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

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

As always at the end of each month, our theme is Anything Goes!  You can make anything you'd like!  My teamies and I are playing with Stampendous products this week.

Stampendous has a stamp series based on the art of Laurel Burch, and these stamps are so different from what I already have, that I wanted to try one of them.  If you like to color, you will love these!  This one's called Lion with Bird.   I added my own sentiment, one from a Simon set.

supplies: white card base, Bristol paper, strips of Simon Sunshine, Island Blue, Orange Peel, and Green Leaf cardstock, Stampendous Laurel Burch Lion with Bird, Spectrum Noir Essentials and Primaries colored pencils, sentiment from Simon's Wild Cuddly Critters, Die-Namics Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, Uniball white pen, adhesive foam squares

I tried coloring this image 3 times, once with alcohol markers, once with Zig markers, and lastly with colord pencils.  I chose that last option because I had more color choices that way, and could do a little bit of shading.  After stamping and coloring the image, I added in white dots where there were any in the design, then trimmed it out with a wonky stitched die.  The bird was stamped and colored a second time to pop him above the card, as was the flower, and I added some card stock strips as a border to pull the colors outward.

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!

And don't forget about STAMPtember!

Home, Sweet Home

I'm sharing a card today using a sweet Tammy Tutterow design cling stamp.  I used my favorite blue, which I have loved all my life.  It's been hard to find for many years now, but I think it may be slowly coming around again.......cornflower, Wedgewood, what would you call this shade?

supplies: white cardstock, Tammy Tutterow Home Sweet Home cling stamp, Spectrum Noir markers TB3, CG2, and PP3, Signo white gel pen for doodling, Simon Says Stamp Scallop Stitch die, a retired MFT Die-Namics bow die, Doodlebug blue jean dot/grid scrapbook paper, Doodlebug strawberry solid cardstock

I simply stamped, colored, and then did a bit of doodling in the letters before trimming out my panel.  The background paper is the front and back of an older Doodlebug cardstock in their blue jeans color.

This may be our last sane weekend before the craziness of the Holidays begin, so enjoy it - do something for yourself!

Be Sunny

I have another Tammy Tutterow cling stamp to show you today!  This big bold sentiment is all you need for the front of a card, and you can be as fancy or as simple as you like when you color it in.  I made this one monochromatic.

supplies: white, black, and pale gold cardstock, Be Sunny cling stamp, Spectrum Noir yellow markers and a pale pink one, a Gingham stencil and squeezed lemonade distress ink

Tammy's cling stamps are perfect for people like me who like to color but don't own a million markers.  Here I just used 4 of the Spectrum Noir yellows to give a slightly ombre effect  on  the "Sunny" part of the design, and then each other word was colored with a different yellow.  To finish, I stencilled a large gingham pattern over the whole panel.   A simple black frame brings out the black outlines, and you're done!

Time for Fall Cards!

Here are 2 more cards using the adorable Harvest Mouse stamps and a similar sketch:

supplies: cream cardstock, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka dotted paper, MFT Harvest Mouse set, Spectrum Aqua Markers to color, Simon Stitched Circle and Small Forest Tree dies

supplies: cream cardstock, Lawn Fawn's Into the Woods papers, MFT Harvest Mouse, Spectrum Noir colored pencils, Simon's Stitched Circle and Small Forest Tree dies, Kelly Purkey alphabet stickers, Winnie & Walter "hugs" from The Big, the Bold, & Friends clear stamps, adhesive foam squares

We have a family story about mice.  My sister, 7 years younger than me, has always loved all animals.  One Christmas, before my Denny and I were married, he got her a game.  She asked if she could exchange it for some mice.  My husband made her get permission from my Mom, who said okay, as long as they were of the same sex.........I think you can imagine the end of the story.  In just a few weeks her 2 little mice had expanded to dozens - certainly "a harvest of blessings", at least to her!  I'll be sending the 2nd card to her this fall.....

I hope to see you again on Wednesday with my Anything Goes cards for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge!

Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge with Hero Arts Friends

Welcome to a blog hop as part of Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge!  Kathy loves to color, and she is hosting her FIFTH coloring challenge!  The premise of the challenge is to color something every day, even if it's for five minutes - it doesn't matter what you color or what medium you use.  

From 2009 - 2012, Hero Arts put together classes of 4 to 8 "Hero Hostesses" for a 4-month term.  Our job was to make people feel welcome in the Hero Arts Flickr group, and to contribute our work using Hero Arts stamps.  There ended up being 36 of us before the program was discontinued, and as we were a kind of crafting sorority,  Kathy was the one who coined "sista" as the name we called each other.  We have had loads of fun together, meeting up in real life many times.  I treasure each of these ladies, and have a soft spot in my heart for each of them and Hero Arts.

Fast forward to 2016.  Kathy has asked us, along with some special guests, to participate in a blog hop for her current Coloring Challenge.  And Hero Arts has generously contributed TWO $25.00 shopping sprees, chosen from all those who comment!!

You should have come from my friend Virginia Lu's blog, Yes, Virginia.  If you are just happening across my blog today, and want to see the blog hop order, you can start at Kathy's blog, The Daily Marker. 

Here's the card I made, using a Hero Arts stamp that was introduced about the time I was a Hostess in 2009.  Sadly, it's retired now.  I paired it with some pretty plaid design paper and added a felt and button flower:

supplies: white, dark rose, and a gold shimmer cardstock, Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid dp, Hero Arts Wallpaper Flower woodblock stamp, K5185, Spectrum Noir markers to color, Wink of Stella clear marker, Simon Says Stamp Painted Hugs die, My Favorite Things Flashy Florals flower die, leaf die from Simon's Single Roses die set, Taylored Expressions Cotton Candy and Split Pea felt, yellow button, Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares

I've been hoarding this pretty plaid, but this occasion is a special one, so I pulled the colors from it to color my stamped panel, and my medium of choice was alcohol markers.

Hero Arts is giving away TWO $25.00 shopping sprees, randomly selected from the blog comments along the hop.  You have a week to comment, until July 18, at 12:00 midnight, and the winners will be announced July 19 on Kathy's blog.

Now, hop on over to Kathy Wade's blog, Wading in Creativity.  Enjoy, and we hope that you'll play along in Kathy's Coloring challenge, too!  Feel free to jump in anytime from now until August 5  - everyone is welcome!  You don't even have to make a card, just do some coloring and have fun with it!

Simon Says.........Photo Inspiration

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday blog!

We have a fun challenge this week - our own Jenn has made us an inspiration board, and we'd like to see what kinds of cards you make using the colors and/or the pictures as your inspiration!  The DT are using exclusive Simon products this week.

Here's the board:

Here's my card:

supplies: white cardstock, Simon's Waves Stencil, peacock feathers, pine needles, squeezed lemonade, wild honey, and broken china distress inks, Simon's Sailing clear stamp set, Spectrum Noir markers to color, Mini Misti

I used the stencil, along with peacock feathers and pine needles inks to make my water, masking the top part of the panel.  After removing the stencil and masking the stencilled area on my panel, I used a die-cut circle to mask my sun, and sponged on the yellows and broken china inks.  Separately, I stamped, colored, and fussy-cut the sail boats, and then attached them to the finished card.

I made that card soon after I saw the inspiration photo.  A few weeks later, I was playing with stamping my own plank background, and found some additional inspiration on Pinterest (which the owner has asked me to remove from my blog) and here's what resulted:

white and yellow/gold cardstock, Hero Arts Woodgrain stamp, stamped in Hero Arts Charcoal ink,  Martha Stewart Scoring Board, tumbled glass, blueprint sketch, peacock feathers, lucky clover, and hickory smoke distress inks, Simon's Flip Flop Season, One with Nature (sentiment), and Simple Letter Outlines stamps, white  gel pen

I stamped the woodgrain  in dark grey ink, then turned my panel over and scored some lines to make planking.  Flipped it back over to the front, and used distress inks to shade the planks, following Jenn's colors as best I could, and using a gel pen to mimic waves.  The panel was affixed to a white card, and then I added the rest of the elements.

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!

Monochromatic Blooms

I got a clothing catalog in the mail yesterday and was taken by a lovely sweater......thought I'd use it as my inspiration for today's card.

supplies: white and Audrey Blue cardstock, Paper Smooches Blossoming Buds, Spectrum Noir Turquoise markers, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello, Simon's Stitched Rectangles, Moonshine sequins

Here's my inspiration:

Hope you're enjoying the first day of spring!  It's spitting snowflakes here this morning!

Spring Blessings

First I want to give a warm welcome to my newest follower, Rina!  During this time of Blogger's ruthless cutting away of our followers, it is wonderful to see a new face!  Thank you, Rina!

Here's a card I made as part of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge that Kathy is running all this month, and it also works for the current challenge at Power Poppy, to use a medium we don't often use.  We recently had a day here in NE Ohio with temps in the 60's!  That is unheard of for this time of year!  Maybe Punxatawney Phil will be right this year!!  I celebrated by pulling out this old 1995 stamp from PSX and coloring it with colored pencils, which I haven't used in a long time:

supplies: white cardstock, dps from BoBunny Soft Shades Double Dots pad, PSX untitled stamp, Spectrum Noir colored pencils and tumbled glass distress ink for background, Simon Christmas Blessings die, Spellbinder's Labels Eighteen die

Because this image is so large, I previewed several die-cut sentiments for it.  I chose this one because it is relatively delicate and doesn't cover up my work!

Simon Says..........Make it Sparkle!

It's Wednesday and that means a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

This week our theme is "Make it Sparkle!"  My teamies and I are showcasing Technique Tuesday products.  

It was nice to use something non-holiday for a change, and I chose my favorite blue to color it.

supplies: white and blue glitter cardstock, Technique Tuesday Agapanthus clear stamp set, Spectrum Noir markers TB3 and CG2, shaded with colored pencils in the same tones, Signo white gel pen, Wink of Stella clear pen, scalloped dies, Pretty Pink Posh Sparkle Clear sequins

I added my sparkle using the glitter paper frame, Wink of Stella on the flowers, and some sparkly sequins in their centers.

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!

Simon Says.........Furry Friends!

It's Wednesday and that means a brand new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge blog!

This week our theme is Furry Friends.  I can't wait to see the gallery fill up with your fun creations!.  The design team are showcasing Newton's Nook products this week.  If you have any of their fun products, we'd love to see them, but they're not necessarry to enter, as long as you follow our theme.

In our married life my husband and I have only owned 1 dog, a lab mix named Brandy.  We got him from the pound as a puppy after our youngest son wrote an essay in school saying how much he wanted a dog, and that we wouldn't allow him to have one - smart boy!.  Brandy, of course, became my dog, and he was with us for 16 years.  He was a character!  I still miss him!

So when I saw the new stamp set from Newton's Nook called Fetching Friendship, it went straight into my shopping cart!  Whoever the artist was for this set, she surely captured the expressions that I remember so well!  I chose 2 of the 3 images and made cards with them for this challenge.  This first one is a portrait of our Brandy.

supplies: Newton's Nook Fetching Friendship stamp set, colored with colored pencils and a blue marker, all Spectrum Noir, Simon's Stitched Rectangles dies, Doodlebug heart paper, Simon's Lipstick Red ink to stamp the heart

This is what Brandy would do when he wanted something from me: come and sit down and stare at me until I noticed him.  He could bark up a storm when a stranger entered the house, but we never were able to teach him to bark when he wanted our attention.  Here I tried to color him as I remember him; it took me several tries with many mediums, but these colored pencils finally did the trick.  Isn't this sentiment perfect to go with it?

The other thing I remember about him is that when you'd be talking to him, he'd tilt his head; such an endearing habit.  I also think this sentiment is so cute, and I was able to show you the party hat, gifts, and paw-prints, too, on this next card.  There are also a bone, a ball, and 3 other sentiments in this set!

supplies: Newton's Nook Fetching Friendship, a variety of washi tapes, VersaFine onyx black and vintage sepia inks, a red marker to color details

On this one, I stamped him on a light kraft cardstock, and then just lightly used the same colored pencil as above to do some detailing, then cut him out and popped him above the rest of the card.

Now it's your turn!  Heidi has yet again 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! 

More Geometrics

I have one more try for Taheerah's current Gossip column: Geometrics, at the Winnie & Walter blog this month.  I remembered a (now discontinued) The Craft's Meow stamp set called Geometric Foundations, and one of the stamps was a square design. 

I stamped it vertically once, then flipped the stamp and partially overstamped it a 2nd time to get the design I used here.  Then I did the same thing horizontally, matching the squares already stamped.  Here's the result:

supplies: TCM Geometric Foundations, Winnie & Walter the Big, the Bold, and You, orange, blue and black markers, orange metallic and blue sequins, blue card base

These end up looking a bit like nautical flags, and oh my, my hands don't have the control they used to for coloring these tiny squares, nor do my eyes, but I'm pleased with the results for the most part!  Thanks for stopping by today - hope you're enjoying your Sunday!

Bowl Bouquet

I made this card to play again with my Spectrum Aqua markers, and to enter the Spectrum Noir May challenge: Use Flowers.  I used another Stampendous stamp, this one a wood-block called Bowl Bouquet.

supplies: Stampendous Bowl Bouquet, colored with Spectrum Aqua Markers: sunflower, peach topaz, bud green, moss, slate and kingfisher, watercolor paper, sentiment from Simon's Handwritten Sentiments, dotty dp from Lawn Fawn's Let's Polka pad, yellow and white cardstock

Yellow roses are my favorite kind, and the blues looked so nice with them that I kept the coloring simple here, just adding a little yellow to the centers of the daisies, and a bit of slate for shading.

ETA: I just found the current Power Poppy challenge, which is to fussy-cut your main image.  I find fussy-cutting very relaxing, so this one is right up my alley!

AEI♥U challenge #24 - Spring!

There's a new challenge at the AEI♥U challenge, and it's simply "Spring"!  For once, I knew just what I wanted to make, using my favorite little fawn from the Storybook set:

supplies: Avery Elle's Storybook, Laurels, Simply Said Hello, Simon's Small Forest Tree die and blossoms from Thinking of You, Spectrum Noir colored pencils and markers, PTI cloud die, Doodlebug dot dp

My husband put down a new layering of fresh mulch, and with the grass at it's greenest and everything starting to flower and bud, this is surely the prettiest time of year!  Thanks for stopping by!

Spring tulips

As soon as I saw the photo inspiration for the Sparkle and Shine Challenge this time, I knew just what I wanted to do.  It's been too long since I used this Friendship Jar and the lovely tulips that go into it, and I had been looking for pink polka dot paper recently, and so remembered this one.

supplies: PTI Friendship Jar and Friendship Jar Spring Fillers (tulips and sentiment), Spectrum Noir markers and pencils to color, The Girl's Paperie Jubilee pink dot dp, moonshine sequins and a single spring mix Pretty Pink Posh sequin, Die-Namics Blueprints 20 scalloped rectangle

Isn't this inspiration adorable?

I'd also like to enter this into the Winnie & Walter/Pink Fresh Studio sequins challenge.

Aunt Betty's Violets

Today I had a memory of my Aunt Betty and a very young me sitting in the woods picking violets and finding a yellow one.  I don't think I've seen a yellow violet growing in the wild since, so this is a special memory for me.  My Aunt passed away several years ago, in her late 80's, and it's amazing how various memories float up every once in awhile.  She had no children of her own, so she spoiled all of her nieces and nephews and made us each feel special.  I also remember picking violets and making a little bouquet like this, surrounded with their leaves, for my Mom or Gramma in the spring - I still have a patch of purple violets in one of our gardens, and enjoy picking the tiny flowers to bring inside and put in a small vase.....they have a lovely soft smell!

supplies: Stampendous Build a Bouquet, (stems are from Simon's Artful Flowers), stamped in VersaMark and embossed in white, then watercolored with Spectrum Aqua markers Florals and Essential sets, Hero Arts sentiment from Remember set, Cornflower blue ink, Die-Namics doily die-cut, blue gingham ribbon, sequins, Doodlebug striped paper, Die-Namics Blueprints 20 scalloped die

She had the most beautiful blue eyes, like her father, and her brother, my Dad, so I chose to accent this with some touches of blue.  I miss you, Aunt Betty!

And since I've used a die-cut and my Spectrum Aqua Floral and Essential markers, I'd link to enter the Spectrum Noir April challenge.

Sketch challenge

The newest challenge at Sparkle & Shine is to use this sketch supplied by Winnie & Walter:

As usual, I went pretty literal for my entry:

supplies: Paper Smooches Blossoming Buds, Spectrum Noir colored pencils, Doodlebug dotted papers for banners, Lawn Fawn and Pretty Pink Posh sequins, Simon's Flower Friend sentiment, Green Apple and white cardstock

Thanks for stopping by today!

.......one more time

I promise this will be my last Build a Bouquet creation for awhile, but I wanted to put all the flowers in the set together.

supplies: Stampendous Build a Bouquet, watercolor paper, white embossed, Floral and Essential Spectrum Aqua markers, water brush, Hero Arts Bouquet of Love, vellum strip, tumbled glass distress ink, sequins from Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp, and Pretty Pink Posh

This time I smooshed some tumbled glass distress ink on my kraft sheet, spritzed it with water, and then pulled a panel of watercolor paper through it to get this pretty blue background.  I added colored and clear sequins for some sparkle, and stamped my sentiment on a strip of vellum.

Once again, adding this to the Curtain Call challenge: Bouquet.

Bouquet of Thanks

Good Sunday morning to you!  I have another card to share using the fun Stampendous Build a Bouquet cling set.  This set is so fun to watercolor, that I'm afraid you'll be seeing lots and lots more examples using it........

supplies:  Stampendous Build a Bouquet, Floral and Essential Spectrum Aqua markers, water pen, tumbled glass distress ink, watercolor paper, Simon's Surf Blue cardstock, blue gingham from Pebbles Garden Party, Wplus9 thanks die, scallop punch

Gingham has always been dear to me; there's just something so sweet about it, so I thought it would pair nicely with this pretty bouquet in a canning jar.  And I wanted to say how pleased I am with these new Spectrum Aqua markers.  I just scribble a bit of their color onto watercolor paper, and then use a wet brush to move it around on the design.  I mixed several colors, too, and they work beautifully in that respect.  I have another set on my wishlist now, the Natural set, as I need some blues.  (I used tumbled glass distress ink to color my canning jar and bring out the details.)

I'll enter this into the current Curtain Call challenge.