Tropical Hello

Is it hot where you are?  It's been in the 90's here in NE Ohio, more August weather than July.  Thought these citrus flowers and ocean background would make us all feel a bit cooler - I'm imagining I'm at the ocean with a cool drink, feeling those breezes!

supplies: Hero Arts Pool layering paper, ivory cardstock, Doodlebug Designs tangerine dot paper, Hero Arts CG 335 Dot Flower Pattern, CL495 Blossom Art, CL496 Layered Flowers, CL380 Truly Appreciated, Hero Hues Splash chalk ink, Memories Artprint Brown ink, Hero Arts Frame Cut CI003 Classic Frame, We R Memory Keepers turquoise fancy floss, brown button, tiny aqua buttons

I'm entering this card into Stamp It! Cards Hello Challenge at Moxie Fab World.  I really like how it turned out, using these complementary colors together.

Dreams

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends, and happy Wednesday to everyone else!  Wednesday means another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog, and this week we're all making tags or ATC's!!  I can't wait to see what you all do!  My teamies and I are working with Tim Holtz products this week; here's the tag I made for you:

I used the Flights of Fancy clear stamp set, and shaded lilac (from the Spring Seasonal set) and tea dye distress inks for my tag.

I started by clear embossing the floral swirls at top and bottom, then colored my tag by sponging on the 2 colors of distress inks.  This technique is called emboss/resist - the embossing protects the image from any inks or other images I may stamp over it.   Don't you love that periwinkle color that the shaded lilac makes?  Next I overstamped the plant sprigs using shaded lilac distress ink and added some lines of music in tea dye distress ink.  To finish I stamped the sentiment twice, once in each ink, and cut out the lilac "dreams"  and glued it over the tea-dye one, then popped it above the tag before adding my butterfly and my ribbon.

Okay, what will YOU make for our challenge this week?  There's a nice big $50.00 voucher up for grabs from the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!

For more ideas, please visit us at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog - my team-mates have some wonderful creations to share with you!  And then link up your creation - can't wait to see what you make!

Rose Thank You

Here's another card for the Stamp It! Cards challenge at Moxie Fab World, this time in the Thank You challenge:

supplies: pink and cream cardstock, Hero Arts H5577 Classic Tea Flower, AC010 Le Journal, soft blossom shadow ink, VersaFine onyx black ink, D1002 Scallop Frame, Memento New Sprout and Angel Pink dual markers, Offray emongrass satin ribbon, white twine, EK Success Scallop punch, Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares

I thought that the little rose in the label looked like the Classic Tea Flower so I decided to use them together.  I stamped the bigger rose tone-on-tone for my background, then stamped, colored, and die-cut the label and popped it above the background, adding a scalloped edge and a pretty ribbon to pull out the green.

With Love

A new Stamp It! Cards is out from PaperCrafts, and Cath at Moxie Fab World is having some challenges based on various themes from it.  I made this card to go into the Love card challenge.

supplies: white card base, pink and green cardstock, woodgrain dp from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe, Hero Arts CG320 Daisy Label, CL596 Pattern Hearts & Flowers, CL564 Friend You're the Best, VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, pearls, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Anita sent me this lovely lacey frame stamp - it has a big Gerbera Daisy in the corner, but I covered it up with these layered roses this time.

And since the colors fit, I'd also like to enter this into the current CR84FN challenge.

Hearts and Hugs

Can you believe it's the last week for our Muse Joy Taylor at CASE Study?!  She's leaving us with a really great design to CASE this week:

I still don't have any "real" Washi tape, but I do love the patterns and colors on these tapes by Martha Stewart, so I built my card around them, and added a special sentiment and an old favorite butterfly:

supplies: white cardstock,  Echo Park This & That red design paper, Martha Stewart tape, Hero Arts F5158 Heart Winged Butterfly, CL586 XO, VersaFine onyx black ink, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Hearts, hugs, flowers and gingham.........4 of my favorite things!

Velveteen Stamping

I wanted to make a card to enter into the Moxie Fab World's Stamp It! Cards week for the Thank You challenge.  I also wanted to use the bordered sentiment technique again, also incorporating the Velveteen Stamping technique that I learned from Shari Carroll. 

Can you see the underlying pattern that was stamped all over the card in white ink first? That is the velveteen technique.  

supplies: blue card, white cardstock, Hero Arts CG335 Dot Flower Pattern, Colorbox Frost White Ink, CG278 Four Fun Flowers, sentiments from CL491 Made with Love, CL341 Thank You Sayings, CL497 Find Joy, Hero Arts mid-tone inks pool, butter bar, and green hills

Briefly, to get this effect you stamp a background stamp in white ink on white cardstock, then overstamp the sentiments and flowers using colored inks.  You get the best results when your stamps are solid rubber, so that the underlying pattern can show through......I was surprised to see it come through on the biggest sentiment also! 

Bright pink, tan and a neutral

Here are our colors for the CR84FN challenge:

I chose to use charcoal/black as my neutral; here's my entry:

supples: charcoal and hot pink cardstock, design papers from My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Two: Blush, Hero Arts F5429 Garden Star, CL491 Made with Love, VersaFine onyx black ink, Sizzix Sizzlits Branch with Leaves, black lace seam tape, pearls dyed black with alcohol marker, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

Happy Birthday USA!

Welcome to another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog!  This week is a patriotic or sports-related theme, since the 4th of July and the Olympics are coming soon.  The DT is using Cuttlebug products.  Here's what I made this week, using the faux-letterpress technique:

I used these products: Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder, Simon Says Stamp "Oh Happy Day" craft die, Hero Arts CL371 Essential Messages and Stone Wash mid-tone ink, Adirondack Cranberry ink

For those who haven't tried the faux-letterpress technique, it's really simple: ink the top of your embossing folder before inserting your paper and embossing it.  I chose this Hero Arts mid-tone ink because I knew it would give me good coverage.

Now it's your turn!  Make something using our theme this week and upload it to our Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog.

As usual, there's a $50.00 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!!

Smiles

I thought I'd share a card that I made for several magazine submissions, but it was never chosen.  I still like it, because it uses some favorite stamp sets and lots of printed papers....

supplies: Hero Arts CG291 Three Dotted Flowers, CL490 Sending Smiles Messages, many different design papers, lace, tiny pink buttons, twine

Hope you're having a great week so far!  It's turned wonderfully cooler here, in the low 70's, and sunny - my kind of weather!

Last night I was visiting a very special blog in Germany and Franziska ended her post with this link to a beautiful piece of music, which I know, but haven't listened to for quite awhile.  It touched me deeply and so I'm sharing it with you, too, today: I love this so much, I think I'll put it up as a link over on my sidebar.

A sketch challenge

The sketch at the Inspired by Stamping Inspiration Challenge this week intrigued me.

I don't have any of their stamps, so I decided to make my card using coordinating papers with minimal stamping, (only the label with its sentiment):

supplies: white cardstock, Echo Park Hello Summer papers, Cuttlebug Wicker Weave embossing folder, Wplus9 Folk Art Florals, Hero Arts CL488 Congrats label, Technique Tuesday This is the Day by Ali Edwards, EKSuccess diamond scallop border punch, green flower, Recollections pastel pearls, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares to pop sentiment

Another pink CAS card

I haven't used this pretty stamp nearly enough, and decided to stamp it in pink for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

white cardstock, Hero Arts K5583 Wildflower Label, CL342 Everyday Sayings, CL491 Made with Love (dragonfly), bubble gum mid-tone ink, Stampology black, heart-shaped clear rhinestones

PINK at CAS-ual Fridays

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to make something pink!    I'll bet the gallery there will be loaded with lovelies!  Here's my contribution:

supplies: white cardstock, pink vellum, Hero Arts CG291 Three Dotted Flowers, CL490 Sending Smiles, Verve VS-0144 Bloom & Grow (leaves), VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, peeled paint distress ink, VersaFine onyx black ink, Martha Stewart button (thanks, Mary Anne)

It's no secret that I love this flower - the 3 different sizes are perfect for layering - I used a soft pink vellum this time.

Bordered Sentiments

The challenge at Make It Mondays this week is called Bordered Sentiments.  It is one of my favorite techniques: when you take the masking off the sentiment, it's like magic to see the finished card!  I chose to make my card completely 1-layer; no embellishments at all:

I used PTI's Garden Variety II for my sentiment and Flower Fusion #6 for the smallest pink flower and the black dots.

...and a Splash of Blue

I love playing at the Play Date Cafe when they have a color splash challenge!  This week it's blue:

I recently got this elegant lady image, designed by Nina Brackett for Penny Black, and thought it would be perfect for the challenge.

supplies: white cardstock, Penny Black #40-132 so blessed, VersaFine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, blue Spectrum Noir alcohol marker, Nestabilities Labels Four,  Darice Damask embossing folder, blue ribbon, Creative Charms Vintage Brad, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares

This is one of those cards where there is no good place to put a sentiment, so I'm leaving it blank.........