Caardvarks challenge: inside and out

The challenge at Caardvarks is to create a new stamped card that is decorated inside and out.  Here is the front of my card:

Three elements from a Penny Black clear set called Robin's Kingdom were stamped on white cardstock, and colored with pencils and mineral spirits.  Then I sponged on faded jeans distress ink for the sky and quickly stamped on a water-spritzed-only snowflake background stamp.  Here is a detailed shot to show the water-stamping of the snowflakes, the glitter, and the star gem.

When everything was dry I added touches of glitter.  And since I didn't feel there was a good place to put a sentiment on the outside, I chose what I consider to be the perfect sentiment (also a Penny Black stamp) for the inside, along with a repeat of the star.

Supplies: white, red and aqua cardstock, Penny Black stamps 30-056 Robin's Kingdom, 3227K Hope is born, Hero Arts CG100 Snowflake Circle, versafine onyx black ink, colored pencils and mineral spirits, faded jeans distress ink, glue pen and HA prisma glitter

Zig-Zags

At Penny Black Saturday, we've been challenged to use zig-zags or triangles on a creation.   My mind immediately went to this scrap of Halloween zig-zag dp from several years ago.  I pulled the colors from it to color this cute little student witch, and then fussy-cut the zig-zags to go at the top and bottom of my card. 

Supplies: white, black and orange cardstocks, scraps of dotted green and zig-zag dps, PB4090F student witch, Hero ArtsCL353 Happy Halloween (sentiment), Versafine onyx black ink, colored pencils, mineral spirits, dotted orange organza ribbon, Nestabilities labels one, circles, scalloped circles

Cardinal wreath

I made this card a little earlier in the month, but never posted it here.  It will fit nicely into The Ribbon Girl Blog's color challenge for this month, red and green:

I stamped a leafy wreath on this cream parchment cardstock, (if you look really hard you can see it underneath) and then used it to guide my placement of the punched pine fronds.  I added a cardinal stamped on red cardstock and cut out, some red gem "berries" and a favorite red and cream gingham ribbon. 

Supplies:  cream parchment and red cardstocks, Hero Arts CG215 Wreath of Leaves, LP169 Bird Trio, CL460 Joy to All, versafine onyx black ink, punched pine fronds in 2 shades of green, red gems, red and cream gingham ribbon

A new challenge

from Skipping Stones Designs features this fun sketch:

I love working with sketches, and I really love seeing how everyone else interprets them!  And this also works for the Winter Wonderland challenge at Fussy and Fancy and for Simon Say Stamp challenge: punches and dies.  Here is my card for these challenges:

I started with this pretty piece of snowflake dp that has, besides the snowflakes, some text and music in it.  I used my 1 1/4" punch to punch out 9 squares, and glued them to the card.  I thought it would be fun to use the negative image left from a snowflake diecut, so that was popped above a piece of blue cardstock.  Then I added some pale blue and white gingham ribbon, a blue punched snowflake, a button and the sentiment. 

I find it hilarious that I'm making all of these snowflake cards in October, but come January, we will flee south from our awful Ohio winter ;)

Supplies: white and blue cardstock, the Paper Studio dp "Vintage Blue Snowflake", Hero Arts CL368 Make Your Own (for sentiment), stamped in Adirondack Denim ink, pale blue gingham ribbon, punched snowflake, button, Paper Shapers 1 1/4" square punch

Black, white and a splash of burgundy.....

......that's the challenge this week at the Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Before playing these challenges, I would NEVER have used black on a card, not even a sympathy card!  But after about 3 or 4 of these, I began to see the elegance of black and white and a splash of another color and have come to enjoy these challenges.  Here is my submission for this week:

I appear to be in a snowflake period lately!  But, as I said in my last post, my Christmas card pile for this year is increasing with each challenge! 

supplies:  white and burgundy cardstock, Webster's Pages dp, Hero Arts K5256 Winter Pine, CL459 Merry Christmas Trees (sentiment), versamark ink and white embossing powder, ColorBox dark peony ink, glue pen, glitter, red gemstones and pearls, snowflake punch

Pink snowflakes

Here is our inspiration card for this week's CASE Study:

I love the gingham ribbon and the pale white/cream against the kraft!  I knew immediately what I wanted to do. 

I love how this October Afternoon dp looks against the kraft. It has little dotted trails in it, just like butterfly trails, so I knew the sentiment would be perfect!  The sentiment is embossed in pale pink powder, and then I just had to add the die-cut snowflake and the peachy-pink button and twine.  Love how fast this came together!  Thanks, Barb!

Supplies: kraft cardstock, October Afternoon Very Merry "Sing the Carols" dp, Hero Arts CL234 Winter's Butterfly, versamark ink and Stampendous Blushing Pink Pastel embossing powder, pink, tan and brown checked ribbon from a craft store, die-cut snowflake, PTI button, twine

Red, green and tan

are the colors that Mona Pendleton chose for her very first color challenge!  I heard about it through Stephanie's blog, and since I love color challenges, I thought I'd give it a try.  I just received a new Hero Arts Christmas set, and here are the first 2 cards I made with it.  I LOVE these trees embossed in gold!

I also love that my Christmas card pile for this year is growing each week!  Thanks, Mona! 

Supplies: parchment, red and green cardstocks, versafine ink and Ranger super fine detail gold embossing powder, Adirondack cranberry ink, Hero Arts CL459 Merry Christmas Trees, CG222 Music Background, CL111 Hand Drawn Christmas ("Noel"),  Sizzix embossing folder, snowflake punches, Martha Stewart doily punch

from 1918

Jessie Wilcox Smith, born in 1863, was an artist who often illustrated for Good Housekeeping magazine.  I know her for her lovely images of children, and have several books containing her work.  This was a vintage image from the year 1918 that I found online.  I framed it with a doily, adding a paper flower and a frilly bow to mimic the little girl's dress; she reminds me so much of my sister Nancy.  This is another entry for Betsy Veldman's Vintage Findings challenge.  In case you haven't noticed, I'm really enjoying this!

Supplies: Hero Arts carnation layering paper, CG119 Flourish Background, CL129 Anytime Messages, CG148 Blossoms (leaves), worn lipstick, peeled paint, and versafine onyx black inks, doily, Hobby Lobby ribbon, BoBunny flamingo dot cardstock (for flower)

Another illustration from a children's book

Another card made for Betsy Veldman's Vintage Findings challenge.  This illustration was on the page at the front of The Bumper Book that lists the copyright dates. (see my post below)   Again, it was scanned and printed, as I will never cut into this book.  The colors are a perfect match for the papers from CosmoCricket's Garden Variety mini-deck. I used another of Kath's ribbons and an old button from my mil's button can.  The sentiment is Hero Arts CL129 Anytime Messages.  I used a recent sketch from Julee at Verve stamps. 

Vintage Findings

Betsy Veldman has been having a week of showing off some of her creations using her wonderful collections of vintage items.  This post really grabbed my interest, as I'm a collector of children's books, also.  I decided to use a scanned image from The Bumper Book, published in 1946.  Growing up it was a favorite of my sisters and me, and when I had our boys, I was able to find a newer copy of it from 1969.  As you can see, it's a little worse for wear, but I still treasure it.

According to the frontspiece, all of the illustrations are done by Eulalie.  No last name.  Being the pastel girl that I am, I was drawn to the illustrations for the poem "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" by Eugene Field.  Several pages of the book were devoted to it, and here is part of the page and image that I scanned:

 And here is my card. 

I used paper and a rub-on from Little Yellow Bicycle's Snugglebug Boy collection, a fat dotted grosgrain ribbon just received from Kath in Scotland, and these assorted buttons.  Some of them are vintage, I'm sure, as I also have my mother-in-law's button box. 

Thank you, Betsy, I had such fun making this card and remembering.  I see more coming!

Time of the singing birds

At the Shabby Tea Room this week, we are to CASE one of the designer's cards.  I fell in love with this card by guest designer Cheryl Baker:

I love her use of music, the bird, the lace, and her color scheme of pink, black and white.  Here is my CASE of her card:

I love this quote from Song of Solomon, to me it represents hope, the theme of Cheryl's card.  I stamped my music background, then overstamped the bird, trimmed the panel out and framed it in black.  The sentiment is computer generated.  My swirl background was chosen to mimic the swirls in her card.  My lace flowers are from my fabric scrap basket.

Amazingly enough, I just saw the Wplus9 blog, and this card fits the challenge there: in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, the colors are light pink, white, and grey or black, and my theme of hope fits this challenge well, I think. 

Supplies: ivory parchment and black cardstock, designer paper from K&Company Bailey mat pad, Versafine onyx black ink, Hero Arts CG222 Music Background, CG110 Flourish Background, Inkadinkado  97548 Birds Galore, lace scraps

Caring Hearts Card Drive Blog Hop

Hello!  You should have arrived from Kryssi's blog.  Sweet Vera is sponsoring this Caring Hearts card drive to collect cards for the elderly living in nursing homes, assisted living, etc.  She'd like us to make cards for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Here are the details:

This card drive will be going on till mid November. I will need to receive your cards by November 15, 2010 that way we can send the cards out in time for Thanksgiving. Christmas cards will be saved for Christmas delivery.


Please make the cards for either Thanksgiving or Christmas or Holiday Wishes. Anyone can send a card, your children, church group, scout troops, etc.


All cards need to have a message in it. Please also sign your name and where you are from. On the card envelope, write your name on the top left corner. Also, please don't seal the envelope, as we will address the card when we deliver them to the nursing homes. Due to privacy policy, the nursing homes or the care center cannot share the resident's name to the public.


Please stick to just cards.
All cards need to be mailed to the following address:


Vera Yates
Caring Hearts Card Drive
P.O Box 16321
Sugar Land, TX 77496


In each package, PLEASE include a piece of paper with your name, address, email address and how many cards you sent. This helps us in keeping track for prizes! For each card you send, you will get a chance. So the more cards you send, the better your chances.

Vera has lined up oodles of prizes, see here!  I'll be sending in a packet of Thanksgiving cards, as I know how lonely this holiday can be for those who are not living at home anymore.  Won't you consider doing the same?  Please hop on over to Lorraine's blog now for more inspiration.  And thanks for visiting!

Adding this card to the Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Give Thanks/Thanksgiving.  They are one of Vera's sponsors!

Embellish Magazine challenge

The Embellish Magazine challenge this time is to do a vintage project and use green, yellow, and rust:

The dt examples on the blog were so gorgeous I was inspired to give this a try.  Here's my card:

I started with white cardstock, and stamped and white embossed the circle doily image.  I followed that with sponging on wild honey distress ink all over the page.  I overstamped ferns in peeled paint, and some script in burnt umber inks.  My flower is 8 layers of yellow cardstock flower shapes in descending sizes, wet and scrunched to give it some character.  After it was dry I added some touches of spiced marmalade distress ink for detail.  The ribbon was a white polyester that I also wet and then dragged paprika ink across the surfaces to dye it.  And the butterfly is a punched Martha Stewart one which I sponged with the same paprika ink and also some fired brick distress ink. 

Supplies: white, yellow, and green cardstocks, Hero Arts CG168 Circle Doily, LL040 Woodland Ferns, S4878 Old Letter Writing, CL119 Happy Thanksgiving (sentiment), versamark, VersaColor Paprika, wild honey, peeled paint, fired brick, orange marmalade distress inks, Memories art print brown, ribbon, Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch

Happy Anniversary!

The Play Date Cafe is a year old this week!  It is my very favorite for color challenges.  This challenge is to make a celebration card using pink, yellow, and orange, or any combination of these colors. 

I love all of these colors, so I decided to use them all.  In looking at my stamps I was searching for something festive, and I think this new Fabulous Flourish by Hero Arts fits the bill.  Doesn't it remind you of beautiful fireworks? 

I first inked up my stamp with versamark ink, then 3 colors of distress inks, and clear embossed after stamping...I wanted a bright and shiny image.  I added gemstones in the same colors, and my sentiment stamped and embossed on vellum.  For the background I used 3 BoBunny double dot dps. 

Happy Anniversary, Play Date Cafe!  Looking forward to many more challenges!

Supplies: white cardstock, BoBunny double dot cardstocks in orange citrus, buttercup and passion fruit, Hero Arts S5449 Fabulous Flourish, mustard seed, worn lipstick, and spiced marmalade distress inks, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Hero Arts gems from the blush and sunshine mixed accents sets

More pink

I am not a chrysanthemum person, but I make an exception for these ones.  I don't know what kind they are, but they resemble daisies more than my idea of the usual mum.  They are a transplant from a dear friends' garden.  They take absolutely no care and are just now blooming, so welcome in our garden right now.  I thought I'd share them along with this CASE of Lisa Spangler's wreath card that was on the Hero Arts blog last week.  I immediately fell in love with it, and made a special trip to the craft store to find a wider ribbon than I have on hand.  This gingham one was on sale at Michael's this week, and I scooped it up.  Here's a closer look at the card:

I stamped the wreath of leaves 3 times in 3 different brown inks on an ivory parchment cardstock, added the sentiment, some pink and white pearls in different sizes, the ribbon, and edged the card in spun sugar distress ink.  So easy, but I love the result.

Supplies: ivory parchement cardstock, Hero Arts CG215 Wreath of Leaves, CL343 Holiday Sayings, Memories artprint brown,  Anita's teddy bear and Palette burnt umber inks, 7/8" gingham ribbon from Michael's, pink and white pearls

Chocolate Covered Autumn

This is the gorgeous photo inspiration for this week's Shabby Tea Room challenge.  I fell in love with the rich brown against the autumnal colors and imagined making a card for an elegant autumn wedding.  Here is my submission:

Supplies:  cream parchment, chocolate brown, rust, gold and eggplant cardstocks, Adornit "fall leaves stripe" dp, Hero Arts S5264 Antique Flower Background, CL119 Happy Thanksgiving, sepia and art print brown inks, Martha Stewart doily punch, punched ferns, gold filigree button

Also entering this into Crazy 4 Challenges "Fall/Autumn".

Joy to All

Made after watching Jennifer McGuire's latest video in her Holiday Thinking Inking classes at 2Peas - she is such an inspiration, and I couldn't wait to try her embossed paper roses.  (after they are constructed, you dip them in embossing ink and then in clear embossing powder and heat them, doing this several times until you get an enamel-look to them).  Mine are centered with a little jingle bell, a metallic flower and a gold gem.  Also, I clear embossed anything that I stamped here - the pine flourish background, the scalloped border, the sentiment, even the leaves!

Since this is done in cranberry and green, I'm also entering it into The Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge #2: Red and Green.  I didn't use ribbon, but will this twine/floss count?  ;)

Supplies: red, green, and cream cardstock, green gingham printed paper, Adirondack lettuce and cranberry inks, versamark ink, clear embossing powder, Hero Arts S5247 Flourish Pine, CL288 Scallop Borders, CL460 Joy to All, jingle bell, metallic flower, gold gem, twine

Red and green

Those are the colors we are to use for The Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge #2.  Go and see the delightful mitten hangings that are up for grabs for some winners of this challenge!  Here is my submission:

Supplies:  Red and white cardstock, Adirondack cranberry and pine needles distress inks, versafine onyx black ink, colored pencils, Hero Arts CL464 Sending Holiday Cheer (house and pines), CL343 Holiday Sayings, CG119 Flourish Background, Inkadinkado 91347-M (pine sprig), red ribbon, glue pen and glitter

Patient and kind

Made for the latest Our Daily Bread Designs challenge #33 "Anything Goes".  I started with a background stamped using Jennifer McGuire's block stamping technique and worn lipstick distress ink with a border of vintage photo.  After it was dry I trimmed it out and overstamped the heart flourish in the same ink, and then the love passage from Corinthians in brown, and heat embossed it.  The panel was attached to a card that had been stamped with the trio flourish in worn lipstick, and then I added some punched ferns and some rolled roses. 

Supplies: watercolor paper, pink cardstock, Our Daily Bread 1 Corinthians, Hero Arts K5153 Heart Flourish, H5261 Flourish Trio, worn lipstick and vintage photo distress inks, Memories ArtPrint Brown ink, clear embossing powder, punched ferns, rolled roses

Pink Christmas

I've been seeing some beautiful pink Christmas cards, so I wanted to try a few of my own. 

This one is the pinker of the 2, using my new Starry Night cling stamp and worn lipstick distress ink for the background.  It is overstamped lightly in Brilliance pearlescent beige ink with the music background, glitter added to the trees and some stars, then framed in brown and centered on a card already white embossed with snowflakes.

Supplies: white, brown, pink cardstock, CG224 Starry Night, CG222 Music Background, CG100 Snowflake Circle, CL343 Holiday Sayings, worn lipstick distress ink, brilliance pearlescent beige, sepia archival, and versamark inks, white embossing powder, glue pen and glitter, punched snowflakes, button, hemp cord

This one started with an October Afternoon paper called Sing the Carols.  The little Penny Black caroler was stamped and colored in similar colors, distressed lightly on the edges with tattered rose, and framed in brown.  The sentiment was pink embossed on the same brown cardstock, tucking it along the side.  I finished with this pretty peachy satin ribbon topped with a punched snowflake.  A second snowflake was first sponged with tattered rose before adding it to the corner.

Supplies: white and brown cardstock, Penny Black 4097J Christmas Note, Hero Arts CL343 Holiday Sayings, tattered rose distress, versafine onyx black and versamark inks, pink embossing powder, satin ribbon, punched snowflakes

Autumn Blessings

At Our Daily Bread Designs, we've been challenged to make something using embossing powders.  I have these lovely Randi's Song stamps, and tried various gold embossing powders and different colors of cardstock using this negative leaf design.  My favorite result is shown on this card:

This was stamped in Adirondack Sunset Orange on a light golden apricot cardstock, then embossed with a fine powder labelled Gold Pearl.  (I'm not positive, but I believe it's Ranger Embossing Pearls gold).  Then I went back in and sponged on fired brick distress ink to bring the leaf out more; this technique is called emboss resist.  The ink cannot adhere to the embossed surface, only to the cardstock left untreated.  I also used a clear embossing powder over Memories Art Print Brown on the sentiment.    Here's a detail showing the gold embossing:

The background of the card was stamped using the lovely Ecclesiastes text repeatedly, and then overstamped with a subtle maple leaf in various distress inks.

Supplies: apricot, orange, and brown cardstocks, Memories ArtPrint Brown, Adirondack Sunset Orange, fired brick, vintage photo, wild honey and spiced marmalade distress inks (background stamping), ODBD Randi's Song, Hero Arts CG223 Maple Leaf, The Paper Company Studio Autumn Stamp Kit (sentiment), button, twine

CASE Study #10

This is the card by our muse for the month, Barbara Anders. Don't you love the rich colors?

And here is my take on it.  I used both Barbara's sketch and her lovely colors.  I fell down when it comes to the bow, though; just don't have anything that voluptuous!

The birds are watercolored using distress inks, and my blue panel is stamped.

Supplies: cream, cream parchment, light turquoise, black cardstock, dp from Cosmo Cricket and October Afternoon, Hero Arts stamps H5261 Flourish Trio, CL371 Essential Messages, Crafty Secrets Bird Notes Medium, DeNami musical note stamp, versafine onyx black, versamark, broken china and fired brick distress inks, clear embossing powder, unknown striped ribbon, colored pencils

Mint and blue....

.....are the colors, along with beige, that Sarah Anderson has chosen for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge:

Here is what I came up with, using my brand new Hero Arts stamps:

The Fabulous Flourish was stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed in a  blue embossing powder. 

Supplies: beige, mint, and blue cardstocks, Memories Artprint Brown ink, versamark and a la Mode Sky Blue embossing powder, Hero Arts S5449 Fabulous Flourish, E5388 Traditional Butterfly, true green Prismacolor pencil, CL434 Just Find Me (sentiment), pale blue and green pearls, pale blue organza ribbon

Christmas Smile

All of these cute creatures and the sentiment come from a clear Penny Black set of stamps called Xmas Snapshot.  Using whites, tans, red, green, and charcoal cardstocks, I stamped them each several times, cut apart the elements and paper-pieced them back together.  I ran out of steam on the hedgie's scarf - it was colored with green pencil.  I also used pencils on the 2 animals for a little shading and rosy cheeks.  The background is a piece of mottled blue and white unknown designer paper that was run through the cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder.  My snow banks are just torn pieces of white cardstock, glittered along the edges. 

Thanks to Donna, I'll try entering this into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge, to use 2 or more stamped Penny Black images.  Thanks, Donna! 

Supplies: whites, tans, red, green and charcoal cardstocks, 30-055 Xmas Snapshots, versafine onyx black ink, colored pencils, cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder on blue dp, glue pen, glitter

Blog Award

This was given to me by Suze last week, and I've been waiting to make a post about it because I have to list 7 interesting things about myself.  Taking a cue from some of Suze's list, I'll give it a shot:

1.  I played the flute beginning in grade school and all the way through high school. I actually considered becoming a music major, but.....
2.  I was a Math major instead! 
3.  I went to a small college in western Pennsylvania, called Grove City College.  They actually locked the girls in each night, and we had to sign in and out when we went out on dates!  I bet they can't get away with that anymore :)  That said, I'm very proud of my alma mater.  And that's where I met my husband of almost 40 years!
4.  I loved school all the way through.
5.  I grew up with 2 dachshunds, father and son, Fritz and Hans.  My parents and my sister each have toy dachshunds now.
6.  I got to live in Luxembourg (a small country between Belgium, France, and Germany) for a whole year in 1979 - our boys were 2 and 4, and every weekend we'd travel to a different country.  My favorite places to visit were Germany, Switzerland, and Austria (the Alps and the meadows were breathtaking!).  Would love to go back again!
7.  I'm half Scotch-Irish and half German/Hungarian.

Now I'm supposed to pass this along to 7 others, but there are too many blogs that I admire, so I'm skipping that detail.  Thank you, Suze!

Using an acrylic block as a background stamp

Over at 2Peas, Jennifer McGuire is doing a class called Holiday Thinking Inking.  Today she showed us how to make a background using an acrylic block as our stamp: you ink it up with distress ink, then spritz with water and carefully stamp on white cardstock.  This was the base of my card.  Then I stamped the pine trees and painted them in with a paint brush, using pine needles distress ink and perfect pearls and water all mixed together.  The bottom white panel was torn and added, shadowing a bit with soft stone shadow ink mixed with perfect pearls and water.  After attaching that to the main panel and trimming, I edged everything with faded jeans distress ink, then mounted the panel on a white notecard.  Young Deer was stamped, painted with a mix of scattered straw and vintage photo distress inks and perfect pearl water, then cut out.  To finish I added the sentiment, some subtle snowflakes stamped in tumbled glass, and some glitter along the snow line and on some of the snowflakes.

Entering this into the Jolly Holiday Greetings Challenge at Moxie Fab World.

Supplies:  white cardstock, Hero Arts K5256 Winter Tree, D5234 Young Deer, CL343 Holiday Sayings, tumbled glass, pine needles and faded jeans distress inks, Hero Arts soft stone shadow ink, versafine onyx black ink, glue pen and Prisma glitter

Pumpkin Patch

I made this card for this weeks Shabby Tea Room challenge, to be inspired by a photo of a line of pumpkins.  After watching Jennifer McGuire's newest Thinking Inking video this morning, I think she had some influence on this card!  I started with orange, blue, green and cream cardstocks and stamped a secondary pattern on everything and also distressed every edge to within an inch of its life!  All stamps are Hero Arts, except for the PTI sentiment.

Supplies: orange, green, blue and cream cardstocks, vintage photo, fired brick, faded jeans distress inks, HA soft apricot, Versafine Olympia Green and Memories Artprint Brown inks, Hero Arts G5269 Tall Pumpkin, F5270 Traditional Pumpkin, S5050 Wavy Leaf Pattern, S52 Antique Flower Background, K5175 Houndstooth, CG125 Friend Definition, CG119 Flourish Background, PTI Vintage Picnic, raffia

To everything there is a season.......

Supplies: various designer papers (pink is a scrap of polished stone in my scrapbasket), ivory and kraft cardstocks, Our Daily Bread designs "Randi's Song", Hero Arts CL361 Season of Giving (sentiment), Memories Artprint Brown ink, twine, purple button

Here is my second submission for Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger, based on the fantastic folkart painting shown below, and also my entry in Our Daily Bread designs "leaves" challenge.  I just received this Our Daily Bread set of stamps which includes the quote from Ecclesiastes, and a leaf block.  So I pulled out the 4 main colors from the painting and stamped and cut out the leaves, scattering them across the quote.  The background dp is from the dollar store, and had all of the colors in it!  At the last minute I changed the button from orangey-gold to purple, as there's a bit of purple in the trigger inspiration. 

Holly Robin

These are the colors for the Play Date Cafe Challenge #50, the red described as "melon". Well, I guess I'm not a melon kind of girl, as I had an awful time finding ANYTHING in my stash that resembeled this orangey red. It finally dawned on me that the color I was looking for was the Prismacolor called Poppy Red, so I switched gears, chose a digital image, brand new from Suze at Die Cuts and Doodles, and here is my card for this challenge:

I love the hearts!  I just printed it out, colored it with Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits, stamped the sentiment and divided the 2 with this ric-rac velvet ribbon sent to me by Sue.  The red frame is a glossy cardstock courtesy of my friend Carol.

You have no idea how hard it is for me to leave all that white space there :)

Supplies: white, green, and glossy red cardstock, Holly Robin from Die Cuts & Doodles, Hero Arts CL460 Joy to All, Prismacolor pencils Poppy Red, crimson red, Apple Green, and Spring Green, Versafine onyx black ink, red velvet zig-zag ribbon

Joyous Christmas

We have a new muse for October at CASE Study; she is Barbara Anders and the challenge is to case this lovely card.  I love, love flowers using text or music, so tht's where I started.  Here is my take:

I substituted some old sheet music that I found at a flea market last spring, centering my flower with a metallic gold button, to pick up on the gold trim of the ribbon.  I used kraft cardstock and a camel color in addition to the red accents. 

Supplies:  camel, kraft and red cardstocks, vintage music paper, Hero Arts S5247 Flourish Pine, F4864 Wishing You Flourish, Adirondack Cranberry ink, Martha Stewart doily lace punch, cranberry ribbon with gold edging, gold button, cranberry floss