Penny Black on a Saturday

Hello, crafty friends!  I hope you're all enjoying a nice weekend doing whatever makes you happy.  I've been retired for going on 11 years now, but I still find something special about the weekends.  After all those working years I just don't get over the feeling of release that comes with a Friday night.

I'm here today to share in the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the optional theme is "Things with Wings".  That's my cue to color up my newest Penny Black stamp, Wings of Joy.  It's easy for me to go overboard with my Penny Black purchases because I'm such a fan, but I've been conservative lately.  This stamp though, sigh... and the Serenity Edger die set... they were a quick hop into my basket.

I stamped the bird and branch in Memento Toffee Crunch, and the sentiment in Palette Noir on extra white hot pressed watercolor paper and watercolored with Tombow markers.  Sponged the edges with Stampin' Up More Mustard ink.  After layering onto a card base of ivory textured Bazzill I applied the watercolored die cut "serenity" and a few iridescent sequins.

The set has a larger wisteria chain and extra leaves which I've already stamped and will try to turn into a card soon.  Penny Black has just released a Christmas collection and I'm currently trying to make my conservative choices.  I'm thinking poinsettias and a sentiment/die set.  It's never ending.

Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Things with Wings, or optional anything goes.
NBUS Challenge #89 -- My never before used schtuff is the Penny Black Wings of Joy stamp set.

 

Thank you so much for spending a little time with me today.  I do enjoy our visits!

Stamps:  Penny Black Wings of Joy  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico 140 lb hot press watercolor, ivory Bazzill for card base  Ink:  Memento Toffee Crunch for image, Palette Noir for sentiment, Stampin' Up More Mustard for brushing image panel edges  Coloring:  Watercolor with Tombow markers  Other:  Penny Black Serenity Edger die set, iridescent sequins, white acrylic paint for eye glint

Double D Challenge: Feathers

Presenting another Double D Challenge -- Feathers!

Would you believe I have only one feather stamp in my vast collection?  And no feather dies.  However, I do have lots of birds so I chose this trio of Hero Arts birds to sing their songs with my one feather stamped repeatedly on the background panel.

I also stamped some music notes from a retired Power Poppy set and then embossed the background with SU's Subtle folder.  I love how that panel turned out.  The birds are watercolored, and I need to tell you the yellow sky area is NOT accurately depicted in the photo.  In reality it's a much softer color.  My camera does not do well with yellow and that's very sad for me as it's my favorite color.

The die cut music notes and sentiment are from a Simon Says Stamp set.

The Double D team has no shortage of feathers and they have some delightful cards to share with you.  I hope you have some feathers you can play along with.  Thank you, and have a happy day!

Stamps:  Hero Arts Three Songbirds, Simon Says Stamp Tweet Friend with dies (music notes and sentiment), Stampendous Feather Points  Paper:  Arches 140 lb cold press watercolor, Hammermill Premium 100 lb white, Stampin' Up Brocade Blue  Ink:  Stampin' Up Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Sahara sand, Ranger Archival Jet Black, Versamark, other SU inks for watercolor  Coloring:  Watercolor with SU inks  Other: Spellbinders A2 Curved Borders One, SU Subtle 3D embossing folder, SU Winter White embossing powder (old) 

Birds on a Flowering Branch

Hello and welcome!  I finally have a card to share.  Actually, I made this card maybe two weeks ago, but my big (old) computer where I edit photos simply would not start one day.  It wouldn't even start in the shop for the tech guru.  He was able to save my hard drive but not my programs (also old), so here I am, starting over, learning new software.  Even my monitor wouldn't start with the new computer, so off I went again...

Pictured below is a beautiful Penny Black stamp from last year.  I watercolored with Twinkling H2Os, then added an Easy Expressions from The Ton, and embellished with a few small gems.  I miss my old editing programs, but I'll get the hang of it.  During the cropping and straightening process things went a little wonky.

I'm playing along in the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge:  Anything goes or your favorite Penny Black Stamp.  I love all my PB stamps from cute to beautiful, but I'm drawn to anything with a bird, so today it's this stamp called Confidant.  Are they whispering secrets?
Triple B Challenge:  Birds, blooms, or butterflies.  I can't resist.  Look at all that pretty pink in their inspiration board!
NBUS Challenge #86:  Never before used schtuff.  Yes, this beautiful stamp has been sealed in its package since last spring.

 

That's all for now!  Life is busy, but I'll try to be back soon.  We have out of town visitors next week, so housework must be done.  Sophie has already been to the beauty parlor.  An adventure dog can start to look a little scruffy after a while.

Scruffy Sophie

Stay crafty, my friends!

Stamps:  Penny Black Confidant, The Ton Easy Expressions  Paper:  Strathmore 140 lb cold press watercolor, natural white card base, Neenah white sentiment  Ink:  Ranger Archival Watering Can, Stampin' Up Brocade Blue & Memento Tuxedo Black for sentiment  Coloring:  Watercolor with Twinkling H2Os  Other:  Clear gems, foam tape to pop up sentiment

Double D Challenge: Watercolor

Hello friends, and welcome back!  We're kicking off another Double D Challenge today.  Our theme is near and dear to my heart -- watercolor.  Have a look at this beautiful inspiration board:

Since I do love to watercolor my first inclination was to stamp a pretty image and start painting.  However, I also wanted to watercolor some of these Spellbinders flowers so I went that direction.  Then I thought about all the watercolor backgrounds I have in my bag o' backgrounds and I rummaged around and came up with something very rich and summery and here we go -- watercolored Vintage Florals.

It felt a bit like cheating but, hey, it's watercolor.  The green leaves are from another watercolor piece.  It's good to find a use for those backgrounds because I'm mostly a designer paper kinda gal and they get left behind.  Today I'm happy to be using both!

I embossed a piece of 49 and Market Vintage Artistry in Mango with Spellbinders Molded Frame 3D folder.  It's very heavy paper so it worked out nicely.  I sanded some of the raised edges to enhance the embossing.  I cut a frame from another Mango piece -- maybe the flip side? -- and set it into the debossed area of the panel.  The butterfly is cut from the Mango paper ephemera sheet.

That's the details, folks!

The team has their wonderful interpretations of watercolor to share with you on the Double D blog, and we'd love to see yours as well.

Thank you for visiting, and have a lovely spring day!

Stamps:  None  Paper:  Arches 140 lb cold press watercolor, Cougar Natural card base, 49 and Market Vintage Artistry in Mango designer paper  Ink:  Forgotten  Coloring:  Smooshed watercolor  Other:  Spellbinders Vintage Florals, Spellbinders Molded Frame 3D embossing folder, MFT Die-namics Stitched Rectangle Frames, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Spec-tacular Vase

Hi friends!  I've had a few things going on, in and out of my craft room -- it's springtime, after all -- but the only thing I accomplished this week is to finally color up this Spec-tacular Vase by Stamping Bella.  I don't know why it's been so long since Stamping Bella has crossed my radar, but one day I stumbled upon the Spec-tacular series of stamps and I was completely enchanted.  There are a bunch of them at Simon Says Stamp -- look here -- and, oh, my gosh, I want them all!  Can you believe I narrowed it down to one?  I'm sure I'll be going back for more.

I picked up the Spec-tacular Sentiment Set while I was at it.  I have other stamps that will work with these sentiments, too, and one of them is set aside for coloring soon.

Today I watercolored with a variety of Stampin' Up inks, but the gray is Tombow marker.  I managed to include some very old Webster's Pages designer paper with the frame and hearts.

My Spec-tacular Vase will be visiting the following challenges today:

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #40 -- Anything floral goes, with optional mood board.
Addicted to Stamps and More -- Make your mark.
NBUS Challenge #85 -- My never before used schtuffs are the Spec-tacular Vase and Spec-tacular Sentiment Set.

I had a spectacular lot of fun with this.  I hope your day includes some fun as well.  See you soon!

Stamps:  Stamping Bella Spec-tacular Vase and Spec-tacular Sentiment Set  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, Cougar Natural card base, very old Webster's Pages designer paper  Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black  Coloring:  Watercolor with Stampin' Up inks and gray Tombow marker  Dies:  Memory Box Wrapped Stitched Frames, Paper Smooches Hearts

Another Floral Hug

Hello!  Sharing another floral hug today.  The kit I created and shared here yielded three cards including two with the wreath.  I loved Jill Foster's example with the wreath and when you look up the set the inspiration will be clear, but with small differences.

I gold-embossed the wreath and watercolored with Stampin' Up inks and cut with the matching die.  The flower accent in the center of the bow is something that popped out of a die cut.  I save little things like that in a bitty bits jar.  I colored it pink with a Copic marker and applied glossy glaze.

Penny Black's Floral Vines stamp set goes back to spring last year.  However, my purchase of it was more recent than that.  I'm making a big effort to work my way through the baskets of not-yet-used stamps, dies, embossing folders, paper pads...  Yes, it seems endless.  I'm hoping the kits will help.

I'm sending my floral hug to the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #38 -- Anything goes with an optional mood board.  I didn't use all the colors, but maybe you can see a hint of similarity.
Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Anything goes or optional "romance".  There is no romance in this floral hug.

 

Thank you ever so much for stopping by today.  Take care and stay crafty!

Stamps:  Penny Black Floral Vines with matching dies  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 hot press watercolor, Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White  Ink:  Versamrk, Memento Tuxedo Black  Coloring:  Watercolor with Stampin' Up inks  Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Pretty Bows, Impression Obsession Medium Butterflies and Heart Valance  Other:  Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, gold gel pen for butterfly body, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Floral Hug in Blue

Hi friends!  I opened up another of my self-made card kits this week and commenced to coloring and making cards.  This kit's focus is on Penny Black's Floral Vines stamp set with matching dies.  I made three cards, but only sharing one today.  I let the Triple B Challenge be my inspiration this time. You can see their beautiful board at the end of this post.

The flowers are gold embossed and watercolored very simply with Stampin' Up inks.  All the die cuts are double-layered for a little extra dimension, and then placed against a leafy embossed background.

Two of the three cards I made with this kit are to be part of a gift set for a friend.  She likes pretty hand made cards with lots of room to write inside.

I thought I'd share a photo of the "kit", such as it is.  There's nothing especially clever about it.  All the stamps are embossed and ready to color, card bases prepped, and certain design pieces cut and ready.  I had a layout planned for all three cards.  Some of the parts were used for the other two cards, and certain finishing touches were added in later.  The larger single flowers were used for decoration inside the cards.

I have five remaining kits, all focusing on not-yet-used stamps, multiple cards per kit.  I look forward to playing with all of them!

Today's two challenges are as follows:

Triple B Challenge:  Birds, blooms, and/or butterflies
NBUS Challenge #82:  My never before used schtuff is the Penny Black Floral Vines stamp set

 

That's all for now.  I hope to see you again next week.  Have a beautiful day!

Stamps:  Penny Black Floral Vines with matching dies  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White  Ink:  Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black  Coloring:  Watercolor with Stampin' Up Inks  Other:  Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, gold cord, Spellbinders Branching Out embossing Folder, SB A2 Devine Eleoquence and Labels Twenty Eight, Impression Obsession Medium Butterflies

Joy & Warmth

Hello there!  I believe I'm done making Christmas cards for this year, but it will take me the rest of the month to share the cards I've made.  That's plenty of festivity to see me through.  Today I'm spreading joy and warmth with Penny Black.

In the rush to finish Christmas cards it was easy to forget how restful watercoloring is for me.  This was done with Stampin' Up inks.  The background was brushed on after coloring, and I drew the border with a skinny gray marker.

In the end I decided to spray with sheer shimmer sparkle which doesn't show so much in the photo, but it's pretty amazing in real life.

I'll be sending my card to two challenges today:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Anything goes or snow/snowmen.  Must use a PB product, of course.
NBUS Challenge #81 -- My never before used schtuff is the Penny Black Holly Berry Bird, a gift from a dear local friend.

 

My apologies if I'm not keeping up with visits and comments as I'd like.  Regular life stuff on top of Christmas can be a little much.  It will all smooth out soon.

Happy holidays!

Stamps:  Penny Black Holly Berry Bird, Joy & Warmth  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor,  Neenah white card base not visible  Ink:  Ranger Archival Watering Can for image, Jet Black for sentiment, various SU inks for watercoloring  Other:  Imagine Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spray, white acrylic paint for eye dot

On the Lookout for Santa

Hello friends!  Just one sweet Anita Jeram card today, aptly named On the Lookout.  I have a very similar picture of my son when he was little, so this one tugs at my heart strings.

I watercolored with my trusty Tombows, matted with red, and then glued to an embossed grocer's kraft card base.  The gold glittery stars were cut from two different Tim Holtz Sizzix sets.  There is also glitter applied to the white stocking trim.

Short and sweet!  The days are full of life stuff and I'm off and running again.  Take care of you and have a beautiful day!

Stamps:  Colorado Craft Company On the Lookout  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico 140 lb hot press watercolor, red CS, grocer's kraft CS, shimmer white for sentiment circle, gold glitter for stars  Ink:  Ranger Archival Watering Can, Memento Tuxedo Black for sentiment  Coloring:  Watercolor with Tombow markers  Other:  Stickles Stardust glitter, Memory Box Pinecone and Berries embossing folder, ancient Spellbinders small circle die, stars from two different TH Sizzix sets

Pure Sunshine

Hello there!  I'm glad you could drop in.  As I write this I'm about to put my feet up for a while before dinner, but first wanted to get this post scheduled -- two cards for four challenges.  Honestly, I really wanted to color something and you know how I love my Penny Black stamps.  This Pure Sunshine stamp is large and in charge, but it has a somewhat playful nature and that's what I love about it.

I put it in my MISTI along with two A2 watercolor cardstock panels side by side, then stamped right over top of the joint, half on one panel, half on the other.  I watercolored each with my oldie Stampin' Up Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Earth Elements.

I also lightly stenciled the background of each, brushed on just a little bit of ink for barely there shading, and stamped with a retired SU splatter stamp -- Itty Bitty Backgrounds.  I'm sending the first card to The Flower Challenge where they're asking to see the word "thanks".  I wasn't sure how literal I needed to be, but I played it safe and chose a sentiment with the actual word.

The next card is going to the other three challenges which I've listed below.  I had each of them specifically in mind as I made my design choices.

 

The Flower Challenge #108 -- Thanks

Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Anything Goes or Optional Music
Triple B -- Birds, Blooms, and/or Butterflies

Stencil Fun Challenge -- Anything Goes or Use Gold

 

  

Can we agree that Triple B always has the most gorgeous inspiration boards?

Well, this was fun!  Supplies are listed below.  I generally list everything, even if it's no longer on the market because I'm sure we all have a mish mash of supplies in our collections.

Off to the couch for a bit!  I'm sure I'll be joined by something soft and lovable, either white or red... you know what I'm talking about.  Take care and have a beautiful day!

Stamps:  Penny Black Pure Sunshine, retired Power Poppy and Impression Obsession sentiments, retired Stampin' Up Itty Bitty Backgrounds splatter stamp  Paper:  Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140 lb hot press watercolor, Cougar Natural card base  Ink:  Ranger Archival Watering Can for outline, SU Chocolate Chip for sentiment, Close to Cocoa for splatter stamp, Ranger Adirondack Sandal (old stash) for stenciling  Coloring:  SU Earth Elements Watercolor Wonder Crayons (retired)  Other:  5" Stencil from a large set found on Amazon