Merry Monday #239

There's a color challenge at Merry Monday and it took a little thinking.  They want you to use, copper, gold and turquoise.  I played around with a couple of ideas until I remembered an old TH die and it was the perfect thing IMHO.

The leaves and berries are cut from teal and copper shimmer paper respectively, and the branch from gold.  I tried to 'antique' them but the paper wasn't having any of it so I put on some Distress Crackle.  When it was dry I inked over it with sort of matching Distress Inks.  Here's a close-up.

The sentiment from HLS was embossed in copper.

Thanks for dropping by.

CAS MIx-Up and Inkspirational #130

I love smooshing so I'm glad there are a couple of challenges that give me reason to play around with it.  My card is for CAS Mix-Up and Inkspirational.

For CAS Mix-Up you had to do smooshing, stamping and your choice.  I heat embossed the stamped sentiment from A Jillian Vance Design and smooshed over it with Distress Oxides (emboss resist - my choice) plus I die cut with a MFT scalloped oval and added sequins.    Do you know how difficult it is to get a sentiment stamped straight on an oval?  Or cut an oval straight over a sentiment.  I thought it was even but now it looks like it's going uphill, not unlike my actual handwriting. ;)

In hindsight I should have done a birthday card since CAS Mix-Up is celebrating it's first birthday.  It's hard to believe that it was only a year ago that Bonnie and Loll began this fun challenge.  Time flies when you're having fun creating, doesn't it?  Happy Birthday and Many More!

I haven't played at Inkspirational in a while but they also have a Smooshing challenge so I'm sending my card there as well.

Thanks for dropping by.

Less Is More #319

My HA Layering Leaves were sitting right by my Big Shot just begging to be used.  How great that Less Is More has a leaves challenge.  Not only that, CASology's challenge is Foliage.

Altenew Inks were used on watercolor paper so I could spritz the leaf before stamping. The sentiment is from A Jillian Vance Designs and it was perfect to go with the colorful leaves.

Thanks for dropping by.

Addicted to Stamps and More #233

I know St Patrick's Day is coming up and so is Easter but for my holiday card I went with Christmas for my Addicted to Stamps and More card.

The holly is from PTI's Botanical Blocks, embossed in gold,  colored with Zigs and mounted on a gold panel cut with MFT scalloped rectangles.  The sentiment is from HLS.

We'd love to see your holiday card in our gallery.  Need some inspiration? Check out the ATSM Design Team here.

CAS(E) This Sketch #212

Sometimes the easiest looking sketches are the more difficult.  In trying to do something different your mind goes off in a thousand different directions.  I'm not sure this is different but instead of DSP I did use a NBUS background stamp to make my card for CAS(E) This Sketch.

I just HAD to have this Circle Doodle stamp from SSS and haven't used it until now.  I heat embossed it in white and then watercolored with Fossilized Amber, Dried Marigold, Carved Pumpkin and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks.  The sentiment from Altenew is stamped in HA Butter Bar. This is a good sentiment for today. The sun is shining even though it is 18 degrees out.  I'll take it!

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope there's some sunshine in your life today.

CAS Watercolor and The Flower Challenge.

I guess we didn't leave the state soon enough.  It's snowing.  I hope it clears up so the roads are travel worthy when we leave Friday.  Three weeks without card making.  Can I take it?  We'll see how bad the withdrawal is. ;)  I will get a chance to catch up with some books that have been gathering dust though.  I will have a couple of cards to post before I go including this one for CAS Watercolor and The Flower Challenge.

CAS Watercolor is looking for Spring cards and when I think of Spring I think of the cherry blossoms in Washington DC.  I used a  PB stamp in gray on Bristol and then colored them with Zigs.  A few white and brown dots were added to the centers and a HLS sentiment was stamped in the same gray.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you are in the wake of the snowstorm, please stay safe.

Time Out's Third Birthday

When someone has a party it's rude not to RSVP and so below is my card to celebrate the third birthday of the Time Out challenge.  Boy has that three years gone by fast.  Congratulations to the team who keeps it going. The theme for the party is 'Love and/or Friendship' with the optional twist of spotlight stamping.  I'm all for options. 😉  And I did a twist on the twist.  Uh oh, now I'll be singing "Let's Twist Again" all night. 😀

Can you see my twist?  I spotlighted the outside of the circle and left the inside uncolored and then popped it up on black foam.  Since the flowers from PB were fairly thin lines, I was able to stamp my PTI sentiment right over them without losing it into the background.  The other flowers are colored with Zigs.

Congratulations again, Time Out.  I always enjoy playing cards with you. (Sorry to steal your line, Michele).

Fusion - Scrambles Letters

I just happened to pick up a stencil at JoAnn's a while ago and and I thought it would work well for the challenge at Fusion.

The first thing I did was to heat emboss the 'U' in silver so I couple pop up the rest of the silver embossed sentiment above it.  Then I lined up the stencil and used my Clarity brushes to put down some gray and blue ink.  I think I pounced on a couple of the letters which gave me some fuzzy edges so don't do that. ;)  I used my Uniball pen to stripe a couple of letters but it still needed something else, especially since I had a little boo boo there on the left.  This is a masculine card so I didn't want to use sequins. Avery Elle to the rescue.  They have a die that makes these little 'bolt' looking embellishments.

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

Just Us Girls #384

It's Trend Week at Just Us Girls and Maria has asked us to use a stencil.

I have lots of stencils but I have one from Winnie & Walter that I was anxious to use.

A white panel was first inked with Black Soot and then I moved the stencil and did rows in rainbow color.  A NBUS 'enjoy' stamp from MSE was embossed in black sparkle and the rest of the sentiment was white embossed on a scrap of black.  This was layered on black and then on the card base for black and white borders.

The rest of the Design Team and guest designer Nance Salkeld have some lovely cards using stencils for you to see.  We hope they inspire you to make a card and enter it in the gallery.  You may be chosen Chic of the Week.  

Merry Monday #238

I've been trying to play at Merry Monday every week so I have most of my Christmas cards by the end of the year.  I missed last week but I have one for this week's challenge - decorated lightpost with bling.

The lightpost is a stamp from PB that I inked with Distress Markers, misted and stamped over and over with a variety of colors using my MISTI. Once it was dry I watercolored the background with Faded Jeans DI.  The pine bough is from PTI and the bow from Sugar Pea smooshed in DI and Perfect Pearls.  For the bling I added three red stones to the center of the bow.  The frame is made from a couple of SSS stitched rectangles.

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do.

CAS(E) This Sketch #211

Things have been busy around here which means I'm way behind in commenting on your wonderful cards.  I say wonderful because I have stopped by quickly to see what you were creating but then kept on going to get through the over 250 emails.  I've also been making cards like crazy for my Design Teams because we will be going on vacation and I need to have them all done and scheduled before I go.  Add to that two days of cleaning out rooms in the church and working on a number of funeral dinners and I haven't had much time to even make cards just for fun.

But I do have one today for CAS(E) This Sketch.

I smooshed the background with Distress Oxides, then stamped the PB flowers and sentiment in Onyx Black.  I lifted some of the color from the petals but they weren't white enough for me so I painted them with acrylic paint.  I think this looks like Michele's sketch.

I'm so glad you dropped by.

Addicted to CAS 106

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS and Bhavana has chosen this as our cue word.

The minute I saw the word I knew I was going to use my Doodle Buds set from WPlus9.

To add to the doodleness (?) I stamped the zigzag from the set and used a pen to join them around the edge of my card.  The buds were stamped on Bristol, colored with Zigs and popped up while the stems and leaves were stamped directly on the card front.

We hope you'll join us for this challenge.  Create a Smile is offering a voucher to their store to the winner.

I love the sentiment and it's my wish for you today.

Just Us Girls #383 - Word Week

Hey all.  I'm hosting Just Us Girls this week and for the Word Week challenge I've chosen

You can do so many fun things with diamonds, triangles, squares, octagons, hexagons etc. that I thought it would be an interesting challenge.  Here's what I made.

I new I wanted to use the Geo Builders from Catherine Pooler.  The decision came in what colors to use.  I had a copper embossed sentiment on my work desk that I didn't use but liked the looks of.  I decided I wanted to use colors that worked with copper so I could emboss the sentiment on this card.  I stamped the larger diamonds in Altenew Expresso and the solid large ones in Caramel Toffee.  The smaller ones were stamped the same but I decided to emboss them too.  You can see the shine a little better in this photo.

The sentiment and die cut word are from CASual Friday, part of a SOA kit.

I hope you'll join us in this week's challenge.  Come and see what the Design Team and guest designer Nance Salkeld have done with the 'word', then enter your card in the gallery.  You may be chosen Chic of the Week and have a chance to guest design with us.

See you there.

Make It Monday #276

I'm finally getting a chance to play at Make It Monday.  This week's directive is pencils on kraft.  Love that technique.

I embossed one of the Botanical Blocks in white and colored with Inktense pencils.  The panel was  trimmed and popped up with foam.  The sentiment is from MSE.  This will be a thank you for a friend that will babysit my plants while I'm on vacation.

Thanks for dropping by.

Time Out #77

I'm squeaking under the wire for the Time Out challenge so here's my card.

PTI die, HA stamp, paper from my stash

And here's the inspiration photo.

I was inspired by the variations of patterns on the bottom of the mural.

Thanks for dropping by.