A Little Birdie

Hello, friends!  A little birdie told me it was time to color something pretty so, even though my coloring mojo has been evading me lately, I decided to go for it with one of my prettiest not-yet-used stamps -- Stampendous Bird Frame.

Is that not the sweetest thing?  I fell in love with it.  I watercolored with Gansai Tambi paints.  Very light and delicate, telling myself not to fuss.  I do want to color this again, especially because there are a bazillion sentiments with the set.

I added the tiniest bit of glitter to the petal and leaf edges, plus three iridescent sequins.  It wasn't a good picture day.  Image is somewhat washed out while the yellow frame appears more vibrant than it actually is.  Nevertheless, it's cheerful and sweet and will be nice for a May birthday.

The frame is Cheery Lynn Dutch Daisy Boutique Stacker A2 Frame.  Image is cut with Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets.  They are not new dies, but the stamp is new so I'm sending this card over to NBUS Challenge #13.

Thank you all for stopping by.  I hope you're doing okay in all respects.  I'll be here again on Friday.  Hugs!

Little Frog and a Lotta Dots

I haven't given up on coloring, but a little break feels right for the time being.  I just need to play.  We're doing quite well at our house, staying home except for necessities and exercise.  We're social distancing and wearing our homemade masks when we go to the store.  That was one of my busy projects, sewing a few masks.  I no longer have a lot of sewing supplies (gave up for paper crafting), but I had just enough 1/4" elastic for four masks, which I made from old pillowcases.  Not so pretty, but functional.

Well, anyway, here's my very colorful and whimsical card that was hugely fun to design and simply makes me smile:

First of all, I want to mention that the reason the little brush is in the picture is because I used it to brush on the bit of blue around the frog.  Just a touch.  I didn't want to do the whole background.  The handy little brush was included in my set of Beauty Kate make up blending brushes.

The little girls next door will be turning 9, 5, and 3 yrs old this year and I'm all out of kids' cards, so I might as well start getting ready.  The frog is one of my 95 cent Cottage Cutz dies.  I didn't even know I needed him until I saw him.  He's only 2 parts -- the body and the eyes.  Easy peasy.  I thought he would look cute with the boots and umbrella.  The "hi" is three layers of black, and as you can see, I went dotty with everything else.

Are those boots cute, or what?  The boots and umbrella are a Frantic Stamper set.  I'll list everything below my signature.

My other reasons for making this card are:

Double D Challenge:  Banners and NBUS Challenge #13 (I'll make a pest of myself at NBUS because I'm on a mission to use all my never-before-used schtuff.)  The frog, dotted curve, and boots are all NBUS.


Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope to get caught up on my blog visiting soon.  Stay well!

Dies used on today's card:  Cottage Cutz Frog Mini, Paper Smooches Hello Words, Frantic Stamper Rainy Day Necessities, Poppystamps Dotted Curve, Memory Box Banner Parade

Trees 4 Sale

Hello, and welcome to a new week!  I'm back with more Cottage Cutz Christmas today -- three cards with the Trees 4 Sale die.  It's another new-to-me and not-yet-used die from a January order.  As I've mentioned a time or two, I have a weakness for Cottage Cutz dies and, in fact, another order is on its way -- 13 more dies.  Seriously, the prices in the sale category... you can sort "low to high"... it took a lot of restraint to whittle my order down to 13.

It's a one-piece die, but when colored it appears to be a bunch of little pieces all put together.  I made a simple background of Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink, blushed on with a make up blending brush.  Coloring was done with Copics.  The Snowflake Banner is by La-La Land and appears to be retired.  I had 3 that a friend had cut and sent to me.  Now I have none, boo hoo.

You can't see much sparkle in the photo, but the red star on the tree is covered with red Stickles glitter.  I did my best to keep it simple.

Did you see that Darnell re-started her NBUS Challenge?  NBUS:  Never before used schtuff.   Whatever it is, doesn't matter how long you've had it, if you haven't used it yet it's NBUS.  All challenges are anything goes.  You can read more on the challenge blog.  I have plenty of NBUS, such as today's Trees 4 Sale, so I'll be playing along a lot!

Pictured below are my NBUS dies.  I make an envelope for every die, same size as the Memory Box and Poppystamps envelopes.  Therefore, the dies in the stack are from miscellaneous companies.  Uniform size makes them easier to store.  If it's bigger than A2 size, it goes into a 5x7 envelope.  They are all indexed in bins by category and easy to flip through to find something.  I tried magnetic pages in a folder and it just didn't work for me.

As of this writing I'm still waiting for the new Cottage Cutz order to arrive.  I know!  Sometimes I feel sheepish about the excess and that's why I have to get serious about whittling down this NBUS pile.  This is just the dies.  The stamps are another whole story.

Wishing you a very happy day!

Let it Be

Hello, my friends!  I colored a Power Poppy digital stamp for today.  It was a freebie a few years ago and I don't think it's available now, but I thought the sentiment was quite appropriate for our current situation.  Most of you will recognize the Beatles' song which inspired the stamp.  With its comforting lyrics and soothing melody I couldn't get it out of my head for the longest time.

Edited to add:  It's back!  This free digital download is back in the shop and available here.

I colored with Copics and applied glossy accents to the letters.   Found some older designer paper that coordinated nicely, and even added a couple of brads.

I typed the word, "free", into the search field in the Power Poppy shop and these results popped up.  See the first 5 items.  There are some pretty things I'd forgotten about!

Now, I'll direct you to the Power Poppy blog where I believe you'll see more team samples -- miscellaneous this and that, and all a delight to the eyes.

You all take care of yourselves, keep on enjoying life, and let the rest of it be.  Hugs to all!

Two Christmas Cards

Hello, again!  I spent a few mornings making Christmas cards, starting with some of my newer Cottage Cutz dies for which I have a serious weakness.  Love shopping the retired list at Scrapping Cottage.  I do have to be careful not to select sets with too many small parts or I won't use them enough.  The die I used today, however, is perfect!

It's called Christmas Border -- all one part, sentiment included, and it cuts beautifully.  For each card I cut once in white and once in a coordinating darker color, then layered for depth.  I added some old Spellbinders Create-a-Flake-Five snowflakes.

Both cards have backgrounds made with Distress Oxide inks.  Splattered first with water and then with diluted white acrylic paint.  The first card is Chipped Sapphire and Milled Lavender.  The next card is Seedless Preserves

So simple.  A lot of my Christmas cards this year will be made with Cottage Cutz dies.  I've built up quite a collection, I kid you not.  The good thing is that the CC Christmas dies always get used... in multiples.

Have a fabulous day!

Got Mail?

I like the idea of sending out lots of happy mail at a time like this, and that's when blank cards or all occasion cards come in handy.  This weekend I colored the last of my not-yet-colored Alex Syberia digis.  It's appropriately called Happy Mail.  I colored with Copics and you can probably tell I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the coloring, but that's what I love about it -- it doesn't have to be complex to be pretty.

The pink splattery background was cut with an ages old Spellbinders die.  It was laying around, plain white, needing to be used, but a little spiffing up was required, so I brushed on some Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide ink and splattered with lightly dilute white acrylic paint.  Another ancient Spellbinders die was used to cut the sentiment.  All the parts were put together with a little strip of designer paper onto a wood grain cardstock base.

Honestly, I'm not finding more time to craft because of "staying at home".  I still have a house and garden to care for, I have a husband and two dogs.  I cook, do laundry, clean a room now and then, take the dogs out, do the online banking and bill paying.  Yesterday I made the first three months of our yearly photo book and I ordered a new (and awesome) compact camera to carry in my pocket when we go out with the dogs.  I read, watch movies, text and email with friends, the list goes on... and sometimes I make cards.  It's a small town life.  Not so bad right now.

Sending wishes for good health and happiness.  Be safe and find contentment in the little things if you can.  Hugs!

Lucky to Live Here

On Goldens and Garden today:

More pics there.  Hope you can drop by!

It's a Beautiful Day

I've wanted to color this digital stamp forever and it finally happened.  My particular version is watercolored and I totally made up how the orchids should be colored, but for all I know there may be orchids exactly like this.  Honestly, coloring is a lot easier when you make it up as you go along.

The stamp is a Power Poppy digital -- Perched in the Orchids -- and, yes, it's on sale right now.
Sentiment is from the retired and sold out (sad face) -- Best Day Ever.
Watercolor was done with a combination of Gansai Tambi paints and Tombow dual brush markers.

Seriously, I had to use this sentiment.

Inside is quickly finished with another sentiment from the retired set plus a stamp from the clear set -- Orchids Rock.  Love that set and its sentiments.

The massive sale is still going on at Power Poppy.  Many clear stamps and digis on sale plus there are offers on free shipping for domestic orders and discount shipping for international orders.  Some of these clear sets are retiring (sob, sniff, sad face), but Marcella needs room for the new stamps that will be coming soon (happy face).  See all SALE items here.

That's all from me, friends!  I will direct you to the Power Poppy blog where team samples will blow you away.  Gorgeous stuff!  Links will be provided there so you can leave some comment love with the designers.  These girls are somethin' else.  Really.

Have a happy and healthy day!