Fuchsia Happy Birthday

 I dug out this Hero Arts stamp set to make a birthday card for a dear friend and found myself making many, many of these flowers today. I stink at getting layering stamps right in less than 100 tries, especially older ones. It took me a long time to get them right. I used a regular and Mini MISTI and made a little assembly line to make multiple images of these flowers in 4 stampings to die cut and tuck away in the storage envelope for future use. I love this plant, and it has special meaning for my birthday friend and me.

Project Details
Stamps/Dies	Hero Arts Fuchsia
Cardstock	110lb. Neenah Solar Crest 80lb. Neenah Solar Crest SU Melon Mambo LCI Cotton Paper for BetterPress
Ink	BetterPress Black DO Dried Marigold, Abandoned Coral PTI Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf, Pine Feather
Embellishments
Other	BetterPress System and A Little Message Sentiments Press Plates & Dies Sizzix Honeycomb 3D EF  Spellbinders Platinum Plus Scor-Pal Score Board Fiskars 12" SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer MISTI Stamping Tools My Sweet Petunia Precision Glue Press Scor-Pal Score Tape-3/4" Waffle Flower Foam Strips

I am playing at:

Just Us Girls #788 - Word Week

Color Throwdown # 838

Happiness Is A Walk On The Beach

As I was perusing the challenge blogs, I saw this one from As You See It, and decided to play.

As You See It #301 - Swift Seashells, is a speed stamping challenge with the theme of seashells. Create your project in under 10 minutes. I also wanted to participate in Color Throwdown #748 where the colors are red, blue and brown.

Color Throwdown #748

My card is very simple with a white heat embossed image of a row of seashells on Kraft cardstock, with a sentiment that has a sandy font stamped in blue, and some red and white twine around the top tied in a bow. It was done in 8 minutes and 27 seconds.

I'm also playing at:

AAA Cards #242 - Everything Beach

Project Details
Stamps/Dies	Chocolate Baroque - Seaside Dreams Gina K - Ocean Minded
Cardstock	Gina K Base Weight Kraft
Ink	VersaMark Versafine Majestic Blue
Embellishments	Twine - source unknown
Other	Spellbinders Platinum Plus Die Cutting & Embossing Machine Scor-Pal Score Board Fiskars 12" SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer MISTI Stamping Tool

Hello From My Happy Place

 

I finally got a chance to break out this fabulous Spellbinders Day At The Beach die set that I have had for quite a while. Recently I ran across Gina K's Ocean Minded set and had to have it, so I broke my "no new stuff" pledge (this is becoming more and more common) LOL. I could not wait to put them together. There are 2 things I would change - the brim of the hat should be solid so that the "hello" would be more easily visible, and the second is that I had to heat emboss twice because I didn't wait long enough for the DOX ink to dry. The second stamping was off a little, but that is how the ocean looks, right?? I still love it and I can't wait to give this one a second go. I now know all the tricks of putting it together.

I'm playing at:

Just Us Girls #683 - HELLO

Color Throwdownc #747 - aqua, red, yellow

NBUS #51

All Stamps/Dies

The Four Seasons - Anything Goes Summer

Color Dare #552

Turquoise, red & yellow

Double Trouble #140 with Flip Flop Twist

Turquoise, red & yellow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Lots of Layers

Project Details
Stamps/Dies	Spellbinders Day At The Beach Die Set Gina K Ocean Minded Stamp Set
Cardstock	110lb. Neenah Solar White 80lb. Neenah Solar Crest Various Gina K, SU, Mirror Cardstock and Patterned Papers
Ink	VersaMark, DOX inks
Embellishments
Other	Brutus Monroe Alabaster Spellbinders Platinum Plus Die Cutting & Embossing Machine Scor-Pal Score Board Fiskars 12" SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer MISTI Stamping Tool Bearly Art Precision Glue Scor-Pal Score Tape-1" 3M foam tape

Friends Are The Family That We Choose

 

I'm working on some Thanksgiving cards today. Thanksgiving is by far, my favorite holiday. I wanted to use my NBUS SSS Eucalyptus Dies, and I also wanted to play at Color Throwdown #718. I am screaming in on the last day, but I love the colors and they work for my Thanksgiving theme today. While looking for some inspiration, I ran across a card in THIS post (the first card)  and I decided to CASE it. 

Supplies Used:

Stamps - Reverse Confetti Autumn Sentiments 

Paper - SU Riding Hood Red; More Mustard and Tangerine Tango Card Stock; PTI Soft Stone Card Stock; Gina K. Pure Ivory Pure Luxury heavy weight card Stock. 

Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black; PTI Soft Stone

Other - SSS Eucalyptus Leaves Die; Avery Elle Wonky Stitches Die; SSS Floating Leaves Stencil; Twine, WOW Clear Gloss EP, Fun foam, 

I'm also playing at:

Die Cut Divas November Challenge - AG

NBUS #44 - November

Dies, stencil and sentiment is all NBUS!

The Four Seasons Challenge - AG Fall

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Thinking of You

November Stencil Fun Challenge - Anything Goes with a Stencil

Optional Twist Fall Colors

Two-Fer Three Challenges

So, in case you haven't heard, there is a brilliant new challenge out there that started on January 10 - Twofer Card Challenge. It's the brainchild of Darnell Krauss of djkardcreations.com. I love the way Darnell's brain works, and this awesome idea is so Darnell. The Design Team is loaded with awesomeness, and the idea is to use the same stamps/dies to come up with two totally different cards. It is meant to really challenge yourself to increase your creativity, stretch your brain, your stamps, your dies, and to increase your stash of cards. FANTASTIC!!!!

I work in a Pre-K through 8 school as a librarian. I am so often frustrated  by the lack of ability in children of all ages to follow directions. Well, guess what - I did not follow directions here and I am  truly humbled. The thing I didn't do (because I skimmed the directions because I wanted to get to creating), was use a different style for the second card.  I stamped, embossed and die cut a bunch of the same elements, and made 2 cards. I should have read more carefully, but that 's OK. I know now, and I am submitting my cards anyway! I LOVE them. I used two other challenges to create my Two-fer. I used the colors for Color Throwdown ctd476 (I LOVE these colors), and I used the CAS(E) this sketch #255 for the layout. I flipped it for one, and not the other.

I am SO excited about this challenge. I'm screaming in at the end, but I hope to play it a lot. Darnell, I promise I will follow the directions next time, and I will be nicer to my students who don't follow directions.

CTS #255

This card was inspired by Color Throwdown 476 colors, and the CTS Sketch.

This card was inspired by the Color Throwdown Colors for CTD476.

I also flipped the CAS(E) This Sketch #255 to the left side for this one.

Thankful

I love this season of gratitude and the colors, sights, scents and mostly everything that goes along with it. When I saw the CAS Colors and Sketches Challenge #246, Concord & 9th's Layering Leaves dies came right to my mind. I smooshed 3 panels of watercolor paper with the three Color Throwdown #466 Distress Ink colors, sprayed them with Ranger Distress Antiqued Bronze Mica Spray Copper, and die cut them. I mounted the die cuts on Ranger Distress Woodgrain Cardstock, framed the panel with a snippet that had been cut from Avery Elle Scalloped Pierced Rectangle, and added a die cut sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps Thanks and Giving Honey Cuts. I must say, I love the way it came out.   

I'm playing at:

CAS Colors & Sketches #246

Color Throwdown #466

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 

featuring Concord & 9th Products.

ATCAS - Leaves

TCC #80

Colors and the icing sprays of leaf-like decoration on the sides of the cake.

Thanks So Much

I am so excited to say that my card below was randomly chosen for Featured Stamper at Color Throwdown for ctd372 !! Woo Hoo!!! The means I was invited to join the awesome Color Throwdown DT as their Guest Star Stamper for the challenge ctd374 on Januray 6, 2016.

 

Here is the ctd374 challenge:

Here is my take:

I am honored to have my card featured with this incredibly talented design team!  Please head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog, give the DT some love, and give these great colors a whirl on a project of your own!!

Thanks for coming by today, and thanks, as always for your comments. I greatly appreciate them!

Always On My Mind

When I saw This week's Muse inspiration by Anita Bowden  for Muse Challenge #134 over at the Muse Challenge Blog,  I thought - vellum. There is no vellum on Anita's card, but that where my mind went. I used the color scheme of Color Throwdown #361, and applied green and yellow paint to wet watercolor paper for the background.  I embossed PTI' s Year of Flowers: Mums images with white EP on vellum and adhered that vellum panel onto the watercolored panel with a black card base. The sentiment is from the same collection, embossed in white on an MFT stitched flag die cut. I used twine instead of thread, though I am debating whether to change that.

It was so nice to be able to get 2 cards in this weekend.  Work and family is keeping me hopping, and have not been able to get to visiting my blog buddies very much. Hopefully I can get to some of that later.  Thank you for stopping in today.  Have a great day!

Let Freedom Ring

This patriotic shaker card is created in honor of our coming Fourth Of July celebration here in the US. This is a holiday that I so love on so many levels.  The watercolor panel is smooshed with red, white and tea stain distress inks. I did a partial die cut on that panel with a star die, then inlaid the shaker star over a star embossed card base. I am loving those enamel stars from Doodlebug Design.  The star EF is from SU, and the sentiment is from a Verve set that I always bring out at this time of year: American Hero.  

I am linking this card to CTD348:

Cards In Envy (Making Cards That Fit In Envelopes):

Thanks so much for stopping in 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.

Let's Be Merry

It's Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. It's time that I retire my beloved fall colors and images for another season and break out the winter colors and themes.  I decided to ink up some PS goodies and make something Christmasy.  I combined Color Throwdown ctd320 with the Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes challenge to make this merry little snow dude. He makes me smile.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Paper~American Crafts Christmas Glitter Paper, PTI Kraft, SU Cool Caribbean, Bazzill Vellum, Neenah Solar White.
Stamps~Paper Smooches Swanky Snowdudes and Christmas Sampler.
Accessories~Paper Smooches Snowdudes and Borders 1Dies, Lil' InkerStitched Circle Dies, Copic Markers, Twinery Bakers Twine.
Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, VersaMark, SU white embossing powder.