Hearts and Hugs

Can you believe it's the last week for our Muse Joy Taylor at CASE Study?!  She's leaving us with a really great design to CASE this week:

I still don't have any "real" Washi tape, but I do love the patterns and colors on these tapes by Martha Stewart, so I built my card around them, and added a special sentiment and an old favorite butterfly:

supplies: white cardstock,  Echo Park This & That red design paper, Martha Stewart tape, Hero Arts F5158 Heart Winged Butterfly, CL586 XO, VersaFine onyx black ink, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Hearts, hugs, flowers and gingham.........4 of my favorite things!

Velveteen Stamping

I wanted to make a card to enter into the Moxie Fab World's Stamp It! Cards week for the Thank You challenge.  I also wanted to use the bordered sentiment technique again, also incorporating the Velveteen Stamping technique that I learned from Shari Carroll. 

Can you see the underlying pattern that was stamped all over the card in white ink first? That is the velveteen technique.  

supplies: blue card, white cardstock, Hero Arts CG335 Dot Flower Pattern, Colorbox Frost White Ink, CG278 Four Fun Flowers, sentiments from CL491 Made with Love, CL341 Thank You Sayings, CL497 Find Joy, Hero Arts mid-tone inks pool, butter bar, and green hills

Briefly, to get this effect you stamp a background stamp in white ink on white cardstock, then overstamp the sentiments and flowers using colored inks.  You get the best results when your stamps are solid rubber, so that the underlying pattern can show through......I was surprised to see it come through on the biggest sentiment also! 

Bright pink, tan and a neutral

Here are our colors for the CR84FN challenge:

I chose to use charcoal/black as my neutral; here's my entry:

supples: charcoal and hot pink cardstock, design papers from My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Two: Blush, Hero Arts F5429 Garden Star, CL491 Made with Love, VersaFine onyx black ink, Sizzix Sizzlits Branch with Leaves, black lace seam tape, pearls dyed black with alcohol marker, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Happy Birthday USA!

Welcome to another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog!  This week is a patriotic or sports-related theme, since the 4th of July and the Olympics are coming soon.  The DT is using Cuttlebug products.  Here's what I made this week, using the faux-letterpress technique:

I used these products: Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder, Simon Says Stamp "Oh Happy Day" craft die, Hero Arts CL371 Essential Messages and Stone Wash mid-tone ink, Adirondack Cranberry ink

For those who haven't tried the faux-letterpress technique, it's really simple: ink the top of your embossing folder before inserting your paper and embossing it.  I chose this Hero Arts mid-tone ink because I knew it would give me good coverage.

Now it's your turn!  Make something using our theme this week and upload it to our Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog.

As usual, there's a $50.00 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!!

Smiles

I thought I'd share a card that I made for several magazine submissions, but it was never chosen.  I still like it, because it uses some favorite stamp sets and lots of printed papers....

supplies: Hero Arts CG291 Three Dotted Flowers, CL490 Sending Smiles Messages, many different design papers, lace, tiny pink buttons, twine

Hope you're having a great week so far!  It's turned wonderfully cooler here, in the low 70's, and sunny - my kind of weather!

Last night I was visiting a very special blog in Germany and Franziska ended her post with this link to a beautiful piece of music, which I know, but haven't listened to for quite awhile.  It touched me deeply and so I'm sharing it with you, too, today: I love this so much, I think I'll put it up as a link over on my sidebar.

A sketch challenge

The sketch at the Inspired by Stamping Inspiration Challenge this week intrigued me.

I don't have any of their stamps, so I decided to make my card using coordinating papers with minimal stamping, (only the label with its sentiment):

supplies: white cardstock, Echo Park Hello Summer papers, Cuttlebug Wicker Weave embossing folder, Wplus9 Folk Art Florals, Hero Arts CL488 Congrats label, Technique Tuesday This is the Day by Ali Edwards, EKSuccess diamond scallop border punch, green flower, Recollections pastel pearls, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares to pop sentiment

Another pink CAS card

I haven't used this pretty stamp nearly enough, and decided to stamp it in pink for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

white cardstock, Hero Arts K5583 Wildflower Label, CL342 Everyday Sayings, CL491 Made with Love (dragonfly), bubble gum mid-tone ink, Stampology black, heart-shaped clear rhinestones

PINK at CAS-ual Fridays

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to make something pink!    I'll bet the gallery there will be loaded with lovelies!  Here's my contribution:

supplies: white cardstock, pink vellum, Hero Arts CG291 Three Dotted Flowers, CL490 Sending Smiles, Verve VS-0144 Bloom & Grow (leaves), VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, peeled paint distress ink, VersaFine onyx black ink, Martha Stewart button (thanks, Mary Anne)

It's no secret that I love this flower - the 3 different sizes are perfect for layering - I used a soft pink vellum this time.

Bordered Sentiments

The challenge at Make It Mondays this week is called Bordered Sentiments.  It is one of my favorite techniques: when you take the masking off the sentiment, it's like magic to see the finished card!  I chose to make my card completely 1-layer; no embellishments at all:

I used PTI's Garden Variety II for my sentiment and Flower Fusion #6 for the smallest pink flower and the black dots.

...and a Splash of Blue

I love playing at the Play Date Cafe when they have a color splash challenge!  This week it's blue:

I recently got this elegant lady image, designed by Nina Brackett for Penny Black, and thought it would be perfect for the challenge.

supplies: white cardstock, Penny Black #40-132 so blessed, VersaFine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, blue Spectrum Noir alcohol marker, Nestabilities Labels Four,  Darice Damask embossing folder, blue ribbon, Creative Charms Vintage Brad, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

This is one of those cards where there is no good place to put a sentiment, so I'm leaving it blank.........

Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

Welcome!  I am thrilled to be posting for the first time as a new Design Team member at the Simon Says Stamp challenge!

Our challenge this week is "Anything But a Card" and we are showcasing 7 Gypsies and Maya Road products.  I decided to make my own wrapping paper using a set of 7 Gypsies bird stamps, and couldn't resist adding a little card to go with it.  I love to personalize my gifts by making them coordinate with the gift, if possible, either using the same theme, or colors of the gift inside.  Inside, my little gift is a diary/journal with birds on the front.

supplies: white printer paper for the wrapping, white and rose cardstock for the card and tag, 7 Gypsies Victoria clear stamp set, Hero Arts Bubble Gum and Green Hills mid-tone inks, May Arts leaf ribbon, Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder

I simply started with a piece of printer paper and stamped the birds all over before wrapping my little book up.  Then I added the fun leafy ribbon and my tag.  Easy, but when everything coordinates, it makes a special statement.  

I hope you'll play along with us this week - there's a $50.00 gift voucher from the Simon Says Stamp Superstore up for grabs for 1 lucky random winner!

Please come visit us at the Simon Says Stamp challenge blog to see what my other teamies and our Guest Designer Liz Marzden made for you!

Also,  a FABULOUS Blog Hop to celebrate the launch on the new Simon Says Stamp Exclusives Dies starts today !! You will need to hop over to the Simon Says Stamp Blog to join in the FUN !! LOTS of fabulous prizes on offer !! :-)

Negative die-cut

We're CASEing Joy's gorgeous card this week at CASE Stidu:

I love everything about Joy's card, but the very first thing I noticed was her use of the negative image of her die-cut panel.  I thought I'd try to do the same.  Here's my CASE of her card:

supplies: Hero Arts green card base, white cardstock, BoBunny Flamingo Double Dot dp, Sizzix Sizzlits Branch with Leaves, Spellbinders Rose Creations dies, Basic Grey Sweet Threads brad, Hero Arts AR137 Script Messages, VersaFine onyx black ink, pink pearls, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

I trimmed a white cardstock panel slightly smaller than my card front, then die-cut the Branch with leaves twice from it. I stamped my sentiment as shown, then the negative die-cut panel was then popped above my green card, adding the flower and pearls to finish.  

Inspired by a Beach Scene

I found a new challenge this week, through Colleen Dietrich's blog!  It's called Inspired by Stamping

Just fell in love with those colors; maybe because it's so hot here in NE Ohio, and that scene looks so breezy and cool?  Here's the card I made:

supplies: sand crdstock, design papers from MME Lost & Found 2 "Breeze", leaves from Basic Grey's "Serendipity", Hero Arts CL527 Stitched Frame, LL007 Seasonal Memories, VersaFine onyx black ink, sand pearls, Tombo aqua marker to highlight word

Best Wishes

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is a favorite of mine: using acetate or vellum.  I ADORE making acetate cards......they're just that little bit different, and always get a wow review because of it.  The background paper I used is VERY pale, so I had to brighten my card quite a bit for you to see the details.  Here's my entry:

supplies: clear acetate card, design paper from Melissa Frances "5th Avenue", Hero Arts CL267 Card Messages, Stampology Black ink, Hero Arts/Studio Calico #331065 Lattice Background, StazOn white ink,  Cheery Lynn butterfly die (thank you, Yvonne), pink pearls, Ranger Glossy Accents to secure butterfly to front of card

I have a wedding and a shower coming up this summer, so this will come in handy......

Arts & Letters

Flourishes is unveiling a new stamp set called Letters in Blossom and their Noon Time challenge is to make a card using a letter as a focal point.

supplies: rose and black cardstock, Hampton Art wood block letters from 1998, Sizzix vining hearts embossing folder

Pop It!

I'm just squeaking in under the wire for this month's Flourishes new release Noon Time challenge.  This one is called "Pop It", and we simply have to pop up a portion of our creation with dimensionals.  I used the Strawberry set and after cutting it out with my Nesties Labels Eighteen, the panel is popped above the rest of the card:

other supplies: BoBunny Wild Berry Red Dot, Making Memories Spring Green Gingham, baby ric-rac, Hero Arts butterfly, We R Memory Keepers candy stripe twine

Can you believe it?!!

I've been floating around here on Cloud 9 all day, but I wanted to share this good news with you all!  I am so honored to be among these creative ladies!  Congrats to my other new teamies, Cheiron, Jennifer, Laurel, Lisa, and Sarah, and thank you, Heidi and the Simon Says family for this amazing opportunity!!

Hope to see you all play in the weekly challenges!

Summer Roses

supplies: tan card base, Bazzill Basics Cinnamon Stick cardstock,BoBunny "Litte Miss" 6 x 6 pad, MME Lost & Found "Union Square" text dp, Hero Arts CL596 Pattern Hearts & flowers, Technique Tuesday Simply You by Ali Edwards sentiment, Memories Artprint Brown ink, May Arts silk ribbon, Hero Arts button, pink pearls

LOVE these new "Little Miss" papers from BoBunny - could not wait to play with them!  When I saw the photo inspiration at Simon Says Stamp from Joy, I knew I wanted to paper-piece these little roses and build a card around them.......

CR84FN

Our colors this time for the CR84FN challenge are yellow, gray and a neutral; I've really been loving this color combination, and have even seen it in other places.......when we were shopping for furniture, a store had a gorgeous room done in these colors....  I used some new stamps from Hero Arts to make my card:

suppies: white and yellow cardstock, Hero Arts CG444 Zig-Zag Thanks, Stampology black ink (looks grey to me), CL527 Stitched Frame (flowers and leaves), CL497 Find Joy, VersFine onyx black ink, design papers from Basic Grey's Serendipity and Shine On pads, pearls colored with yellow alcohol marker

10-minute Resist

One last card for the Flourishes Gimme 10 challenge, and also for Julie Koerber's Celebrate Five challenge - I used resist for Julie and kept it very simple, just 4 easy steps, easily doable in 10 minutes.

supplies: white cardstock, Flourishes Sweet Days of Summer, VersaMark ink and Zing white embossing powder, tumbled glass and peacock feathers distress inks, Nesties scalloped rectangle die as a mask.

Resist for Julie's challenge

The sweet Julie Koerber is celebrating 5 years of blogging with a wonderful challenge - to use resist.  Since that technique is one of my favorites, too, I had to enter.  Here is my card:

supplies: cream and pink cardstock, digital printout of an excerpt from The Secret Garden, Hero Arts K5370 Garden Silhouette, PTI tiny tags die and Garden Variety sentiment, VersaMark ink and Zing white embossing powder, VersaFine vintage sepia ink, Die-Namics large scallop die, markers for coloring image, pink gingham bow

I love using text on my cards and adding resist to it is a plus.  This text is an excerpt from "The Secret Garden", one of my favorite childhood books.  This particular flower stamp stamps the background, which I white embossed to block out the text, letting it appear only in the flowers and leaves, which I then colored with markers.  The resist also keeps my coloring in the lines, an added bonus for some of the tiny details.  These hollyhocks are a sentimental favorite of mine, so everything about this card has meaning for me.  Hope you like it, too, Julie!

Happy Blogversary, Julie!  May you continue to inspire us for many more years!

More dots.....

When I saw CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use polka dots, I, of course, thought of my beloved BoBunny double dots papers, and pulled out a new-to-me Hero Arts stamp set to use them with.

supplies: kraft, gold and green cardstock, BoBunny double dots in Buttercup, Mint, Wild Berry Red, and Blueberry Dot, Hero Arts CL442 Simply the Best, SRM sentiment sticker

At first I thought of this as a kind of "welcome summer" card,  but it would also work for a congratulations card to a couple expecting twins, don't you think?  

Seeing Spots???

The fun challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is called "Sweet Spot", to use polka dots.

I used some of the Target Washi Tapes in orange and turquoise and then added a dotted sentiment, a dotted flower, and embossed with dots, too!

supplies: white cardstock, Target Washi tapes (in office supplies aisle), SRM sentiment sticker, Hero Arts sunshine flower and pool button

10 Minute Creations

The challenge at Flourishes is to make a clean and simple layout that can be done in 10 minutes.

Here's mine:

supplies: white cardstock, Flourishes set #53 Life, Love & Lemons, Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden collection, VersaFine onyx black ink, Letraset FlexMarkers

I'd also like to enter Julie Koerber's 5th Blogversary Celebration challenge with this card.  Happy Blogversary, Julie - and many more!!

CASE-ing Joy

Joy Taylor is our muse this month at CASE Study!

I substituted a fluffy hand-made flower for Joy's beautiful medallion and used a chevron design paper against a horizontally striped text design paper.  Love the font on the sentiment!  It somehow makes it all look less formal......

supplies: Dear Lizzy Neapolitan chevron dp, Echo Park Playground text dp, carnation and green cardstock for flower and leaves, Hero Arts CL267 Card Messages, VersaFine onyx black ink

PTI Unique Sketches #1

Here's another sketch from Paper Trey Ink - a nice easy design.  I based my card on the October Afternoon paper I used on the big banner, pulling the flowers (Beautiful Blooms II #1 dies) from it.

supplies: kraft, pink, gold, red and white cardstock, October Afternoon "Farmfresh: Farmhouse" paper, Inkadinkado #60-0135 Butterfly (sentiment), PTI Beautiful Blooms II #1 flower dies, Hero Hues latte chalk ink, red and brown buttons, natural jute twine

Back to Kraft Basics

While visiting Deirdre's blog, I linked over to Paper Play Challenges, where the challenge is "Back to Kraft Basics".  I love using kraft, and I kept it very basic on my entry, stamping only in black and using minimal embellishments.

supplies: kraft and black cardstock, Stampendous CRP153 Botanical Asperula, PTI Garden Variety sentiment, Hero Arts S5507 Envelope Pattern, VersaFine onyx black ink, black and white gingham ribbon, tiny white flower, black pearl

In case you're wondering, I looked up "Asperula Odorata" and it's Sweet Woodruff, a ground cover that gets fragrant white flowers and is used to make May wine.  This is the version I know, and it does have a lovely fragrance!

Mojo Monday

There's a lovely sketch at Mojo Monday this week:

I was in a soft pastel mood, so here is what I made:

supplies: white cardstock, design papers from Jillibean Soup Southern Chicken Dumpling and Blossom Soup and MME Six by Six Happier pads, unknown pink gingham, Flourishes Botanical Bookplates, vol. 2, Verve VS-0144 Bloom & Grow, VersaFine onyx black ink, green Memento marker and spun sugar distress marker, Nesties circle and scalloped circle dies, Martha Stewart doily edge punch, MIchael's rose, pink ribbon

Lilies of the Valley are one of my favorite flowers, so beautifully scented for such a tiny flower.  There are pink varieties, but pretty rare, I think......

I'd also like to enter this into the Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge, to use flowers and ribbon.

PTI Make it Monday: another sketch

I'm playing with another sketch from this week's PTI Make it Monday challenge: Unique Sketches.  This one was inspired by a pot holder!

I just loved the grey and yellow in the photo, and went with that color scheme, using my Teresa Collins "Carolina Breeze" design papers:

supplies: white, and PTI smokey shadow cardstock, Teresa Collins Carolina Breeze dps, PTI harvest gold felt, Die-Namics large scallop die, Hero Arts CL493 Live Life, VersaFine onyx black ink and clear embossing powder

Runway Inspired Challenge

Here's are inspiration this week for the Runway Inspired challenge - a look from the Fall 2012 House of Holand.  I love that houndstooth and love using my stamp.....I embossed it in black, colored in the white areas with markers, cut out a butterfly shape, and here's my card:

supplies: white, black and bright yellow cardstock, Hero Art K5175 Houndstooth, VeraFine onyx black, Hero Arts Ultra Fine clear embossing powder, yellow, bright pink and turquoise markers, unknown butterfly die (Spellbinders?), Technique Tuesday Mon Amis Paris sentiment, 3D foam squares

Both the black panel and the butterfly are popped up.

Color Me a Hero

At A Blog Named Hero, our challenge is to use their logo colors.  I decided to use one of the monthly sketches from Hero Arts blog this month, too.  And since I couldn't find the right colors any other way, most of the stamping is done with VersaMark ink, getting my colors from embossing powders.  The plus is that, viewed from certain angles, the embossing gives a nice glow to the card.

supplies: white, tan, and red cardstock, Hero Arts CL510 Sweet Threads Labels (large flower), CL266 Mix & Match (small flower), CL342 Everyday Sayings, VersaMark ink and Zing leaf embossing powder and Recollections Glacier embossing powder, Brilliance Pearlescent Beige and clear embossing powder, Memento LadyBug Red, Hero Arts red metallic accents

PaperTrey Ink Unique Sketches

There are some really neat sketches to play with this week at the Capture the Moment blog for the Make it Monday Challenge!  I decided to try this one first, CAS-ing this card of Nichole's:

Really unique, isn't it?  I chose to use aquas and reds for my card:

supplies: white cardstock, dp from MME Six by Six "Everyday Flair", stamps from PTI Garden Variety (sentiment), Flourishes #57 Strawberries, and Hero Arts #657773 Antique Flowers & Butterflies, versafine onyx black  and Hero Arts poppy chalk inks, Letraset markers

The other sketches are equally fun, and I hope to do another couple of them.  They're available for download, so scoop them up while you can!

And this will be a last-minute entry for the Simon Says Stamp "Anything Goes" challenge, too!