Creating and Connecting

I am having the most fun this month!!! I am excited to be joining  The Male Room Challenge  as guest designer where my  Go Wild card  was chosen to be the winning card.  The theme for The Male Room Challenge is Team Colors.  To those of you who don't know me, I am from Canada.  We have one NBA (National Basketball Team), the Toronto Raptors.  And they won the NBA championship in 2019!!! My card is inspired by their team colors:)  And huge thanks to my very sweet friend  Just Me: c  for loaning me your  MFT All Star High Top  dies and   MFT Be Original  stamps!  I couldn't have done this without you! Can you guess that it is a slider card! (demo below)   Make sure you drop by  The Male Room Challenge  and check out the fantastic teams inspiration. Tip: I used a dental floss threader to get the crochet thread, size 10, through those crazy little holes for the shoe laces. ...

Who wants spring to come? I sure do! Today's brings the only spring we are seeing here in Alberta, Canada. I sure have enjoyed this past month, guest designing at the  Just Us Girls Challenge !  You talented ladies have been so sweet to me!  Today I am using  WPlus9 Tossed Floral Background  and  Essentials by Elllen Big Scripty Hello by Julie  dies.  The theme for my final guest card in this wild card week is "Inlay Die Cuts".  I have been trying to pull out unused or gently used stamps and dies lately, and I had never used either of these dies. Although not super quick, I do love how it turned out, so it was well worth the time! I also share the non-inlay version of the card:) I hope you drop by and  check out all the wonderful cards the JUGS team made:  Carol,   Sue ,  Angie,   Vickie,   Ina,   Bobby,   Nancy,   Lisa,   Maria,  and  Cécile . And please make sure to pull out ...

When I saw the inspiration photo for the Just Us Girls Challenge  I knew that Essentials by Ellen Subbing In by Brandi Kinkaid Stamps  and Subbing In by Brandi Kinkaid Dies  and Porthole Dies  were the perfect match! Thank you Ellen for giving me these wonderful presents! And thank you to JUGS for once again having me as a guest designer!   I look forward to seeing how this photo inspires you!  Please make sure to check out all the wonderful cards the JUGS team made: Carol, Sue , Angie, Vickie, Ina, Bobby, Nancy, Lisa, Maria, and Cécile . In case you want to make a similar shadow box card here is what I did (instructions then photo to follow). 1. Cut a piece of Canson Bristol or Neenah Solar White 110 lb. cardstock 4 by 9 1/2 inches. 2. Ink blend your background and add splatters.  Rather than the usual splatter with water I used reinkers for my splatter so they would be dark. 3. Score the panel after ink blending at 3/4 inc...

Thank you  Just Us Girls Challenge  for having me back as guest designer this week.  The theme "Black, Gold, and Cream" brought so many ideas to my mind, but I have been playing with alcohol inks again recently and had never tried this color combination and wanted to try it.  I hope you like how it turned out and that it inspires you to try something new. My tips for this week are short: 1. To avoid the ink from sticking to your dies or die cutting machine magnet or plates add a layer of wax paper before you die cut. The metallic inks seemed to be dry, but I don't know what would have happened if I would have waited longer.  I am not much for waiting.  You can ask my husband:) So after about 15 minutes I did my die cutting. Here is a photo of how I learned what I learned.  (And since then I learned I could remove all this with isopropyl alcohol...Yay!!!) 2. I found that the metallic alcohol inks work best when you lay down a lot of 91% is...

I could not resist making another card with the extra images I had stamped and embossed for my last card, from the Altenew Golden Garden stamp set! And for inspiration in design for today's card I used the February 2020 Altenew Inspiration Challenge and the Flower Challenge #41 "Add Leaves". I am joining these challenges with today's card. If you would like more on how I watercolor or arrange my florals, my last post was made with the same stamp set and the same general method.  I include a video on my watercoloring in my recent post. I used different colors and arranged the florals in a different pattern. You can find it here: Watercoloring Altenew's Golden Garden Stamp Set      Thank you for stopping by! Have a great day! Betty If you enjoyed your visit please click on the "Follow by email" button on the right side of this post and follow me on my journey. P.S.  I am so happy to hav...

I am super happy to be back again to be a guest designer at the  Just Us Girls Challenge where the Trend Week theme is "stripes". I thought it was a good time to do a little watercoloring with some florals from Altenew's Golden Garden stamp set to add to my stripes. Oh wait, any time is a good time to watercolor florals!  I used Crafter's Companion Torn Panel background die for my stripes. Tips on how I achieved this look in watercoloring: 1. My basic method usually is that I work in two layers. In the first layer I add color with some depth. In the second layer I add more color and depth, and texture. 2. Use the right amount of water in your little "well" made with the embossing. Make sure it is lightly pigmented.  Then you add darker pigment into the light. You know you are at least close to the right amount if, when you add the darker pigment it spreads fairly slowly and doesn't take over the whole area.  If the pi...

Alcohol inks are addicting! I had so much fun with friends this past weekend, crafting and laughing! They wanted to try alcohol inks with no arguments from me.  I did a "twofer" out of the background and I can not choose a favorite. Tips: 1. I use my Copic marker refills and 91% Isopropyl alcohol.  Choose 3 or 4 colors that are similar color, with some being lighter, others darker.  I chose 3 cooler reds, RV02, R89 and RV99, and 1 warmer red, R46.  If you follow me you know I like to mix warm (bluer tone) colors and cool (yellower tone) colors. 2. Drop 3 or 4 drops of each color on Yupo paper cut to 5 by 8 inches (half of a sheet). I put the darker colors more toward the center and the lighter colors on the edges. I put is down in a gentle "S" shaped pattern at a diagonal. 3.  Blow it around with a straw or air compressor to spread the ink.  I have tried both and find I get similar results, but find the air compressor is easi...