pti november blog hop

It's the 25th of the month and it's time.

This month it's all about snow so this is what I did. I must tell you, I spent awhile at Tracey M.'s today, perusing all the tags she and her guests have made for her series 25 Tags of Christmas. My tag is a morph of several beauties I saw over there.

Used the Snowflake Flurries from PTI heat embossed with glitter powder to give the ornament some pep. Die cut a window to create a shaker which I filled with a medley of glittery sequins and backed with some PP.  Created an ornament topper with silver glitter CS and added fuzzy silver thread through a punched hole on the back layer to hang it with.

TIP: Instead of messing with foam adhesive, die cut a "frame" from craft foam and use that between your layers. See the shadow of mine? It's red foam. I use Matte Medium to glue it all together.

A close-up of all that sparkly embossing. I'm joining the ladies at Festive Friday for challenge #45. And Fusion for Sparkly Christmas. Yep! And lastly, Uniko Studio where it's Anything Goes.

Happy hopping. Happy turkey eating. And may you have snow only if you're not travelling this weekend!

joyful and blue

Ready for more fun with STAMPlorations Joyful set? Due to its sketchy-ness it lends itself really well to artsy cards, but the designs are tame enough for traditional cards too. I am not the coloring type, but my teamies have done some great work with the sleigh image. You can check out their Spotlight projects over on the blog.

I worked with the sleigh and the gift images and here's a peek of what I came up with.  I'm over on the STAMPlorations blog today with these two.

One more project coming at you here tomorrow and then next week it'll be all about the new release. Thanks for watching!

exploration STAMPlorations sketched: daisy (Fusion, Sprinkle of Imagination, Time Out, SSS)

Have you seen the inspiration photo from A Sprinkle of Imagination?

"Ox blood red, regal purple, zest of lime" - reminds me of the colors I saw in the vineyards while harvesting Pinot Gris (on flat ground today, I'm happy to report). And to be truthful, the black and white were there too. In the form of mould that has to be snipped away from the good grapes before dropping them into the bucket. Eight people, eight hours, rain and shine. And even local TV. I'm pooped. But I've got a coolio card to share with you. And a story of how my cabeza works.

"Zest of lime". Made me think of Dylusions ink. And I was wondering how to create stems to turn the daisies into gerbera. Enter my SSS Wave stencil and clear texture paste, colored with a couple spritzers of ink.

I had heat embossed, watercolored and fussy cut the blooms. It was just a matter of bringing the blooms and stems together. Somehow.

Enter the current Fusion #25 challenge.

I'm gonna be daring and say I've fused photo and sketch!

Knew I wanted to use another of the cute sentiments from the Bloom Sketches: Daisy 1 on a die cut butterfly (from Clearly Besotted) but the finishing touch came about when I stamped a portion of the tail from PTI's  Happy Trails in red. Thanks for the idea, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

And I'm playing with some great gals over at Time Out #15 where it's about stamping this time around.

Come back next Monday when the new STAMPlorations sketch goes live to see more purple and lime and another twist on these daisies.

Stop by tomorrow for more daisy action and the last day of my Exploration of the September STAMPlorations release. Remember, I will be drawing a winner (from all comments left on my Exploration posts this week) who will get one of the sets I've used.

Supplies :

Paper:  CS Bringmann, watercolor

Stamps: STAMPlorations, PTI

Ink :  Versafine, Hero Arts, Versamark

Tools: butterfly die Clearly Besotted, stencil SSS

Other:  white embossing powder. watercolors, texture paste

10 to go (Fusion, CTS)

I was psyched that Kelly G. last week chose my pink, orange and yellow invite  as her winner at Fusion. I'm revving up the Party Time die again this week for two invites that were inspired by the current Fusion/(CAS)E this Sketch challenge. I "fused" the photo and sketch again.

Deepti M. (DT) made the sweetest card, which inspired me to go watercolor instead of literal with the banner element on the sketch. Actually added some stitching here too.

On this one I opted to go with the butterfly, which, keeping to the natural feel, led to the Poppystamps sprig in lieu of the stitching. (My newest die and may I say I'm infatuated - see, Donna M., I really own dies other than Party Time ;)) I actually like this card better (there's something about negative die cuts that gets me every time ;))

Hooking up to (CAS)E this Sketch #81 too. Thanks for stopping by. Are you watching the World Cup? Germany is up today. Wish us luck! Of course on Monday I'll be rooting for the USA too!

Supplies:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, vellum, old book

Stamps:  

Ink : 

Tools: die Dieversions, sprig Poppystamps, punch Martha Stewart

Other: watercolors, sequins

you know you're a cardmaker when... (Fusion)

I was actually going to use the term "card artist" in the post title, but thought that might be stretching it. What am I talking about? This. You create an inked strip of CS to die cut something from.

And you can barely bring yourself to cut into the strip cuz it's so darn gorgeous as is. Ever have one of those moments?

Well, I forced myself to make the first cut. And this is what happened.

And you can probably guess what the next card is gonna look like...

All that inked color gorgeousness going on... couldn't not use the negative pieces! I was completely and totally inspired by the current challenge at Fusion. I actually combined the sketch and photo.

Ever have one of those I-know-I-am-truly-a-card-artist-when moments? I'd love to hear about it...

first time fusin' (Fusion, Moxie Fab, Amusing)

First off, green and purple go together.  The proof is in... my front yard.  (Darnell K., notice the dandelions... so much for your theory!)  BTW, this is what I see when I gander out the window as I'm sitting on the floor photographing my cards perched on a dining room chair.  And the sun even came back today - YIPPIE.  Well, not so yippie for photographing cards...

It took awhile but I've finally taken the Fusion Card Challenge.  Another challenge idea from Jackie R.  This time it's to see whether a sketch or an inspiration OR the combo of both is the most popular among cardmakers.

My concoction went about 85% sketch, 15% inspiration photo.  Must admit I added my own constraints since this is to be a thank you card for DD to send to Oma and Oma knows what DD's confirmation card looked like. Now you do too...

Sooo... keeping it themed...

I stamped and watercolored some more of these blooms and die cut a circle.  I heat embossed the sentiment, applied a couple brush strokes over it and ironed off the embossing when it was dry for a cool batik look.  The little heart embellie evolved after a peek into my purple scrap drawer!

Playing in the Wonder of Watercolor challenge at Moxie Fab.  Again. (Blushing).  And it's Anything Goes at Amusing Challenge.

Supplies vielen dank:

Paper: cream CS Bringmann, watercolor paper Herlitz

Stamps: Scenic Route,  sentiment Mia's Stempelküche

Ink : Memento, watercolors, Versamark

Tools: water brush, iron & scrap paper

Other: clear embossing powder, fiber, heart sequin