Sometimes a stamper will be lucky enough to find a background that is awesome. That is the case for this card. I bought a package of stationery because I loved the pattern on the front ... and let's face it, because it was on sale cheap! I think I paid fifty cents for a package of six cards and envelopes. Cheap is good.
I cut the front panel to fit a white card base and attached it to the base. The challenge was green, but the background was elaborate and needed a simple image. What is simpler than a leaf, especially this one? I stamped it with Adirondack's Lettuce ink, colored the leaf and the circles with Copic markers, and mounted it on dark green card stock. A simple ribbon, a little foam tape on the back, and the card was ready to go.
In case anyone reading my blog gets the idea that the only inks I use are Adirondack and Marvy Matchables, it is not because I don't have others. Some stampers are paper hoarders. I am an ink fanatic. I love the colors of all the different inks and have an extensive collection. Every time I think I have found the ultimate ink, the manufacturers come up with something new to tempt me. I yield to temptation.
I think of it this way: I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't date boys who do. This justifies all those ink pads, doesn't it?

I made this card in answer to a "Throwaway Collage" challenge issued on one of my groups. The card was to be made with things we might throw away that were on our stamping table and in our supplies.
I found a brown card base I had made but decided not to use for a different swap. Next came a collage background out of my scrap box. I had made this background several years ago and decided now was the perfect time to use it. Another scrap, this time in pink, completed the background for the rest of the collage. The image had been sent to me in December as an extra for a Mystery Swap challenge. It was stamped in brown ink on white card stock, so the colors had to be changed. I used Adirondack's Peach Bellini and Shell Pink ink pads to make the change, mounted it on a burgundy scrap and placed it over a burgundy skeleton leaf. Three buttons and corners sent for the Mystery swap completed this card.

The next card was made for a "She Sells Seashells by the Seashore" challenge. Card Base: Pale Peach Card Stock: White glossy Kromekote; dark red Inks: Marvy Matchables' Pale Orange, Adirondack Cranberry Stamps: Seashell (Inkadinkadoo); Hello (Unknown source) Using Pale Orange stamp pad, color white glossy card stock by rubbing on glossy card stock in one direction. Allow to dry. Stamp seashell three times with Cranberry ink and mount on dark red CS. Cut a narrow piece of the ink treated glossy card stock and mount on dark red card stock. Stamp "Hello!" on the lighter color and mount to a peach colored card base. Attach seashells to card with foam tape. The scan shows the card base to be pink, but it is actually a light peach.

Where is my wonderful tulip-filled signature? Who knows! I hit the delete button one too many times, and away it went. Since I can't figure out how to get it back, I will sign off as

Jane

This ATC was made using the Coffee Cafe clear stamp set from Elemental Doodles. The base was SU's Close to Cocoa card stock, and the tan card stock is from Magenta.
The inks used are Marvy Matchables' Dark Brown, Brown and Terra Cotta. The embellishment is a clear acrylic tag from Coffee Break Design, and I colored the back of it with Copic's E08 Brown marker. After letting the alcohol ink dry, I turned the tag over and stamped on it with Jet Black StazOn. Two copper brads finished the ATC, and it's now in the loving arms of the US Postal Service on the way to North Carolina.
Last night was a cold, cold night in north Texas, and the cooler weather the last few days has slowed spring down so that we have longer to enjoy the beautiful flowers. Along the highways bluebonnets are in full bloom, and the Indian paintbrush has also started blooming. The pink Indian hawthorns in our yard are almost in full bloom. Texas has over 5,000 varieties of wildflowers, and it's wonderful to see them each year. Soon the highways will be lined with pink and white primroses. My grandmother always grew them in her flower bed, but she called them Bouncing Betties. That's an appropriate name for them since they sway in the breeze and look as if they are bouncing along life's highway.

This card was made in response to a Mystery Swap Challenge issued on a group I belong to. The package I received contained a lot of items to be used ... or not. I chose to use the background paper which had been made with a shaving cream technique, ribbon, image, tulle, and buttons.
I mounted the shaving cream background on a hunter green card, and used burgundy and white CS for the rest of the card. The image looks a little dark, but that is because the burgundy tulle was wrapped around the image before it was mounted to the burgundy CS.
This card is long overdue, but I had lost, er ... misplaced ... the package. The card is done and will go in the mail today.

Spring has sprung, and nothing says spring more than new baby birds in their nest waiting for their parents to feed them.
This card was made for a Spring challenge using Stamping Up's Close to Cocoa CS for a card base and Basic Grey's Two Scoops Collection for the background. The image from Clear Art Stamps was stamped with StazOn's Timber Brown on a piece of Kromkote CS. The glossy Kromkote had been colored using a green Marvy Blending Blox. The image was mounted on an ivory CS and then on a slightly larger piece of blue CS. Raffia was tied around the card and embellished with a feather from a poor little unsusupecting bird. The image was then mounted over the raffia using foam tape.
I was pleased with the way this card turned out even though the colors probably don't speak as well of spring as Easter pastels do. I colored the glossy CS one day when I was playing, looking for a background for a completely different card. It was not what I needed for that card, but it is a good lesson in never throwing scraps and experiments away!
Spring looks as if it has come to north Texas, and now we learn there is a cold front on the way this afternoon which will drop the temperatures to upper 30s by tomorrow night. No wonder there is an old adage down here: "There's nothing between the Panhandle and the North Pole but a bob wahr fence." To those of you not versed in Texas talk, bob wahr is also known as barbed wire.

This card was made in answer to a challenge ... pick two colors to use on the card but no white was allowed.
The aqua and brown background paper from DCWV was perfect for this. I added a strip of SU's Close to Cocoa across the front of the card. The three diamonds were square-punched Bazill CS, and the circles were punched from Close to Cocoa scraps. I stamped the image on more of the aqua Bazill CS and punched them out with a 1" punch.
The image is from clear stamp set by K&Co.

Today's blog might well be titled "All About Me" since I hand carved the main image.

The card base is a light gray CS stamped down the side with what I mentally refer to as my "feather" stamps. The stamps are by Judith and are listed as "Design Leaves", but I'm okay with calling them feathers. At the bottom left is a stamp our son and daughter-in-law sent me from the Netherlands. Next to that is an eye and the number 13, one of my favorite stamps from Eclectic Omnibus. All of the stamps on the background were inked with Adirondack's Denim.

The cat was stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Lapis Lazuli embossing powder from JudiKins.

I cannot say which companies supplied the embellishments since I nearly always take them out of packages and store them in containers without making a notation of the manufacturer or supplier. I'm not even sure which tree shed the leaf before it became a skeleton leaf, but it has definitely taken a navy dye bath. Time spent writing information down is time that could be spent stamping.

Today was a cloudy, chilly day which proceeded to be a wet, cloudy chilly day as the rain has continued to fall. There's sunshine inside me though because I was able to have lunch with my best friend who is here from Colorado Springs to play with her new and only granddaughter. I'm sure I'll see her more often now that Miss Mati is a beautiful little fixture in the proud grandmother's life.