Woodland Scene Shadowbox and Card

Happy Friday, all!  I'm back for one more share with the Shadowbox Collection by Becca Feeken.  Again I'm using the Adjustable Shadowbox Frame with 1/2" Border, but this time with the Layered Thinking of You Woodland Scene.

Just for fun I made a Christmas scene for the shadowbox.  No snow, just a woodland scene with green foliage, much like we'd see here on the Oregon Coast.  A brown deer and a white bunny.  I thought about cutting the bunny off, but there's no reason why you can't have a bunny in a Christmas scene.  Additional dies for dress up are Layered Poinsettia and Foliage.  I fashioned my own red polka dot corners.  Not sure it was a good idea, but they're not coming off now.

I made a card, too.  It's all guy with browns and wood grain card stock, but color added in the sponged background and the candy dot embellishments.  It took every ounce of self control I had to not make this all girly-cute.  I just know it would be so adorable with sweet colors and wildflowers!  We do have to think of the guys sometimes, though, don't we?

With these scene dies you can make such nice cards with minimal effort.  Seriously quick.  Maybe this weekend I'll make that sweet, feminine woodland scene with wildflowers.

Thanks for looking at my playtime with the Shadowbox Collection!  I sure had fun and it won't be the last of it.  I'll see you next week!

Sweet Birdie Shadowbox and Card

Hi, everyone!  I have the pleasure once again of designing with Spellbinders beautiful dies.  This time it's the Shadow Box Collection by Becca Feeken.  That link will take you to the entire shadowbox collection.  Specifically, today I'm sharing the Shadowbox Frame with 1/2" Border and the Layered Sweet Birdie Thanks Scene.  Let's start off with the shadowbox.

Isn't that the sweetest little spring scene?  I don't make many 3-D items, but I'll tell you these shadowbox scenes are addictive.  Instructions and videos are available at Spellbinders when you click on each shadowbox.  I watched a video once and closely followed step by step, and a few days later made another frame without looking at the instructions.  Easier than you might think!  These dies are an engineering marvel.

For this one I used a soft yellow-green card stock for the frame and covered just the front of it with designer paper, which I did before it was folded up.  All the parts for the scene were cut from card stock and designer paper, keeping it soft and simple.  The flowers and leaves in the corners are extra dies included in the set, and I dressed them up further with Spellbinders Bird Scrolls.

Not just for shadowboxes, the Layered Sweet Birdie Thanks Scene makes a darling card.  For the shadow box I left off the "thanks" die, but you can see it here, sentiment and scene in one arched window.  So cute!  I cut a paper panel with Scored and Pierced Rectangles, then cut the arched window into that.

I wanted to show you the inside of the card, too, so you can see an additional birdie die that comes with the set.   There's an even smaller bird, too.  Love!

Use one layer or all three.  Make a shadowbox any size and put anything you want in it.  Mix and match.  Personally, I 💗 these dies!

I'll be back Friday with more of the Shadowbox Collection by Becca Feeken.  Heads up:  It's Christmas and masculine, same shadowbox die, different scene.  Hope to see you then!

Twofer Challenge #14: Balloons

It's Twofer Time again, friends!  We're doing balloons this time, as you can see by the graphic below.  Make two cards for two different occasions, each a completely different design/layout.  Use stamps, dies or stencils, but most of all -- have fun!  If you need more clarification on the rules, please see the Twofer Blog here and here where Darnell has been very thorough.  FAQ here.

I've made one for birthday and one for Halloween.  I never come up with unconventional ideas for this challenge, but the Halloween card was the first thing that came to mind after the traditional birthday card.

I used similar colors on both cards which made for easy decisions.  Glitter paper for the die cut birthday balloons, and a Kaleidacolor pad to stamp the confetti.  Worked out just great!  I'm thinking these colors would be good for a fall birthday.

(Impression Obsession Ballons, Old Uptown Designs birthday sentiment, and old Stampin' Up! Background Basics confetti stamp)

Now, for the Halloween card... The balloons became ghosts when I put them in the square frames and added googly eyes.  The largest ghost has part of a balloon string for his crooked smile, and the mid-sized ghost has a mouth made from one of the inner pieces that pop out of a balloon string die when it's cut.  1/4" punched circles behind the googly eyes.  I gave the spider googly eyes, too, so he wouldn't look quite so fierce.

(Same Impression Obsession Balloons for the ghosts, Cheery Lynn Designs Happy Halloween Twiggy Wreath for the sentiment and spider, Cheery Lynn Spider Net, Cottage Cutz Double Stitched Square Set)

That's it from me!  I hope you'll hop over to the Twofer blog, get some ideas, leave some love, and consider playing along.  Have a happy day!

Oregon Coast Day Trip

On Goldens and Garden today:

Thank you!

Spring Border

Happy Friday, friends!  I have some flowers to share today.  Yes, I've been a busy card maker, but you know I love it, especially when it comes to coloring.  There's just something about watching the image develop.  I used Copics for this one.  The stamp is Power Poppy's recently released digital Spring Border One.

This particular flower border can also be found in the Natural Beauties clear stamp set, but I was able to print it slightly larger as a digi.  Rather than try to tell you all about the digi set, I'll just show you:

It's nice that it comes with individual flower images in case you don't feel like coloring a whole border.  Three very useful sentiments, too.  I colored the no line version and made this into a cheery "feel better" card.

By the way, there's a Spring Border Two, also, and I'm looking forward to coloring an image I printed from that set.  Hope it turns out!  See you again soon!

Hop into Spring!

Hi there!  I've been playing with bunnies and feeling like a kid again.  Oddly, I don't remember my kid toys being as much fun as my grown up toys.  Could it be that I'm more appreciative in my (ahem) maturity?

I'm using Spellbinders' March Small Die of the Month, called "Hop into Spring", and, gosh, I'm sure ready for that.  Bunnies and flowers and twiggy branches, a happy sentiment.  I've started with Easter colors and a bunny in a garden patch.  Small tulips on tall stems, green plants with flowers nestled in, a few carrots...

Then I thought I'd try some soft, muted colors.  Truthfully, I started out to make a baby card, but after cutting the two bunnies I was afraid I'd be locked into twins so I went with Easter instead.  Not your usual Easter colors, but I like it.  As you can see, I cut the bunnies in a white panel over designer paper, then fit the bunny outlines back into it.  It's so super easy I could do this over and over, and they're actually my favorite of the bunnies.  Add an eye dot and it brings them to life.  Imagine them with different colors and patterns.  I'm definitely going to make a baby card.

Finally, I set the bunnies aside, but used the same soft colors to make a spring card with a white twig wreath.  If you color the branches brown and leave the tips white they resemble pussy willows.  Yes, I did that, but it's another card for another day... along with the baby card I'm going to make.

The stamped sentiments are from my stash, but all dies and more are in the "Hop into Spring" set.  You can find information about the Small Die of the Month club here and see a nice variety of samples with this set.  It's adorable!

Thank you for your time.  Wishing you a very happy day!

It's a Stamping Bella Batch of Christmas Cards

Gee, I went a whole week without a blog post, but not without stamping.  There are limits to what a girl can endure.  I finished up a batch of Stamping Bellas, this being the last of my not-yet-colored Christmas Bellas, so I'm doing pretty good.  All are older stamps, some probably retired.  Not sure as I didn't look them up on the Stamping Bella site, but I do know that most or all can be found on Amazon.

I'll share them in the order in which they were made and list accessories below each photo.  All are Copic colored on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White.

The nice thing about starting early is that I can take time to play, and I do love to play.  The first is "Frostier" in a framed frosty scene.  Sparkle is courtesy of glitter paper and Stickles Stardust glitter glue.

(Dies:  Memory Box Wrapped Stitched Frames, Impression Obsession Tree Landscape Layers, Paper Smooches Hello Words)

The next is much simpler, just stitched up on some older Christmas designer paper.  This is "Santa Chick and his Helpers":

Pictured below is another one that involved some play, but the dies make it easy.  It's not as many layers as it appears.  The landscape hills are traced using the dies as a guide, and the trees were cut from the dies and rearranged to fit.  Lots of snowy microfine glitter on this scene featuring "Rudolph the Skating Reindeer":

(Dies:  Memory Box Wrapped Stitched Frames, Impression Obsession Tree Landscape Layers, Memory Box Frosty Border)

Last, but not least, is "Pamela the Poinsettia".   She's soooo pretty!  I cut her out and placed her on a panel which was ready made and sitting in my card parts drawer.  The Merry Christmas banner was also already cut and colored, which makes this probably the easiest of all four cards.

Total Christmas cards so far this year:  8

They're all finished on the inside and ready to mail.  I have a long way to go, but I'm already looking forward to starting the next batch.  I'm feeling motivated this year!  Have a happy day!

Clover and Pansies

Introducing a brand new digital stamp from Power Poppy today:  Clover and Pansies.  What a dream!

The whole time I was coloring this I had the old Lucky Charms cereal commercial stuck in my head -- pink hearts, orange stars, yellow moons, and green clovers.  Now, there is none of that in this painting, other than the green clover.  Nevertheless, I couldn't get it out of my head.  I even Googled the commercials while I was looking up varieties of clover and pansies.  I tell you, this craft can take you all over the place.

So... this is my watercolor results with Gansai Tambi paints:

And check out Marcella's graphic:

Wow!  I always appreciate Marcella's release notes, too, because I wasn't sure about the littlest flowers.  She states they're Forget-Me-Nots, and it seems so obvious now, but I honestly was stumped.  Gosh, imagine all the beautiful ways you can color this!

"The third installment of our Café au Lait bowl bouquets overflows with spring favorites.  Four-leaf Clovers and their pom-pom-like flowers, Pansies in a variety of sizes and patterns, and sprigs of Forget-Me-Nots make for a rich look.  Color your clovers in shades of green for St. Patrick's Day, or go for the more unique dark purples and pinks with contrasting stripes.  The symbolism of the botanicals in this bouquet convey good luck, love and remembrance."

There are two versions in the set -- no line and black line. I printed the no-line version with no fiddling around in Photoshop; just printed the way it comes.  Sized to fit on a 5" square card with designer paper border.  I added a strip of gold trim and some gold paint splatters to finish.

Up close you can see all the good stuff, plus all the imperfections.  The nice thing about watercolor is that you can get by with a few imperfections.  Call it "loose" and "artist's interpretation".  I don't want to minimize the tender loving care that went into my painting, though.  It took time and layering and touching up.  Three different sit downs because we've been so busy lately and I didn't want to rush it.  Watercolor makes me slow down and relax.  I can feel the hush and calm wash over me.

Lastly, please do stop over to the Power Poppy Blog where Marcella has posted all about her new release.  She'll link you up with the other Instant Gardeners who are sharing Clover and Pansies today.  You won't want to miss a thing, trust me.

Hugs and love and happy day to all!