Throwback Thursday

I have really enjoyed playing at Maureen's Throwback Thursdays over on the Wplus9 blog.  Maureen has some wonderful ideas, and though I often don't have the stamp set being featured, it's been fun adapting what I have to her ideas.  This month I used Maureen's color choices, one of her sketches, and her wintery theme to make my entry:

supplies: white, sea glass, navy, and silver glitter cardstocks, Wplus9 Backgrounds & Borders 1 clear stamp set, Lake House, Nautical Navy, and Silver Lining inks, also Seasonal Sentiments and Snowflake Trio dies, silver and blue sequins

Thanks for stopping by - hope you have a creative day!

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

It's time for a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

It's your favorite time of the month: Anything Goes! this week!  The Design Team are using Lawn Fawn products.  You can use anything you want, but if you have any Lawn Fawn products, we'd love to see what you make with them, too!

supplies: white and desert storm cardstock, Lawn Fawn Deck the Halls and Winter Sparrows clear stamp sets, Hero Arts Green Hills, Grass, Field Greens, Forever Green, and Red Royal Inks, markers to color birds, red sequins, red gingham ribbon

supplies: white, Audrey Blue, Surf Blue, and aqua glitter cardstock, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes dies and Let it Snow clear stamp set, Audrey Blue ink, various sequins

Now it's your turn!  I can't wait to see what you make!  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!

CASEing Kelly Blog Hop!

Hello!  I'm thrilled to be participating in this blog hop to honor Kelly Latevola!  Just about every Monday, in her CASEing Genius posts, Kelly chooses a fellow blogger, introduces her and her work to us, and then CASEs her guest's cards.  We decided to turn the tables on Kelly today and honor her with a blog hop.  We have all been former guests on her blog, (HERE was my spot) and we'll all be choosing 3 of her cards, and making a card CASEing ideas from them!  Fun, huh?

Our hop is a long one, so let's get started so you can move on.  You should have arrived from the fabulous Leigh Penner's blog.  If not I'll give you a listing of the stops along the way further down.  Here are the 3 cards of Kelly's that inspired me. (clicking on each pic will take you back to Kelly's original post, so that you can learn more about it):

When I think of Kelly's art, I think of bright colors and expert masking, and these cards illustrate that beautifully.  Since Fall is my favorite season, I decided to go with a variation of that theme from her first card.  I have nowhere near the coloring skills that Kelly does, so I chose a solid leaf stamp and colored inks to bring in my colors,  I stamped a whole panel of maple leaves, masking as I stamped, and then, inspired by her last card above, I die-cut a sentiment from that panel.

supplies: cream and dark chocolate cardstock, Clearly Besotted Autumn Flowers, stamped in Hero Arts Punch, and Ranger's Cheese Puff and Lemon Twist inks, Die-Namics Happy die, also cut from chocolate and off-set to define the words

Your next stop on our Hop is the amazing Linda Trace, but before you go, what's a hop without some fun prizes?

If you leave a comment by 11:59 PM, Thursday, October 29, along each stop, you'll be in the running to win a prize from one of our sponsors: TWO prizes (a $25.00 gift certificate and a crafty goodie bag) from a2z Scrapbooking, a gift certificate from Altenew, the Winter 2015 Card Kit from Create a Smile Stamps, a stamp set from Dee's Artsy Impressions, one of Deepti's designs from STAMPlorations, a $25.00 gift certificate from any online store (winner's choice) from djkardkreations, a crafty goodie bag from Hero Arts, a $25.00 gift certificate from The Ink Road, a police woman digi stamp from Lia Stampz, and a $25.00 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp!  Winners will be notified by email after October 29.

Okay, off you go!  Here is the entire Hop List, if you need it:

a2z Scrapbooking

Amy Tsuruta

Ardyth Percy Robb

Brandi Hall

Char Kochensparger

Cindy Chiu

Darnell Knauss

Dawn Turley

Debra James

Deepti Malik

Donna Idlet

Elizabeth Campau

Ellen Haxelmans

Heather Ruwe

Jennifer Loftfield

Joan Bardee

Kara Vrabel

Kara-Lynne

Kathy Wade

Katie Gehring

Kristie Goulet

Kristina Beagle

Kymona Tracey

Laura Jane

Leigh Penner

Lin Brandyberry That's ME!

Linda Trace

Lindsay Amrhein

Lydia Evans

Maria Sabina Raita

Marika Rahtu

Martha Lucia Gomez

Michele Cunningham

Michele Ferguson

Michelle Lupton

Michelle Williams

Monica Maier

Niki G.

Nina-Marie Trapani

Rubeena Naz

Shelly Kurth

Taunya Butler

Thordis Dogg

Vera Yates

A Christmas Robin

Last week I was visiting my Simon teamie Debby's blog and she had the most adorable card using this little guy. I had completely forgotten about him - he's from a set from 2010!  So I pulled him out today and made a tag for Christmas:

supplies: Sea Glass, dark brown, and red glitter cardstock, Penny Black Jolly Friends and Joyous clear stamp sets, and Snowflake Trio die, Memory Box grapevine wreath, Stitched Tag die, snowflake embossing folder, glue pen and glitter, red and white striped twine

After I colored and fussy-cut the robin, I cut a stitched tag and then stamped my sentiment.  Next I embossed it, then used my glue pen to add glitter to the embossed snowflakes and his hat, and then added everything else.  

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday!  I'll see you again in a couple of days.........

Some watercolored wreaths

I made a couple of cards for Hero Arts Holiday CardMaking challenge, using some cling wreath stamps, and watercolor markers to color the stamp before stamping on watercolor paper, then blending with a water pen.  My first one is kind of vintage-looking:

supplies: red cardstock, watercolor paper, Hero Arts Pinecone Wreath, stamped sentiment from Sending Holiday Cheer, Spectrum Aqua markers and waterbrush, Red Royal ink, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Holiday die, tiny red gemstones

And the 2nd one is more clean and modern:



supplies: red cardstock, watercolor paper, Hero Arts Very Best Holiday wreath, stamped sentiment from Holiday Sayings, Spectrum Aqua markers and waterbrush, Red Royal ink, Hero Arts Happy stamp & cut die, twine, jingle bells

Which do you prefer?

Happy Fall!

I found a new (to me) challenge and this month they've asked us to use paper-piecing, so I wanted to give it a try.  The challenge is from Happy Little Stampers.

I used a Paper Smooches stamp that I bought with the intention of paper-piecing the tree for all the seasons, but never followed through, only used it for a summer tree HERE.  Here's my autumn version:

supplies: white cardstock, various dps from Doodlebug and BoBunny 6" pads, Paper Smooches Summer Groves clear stamp set, sentiment from The Craft's Meow Fall Blessings, Simon's Stitched Rectangles die, Die-Namics Snow Drifts dies

This was really a fun project, finding papers that mimic the colors of the leaves right now.  You can bet that I'll be playing with this set again with pinks when spring gets here!

Simon Says.........Wrap it Up!

 

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

This week our theme is "Wrap it Up!" and the design team are using May Arts products. 

For both cards today I used my May Arts natural twine.  On this first one, I wrapped it to form a simple wreath:

supplies: kraft card base, watercolor paper, and copper shimmer paper (for die-cut sentiment), reverse of maple leaf from Clearly Besotted Autumn Flowers, distresss inks, May Arts natural twine, Impression Obsession Small Leaf set dies (Lawn Fawn's Small Stitched Leaves dies would be a good alternative), various fall cardstock, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Seasons cutaways, (here is the matching stamp set, which is exactly the same in dimension and size),  cupped sequins

I wet my watercolor panel, then inked the reverse of my leaf stamp in distress ink, spritzed it liberally with water again and then stamped and let it sit on the paper for awhile to absorb.  I wanted just a general leaf shape without any details.  I did this 4 times using fossilized amber, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, and barn door distress inks.  There were puddles of ink on the paper, so I dipped a paint brush into some of them and flicked the color onto the panel before carefully blotting away the excess and heat-drying the panel.  Then I added my twine wreath and and bows, and the rest of my elements.  I love how this turned out!

After those bright colors, I decided to go neutral, and for my 2nd card I wrapped my twine around an embossed panel:

supplies: kraft and beige cardstock, Taylored Expressions Leafy Vine embossing folder, May Arts natural twine, Studio Calico wood button, Simon's Birthday Circle die

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!

Color Throwdown #365

I'm pleased to be a guest today at the Color Throwdown challenge, and here are our colors for this week!

These are definitely out of my comfort zone, but that's what a challenge is, right?  I decided to keep my design clean and simple and here's what I came up with:

supplies: sentiment from Hero Arts Truly Appreciated, Simon's Leanna and Chrissy butterfies, black and white cardstock, red and fuschia glitter cardstock, red and fuschia sequins

I hope you'll play along, too - I can't wait to see what you do with these colors!

Joy to the World

We had a scramble, our 120th!, yesterday at the Hero Arts Flickr group.  Our task was to make a Christmas/Winter card and add some sparkle or shine to it, using at least 1 Hero Arts product.  This will also be entered into the current Hero Arts challenge: Holiday Cards.

supplies: Hero Arts Classic Holly and Music Background, watercolor paper, tumbled glass, broken china and shabby shutters distress inks, markers to color holly, red cardstock and red glitter cardstock, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Holiday die and matching stamp set, Wink of Stella on holly leaves

Incredibly Grateful

Here's a card I made using just a few of the supplies inside the new Simon Says Stamp November Card Kit called HandMade with Love:

This kit has some really fun die-cuts, a whole pack of them by Pebbles!  I started with one of the Simon 120# side-fold cards as my base, then chose one of the large leaf clusters and just added it to one of the design papers, stamped my sentiment from the new clear stamp set, Apple of my Pie, embossed it in gold, and then sprinkled some sequins in coppers and golds.  What could be easier?

There are also some apple puffy stickers, rub-ons and pretty cardstock colors, too!  I know this one will sell out, so don't wait too long, if you're not already a subscriber to these fun kits!

Simon's new Winter Release: Create Joy!

Have you seen the new stamps and dies being released today at Simon Says Stamp for their winter release called Create Joy?  Swoon......makes me want to get my Christmas cards started NOW!  Heidi and the gang sent me a couple new things and here's what I made with them:

supplies: Simon's NEW Lined Trees dies, design papers from Simple Stories, red, green, and kraft cardstock, Die-Namics Snow Drifts dies, sentiment from Simon's Presents & Ornaments clear stamp set, Lipstick Red ink

supplies: kraft and cream cardstock, Amuse red dot cardstock, Simon's NEW Bear Necessities clear stamp set and matching dies

Another another from the same set, this time a baby bear in his snuggly onesies!

Hurry on over to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore to see all the other A-mazing things that are new today!  Enjoy!

Simon Says.........Color Inspiration

It's time for a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

This week we'd like to use our color inspiration board below, created by our talented teamie Jenn Shurkus:

The Design Team are using Stampendous products this week.  My first card uses a cling set that was introduced back at CHA January, and it was so popular at the time it took me months to get it.  This uses only one of the 3 flower choices in that set, and I really like it done in these fall colors!

supplies: cream cardstock, Stampendous Build a Bouquet cling stamps, patterned papers from a discontinued DCWV fall stack called Pumpkin Patch, Simon/Clearly Besotted Autumn Blessings sentiment, tiny gold pearls

I was influenced by 2 of those scenes up above in our inspiration for my next card:

supplies: white and Simon's Fog Gray cardstock, Stampendous PenPattern Owl cling stamp, VersaMark ink and Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder,  various markers to color, Spellbinder's circle die to cut moon, PTI cloud die as mask for background clouds, sentiment from a Hero Arts Halloween clear set, now discontinued

The owl was stamped and embossed in Liquid Platinum to give him a glow, then colored using the colors that were highlighted in our inspiration.

Now it's your turn - I can't wait to see what you create!  Heidi has provided another $50.00 gift voucher

to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for 1 lucky random winner of this week's 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! 

Autumn Neutrals

"Autumn Neutrals" is the challenge at The Card Concept this time.  Here's my entry, in the Clean & Layered category.  I love these subtle colors!

supplies: desert storm, pale orange, ivory, 2 dull greens cardstocks, plank design paper from Crate Paper, Memory Box Twig Wreath, The Craft's Meow pumpkin stamp, markers to highlight, Wplus9 Folk Art Florals die-cut leaves, Simon/Clearly Besotted Autumn Blessings stamp set for sentiment, VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink, twine, wood dot

Here's our inspiration:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Fusion challenge

I used some more of the papers from a couple Simple Stories fall pads and followed the sketch at the Fusion Challenge:

supplies: ivory card base, Simple Stories Pumpkin Spice and Harvest Lane papers, Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves die, Winnie & Walter Audrey Cutaway tag die, sentiment from The Crafts Meow Speaking of Fall (retired), stamped in an Inkadinkado fall ombre ink, rafia, sequins

Here's our inspiration:

It was that bit of plaid blanket in the bottom corner of the photo that got this whole thing rolling!

Look, Ma - No Stamping!

I took a different approach this time to the challenge #45 - I used all design papers from a 6" pad and followed the sketch.

supplies: Simple Stories Pumpkin Spice paper pad, Impression Obsession Stitched Leaves, aqua enamel dot and May arts natural twine

I can never resist a good pad of paper, especially when it has an autumn theme and gingham inside, and so this card was born.  I substitued the rectangular panel, many of which are also inside the pad, for the circle in the sketch, and added some twine to make it look like a hanging picture.  I also die-cut an autumn leaf and popped it above the one on the "picture" to give this a little dimension.

Here's our sketch:

Thankful

I'm so thankful for challenges like the Color Throwdown that allow me to use whatever supplies I like to make a card!  In this case, I pulled out some The Crafts Meow stamps (they closed their doors several years ago) to make my card.   I loved the pale pumpkin inspiration the challenge gave us, but had no current stamps that were the outline of a pumpkin, but I had several from TCM:

I also used another favorite of mine, washi tape, to bring in more of the colors, and I added some enamel and wood dots in those colors, too.  

Here's our inspiration for this week:

Prayers

Blue is my favorite color, so I just had to play at the current Pinterest Inspired challenge for this month.

supplies: Die-Namics Spring Wreath, cut in a soft grey and 3 blues, Hero Arts Prayers clear stamp set, grey ink, silver pearls

Here's the lovely inspiration: 

Thanks for your visit!l

Simon Says..........CAS Christmas

It's time for a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

This week our theme is CAS Christmas, and the Design Team are using products from Memory Box.  They make the most gorgeous detailed dies - I was lucky to snag a pretty wreath die called Catalina Wreath.  Here are 2 cards I made using it.

supplies: red and green cardstocks, My Mind's Eye My Story patterned paper, Catalina Wreath, cut 3 times, 2 greens and a red, Simon's Christmas Blessings die, gold foil paper, gold sequins

This next one is not at all Clean and Simple, but I thought this patterned paper in the background went so nicely with it, I shared it with you anyway.   Love the country look of it!  I paper-pieced the flowers onto the green wreath, and added little white pearls in their centers to mimic the flowers in the paper, then popped the whole wreath up above the card surface to help it stand out a little more.  I paired it with one of my most favorite Christmas sentiment sets from Hero Arts, now sadly discontinued. The dotted letters just seem to go along with the whole style of the card.

supplies: white, red, and green cardstock, Catalina Wreath, cut in green and red and paper-pieced, white pearls, Simple Stories Cozy Christmas patterned paper, Hero Arts Miracle of the Holidays, and Red Royal ink

Now it's your turn - I can't wait to see what you create!  Heidi has provided another $50.00 gift voucher

to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for 1 lucky random winner of this week's 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!