Citrus and Sunshine

ORANGE you glad it's Mandala Monday?! This one's bright enough to melt the rest of the weekend's snow off my driveway! :)

Mandala drawn with Pitt Artist Pens from Faber-Castell on Strathmore Watercolor Paper, 

and colored using my beloved Tombow Dual Brush Pens from Paper Anthology... 

then flicked with a few "splashes" of color!

Hexies + Doodles +Thanks

Michelle Ward's Stamps and Stencils designed exclusively for The Ink Pad have a great NYC vibe, but they don't necessarily need to be used only for New York themed cards and layouts. For example, the Large Hex Pattern Stencil makes a fantastic pattern that works for any occasion; and Michelle's Dance Line Stamp Set has some fabulous art deco detailing as well as the two beautiful Dance Line silhouettes AND two very useful sentiments, as well. This card is on The Ink Pad Blog today, I hope you'll head over there and read all about it!

A Cup of Kindness

One of my favorite sets of Wendy Vecchi Make Art Chippies embellishments is called "Beverages" and has a nice big coffee mug, a teacup and saucer, two spoons and two teabag tags. I painted the mug with Dina Wakley's gorgeous Eggplant acrylic paint and added a raised pattern with Ranger's Opaque Matte Texture Paste through the three-dot stencil pattern in Wendy's Merci and More Stamp, Die and Stencil set.

I used the chrysanthemum stencils, stamps and dies from Wendy Vecchi's Thank You set to create the exuberant bouquet in Tiger Lily, Tea Rose and Orange Blossom Archival Inks, with leaves of Prickly Pear and outlines in Jet Black. The finished bouquet is mounted on a collage of vintage book pages, sheet music and part of an old map. Mats of eggplant and floral green complete this not-quite-A9-sized card.

Be sure to visit the Ranger and Wendy Vecchi Instagram accounts for lots more inspiration featuring all the brand new Chippies designs!

Wendy Vecchi Chippie Valentine

I'm very excited to be on the Ranger Blog today, showing off some brand new Wendy Vecchi Chippies in a fun (and colorful) Valentine. What are Chippies? They're sturdy, pre-primed chipboard embellishments, ready to customize with inks, stamps, stencils, pens, paints or any other media you wish. I hope you'll hop over and see the completed card and read all about it!

Chippies come in Blossoms, Bases and Frames (both of which I've used in today's card) as well as Lots of Leaves, Beverages and Wreaths.

My True Love Gave to Me...

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're making holiday cards for our "True Love" (by which we mean anyone extra special) OR making a card that features hearts OR... if you dare... you could incorporate any of the gifts from The Twelve Days of Christmas, as creatively and/or tangentially as you wish; just be sure to explain how you were inspired if it isn't obvious! I decided to have a go at two out of three options, so I've put "Four Calling Birds" inside a heart! 

My "calling birds" are Eyelet Outlet Cardinal, Cardinal Profile and Female Cardinal Brads. I'm not sure exactly what type of birds were specified in the carol, but Cardinals are not particularly known for their song... unless you count some serious squawking when another bird gets too close to something they consider theirs lol. I've added some diecut greens and set my heart frame on a background of vintage sheet music set off with a bit of Wide Brick Washi and a scattering of tiny red Star Sequins.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning what you will make!

Un-be-LEAF-able!

I've been having fun playing with some brand new Wendy Vecchi Chippies from Ranger. These pre-primed chipboard embellishments are ready to customize with inks, stamps, stencils, pens, paints and more. In this case, I've used Archival Inks to tint some gorgeous foliage from the Lots of Leaves set. See?

I used (appropriately enough!) Leaf Green on the larger leaf and added a bit of shading with Fern Green around the edges. The smaller leaf is inked in Prickly Pear. I left the large scalloped frame from the Bases and Frames set the natural primed white shade it came in, and used it to surround a background made with maybe my favorite tape in Wendy's Washi Assortment 1. 

I stamped the large solid flower from the Country Flowers Stamp, Die and Stencil set in Sky Blue, then added the detail stamp on top, inked in Cornflower. I stamped the flower's center separately in Sunflower and added detail with Jet Black. The sentiment, "Make a Wish" is from the Bravo set and is stamped in Night Sky.

In addition to Bases and Frames and Lots of Leaves, Chippies come in Blossoms, Wreaths and Beverages, too.

I hope you'll hop over to the Ranger Blog to see all of the beautiful new products which have been released last week... there is so much inspiration, you won't want to miss it!

So Hoppy Together

I can never resist a pun, but for some reason they're even more appealing for Valentine's Day. If one happens to have Eyelet Outlet Frog Brads and/or Rabbit Brads, any greeting which would ordinarily read, "Happy" can now be, "Hoppy"! If one also has the amazing super-wide Sky Washi, an instant landscape can easily occur!

To flesh out the scene I added border-punched layers of grass, Sun and Cloud Brads and some adorable Mini Bees. For the Frogs, a Cattail from their set (they come with Water Lilies as well!) is peeping out in the background; for the bunnies it's a Colored Daisy. Be sure to hop (sorry, for once it was unintentional lol) over to the Eyelet Outlet Blog for more inspiration!