Use a die cut as your background

That is the challenge for this week at the Friends of Speedy the Cat Blog. I have been making my oldest daughters wedding invitations and have quite a few negatives from the die cuts I am using on her cards. So I decided to experiment with them. I used one as a frame with a smaller version in the center. The Water Lily and the Happy Birthday are from Marks Finest Papers. I really like this as a frame so I will be using the others.

A Mojo Monday sketch

I haven't been able to fit my Mojo Monday sketch challenge in in quite awhile. Today's just went together so easily. The sentiment and butterfly are from I Brake or Stamps. The background is one I made although I don't remember what technique it is.

Red, White & Blue

That is the Challenge at Speedy the Cats Friends this week. The image is from a set called Big Boy Toys from Marks Finest Papers. I made the background with Alcohol inks Red Pepper and Sail Boat Blue. Added strips of glitter and a little Bling to finish it off.

the Water Lilies of Summer

These stamps are from Marks Finest Paper in the set Floating Along. I am using this card for the Summer Swap taking place right now at Speedy TV. The Water Lily is colored with Prisma Pencils and Gamsol. The background is sponged and I used a white gel pen to make the water ripples.

I love making Fall cards

and when the new swap at Speedy TV was make Fall Cards I went right to work. Luckily the challenge at GAB was to use black, white and what looks like a rusty red color so I was able to make matching backgrounds for the challenge as well as the swap cards. I sponged Mustard, Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Barn Door Distressed inks over my card stock making the GAB challenge card a little more rusty. Then I spritzed them with water, let them dry and took them outside and sprayed Black and white webbing on them. Both cards are made with stamps from Marks Finest Papers. This is my GAB Challenge card.

 This is my card for the Speedy TV Fall swap. I also sponged Fall colors over my leaf image. The squirrel is colored with Prisma Pencils and Gamsol. The leaves are punches. Now I need to finish my Summer Swap cards. Hopefully I will finish them today.

A strange card for me/IBFCC4

At the beginning of the week I found the I Brake for Stamps challenge blog. There was a picture of a little girl in a red polka dot dress for inspiration. I went through my stamps and found what I wanted, planned out my card then went to check out the details on the blog to make sure I had what I needed. What I found out was I was too late. This is the second blog this week I missed the dead line for entering my card soooooooo...... back to the planning for this weeks challenge-make a birthday card. I looked through my stamps again and found this image and remembered I had a background stamp that would match. I colored it with Prisma pencils and Gamsol. The image is from I Brake for Stamps.

My problem is before I could stop myself my hands had a sponge and brown ink in them. I ended up with 4 layers of brown and the cracked ground look. LOL. Don't know where that came from. Not sure how I feel about it. I like parts of it and it will probably grow on me. Why brown?? Why not a blue or yellow?? I intend to have a long talk with my hands in the morning. The hands and the brain need to work together as a team. I don't know maybe the hands knew what they were doing. It is kind of pretty in a strange sort of way.

Over the Edge

On Split Coast Stampers this week Holly showed a technique she was trying to decide what to call it. Stamp the same design twice and cut the center out of one and line it up with the other image adding Pop Dots forming a frame.

I popped up my frame with large dots and also used the swan I cut out of the center and popped it up but with smaller dots so there are 3 layers of the image. I extended the grass and tree by hand to the edge of my die cut. The image and sentiments are from Marks Finest Papers new set Floating Along.