Petals for the Pittmans Fundraiser and Linky Party-Card 2

I've created another card today for the Petals for the Pittmans Linky Party!  You can check out the introductory post here.  

Today's card is created with another one of the images available in a special and beautiful floral digital stamp set available in the shop over at Polka Dot Orchard.  There are actually two huge sets that are a collaboration of images by several different artists and companies and are part of a fundraiser for one of our fellow makers, Larissa Collins Pittman and her family, who are going through a very difficult time and have mounting medical bills.

You can read more about Larissa and her husband Gary here: Pittmans Go Fund Me.

Today I'm using an image donated by Trinity Stamps and a sentiment from Polka Dot Orchard.  Here's how I was inspired:

You may or may not have heard... I'm all about the rainbows again...lol!  You'll be seeing a few of them here over the next few weeks.  I started with some digital paper from Graciellie Designs that you can find here.  

Then I printed my sentiment and image.  I made sure to leave enough space around the sentiment to die cut it with a stitched rectangle die from Rubbernecker Stamps, layered it onto the rainbow paper and then I ran them both through with this die from Lil Inker to add the rays.

Then I colored in my floral image by Trinity Stamps using Copics in a rainbow of colors, cut it out and popped it up under the sentiment.

You can play along with the linky party too!  Just create a new floral card and link it up at the Polka Dot Orchard Blog here and spread the word!  There are lots of prizes!  And if you want to help, head on over to the Polka Dot Orchard shop to get one or both of these beautiful digital stamp sets!  All proceeds from the sale of these images will go directly to the Pittmans to help with their medical bills.  Take a look at these awesome sets:

So we hope you'll join us and play along!  And come back soon... the party doesn't end until July 27th!

Beautiful Blooms I Miss - Hellebore

I love that I don't live where it snows any more, but there are some beautiful blooms that don't grow well in the desert that I miss... the wonderful Hellebore is one of them!  This image from Stampendous was so much fun to color up!  I decided on purple and it's made me realize again how little purple there is in the crafting world!  I was so happy to find that purple plaid in the Summer Plaid paper pad from Your Next Stamp!  It was exactly right! 

I picked up this beautiful bloom, the Small Hellebore by Stampendous over in the White Rose Crafts Shop with my winnings from their monthly sketch challenge so I thought I'd use it to play along with the July Challenge:

Sketch challenges can be the most... well... challenging challenges for me.  I'm rarely able to be a purist about it, but I'd say I came pretty close this time!  And I'm quite happy with the results!

This "small" Hellebore is really the perfect size... I'd say not to small but large enough to be able to have fun coloring it and take up just the right amount of space on a card.

The Celebrate Die-Namic from MFT was also just the ticket... I was excited to get a couple of those leaves to stick out of the sentiment.  So happy I finally got my hands on that awesome word die!  And I decided to play on the green in the leaves with a strip of green CTMH Shimmer Trim... not sure if the green is available any more... I may have to hoard what I have left!!

I finished off with some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh... I love those great big ones!  So much fun!

I hope you'll head on over to White Rose Crafts and play along this month!  If there are at least three participants, there is a $15 prize to the shop!  You just need to use any item(s) that's available in the White Rose shop to play along... and there are lots of items you may have in your stash!  Just create and share in the White Rose Crafts Gallery on Facebook to enter!  And there is a free shipping event going on through July 5th!

Happy Holiday!

Always Believe - Polka Dot Orchard

Sometimes an image just strikes you and you just gotta color it... and then when you get done, you just gotta hurry up and get it on a card.. this beautiful flower from the Flowers in Bloom Digi Set from Polka Dot Orchard was one of those.

And then once I got it colored up and cut out it was so hard to design a card around it because it had to be just right... one of those where I have lots of extra background panels and die cuts left over and waiting to be used on another project because they just weren't exactly right!  I knew I wanted to use these beautiful scalloped circles from Rubbernecker Stamps to frame it... it just took me a while to figure out what colors to use...lol!

For my background I finally decided to use this one.  I cut the panel using this Kat Scrappiness die and then applied some Decofoil Transfer Gel using this Newton's Nook Stencil and this awesome foil from Brutus Monroe.  I splattered my background with some Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine and some red and black watercolor that I mixed with Inkon3 Liquid Pixie Dust to add some shimmer.

This sweet sentiment is from another beautiful set available over at Polka Dot Orchard, Spread Your Wings.  I created a bouquet with a Wheat die from Frantic Stamper and another leaf die from MFT and "wrapped" it in a corner doily die that I believe is no longer available at Brutus Monroe.

And that's it... I added a few red gems to scatter the red just a little... my red splatters didn't stay red on that black cardstock so it felt like it needed something and it made my eyes happy.

I'm playing along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is all about Stencils!  You should check it out!

Thanks for stopping!  Hope you'll come back tomorrow for the next installment of Crafty Elves Countdown to Christmas!  I'll announce the winner from April and Debra and I will be sharing the Christmas cards we've created this month!

In the meantime, check out Polka Dot Orchard's shop here!

These are the Polka Dot Orchard sets I used today:

Beautiful Flowers and an Awesome Sentiment

What do you get when you combine some beautiful flowers and an awesome sentiment?  Lots O' pretty!  For this one I combined those beautiful Spring Blossoms from Honey Bee Stamps and that awesome sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays Be Stamp Set.

I started off with the pretty black and white striped packaging I got in a Honey Bee order.  My top two layers were cut using the Distressed Edge Rectangles from Kat Scrappiness!  Love those fun dies!

And these flowers!  I colored them with Copics and added some green Nuvo drops to the centers.

And that sentiment, right??  Could make someone's day.. this one did!

With this one I'm playing along with a challenge over at Time Out Challenges.. #120 is "Colorful".  Check it out and play along!