No Grit, No Pearl.

This Mermaid's Tail set from Ellen Hutson by Julie Ebersole is getting a lot of use in my craft room. I LOVE it. I made this card for a craft gathering where each participant created 2 similar cards to share. It was a wonderful day. I used some techniques that were new to me on this one.  If you look closely, you can see some feint embossing on the DOX background. I used the stencil from Hero Arts May Card Kit for the embossing. This is a new technique to me, and I am using it frequently right now. I also used water to stamp the sea bubbles (Designs By Ryn) on the DOX ink background. I LOVE the effect. There is so much wonderful color and texture on this card. It's a keeper... or maybe a sender...

I am playing at:

Inkspirational Challenge #140 - I chose the colors and sea theme as my inspiration.

Watercooler Wednesday #130 - Feminine Anything Goes

Pretty Poinsettias

August is already in full swing, and it is time for the Happy Little Stampers August Christmas Challenge. The theme, as always, is Anything Goes with a twist. This month, the twist is to use a poinsettia(s) on your project.

The winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the Happy Little Stampers Shop! Check out all the details HERE.

I went with Paper Smooches Poinsettia and Merry Christmas Wise Dies and some SU Designer Paper that has been sleeping in my stash for years. I used Gold Enamel Dots from Happy Little Stampers for the centers of the poinsettias.

December 25, 2017 is only 143 days away. Please head on over the the Happy Little Stampers August Christmas Challenge and see what the Design Team has created for your inspiration. Come play with us and work on your Christmas/Holiday greetings so you can enjoy the Holidays when they arrive!

I am also playing at:

Addicted To Stamps And More #253 - Holiday 

CFC179 - Dies Only

CCC#18

SOS #314 - Countdown To Christmas

Muse: Christmas Visions - MCV83 - CASE Cornelia

Kraft background and top left to bottom right placement of image and sentiment.

Adventure

Time for a new challenge at Time Out Challenges. This one is a Home Sweet Home Challenge: A photo inspiration challenge with a homey twist! Here is the inspiration:

Our Guest Desighner is Trinia from My Crafting Closet. Trinia's work is awesome. She has a wonderful CAS style. Take a stroll through her blog - you will love it.

Our wonderful sponsor is STAMPlorations. Challenge winner will receive a gift certificate to the Stamplorations store.

So for my card, the map in the inspiration photo caught my eye. I don't have map-themed stamps or paper in my stash, so I went on an internet search for ideas and found these wonderful free tag images on Call Me Victorian: Vintage Inspired Digital Content.

I stamped my kraft card base with an old Stampin' Up background stamp: "Sanded", with VersaMark ink. I punched holes in the tags, added some blue twine and glued them to my card base. I then heat embossed the word "adventure" from Winnie & Walter's The Big, The Bold And Fun with SSS Rose Gold EP to finish off the card.

Please head on over to the Time Out Challenges Blog and see what our Guest Designer and wonderful Design Team has created for your inspiration. Then see where that inspiration takes you and join us for Time Out Challenge #89!

I am also playing at:

The Mail Room #66 - Maps/Coordinates

Just Us Girls #404 - Something Old and/or Something New or you could use both.

The SU BG stamp has been in my stash FOREVER, and the Winnie & Walter "adventure" stamp is from a set that I have had for a couple of years, and never opened. The tags are new!

Muse – Anything Goes

CWS#17 - Masculine

          

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

Turn Your Face To The Sun

Time Out #88 "Inspired By Words" Challenge has begun:

'If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely' From The Twits by Road Dahl.

These words immediately brought a few things in my craft stash to mind. I combined them using Distress Inks and VersaFine Onyx Black ink to create my card.

Woman INKognito fromVisible Image.

Sentiment from STAMPlorations TYPOGRAFIA

RAYS Layering Stencil from Tim Holtz

Toni Maddox of Frankie Helps Stamp is our Guest Designer for this challenge. Toni's blog is full of wonderful creativity and inspiration. You are sure to be inspired when you visit her blog, and you are sure to smile and chuckle a bit as well. Toni has as a good a sense of humor as she is a talented crafter!

This challenge runs until Wednesday, July 19th at 5:00 PM (BST)/Noon (EST). Please head over to the Time Out Challenge Blog and see what the Design Team has created for your inspiration. Think about the quote and see how it inspires you to create something of your own to link up nad play with us at Time out!

Sending You Love & Hugs

A new month of challenges has started at Happy Little Stampers, and today is day one of the July Anything Goes With Dies Challenge. Yes! It's Anything Goes as long as you include die cuts on your project.

My card is a CASE of Cathy Zielske's (CZ Design) Polygon Watercolor Magic card for which she posted a tutorial on her blog HERE. I used Winnie & Walter's Cover Model: Multifaceted Cutaway for my project. Instead of spraying the back of the die cut with adhesive and gluing each watercolored piece into place, I cut a piece of Stick It the size of the die, peeled away the covering on one side, and adhered it to the back of the die cut. That created a glued surface for the watercolored cut outs. I ran the completed panel through my Cuddlebug, peeled the backing off, and adhered the whole inlaid die panel to my card base. 

The sentiment from SSS Sending And Wishing is embossed with white EP and die cut with Fishtail Flags from My Favorite Things.

Please head over to the Happy Little Stampers July Anything Goes With Dies Challenge to see what wonderful inspiration the Design Team has for you. Get your dies out, create a project of your own, and share it in the HLS July Anything Goes With Dies Gallery for a chance to win a $20.00 gift voucher to the Happy Little Stampers Store! You can check out the challenge details for the Anything Goes With Dies Challenge, and all of the other Happy Little Stampers Challenges HERE.

New Beginnings

Time for a new challenge at Time Out Challenges! Challenge #87 is CASE challenge, and our wonderful and talented CASE designer is Cornelia of Stempel Spass. Cornelia's style is fresh, clean and fun. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a stroll through her blog. You can not help but be inspired!!

Here is Cornelia's piece for us to CASE:

I was very literal in my CASE of Cornelia's card. As soon as I saw it, I was reminded of Tim Holtz's Bird Crazy birds and and Dylusions sentiments, so I went that way. I so love the expression on this prticular bird's face. Cornelia's bird looks very confident. Mine looks a bit aprehensive, but he'll be OK.

Our Guest Designer for the challenge and the reminder post is  Pooja of Reusing Cards And Quilling. Pooja's work is awesome, and we are thrilled to have her joining us.

Happy Little Stampers is the challenge sponsor. The winner will receive a $15 gift voucher to the Happy Little Stampers Store.

Please check out the DT inspiration pieces on the Time Out Challenges Blog. I love to see the way CASE challenges awaken creativity. How will Cornelia's design inspire you?