Just Us Girls #397

Have you tried Brushos, Color Bursts or any of the powders that make such fabulous designs when you add water?  Now is the time to get them out and make a card for Just Us Girls because that's what our host Chris is asking for this week.

I did mine a little differently.  I took a large piece of multi-media paper and sprayed it with spray starch.  I sprinkled on the Brushos and watched them move and spread, spraying a little more starch and sprinkling a little more powder where needed.  Then I covered the entire paper with plastic wrap wrinkling it up and letting it dry overnight.  I meant to take a picture of the paper when I pulled the plastic wrap off but I forgot.  I die cut flowers, laying them in strategic places to get the best color and this is the result.

The sentiment is from Essentials by Ellen.  I had a lot of paper left after cutting an A2 size panel so I cut more flowers and made another card.

For this one I cut a stitched square from cream cardstock and stamped the sentiment from MFT in Cup O' Joe.

The Design Team and guest designer Estelle have made some wonderful cards for your inspiration.  Head on over to the Just Us Girls blog to check them out, then make a card of your own to enter in the gallery.  You may be chosen Chic of the Week.

See you there!

AAA Cards Birthday Bash

It's AAA Cards Challenge's 3rd birthday and they are having a party for themselves - and us as there are prizes to be had and a fun Blog Hop. Congratulations AAA!  Here's my card for you.

I stamped the Altenew Layered Cupcake in the colors of the AAA logo as closely as I could.

Thanks for dropping by.

CAS(E) This Sketch #24

Sometimes you have to make a card with stamps you haven't used in a while, especially when you had to have them.  So I pulled out MFT's The Whole Herd to make a card for CAS(E) This Sketch.

Distress Inks for bakground, Zigs on the images, all on Bristol

Who knew that everyone would be getting their TV's hooked up this week.  I called to have it turned on at the lake and they said not until next Friday. They'll try to work it in before then but if not it looks like day trips because someone (not me) can't live without his TV.

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I hope your day is going well.

 

Addicted to Stamps and More #245

What sparks your imagination when you see this photo?  Why not make a card and enter it into the Addicted to Stamps and More gallery.  For more inspiration you can check out the blog to see the Design Team cards including mine.  Wait.  You can see mine here.

I decided to make a shaker card, using a sentiment from EE.  The one on the acetate is embossed in black sparkle and the other is embossed in white.

So put your sparkle on and make a card for us.  We'd love to see it.

Time Out #84

"Flowers and friends make life a garden."  That's the inspiration quote for the Time Out challenge.  I have a friend who needs a pick-me-up card and so I made this.

Altenew's Hello Sunshine set provided the flowers (Zig colored) and Essentials by Ellen provided the sentiment.

It looks like it will be laundry and sewing today.  Back to card making tomorrow.  I need a few masculine birthday cards next week and my sympathy cards are getting low.

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy your day.

CASology #251 and Less Is More #331

We were blessed to be part of a fantastic family celebration with a wedding Saturday night and graduation Open House today.  The weather cooperated for the outdoor wedding and barn reception, and though there was rain overnight, the skies were clear and a breeze kept it cool for the outdoor Open House.  There was lots of food, fun and catching up with family.  Now it's back to reality for all of us. ;)

I used my MFT medicine bottles for the challenge at CASology and made them the colors of the challenge at Less Is More with Zigs.

How much easier could it be?

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you had a good weekend too.

Merry Monday #250

Rustic is right up my alley so of course I had to make a card for Merry Monday.

The wood is a background stamp from Altenew that I stamped on watercolor paper in both Gathered Twigs and Black Soot Distress Inks, brushing with water in between.  The wreath from WPlus9 is stamped in four layers with a little watering to give it a softer look, except for the red embossed berries.  It took a while to come up with a way to do a sentiment. I was going to hang another piece of wood from the bow with a stamped sentiment but that didn't feel quite right. Enter the TH word dies. Both the word and bow are tripled embossed in Liquid Platinum.  Now that I'm looking at it I wish I'd done a burlap bow of some kind but it would have to be tiny burlap, or maybe jute.  Well, too late now.  The challenge is closing soon and I don't have time for a redo.  Maybe it will be a 'do another'. ;)

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope your weekend is off to a good start.

Just Us Girls #396

Hello all.  It's word week at Just Us Girls and Ina has chosen die-cuts (hyphenated so it's one word lol).   This should be an easy one because we all own at least a few dies - she says with a sly grin.

I haven't seen what the rest of the team have done yet, and I hope you go over and check out their creations, but I wanted to use my bear from EE and all the little things that go with him.  I even ordered the sentiments last Friday so I could use one of them and by golly Ellen HutsonLLC got them here pronto.

I used a couple of DIs to ink my card base over which I placed the PTI Polaroid die cut stamped with the sentiment.  The bear has four of his buddies in the recycle bin because I could not get the color to come out right.  I did two with Zigs on Bristol and that was a disaster and I don't know why because I usually have such great luck with them.  Number three was my stab at Copics.  I only have a few but they must be too far apart in color because blending just wasn't happening so what is left is just plain brown Copic coloring.  And I'm satisfied with him.  I stamped some of the fish from the set in the water and then die cut the pole and another fish.  (I tried to color it like a Higgins Lake perch, Judy.)

We have Estelle with us this month as our guest designer.  Be sure to check out her card and her blog.

We hope to see your card in the gallery this week.  Get out those dies and start cutting.

ETA:  At Carol's suggestion, I'm sending this card to Inkspirational whose word this week is "Windows".

MUSE #218 and SSS Monday

It's Ardyth's 50th birthday so for this week's MUSE challenge she wants us to CASE one of her cards.  I thought it would be easiest to go to my Pinterest and see what I had pinned of hers and I found one that I wanted to CASE.

I pinned it because I have the SSS Roses for You set but have only used it once and I thought this would inspire me because it's such a cute card.  Mine is almost identical.

I stamped the flowers on Bristol and colored them with Zigs.  I cut the panel with a stitched rectangle and then the dilemma and a question for you all. What color cardstock most closely matches the Strathmore Bristol?  I ended up using some Altenew Spicy Yogurt which has little flecks of brown in it.  It looks better than white or the Vintage Cream I have.

I don't often think about the Simon Says challenges but I did see that their Monday challenge this week asked for circles.  This might not be what they had in mind but they look circular to me. ;)

I'm scurrying to get this post done before the pizza arrives and we have to leave for a Euchre Party. I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Birthday, Ardyth!

Inkspirational #135

I knew I had the Stamploration houses to make a card for Inkspirational's "Urban" word prompt but how to implement it took me a while until I found the perfect sentiment from PTI.  Are you ready?  This one's for you, c. ;)

DOXs were used to smoosh a background and then the houses were masked and stamped around the sentiment.  I just wish there was a bright red oxide ink.  Maybe in the next collection.

I have some more posts to schedule and a couple of cards to make before the busy wedding and Open House weekend.  What women would want to put herself through that?  Fortunately she's the mother of the groom so not much to do there and has plenty of family to help with the Open House. The wedding is outdoors and the reception is in a barn.  Sounds like we're in for a fun time.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping by.

Altenew May Challenge

I recently made a card using the Altenew Lotus stamp and I love it so much I recreated a similar one for the Altenew May Challenge.

The flowers and leaves were colored with Zigs on Bristol and die cut so I could come up with an arrangement I liked.  Before adhering them, I used a Clarity brush to add a little Tumbled Glass, going darker on the bottom.  The stems on the right are stamped directly on the card base but the other one is popped up with the tiniest bit of foam tape to be on the level of the popped up leaf.  Here's the inspiration for my card.

We're off to my granddaughter Anneka's graduation today.  Her Mom posted a video on FaceBook of her singing at the Send Off to Seniors assembly.  It almost made me cry.  I probably would have if I'd seen her in person. She is such a talented young lady.

I hope you have a wonderful day and thanks for dropping by.

Less Is More #330

I made a card quite a while ago using this technique called Pearlized Stamp Layering from Jennifer McGuire.  It's been sitting on my desk just waiting for a challenge and it's finally here.  Less Is More wants shimmer and shimmer they're going to get.

You need a layering stamp for this technique and I used  Beautiful Day from Altenew.  For directions and video on how to get this shimmery effect, click on the link above.  I cut the panel with a curved die, mounted it on Soft Stone and curved the sentiment from Penny Black along the edge.  You know how it it with photographing shimmer.  It's difficult to get it to show but take it from me, the lighter portions of the card have a beautiful pearly shine.

We  My husband weeded the no-flower flower beds yesterday and today we will bring in some mulch.  Except for my lovely Columbine on one side of the house and the hydrangea I got from my parent's house before it sold, I have trouble getting anything to grow.  I've resorted to mulch and a few pots and hope they will look okay with my garden items - several old plows, an old yellow wheelbarrow, a vintage push mower and a few other rustic pieces.  Yes, as my granddaughter says "Gramby loves old metal".

Have a wonderful day and thanks for dropping by.

Merry Monday #249

I did it!  My very first digi image.  I wasn't sure if my printer ink would work and not smear but it did fine as you can see by this mistletoe that I did for Merry Monday.

I printed it on light weight multi-media paper so it would go through my printer and I could watercolor it with Distress Ink.  The sentiment is from My Craft Spot (closed).

Thanks for dropping by.

CASology #250

Loud can mean many things.  Generally I think of music, like when cars going by have their bass on loud and the walls shake.  I have nothing along that line to make a card for CASology but I got an inspiration for a card from the sentiments on a Hero Arts set called Yay!  I didn't use that particular stamp but I did find enough to make this.

This is a graduation card for one of our young girls at church.   She just happens to be on the Pom Squad and although they don't use megaphones, or actually cheer for that matter, I thought she'd like this in our school colors.  I actually made the megaphone from a party hat stamp from W&W, watercoloring it with DI.  The size relationship lets you know that those cheers are really LOUD.

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a great weekend.

Addicted to CAS #112

Well look who's hosting Addicted to CAS this week?  That means that I got to choose the code word.

It's that time of year when we're all needing graduation cards so I thought this would be a great word.  I  know I need at least two of them since we have two grandchildren graduating from high school the end of the month. I don't have any mortarboard stamps or dies so I had to think outside the box for a masculine card.

Chase's school colors are black and gold so I die cut the numbers from MFT out of black cardstock and black fun foam and mounted them over the already embossed gold paper.  EZPZ QACAS.

We hope you join us for this 'Graduation' challenge.  The Design Team has cards to inspire you over on the blog and if that's not enough incentive, how about a  gift certificate from Create a Smile.  They are offering a $15 gift to the winner of the challenge.

And don't forget that your cards need to be Clean and Simple.