Let Hope Anchor Your Soul

AAA Cards new game #59 is up. This time, the challenge is EMBOSSING. The winner will receive a $20.00 gift certificate from our wonderful sponsor:

I find that I often look at things with an eye for how I can transform what I see onto a card. Last summer I saw this beach bag behind someone's chair and snapped a pic. (My kids are horrified when I do this, but they are used to it).

It's been on my mind, and I decided to use it for my inspiration for this challenge.  I tried something new (to me) and used a stencil to emboss the red stripes. I masked a square on top of the stencil, on top of the Kraft card base and embossed with red EP.

The stitched square border is popped up to frame the embossed square. I embossed the ocean symbol in aqua EP and placed it on the banner die with the sentiment which is also popped up.  I needed something else in aqua color for balance, so I added the twine to the anchor.

I am linking to the following challenges:

As You See It #125. Highlight a sentiment that speaks to you. This one is so appropriate for so many situations. A message of hope and encouragement. I use it often.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Materials used:
Paper: PTI Kraft, SU Not Quite Navy, SU Brushed Silver, Neenah Solar White.
Stamps: SSS Sail Away
Accessories: SSS Sail Away Dies, SSS Diagonal Stripe Stencil, WOW Cable Car Red EP, Zing Aqua EP, PTI Square Shaker Shapes, Paper Smooches Anchor Die, Twinery twine, 3M Foam Tape.
Ink: VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black.

Please head on over to the AAA Cards Challenge Blog and check out what my teammates have created to inspire you. Leave them a little love, then join us for our Embossing challenge.

Thank you for stopping by today. As always, your comments are truly appreciated.

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.

YOU are awesome.

Clean & Simple Stamping FTL181

As I was thinking about what I could hang on a string for Clean & Simple FTL 181, the clothesline from PTI's Hanging Out kept calling me.  While perusing blogs, I saw that the Passion For Papertrey challenge this week is to make a card, or other paper-crafting project, using black, a white and a pop of colour.  I thought about blackbirds sitting on a wire, and THEN I saw a cardinal in my yard.  It all came together with this creation.  I love that bold red birdie standing out among the rest...

Supply list:
Paper-PTI White.
Stamps-PTI    Hanging Out, Little Bitty Bird, Simply You.
Ink-PTI True Black, VersaMark.
Accessories-Twinery baker's twine, Filigree white embossing powder, Little Bitty Bird dies, Dimensionals, Tombo Mono Multi Liquid Glue, corner rounder.

Thank you for coming by today.

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!