MFW's Stickers & Tape Challenge

I am so glad Cath has encouraged us to use our stickers and tape to make a card for this challenge celebrating PaperCraft's Handmade Cards!  I buy stickers and generally never use them, just get them out periodically and look at them.   This challenge actually forced me to design something with them - thank you, Cath!

I used 3 washi tapes, pulling the colors from the wreath sticker.  Everything else on the card come from a darling sticker sheet from Simple Stories Harvest Lane that I bought last year.  I also used sticker alphabet letters from Kelly Purkey and some enamel dots.  I popped 3 of the stickers above my card - they just looked better that way.  Though these aren't the usual fall colors, I like how this all came together!  Now that I've "christened" this sheet, maybe I'll be able to use more of the stickers!

And here's a blast from the past.......while I was looking through my stash of stickers, I came across these Susan Branch ones that were a part of a scrapbooking kit sold on QVC, I believe.  I'll bet they're at least 10 years old.  This sprinkler full of flowers has always been one of my favorite images of Susan's, and I also found in that stash this checkered frame and even a sentiment to pull everything together!

I added the skinny red gingham washi tape and the heart button.  Susan is still my favorite artist of the present day, and her handwritten books incorporating that art are among my treasures.  If you aren't acquainted with her, her blog is a real treat!  Just one visit and you'll be hooked!

Simon Says........Going Dotty!

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

This week we're Going Dotty!  I can't wait to see what you all do with that idea!  The Design Team and our Guest Designer Lucy Abrams are using Saturated Canary and/or Basic Grey this week.  

I looked through my Basic Grey papers and found that there were some dotted designs in the Mint Julep collection, so I went to the Simon store and looked to see what else they had in the same collection.  I found this fun Garland Die Cuts set (all of them already stitched together), one of which is made up of hearts with dotted designs and little roses, so that became the focal point of my card:

other supplies: Basic Grey Mint Julep dp as backround, Martha Stewart Eyelet punch, Hero Arts All Occasion Messages sentiment, red heart button, and crochet thread bows

Heidi has provided another $50.00 gift voucher:

to the Simon Says Stamp Store:

Blessings

I just recently got this beautiful Penny Black cling stamp called Floral Thread, and wanted to use it with some fall-like colors.

It was stamped in brown ink and clear embossed on shiny white cardstock, then I randomly sponged on some distress inks, before wrapping it with this lovely aqua ribbon and mounting it to my card base.  The sentiment is from the Friendship clear set, and is a great one for all kinds of occasions.

Thanks so much for visiting me today!  

Embellishments

Cath at Moxie Fab World has got a week's worth of challenges going, all linked to PaperCraft's newest publication called Handmade Cards.  For this first challenge, she wants us to use ready-made embellishments.

I just received a big pad of Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party papers, along with some dimensional embellishments made to go with them.  The beautiful pad had a big sheet of chalkboard elements, so I trimmed out this one and then used some of the gorgeous peachy papers also in the pad, along with the pretty rosette from the embellishment set.  All I had to add was the die-cut "you" and my card was finished!

Once I'd decided on my design, the card practically made itself!

Next I went digging into a box of embellishments, some from years ago, and found this lovely K&Company Brenda Walton Grand Adhesions floral embellishment.  I thought the color combination of peach and lilac was so unique, so I looked through my paper pads and this Graphics 45 Secret Garden paper seemed perfect for it.

The sentiment is from The Craft's Meow Potted Garden, stamped in VersaFine Imperial Purple, and I added an organdy dotted ribbon and a lacy punched border to the mix, along with a few pearls.

So, here are a kind of CAS card and another that is kind of shabby chic - thanks, Cath, I was glad to put these embellishments to good use!

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

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

The Design Team are all using stamps sent to us by Art Impressions, and I think you'll really enjoy the variety of fun stamps that we were given!   My stamp is called Penguin Joy, and it was fun to make my first Christmas card of the year!

Aren't these little guys cute?  I decided I wanted to keep my color scheme to aquas/turquoises and red, and then I thought of paper-piecing in the ornaments and then I decided to make them all glittery.  There must be an easier way to do that, but here's how I did:  I stamped the ornaments on red cardstock, and again on white for the letters, which I cut out and glued to the red ornaments, then I cut out the ornaments and ran them through my little Xyron machine to get them sticky on the fronts, and then dipped them into some Prisma glitter.  Next I stamped and colored my image again, using Spectrum Noir markers.  I trimmed it out into a panel, stamped my sentiment, and then carefully cut around their little "hands/flippers" so that I could insert my ornaments.  A little fiddly, but doing it this way pushes the ornaments out front like they would be in real life:

To finish I added my panel to a card base made from Pool layering paper, and punched out some snowflakes to add at the top and bottom for a little more dimension.  

Heidi has again provided us with a $50.00 gift voucher

to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!  Will you be a winner this week?   This week you have 2 chances to win a fabulous prize !!   Art Impressions are also sponsoring this challenge and will be giving this fabulous prize to one lucky entrant !!

AND if you go over to the Art Impressions Facebook Page, click 'like' and leave a comment to say that Simon Says Stamp have sent you, you will be entered into a prize draw where you could win $100 worth of Christmas Stamps !! Woo Hoo !! 

A sneak peek

I have a post at The Craft's Meow today - please come see my card there and leave a comment if you like it!

Thank you!

A Little Hello!

Did you know that Penny Black makes stickers?  They are big enough to use for cardmaking, and they sure do come in handy when you need a card FAST!  The main image on this card is from the sticker sheet called Scented Garden.  I just mounted it to some ivory cardstock, framed it up in pink, stamped the sentiment, added some butterflies and pearls, and it was finished!

Hope you'll consider these stickers to have on hand when you need to make something in a jiffy!  There are 63 different sheets in the Penny Black store, in any color you can think of, and for any occasion!

The Craft's Meow September Release Blog Hop

Welcome back!  Today is the reveal at The Craft's Meow Store of our newest stamp releases, and our traditional Design Team Blog Hop!   You should have arrived here from our newest Design Team member, Larissa's wonderful blog.  If you just happened across me, and want to start from the beginning, please go to The Craft's Meow blog, where there will be a list of the blogs participating, and from there you should be directed from one blog to the next.   

My first card for you today uses 2 of our new stamp sets, Rustic Greetings and Speaking of Fall.

I made my own plaid background using the stripes from the Rustic Greetings set:

And added the sentiment and leaves from the Speaking of Fall set.  This is this month's free gift with purchase: 

And my 2nd card uses the pumpkins and 2 sentiments from Autumn Borders and "harvest" from Speaking of Fall:

Here's Autumn Borders:

All of the new stamps are now available to order at The Craft's Meow Store!  Don't forget that our special stamp set this month is Speaking of Fall - you can have it for free when you spend $60.00 in our store, or you can buy it separately, if you wish. 

AND 1 lucky person will win all FIVE sets by leaving a comment on each of our blogs along the hop!  You'll have until 8:00 PM PDT on Monday, September 23 to leave comments, and Lisa will draw a random name from one of our blogs as her winner, and announce that name on the blog September 24!  Now hop along to Nina's blog.  Thanks for visiting!

The Craft's Meow September Release Day 4: Little Angels

Welcome back for our final preview day of our newest release of stamps at The Craft's Meow!  Today we have another set from Clare called Little Angels, our first Christmas set of the year!

I used one of the darling angels and just one of the many sentiments Clare has included in this set.  I paper-pieced the angel, gave her a heart to hold, and added some gold on her wings and halo.

Would you like to win this set?  Just leave a comment at The Craft's Meow Blog by 8:00 PM PDT tonight and a lucky random commenter will take it home!  The winner will be announced tomorrow, during our traditional blog hop, where we showcase more cards using all of the September releases!  Hope to see you then!

The Craft's Meow September Release Day 3 Preview: Rustic Greetings and Chalkboard Faith

Welcome back again today for a peak at 2 more of our newest stamp releases at The Craft's Meow! My first card uses one of 6 chalkboard sentiments that Nina has designed for her Chalkboard Faith set.

This is such a powerful thought: God knows what we need whether or not we can even put it into words! That brings me great comfort when I am distressed.  I stamped  this in picked raspberry distress ink to match the lovely flowers in the background and added a coordinating paper bordered in green.  I thought it needed just a little something else, and went hunting in my stash and found these flowers that were a gift.  Don't you just love when everything pulls together?!

My next card uses images from Angelica's Rustic Greetings.  She has included a couple of stripe stamps so that we can make our own plaids, and that idea intrigued me, especially since I have recently been trying to do that exact same thing earlier.  I tried various color combinations and then it hit me that I should attempt to recreate our family (Irvine) tartan:

So, starting with a blue cardstock and a green ink, I repeatedly stamped the 3 stripes all lined up together both vertically and horizontally, using green ink, .  After I'd filled my panel in this manner, I went back in with a ruler and a white and a black fine-point marker and added those elements.   Here's the resulting card:

Everything is from the stamp set, except the alphabet dies. This is especially appropos for my Dad, as he has one of these deer heads hanging in his rec room at home!  So I'm thrilled with how this turned out!

As always, Lisa will be giving away a copy of each of these sets to a random commenter at The Craft's Meow blog!  Make sure you hop on over there and leave a comment by 8:00 PM PDT tonight, and she'll draw 2 names, each of whom will win 1 of these sets!  The winner will be announced tomorrow as we unveil another of our new releases for this month.  I hope to see you then!

STAMPtember® Blog Hop at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

If you're here to see my TCM card for our new September release at The Craft's Meow, please scroll down 1 post, or click HERE. Thank you!

Welcome to the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember® Challenge Group Blog Hop!

Simon Says Stamp was founded in 2002 with an interest in exclusively selling rubber stamps. It didn’t take long until we realized we couldn’t stop there. During the past 11 years we celebrate rubber stamping in its full glory by giving access to people around the world to a one stop shop. Rubber stamps still remain the heart of our business and we are celebrating by hosting a “STAMPtember®” event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate the greatness of rubber stamping. Part of the enticement of rubber stamping is that stamps can be used in creating or complimenting ANYTHING! From stamping dates on bank documents and postage parcels in the early 18th century, rubber stamping has dramatically expanded to include card making, life documenting, art journaling, scrapbooking, mixed media and many forms of altering and expressing art. 

To celebrate the 4th annual Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember® event, we're 'hopping' along sharing some great projects featuring the new STAMPtember® product releases!
It's one of the biggest releases to date and features new stamp sets, dies, flair and stencils!!

My favorite new releases are the Flowers of Whimsey stamps and accompanying dies - I love that we can stamp or paper-piece with these stamps, or mix both!  AND I adore the font on the Handwritten Greetings set that Kristina Werner designed!!  Both these sets are at the top of my wishlist!

We're so excited that you are here to celebrate with us and hop along in this special challenge group blog hop.  Once you're done 'hopping' please head over to our Wednesday challenge group blog to participate in this weeks challenge: Celebrate STAMPtember® by using a Simon Says Stamp product on your project! ;)

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store!

You should have arrived today from my teamie Cheiron's blog.

For my first card I used the new stamp sets Lots of Dots and Sketchy Banner Greetings stamp and die set.  I guess you could say I took the title "lots of dots" seriously!!

supplies: Hero Arts inks: Butter Bar, Poppy, Orange Soda, Mint, Tide Pool, Splash, Wet Cement, and Latte, Darice Simple Interlock embossing folder, sequins, Pool Layering Paper

ETA: I'd like to enter these first  two cards into the MFW Handmade Cards Week Color Media Challenge, as they both use lots of colored inks.  

While I had these 2 new sets on my desk, I also played around a bit more and made a little square card with a berry wreath, using the smallest of the solid dots, and several of the sentiments, to make an autumn birthday card.  I also added some enamel dots for extra dimension:

supplies: Lots of Dots, Sketchy Banner Greetings die and stamp set, distress inks: mustard seed, scattered straw, wild honey, orange marmalade, rusty hinge, barn door, fired brick, seedless preserves, twine bow, enamel dots

I love plaid, and for my last card I decided to make my own in fall colors.  Having lots of stripes thanks to several Simon exclusive sets, I was able to customize my plaid.   I used the double bold stripe and the dainty scallop from the new Nautical Borders, and made my tag from Tag Sayings.

other supplies: Simon exclusives Just a Love Note (striped stripe) and Cupcake Party (solid/dotted stripe), inks: Hero Arts Poppy and Orange Soda, and rusty hinge and vintage photo distress inks, twine, orange button, brown pearls

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today! The next stop is my talented teammate Mandy!

The hop begins at the newly designed Simon Says Stamp blog, so if you encounter any broken links while hopping you can head back there for a full list of participants.

The Simon blog has a new address and a new look, with all the great inspiration you've come to love and expect from Simon Says Stamp! :)

Happy Hopping!! ;-)

The Craft's Meow September Release Preview Day 2: Speaking of Fall

Welcome to our 2nd day of previews of our newest stamps being released this month at The Craft's Meow!  Today we're showing you a wonderful set by Angelica that she calls Speaking of Fall.  This set will be our free gift with purchase for this month.   I love everything in this set, and I know I'll be using it often.  The sentiment on my card says it all:

I made a mask with a circle cut out in the center, and then stamped the solid leaves in lots of fall colors, and then the outline leaves in brown ink.  After removing my mask, I stamped the sentiment.  Couldn't be easier, and I love the result!

ETA: I'm entering this card into the Moxie Fab World's Handmade Cards Week Color Media Challenge, because of the variety of colored inks I used.  

Would you like to win this stamp set?  Just leave a comment at The Craft's Meow Blog before 8:00 PM PDT this evening, and Lisa will draw a random name as her winner and announce that name tomorrow when our next stamps are revealed.  

I hope you'll come and visit me tomorrow - we're showing off TWO new sets!

The Craft's Meow September Release Preview Day 1: Autumn Borders

It's the 17th of the month, and that means we're beginning our previews of September's new releases at The Craft's Meow!!  We'll be starting off with some fall sets; today's stamps, designed by Clare, are called Autumn Borders.  Here's my card for today:

Clare makes making a card really simple with this set - I just stamped one of the borders, colored it with markers, put together a sentiment with a few of the many word options she gives us, and it was done!

Please visit The Craft's Meow Blog today to see all the other fantastic samples that my team-mates made using this new set, and while you're there, don't forget to leave a comment by 8:00 PM PDT for a chance to win it!  

And please come back to visit me tomorrow as we continue the previews all week of our new stamps!  Thanks for visiting!

Autumn Traditions

Just playing around with my new Doodlebug fall Washi Tapes.

other supplies: ivory, gold, and rust cardstock, Lindy's Stamp Gang Fuzzy Navel Peach splatters, Just Rite Shabby Chic Autumn Leaves, sentiment from The Paper Company Studio Autumn

Thanks for visiting!  I'll see you tomorrow for the beginning of our September stamp releases at The Craft's Meow!