More Stamp-a-faire 2017 - Iron, Wool, & Bronze

Hello friends.  Slowly but surely working my way through as many of the challenges from this past weekend that I can from Papertrey Ink's Stamp-a-faire.  For this post I have 3 Christmas cards to share with you, using Yana Smakula's Iron tutorial, Debbie Olson's Wool tutorial, and Jessica Frost-Ballas's Bronze tutorial.

Yana made an absolutely beautiful Anniversary card using metal, and I just switched mine up to a Christmas card using strips of Limeade Ice, Simply Chartreuse, & Pure Poppy cardstock, and the Rustic Wreath die that was embossed 3 times with silver to create my metal piece.  CAS and I love the way it turned out!

LOVED Debbie Olson's tutorial and all the fun and beautiful wool "cookies" she made...too, too cute!!  I didn't have any Fine Linen or Kraft wool to make my cookies, so I used Fine Linen cardstock and then made the "frosting" from the white wool I had with the dies from Sweet Holiday Wishes.  I even sponged a little kraft ink around the cookies to give them the appearance of being "lightly browned".  The sentiment is also from the same set, and my background is Pure Poppy DSP.

My last card uses Jessica Frost-Ballas's idea's with mixing gold and copper embossing powders to make bronze.  I embossed the background with a script stamp, and then added my die cut snowflakes (Fancy Flakes) and sentiment (Wonderful Words: Holiday Die Collection) that were also embossed.  I used Ocean Tides cardstock for my background and snowflakes and sentiment.  A little hard to see in my photo but I pop dotted the "peace" so it gives a little more dimension to the card since it is all in the same colors basically.  Love the way this turned out and was totally inspired by Jessica's GORGEOUS card!!

You can check out Yana's beautiful card and all the other IRON cards right HERE.

You can check out Debbie's fun and cute WOOL cookies and all the other WOOL cards right HERE.

You can check out Jessica's gorgeous card and all the other BRONZE cards right HERE.

Stamp-a-faire 2017 - 5th Anniversary Tradition: Wood

Still plugging away and now up to the 5th Anniversary Tradition: Wood challenge with Natasha Trupp for Papertrey Ink's Stamp-a-faire.

Absolutely LOVED Natasha's card, so I just changed up the colors and the sentiment and CASE'd her card!

I started with a piece of Honey Nut cardstock and an embossing folder that I inked with Honey Nut and Cocoa Bean inks...reminds me of a real rich golden honey oak.  One of my leafs (the blue one) is from the Leave It Be stamp set, and the other two are from the Leaf Prints set.  My sentiment like Natasha's is from the Wet Paint set.  And now I have another masculine card for my stash...yeah!!

You can see Natasha's beautiful card and all the other "wood" themed cards in the gallery right HERE.

  

Stamp-a-faire 2017 - 3rd Anniversary Tradition: Leather

Hello friends.  Still woefully behind in playing along with all the challenges from this past weekend's Stamp-a-faire over at Papertrey Ink, but plugging along and playing with Ashley's "leather" challenge.  Did not have any glycerin, but tried it anyway, and it came out ok.  The cardstock ended up being very fragile and I think the glycerin would have helped hold it together better, but it is what it is!

I made my card very CAS which is perfect for a masculine card anyway, and came up with this:

After my paper dried, I blended some Cocoa Bean ink lightly over it and then die cut it using the Mix & Mat: Postal die and then used Initial Sentiments: Birthday and Cocoa Bean ink to stamp the sentiment.  I added a layer of Honey Nut cardstock to my card base and the "leather" layer to the top, and then finished with some wooden stars and a piece of twine.

You can check out Ashley's card and all the other "leather" cards in the gallery HERE.

Stamp-A-Faire 2017 - 1st Anniversary Tradition: Paper

Laura Bassen is hosting the 3rd Stamp-a-faire challenge over at Papertrey Ink and would like us to dig into those scrap piles of cardstock that we all have.  Every so often I think about throwing the scraps away so I can get more organized, but I never get past the "thinking" about it stage...love my scraps!!  And what could be more perfect for using up scraps than one of the quilted sets?!  I used Quilted: Autumn and came up with these 2 simple cards:

And guess what?!  I still have more scraps just from die cutting these out, so I have enough to make a couple more cards so I have a little note set I can give away as a gift to one of my quilting friends!  My card base was die cut from the Don't Forget To Write kit and fit the quilt die cut perfectly!

You can find all the other cards made from scrap piles HERE.  

 

Stamp-A-Faire 2017 - 1st Anniversary Tradition: Paper

Rebecca Luminarias is hosting the "paper" challenge over at Papertrey Ink's Stamp-a-faire, and shows wonderful embellishments you can make with paper for your cards.  I loved her tassels, but since I didn't have any of the end caps she used, I decided to try my hand at the paper strip bows.

My granddaughter Addy starts pre-school in 2 weeks, and I thought it would be fun to send her a card using the Pencil Me In stamp set and the Just The Jar: Quart stamp set.  I used a piece of Raspberry Fizz DSP for my background and then embossed the jar on vellum and glued it to my background, leaving the top open so I could insert the pencils I stamped and cut out.  (thought Addy would get a kick out of being able to remove the pencils from the jar!)  I added my paper strip bow which I absolutely love how it turned out, and also a Tiny Tag sentiment.

You can check out all the cards with paper embellishments right HERE.

Stampafaire 2017 - Take 10 Challenge

Hello friends.  This weekend is the annual Stamp-A-Faire over at Papertrey Ink with all kinds of fun challenges every few hours!  My husbands birthday is the 23rd, and we always do a big family birthday/end of Summer party, so it always falls on the Stamp-A-Faire weekend!  But anyway, the partying is done with my family, so it's time to get caught up and party in my stamp room!

The first challenge is a Take 10 challenge, where you have 10 minutes to decide on which inspiration photo you're going to go with, 10 minutes to gather your supplies, and 10 minutes to stamp and put your card together...so basically a 30 minute card!

Here's the inspiration photo I chose:

 Here's my supplies:

And here's my card:

I worked with Fine Linen and Pinfeather cardstocks and Gran's Garden stamp set for my background and then embossed on vellum the Year of Psalms: July stamp set and then die cut it using the Brushed Off Rectangle die.  A little bit of twine helped secure the vellum to my card front.

You can check out all the other 10 minute challenge cards right HERE.

Make It Monday #295 - Z Fold Card

Hello friends.  Ashley is up with a FUN tutorial on this week's Make It Monday challenge and shows us how to make a Z fold card.

Would have LOVED to copy Ashley's card piece by piece as it is absolutely adorable, but I held myself back and went with an Autumn theme, which is what a lot of us went with when I look at the gallery!  I'm not tired of Summer, but I really do love Fall and the cooler temps!!

Had a lot of FUN using the Sunflower Harvest, Pumpkin Patch, Kraft DSP, cat die, & Banner Style dies on this card.  Oh, and used the Cover Up: Quatrefoil stamp on the back panel too.

Sorry the lighting is so funky on this one, but photographing a Z fold card is a bit tricky!  And here's a close up:

This was so much fun I think I might just have to make another one!  Still lots of time to play along, so check out Ashley's beautiful card and great video HERE and make your own fun Z fold card!

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!!

SOA - Counting Blessings

Hello friends.  Received the newest Stamp Of Approval (SOA) box this weekend and had fun making a few cards with it!

I blended a couple DOX inks (Spiced Marmalade & Wild Honey) and then spritzed the Marching Leaves stencil and laid it over the blended background for a few minutes and then let dry.  Next I added the Lattice Frame die to make a trellis for my flowers and leaves that are from the Bloomin' Bouquet stamp set.  Used the little banner die that also came with this newest SOA box and embossed the sentiment from one of the previous SOA boxes (I believe it was the Lovely Notes Collection).  Here's a closer up view:

Love, LOVE all the stamps, dies, and stencils in this latest box!  I thought the last box was the best, but now I'm thinking it might be this set...

I also CASE'd Catherine for a couple quick birthday cards:

You can't get much more simple than these 2 cards and they are great for masculine birthdays and would also be perfect for thank you's and sympathy cards too.  I just water colored 3 rectangles for each card (Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors) and then placed the die cut leaves over each rectangle and stamped the birthday greeting (PTI's Keep It Simple: Birthday).  Easy peasy!!

Hubby's on vacation this week, so not sure how much stamping I'll get done this week...amazing how your time isn't your own when they're around, isn't it?!!  

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!

 

CAS Watercolour August 2017 CASE-ing Bonnie

Hello friends.  Using SALT is the challenge this month over at CAS Watercolour, and I have a 2nd card to share after seeing Bonnie's GORGEOUS cards (HERE), where she mixed her salt with water and then used it as a wash on her wet, watercoloured cards.  They were so pretty that I just had to try it for myself!

I started by embossing with a Penny Black stamp (First Blush) with black embossing powder, and then watercoloured with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors in red and pink.  While it was still wet I used a wash of the water and table salt mixed together on the panel.  Not a whole lot of control using this technique, so the crystals do their magic where THEY want to go!  I still love how this turned out though!!  I mounted my panel to a white card base and also added a white die cut frame using PTI's Infinity Frames.  A simple black banner embossed in white with the sentiment from PTI's Winter Woods and a pink enamel dot finished off this simple card.  Thanks so much Bonnie for inspiring me to try this fun and beautiful technique...I loved it!!  :0)

This challenge goes till the 24th and there is so much inspiration from the DT and the gallery to inspire you to try these techniques using salt and your watercolours.  You can check it all out right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!

Create Along With Us August 2017

Hello friends.  It's release week over at Papertrey Ink and time for the Create Along With Us challenge!  With all the new Fall stamps and dies coming out, I was blown away by all the inspiration the DT created, and definitely had a hard time just choosing one card to re-create!  The one that I kept going back to though was this one by Dawn McVey:

Obviously I didn't have Dawn's new dotted stencil or the new Beautiful Berries: Fall stamp set, but I improvised with a stencil I already had and used the Beautiful Berries: Spring set instead and came up with a pretty close re-creation!

Pretty close, huh?!  I loved the look of using Pure Poppy for the stenciled dots on the Raspberry Fizz card front...red and pink definitely do work together!!  I used a little strip of Orange Zest DSP to ground the bottom of the card and then built my little bouquet using Gran's Garden and Beautiful Berries: Spring.  And I love that I found a very similar sentiment in the Bloomin Button Bits set.  Dawn has a wonderful way with putting colors together that I normally wouldn't try and I think this card is a perfect example!

You can check out all the inspiration from this month and what every one else is inspired by right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!

CAS MIX UP AUGUST 2017

Hello friends.  This month it's all about using Alcohol Inks at the CAS Mix Up Challenge.

This was one of those challenges that I had the card idea in my head, but it just wasn't translating well onto my cardstock...or Yupo paper to be exact!  I was using two shades of green and a purple for my Alcohol inks and when the purple touched the greens, it was turning a muddy brown...yuck!  I did manage to use one that looked ok, but the card I liked the best was when I decided to use Bonnie's technique (found HERE) that she's calling an alcohol wrap.  I cut open a cellophane bag and added a few drops of my green and purple alcohol inks, smooshed my Yupo paper in it, and then added a scrunched up piece of plastic wrap on top and left it to dry.  I loved the look and came up with this card:

I used a SSS Circle Of Leaves die on my top layer and then cut my Yupo paper with the same die and inlaid the pieces together.  A simple embossed banner (PTI's Keep It Simple: Thinking Of You) popped up and some black & white bakers twine finished off this card.

A closer up view so you can see a little more of the detail in the background...fun technique and so cool looking!  Love it!!  (Thanks Bonnie!!)

And here is the first card I made where I just dropped the alcohol ink onto the Yupo paper:

It's not a terrible card and the colors are a bit more vibrant, but I still like my other card better.  The sentiment on this card is from PTI's Beautiful Berries: Spring.

There's still lots of time to play in this challenge, so check out all the beautiful inspiration from Loll and Bonnie and the DT, and then play along.  You can find it all right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!

Make It Monday #294 - Monochrome Color Pop

Hello friends.  Stephanie is up this week with a fun and lighthearted video on making a Monochromatic Color Pop card for the Make It Monday challenge.

I've kind of been in a Christmas mood this week and also wanted to use my new Mountain Majesty Cover Plate die, so I created my monochromatic card with the pop of color coming from the sentiment like Stephanie did.

I love the look of blacks & grays with a pop of red, and thought that would be fitting for this night time mountain scene.  I blended some light gray (Smoky Slate) ink on my card base front and then splattered with water to give the look of a snowy sky.  For the cover plate die, I masked off the sentiment area and then blended a combination of Smokey Shadow and black inks over the mountain range and frame and then splattered that with some white acrylic paint mixed with a little bit of water.  Here's a closer up view:

 I used Pure Poppy and Scarlet Jewel inks to give an ombre effect for my sentiment from the O Holy Night set, and then added a few iridescent sequins to finish off my card.

Make sure you check out Stephanie's beautiful card and great video and then play along.  You can find all the info right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!

 

CAS Watercolour August 2017 - SALT

Hello friends.  Made my first Christmas card this Summer (gasp!!  I need to get crackin'...December will be here before I know it!!) for the latest challenge over at CAS Watercolour.  This month the challenge is all about SALT!

I've tried using salt once before without any success, and tried it again for this challenge with a big, fat FAIL!!

I used some blues and purples from my Kuretake Gansai Tambi water colors and coarse sea salt, and nothing happened!  At least nothing that resembled what the DT was showing on their cards!  Grrrrr!!  OK, guess it's time to watch the videos to see what I'm doing wrong!!  After watching a few of them, I think I may not have used enough water, and also, I used the textured side of a piece of TH water color paper.  For my next try, I used more water and a smooth heavyweight cardstock, and came up with this:

 

I used a combination of coarse sea salt and regular table salt and actually got some crystal like design on my cardstock this time...yeah!!  The purple shows up a lot better IRL too, and I actually really like the way this card turned out!  I cut my water colored piece in half (so I have enough for another card!) and also cut a die cut snowflake (Memory Box) in half, and used half on the water colored piece and the other half on the card base.  I used a piece of craft foam under my water colored layer to pop it up for some dimension, and then finished with a embossed sentiment from Neat and Tangled's Bright Baubles and a few iridescent jewels from Lucy's Little Things.  Once the water colored panel was done, the rest of the card came together really quickly!

I watercolored, die cut, stamped and embossed for this challenge.  

LOTS of time to play along with this months challenge, and also lots of GEORGOUS inspiration from the DT to get you inspired, so check out the fun right HERE and play along!

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!!

 

JUGS #405 - Word Week: Shower

Hello friends.  After seeing Darnell's really cute bunny with an umbrella card for this weeks challenge over at Just Us Girls, I knew I had to play along!

And I had a new (to me) Pure Innocence stamp set Showering You With Love (MFT) that I hadn't inked up yet, so this was a perfect challenge to play in!  Here's what I came up with:

Isn't this such a sweet image?!  I water colored my background with my Kuretake Gansai Tambe paints to look like a rain shower and then added my fussy cut little girl image that I had colored with my Copics (for the skin tones) and paper pieced the rest with Raspberry Fizz DSP (PTI).  I used a couple stacked pop dots behind the umbrella to give it some dimension.  

Still a few days to play along, so join in the FUN right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by...I love it when you do!

Color Throwdown Challenge #454

Hello friends.  Hadn't had a chance to play with my new SU! Daisy Delight set yet, and the colors for this weeks Color Throwdown challenge were perfect!

Here's what I came up with:

Isn't this a FUN little card?!  I embossed the Daisy's in white on kraft cardstock, and then cut them in half and then glued them together to make a fuller half Daisy.  I also used my bone folder to curl some of the Daisy petals to give a bit more definition.  For the centers and the leaves I had to use the new in color Lemon Lime Twist from SU!...much brighter than the green shown in the inspiration photo, but I love the happy feeling it gives this card!  The little Mason jar (SU! from Perfectly Preserved - retired) was embossed in white on vellum.  The little tag is from PTI's Stemmed Statements and the twine is SU!.  The gingham DSP is also PTI.  Here's a closer up view of those happy blooms:

There's still a few days left to play along with this challenge, so check out all the great inspiration from the DT and then play along right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!  :0)