Colour Me.....Creative

The Colour Me......Challenge Blog has a choice of 2 colorways this week.  I'm going with option 2:

supplies: Altenew Painted Flowers, Simon Says Stamp Big Scripty Greetings, sequins, Spellbinder's circle die

I decided to try something different this time.  I cut a circle in the card front, and then stamped my sentiment on a 2nd panel, which I popped below the card front with the sentiment peeking through.  Then I stamped and fussy-cut the flowers and arranged them around the sentiment, along with some matching sequins.  

Thanks for stopping by!

A birthday card

Somewhere during my surfing I came across this lovely card by Kate that really appealed to me and I pinned it for future inspiration.  Yesterday I came across it again and thought I'd do my own version of it.  I think it would make a great masculine birthday card - guys always seem to like blues and greens, but I think these colors are pleasing to everyone.

supplies: white and Hero Art's Grass layering paper, leaf from a BoBunny Halloween clear set (Apple Cider), Hero Arts Birthday Greetings, Simon's Lots of Dots, Hero Arts Tide Pool, Splash, Green Hills, and Grass inks

I stamped a white panel with the leaves , then overstamped them with 2 sizes of dots and colored inks.  Then I cut that panel in half, stamped my sentiment on my card base, and glued the panel pieces on either side of the sentiment.

I was amazed that I didn't have many open leaves stamps!  Lots of solid ones, but very few like these.  Simon's new One with Nature set would be a fun one to use here.  It's on my wishlist!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!  We are off to my DH's 50th HS class reunion!!

Hello Sunshine

Here's another card for Winnie & Walter's ReRun challenge this month.  Four of the sample cards there used "shine" from the stamp set being featured this month, and since I don't have that particular set, I tried to come up with another kind of shine:

supplies: W&W The Big, the Bold and the Happy stamp set, Memory Box Texture Shine stencil, squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, and fossilized amber distress inks, Sunshine, black, and white cardstock, and orange metallic sequins

I liked the way Heather Hoffman put together a stamped panel with 2 solid ones, so I used her idea, and instead of ink splatters, I used sequins.

Simon Says..... Anything Goes

 

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

It's Anything Goes this week, and the Design Team are using Penny Black products this week.  I made you 2 very different cards.

supplies: Penny Black Collage of Wishes, colored in Spectrum Aqua markers and water on Bristol paper

Penny Black does a nice variety of these collage-type stamps, and this is one of their newer ones.  It has a selection of 4 different sentiments that can be stamped into the banner.  I simply watercolored it and stamped and cut out an extra large rose and a butterfly, and popped them above the main design after my card was assembled.

My next card uses some Penny Black stamps, a die, and some papers:

supplies: Penny Black Indian Wheel background, stamped in Simon's Hydrangea ink, Purple Mountain papers, sentiment from Friendship clear stamp set, and Iris die, green cardstock for it's leaves, purple sequins

I stamped my background for this one, and trimmed out a panel, then inset the iris into it.  The sentiment comes from a set with fun fonts and sayings.

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!

For Becca

I was playing some more with the distress inks smooshing technique and put down some peacock feathers and seedless preserves on a Bristol card panel.  Then something clicked and I remembered that Becca is celebrating her birthday this month.  In fact, it's already come and gone, but her birthday bash linkup is still open.  I was much impressed by one of the images she posted to show us some of her favorite things:

It was that teal and purple wood panel in the bottom right.  So after my inks had dried, I put the panel into an old Tim Holtz wood grain embossing folder, and then sponged on a little more vintage photo ink to cover up the white that was still showing on the panel.  This wouldn't be a card from me if it didn't have a flower on it somewhere, so I used the last of these Hero Arts Jeweled Pastel Flowers (thank goodness it was purple!), and some Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers, along with some more pearls in Becca's colors.  This is so far out of my comfort zone, I decided to stop there.  Here it is:

Becca, Happy belated Birthday!  From the pictures you posted, it looks like it was a great one!   

Smooshed

Well, I'm still at it - playing with my Painted Flowers, I mean.  This time I decided to try the ink smooshing technique for a background, and then add the uncolored flowers and a sentiment.  I am thrilled with my first try!

supplies: Black and white cardstock, Bristol paper, worn lipstick, mustard seed, and peeled paint distress ink, water spritzer, Altenew Painted Flowers, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello die, Avery Elle Simply Said Hello, VersaFine Onyx Black ink

I smooshed the distress inks on my kraft mat, spritzed them with water, and then used a piece of acetate to pick up the inks, one at a time, and smoosh them onto my Bristol panel.  When I was satisfied with the color blending, I heat dried the panel, then overstamped my flowers and added my sentiments.  This resulting color blend reminds me so much of the color of a Peace Rose, and I'm so pleased with how easy it was to do!  I'll definitely be playing more with this technique!

Color Throwdown #352

Once again the ladies at the Color Throwdown challenge have given us some fun colors to play with! Here's my entry:

supplies: Simon Smoke and Slate cardstocks, Medium Dots Stencil, Hero Arts Tide Pool, Green Hills, Soft Granite, and Charcoal inks, Technique Tuesday Two-Steppin' (flowers), Simon's Sending die, Hero Arts XO clear set (hugs), silver sequins

And here's our inspiration board:

Throwback Thursday

I have a card for this month's Throwback Thursday at WPlus9.  I really liked the colors that Maureen used for her samples, so I tried to approximate them.

supplies: Wplus9 Backgrounds & Borders 1, Blanket Stitched Blooms (sentiment), Avery Elle Brushed, Simon's Mint, Wplus9's Silver Lining, and Hero Arts Pale Tomato inks, assorted washi tape, PPP sparkling clear sequins

I stamped the ikat dots in a diagonal, changing colors with each row, and then stamped another smaller panel, added some washi tapes and paint splats and a few sequins and framed it up in black.

Once again, Maureen has pushed me out of my comfort zone, but this design is growing on me!

Hello Summer!

Here's another card using the papers, stamp set, and the puffy stickers from the Simon August Card Kit:

supplies: Simple Stories dp, My Mind's Eye Carrot Stick and Tropical Bay shimmer cardstocks, October Afternoon puffy stickers, Simon's Flip Flop Season stamp set, Best Creations Foam Adhesive, all from the August Card Kit, plus Simon's Stitched Rectangle dies

The "hello" panel and the stickers were lifted up using the foam squares included in the kit.

And I just wanted to make sure that you knew to look HERE in the Card Kit Galleries for ideas for using any of the Card Kits.  Just click on the picture of the kit you're interested in and you'll see lots of examples.  You're welcome to link your own card, too!

Simon Says........Sparkle and Shine!

 

Welcome to another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

This week our theme is "Sparkle & Shine", and anything you can do to make your creation  put off some glimmer is what we're looking for!   The design team are using products from Pretty Pink Posh this week!

supplies: white and black cardstock, black and white striped dp, Altenew Vintage Roses, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello die and stamp set, Pretty Pink Posh Watermelon and Lime Sorbet 6mm sequins

supplies: white cardstock, various pink and green design papers, Die-Namics Insta Frame die, Wplus9 Doodle Buds stamp set, Pretty Pink Posh Watermelon, Lime Sorbet, and Sparkling Clear 6 mm sequins

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!

Thanks

supplies: Wplus9 Watercolored Anemones, various Wplus9 inks, Hand Written Thanks die, Simon's Surf Blue cardstock, Pretty Pink Posh sequins

Here's another play with the sketch that Joni has given us for this month's Wplus9 Get Sketchy challenge.  My first card was VERY busy, so I decided to make a more CAS design this time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Marika yellow

My favorite colors for roses are yellow, so of course I had to do a yellow version of Marika's beautiful card.  I thought I'd re-arrange her elements and use design papers this time.

supplies: Altenew Vintage Roses, Hero Arts/Studio Calico My Happy sentiment, Authentique Classique Beauty design papers, gold and black pearls, Sizzix branch with leaves die

Thanks for stopping by - I do love knowing you were here!

Florals and stripes

When I was trying out the emboss-resist and iron-off technique, this is the first background I made.  I let it sit for a few days, but came back to my original idea of adding flowers to it.

supplies: Hero Arts Stripes Pattern cling background, embossed in clear on watercolor paper, watercolored with salty ocean distress ink and then ironed off, Altenew Painted Flowers, theBig, the Bold and Friends cutaway, cut from aqua foil cardstock

Hope you have a great weekend, everyone!

Marika Blue

Just a quick post today........I mentioned earlier that I loved Marika's design so much that I was thinking of making more cards with other colors.  Here's a blue version.

supplies: white, blue, and navy cardstock, Altenew Vintage Roses, Hero Arts blue and green inks, Avery Elle's Laurels (sentiment) and Storybook (small stamped branches), Hero Arts navy pearls

I flipped the sketch 90 degrees this time, and substituted a dark navy for the black.  If you'd like to see my pink version, it's HERE.

Simon's August Card Kit

This August Card Kit from Simon Says Stamp is a good one, people!  It is packed with all kinds of fun stuff!  Here's the first card I made using it:

And a closer photo so you can see the confetti in the glassine bag (from my own stash) and the sentiment, part of the papers.  

I am SO pleased to get this little sunshine die and the shimmer cardstock was really fun to play with, too; I'm sorry the shimmer doesn't show up here in my pictures.  The confetti was a fun treat, also; it comes in a little plastic vial that keeps everything in its place.  And the design papers from Simple Stories have something for everyone!  Then there's the jelly roll pen, and the adorable puffy stickers.....and Simon has even included one of their new storage pockets, to keep your stamp set and die safe, or use it like Shari did!

I haven't even scratched the surface of what's in this kit!  If you were ever going to try one of these, this is IT!

Happy Summer!

Today is the day that Simon's latest release called Splash of Color is being revealed!  Be sure to visit Simon Says Stamp to see all the fun new summer stamps and dies and inks!!  I was sent a clear stamp set and a matching die set, and here's what I made with them:

supplies: Simon's new Pool Play clear stamp set, colored with markers and detailed with a Signo white gel pen, and cut out with the Summer Fun dies that match it, (or you can buy the sets together, called Happy Swimmers), a Doodlebug design paper that looks like water to me, along with some parchment for the "sand", and my own sun

This stamp set has some small stamps that are fun with these 2 larger pieces, and 3 other sentiment stamps, so I know you'll have fun making your own little scenes, too!

Simon Says.........Get in Shape!

 

Welcome to another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

This week our theme is "Get in Shape", and we'd like you to make something besides the usual square or rectangle for your creation.  My teamies and I are using Lawn Fawn products.  I made a wreath card!

supplies: Lawn Fawn Our Friendship Grows stamp set, lots of yellow, orange, brown and green printed design papers, Simon's Smile Circle die

To begin I cut a doughnut as a base for my wreath from cream cardstock using 2 circle dies.   Then I stamped, cut-out, and paper-pieced the flowers, arranged them and the leaves around the base I had made, and then glued them all down.  My card backing is another cream circle that has been scored close to the top, where it is glued to the wreath.  I tried several stamped sentiments, but in the end, I liked this circle smile the best.  It is 3 layers.  My finished project measures about 5" across at it's widest point.  I used the smaller of the 2 flowers from the stamp set, so it could easily be made larger by using the larger flower, or mixing both of them together.

Here's a more colorful version, and this time I used Lawn Fawn's Scripty Hugs die and my backing is a green print.  Also, most of the flowers come from various Lawn Fawn paper pads, most of them now discontinued.  This is a great way to use up scraps!

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!

I've been playing

I needed to make a long overdue thank you card, and was also inspired by Jayne's card recently where she embossed on watercolor paper, watercolored the background, and then ironed off the embossing.  I had never tried that - turns out, it's fun!  Here's what resulted, using two of the 2015 distress ink colors:

supplies: Hero Arts Carbonated cling background stamp, little panel from their Striped Note cling, abandoned coral and fossilized amber distress inks watercolored over the embossing, Thanks Stamp & Cut, and Simon's Leanna butterfly die with Paper Sweeties flower sequins in the center

I was so excited to try this ironing technique that I didn't use my anti-static powder, and you can see that it's not a perfect impression due to the embossing powder sticking where it shouldn't be.  So I decided to do it again, and take more time this time.  I also wanted a more even balance of the 2 colors:

supplies: same Hero Arts background stamps as above, but with the addition of 2 of my favorite flowers (Stitched Frame and Layered Flowers) from them, centered with Simon's crystal sequins

Much better.  And finally I thought I'd make a card using the whole Striped Note background, same technique, same distress inks:

supplies: Hero Arts Striped Note cling background stamp, Hello Stamp & Cut, Simon's Leanna butterfly die again, cut from Hero Arts Mandarin layering paper

Thanks for visiting today!

Get Sketchy with Joni

Wplus9 has started a sketch challenge once a month, hosted by Joni Andaya, and called Get Sketchy with Joni.  This is their 2nd sketch, and I couldn't wait to try it!

supplies: Pebbles 12" scrapbook paper "Sister" and matching 6" pad Family Ties, Wplus9 Doodle Buds and Hand Lettered Hello die and stamp, matching enamel dots

It just so happens that I just did a card for an upcoming challenge using almost this same sketch, and I stamped the background on that one.  So for this card, I decided to use this long-hoarded scrapbook paper (I got it at Archiver's and how long have they been closed?!). It's reverse is the pale blue gingham that shows in the opening between the printed panels.  Then I found other papers that pulled the colors from that main panel to make the flowers and leaves and sentiments.

Here's the sketch:

CASEing Marika

I'm sure I'm not the only one to CASE THIS gorgeous creation by Marika on the Altenew blog recently.  I've seen at least one other CASE: an orange variation by Tammy.  So I decided to have a go, also, and my version is in pinks.

supplies: Altenew Vintage Roses and Painted Flowers (little leaf outline), sentiment from a discontinued The Craft's Meow Happy as a Lark stamp set, black, white, and doll pink cardstock, Sizzix Branch with Leaves die, pink and black pearls

I think Marika's sketch here is just about perfect, and I plan to do a series of these cards in different colors.  Stay tuned.......

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Monochromatic Thank You

Here's one more card for the Anything Goes challenge at the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge:

supplies: Paper Smooches Lovely Thoughts, 6 shades of mint to splash and 2 shades of green inks, Simon's Stitched Rectangle die and moonshine sequins, Penny Black Flutters dragonfly die, aqua glitter cardstock

I just received this lovely multi-step stamp set and decided to do the flowers all in shades varying from mint through a medium turquoise.  Because the images are so large, they were easy to mask, but they would also be easy to fussy-cut.  I added some glitz with some sequins and a glittery dragonfly.

Smile!

The Color Throwdown challenge has reached its 350th challenge!  Quite a milestone!  So of course I had to play, as I have become a big fan of the beautiful colors they put together for us!

supplies: black and white cardstock, Altenew Painted Flowers, Simon's Happy & Smile sentiment, VersaMark ink and white embossing powder

Be sure to pop over to their blog, as the design team have done some amazing cards!