Simple Joys

Time Out Challenge #71 is now live, with the theme of:
 CHRISTMAS with the optional Technique Twist of using glitter and/or shimmer.

Our generous sponsored is Uniko Studios. Uniko is offering a prize for the winner and also a random draw from amongst those entries who include the twist. 

We are very pleased that Valentyna of Flourishtina will be joining us as Guest Designer for this challenge, and she will also be back next week for our reminder post.  Valentyna is a wonderfully talented papercraft artist. Please head on over to her blog for some wonderful inspiration.

Here is my take:

This beautiful image and sentiment is from a gorgeous set of Christmas stamps by Marcella Hawley of Power Poppy. Marcella is a lovely person, and an incredible artist. You really are in for a treat when you visit her store and her blog. 

I water colored Marcella's wonderful image with my Zigs, then added lots of clear Wink Of Stella to give it sparkle and shine. I could not, for the life of me, capture that sparkle and shine on camera. I even tried a closeup photo from a different angle. No twinkle to be seen.  Please take my word for it! LOL. Any and all suggestions on a technique that works for this are welcome! 

To finish, I distressed the edged of the water colored panel, and mounted it on SU Brushed Silver card stock (retired).

The Time Out Design Team members have created some awesome pieces for your inspiration.  Please head over to the Time Out Challenge Blog, take a look and leave the DT some love. Then take some Time Out to play with us!

Thankful For You

This Thanksgiving card is made from the leftover pieces of the die cuts from the last card I posted. I enjoy using pieces from one project to create something completely different. After I placed the die cut pieces on the left and stamped the sentiment, I gave the card base a good dose of Dreamweaver Gold Embossing Paste. I am loving this embossing paste with Tim Holtz's "Speckles" Layering Stencil these days. I decided to rein in the chaos a little by adding the little strip of patterned paper to the side. This creation is a bit of a mess, but I really like it a lot. It reminds me of me a little bit. LOL. This card is for a dear friend who is a work colleague. She helps me rein myself in when I am a hot mess, so I think it's really perfect for her.

I am linking this one up to the following challenges:

Paper Smooches November Challenge

November Mixed Media Card Challenge

Water Color, Die Cut, Stencil with Embossing Paste, Stamping, Patterned Paper.

CAS-UAL Fridays CFC161. Be Thankful.

Thank you for coming by today.

Enjoy Thanksgiving

I am busy making Thanksgiving cards. I LOVE this season and this holiday above all others. To make this card, I broke out several new things from my stash: Thanksgiving Dies from Paper Smooches, Pretty Pink Posh Window Frames Die, and these beautiful sequins from Lucy's Cards Shop: The Colours of Fall Sparkly Shaker Selection.

  

I water colored several areas on a large piece of water color paper in autumn colors. I die cut the PS Thanksgiving icons twice - once from Chocolate Chip, and once from the water colored paper, pieced them together and arranged them at the bottom of the Window frames die cut.  I created a shaker using Jennifer McGuire's No-Bulk Shaker Card Technique that you can see HERE. I love it because the sequins stay (relatively) in place rather than all of them falling to the bottom of the shaker. 

The sentiment is an old Hero Arts stamp that I have had forever. I covered up a little smudge next to the sentiment with a little leaf sequin.  I am thankful for little things that let me fix mistakes!!! LOL!

I am linking my card to the following challenges:

Paper Smooches November Challenge

GIVING THANKS

Trio-Tastic

Use 3 of something on your project. I used the three dies from the Paper Smooches Thanksgiving Dies set.

CAS-UAL Fridays CFC161. Be Thankful.

I am thankful that you stopped in today. Have a lovely day!

Happy Little Stampers New Release Blog Hop!

Exciting things are happening at the Happy Little Stampers Blog!!! Happy Little Stampers owner and Kylie Is Addicted To Stamps blogger Kylie Purtell, has released six fantastic new stamp sets. Several members of the wonderful HLS Design Teams have created cards to inspire you and  show you a variety of inspiration using the stamps from the new release. 

All of these sets are all so wonderful. I chose "Rainy Days" for my blog hop card. I used the masking technique with the clouds and the umbrella, then I masked both images again stamped the SSS raindrops background image with VersaMark ink, embossed it with clear EP then sponged with various distress inks. I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment. I love this set and I know I will get lots of use out of it.

By joining us in our our blog hop, you have the chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the HLS shop! Wow! All you have to do is work your way through the hop list below and comment on each of the blogs. A random winner will be drawn from all those that comment. Make sure you visit ALL of them because that's the only way be assured you are in the draw. You have 1 week (until the 28th of November 12pm AEST) to complete the hop.

Happy Little Stampers

Kylie Purtell

Michelle Dees

Anita Bowden

Linda Walmsley

Julie Beech

Jane Taylor

Laurie Schmidt

Valentyna Komisarenko

Carol Steedman

Susan Renshaw

Stephanie Lanzalotto (You are here!!)

Neha Parab
Amy Siegler

If you start somewhere else in the list other than the beginning, don't despair! All the designers will have the list on their personal blogs to make sure you don't miss a thing.

Here is a closer look at the individual sets -

     

       

    

Please join in the fun. The blog hop starts HERE!

Happy Birthday Circle Game

AAA Cards CAS Challenge #78

A new game is up at AAA Cards Challenge Blog. The theme is circles. 

Our generous sponsor is:

As well as the 1st place prize from our sponsor we also offer the winner the chance to be a Guest Designer for a future AAA Cards Challenge.

Our Guest Designer for this challenge is Jessica V. Lin of Jessie Handmade. Check out her fantastic card for this challenge HERE.

When I sat down to design a card for this challenge, and before I saw the inspiration photo above, I thought of this image from The Alley Way Stamps that I have had for a few years and never used. I pulled it out, inked it up and colored it with my Zigs. I added clear WOS to all of the water colored circles to make them sparkle and shine. I had to laugh when I looked at the inspiration photo after I had completed my circle themed card. See what I mean?? I am not sure how I feel about the polka dots in the "happy" die cut, but I went with it... more circles.

Please head over the the AAA Cards Challenge Blog, and see what my fabulous friends have created for your inspiration. Create a CAS (Clean & Simple) card using the circle theme, link up and play with us at AAA Cards! 

Just a note: All AAA Card Challenges are Clean & Simple.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! 

Your Couch Or Mine?

There's a new challenge up at Time Out Challenges, and the theme this time around is Home Sweet Home: A photo inspiration challenge with a homey twist! 

Our wonderful Guest Designer is Hazel of Hazel's Paper Designs. She will design with us for our initial and our reminder challenge posts for Challenge #70.  Please check out her wonderful work on her blog and on the Time Out Challenge Blog.

Here is the inspiration photo:

Here is my take.

I really took this one quite literally (I tend to do this with Time Out Home Sweet Home challenges). Those awesome wings hanging on the wall immediately brought the wings from PTI's Love Lives Here Christmas to mind, and the pillows immediately made me think of PTI's On My Couch, You can see what happened from there. To give it a little sparkle and shine, I added Dreamweaver Metallic Gold Embossing Paste using Tim Holtz's Speckles stencil on the card base.

Please head on over to the Time Out Challenges Blog, and check out the DT's wonderful inspiration projects. Then create a project of your own, link up, and play with us!

Thanks for your visit today!

Thanksgiving Blessings

AAA Cards CAS Challenge #77 - Thanksgiving / Thank You

I love the fall where I live. The colors are vibrant, the air cool and clear, and the scents are warm and comfy. I love the Thanksgiving Holiday most of all. It doesn't get half the attention it deserves. I love that there is a time set aside to really contemplate life's blessings. 

That said, the current challenge is to create a Thanks/Thanksgiving themed card.

Our sponsor is Happy Little Stampers. Our challenge winner will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to the Happy Little Stampers Store. Watch for the new release - it's wonderful!

For this challenge, we have super talented 

Elisabeth from aufspapiergebracht.blogspot.de as our Guest Designer.

Check out her blog for some delightful inspiration, and then head on over to the AAA CAS Challenge Blog for more inspiration from the AAA DT. Think thankful thoughts, and create a thanks/Thanksgiving themed card, link up and play with us at AAA Cards.

Here is my take:

My main image is a stamp I've had in my stash for probably a good 20 years or more from All Night Media, colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches Fall Sampler.

The Mood Board at the Double D Challenge Blog provided some wonderful inspiration for my card, so I am linking up there as well.

Also linking up at Paper Players where the theme is "Thankful".

Thank YOU for stopping by today. Have a great day!

Deck The Halls

It's time for a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge Blog where the theme for November is WATERCOLOR.

This challenge is sponsored by

I used 2 water color techniques for this challenge. I sprinkled Brushos in 2 shades of green on water color paper, and misted. I die cut the water colored ornament base and the copper glitter paper top piece with Memory Box's Swirl Ornament die. I wet brushed the background panel with red and a touch of green Kuretake Gansai Tambi water colors. I added a bit of HLS Christmas Bakers Twine to "hang" the ornament, and adhered it to the water colored card base. The sentiment is from HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments.

Please head on over the the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge Blog, and check out what the wonderful DT has made for your inspiration. Then get your Fa La La La La on and create a water colored Christmas project to link up and play us at Happy Little Stampers November Christmas Challenge.