Absolutely In Awe

Challenge #31 - Grunge with the optional twist of embossing

My card was born of inspiration from THIS card by my fellow AAA Cards Design Team member Jane Taylor of Purplejet Loves Crafts.  Her creation was made for the current AAA Card Challenge : For The Boys - make a card with a masculine touch; Inspirational Colour Challenge - Purple; and Time Out Challenges #31 - Grunge with the optional twist of embossing.

I just loved Jane's purple inky background, and that touch of red really got me.  I decided to try my hand at the grungy challenge over at Time Out Challenges as well, and this is what I came up with.  

I inked the background with a few distress inks of purple hues, and applied a little red.  Love the way that looks!  Then I stamped my skateboarder (retired SU) and moved him to the right a few times to give the illusion of movement.  The main image needed to be bolder, so I filled it in with a brush and black distress ink. It still needed some "umph", so I brushed it with clear Wink Of Stella.  I popped up the inked panels with foam tape. The die cut "awesome" (4 layers thick) and the rest of the sentiment is from a stamp and die set from Simon Says Stamp. Nestled the die cut between the two inked layers.

I am happy with this one. Thanks Jane for the awesome inspiration! Thank YOU for stopping by today!

Go To Your Happy Place

Good Sunday morning!

Thanks to all who partied with us at AAA Cards in celebration of our one year Blogaversary!  Thank you too for the many wonderful comments on my birthday blog post.  I love reading them.  Be sure to tune in  to the AAA Cards Blog next Sunday, May 31st, for the winners announcements!

Today there is a new challenge over at AAA Cards! It's a really fun one with so many possibilities!

Game #40 : For The Guys : Create a card or project with a masculine touch.

I had this wonderful fish image that I had sponged with distress inks that was waiting for a card to happen. I thought about my husband who has been talking about surf fishing and how much he wanted to spend some time doing that.  In the end though, I think it is this colorful fish, who is in his happy place right now - just swimming around making bubbles...

Now it's your turn. Create a card with a masculine touch. Have fun and keep it CAS,  then head on over to the AAA Cards blog and link up your creation! Can't wait to see what you come up with!


Thanks for stopping by today!

Let's Celebrate!

When I saw this week's Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Totally Tassel, I immediately thought of the tassels and lanterns on Winnie & Walter's The Party set. I envisioned strings of lights and paper lanterns strung outside to light up an evening celebration.  I stamped the lanterns and tassels, cut them out, and colored them with Copics. I added some sparkle to them with Wink Of Stella.  PTI Holiday Lights provided the perfect light strings from which to hang the lanterns. The colors in this week's Color Throwdown #342 were just the right palate for my creation. This very simple card took me forever to get it where I wanted it, but I really love the final product.

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  Hope you have a lovely one.

For Mom

 

My family is so blessed that my mother is still with us - she is a smart, spunky, funny, stubborn, charming character of 92 years.  I am the fourth of her four daughters.  I have always had a craft du jour, and I spent a lot of time making things with her, and for her throughout my life. For her mother's day card, I wanted to let her know how much she has inspired me in so many ways over the years. I was thinking about how she used to dabble in water coloring, so when I saw the inspiration photo from showCAS your style, I was instantly drawn to my Paper Smooches I Heart Art set.

 

 

I began to look for things from my stash to add to this card, and then I saw this week's Friday Mashup! Challenge:

• Create a project using a "Recycled or Upcycle an Item".
• Create a project for "Mother's Day". 
• or Mash it Up! and create a project for Mother's Day using a Recycled/Upcycled Item". 

 

I had this little piece of thin cork that I saved in my "I know I will use this someday" box.  I die cut my paintbrushes from that. I found this postcard with the chevron design (I think it came with a PTI order) in my scrap box.  The colors went well with the colors in the SYSC# 14 inspiration photo so I used it for the fishtail die cut. I put it all together, and there it was.  A perfect card for my mom!

 

I really enjoyed the process of making this card.  Thanks to the challenge hosts and DT's for the inspiration, and thank you for stopping in today.  Your comments make my day. I hope yours is a good one!

AAA Cards Birthday Bash Bloghop!!!

Hello! Hello! Hello! 

It's AAA Cards first birthday, and it's party time over at the AAA Cards Challenge Blog!  We are celebrating with our First Birthday Extravaganza Party Challenge and Blog Hop!!!!

The Birthday Card Game

 It's a simple challenge theme - make us a birthday card to celebrate 

our 1st birthday.

There are incredible Sponsor Gifts & Prizes Galore. Link up your card at the bottom of THIS post to get more details and to play. See below for more info on our blog hop and the chance to win more prizes.

My Happy Birthday AAA Cards creation:

I sponged the colors of the AAA Cards banner on the top panel using PTI inks, on Winnie & Walter's Triangle Creative Screening.  

To add a little glitz for the occasion, I sprayed the stenciled panel with Heidi Swapp's gold Color Shine. I die cut the word "Happy" from PTI's Tipped Tops Die collection, and embossed the word "Birthday" from PTI's Wet Paint set. The final touch was a streamer from Winnie & Walter's Goldie Trim Cutaways.

Now on to the hop:

The BlogHop Comment Game:

There will be a Random choice winner from each blog host. All you have to do is leave a comment on each blog with a little birthday wish for a chance 

to win one of our fun prizes. 

Here if the running order for the hop:

Victoria Lavender

Jane Taylor 

Linda Beeson 

Vicki Dutcher  

Stephanie Lanzalotto  (That's me!)

Jill Vickers 

Jenny Colacicco 

Sarah Platt 

Kimberly Wiener 

Justine Hovey

I am so delighted and honored to be a part of this wonderfully creative, friendly, and supportive team.  This is my first Design Team experience, and it has been so positive, stimulating and challenging all at the same time.  In the short time I have been on the team, I have been learning and trying new things, mining old stash, and making new friends.  All good.
Please go on over to the AAA Card Challenge Blog, link up your Happy Birthday AAA Cards creation, and do the hop for the chance to win some fabulous prizes.  All the details can be found in THIS post.  Thanks for playing!

Happy Hydrangea Mother's Day

I love hydrangeas, as does my mother.  Mother's day is next Sunday here in the US, so it's time to make mom a card. I have had this Happy Hydrangea set from PTI for a long time, and I have never shown it any ink.  In an effort of trying to use some of my stash that has been neglected, I checked out this week's Shopping Our Stash Challenge. This week's challenge is "Opposite Day" - to make something that's opposite your usual style.  So I pulled out my Happy Hydrangea set, and some PTI inks and went to work.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch #184 for the layout of my card.  I have been leaning toward Clean & Simple for quite a while - I don't use a lot of layers.  This card has 5  layers, and through it is still rather CAS, that number of layers are not my usual.

After stamping the hydrangea panel, I added a little Platinum Stickles to give my hydrangeas a little sparkle.  Not sure that I love the different sizes of stitching on the rectangle vs the fishtail die cuts,   but I decided to leave them as is and call it a card.

The Pink Elephant Challenge this week is Anything Goes, so I am posting this card to their gallery as well.

Thanks so much for stopping in today. Have a great one!