Shell Factor

Good Morning!

Happy Wednesday!

It's a beautiful Carolina blue day here in Cary, NC.  

Hope you have sunshine wherever you are.

I finally got around to putting together a card together with these beautiful shells.  On my crafty play date with Bonnie, she let me stamp and cut several of them. Then I went home and ordered the set!  hahaha. Oh the wonderful enabling of friends! 🤣. The coral is not in the set, that is a die from a set by Catherine Pooler (CP Designs).  My card idea began with the small bright watercolored panel that is framed in pink. A while back I was playing around with stencils and used the Shell Parade stencil (CP Designs) as an embossing plate on watercolored photo paper.  So I inked up a card panel in the teal color and then used the same stencil to create the tone on tone background.  

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies:

Stamps: Shells - Seaside Wishes (Stampin' Up).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110 lb;

Ink: Pucker Up, All That Jazz, Midnight (Catherine Pooler).

Extras: Shell dies (Stampin' Up); Coral die (Catherine Pooler); Frame die (MFT Stamps); Stencil - Shell Parade (Catherine Pooler).

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance 

Birthday Heart

Good Evening!

One card for tonight.  I'm still plowing through my UFO box of handmade backgrounds.  I even had the Hubs organized them by color for me so I could find them easier.  I used the sketch at Just Add Ink for my inspiration.

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies:

Stamps: Sentiment - Fluttering Friends (Catherine Pooler);

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110 lb; Vellum.

Ink: Be Mine, Bellini, Mardi Gras, Lime Rickey (Catherine Pooler).

Extras: Kinsley Heart Layered Die (Birch Press Design); Circle die (Catherine Pooler); Leaf Dies (Catherine Pooler); Bear Grass Stencil (Catherine Pooler).

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance 

Make A Wish

Hello Monday Evening!

 A quick post tonight with a sweet card...

A while back Unity Stamps had a nice sale, maybe last spring or summer, I don't remember and I had to jump on getting a couple of their Winnie The Pooh stamps.  The Hubs is a huge Pooh Fan.  In fact, we decorated the nursery for both our kids (one got the handme downs) in Winnie the Pooh. Dave was in school-aged childcare way back then and had painted some large life size posters of Pooh Bear we hung up.  And, I had actually drawn two pictures in oil pastels from a Pooh book for a Children's Lit course I took in college.  We hung those also.  All of those pictures we still have somewhere in our attic. And this past Halloween Dave got a Pooh costume for himself.  So, we are a Pooh family!  hahaha

For Following Challenges:

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #252

Column #2 - Die Cuts - Free- Any Sentiment

Krafty Chicks Challenge #726- All Occasions

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Winnie the Pooh (Unity Stamps); Flower stamp - Clover & Blooms (Catherine Pooler); Sentiment -

Paper: Spectrum Noir Alcohol Ink Smooth cardstock; Neenah 110 lb Solar White cardbase; Summer Pick N Mix patterned paper(Catherine Pooler).

Ink: Be Mine, It's A Girl, Garden Party, all That Jazz (Catherine Pooler Inks); Copics.

Extras: Scallop oval die (Catherine Pooler); Flower die (Catherine Pooler); Banner die (Reversed Confetti). 

Thought I'd share our long time ago artwork of Winnie the Pooh:

Dave's 1989

                                                                               

  

 Mine 1988

Dave in his Pooh costume

I'm so glad you stopped by my blog. 

 Have a great week! Come back soon! 💖

Nance 

Bloom With Happiness

Good Evening!

Another post for this winding down Sunday. I told you I've been playing in my craft room and finally get a chance to pull everything into some cards.  Here is another one -

I took advantage of some July 4th stamp sales and this gorgeous flower die and cover plate are some of them.  They are two of just three Alex Syberia products that I now own thanks to a nice sale. For this card I did some ink blending, watercoloring, ink-to-paper/diecutting and a little stamping (sentiment).

For Following Challenges:

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #252

I used Column #1 - Foliage, Layers, Butterfly

NBUS Challenge #64

The flower, leaves, cover plate and sentiment are all new purchases from this month.

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Blessings of Spring (Honey Bee Stamps).

Paper: Watercolor paper (Strathmore); Neenah 110 lb Solar White.

Ink: Something Blue, Be Mine, Lemon Sorbet, Chiffon, Limoncello (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Elegant Peony die (Alex Syberia); Charming Flora Cover plate (Alex Syberia); Ornate Banner dies (Pinkfresh Studio); Butterfly dies (Catherine Pooler); clear water gems.   

I'm glad you stopped by my blog. 

 Have a great week! Come back soon! 💖

Nance 

Joy & Love

Happy Sunday!

Hope you've had a nice summery weekend. Did you watch any Olympics? I missed the Opening Ceremony but have watched a bit here and there.  Love the dressage and beach volleyball, gymnastics, and of course, in our house, soccer is an absolute must! If I'm honest, I listen more than I watch because it gives me an excuse to craft while watching! 😉 🤣 Presently I'm "watch/listening" women's soccer - France Vs Canada. 

My first post today is a clean and simple card and my first Christmas card for 2024! WooHoo! 

I've been wanting to play with my new heart dies from The Greetery.  My only thing from The Greetery.  They were a gift from Bonnie. Thanks, Bonnie! These are going to be a fave of mine. 

For Following Challenges:

Simply Clean & Simple - July: Optional Twist - Use a Heart

Peace On Earth Challenge #68

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment -Joy & Love (Catherine Pooler Designs).

Paper: Neenah 110 lb Natural White; Kraft cardstock; Neenah 80 lb Solar White; 

Ink: Rockin' Red, Uptown, Cargo (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Heart dies - Wood Slice Hearts (The Greetery); Sprig Die (Catherine Pooler Designs); Berries (My Favorite Things).

I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Beach Floatie

Hello there! 

It's another rainy/stormy day here in central NC. We needed rain but now it's just getting ridiculous. I keep looking out the window at my veggie garden and hoping it's not getting over soggy.  From the window, it looks like it's flourishing very well, but up close and personal could mean something different. Not to mention I believe the birds or squirrels are snatching my tomatoes before they have a chance.  

Anyway, let me talk cards, which is why you're here.  A couple posts ago, I shared a card I made using an dried inked baby wipe.  This card is the negative of it and card #2 out of four I've created from two dried inked up baby wipes.  It was perfect to go with my Flamingo Floatie die in Cotton Candy ink.

For Following Challenges:

Four Seasons July Challenge 

I used products from Lawn Fawn, Waffle Flower, 

Catherine Pooler Designs and Hero Arts.

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Cocktail (Hero Arts).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Baby Wipe; Watercolor paper(Strathmore); Sticky Adhesive sheets (Sizzix).

Ink: Something Blue, Fiesta Blue, Cotton Candy, Be Mine (Catherine Pooler Ink). 

Extras: Beach sentiment die (Waffle Flower); Float - Flamingo Floatie (Lawn Fawn); Flower die (Catherine Pooler Designs); Wave panel die - Happy Waves (Waffle Flower). 

 Thank you for visiting. Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Sandy Forecast

Hello there!

Happy Wednesday!

Hope your week has been a good one.  It's at least a tad bit cooler, maybe and quite stormy. It's nice not to have to water the garden.  

I have one card for now to play in Just Us Girls challenge.  

I've tried to resort some of my homemade background stash so I can find what I want quicker.  In doing so, I found some old ones made using the shaving cream technique.  It was perfect for this card I wanted to create for the JUGS challenge. I think it looks like swirly Caribbean ocean water.  So I used the wavy dies from MFT Stamps and created a beach scene along with the sandcastle die.  The sand and sandcastle are from some of my watercolor/smooshed ink stash I have from leftover ink blending.

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Summer Sentiments(Ellen Hutson)

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Watercolor (Strathmore); Neenah Solar White 80#.

Ink: Sand Castle; Cotton Candy; Minted; Buttercream (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Sandcastle, bucket, shovel, shells dies (My Favorite Things); Wavy dies - Sand/Surf (My Favorite Things); Label die (Taylored Expressions).

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Critter Soak

Hello again!

Another quick post.

I used the beach ball stencil from Spellbinders to create the background.  Decided to have the critters peek out from under. Then framed them with double stitched circles.  Kind of think they emulate floaties or portholes.  

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Critters & Sentiment - Sunshine & Friends (MFT Stamps); 

Paper: Neenah 110 lb Solar White

Ink: It's A Girl, Garden Party, Something Blue (CP Inks). Copics.

Extras: Beachball stencil (Spellbinders); Circle die (CP Designs); Double Stitched Circle Die (Sizzix?)

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Wavy Seashells

Happy Wednesday!

It's a very steamy and humid one here in NC.  Of course, it's July so that's pretty normal.  I have a quick post to share.  Seems like this week they're all quick posts.  Can't seem to work fast enough for some of these challenges and they begin to wind down quickly!

A few specifics about my card.  It began with a baby wipe.  I saw Michele's post a few weeks ago she had shared about her using an inky dried baby wipe on her card.  So I decided to try it.  This is one of the cards as a result.  I have three more panels from two baby wipes left to make a few more cards soon.  I used sticky backed paper to glue my baby wipe onto cardstock. Then I die cut it from the Wavy background die by Waffle Flowers.  I then adhered it to a background created from photo paper with ink of the same colors smooshed onto it that I had in my stash.  I like to create my own colored cardstock with my CP Inks so that's what I cut my seashells and coral from.  It does require re-inking your ink pads more often but It's cheaper than buying colored cardstock.  

For Following Challenges:

Four Seasons Summer July

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment: Seashells (Honey Bee Stamps).

Paper: Neenah 110 lb Solar White for card base; Photo paper; 

Ink: It's a Girl; Oh Boy (Catherine Pooler Ink). 

Extras: Seashell dies -Lovely Layers Seashells (Honey Bee Stamps); Small coral (CPDesigns); Wavy cover die (Waffle Flowers); Ink dried baby wipe. 

I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Good Vibes

Happy Monday!

Hope your week has started out happy and well.  I have a fun post to share...

I created this using the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I did flip the sketch as my car faced the other way and I had to cut off the back a tad. I'm squeezing in at the last moment.  Had the card made and then got busy and distracted and forgot to post.  The Hubs is off work for a few days and we've been mixing in a little local fun with some domestic chores too. It's not often the Hubs has more than 2 days off in a row so when he does, my crafty time is interrupted.

For Following Challenges:

ATG Using Patterned Paper

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Boardwalk Cruisers Stamp set (Catherine Pooler Designs - CPD). Sentiment - Itty Bitty Summer (My Favorite Things-MFT).

Paper: Santa Monica Pier (CPD).

Ink: Uptown, Sand Castle, Gingerbread, It's a Girl (CP Inks); Copics.

Extras: Wood grain EF(StampinUp); Woody Car die (CPD); Sequins (CPD)

I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Special Day

Happy Friday!

It's quite soggy here in central NC but a welcome soggy as we have been so dry. Just hoping the power doesn't go out.  I have another card I made this week to share. 

There's quite a few elements to this card as it evolved.  It morphed several times until it came to be what you see.  The floral die is from Pinkfresh and I had cut it out of three colors about three months ago and then got distracted and it sat in a bowl on my table.  So this week I pulled them out and pieced it together. I'll start with the middle layer, I used a scrap from an alcohol inked panel on coated cardstock that I had in my stash. Added the white border die. The bottom is a scrap of one of my custom ink to paper background panels I make here and there for layers or die cutting. The top layer is an embossing folder from Taylored Expressions. I have hardly played in The Flower Challenge and so this one is going in there today.

For Following Challenges:

I'm entering this card in two birthday challenges...

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Inside Birthday Quotes (Picket Fence Studios).

Paper: Neenah 80# and 110# Solar white cardstocks; Coated cardstock.

Ink: Sage, Minted, Cotton Candy, Lemon Sorbet (Catherine Pooler Inks); Various pink alcohol inks and gold alcohol ink (Tim Holtz).

Extras: Floral Vines EF (Taylored Expressions); Scallop oval die (Sizzix); Border die (Catherine Pooler Designs);  

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. Happy Weekend! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance

S'More Love

Who loves Smores?

I admit it's one of my favorite treats.  I recently saw online someone put together a Smore tray with lots of different flavors of graham crackers and different chocolates. So guess what's on my treat list this weekend? Going to make a Smores Smorgasbord! Or Smores bar! 

Why am I talking about Smores? It's the focus of my card for this post.  I created it for the current Lawn Fawn challenge.  I have quite a few Lawn Fawn stamps/dies/stencils, but when I saw this challenge, I realized I have very little regarding food.  Luckily, I had their adorable Smores die. Everything on this card but the ink is Lawn Fawn.

I started by blending my background, adding some water spots and then die cut it with the Sunburst die plate. Next I embossed the sentiment. The mountains I cut from already watercolored paper or rather a smooshed background of green ink.  Anytime I ink blend or do ink to paper for custom colored cardstock, I will spritz the ink left on my glass mat and smoosh it onto watercolor or coated cardstock. Sometimes I use photo paper. I just can't sop up that ink and throw it away.  Seems criminal somehow. hahaha Then, I have a ready supply of colored backgrounds.  So this was in my stash.  The graham cracker pieces of my smore also were from already smooshed watercolored paper. I did take some Gingerbread ink and blend on the edges of those pieces for a little toasted look, as on the big and small marshmallows. 

Because the smore die has lots of different pieces so you have to cut it several times to get the different colors, I now have several more smores already made.  Wish I could do that with the real ones.  hahaha

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Love You S'more (LawnFawn).

Paper: Neenah 80# Solar White and Neenah 110# Solar White(card base); Watercolor paper (Strathmore).

Ink: Samba, Catching Rays, Flirty Fuschia, Grape Crush, Juniper Mist, Mardi Gras, Gingerbread (Catherine Pooler Ink); Versamark.

Extras: Sunburst backdrop (LawnFawn); Stitched Mountains (LawnFawn); Smiley Smore Lawn Cut(LawnFawn).

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. 

Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance

Summer Time

Good Evening!

It's been a bit since I posted.  I've been in my craft room avoiding the heat as much as possible.  Thankfully we've had some good rain this week to improve our drought conditions.  Expecting more this weekend so you know where I will be - crafting away hopefully!

I have had this center panel in my UFO basket since 2020.  I had done some watercoloring (small panel) and ink blending (larger panel) and cut out the sentiment die from them.  I got two different panels from it and used the other one back in 2020 to create the first card. So I pulled it out this week and finally made a card from the second panel. The birds and chair were already all attached to the panel. And, I had the red frame in the basket also.  I decided to create a little more interest by turning it behind the panel. I embossed the card base with the 3D Wave folder to finish it off. I don't know if you can see, but the smallest panel is also embossed with the same folder for added texture.

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies

Stamps: None

Paper: Yupo; Watercolor (Strathmore); Neenah Solar White 110#; 

Ink: Coral Cabana, Fiesta Blue, Sandcastle (Catherine Pooler Ink).

Extras: Wave EF (StampinUp); Bird dies (Impression Obession); Beach chair die (Impression Obsession); Sentiment Die (Simon Says Stamp).

I'm so glad you stopped by my blog. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Come back soon! 💖 

Nance

On My Mind - Color Hues Guest

Good Morning! 

I have exciting news ---

I'm the Guest Designer for the Color Hues Challenge!

Color challenges are my favorite and I really love today's colors:

Aqua and White have been a favorite color combo of mine for a very long time.  They were my wedding colors 34 years ago. 

I really enjoyed playing around to make this card. I did some gelli plate techniques with a stencil, a brayer and my Catherine Pooler Dye inks to make my background full of aquaness.  I've had the Birch Press Lotus Flower layered die for a while now and have not played with it until now. I love it dressed all in white! I had some aqua foiled sentiments in an envelope on my table and thought this one was perfect. I finished the card off with a few pearls within the flower.

I can't wait to see how you are inspired with these colors and all the inspiration from the Color Hues Team!  

For Other Following Challenges:

Inkspirational #319- Use Stencils (optional paste)

Krafty Chicks Challenge #722 - All Occasions

Group of Seven Cardmakers - Monochromatic Design Element

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Fancy Script background stamp (Hero Arts).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White

Ink: Fiesta Blue dye ink (Catherine Pooler Designs).

Extras: Mandala Stencil (TCW-Rebekah Meier); Lotus Flower die (Birch Press Designs);  Sentiment foil die and label die (Spellbinders); Pearl gems from stash. 

 I'm glad you stopped by my blog. 

 Have a great day! 

 Come back soon! 💖

Nance