Pastel rainbows make my heart happy!

[Hi! I’ve honestly been making all sorts of things over the past year. I just haven’t taken the time to blog about them. This time I’m blogging because one of the challenges I was inspired by wants a link to the challenge and this is the best way I know how to do that.]

The Pinkfresh Studio Monthly Challenge for May is all about rainbows!

I had been asked by my mother-in-law to create six 80th birthday cards for her to give to her friends. I adapted one card design from a class for the first one and this one I thought would be fun to design myself for this challenge.

Thankfully, I found the perfect paper from Pinkfresh’s Happy Heart collection – it has a pastel rainbow down the front. Then I took different elements from some of the other parts of the collection including papers, chipboard frames, ephemera, and enamel dots (along with a few Pinkfresh metallic pearls) to create the front of my card.

Here’s how it turned out:

I had fun finding all of the “happy” words in the different forms (paper pad, ephemera, and chipboard frames), and it was fun picking what elements I would put in each of the rainbow areas.

For the inside, I was inspired by a video from Jennifer McGuire where she embossed her card base to create some lovely texture behind the papers of her card, so I used the Lush Vines Hot Foil Plate to dry emboss my card base. I cut down the papers for the inside to show off that border and added the Happy Birthday from the Rainbow Sentiments Ephemera Pack along with “80” diecut from another patterned paper in the set with the Heather Lowercase dies for one side of the inside and used ephemera pieces and the Alphabet Stickers for the sentiment and elements on the right side (the card base was from a Photoplay pop-up card kit.)

I finished off the tag with a bit of gold cord (and the “80” frame is cut from Spellbinders Mirror Gold Cardstock.)

I was surprised how much fun I had making this card with absolutely no ink or stamps and no foam tape!

Thanks so much to Pinkfresh Studio for the inspiration to use these fabulous products that have obviously been waiting to be used for a while!

I hope you have a chance to create something you love very soon!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Ruth

P.S. This isn’t required, but I am very happy to share another source of inspiration! Firefly Farm offers all kinds of classes and bundles and challenges (lots of them online) and also some fabulous gifts and of course lots of crafty goodness. As part of the May Surprise Bundle Challenge Firefly Farm supplied the Photoplay Paper Pop-up card base and the challenge to use an included piece of paper in the card design. I would not have this card design if it weren’t for this fun challenge (I received the Happy Heart papers and enamel dots as part of a previous challenge from Firefly Farm and I added the ephemera and chipboard frames to my order!) Right now Firefly Farm is offering a June Creative Crate, A Berry Scooby-Doo! Cardmaking Edition which feature Lea Lawnson (from Pinkfresh Studio) along with other great companies and instructors. Trisha always makes these events so much fun and the kits are always amazing! I can’t recommend them enough for a fun change of pace!

Red, White, and Moo?

Yes, I am creating this post the week of the Fourth of July and there is red, white, and blue (and moos), and although it’s not actually a patriotic project it is inspired in part by the Simon Says: Red, White, and/or Blue Monday Challenge. It happens to be my daughter’s 23rd birthday on Friday and since she works in Research and Development for dairy and beef producers and loves the cows and cute stuff I thought it’d be fun to have cute cows on her card. And the inside sentiment along with the color theme inspired the design. Here’s my card:

the inside:

I was delighted when the inspiration struck to create a pastiche (a type of artistic homage) to The Starry Night by Van Gogh. I wanted to make a night sky that was bright, but receding because I wanted the cow and barn to be “stars” (hehe – yes, I’m delighted by the pun) and since it’s a birthday card for someone who should still be pretty excited about having a birthday and loves animals. I did some research into trying to recreate the look with watercolor and found this video from Vanessa Paints (YouTube link) and this one from Sandy Allnock (YouTube link) and you can see that I definitely used ideas from them, but also kind of did my own thing and just kind of let things flow. I did create two ‘trial’ pieces before I discovered which elements I loved the most and I am delighted with the outcome.

The stamps and dies are from Newton’s Nook Moo set stamped with Tim Holtz BASICS Distress Archival Ink in Black Soot on Arches Cold Pressed 140lb watercolor paper. All of the paints are from Vanessa’s small, independent shop where she makes the colors by hand. I used Indigo, Mayan Yellow, and Salt Water for the sky and Sprout Red for the barn. Fae’s blood was used for the silver elements, Ghost for the white, and Sleepy Hollow for the black (the last two from Fall releases from The Sprout Creative.)

I did add some Glossy Accents to try and make the cows dark brown eyes stand out more.

I thought about adding some kind of frame for the card front “artwork”, but in the end, I loved how it filled the card front and how the elements were placed in the composition.

The inside was stamped with a sprinkle design and also lightly ink-blended with Distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Prize Ribbon, and Blueprint Sketch. I used a Uniball Signo Silver gel pen to outline the sentiment so it would stand out a bit more from the background.

I hope my daughter loves this card as much as I loved creating it. I think you might be seeing a whole lot more sky painting from me because I am really loving it as a theme.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sending happy thoughts and wishes for creative time to you.

Ruth

Hello Happy Floral Fun Fold!

Well, I’m done with February birthdays, but working on my birthday card stash because April showers bring more birthdays in April, May, and June, right? Gina K Designs is hosting a FEBRUARY 2022 MONTHLY MIX CHALLENGE for Fun Folds and since this isn’t something I do very often I thought it’d be super fun to do! Also the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes, so this definitely qualifies as anything!

I had signed up for a subscription to Let’s Stamp Together through Scrapbook & Cards Today (you can click on the highlighted name to check out the link for information about the program) and wanted to use the sweet Hello Happy Floral stamp, die, and stencil set from the January kit to create my card and ink colors and techniques for ink blending that Gina K used in her video for this kit.

Here’s what I created:

I found it hard to photograph the fun fold, but hopefully you will get a feel of how it turned out from my pictures.

I used Lucky Clover and Turquoise Sea inks along with Gina K blending brushes and a die cut from the Master Layouts 1 and I used Turquoise Sea cardstock for the card base.

I added some more shine by adding Pinkfresh Studio Gold Metallic Pearls with some Gina K Connect glue (honestly my favorite liquid glue tube.)

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’re having a fabulously creative weekend!

Ruth

Love to Celebrate You

I’m back. My mom and Mother-in-Law have birthdays that are a day apart so I’ve been busy trying to make beautiful cards to celebrate these wonderful women.

I was inspired by the  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge SLIMLINE CARDS and Pinkfresh FEBRUARY 2022 CHALLENGE, here’s the graphic from Pinkfresh:

I thought the colors as well as the theme worked really well so I created this card:

I started by using gold embossing on the floral image from the Heartfelt Thanks Stamp Set. I used the suggested colors: Coral Reef, Candy Apple, Aquamarine, and Mermaid Cove for the ink blending with the Heartfelt Thanks Slimline Layering Stencil on Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB Smooth Solar White cardstock. I added Lawn Fawn Gold Stencil Paste for the flower centers and die cut the card front with the largest rectangle from the Essentials Blanket Stitch Slimline & Mini Slimline Rectangles set. I splattered the pink and red inks (mixed with some water on my Ranger Non Stick Craft Sheet) and some Coliro Watercolor Gold Pearl around the card front as well as the sentiment strip from the Foiled Sentiments.

I ink blended the pinks together on my Neenah Solar White 80 lb cardstock to create an ombre effect, die cut it out with the ‘love’ die from the Essentials Classic Word Die Set and then cut the shadow layer from Neenah Solar White 80 lb cardstock three times. I used a bit of white gel pen to cover up some of the words on the Foiled Sentiment so that I could fit the ‘love’ over part of it and have it look more natural.

I added some Metallic Gold Pearls as a finishing touch.

I get a breather from important birthdays for a little while. Do you have a time of the year when you have a lot of birthdays to celebrate and create for? In some ways it’s nice because I get into a bit of a groove and it’s easier to create when I’m in that groove.

I hope you are able to have some fun creating! It was so nice working on these cards while the sun was shining brightly. Even though a lot of these days have been fairly cold, it’s so much less distracting than a nice day in summer!

Ruth

Aging Beautifully

Hi! Once again it’s a busy February of cardmaking. I’m thankful for the opportunity to celebrate those I love by sending them a handmade card.

I love creating for challenges because it usually helps with making decisions about what to use to create. This is very helpful when you have so many amazing products in your stash and don’t know where to start. Today’s inspiration was from the Altenew February 2022 Inspiration Challenge. This gave me the products that I would choose from as well as a color scheme.

Here’s the graphic for the challenge:

Here’s what I created:

I used the Paint-A-Flower: Paeonia Japonica Outline Stamp Set and a sentiment from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set, which I embossed with white embossing powder on Distress Watercolor cardstock. I found the perfect paint colors in my stash of The Sprout Creative watercolors.

I used Memory for the background, Sunflower for the flower centers, and Bouquet for the leaves. I mixed Memory and Sunflower together to create the shadow colors in the flower petals. Once dry I added Fantasia on the petals to create a shimmer.

I did add a bit of black Micron pen to the top line of letters in the sentiment to help give them more definition (the embossing wasn’t the best on all of the letters and overall it just wasn’t popping like I had hoped it would.)

I hope you have a beautiful day and are able to create something to help celebrate someone you love.

Ruth

Furry Friends Layer Cake!

Hi! I hope you are healthy and happy! I have a fun box card to share with you today!

This card was very late (6 months +), but I did create other cards that were given on time for graduation, encouragement, and Christmas so I’m hoping that the fun factor of this one makes it more of a “let’s extend the celebration” kind of thing for my daughter.

My daughter moved to another state and that allowed her to adopt a kitty last winter (since I am highly allergic to all furry critters.) The challenge of Simon Says; Furry Friends seemed perfect for creating a birthday cake card for her since her new kitty, Ellie, is definitely a good friend!

Do you think this cuteness will make up for the lateness?

I used My Favorite Things HOUSECATS stamp set and HOUSECATS Dies Die-Namics for the kitties, along with their Outside the Box Die-namics (which I cut down to fit the cake pedestal), My Favorite Things POP-UP BANNER Dies Die-Namics for the banner, and a retired Die-namics for the cake layers.

I had a lot of fun trying to create different fur and in this case breeds of cats with watercolors.

I used handmade watercolors from The Sprout Creative for all the watercoloring. Vanessa creates some wonderful collections (some of which are limited release.) I mostly used the Pride Collection (cake layers, banners, and kitty eyes), some Spooky Neutrals for kitty fur along with Amber for the orangey tones and Ruby Rose mixed with Ghost for pink areas, Cotton Candy for a shimmery background for the panels, and Stardust to fill out the rainbow.

I love the contrast of the bright, shimmery colors with the neutrals of the kitties.

This is my watercolor version of Ellie. I put her on the cake pedestal, where she belongs;-).

The Happy Purrthday sentiment is from the same Housecats stamp set, the numbers are from a retired MFT set, and the secondary sentiment is from Honey Bee INSIDE BIRTHDAY SENTIMENTS Clear Stamp Set. I thought it was perfect for this time of year!

I hope you enjoyed this mult-layered, multi-legged project! Take care and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Ruth

Lovely friend, lovely sentiment!

So, I’m back to creating cards. Currently, I’ve got birthdays, Mother’s Day, and graduation cards to create. My friend’s birthday was last week, but we are getting together next week, so I’m good and I’m so blessed to have products that inspire me!

But first, there are those that create projects and then I get ideas for what is available, Donna Idlet is one of those creators. While I was inspired by a card she created with a different stamp set from the Gina K. Designs Forever Flowers Card Kit, I still appreciate that she opened my eyes to this wonderful kit and the possibilities it held!

Let’s look at what I created:

Currently, the Monthly Mix challenge at Gina K is to use Die-Cut Sentiments and I definitely wanted to use the lovely Birthday die from the Forever Flowers Card Kit. I wanted the sentiment to really stand out from the card base so I cut it from 110 lb cardstock twice and 80 lb Neenah Solar White once and glued those layers together then colored the layers with copic markers. I cut the shadow from vellum to allow the lovely flowers to show through while still allowing the birthday die cut to shine. I love the grouped flowers in the Lace Flowers stamp set that was in the kit and had a lot of fun coloring that image after stamping it in Obsidian Amalgam Ink.

Also, the Mod Squad Challenge Blog has a Flowers – Spring Has Sprung challenge, which was so easy with this card kit. And an Anything Goes Challenge at  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is always fun to create for!

Here’s a detail of the sentiment:

And I highly recommend Connect Glue, if you like a glue that is a little on the thicker side, but doesn’t dry immediately and has a nice fine tip for application. I just dabbed it on for the die cut layers and didn’t end up with a mess and used it for the sequins as well. It’s got enough body that I just set the sequins on it and that was enough for the jewel picker to let it go, which is awesome!

Oh, yeah, and I cut my main panel and shadow panel (that I colored with copics to match my other coloring) with the Master Layouts 2 dies. These are great dies for creating layers on your cards easily with just the smallest border.

OK, so onward to my other projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a fabulous day and are able to create something!

Ruth

Happy Bee-day!

I know not everyone loves bees like I do and I know some people are allergic which is definitely problematic, but I think their fuzzy bodies are wonderful and I am fascinated to watch them busily visiting flowers. I have a couple of people in my life who I think about when I think about bees. One of them is my sister, whose name, Deborah, is supposed to mean “the bee” (growing up I definitely understood the whole “sting like a bee” metaphor when it came to her enforcement of the space she required me to give her!) She is celebrating a birthday this month, just like Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge so I made her a fun bee card, if you can bee-lieve that!

I struggle with designing cards. I always like to look for inspiration in the form of a sketch or a card that uses the same products. In the case of this card, the stamps and dies I wanted to use were from Hello Sweetums which is no longer in business, so when I searched the name of the stamp set I found a number of different cards with similar themes, but different products.

I really liked the way Dana Kirby used the small stamps from the set to create a background paper that was tone on tone as well as how she spotlighted her sentiment and a few images from the set in a simple shape:

There are not as many small images in the Bees Knees stamp set I was using, but I still felt like I could use the same idea.

Here’s what I did:

I couldn’t resist using my hexagon dies for the shape and I colored the flower with my sister’s favorite color (I love this kind of inspiration!)

I didn’t want to use the cute birthday sentiment on the front and then be left with nothing on the inside, so I thought the Hive Five! would be fun for the front and the inside looks like this:

Thankfully, my sister doesn’t follow my blog so this will be our secret until her birthday at the end of the month!

I loved the cute images in this stamp set and am very thankful for Dana’s design inspiration and the theme and color inspiration my sister provided!

I hope you have a fabulous day! Please let me know if you have any tips for how to design your cards! I’d love to hear them!

Happy crafting,

Ruth

Products I used on this card :

Hello Sweetums Bees Knees stamps and dies

Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Watermark 

PinkFresh Studio BASIC LABEL FRAMES Essentials Die Set

GEMINI Die-Cutting & Embossing Machine

My Favorite Things Pineapple Prestige Card Stock

Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE

Bazzill LICORICE TWIST Card Shoppe Heavy Weight 8.5 x 11 Cardstock

Lawn Fawn JET BLACK Premium Ink Pad

Spectrum Noir DULL GREEN BLEND TriBlend Marker

Spectrum Noir GOLD YELLOW BLEND TriBlend Marker

Copic Sketch Marker B00 FROST BLUE

Copic Sketch Marker B02 ROBIN’S EGG BLUE

Copic Sketch Marker Y13 LEMON YELLOW

Copic Sketch MARKER Y15 CADMIUM YELLOW

Zig Memory System Wink Of Stella Pen (I used Black 010 and Clear 999) these are really nice with a very fine tip I used for giving a touch of sparkle to eyes, antennae [black], and wings [clear])

Kuretake ZIG 2 Way Glue Pen – Chisel

3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Permanent