Pink scalloped hugs

Winnie & Walter has started a new challenge series they're calling ReRun, where they focus on a featured product for the month.  This month the product is  Parentville Extras.  I don't have that stamp set, but they have given us a loophole in that we can use one of the cards featured in the challenge article and put our own spin on it.  I chose the very first card shown, called Missing You, Friend, by Julie.  I loved her use of scallopped edges and vellum, and so, using what I have here, this is my take on her card:

supplies: pink, cream, and gold foil cardstock, vellum, W&W's the Big, the Bold, and the Extras (flowers and leaves) and the Big, the Bold and Friends (stamp set and cutaway), Spellbinder's scalloped dies, gold sequins

I basically used Julie's sketch. I love pink and gold together, so that was my color scheme.  I am still thrilled with being able to write "sending hugs" anytime I want, so that was my sentiment, and I used my only set of W&W flowers.  It goes without saying that at the top of my wishlist are the new In Bloom flower sets!

A Vintage design?

On Saturday, the Hero Arts Flickr group had another of our Scrambles, hosted by Cecilia.  She asked that we make a vintage design.  I remembered an older Hero Arts cling stamp called Circle Doily and embossed it in white over a newspaper print from a My Mind's Eye paper pad long discontinued, then stamped a sentiment and added some Prima Flowers.

It was an easy design to execute in our given 90 minutes, and I was pleased with the result, but the more I looked at it, I knew it would end up being one of those cards that have to be physically handed to someone......those flowers make it impossible to mail.  So I took them off and replaced them with some stamped flowers.

supplies: My Mind's Eye newspaper dp from a MME Lost & Found paper pad, Hero Arts Circle Doily, sentiment from Luscious Patterned Flowers, Altenew Painted Flowers, Paper Sweeties flower sequins

This one kind of looks like an old-fasioned tussie-mussie that Victorian ladies carried, really just a little bouquet of flowers wrapped in lace.

Which do you prefer?  Thanks for stopping by!

CASEing Jocelyn

This month's Gossip Column at Winnie &Walter is to be inspired by Jocelyn Olson.  I bookmarked that column when it came out earlier this month, and have gone back and forth with it ever since.  Finally yesterday I decided to have a go, and here is what I created:

I had a good look at Jocelyn's blog, and noticed several things: that she uses lots of white space and that she often dry-embosses her backing panel.  I also noticed that she uses bits of doilies on her projects, which I really like and decided to adopt.  So I decided to choose a card of hers to CASE and put my own spin on it, as Taheerah suggests.  I found a card HERE that I really liked: and went about finding my own elements to CASE that design.

I knew I'd use a bit of a paper doily, and I decided to emboss my background in a woodgrain pattern (Tim Holtz embossing folder).  I like the idea of rough and dainty against each other.  Then I went looking for a flower (Hero Arts  Lauderdale Floral) large enough and with enough detail so that I could heat emboss it on vellum using an aqua embossing powder.  Next I made my own little polaroid frame and covered a corner with some washi to bring in a bit more color and make it stand out from all the whiteness.  I attached my vellum flower and stamped my Winnie & Walter sentiment (Big, Bold Friends), and then assembled everything and popped the frame up on adhesive squares.  Lots of Jocelyn's designs show splatters of paint on the background at this point, but I wasn't that brave, so I added my own little bit of color with some tiny aqua pearls and a bigger one in the center of the flower.  And lastly I die-cut some leaves (Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossoms) and added them to the mix.  And to finish I mounted the whole panel on a backing of bias-striped design paper (Echo Park's Bundle of Joy Boy Dots & Stripes).

This was a very fun exercise and a good stretch for me - thank you Taheerah, and thank you, Jocelyn, for your inspiration!

Hello Sunshine!

Man, we have had the rain here in Ohio this summer!  Today is a beauty of a day, however, and when I saw the inspiration for The Card Concept challenge, I knew just what I wanted to do with these colors:

supplies: Simon's Fog Grey card base, woodgrain cardstock panel, various washi tapes, Die-Namics cross-stitch die from Blueprints 20, Hero Arts Zinnia Bloom, Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards Bring on the Sun sentiment, charcoal ink, Paper Sweeties flower sequins and Prettty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear sequins

I guess I'd put this into the Clean & Layered category.

It's Friday!  I hope you have a great weekend!

Simon's July Card Kit: Sail Away with Me

Today I have a couple of cards I made using the Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit.

Everything on my cards except the card bases came from the kit.  If you're into anything nautical, this is the one for you!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Simon Says.......Anything Goes!

 

Welcome to our last challenge of the month at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

Before we get started, I wanted to make sure you've seen that Gayatri Murali has been chosen to be our newest team member! Please give her a warm welcome!  

As you know, this is the time of the month when we have your favorite Anything Goes challenge!  The Design Team are using Simon Says Stamp exclusive products, and we'd love you to do the same, though that isn't a requirement to play!

I decided to do some watercoloring this week and made 2 cards.  This first one celebrates the beginning of summer:

supplies: Simon's Friendly Flowers, stamped in lots of distress inks, watercolor paper, Ranger Mini Spritzer, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Seasons, Ranger super fine detail gold embossing powder, vellum, DCWV gold foiled cardstock, Simon's Leanna Butterfly die

Starting with a panel of watercolor paper, I repeatedly stamped one of the flowers, changing inks as I covered the panel.  I also used a leaf from that set.  Next I spritzed my panel with water until the colors began to soften and run, then I blotted it with a paper towel.  After letting it dry naturally I went back in and stamped the little dots in the centers of the flowers.  That panel was trimmed to this wonky shape, trimmed in gold foil cardstock, and along with my gold-embossed sentiment on vellum, was attached to my card base.  I thought this gold butterfly added some pretty dimension to the whole.  

My parents celebrated their 70th anniversary yesterday, and this is one of the cards I sent them:

supplies: Simon's Thinking of You (flowers) and Happy & Smile (sentiment) stamp sets, VersaFine Onyx Black ink, watercolor paper, Spectrum Aqua watercolor markers, Ranger Mini Mister, Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder, silver and gold sequins

I recently saw a small garden planted in purples and peaches, and used that as my inspiration.  For this card I stamped the outline flowers on a watercolor cardstock panel, then went back in with my Spectrum Aqua markers and roughly colored them in.  I also used a green marker to ink to a solid leaf here and there on my panel.  Then, as above, I really soaked the panel with my spritzer, and blotted with a paper towel when I thought the colors had softened and run enough to my liking.  After a thorough drying, I embossed my sentiment right over the top of the panel, then framed it up with a matching purple cardstock.

Now it's your turn!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store for one lucky random winner of our challenge!

Do you use Instagram?  If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too!

CASEplorations

I saw a lovely card by Cornelia that I really liked, and it turns out it's part of a challenge where you can CASE all kinds of cards; it's at the STAMPlorations blog, and lasts all of June.  Here's my take on Cornelia's card:

supplies: white and black cardstock, Avery Elle Brushed stamp set, various inks from Hero Arts, and Simon Says Stamp, retired The Craft's Meow Fly Free sentiment, Simon's Leanna butterfly, Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch, moonshine sequins

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps & Washi

I loved the colors so much from the Colour Me challenge this week that I had another play with them.

supplies: white cardstock, Altenew Painted Flowers, Hero Arts Hello Sunshine Daisies (sentiment), various washi tapes, pearls

Here was our inspiration board:

And since I used washi tape along with my stamping, this will qualify also for STAMPlorations June challenge:

Sending Smiles

I thought the colors for the current challenge at the Colour Me challenge looked like they would be fun to play with.  Here's my card for that challenge:

supplies: white cardstock, Simon's Many Thanks stamp set, Winnie & Walter Big, Bold Friends sentiment, washi tape

Here's our inspiration:

My favorites

My favorite color has always been this particular shade of blue - call it sky blue, true blue, Hero Arts calls it Cornflower Blue, and it is the ONLY ink I have found that doesn't have that touch of green that seems to be in vogue now for many years.  Don't get me wrong, I love aqua, teal, pool, turquoise, too, but this goes back to that country blue that I have always been drawn to.

So when Hero Arts current challenge has a category labeled "Favorite Color" as part of its latest challenge, I decided to start my card with their Cornflower Blue ink.  And I added in an old favorite and a new favorite product of theirs.  Pearls are a favorite of mine, too, so they got thrown into the mix.

supplies: white cardstock, blue and green foiled cardstock from a DCWV pad, Hero Arts Edged Fabric with Flowers, from 2011,  stamped in Cornflower Blue ink, Hero Arts flower and leaf dies from their Scallop Frame frame cuts die set, and their Hello Stamp & Cut set, (sentiment stamped in Memento Luxe Danube Blue, and heat embossed), white pearls.

When I went looking through my stash for a cardstock to match this cornflower blue, I couldn't find anything.  It seems that "they" have made this color disappear!  Then I looked through a pad of foiled cardstock, and this royal blue worked for me. Because the light is catching the foils differently on my photo above, I wanted to include some closer shots of those details.  The true color of that blue shows up more in the flowers - I bent the petals up slightly, so they are reflecting the light better.

As you can see, I used a stylus to add some veining to the leaves, and also added pearls to the centers of my flowers.  And because of all the blue, "I miss you" seemed the appropriate sentiment.

Here's the Tic Tac Toe board that we are using for this month's Hero Arts challenge.  I used the 3rd column: heat embossing, die-cutting, and my favorite color.

A Sketch challenge at Sparkle & Shine

I tried really hard to do something other than flowers for the current Sparkle & Shine challenge, and settled on some sweet little birds.

supplies: scraps of Fancy Pants Park Bench dps,Die-Namics Decorative Doily die, Wplus9 Folk Art Florals birds and leaves dies, Hero Arts sentiment from SparkleClear Hello Birdie, Pretty Pink Posh Springtime Mix (berries)  and Simon Moonshine sequins

It's a dreary day here, but at least it's not broiling hot.  We have tickets to see a Drum Corps performance tonight - keeping our fingers crossed that the rains go away by then!

Bright Butterfly

When I saw the Fusion inspiration this week, I jumped to play so that I could use this fun Darice embossing folder!

supplies: white, dark chocolate brown, and  Bazzill Candy Necklace cardstock, Darice Bold Daisy embossing folder, distress inks, Hero Arts Heart Winged Butterfly, Winnie & Walter Big Bold Seasons cutaway

Happy Weekend!

Colour Q #295

I was visiting Lisa's blog and saw her card for the Colour Q challenge, which I don't think I've ever played before, and fell in love with these colors!

supplies: navy and white cardstock, Hero Arts Looped Circle Pattern background stamp, embossed in Ranger gold, Spellbinder's Floral Oval die, Altenew Painted Flowers, several pink inks and bundled sage distress ink, Simon's Sending & Wishing stamp set, Wishing die, gold foil paper, gold sequins

Fabulous combination, aren't they?  Thanks for coming by today!

Simon Says........Favorite Technique/Product

Happy Wednesday!  We have a new challenge for you at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday blog!

This week we want you to choose your favorite technique or product and show us what you like to do with it!  My teamies and I are all using products from Ranger this week. 

Right now I'd say I'm really enjoying using stencils and I usually pair them with distress inks, as they blend so effortlessly.  Stencils are inexpensive, so you can buy lots of them, and they allow you to use more than 1 color of ink at the same time so easily, especially when you use the mini blending tool!  So I made a cool-toned and a warm-toned card with stencilled backgrounds  and distress inks today:

supplies: Simon's Medium Dot stencil, tumbled glass, cracked pistachio, and peacock feathers distress ink, Mni Round ink blending tool, Doodlebug swimming pool plaid washi tape, Prima Resist Canvas flowers, brads in their centers, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello die and stamp set, Audrey Blue cardstock

Using my mini blending tool and 3 colors of distress ink, I colored the dots through the stencil, then trimmed my panel and added it, along with a strip of washi tape, to my card front.  I wanted something a little different than my usual stamped flowers, so I unearthed these (I'm sorry, they're now out of stock) resist canvas flowers, and used the same 3 inks to color them, then centered each with brads and popped them above the card for dimension.  My sentiment is a beautiful die from Wplus9.

supplies: Hero Arts Tweed Pattern stencil, picked raspberry, spiced marmalade, and mustard seed distress inks, Mini Round Ink blending tool, Ranger Texture Paste, Impression Obsession Hollyhock dies, summery shades of cardstock, sentiment from Paper Smooches Summer Groves, May Arts natural twine, Green Apple card base

I did the same thing with this Tweed stencil, using my favorite summery distress ink colors.  I then added some texture paste on top.  When that was dry, I smooshed some marmalade distress ink on my acrylic block, spritzed it with water, and soaked a fine paint brush in the color, then splattered on some droplets across the whole panel.  I added my hollyhocks one sprig at a time, securing them only at the bottom, then popped my sentiment below them as a kind of planter, and finished with a double twine bow.

Now it's your turn!  Once again we have a $50.00 gift voucher

to the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Superstore for 1 lucky random winner!

More Monochromatic

I'm in a blue mood today, so I pulled out my new Watercolor Anemones and stamped them with my favorite Simon Hydrangea ink.

supplies: white and purple cardstock, WPlus9 WaterColored Anemones, Simon's Hydrangea ink, Wplus9's Hand Lettered Hello stamp and die, Simon's Stitched Rectangles dies

This really is a lavendar/purple-toned card, but on my monitor it's coming out a pretty blue.  Maybe it's my camera?  Whatever, I'm pleased either way!  The anemone set is a multi-stamp set; i.e., you can add detailing with other stamps stamped over each other.  Usually I choose different colors of ink, but today I just let the first stamping dry thoroughly and then used Hydrangea again to add the details.  It makes a nice subtle effect.  So for that reason I'll enter this once again into Virginia's Monochromatic/Ombre challenge:

Waltzing Mouse PJ Party Sketch challenge

As I said in my last post, I just found the Waltzing Mouse PJ Party challenges, and wanted to enter a couple of them.  This card is for their 4th challenge, which is a sketch:

The original sketch had pendants, but I thought: "why not a flower garland?"  So I made a VERY CAS design, just embossing the background in a trellis design, adding the fussy-cut flowers, and some tiny flower sequins. 

Waltzing Mouse ladies, could I have combined both my cards into 1 blog post, or do they need to be separated?

Thanks for visiting!

Coffee Color Challenge

I was kind of shiftless earlier this afternoon and was looking at some of my favorite blogs on my Dashboard.  I came across Lai Yoke's blog, and learned about a new (to me) set of challenges, and decided to enter one of them in the 11th hour.  It is one of 4 challenges at Waltzing Mouses' PJ Party, and here is my card for the Coffee Color challenge:

How nice of Waltzing Mouse not to make using their stamps a requirement to enter their challenges, because I don't own a single one!  So in deference to that, I won't list my supplies here as I usually do.  Here was our inspiration for this challenge:

Isn't it funny that I, who am drawn to color, chose this one, but it was fun to work with these shades of brown, with a little splash of red!  

Now that I've found them, I hope to play again!

They DO Make me Smile!

Over the weekend I went out and cut 2 of my favorite roses.

Please meet Sir Walter Raleigh and Julia Child!  The more I looked at their beautiful colors, the more I wanted to try and duplicate them.  Here's what resulted:

supplies: Wplus9's Watercolored Anemones, Hero Arts Made with Love, inks below, Simon's Stitched Rectangle die

These are actually anemones, but they can kind of look like simple roses, too.  Most of these inks are also Wplus9 colors:Little Piggy and Sweet Nectar for the pink, Wild Mango accents for the yellow.  Others used: Ranger's Lemon Twist for the yellow base, Hero Arts Orange Soda for the flower centers, and mowed lawn distress ink for the leaves.  I think they are pretty spot on, don't you think?

A Father's Day card

I needed a Father's Day card for our youngest son, the father of our adorable grandchildren, and used some classic Hero Arts stamps along with a new Stamp & Cut die.

supplies: Hero Arts Screen Shadow, Tide Pool ink, Silhouette Fern, peeled paint and forest moss distress inks, Happy Stamp & Cut die, cut from gold foil paper,  unknown sentiment, embossed in Ranger super fine detail gold

I'd like to enter this into Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe challenge for June, choosing the right column: heat embossing, die cutting, and my favorite color, blue.

Ombre

I've seen a couple of challenges that ask for an ombre design, so I stamped some more of my Altenew Painted Flowers using Simon and Hero Arts shades of inks ranging from mint to pool, then fussy cut them and assembled them against an embossed woodgrain background.

supplies: Hero Arts pool layering papers, the light and medium shades for my card and embossed panel, Tim Holtz Alterations woodgrain embossing folder, Altenew Painted Flowers, many mint and pool/aqua shades of inks, Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut, with Winnie & Walter's Big Bold Happy "birthday" sentiment, embossed in white on black cardstock, Simon's moonshine sequins

I'd like to enter this into Virginia's View Ombre/Monochromatic challenge:

and also into the Sparkle & Shine challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

the Color of Fun!

I have 2 posts today - to see my Guest Designer card for Craft Stamper Magazine, please scroll down a post, or click HERE.  Thanks!

Today is the day I can finally share some cards using some of the new releases from Simon's Color of Fun release!  I think this is one of their best releases; it includes TWELVE scrumptious new colors of ink, and beautiful new stamp sets and dies!  Heidi generously sent the Wednesday Blog team some of the new goodies, and here are the results of my playing.

supplies: Simon's Many Thanks stamp set, Simon inks: new Spring Rain, new Melon, Hydrangea, and Green Apple

This scribble flower set called Many Thanks was designed by WPlus9, and is so much fun to play with! I've come to the conclusion that there is no right or wrong way to use these stamps - just pick a pleasing color combination and stamp away!  The new colors I received were Melon and Spring Rain, and I mixed them with my old favorites Hydrangea and Green Apple today.  I used those colors for the main outlines of the flowers and the leaves, and then found some coordinating inks from my own ink collection that were a bit paler to fill in the colors on each flower.

Next up, the new die called Carousel Horse:

supplies: Simon Carousel Horse die, Simple Letter Outlines and Color and Sunshine stamp sets, Audrey Blue and Apple Green cardstock, washi tape, sequins, a scrap of Doodlebug swimming pool chevron sugar-coated cardstock

And my final card uses the new Birthday Circle die.  I have lots of summer birthdays, so I used some citrus colors again for this one:

supplies: Simon's Birthday Circle die, Green Apple cardstock, Diagonal Stripe stencil, new Melon ink, Big Birthday Wishes stamp set, Green Apple ink, moonshine and orange sequins

I inlaid the Birthday Circle into my stencilled background, and in so doing, I was able to rotate that inner circle for a little more interest.

So what do you think?  Which are your favorites from this new release?  Mine are the Big Scripty Greetings and the Game Tile Letters stamp sets and some more of those luscious inks: Hollyhock, Wisteria, Blue Jay, and Jelly Bean!

Don't forget that there's a fantastic Color of Fun Blog Hop going on starting today over at the Simon Says Stamp store blog - wait until you see the amazing inspiration there!