Love

......that's what that Chinese character on my card means.

For this week's CASE Study, Aga's last, here is her card:

I knew immediately that I wanted to use this new (to me) Hero Arts stamp and my new shaded lilac distress ink, one of the spring limited colors.  I did not attempt the paint splattering, but I used a tiny bit of an old, old paper (just above my scallops) which looks kind of splotchy.......

supplies: white cardstock, dps from an ancient pad from Michael's called "Windswept", Hero Arts CG434 Floral Blossoms, shaded lilac distress ink and Stampology onyx for sentiment, Martha Stewart doily border punch

The lilac ink and punched edge paper are photographing more blue than lavender, but I like this periwinkle effect just as well.

I'd like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp "Anything Goes" challenge.

Yes, Virginia.....I'm Inspired.......

My friend Virginia is having a fun challenge over on her blog "Yes, Virginia".  Her daughter Stephanie recently took some fun pictures of her brother David and his cello choir and Virginia shared them with us and challenged us to make a card based on them.  Here are the photos:

And here 's the card I made:

supplies: white and green cardstock, Hero Arts LP140 Just a Note Bird, CL341 Thank You Sayings, barn door, spiced marmalade, peacock feathers distress inks, and Hero Arts grass chalk ink and Adirondack denim ink, DeNami Designs note stamp, VersaFind onyx black ink

Sorry to the grey cello - I couldn't fit in another bird!

Also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp challenge "Anything Goes".

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

If you're here to see my card for the Lily Pad Cards star challenge, please go HERE or scroll down one post.

I absolutely fell in love with this photo inspiration for the May Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink:

Isn't it stunning?!  I don't have too many PTI stamps yet, but I HAD to play.  Here's my card:

supplies: white cardstock, Darice Damask embossing folder, A Muse black dot dp, Nesties Labels Eighteen die, PTI Friendship Jar Spring Fillers, VersaFine onyx black ink, Letraset bright green marker and Tombow N89 (light grey) marker, white baby ric-rac, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

I left off a sentiment for now; I just didn't want to mess up the symmetry :))  I think this would work for a sympathy card, though.....

Ohio Star quilt block

It's time for another Simon Says Stamp challenge at Lily Pad Cards!  Our theme is "Stars" - can you believe I didn't have one single star, other than a wooden button one?  So I decided to paper-piece this Ohio Star pattern. using the traditional red and white.  I made it into a thank you card.

supplies: ivory parchment cardstock, design papers from October Afternoon, Paper Shapers 1 1/4" square punch, Sizzix little flowers embossing folder, Hero Arts CL499 Special Note of Thanks, VersaFine onyx black ink

Now let's see what you can do with our Star theme - you might win a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp!  Don't forget to visit Lily Pad Cards to get some ideas from the rest of the Design Team.  

Dust 'Em Off!

That's our instructions for the challenge this time at A Blog Named Hero: to use a stamp that's been sitting on the shelf for awhile......I chose this Garden Silhouette, and did it in yellow.

supplies: white cardstock, dps from MME Howdy Doody and Echo Park Hello Summer pads, A Muse green dot dp, Hero Arts  K5370 Garden Silhouette, VersaMark ink, white embossing powder, Memento green and yellow markers, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, yellow dotted ribbon, green button

CAS-ual Fridays

This week our challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to use a punch or die to make our clean and simple project.  I had a chance to borrow my friend Yvonne's Cheery Lynn stamps awhile back and die-cut a whole bunch of them in different colors, and I've been hoarding them ever since.  I thought I'd combine this challenge with Cath's Doilies and Lace challenge at Moxie Fab World, too.   Here's my card:

supplies: Hero Arts tide layering paper, CG168 Circle Doily, VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, Cheery Lynn butterfly design, tiny rose from my sweet friend Clare, Technique Tuesday Simply You by Ali Edwards, VersaFine onyx black ink

Edited to add: This card was published in CARDS magazine, March, 2013 on page 140. 

Another "just because" card......

I'll be out of the loop for a few days, so I thought I'd post another card that I made just for me.  I saw a card recently on Pinterest that used this 2009 paper from October Afternoon, and fell in love with it all over again.....there's just something so appealing about that blue with the dots and the creamy flowers. I added another October Afternoon paper, too - love florals and stripes together!

supplies: cream and green cardstock, dps from October Afternoon "Report Card" and "Thrift Shop", Spellbinders Rose Creation die-cut flowers, orange and gold buttons, Martha Stewart doily lace punch, leaves from Wplus9 Folk Art Florals die, Penny Black "To You" stamp, VersaFine onyx black ink

I tried various kinds of flowers, but I liked these single diecuts from Spellbinders; they're meant to be stacked into one flower, but I like them on their own, too!

Aga's butterflies

At CASE Study, our May muse is Aga and here is her lovely card for us this week:

A true masterpiece........I couldn't get it out of my mind.  Here is my take on it:

supplies: white cardstock, white tag, A Muse green gingham dp, green scrapbook paper for banner,Martha Stewart eyelet edge punch, Hero Arts digital flutterby, E5388 Traditional Butterfly, B3938 Butterfly, CL173 SparkleClear Simple Messages, VersaFine onyx black ink, Memento markers, green dotted organdy ribbon

And since gingham plays a big part in my card, I'd like to add this to the Card Creations Gingham Challenge at Moxie Fab World.. 

Black and White and a Splash

It's time for another Color Splash challenge at The Play Date Cafe; these are my favorites, so funny because I don't like black, and never use it except in these challenges.......

Here's my card this time:

supplies: white and yellow cardstock, A Muse black dot dp, Hero Arts K4883 Happy Wishes, 657773 Antique Butterflies & Flowers stamp and die, VersaFine onyx black ink

Maybe the reason I love these challenges so much is that the black really makes any color pop!

Smiling Flowers

And one more entry for Cath's Tuesday Trigger this week, using this photo inspiration:

I wanted to combine this with the Simon Says Stamp challenge: Clean & Simple, so I found some subtle-patterned design papers in these colors to paper-piece for my card:

supplies: white cardstock, design papers from Basic Grey picadilly, Shine On, and Serendipity pads, Hero Arts CL596 Pattern Hearts & Flowers, CL184 Thoughtful Messages, VersaFine onyx black ink, borrowed unknown die-cut label (thanks, Yvonne!)

Blue and green

I appear to be in another of my blue moods lately.......it is still my favorite color!  The challenge at CR84FN is to use blue and green and a neutral.

I found this Hero Arts stamp today at a used stamp swap and couldn't wait to ink it up in my favorite Brilliance Tri-Color ink trio called peacock.

supplies: white and aqua cardstock, Hero Arts K5361 Flower Medley, Brilliance Tri-color Peacock ink, Nesties scalloped rectangle die, Technique Tuesday This is the Day by Ali Edwards, VersaFine onyx black ink, blue gingham ribbon, green button, blue and green gems

And I'd also like to add this to the Simon Says Stamp "Clean & Simple" challenge.

You Warm My Heart

Hi everyone!  Hope you are having a great weekend!  I'm Guest Designer at Our Creative Corner this week, and here is our photo inspiration from Meihsia Liu:

Of course, my eye went right to the quilt, then to the lamp, and then I remembered that the My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose "Mabel" paper pad had some lovely coordinating papers in these colors. Here is my card:

supplies: parchment cardstock, design papers from MME Stella & Rose "Mabel" paper pad, Nesties scalloped heart die, Sizzix little flowers embossing folder, Hero Arts CL188 SparkleClear Tea sentiment, pool button, natural jute twine, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares to lift heart

I love to use an embossing folder all across the finished card to simulate "quilting"......I think it gives a nice definition to the card.

Tuesday Trigger

If you're here to see my Lily Pad Cards card, please go here or scroll down one post.

I am really in love with the colors of this week's Tuesday Trigger - I keep seeing juicy limes, lemons, oranges and pink grapefruit!

So here's what I did with them:

supplies: white cardstock,Hero Arts  CG172 Garden Bouquet, VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, shabby shutters, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, and mustard seed distress inks, CL512 Lauderdale Sunshine, CL184 Thoughtful Messages, VersaFine onyx black ink

I clear stamped and white embossed the Garden Bouquet, then cut it apart into 4 equal strips, sponged each with a different ink, then reassembled it.

A Dozen Birds

It's time for a new challenge at Lily Pad Cards!  This time we have a photo inspiration from Vera:

We DT members got to play with some stamps from Stamp Camp.  Here's what I came up with using my stamps.  There were 12 cupcakes, so I used 12 birds:

supplies: Hero Arts notecard, Stamp Camp leafy background and tree and birds stamps, Hero Arts LP140 Just a Note Bird kissed with woodgrain from LP126 Artistic Windows, bubble gum, butter bar, pool, and green hills mid-tone inks, Memories Art Print Brown ink, pop dots

What will you make using Vera's View as your inspiration?  Pop on over to Lily Pad Cards to see what the other DT did with their stamps

Make a Wish

Have you seen the current Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World?  This hits me on all cylinders - the gorgeous colors, which make me think of the wonderful citrus fruits in Florida, and then, COOKIES!  Such a comfort food for me.......Here is Cath's photo inspiration:

Here's my first attempt using these colors:

supplies: white cardstock, dps from Basic Grey Picadilly, Shine On, and Serendipity pads, Hero Arts 657773 Antique Flowers & Butterflies stamp and die-cut, The Craft's Meow Butterfly Kisses sentiment, VersaFine onyx black ink, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, gold, orange, bright pink and green gems

I decided to use this sentiment first, and then the idea of being surrounded by a flutter of butterflies in these colors came from there...... 

Also entering this into Simon Says Stamp's "Clean & Simple" challenge this week:

Just Because......

Last weekend, the Hero Arts flickr group had another 90-minute scramble, hosted by Cheiron, and her theme was "All About Me": to make a card using whatever pleases us.  I didn't get to play then, but her idea really appealed to me.  If you've noticed, almost all of my cards are done to someone else's specifications, usually for challenges or as part of my Design Team work at Lily Pad Cards or for publication.  Rarely do I make something just for the pure joy of creating, but this time I did!

supplies: parchment and blue cardstock, Darice "Damask" embossing folder, Cheery Lynn butterfly die, Hero Arts CL569 Truly Grateful, Adirondack Stonewash ink, Hobby Lobby lace and gingham ribbon, PTI blue button

Blue has always been my favorite color, and lately I have been enjoying the wonderful dimension that dry embossing gives a card.  I added some beautiful lace and a butterfly, a bit of gingham ribbon and a blue button, and it was finished.

I highly recommend this little exercise every once in awhile - it helped to remind me why I'm doing all of this!

I'd like to enter this into the Card Creations: Damask and Brocade Challenge at Moxie Fab World.

The Postal Challenge

Here's another challenge at Moxie Fab World to commemorate their 10th issue of Card Creations -  for this one, we are to incorporate postal elements.  Here is my card:

supplies: pink notecard, parchment paper, design papers from Webster's Pages and Pink Paislee, stamps from Hero Arts CL535 Carte Postal, S4878  Old Letter Writing, and 657773 Antique Flowers & Butterflies, All Night Media 554E Wish Postmark, Just Rite Greetings from Paris elements, VersaFine Vintage Sepia and Hero Arts green hills mid-tone ink, distressed with tea dye distress ink, paper doily, pink colored pencil to shade butterfly

CASE Study #90

Our Muse for May is Aga at CASE Study.

I looked through my stamps, trying to find a line drawing, and decided to go with this Hero Arts Peacock.......and I got to use my new distress ink called Peacock Feathers, adding a bit of glitter to his feathers:

supplies: white cardstock, dp from MME Stella & Rose "Gertie" pad, Hero Arts CL447 Beautiful Peacock, peacock feathers distress ink and VersaFine onyx black ink for sentiment, a la mode turquoise glitter

Lacy Flower

Another challenge at Moxie Fab World , inspired by trends Cath spotted in the new Card Creations, Volume 10, is doilies and lace.  I started with this beautiful piece of Webster's Pages paper, roughed up the edges, and then proceeded to build a lacy flower, first stamping a doily and embossing it in white, then die-cutting a smaller one, and then built a 9-layer fluffy flower on that, centered with a pearl brad.

supplies: Hero Arts pool layering paper as card base, Webster's Pages design paper, unknown aqua scrapbook paper, Hero Arts CG168 Circle Doily, Versamark ink and white embossing powder, Die-Namics doily die, PTI Beautiful Blooms II #1 flower dies, 3 of 3 sizes, PTI  Garden Variety sentiment, VersaFine onyx black ink, pearl brad, aqua organdy ribbon

Brocade Flowers

Happy Mother's Day!

I am loving all the challenges that Cath is giving us at Moxie Fab World to showcase Paper Craft's newest publication "Card Creations, Volume 10"!   This one is to use Brocade or Damask. I pulled out some golden oldies stamps to make my card:

supplies: white cardstock, pink card base, Whispers Brocade stamp, Hero Arts Bubble Gum and Butter Bar midtone inks, Hero Arts CL322 Artistic Borders flowers, VersaFine onyx black ink, CL298 Scattered Leaves, peeled paint distress ink, C2680 Bouquet of Love, Darice Damask embossing folder, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares to pop pink flower

I stamped the brocade pattern in pink and yellow first, then overstamped the flowers and cut them out.  Before embossing the backround, I stamped the sentiment.....the embossing doesn't seem to interfere with the clarity as much as if you stamped over the embossing.

Feathered Friends

Here's a fun challenge at CAS-ual Fridays - make a CAS project using birds!  This promises to yield lots of fun entries, and here's mine:

supplies: white cardstock, BoBunny dots dps, Fiskars Home Sweet Home stamp set, PTI fence die, Wplus9 Folk Art Florals dies

This will be what I send to our son and daughter-in-law when they move into their new home!

Vintage Cafe Challenge

At the Vintage Cafe Challenge, we are to make something with the theme of "childhood".  Again, I found this image on Pinterest and pinned it to my board.  The little poem below the image reads:

"This teacher is not old

but rather strict and stern

The scholars, good as gold,

say ABC in turn."

As before, I pulled colors from the print and added buttons and natural twine, along with some blue ric-rac trim that Savannah gave me.

supplies: dark blue cardstock, dps from October Afternoon Campfire and MME Lost & Found 2 "Sunshine" pads and an unknown blue stripe, dark blue ric-rac, natural jute twine, red, blue and cream buttons

Got Gingham?

I promise this is my last entry for the Moxie Fab World's gingham challenge during Card Creations week.  I have so much gingham that I couldn't resist making a little scene, using mostly Purple Onion Design stamps.

supplies: white cardstock, various ginghams, and October Afternoon dots, Purple Onion Designs birdhouse, bird, and sentiment, Hero Arts sun, Anita's flowers, PTI cloud dies, green and white markers

I didn't plan this, but from a distance, the sentiment inside the sun looks like a face almost, don't you think?

For the Boys

If you're here to see my Lily Pad Cards post, please click here or scroll down 1 post.

This challenge at Flourishes is to make a masculine card, something I struggle with.  Unfortunately, I don't have anything but floral stamps from Flourishes, but I thought these clocks and a matching sentiment would work for a masculine card.  I used a mask to leave a blank rectangle in the center of the card, stamping 2 kinds of clocks around the edges.  Then I outlined the area and stamped my sentiment.

supplies: kraft cardstock, Hero Arts CL579 Special Time, CG108 Special Moments, latte chalk ink and Memories Art Print Brown ink, brown buttons, brown fine-tip marker

Kathy's Colors at Lily Pad Cards

Hey everyone!  It's time for another challenge using a color palette from Kathy at Lily Pad Cards!

  

We were given some fun items from Globecraft Memories to work with this time.  Here is my card:

supplies: cream card base, coral cardstock, dps from BoBunny Gabrielle and Echo Park Hello Summer 6 x 6 pads, tea dye distress ink, Papertrey Ink Bloom Builders die #3, Penny Black "To You" stamp set (sentiment), green button, Globecraft Memories chipboard heart, dome and oval pattern, natural jute

If you haven't already, bop on over to Lily Pad Cards and see what the rest of the DT did this week, and then let's see what you make of these colors!  Thanks for visiting!

Home Sweet Home

Flourishes has a challenge entitled "Home Sweet Home"; we're to choose something in our home that inspires us and base our card on that item.  I was inspired by this pretty little creamer that  was my Aunt's.  It's not old, but she loved pastels just like me, and it was part of her tableware. She and my uncle had no children of their own, and so they made all of their nieces and nephews feel very special. She was known for her baking, and we always came away from her home with something sweet from her kitchen.  And she was just as sweet herself.   This little creamer is a lovely remembrance of her, and I plan to keep it filled with little bouquets from the garden. 

I used the Flourishes stamp set Lenten Rose to make my card, using the softest colors I could find:

Pretty in Purple

Flourishes is introducing its new stamps for this month, and one of the noontime challenges is entitled Pretty in Purple:

One of my favorite stamps from them is this Lilac one, and I've used it often, but I don't think I've ever paper-pieced it:

supplies: white, purple, green, and kraft cardstock, Flourishes Lilac set, VersaFine onyx black ink, Nesties scalloped rectangles die, Martha Stewart eyelet edge punch, lavender gingham ribbon, lavendar button, white twine

The card is more of a notecard, sized  4" wide by 4 1/4" tall.

Childhood

I found a new challenge through Lenet's beautiful blog.  It's called the Vintage Cafe Challenge, and this one is entitled "childhood".  Go and see the gorgeous cards that were made by the DT there.  I have recently started pinning vintage images of children to my Pinterest Boards and so I already had this sweet image saved.  So all I had to do was find some coordinating papers and embellishments.  I am rusty at shabby cards, but I sure did enjoy making this one!

supplies: white cardstock, image from Pinterest, dps from October Afternoon's Sidewalks, Echo Park Hello Summer, and Basic Grey Serendipity,  Martha Stewart and Hobby Lobby Spare Parts roses, buttons, heart lace, and SRM stickers Everday Girl (thanks, Virginia!)

And since these colors work for the current CR84FN challenge, I'll enter it there also.

Vintage Vogue

The Tuesday Trigger challenge at Moxie Fab World based on this photo inspiration:

Beautiful, right?  I wish I had a reason to have dresses like this!  I remembered my lace background stamp, and decided to make an anniversary or wedding card.  The lace is gold embossed, and the top of the card is dry embossed.  The ribbon is from Kath in Scotland from a few years ago - so glad I didn't use it all up!

supplies: ivory and cream parchment papers, Hero Arts S5341 Lace Background, CL272 All Occasion Messages, VersaMark ink and Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder, Sizzix embossing folder, ribbon from Kath, cuttlebug shield die, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Gingham Posy

Here's another card for Cath's Gingham challenge at Moxie Fab World.  Recently Barb shared her Amuse ginghams with me and they are perfect for paper-piecing, since they are so tiny.  I just received this Hero Arts Classic set of stamps called Peeking Posies, and stamped one of the flowers in the set on 4 colors of the ginghams, paper-pieced the flower and stem, then surrounded the panel with a simple sentiment on all sides.

supplies: white cardstock, Amuse gingham dps, Hero Arts E3755 Single Blossom II from LL072 Peeking Posies, CL307 SparkleClear Mini Messages, VersaFine onyx black ink, light pink gems