Wake Up And Be Awesome!

Time Out Challenge #73 - December 22, 2016 - January 4 2017

Theme: Inspired By Words

 "With each sunrise we are given a chance for a new beginning". 

What wonderful words to ponder as we look toward the beginning of a new year!

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is:

First place winner will receive a $20.00 gift voucher for the STAMPlorations store. Honorable Mention winners will receive a $10.00 gift voucher.

Here is my take on the inspiration:

The inspiration words are so positive and hopeful which I translated here as loud and colorful. I love this Tim Holtz stencil, and i really love this sentiment from visibleimage.co.uk. I think in combination, they really fit the inspiration perfectly.

Please head on over to the Time Out Challenge Blog and see the wonderful projects that the DT has come up with. See where the wonderful inspiration quote takes you, link up, and play with us! Thanks for stopping by today!

I am also playing at:

SIP #79 - Where the challenge is Anything But Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Time for the last AAA CAS Cards Challenge of 2016 where the theme is SILVER! 

Please not that this is a THREE week challenge this time, running from December 18th to January 7th.

Our Challenge Sponsor is Stampendous

First place winner will receive a $20.00 Gift Certificate to the Stampendous Store.

Our Guest Designer for this challenge is the very talented Deborah Frings of Deborah's Gems. Take a stroll through her blog, and I am sure you will be very inspired!

Now, on to my card. I must tell a funny story about it.  During the time leading up to the challenge, I had it in my head that the theme was GOLD despite the fact that I had many reminders on calendars and on lists etc, that it was SILVER. I made my GOLD themed card, I was very, very happy with it. When I went to post it with the rest of the DT cards, I noticed that everyone's card was silver, as was the header for the challenge. Just a funny example of how crazy things are right now.  I had a big belly laugh over that one. Then I re-made my card in Silver. LOL!! 

Here it is:

I die cut the word "Cheers" using PTI's Luxe Silver Adhesive Sheets and Uncorked Word Die and adhered it to the inside of the card.

Supplies:
Stamps~Hero Arts Tiny Stars Background, SU Holidays & Wishes (2007),
Ink~Tsukineko Delicata Silvery Shimmer Ink, VersaMark.
Paper~Neenah Solar White
Accessories~PTI Uncorked and Uncorked Word Dies, Pretty Pink Posh Window Frames Dies, SU Silver EP, Little Things Sequins. SU Distressing Tool.

Please head on over to the AAA CAS Cards Challenge Blog and check out the wonderful silver themed cards created by the awesome DT. Get in spired to make a silver themed card of your own, and link up to play with us.

I am linking my card to:

Challenge #98 New Year

Double D Challenge - Dreaming of a White Christmas

Bottom right photo with lots of silver and stars.

Wishing You Happy Birthday

Challenge #72 is up and running at Time Out Challenges, where it's time for a CASE Challenge. This means a special designer has been chosen to share a card to inspire your creation - you CASE it...Copy and Share Everything!

The CASE artist for this challenge is the very talented Kim Heggins of Cupakes, Cards and Kim. Treat yourself to a stroll through Kim's blog. I'm sure you will be inspired. Here is Kim's design for your inspiration for Time Out Challenge #72:

Deepti Aggarwal of Vishesh Collections is the Guest Designer for this challenge. Deepti is incredibly talented and has created a wonderful card from Kim's inspiration piece. You can check out Deepti's wonderful Card on the Time Out Challenge Blog.

Here's my take:

The swirly stems on Kim's flower image brought to mind a set from PTI that is now in their vault - Stitches and Swirls. So I dug into my "vault" and pulled it out. I stamped the largest image in the set with Memento Tuxedo Black on a Neenah Solar White panel, and colored it with Copics. I used Simon Says Stamp "Sending" Wafer Die and "Sending & Wishing" stamp set for the sentiment. I have rediscovered the technique of distressing edges lately, so I did that, and also added clear WOS to the leaves and flowers.. 

Please head over to the Time Out Challenge Blog and check out Deepti's creation as well as the wonderful inspiration from the Design Team. See where your creative mind takes you as you come up with your own creation, link up, and play with us.

I am linking my card to The Flower Challenge where the challenge is to use an old stamp or die.

HLS December Christmas Challenge

Time to play the last Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge of 2016 where the theme is WREATH.

Click HERE to link to the challenge.

This challenge is sponsored by


This is my take.

These days, I am consciously trying to dig way deep into my stash and fish out things that I have never, rarely, or can't remember when or if I used, and combine the old and the new. This card really is a perfect example of combining old things barely or never used, and new things.

OLD: Wreath Wood Mounted Stamp by Inkadinkado. White Flower Soft (Snow), Glossy Accents, Hero Arts Tiny red rhinestones.
NEW: Happy Little Stampers Christmas Joy Stamp Set, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Tim Holtz Brushed Pewter Distress Mica Spray, Silver Wink Of Stella.

Please put on some Christmas Music, head on over to the Happy Little Stampers December Christmas Challenge, check out the fabulous inspiration the Design Team has for you and play with us! Link up for a chance to win $15.00 to spend in the Happy Little Stampers Shop.

I am also linking this card to:

Kylie Purtell and Friends 12 Days Of Christmas Cards Challenge

Challenge #97 - Christmas

Peace On Earth

AAA Cards CAS Challenge #79

Game #79 is up at AAA Cards CAS Challenge where the theme is CHRISTMAS.

Our wonderful sponsor is Happy Little Stampers. The winner will receive a $15.00 credit to use at the Happy Little Stampers Store.

Our Guest Designer is Marianne of Marianne's Cards.

Here is my take:

This image and sentiment just about sums it up for me right now in this crazy world we live in. The image is a wood mounted stamp from Hero Arts, colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. The inlaid die cut "peace" is sentiment is from Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold and the Merry Cutaways, and the rest of the sentiment is from Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold and the Merry Stamps. 

Please head on over to the AAA Cards CAS Challenge Blog, and check out the wonderful inspiration of the Design Team. Leave them some love, make a Christmas creation of your own, link up and play with us. 

I am linking to the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches #265

Anything Goes

Kylie Purtell and Friends 12 Days Of Christmas Cards Challenge.

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!