We Mermaid To Be Friends

I have a thing about mermaids. They seem to be very popular in the crafting world these days, and I have collected a wonderful combination of mermaid-themed stamps and dies. I am having a blast with them. For this card, I created a background with DOX inks that was perfect for under the sea. I die cut it with the Memory Box Coral Collage die. Inside the die cut, I placed a gorgeous piece of tissue paper from the Hero Arts May 2017 monthly kit. I used the stencil from the same kit to dry emboss the wave background on the white cardbase. The mermaid tail and sentiment is from Ellen Hutson's Essentails by Ellen Clear Stamps Mermaid's Tail by Julie Ebersole. The tail is heat embossed on heat resistant acetate and die cut. It shows the gorgeous tissue paper behind it.  I just love this card.

I am playing at:

  Paper Players #353 - CAS Summer Fun In The Water

CAS Mix Up July 2017

Curtain Call - Surf's Up

The Heart Desires 14

My GD Gig At MarkerPOP!

MarkerPOP #119 -  Watercolor Florals

MarkerPOP is an online destination for artists looking for inspiration and an outlet to share a common love for markers, especially Copic & Touch markers. The MarkerPOP store carries inkers & mists, papers and pads, stamps & dies, embellishments & accessories. A new weekly challenge is posted every Monday on the MarkerPOP Blog to help keep your creative juices flowing.  

On March 5, 2017, THIS card made it to the Top 3 for the Marker Pop Challenge #114 Be My Valentine. I was so thrilled that my card was chosen, and even more thrilled that I was invited to Guest Design for Marker Pop #119 - Watercolor Florals.  What a lovely opportunity! When pondering my design, I ran across this gorgeous Hero Arts wood mounted stamp that has been in my stash for a very long time. It certainly is the perfect image for a Watercolor Floral challenge, so I inked it up with VersaMark ink, embossed it with white EP, and colored it with Zigs and a water brush. It was hard to see what I was coloring at first, and really fun to see it come to "life" as I added color and water. The inlaid sentiment is cut with PTI's Wet Paint dies.

Please head on over to the MarkerPOP Blog and see the gorgeous inspiration by the Design Team and Guest Designers. There are some wonderful prizes to be had. You can see all the details in the challenge post. Grab your watercolors and brushes and play along!

I am also playing at:

Curtain Call April 15

Showers and/or Flowers 

Supplies

Stamps: Hero Arts Marion's Bouquet

Ink: VersaMark

Paper: Strathmore Bristol Paper, PTI Lavender Moon and True Black

Accessories: Filigree White EP, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Zig Detailer Water color Brush, PTI Wet Paint dies

Sunshine Shaker

Time for another game at the AAA Challenge Blog. Our theme this time is CAS  Shaker Cards (Clean & Simple Style only). 

Our sponsor for this game is Stampendous.

The first place winner will receive a prize from this wonderful company AND the chance to be a Guest Designer for a future AAA Cards Challenge.

This was one of those cards that came out completely different than the way it began. I reworked the background on this one. At first I used a white background sprayed with gold Glimmer Mist, but it did not sing loudly enough.  I keep a little box filled with watercoloring experiments, and this background panel was in there. Nothing but blue skies... it was perfect. So I de-constructed and re-constructed the card with this wonderful water color background, and voila!

The AAA DT has come up with some truly wonderful creations, so please go over the AAA Cards Challenge Blog and give them some love.  Then get to work on your own CAS Shaker card - Clean & Simple is the key!

I am linking my card to the following challenges:

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Simplicity

My CAS design.

Water, Water, Everywhere

My watercolor background.

The Mixed Media Card Challenge #22 {Sunshine}

Thanks so much for coming by. Hope your day is full of sunshine!

Let The Earth Rejoice

In creating this Easter card for my mother, I blended a rainbow of distress inks on a white panel, and topped it another white panel die cut with PTI's Harlequin Cover Plate. The sentiment, which is from a Verve set that I have had for years: Everlasting Life, is heat embossed on vellum.

I am linking to the following challenges:

Curtain Call : Rainbow

A Blog Named Hero March Challenge : Use rainbow colors.

Mod Squad Challenge : Springtime.

Warm Winter Wishes

Happy New Year! Time for the first AAA Cards Challenge of 2016! 

Our theme for Game #55 is: Glitter!!!! Use glitter on your newly created project and link up at AAA Cards. The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate from our wonderful sponsor for this week's challenge: Stampendous!

Winter has finally arrived here in the northeastern part of the US. Winter+glitter=snowflakes in my mind for this project. I used glitter to highlight the word "winter" in my sentiment which is done with Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold and Seasons stamps. "Winter" is stamped in VersaMark and embossed with SU Heat & Stick powder with glitter sprinkled on top. I combined several blue, pink and purple Twinkling H2Os on a piece of watercolor paper and die cut these wonderful Paper Smooches snowflakes.  Very simple, but the glittery word really adds a touch which indeed makes the whole thing sparkle.

Head on over to the AAA Cards Challenge Blog and see what my wonderful DT partners have created. Pull out that glitter from your stash and see what sparkly, fun project you can come up with. Link up and play along with us. Maybe you will be the lucky winner of a $20 gift certificate from Stampendous!

I also linking up and playing the following challenges:

Curtain Call - Frozen

Mod Squad Challenge Blog where the challenge this week is: 
Anything Goes with at least one die cut.

Cards In Envy - Let It Snow

Thank you so very much for visiting today. As always, I appreciate your comments. Have a wonderful day.

Starry, Starry Celebration

It's time for a new challenge from AAA Cards. Our theme for Game 43 is STARS, and this inspiration photo is such a lovely one to get your creative juices flowing.  As we are celebrating Independence Day here in the US this weekend, I have been in a red, white, and blue mode all week in my creating.

My take on the STARS theme is very much inspired by the Fourth of July holiday, and by all of the luscious stencil and/or paste creations from our last challenge. Our players really outdid themselves! Thanks to all who played our challenge.

For AAA Game 43, I used a smooshed panel left over from another project earlier in the week. I put it together with all of the other inspiration and came up with my creation:

I love this watercolor panel done with smooshed distress inks. Then in the paste mode, I colored white embossing paste with SU Real Red ink and applied to Tim Holtz's Speckles stencil. I wanted a pop of red on the muted background, but when I was finished with it I wondered if it would bring blood spatters to mind when viewed by others...  I think it looks great but I hope it does not look gory and crime scene-esque to you - LOL!!!

Moving on,  my star die cut is from another project earlier this week as well.  I popped it up, and finished the card off with Paper Smooches "celebrate" word die cut from silver glitter paper, and added some enamel stars.

I am also linking my card to:

This week's Seize The Birthday Challenge: Anything Goes Birthday with an optional twist of red, white and blue.

Curtain Call's Month-long Challenge with a theme of "Celebrate".

Addicted to CAS Challenge with a PATRIOTIC theme.

Thank you so much for stopping in today.  Your comments make bring joy to my day. 

Curtain Call Guest Designer - Me!

photo source: scrap-pygovka.blogspot.com

When my card was selected as "The LEAD" for the Curtain Call Totally Tassel Challenge, I was over the moon! The LEAD wins a guest designer spot for a future Curtain Call challenge. When I saw the inspiration photo, I flipped!  (Pun intended). I currently work as a school librarian, and Thursday is the beginning of my summer hiatus. At 12:30 PM on Thursday, I will slip into my flip flops and spend every moment I can at the beach, or "down the shore" as we say in New Jersey. This challenge is absolutely perfect for me right now! Here is my take on the Curtain Call Flip Flops Challenge:

Make sure you visit each of the designers' blogs for more inspiration!

Flip Flops Designers

Stephanie Lanzalotto, Guest Designer
Amy Kolling
Amy Sheffer
Amy Tsuruta
Kim Singdahlsen
Laurie Willison
Lisa Henke
Marisa Ritzen
Maureen Plut
Monika Davis
Sarah Gough
Sheri Gilson
Stacey Schafer
Tenia Nelson
Tracey McNeely

Follow us!

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge Facebook Page

Curtain Call Pinterest Boards

Stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge:  Flip Flops for the challenge details and to play along with us!

Happy Easter

The jelly beans in this week's Curtain Call Challenge put me in mind of this gorgeous Easter Eggs BG stamp from Peddler's Pack that I have had for 8 years have never used. The Retro Sketches sketch for this week was perfect to showcase my image.  And it goes without saying that this creation is a perfect fit for Darnell Krauss's NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge.  Darnell is a very talented crafter/blogger/comedienne.  Stop by her blog for a truly delightful experience, and play her NBUS Challenge

I embossed my image with gold EP, then sponged it with Distress Inks.  I then colored bits and pieces of the eggs with water color pencils using the brush to pencil tip method.  The stitched banner is from Lil Inkers, and the image (another NBUS item) is from PTI's Egg Hunt set.

Thank you so much for coming by for a visit. I always appreciate your views and your comments. Have a great day.

Lucky

My card below worked for many challenges this week with St. Paddy's Day coming up - lots o' green, gold, luck, shine...  I chose three challenges for my inspiration for this card.  I started with  Curtain Call which has a theme of "Lucky".  Here is my take:

Pals Paper Arts Challenge #242 is a color challenge with the colors green, gold and black.  I went with that and threw in a touch of rainbow just for fun.  I cut the word "lucky" in 4 different papers and I wasn't totally happy with any of them until I tried a scrap of watercolor paper on which I had painted rainbow colors for my AAA card last week.  That was perfect. I used all of the die cuts I had previously cut to build up the "ky" because the "luc" sat higher on the shaker.  The gold layer gave it a nice gold tinge.

Pretty Pink Posh's first challenge launched this week, and the theme is Sparkle & Shine.  I found these fun shamrock and gold coin confetties recently.  They are very sparkly & shiny, so there you go.  Perfect for this challenge.  Of course, I ended up with a shaker card because that is what I do with confetti these days.  I love it.

I am on a bit of a roll lately.  It's because of all the snow and bitter cold we have had - let me get in my craft space more than usual.  Thank you so much for coming by.  Have a wonderful day.

Valentine Hugs

I seem to have shaker cards on my mind lately.  I checked out a variety of challenges today for inspiration, and I took a little of this and a little of that from some supplies that I recently acquired to come up with this creation.  I am so happy with the way it came out.  Click on the pictures below to access the challenge blogs that inspired my card today.

Thanks so much for coming by.

Supplies
Stamps - PTI Four Square and Heart Squared, Simon Says Stamp Sending and Wishing.
Ink - Versa Mark, Versa Fine Onyx Black.
Paper - Gina K Pure Luxury White and Black Onyx.
Accessories - Simon Says Stamp Sending Die,  PTI Heart Squared Die, Square Nestabilities Dies, black and red embossing powder, heat gun, foam tape, heart confetti.