Birthday Wishes Viva la Verve

Hi friends! I'm popping in today with another take on the May Viva la Verve sketch. And I used the color pink to make it a two-fer for the May Diva Inspirations challenge too.

I just love the colors in the new Havana collection from Prima, so I started there, cutting pieces down to size, then sponging the pink layers in tattered rose and then old paper and the mint pieces in cracked pistachio and old paper distress inks.

I added a super thin layer of gesso to the pink circle so my sentiment wouldn't compete with the background paper, then stamped in Hero Arts Intense Black. I then stamped the flowers from the Joyful Blooms set in black and colored with Kuretake Zig clean brush markers and a wink of stella clear glitter pen.  I cut the large and medium flower with the coordinating dies from the Joyful Blooms Die Set, then fussy cut one more to curl the edges and pop up for a little dimension.

I then cut the Dreamy Leaves die from mint macaron cardstock and used a marker to draw in a few veins, then inked with cracked pistachio and old paper. I added a doily die cut frame to the circle, then finished off with a bit of lace, a butterfly and some nuvo drops and flatback pearls.

If you like to die cut your stamped images, Verve has a pretty awesome sale through the end of the month. Buy a stamp set and get the coordinating die set at 75% off! The perfect time to stock up.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous Fri-YAY!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Joyful Blooms (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Havana (Prima), white, mint macaron (SU!)
Ink: intense black (Hero Arts), cracked pistachio, old paper, tattered rose distress ink (Ranger), mint macaron (SU!), Kuretake real color clean brush markers (Zig)
Accessories: Joyful Blooms and Dreamy Leaves die sets (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched circle dies (MFT), doily die (QuicKutz), lace, butterfly (Recollections), gesso, flatback pearls, Nuvo drops (Tonic)

Thinking of Mixed Media

Hi friends! I'm popping in with a little mixed-media card I made last week.  It was actually my first attempt at a card for the current inspiration at The Card Concept.  And although I loved the individual pieces, it just didn't come together in card form the way I had imagined. So I tried again... and again before making the card I posted for the challenge. Do you ever have days like that?  I've been having them quite frequently. I find myself having a ball making mixed-media backgrounds and elements, but when it comes time to pull the stamps out and make it into a card, it's just not coming together for me.

Anyhow, I started with a piece of canvas. I picked up a few packages of canvas, gauze and muslin on the cheap at Tuesday Morning a few weeks ago and was itching to play with some of it.  I frayed the edges, then gave the canvas a good first coat of gesso, then added some yellow craft paints and some pink color burst and yellow magicals powders. On top of this, I stenciled some white sand texture paste and then added a bit more of the yellow magicals.  You can see the stenciling better in the photo below that was taken before I glued everything down.

Next I layered some rolled flowers, a skeleton leaf and some white twine together with hot glue and added it to the canvas.  I accented the flowers with some glitter glue, then dabbed some 3D matte gel randomly over the surface of the piece and sprinkled on some frantage shabby white embossing powder and heat set.

To finish the card, I stamped the thinking of you sentiment in pool party in the corner of a square, embossed card, then added a couple score lines with my scor-pal to accent the bottom.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you were inspired. :)

Enabler's List
Stamps: Joyful Blooms (Verve Stamps)
Paper: watercolor paper
Ink: pool party (SU!), peony pink (Color Burst), yellow and pink Magicals shakers (Lindys Stamp Gang), yellow paints (Distress and Adirondack)
Accessories: Heavy Gesso, White Sands Texture Paste, 3D Matte Gel (Prima), layering stencil (Tim Holtz), Frantage Shabby White Embossing powder (Stampendous), Scor-pal, Nuvo glitter drops, skeleton leaf, rolled flowers, white twine, Stars & Swirls Embossing Folder (Sizzix), paper distresser, canvas

Mojo Birthday Wishes

Hi friends! It's another Monday morning and that means it's time for a brand new sketch over at Mojo Monday. I hope you're inspired to play along - I always love seeing what everyone does with the sketch.

I started my card making a background with faded jeans and wilted violet distress oxides.  I did several layers, then brought in the flowers from Joyful Blooms, first stamping with water to lift some of the ink away, then coming back and stamping randomly in the same shades of blue and purple.  Lots of spritzing, some stenciled on texture paste and some splatters all went into the finished product.  I embossed the sentiment in white and used some of the leftover pieces when I cut my panel down for the vertical strip in the background.

The flowers are stamped onto watercolor paper in faded jeans and wilted violet distress inks. I then watercolored the centers with watered down distress inks.  The outer flowers are cut with the coordinating Joyful Blooms Die Set and the inner flowers are fussy cut and popped up on dimensionals.  I added some Sprightly Sprigs die cuts, dusted in glitter and a bit of cheesecloth to finish off the dreamy look to this.

For those of you who like measurements with your sketch, here are the dimensions I used to draw up the sketch...

Card Base: 4.25" x 5.5"

Layer 1: 4" x 5.25"

Layer 2: 0.5" x 5.25" or ribbon

Layer 3: 3.25" x 4"

Layer 4: 1.5" circle

Layer 5: 1.75” circle

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulously creative week. For more inspiration with the sketch, be sure to hop on over to the Mojo Monday blog to see what the other designer's are sharing today.

Mojo Monday 493 Sketch

Enabler's List
Stamps: Joyful Blooms (Verve Stamps)
Paper: watercolor paper
Ink: wilted violet, faded jeans distress oxide (Ranger), Versamark
Accessories: Joyful Blooms Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), gesso, lace trim, polka dot embossing folder (QuicKutz), cheesecloth, glitter, white embossing powder, paper distresser, faded dots stencil, texture paste