Laurie's Fabulous Favorites - Inspiration

Hello friends.  Playing along with Laurie's Fabulous Favorites where this week she's asking us "Where do you find your inspiration?"  I find my inspiration everywhere...outside my window, ads, store fronts, clothing, and of course, Pinterest!

Here's a photo I found on Pinterest that totally made me think of the Meadow Greens stamp set:

All the black lines in the top 2 pink flowers reminded me of the flower centers in the Meadow Greens flower stamp and since I hadn't played with that stamp set in a loooooong while, I decided to pull it out for this challenge.

In keeping with the water color theme of the inspiration photo, I used Ocean Tides and Hibiscus Burst inks on my craft mat and smooshed to create my backgrounds.  I ended up with 2 cards because I did one on water color cardstock (TH) and one on heavy white cardstock (PTI), not knowing which one I would like better.  Here's the 1st one:

This one is on the PTI cs and I really like the way the background turned out on the smoother surface.  After inking up the greenery and the flower, I misted them both with water before stamping to continue with the water colored look.  The sentiment is from the Meadow Greens set and the framing is Ocean Tides cs and the largest of the Pierced Feature Frame dies (PTI).

This 2nd card is done on actual water color cs and gives more texture to the background and the stamping.  My sentiment was stamped and die cut using Penned Elegance II stamps and dies, with some mini pop dots behind it along with some gold thread.  The frame is the same as the 1st card from the Pierced Feature Frames.

I think they both turned out pretty, but I do like the one on the left better...which one do you like better??

Where do YOU find your inspiration??  Play along with Laurie's challenge HERE for the chance at a $100 gift card.

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

Tag You're It Challenge #84 - Reminder

Hello friends.  Just a friendly reminder that there's still time to play along with the current challenge over at Tag You're It!

What inspires YOU about this photo?  I was once again inspired by the warm colors and came up with this tag:

I used Gina K's Perfect Blend stamp set along with a MFT tag die to create this fun little tag with the snarky Monday morning sentiment, and I know the perfect person to give this to with an attached Starbucks gift card!

Check out all the FABULOUS inspiration from the rest of the DT and then play along right HERE.  And also a BIG THANK YOU to the DT for letting me tag along as GD for this challenge...it's been a blast!!

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

Christmas Kickstart #7 - Delectable Die-cuts

Hello friends.  The current challenge at Christmas Kickstart is called Delectable Die-cuts and it's all about creating a Christmas card from die cuts!

I used a Cottage Cutz die (Holiday Cardinal) that my dear friend Birgit gifted me this past Christmas and came up with this:

I love all the detail in this die and yet it was SO easy to put together!!  I used Old Olive and Real Red cardstocks (and a tiny bit of black and Summer Sunrise) to die cut everything and then ink blended around the edges to give some depth.  The "Joy" is from PTI's Bold Borders: Flurries die.  I used a white card base and added a layer of Old Olive cs and then another layer of white that I dry embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder.  A little bit of jute and bakers twine finished off this easy and pretty Christmas card.

Still a few days left to play along with this challenge, so get a Kickstart on those Christmas cards using your dies this time and play along right HERE.

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

CAS Watercolour April 2019 - Poppy

Hello friends.  Loll has a fun challenge for us this month at CAS Watercolour and wants to see a Poppy on your CAS cards.

I used an Altenew set called Painted Poppy and came up with this card:

I started by embossing the outline image with Versafine black ink and clear embossing powder...for me this technique helps keep the water color more inside the lines.  Then I used my MISTI and stamped the two layering images with Gina K's Red Velvet and Cherry Red inks and then spritzed with water before stamping each layer.  I also used my Aqua Painter to move the color around a bit to give the more loose look of water coloring.  I did the same for the leaf and the bud and then fussy cut my images out.

Before mounting my Poppy to the card front, I added a piece of white cardstock that I had die cut with a die from AliExpress to give some dimension and visual interest to the background.  My sentiment comes from PTI's Winter Woods stamp set.

Check out what the rest of the DT came up with and also our Special GD, and then play along with us right HERE.  We can't wait to see our gallery filled with lots of POPPIES!!    

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

Laurie's Fabulous Favorites

Hello friends.  This week PTI's Laurie Schmidlin is asking us to choose a favorite Make It Monday feature on our card for the Laurie's Fabulous Favorites challenge.  I'm combining two favorites...#305 Love of Layers and #315 Embossing Enamel Splatters.

I started with a grid stencil and Lemon Tart, Harvest Gold, & Bright Buttercup inks to create my background, and then layered the Shape Shifters: Oval over top.  Then I added LOTS of layers with Tulip Time, Forest Floor: Spring and A Bit More: Butterfly Blooms.  To the leaves and the butterfly I added Shabby White Embossing Enamel...here's a closer up:

  
I may have gotten a little carried away with the embossing enamel on the butterfly considering I had already embossed it in white before blending my ink colors to it, but I still like the way it turned out.  I layered all this to a Harvest Gold piece of cs and then adhered that to a white card base.  I left a sentiment off as I'm not sure if I'm going to use it as a Mother's Day card or maybe even a Thinking of You card...I'll decide later!

There were SO many wonderful Make It Monday challenges that it was hard to choose, but it was definitely FUN to go back and browse through them all!  Play along right HERE by Wednesday April 3 (6:00AM) and you could win a $100 shopping spree!!  

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

12 Kits Of Occasions March 2019 - A Whimsical Garden

Hello friends.  It's the last day of March and I am truly hoping it's the last of Winter too...I am SOOOO ready for Spring!  Our lovely hostess Lisa has a FABULOUS kit she put together for all of us called A Whimsical Garden at the 12 Kits Of Occasions this month, and it definitely makes me think SPRING!  Lisa says she was inspired by a little rabbit that comes to nibble grass in her yard each Spring and gave us wonderful images from Art Gone Wild stamp company and lovely, lovely papers from Cartabella.  Take a look at what we had to work with this month:

Lisa packed this kit with so much Spring time goodness and I loved every bit of it!  Lisa also has a couple of mini kits available to give away, so check out her blog here to find out how to win one!

So sit back and enjoy and see what Spring looks like from the Whimsical Garden perspective...

This DSP matched perfectly with the sentiment from Stampendous and the little frog from Art Gone Wild dancing in the puddles...I colored the frog up with some Copics and WOS and then layered with some Berry Sorbet cs and finished with a few of the PPP Metallic Rose Gold sequins that were included in our kit.

This card was made mostly from one of the DSP included in the kit, and I wanted to make it resemble a store front, so I die cut a frame (PTI's Pierced Feature Frames) from some kraft cs that I had stamped using SU!'s Hardwood background stamp, and then inlaid the DSP to make it look like the shops front window.  The top of the DSP had the striped awning design, so I fussy cut it out and added it to the top with some dimensionals behind it to give the illusion of depth.  I thought this sentiment from the kit was fitting to use on the window and simply finished off by adding the wooden button Lisa included in the kit.

This card was so incredibly simple to put together and actually reminds me of a Marybeth card...she always has the most beautiful CAS cards!!  For this card I simply used a strip of one of the DSP and also a strip of the Darice Pearlescent paper that matched the tiny die cut bow (Mama Elephant).  Lastly I added the 3 bunnies from Impression Obsession and had a sweet CAS card!

This is another Art Gone Wild image (Being There) that was so much FUN to color (Copics) and then simply layered with some of the DSP and green cardstock.  The "hello" die cut is from PPP and the "friend" part of the die cut I added to the inside along with a few strips of DSP and cs.  I also added a few more of the PPP Metallic Rose Gold Sequins...love, love, LOVE them!!  :0)

And last but not least is my favorite I think!  The papers in this kit were just so BEAUTIFUL and I especially liked the 2 I used on this card along with the Pale Peony cs and die cuts Lisa included in the kit.  The little floral (Let Love Bloom) was colored in with a few Copics and I finished with a piece of seam binding ribbon and a few more of the PPP Metallic Rose Gold Sequins.

Here they are ALL together and I just couldn't be happier with the way they all turned out!  Thank you SO much Lisa for such a WONDERFUL kit...it truly was a joy to work with!

As always, make sure you check out what the rest of the DT did with the same kit HERE … you will be blown away with the creativity!!  :0)

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

Tag You're It Challenge #84

Hello friends.  So excited to be the Guest Designer for the current challenge at Tag You're It!  If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I LOVE making tags, and this challenge gives me the opportunity to make tags all year long instead of just at Christmas!

This challenge is definitely for all you COFFEE LOVER'S out there!  Unfortunately, I am NOT a coffee lover (as Laura Bassen says, "tastes like hot dirt"!), but 2 of our 3 daughter's LOVE coffee, so my tag will be going to one of them...maybe along with a Starbucks gift card??

I started with a Reverse Confetti tag die and cut it from Kraft cs and then sponged the edges with Early Espresso (SU!) ink...fitting, don't you think?!  My sentiment and coffee cup come from a little set by Gina K called Perfect Blend.  I stamped the cup in Early Espresso ink and then paper pieced the saucer with Hawaiian Shores Bitty Big DSP and colored the cup with my Copics (BG11 & BG13).  The spoon was colored with a Gelly Roll Clear Star pen which looks like a sparkly cross between gold and silver and really shimmers and shines IRL!  I used a little WOS on the coffee and steam, so that adds to the sparkle and shine of this tag too!

I was definitely inspired by the rich warm brown tones of the coffee and the color of the saucer in the inspiration photo.  What inspires YOU with this photo??  Check out how the rest of the DT was inspired and then play along right HERE.

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