fore his 51st

Popping in with a CAS masculine birthday card for our neighbor. He's getting a gift of money from us since he wants to buy a golf bag. Whipped him up this card "fore" his bday.

White card base, a gray sentiment from PTI, a snippet of PP, die cut numbers from MFT and some Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean sponged through a STAMPlorations stencil on top of a circle mask.

BTW, that little golfer is from a set I got at a Marklin train store years ago when I made a canvas for DH. Thank goodness it dawned on me that I had some figures left over. Don't ask how long it took me to find them! Here's the canvas for your enjoyment. Ever sawed a golf ball in half? Tricky business, let me tell you!

And I figured the card was too fun to stuff into an envelope, so I sewed up an old cellophane package and tied it up with some raffia and a teeeee for the whole world to seeeee.

I'm playing at:
Mod Squad - Masculine Birthday
Stempelkueche - #36 Birthday Card
Challenge Up Your Life - #33 Color

Happy Sunday. Any handball fans out there? How about those #badboys eh?!?!?!

STAMPlorations inspiration #58 - mimo

You may have seen this post where I created a card based on a photo from the internet, making it my own ("mimo"). Well, I've decided to challenge myself to do that on my last STAMPlorations inspiration card of the month too.

So today I've taken this image, a surface design by Wendy Kendall and used it to inspire a card where I've paired the blooms from one of Shirley's sets with the butterflies from another. Ready?

Image Source: Wendy Kendall

Used a PP with the subtle pink, blue and yellow (Heidi Swapp) then stamped some blooms from Folk Flowers onto it. Gave their centers a wash of pink watercolor. Heat embossed the butterflies from Winged Things onto scraps of PP that mimicked the figures in the inspiration and fussy cut them.

Added the black lines from Artsy Border Maker to the upper left as a nod to the strings in the inspiration. My sentiment, stamped onto a scrap with a pink watercolor wash, is from Bloom Sketches.

Be sure to have a look at the inspiration cards at the STAMPlorations blog. Leave a comment on the post to be in the running for a GC too. Have a great Sunday.

I'm hooking up at:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Just Add Ink - #296 Just Add Nature

spotlight on CAS

I'm up on the STAMPlorations blog today with a super CAS card in the spotlight. I'll say no more than "Cracker Barrel."

Check it out.

STAMPlorations inspiration #57

More inspiration using STAMPlorations stamps again today. This card was created for this challenge at Rubber Dance.

Pretty easy. Some paint strokes in black and white embossed (from Celebrate Artsy) and then some sentiments from Big Greetings. Doctored the "hello" up with some hand-drawn polka dots and added some enamel dots and a felt heart. Below you can see the card without the felt heart. I think it added the cherry on the top!

Thanks for coming by today. Have a great day! And take a look at the other inspiration projects here.

oldie but goodie

Seems every year around Valentine's Day I pull out this stamp set from Kelly Panacci! Guess you could call it my "go-to". Love the mix of styles in it.

The last challenge (yep, I missed it) at Share Joy had this image which I also remember seeing last year somewhere. I think it's pretty cool. So I went with the LOVE word for Mod Squad - Love is in the Air and colors from ColourQ #325 and my card was born.

Multi-color-heat-embossed, see? After I stamped the large love sentiment tone-on-tone in the corner.

I'm also joining in at House of Cards "Embossing and/or Color". Thanks for stopping by.

hello, beautiful

OK, so no gorgeous guy has ever said (nor will ever say) that to me, but I bet if I sent this card to a friend it would make her feel pretty darn good.

I just love how it all came together.

I wanted to play along at the current challenge saying hello to the new DT over at Little Tangles. And in Mayuri's Crafty class I had just learned about smoooshing with Dylusions (I absolutely love all Dyan's yummy colors. Here I used Postbox, Sunshine and Bubblegum) on an acrylic block. So...

I smooshed a slew of backgrounds. Yes, it's addicting. But less fattening than chocolate. Chose this one and my SSS Summer Garden blooms to pair up. Stamped the pattern as symmetrical as I could and then added the heat embossed sentiment.

The best part? Well, besides those unsmooshed white edges that I now find totally energizing for the design, it's basically one layer!

I'm playing here:
Little Tangles - Hello

Happy Little Stampers - CASE the Designer
SSS Monday - Best Friends
Penny Black and More - One for the Girls

Happy Friday to all!

embossed girly lacy birthday cake

Cray, cray as Tenia would say. I've got a card for nine challenges! I think that's a first. Here she is.

Used my normal creme CS from Folia. Tapped some Frayed Burlap on a block and spritzed it. Smooshed the block onto the CS and got this strange, kinda two-toned blob of browny, pinky color. Don't know if that's a characteristic of Frayed Burlap or what?!? But it was actually perfect cuz it fit my design of creme, pink and kraft perfectly!

I wanted to incorporate the wonky cake from STAMPlorations so decided to heat emboss it onto vellum for a girly feel. Stamped a couple lacy images in pink and brown from an older Viva Decor set. Two-tone heat embossed my sentiment from Party Time and gold heat embossed some splatters I created by first splattering with a glue/water mixture. Added some gold embossing to the bottom edge to match.

Created a funky bow out of lace scrap and gold thread for up top near the stitching and added a PTI heart border snippet too.

I was inspired by all of these challenges:
Addicted to CAS - CAKE

The Challenge #57

House of Cards - Color or Embossing
Happy Little Stampers - Smooshing (although not sure my card fits the bill of clean and simple)

Penny Black and More - One for the Girls
Curtain Call - Girly

Stempelküche - Birthday

Stamp, Ink; Paper - #31 Birthday
Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes

Whew! Thanks for stopping by today.

STAMPlorations inspiration #56

It's STAMPlorations inspiration time today. I'm actually sharing my card a day early cuz I made it inspired by two challenges that are closing soon. But check the STAMPlorations blog tomorrow for my teamies' creations.

I used Becca's Reindeer Games set.

First let me share my inspiration. See where I got the warm white, brown and red and snow?

The Card Concept #46 - I think my card is Clean and Layered or Clean and Graphic.

 Pinspirational Challenge #156

AAA Cards #56

I pencilled in where the Amy Tangerine Polaroid frame would be, masked it and applied shimmer embossing paste through SSS Falling Snow stencil. When it dried I stamped the deer and colored his hat. Adhered the woodgrain frame with a heat embossed sentiment on it and filled the little heart hole with a red heart. I just love the shimmery snow!

Please visit the STAMPlorations blog to see the DT's colorful creations. Remember, we've changed things a bit and will be posting every Tuesday. If you leave a comment on the Tuesday post on the STAMPlorations blog, you're in the running for a monthly random draw for a $10 gift certificate.

so the planets aligned

I don't really have a system for following challenges. Or to be more exact, for getting cards created on time to take part in challenges. But I had just pinned this photo which I love and immediately thought of some stamp sets that I wanted to use to create a card with it and lo and behold, I went and did it and there are even a bunch of challenges I can play in with it too. Thanks, planets!

Image Source

So I pulled out a few Aha Arts sets that I have from Ashley G, and just let myself be inspired by the elements, style and colors of the photo.

Used some Hero Arts shadow inks and yellow and mint pigment inks from Avery Elle. Started with the chica and the birdie and went from there. Did some masking. Did some stamp kissing on the "m" (personalizing this for DD). Die cut a cloud opening and a sentiment.

Ha! Just realized I was going for a one-layer card for a couple challenges and I'm not sure that my card counts cuz of the sentiment. (I was actually trying to die cut tulle, backing it with a piece of scrap paper - the tulle fell apart but the scrap paper looked cool so I stitched it on instead!)

Joining these challenges:
A Blog Named Hero - OLC (that little birdie is from an ancient HA set too)
Craft Stamper, Take it Make it - January
Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes
One Layer Simplicity - Sky's the Limit (which I tried to portray with the die cut cloud)
CASology - Open (thus the die cut cloud)

Have a great Sunday. You've still got time to check out the STAMPlorations new release hop. And to CASE Laura B. over at the CASEplorations challenge!

new. beginnings.

I've a reminder card for you today for The Mixed Media Card Challenge. I've got a wedding card, but I skipped the optional sequins. I've got enough going on on my card without 'em ;)

This card was a result of me and my new Color Bursts trying to get to know each other. I dry embossed watercolor CS, poofed some blue and green CB onto it, spritzed it with water and panicked. But after some tipping, dabbing and patience, I was pretty happy with this cool BG panel. And after sopping up leftover color, got five tags outta the deal too!

Grungy stamped some hearts, die cut a heart from old tulle and added a nest of wispy gold thread. I heat embossed "celebrate" from Winnie and Walter Big and Bold Extras onto a snippet of black CS and die cut "love" from Amy Tangerine from black CS and white fun foam. Adhered them together and topped it with Glossy Accents.

Even adhered the "love" with dimensional adhesive. And cuz it's so yummy, here's another shot of that texture and shine!

I'm really pleased with this result. Just have to get a better relationship going with those poofy Color Bursts. Anyone know of good videos for me to watch?

I'm playing at:
Stamps and Stencils - Oh So Blue
Addicted to Stamps and More #176 - Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Crafters - Something old (tulle), Something new (Color Bursts)
Anything but Cute #9 - Bring in the New (Color Bursts)

Thanks for visiting.

STAMPlorations release week hop

The STAMPlorations girls are hopping to share a great new release with you today. The bundle is 20% off, singles 10% for a short time - details here. Lots to see so I won't keep you long.

First up, Shirley's Winged Things, perfect accompaniment to her Folk Flowers. But I used other flowers today! The ones from my go-to Happy Flowers stencil. And a sentiment from Dee's New Beginning.

Masked the area where the flowers would be, stamped the dragonflies, sponged purple Distress Inks through the stencil, spread white embossing paste, removed the stencil, let it dry and voila! The color seeps through the paste to tint it. Lovely, isn't it?

Next up is Becca's hilarious new set, Reindeer Games. Lest you be saying to yourself, "but Christmas is over"... it's great for Valentines too.

My card was inspired by the sentiment. I wanted to streeeeeetch my design so went for two deer, an altered sentiment ("we" instead of "I") and a garland of hearts. I used Soft Stone CS and distressed white textured CS for the Polaroid frames. Wood grain CS backs my sentiment sign and wood grain washi lines the bottom of the card. Cuz I'm playing here:

Pinspirational Challenge #156

The Card Concept #46 - I think my card is Clean and Graphic.

Things get a bit more serious with the next set from Deepti, New Beginning. This set makes me think of sympathy or comfort cards. I made a tall, skinny card of hope.

I created my BG with Distress markers on watercolor paper (a la Kristina W.) then heat embossed the image onto vellum which I stitched onto the panel. Mounted it on a blue cardbase and added a sentiment from True North.

Last up is a versatile sentiment set from Shery, Big Greetings. I was tickled when I stumbled across a piece of PP that inspired a design using this set.

Go bold or go home, ya know? The card made itself thanks to American Crafts and my sewing machine!

So hope you have a few minutes to go hopping this weekend. The whole lineup (and list of prizes) is here if you want to start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start ;) 

a rerun in green. green?

Green, as I may have mentioned before, is not my favorite color. It's great for Kermit. And the plants and trees in my garden. But not my cards.

So when Colour Q went and did this, I figured it would be a good challenge for me.

And I paired it with Winnie and Walter's rerun of a stamp set I don't have, but I improvised. And drew inspiration from this card of Lydia's.

I pulled out WW True and silver heat embossed a couple borders in a nod to the rows of garlands on Lydia's card. Then I colored in a few triangles with Distress and Zig markers in Colour Q colors. Stamped and partially heat embossed a sentiment.

Sponged Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn, Shabby Shutters and Broken China onto Neenah CS and die cut WW Friend from it and from white CS. Adhered it offset a la Lydia (this is actually what originally caught my eye on Lydia's card!).

Added a vellum die cut branch and voila!

I chose this word die cuz I want to play at Mod Squad where it's about "Friendship". And the inking from green to blue qualifies my card for the "Ombre" challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

Happy Friday! If we're lucky we might be seeing our first snow of the season this weekend...

butterfly, my butterfly

I was truly inspired by the colors in the inspiration photo at The Challenge #56. And it was high time to get a card made for MIL's 80th! Meet my card.

I also wanted to play at City Crafter Challenge where the theme's "Butterfly, my Butterfly". Lots of beautiful inspiration there, BTW.

This was an experiment with Color Bursts. Cuz I stumbled across this video where Sandy Allnock  creates the most amazing painting with Brushos. When I grow up, I want to be an artist like her! Anyhoo, she inspired me to pull out my Color Bursts and this card happened. Why all that yellow is in there when I used orange... don't know. Why the blue got nice and smooth and the orange stayed blotchy... don't know - "... and miles to go before I sleep."

I inked STAMPlorations Happy Sunflower with Mermain Lagoon Distress Ink, spritzed it a few times and then stamped it on my watercolor paper when the Color Bursts had dried. I like how it adds depth to the design and creates a visual triangle with the Color Burst splotches.

The butterflies, die cut from vellum and white CS using Clearly Besotted Butterfly Wishes, were stitched down the middle, the wispy threads becoming their antennae.

The PTI sentiment was heat embossed onto a navy CS banner and the golden "80" from MFT High Rise Numbers were added to the flower center. Voila!