A Season of ....

Hey there!  Got a card today for several challenges:  One Layer Wednesday, Stampin Sisters in Christ and Dolce Stamps & Cards. 

This week Susan (LateBlossom) is hosting One Layer Wednesday and she challenged us to check out the blog of Janelle and find something on her blog to use as inspiration for our card.  We could CASify one of her cards or find something on her blog to spark our creativity.  I decided to CASify one of Janelle's cards found here.   Now when I saw Susan's challenge I immediately thought how well it would work with this week's Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge to have the word "blessing" on your project.  To be honest if you want to be lifted up you really need to either check out Grace's devotional over at SSIC and/or just spend a bit of time reading Janelle's blog.  Both will inspire you! 

The card I chose from Janelle's blog was one she made recently and is a Thanksgiving card.   Obviously I went in the same direction by using leaves on my card, but in a one layer version.   How does my card fit the Dolce Stamps & Cards challenge?  Well, their challenge is to use the colors of a fall.  So I got out the following Stampin Up! colors Old Olive, So Saffron, Really Rust, More Mustard & Close to Cocoa and got to work.  I used the rock & roll technique to layer the colors.  The maple leaf stamp is from Hero Arts and the sentiment is from PTI.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Hero Arts & PTI; Inks:  Stampin Up!

Bundle of Love....

Hey there... here with a quick post of a card I made for the new challenge over at JayGee's Nook.  The challenge is to make a card based on the inspiration photo provided.    For my card I used the PTI set Bundle of Love and some really cute PTI patterned paper called Funky Town.   I really like the colors that are used in the Funky Town... kinda off beat and well... funky!    The other thing I like about the color combo is that it works well for a gender neutral baby card.

I stamped the stork and baby bundle images on white cardstock and then trimmed all of them out.  The piece were mounted on a piece of Aqua Mist cardstock that was diecut using the PTI notebook die.  I really like how it turned out... clean and simple.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white & aqua mist; PTI patterned paper; Ink:  SU! Old Olive & Marina Mist; SU! Hawaiian Shore double stitch ribbon; PTI notebook die

Just Sharin...

Hey there!! A very dreary day today in the Pacific Northwest!  The rains have come and fall is here!   Thought I would share some cards that I have made over the last month for the Splitcoaststampers color challenge.  At the end of August I got an email from the super talented Betty Wright asking me if I wanted to be a guest designer for the weekly color challenge and I immediately said "yes"!   It has been a lot of fun and I'm a bit sad that my time as a guest designer has come to an end. 

The first color combo I had to work with was rust, dark sage green and yellow.  For my card I decided to use a new Sizzix/BasicGrey die and embossing folder set that I picked up at Joann's one day.  The cardstock is from Close to My Heart.  I'm not a fan of CTMH's smooth cardstock, but I do like their textured cardstock as it is perfect to distress because it has a white core and the opposite side of the cardstock is a paler shade of the main color. 

The second combo was a peach, aqua and red one and a bit tricky for me.  I decided to keep the red to a minimum and focus more on the peach and aqua colros.  I used my Spellbinders Rose Creation dies to make a flower.    The leafy branches were made using a die from Taylored Expressions. 

The third combo was a orange, turquoise and olive green combo.   The card I made using this combo is my favorite of the bunch.  I decided to do some coloring with my Copic markers.   I used one of my most favorite Flourishes set:  Gerbera Daisies.... oh wait... all my Flourishes sets are favorites!! 

Last but not least is this week's color combo of aqua, cherry red and dark brown.  For this card I decided to use on of my favorite embossing techniques:  stamping on cardstock using VersaMark ink, applying clear embossing powder and heat setting.  This brings out the color of the cardstock beautifully.  I used a new background stamp from Stampin Up! called Hello, Doily.  The sentiment is from Penny Black.   I finished the card off with some little flowers I made using a Stampin Up! punch called Boho Blossoms. 

Boo!!

Hey there!!  Saturday and time for my regular Less is More post.  Last week Chrissie and Mandi set us on a challenge to reach 1000 submission and boy of boy did the LIMs rise to the challenge.  The last time I was able to look the count was up to 775 entries!!   Can you believe that??? Way to go ladies!!  This week Chrissie and Mandi have given us a sketch to base our cards on.  As I was taking a quick look at some of the entries this morning this one by Viv caught my eye.  After giving consideration to other ideas I decided to take Viv's basic idea and take it up a notch.  

For my card I used the Hero Arts set Frightful.  I stamped the tree image on my card base using black ink and then stamped it again on cream cardstock.  I placed a Spellbinders square die over the portion I wanted to diecut and cut it out.  I then inked up the image with Ranger Scattered Straw and Spiced Marmalade distress inks.  The little spider were added and then the square was mounted on the card base using foam dimensionals.  Clear Hero Arts gems were added to the bodies. 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI kraft & cream; Stamps:  Frightful; Ink:  PTI True Black; Gems:  Hero Arts

Turn Your Face.....

Hey there!  Friday at last!!  Looking forward to the weekend.  My card today is for the current challenge over at the Shabby Tea Room called "Vintage White".  Just look at that beautiful inspirational photo... who wouldn't love to curl up in front of that fireplace with a nice hot cup of coffee, tea or cocoa??   I'm really psyched to play along this week because this is my in real life friend Cindy's first outting at a "Shabby Girl"!!  Yep Cindy is on the Shabby Tea Room design team! YAY!!!  I can't tell you how excited I was for her when she was able to spill the beans about her dt position!!!    I'm also putting this card into this week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge to get "All Dolled Up".   And as I finished the card I realized it would work for this month's Bringing Back Beautiful challenge, too, which is to make a monochromatic card.

The cardbased is PTI's kraft and then the main panel is a premade cardstock piece that I recently got from Stampin Up! that I just trimmed down to fit the card front.  I stamped the small sunflower image from the Flourishes Sunflowers set on the piece using SU! Crumb Cake ink and then distressed the edges.  The sentiment, also from Sunflowers was stamped on Vintage Cream cardstock using the Crumb Cake ink and diecut using a Spellbinders Label 14 die.  The piece was distressed with Old Page distress ink and the Want2Scrap Nestabling added.   The patterned paper strip (also from Stampin Up!) was added along with some cream seam binding from SU!.  The flowers are Prima Fairytale roses.  The leaves were die cut using a Taylored Expressions die.

Times of Refreshing...

Hey there!! Wow... I think the last time I posted was Sunday!!  I have been busy, though, just most of it is posted over on Splitcoaststampers.

Anyway... have a card today for three challenges:  One Layer Wednesday, Stampin Sisters in Christ and ODBD Shining the Light.   The OLW challenge was use a sentiment as your focus or a sentiment/image as the focus... I went with the sentiment/image portion.  The SSIC challenge is to have something with wings on your card and to use a scripture.  Finally the ODBDSLC challenge is to use fall colors or theme... I went with fall colors. 

This simple one layer card took me a long time to make simply because I could not get the sentiment stamped correctly (ie... STRAIGHT!!).  I stamped the butterfly image from the ODBD set Faith on white cardstock using Tuxedo Black ink and then colored with the following Copics:  Y21, Y23, Y35, Y38, YR02, YR07, YR09, YG93, YG95, R89, RV99, E15 and E25.  The sentiment was also stamped using Tuxedo Black.  A few Hero Arts gems in a pretty orange were added and I was done.  Took awhile to get a decent picture as it is a dreary day today.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Ink;  Tuxedo Black; Stamps:  ODBD; Copic Markers

for you...

Hey there.... another dreary day in Washington state, but a good day to stay inside and make cards!  Have a card for a couple of challenges:  CR84FN (color combo) and CASE Study.   The muse this month at CASE Study is Julie Lacey who has an amazing clean style.  When I saw her card this week I just had to play along.

Because I just really loved the overall design of Julie's card I basically followed it to a "T" and changed just a few little elements.    All stamps are from WPlus9Design (Design Basics:  Backgrounds 1 & Woodgrain Silhouettes). 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white & hibiscus burst; Gina K black; Ink:  PTI True Black & Anciet Page Grey; Stamps:  WPlus9Design; Spellbinders circle and rectangle dies; Gems:  Hero Arts; Ribbon:  PTI hibiscus burst

Just a Note....

Hey there!! Its Saturday morning (and sadly a very dreary one here in the Pacific Northwest... fall is definitely on it's way) and time for a new Less is More challenge.   Less is More now has 1000 followers and to celebrate Chrissie and Mandi came up with the idea to try to reach 1000 entries for this weeks challenge and to make it easy on us the challenge this week is "anything goes".   When they announced this challenge earlier in the week my wheels got turning, but when I saw the new CAS-ual Fridays challenge that was posted I knew I had found the perfect companion to Less is More.  The challenge this week at CAS-ual Friday is to make a small card and then to let them know the size of your card.

For my card I finally inked up the super simple, but super elegant Gracious Vases set from PTI.  The minute I saw that set I knew I had to have it.  I stamped the vase and orchid image on PTI white cardstock with Tuxedo Black ink, colored them with my Copic markers and then added the sentiment.  The main piece was matted using PTI Royal Velvet cardstock and the card base is the new SU! "in color" Wisteria Wonder (just a side note... I always wonder how SU! comes up with the names for their colors because some of them are just way too funny!).   Finished card size is 4 x 4 square.  

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white & royal velvet; SU! Wisteria Wonder; Stamps:  PTI Gracious Vases; Ink:  Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers

Flourishes Friday...

Hey there!! Happy Friday!  Have two cards for two of the Flourishes release week challenges.  Once, again, Flourishes is releasing some absolutely amazing sets and if you haven't checked it out, you really should!  Love my Flourishes stamps!!

First up is a card for their sketch challenge.   For my card I used some of my favorite new patterned papers from My Minds Eye Lost & Found 2 - Blush collection.  Oh heck.. I should just be honest and admit that I LOVE all the papers from the Lost & Found 2 collection.  I was able to get my hands on the Blush, Breeze, Sunshine and Rosy collections (papers, buttons & pearl flourishes) through this neat little website called Flowers to Flourishes.  Each day they have a new deal on the latest papercrafting products... check'em out!  Okay... back to the card.  The image is from the Flourishes set Orchids.  I colored it up with some Copic markers (sorry I don't have the colors) and then trimmed it out.  In Blush collection there are a couple of sheets that have little labels printed on them.  I stamped the sentiment in one of them and trimmed it out.  The little ribbon banner finished it off.

Okay... now for the 2nd card (I will try to not be so long winded!).  This challenge is called Three's A Charm and we are required to use three layers on our card.  My layers are the card base, the middle cardstock mat and then the main panel.  Went super simple and stamped one of the fern images from the Ferns & Fiddleheads set using some Ranger Crushed Olive distress ink twice on paper from the MME Breeze 6x6 pad.  The sentiment was also stamped using the Crushed Olive.   Some distressing was done on the card, as well.

Thanks for taking a look...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Cream & Kraft; PP:  My Minds Eye Blush & Breeze; Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black; Ranger Crushed Olive; Pearls:  Basic Grey; Ribbon:  PTI; Copic markers

Pattern Pieces...

Hey there!!   Have a card for one of my favorite challenges (ColourQ) and a new challenge (Freshly Made Sketches).  First off, though, I have to say thank you to all of my sweet bloggy friends who left me the most lovely comments on my previous post!  Ladies you all rock and you have made me feel soo good!!! Smooches!!

Freshly Made Sketches is a brand new challenge blog started by Lesley from the Paper Players, another one of my favorite challenges.  I must admit that when I first checked out Freshly Made I was a bit puzzled by the concept to make a "clean" card.   But after having read their explanation here the idea makes much more sense to me now.   So here is my "clean" card using this week's sketch. 

When I saw the sketch I immediately thought of using my Stampin Up! Pattern Pieces stamp, as well as the SU! set Sew Suite.  As you can see from the card there is a whole lot a paper piecing going on and I won't bore you with the details.  I will say that in retrospect I think I should have stamped the Pattern Pieces image on the red patterned paper, but overall I'm pretty happy with the card.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SU! Basic Grey; SU! DP; Ink:  SU! Tempting Turquoise & Certain Celery, Hero Arts Punch; Stamps:  SU!; Spellbinders plain & scalloped circle dies

Love Each Other...

Hey there!!  Here with a card for two challenges:  Paper Players (color combo) and ODBD Shining the Light (using lacing on your card).   I also used Chupa's current sketch from her Sketchbook Saturday post. 

The color combo that Nance from Paper Players picked out this week is really gorgeous:  Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Basic Grey & White, but I'm not entirely pleased with my effort this go round.   To me there seems to be way too much white.   Actually to be honest right now I'm feeling singularly lacking in creativity and wondering what I'm doing all of this cardmaking for, ya know.   But... I just got some news that I'm not going to reveal until the appointed time that has me feeling a bit better about all this papercrafting craziness.  Anywhoo... I think the other reason I'm not entirely happy with my card is I learned along time a go that I'm not a "skinny ribbon" person.  I love my ribbon nice and wide, okay??  Unfortunately, in order to do the lacing I had to use skinny ribbon and then I was forced to make a bow using my Bow Easy to make a triple loop bow.   I say forced to use because I'm still not a huge fan of the Bow Easy... think I just need a little more practice with it.    All stamps are ODBD:  Scripture Col. 6 and Grow in Grace. 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SU! Rich Razzleberry; SU! DP; Stamps:  ODBD; Spellbinders Lacey Circles; SU! white ribbon; Ink:  Ancient Page Grey & SU! Old Olive; SU! grey cord button

Love you....

Happy Saturday!!  Time for another Less is More challenge.   This time Chrissie and Mandi are challenging us to use two of something, ie two images, two-step stamping, etc.   I puzzled about this one for a few hours and then started looking through my stamps to see what I could find.  Initially I almost went with one of my favorite Stampin Up! sets Fast & Fabulous with the idea to do some two-step stamping, but then I saw this cute little Taylored Expressions a la Carte' stamp of two whales that I got for free (love that!) a few months ago and decided to use it instead.

I stamped the image on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored it with Copic markers... boom I was done!    Super simple, but I think really cute.  


Supplies:  Cardstock:  White cardstock; Stamps:  Taylored Expression & PTI; Copic Markers 

Birthday Wishes....

Hey there!!  Wow... Friday already!  Time flies when the kids are back in school!!  hee hee!

Here with a card for the following challenges:   Flourishes, Paper Players (birthday) and ColourQ (color combo.  The challenge at Flourishes is to have water used in some way on your card (ie... image with water in it, watercoloring, etc.).   When I saw the color combo from ColourQ I thought it would be a good one to combine with the Flourishes challenge since one of the colors is called "Pool Party", a light, watery blue.  Now when I colored the vase I did get the blue a bit darker, but it is still in the ball park.   This is the first time I have actually colored an image to match a color combo.  I have always been a little scared of doing that, but now that I have tried it I'm ready to do it again!   The sentiment is from the Waltzingmouse Fancy Phrases set.   

I'm squeeking this one in for the Paper Players challenge as it ends in a few hours.  I love that challenge and so really wanted to make something to play along.  Thank goodness it is easy to turn a card into a birthday card by adding a sentiment!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SU! Lucky Limeade & Pool Party; PP:  SU! Rich Razzleberry dp; Stamps:  Flourishes Lenten Rose & Waltzingmouse Fancy Phrases; Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black & SU! Rich Razzleberry; Copic Markers:  BG000, BG01, V01, V12, YG03, YG06, YG23, Y11, C1 & C2
                                                   

Welcome Back OLW!!!

Wooohooo!! One Layer Wednesday is back, baby and this week Jennifer is challenging us to make a one layer baby card.    Until afew months ago I did not own a dedicated baby stamp set.   I had a few baby related stamps that came in sets containing other images, but no set completely baby related.  In fact I never really thought that I was good at making baby cards until I got three baby cards accepted for publication (they will be in the March, 2012 issue of CardMaker).  When that happened I decided to get a stamp set dedicated to babies and that set is PTI's Bundle of Love.   I also want to get PTI's Night, Night Moon, because is it just so darn cute!

Anyway... on to my very simple card.  I used two colors, teal and olive green.  I think that color combo could work for a boy or a girl.   The card was so quick to make, in fact, that I got it done before I took my big kid to school!!  Make sure you check out One Layer Wednesday.  To celebrate its return, Jennifer is having a fabby giveaway.  Some lucky player will win some awesome A Muse goodies!!

Oh and a quick "hello" and "thank you" to some new followers! 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Vintage Cream; Stamps:  PTI Bundle of Love; Ink:  SU! Taken with Teal & Old Olive

What's Black and White....

and read all over???  The new challenge at CAS-ual Fridays, that's what!  This week the challenge is to make a card that is black, white and red and based on a favorite book in honor of National Literacy Day (Sept. 8th).    I had a hard time deciding if I was going to do the challenge because my favorite genre of book is science fiction/fantasy and well most of the books I thought of just wouldn't have translated well into a card.    But then I started thinking about what kinds of stamps I had and then it hit me... the palm trees in the Hero Arts Lauderdale set look an awful lot like the truffula trees from the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax.  The Lorax is one of my favorite books to read to a child.  The story is basically about how natural resources (truffula trees) can be misused and ultimately destroyed, but there is a ray of hope at the end (see below).  Like most Dr. Seuss stories the way the story is written makes it an absolute joy to read out loud.

For the card I stamped the trees using dark red ink and then trimmed them out.  I cut a small rectangle of white cardstock and stamped the Hero Arts Friends Definition background on the piece with black ink.  This piece was matted with black cardstock.  I hunted around for the right sentiment and finally settled on the sentiment "its the little things" because at the end of the story the other main character in the story, the "Once-ler" gives a young boy the last seed (a little thing) from the last truffula tree in hopes that he will plant the seed and the truffula trees will regrow.  

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Gina K black; Ink:  PTI True Black, Stampin Up! Cherry Cobbler; Stamps:  Hero Arts

Silver Rose....

Hey there... happy Saturday!!  Time for another Less is More challenge.  This week Chrissie and Mandi are challenging us to use something metallic on our project.  So... as I sat here at the computer early this morning I pondered what I was going to do.  I have plenty of metallic supplies (paints, sprays, brads, etc), but nothing really jumped out at me as something I wanted to use.   Then I remembered that I had a partial sheet of flexible metal foil that I bought from Close to My Heart aloooong time ago (they no longer sell it).  I also remembered that I have some Spellbinders/Donna Salazar dies (Rose Creations and Carnation Creations) that I have NEVER used!   So I put the two together and made a silver rose using the Rose Creations dies. 

The layout is based on the current sketch from Clean & Simple.  I used some Waltzingmouse stamps (Victorian Frippery & Fancy Phrases) for the card.   In order to really get the full effect of the rose you might want to click on it to make it bigger. 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Gina K. black; SU! cherry cobbler; Stamps:  WMS; Ink:  PTI True Black; Dies:  Spellbinders Rose Creations dies;  metal foil

Goin' Rustic...

Hey there!! Wooohooo!! Its Friday and school started!!   I don't think my big kid is quite as happy about school starting as I am, but there you are!!

Have a rustic little card for two Moxie Fab challenges:  The current Tuesday Trigger challenge Nice & Neutral and the Vertical Sketch challenge.   When I saw the trigger I wasn't really sure I would give it a try, but then I saw the "Ways to Use It" challenge over at Splitcoaststampers and my idea started forming.  This week's Ways to Use It challenge asked us to use paint and I happened to have a bottle of DecoArt Creamy White paint that I had bought for another project that I never made.  I took most of my inspiration from the headboard of the bed and the blue-grey color of some of the pillows. 

I embossed kraft cardstock with a ProvoCraft embossing folder called Forest Branches and then light brushed the piece with the paint.  My husband had recently trimmed back our lavender plants and left some pieces behind after cleaning up.  I grabbed a few and made my little bundle with a bit of cream twine.  The little twig is from one of our hydrangeas.  In keeping with the banner in the inspiration photo that says "love" I used the sentiment "Amour" from the Hero Arts set Paris. 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Soft Stone & Kraft; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Ink: PTI True Black; Paint:  DecoArt Creamy White; ProvoCraft Embossing folder; SU! punch