Coloring Class with Altenew Beautiful Day

Because today was a holiday, I decided to mark the occasion by taking an Online Card Class about coloring. I burned through the whole class and then sat down to make this for my niece who recently got engaged.

I used a combination of products, some long retired, from a variety of stamp companies. My main image is from Altenew called Beautiful Day. I love this stamp set!! And it was really fun to color using the techniques I learned today combining alcohol markers and colored pencils.

The background is from Stampin' Up! which I white embossed over Linen cardstock from Close To My Heart (CTMH). I sponged the edges in CTMH ink Toffee and Mink. The sentiment is also CTMH embossed on Cocoa cardstock. I cut it with a word bubble die from MFT but then snipped off the part that made it a word bubble. I followed the instructions from the first day of class taking three colors which weren't necessarily from the same color family and combining them. I used Copics in the brown, red, and red violet families with shading in the blue violet family. I then added depth and shade with colored pencils. I decided to make one flower a deeper shade than the other and placed it on the bottom.

I was quite happy with the way the flowers looked after coloring with the markers, so I almost stopped. But the point of the class was to take things up a notch much coloring in the nooks and crannies. Um...yeah! It really did make a difference by the time I was done. Not gonna lie, it was a lot of work, but I hope you agree that the result was worth the effort.

One of the things the teacher talked about was to consider "the trash factor" before spending hours coloring. Because my niece is very artistic, I think she will appreciate the effort that went into this.

Until next time,
Becca

Happy Anniversary Card

If you've been to my blog much, you know that my three favorite stamp companies are Close To My Heart (CTMH), Altenew, and My Favorite Things (MFT). I've made several cards combining products from all three of them, and today's card is one of them.

All paper is from CTMH. Some of it is retired, but the current colors are used are Sugarplum, Eggplant, Pansy Purple, and Sage. The retired, super-dark purple on the bottom layer is Majestic Mountain which retired a long time ago. The pattered paper is also from CTMH. It's in the "Feels Like Home" paper suite which retires at midnight today. I cut it, as well as the two stitched frames, using CTMH die cuts. The "happy" die cut is from MFT. The flower and leaves die cuts are from the 3-D Roses set made by Altenew. The small "anniversary" stamp is retired CTMH stamped in Eggplant ink.

I host a "Bring Your Own Craft" night at Ft. Lee once a month. In March, I brought my die cutting machine, a bunch of colored cardstock, and the 3-D Roses. I cut and assembled a bunch of flowers in various colors. Here's a card I made using almost the exact same set of supplies. If you really like the patterned paper on this card and the other one, here's a link to the Feels Like Home suite on my CTMH consultant website. Again, this paper retires at midnight tonight, so act quickly!

Until next time,
Becca

Anniversary Card with CTMH, Altenew, and MFT

If you've been around my blog at all, it's no secret that my three favorite stamp companies are Close to My Heart (CTMH), Altenew, and My Favorite Things (MFT). I used a combination of products to make a card for friends who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

All paper is from CTMH. I used a combination of old and new colors with Altenew's Rose Flurries 3D Die Set. Once the flowers were assembled, I added sparkle with both a clear and Bashful shimmer pens from CTMH. The "happy" comes from MFT, and "anniversary" is retired CTMH in Heather ink. The stitched frame is CTMH.

I absolutely LOVE how this came out. I made a whole bunch of these 3D flowers at a craft night last week, so you might be seeing more of them in the near future.

Until next time,
Becca

Congratulations Card

A dear friend and fellow author just reached a huge milestone in her career. To help her celebrate, I made her a card combining products from three different companies.

That gorgeous flower is a multi-layer die cut from Altenew, the sentiment is from MFT, and the scallop edge border and all paper is from CTMH. I think I'm going to recreate this exact same card but reverse the patterned paper, making the flower the plaid and the border the dotted pattern.

Since meeting my deadline back in November, I've been catching up on life and spending hours in my craft room to recover. I've been reading a couple of really interesting books to spark ideas for a novella collection. Hopefully I'll have news to share on that front soon...which means in the next six months because publishers have a different definition of the word than the rest of us do.

I'll be heading up to New York early next week to celebrate Christmas with our son. I hope to do a "Best of 2018" post either while I'm there or soon after I get back. I love this crafty, blogging, creative world I get to share with you. I've said it before (and I will probably keep saying it multiple times in the future), paper crafting is as much a part of my writing process as plotting and developing a character arc. I really, really missed being in my craft room while on deadline. It's been good to do nothing but make cards and scrapbook pages (which I don't show because I can't get good pictures) for a long time. My fingers are getting itchy to type a new story now.

Thank you for being part of my "tribe" by supporting both my papercrafting and my writing with your visits and comments.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year,
Becca

Final Ugly Sweater Card

All 72 Christmas cards went in the mail yesterday. Whew! I wanted to show you the final card I made to finish.

This combines two stamp sets from CTMH (see below for shopping links), retired and current paper from CTMH, two die cuts from MFT, and a Cricut cut.

So here's the deal...the Ugly Sweater stamp set comes with "Fa la la!" but I'm a singer and the full thing is "Fa la la la la la la." I know. I'm a little obsessive compulsive. However, I got an unexpected royalty check for the large print edition of The Promise Bride which needed to be spent and MFT had just released this adorable die.

To get the texture on the sweater, I used a background stamp included in the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge (CTMH exclusive). I'm not sure where the actual sweater cut comes from only that I fussed with altering the image because that obsessive compulsive part of me didn't like that the image came with the red part on top of the ribbing bands. I changed it so the sweater was the full image and the ribbing parts were separate cuts. I used retired Cranberry paper and current Linen paper (light side) and stamped with retired Cranberry ink and Black ink to decorate it.

Here are the shopping links for the current supplies available through CTMH:

• Ugly Sweater (retires at the end of the month)
• Flower Market Cricut Cartridge
• Linen cardstock
• Black cardstock
• Black ink
• Heather ink

That royalty check was large enough to purchase some other supplies, so here's my second card for the day...

I've coveted the Peony flower from Altenew for quite a while and then they went and released a plaid cover die. Oh yeah...put that in my cart right away! The sentiment is a mix of MFT (praying) and retired CTMH (for you).

In writing news, I took a long break after sending off the final book of the Montana Brides series but now it's time to get back to work on proposals for new stories. The rest of my royalty check went toward a couple of research books so I'm off to read.

Until next time,
Becca

Second Bunches of Love with Thanks & Giving Stamp of the Month

Like yesterday's post, I combined Bunches of Love with the October Stamp of the Month: Thanks & Giving. This time, I used only the filler stamps from Bunches of Love for my floral image.

I've included the image of the Bunches of Love set so you can visualize my process as I explain it.

I stamped the largest flower twice, first in Ballerina then slightly offset in Peach. The centers are the smaller, symmetrical flower (top third, far right) in Smoothie with just one of the trio of dots (directly under "hello") inked in Pomegranate for the very center. The leaves were stamped in Sage.  The splatters were stamped in Linen which is my new favorite color. It took me a long time to order it because it's so light. I thought it wouldn't show up well. Boy, was I wrong.

The sentiment comes from Thanks & Giving and was stamped in Pomegranate.

Peach, Ballerina, and Sage are new inks introduced in the Holiday Expressions catalog that released last month. I'm loving all these soft colors. See yesterday's card featuring Sage, Lilac, and Carolina.

The lace border along the bottom was created using the only non-CTMH product. It comes from Altenew. I could have used the new Decorative Border Thin Cuts from CTMH, but I really liked the delicacy of that lace over the soft Ballerina pattern from the Boutique paper suite.

Here's the supply list (with links for your shopping convenience):

• Bunches of Love
• October SOM: Thanks & Giving
• Ballerina ink
• Peach ink
• Sage ink
• Linen ink
• Smoothie ink
• Pomegranate ink
• Boutique Patterned Paper
• Altenew Creative Edges Lace Die

And now it's time for me to get back to my day job. I've written myself into a corner - which was on purpose - but now I have to figure out how to get out of it. Oy!

Until next time,
Becca

Sympathy Card

My husband asked me to make a sympathy card...and to make it really pretty. Challenge accepted! I pulled out some Altenew and CTMH supplies and went to work.

The floral stamps are from Remember This by Altenew (NOTE: everything in italics is linked for your shopping convenience). I love their layered flowers! I stamped this one with CTMH inks starting with Nutmeg for the outlines. The flower base is Bashful, the second layer is Smoothie, and the final layer is Pomegranate. The leaves are Flaxen as the base and Fern as the layer. I stamped everything but the main flower onto 3 x 4 piece of retired paper from CTMH called Sugar Rush, but the same ombre effect could be done by blending Bashful ink onto White cardstock. I backed it with Bashful cardstock. CTMH has started printing their cardstock with a base and shade so you get two colors with every piece of cardstock. I think I used the full-strength version of Bashful on this, but I can't remember and hubby already took the card with him to work this morning. The sentiment is from a CTMH set called Heartfelt Thoughts. I stamped it in Nutmeg ink.

I cut my card base then ran the top part through the Rose Embossing Folder. It added such interest without overwhelming my beautiful flowers. When the card was all assembled, I used foam tape to add the central flower which had been die cut using the coordinating dies from Altenew (NOTE: I have linked to the stamp set and dies individually, but you can also purchase them as a set). I deepened the stamen by adding black, but I'm not sure I like it. Hmmm.

At any rate, hubby liked the card - "oohing and ahing" spontaneously rather than after being prompted by me. I hope it brings a measure of comfort to the recipients.

Now it's off to the writing office. I spent a lot of time crafting yesterday, so now it's time to buckle down and meet next Thursday's deadline. Good thing Virginia shuts down with an inch of snow on the ground. Everything is cancelled for the day.

Until next time,
Becca

Masculine Get Well Card

My writing partner for The Promise Bride (Montana Brides Series) is sitting in the hospital today awaiting her husband's heart surgery. I need to send a get well card, but I wanted it to be masculine. Oddly enough, one of my favorite floral sets came to the rescue: Bamboo Roses by Altenew. I decided to use their November Challenge colors while I was at it.

I began by clear embossing the sentiment and a vine from Bamboo Roses onto water color paper. I then added water and painted, flicked, and dotted with Tim Holtz distress ink in Wild Honey, Vintage Photo, and Barn Red (which blended down into that burnt orange color). After it was dry, I wiped of any dots of color over the embossed sentiment, ran it through a rectangular stitched die from My Favorite Things, and mounted it to a Kraft card base.

I love how this turned out. Praying the surgery turns out just as nicely!

Until next time,
Becca

Inspired By...

Several months ago, I got one of those emails that brings a tear to your eye and terror to your heart. Karen from "Inspired By All the Little Things" asked me to be a guest designer. After I'd calmed down--and it took a few months--I was sent a number of inspiration photos and asked to choose one.  I then did something even scarier. I chose the one photo I had NO IDEA what to do with.

And then, as though the paper crafting gods knew I needed help, an idea sprang into my mind.

First came the color scheme plus the gold lights=watercoloring with gold embossed images. Second, I decided to do a large and small image the same=this turned into two large flowers from Altenew's Beautiful Day plus one small image from their Remember This. Third, I wanted to create a blurred effect near the bottom of the image=my attempt to heat emboss until the gold lines blurred failed, so I splattered water with a paint brush, poured embossing powder over the top, gently shook off most of the excess, and heat set it from the underside. I ended up doing this splatter, pour, and heat set process twice to get enough blur along the bottom with a few straggling blots around the rest of the image. I then added the sentiment, also from Altenew's Remember This set, using the more normal method of stamping with Versamark ink and using gold embossing powder over the top.

The final step was to run the image through an MFT dotted die cut frame, wrap gold twine around the panel, and mount it to a card base with foam tape.

I'm actually thrilled with how this came out. Thank you, paper crafting gods! And thank you to Karen Day and the rest of the Inspired By ladies for allowing me to stretch my creativity as a guest designer. I hope I lived up to the challenge!

Until next time,
Becca

My Favorites from 2016

As we look forward to the new year, it's always fun to review the past year.  On this blog, that means picking my top ten projects of the year.  Under each picture, I've provided a link to the original post if you'd like more information.

 

Hello Friend

 

Retro Birthday Hello

Celebrate. Woo Hoo

Mixed Media Madness

Simple Hello

Are You CURED Yet?

Vintage Flowers

Altenew Anniversary

Blessings

Hello Today

If you want to see some new projects, head on over to Stampin' Buds for four new cards.

Wishing you and yours many blessings in the New Year!

Until next time,
Becca

December Anniversary

Now that my Christmas cards are mailed (from North Pole, AK no less!), it was time to get a few anniversary cards done. 

I white embossed the flower and three leaves on watercolor paper using traditional colors from the Altenew Inspiration challenge.  I threw a little brown into the leaves because one of the things I've learned about watercoloring is to use a mix of colors and let the water blend them.  After the paint dried, the coordinating die cuts made cutting the flower and leaves easy!

To create the background, I stamped the pinecone and fir boughs with Versamark on Kraft cardstock. The sentiment is from CTMH stamped in Cocoa ink. I mounted the flower over top with foam tape and then decided I wanted to add a border with a white gel pen.

Chocolate sequins and white pearl accents finished the card.

I've seen so many beautiful things done with this stamp set, both in traditional colors and non-traditional ones.  I almost hate to put it away for the season.  Maybe I'll keep playing to get a jump on Christmas cards for next year. 

I also need to make one more December anniversary card for my husband.  December 21 marks our 32nd.  To celebrate, I'll be putting my novella "Letters from Santa" up for free between the 21st and 25th.  If you need some cozy reading sooner than that, this same story is part of a boxed set that includes seven stories for a dollar.  Love and Christmas!!

Until next time,
Becca

Hello Today

All my writing deadlines these past few months means it's been a long time since I've been able to participate in card challenges. Today, there's nothing on my schedule except tea with a friend later today, so I sat down at my craft table and combined two challenges on this card:

I used sketch 261 from Freshly Made Sketches and the November 2016 Challenge from Altenew.

I started by embossing the flower and leaves from Altenew's Beautiful Day set in white detail powder over the smooth side of Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock.  I added the pink watercolor to the flower first, let it dry, then came back in with blue watercolor.  The leaves were a single wash of yellow.  After everything was dry, I fussy cut them all out with Micro-tip scissors. 

Using a stitched die from My Favorite Things and cardstock from Close To My Heart, I framed the word TODAY and cut.  I did another cut from Pacifica cardstock from CTMH and adhered the two together.  I highlighted TODAY by painting a swish of the same yellow I used to paint the leaves.  I used more MFT dies to cut the white base panel and the "hello" sentiment (two cuts of white, one of Pacifica).  After adding the ribbon to my base panel, I mounted everything together.

Love this card...so much I might just keep it for myself!!

Until next time,
Becca

Thank You - New York

I'm leaving for New York City in a few hours.  Back in July, I won a trip for two that includes airfare, tickets to The Met, and a two-night stay.  Hubby and I decided to extend by a couple more nights and purchased tickets to see Phantom of the Opera.  I'll also be meeting with my editor who will be giving me a tour of Kensington Publishing and taking us to lunch. (I feel so swanky!)  I wanted to take her a set of note cards as a thank you. 

This card uses mostly retired CTMH products with the new Flower Market Cricut cartridge.  The paper colors are New England Ivy, Petal, Twilight, and Heavenly Blue over Timberline woodgrain; the twine is Glacier; ink is Pacifica and White Daisy; and the sentiment is from the Artistry Cricut cartridge coordinating stamps. The banner was cut using MFT's stitched die cuts. The flower centers are from Altenew's Vintage Flowers.

I'm entering this in Heart2Heart's Woodgrain challenge.

Time to finish packing...and the laundry.  Which I already did this afternoon before hubs came home and informed me he needed his jeans washed.  Yeah...they were on the floor in his office instead of three feet out the door in the laundry room or in our bedroom inside the hamper. It's a good thing I'm in such a good mood about this trip or I might just leave him behind.

Until next time,
Becca

Love Always

Sometimes writing slumps need a jumpstart with a creative endeavor that doesn't require crafting sentences or keeping character motivations consistent.  At least that's what I'm telling myself. It's also a great way to get an anniversary card made for my sister and brother-in-law.

I used Altenew's "Beautiful Day" and "Peony Bouquet" for the flowers and CTMH's "Mr. & Mrs." for the sentiment. To create the gold frame, I used MFT's Inside & Out Rectangle Stitched Frames STAX on some extra shiny gold paper I've had for so many years, I'm not sure where I got it.  The stick pins are retired from CTMH, and the sequins were ordered through MFT but I believe are "Pretty Pink Posh."  I used Copic markers to add shading to the poppy images, the yellow berries, and to color leaves.

I'm entering this in Altenew's July "Wedding" challenge, although I added a few touches of blue to the color scheme. I'm enjoying this monthly challenge now that I have some of these gorgeous stamp sets in my crafty stash.  Sure wish I could play with them a little more these days, but...

I really do need to barricade myself in my office and get some editing done.

Until next time,
Becca

Always & Forever

I'm getting this card in under the wire for the Simon Says Stamp "Mask" challenge featuring Altenew products.  I combined "Painted Flowers" with CTMH "Mr. & Mrs." plus a mask ampersand created from the CTMH Artistry Cricut cartridge.

I stamped "Painted Flowers" over the ampersand mask. To add color, I sponged CTMH Pixie, Poppy, Flaxen, Pear, and Glacier inks. After stamping the sentiment, I traced it with a silver gel pen.  The black and white checkered pattern is two rows of Washi tape.  Some black sequins finishes it off.

I have lots of anniversaries coming up this summer.  It's good to get a jump on them before I go deep in the "don't bother me, I'm under deadline" cave.

Until next time,
Becca

Altenew Anniversary

Today I pulled out the last set of stamps I purchased from Altenew to celebrate my three-book contract with Kensington Publishing.  This card uses Peony Bouquet, and I'm entering it in the Altenew June Inspiration Challenge and CAS-ual Fridays: Floral.

I stamped all the images in Tim Holtz Wild Honey Distress ink on watercolor paper.  Using black on the flowers and a combination of green and brown on the leaves, I watercolored each section and did something I rarely do.  I was patient.  Then I trimmed them out as close to the line as possible.

I ran watercolor paper through a Quatrefoil embossing folder and then used the direct to paper technique with CTMH Canary ink to highlight the pattern.

The sentiment is also Altenew. It's from Vintage Roses. I embossed it with white detail powder on vellum cut in a fish-tail banner.

This will be going out to my parents in a couple weeks to celebrate their 58th anniversary. A huge congratulations to them from all of us lucky enough to follow their example.

Until next time,
Becca

As Long as You Live

A lovely young lady just got engaged.  She is fun, spunky, and always on trend...all of which is captured in this week's Color My Heart challenge.

I used Altenew's "Vintage Roses" in Thistle and leaves in Lagoon over Pear. The background was made with sponge daubers using Crystal Blue, Lagoon, and Pear.  To really make the sentiment from CTMH's "Wavy Blooms" pop, I used my MISTI tool and stamped it four times in Lagoon.

I ran my background panel through MFT's stitched dies and backed it with Thistle cardstock. Coordinating Thistle Thick Twine finished it off.

Since it's always important to play nice in blogland, here's the card I used as my inspiration for this one.

Love how this turned out.  Love the sentiment for an engaged couple. Love celebrating such a happy moment.

Until next time,
Becca

Vintage Flowers

One of the sets I purchased to treat myself for the big writing contract was "Vintage Flowers" from Altenew. Love, love, LOVE this set!!  Here, I combined it with overlay Cricut cuts from "Edge to Edge" which are free on Design Space right now.

For the card on the left, I selected the Cricut cut, used the "Hide Contour" feature to get rid of the outside cut, and used a piece of cardstock larger than I needed for the cut.  After it was cut out, I trimmed the panel and backed it with a piece of lightweight vellum. I mounted it to the card base with foam tape and added the flowers on top.

The card on the right is a different design and left the outside cut.

The flowers are stamped with CTMH inks in Baby Pink, Cotton Candy, Tulip, Flaxen, Fern, and New England Ivy.  (Baby Pink and Tulip are retired.)

Both sentiments come from Verve's "Take Note" and are stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black.  My new MISTI stamp tool came in quite handy, both for the flowers and for stamping the sentiments right were I wanted them.  I actually made a set of eight of the "Hello" cards, and using the MISTI made it a breeze!  I hand-cut the flowers because I budgeted my treat money and wanted more stamps rather than the coordinating dies from Altenew.

Now back to cutting more of these beautiful overlays before they're no longer free!

Until next time,
Becca

Altenew Painted Flowers for Mother's Day

For such a straight-forward card, this one uses a wide variety of companies' products.

Here's the supply list:

• Stamps: Altenew Painted Flowers, CTMH Perfect Fit - Mom (retired)
• Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
• Watercolor: Tim Holtz cardstock, Holbein Water Color Paints
• Accessories: MFT Frame Stitched Die, CTMH Artiste Cricut cut, silver rivets, Embroidery twine

I started by watercoloring blue over almost all of the 4.25 x 5.5" panel.  I concentrated the color along the top and right side.  Then I added splotches of orange and green.  When it was dry, I stamped the flowers so the leaves were generally where the green was.  I then angled the stitched frame die where I wanted it and ran it through my cuttlebug. I cut the black panel 1/8" larger than the floral panel and glued them together.

The sentiment label was cut from Artiste at 1.5" tall.  After I stamped the sentiment, I punched rivets through the ends and threaded thick embroidery floss through.  I added foam tape on the back, attached it to the floral panel, and taped the floss on the back.  More foam tape adhered the floral panel to the card base.

A few more Mother's Day cards to make this year and not a lot of time left to do them.

Until next time,
Becca

Me & You

Another quick post today as I need to get ready for church. 

As I said yesterday, I decided to reward myself for the three-book contract I just signed with some stamp sets I've loved for a long time, and the flower set I used on this card is the prime example.  It's called Painted Flowers from Altenew.  I'm crazy in love with this set...and the four others I purchased which will be coming to you soon.

The other products used on this card are from CTMH (Me & You, punched pattern paper, Fern Thick Twine), Fiskars (scallop border punch), Pretty Pink Posh (sequins), and Washi Tape and doily from somewhere like Hobby Lobby.

This card meets the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown #389 - used CTMH dye inks in Cotton Candy,  Fern, and Topiary plus pigment ink in Sunset, and Momento Tuxedo Black
• Freshly Made Sketch #233 but I turned it on it's side
• CAS on Sunday: Tic, Tac, Toe using Punch, Girly, and Floral

Okay...gotta run.  I only have half an hour to get pretty before church.

Until next time,
Becca