starry winter wonders

It's an oldie, but a goodie the Autumn Leaves Winter Wonders stamp set.

Took some watercolor paper, smooshed Distress Inks in Shaded Lilac and Evergreen Bough onto my craft sheet, spritzed with Perfect Pearls water and created my background piece.

Heat embossed the wonderful sentiment and hung a strip of sheer ribbon on the panel before adhering it to my cardbase.

I'm entering these challenges:

Stempelkueche #29

AAA Cards #49 - Word Play

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - CAS Christmas (am I pushing it here?)

Not really ready for the holidays yet, but I guess they'll be here before I know it! Have a lovely day.

STAMPlorations inspiration #22

Take a kingfisher. Plop him on a Polaroid frame cut from printed vellum. Random stamp a BG and splatter. Add a heat embossed sentiment and washi and what do you get?

Here come the deets. Used Jenny Bowlin Robin's Egg for the BG. Stamped the bird from STAMPlorations The Bee's Knees Smallbirds multi-inked with Salty Ocean and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks. Watercolored and fussy cut. The frame is Amy Tangerine. The embossing powder is WOW!. The vellum is age old from Aldi, just happy I remembered I had it!

Feeling inspired? Why not CASE this and hook up at the June Inspiration CASE Playground over at STAMPlorations? Check out the other inspiration from me teamies while you're there.

Do you get a summery vibe? Hope so cuz I'm entering WOW! Embossing Powder's Summer challenge.

And the Summer Colours challenge at Addicted to Stamps #106.

Also joining AAA Cards #41 with my birdie

Enjoy your weekend! Any of you in Germany know The Queen Kings (a Queen cover band)? They are amazing and a blast to see live. They're in town this weekend and they're gonna rock me!

simply create too 87

Ready for Father's Day? Over at Simply Create Too we are challenging you to make a Masculine project. Sounds like perfect timing to me!

I have a retirement card for you however... completely PC-generated cuz I had this idea and it seemed the only way to make it happen.

Whaddya think?

I'm joining For the Guys over at AAA Cards #40

the Make it Masculine challenge at SSS Wednesday and a new-to-me challenge, Perfectly Rustics, where it's all about Letters or Symbols. I think my card fits the bill.

lotsa white

I'm still having fun with my Winnie and Walter goodies and playing in the iNSD challenges WW and Pinkfresh Studio are holding. Ready for lotsa white space?

My inspiration came from the lower right and upper left photos from the Mood Board challenge - light and airy white on white like the gown and a touch of yellow like the washi tape. This is actually going to the same sweet girl I made this canvas for.

I layered white embossing paste through a stencil sent to me by the lovely Loll to my cardbase. I layered In a Word Hugs, which was watercolor paper smooshed with Distress Inks and splattered with gold, onto three layers of yellow CS to achieve a glow behind it. Notice the sweet little butterfly perching on the "s"? From Essentials: Audrey.

Isn't that light and airy dimension wonderful? The roses and leaves are from Maggie's Roses.

Then there is this Card Sketch challenge. Hard not to go with circles, but I ended up using stars.

Notice the multifaceted star? Like Kelly G., I had perused the facets of the Multifaceted die cut for geometric shapes and found this wonky star! Even used some of the "fallout" to make my little stitched banner under the sentiment :)

The stripes behind the focal image were made with clear embossing paste through the SSS Diagonal Stripe stencil. The other stars were die cut with Sizzix Star framelits die from tissue paper and CS. My sentiment is composed of a stamp from The Big, The Bold and Extras and a word from ARTplorations Hello and Company.

Notice the hole in the turquoise star? I'm playing here.

 And I may be pushing the limits of CAS, but I'm hooking up at Happy Little Stampers.

Lots to do today. Hope the sunshine sticks around. Enjoy your day.

STAMPlorations inspiration #11

Did you use to get a new outfit for Easter every year? I didn't. But my BFF always did. Today's card reminds me of new Easter outfits.

Blogger has once again puked on the colors, but I used my neon pigment inks for this, stamping the various pairs of shoes on my cardbase. Then I heat embossed the smaller pump in white randomly too.

I stamped some polka dots onto the reverse of a piece of vellum. When it was dry I die cut the circle and heat embossed the sentiment in white. I used some glue dots hidden behind the polka dots to adhere the vellum to the card.

Thanks for looking. Have you CASEd a card for the Inspiration CASE Playground yet? Check it out here.

And mark your calendars. The April STAMPlorations release blog hop will be starting on April 20th. Lotsa inspiration and lotsa prizes.

I'm playing at WOW! Embossing Powder April Challenge

and squeaking in at AAA Card Challenge Game #36 too.

frohe ostern

Happy Easter Saturday to those of you celebrating! We are enjoying time with Oma as well as a few days at the North Sea.

I have two projects to share with you today.

The first is a project inspired by the opulent photo for the April Challenge at Altenew.

Ori Kami immediately came into my mind. And a piece of CS I had used to mop up some royal blue spray ink leftovers. This is what evolved.

I stamped the fish onto recycled acetate with StazOn and dripped orange and purple alcohol inks onto the reverse. Then I dripped one drop of yellow onto the orange and one drop of pink onto the purple and moved the acetate to make inks spread where I wanted them.

I inked the Super Script sentiment stamp with Versamark and blue pigment ink and stamped it before heat embossing it with white and clear powders for a two-tone sentiment. The secondary sentiment I stamped with Versafine. Added “kelp” and stitched the acetate to the panel before adhering it to the base.

Can you see how the fish kinda "swim" thanks to the acetate just being attached by that stitching up top? I love the depth this creates.

Cuz it's blue (I don't use blue often, do I?) I'm joining Tenia and Veronica's Light it up for Autism Awareness blog hop. I'm learning a lot about autism from those two ladies.

And my second project was for Oma's gift bag. This was also inspired by something laying around on my desk - an old baby wipe that had been used for clean up!

I used a glue stick to cover a manila tag and then laid the baby wipe down onto it and brayered it. Then I stamped this wonderful bunny from Joy Crafts. Added some Easter grass, a kraft die cut bloom behind the hole and some raffia.

Revisited a sentiment technique that I love but often forget - tiny alphas stitched onto a project. Like on this card. These alphas are old but loved product from KI Memories.

I am hooking the bunny up at

AAA Cards #36

Curtain Call Beginnings

Dazzling Diva #69

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with family. Thanks for stopping by.

bunny's bottom's cold...

... so he decided to plant it in a cozy nest up in a tree this Easter!

Don't know about in your neck of the woods, but my folks in MI woke up to four inches of the white stuff two days ago. We have wind and precipitation comin' at ya from all directions. And we are going to hit the North Sea coast for a couple days R&R where there will likely be sand mixed in the whipping wind.  So yep. Happy Spring!

Couldn't resist revisiting this card. Some Ellen Hutson woodgrain CS. A Memory Box branch. An Impression Obsession bunny colored with just a touch of pink. And an embroidery floss nest.

Makes me happy. Hope you have a blessed Easter!

So many sweet challenges out there.
Addicted to CAS #60

CASology

AAA Cards Game #36

Curtain Call - Beginnings

still not over... but embossed

Pretty monotonous here on my blog lately, eh? CAS and watercolored rainbow paper heaven. But monotonous. Today I've a couple cards that I took up a notch. Still CAS but not as extreme.

A wedding card. Absolutely inspired by the inspiration photo at Altenew's February challenge.

Pink, burgundy, glitter, gold, love theme, embossing. Got it all. I stamped the gorgeous blooms from Persian Motifs in gold. Partially embossed the top with Maggie Holmes Doily embossing folder. TIP: Put cardboard over the areas you do not want embossed before running your folder through your Big Shot. A strip of glitter CS and hand-stitched metallic gold thread up top finished the white panel.

Then I die cut "celebrate" from Essentials by Ellen Zipper Panel from my rainbow watercolored paper, using the purple to pink spectrum of the lighter version. Stacked it, inked the edges with a Distress marker and wink of Stella-ed it too. The secondary sentiment from Persian Motifs completed the sentiment.

And I even channeled my inner Joni A. and Jocelyn O. (notice the inked panel underneath and the lifted edges of the panel?!?!)

My second card is also love related. An anniversary card this time. 

Papertrey (Tipped Tops die) meets Technique Tuesday sentiment (Swanky Sentiments which BTW is a fabulous set for "go to" sentiments) meets a dry embossed Sizzix heart for a bit of interest in the background. "Happy" was also die cut from the lighter rainbow watercolored version and stacked before adhered. TIP: I use a skinny paintbrush and Matte Medium for stacking and adhering die cuts. It's still tedious work, but beats the days of adhering skinny strips of foam adhesive doesn't it?

I'm hooking up to these challenges:

Mod Squad - Use Water (I've used watercolors)
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - "H is for"
Happy Little Stampers February

Inkspirational #75

AAA Cards #32

CASual Fridays #136

1. TGIF. And happy weekend!

it ain't over...

... 'til the watercolored paper is used up.

Remember this post and these watercolored pieces.

Following the same card design and AAA Cards Challenge #32 I created this.

Decided to use the "love" to create a sympathy card this time. Die cut Amy Tangerine Associate "love" from my bolder watercolored paper. Selectively inked a sentiment from Altenew Ori Kami. And called it quits.

Next card was created with the current Lawnscaping challenge in mind.

I love the "be unique" sentiment from Clear to See. I just changed it up a bit, using my QuicKutz Monogram U die. TIP: If you try this design, stamp the sentiments before adhering the stacked die cuts so that your die cut doesn't interfere with your acrylic block.

I'm playing in the current Cards and More challenge #125 - Turquoise, Purple and Gray - with both cards.

Warning. The watercolored paper ain't used up yet...