guest designing at time out #156 - reminder

Popping in today to remind you about the photo inspiration challenge over at Time Out . Lucky me, I get to guest design with the talented DT this fortnight. Here's the fabulous inspiration.

I just love how that fresh yellow pops off the aqua, especially with those touches of white. (BTW, you can see a larger version of the photo over at Time Out.)

This challenge is kindly being sponsored by Altenew. I can't help but think of florals when I think of Altenew. Agree? I headed to my stash (whistled... ;) inside joke for Darnell) and took a look at my florals. I discovered that I had some leftover blooms in with the die and wouldn't you know it, the colors fit the bill. They're the colors of those cute frames on the wall in the photo.

Altenew Rose Flurries 3D die

Amy Tangerine Love die

All I needed to do was adhere the blooms on the background, a piece from my BG stash made by cleaning up some metallic gelato-y messes awhile back. And then die cut a sentiment from lemon yellow CS to mimic the console.

Again, thanks to Sandie and the design team for having me. It's such fun to be part of the inspiration post for this month's photo challenge. Have you played yet? I'm looking foward to seeing your entries in the gallery.

I'm joining the fun at:
Die Cut Divas - Anything Goes
Love to Create - AG Mixed Media
SSS Wednesday Challenge - Something Feminine
The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes

spellbinders petal'd poetry - CAS for pinsights challenge

Back today with two CAS cards made with Petal'd Poetry etched die from the Good Vibes Only collection by Stephanie Low. Did you see yesterday's post?

Here is the die. Again I've used the flower with leaves (outline and shadow).

I was inspired by the current Pinsights Challenge at Ellen Hutson. (BTW, I used black on yesterday's creations because I hadn't read the fine print at EH to know that that top color is actually navy!)

So for today's cards I went with PP from my stash with a navy, pink and green color scheme, although I chose bolder colors since I was pairing the PP with lotsa white.

Spellbinders Petal'd Poetry Etched die

Essentials by Ellen Up the Happy stamp
American Crafts PP
Nuvo drops

I die cut the shadow from the white panel and backed the hole with polka dot PP. Die cut the intricate die from white and adhered it. Filled in the negative spaces with bits and pieces from one I'd cut from a bold floral print. And since portions of the die cuts were left over, it became a twofer.

 Spellbinders Petal'd Poetry Etched die

Hero Arts Everyday Occasion Messages stamp
American Crafts PP

Super easy. Just a bit time consuming to adhere all the tiny pieces ;) But isn't this a fun way to use intricate dies? Especially ones that have a shadow die too.

Starting tomorrow I'll be working with Heart like a Wildflower. Hope you'll come back. Thanks Team Spellbinders for this lovely die to create with.

trying to be escher-esque

Another pre-vacation creation for you today. This was to test drive a new die. And give Escher-esque a try. I love optical illusions, don't you?

Sizzix Diamond Cluster die

Amy Tangerine Associate die

recycled envelope liner

Know how in her blog posts Joan B. says "mood when finished..." Well on this baby I'd have to say "mood when creating: experiment friendly", "mood when finished: what the heck did I think I was doing?".

If I recall correctly, it all started with a green watercolored piece from this project. Then I sorted through my watercolored background stash for a contrasting piece. Now I know that solid color CS would have had a much better effect ;)

On these illusion thingies, the eye will go to the darkest first - thus you see the leaf green and recognize those as the tops of the stacked squares. And I wanted the two left rows of cubes to appear to be "facing right" - in other words I used the purple pieces to fill the right sides of the cubes since that was the next darkest color I had. Then I used the orange/reddish pieces to fill the left sides of the remaining rows of cubes. But the gradient nature of the non-green watercolored piece made this difficult to achieve! If you want to see what originally inspired me, check this out.

Since things were already pretty outta control, I went with some funky envelope liner for the background and then a plain white die cut sentiment. No idea who I'll ever send this to!!!!!

Thanks for looking though. You're a real trooper ;) I'm actually going to take this over to:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Texture
Die Cut Divas - Anything Goes

what a difference a die makes

I'm back with some cards I created with another panel of my distress oxide smooshing + glazing crafty play. See this post for more deets.

On this smoosh I used only pink and yellow ink. And glossy paper. I liked the result without the blue so put it aside. More glossy. Eh. To use as more backgrounds. Eh. Then I remembered these dies I had not used yet. Voila! I actually love the touch the glossy adds on these die cuts! They're just so darn cute.

 Sizzix Animal Portraits die

Papertrey Pretty Petals stamp

Sweet Stamp Shop Greetings freebie stamp

American Crafts Mayberry Flower Patch stamp

Distress Oxides - Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber

glossy photo paper

Have you tried DOs on glossy paper (with or without glaze)? What'd you think?

I'm joining in at:

Die Cut Divas - Monochrome

Daring Cardmakers - Getting to Know You (I love super CAS cards with a pop of color. And techniques too. Got both going on today.)
Dies R Us - Use Pastels

Happy Little Stampers - AG with Dies March

coloring and ellie

Nope. Not our pooch :) The ellie I colored a couple days ago for #thedailymarker30day challenge. Today he got a home on a card.

STAMPlorations Tweet Love stamp and die

STAMPlorations Love Words die

STAMPlorations Hearts stencil

Polaroid die

Polychromos

With a cheapie makeup brush I applied light layers of Distress Inks. Then I applied Hickory Smoke through the heart stencil (inspired by Birka R. who has a great video showing coloring with Zigs... which I will tackle after Polychromos). Adhered the Polaroid then the sentiments and finally the ellie popped up a bit. Love how it looks like he's blowing the "u" out his trunk!

I'm joining the fun at:

Paper Craft Crew - #276

Inspired by all the Little Things - #78 (I've got the soft colors and hearts)

Cuttlebug Mania - Valentine

Happy Little Stampers - AG with Dies

Let's Craft and Create - Love is in the Air

bold and graphic father's day

Did you see yesterday's card inspired by this photo? Bold. Graphic. Pink.

Well I combined that idea with the Winnie and Walter Rerun - Scenery Stripes to make a Father's Day card for my Dad. CASEd the oh-so-talented Keren B.'s card.

Keren's elements are all there - background stripes, frame, hugs, animal. Just in a slightly different format!

And still inspired by Card Concept #75 I used a cream cardbase with white embossed stripes like the blinds - which as an aside are like my Dad's blinds through which the deer peek in the winter! Thus the deer! The hot pink heart is a nod to the pink in the photo as is the washi with gold.

deer/sentiment stamp

frame die

line stamp

sentiment die

I'm playing at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday and at Bastel-Traum - where it's about the men and boys this week.

Hope you're having a great weekend! There's a Riesling Lounge planned for ours ;)

STAMPlorations inspiration #85

A couple days ago we celebrated Shery R.'s birthday over at STAMPlorations. Today I'm sharing the card I made for Shery with you. Mixed media and nearly one-layer, just for Shery.

In a nutshell... I inked and stencilled, used grainy texture paste that I "ombred" with reinkers and created my own sentiment. Here you can see the ombre a bit better, light at the top, darker at the bottom.

If you'd like to see how I made it, check my spotlight post over at the STAMPlorations blog tonight. Be sure to check out the creations from the Inspiration DT over here and don't forget to leave a comment too.

I'm sharing this card at:
Anything but Cute - Summertime Fun

More Mixed Media Challenge - Anything goes with Pastel colors option

spotlight on water bleaching

Call it what you want - water bleaching or ghosting - taking advantage of the amazing properties of Distress Inks by making them disappear by painting with water is just one more way to make cardmaking magic! Check out my tutorial over at STAMPlorations today.

STAMPlorations inspiration #77

I've a twofer fer ya today - one card for two posts! It's one of those kind of days ;)
Here's the card. And you can find more fabulous inspiration from the DT here.

I used the fantastic Born to Roam set and did some water bleaching. If you'd like to find out more about my card, check out my tutorial over at the STAMPlorations blog on my Spotlight post this evening ;)

I'm sharing my project at:
A Blog Named Hero - Tone on Tone
Cards and More - Use Lots of Color (I used LOTS of blue and gray)
Inspired by All the Little Things (finally playing along with that shabby blue look) - #16

The Challenge - Masculine (got that retro feel going on)

Appreciate your stopping by today!

pinterest inspired

The ladies over at Pinterest Inspired challenge always get my attention with their inspiration photos. Here is April's.

I was playing with white acrylic paint and had some left over, so I grabbed a square piece of foam and stamped it randomly onto a piece of watercolor CS. I had the watercolor style of the inspiration photo in mind.

Then with Winnie and Walter Eva's Flowers I created an artsy floral background by inking the solid stamps with two colors of Distress Inks (Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Spiced Marmelade, Mustard Seed) and spritzing them before stamping. I added a couple of the outline images in black for contrast and spritzed the entire panel with a Perfect Pearls mixture to soften all the edges when I was done. Oh and I watercolored the BG with Tumbled Glass too.

Here's the finished product. A sentiment from STAMPlorations Artful Flutters and some Amy Tangerine PP. I'm sharing this card at The Artistic Stamper where it's about All Things Distress (which I hope includes Distress Inks too!) and The Craft Stamper where it's about Flowers in April. And I'm hooking up at the w&w Join In to Win too.

Hope you likey! And hope your week will be a good one.

a set of cards for CTS

Well this latest sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch and the CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers to monoprint with a stencil totally moved me to action!

SEE:

GRAB:
Monoprints (spray inks and acrylic paints) that have been waiting to be used
Some PP from the Amy Tangerine Plus One collection
Lil Inker Stitched Rectangle dies
Sizzix Celebration Words thinlits
And the conviction to make a set of cards happen

MAKE:

I'm happy. Turned stash (prints, PP, NBUS die) into cards pretty quickly. And that ain't normal for moi ;)

Which do you like best? I'd love to know. Thanks for stopping by. Hope your day is as sunny as mine.

MMCC #22 reminder

Get your sunglasses ready! April may bring showers, but over at The Mixed Media Card Challenge it's all about SUNSHINE this month!

So how do you like my mixed media?

Stamps and ink. Check. STAMPlorations New Beginning and Versamark. And some navy sponged underneath the embossing pasted suns.

Technique. Check. Dry embossing PP on the upper panel. Watercoloring the embossed image. Embossing paste colored with acrylic paint through ARTplorations Clouds stencil.

Texture. Check. Dry and heat embossing as well as paste. Puffy stickers.

Dimension. Check. Dry embossing. Paste. Popped up focal image.

I grabbed American Crafts Shoreline PP pad to work with cuz it's so summery. Can you see the radiant rays on the upper portion, beneath the dry embossing?

Please join us at the MMCC with a SUNSHINE project before April 25th. And check out the rest of the DT projects for inspiration.

I chose my color scheme and sketch from the Share Joy #29 challenge. And I'm playing at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge too.

Have a wonderful day!

Mixed Media Card Challenge #20

Welcome to the month of LOVE! In blogland, for certain. In your neck of the woods, I hope.

It's time for a new challenge at the Mixed Media Card Challenge #20...

Red and hearts. Surprised aren't ya ;)

Here's my response to that.

I've got red and yellow inks smooshed onto a piece of CS. Then a heat embossed frame surrounding a stamped sentiment (PTI Heart Squared).  Added the panel onto some Amy Tangerine PP and topped it with washi tape. A few sequins add a bit of sparkle to the flow of the smooshed ink and voila!

Stamps, ink, technique, texture... got it all. CAS and messy, callin' it cassy again, I am!

Won't you join us at the MMCC this month? Remember mixed media is about stamps and ink and adding texture, dimension and technique! Even if you keep it CAS.

Joining the fun, I am:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More - #178 Holiday (considering this a non-traditional Valentine)

Uniko - Anything Goes with Love option

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.