12 Kits of Occasions - Periwinkle Party

Hello friends.  I am beyond excited to tell you all that I am a member of the FABULOUS 12 Kits of Occasions team now!  This is a great group of 12 gals that each take a month and put together a kit with a theme, mail it out to each of the members and then post the creations they've come up with on the last day of the month!  I have been following this group for quite a few years now and have even played along as a Guest Designer a few times, but nothing compares to actually being a member of this group!  Michele Ferguson has decided to step down because of time constraints, and while I can never fill her shoes completely, I sure am going to have fun trying!

Michelle Leone is the team member who put together this months kit, and it is wonderful!  What a FANTASTIC kit to start with for my first time...my cards practically made themselves because of all the wonderful and beautiful elements Michelle added to her kit!  Take a look at what we all got to work with:

Michelle used DCWV's Serene and Elegant paper collection with the beautiful shades of blue & coral, lovely gold accents, pretty patterns, and more to start out her kit, and then added lots of images and sentiments for us all to work with!

My 1st card came together in minutes...love, LOVE the bright coral colored flower (Altenew's Hope) against the white Bold Borders: Polka Dots die (PTI) and also PTI's Penned Elegance II for the birthday sentiment.

Isn't that DSP gorgeous?!!  I used one of PTI's To The Point Edgers dies along with some of the beautiful ribbon Michelle included in the kit to outline the pointed edge.  I stacked the 3 "hope" dies together for dimension and added one of the Delicates dies and a few of the gems also included in the kit to finish this card.

Another quick and easy card using more of the DSP, ribbon, and die cut thank you and flower Michelle included.

Had to make a fun shaker card with the adorable squirrel holding a flower and adding the gems...used more of the DSP with one of my Pierced Feature Frames (PTI) to frame it out.

My last card came together just as easily as the rest with more of the beautiful DSP and those lovely ribbons in the blue and coral...and of course the other 2 Delicates die cuts and the Penned Elegance sentiment embossed in gold.

And here they are ALL together!  I could so easily have kept going but wanted to save some of the kit contents because I had learned from guesting a few times that I would see what the other gals had done and wished I had saved some supplies to CASE!  Make sure you stop by to see what the other gals did with their kits (HERE)...I know you will amazed as this was such an AWESOME kit to work with!  Thank you Michelle!!  And a BIG thanks to Lindsey for her beautiful photography skills too!

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

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop Dec. 2018

Hello friends.  Playing along with this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink where the inspiration photo has me thinking love, romance, and Valentine's Day.

I was inspired by the hearts and embroidered flowers and dug out an oldie but a goody set called Embroidered Blooms and came up with this multi layered card:

I started with a piece of Sweet Blush Bitty Big DSP layered onto a white card base, and then added another white layer die cut from the Mix & Mat: Hearts die.  Next I die cut 2 of the Stitched Primitive Heart dies...one in Sweet Blush that I stitched with white crochet thread, and a white one that I stamped with the Embroidered Blooms set.  I also die cut some leaves with Simply Chartreuse Bitty Big DSP using the die from the Songbirds set and also had to add one the new Delicates die cuts using vellum.  For my sentiment I just used the "Love" die that comes with the Bold Borders: Love and stacked 3 of them together and then added WOS for a little bit of sparkle before adhering to my card.

I finished with a few pearls for my flower centers and some iridescent sequins, and now I have my first Valentine card done!!

Can't wait to see how everyone else was inspired by the lovely photo!  You can check it out and play along right HERE.

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

Make It Monday #345 - Creating Ombre Sentiments

Hello friends.  This week's Make It Monday challenge has Lizzie showing us how to make OMBRE SENTIMENTS...you can check out her video and awesome card HERE.

We had our Christmas celebrations early this year, so when yesterday came with the new Make It Monday video, I was all excited thinking I had the whole day, even the whole week to play with the challenge and any others that caught my eye too!  As soon as I watched the video I had an idea pop into my head using the Bold Borders: Flurries die and got right to work!  And unfortunately it was one of those ideas that looked great in my head, but didn't translate so well onto cardstock!  And of course it was one of those where it would have been so much easier to just pick a different idea, but stubborn ol' me couldn't accept defeat and kept going!  I did end up with a card I like, just not what I first saw in my head!

I wanted not only sentiment to be ombre, but the card as well, so I started by blending Spring Rain, Blueberry Sky, & Enchanted Evening inks together and then die cut using the Bold Borders: Flurries die.  I sprayed quite liberally with Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz and then adhered to a white card base...so far, so good!  My idea next was to use the sentiment "dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh" from the In The Meadow stamp set and make it ombre like I had with the snowflakes die.  The problem??  Sentiment was too long and wouldn't fit in the small rectangle in the center of the card!  I had also wanted to die cut the horse and sleigh image in black (silhouette) to coordinate with the sentiment and that was too large for the small rectangle opening too....grrrrr!  Plan B.  Find a smaller sentiment and image...I do need a birthday card for January, so the birthday sentiment from the In The Meadow set would work fine...except there's not enough of it to really make it ombre with 3 colors!!  Plan C.  Only use two colors for the sentiment...Blueberry Sky and Enchanted Evening.  To be able to use the sledding image on my snow hills and include the sentiment meant having to cut down the snowhills, and that meant stamping the sentiment over 2 layers...the MISTI sure came in handy here!!  OK, done grumbling here as my card didn't turn out too bad...just wasn't what I had first saw in my head!  And here's a closer up shot so you can see some of the shimmer...it really does SPARKLE in real life!!

Also had to show you how cute the Penguin Potbellies that I made for my granddaughter and grandson turned out:

My 4 year old granddaughter got such a kick out of there being goldfish in his stomach!!  (They got enough chocolate in their Rudolph Bags that I didn't feel guilty about putting crackers in the Penguin's belly!!)  Took the idea from Marybeth Lopez and added a zip strip on the back so they wouldn't have to destroy the Penguin to get the treats out.

My zip strip came from the Just A Little Something stamp and die set.

Make sure you check out Lizzie's lovely card and video HERE and then play along for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Papertrey Ink...I just won a couple weeks ago and it makes shopping so much more FUN!!  :0)

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

Color Throwdown #523

Hello friends.  LOVED the colors this week at the Color Throwdown Challenge and just had to play along!!

Also picked up a BEAUTIFUL Poinsettia plant last weekend that fit right in with this weeks colors, so I used it as inspiration for my card too!

I just loved the spotted red leaves on the Poinsettia and also the bright and dark greens...soooo pretty!!

I started with a kraft card base and then added PTI's Bold Borders: Yuletide die cut in white over the top of the card base.  Next I stamped my sentiment from one of my favorite PB sets...Yuletide Wishes.  Next came the fun of adding on the Poinsettia's that I had stamped and fussy cut from PTI's Pleasing Envelopes set.  I used a splattered stamp from SU!'s Gorgeous Grunge in Granny Apple Green ink and then quickly before it dried I added some clear embossing powder.  I did this so that when I stamped the flower image, the green spots would still show through.  Here's a closer up:

I love the way the flowers look with the green speckles and then the extra added greenery from the leaves and pine sprigs.  I did add a few Pale Gold Nuvo Drops to the centers of my flowers to finish off my card.

LOTS of beautiful inspiration from the DT, so check it out and play along...you can find all the info right HERE.

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

Create Along With Us - Dec. 2018

Hello friends.  Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year and are not so busy that you don't have time to reflect on the real meaning of this season.  I'll admit I've been a little panicked this week because we are celebrating early with our girls (this Sunday), so I have to get everything finished up and I'm not quite ready yet!  But I did take time out to make a card for the Create Along With Us challenge...mostly because I fell in LOVE with Laurie Schmidlin's card (HERE)!  We don't get much sun here in Michigan during the Winter months (something to do with being surrounded by the Great Lakes that holds the cloud cover in), so seeing Laurie's bright and happy card made me want to switch up from reds and greens to yellows, pinks, & reds!

I used the Sweet Blush Bitty Big paper in the stripes like Laurie did but turned mine vertically.  Next I added a piece of vellum that I tore at the bottom and added Dazzling Diamonds to, along with a strip of white cardstock that I also added Dazzling Diamonds to.  For my heart I used one of the Limitless Layers: Heart dies and then stamped it up with flowers from Butterfly Blooms and an older set Beautiful Blooms.  The sentiment I added to a Pure Poppy strip from the Butterfly Blooms set.  A yellow enamel dot, a rustic twine bow, and some iridescent sequins finished off my CASE of Laurie's card.

Hope you all have time to play along this week...there's LOTS of beautiful and fun inspiration to be had during this release week, and it feels so good to just sit down and relax and play in the craft room!  You can find all the info to play along right HERE.  

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

CAS Christmas and CAS Mix Up

Hello friends.  Finally had a chance to put a card together last night and yippee...it will work for both the CAS Christmas and CAS Mix Up challenges!

I combined both the emboss resist and the stars onto my background and came up with this card:

I started with my background piece and inked up my stars with Versamark ink and then heat embossed them with white embossing powder.  Next I used Gina K's Powder Blue ink and blended over the background and the stars began to show up!  I wanted a little more pizazz in my background, so I lightly added just a touch of Cobalt Blue Brusho's and then misted with water.  Love how the background came out looking like a snowy AND starry nighttime sky!  I mounted this panel to a top folding white card base and then added another top layer that I had die cut with SSS's new Tree Frame die that I added clear acetate behind and foam tape so I could make this card a shaker.  Here's a close up so you can better see the emboss resist stars:

I added iridescent and silver stars for the shaker part and my sentiment was embossed in silver using stamps from CP's latest SOA box.

These two CAS challenges are only open till the 15th this month, so check out all the wonderful inspiration from the DT's HERE and HERE and then play along!

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

Snowflake Frame

Hello friends.  Just a quick post to share a couple cards I made with a new die given to me by my cousin from a company that I had never heard of before...Yvonne Creations...Snowflake Frame.

The die is a 5" x 5" one and larger than a normal A2 size card that I usually make.  The die is also extremely detailed and when trying to pull my cardstock from the die, I started ripping some of it...grrrrr!!  So anyway, these two cards came out of a what do I do with this torn die cut??!!

For my 1st card I ended up using the torn die cut (torn at the top and bottom but the middle section was still intact) as a stencil and placed over a white panel and then blended Gina K's Powder Blue ink over the bottom 2/3rd's of the panel.  It looked really pretty so I kept going and added my sentiment at the top from PB's Yuletide Wishes stamp set with silver embossing powder and adhered to a Powder Blue top folding note card.  I also added a thin strip of the Powder Blue cs between the stenciled portion and the sentiment portion.  I had a silver and glitter snowflake in my stash that I added to the bottom corner of my card and then added some white crochet thread to the top of the card and called it good!

The piece of die cut snowflakes that I had used as a stencil for the first card was too pretty to throw away, so I added it to a white card base and then added another white panel over the top of it that I  had die cut a window out of using MFT's Peek-A-Boo Rectangle Die.  I silver embossed my sentiment using PTI's Penned Elegance: Christmas below the die cut window and then finished with a few iridescent sequins and some more white crochet thread.

So there you have it...two simple cards made from one oops!  It sure pays to never throw away those accidents!!

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

Make It Monday #344 - Deck Your Dies

Hello friends.  Melissa Phillips has a GORGEOUS card for this week's Make It Monday challenge where she shows us how to deck out our word dies by using DSP, Glitter Paper, Felt, or any other number of different mediums.

My card is one of those that ended up totally different than what I imagined when I first started!  Some cards come together so easily, and then others like this one go through many, many renovations!!  But in the end I was happy with the way it turned out!

My first thought was to use Dawn's Say It Simply: Holly Jolly word die, but it covered my whole card so it was hard to add anything else!  I finally ended up pulling out an oldie but goodie...Wonderful Words: Snow.  I die cut it 4 times and did the top layer with the Bitty Big DSP in Aqua Mist and then coated the top of it with some Dazzling Diamonds glitter.  I used the Snowfall Style Stencil Collection stencils with Aqua Mist ink on my white panel and then with Vintage Photo DI on my kraft panel that I then die cut with the Mix & Mat: Berry Boughs.

I also added a die cut snowflake from Fancy Flakes (that I also glittered up!) and then added my deer from the Dash Away All die on top of the snowflake.  I also stamped the deer using a CP floral tree stamp with the Vintage Photo DI to give it a little pizazz!!  I stamped the "dashing through the" sentiment in Pure Poppy on a white strip to add some red to the card along with a little bit of baker's twine around the deer's neck.  A tiny drop of Black Nuvo Drops was used for the deer's eye.

Make sure you check out Melissa's lovely, lovely card and all the info to play along with this challenge right HERE.     

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

CAS Watercolour Dec. 2018 - THANK YOU

Hello friends.  This month's challenge at CAS Watercolour is being hosted by Bonnie and she has given us the challenge of creating a CAS THANK YOU card...and we all need a few of those in our stash this month with Christmas coming.  This challenge will only be open till the 15th to give the DT a bit of a break during this busy holiday season.

I created a little set of four THANK YOU cards by using the positive and negative die cuts using a Holly die that I received as a gift from a sweet friend.  Here's the 1st two:

I used a small piece of cardstock that I had added Lindy's Magicals in Ponderosa Pines Olive to die cut the Holly branch out, and realized the negative piece was just too pretty to throw away, so I die cut the image again in white and was able to make two cards between all the pieces.

I hope you can see a little bit of the shimmer in this close up...it really is magical!!

For the next two cards I used the same color of Lindy's Magicals, but used less water so I got a deeper color...

I used foam tape on the backs of all the rectangles to give some dimension and the simple THANK YOU is from PTI's Keep It Simple: Thank You set.  I really love how these turned out and how perfect to have 4 thank you's all set to write up during the busy season ahead!

We can't wait to see what you all come up with for this last challenge of 2018!  Remember to keep it CAS (LOT'S of WHITE space!!) and of course use some form of watercolouring.  Check out all the BEAUTIFUL inspiration from the DT and our special Guest Designer Michele and then play along.  Remember that this challenge is only open till the 15th this month.  Details can be found HERE.