orange to mix it up, purple to stop it

It behooved me (huh, where did that come from?) to throw my hat in the ring when I saw the Mix Up at Ellen Hutson Classroom - Essentials by Ellen and WPlus9.

And I hoped to support Becca C.'s Hop to Stop domestic violence. What a great idea to make people aware of this problem and perhaps encourage victims to do something to get out of a bad situation... Thanks for putting this together, Becca.

So two cards for you.

I've used the pocket and sentiments from WPlus9 A Pocketful and the blooms from Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms. And some ancient Bo Bunny PP. Notice my enamel dot in the center of the solid bloom? Yep, a DIY fail.

Then lots of purple cuz that's the color of National Domestic Violence Awareness month. Did you know one in three women will experience domestic violence over the course of their lifetime. That is a staggering number. Please join the hop if you can. You can send your cards to Becca and she will pass them on to her local Community Violence Convention Center for their use. How great is that!

I used the long “ray” from Avery Elle Bright Days to cover card, staggering images and stamping from the top and bottom. When done, I inked the stamp with my darkest purple, kissed it with the PTI  Sketched Shapes striped banner stamp and stamped, repeating a few times for interest. Misted it all with water/Perfect Pearls mixture to soften. Then I stamped triangles from Mama Elephant Trifecta along top and bottom with platinum StazOn. Stamped a sentiment from Kaisercraft Today with white pigment ink and offset with Versamark which I heat embossed platinum. Now that's a lot of purple.

I'm sending the first card over to Simply Create Too where it's about "Halloween colors" and the second to Papertrey Make it Monday where it's about "Stripes" and Avery Elle AEIU where it's about  "Pink". I'm counting Adirondack Raspberry as part of the pink family ;)

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.

Mixed Media Card Challenge #16

It's nice to be back creating mixed media for the MMCC. Unfortunately I didn't have the supplies for it while I was at my folks' house this summer.

This month it's about black and orange with the option of glitter.

I must admit this theme immediately reminded me of one of my earliest memories of Cath E.'s Moxie Fab World in the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Paper Crafts magazine.

So with that as inspiration, I set off to cover myself and my craft room with glitter.

I stamped the bats and stars from my favorite Halloween set Midnight Feast from WMS on a white cardbase (the sentiment is from the same set). Then used a Crafter's Workshop Aspen Trees stencil on adhesive paper to create the gradient orange BG of the focal panel. Even tried to create a moon up in the left corner by sprinkling yellow glitter through a die cut negative circle placed on top of the stencil. Burnished the oranges then removed the stencil and added the black glitter. I've done a tutorial on this technique here if you're interested.

So what's mixed media about this card? Well, I've got stamps and inks. And...

TEXTURE - heat embossed sentiment, glitter
DIMENSION - raised sentiment panel
TECHNIQUE - burnished glitter through stencils

Here's another view of the wonderful textures.

Mixed media and Halloween. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Join us - the challenge is open until October 25th.

I'm joining the fun at Simon Says Stamp World Cardmaking Day Challenge as well as the Work it Wednesday challenge with this.

And the challenge over at Curtain Call which jumpstarted my batty BG 

CASed RIC for STAMPlorations inspiration #41

Because I'm squeaking in under the wire at CASe This Sketch #143, I'm coming at you one day early with my inspiration project for STAMPlorations.

I just read about simple ways to make my brain happier (thanks Monika S.) and decided to "#3 Make that decision" to use these two challenges and this stamp set to create with. So there!

RIC #93

STAMPlorations Mixed Media Elements

 Six grungy line stamps and many ink pads later this was born. Made me happy ;)

Don't know if the model's skirt has pleats in it or if the vertical lines are part of the fabric print, but I took a distressed lines BG stamp from CHF, inked it with white pigment ink and stamped it over the entire stamped area before removing the circle mask and heat embossing my sentiment from STAMPlorations Party Time. See the lines?

Watch for the other cards from the Inspiration DT over at STAMPlorations and join us in the CASE Playground if you have a chance!

santa is here at STAMPlorations - mini blog hop

Howdy and welcome to STAMPlorations' special release mini blog hop!

A few of us are using the new Santa is Here set illustrated by Deepti. Be sure to hop along and leave comments on STAMPlorations blog and the DT blogs for your chance to win this set. A random winner will be chosen from comments made on all the blogs by end of the day on October 9th.

And now for the fun stuff. Check out this set.

And here's what I did with it.

This card is actually one of a set that I created by randomly stamping a letter-sized piece of CS, then cutting it into four panels and making four cards of the same style. (Watch for an upcoming Spotlight post over at STAMPlorations where I share my not-so-random approach to random stamping thanks to what I've learned from the the talented Yana S.)

I opted for the whimsical, playful, illustrated look. Actually, I was avoiding properly coloring the images. You know, with shadowing and all. Yes, I now own a big bunch of Copic markers but I'm still a sissy about using them!

These are the only markers I used.

I understand why adult coloring books are all the rage. I had to force myself to keep my coloring to a minimum and let the white and grays have center stage! I think the wonky stitching on the sides of the heat embossed sentiment (from Holiday Sketches: Christmas Bells) adds to the playful feel of the card too. BTW, the present and bon bon "filler" images are from Deepti's Party Mates and the trio of stars from Balloons and Banners.

Thanks for stopping by. Hop along now ;)

ETA: I'm hopping over to the All Things Colored challenge at Virginia's View, cuz my card is "selectively" colored ;)

fall coffee lovers blog hop

My week has been more about wine than coffee since I've been out helping harvest grapes in our town, but I had an idea for a card for this amazing hop and finally got to it today.

You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child? Well, that's kinda how I feel about this project. Check out the stamp sets I gathered together to create my card.

I didn't go far for my inspiration. Can you tell where I got it?

Took a Bo Bunny coffee stain and stamped it with misted Tea Dye Distress Ink. Took a sentiment (STAMPlorations) and stamped it with Versafine and gave it a Tea Dye shadow. Added some Hero Arts branches and leaves and some Avery Elle acorns that I colored with my Zig Clean Color Brush pens. A few coffee beans (STAMPlorations) and a squirrel (Artemio) finished it off. Whew!

I'm joining the Anything Goes and Work it Wednesday crowd at Simon Says Stamp.

Also going to the October challenges at Time Out (so glad I took the time to get this card made) and at A2z where it's about All Things Fall (I used images from HA clear set Holiday Petals and Leaves).

There are already well over 500 entries for the hop - another job well done, Amy T. Have you joined yet? So much inspiration... 

CASEplorations October

Welcome to the October and the newest installment of CASEplorations. We've a black and white beauty from the June monthly challenge for CASEing this month.

This striking creation comes to you from Greta Hess. Surely you know Greta the Nurse, of GG Creations? Love her clean work.

I decided to keep things real true to Greta's card. I just used two different colors which happen to be opposite each other on the color wheel. I used the same rose image from the  Blossom Overture   stamp set and heat embossed it. I added a strip of washi at the bottom of the image panel with my "smile" sentiment and then two punched butterflies where Greta had placed her sentiment. Yellow gingham PP frames the panel.

Hope you are inspired to CASE Greta and join us. Or you can CASE my card (I'd be thrilled) or any of the DT Inspiration Projects coming up during the month.  Hook up your creations in the Inspiration CASE Playground. It's open until November 5th. Hope to see you there. You could be a lucky random winner!