NBUS Challenge #6

Hello friends.  Playing along with Darnell's NBUS Challenge #6 today, because in all her wisdom, she knows she's NOT the only one who hoards stamps, and we ALL need a push sometimes to use what we buy!  And fortunately, I'm no exception!!  So last fall I HAD to have the new Single Roses dies that SSS put out, and then of course I got busy with Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter, Valentines, birthdays, etc. and forgot all about the rose dies until looking for something else.  So thank you Darnell...perfect timing!!  Take a look:

I loved the simplicity of these dies, and that was the reason I bought them in the first place!  After putting this CAS card together, I cut out a bunch more of these flowers and leaves and stored them right along with the dies, so when I need a quick and simple card...smart thinking, right?!  :0)  Anyway, I started by blending a little bit of Tumbled Glass distress ink on my background first, and then added the die cut flowers and leaves that I had "smooshed" with Royal Velvet, Winter Wisteria, and New Leaf inks.  Next I die cut the "hello" (PTI's Wet Paint) 4 times, glued together and added to the card front along with stamping the "friend" in black ink.  A few sequins and this card was finished.

So grab one or two of your NBUS stamps or dies and play along at Darnell's playhouse right HERE.  And thank you Darnell...you really are the BEST!!!  :0)

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

Make It Monday #241 - Ombre Stenciled Backgrounds

Hello friends.  Playing along with Betsy and the Make It Monday challenge, where Betsy shows us how to make an ombre stenciled background.  This was a fun challenge, as I love blending ink colors, and then you're basically blending over top of your blending with a stencil, so more fun!!  I'm still stuck on the blue, green, and purple color combo, so here's what I came up with for this challenge:

There are things I like about this card, and things I don't like!  What I do like:  LOVE the colors, the watering can die cut...thank you dear Birgit!!, the Glossy Accent centers of the flowers (Petite Pots), the stencil (Modern Background Stencils), and the font of the sentiment (Winter Woods).  What I don't like:  the water spots I added to the background, and the overall busyness of the card.  So I guess the "likes" outweigh the "dislikes", and it's growing on me!  It is definitely a bright and cheerful card, and will hopefully bring a smile to someone's face, and that's what card making is all about, right?!!!  :0)

You can check out Betsy's great video and BEAUTIFUL card right HERE over on Nichole's blog.

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

Merry Monday #194 - Tropical Theme

Hello friends.  SO excited and honored to be the Guest Designer over at Merry Monday today!  Lori chose the challenge this week and has asked us to design a Tropical Themed Christmas card.  Because I live in Michigan where it's cold and snowy, I don't have a lot of tropical themed stamps, but I grabbed a couple Palm trees from WPlus9's Drummer Boy and a Santa stamp from MFT's Jingle All The Way set, and came up with this:

I started by sponging on my background using distress inks Antique Linen and Tumbled Glass to resemble sand and sky.  Next I stamped and colored the Palm trees and Santa using Copic markers.  I deliberately didn't color the top of Santa's suit in red, but instead used flesh tones to make him look like he was enjoying the sun...like maybe in Hawaii?????  I fussy cut my trees and added them to the background circle that I attached to the inside of the card.  I also fussy cut my Santa and attached just his bottom half to the outside of the card to give him a little dimension.  The sentiment is also from the Jingle All The Way set. 

This weeks challenge is a great way to get started on those Christmas cards and also have fun doing it with the tropical theme!  See all the great inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, and info on how to play right HERE.

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

February 12 Kits of Occasions

Hello friends.  SOOOO excited to share with you today as a guest designer of the 12 Kits of Occasions.  What is the 12 Kits of Occasions you ask??  It's a group of 12 very talented ladies who each take a month as hostess, and prepare 12 kits of stamping goodies to send out to each of the 12.  On the last day of the month they all reveal the 4 or 5 cards that they each made using the same kit that was mailed to them by the hostess...and how fun to see what each of them came up with using the same materials!  This month, the fabulously talented and oh so kind Nancy Penir, asked me to be a special guest designer for the 12 Kits of Occasions, and I was beyond delighted to accept!!  Color me happy!!!

Nancy's theme for this month was water coloring, and I was overwhelmed by ALL the goodies that arrived at my door to create with this month!  These are just a few of the cards I've made with this kit, and I still have leftover supplies to create more with later!  Take a look:

And lastly, a little shaker tag, using the tag that Nancy had all the ribbon and gold thread wrapped around on:

Thank you so much Nancy for asking me to join along this month...I had an absolute blast playing with all the supplies you sent, and can't wait to see what you and all the other ladies came up with!  :0) 

You can check out all the inspiration from this months kit right HERE.  Have fun hopping along to all the different blogs...you won't be disappointed...LOTS of talent from all 12 of these wonderful ladies!! 

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

Birgit & Marcia's February 2016 Challenge

 

For those of you who follow our little mini challenges each month, my dear friend BIRGIT and I decided to use the beautiful color combinations that MFT used in their very first kit that they offered in January.


The kit sold out very quickly, which was probably a good thing for me, since I couldn't really afford it at the time.  Birgit was in the same boat as I was financially, but we both agreed that the colors they used in this kit were just stunning together.  So anyway, we decided to try and come up with colors as close to those used in this kit, and make some cards of our own.  Here's what I came up with:

 

 

 

I had SO much fun playing with these colors!  The purples, greens, and blues are just so pretty together, and really make me think SPRING!!  And after almost a foot of snow on Wednesday this week, I'm really, really looking forward to Spring! 

 

I'm being really lazy as I type this up about writing down the recipes for each card, so if you want to know stamp sets and dies that I used, please just contact me!

 

Make sure you stop by BIRGIT'S blog and see all the beauties she created with these lovely colors too...I know you won't be disappointed!! 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out what my dear friend Birgit and I have been up to (besides enabling each other...hey, what are friends for?!!) this month...we really do love it when you visit us!!  Have a great weekend!!  :0) 

 

February 2016 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Hello friends.  It's the 25th and that means blog hop time over at Papertrey Ink!  The inspiration photo this month was absolutely beautiful, and I took my inspiration from the colors (pinks and greens), and a few of the different images in the photo (fern, cup, and butterfly).  Here's what I came up with:

I kept this card very CAS, and started by adding a very light "smooshing" of Hibiscus Burst ink to my background.  Next I inked up one of the ferns from Meadow Greens with Simply Chartreuse and Ripe Avocado inks, and then spritzed with water quite liberally before stamping over my smooshed background.  A little hard to see, but I used some Mint Julep ink on the back layer of the Fancy Tea Cup die, and then did a little bit of gold embossing on the top layer of the cup.  I used 3 of the Bitty Butterflies from the cover plate die and stamped them with the coordinating stamp set and Hibiscus Burst ink.  I finished by adding the sentiment from the Winter Woods stamp set.  Very simple, but I'm thrilled with the way this card came out!

You can check out all the great cards using this beautiful inspiration photo right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have fun hopping!!  :0)

Make It Monday #240 - Watercolor Resist

Hello again!  Back with another post today...this time I'm playing along with Lexi Daly and Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge.  Lexi shows in her video how to do a fun watercolor resist technique using rubber cement...of which I have none.  After thinking about it for awhile though, I thought why couldn't I use clear embossing powder as the resist...just like Jennifer McGuire showed in a video a few days ago??  So I tried it and really liked the results!  I used a red, pink, orange, and yellow Zig Clean Brush marker to color a sheet of watercolor paper, and then ran water across the whole paper to blend the colors.  After drying, I used Versamark and the leaf stamp from Songbirds, along with clear embossing powder to create a background.  Next I used clear water to wash over the whole layer, and then used a paper towel to blot up the excess water, and as a result, a lot of the bold color....except for the color that was still trapped under the clear embossing powder!  Take a look:

So technically I know this isn't the same as making cool squiggly lines like Lexi showed with the rubber cement brush, but I still think it turned out neat looking!  I pop dotted the new Splits: Just A Note stamp and die cut over part of my background and then added a few enamel dots to finish off this kinda CAS card.

Make sure you check out Lexi's fun video and great cards right HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by again!!  :0)