Follow Your Heart

I found this saying, Follow Your Heart, in my Tim Holtz Quote Chips and it inspired me to create this card both as a reminder to myself and to others. After many, many years in the corporate world, I'm now trying to make following my heart and focusing on what matters most to me, my primary direction in life.

I made several backgrounds using Tim Holtz Botanical 3D texture fade, playing around with this layering technique from Jan Hobbins.

I was inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Midsummer Blues challenge to work in blue! The one thing each of these had in common was the Botanical embossing folder AND the use of Blueprint Sketch paint. Each one came out a little different and I will be using them for backgrounds on several cards this week.

First up is the tan and blue background in the bottom left of the picture above. This started out with layers on Tea Dye and Tumbled Glass. I used watercolor paper as the base and taped it down after embossing to help keep it flat. 

On top of this went the Blueprint Sketch paint mixed with a little glaze. It gave it a slight sheen and was easy to spread with my fingers. Then I layered on some distress stains in Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Broken China and distress oxide spray in Mermaid Lagoon until I got a dusky blue topping it off with a bit more Vintage Photo mixed with glaze again getting it into the nooks and crannies. 

The heart was hand cut, layered with Picked Raspberry, Aged Mahogany, Candied Apple, Walnut Stain Distress Oxide and stamped with script text embossed in fine black and edged in Black Soot distress crayon.

Finally a few gold embossed ivy sprigs from Garden Greens, a bit of cheesecloth, layered on top of a panel from Tim Holtz Wallflower stack and base card cut from turquoise card stock from my stash!

Some detail photos:

I’m entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Midsummer Blues!

thanks for stopping by!

Mitch

Happy Birthday with Flower and Rosette

Another birthday card using Tim Holtz dies and inks. In this one I played around with the Botanical 3D die using multiple layers of Distress Paint -- mostly Cracked Pistachio, Blueprint Sketch, and Tea Dye.

A detail photo of the rosette which was die cut from watercolor paper sprayed with Fossilized Amber and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Spray:

The die cut flower from Wildflower Stems #1 is doused with Antique Linen and Shaded Lilac on the flower and Forest Moss on the stem, lightly spritzed with water. The flower was clear embossed to give it a bit of shine.

The sentiment is from my old stash of stamps.

I’m entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Happy Birthday !

Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate

Time to experiment with some of my new supplies -- 3D Botanical texture fade embossing folder and rosette dies both from the "Professor" Tim Holtz. There was also liberal use of distress oxide paints, stains and inks. Some card stock from my stash and voila -- I have three birthday cards, the first of which I will show here.

 A few close ups so you can see some of the details better:

For this card I used the following -- all Tim Holtz!

3D Botanical embossing folder
Rosette die
Fall Foliage dies
Alphanumeric dies 3/4 inch 
Blueprint spray stain
Vintage Photo spray stain
Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide spray
Tarnished Brass Spray Stain.

I’m entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Happy Birthday!

I have two more cards waiting in the wings that just need a few extra touches before I post them!

Thank you for visiting

Michelle

Happy Spring Greetings!

Happy Spring! To celebrate I'm sharing a birthday card for my daughter. Her birthday was in April but I wanted to wait to share until after I sent it to her! I used TH funkie flower dies, distress inks and a collage of old dictionary pages for the background.

I'm entering this in the Frilly and Funkie challenge: Spring is in Full Bloom

http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.com/2019/04/spring-is-in-full-bloom-challenge.html

Poinsettia card

Christmas cards are all in the mail including this one to my sister made from Tim Holtz Sissix dies, paper and distress inks. 

Snowflake Joy

Got on a roll today, and put this card together in less than 30 minutes! Of course, the snowflakes were already covered in glitter and die cut -- left over from another project. But I'm learning to cut multiple items at once and then have quick access when I want them.

The blue panel was colored with Distress Oxide in Faded Jeans, Salty Ocean and Black Soot. Then spritzed lightly with water and stamped with Faded Jeans snowflakes.

Next I assembled the elements I wanted to use -- glittered snowflakes, die cut JOY, red and white butcher string from my stash and red snowflake pattern paper from the 2018 Tim Holtz Christmas paper collection. Plus dusty blue card stock for the actual card.

Everything got trimmed, tied and layered. Easy peasy.

The final product -- now I just have to decide who to send it to -- that's if I can part with it myself! I have a habit of collecting these things. :)

Cheers!

Oh, I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Let It Snow  

JOY - Snow Play

Snowflakes and reindeer and everything Christmas! I started working on my Christmas cards -- and I was inspired by the Simon Says Monday Challenge -- Let It Snow! My background was inspired by one of my favorite card and craft bloggers, Kath Stewart.

My card combines dies from my stash and some of the new Tim Holtz Christmas papers and Festive Funkie dies. I've always loved this prancing deer and was so glad to have an excuse to use him playing in the snow!

I started off inking a panel with Distress Oxides in Faded Jeans and Black Soot then lightly spritzing with water. Then stamped snowflakes in Faded Jeans and white embossed a few snowflakes.

Since this is one of what I hope will be many Christmas cards, I die cut a bunch of festive greens for about an hour!  Then die cut prancer here, covered him in white acrylic paint and dusted with fine white glitter.

I die cut the word JOY three times and stacked them to give the word some extra depth and die cut the small poinsettia and edged with some fine white glitter.

Then layered the blue panel atop a panel of red stripes and fixed the whole thing to a dusty blue card and voila! My first Christmas card for 2018!

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Let It Snow  

The Wicked Witch

Back today with two cards for Halloween! First a card I made for my daughter for Halloween! We both love Halloween (maybe even more than Christmas). Even though she's 1500 miles away in Wisconsin, I wanted to contribute to the festivities for a Halloween party she's hosting. I used the Tim Holtz Distress Oxides for the background with the spritz and smoosh technique and a few of his Halloween die cuts and stamps! so much fun!

I'm adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for  Spooky Halloween ! 

Here's a picture of the second card I made for a friend:

I just added this to the Wednesday challenge as I don't think I posted correctly to the Monday challenege .... still trying to figure this blog thing out!

https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/