Valentine's Day card share

Hello again crafty friends,

Today I thought I'd share the cards I made for Valentine's Day. I think they turned out super cute.
I had recently purchased some Bristol smooth watercolor paper and wanted to try my hand at some faux-water coloring. I've owned a set of Martha Stewart markers for years and rarely use them. They're water based so I wanted to try to use them the way I've seen folks use those Zig waterbrush markers (which I don't have) on YouTube. I couldn't believe how well it worked. I would put down a bit of color in a small area on the image and then use a waterbrush to spread the color out. It worked like a charm and created a soft watercolor effect which I think worked well with the images on this card. Here they are:

For the cards I combined several stamp sets. For the first card, I used the "Charmed" stamp set by Mama Elephant. The sentiment on the banner came from the "In My Heart" stamp set by Mama Elephant. 

For the second card I stamped the larger birds and feathers using a stamp set from Lawn Fawn that is no longer available because it was a limited edition. 

But the smaller bird is from the Lawn Fawn "Chit Chat" stamp set. The branch is from the "Charmed" stamp set by Mama Elephant and the heart frame is from a Spellbinder set called "Heart Circle". It's not actually a frame so I used a SSS stitched circle die that fit and cut out the center and, voila, it's a cute frame. The sentiment is from an old Cloud9 Design stamp set that I don't even know the name of.

For both cards, I used Tim Holtz distress inks to create a soft colored background. Then I used the SSS Stitched rectangle die to cut out the panels and adhered the images and elements to them. For the purple mat I used the stitched scalloped rectangle die from the MFT dienamics blueprints 27.

I kept the embellishments pretty simple with just a touch of sparkle on the hearts and a clear glaze pen for the beaks and tiny flowers on the wreath.

By the way, the limited edition Lawn Fawn set didn't have dies, but I got a Brother Scan N Cut for Christmas and it cut the images for me beautifully. I love the Scan N Cut!!!! I'm not great at fussy cutting and usually my hands start to hurt especially when I'm making a large number of the same cards so this machine has been a HUGE help!!! Also, now I no longer have to buy matching dies for stamp sets which frees up my very limited budget to purchase more stamps and stand-alone dies and such.

So, those are my Valentine's cards. Hope you enjoyed.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed & crafty day.

Hugs,

Bettina :)

Just Thinking of You

Hello Crafty Friends,

I'm back with a quick card share. Here's my entry for MFTWSC320. Even though it took me most of the day to make it (had the hardest time making color decisions) I had soooo much fun making it and got to play with some stamp sets that I've had a while but hadn't yet used and some new stamp sets I got for Christmas. Here's the card:

The stamp sets I used are BB Our Story, BB I Knead You, and MFT Label Maker Sentiments. I also inked the sentiments with my new MFT ink mini in a color called 'Poppy'. Such a pretty color. I cut the pattern paper using the scalloped edge stitched rectangle from the MFT Dienamics Blueprint 27. I absolutely love that die.

All images were colored with Spectrum Noir markers. The kitty was colored to resemble our tortois shell kitty, however, I wasn't brave enough to color the pup black & white to look like ours so I colored him in golden brown tones instead.

So that's my super quick card share. If you have any questions about what supplies I used, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you get a chance to have some crafty fun.

Have a blessed and crafty day.

Hugs,

Bettina:)

MFT BB Our Story card share

Hello crafty pals,

Happy Valentine's Day!  January was a bust for me. I think I made two things. I think I was recovering from Christmas card overload. LOL. Anyone else have this problem?

Anyway, I finally was able to motivate myself and make time to join this week's MFT challenge so here's what I came up with for MFTWSC319.

I used the BB Our Story stamp set I got for Christmas. It's so cute; I can't wait to play with it some more. Using the stack of books I stamped a background trying to stagger the image for each column to make it look more random. I used the MISTI and it helped a lot. It definitely wasn't a quick background, so just be warned if you want to try it-LOL. Next,  I stamped out the book stack on another piece of cardstock, colored it and cut it out (using my Brother Scan N Cut that I also got for Christmas--I LOVE it!!!). When I placed the colored book stack over the matching stack on the background, I realized that it barely stood out because I had used black ink to stamp the background. I should have used a light grey maybe but I didn't want to start over. So, in order to diffuse the background a bit, I layered a piece of vellum over it and that helped a lot.

Then I just layered everything on some gingham patterned paper from my stash. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment with some white embossing powder on some dark grey cardstock and used the fishtail banner die from the MFT die-namics Blueprints #27 to cut it out. Also used some SSS Stitched circle dies to cut out the circle frame from some pretty light blue cardstock. And just because it looked a little too plain, I added a few sequins from my stash. Overall it's a very clean and simple card that would be great for many occasions.

The cards I've seen using this week's MFT sketch are so amazing. Did you guys see this astronaut card by Karen Baker? It's actually a slider card!!! It just WOWs. I can't love it enough!!!

Later this week I will share pics of some Valentine's Day cards I made.  Thanks for hanging out with me today. 

Have a blessed & crafty day.

Hugs,

Bettina :)

Merry Christmas & a very happy and blessed New Year's wish

Hello crafty friends,

The holiday season has kept me super busy as I'm sure you all can relate to. I haven't had much time to craft let alone post pics here but did manage make some super quick Christmas cards to be able to send to family and friends but I didn't take any pictures of those. I made one more card using one of my favorite MFT sketches for my DD because I accidentally sent hers in the mail. lol

Wishing all of you a blessed and safe holiday season and many blessings in the coming year!

Hugs,

Bettina :)

Magical Christmas

Hello there,

Is everyone getting into the Christmas spirit? We're slowly getting ready taking our time decorating and whatnot over the course of advent. Of course, I have to make a few Christmas cards, too, to send out to family and a few close friends. I dreamed up this card I'm sharing today over the course of a week or so. I've had this super cute BB You Have My Heart stamp set for a while but strangely enough haven't used it very often. Every time I look at the stamp of the little girl with her pup looking at each other I feel like they're sharing some secret or witnessing something beautiful together (like a cozy fire, a beautiful sunrise/sunset, fireworks (I actually made a card with that)......or Santa trying to scramble up the chimney.

I couldn't even begin to share what all went into making this card but the main products were the BB You Have My Heart stampset & dies by MFT for the main image, the BB Santa's Elves for the elf, the tree & some of the presents and baubles, the BB Beary Special Birthday stamp set & dies for presents, the ME Charmed stamps & die set for the wreath, and finally the Cricut Quilted Christmas cartridge for the Santa in the fireplace image and the Cricut Creative Cards cartridge for the window & curtains.. Before your eyes glaze over, lol, here's the card:

I cut the firplace with Santa image using my old Cricut Expression 2 from all white cardstock because I didn't want to have to figure out the colored cardstock and also because either way I would add details because otherwise it looks a bit flat to me. So, all the colors and details were colored in using my Spectrum Noir markers.

I imagined a story where Santa and his helper were busy delivering presents and decorating when they heard footsteps. 'Course they had to try to leave in a hurry and the little elf didn't get a chance to clean up after himself and left tree baubles all over the place. He's still waiting for the right time to make his escape. I'm sure Santa won't leave without him. Lol. That little girl and her pup are just amazed at watching Santa scramble up the chimney. He's taking a while cause his jelly-belly isn't making it easy. lol. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. hahahah...

The card still needs a sentiment and a recipient but it's otherwise finished. Hope you enjoyed this share.

The sentiment will read "Enjoy the magic of Christmas" and that's what I wish for all of you.

Thanks for stopping by. May you have a blessed, crafty, & magical day.

Hugs,
Bettina :)

Hope Santa spoils you rotten and lots more...

Hello there,

Huge card share for you. Once again, I'm late. I share a computer and it's just hard for me to get on here lately to post but I finally have a chance to jump on here and share.

The cards that I made were for the MFTWSC#308...last week's. A really great sketch; super versatile. I made quite a few cards with this sketch simply because once I got the idea in my head that the circular shape in the background was like a Christmas ornament I decided to make a bunch of Christmas cards with this sketch. And I was just on the roll. lol

For the first cards I used the MFT BB Santa's Elves stamp set. I used a Tim Holtz stencil (Holiday Knits) throughout and some distress inks to create the background circle. Then I colored in the elf and fussy-cut him out. I did some heat embossing for the sentiment (I love heat embossing, by the way...I don't think I know how to make a card without using this technique. lol) and then just put the elements together using foam tape for some added dimension. That's pretty much how I did all the cards. I just varied the images and stamp sets and the matting papers. Oh, and one of them is a shaker card. Here they are:

I think this next one might be my favorite of the 3. I cut around the sentiment because it helped to make the elf look like he's peeking over while holding onto an ornament. I fussy-cut him; in the original image he's peeking into a stocking. Adorbz!!!

For the next set of cards I used Mama Elephant's 'Reindeer Games' stamp set and colored up a bunch of those cuties. Thankfully I have the coordinating dies for these. I think of these 3 maybe the pink one is my favorite but they're all really cute aren't they?

Did you have a favorite?

Thanks for stopping by and peeking in. Leave any questions in the comments and I'll try to answer them quick as I can.

Have a blessed and crafty day.

Hugs,

Bettina :)

Happy Bear-thday Shaker

Hello,

Just quickly wanted to jump on here to share a card I created for an MFT Color challenge. I've never done a color challenge before and had been wanting to so when I checked it out and saw the color palette I couldn't let it pass me by.

The colors are classic and timeless. So here's my entry for MFT Color Challenge #57

It's a shaker card using MFT ever so cute BB Beary Special Birthday stamp set. For this stamp set I also have the matching dies which makes me very happy because I'm not great at fussy cutting and sometimes my hands hurt. To frame the shaker bits, which are a combination of red, silver, and clear sequins from my stash (probably Darice brand from Michael's) I used the MFT Stitched Rectangle Scallop Frames die and colored it with some dark red Spectrum Noir markers to match the balloon and bow. I stamped the sentiment directly onto the acetate with black StazOn ink. That took a couple of tries because I always seem to make a mess and smudge things. But nothing an alcohol wipe can't fix.

The bear I colored with cool greys. Everything got sparkled up with my Spectrum Noir glitter brush marker and a touch of glossy accents adds shine and extra cuteness to the bear's nose.

I thought the inside of the shaker looked a bit bare (lol---just realized that could sound a bit like a pun) so I stamped the stack of presents in Memento flannel grey ink and colored it with light shades of cool grey. And I thought that was just enough of something in the background.

That's my card share. Hope you enjoyed.

Have a safe & blessed Thanksgiving and I hope you get to spend it in the company of family & friends with much love & laughter.

Hugs,
Bettina :)