trends of 2015 at paper crafter's

There's a cool retrospect on the trends of 2015 over at Paper Crafter's Library. Have you seen it? Foiling? Messy watercolor? What was your favorite trend?

I'm so excited to be in the lineup too. Hope your "holidays" were/will be wonderful and see you next year, friends!

happy new year shaker wine bottle tag

This is the last MMCC for 2015, with a theme of "Celebration" and an optional element of "Vellum". And since it may likely be my last post for 2015, I'm taking the opportunity to wish all of you a wonderful holiday. And only the best for 2016!

I thought a wine bottle tag shaker would fit the holiday celebration quite nicely!

In addition to stamped stars and smooshed ink, I've got

TEXTURE - textured CS for my frame from Lil Inker Stitched Rectangles, vellum
DIMENSION - multiple layers, shaker, dangling numbers
TECHNIQUE - ink smooshing, shaker

See that sparkle and shine from the sequins? Definitely celebratory IMO.  It's a party on a card, tag. Join us with a mixed media card for MMCC #18 won't you?

I was inspired by:

Freshly Made Sketches #217

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Die Crazy and

Happy Little Stampers December - Star

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

spotlight on bokeh using stencils

Having springlike weather where you're at too? I created a bright card featuring a rabble of bokeh butterflies using a stencil. Check out my Spotlight post over at STAMPlorations for the deets.

coffee? tea? cocoa?

It's that time of year. And I'm not talking about Christmas. (Not today at least, although I'm in the kitchen finishing up my Christmas cookie baking...)

It's Winter/Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop time! Probably the biggest event of the year in a blogland overflowing with coffee aficionados, so I won't keep you long. Go check out all the fantastic inspiration!

Some PP (Heidi Swapp). Some die cutting (Papertrey). Some dry embossing (Nellie Snellen) and heat embossing (Papertrey). Some felt embellishing (Papertrey). Yep.

And largely inspired by this lovely photo from House of Cards - End of Term Blog Hop

and Papertrey Make it Monday - #234 Embellish with Felt

day 4 ARTplorations stencil hop

Welcome to our week of fun with ARTplorations stencils from STAMPlorations!

I've got a CAS card for you today. Once again I've used a non-Christmas stencil to create a Christmas card.

I stamped the stuck Santa from Santa is Here on my cardbase.

I used Bubbles and Mowed Lawn and Festive Berries Distress Inks and sponged the colors onto white CS. Then I shifted the stencil slightly and sponged on Delicata gold pigment ink. Die cut the speech bubble (Avery Elle) from that and added a heat embossed sentiment from Santa is Here.

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects, a flash stencil project linky and the blog hop deets here. Thanks for visiting!

I'm going here with my card:
Time Out #46 cuz I've got the Christmas colors and bauble shapes going on

SSS Monday Challenge - Holly Jolly Stamping and Work it Wednesday November!

and AEIheartU challenge # 31

STAMPlorations inspiration #51

You may recall how I was totally inspired by an image at Pinterest Inspired Challenge a while back?

Well it moved me to create a third card using STAMPlorations stamps and I bet it's pretty obvious which set I chose... Party Girl from Shirley.

I decided if she was to wear a striped party dress, then it should by all means be satin. So I gave it a shot of Wink of Stella after drawing the stripes and Copic coloring them.

And since I had the sparkle and shine thing going on, sequins were in order. Literally let them fall onto the card and glued them down.

The sentiment is from Noteworthy. Thanks for visiting. You can check out my teamies' cards here.

I'm hooking up at:
Copic Marker Europe Challenge -  #46 Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More - #174 CAS
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with a Stamp

day 2 ARTplorations stencil hop

Welcome to our week of fun with ARTplorations stencils from STAMPlorations!

I had my fun with the Flutterby stencil and some Dylusions spray inks in definitely-not-Christmas-colors and water. I was going for a light and airy feel. (This card actually has a twin, bold and beautiful,  and you can learn more about it in this Spotlight post.)

To soften the inks, when I removed the stencil I sprayed the panel with a Perfect Pearls water mixture. See the sparkle? It's such a subtle but wonderful addition.

As for the vellum. Honest? In keeping things simple, I had black heat embossed the sentiment from Noteworthy diretly onto the panel, but wasn't sure I had the "light and airy" feel anymore. So I white heat embossed it onto vellum, ripped the edge and wrapped it around the panel before adhering the panel to my tall card.

I purposely offset the sentiment a little bit so that it has a shadow. See?

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects, a flash stencil project linky and the blog hop deets here. Thanks for visiting!

twin cards in the Spotlight

Check out these two cards (plus more) created in one session with one inking of one stencil...

day 1 ARTplorations stencil hop

Welcome to our week of fun with ARTplorations stencils from STAMPlorations!

I've got a fully-loaded Christmas card for you. Ready?

Took my Just Squares stencil and stamped a lacy BG stamp onto it, flipped it over and "stamped" it onto my CS panel, hoping it would add interest to the white areas between the squares I was going to color. Epic fail. I'm callin' it selective splatter. You're probably thinking "looks like little specks of dirt on her card!"

Taped down the stencil and sponged silver and gold Delicata pigment ink randomly. Added a few squares of silver and gold embossing paste for texture and since you can't have too much shine on a holiday card, right?

I'm diggin' the plaid that seems to be gaining popularity these days. Found a PP in an old October Afternoon pad and die cut a label. Die cut the poinsettias and created the flowers. Die cut the sentiment and heart from glitter CS. (I predicted gold and silver together as a trend for 2015. I better use it before the year runs out!) Added some bunched-up gold thread and a heat embossed sentiment from Sentiment Builders: Christmas and New Year and voila!

Take a look at your stencils and see if you can use a non-Christmas one to make a Christmas card!

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects, a flash stencil project linky and the blog hop deets here. Thanks for visiting!

I'm taking my Christmas card to the "Gold" challenge at ARTastic, inspired by the shine in this piece;

to Simon Says Work it Wednesday for November 2015;

and Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge where it's Anything Goes.

everyday hero(ine)

Another quick post today with another card inspired by the Pinterest Inspired Challenge.This image totally caught my attention. The colors are not "mine" although they work fabulously together in the image. I am not a fashionista, so it can't be that. I think it may be the doodling on the skirt...

Must have been the doodling, cuz Dylusions Strength came to my mind.

Added circles of Festive Berries Mermaid Lagoon and Old Paper (Distress), Candy Cane Lemon Drop and Sugar Rush  (Jenny Bowlin), which I spritzed with water before stamping. And a sentiment from Inky Stamps reading "everyday heroine".

I'm hooking up at Happy Little Stampers where it's about your favorite technique. I've so many, but this time I worked with the wonderful properties of Distress inks and water.

And check this out. DD's latest cake pop project posing in front of the most beautiful winter sky. The sky is courtesy of the first Christmas card to arrive in our mailbox, from none other than the uber-talented Loll of Stamping with Loll!

how old?

Quick post today with a card inspired by the Pinterest Inspired Challenge. Don't know exactly why, but this image totally caught my attention. The colors are not "mine" although they work fabulously together in the image. I am not a fashionista, so it can't be that. Maybe there's something about her pose... Maybe it's the doodling on the skirt...

This older stamp came to mind. Gooseneck from Stampotique. Cool, isn't she?

And thanks to Klartext Kartengruß I've got a cheeky sentiment to match. "How old?" she asks disbelievingly ;)

I had such fun coloring her stockings and shoes with Copics. Gave her crystal blue eyes too. She needed something to stand on, so a strip of washi from MME Nob Hill joined my card.

I'm going over to Seize the Birthday with this card. No toppings included.

And squeaking in at AAA Cards.

And Retro Rubber

Thanks for looking. Enjoy the weekend. DH and I are in Hamburg this weekend. It's all about baking Christmas cookies for me when we get home... But there's another card for you tomorrow. Same inspiration!

masculine card inspiration anyone?

Cre8tive Cindy (how cool is that blog name?!?) is kindly featuring one of my cards in her regular Monday feature where she spotlights masculine cards from around blogland.

You can check them out in this post. I really like Mr. Fix-It!

splatters and blues and glitter, oh my!

So happy I got to join the Make it Monday fun at Papertrey. Danielle F. is splattering this week and I can't miss that. I missed the November blog hop, but its colors were my inspiration for this card along with the inspiration photo from Fusion.

And since I'm in the glitter mode, had to incorporate some glitter CS and even glitter glue splatters!

On white CS I stamped a wreath around a traced circle using Waltzingmouse Around Christmastime. Then I added the berries in various shades of blue pigment ink and gave them a little shot of clear embossing powder.

I used pigment inks with the exception of the darkest green - Adirondack Bottle. I used this, watered down, to make my splatters all over the panel.

Die cut my sentiment from glitter CS, stacked it and adhered. Stamped my secondary sentiment from Papertrey Take Three: Fall. Adhered the panel to a cardbase with foam adhesive and voila!

I'm joining these challenges:

Fusion - Blue Christmas

The Challenge - A non-Traditional Christmas Card

Christmas Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting. Have a great week!

yes, virginia it is a glitter beard

If you are looking for my mixed media card for MMCC, click here.
If you are looking for my CASEplorations post, click here.

If you are looking for my RIC#97 Guest Designer post, please click here.

It's kind of a crazy day (this is my fourth post for the day), but TODAY the first thing on my list was to make a card for Virginia's View Challenge #21.  Unfortunately, it's going to be the last challenge for, a while. For, ever? Virginia has decided she's going to take a break and I want to make sure she has a fantastic last hurrah! She's been so inspiring this past year. And always on top of the trends.

And I felt compelled (yep) to make an unconventional card. Did you catch this a couple days ago? People, this was trending on Instagram!!!  Wait, is it Dec 1st or April Fool's?!?!?



Anyhoo (OMG... "morningwood")... anyhoo, meet my glitter beard.

Well, not really MY beard (although in the whole cray cray realm of this trend I hear the ladies are glittering their armpit hair - what?!?!?! - now too). OK, I'm done, I promise.

Just one more shot of Mr Glitter Beard Santa up close.

Since you may never visit me again (doesn't that guy on the left look like Ellen DeGeneres???), before you go let me tell you how I made this.

I grabbed the Sunday Stamps sketch #114, Waltzingmouse Around Christmastime stamp set and my gold glitter glue and glitter. Stamped the image in black and heat embossed it clear. Copic colored the hat and went to town glittering Santa's beard, first with the glitter glue and then I dumped on the loose glitter. A la The Gay Beards.

A panel of Pink Paislee Luxe PP, which is so cool cuz it's also shiny like the heat embossed area, and a strip of red GLITTER CS later, I was done! Join the fun at Virginia's, won't you? I'm off to hook up at:

The Challenge - A non-Traditional Card

AAA Card Challenge - Anything Goes

 Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes

 SSS Monday Challenge - Gentlemen