You're The Vest

TGIF!

Happy FriYAY!  

It's a hot one here in central NC.  It's like we jumped clear to July temp wise while in full blown pollen mode and haven't checked today but maybe also in fire danger mode. Springtime in North Carolina!

I've had a little more time, off and on, in my craft room this week.  The Hubs has been recouping from shoulder surgery and doing very well.  Post-op visit today doc gave him six weeks of physical therapy and light duty at work (he returns Sunday) and home then we will see.  

This is one of my creations this week.  I have surprised myself in that I've made six cards in one week, definitely a record for me lately.

Is this not the coolest die set for anyone - life vest?  It's a newbie from Catherine Pooler Designs - part of the series "At The Lake With Dad".  This life vest die is actually a gift card holder.  I did not take it apart to photograph the inside I'm afraid.  You don't have to make it a gift card holder, you could glue down the straps and just use it on a card.  

I wouldn't say I bought it jsut for the AddictedToCAS challenge, but the timing was nice that it dropped in the shop within the time frame for it.

For Following Challenges:

The Color Hues Challenge #107

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Vest Gift Sentiments(CP Designs)

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock. 

Ink: Orange Peel, All That Jazz (CP Inks)

Extras: Lifejacket die/accessories - Vest Gift Ever (CP Designs); Coverplate (Lil' Inker Designs)

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” 

– Pablo Picasso

Nance

 

Tufted Bird-Day

 Good Evening!

Hope you're weekend is going well.

I was able to get back in my craft room today for a bit.  The Hub's surgery on Wednesday went well, but we had to be there sooo early and he's needed constant care for the last three days. He's still got a fairly long recovery ahead, but today he took his sling off, has minimal pain and can at least use his hand some.  He actually cooked dinner by himself, mostly, and mostly one handed. Doc told him to use his arm once the sling came off so not to get frozen shoulder.  So, Progress.  

I purchased this Birch Press Tufted Bird die a while back and have been wanting to play with it. So when I saw Double D Challenge was Birds, I pulled it out.  It's a layered die, about a dozen pieces.  I had already die cut a couple of them from white cardstock so I pulled out some inks, ink blended each little piece and then pieced it together. I knew I wanted a colored background but I didn't want anything truly solid.  So, combed through my stash of smooshed and watercolored background cardstocks and found this one that I thought contrasted well and made my little bird pop.  I added a leaft die left white and the sentiment, finishing it off with a few sequins. 

For Following Challenges:

Double D Challenges - Birds

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Lovely Birdies (CP Designs)

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock; watercolor paper for background. 

Ink: Chiffon, Cummerbund, Suede Shoes, Frosted, Flirty Fuchsia(CP Inks)

Extras: Bird die (Birch Press Design); Branch Die - Birdie's Branch Die (CP Designs); Postage stamp die (CP Designs); Sequins - misc. stash.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” 

– Theodore Dreiser

Nance

Care and Kindness

Good Morning, Tuesday!

It's nice and sunny here in Cary, NC and kind of warmish.  

Today I'm sharing another card I made yesterday.  This one took a little more though provoking and playing around to get it to personal satisfaction.  I feel like I've been in a white card trend lately and trying to push myself to use more color in my backgrounds.  I keep thinking about using more bold colors with my embossing folders and cover plates and then in the end I opt for white most of the time.  Trying to push myself out of that some.  I feel like I made a baby step towards that with this card with at least making the cover plate colored.  There's still a lot of white. 

When I saw the color combo of Lemon and Lime at Color Hues I immediately thought cacti and sunshine.  So this is my version of that. I actually did use Lemon Sorbet and Lime Rickey ink colors by Catherine Pooler so that's spot on I feel.  LOL

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Cacti - Got You Covered (Catherine Pooler-CP); Circle background - Desert Diamonds (CP); Sentiment - Best Caregiver Ever (Unity).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock. 

Ink: Lemon Sorbet, Lime Rickey, Sand Castle (CP Inks)

Extras: Circle die (CP); Coordinating Cacti die (CP); Background die (CP); Label die (Reverse Confetti).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” 

– Theodore Dreiser

Nance

 

 

Whimsy Tulip

Hello, it's me again.  

Here is my first creative thought for The Flower Challenge that I shelved and then came back to after I finished the second one.  It uses the same circle stencils but the flower stamps are all from a very, VERY old stamp set by Fiskars.  I don't have the sleeve anymore that had the name of the set on it and I could only find one other copy of it on Ebay and apparently they lost the sleeve too.  I found this hiding in the back of my floral stamps and as I was hunting for a tulip stamp that was a solid image. I have discovered it is the ONLY solid image tulip stamp and also one of just two tulip stamps I own.  I thought I had at least one other, but no.  Don't ask me how I don't have any tulip stamps because I have no good answer.  However, I have about five tulip dies and of course, this tulip stamp has no die!  Oh the wicked cycle of stamping.  Hahahaha

When I revisited this idea, I decided to scale down my cardstock, cut it with the wonky stitched die and then stenciled the circles.  Then I stamped the big tulip and the pink little circles which are part of the stamp set. I think scaling it down and adding the stitched frame helped a lot.  I wasn't sure I wanted the sentiment in red but I wanted to keep the whimsy feel of the card so I went for it.  Added a matching red layer and another wonky stitched layer and DONE!  

For Following Challenges:

The Flower Challenge #100 - Add Circles

Clean and Layered and Clean and Graphic is what I chose for my card.

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Flower stamps - (Fiskars); Sentiment - Lovely (Ellen Hutson).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock. 

Ink: Samba, In The Park, Chiffon, Cotton Candy, Midnight -(Catherine Pooler Inks)

Extras: Circle stencils - Fall Leaf Border (Pinkfresh Studio); Wonky stitched frame die (My Favorite Things).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” 

– Theodore Dreiser

Nance

 

Hello Spring

Hello there!

It's a new week.  I've been in my craft room today. I've needed some calm before the storm later this week when the hubs is in a sling and I have to help feed him til the sling is gone.  Thankfully that's only suppose to be 3-4 days. 

I've been aiming to play in this month's Flower Challenge, particularly since it's their 100th challenge.  Actually every month it's on my list, yet there's so many on my lists I can never get to all of them.  Yet, I'm still on time so I have not one card for it, but two.

The first one, here, is actually the second one I made.  My original idea I wasn't feeling it so I switched gears a bit and below is what happened.

The challenge was to add circles.  I remember having these circle stencils in a Pinkfresh stencil set so that is where my idea for both cards (see next post) originated.  I stenciled them in Chiffon then cut the panel with the Charming Flora cover plate by Alex Syberia.  I "picked" my red flowers from a an envelope full of already had cut from different ink-to-paper colors.  And since it's officially spring now, the sentiment "Hello Spring" seemed appropriate. 

For Following Challenges:

The Flower Challenge #100 - Add Circles

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Ears To You (Ellen Hutson).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock. 

Ink: Samba, In The Park, Chiffon, Midnight -(Catherine Pooler Inks)

Extras: Flower Dies - Early Blossom Contour Layers (BirchPress); Coverplate - Charming Flora (Alex Syberia); Circle stencils - Fall Leaf Border (Pinkfresh Studio).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” 

– Theodore Dreiser

Nance

 

Dragonfly Greeting

Hello, it's me again! 

I'm not sure blogging and watching March Madness pairs well together.  It's hard to keep track of typing while keeping track of who's got the basketball! lol I had planned on having this post done hours ago, but basketball won out for awhile I'm afraid.  

I have another birthday card. I've had this dragonfly sitting in my ufo box for a bit so I pulled it out for the Seize the Birthday's Anything That Flies challenge.   The die is from Spellbinders, one of the Dies of the Month. I cut it from some ink smooshed photo paper and cut the top layers from gold cardstock.  I also had the embossed branch in my ufo box also. I kept all of the background layers white so the dragonfly would pop against them. 

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Nature's Dance (Spellbinders).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock; Gold cardstock; Photo paper. 

Ink: Icing On The Cake, It's A Girl, Orange Twist(Catherine Pooler Inks)

Extras: Dragonfly and flower dies - Soaring Dragonfly(Spellbinders); Natures' Dance Sentiment Die (Spellbinders); Scalloped frame - Gina Marie Designs; Leafy branch embossing folder (Cuttlebug).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hugs,

Nance 

 

 

Birthday Mail

Hello again!

It's inching closer to the weekend! Trying to get some posts made and  finish up a few other cards.  We're in countdown mode now for the Hub's surgery on Wed.  After that life gets signifcantly busier for me for at least two months. So I'm trying to get some good crafting in beforehand. 

I made this card for the Addicted to CAS challenge, which ends tonight.  Great timing, huh? lol. I hadn't played with the Waffleflower new released birthday postage stamp stencil set yet so I thought they'd be great for the challenge.  I used the color combo from the current Card Concept challenge too. And, since it's a birthday card, putting it in the Seize the Birthday ATG challenge. Also, another never before used set qualifies for the NBUS challenge too.

For Following Challenges:

Addicted to CAS #78 - Stencil

       

I combined Clean and Simple and Clean and Graphic for my card.

Seize the Birthday - #301 Anything That Flies OR Anything Goes

NBUS #72

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - Postage Collage Birthday Stamp set; Other postage graphics - Postage Collage Stamp Set - (Waffle Flower)

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock                                          Ink: Midnight Archival ink, It's A Girl, Rockin' Red, Limoncello, Mardi Gras (Catherine Pooler Inks)

Extras: Postage Collage Die; Postage Cupcake Stencil; white gel pen.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hugs,

Nance 

 

 

Together Friends Forever

 Happy FriYAY!

I got a lot of time in my craft room the last couple days and so today will show the fruits of my labor.  First up is a couple cards.  I have a stash of images I've stamped ready to color and I pulled out some of them to use for the challenge at The Paper Players.

The first one is actually for the challenge...

The second one I actually made first but realized I used more than the main stamp image and the challenge called for 1 stamped image and a sentiment.  So, the top one was created.

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Sentiment - A Splendid Place(1st Card) & How Do You Spell Love; Image - I Think It's Called Love - (Unity Stamp Company)

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock; Dark Kraft cardstock (Recollections).

Ink: Midnight Archival ink (Catherine Pooler Inks); Copics.

Extras: Frame die (Penny Black); Deckled Rectangle Die (Spellbinders).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hugs,

Nance 

 

Simple Things

Good Morning! 

Hope you're doing well on this fine Wednesday! It's sunny and brisk here this morning.  Going to have a warm up later so I will have a date with our lawn mower. 😉 Hubs is on restrictions still for another nine weeks with surgery next week.  So, lucky me gets ALL the duties for a while.  

It is looking more like spring each day here.  I see daffodils around the neighborhood and everyday the tree buds open up more and more. 

So, I chose nature for my card for the JUGS challenge of "Green" this week.  I was gifted this beautiful layered set of sprigs by Bonnie.  It's by The Greetery, called "Simple Things" and I've been playing around with them recently.  Stamped all together they remind me a little of a Nandina plant, which is very invasive here in North Carolina.  We've taken out nearly all of ours as I learned their red berries are poisonous to birds.  

However, since my stamp is NOT a Nandina, I have placed a small bird die on top to add a little contrast and more interest to my card. 😁

They did say at JUGS you didn't have to use just green on your card but I kept mine fairly green with a touch of neutrals.  I think the neutrals added some contrast and softeness.

For Following Challenges:

NBUS Challenge #72

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Leaf sprigs and sentiment - Simple Things (The Greetery).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock; Kraft cardstock (Recollections).

Ink: Cashmere, Matcha, Succulent (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Bird die (Stampin' Up maybe?)

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hugs,

Nance 

 

 

Floral Thoughts

Happy Friday!

ANNOUNCEMENT:

You may have noticed that I've changed the title of my blog.  My blog URL is also changing.  If you have subscribed to soulstampin.blogspot.com that URL will no longer work.  My new URL is nancelaine.blogspot.com .  Sorry for the inconvenience.  I just decided I needed a little crafty blog refresh. 

Now on to my post...I am bringing a little touch of spring today with my card. It's finally feeling like spring is here now.  I am so ready for warm weather just in time for the pollen to hit!  HaHaHa.

I recently purchased this floral stencil from Catherine Pooler so grabbed a bunch of pastel colored inks and played around.  Flowers from another Catherine Pooler set seemed to go pretty well with the stencil, so I inked up some of them, cut several layers to bump up on the lavender frame. 

Scooting in at the final hour of The Paper Players Challenge 

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies: 

Stamps: Flowers and sentiment - Flower Forest (Catherine Pooler).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock 

Ink: Midnight, Cotton Candy, It's A Girl, Creamsicle, Lemon Sorbet, Minted, Blue Raspberry, Frosted (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Stitched Frames - Dashes & Ruffles and Ruffles & Dashes (Catherine Pooler); Layered Stencil - Floral Fancy (Catherine Pooler).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hugs,

Nance 

 

Just Swan To Say Hello

Hello!

Playing in a new-to-me challenge today with this "swanderful" card. 🤣

That layered floral stencil is going to get a lot of play this spring.  This time I used it with one of the swan dies, lily pad dies and pod stencil from Waffle Flower. And the scallop frame I thought was perfect to center it on the background. I inked it up in Pucker Up ink by Catherine Pooler.  Sentiment and is also Waffle Flower.  Other Catherine Pooler colors used: Cotton Candy, Its A Girl, Samba, In The Park.

For Following Challenges:

As You See It Challenge #342- For The Birds

Beautiful Blossoms Anything Goes Challenge - Optional Mood Board #26

(I did not use the Mood Board)

Spring is coming!

Hugs!

Nance 

 

Happy Birthday Arrow & Pokemon

Hello there!

Hope your Sunday is as sunny as mine. It's chilly again, but sunny.

I have some fun cards to share today.  Our oldest, Arrow, turned 33 last week. They have been a Pokemon fan since they were four, which happens to be when Pokemon began and so Pokemon turned 29 on Thursday.  So, naturally I had to make Pokemon inspired cards for them.

This is the first card I made - very simple pokeball inspired.  One half red and one half white with a homemade pokeball in the middle.  The sentiment is from the MFT stamp set, Evolving Friends. 

The second one I made, was inspired by an actual Pokemon card(see below). I tweeked it a bit with the sentiment.  I at first was going to use a shadow die cut "party" word but it was a little crowded.  So I went with this circular birthday die cut.  I ink smooshed the background with three different hues of blue on coated cardstock.  Sometimes I like the smoother, softer look of smooshing on coated cardstock.  Then I layered it on a blue background layer that matched the inner blue behind the Pokeball.  The pokeball I constructed myself just with various circle dies and black strip of cardstock. I'm entering this card in the Seize The Birthday Toppings Challenge, No Stamping.

For Following Challenges:

Seize The Birthday #300 - No Stamping

Card Supplies for 2nd Card: 

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock; 

Ink: Tranquil, Suede Shoes, Dress Blues, Limoncello (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Happy Birthday die (Catherine Pooler); Nested Circle Dies (Catherine Pooler & Sizzix).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Peace & Hugs,

Nance 

 

Color Hues Challenge #105 Guest Designer

 Hello there!

Happy Saturday! 

I hope you're doing well. 

I have fun news - 

I am thrilled to be Guesting at The Color Hues Challenge!  

  

So I guess you can guess by my card --- the colors are Green and White!  I knew when Nancy sent me the info, that I wanted to use my shamrock stencil from Scrapbook.com. Then, I decided I needed a little more depth and texture so I stamped the plaid stamp (Catherine Pooler) and cut it half diagonally. I also knew I wanted to use my Seagull die so he could hold a shamrock.  And I knew that sentiment and the clovers, from the set Clovers & Blooms (Catherine Pooler) would be perfect.  I then added a little gold strip between the two backgrounds, some gold gems for the shamrock centers.  Finally, I remembered once everything else was done that I had a hat die from a snowman die set that I turned into a leprechaun hat with a tiny strip of gold on it.  I had so much fun making this card.  My seagull is a fan of all the seasons and holidays so he is getting lots of attention. 

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Clovers, leaves and sentiment - Clovers & Blooms(Catherine Pooler); Plaid background - Cozy Plaid Background (Catherine Pooler).

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock; Midnight cardstock (Catherine Pooler), Gold cardstock- stash.

Ink: Grass Skirt (Catherine Pooler Inks).

Extras: Shamrock Stencil (Scrapbook.com); Seagull die - Inquisitive Seagulls (Waffle Flower); gold gems. 

A big thank you to Nancy and the Color Hues Team for selecting my card a couple weeks ago in their Pink/Red challenge as the win and for having me as Guest Designer now!  THANK YOU! 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Erin Go Bragh! ☘

Nance 

Feathered Friends for AAA Cards

Hello and Happy Friday!

The weather is crazy here in central NC, 75 one day, 65 the next, in two days it's back to 50.  It's like pick a number and stick with it (preferably the 75 one, lol)!  I got some walks in but I don't press my luck so early.  So I got more time in my craft room the past couple days.

I almost forgot I had colored these adorable funny birds while crafting with Bonnie a couple weeks ago and they fit perfectly for the AAA Card Challenge, which ends tomorrow.  I used a different sentiment than what comes with them.  I used one from Ellen Hutson's Pure Magic stamp set.

I colored the birds with copics and then cut the panel down and adhered it to a black cardstock panel for some framing and contrast. 

For Following Challenges:

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Sentiment - Pure Magic(Ellen Hutson); Birds - Flock Talk (Unity Stamps).

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; Midnight cardstock (Catherine Pooler).

Ink: Midnight (Catherine Pooler Inks); Copics.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Peace & Hugs!

Nance 

 

Wart's Up?

 Hello there!

It's Monday! Hope you had a nice weekend!

I have a quick share for Freshly Made Sketches.  I had every intention of submitting this at least on Saturday, but my weekend blew up from Friday afternoon through yesterday.  I had Friday and Saturday carved out for crafty time and then Date Night with the Hubs to the Carolina Ballet.  Unfortunately, our sweet ole Lab, Ellie, got ill on Friday afternoon and resulted in a trip to the ER Vet on Sat evening.  Thankfully after IV fluids, an x-ray and five hours later, we brought her home around midnight with non-obstructive gastroenteritis.  VERY thankful it was not an obstruction for Ellie's sake and our checkbook's.  And more thankfully that today she appears to be fully back to normal all the way around(knock on wood).  February has not been a good month for her, being this was her third trip to the vet, 2nd to the ER. So today I'm putting other things off and crafting diligently to make up for lost time. 

I guess in light of the weekend, it's good my first card today is whimsy and hopefully brings smiles...

I flipped the sketch for my card so I could create a sunset scene for this cute fly catchin' frog in a pond.  I decided to leave the pussy willows all white for some contrast and interest.  

Freshly Made Sketches #674

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Sentiment - Hi - Pond of You(Waffle Flower) & Wart's Up -Ribbit Ribbit (Avery Elle) 

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; 

Ink: Midnight, Cotton Candy, Party Dress, Orange Twist, Catching Rays, Oh Boy, Cummerbund, Fiesta Blue, Lime Rickey, Melon Ice, Midnight (Catherine Pooler Inks)

Extras: Pool stencil (My Favorite Things); Pussy Willows, Frog, Dragonfly, Fly, Puddle Dies -Inquisitive Frog Dies (Waffle Flower);

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hoppy Monday!

Nance 

Love Kiss

Hello there!

A late post for this very chilly Thursday! Snow is still on the ground.  This is the longest snow has stayed around in a long time.  

I had more "love letters" sitting on my table and the stenciled background.  So, I cut out some lips, ink blended them to match the letters, added an extra sentiment and BOOM, my card was done!  I like it when things come together so easily and quickly. 

For Following Challenges:

February Challenge - Option: Pinks and/or Reds

I chose Pink, Ink Blending and Words of Encouragement/Kindness

Card Supplies:  

Stamps: Sentiment - Smooches (My Favorite Things)

Paper: Neenah 110# Solar White; 

Ink: Midnight, Cotton Candy, It's A Girl, Be Mine, Pucker Up, Samba, and Rockin' Red (Catherine Pooler Inks)

Extras: Valentine Stencil (Pretty Pink Posh); Love Cover Die (Honey Bee Stamps), Lips die (maybe Taylored Expressions); Stitched Border die (My Favorite Things).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!

Hugs & Luv!

🩷

Nance