Let's Celebrate!

Here's a celebration card I've made that could be used for many different celebrations!  In spite of being in the midst of preparing to host our big family Christmas gathering this Saturday, I've found some time to pull this together (gotta get that "me" time in--it's my de-stresser!)

This card was inspired by the photo on Inspired By All the Little Things challenge--love the colors and the touches of gold!  It all looks like a fun party is about to happen!

Here's a close up that shows the shine of the mirror card stock I used.  I also put some sparkle on the champagne glasses before I added a layer of Glossy Accents.

I sure appreciate your taking a look!  I hope you all are having good times leading up to Christmas!

Supplies:
Dies:  Spellbinders Die of the Month June 2017; My Favorite Things Chevron Fringe; circle dies (don't remember the maker)
Stamps:  Avery Elle Sip Sip Hooray
Miscellaneous:  hoarded paper by Teresa Collins (the dotted); Glossy Accents; Spectrum Noir sparkle pen; and hoarded mirror paper in black, dark grey, gold; vellum

Sparkling Snowflakes

There's another great inspiration photo on Inspired By All the Little Things!  I'm also entering this into another challenge that I just discovered at Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge #128 Let It Snow.

What inspired me to make this card is the background, which looks embossed and the icy, cool blue of the skates.  Since I live in an area that rarely gets truly cold, I can just imagine a frozen pond with snow around the edges and people skating on it.  But that is what I thought of when I saw this and what led me to make this card.

Here's a close up showing the sparkle of the paper and the beautiful embossed background:

Thank you so very much for taking a look!!  I really appreciate it!

Supplies:

Dies:  Concord & 9th Merry; Impression Obsession snowflakes; My Favorite Things snowflake

Ink: Distress Ink Tumbled Glass (for shading)

Embossing folder:  Sizzix 3-D Textured Impressions Winter Snowflakes
Cricut Explore:  skates from SVGcuts.com Winter Gazebo set

Golden Merry Christmas!

I love making Christmas cards!  Not sure exactly why, but I can say that I have several extras--head start for next year?  Maybe the inspiration I keep seeing from these photos on Inspired By All the Little Things is doing it!  Their Challenge #74 give us this inspirational photo:

A link to the challenge is HERE.

I'm also entering this into Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Star Light, Star Bright.

I don't have a larger star die cut, so I turned to my Cricut Explore and found this star to use.  I've listed all the supplies below.

Here's a close up of the beautiful die I cut in gold mirror card stock.

This card was really easy to make (once I got it all how I wanted!)  Thank you so very much for taking a look!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sunny Studios Holiday Style; Concord & 9th Petals and Pallets
Die:  Impression Obsession Merry Christmas
Embossing Folder:  Sizzix 3-D Textured Impressions Winter Snowflakes
Ink:  Hero Arts Soft Granite; Memento New Sprout; Hero Arts 2 different greens (no name--was in a kit)

Beary Merry Christmas!

I've had these bears and accessories colored up for a while.  When I saw this challenge on Ellen Hutson's The Classroom I figured I needed to get the pieces and parts onto cards.

The challenge is to use our favorite Essentials By Ellen set.  Well, All Inside and Bear Ware 2 most definitely are in my top favorites of her sets!

This card uses the cute bear set on a background using an Impression Obsession die called Three Trees.  I ink blended the bottom layer using Distress inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch.   The snowfall is from a little Altenew stamp called Snowing.

This next card uses more goodies from Bare Ware 2.  The border background is a stamp called Merry Christmas frame by Rubbernecker Stamps.  I stamped the snow using a stamp from Concord and 9th's Joy Stamp set and added Nuvo drops in white.

I'm also entering these into the Flickr group LOVE--Handmade Cards Challenge #23, Anything Goes.  Info is HERE.

Thank you very much for taking a look!

Christmas Greetings!

I just had time this evening to finish this up for the Inspired by All The Little Things Challenge #73.  The photo for the inspiration is this beauty!  I'm not usually a non-traditional when it comes to Christmas colors, but something about this I just loved!

Details for the challenge are HERE.

I'm also entering this into Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #85 Christmas/Holiday Theme.  Link to the Flickr challenge HERE.

I decided to use some dies from Hero Arts and make a matching ornament.  Did some ink blending for both backgrounds and added some sparkly glitter for the festiveness!  All supplies are listed below.

Short post here as tomorrow will be all about getting the Christmas decorations out!  Love how the house looks after we get done, but the doing, not so much!  :)   I always so appreciate anyone who takes the time to look at my posts, and I thank you!!

Supplies:
Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Village, Stitched Slopes and Hills; Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit October 2015 (NBUS!!!!) and Snowy Drifts Fancy Dies
Stamps:  Hero Arts MMH October 2015;  Simon Says Stamp Poinsettia for the sentiment
Inks:  Distress Ink:  Cracked Pistachio, Spun Sugar, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass; Hero Arts Mint Julep
Stencil: My Favorite Things Snowfall
Nuvo Crystal Drops gloss white

O Christmas Tree

It feels so good to finally feel up to being in my craft room!  Four weeks of recuperating from surgery is not my cup of tea!

I was so glad I saw the inspiration at Inspired by All the Little Things and will enter this card.  Their challenge #72 is this inspiration photo:

Click HERE for the challenge info.

I think this photo is so pretty with the gray and white color palette and clean lines, which is what the inspiration for this card is.   I used a die that I bought a LONG time ago and then couldn't think of what to do with it when I got it!  Was so glad to use it for the clean lines.

I edged each layer of the tree, and the hill, with white Nuvo drops then sprinkled on some sparkly glitter.  The background is a piece of gray card stock from my stash that I inked with some gray and black inks and added white pigment ink around the edges of the tree.  Splashed on some white acrylic paint spatters for a snow effect.

This was a huge challenge to photograph and get remotely close to how it looks in real life!  Makes me wish I knew how to use a real camera!!

Thanks so much for taking a look!

Supplies:
Dies:  Dee's Distinctively Christmas Stacker Tree; Simon Says Stamp Stitched Slopes and Hills
Stamps:  Concord & 9th O Christmas Tree
Inks: Hero Arts Soft Granite; Distress Oxide Black Soot
Miscellaneous:  Nuvo Crystal Drops gloss-white; Art Glitter Crystal ultra fine transparent; Ranger Glacier White acrylic paint

Christmas Card w/NBUS

I've got another card to enter into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #12.  The link for the info is HERE.

I'm also starting a stash of Christmas cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive.  This is so awesome as it is to collect cards for the elderly in nursing homes.  Get all the info HERE.  I love this as it gives me a specific reason to make more Christmas cards. I just may also come up with a design for my card for friends and family next year.  I only mass produce about 20 cards, so I like to come up with one design to start next summer.

Here is my card that I made using Sunny Studio's Holiday Style stamps, Merry Sentiments, and Merry Word die.  There's lot of sparkle and glossy accents that don't totally show up in the photos, but it's really quite sparkly!!

I certainly do appreciate you taking a look!  Thank you!

You Are the Best!

I really enjoy challenges as they give me a direction and inspiration in my card making!  Darnell's NBUS challenge is so great as it gets you to go through your "never before used stuff"...and USE it!!

Get the info HERE

I really enjoyed coloring all these little die cuts into autumn leaves.  This die set is my NBUS!

Love the dimension of the leaves and acorns!

I really appreciate those of you that take a look at my blog!  Thank you for that!

Supplies:
Spellbinders Die of the Month September 2017 (NBUS)
Hero Arts For Your Kindness (sentiment/banner)
Distress Inks: Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey, Mowed Lawn, Fired Brick, Gathered Twigs
Sizzix 3-D embossing folder:  Leaves

Buzzing By to Say...

I'm using some of my favorite stamps from Honey Bee Stamps here.  I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge where we are challenged to use supplies that haven't been used.  I'll note which ones fall into that category below in the supply list.

The details are HERE

It's been a busy month and haven't had so much time for creating and coloring as I'd like.  Kathy Racoosin of The Daily Marker has also been hosting her 30-day coloring challenge.  I've posted some other things on Instagram (see my link in the right side bar) but not nearly as much as I'd like.  This counts as I colored the flowers and bees with my Spectrum Noir markers.  Yay!  :)

Don't know what it is about these bees, but I think they are just too cute!  Thanks so much for taking time to look!

Supplies:

Honey Bee Stamps:  Bee-You-Tiful Sentiments; Busy Bees; Build-A-Bee; NBUS: Bee Hive card die; Bee Hive Stencils, Hexagon Bunches

Distress Inks: Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber

Spectrum Noir alcohol markers; Sparkle pen in clear

Thank You Times 2

I have two cards for this post!  The challenge by Inspired by All The Little Things is a beautiful inspiration photo with teal/copper as the main colors.  I just love this photo and the "country" feel it has!  I had more inspiration from the current challenge #13-Ink Only at Where Creativity Meets C9.  I thought Concord & 9th's stamps were perfect for this!

Both of these cards came together so quickly (for me who usually takes FORever to decide on the details) and these are some of my favorite colors too!  My supplies are listed below.

I love having specific things for inspiration and these two challenges really helped my cards come together!!  Thank you so much for taking a look!

Supplies:
Stamps: Concord & 9th: Flower Turnabout; Petals & Pallets
Inks: VersaMark; Simon Says Stamp High Dive & Jelly Bean; Memento New Sprout
Sparkle N Sprinkle copper embossing powder

Hello There!

A new to me challenge blog, Inspired by All the Little Things, has a challenge this week hosted by one of the kindest bloggers I've "met"--Darnell Knauss ( her blog is link HERE.)  She is the host of this week's challenge.  Here is the inspiration for this weeks challenge:

Details for the challenge are HERE.

I totally love these colors and wanted to participate to honor Darnell.  She is always so very encouraging and, as a bonus, quite entertaining on her blog posts!  :)  So very glad our paths crossed on the big world-wide internet!

So my card here uses the colors of the inspiration along with the script and burlap you can see when you look closely at the photo.  I used NBUS Wild Garden dies by Ellen Hutson and Burlap Background stamp and Script Background stamp by JustRite.  I recently got Altenew's Layered Medallions Cover dies and used die B here.

For the flowers and the cover die, I had fun using Distress Oxide inks to get the different colors.  I used Lucky Clover, Cracked Pistachio, Candied Apple and Wild Honey.  These inks are really amazing in how you can create various layers!

I finished it off with some splashes of Gansai Tambi Starry Colors yellow gold paint and Pretty Pink Posh gold sequins.

Thanks so much for taking a look!!

Party Animals Art Impressions Style

I've had these cute little animal stamps from Art Impressions that have been a free gift when I've purchased their stamps at various shows.  I've always wondered what I would do with them, when I finally thought of creating a little scene with them!

I'm entering this into Art Impressions current challenge, "Off Kilter".

Details HERE

After a previous attempt that flopped, much much masking and indecision on colors etc. I have this cute card!  Seriously, took me about three days of pondering, piddling, and diddling off and on to come up with this!

Thanks so much for taking a look!

Supplies:
Art Impressions stamps:  Freebie pig, fox, giraffe, turtle, panda; WC Birds set
My Favorite Things products: Celebrate You stamps; Plaid Patterns paper, Cloud stencil
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Inks
Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers

Summery Flowers Thank You

The Ton Stamps current challenge is a "summer" theme.  For me, summer certainly is about flowers, as I do love planting them and enjoying the colors during our long growing season here.  I'm entering this into the challenge and the details can be found by clicking HERE.

I made this shaped card by using the coordinating die for Wishful Wildflowers.  I did "partial die cutting" along the top and bottom, and both sides.  I only had a little bit to hand cut after.  I stamped the image after the die cutting.  There are plenty of explanations on how to do this if you web search that are much better at explaining than I am.  :)

I really love how this turned out with the shape of the card and the bright summery flower colors!  Was very easy once I figured out my die cutting!  Thank you so much for taking a look!

Supplies:
The Ton:  Wishful Wildflowers stamps/dies; Happiest of Peonies stamps for the sentiment
Spectrum Noir alcohol markers
Versafine Onyx Black ink

Rainbow Cards

Hello!  Didn't realize it had been quite a while since I've posted anything here!  Last week, I participated in the Online Card Classes--Rainbow Maker.  It was all about different techniques to make rainbow color cards.  It was a whole lot of rainbow happy going on for sure!  Seriously, all Online Card Classes are the best classes I've taken!

I thought I'd compile all of them into one post to have them together.  (All are also posted on my Instagram with supply details, if you are interested.  The link is to the right.)  Here they are:

This one was almost in the trash!  Savaged it by giving it a good shower and letting the inks drip!

This technique uses strips of card stock to create a rainbow

Same as above, but just die cut the strips with a word sentiment.

Ink "smooshing" :)

Stamping in rainbow colors.

More ink "smooshing"

This is using glitter paste through a stencil over an ink-blended background.

Well, if you've looked at all of these, thank you so much!   Your comments are most welcomed and much appreciated!

Happy Birthday, With a Splash

I'm always wanting a good stash of birthday cards!

I 'm entering this into two challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge #75 (info HERE).   The theme is "Black & White with a Splash".  The splash being a bit of color! I was totally inspired by Lisa Tilson at http://www.mycardtrip.co.uk/  She is one of the guest designers for the challenge and her floral cards are so beautiful!!

Flickr's LOVE!--Handmade Cards "Anything Goes" July challenge (info HERE).

I do love playing with stencils and embossing paste!  This SSS stencil is so beautiful!

I used a glossy embossing paste and the shine is so pretty!

I do appreciate you looking and leaving your comments for me!

Supplies:

• Simon Says Stamp products: More Spring Flowers stamps/dies; Thoughtful Messages stamp for sentiment; Circular Lace stencil
• Embossing paste:  Dreamweaver Glossy Black
• Spectrum Noir markers:  CR5, DR5, DR7

Lacy Stencil Happy Birthday

Was so fun playing with my Distress Oxide Inks and Simon Says Stamp Circular Lace stencil!

I used one of the SSS Twisted Stitch Borders to cut the stenciled piece into two parts.  For the sentiment I used a favorite SSS set, Birthday Balloons.  I made the glitter border by cutting a strip of card stock topped with a Scor-Tape adhesive sheet with the same border die and adding glitter.  Topped it off with a few beautiful Amethyst sequins from SSS.

I'm entering this card into these challenges:

SSS Flickr Challenge #74--Stunning Stenciling
SSS Monday Challenge--Stencil It
SSS Wednesday Challenge--Anything Goes

Thanks so much for taking a look!

Supplies:
Simon Says Stamp Exclusive products:
     Circular Lace stencil
     Twisted Stitch Borders
     Birthday Balloons
     Amethyst sequins
Distress Oxide Inks:  Wilted Violet, Broken China, Faded Jeans
Glitter:  Sparkle N Sprinkle Hanauma Bay

Rustic Country Barn

Finally getting some time to play with the Art Impressions' stamps I got at the Scrapbook Expo.....in March!!   LOL!

I totally love the barn in the Old Barn Mini Set!  With this I also used a tree from the Covered Bridge Mini Set along with the mini grass and a couple of little flower stamps.

When I saw the current AI Challenge #211 "Create A Background," I wondered how to incorporate a background here.  I finally settled on making a background using the tree from the Covered Bridge set and shadow stamped it for the matte to go behind the main image.

Details for the challenge are HERE

I'm also entering this into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes" featuring AI products.  The challenge info is HERE.

Thank you very much for taking a look!