Birthday Linky Party for Nancy!

Hello, there!  Today is all about wishing an extra happy birthday to my friend, Nancy, so we're having a linky party organized by Loll on her blog.  Check it out, and then we hope you can create a birthday card and link it up to wish Nancy a happy birthday.  Pretty sure Nancy won't mind us saying it's a milestone -- 75 years young.  Seriously, if I can be as young as Nancy at 75, I'll be a happy girl!

My card makes me think of Nancy, not only because I made it for her, but because she loves nature and simplicity and alcohol inks.

This is actually regular ol' SU inks which I spread around with 91% alcohol on photo paper.  I don't remember if I spritzed the alcohol or dabbed an alcohol soaked tissue, paper towel, or cotton ball.  The important thing is dye-based inks and 91% alcohol with either photo paper or glossy paper.  It's fun to experiment with whatever you have laying around.  I'll experiment more soon and see about taking pics along the way.

I layered the die cut trees, and finished the card simply with an embossed sentiment and a die cut leaf, all on a shimmery copper card base wrapped with copper cord.

Thought I'd share a pic of Nancy and me for old time's sake.  Photo was taken April 2004 in her driveway after we'd been garden shopping (we did that a lot).  Nancy and I worked at the same medical center for many years, started our stamping journey together, and shared plenty of other interests, as well.  Until COVID we continued to enjoy play dates and visits, sigh.

When I was looking for this picture I came across a wealth of other pics showing activities with friends, fun groups, lots of laughter.  That has all quieted down for the time being.  Someday we'll be normal again.

Happy birthday, Nancy!!  Big virtual hugs!

Stamps:  SU It's Your Birthday sentiment  Paper:  Photo paper for background, shimmery white, shimmery ivory, shimmery copper  Ink:  SU inks for background (cannot remember colors), Versamark for sentiment  Other:  Terra Cotta embossing powder, copper cord, 91% alcohol, Poppystamps Boddington Tree Border, Impression Obsession Small Leaf Set

Snowy Tree Scene

Welcome back!  Fiddling around with some things I'd pulled from the drawers, making a mess on my desk... I decided to turn some of the mess into a card.  The die is Tutti Designs Fir Trees Arch Scene -- not yet used, but definitely on the Christmas card line up this year.  Two 110 lb layers over an alcohol ink background.

About that background... I own exactly 3 alcohol inks which I bought when they very first came onto the market way back in I-don't-know-when.  All this time I just haven't been sure if I wanted to start collecting a whole other thing, if you know what I mean.  Anyway, this is my 3 color background on photo paper with 91% alcohol as the blending solution.  It looks fine to me.

The snowflakes along the bottom of the card are those that popped out when the die was cut.  Quite usable and not something I could bear to toss out.  Cutting two dies I ended up with 16 snowflakes this size.  I used some inside the card, as well, but still have quite a few little snowflakes left.  They'll be showing up on other cards.

I'll send my card with its NBUS tree die over to NBUS Challenge #18.  I know, practically every card I make heads over to that challenge.  It's just that I have so much NBUS and I'm trying to use it.

More supplies are listed below.  Thanks so much for your time today!

Stamps:  SU Heard from the Heart sentiment  Paper:  Neenah 80 lb card base, 110 lb for dies, photo paper for AI background  Ink:  SU Bermuda Bay for sentiment, alcohol inks are Wild Plum, Stream, and Butterscotch  Other:  Tutti Fir Trees Arch Scene

Three Little Birds in Navy and Turquoise

Hello, and happy Monday Fun Day!  This is when the cute and/or quirky stamps come out (as if I need a reason).  That seems to be the "buy me" trigger these days.  I saw these birds on Bonnie's blog right here, loved them, looked them up and bought them before I even left a comment on her post.

I white embossed (same as Bonnie did), but then watercolored with SU inks.  It's been forever since I used those inks for watercoloring.  In the past they were my go-to medium, but then so many other things came along.  I really enjoyed this and will use them again soon.

The "thanks" is a resin disk that's been in my stash for a long time.  Rummaging around in my self-adhesives, I unearthed this and two others that I hope to use soon.  I'll list all supplies at the end.

• I probably would have given these birds a lot more color, but today they're representing me at Color Hues Challenge #2 -- Navy and Turquoise.  Neutrals are welcome.  I think they look great in these colors!
• It's my Three Little Birds first time out of the package, so I'll be heading over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #18, too.

  

Thanks for your time!  I just received a new package of stamps in the mail (ahem), so I'll be admiring them and shuffling them around on my table for a while and, hopefully, using them soon.  They're fall stamps and will definitely be getting colored this year.

Enjoy your day!

Stamps:  Impression Obsession Three Little Birds, Hero Arts You're a Great Friend, SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds (splatters)  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb watercolor, Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, SU Cool Caribbean  Ink:  Versamark, SU Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Creamy Caramel  Other:  White embossing powder, resin sentiment disk, Paper Smooches Foliage 1

Twofer Trees

Hello on a Thursday!  Today's play is for the Twofer Card Challenge.  The prompt is "trees" and I have no shortage of tree stamps and dies.  The hard part was choosing which to use.  Ultimately I went with a very old wood block stamp from All Night Media called Tall Pines.

The sympathy card will go into a batch I'm making for a friend.  I stenciled a cloudy sky in Pale Plum and the hillside in Going Gray.  There's a moon nestled in the clouds, but I'm not sure how obvious it is.  After all the ink was applied I smooshed the whole panel with Versamark ink and embossed with ultra-thick embossing powder.

The Christmas card shows the trees stamped just once on black cardstock and embossed in white.  The Memory Box Pine Forest Frame was cut in gold and situated over top.  I brought the sentiment in from the side and dry embossed a border along the bottom of the card.

Two different occasions, two completely different card designs, both using the same tree stamp.  Now I've filled a card need and I used a beloved old stamp from my stash.

Twofer Card Challenge #31 -- Trees

Thanks for taking the time to visit.  I hope you have a beautiful day!

Sympathy Card --  Stamps:  All Night Media Tall Pines, Just Right Sympathy Nested Sentiments  Paper:  SU Whisper White, other black  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Pale Plum, Going Gray, Versamark  Other:  Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder, gold brads, Heffy Doodle Cloudy Skies stencil, Spellbinders Scored and Pierced Rectangles, Spellbinders Double Ended Tags, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Christmas Card --  Stamps:  SU Many Merry Messages (retired)  Paper:  SU Whisper White, other black, gold mirror  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark  Other:  Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder, white embossing powder, Memory Box Pine Forest Frame

CAS Christmas Tree

Hello and happy Monday!  I hope you're well and keeping spirits up.  All is good when I'm in my stamp room and my Golden Retriever bubble where I can set everything else aside.  Speaking of which,  I set the summery cards aside for the moment so I can play along in the CAS Christmas Card Challenge.  The prompt is "Christmas Tree".  I could do a million of 'em with all the different Christmas tree stamps in my collection, but for now I have these two:

I used one Bugaboo digital stamp called Christmas Tree Row.  The digi image is a row of 6 trees, cut down the middle to make two cards.  Unfortunately the Stickles glitter did not photograph very prettily, tsk tsk.  I took multiple pics, the glitter was dry... too much time spent, so I called this one good.

CAS Christmas -- Christmas Tree

NBUS #18 -- My Bugaboo digi is a first time use.

All done for Monday Fun Day!  I'm running a little behind this week so I'm not certain when I'll pop in again.  It all depends on how the stars line up... or something.  Take care! 

Stamps:  Bugaboo Christmas Tree Row digi, Hero Arts Christmas Greetings  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, Bazzil white card base, red for mat, glitter paper scrap, Echo Park Story of Christmas designer paper  Ink:  Printer, Memento Tuxedo Black  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Sizzix Primitive Stars die, Stickles Golden Rod, Holiday Red, and Stardust glitter

Old Time Hollyhocks

Let's wrap up this busy week with Flowerful Friday and some pretty Power Poppy Old Time Hollyhocks.  This is a digital stamp and one of many I printed a while back and have not yet colored.  They're all sitting in a box and I love to look through them and take my time choosing.  It can be hard to narrow down the choices.

This one was printed on Neenah Super Smooth, so I colored with Copics and then stenciled the background.  Truthfully, it didn't turn out as pictured in my head, but certain things went wrong and... well... you know how it goes.  Products are listed below.

Whether end of summer or stepping into fall, my Power Poppy teamies have been coloring some lovelies to show you.  See here:

• Stacy
• Broni

I'm so glad you stopped by.  I just want to say how deeply sorry I am for the hardships all are facing due to the fires here in the west and the crazy weather all across the country.  Some of the smoke settled in on us here and it gave me just a hint of how awful it is for those who are closer to the fires.  Hugs to all!

Stamps:  Power Poppy Old Time Hollyhocks digital stamp  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, scrap designer paper  Ink:  Printer, SU Pool Party  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Self adhesive silver border strip, Carabelle Studio 'Tricot' stencil

Floral Frame Twice

Hi there!  Today I have two more cards made with the Stampendous Floral Frame stamp.  For the first card I did something a little different in that I stamped the floral part repeatedly to make a background.  The coloring is a little different, too.  It's Copics, but with absolutely no blending.  It's just simple and cheery.  The big "hello" is a Cottage Cutz, the hearts are punched.  I'll list everything below.

The next card is a quickie with more of the simple coloring.  I drew borders with a marker and punched the corners.  I don't know if you can see the subtle texture of the blue card base.  It was done with the new-to-me Subtle embossing folder from Stampin' Up!  I'm really loving that folder because it turns all my plain cardstock into textured cardstock.  I put the whole folded card in the folder so it's textured on all sides.

I have one more card for tomorrow and then we'll see about next week.  See you soon!

Card #1 -- Stamps:  Stampendous Floral Frame  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, black Bazzill, SU Rich Razzleberry textured  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black  Coloring:  Copics  Dies:  Center oval from Memory Box Oval Master Frame, Cottage Cutz Hello Phrase  Other:  SU 3 in 1 heart punch

Card #2 -- Stamps:  Stampendous Floral Frame  Paper:  X-Press It Blending Card, SU Bashful Blue  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Brilliant Blue marker  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  SU Subtle 3D embossing folder, McGill corner punch

Blooming Birthday

Welcome back and thanks for coming!

I'm using two of my newest stamps today -- Rubbernecker Brushed Flower #6 and Special Joy -- because I always need more birthday cards.  I have more new flowers from Rubbernecker and I'm loving all of them.  New favorites.  Just sayin'.

This is the simplest Copic coloring using only yellow and green because I'm playing along here:

Color Hues Challenge #1

It's also a very CAS design because of this challenge:

CAS Mix Up -- Embossing with Dies.  Several videos are linked on the challenge blog.  The one I watched is Embossed Impressions.  Now I finally have a die embossing sandwich that works great!  The die I used is Impression Obsession Fancy Cut Out Border.  I'm ready to go again on this technique.  It's way fun!

Of course, I have to link up with Darnell's NBUS Challenge #18 again, too.

That's all for today.  Thank you so much!