21st Century Pillow Book

Greetings, Friends. This post today is part of a very special blog hop. We are celebrating the life of an amazingly talented artist and friend. The crafting community lost Aletha Jane Williams on May 5, 2019. Those of us that worked with her on Design Teams or on Challenge Blogs all agree that she was one of the sweetest and most talented women we knew. We are not here to mourn her loss though. This hop is happening in conjunction with a very special celebration of her life and her art that her husband Bob is holding in her home city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Please join us in honoring our incredibly creative friend Aletha . My card features the "Remembering Aletha" Sprite, which Mitzi (owner and artist of Aurora Wings ) created specifically for this hop. She is generously giving the digi away to all, over on her blog. This sweet Sprite looks so much like Aletha, and I know she would have been honored. If you download this digi for yourself, please be sure to give a huge "...

Greetings! My favorite Sparkle Blend from the newest release of Doodles Paper Playground is Juniper Berries . It's made up of shades of purple and teal, which are my favorite colors. There are also soft greens, fantastic blue squares, and silver glitter sequins in the Blend. I believe this has become the fast favorite of the design team! I let the colors of Juniper Berries guide me though the making of this card. I wanted to do something with flowers, so I chose to use the Vintage Flowers stamps and dies from Altenew . I used a variety of Memento and VersaMagic inks from Imagine to ink up the flowers and foliage. The flowers used Aspen Mist VersaMagic, Sweet Plum, Grape Jelly, and Elderberry Memento . The leaves used Niagara Mist VersaMagic and Cottage Ivy Memento. For my top layer, I applied Antique Linen and Iced Spruce Distress Oxides to my craft mat. I spritzed them with water and dipped my cardstock in a few times, heat setting the colors between dips. I love the...

Hello! It's no secret that I love making shaker cards. But I also love to use sequins for other things. I really enjoy combining different Sparkle Blends from Doodles Paper Playground to coordinate with my cards perfectly. A lot of times, I just start working on my card, and then go through all of my Sparkle Blends to choose what works best. For this card, I used Majestic and Fairy Dust Sparkle Blends, but let's take a step back and see how I got to the point of choosing those sequins. I started off by using the Wreath Builder Templates and Autumn Wreath Builder stamps from Gina K Designs. I stamped my chosen images with VersaMagic inks from Imagine on Kraft paper. When I build my wreaths, I like to work with my focal image first, in this case the Grapefruit colored flower, and then build everything else around that. Then I went on to choose my sequins. I loved the pink and white sequins from the Majestic Sparkle Blend, and then I needed something for the Eggplant co...

Hello! It's time for a brand-spankin' new challenge with Aurora Wings . The theme this time around is "Anything Goes," so there's no excuse to not play along! I decided to work with the delightful Lilac Sprite . I wanted to do something different when I colored the Lilac Sprite. So I opted to give her black hair and a black dress. I think she looks striking. I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens for this. Here's a close up. I loosely fussy cut her out then created my background. I have a nice big lilac bloom stamp from Stampendous , which I stamped on to lavender colored cardstock using Grape Jelly Memento Ink . I wanted to add a little something to the large blooms, so I took out my Fine Tec watercolors and added some shimmery purple watercolor to a few of the blooms. The shine it gave the background was fabulous, but not quite enough, so I also used a green sparkle marker from Spectrum Noir around the edge and for a few of the stems of the lilacs...

Hello! I am really excited to share this card with you. I have always loved looking at and making shaker cards, but now that I am on the Doodles Paper Playground DT, I really try to push myself to come up with new designs for my shaker cards. I decided to go through my Altenew dies to see if anything struck my fancy. I found the sun ray from the Rain or Shine die set and thought it was perfect. I had really been wanting to make a rainbow of Sparkle Blends, and I thought this would totally work. I also made this in honor of Pride Month, which I know was June, but I wasn't able to post this card then. Look at those fabulous colors! So here's the list of Sparkle Blends that I used: Strawberry Fields , Flaming Sunset , Test Your Luck , Ocean View , and Purple Passion . Because I don't really have a super yellow blend, plus there wouldn't have been enough room for an additional ray, I used Flaming Sunset and Test Your Luck because they each have yellows and golds in the...

Hello! My husband's birthday was at the end of April, and he loves when I make shaker cards. So, I knew I had to make one for him using one of the latest Sparkle Blends from Doodles Paper Playground . I decided to go with the Birthday Bash Sparkle Blends, because he loves bright, bold colors and because...well....it is a birthday card. ;) In this blend,you'll find red, green, purple, blue, and gold sequins. Some are in the shape of balloons! There are also little stars and microbeads. This is definitely a party in a shaker!  Beyond being inspired by Birthday Bash, I had just gotten Altenew's Bells and Bows Stamp Set , and I just had to use that awesome large bow that's in the set. I stamped 3 of the 4 layers using inks from Imagine. Doesn't it look real?! My papers are from DCWV, and they have fun metallic turquoise accents on them, which I thought really worked with the Sparkle Blend. If you click on my photo, you can see what's in the shaker a lit...

Greetings! It's time for Day 23 of the 31 Days of Halloween. Today, I am sharing a card that uses a beautiful moon stamp from Altenew , and a fabulous tree stencil from Stampendous. I started off by stamping the layers of the moon on to my white cardstock. I used Cement VersaColor , London Fog Memento , and Gray Flannel Memento ; all from Imagine. I then cut out a mask of the moon and temporarily adhered it directly on top of the stamped moon. Using Faded Jeans, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet, and Seedless Preserves Distress Oxides, I inked the entire background with my Ink Blending Tools. Next I took the Bare Trees Stencil and I sprayed it thoroughly with Sheer Shimmer Frost. I felt that it didn't have quite the effect that I wanted because it was light, so I then sprayed the stencil again with Tuxedo Black Fireworks! Spray . I verrrrrry carefully placed the stencil back down on to my cardstock and let it sit for a minute. I really liked the end result this time, as some of...

Hello! I am a big fan of Jennifer McGuire . Her techniques and videos are always so inspiring, and she just seems like a fantastic person. If you haven't watched her videos before, you can check out her YouTube Channel HERE . She is always sending her friends cards, something I really do't do enough. And, she frequently mentions how important it is to simply share handmade kindness. With everyone. I love this idea, and she is encouraging people to participate in this "movement" to share handmade kindness. I am going to participate, and the card I am sharing today is the first example. I am so in love with the Vintage Flowers set from Altenew , I knew I had to use them on some of the cards I make to share with friends. I used 4 colors of ink from Imagine to create the layered flowers. All were VersaColor . I used Smoke Blue, Heliotrope, Violet and Grape. The leaves were done with Memento ink in New Sprout, Pear Tart, and Bamboo Leaves. It was pretty simple to cho...