Happy Mother's Day!

I am so taken lately with anything having to do with this scribble flower motif that is on trend right now, and I wanted to play one more time at Winnie & Walter's Create Your Own Background challenge, so I decided to make a Mother's Day card.

If I had to describe my Mom in color, this would be it - bright raspberry with a touch of glitter to it!

supplies: white and raspberry glitter cardstock, Tim Holtz Scribbles stencil, picked raspberry and seedless preserves distress inks, Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold, and the Happy Cutaway and stamp set, office circle punch for centers of flowers

We'll be with my Mom this weekend - I treasure every minute I can get with her!  To all you Moms out there I wish you a day full of sunshine and lots of love! 

Simon Says........Let's Get Sentimental

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

This week our theme is Let's Get Sentimental - make sure you use a sentiment somewhere on your project.  The Design Team are all using products by Tim Holtz, and you can, too, if you'd like, but any sentiment will qualify you for our prize drawing.

I went looking through the store and settled on this sweet one, and I've been singing the tune every time I look at my tag.  It's from Disney's Cinderella, I believe.

supplies: Tim Holtz Scribbles stencil, worn lipstick, picked raspberry, and mustard seed distress inks, overstamped with a Hero Arts Music Background in tea dye distress ink, Tim Holtz/Sizzix Caged Bird die, cherry veneer paper, pink cardstock, embossed, leaf die cuts, Tim Holtz wood stamp Wish Text, Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink, brown pearl for bird's eye, seam binding dyed with worn lipstick distress ink

You can see the same stencil better on my next card:

supplies: Tim Holtz Scribbles stencil, sponged with cracked pistachio and touches of peacock feathers distress inks, Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers and Wplus9's Joy die, white and Doodlebug dolphin cardstocks

This time I used Tim's Big Chat stickers to make up my own sentiment, adding them to a die-cut word.  If you look carefully, you can see that I also used the stencil to emboss the design after I had colored it.

Now it's your turn!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher

to our amazing Simon Says Stamp Superstore up for grabs for the 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!

A sketch challenge at Winnie & Walter

I wanted to play in one last National Scrapbooking Day challenge at the Winnie & Walter blog.  This one's a sketch challenge, and when I saw it I knew I could use some of my vast collection of Washi tapes.

supplies: Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossoms, teal and chartreuse glitter cardstock, washi tape, Winnie & Walter's Big Bold and Happy cutaway and stamp set, yellow enamel dot

Here's the sketch:

This is really a great sketch, and I love the way my card came out!

Lots of Dots

Who can resist pink tulips at this time of year, and when plopped into a pair of pink dotted wellies, I was all in at the Sparkle & Shine challenge!

All of my stamps are discontinued, which makes them all the sweeter!

supplies: Hero Arts Simple Tulips, Jane's Doodles Raindrops, Signo white pen to add dots, The Craft's Meow sentiment from Fly Free, Spectrum Noir markers (pale pink PP3 and green CG2), Doodlebug dotty paper, Impression Obsession rectangular frame die, Darice dots folder, Pretty Pink Posh Springtime Mix sequins

I'm also entering this into the Spectrum Noir May challenge: Flowers, and also Winnie & Walter/Pink Fresh Studio product challenge: Sequins.

NSD Mood Board

Over the weekend, Winnie & Walter, along with Pink Fresh Studio, had lots of challenges to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day.  And coincidentally I FINALLY was able to snag these Hollyhock dies, after years of missing them as they became available!  So, inspired by the watercolored flowers in the notebook at the bottom of the mood board, here's my first play with them:

supplies: Impression Obsession Hollyhock dies, various solid pastel cardstock,  PTI Picket Fence die, Winnie & Walter spring cutaway (Big, Bold Seasons), pearls, dps from Echo Park's Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes Boy and Girl pads, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

Here's the mood board:

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.

Just a Note to Say Hello

We had another Scramble at the Hero Arts flickr group on Saturday, our 108th!  It was hosted by Kanan, and she gave us 3 of her own cards to be inspired by.  I chose one that was based on a design paper.  Here's my take on the challenge:

I used this Penny Black design paper from the Painted Blooms pad, and then stamped my own floral panel to match it, using lots of old and new Hero Arts flowers and leaves, and the sentiment from the Hello Stamp & Cut set.  All of my inks were also Hero Arts: bubble gum, butter bar, orange soda, and field greens, and I was amazed at how well the colors matched the paper!  I mounted my panel on a black frame, and lifted it above the card surface, and added some Paper Sweeties flower sequins in the same colors.

This card works for Winnie & Walter's/Pink Fresh Studio's Create Your Own Background challenge, so I'm entering it there.  And I'm throwing my hat into A2Z's Scrapbooking May Anything Goes challenge with this card, too!

Hello Beautiful!

I'm still playing with these Vintage Roses, this time paired up with some polka dots for The Challenge this time.

I have ALWAYS been drawn to dots, but until now they were in the form of design papers and on a much smaller scale.  Suddenly I find I'm loving bigger dots, and especially the effect I can get with a stencil and several shades of ink.  Here's my card:

supplies: Altenew Vintage Roses, Wplus9 Hand-Written Hello, Simon's Medium Dots Stencil, 4 shades of pale pink to raspberry ink

Here's the graphic for the challenge:

ETA: and I just found the May Power Poppy challenge, which is to fussy-cut around a stamped flower image, so I'm entering that one, too!  I love to fussy-cut, and I adore Power Poppy's wonderful stamps, and don't have a one, so fingers crossed I can win a set!

Color Throwdown #340

Absolutely gorgeous colors this week at the Color Throwdown!  How could you NOT play?  I still had my Vintage Roses out on my desk, so that's where this card started.

supplies: Simon's Audrey Blue cardstock, Cuttlebug Cross My Heart embossing folder, Altenew's Vintage Roses, MFT Die-Namics oval doily, Jane's Doodles Mom's Flowers sentiment, Hero Arts Splash ink

This went together very quickly, as I wanted to keep the background the same blue as the inspiration.  So I just stamped and fussy-cut my flowers, glued them to my doily, added my sentiment, embossed the card front, and I was done!

Card Concept

When I saw the Card Concept inspiration for this week, I knew I would be playing - I love a mix of stripes and florals, and I have been wanting to have a play again with my Vintage Roses stamps.  Here's what I made:

supplies: MFT Stripes stencil, tumbled glass distress ink, Altenew Vintage Roses, Simon's Best Mom Ever sentiment, Echo Park Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes paper strip, EKSuccess scalloped border punch, moonshine sequins

The combination of the stripes, dots and flowers is so pretty!  I stencilled my stripes, then stamped and fussy-cut my spray of roses.  I added a punched dotty strip and my sentiment, and some sequins for a little sparkle.  I'm guessing my card would be considered Clean and Layered.

Isn't this inspiration amazing?

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

Welcome to our most popular challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge!

Our theme this week is your favorite Anything Goes, and the Design Team are using Prima products.  Prima makes everything from their well-known paper flower collections to stamp sets and papers and everything in between!   I have 2 very different cards for you this week.

supplies: Prima Cigar Box Secrets paper pad and 3D stickers, Simon's large Heart Doily and You're Amazing dies, May Arts natural twine, gold pearl

When I was looking through the store among the Prima goodies, this next set of vellum flowers caught my eye, and here's what I made with it:

supplies: Prima's Nightfall Sunset vellum flowers, papers from Simple Stories DIY and Crate Paper, Simon's Wishing die and Wishing & Sending stamp set, gold and silver sequins

Now it's your turn!  As ever, we have a $50.00 gift voucher

to the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Superstore for 1 lucky random winner of our challenge this week!

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!

City Crafter Challenge Guest Designer!

The City Crafter Challenge is celebrating its fifth birthday all during April, and each week we get to CASE a different designer's card.  This week, it's Stella!  

As a winner of a past challenge, I was invited to be a guest designer this week!  I did 2 cards, using Stella's sketch, and changing up the colors, using a spring pastel theme for both of them.  I love the combination of stripes and florals, and mixed these together on both my cards.

supplies: dps from Echo Park and Webster's Pages, Penny Black Flutters die and Spellbinder's circle die, Hero Arts sentiment from discontinued Anytime Messages, moonbeam sequins

supplies: dps from Lawn Fawn and Pebbles, PTI flower die and Spellbinder's circle die, discontinued The Craft's Meow sentiment from Easter Blessings, large pink sequin

Thanks to the City Crafter ladies for having me as a Guest Designer this week!

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.