Guest Designing at Virginia's View!!

My sweet friend Virginia has asked me to be one of her guest designers for her September Virginia's View challenge!  It's called Pattern Paper, and I loved making something for it.

This whole card started with the mint and pink piece of 12" paper from Crate Paper's Oh Darling! collection, with assorted pinks from my scraps.  I made a patchwork background, then paper-pieced the Hero Arts Artists Butterfly and added some pink sequins for sparkle.  The strip background idea was taught to me by my friend Mary Anne many years ago.  And it'a great way to use up scraps, too!  I'll add a sentiment on this one when I use it.  

Virginia has lined up a WOW list of designers this month: Piali Biswas, Shelly Kurth, Tracey McNeeley, Iwona Palamountain, Vicky Papaiouannou, Miriam Pratner,  and Amy Tsuruta!  I hope you'll join us over at Virginia's View and then make a card using Pattern Papers!

Color Throwdown #307

Yesterday I spent a fun day at a crop here in NE Ohio with a wonderful group of women, and one of them made me aware of the current Color Throwdown challenge.   I think these colors are gorgeous, and so appropriate for this time of year, so I came home and pulled out an old stamp and here's my card, just under the wire:

supplies: an Anita's sunflower stamp, colored with markers, Technique Tuesday Bring on the Sun, by Ali Edwards, Simon's Island Blue cardstock, striped and dotted dps from Pebbles Family Ties pad, gold pearls

Thanks for visiting - enjoy your holiday weekend!

Winnie & Walter and Simon Says Stamp Sketch challenge

Today is the final day of Winnie & Walter's Share the Love week, featuring Simon Says Stamp, and we have a sketch to work with.

Here's my card.

supplies: Simon Says Stamp Favorite Flowers, Hero Arts Mint Julep and peeled paint distress inks, W&W's The Big, the Bold, & the Happy, dps from October Afternoon's Public Library collection

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Share the Love: One Layer

Today's challenge at the Winnie & Walter Blog during Share the Love week with Simon Says Stamp is One Layer cards.  This idea came to me almost immediately.

I just love the effects you can get with Simon's MaryAnne Snowflake stencil!  I paired it up with W&W's Big Bold Seasons, masked off the sentiment panel, and then moved my stencil around and pounced on broken china, salty ocean, and peacock feathers distress inks.  I added some iridescent sequins that I got in several of Simon's Card Kits, plus some teal ones from my friend Carol.  I love how they give a nice sparkle, just like real snow does!

Thanks for your visit today!  

Share the Love Week with Simon Says Stamp

This week, Winnie & Walter is teaming up with Simon Says Stamp with a whole week of challenges and giveaways!

For Day 1, our challenge is to use rainbow colors.  Here's my card:

supplies: Simon's Life is a Journey (chevron), stamped in distress inks, and the sentiment from Watt's Up? inside the circle, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold You, enamel dots

I repeatedly stamped the chevron, then trimmed my panel, lined it in black, cut out a circle for the rest of my sentiment, and then popped the panel above the card base, after stamping that sentiment.

On Day 2, our challenge was to make a card using both company's products in 10 minutes or under.  I failed that one miserably!  Thought I was doing so well, but when I stopped the clock it was at 15 minutes, 43 seconds!  I even had all my materials laid out ahead of time and the plan in my head: what I thought was an easy design.  I had planed to add some sequins, but since I was so far over the limit, I stopped.   Here it is:

supplies: navy and white cardstock, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Seasons ("winter" and snowflakes), Simon's Eliza snowflake die, Floral Bookmarking (3 little dots), and Christmas sentiment set ("blessings"), Hero Arts Navy and Color Box Frost White inks

And finally, for Day 3, the challenge is called With One Stamp, and we're supposed to choose either a Simon or a W&W stamp set and make sure to also use at least 1 other product from the other company.  Here's my card for that one:

supplies: white and Simon's Doll Pink cardstock, Simon's Floral Bookmarking set, Hero Arts inks, and Simon's The Big, the Bold and the Happy ("hello"), plus some cute floral sequins

I made this as sort of an encouraging "today is a new day" card, for someone going through a rough patch.

Thanks for hanging in with me for this long post, and for your visit and kind comments.

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

It's the last Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time for your favorite challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes!!

The design team are all using products from Memory Box, and we'd love to see you using them, too, but it's not a necessity in order to play.  I love their dies, and made 2 cards today using 2 of them.

These sweet little flowers are called Bella Bouquet, and I decided to make them into some little forget-me-nots and used some blues from my personal stash, along with Apple Green stems.  After piecing the flowers to the stems, I glued the bouquet to a white panel, added some pale blue Hero Arts pearls, and framed it up with a pale blue cardstock, edging the right side with a scallop punch.  My sentiment is from Simon's Handwritten Sentiments and I added a dyed seam binding bow, secured with a pearl brad.

And for my second card, I had a play with this Memory Box Gorgeous Gardenia die and used papers from Graphic 45's Secret Garden collection.  My sentiment is from an Impression Obsession set called In a Garden, and I added some sequins to the design.

Now it's your turn!  The random winner of this week's challenge will win a $50.00 gift voucher

to the fantastic Simon Says Stamp Store!!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you all create this week!

More sequins and Avery Elle

I've done a few wreath cards lately, and I thought I'd do one more for the AEI♥U challenge: Sequins.

supplies: Avery Elle Laurels, Hero Arts Green Hills and Simon's Cotton Candy ink, Cotton Candy cardstock, sequins from Teresa Collins and Kelly Purkey

Thanks for coming by today!

And back to summer

Over the weekend, Cat hosted one of our scrambles at the Hero Arts flickr group.  She posted a picture of a tote bag she had made, and some cards that they inspired, and challenged us to be inspired by what we saw in her photo.

Here is the card I made:

supplies: Hero Arts Real Flowers, Winnie & Walter Big, Bold Seasons, Simon's Audrey Blue, Doll Pink, and Green Apple inks, Doodlebug Spring Assortment sprinkles

Love how this turned out! I don't think I'd have put these colors together without a push from Cat!

Have a great week, everyone!

Homespun Christmas

I promise these are the last Christmas cards you'll see from me for awhile, but since I had everything out, I found this pad of Simple Stories Handmade Holiday papers and decided to make a couple more country-style cards.

This one has no stamping, no die-cuts, just the papers from the pad.  Since I wasn't doing too much that was creative, I decided to add some hand-stitching (using a We R Memory Keepers stitch piercer) in between each of the panels of paper.  And I colored some wood veneer stars with a red marker and glued them over the ornaments on the tree.  The twine is Lawn Fawn.

This next one uses just 1 of the papers - I love the bits of music, the swirls, and the snowflakes in it.  I simply added it to a cream card base and, to enter the Pretty Pink Posh die-cut blog Hop, added a Simon Merry Christmas die-cut and a Sizzix (?) snowflake die that I think is now discontinued;I think it originally came with the first Cuttlebug machines.  I borrow it every couple of years from my friend Yvonne and cut a zillion of them.  I added a Prima wood button that I also darkened with a marker, threaded with some twine.

I'm adding this last card to the Pretty Pink Posh Cutting Edge Blog Hop

and both of these cards to PaperCrafts & Scrapbooking Holiday Cards & More link party.

Another wreath.......for fall, this time

This weekend Pretty Pink Posh is hosting a blog hop that is to feature die cuts, and after I'd made my Christmas wreath HERE, I remembered I also have a leafy wreath.  So I decided to use it to make an autumn card.

supplies: Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft Core Shattered card base, kraft panel, MFT Die-Namics Spring Wreath, The Craft's Meow (retired) Golden Days, stamped in Wplus9 Cranberry Crush ink, Studio Calico wood button, May Arts twine

I cut the wreath 5 times out of various fall-toned papers, many of them from the Core'dinations Darks stack, and layered them so that hopefully a bit of each color shows.  The twine is a triple bow.

A country Christmas wreath

I can't believe it's August, and I'm making a Christmas card, but there are 2 challenges that this will work for: Pauline's Pretty Pink Posh Cutting Edge Blog Hop, and  the link party at PaperCrafts & Scrapbooking.

supplies: Memory Box Grapevine Wreath, The Craft's Meow (retired) Christmas Lantern sentiment, Simon's Lipstick Red ink,  kraft card base, Basic Grey Aspen Frost birchbark paper, red gingham ribbon, red sequins from my friend Carol

The grapevine wreath is cut out twice and layered to make it thicker.  I bought 2 pads of these Aspen Frost papers last year just because of this particular paper, and I couldn't resist adding my little country checked ribbon.

Enjoy your weekend!

AEI♥U challenge: sequins

It was a happy coincidence that I just received an Avery Elle stamp set that I've had on my wishlist: Let It Snow.  And today the newest AEI♥U challenge was announced: to use sequins.  I thought adding sequins to this fun set was a perfect match, so here is my entry and the first inking of my new stamps.

I have a memory of walking home with my Mom in the dark during a snowstorm that closed the roads.  So everything was quiet and sparkly, and that's what I was trying to recreate here.  I made my card into a shaker, adding diamond dust and irridescent sequins inside, and stamping and embossing the sentiment in silver.  The snowflakes are punched from silver foil, and I scattered a few more of the same sequins on the outside of the card also.

Thanks for your visit today - have a great weekend!

eta: I'm also entering this into the Holiday Crafts & More link party at PaperCrafts Connection.

I love autumn!

I know, it's still August, but fall is my favorite season - crisp cool air, blue skies, bright colors, wonderful smells......I can't help it.  I also associate it with fresh starts, and lately, a vacation to Maine.  So I apologize to those of you who love summer......

Here's a couple more cards for Winnie & Walter's Playdate #3 challenge.  For both of them, I started with a piece of watercolor paper, and, changing distress inks each time, repeatedly stamped this Hero Arts Maple Leaf across the surface, spritzing the stamp each time after inking.  After my panel was completely filled, and dry, I spritzed the whole panel once again with water until the colors started to melt together, then blotted it with a paper towel.  I LOVE the results, and each one is always different.  Here are my cards.

supplies: cream card base, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, festive berries, and seedless preserves distress inks, Hero Arts Maple Leaf, Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold and the Happy and Big, Bold Seasons, VersaFine onyx black ink, Lawn Fawn sequins

Most of the finer details were lost on this next one when I spritzed and blotted the panel, and the panel is a bit brighter, but it still makes a pretty background.  I have no idea why the seedless preserves stands out so much more from the others. I added some wood embellishments, using a very liberal take on the sketch......

supplies: yellow/gold card base, dark purple Core'dinations frame,  same inks as above, same Hero Arts Maple Leaf, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Seasons, stamped in seedless preserves, wood veneer leaves, wood button, colored twine

Playdate #3

Here is the sketch and the color scheme for this month's Playdate challenge at the Winnie & Walter blog.  My collection of their stamps is slowly growing, and these autumn colors are really lovely to me, so I hope to make several cards.  Here is my first one:

Having just received their Big, Bold Seasons set, that was a given.  I stamped it in rusty hinge distress ink on a piece of vellum.  The Darice embossing folder called Fall Leaf Background is also new.  I embossed it on some cream cardstock and lightly pounced an antique linen distress ink pad over it to bring out the details.  I affixed the vellum panel and then added the background panel to a grey card base.  Using the Impression Obsession Small Leaf Set, I cut out lots of leaves in golds, oranges, russets, and purples (which are looking brown here; need to use a brighter shade next time) and made them cascade down my card front.

As always, thanks for visiting, and I appreciate those of you who take the time to leave comments.