Beautiful Butterflies

Hello again!   Today I'm sharing a card using Honeybee Stamps.   Haven't heard of them yet?  You should check them out!   Seriously cute stuff!

I wanted to create a kind of "Zentangle" background with the pretty butterflies and swirls, so I stamped them with MFT Hybrid ink in Black Licorice.   I blended the background using Distress Inks and a new-to-me product recommended by Mendi Yoshikawa - Tsukineko Jumbo Ink Daubers.   They were a lot easier to use (for me) than the Ranger ink tools.   I'm sold!!  I'll need to get daubers for all the Distress colors.   I mounted the butterfly panel on black cardstock and placed it near the top of my card base. 

  

I stamped the sentiment towards the bottom and for added interest, I used my Scan-n-Cut machine to cut out five of the butterfly images.   I glued them to each other only at the center so that the wings can fluff up for added dimension.   A bit of Wink of Stella glitter on the butterfly was the finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping by, friends!   I'd love it if you take a minute to subscribe to my blog and/or follow me on Instagram or Facebook!

CHALLENGES

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Throwback -  I chose Ombre from September 2015

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Sparkle & Shine Challenge

Hi crafty friends!  I'm checking in today with a card for the Sparkle & Shine Challenge.  I love the Halloween colors in the picture - I had to add in green though!   Purple, orange & green look awesome with black!   And some sequins as a sparkly addition?  Perfection!

I hope you have a chance to play along with this fun challenge!  Today's the last day to enter!

Newton's Nook Designs October Release - Fox Hollow!

Welcome back, NND friends!   Today the team is showing off the adorable new set "Fox Hollow"and it's matching dies.   I adore this set!   Foxes are one of my favorite animals - I was super excited when Jen showed us this stamp set!

I created my background using blue and purple Zig markers on watercolor paper.   I stamped the trees using Distress Ink in Evergreen Bough and then colored them with the same color ink - I love that sort of "no line" look that gave them!   I added some snowy hills with Stickles and embossed some of the snowflakes in the set with white embossing powder.   My little fox friend was stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and watercolored with the same (I just wiped the ink off the scarf area before I stamped.).   The scarf was colored with Zig markers.   I popped Mr. Fox up on foam adhesive.  Isn't he cute looking up at the falling snow?   

Tomorrow all the sets showcased this week will be available for purchase at Newton's Nook Designs!  Which is YOUR favorite?

Would you like to win the new “Fox Hollow” stamp set? This prize will be given away to ONE lucky winner!

Here's how to win:

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blog release posts. Make sure to check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9pm CST to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. Check out all the awesome Design Team Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans

Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann

Crafty Math-Chick

Jess Gerstner

Stephanie Muzzulin

Danielle Pandeline

Nina-Marie Trapani

Kimberly Rendino

Yukari Yoshioka

Annette Allen - Guest Designer

Newton's Nook Designs October Release - Christmas Cuddles

Today's introduction to the NND lineup is Christmas Cuddles and the coordinating die set!   Such adorable critter stamps in this set!   My favorite was mischievous Newton getting into his Christmas gift early!   I stamped and die cut Newton and the pile of gifts and colored them with Copics.   I adhered Newton to a green tag and popped the gifts up in front of him with foam adhesive.   

This was a super simple card to make - you could stamp a bunch of the images and color away while watching television and in no time you'd have enough to make a whole bunch of holiday cards!
                                     

Would you like to win the new “Holiday Smooches” stamp set? This prize will be given away to ONE lucky winner! Here's how to win:
Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blog release posts. Make sure to check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9pm CST to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. Check out all the awesome Design Team Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans

Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann

Crafty Math-Chick

Jess Gerstner

Stephanie Muzzulin

Danielle Pandeline

Nina-Marie Trapani

Kimberly Rendino

Yukari Yoshioka

Annette Allen - Guest Designer

Newton's Nook Designs October Release - Festive Flamingos

Time for day two of the NND October release!   The flamingos are back - and this time they're going festive!  Festive Flamingos is an adorable set.  I couldn't wait to ink up a scene with this cute couple!

To make this card, I stamped the flamingos and sentiment and used Copics to color them in.  I had planned to keep the card simple, but I felt the flamingos needed to be grounded, so I masked them with the Molotov masking fluid pen and blended in some Distress Inks to create the sky and sand (I used a die cut circle as a stencil.)

I mounted the entire focal panel onto gold glitter cardstock and then onto a white card base.  I found that my Crop-a-Dile would punch the perfect size hole to match up with the ornament, so I added a shiny gold glitter ornament as well.

Would you like to win the new "Festive Flamingos" stamp set?   

This prize will be given away to ONE lucky winner!

Here's how to win!

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!   The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blog release posts.   Make sure to check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win.   You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning!   You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9 p.m. CST to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog pot on Friday, October 16.   Check out all the awesome DT blogs below to enter!

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans

Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann

Crafty Math-Chick

Jess Gerstner

Stephanie Muzzulin

Danielle Pandeline

Nina-Marie Trapani

Kimberly Rendino

Yukari Yoshioka

Annette Allen - Guest Designer

CHALLENGES

I'm entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Clean & Simple Christmas!

T

Blog Redesign!

Today is the day!   I've done an overhaul of my blog, and it's up and running as of today!   Please bear with me while I work out the kinks.   I'd love it if you take a minute to subscribe to my blog and/or any of my social media!   All the links are conveniently located in one spot now - yay!

Newton's Nook Designs October Release - Holiday Smooches!

Hi NND fans!   Today's the first day of the October release - we have some awesome holiday sets for you this month!   We're starting with the adorable "Holiday Smooches" stamp set  - there are some seriously cute images in this set!   

I just adore the little seals!   They were colored with Copics (adding some dots for texture) and then fussy cut.  I created a little chunk of ice for them to float on and and set the romantic scene with vellum ocean waves and a distress ink sunset.

Before I attached the seals with foam tape, I used a stencil and embossing paste to add snowflakes!  I love all the dimension on this card!
   
                                           ______________________________________

Would you like to win the new “Holiday Smooches” stamp set? This prize will be given away to ONE lucky winner! Here's how to win: 

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blog release posts. Make sure to check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, October 15th at 9pm CST to comment  -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Friday, October 16th. 

Check out all the awesome Design Team Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs

Lydia Evans

Larissa Heskett

Samantha Mann

Crafty Math-Chick

Jess Gerstner

Stephanie Muzzulin

Danielle Pandeline

Nina-Marie Trapani

Kimberly Rendino

Yukari Yoshioka

Annette Allen - Guest Designer

Winnie & Walter WCMD Part II

I'm back with another entry for W&W WCMD!   I'm entering this card in two challenges - the Sketched Challenge and the Color Challenge. 

These colors look surprisingly great together  I am anything but a fan of the color yellow, so it's pretty rare for me to use this much on a card - but I do like how it turned out!   I had a leftover scalloped die cut in my stash and I thought it would look cool if I trimmed the edges off the scallop to use them as an accent on the focal panel to follow along with Gayatri's sketch (BTW, the card she made is one of my all-time favorites!   Check it out!).    I stamped some of the flowers from The Party and some accents from Moonlight in mint ink for additional interest.   The sentiment is from The Big, the Bold & The Happy.   I finished the card with an air-dry clay butterfly I made awhile back!

Tomorrow begins the October Newton's Nook Designs release blog hop!   Hope to see you back then!

Winnie & Walter WCMD Challenge 1

Well hello there!   I'm here with an entry for Winnie & Walter's WCMD Challenge - Make it Masculine.   I don't know about you, but I struggle with masculine cards.   Ironically enough, this came together rather quickly!   I used distress stains to create the background, and flicked the tag with water to create the awesome splotches.  The chevrons, from the W&W set Scenery: V is for Chevron, were stamped with Picket Fence Distress Ink.   The sentiments are from the W&W sets The Party and Parentville, and were stamped with Archival ink.

I mounted the tag onto kraft cardstock with some foam tape and added some rustic looking twine to finish off the card.  I'm really happy with how "manly" this turned out!   I'm late getting my projects uploaded for the challenge - I hope you were able to play along!   Check out the Winnie & Walter blog for more info on the challenges!

Happy World Card Making Day!

Happy World Card Making Day, everyone!    Today's card is one that I thought I had finished - had even photographed -, but wasn't satisfied with, so I went back and made a few changes, and I'm much happier with this version!   

This card is made using the Large Peony 1 stamp set from The Ton.   I stamped the peony on watercolor paper and colored it in with my Zig watercolor markers.  Have you been following along with Sandy Allnock's Go For the Gold class?   Today she showed a comparison between the Luna gold marker and the brush gold marker.  I don't have either of those in my stash, but I do have a Gold Wink of Stella marker.   I thought maybe that was just what this card needed, so I smeared some of the gold marker on my craft mat and added some water.  I painted some of this mixture onto the center of my peony and I love how it looks in real life!   It added just enough sparkle, and is nice and warm (rather than the cooler sparkle I'd have if I had just used my clear Wink of Stella).   I added strips of gold glitter paper and thought the black polka dot paper from PTI was a super contrast!  Gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finished up this card.   It went from 'just ok', to really nice once I added the gold glitter "paint"!

I'm entering this card on Sandy's blog - today is the last day to enter, so get card-making, everyone, and link up your gold project inspired by what you learn in Sandy's awesome videos!

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's WCMD contest and The Ton's WCMD Project Challenge

I hope you are able to create this weekend....it's so awesome that we have a day to call our own! :)

   

Simon Says Stamp October Card Kit

Hi again, crafty friends!   I'm sharing a card made with the October Simon Says Stamp card kit.   This kit is loaded with awesome goodies - I absolutely fell in love with that heart stamp.   I couldn't wait to ink it up!   I started by adding alcohol inks in shades of red, pink and just a hint of gold to a sheet of glossy paper.   I stamped the heart with Archival ink and fussy cut it out. 

The awesome 'hello' die also came in the kit, as did the patterned paper, which I trimmed down to form an arrow pointing to the heart and the tiny words (also from PP in the kit).   I added a few gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and stamped a few of the tiny hearts included in the stamp set with Delicata Gold ink to finish off the card!

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes! 

The Hop to STOP!

Hi there friends!   I'm participating in the Hop to Stop - this hop is to raise awareness about domestic violence - such an important issue!  Huge props to Becca Cruger for putting this together.    We are using the color purple (the color for National Domestic Violence Awareness Month) on our projects.  

I've used the beautiful Butterflies stamp from Jane's Doodles on my card today.   The background was done with a variety of purple and blue Gelatos, and the butterflies were stamped with Archival Ink and then colored in with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.   I added some accents with white gel pen and some Sparkling Clear sequins by Pretty Pink Posh.   I thought the sentiment was perfect for reminding someone important that they are beautiful and worthy of all the good things in life.

If you have time to play along, make a card with purple in it and link up!  I can't wait to see all the beautiful things you talented ladies (and gentlemen) create!!

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:

(ANYTHING GOES)

(OMBRE)

(WATERCOLOR)