The latest Hero Arts Flickr Scramble.....

.......was this afternoon, hosted by Betty, and her theme today was snowflakes, a favorite theme of mine too!  She asked us to use the color blue along with any neutral, and make it into a tag.  Talk about good timing!  I just received this morning a package from Simon Says Stamp which included this BIG woodblock snowflake by Hero Arts called Dazzling Snowflake.  So I was only too happy to join the scramble; here is what I made:

This baby is big!  It measures almost 4 1/2" across!  Doesn't it look like a big lacy doily?  I started by white embossing it on my tag, then sponging on faded jeans, chipped sapphire, and a little salty ocean distress inks.  Then I overstamped some smaller snowflakes from various Hero Arts clear sets in faded jeans.  I added this pretty pearl brad that was given to me by Sue Czosek years ago, I think, and die-cut the "joy" and small snowflake from my Wplus9 Seasonal Sentiments die set, sponging the snowflake in the same blues I used for the background.  And I added some white seam binding to finish.

If you're a snowflake lover, too, hop on over to the Hero Arts Flickr group discussion topic and see the beauties that resulted from Betty's challenge today!

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

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

It's the end of the month, so our theme is Anything Goes!  The design team are using Simon Says Stamp exclusive products, and we'd love to see yours in use, too, but it's not a necessity to enter.

Here's my card for today.

I used 2 Simon exclusive stamp sets, Giving Thanks and Whimsical Flowers.  I stamped and fussy cut the flowers, centers, and leaves.  All of the papers are from Lawn Fawn's Into the Woods pad, the card base is Bazzill Sea Salt cardstock, and the sequins are from Lawn Fawn's Into the Woods mixed pack.  (these last 3 supplies, plus the Giving Thanks stamp set were all part of the Simon October Card Kit. )

Now it's your turn!  Sweet Heidi once again has provided us with another $50.00 gift voucher

to spend as you like at the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!  Now it's your turn!

And we wanted to make sure that you knew that the Simon Says Stamp Blog, full of wonderful ideas daily, has moved.  Click on the icon below to take you there.

FINALLY!

I can finally add a card for the current Hero Arts Holiday Challenge!  I'll put this one into the Deck the Cards category, to use a Hero Arts embellishment: my embellishments are the large snowflake die and the pearl in the center from the Sea Mixed Accents.

This card took on a life of its own, morphing each step of the way!  I started with the design paper from last year's Basic Grey Aspen Frost pad, and cut my snowflake die from it, intending to line the negative with white and place it on the Tide card base with a sentiment.  But it was too blah, so I tried lining it with kraft and red.........just didn't work.   Then I decided to layer some snowflakes on top and we were off and running!  

I am a snowflake freak, but this year is the first time I haven't had to borrow someone else's dies; I now own this nice big HA one, plus a set of 3 Penny Black's, and the middle pool one is one of those borrowed ones from last year, a discontinued Sizzix snowflake die, I think.  I separated them all with some foam dots and put them right over my design paper square, lined in white.  The sentiment is also Hero Arts (Miracle of the Holidays), embossed in white.  

Thanks for visiting today - hope your week is a great one!

To everything there is a season........

Still enthralled........while I had all my materials out from yesterday's blog post, I made another card to enter the beautiful Tuesday Trigger for this week.

This uses another stamp from the Our Daily Bread Randi's Song stamps, an excerpt from Ecclesiastes 3.  I am growing fonder of this paint splattering thing, so after stamping the sentiment I watered down some picked raspberry and spiced marmalade inks, dipped a paint brush in, and splattered across the panel.  The leaves are leftovers from yesterday's post, using a Lawn Fawn's Stitched Leaves die on a panel that I sponged with Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed, then splattered with water.  My sentiment panel was then framed with brown, affixed to a card base, then added my leaves and some Doodlebug Designs mini pearls.  Here's a detail picture:

Thanks, Cath, for a wonderful inspiration this week!

Enthralled with Fall

That is an absolutely true statement when it comes to me and my favorite season!   Cath has given us a beautiful Tuesday Trigger inspiration, and I just had to play, as the colors of fall are my favorite thing about it.

We have 2 maple trees out front of our house that produces leaves like this!  So I started by trying to recreate the color I saw in the inspiration photo.  I sponged Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed onto a creamy cardstock, spritzed it with water and some extra droplets of those inks, dried it well, and then used one of my brand new Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves dies to cut out some maple leaves.

I love how the die also embosses the veins of the leaves!  I added my leaves to a panel of embossed woodgrain (Tim Holtz) on grey cardstock, popping the 3rd one above the others, and then added that panel to my card base which was first splattered with the distress inks I used to make my leaves.  The beautiful sentiment is from Our Daily Bread's Randi's Song, an excerpt from a lovely old hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness".  And I added a few enamel dots to the mix.  

Golden Days

Today's my day for a post over at The Craft's Meow - would you come visit me over there and leave us a comment, please?  Here's a peek at my card:

Thanks so much!  Have a great weekend!

Simon Says.........Halloween!

Happy Wednesday - it's time for another weekly challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

A very special welcome to our newest team member, Emily Leiphart!  

Our theme this week is Halloween and/or the Halloween Colors of Orange, Purple, and Black!  Here's an inspiration board to get your juices flowing!

I've never been much of a Halloween person, even in my younger days, but there are some darling images out there to play with, and I enjoyed making my cards for you this week.  Here's the first one:

This one uses a Hero Arts cling set called Halloween Moon; I used the cat and the clouds from it, and added a sentiment from another HA all-sentiment set called Happy Halloween.  I started with a dark charcoal card base, stamped the cat in black and the clouds in purple, trimmed them out, and then popped them above my card.  The design papers are both from Doodlebug Designs current Halloween Parade collection.

For my 2nd card, I used the layout of the actual stamp set, Happy Halloween, as my model to stamp across my white card base, using VersaMark onyx black, Spiced Marmalade distress ink, and Colorbox Violet pigment inks.  After stamping, I embossed the card front with the D'Vine Swirls folder, then die-cut 2 black branches and glued them to the front.  To finish, I glued on some googly eyes to the "Boo!" sentiment.

As always, our sweet Heidi has provided us with a $50.00 gift voucher

to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!  Will you be the winner this week?

Sticking by Your Side.......

.......is the title of the challenge that Tenia has given us as part of the Hope You Can Cling To campaign for breast cancer awareness at Splitcoast Stampers.  She wants us to create a card with a Washi Tape background.  Here's what I made:

I started with that butterfly washi, and then pulled the colors from it, adding some punched Martha Stewart butterflies and a sentiment from Verve Stamp's Believe set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

The Craft's Meow October Release Blog Hop

Welcome back!  Today is the reveal of our newest stamp releases at The Craft's Meow Store, and our traditional Design Team Blog Hop!  You should have arrived here from sweet Larissa's blog, but if you just happened across me and would like to start our hop at the beginning, please go to The Craft's Meow blog, where all of the participating blogs with their links are listed.  Once you get started, you'll be directed from one blog to the next.  

My first card for you today uses 3 of the new stamp sets:

I used the holly leaf sprig from Christmas Lantern to make my wreath:

the sentiment from Holiday Poinsettia:

and the little decorative brackets around the sentiment from Inside Christmas:

My 2nd card uses the beautiful angel and the lovely sentiment from Christmas Blessings, along with that same bracket from Inside Christmas.  I decided to use gold embossing powder for my stamping, and paired it with the Christmas Graphic 45 paper that I used earlier this week, and some gold pearls.

All of the new stamps are now available to order at The Craft's Meow Store!  Our special stamp set this month is Inside Christmas - you can have it for free with a $60.00 purchase, or you can buy it separately.  

AND 1 very lucky person will win all FIVE of our new sets for this month!!  All you have to do to have a chance is to leave a comment at each of our blogs by 8:00 PM PDT Wednesday, October 23, and Lisa will draw a name from one of our blogs as her winner, and announce it soon afterwards!

Now, hop on along to the talented Mindy's blog!  Thanks for visiting me today!

The Craft's Meow October Release Preview Day 4: Holiday Poinsettia and Inside Christmas

Welcome back to our final day of previews for our October release stamp sets at The Craft's Meow!  Today we are showcasing you TWO of our newest sets!  

This first one is designed by Nina B, and she calls it Holiday Poinsettia.  It has a gorgeous main image, with 6 different choices for sentiments.  Here's what I made with it:

I thought this gorgeous flower was perfect for paper-piecing, so I found some subtle tone-on-tone papers for my flower and leaves, and pieced them to my ivory background, adding some gold pearls to the flower center.  After adding my sentiment, I framed my panel with some bias-striped dp and then mounted it to my red card base.

Our 2nd set today is called Inside Christmas, and it was designed by Karen Baker to be used on the inside of our Christmas cards.   But, as you can see, it works just as nicely on the front, too.

I paired 2 of Karen's sentiments with this beautiful hand-made flower that was a gift from a treasured friend, along with a Cuttlebug Floral Oval die, a Darice embossing folder on the card base, Ranger silver super fine detail embossing powder and silver pearls.  Inside Christmas is our free set with a $60.00 purchase this month. 

Please visit The Craft's Meow Blog to see the cards that my talented teamies have made with these 2 newest sets.  While you're there, don't forget to leave a comment by 8:00 PM PDT tonight, and Lisa will draw 2 names, each of whom will win 1 of these sets!  The winners will be announced tomorrow as we unveil our new sets and begin our traditional Blog Hop!  See you then!

The Craft's Meow October Release Preview Day 3: Christmas Lantern

Welcome back to day 3 of our new release previews at The Craft's Meow!  I hope you've been enjoying the releases so far; I must say ALL of the new sets are amazing; I can't pick a favorite!  Today's set is done by Clare; it's a gorgeous image with lots of sentiments in her beautiful font that will cover all kind of Holiday wishes.

Isn't this lantern lovely?  It needs just minimal coloring.  I decided to fussy-cut it so that I could pop it above this pretty Graphic 45 paper from last Christmas - just love that warm color, so unusual for the season.  

Please visit The Craft's Meow Blog  to see all the ways my teamies used this beautiful set.  While you're there, don't forget to leave a comment by 8:00 PM PDT tonight and you could win this set!  Lisa will announce the winner tomorrow morning when we unveil the last 2 of our new Christmas releases!  Hope you'll come back and visit me then!

The Craft's Meow October Release Preview Day 2: Christmas Blessings

Welcome back to our 2nd day of previews of our newest releases at the Craft's Meow!  Today's release, Christmas Blessings, is one of Karen Baker's and it is so elegant - I can't wait for you to see it revealed!  Here's the card I made for you today:

Isn't that deer lovely?  And Karen's font goes so nicely with the rest of the elements!   To make this card, I stamped the deer and the star on my favorite music paper from Hobby Lobby, attached it to a red card base, then added my sentiment strip and this Impression Obsession pine die that I FINALLY got!

There is an equally beautiful angel in this set, and some other lovely sentiments, too - hop on over to The Craft's Meow Blog to see my teamie's cards using it - I know you'll be wowed!  Don't forget while you're there to leave a comment for a chance to win this set; you have until 8:00 PM PST tonight, and Lisa will announce the winner tomorrow when we show you our 3rd preview!  

See you then!

The Craft's Meow October Release Preview Day 1: Under the Tree

Welcome to the beginning of our previews of our October new releases at The Craft's Meow!  This month it's all about Christmas, and we have some fun and varied sets to share with you, so let's get started.  Today we're featuring Mindy Baxter's newest set called Under the Tree.  It has 3 darling images and 4 sentiments.  Here's the card I made for you today:

Isn't this little tree sweet?  There's lots of room to add little gems or Stickles among its branches if you'd like. I paired it up with some dps from last year's Basic Grey Aspen Frost, (its green dots seem to mimic the green branches of the tree) and added the fun sentiment as a banner.  

I hope you'll visit The Craft's Meow Blog today to see what my team-mates have made with this new set!  While you're there, don't forget to leave a comment by 8:00 PM PDT tonight for a chance to win it!

And I hope you'll return again tomorrow to see our previews of day 2 of our Christmas release!  See you then!

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

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

This week our theme is Christmas or Happy Holidays!  I'm thrilled to be able to get some Christmas cards started now and save on the stress when the Holidays get closer!  I just received some new Penny Black Christmas stamps and made 2 very different cards for you today:

My first card uses a new woodblock called Holly Concert, and I paired it up with this wonderful sentiment from the Season's Wishes clear set.  First I stamped the birds and holly on white cardstock, embossed it, and then colored them in with markers.  After cutting out the panel carefully I popped it above the blue snowflake paper background, then stamped my sentiment and added some new Snowflake Trio dies.  I love how this turned out, and love the pairing of the image and the sentiment!

For my 2nd card, the design couldn't have been simpler, thanks to the tree image, also from the Season's Wishes set:

I stamped it right onto my card base with Hero Arts mid-tone Forever Green ink, and used Simon's Holiday Shapes to cut out a red star to cover the stamped star underneath it.  Then I added some candy-striped dps, and some metallic decor to decorate the tree.  Couldn't have been simpler!

Our generous Heidi has provided us with another $50.00 gift voucher

to the Simon Says Stamp store!  I know you'll fill our gallery with some dazzlers this week!