Just Us Girls #401

It's Trend Week at Just Us Girls and Chris chose 'ink blending' before deciding that it was time for her to step down from the design team.  We will miss you, Chris, and wish you only the best.  Nancy will do hosting duty in her place this week.

When one designer leaves another one comes onto the team and our new team member is Angie Cimbalo.   Please be sure and check out her blog.

This challenge is exciting to me because you can get so many different looks with ink blending.  I went with a scenic look.

I taped off the edge of my Bristol and used Distress Oxides to make a field, mountain and cloudy sky.  In front are some wildflowers from CP's Stamp of Approval and a sentiment from Altenew's Birchland.

What will you do for your ink blended card?  I do hope you're making one. You could be chosen Chic of the Week and be eligible for a chance to guest design just like this month's designer Aileen.  Go to Just Us Girls to see the Design Team cards for inspiration.

It's Kylie's Birthday!

The Design Team from Addicted to CAS is holding a blog hop in honor of our fearless leader Kylie's birthday.  You should have come from Barb's Studio Creations.

I thought it most appropriate to use Kylie's stamp line from Happy Little Stampers to make a card for this celebration.

The sentiments are from Bold Birthday Sentiments and the birds from Whimsical Friends, both stamped and heat embossed so I could smoosh the background behind them with Distress Inks.  When that was dry I watercolored the birds with corresponding Oxide inks.

We appreciate all you do with your challenge blogs and stamp line, Kylie. Have a wonderful birthday celebration and  may this day be the start of a fantastic year.

Now you're off to Carolyn Bennie.

Hugs,

Addicted to Stamps and More #249

It's time to see your clean and simple (CAS) cards at Addicted to Stamps and More.  Here's mine.

I used my Brushos on watercolor paper, selecting where the colors would go according to my PB iris die.  I embossed the die into the cs and then offset the iris.  The border is a MCS die lined with purple glimmer paper and the sentiment is from CP's SOA.

The Design Team has some beautiful cards to inspire you so check them out and the join us in the gallery.

Just Us Girls #400

There's a big celebration at Just Us Girls this week.  It's our 400th challenge and you're invited to the party.

Here's my card.

I've had this colored vellum for ages and used a SSS die to cut it into balloons, adding my own strings and a sentiment from W & W.

Celebration cards are easy so there's no reason not to make a card and join us.  Need more incentive?  There are prizes from our sponsors.

 [Your choice of any stamp set, and 1 ink pad!]

and

[The Chic of this Week will win a $15 gift certificate AND, 1 random winner has their choice of a 4x6 stamp set, or 2 [in-stock] 3x5 stamp sets.]

Need more inspiration?  The Design Team have wonderful cards for you to see over on the blog.  

Let the party begin!

12 Kits of Occasions - It's a Guy Thing

Michele asked me to be her guest for the July edition of 12 Kits of Occasions and of course I said "Yes".  She had talked about it and I had followed what they were doing so I was curious about how it worked and whether I could work within the confines of the kit.  I think I managed fine with the items in the "It's a Guy Thing" kit.

This first card came to mind immediately.

Any seagull likes his fish and so I used the little 'shaker envelope' in the kit to display his catch -  fish from EE.

This gull is thankful that there are plenty of fish in the ocean that was made with a die from MFT.

This one is going courting with some flowers from CP.  I added my own background paper and cut the gray panel with a die from N&T.

I'm sorry but I just HAD to do this next one.

I cut around the sentiment to match the clouds in the kit.  I had a white flower cut laying on my desk left from another card and it looked like a splat to me so "Watch out below!"

For this one I deviated from the seagulls and added my own EE bear with his party hat and cupcake to go with the included sentiment and background paper.  

Thanks, Michele, for inviting me to the party.  To see the rest of the party goers, go over to the 12 Kits blog where you will find links to everyone's cards.

Addicted to CAS #114

It's time for another challenge at Addicted to CAS and Carolyn has chosen this code word:

There are so many ways you can go with this so I hope you will give it a try and enter a card in the gallery.  There's a prize from Happy Little Stampers of a $15 gift certificate for the winner.

You will find great inspiration from the Design Team over on the blog but first, here's a look at mine.

I cut this die from Memory Box over a year ago when I was visiting Michele and it's been sitting in a file folder since then. I ran across it looking for something else and thought it would be perfect for the challenge.  I embossed the top of the card with Clouds and the bottom with Forest Branches to give it a background and then layered the word die from SSS three times.  Yes, I see that some of the details didn't cut but rather than take a chance of ruining it, I left the pieces intact.  

Now it's your turn to make a white on white card.  I hope I see one in the gallery.

Just Us Girls #399

It's Photo Week at Just Us Girls and what better way to get you into a summer frame of mind than with this photo that Lisa chose.

I love those colorful chairs and in fact we have some at the lake.  But with no chair stamps I went with what I had.  Umbrellas.

I stamped and heat embossed the PB umbrellas and colored them with Distress Inks.  A light wash for the sky and sand and a dab of yellow for the sun was all I needed to convey my MFT sentiment.

The girls over at Just Us Girls have a lot of wonderful cards for you to use as inspiration and if you make a card and are chosen the Chic of the Week, you could be a guest designer just like Estelle.  I hope we see you in the gallery.

CAS Watercolor - June

My pastor's birthday was yesterday and I made her a card that I think fits into the CAS Watercolor Challenge.

My card was inspired by this fabulous sentiment that I saw on Lynn's blog and she was gracious enough to stamp a couple and send them to me. Perfect for a pastor, right?  Then I needed an image to go with it and this wonderful tree from Altenew came to mind.  It's watercolored with Distress Inks.  I think it says 'summer'.  I know my husband likes to sit in the swing at the lake during the summer and just relax.

Thanks for dropping by.

Addicted to Stamps #247

It's Make Your Mark week at Addicted to Stamps and More.  This is an easy one because you can make a card using markers, pencils, Zigs, watercolor. Anything that makes a mark.  For my card I used Inktense Pencils because I haven't used them in a while.

This was in my UFO file, stamped but not colored.  The Asters are from PB. I did a Distress Ink wash around them and splattered.  I'm not sure that was the best thing to do but it's done. I brought some of the color to the left side with strips of cardstock.


Now it's your turn.  Head on over to Addicted to Stamps and More for inspiration from the Design Team and then make your mark on a card to enter in the gallery.  ATSM is celebrating its 5th birthday so Kylie and Happy Little Stampers are awarding the winner of this challenge a $40 gift certificate to the HLS shop.

The Heart Desires #13 and The Flower Challenge #9

When I saw The Heart Desires mood board I knew I wanted to try no-line watercoloring with a PB Dahlia.  The first one came out better than I expected so I continued on.

I masked and stamped a new flower beside the first one but the edge didn't stamp well and the coloring wasn't as good.  Now what?  I fussy cut the first one and then stamped another flower and colored it.  That one turned out okay so I fussy cut that one and the part of the second one and layered them up on the front of my Soft Stone card base.  It needed something so I cut a frame from Smoke cardstock before adding the SSS word die cut in Smokey Shadow.  The screen looks a lot brighter than the soft subtle look of the Twisted Citron IRL.

The challenge at The Flower Challenge is 'anything goes' so I'm sending my card there too.

Thank you for dropping by.  I hope your week got off to a good start.

Fusion - Bike

My husband rides his bike almost every day, up to 10 miles. Me? I haven't ridden a bike in quite some time but I love the one that's in the inspiration photo for Fusion.  Maybe it's the color that I adore.  What do you think?

I made mine the same color with the same brick wall.

The stamp and die are from SSS including the sentiment that I heat embossed on vellum. The color is courtesy of my Zigs and the brick embossed folder is TH.

Well the weekend is over and a busy week looms ahead.  I hope your week goes well and you set aside some crafting time.  Thanks for dropping by.

Just Us Girls #398

Hey all.  It's Bobby and I'm your host for this weeks challenge at Just Us Girls.  It's color week and I chose

I must confess that I knew what I was going to do before I picked the colors which made it real easy.

The cupcakes are from Altenew and I had to make them chocolate - my favorite.  These are layered stamps and I used Altenew inks with them.  The lightest yellow is called Buttercream.  Very appropriate for frosting, don't you think?

What will you make using yellow, aqua and brown?  The Design Team and guest designer Estelle have cards to inspire you on the blog.  If you enter a card in the gallery you may be chosen Chic of the Week with a chance to be our guest designer in August.  How about it?

Time Out #85

What I wouldn't give for a sun room that looks like the inspiration photo at Time Out.

Isn't that gorgeous?  I was inspired by the hummingbird of course, but I also saw that tiny bit of Hydrangea in the corner of the pillow.

The hummingbird is from WPlus9, the Hydrangea from Essentials by Ellen and the sentiment from Altenew.  Everything was colored with Zigs except for the background where I used Distress Ink and the Spectrum Noir sparkle that I gave the hummer.

I'm getting ready to head to the lake for the weekend.  Two more rooms to clean and I'll be ready for company.

Have a great weekend and thanks for dropping by.

Tag You're It! #72

It's week three of the monthly Tag You're It! challenge and I have some inspiration for you based on this wonderful tag by Lindsey Larsen.

I love the lacy look and the non-tag shape.  Here's what I did.

I already had this die cut from SSS inked in the perfect colors for the challenge.  All I had to do was mount it on a circle, punch a hole and tie on ribbon that was the right color and free gift from Ellen Hutson with an order.

You still have time to make a tag to enter in the challenge.  Head on over to Tag You're It! to see what the rest of the Design Team has made each week to get inspiration for your own.  We'd love to see you in the gallery.