Love my leaves!

The new release PTI package arrived yesterday.  I've fallen in love with more watercolor effects!  Today I've been using a water brush and dabbing it on to inked stamps before applying them to paper.  More control than spraying with a mini-mister. 

I adore the lovely translucent results - especially on the leaves.

Stamps:  Bold Bouquet & Get well Wishes - PTI

Colors:  Limeade Ice, New Leaf, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Orange Zest  -  PTI

More Spring

Another spring-y card.  The wreath is a die cut, inlaid on white cardstock.  The teensy flowers are die-cuts stamped with Hibiscus Pink.  Ha ha!  So fun to take a Christmas wreath and turn it into a spring-y thing!

What would Barb do??

Spring is finally coming!!  Yesterday we had temperatures in the 60's here in St. Louis, and I had windows open.  My kitty had a marvelous time watching birds.  

For her, it must be like BlueRay tv instead of looking through glass.  

There's a blog hop coming up where the challenge is to make a spring card.  This was my first time using a sponge blender --for the sky.

There's quite a bit of depth as I used foam dots for one of the clouds as well as the fussy-cut flowers.  The card was almost done and I asked myself the usual question, "What would Barb do?"  My best friend Barb introduced me to card making a year an a half ago.  She is really a pro!  Out came another layer of paper, a darling button and a tiny little tag that I cut myself.  Barb always has lots of different details on her cards.  And forget just one layer!

One last detail:  the flowers were just begging for happy faces.

Flowers: Multiple stamped with images from Friendship Jar/Spring and colored with Copics

Sky:  Sponged with PTI Hawaiian Shores ink

Paper and cardstock: PTI  Harvest Gold print and Hawaiian Shores

PTI MIM Challenge

Today's challenge was to use a pigment ink overlaid with a die ink.  I was surprised that I actually owned a pigment ink, which I must have gotten in the first months of card-making a year or so ago! I didn't even know the difference between the two but needed something to make "snow" with.  I used some ferns from Meadow Greens with Fresh Snow hybrid ink for the first layer. Sweet blush, Hibiscus Pink, Summer Sunrise and Harvest Gold for Flowers - New Leaf for the leaves.  The background ferns show up much better on the darker colors.  The sentiment comes from Sentiment Signs.  All PTI.

P.S. (Feb. 19)

I was on Facebook last night--- and there was MY card!!  I was absolutely dumbfounded.  What a compliment - it had been picked as an example by the PTI  ladies!  I feel like I have finally graduated from calling myself  just a "beginner".

You never know where the creative process will lead!

Another example of just following the path to see where it leads.  I needed a card for a friend who is having surgery tomorrow.  I couldn't resist using this PTI stamp again.  Used Copics to color it and started hunting for a color to frame it with.  PTI Orange Zest.  Was looking for a background paper and came across this sheet of Graphic 45 paper from their Bohemian Bazaar collection.  How perfect!

Who knows what the end will be...

Yesterday afternoon I was playing around with watercolor effects, using a mini-mister and spraying images before applying to paper.  The distance from mister to image made a big difference and of course, some images turned out better than others.  Interesting how one thing leads to another:  I cut off the leaves and flowers I liked the best and thought they'd look good with pink frame... put it on Rustic Cream PTI cardstock... Now I needed a sentiment that would balance below, so I went hunting for quite a while... found one!  Then experimented with what color to use: black?  too harsh?  Soft Stone or charcoal?  too cold.  PTI's Simply Chartreuse did the trick.

Spring Tulips

It certainly has been a jolly good winter - the kind I remember from my childhood in New England.  Snow on the ground for weeks.  These lovely spring tulips come from a PTI Friendship Jar series - Spring.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with 5 or 6 different shades of pink Copic pens, and the tulips really came alive!  Soon they'll be blooming at the Botanical Gardens here in St. Louis, and I think we'll enjoy the beauty of spring even more.

Some more Valentines - I really love the challenge of making a bunch of cards to celebrate a holiday. Frankly, I'd be bored to tears making the same one for everybody, so I gather up all my stuff for the current holiday and see how many different designs and techniques I can come up with.  The card on the left features a heart that is all inlaid with tiny hearts and a sparkle heart in the middle.  The one on the right is a different die from Impression Obsession, just using the Pure Poppy PTI cardstock as background with a white die-cut overlay.

Feb. 10 - PTI challenge

The challenge was to make a card with a singular word.  I chose "Congratulations" (PTI) to send to my friend Ginger, who just got word that her jewelery design has been accepted by The Centers For Spiritual Living.  Used PTI harvest gold and Rustic Cream cardstock.  The flowers are from Doodlie Do stamp set. ... and Copic pens.  

17 Minutes!

PTI Challenge:  7 minutes to gather up your supplies and 17 to design and make a card.  I used PTI papers and the new Doodlie Do dies and sentiment.  

Winter Sunshine

Yes, it's  an unusually winter-y winter this year.  Perfect for cheerful cards.  This is an all- PTI card with the January Doodlie Do stamp set.  So many ways to use these and more places to use my Copic pens.  I'm going to keep this one around to admire for a day or two and then off it will go to bring some cheer to someone else.