little butterflies from the Impression Obsession Butterfly Set and sparkled them up with Stickles Stardust glitter glue.  All done!

I don't know how much of the eclipse you saw in your area, but here the sun got down to a little sliver.  It's amazing how much light that little sliver puts out.  It was an unusual sort of light, not at all the same as the sun going behind a cloud.  Imagine how scary it must have been for folks in earlier days.  The sky darkens, the temperature drops, the breeze goes still.  It's pretty amazing when you think how the moon revolves around the earth, the earth rotates and revolves around the sun, and even with all that action going on everything still lines up for an eclipse.  Wow.

Wishing you all good health and happiness.  Have a wonderful day!

Get Well Dog Two Ways

Hi there!  Eclipse day is here at last and soon all the craziness in Oregon will settle down.  Have you seen the traffic on the news?  Sure glad I'm not out there!  We've got our glasses and will walk a few steps to a break in the trees to watch it.  We're just a little bit south of the direct line, so it should still be pretty impressive.

Today's stamping is with a not yet used Whipper Snapper stamp called Get Well Dog.  I've had this one for a while, but just never got around to making a get well card with it.  One day I was looking through my birthday sentiments and saw this quote -- Fiskars Make a Wish Quotes -- and, well, you can see where I went with that:

Giggle!  It's for a guy friend's September birthday.  Watercolored with Gansai Tambi paints on 140 lb hot press watercolor paper.

Since it was a first time use and really such a cute image I went ahead and made a second card with the sentiment that comes with the set.  I watercolored again, but this time put spots on the dog using the picture on the stamp package as a guide.

Way too much fun!  I'll list all ingredients in the recipe below.  Thanks for looking!  Stay safe and happy!

Stamps:  Whipper Snapper Gel Well Dog, Fiskars Make a Wish Quotes (card #2)  Paper:  Fluid 100 140 lb hot press watercolor, white card base, SU brilliant Blue (#1) and So Saffron (#2), Bo Bunny Very Vintage Double Dot designer paper (#1) and Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid designer paper (#2)  Ink:  Palette Noir  Coloring medium:  Gansai Tambi watercolor paints  Accessories:  Signo Uni-ball white gel pen (dots on bandage, both cards),  SU Candy Dots (#1), Memory Box Banner Parade (#1), Memory Box Cross Stitched Frame Borders (#2), Paper Smooches Dog Icons (#2), Scotch brand foam mounting tape (#2)