Just Us Girls # 712 - Color Week

Sue is our host for this week's challenge at Just Us Girls and she chose colors appropriate for the month of February.

I pulled out some patterned paper as the base for my card.

It mean it already had red, pink and gray, so gray became my neutral.  After cutting it with Honey Bee's postage die, I added the Sunrise Stem from SSS, colored with Distress Inks.  Somehow I found a piece of gray cardstock that matched so I could emboss my sentiment from The Greetery.   

What neutral will you pick for your card?  Need inspiration?  Check out the Design Team makes.  We'd love to see your card in the gallery.

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Just Us Girls #653 - Trend Week

Sue is the host for Trend Week at Just Us Girls and she has chosen one of my favorites.

I received some stamps from a friend who was purging and thought this one from Penny Black would make a great CAS card.

It's stamped on Bristol and colored with Zigs.  The sentiment is from Altenew and try as I did I couldn't get a straight line.  That's okay.  It slants up just like my handwriting. LOL  

I hope you'll join the Design Team and our guest Lynne Jardine in making a CAS card this week.  We'd love to see you in our gallery.  And who knows?  If you win,  you could be our next guest. 

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Just Us Girls #652 - Word Week

Do you have a bunch of scraps that you would like to use up?  Then this week's challenge at Just Us Girls is perfect for you.  Ina is our host for Word Week and this is what she chose.

I ended up channelling Ardyth for my card.  She is a master of using small pieces to make a great graphic card. 

After using this die on previous cards,

all those little cuts from the J and Y were scattered on my desk and I saw a flower.  I plopped six of the cuts into CP Apricot ink and layered an extra one under each.  The center is a circle from MFT colored with CP Terra Cotta and the stem and leaf were hand cut.  I masked off the SSS sentiment to stamp the Happy part in Terra Cotta to add that color again. 

The Design Team and our guest Lynne Jardine have cards using scraps on the blog.  We'd like to see what you can do with them so we hope you add your card to the gallery. 

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Color Hues #36

My heart is breaking as I watch what is happening in Ukraine.  No country or its people should have to bear the pain and suffering inflicted by a power hungry dictator.  My prayers are with the leader and all its citizens who are fighting for their freedom.

Color Hues has decided to make a double color challenge to include the Ukrainian colors of yellow and blue.  This wonderful card community is showing its support in full force by inundating the internet with cards in those colors.  Here's mine.

I started with the Mondo Sakura from EbyE, watercolored with Altenew paint.  The background is the only blue paper I had with me  (whew) and it's embossed with a coverplate by HoneyBee.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Thanks for dropping by today.  I hope you will think of making a card in support of Ukraine if you haven't already.  

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Freshly Made Sketches #348

I don't know what is is about Freshly Made Sketches but it takes me almost until the challenge deadline to get an inspiration.  I just finished this.

Picked two papers and couldn't decide on a third.  Painted a flower and didn't like the color.  So I stuck in a black and white stripe that goes well with anything and used a different Zig for the WF flower that I put on a PFS hexagon after stamping the PB sentiment.  Now I'm happy.

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do, especially if you leave a comment.

Addicted to CAS #181

Angie has chosen this for the next Addicted to CAS challenge.

There are so many ways to add texture to your cards.  I chose to use some gauze paper.

This is something I bought quite a while ago because I thought it was neat and have barely used.  I cut a strip of the gray and then added a die cut flower from SSS that was colored with Distress Inks and a blending brush. I decided to run the sentiment vertically along the side of the gauze strip.

The Design Team would like you to take a look at what they've made using texture.  They hope to inspire you to make a card for the challenge.

CAS Stencil Challenge - April

I'm honored to be guest designing with the CAS Stencil team this month where the theme is

I don't use my pastes enough so this was a fun challenge to be part of.  I would have entered it if I wasn't guest designing but now I get to show you something to inspire you to play along.

I happen to have a stencil that goes with this Penny Black stamp, so after coloring it with Distress Ink I laid the stencil down and covered it with Nuvo Glimmer Paste.  You really only get a glimpse of the wonderful shimmer that I see.

The Design Team also has fabulous cards to inspire you so please check them out and then make a card for the challenge.  You have until the 24th to work on it.  The team and I will be back on the 15th with more cards spur you on.

CAS(E) This Sketch #285

It's been a while but I finally had time to make a card for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch.  Luckily my inspiration didn't desert me while I was having fun doing other things.  Here's the sketch I worked from.

Sweet Deepti of Dee's Art Utopia sent me one of her stamps that had been out of stock at Stamplorations forever.   I had to use it as soon as it arrived.

Using WPlus9 Cashmere as my card base I laid out the different rectangles, gray, white and vellum.  Placing the stamp in my MISTI allowed me to stamp on each layer individually, keeping it all aligned. The flowers on white are colored with Distress Ink and for the vellum I used matching Zigs.

It felt good to get back into the card making mode and although there are a few things coming up that may slow me down, I'm anxious to get back into the rhythm.  Speaking of slowing down, I am way behind on commenting on your blog posts.  I had over 500 at one time and have whittled it down to 300 but there are still a number of you who haven't had a comment in a long time.  While I might not comment on every card you made during that time (some of you are very prolific) I promise to stop in and do a bulk comment until I clear my inbox.

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

The Flower Challenge #22 - Reminder

Have you made a card for The Flower Challenge this month?  There's still time and the Design Team has more inspiration for you over on the blog.  The theme is

There are a couple of definitions of monochrome.  One is black and white, and the other is various shades of the same color.  Like my first card, I decided to use color and this time I went with red.

I stamped and heat embossed the Mondo Sakura from EBE in Altenew Velvet and then colored it with Zigs.  Once it was dry I colored the background with Festive Berries Distress Ink, sprinkled it with water and blotted.  The SSS sentiment was die cut from paper similar in color to the darkest Zig I used for the leaves and stamen.

We hope you'll join us this month.  Remember that flowers have to be the focal point of your card.

Addicted to Stamps and More #289

It's time for the CAS challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  Remember your card has to be clean and simple, lots of white(blank) space and few if any embellishments.  Here's my card.

The flower is one I stamped at Michele's a while ago and just colored it with Zigs.  The sentiment is from Verve. 

The Design Team has some fabulous cards to inspire you at Addicted to Stamps and More.  Take a look and then make a card to enter in the gallery.  We'd love to see you there.

Just Us Girls #437 - Color Week

That's right, stampers, it's Color Week at Just Us Girls and the color of choice for our host Carol is . .  .

I've had an alcohol ink panel on my desk for a while deciding what to do with it and this challenge sparked my imagination.

EbyE's Mondo Magnolia to the rescue.  I stamped it on the panel with Archival Ink and die cut it, adding a little green ink to the stem.  The die cut panel adds interest to the background and the PTI sentiment was heat embossed on a strip of black.  I still have a large section of the purple left so I need to think of a way to use it.  

I hope you'll check out the fabulous creations by our Design Team and guest designer Karren Johnson and then make a purple card of your own.  If you are chosen Chic of the Week you could be our guest in June.

I'm also linking this up to the Ellen Hutson PinSights Challenge where this mood board is our inspiration.

The Flower Challenge #14

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.  My daughter and son-in-law were here for two days, my granddaughter her husband and two kids were here for breakfast and my son, his wife and two girls stopped by for a visit.  All the activity has left me devoid of crafting ideas but I made a card earlier that I haven't posted for The Flower Challenge.

This die cut is one I got from Michele a long time ago and I don't remember who made it.  I colored it with Zigs and put it on a stitched rectangle with a sentiment from SSS.  Clean and Simple, quick and easy.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Addicted to CAS #120

I love florals.  Don't you?  If so you're in luck because that is the word our host Jaydee has chosen for Addicted to CAS.

I have a lot of floral stamps so the difficult part was choosing which one to use.  I decided to go with one of my newest ones.

I colored the poppy from PTI's Stemmed Statements with Inktense pencils and framed it with a new die that I ordered from AliExpress.  A number of blog friends have ordered from them - inexpensive but it takes a while to get the product.  I popped the frame up with fun foam, added the tag and sentiment from the same set and tied on some twine.   I got lots of dimension while still keeping my card CAS.

Our sponsor for this challenge is STAMPlorations.  They will award a $10 store certificate to the winner so get out those floral stamps and get busy making your clean and simple card. ;)

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media, Watercolor and CAS

I thought this post was never going to happen.  I couldn't find the linky on any of the HLS challenges all day yesterday.  I messaged Kylie and she said it must be my computer and maybe I needed to clear my cache.  Before doing that I checked the blogs again today and there they were.  Whew! Now I can post this one card for three of the Happy Little Stamper Challenges: Mixed Media, Watercolor and CAS.

The Mixed Media challenge was to use tissue paper and I had several in my stash from a previous challenge.  I pulled out this one to use as a background for my NBUS Stemmed Statements from PTI.  Since I watercolored the nasturtium with Zigs, I can enter it into the Watercolor - "Anything Goes with the Option of a Bloom" challenge.  It's also going to the CAS challenge that asks for a flower.

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy your day!

Addicted to CAS #117

Oops, I did it again.  I think I'm going to have to make that my theme song.  For those of you who already saw this card, I appreciate your comments.  You will be seeing it again because I scheduled it for the wrong date.  

It's time for another challenge at Addicted to CAS and our host Barb has asked us to make one layer cards.  Those aren't my favorite but I'm beginning to do better with them.

This is another borrow from Michele - the flower from Concord and 9th.  I watercolored it with Abandoned Coral DI, adding splatters and the sentiment from MFT.

The design team has some wonderful CAS cards for your inspiration. If you make a one layer card and enter it in the gallery you may be the winner of a $10 gift certificate from Stamplorations.  Don't forget it has to be clean and simple.

I hope to see you there.