Stamplorations Two-fer

I only needed two tries to make this card work - I wanted to combine the current theme, sketch, and CAS challenges at STAMPlorations, and I did it!

Supplies: STAMPlorations birthday sentiment; PTI 'dots' grid'; unknown floral stamps; Tim Holtz bubbles stencil; Twisted Citron & Mustard Seed distress ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics & Sharpies

I coloured the big blooms in shades of red to go with the twist for the CAS challenge, and as a single-layer card I think this qualifies as CAS - or at least it does for me, lol. 

There are three big flowers, 3 buds, and 3 grids, to go with the theme challenge of triplets, and I used the sketch as well. 

I masked the large flowers, coloured them, and masked them again to add the stenciling and then some yellow sponging to highlight. 

STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch challenge:

STAMPlorations CAS Card Challenge:

A brief health update - physio last week went horribly wrong, and a therapeutic technique that had been helping to relieve the pain ended up causing serious horrible pain. It's been a discouraging few days being back to where I started with this injury, but nerves are funny things. I know it won't take as long to see improvement this time around, but it's definitely frustrating being unable to do the things I enjoy (or even the things I need to do...my house looks like a tornado hit!) 

xoxo,

Jessi

STAMPlorations Dragonfly

Nothing like entering at the last minute - I made this card for the January Sketch & Theme challenge at STAMPlorations and just had too hard a time sitting at the computer to type up my post! I used the sketch & also the theme of Clean & Simple - leaving white space as a priority, and not going too over-the-top with embellishments:

Supplies: Dragonfly stamp from PSX; sentiment stamp from STAMPlorations; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Wilted Violet distress ink; Spectrum Noir marker; Sizzix embossing folder; Diamond stickles; random bling

I used a snippet of unused dipped paper that went well with the purple & pink tones for the side panel. The dragonfly was stamped twice, and the wings fussy cut to pop them up. They were coloured with exactly the same marker as the body, and the Stickles turned them this awesome hot pink. Happy unexpected thing! 

You've got just under 24 hours to share your project with STAMPlorations - hurry up! 

xoxo,

Jessi

Vellum Poppies

I am noticing that watercoloured cards are very popular with my customers, so this week I made a point of doing quite a few of them. Or, I should say - of starting them. I have tons of panels and maybe half of them made into actual ready cards. Ahem. Anyway, that was perfect for incorporating a couple of challenges this morning - the Just Us Girls challenge to use vellum, and the Stamplorations challenge to use stamps & watercolouring. 

Supplies: Unknown poppy stamp; Reverse Confetti sentiment; Versamark & clear EP; Palette Noir ink; watercolour paper; smidge of vellum; Distress inks for watercolouring - ripe persimmon, festive berries, tumbled glass, broken china, peeled paint; Tim Holtz design ruler & embroidery supplies

This is one of those cards that just didn't quite know what it wanted to be - I was initially planning to wrap the vellum over the image, the background cardstock was going to be red, etc etc. The offset turquoise layer and the stitching ended up making me very happy. The poppy stamp was masked and stamped twice to create a longer panel. To get the coloured embossed sentiment, I inked first with Versamark & then with Festive Berries. 

Just Us Girls:

Stamplorations:



xoxo,
Jessi

Playing with Inks & Stamps!

I've been having a play with lots of stamping this week - pretty sure I've used at least half of my inks! This one I had zero plan when I started out, and just kept going with it.

Supplies: Stampendous medallion stamp and clear detail EP; Hero Arts sentiment; Unity butterfly; Distress inks in Picked Raspberry & Peacock Feathers; Route 66 Tattered Angels glimmer mist; Tim Holtz design ruler & embroidery supplies; classic small circle Nesties; vellum; Wink of Stella clear glitter pen

I began by inking the medallion with both Distress Inks and then liberally spraying with glimmer mist. After stamping it & letting it dry (and realizing I had accidentally cut off the edge of the image, doh) I decided on this offset layout. I sewed the medallion panel onto the purple cardstock & then stamped the sentiment...which resulted in uneven inking & thus the Wink Of Stella to the rescue to pull the ink around a bit. I stamped the butterfly on the vellum with Picked Raspberry and quickly embossed it, stitched that on, and tada! 

I'm entering this over at STAMPlorations:

And The Pink Elephant - Anything Goes

xoxo,

Jessi

Flashback Flowers!

Squeaking in at the last minute for Vicki's Flashback Friday - Flowers challenge! I pulled out some of my oldest stamps to play and then kept making cards that didn't use the flowers. (DOH) Since I got lots of inks out I'm also popping it in at STAMPlorations January Challenge (stamps & ink) and the Simon Says Anything Goes challenge. 

Supplies: floral stamps from Basic Grey; sentiment from Stampendous; Distress inks in Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean; Versamark; Stampendous black detail EP; black rhinestones

And you can see pretty clearly why this stamp set isn't pulled out often...distress inks are my go-to and these stamps just don't ink particularly well with them despite all the conditioning tips & tricks. I think this set has been kicking around for 4 or 5 years? 

 STAMPlorations January Challenge

Simon Says Anything Goes

Stamp Smiles (Vicki) - Got Flowers?

xoxo,

Jessi