Just Us Girls #377

Chris is our host this week at Just Us Girls for our Color challenge.

I'm not the best at color challenges but this one was rather easy.  I love pink and gray together.  It was just a matter of how to fit the navy in.

I can't tell you how many times I stamped the Altenew layered flower to get a good color combination.  Everything looked too orange-y to me.  Or darker than I wanted.  I used a frame die from SSS in gray and navy and stamped the sentiment in HA Navy.

Now it's your turn to make a card using these colors.  For inspiration check out the design team at Just Us Girls and guest designer Shawna Standish. If you're chosen Chic of the Week, you could be one of our guests.

CAS Mix-up for January

I played around the other day with liquid colors for a card for the CAS Mix-Up challenge and things kind of fell apart so I'm going with a background I made a while ago for a marbling challenge.

I used liquid food coloring and shaving foam to do my marbling and this is probably one of the last few because the colors are pretty well mixed together.  I think it looks like a stormy sky - perfect for a sympathy card.  I added a TH wildflower die cut ( my choice) in chocolate and a sentiment stamped to match from CF.

Thanks for dropping by.

Merry Monday #231

It's another Merry Monday Christmas Challenge and this time they want reindeer on your card.  I aim to please.

The only reindeer I have are these cuties from Mama Elephant.  I colored a couple of them with Zigs and let them play around the layered die cut word from PTI.  I thought this fun called for a wonky stitched panel from MFT.  As Darnell would say, QACAS (quick and clean and simple).

Glad you dropped by.

Darnell's NBUS #8

Who can resist one of Darnell's NBUS challenges?  The more relevant question is who doesn't have NBUS?  I have tried to be good about buying and some of my new things don't quite fit her "Colored pencils on kraft" challenge but I did find one that worked well.

Those who know me know I have a thing for owls so I couldn't resist this Winnie and Walter set.  I usually use my Inktense Pencils with water but in this case I left them dry.

Congratulations on your 1000 posts and 1000+ followers, Darnell.  I'm honored to be one of them.

Addicted to Stamps and More #225

Here is our inspiration for challenge #225 at Addicted to Stamps and More.

My first thought is probably your first thought.  Make a multi-colored daisy.  Then I had second thoughts and went in a completely different direction.

I asked myself (I do talk to myself often) 😊 "What else has all those colors?"  And my answer was "Balloons".  Okay, yes I answer myself too.  The balloons are SSS dies that I colored with Distress Inks using my Clarity brushes for that nice soft look.  The sentiment is also from SSS.  I popped up the larger balloons and tied on some string bows.

We'd love to see what you create using the photo as inspiration.  Maybe you'd like to check out the rest of the design team first and then link up in the gallery.  You can see their cards here.

CAS(E) This Sketch #204

This week's CAS(E) This Sketch is such an easy one and one that most will take literally, including me.

I stuck to my resolve to use background stamps more and used my MFT pin stripe in Fog behind my Altenew Majestic Bloom.  Not wanting to cover up that gorgeous purple, I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from HLS on vellum and cut around it. I think that's the hardest part of card making for me - where/how to put the sentiment.  It looks just like the sketch doesn't it?

I'm so glad you dropped by.

Altenew January Inspiration Challenge

With all my Altenew stamps it's about time I entered their Inspiration Challenge.  Here's the photo they offered.

And my card.

I just got the Adore You set and stamped several of the smaller flowers in Fossilized Amber DI.  I fussy cut them along with a couple of berries? from Golden Garden.  I arranged them on polka dot paper, popping some of them up, and added a sentiment from PTI embossed in white on Chocolate.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope your week is off to a great start.

Casology #231

Casology gave me another chance to use a NBUS die for their challenge "Forest".

I cut the TH trees two different greens and anchored them with a scrap of gray stamped with a woodgrain.  I know you can't see it but it's there.  The sentiment from PTI is embossed with white.

I'm glad you dropped by.  Have a great week.

Time Out #74

I'd rather be making Spring cards because winter is beginning to get to me but Time Out asked for winter and I obliged.  I also did their optional twist of white on white.

The sentiment from PB is embossed in silver so I hope that doesn't count against the 'white on white' theme but I wanted it to show up.  Michele and I talked about using our background stamps more so I pulled out my MFT burlap and stamped with VersaMark Dazzle ink.  The snowflakes are from a couple of different sets cut in linen vellum.  Brrr.  It's making me cold just looking at it.

Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend.

Just Us GIrls # 376

I'm hosting the Trend challenge at Just Us Girls this week. I love cards I've seen with all over background stamping and that's what I've chosen for this challenge.

I used Altenew flowers with my Zigs and one of their sentiments white embossed on a black scrap.

There are so many wonderful stamps that you can use for this challenge.  Check out what the design team and our guest designer Shawna Standish have done.  Hopefully they will inspire you to make a card.  If you do, you may be chosen as our Chic of the Week and be eligible for a guest designer spot.

Merry Monday #230

Merry Monday mixed it up and asked for Scandinavian and/or Noel on your Christmas card.  Of course I had to do both.  This will be the card for my son, whom I appropriately named Eric, who embraces his Scandinavian ancestry to the hilt.  His daughters are Anneka and Kjerstin, his dog is Thor and previous pets were named Signy, Freya and Loki.  Fortunately he married a girl with Swedish ancestry too.

I colored my NBUS Santa with Zigs to look like Tomte and put him on a warm embossed sweater.  If I had God Jul dies I would have put it on the card but they asked for Noel so it worked out fine.

Thanks for dropping by.

The Card Concept #64

What do you consider pretty things?  The Card Concept came up with some pretty good ones in their photo inspiration.

I happened to have some gold spotted acetate, wishing it were zebra but I guess cheetah will do, that I used as the main part of my CAS card.

I added just a touch of pink in a frame and then paid homage to the typewriter keys with a Neat and Tangled sentiment.

After seeing a post on Facebook, I've taken on the project of putting all my stamps and dies on Evernote.  It will take a while but if I do 10 or so each day I can make short work of it.  The older I get, and the more stamps I accumulate, the more difficult it is to remember everything I have.  I'm hoping this organizational system will help.  I'm also hoping that as I go through my stamps I get inspiration for cards, especially from sets I may not have used in a awhile.  Wish me luck.

CAS(E) This Sketch #203

Michele has her sketch featured on CAS(E) This Sketch this week and it's a great one.

My re-solve to see beyond the obvious dis-solved on this one.

I mailed my last sympathy card Friday so I used the sketch to make another one.  In fact I made two of the same.  Once I found this soft pp, I cut cream cardstock with a SSS scalloped wave, curved the PTI sentiment to fit, stamped in Fog and added the WPlus9 Happy Wishes flower.  So easy I may do a few more with different papers.

Thanks for dropping by.

CASology # 230 and The Heart Desires #8

Cold is the perfect cue word for CASology as it is bitter cold here in Michigan.  It brings to mind mittens and hats and heaters and warm blankets.  Yes, warm blankets and snowmen. Not for them but for me and my card. ;)

A little Stampendous snow person colored with Zigs on an embossed quilt with the perfect sentiment from My Craft Spot (closed).  I think he looks a lot like the snowman on the mood board at The Heart Desires so he's off to their gallery too.

Thanks for dropping by and keep warm.

Just Us Girls #375

Hello Stampers.  Just Us Girls is back with their first challenge of 2017 and it's aptly entitled "New".

That's the word Ina picked for us and you can use any interpretation of that you'd like.  I went with a stamp set that has new as part of the sentiment.

This little bird from WPlus9 is supposed to be a chickadee I think but I turned him into a goldfinch. I love when they stop at my bird feeder in the spring.  Sometimes I have as many as 40 all feeding at the same time. And then I begin to sing "Yellow Bird' but change the words a little to fit the situation.  After all I don't have any banana trees. 😉  I had intended to watercolor this and stamped it on watercolor paper and then wondered why my Zigs weren't blending as well as they usually do.  Duh!  But it worked out okay.  I did watercolored the background.

Enough about me.  Go see what the rest of the design team and guest designer Shawna Standish have done with the word "new".  Maybe they'll inspire you to make a card.  I hope so.

Merry Monday #229

Challenges have started up again after the holiday break.  Today I have a card for Merry Monday - Angels.  I didn't think I was going to be able to make a card because my angel stamps are few but I decided to use one that I've used before in a different way.

I stamped the PTI stained glass on vellum in black and clear heat embossed. After coloring with Zigs, I layered the vellum between the card and front panel to allow the light to come through.

This was another of my bugaboo cards where things kept happening and I ended up with over four cut panels and two card fronts before I got two that worked without smudges, tears, and crooked cutting.  I'm just glad I ended up with one I am happy with.

I'm glad you dropped by and hope your crafting days are going well.

Time Out #73

The Time Out challenge is to be inspired by these words "With each sunrise we are given a chance for a new beginning."  How true that is.  Here's how I interpreted it.  Unfortunately I didn't check the 'due date' and I missed the deadline.  I haven't posted in a while so I'm showing you the card anyway.

WPlus9 sentiment, PTI stencil, Distress Inks

Can anyone tell me why my cards look so out of shape?  I stand them in a light box and they look okay in the camera.  Even rotating in PicMonkey doesn't help. I may have to go back to taking them laying down.

Thanks for dropping by today.