Beautiful Blossoms Challenge : Best Birthday Ever

 Hello and welcome back to a Beautiful Blossoms Challenge, where we have a monthly inspiration card challenge. Come along and join us this month for some fun inspiration!

This month's challenge photo is :

Truly a unique photo challenge! 

I chose to use my Altenew stamp set Paint-A-Flower: Lotus set, that I colored in with Copics. I cut out a gold filagree using Spellbinders's A2 Radiant Navette dies, placing them under my image so they barely peaked out. I added a white doily under my image, with some candy dots from Bo Bunny called Willow and Sage. Then I used a decorative piece of cardstock from some packaging that some scrap stuff came in, that I kept because it was so pretty! Lastly, I added my foiled sentiment from Pink Fresh to finish my card.

As you might have read, I used some decorative packaging as my backing cardstock. Don't be afraid to be creative with things that aren't technically actual scrap items. I kept that particular piece of light cardboard for over 6 years, knowing it would be perfect for something, and I love how the card turned out with it! 

I can't wait to see what you and everyone else creates from that inspiration photo! 

Best Wishes!

 Welcome back, Friends!

I don't know about you, but I've always loved Altenew's stamps. I've been slowly collecting them over the last year, but I hadn't yet participated in one of their blog challenges, so I decided why not give it a whirl? 

Every month they challenge crafter's with a fun and inspiring photo or challenge. So this month, Altenew's February 2025 challenge is : Blue & Gold w/ Textures 

And here is their inspiration photo.

Gorgeous blues and a nice splash of a posh gold. What's not to love? I love that they decided to feature blues this month instead of pinks, reds, and whites for February. Nothing wrong with those colors, I love them myself, I just love a good challenge :)

I don't have many Altenew sets but I knew right away that I wanted to use the "Enjoy Your Journey" set. I stamped it out and colored it in with Copics, then I stamped out my sentiment from Altenew's "Gracious Peonies" set. Then I cut my image out with MFT's Stitched Rectangles dies, and matted it with Tim Holtz's Metallic Gold Cardstock, cut into a scalloped rectangle using MFT's Scalloped Mini Rectangle dies.

Obviously, I used a lot of Blues and added some gold touches in my image and coloring. For my Textures part of the challenge, I chose to use a shiny, smooth metallic cardstock as my texture for the challenge. It adds a bit of texture and sparkle to the card that I love!

Thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time I post my next project!

Happy Birthday

 Hello and welcome back crafty Friends! I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! I don't know about you, but I look forward to my weekends of crafting :)

Today I have a card that combined a few blog challenges :

Addicted To CAS : Center Focus

Word Art Wednesday : Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Blog : Anything Goes w/ Spellbinders

A Cherry On Top : Sketch

Just Add Ink : A Touch of Bling

I didn't want to combine too many challenges together, because I wanted to keep my card as clean and simple as possible this time. I usually have clean designs, but I really wanted this card to be clean and simple so the design would speak for itself and keep the focus front and center.

I chose to use Spellbinders Scalloped Symphony Notecard die set, on Tim Holtz's Metallic Cardstock in Rose Gold. I chose a close matching pink paper cardstock from The Paper Boutique's Moon Meadows cardstock collection. I stamped my sentiment from Crafter's Companion in a set called Gemini. After stamping my sentiment and placing it in the center of my card, I added a couple of gem stickers from Honey Bee Stamps from their Log Cabin gem collection.

Again, I felt it would look better if I made it as clean and simple as possible and I'm glad I did. I generally don't work with shimmery cardstock for many reasons, but mainly because I feel it's difficult to photograph well. I had to close some blinds and shades to keep from the high reflection on this card, but the darker room, I feel dulls it out. So it's tricky if you want to take photos with it, but in real life it just sparkles in such a lovely, eye catching, way!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a happy, crafty weekend!

Yellow Roses

 There's a certain elegance to roses that I love. I am a lover of roses, and though they aren't my favorite flowers, I can certainly appreciate them. Their fragrance, form, and beauty. There's just nothing that compares to it when you walk through a garden of them.

I found this image of a couple rose stems in a glass vase on Amazon, from an unknown company and vender, but I just had to have it. I colored the image in with Copics and matted it underneath with Tim Holtz's 8x8 Metallic cardstock. Then I found some patterned paper from Paper Studio that had some gold design in it, and placed that under the gold matting cardstock. I matted everything in gold cardstock again and added some very small gold pearls at certain intersections of the gold and deep blue patterned paper.

I didn't add any sentiments on it, intending to use it for any upcoming Wedding or if I'm ever in need of a Sympathy card. I like to keep many of my cards blank on the inside incase I'm need of a card real quick and I can't create one fast enough. I like to have a few on hand for that reason.

Well, I'll see you next week and until then, take care!

Delight in the Unexpected

 I'm back with a new card and a happy surprise.

This month's card is inspired by Power Poppy's challenge this month : Going Sentimental.

I've been playing around with an idea to make a black and gold card for quite sometime, and after I saw this month's challenge, I knew I had to try to combine my idea with it. 

Speaking of Power Poppy, I'm both stunned and thrilled to find out that I won last month's Blossom Challenge on their blog! I sincerely can't believe it, they have such beautiful stamps!

I stamped out my card and watercolored it, then matted it with Tim Holtz's Metal Cardstock. I placed some Popdots under the gold cardstock to pop it off the black and gold patterned paper background and give it depth. I added some lace and back striped paper from Simple Stories called "Vintage Lakeside" to the black and gold patterned paper. I matted it all in more black and gold cardstock and placed three small black pearls on the card to complete the look.

Every card is a fantastic journey into learning something new or creating a unique look, and I love the process! There are days I get stuck, but I refuse to re-invent the wheel. Rather, I like to find the beauty in an image and enhance it as best as I can while still making sense. I think many of us feel pressured to create something amazing every time, but there's no need because every card is beautiful.

I hope you all have a great day and I'll see you all next week with another card!