Good News about Art Neko

Hi everyone!  I know I promised to share another sneak peek of card with brand new Art Neko stamps today, but guess what?  The Art Neko store is moving to a brand new website and it is offline for at least a few weeks while they get that all fixed up.  So please don't freak out if you try to go shopping there or check out the Art Neko blog and you get error messages.  We will be back with lots of great artwork and some fun giveaways with prizes!

I'll let you know when the store and blog are back up and running.  In the meantime, here's some of my past Art Neko artwork to feast your eyes on.  :-)

Vintage Skeleton Leaves - Thinking of You

Hi everyone!  Are you enjoying your weekend?  I'm popping in to share a bunch of brand new stamps from Art Neko.  See those skeleton leaves?  The sentiment?  The gorgeous frame?  Those are all brand new stamps, and they are here just in time for all our fall projects.  Aren't those leaves GORGEOUS??  I'm in love!!!

I started by stamping the leaves with a taupe ink onto white cardstock.  I cut these out and basically drooled over them for a few hours.  LOL  Honestly!  Then I pulled out some of the other brand new fall-themed stamps and formulated an idea to showcase the gorgeous leaves.  I stamped the ornate frame with the same taupe ink and cut that out.  The leaves were arranged on the side of the frame, and then I stamped the sentiment, cut it out, and placed it over the leaves inside the frame.  

I loved the taupe and white color combo, so I just added some taupe lace and placed the frame with the leaves and sentiment right over the lace.  I kept my background white so it would show off the gorgeous leaves.  Here are the links to the brand new stamps that I used:

Skeleton Leaves

Ornate Frame

Thinking of You sentiment

There were so many ideas going around in my head for these leaves, and I have another card that I can't wait to show you.  Come on back on Wednesday and I'll share a totally different card using the same skeleton leaves.  Enjoy your weekend!!

Jellyfish Shadowbox Card

Hi everyone!  I made this fun Jellyfish Shadowbox Card to share with you today along with a fun little sand-filled necklace.

Have you ever seen a Shadowbox Card?  It lays flat so you can mail it, but when you push the sides in, it expands the middle so it becomes a shadowbox.  There is a great tutorial on SCS here if you’d like to try making one.  The picture below shows a different angle on the card – you can see the “box” part better.

I started this card by stamping the beautiful jellyfish image with Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink.  This jellyfish stamp is from Art Neko's P041 Japanese Fishing Scenes sheet.  I cut the paper down so it would fit inside the blue shadowbox.  Once the shadowbox card was assembled, I had a better idea of where to place the sentiment.

I stamped the kanji “Friend” with the same Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink and trimmed it down.  This kanji stamp is from Art Neko's A337 Friendship, Get Well, and Thank You sheet.  With the shadowbox standing up, I carefully placed the kanji inside right on top of the stamped jellyfish.

When i was shopping for the ocean and mermaid stamps, I also found these adorable little glass vials with cork stoppers in the Art Neko store.  I filled one with the Galveston beach sand and a few of the tiny little seashells available from Art Neko.  After I secured the cork in the top, I wrapped some twine around the vial and tied it with a large loop.  This will be a cute little necklace to give to the friend who receives this card.

This is my last summer-themed project for this year.  I am already working on some fun new fall cards using brand new stamps that you will soon see in the Art Neko store!  Come on back this weekend for a fun sneak peek!!

CAS443 Birthday Bear

Hi friends!  This week's CAS challenge is to create a sweet birthday card that will make you say "awwwww........."  I pulled out my Baby Bear stamp that I bought from Stampin Up last year and never inked up.  Now I'm wondering why I waited so long!  LOL

This is a 3 step stamp, so I used three different colors of blue on this little guy.  I stamped the 1st layer (solid) with Soft Sky, then the second layer with Lost Lagoon.  The final layer was stamped with Tranquil Tide which is more of a blue-y green color.  This is a great color combo for monochromatic cards.  :-)

I added some Soft Sky Classic Weave ribbon and the birthday sentiment (from SU's Special Reason set) to this clean and simple card.  If you want to make this even simpler, you can always leave the ribbon off.  

Do you want to play in this week's CAS challenge?  Upload your card to SCS today and share with us!  Make sure you use keyword CAS443 when you upload your card to the SCS gallery.  

I hope you have a GREAT week!

Indigo Dragonfly Love

Howdy, y'all!  I am playing along with a challenge with my UBlue teammates where we are creating 15 cards in 15 days(#team15in15).  This is my card for today (#6) and I thought I'd share it here on my blog with y'all.  You can see the first five cards on my Facebook page.

I had a vague idea of stamping a wood background and putting a dragonfly on it, but as I was working, it morphed into this.  I have to say, I am in LOVE.  I stamped the Hardwood background with Island Indigo ink and then I sponged the same color around the edges.  The ferns were stamped with Tranquil Tide ink and I did some second-generation stamping for those faded ferns.  The dragonfly was stamped with Island Indigo ink and then cut out with the matching die.  Finally, I stamped the sentiment with Island Indigo ink and cut it out.  

I keep looking at this and envisioning this in all kinds of different colors.  I would love to have an entire rainbow of cards like this in my stash.  It would be fun to send this out to all my friends.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Stamps (all Stampin Up) - Hardwood, Dragonfly Dreams, Butterfly Basics (fern), Wood Words (sentiment)

Ink - Island Indigo, Tranquil Tide

Paper - white, Island Indigo

CAS442 Healing Thoughts

Kia has a wonderfully interesting CAS challenge for us this week - CAS442.  She wants us to go monochromatic with a little twist.  Basically, your design should be mostly black and white, except for a pop of color on just one element.  So if you had flowers and leaves stamped in black, you would only color the flowers or the leaves, not both.  Or you could go really bold and just color one flower, and leave all the rest of the flowers and leaves alone.  

I decided to try something a little different.  I printed this gorgeous digi from Power Poppy called Graceful Still Life onto some Xpress It Copic paper. Instead of coloring the flowers or the leaves, I decided to color those little balls in the center of the flowers.  I used a combo of yellow and green Copic markers to color in those balls (stamens??).  

I also used a couple of gray Copic markers to go inside and around the flowers and branches.  I've become more attentive with my coloring and light sources, and it's been an interesting journey to finally be able to lay down my shadows.  Can you see the shadows I was attempting to color? I went very subtle with the shadowing because I didn't want to overwhelm the delicate yellow/green balls.  

To finish off my card, I stamped the healing thoughts sentiment from Power Poppy's Nice Things to Say clear stamp set with Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder.  Because I've used both a digi and a clear stamp set on this card, it qualifies for entry into this month's Mix and Match challenge over on the Power Poppy blog. 

Check out the CAS challenge this week and play along with us.  If you have Power Poppy stamps, check out their challenges over on their blog as well!  Have a great week!!

Feel Better Azaleas

I'm back with another Power Poppy creation.  They have a fun challenge this month where they are asking us to mix and match their stamps on our creations.  On my other two cards from Friday and Saturday, I mixed a digital stamp with a regular clear stamp.  On this card today, I'm mixing images from two different clear stamp sets.  

I stamped the vase of flowers from the Azalea set and colored it with Copic markers.  This was cut out with an oval die and layered with a lacy scallop oval cut from green cardstock.  The sentiment, from Power Poppy's Daffodils set, was stamped in black ink, cut with scissors, and adhered below the vase of flowers.  

Have you checked out the Mix and Match challenge over on the Power Poppy blog?  Pull out your Power Poppy stamps and play along with us this month!

Dogwood Note

Power Poppy has a fun challenge going on this month to mix and match their stamps on a single card.  I love Power Poppy stamps and I have quite a collection.  I couldn't resist playing along in their challenge this weekend, so I combined a digital flower stamp with a clear stamp sentiment on my card today.

I printed the beautiful Graceful Still Life (dogwood) digi onto hot press watercolor paper.  I made sure I enlarged the digi so this would fill most of my card front and make it easier for me to see where I was coloring.  :-)  I wasn't exactly sure what dogwoods look like in real life, so I Googled some images of dogwood blossoms.  I pulled out my Zig Clean Color markers, laid down a little bit of color, and then spread it out with a wet paintbrush.  After this piece was completely dry, I stamped the sentiment from Natural Beauties up near the top.  It sort of looks like it's part of the branches, doesn't it?  :-)

I'm entering this into the Mix and Match challenge over on the Power Poppy blog.  If you have some Power Poppy stamps, why don't you play along with us this month?  

You Make Me Smile

Howdy!!  I'm back to share one of my watercolored cards with you today.  I recently bought some digital stamps from Power Poppy because I wanted to make the stamps nice and BIG so I could see where I was coloring.  See, I'm old enough that I have to wear bifocal glasses, and it's hard to color some of the smaller stamps that I have.  I end up taking my glasses off, sticking my nose up right next to the paper, and moving around the image as I color it.  LOL  

So with these digital stamps, I can make the flowers large enough to cover the whole front of a card.  That's what I did with this gorgeous Easy Breezy Coneflower digi.  I printed this on hot press watercolor paper and then I pulled out my Zig Clean Color watercolor markers.  I laid down a little bit of color on the paper and then spread it around with a wet paintbrush.  I just repeated that until my flowers were colored to my satisfaction.

The sentiment is a regular stamp from Power Poppy's Prairie Cheer set.  After my paper was completely and totally dry, I stamped the sentiment with Jet Black Archival ink.  I played around with adding some sequins or ribbon but they just didn't look right.  This is one of those times where you just have to keep it simple.

Because I used both a digital stamp AND a clear stamp from Power Poppy, it qualifies for their challenge that they are hosting this month.  I'm entering this into their Mix and Match challenge for August.  It would be fun to win a shopping spree!  I love Power Poppy stamps!!  :-)

Berry Sweet - DTGD2017

Are you playing along with the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS this week?  This is one of the cards I made for one of the challenges yesterday.  I colored those strawberries with Copic markers and then tied some twine around the top with a tag.  I can't tell you exactly what the challenge was - that's reserved for the Fan Clubbers who are playing along.  Come join the Fan Club and play with us this week!!

Beautiful Life - DTGD2017

Hi friends!  This week, I'm playing along with all the Dare to Get Dirty challenges over on Splitcoaststampers.  This is the card I made for TexasGrammy's challenge yesterday, and I love how this one turned out.  We can't say what the challenges are - that's reserved just for the Fan Clubbers who are playing along.  So why don't you join the Fan Club over on SCS and come play with us this week??

CAS439 Eclectic Friend

Hi folks! The CAS challenge over on SCS this week is all about friendship. This theme is wide open for all kinds of interpretations, and this is what I came up with. I just got these dies and stamps from Stampin Up, and I really wanted to play with them. To me, this is clean and simple because the majority of this is just die cuts. The only stamping is the sentiment. 

If I were to make this even more CAS, I'd take two of the flowers and one of the leaves away and just have one flower, one leaf sprig, and the sentiment. But I was in the mood to play with these dies, so this is what I came up with. :-)

Want to play along with the CAS439 challenge?  Check it out here and share your artwork with us!

Mermaid Dreams on Oil Pastels

Hi folks!  We are in our hot days of summer here in Texas, and the temperatures are hovering around 100 every day now. I want to dive into the sea like this mermaid from Art Neko and cool off!

For this card, I was playing with some water soluble oil pastels. I scribbled some blue and green pastels onto watercolor paper, and then I dipped my fingers into water and blended the colors together. After the piece dried, I stamped this beautiful mermaid image from Art Neko's Mermaids and Ocean Life stamp set (A198) directly onto the oil pastels. I had never tried stamping on oil pastels before, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it worked! :-)

For the blue card base, I used Versamark to stamp the collection of seashells and starfish (also from the Mermaids and Ocean Life stamp set A198) in each of the four corners. This stamp is a perfect fit for stamping onto the corners of your cards. I cut out the mermaid piece with an oval die and matted it with a matching scallop oval. This oval fits beautifully inside the stamped corner frame.

The sentiment is also from the same Mermaids and Ocean Life stamp set A198. I stamped the sentiment onto white cardstock and cut it out with scissors. It is adhered with some foam tape to give the sentiment some dimension.

There are 36 stamps on this Mermaids and Ocean Life sheet A198 from Art Neko. That's a lot of stamps! This set has so many wonderful coordinating stamps all on one sheet for a great price. I love all the fish and the seashells as well as the variety of mermaids on this sheet. The "crab shack" stamp is awesome! I can't wait to use that one! Go check out the stamps at Art Neko by clicking on this link - Mermaids and Ocean Life A198.

Have a great week!

CAS438 Four Botanical Poinsettias

Hello everyone!  This week's CAS challenge is Christmas in July, and I had a great time playing around with different ideas.  I did a series of Four Botanical Poinsettias, all with different degrees of simplicity.  All of these cards use the same poinsettias stamp as well as the sentiment from Botanical Blocks IV (Papertrey Ink).  I've arranged them from the easiest to the most time consuming here:

This one above is the easiest card of the four.  It's just a matter of embossing the poinsettias and the sentiment with white embossing powder and then adhering the pieces to a white card base.

This one was my little experiment to see what this would look like in a monochromatic gray.  I wanted to try something that was not in Christmas colors, and I love how this turned out.  I embossed the poinsettias with silver embossing powder and then I colored in the flowers with a Versamark reinker.  The Versamark darkens the cardstock and it results in a very subtle but powerful coloring.

This card above is the third in my series.  I wanted to try coloring the poinsettias with Copic markers, but I wanted to save a little time by not coloring in the background around the flowers.  So I stamped the poinsettias on Smoky Slate (soft gray) cardstock and colored just the poinsettias and leaves with Copic markers.  I used Liquid Mercury Nuvo drops to fill in all the little dots inside and around the flowers.  The sentiment was embossed with silver embossing powder.  I love the unusual color combo of red, green, white, black, and silver.  It's a fresh new perspective on Christmas.

This last card is the most time consuming of the four.  I stamped the poinsettias onto white cardstock and colored the entire piece with Copic markers.  The background around the flowers is colored with a soft gray (C1) Copic marker.  The little dots inside the flowers and around the outside were covered with Liquid Mercury Nuvo Drops.  I embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder.  If I had to pick a favorite card today, this card is tied with the monochromatic gray card for first place.  :-)

I hope you've enjoyed my cards today.  Have you started on your Christmas cards for this year??  

CAS437 Sweet Berries

This week's CAS437 challenge is all about summer fruit.  I had fun playing with different color combos for my sweet berries on this card.  I started by sponging some white cardstock with Soft Sky ink, and then I stamped the leaves, berries, and sentiment.  I glued this piece down to a bright Berry Burst card base and then tied some black and white twine around the top of the berries.  

Pull out your fruit stamps and play along with us in the CAS challenge this week!  :-)

Iris Mini Altar

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful and safe day celebrating the 4th of July yesterday.  I ordered these really cool mini gatefold chipboard pieces from Art Neko's B-Muse website, and I'm sharing my Iris Mini Altar with you today. These gatefold chipboard blanks are called Mini Altars, and I paired it with an ATC iris stamp from Art Neko. The Mini Altars look like this when you order them from B-Muse:

The fun begins when you start to decorate these! I stamped some soft green paper with the branch from the A151 Japanese Floral 4 sheet from Art Neko. You can see the branch on the left and right sides of the green paper. I sponged some Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint distress inks along the edges before I adhered it to the inside of the Mini Altar.

The iris ATC stamp from the A292 Flowered ATC's sheet (Art Neko) was stamped with black ink onto some white Bristol cardstock. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils, taking the time to add the special details like the yellow areas and the pinkish hues on each flower. The ATC was cut out and adhered to the center of the Mini Altar.

On the outside of the mini altar, I stamped some soft green paper with the same iris ATC stamp from the A292 Flowered ATC's sheet and adhered them to the two front flaps. I found some purple ribbon that matched my colored flowers and I tied the mini altar closed with the ribbon.

These mini altars are a lot of fun to decorate. Grab some from the B-Muse store and select some stamps or papers from the Art Neko store and enjoy!

Cherry Blossom Woman in Oil Pastels

Hi everyone! I'm back to share this card I made using this sweet Asian woman under a cherry blossom tree from Art Neko. This image is watercolored with water soluble oil pastels. That sounds like a strange contradiction, doesn't it?

This woman under the cherry blossom tree collage is from the A411 Asian Influence Sumi-e Paintings stamp sheet at Art Neko. I stamped this with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto white cardstock and let it dry completely. Then I scribbled a little bit of color from the oil pastels onto some of the larger areas and used a wet paintbrush to move the color around. For the smaller areas like the little ball, I touched the wet paintbrush to the end of the oil pastel stick and picked up some color from there. This was a fun experiment to see what it was like to watercolor with oil pastels.

The background is something I made while I was at a retreat last month. I was introduced to oil pastels while making this, and I fell in love. We dabbed some white gesso through a stencil onto some watercolor paper and let it dry. Then we scribbled the oil pastels all over the piece and used baby wipes to blend the colors together. Isn't that a fabulous background? Now you see why I fell in love!

I hope you've enjoyed my oil pastels experiment today. Have a wonderful week!

CAS434 Gold Birthday Balloons

Howdy!  Did you enjoy your weekend!  I ended up making more chocolate zucchini bread and our first batch of salsa with the first tomatoes from the garden.  Mmmmm..........

There is a new CAS434 challenge up over on SCS today.  Kia wants us to use balloons and have some sparkle on our clean and simple cards.  I cut some balloons out of gold glitter paper and adhered them to a Dapper Denim card base.  I drew the strings with a white gel pen and then added the die cut sentiment.

All these dies are from Frantic Stamper.  I used the Big Balloons and the Brush Script Happy Birthday sets.  I love how they are the perfect size for using on A2 cards.  :-)

I hope you have a wonderful week!  I will have an Art Neko card to share with you in a couple of days, so come on back and visit with me again.

Chocolate Flower Squares

Hi everyone!  I'm back after a bit of a hiatus from stamping.  My puppy tore her ACL and had to have surgery, so I spent a couple weeks helping her get around during her recovery.  Then I was packing up stuff and I went to a stamping retreat which was a lot of fun.  Here is the aftermath......  LOL

Yes, my studio looks like this right now as I'm typing up this post.  I have a lot of unpacking to do, but I was able to whip up a sweet little chocolate flower card to share with you today.  This card is a cute little 3x3 notecard, and you can put together a set of these in less than 30 minutes.

I stamped the Peonies Squared from Art Neko's A281 sheet (Bold Nature Scenes) with some chocolate ink onto some vanilla cardstock.  I trimmed the stamped image out and glued it down onto a chocolate card.

It really helps to have a well-inked inkpad when inking up a solid stamp like this.  If you find that your images are coming out blotchy, try reinking your inkpad first.  You can also make sure you clean your stamp really well - sometimes there is a little residue left on the stamps from the manufacturing process.  Using a stamp positioning tool such as a MISTI is a big help when you need to re-stamp your image.

I'm going to get back to unpacking, so hopefully everything will be put away before my next Art Neko post.  Hee hee hee!  Have a great week!

Shabby Blue Flower

Good morning, everyone!  I have some exciting news today!  I have joined the design team for Victorine Originals.  I've been playing with this beautiful flower stamp called Bush Morning Glory, and I loved how this looked in blue.  I decided to go for a monochromatic card for my first VO post today.  

I stamped this gorgeous flower with Stormy Sky distress ink onto some white cardstock.  Then I used a wet paint brush and "colored in" in the flower.  I added a little extra ink to the star-like center so it would pop out.  I love the shabby chic feel of this soft blue flower.  To enhance the shabby theme, I sponged some brown ink on the edges and then distressed them with a distress tool.  I did the same thing with the other white layer in the background before tying some blue seam binding around the flower.

Check out the VO blog every day to see gorgeous artwork from my fellow design team members.  Don't forget, we also have a fun challenge for you to play along and share your own artwork with us.  The current challenge (#3) is Fathers, so show us your masculine cards and projects.

Shimmery Watercolor Peacock card

I've saved the best for last, as this will be my last posting as a Guest Designer for Frantic Stamper. I have truly enjoyed my time as a guest designer, and I have loved playing with all the dies and stamps from Frantic Stamper. Fran is an AWESOME person to work for, and I thank her and Kathy for this wonderful opportunity.

The card I am posting today is my favorite from the four months of my term. It's shimmery (SO me!!), it has peacock feathers, and it has watercoloring on it!

I stamped the gorgeous new Peacock Feathers background with Versamark ink onto some hot press watercolor paper. I then covered it with gold embossing powder and melted the powder with a heat tool. I had a blast watercoloring the feathers with some Daniel Smith watercolors in shades of blue, green, and brown.

After the watercolor paint dried, I went over the whole thing with some shimmery Lemongrass Twinkling H2O. Just look at that gorgeous shimmer! Is it any wonder that this is my favorite card?

After the Twinkling H2O layer was completely dry, I adhered this to a brown card. I cut the Brush Script Thank You from the same brown cardstock and glued the sentiment down onto the peacock background.

B004 Peacock Feathers background stamp

10196 Brush Script Thank You die set

Versamark ink pad

Gold embossing powder  

Peacock Get Well card

Did you know that Fran (the owner of Frantic Stamper) has her own line of background stamps??? I am in LOVE!!! These stamps are 6" x 6" which makes these perfect for both horizontal and vertical cards. I have to admit, I am a background stamp collector. :-) I love using background stamps, and this card is one of the easiest ways you can use these stamps.

I inked up the gorgeous new Peacock Feathers background stamp with Versamark and stamped it onto some dark blue cardstock. Then I covered the blue cardstock with clear embossing powder and melted the powder with a heat tool. You can see the gorgeous peacock feathers on my card.

I cut this embossed background with the largest Deckled Square die and adhered it to a pale gray card. I cut the sentiment using the brand new Get Well Soon dies and staggered the placement of the words for a fun effect. This card will be perfect for a guy who doesn't want a bunch of teddy bears or flowers. :-)

B004 Peacock Feathers background stamp

10202 Get Well Soon die

10105 Deckled Squares dies 

Versamark ink pad 

Clear embossing powder 

Big Birthday Balloons

Hi again!  I have another fun birthday balloon card using some Frantic Stamper dies to share with you. This time, I sponged some Peacock Feathers distress ink onto white cardstock for a soft background. Then I cut out the Big Balloons in shades of yellow, pink, and orange. The strings were cut from white cardstock and threaded through the little notches at the bottom of the balloons.

For the sentiment, I sponged the same Peacock Feathers distress ink very heavily onto some white cardstock and then I cut it out with the new Brush Script Happy Birthday dies. I love this sentiment! The brush script is gorgeous and the words are the perfect size for putting on your cards.

10171 Big Balloons
10194 Brush Script Happy Birthday
Peacock Feathers distress ink pad

Balloon Birthday

Hi folks! I created this fun birthday card using some of the new dies that were just released at Frantic Stamper. Don't you love those fun balloons? I cut them out from patterned paper and glued them down to a black card. The strings were drawn with a white gel pen.

The "Birthday" die cut is from the new Brush Script Happy Birthday die set. I used the Mattie Thin Upper Alphabet to spell out the "Happy" and glued them onto the balloons for a fun effect.

10171 Big Balloons
10194 Brush Script Happy Birthday
09261 Mattie Thin Upper Alphabet

Grampa Bi-plane card

Hi again! I'm posting another Frantic Stamper DT card, and this card is for my Grampa for Father's Day. Ever since I was little, I've spelled his name as Grampa, and when I would write letters, I would call him Pa for short. :-)

Grampa flew in airplanes for the Navy in WWII, so I thought it would be fun to give him a card with an old-timey kind of airplane on it. I used the Bi-plane die (09489) and cut it from kraft cardstock. I used Copic markers to color it in masculine hues of blue, gray, and black. I added some clouds in the background from the Soaring Paper Airplane set (10165) and I added "GRAMPA" across the bottom with letters cut from the Mattie Thin Upper Alphabet set (09261).

Soaring Paper Airplane (10165)

Bi-plane (09489) 

Mattie Thin Upper Alphabet (09261) 

Have you got your Father's Day cards ready?  Go check out the Dads and Grads release (April 2017) over at Frantic Stamper for some great ideas!

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge card

Hi everyone!  The Frantic Stamper design team is playing along with the folks over at Cupcake Inspirations for this week's challenge.  The inspiration picture is gorgeous, and the colors are orchid, pink, and spring green.  I decided to do a little watercoloring for my card today.

I found some spring green ink, and I smooshed it onto my craft mat.  I added a little water with a paint brush and loosely brushed it onto some watercolor paper.  Then I cut out the 09166 Solid Spring Sprig from Frantic Stamper from some white cardstock.  One I left white, and the other two were watercolored with some pink ink and some purple/orchid ink.  I also cut out the 09197 Small Thanks with Matting and watercolored that with the purple/orchid ink.

After my green watercolor background was dry, I cut it out with the stitched rectangle die from the Blueprints 20 set (MFT).  I glued the three leafy sprigs down onto this piece and then I adhered the small "thanks."  This watercolored creation was glued to a purple/orchid card base.

This is a fun and CAS (Clean And Simple) card - just my style!  :-)  Come check out what the other folks have created for this challenge over on the Cupcake Inspirations blog.

Koi and Kanji Wall Hangings

Hello everyone!  Remember the gorgeous collage paper that Art Neko created based on one of my cards?  I’ve used that sakura collage paper on this trio of wall hangings to share with you.  I stamped an assortment of koi and kanji on each of the three pieces.

I started by cutting out the Spring Summer Collage Sheet with scissors.  I trimmed each one to fit onto the ATC Masonite Blanks from B-Muse.  Next, I stamped the 3 Bold Koi and the kanji on each piece with a dark blue ink.  Then I glued the stamped collage sheets down onto the ATC Masonite Blanks, being careful not to get any wrinkles or bubbles in the paper as I pressed it down.

For the hangers, I glued them on with some liquid glue to the back of each piece.  I set some heavy blocks on them and let them dry overnight.  These are ready to hang up in my studio as soon as I finish hammering some nails into the wall.  I still have 6 ATC collage pieces left from the sheet, so I’ll be making more projects with those soon.  You can stamp anything you want on these collage sheets, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the different possibilities.

Items used on my project today:

Spring Summer Collage Sheet

3 Bold Koi stamps

Assorted Japanese Kanji stamps

ATC Masonite Blanks with Wall Hangers from B-Muse

Spitfire Dad card

Are you ready for Father's Day? With the fabulous new Dads and Grads release from Frantic Stamper, I've got my card ready to go. :-)

I started by sprinkling some Navy and Royal blue Infusions powders onto some white cardstock and then I misted that with some water. After it dried, I glued a strip of blue cardstock across the piece. Then I cut it out with the Deckled Squares die (10105). LOVE these deckled squares!! They are great for masculine cards.

For the airplane, I used the awesome Spitfire die (09490) and cut it out from scrap cardstock. I went over the whole thing with Autumn Bronze gilding wax and buffed it to a nice shine. This gilding wax makes these planes look like real vintage metal - so cool! I cut out this Spitfire again from blue cardstock and glued it behind my "metal" plane so that the blue would show up in the holes.

I used the same gilding wax on the die cut letters. These letters were cut from Frantic Stamper's Mattie Thin Upper Alphabet set (09261). After I buffed the wax on these letters, I glued them down onto the small blue strip.

Products I used from Frantic Stamper:

Deckled Squares (10105)

Spitfire (09490) 

Mattie Thin Upper Alphabet (09261) 

In the Navy Infusions powder 

Royal Blood Infusions powder 

Autumn Bronze gilding wax