Beautiful Poppies

I'm a very keen gardener and I have many favourite flowers.  I love poppies - from the simple California and Welsh poppies to the fancier Oriental poppies.  Penny Black has made some gorgeous poppy flowers so I chose one of them for this month's Penny Black and More Challenge "In the Garden" and The Flower Challenge "Use a Previous Challenge" (I chose "A Favorite Flower").

Here's my card:

I put the poppy stamp in my MISTI and stamped it with Distress Antique Linen on hot press watercolour paper.  I then inked the stamp with a combination of mini Distress inks and Distress markers, spritzing occasionally and only very lightly, and inking / stamping numerous times till I was happy with the results.

When thoroughly dry, I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment - I thought it was quite appropriate for the Penny Black "In the Garden" challenge.  I added a few sequins and popped it up on fun foam on a dark red card base.

Here's a close-up to show the great sentiment and the blending of colours on the poppies:

It will go to one of my sisters as a birthday card.

Penny Black "In the Garden"

The Flower Challenge

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Spontaneous Joy, Technique Junkies sentiment

Ink - various Distress mini inks and markers, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, dark red cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - clear embossing powder, red sequins, fun foam

Twofer Trees

I think Darnell's Twofer challenges are really challenging!  I'm amazed by some of the ideas people come up with.  Me, I just don't see my supplies that way - my brain can't move beyond them doing with them what they're intended to do and no more.

At least I can do the "two different occasions" part of the challenge!  My cards for this months's Twofer challenge ("Trees") came about because I wanted to make a "new home" card for my sister who just bought a new house that has some big fir trees out front - making me think of a die I have with houses and fir trees.  It's a die I bought mainly for Christmas cards but in this case, it was ideal for the "new home" card.

First up, the Christmas card.  I've been enjoying making some galaxy backgrounds lately so at our recent craft retreat, I led everyone in creating galaxy backgrounds.  The basic technique is this:

Sponge various colours of Distress Oxides onto watercolour paper (bright colours).  Using Black Soot Distress Oxide, press pad onto acrylic block and spritz with water.  Lightly tap over top of sponged background until most of the areas are covered, leaving some of the colour showing through.  Alternatively you can smoosh diluted Black Soot ink onto the background.  If too much black ink is added and not enough colour is showing, then you can add more colour on top, but it will be subtle.  Splatter with white paint to finish.

Then I trimmed down the panel, added the die cut, a stamped sentiment, and a pierced frame.  Here's a close-up:

The second card has a splashed background in three shades of blue Distress oxide ink, with the die cut, stamped sentiment, and fun foam under the panel to give some dimension.

Thanks, Darnell, for another fun challenge!

Twofer Card Challenge: 

And I'm taking the Christmas one over to Christmas Cards All Year Round where the challenge is "use non-traditional colours".

Supplies:

Stamps - sentiments - A Muse (card 1), PTI (card 2)

Ink - various Distress Oxide inks

Paper - mixed media cs for the backgrounds, white cs

Size - 4.75" square, A2

Accessories - MFT Pierced Square frame die, Ali Express die, fun foam

Bird Watcher's Birthday

A friend's husband is turning 65 and she's hosting a party for him in July and when I saw the Paper Players' "Birds" challenge, it was a good prompt to get a card made for him as he's a keen bird watcher.

I kept my card in muted masculine colours:

I put the bird stamp in the MISTI and coloured it up with various Distress markers and stamped onto rustic cs.  I bordered with dark brown and popped the panel up on fun foam on a rustic cs card base.

The sentiment is on a label die cut with nail head embellishments.

There are lots of birds singing in my garden and visiting my feeder - I hope it's the same for all of you!  They bring me so much joy.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Best Birds

Ink - SU Baked Brown Sugar

Paper - rustic and dark brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Distress markers, nail heads, Kaisercraft label die, fun foam

Two Very Different Challenge

I have some spare time today so I'm here to post cards for two very different challenges.

First up a Christmas card for AAA Cards:

Using an old hexagon punch and a bunch of scraps of glitter cs, I created a border around the simple heat embossed sentiment "noel" that is also punched out as a hexagon.

Next up, is a card for a good friend.  It's one of my favourite friendship sentiments.  It's for the Less is More challenge.

I sprinkled red brushos over a heart stencil and spritzed with water.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment over them in black, bordered with red, and popped up on fun foam.

I'll be back tomorrow with cards for some other challenges.  It's too hot to work in the garden today so a good chance to do indoor crafty things!!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Gold

Paper - white cs, scraps of glitter cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - gold embossing powder, hexagon punch

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Kay Foley sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx black

Paper - white and red cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Heidi Swapp "confetti" stencil, red brushos, clear embossing powder, fun foam