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. 

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.

Explosive!

 This week's CASology cue is "Fireworks".  

It occurred to me that I do not have any images of fireworks in my collection, and I could not think of a clever take on the cue that did not include fireworks. Then as I was visiting blogs this morning, I found THIS card by Christie from SchnauzerCrafts Creations that was made with Memorial Day in mind, and I decided to CASE it for this challenge using this weeks' Freshly Make Sketch for my layout.

Stamps are The Alley Way ~ KA-POW.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  If you are celebrating Fourth of July, have a great one. I am so happy to be going to a BBQ that includes swimming in a gorgeous pool!

Be well.

Let Freedom Ring

This coming Thursday, July 4th, is a holiday here in the United States. Next to Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July is my favorite. It commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which announced the separation of America from Great Britain. It is a day to celebrate the United States, its freedom, and to display patriotism and unity as a country. 

I used 3 challenges as inspiration to create this card. 

This week's CASology cue word immediately brought Independence Day celebrating to mind. (There are some really clever interpretations of the cue in the gallery for this challenge. Go take a look.)

I used Freshly Made Sketches #92 For my layout.

CAS-ual Fridays theme this week is "Hunger Games" - CFC107: Create a Clean And Simple project that features at least one arrow.  I used an arrow die from the MFT Die-namics collection - Accent it Labels and Tabs.

Stamped images are from Verve's American Hero. Images on the left are from one sheet of Authentique DP from their Glory collection.

Thank you very much for stopping in today. I really appreciate your visit.

Happy 4th of July

Today is the 4th of July - Independence Day - the national day of the United States.  Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States.  Canada Day was July 1. Canada Day also means fireworks and the year's biggest national party.  Lots of patriotic celebrating out there!

Yesterday, I was pondering what my Less Is More challenge creation might be for this week.  While looking through blogs posting some comments, I saw THIS creation  by Isha of New Ideas.  Isha was one of the winners of the CAS-ual Fridays CFC8 challenge last week.  Her creation was so striking to me.  I had it in my mind when I saw this week's Less Is More challenge #22, which is to use shades of blue in your CAS creation.  Then I ran across a blog that is new to me - Stampin Royalty.  Their challenge #78 this week is a theme challenge to Go Patriotic. 

With these two challenges in mind, and my admiration for Isha's creation,  I came up with a CASE of Isha's card with several shades of blue and a patriotic theme.  I used MFT's Die-namics Star Border to cut star borders in six shades of blue - Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point and Tempting Turquoise.  I ran them through my Xyron to apply adhesive to the backs.  I made french knots on the left-most star of each border with The Twinery's Maraschino Twine.  The sentiment and large star are from Verve's American Hero collection.  The large star is colored with Copics and accented with a gold atyou Spica glitter pen.  The white panel is mounted on Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler.  I am thankful to Isha for her inspiration, and so glad I found another fabulous blog to play with.

Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping in!

Sweet Simple Fourth

This card is a combination of three things that came together perfectly. I have had this wonderful set from Papertrey Ink for a while - Vintage Picnic. I just love it. Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge this week is to focus on using STARS on our projects in any way we choose. I decided to go with fourth of July stars, and then I pondered my layout. Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #75 brought it all together for me.

I just loved working with the stars, the stamps and the sketch! My card is 5 1/4" square.

Here are my ingredients:

Stamps~Papertrey Ink's Vintage Picnic, Verve's Starstruck (stamped on the inside with River Rock ink).

Ink~Memento Rich Cocoa, Versafine Black Onyx, Ranger Antique Linen Distress ink, River Rock.

Paper~River Rock, Riding hood Red, Ninah Solar White, Soft Sky, Western Sky DSP (SU retired).

Accessories~Nestabilities, Copic markers, white mini brads, Dimensionals, glue dots, natural twine, buttons, SU Modern Label Punch, Sponge, SU striped 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.

Thanks for stopping in and happy Fourth of July weekend!