Hummingbirds are beautiful...

Hello again,

I fell in love with a card I made a long time again, and decided to duplicate it before giving it to a friend. I had so much fun, I made several!

First, I masked each card off with low tack masking tape, and left a narrow strip showing. I used my blending tool to blend two distress inks together. These two were created with Bundled Sage blended with Salty Ocean. Used water to create waterspots.

Then I removed the masking tape, and stamped the hummingbird with versamark ink and used a glittery black embossing powder. Then used my MISTI to stamp my sentiment straight.

These two were created by blending Picked Raspberry and lots of Salty Ocean.

On this bottom card, I tried a new twist on matting it in black. I tried to show just a sliver on top and on the bottom. I am not sure I like it. What do you think? I know you can not see it in the photos, but the hummingbird is very glittery. I wish the pictures did it justice! 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Allegro - Penny Black, Free flight - Penny Black, Mindscapes - Inkadinkado

Inks: Distress inks: Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Bundled Sage. 

Paper: Neenah Solar White, black cardstock and Stampin' Up! colored cardstock

Thanks for dropping by! More to come.

Cindy

Unity Stamps and Distress ink Galore!

Hello friends, welcome back!

I am on summer vacation, but I have not had a lot of time to do much creating. Whenever I get stuck, I run right back to my favorite stamps and I grab distress inks. You just can't go wrong, ever!

For this duo set, I used Neenah Solar White cardstock. I stamped the unity flowers in various distress inks by spraying the stamp with a spray bottle a bit before stamping to get the watercolor look. The lower stamps on the left card I forgot to spray, so they came out crisp. (I still like the look) 

Then I used salty ocean to blend the background avoiding the very center. Then I stamped the background image by stamping off a few times.Last I stamped the sentiment in the center using my MISTI to be sure it was straight.

The same goes for the Happy Birthday card, I just love the look of purple and blue. I think I stamped off three times to get a very light wording in the background.

I joined one challenge for these cards:

Addicted to Stamps and More- ANYTHING GOES

Thanks for stopping by!

Card details:
Stamps: Insightful Meadows by Unity stamp, Sentiments by various stamp sets, background, En Francis (Stampin' Up!) 
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White Cardstock, colored cardstock from Stampin' up
Inks: Various Distress inks and blending tool
Extras: Black Brads

Birthday Present to myself! Vintage Roses Altenew stamps

Hello again, thanks for stopping by,
I gave myself a present since my birthday was next week. Altenew was having a very RARE sale and discounted shipping, so I ordered a stamp set and the matching dies - entitled "Vintage Roses".  I have been eyeing this set for a while, and just couldn't think of anything else I wanted more!

I was SO excited when it arrived. I had to play with the roses, and download and print out the "cheat sheets" so that I could create the roses correctly. OMG, which inks do I use? Which colors work best? TOO many to choose from. So, I searched google, and only found combinations of ALTENEW's inks (makes sense, right?) But, I don't own any of their inks. So I looked for Stampin' Up combinations....didn't find any! Time to get inky! Here is my creation:

Vintage Roses by Altenew color combinations

My favorite combinations are the starred ones.  I tried all sorts of colors together. Of course, the same brand of ink looked the best together. I know my handwriting is horrible, but you get the idea. I even tried using one ink three times (in the lower left corner) Yuck. I got so excited about my trial and error color combinations, I haven't even created a card yet! Which ones do you like?Soon to come.

Live Love Cards challenge

Hello again!
I had a minute to join a challenge. I am a member of LIVE LOVE CARDS. It is a great community of stampers created by Darlene. Each month has a challenge. June's Challenge is to use a large Sentiment! I found the largest sentiment I owned and unmounted it! I get so nervous every time I do that. I have only unmounted a handful of stamps. I really wanted to use the stamp in my MISTI, so I ripped off the wood block and slapped it into my MISTI. It took 6 stampings to get it dark enough. Take a look.

I found a few more to join:
Addicted to Stamps and More- CAS 

Crafty Creation- ANYTHING GOES

The Crafty Addicts- ANYTHING GOES

Cindy

More Challenges...

I had time tonight to join the Wenesday Simon Says Stamp challenge! The challenge calls for the use of PATTERNED paper. EEECKS. I am so not good with papered paper. this was a challenge. However, I just purchased a unique pad of 6 by 6 paper last week that I was eager to use. Take a look.

I bought this at joann's. It was $6.99 on sale for 60% off. SAY WHAT? I think that is a no brainer. I had never seen anything like this before, and the colors and texture were wonderful! Less than $3. It's MINE!  :) I love purple, the blue is perfect, and the grey is awesome! I love getting a bargain, It makes me feel less guilty about spending money on my obsession! Better known as craft therapy!






Then I pulled out this pad, and used a sheet from it.

Here is my creation for the Simon Says Stamp challenge.

 I know you can't see it, but I heat embossed the letters several times, they are raised and shiny in real life.

I love the distress color combination! I used peacock feathers, wilted violet and salty ocean. My pictures do not bring out it's true colors! Thanks for stopping by!