spotlight on random stamping. again.

I'm up on the STAMPlorations blog with a tutorial on random stamping. On a large size piece of CS. To get a set of four cards outta the deal. Cool, eh? Check it out here.

I used the color combo from Colour Q, which has already closed but which was fitting for this rustic ensemble.

STAMPlorations inspiration #55

Another STAMPlorations inspiration for you today. Can you say "use up your PP stash"? Seems at the beginning of every year I tell myself I'm gonna do that this year. Hmmm. My stash ain't any smaller. Maybe that's cuz I use everything. Every piece. Can you spot my thriftiness on this card?

 I stamped the sentiment from the incredibly versatile new set Big Greetings onto a die cut piece of vellum. Stamped the bunch of flowers from Hope Blooms onto watercolor CS with Hero Arts shadow ink and then watercolored the flowers with Distress Inks. Made a frame for the flowers using pinking shears. And then had to figure out what to do with those pieces!

PP, I thought. So out came some 6x6 pads and Basic Grey Fiction won. Since the piece of orange PP had already been die cut from prior, I thought I'd cut that part off and make the bottom section yellow PP. (Maybe you noticed the little tags and stitching on the left side of the orange PP - didn't want to lose that.) Then I thought, what the heck. I'll just back the "holes" in the orange with yellow. Voila!

A couple three pieces of washi added to the confusion and my card was finished!

This card was born of the colors in this amazingly spring-y inspiration photo from Addicted to Stamps and More #175.

Since I'd definitely call this a "girly" card, I'm playing at Penny Black and More January too.

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.

bring on the spring (colors)

Is it just me, or are you too getting the post-Christmas-get-those-reds-and-greens-away-from-me? Whatever it is, this inspiration photo from Addicted to Stamps and More #175 caught my eye.

The flowers, the colors, that shabby chair. This is what I did with it, going pretty CAS.

Gearing up for the new release week at STAMPlorations, I pulled out the new Big Greetings and heat embossed the simple sentiment onto die cut vellum (representing the shabby white chair). The stripes stamped with brush strokes from Celebrate Artsy and Holiday Artsy (but you could watercolor them too) were totally inspired by the colors of that amazing bouquet.

I'm also playing at The Artistic Stamper where it's Anything Goes this month.

Happy weekend all! DD returns from a week of skiing today. Ellie will sure be glad to see her. (Me too, although I'm already imagining the mountains of laundry...)

simple anniversary

Got white space? Then surely you want to play at CASology this week...

Here's my simple anniversary card going out to a college girlfriend who hits 20 this year. Design-wise it seems to me the font of that sentiment does all the work ;)

The stamp is SSS Beautiful Words. Appears to be discontinued.

Since an anniversary is certainly a reason to party (or celebrate at least!) I'm joining the fun this week at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the CAS challenge at Share Joy. Off to create. Happy day to you!

STAMPlorations inspiration #54

Welcome to a new year of inspiration projects using STAMPlorations stamps! Ready for the first for this year? Get your sunglasses ready and meet "Bloom... birthday girl"...

I am still absolutely enthralled with Shirley's Folk Flowers and had to give them another go. This time with colored embossing powder. Then I got the brilliant idea to color them in with Zigs in the same color as the embossing powder. And things got a bit out of hand ;)

Since things had gone from delicate and sweet to bold and in-your-face, I had to dress up my card design with some touches of black (doodles from Artsy Border Maker and a sentiment from Hope Blooms). A strip of washi along the bottom grounds the flowers with a hint of grass.

Check out what my teamies have created. We've changed things up a bit with the Inspiration Project posts. We'll be posting every Tuesday. And 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.

I'm hooking up over at Stampin Royalty #310 where it's all about washi and Simon Says Monday Challenge where it's about "Something New" and my bright colored embossing powders are new from WOW. So I'm hooking up at WOW! Embossing Powder too!

Mixed Media Card Challenge #19

If you are looking for my CASEplorations post, click here.

Hope you had yourself a merry, little Christmas and a happy, New Year! It's a time for new beginnings - both on the calendar and over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge! Did you get nice and mixed media messy last year with us? If not, why not join us this year?

January's challenge is all about "Beginnings". And the optional element is "sequins". Sounds like a great time for a New Year's card. Or a shaker. Or a baby card. Or how about a wedding card?

So meet my wedding card. I'm actually sharing a card published in Paper Crafts magazine back in November 2014. I think it fits the bill perfectly.

Just to give you another look at the yumminess of that Perfect Pearls shimmer... depending on the way the light hits it it looks different every time!

Mixed media card? Well, I'm sayin' yes. In addition to stamps and ink, I've got

TEXTURE - heat embossing on frame and sentiment (Papertrey)
DIMENSION - die cuts
TECHNIQUE - heat embossing, Perfect Pearls on Versamark BG (Impression Obsession)

See that sparkle and shine from the Perfect Pearls? I just love this technique. I did a tutorial on it for this card if you're interested.  Join us with a mixed media card for MMCC #19 won't you?

I'm joining the parties at:

SSS Wednesday Challenge. It's "Party" theme there this week!
Inkspirational #98 where it's non-Christmas

Mod Squad where the theme is Anything Goes with at least one die cut and

new to me Stamp, Ink, Paper #28 where it's also non-Christmas!

CASEplorations january

Should auld acquaintance be forgot?

I guess it depends on whether your 2015 was a year for your record books or not. If it wasn't so great, let me take this chance to wish you a fantastic start to a wonderful new year!

And it's time, my friends, for a new year of CASEplorations over at STAMPlorations. We've changed things up a little this year and here is what you can expect.

Each month we will pick one amazing card from one amazing designer in blogland to CASE. On the 1st of the month the Inspiration DT will post their CASEs of the card. For the rest of the month, we would like to see you CASE the card and hook up your creation in the CASEplorations gallery. Easy, right?

And as for prizes...y'all know Shery is such a generous gal... the Inspiration DT will vote for their favorite card in the gallery and the winner will receive a $15 GC or choice of a 3x5 stamp set. The two runners up will receive a $5 GC.

So let's start the fun, shall we?

Totally honored to have Laura Bassen as our first CASEplorations guest designer for 2016. This gal is one extremely talented card designer, and she also happens to be my personal favorite cardmaking "personality"! Here is her card for CASEing in January.

Image Source: Laura B.

And my take on Laura's lovely ombre card.

I used the same stencil (Leaf Prints), but used white embossing paste and just added a touch of metallic gold to it for a bit of interest on the upper portion.  I applied the ombre technique to the stamped bird (Trendy Birds) instead! Fussy cut him and a layer of vellum for behind him, then I selectively inked and heat embossed my sentiment (Vignette: Chevron and Arrows) and added a die cut and stacked "happy" too, keeping my sentiment B/W like Laura's.

Sure hope you will join us in CASEing lovely Laura's lovely leaf card ;) Check out my teamies' creations here. The CASEplorations gallery will be open until January 31st. See you there!