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

Mixed Media Card Challenge #17

Have you seen the theme at the Mixed Media Card Challenge this month?

May I present my card. With a little explanation.

I am Kappa Kappa Gamma (sorority). My "little sister" from those days just celebrated her 50th and this card is for her. So I'm stretching the "family" theme a bit but I'm practical like that ;)

I started with a panel I had dry embossed with a selectively inked-up arrow embossing folder from The Paper Studio . That's what those touches of pink, green and blue are. And I was heading down the road, use-the-panel-as-my-card-front, which seems to be one of my go-to designs. But then I thought, "why not cut a portion out of it to use later on a CAS card and make a window in this card?". So I did.

I die cut the panel with Lil Inker Stitched Rectangles and die cut a square out of the panel. Pencilled where I wanted the window on my cardbase and die cut a square out of that too. And a frame out of pink CS to adhere to the inside of the card with the glittery "50" from MFT High Rise Alpha and my "it's your birthday" sentiment.

I added some subdued stamping in pink to my cardbase in the upper right and lower left corners using the text and number stamps from STAMPlorations Mixed Media Elements. Before adhering the dry embossed panel I gave it some more interest with embossing paste applied through a Pink Paislee Mask Doodles stencil. See the added texture on top of the dry embossing?

For more texture and dimension I head embossed "lil sis" on the die cut heart and added some light and dark blue sequins (Kappa colors!). This and a yummy German chocolate bar are on their way to "lil sis".

I'm hooking up at Seize the Birthday where it's Anything Goes and Mixed Media Monthly Challenge where it's all about Texture this month. And Jennifer McGuire's Kindness Campaign where this week is about Family and Friends.

CASEplorations march

It's the first of the month so time once again for a dose of CASEplorations from the STAMPlorations Inspiration DT. This month we have CASEd the one and only Loll Thompson of Stamping with Loll - a worker of wonders with stencils and white space. This is the gorgeous card of Loll's which we are CASEing.

source: Loll Thompson

Hang on to your hats. Here is my CASE.

Whaaaaaat? you ask. Well, take another look at Loll's card. It's got red, gold, green and white and black. It's got embossing paste. It's got circles and a gold die cut. It's got candles and leaves. So does my card :)

I stamped the cake from STAMPlorations Sketched: Birthday Cake in red. Watercolored some of the frosting red. Used a Sharpie to color the candles red and the flames yellow (plus gave them a Wink of Stella too). Die cut the wreath (Poppystamps Chocitlan Wreath) from gold CS and adhered it. Stamped the sentiment (PTI Keep it Simple: Birthday) and the wonky dots (Aha Arts Geometric Borders). Then I used an old Pink Paislee stencil and white embossing paste slightly overlapping the green dots.

I'm callin' it a CASE! Hope you agree. And I hope you will join us. CASE any DT card from the Inspiration posts during March and link it up on the CASEplorations Playground. You could be the random winner of a $15 GC!

happy WCMD and winners!

One day I hope maybe I will get together with other like-minded gals to make some cards on World Card Making Day. Last year I was oh-so-lucky to have a card chosen as a winner at Paper Crafts (the souls who breathed life into WCMD about ten years ago). This year I'm spending the day in the vineyards rather than in my craft room.

But I've got a card to share with you - one of the three that I actually sent in to the PC contest last year. Used one of the best (IMO) Christmas sentiment stamps out there and some PP.

Not certain if Virginia will agree... but I'm hooking up to her Virginia's View CAS challenge. The PP makes it seem busy, but it's really a very simple card.

Now, for the fun stuff. I've got two winners.

Jim, better known as Irish Cherokee. Come on down. DD picked #1 to be the winner of some goodies I promised in my Getting to Know Me post. The early bird gets the worm... ;) Oh and BTW, Kate of pinnedandpenned has her GTKM post up. Check it.

And Carol, better known as cm, you are the lucky winner of a STAMPlorations stamp set. DD went all mainstream on me and picked #27 which was the last comment!

I will be contacting you both.

Happy WCMD to you all. Let's hear it for "hugs with a fold." Go make some :)

Mixed Media Card Challenge #1

Oh the fun we're gonna have! Have you heard? There's a new monthly challenge in town, The Mixed Media Card Challenge (MMCC for lazy me) and our first challenge starts today. Woohoo.

Wondering what it's all about? Basically a card with ...

TEXTURE

DIMENSION

TECHNIQUES

Check out this link. Challenge owner, Shery R., has elaborated on what we are expecting of you.

I am thrilled to be a part of the design team cuz there is some amazing talent creating some amazing cards here. You must check it out - even those of you who don't like to get inky fingers (yep, I know you're out there ;))

Each month there will be a new challenge with a theme. And an additional element which is optional. So the theme of Challenge #1 is "A Touch of Nature" (optional element: tag). Which basically means create a card,  reflect nature (however you interpret that) and include a tag in some way if you'd like. And rememer ...  texture, dimension and techniques.

Here's what I made.

And here's what I did:

1. Stamped card base with triangle BG using gray, teal and purple. Just inked up the stamp randomly.
2. Stamped white CS panel with triangle BG in black.
3. Distressed panel with gray, teal and purple.
4. Stamped panel with coffee stain stamps using water.
5. Stamped panel with small leaves using gray, teal and purple. (should have taken a photo here)
6. Stamped black leaves on panel and onto card base.
7. Mixed embossing paste with black acrylic paint and applied through doodle and dots stencils.
8. Die cut tags from panel.
9. Paper-pieced tags onto card, a few with foam adhesive.
10. Stamped sentiment onto vellum, applied purple ink to reverse and stapled onto card.
11. Scrubbed inky fingers ;)

Texture? Yep, embossing paste, staples.
Dimension? Yep, sentiment on vellum, raised tags.
Techniques? Yep, distress inking, stamping with water, paper piecing.

Messy. But I'm still claiming that it's a CAS card. Thus "cassy". Me likey.

So, how 'bout it? Give some technique you've been dying to try a go. Or pull out those old acrylic paints. Or grab or make a stencil. Channel your Dyan Reaveley and get messy. Make a card. C'mon and join us!

p.s. You're gonna love this... the challenges run from the 1st to the 25th every month. EZPZ.

Supplies organize your life:

Paper:  cardbase The Paper Studio, Neenah

Stamps: triangle BG Kaisercraft, coffee stains STAMPlorations, tiny leaves Alexandra Renke, big leaves Claudine Hellmuth, sentiment Kesi

Ink : Distress Iced Sprice, Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac, Memento Black, StazOn

Tools: dots stencil TCW, doodle stencil Pink Paislee, die PTI

Other: structure paste, acrylic paint

STAMPlorations sketch #8 (SSS)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to ya, but I'm gonna go all pink on your here. The fun sketch for challenge #8 over at STAMPlorations looks like this.

And the recently--released MOM Subway Stamps look like this.

Put 'em together and whaddya get?

I used the stamp pictured in the lower left corner and "freestyled" my BG with Grapefruit pigment ink from Amuse Studio, stamping it once this way, then that way, then upside down... freestyle, ya know? And then I used PP to follow the sketch. Heat embossed my sentiment onto vellum and layered that on top of the bottom PP strip.

I used the stamp as a block, but you could cut the sentiments apart - versatile, eh? - and there are so many wonderful sentiments in the five sets.  Take a closer look at all the MOM sets and see if some of the sentiments "speak" to you.  TIP:  These don't have to be for Mother's Day cards.  If you notice, my card is basically of the specifically-for-Mom-but-generic-thinking-of-you variety.  So I'm also joining the challenge for Mom cards at Simon Says Stamp.

THE PRIZE DEETS

The sketch challenges are sponsored by our sister shop, All About Scrapping. The winner gets to pick 3 DIGITAL products from the shop -- any combination of printable sheets, Photoshop templates, and digital paper packs. The winner will also be invited as a Guest Designer in next month's sketch challenge.

Join us here.

Supplies for sending hugs:

Paper:  cream CS Bringmann, PP Pink Paislee, vellum 

Stamps: STAMPlorations, sentiment Technique Tuesday

Ink : Amuse, Versamark

Tools: stapler

Other: white embossing powder, candy dot

wms nov pajama party (wms, Stampotique)

Time for another Pajama Party over at Waltzingmouse Stamps.  A few items to share with you so I'll just get to it ...

Challenge 1 - Thank you 

Did some splattering with Distress Stain direct to paper, some stamping with grunge stamps and a big ole sentiment.  I'm  joining the fun over at Stampotique with this card too.  Challenge #126 calls for paint splatters.  Yep.

Challenge 2 - A Christmas card

I absolutely love this bloom from the Waltzingmouse Poinsettias stamp set.  Decided to let it do its thing on kraft with half of a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp from the Christmas Memories stamp set heat embossed in black.  Just a peek of Pink Paislee Luxe metallic CS along the side to tie in with the golden bling in the center of the bloom.

Challenge 3 - Tag it!

Claire, hope you're smiling ;)))  That's the mistletoe image from Festive Foliage (and there are now matching dies for this stamp set!) on a kraft tag and wearing a ruffled skirt.

Challenge 4 - Decorate the halls (or presents or tree or both!)

Remember this technique - heat embossing multiple times and then stamping in the still-warm-top-layer?  Made these as tags for presents that can later make their way onto the Christmas tree.  Used some older- but-loved October Afternoon PP along with recycled packing paper on these.

Don't stay up all night, now.  Sweet dreams ya'll...

pad to paper (MIM, SSS)

Happy new week, folks!  We're celebrating Turkey Day with friends here in Germany on Sunday so the week will be filled with lotsa preparation.  But I'm squeakin' in here with a Papertrey Make it Monday #140 entry.

I'm also hooking up to Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "It's a Mystery." The mystery?  I didn't heat emboss these tags.  So how did I get the herringbone pattern?!?!?  Well, maybe these tags were more magic than mystery, but I used Pink Paislee Artisan Papers for the tag base.  The papers are white but have a pattern embossed onto them which comes to life when you apply a color medium.  In this case, Distress Ink pads swiped side-to-side.  And voila.

I truly appreciate your visit.  Have a great week.

supplies for tags

Paper:  Pink Paislee Artisan papers

Stamps: PTI

Ink : Distress Ink, Versafine

Tools: tag die PTI

Other: crochet thread

pti september bloghop (PTI, Moxie Fab)

It's time for another PTI blog hop. Well I'm "sharing openly" and will certainly "leave inspired" but as for "being creative" I took a couple short cuts.

First off, the wreath. I've used it before for a hop. But I love it. This stamp set was one of the first reasons I ever googled to see what the heck Papertrey was. (Can you believe that?) And the theme of this blog hop is  wreaths...

And the gold ink... well I'm hooked on it lately and it was just laying there on my messy workspace. Decided to pair it with neon pink this time around.  And add a slice of that yummy Pink Paislee metallic paper I fell in love with at Danielle F.'s blog last holiday season. And ink the edges of my die cut mat with gold ink a la Maile B.  See what I mean about cheating in the creativity department?!?! 

I inked a strip of white CS to add next to the gold metallic paper to add more of the pink. (I think that's a Jennifer McG. stroke of genius, BTW). As for the crochet thread bow... that was my idea and maybe not such a good one. Oh well. What would you have added instead of the bow?  I'd love to know.

Here's another shot of that Delicata gold pigment ink yumminess.

I'm hooking up to the Moxie Fab World "All that Glitters is Gold" Challenge too. Thanks for visiting. Hop along now.

Supplies my dear friend:

Paper: cardbase Bringmann, PP Pink Paislee

Stamps:  PTI Wreath for all Seasons and Irresistibly Ikat

Ink: pink Aladine, gold Delicata

Tools: die PTI

Other: crochet thread, foam adhesive