The Flower Challenge #19

You still have time to play along with The Flower Challenge.  The Design Team has more inspiration for you over on the blog with their shaped cards.

The flower is from Altenew stamped in new inks.  The card base was cut with a curved die and I cut another piece the same and embossed it to look like a milk glass vase.  The little tag and sentiment are from My Craft Spot (closed).

I hope to see your card in the gallery.

Merry Monday #285

I'm not one who usually uses ribbons on my cards but I'll do it just for you Merry Monday.

I haven't used these bells from CASual Fridays in along time.  I stamped them in VersaFine Gray on Bristol and colored them with Zigs.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set. 

That's all for today.  The weather has turned nasty so I'll be staying in and glued to the live stream of the robotics competition.

Thanks for dropping by.  If you're in the bad weather zone please stay safe.

Addicted to CAS #134

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS and our host Anja has chosen as her code word:

I had to go searching for a stamp that I could use for this challenge and I found one in a set by PB.

I colored it with Zigs and popped it up on fun foam over a panel embossed with a bubble folder.  I also added some Pico Embellisher to the bubbles.  It's difficult to tell in the photo which also washed out that little mouse who is really gray.

How does the word "bubbles" inspire you?  We hope you'll make a card after you check out the Design Team cards.  You may be the winner of a $20 gift voucher from Happy Little Stampers.

Just Us Girls # 436

It's Trend Week on Just Us Girls and our host Lisa has chosen this:

Black and white stripes can add a dramatic effect to any card and I hope you will find a way to incorporate them into a card for this week's challenge.

I die cut the diagonal stripes from white and placed it over black after stamping the sentiment from PTI.  The flowers are from SSS, heat embossed in white and colored with Zigs.  This set doesn't have any leaves so I used some from W&W.

The Design Team and our guest Designer Karren Johnson have some wonderful cards for your inspiration.  Check them out and then make a card for the challenge.  If you are chosen Chic of the Week you will have a chance to be a guest designer in June.

AAA Cards #112

AAA Cards wants us to use our favorite technique on our cards. I have a number of techniques I gravitate towards but for this challenge I decided to watercolor with my Zigs.

I colored a number of the Altenew flowers, not sure of how I wanted to arrange them on a filigreed oval, and used almost all of them  The sentiment is from Altenew also.

I'm off tomorrow to watch the State robotics competition.  I would never have thought that I could get so excited watching machines carry cubes and put them on scales, then climb the scale with another robot on a ramp.  Maybe the fact that my 15 year old granddaughter is the one operating the arms that pick up those cubes is what makes it so much fun to watch.  I'd love to go see the finals on Saturday but we have a memorial service for the mother of one of my best friends.  Maybe we'll get home in time to see a live stream of the finals.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Addicted to Stamps and More #287

It's time for the Make Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  That means you can use markers, paints, pencils, chalks, anything that makes a mark on your card.  I chose Zigs for mine.

I'm disappointed in the color that comes across on the screen.  There is more color variation on the actual card with the green being more olive and more orange in the petals.  I played with the photo editing but this is the best I could get.

I hope you'll check out what the Design Team has made for your inspiration and then enter a card of your own.

Stamps: Penny Black
Paper:  Bristol, BoBunny

CAS Mix-Up April

As if I needed an excuse to buy anything 😉 but a brayer had been on my list for a while so I bought one to do the rubber band technique for the CAS Mix-Up challenge. 

The color is off and the card looks a little cattywampus but what's a person to do. 😕  The brayer was inked in Fog and the panel placed on Fog cs.  See what I mean about the color?  It looks the same IRL.  I stamped my NBUS Altenew wildflower to one side and used the sentiment from the same set.  Heaven knows I've needed a lot of sympathy cards lately.

This technique makes a wonderful background so look for more cards from me using it.

Less Is More #368

Is is any wonder that my teamie from The Flower Challenge has flowers as her inspiration as we CASE her design at Less Is More?  Here is Aileen's card.

She used Copic markers on her flowers but I decided to just stamp mine.

The layered flowers are from Altenew stamped in their inks.  Before placing them on the card I embossed a die to make a frame and then cut the SSS word die several times with the top layer being a shimmer paper.

Blue is such an appropriate color for my post today with all the news that has saddened my heart.  Ken's brother-in-law passed away yesterday after falling off a roof.  The skull fracture and internal bleeding were so severe that there was little chance of recovery. Then this morning I got the prayer chain from church and a dear elderly lady friend fell yesterday and broke her hip, wrist and fractured her pelvis.  Just one of these injuries is a lot for a 90+ year old and having gone through it with my mother I know the toll it takes.  It goes without saying that I will be offering up a lot of prayers today.

CAS(E) This Sketch #266 and Inspired By All the Little Things #83

My card today was made for CAS(E) This Sketch but it also fits into the Inspired By All the Little Things challenge.

I started by stamping and masking the bottles from W&W on Bristol.  I masked off the top of the card to ink the bottom in Hickory Smoke and went over it again through a SSS stencil.  The bottles were colored with Zigs and the branches stamped and Perfect Pearls dotted on.  Not exactly a Springtime look but I like it. 

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope your weekend went well and that you have a wonderful week ahead.

CASology #294

Thank goodness for Evernote.  That's where I went when I needed to see what I had that would go with the cue word at CASology this week.

What popped up was a sentiment from CF.

After playing around for a while I ended up embossing it in Verdigris on a CPD label and then layered other size labels behind it. Lots of texture and dimension while keeping it CAS.

It's been crazy weather around here lately.  The ground gets covered with snow over night and by that evening it's gone.   That kept repeating for several days.  I was knitting with a group of ladies yesterday and when we looked out the window it was almost white out conditions.  Then it stopped and started again a few minutes later, repeating that over and over for an hour or more.  Today the sun is shining which is always a good mood booster.

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy your day no matter the weather.

Just Us Girls #435

It's Word Week at Just Us Girls and our host Ina would like to see bold cards.

I happened to have a smooshed DOX background on my desk that looked pretty bold to me so I added a flower and called it good.

I've had the TH flowers for quite a while but I just got the dies which allowed me to put my daisy on the background.  It was stamped with DI and then I used a waterbrush to move the color around.  The sentiment is from PB.

How do you interpret the word 'Bold'?  For inspiration check out what the Design Team and our Guest Designer for the month of April, Karren Johnson, have made.  The winning card maker will be chosen Chic of the Week and have a chance at guest designing in June.

We'd love to see your card in the gallery.

Time Out #106

Nothing says Spring to me more than blooming forsythia.  Like in this photo inspiration from Time Out.

I've been wanting to watercolor some of the smaller images in Altenew's Beautiful Day so that is what made up my card.

I added them to a card cut with a TH die and backed with Aqua Mist.  The sentiment is from EbyE.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge - April

A new month and a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers for their Christmas Challenge.

If you know me at all, you know I have to go for the twist and I must admit it was not that easy this time.  I had the song "Deck the Halls" in my head and it wouldn't go away until I made a holly card.

I'm not real happy with this and I think it's the largeness of the plaid background.  I had another plaid panel that I tried but it was the wrong color and not my stamp so I couldn't recreate it.  I love this Concord and 9th plaid on other cards and since it was all I had to work with I went with it.  The holly is from CPD, stamped on a die from AliExpress and colored with Inktense pencils.  The sentiment - the driving force behind the card - is from MFT.

Now you must remember that you do NOT have to use the twist on your anything goes Christmas card.  Get a head start on your stash and make a card for this month's challenge.  The winner will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the HLS shop. If you are the random draw and you used a HLS stamp, the prize will be doubled.

We'd love to see yours in the gallery. 

Merry Monday #284

It's time for a red and white card at Merry Monday. 

I pulled out my CP peppermint striped background stamp and inked it up with Candied Apple DOX.  The label die, candy canes and sentiment are all from CP.  I added a little Glossy Accents to the canes. 

I just counted and I have 47 Christmas cards already done.  Some were left from last year but most have been made for challenges this year.  There's no doubt I'll be ready when it comes time to mail them out.

It almost looked like Christmas here with snow covering the ground this morning. And it's snowing again.  Come on Spring!

 

The Flower Challenge #19

I have some exciting news to share today.  I am one of the newest members of the Design Team at The Flower Challenge.  I put my name in during their last challenge and waited patiently to see if I would be one of those chosen.  Thanks to Aileen, Viv and the rest of the team for letting me work with them on this wonderful challenge.

I don't usually do shaped cards so the first shape I thought of was a circle.

I place my MFT circle die over the folded edge of my card base, cut it and then sliced off a bit of the back so it would stand up.  I placed a scalloped circle over the top to which I added a flower from Altenew stamped with HA ink. I heat embossed part of the sentiment from PTI with Platinum and stamped the rest in Onyx Black.

Please check out the cards that the Design Team has for your inspiration and then make a shaped card of your own.  We would love to see you in the gallery.

CAS(E) This Sketch #265

Before I spent the afternoon scrapbooking I made a card for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch.

I used a stencil from AliExpress to make rainbow stars from Distress Ink along one side of the card and then cut a larger star and popped it up along side of them.  The sentiment is from CPD, the word double cut and the smaller one heat embossed on paper inked with the same blue DI.  The photo looks blurry to me and I don't know why.  I took another one and it looked the same.  Maybe it's just the shadows.

Thanks for dropping by today. 

Inkspirational #157

What would you do for this challenge at Inkspirational?  I don't have any dragons or fairies or unicorns so I wasn't sure what to do but my friend and host for this challenge told me to use my elves.  What?  You mean Santa's elves aren't real?  ;)   Carol, this one's for you.

I started the background by masking off the bottom so I could ink it up to look like the floor and then using the same Distress Ink and an MFT stencil made my wall.  The elf and tree are colored with Zigs with a little Glossy Accents added to the ornament.  The sentiment is from HLS.  I liked this so much I made another one with a different colored brick just for fun.

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a wonderful day!