Just Us Girls #762 - Word Week

It's Word Week at Just Us Girls and our host Ina has chosen this

We all like to send cards to our friends so this should be an easy one.  

This sentiment stamp from Honey Bee jumped out at me so I stamped Tender Blooms from Waffle Flower to go with it.  The garden is colored with Altenew Artist Markers with a little Distress Ink for the background. 

 

There is a wide variety of cards to inspire you from our Design Team and guest Smilyn Stef.  If you make a card and are the winner of the challenge, you have a chance to be a guest designer.  I'd love to see you in the gallery.

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Freshly Made Sketches #629

Hey there crafty friends.  Thanks for dropping by.  

Today's card is for Freshly Made Sketches.  

I started with Altenew's Dazzling Dahlia, stenciled in the Martian Terrain inks, because I thought the shape imitated that in Amy's sketch.  Then it was decision time about how to finish it off.  I found the DSP from a Honey Bee pack, cut it with an MFT scallop and popped it up over a panel embossed with the Subtle Texture folder.  The sentiment is also from Honey Bee. 

I had fun trying a few new techniques over the weekend and I'll be posting some of them shortly. 

  

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The Flower Challenge #85

The Flower Challenge is celebrating its 7th birthday with an "Anything Goes"  challenge.  Anything as long as flowers are your focal point that is. 

As we announced in August, we have a new administrator in Karren Johnson as Aileen and Viv will be leaving us after this challenge.  There has also been a shake up in the Design Team members.  Kara and TaeEun have left us.  New members are Cindy Beach, Laurie Unger and Judy Rozema.  Marcia Hill will be joining in November and Vicky Hayes in January.    I'm looking forward to working with all these wonderful designers.  

Now for my card.

The flowers and leaves are from PTI - Into the Blooms: Dahlia.  They are cut from a Honey Bee paper pack with a little inking on the ferns.  I thought this Honey Bee sentiment worked well with the colorful Dahlias. 

I hope you will help us celebrate our birthday and our new team members by make a card for the challenge. 

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Color Hues #72

Color Hues is having a special blog hop in memory of their teammate and friend, Lindsey Martin-Penny, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer last year.  Red and purple were Lindsey's favorite colors so the team chose them for this challenge. 

I used the stencils from Altenew's Delicate Garden and their ink to color my flowers.  There is a coordinating embossing folder that I ran the flowers through for dimension even though it's not apparent in the photo. The white panel is Elegant Rectangles from MFT and the sentiment is from Honey Bee.

I'm sure you'll want to check out all of Lindsey's friends who made cards for the hop.  They have such heartwarming stories to tell. 

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The Flower Challenge #79 - Pretty Pastels

May the 4th be with you. 😁  Can you believe it's May already?  Here it is the 4th and time for a new challenge at The Flower Challenge.

This should be a lovely gallery.  Get making those pastel flowers.

My PTI pansy is cut from a few patterned papers and added to a panel that has been embossed with a floral folder from Spellbinders.  The sentiment is from Honey Bee, a set that includes the dies to cut them out. 

Our guest designer this month is Maria Petkash.  We welcome her and the inspiration she provides as well as that of the rest of the Design Team.  

I hope you'll join us.

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Twofer Challenge #16 and Inkspirational #186

It's time for another fun Twofer Challenge and this time we need to use this prompt.

Unfortunately I only have one stamp with wheels and it took a while for me to think of two ways to use it for two different occasions but I finally got a spark of inspiration and this is the result.

The card on the left is a graduation or new job card that uses parts of the SSS bicycle on deckled edge die cuts in shades of gray.  The sentiment from Stamplorations was stamped on DSP and the panels mounted on it with the vertical one on foam.  The card is not quite this dark IRL.

The second card could be for a birthday or hello friend.

The bicycle is stamped on DSP and colored with DOX which gives good coverage over the printed paper.  The sentiment is from the same set as the bike.

I'm also sending this card to Inkspirational where their prompt is "Adventure".

These cards are a bit of a departure from my usual style but it was fun to think out of the flower box. 😉  Thanks for dropping by to take a look.  May you have good friends and great adventures.

Addicted to CAS #151

Our host Jaydee has picked a wonderful word for this week's Addicted to CAS.

While doing some purging I found a rub-on with the perfect sentiment to use on my card for this challenge.  I decided on the design but when I went to find the rub-on it had disappeared.  I gave up looking and just printed it with my computer.

I cut a negative heart mask and inked it with Spun Sugar DI.  The bunnies from Mama Elephant are a gift from my friend Michele.  I added a little High Embossing Powder to their tales which wasn't an easy chore.  If you've ever used it you know what I mean.  It's so chunky it doesn't want to stick and you have to heat from underneath or it will blow away.  It does give a great look though.

My team-mates and our guest designer Izzy have some wonderful cards to inspire you.  Please check them out and then make a card for our gallery.  We'd love to see how you interpret the code word.

Addicted to Stamps and More #277 - Make Your Mark

It's time to get out your pencils, Copics, paint brushes or anything else you have to make a mark on your card for the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge.  The design team has plenty of inspiration for you.  Here's mine.

A blog friend was purging her craft room and selling some of her stamps and dies.  I bought a box sight unseen and inside was this darling doodle-y flower set from PS.  I love the look of coloring on kraft so I pulled out my Inktense pencils and went to work, embossing after the coloring was done.  This came about with my MISTI and a little hint from Yana Smakula.  Now I must say MISTI isn't always my best friend, like when I restamped the sentiment (because I forgot to use my anti-static tool) and it was off ever so slightly.  Grrrr.  Fortunately in that same box came the little die that was perfect for covering up the initial  stamping.  If I hadn't told you, you would have thought I planned it that way but I like hearing about how to "save" a card. Don't you?

I hope to see your card in the ATSM gallery.

Inspired By ...Kitchen Love

There's another interesting photo image to spark creativity at the Inspired By... challenge.

I picked up on the colors, hearts, and tea.

The Altenew tea cup was paper pieced and the sentiment heat embossed.  I'd enjoy having a cup of tea with any of my bloggie friends.  How do you take yours?

CAS(E) This Sketch #230

I couldn't pass up a chance to play at CAS(E) This Sketch so here's my last minute card.

Lots of gold embossing on an image by PTI, sentiment by HA and chicken wire by MFT.  Zigs colored in the sunflower and it's all on Ripe Avocado cardstock.

Busy times mean quick posts.  I'll be back tomorrow with another one.

Thanks for dropping by.

Just Us Girls #355

We've whooshed around to word week again at Just Us Girls and Sharyn's word choice is

Now you'd think water would be an easy word and I hope it is for you but I stewed and dreamed and fussed and fumed before I finally came up with an idea.  Part of the problem was that I have only one sort-of water stamp and the other was that I had used it a couple of times recently for other challenges.  So how could I use it and make it different.  That was the dilemma.  That and what to use for a sentiment. While I was waiting for the card to dry I started going through some of my sentiment stamps and found one that works for me.  See what you think

The first step was to do a smooshing, splashing ala Loll watercolor background with Distress Inks on watercolor paper. Then I made a stencil from the coral in the MFT Sea Life set, colored some texture paste with what else but Abandoned Coral and slapped it on which gave it the texture.  Once dry I stamped it with more Abandoned Coral.  The sentiment from Hero Arts was embossed on torn vellum in some clearance blue powder and the whole panel was mounted on Surf Blue.  To add to the treasure of the sea theme I had to add some tiny pearls. So with smooshing, splashing, slapping and stamping my card was complete.

Now it's your turn to make a card with water.  No that doesn't sound right. Make a card with water on it. That's not quite right either but you know what I mean.  For more inspiration, check out the Design Team and Guest Designer Colleen Foelker over at the Just Us Girls blog.  You could be chosen Chic of the Week and be eligible for a guest design spot just like Colleen.

I'm so glad you dropped by.

Merry Monday #195, Muse #156, The Card Concept, and Tic Tac Toe #5

It's the start of the weekend and it promises to be a great day here in mid-Michigan.  Before I get involved in other things, I have several cards to share with you.

For Merry Monday:

We were asked to use buttons on our card and for the convenience of mailing, I used paper buttons from PTI with my Neat and Tangled tree.  The buttons are all cut out of foil (which are hard to see in the photo) and to add some interest I used the SSS stitched rectangles.  The sentiment is from SSS.

Up next is a card I made for Muse.  Michele asked for cards with a layered 'thanks' like hers:

I pretty much copied her design with different colors.  I'm not crazy about it but here it is.

A die from MFT and a stencil from HA combined with Melon Berry cs and Abandoned Coral DI and it's done.

For the Tic Tac Toe Challenge I used the first row down - green, friendship, charm.  It was the charm that got me until I remembered this little pair of scissors from long ago.

The sentiment was computer generated before gluing on the quilt die from MFT in a variety of green papers.  I'm also going to send this to The Card Concept where green and patterns are featured.

Anytime you cut out something like this there are lots of pieces left over so here's a second helping.

This sentiment is also computer generated and I used one of the frames from an initial cut for the sashing.  I love making paper quilts almost as much as fabric ones. ;)

Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend.

LIM #207 and Inkspirational #74

I don't know it this is less enough for Less Is More (friends), or ombre' enough for Inkspirational but here it is anyway.

Stamp from Penny Black, embossed in Ranger Fine White, Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, 

Seedless Preserves, and Dusty Concord, with a few sequins thrown on for good measure.

I had only planned to have the watercolor part but a few drops got where they weren't supposed to be so I splattered the whole thing.  Don't you hate it when that happens?!

ETA: I meant to enter this at CASology, so thanks, Sarah, for the reminder.  I will also enter this in the Uniko challenge that Sandie recommended.  Their theme is love and friendship and it's a first time for me there.

Thanks for stopping by.  May all your craft mistakes be design innovations.