Addicted to Stamps and More! Challenge #56 "Anything Goes"

Hello friends and followers, hope that all is well with you.  I have a question for you..."How did it get to be the last week of July already?"  Soon our summer flowers will be fading and the fall will be upon us.  My how time flies - especially as you get older!

The theme this week at Addicted to Stamps and More! is the ever popular "Anything Goes".  That's right - anything! Any color, any style, any shape, 3D projects, any theme - you get it "Anything Goes" :o). 

My card this week is made using a sweet little image by Mo Manning called "Ben". Looks like Ben likes summer as much as I do.  This image reminds me of my own son when he was about 3 and wanted to help me with the flowers.  One time he "helped" me pull up my seedlings because they looked like they needed to breathe. LOL it wasn't as funny to me then as the memory of it is now :o)

Well... gotta get going for  now.. I sure hope that you will decide to play along with us this week at AST&M Challenge #56 - Anything Goes.  The rest of the fabulous DT has made some great projects to share with and inspire you.  Please go visit them and say "hi". 

Thanks so much for stopping by today to visit me - I'm sure glad that you did. Til next time...hugs and happy crafting. D

ATS&M - Challenge #55 - Photo Inspiration

Hello dear friends and followers - time for another challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More! (ATS&M).  ATS&M Challenge #55 is a photo inspiration challenge based on this fun and colorful photo above.  There's so much that you can get from this photo such as the birthday theme, black background, neon colors, candles, sentiment, colors, stripes.  Good golly... see what I mean?  Lots and lots of inspiration in one little photo. 

 

My card this week uses some new DSP from Stampin Up! Take a look and see if you can figure out what most inspired me this week:

 

 What will you take from this photo as your inspiration?  I can't wait to come visit you this week to see.  The rest of the lovely DT team members have made some terrific cards to further inspire you.  To visit them and enter the challenge you just need to click  here. 


A relatively short post for tonight. Til next time...hugs and happy crafting friends! D

 

'ABC' Challenges - Doubly Embossed

Hello friends and followers - hope that each and every one of you are doing well.  After taking last week off we are back in swing with a new challenge this week (chosen by yours truly) at 'ABC' Challenges.  The challenge this week is technique based - we want to see your Beautiful Cards made with two types of embossing (Doubly Embossed).

Adding texture through dry embossing is one of my favorite techniques to use and although I love to heat emboss things, I seldom seem to do it lately.  So...to keep myself in practice (and maybe help challenge you a bit), I came up with this idea.  What I'd really like to see is your cards using both dry (texture) and wet (stamped and heat set) embossing.  But if that doesn't work for you then please use two different types of dry embossing patterns on your card. 

Here's what I came up with this week using a previous sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

The sentiment is heat embossed using versa mark ink and melon mambo embossing powder (Stampin Up!).  A solid sentiment would have stood out better with the embossing but originally I thought I'd color in the lettering to match the cupcake colors (one of the added benefits of heat embossing).  Then decided it might be too busy so I left it alone.  The cupcake is a sticker left over from some other crafting stash (too cute to throw out and I knew I'd find another use for it) put on top of a punched 1 3/4" circle and a large scalloped circle punched shape.  My dry embossing is made using one of my all-time favorite embossing texture folders called Perfect Polka Dots (SU). 

 

Overall a very quick card to put together. Looking at my birthday card stash, I realized that I really need to try to make more masculine birthday cards.  But Pink is just so much fun to use!! Real men like pink too - don't they?  Nah... not so much! Oh well :o)  

 

I sure hope that you will go visit the rest of our lovely DT over at 'ABC' Challenges and see what they have made to inspire you as well.  I'll be excited to see if you are up for  my challenge this week.  May the crafting force be with you!!

 

Til next time... hugs and happy crafting! D 

   

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown Challenge #19 Recipe

Hello friends so happy to know that you've come by to visit me today. I'm excited to see that I have a new follower - welcome! Our hostess this month at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown (52CCT) is Patricia and she has chosen a fabulous theme challenge for this 3rd week of July.  52CCT Challenge #19 is a Recipe Challenge - we want to see you make a Christmas card using the following recipe:  1 ribbon, 2 patterned papers and 3 gems.  I really love this one as it combines such fun elements (especially the patterned papers).  Take a look at what I created to share with you this week:  

Surprise! It's a square card again - what do you know?  I'm starting to wonder if I'm in a bit of rut as I do seem to be making a lot of square cards lately.  Oh well...they do cost a bit more postage, but they are fun to make and I can easily fit a family photo in it as it is 6"square. 

The stamp is by Stampendous and it's the first time I've inked it up.  I took my colors from the patterned papers (as closely as I could using my copic markers).  The patterned paper is from Stampin Up! called Candy Cane (retired).  The ribbon and bow is some Baja Breeze Seam binding.  I find this stuff kind of hard to work with as I'm not the best at tying bows.  I probably ruined 2 of them before I got this one right :o( .  It frustrates me how easily it frays. Does anyone have a tip out there to help that?  I'd love for you to share with me.

Please pop on over to the 52CCT Challenge site and see what the rest of the DT members have made to share with and inspire you.  I'm noticing that more and more crafters are starting on their Christmas cards this month.  If that's you, you can keep the momentum going by playing along with us each week.  By the beginning of December you will have a nice little stash done and ready to mail out.  I hope you will decide to join us this week (and each week thereafter)!

Well, better get going for now. Have a busy weekend ahead of me. Til next time...hugs and happy crafting!  D



Addicted to Stamps and More! Challenge #54 - CAS, Crazy 4 Challenges C4CC194 - Marine Life and CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #109 - Polka Dots

Hello friends and followers - hope that today brings you many smiles and blessings.  Time for another fun challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! (ATS&M).  ATS&M Challenge #54 is to make a CAS card.  You get to choose the theme, the colors, the stamps or the digis - but whatever you choose it must be CAS in style.  If you aren't sure what CAS (Clean and Simple) means, the jest of it is that there is plenty of "white" space (could be a color other than white but is generally not a busy pattern), has clean lines and limited embellishments and layering.  If you want to know more about this style of card making, just go visit the ATS&M site for more details.  

My card is made using a TAWS (The Alley Way Stamps) digital image that I picked up quite awhile ago but hadn't had an occasion to use it until now.  Isn't it just too, too cute?  I decided to go with bright tropical colors for my fish and the matting.  I added some texture to that lovely amount of white space with my perfect polka dots embossing texture folder (one of my favorites).  I punched out a few extra bubbles and placed them on the card as well.  This is going to a friend who's been having a tough time.  She knows if she just waits it out it will pass - I'm giving her some encouragement with "Just keep Swimming". 

The copics I used are: YR14, YR16, BG53, BG10, BG13.  Quite please with how it turned out :o) Hope you like it too.

So hurry on over to ATS&M and see what other lovely creations our DT has made to inspire you to play along this week.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

I'm also joining the fun over at Crazy 4 Challenges C4CC - Marine Life and CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #109 - Polka Dots (I hope the bubbles and embossing count as polka dots). 



Thanks for stopping by today, I'm so glad that you did.  Til next time...hugs and happy crafting friends! D

52CCT - Color Challenge #19 {Dark Red, Dark Green, Dark Brown and Vanilla} and Merry Monday - July Challenge "Anything Goes"

Hello dear friends and followers - time for another challenge over at 52{Christmas} Card Throwdown - or 52CCT for short.  This week Patricia has chosen a very elegant color combo for our 52CCT Color Challenge #19.  These are the only colors we want to see on your Christmas cards this week - no black, no white, no blue, no light green, no pink... you get the idea. There are just so many possibilities with this color combo - we really want to see what you can come up with in true color challenge style.  Here's what I made this week:

My card base is 6 inches square.  I had this retired DSP from Stampin Up! that was absolutely perfect for this week's color challenge.  With paper that gorgeous - I didn't need to do much else in terms of stamping or embellishments.  This is one of those times that my stash of paper really worked to my advantage ;o)  Those little dots by the sentiment are called candy dots - they are new from Stampin Up! and they are fabulous. They are self adhesive so there is no poking a hole and trying to open those tiny little prongs from the brads.  I love them!  I used Early Espresso textured cardstock for the base and the sentiment. The green layer is called Always Artichoke and is one of my all-time favorite elegant greens.  

I am also entering this card in the Merry Monday - July Challenge "Anything Goes".

Well... not much else to say other than "I hope that you will decide to join us this week at 52CCT for Color Challenge #19".  Please go check out what the rest of the talented DT has made for your inspiration. Til next time...hugs and happy crafting friends. D

House of Cards - Month One Clean and Simple

Hello friends! I'm so digging the inspiration photo and colors for this month's challenge at  House of  Cards . These colors are some of my all-time favorites to use.  Here's the inspiration photo - same one as last week but this time instead of Cute and Fun they want to see a Clean and Simple (CAS) style card using at least 3 of the colors see below:

 

The CAS style used to make me have heart tremors as it was really outside my comfort zone.  In fact even 3 months ago I would pretty much avoid entering a challenge if it required CAS.  But being part a design team for another challenge that requires this style once a month has given me lots of practice and really helped me get better and more comfortable with this style. I'd even say that I kind of like it  now.  So... here's what I made to enter this week's challenge:

Shut the front door.... how perfect is this to have a bowl of cherries sticker in my crafting stash for this challenge - LOL!  I'm feeling practically giddy that I had these great peel off stickers (Elizabeth Craft Designs) to use for this week's challenge at HOC.  I had purchased them probably a year or more ago after attending a class on how to use them with copic markers.  Funny how the simplest things can make a person happy. I'm seriously just so tickled that I found these to use!! 

Okay...enough silliness (thanks for indulging me a bit) let me tell you just a bit more about my card.  I didn't have a sentiment stamp that went with this so I created one in Word on my computer.  I really like how the words are shadowed in a lighter color.  Adds interest without taking away for the CAS design.  I used a very thin mat around the image to give it a bit  more "pop" and yet it still left plenty of white space on the card.   The copic markers I used are: BG01 & BG05 (bowl), R29, R39 & R89 (cherries), G28 (leaves) and E49 (stems). I'm kind of wishing that I had finished it off with Crystal Glaze to make the cherries shiny. Hmmmm... gonna have to try that with the other bowls I still have to use. 

This card is going to my 89 year old Grandma who recently fell and broke her leg (right at the hip joint).  She is feeling very much in the pits and we are trying to keep her spirits up so she can stay strong and heal faster. I think this card will make her laugh.  So far not finding anything in my stamp collection that really grabs me for the inside sentiment.  If you know of a really good saying to put on the inside (funny, inspirational or otherwise) before I give it to her next week I'd love to hear it.  

Guess that's about it for now.  Thanks so much for stopping by to visit me today - I'm sure glad that you did! Til next time....hugs and happy crafting friends! D

Addicted to Stamps and More! - Color Challenge #53

Hello dear friends and followers - I sincerely hope that this week finds each and every one of you doing well.  The second week of each month brings with it a color challenge from Addicted to Stamps and More! This week we have a fabulous combo of Chocolate chip, Pretty in Pink and Wild Wasabi.  I love this combo but must admit that I was totally stumped this time and at a loss as to what I wanted to make.  I started digging through my stash of die cuts and embellishments hoping that something would inspire me and suddenly I came across this great digital image that I had printed a while back. Suddenly I had my inspiration!  Here's what I came up with:

I'm not exactly sure who aspires to be in the circus, although there are days I feel as if I'm in one - haha.  But, I saw this sentiment and felt like it was perfect for this fun image.  To me it means "be whoever you want to be" or "love what you do".  The older I get, the more important both of those thoughts are to me :o).  At the very least it's worth a good giggle, so I'm going to send it to one of my friends who is struggling with what to do next with her career.  She is not a fan of pink - but I think she'll get over it rather quickly - LOL. 

 

I used my copic markers - R81 for the dress and umbrella (the closest thing I had to pretty in pink), G20 (leaf on the flower) and E25 and E27 on her hair.  Skin tone is E0000,E00 and E02. I outlined the entire image with W00. A quick run through the Sizzix Big Shot machine using an embossing folder gave the card base some extra detail and texture.  I had to cut off the leaves from these flowers and add my own in wild wasabi.  The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip.

 

Well, that's the scoop on my card today.  For more terrific inspiration just pop on over the ATS&M and see what the rest of the DT has made to share with you.  I hope to be visiting you soon to see what you've made. Til next time... hugs and happy crafting friends! D    

'ABC' Challenges - "Christmas in July", the Paper Players - "Christmas in July", ABC Christmas Challenge - M is for Men or Mice, and Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Challenge #23 - Seeing Stars

Hello dear friends and followers - and a very special hello to my two newest followers, Donna and Mau.  When I first started blogging and sharing my work I was hopeful that people would even look at it. To have reached 50 followers now is just amazing.  I thank each and every one of you for supporting me.

July brings one of my favorite challenges at 'ABC' Challenges called "Christmas in July".  We want to help you get a jump start on your Christmas cards - isn't that nice of us :o) ?  I like to make Christmas cards year-round and find that when Christmas rolls around I have a very nice stash of handmade cards just waiting for the Christmas photo and a note to each of our loved family and friends.  Since I make so many Christmas cards - and most of them are "cutesy" or "whimsical", I decided to challenge myself and try a vintage card this time.  Take a look:



I used soft colors and scuffed up the edges of my layers.  I also sponged around the scuffed edges ever so slightly to give it a bit more of an aged look.  I wasn't too worried if my letters all came through exactly as dark or evenly as the others.  I thought about adding a few spritzes of color with my spritzer tool but was concerned that it would really take away from the words.  I used two colors on this card: Bravo Burgundy and Baked Brown Sugar.  The burgundy looks decidedly darker than the layer, and almost brown when stamped on top of the baked brown sugar.  The saying is a stamp by Stampendous and the three wise men are a stamp from Stampin Up!.  After I finished gluing everything together, I felt that the card looked too "flat" so I added a few adhesive rhinestones at the top and on the star to add a bit more interest.  So what do you know - I made a card that didn't use one bit of patterned paper - lol, very unusual for me.

I do hope that you enjoyed this card and that it sparked some interest for  you to make a Christmas card in July and join our challenge at ABC Challenges - "Christmas in July".  My other lovely teamies have made some beautiful cards to share with you as well.  Each week we give you a variety of different styles to inspire you.  Please pop in and give them a visit too.

Some other fun challenge I've decided to also participate in this week are:

The Paper Players #153 - "Christmas in July"

ABC Christmas Challenge - M is for Men or Mice (I have wisemen)

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - #23 "Seeing Stars"( I have the star of Bethlehem)

52CCT - Sketch #19, Merry Monday - "Anything Goes in July" and Divas by Design - "Cute"

Hello dear crafty friends and followers.  Here it is the first week of July already.  Not sure where most of you live, but here in Montana summer has arrived with a ROAR and it has been HOT, HOT, HOT! Now, I'm not really complaining overly much since I usually freeze all winter long - and the hot weather doesn't usually last too long here. The worst part is getting into a very hot car. So with the hot weather a great escape is to go into my craft room to make a cool Christmas card for the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown Challenge.  Our hostess with the mostest this month is Patricia and she has provided this great sketch for us to work with.  Take a look. 

And here's what I made to share with and inspire you this week:

As you can see, I followed the sketch quite literally (that's what I tend to do).  But you could decide to flip in on its side, make a square card, etc.  I did something I don't usually do with my cards and let the DSP go all the way to the edge without another layer on the card base.  That wonderful brown colored panel is a new color from Stampin Up! called Baked Brown Sugar. I think it might be my new favoirte brown. 

The rest of the DT have had a lot of fun with this sketch too.  Please pop on over and visit them to see what they've done.  I hope you will decide to join us this week at 52CCT for Sketch Challenge #19!  Til next time...hugs and happy crafting. D

P.S. I am also entering this card in the Merry Monday - July Challenge "Anything Goes".  

And Divas by Design - "Cute".  Usually these other challenges don't line up like that for me, so I'm delighted to be able to participate in them this week too.

And another challenge which is new to me called Crafty Hazel's Christmas Challenge.  It's Anything goes for the month of July with a Christmas theme (and there is a potential for a fabulous Bugaboo prize). Thanks Hazel for letting me know about your challenge.

House of Cards Challenge - 1st Ever Challenge, Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #192 - F is for...{friend, fresh} and Divas by Design - "Cute"

Hello and happy weekend!  Two of my dear DT members on 52{Christmas} Card Throwdown have joined together with some other fabulously talented ladies and formed a new challenge called House of Cards.  The thought behind this challenge is that each week the HOC team wants to see a different style of card making. This week the style is Cute & Fun and they want us to use at least 3 of the colors in the photo above.
Cute & Fun is becoming my preferred style I think.  It's certainly the one I feel most comfortable with and I find that my stamp and digital image library is getting pretty full of "cute" images.  So, since this is my favorite type of card to make, and to support my two pals, Mynnette and Ruth,  I've made a card to play along with their NEW challenge.  Here it is:

I hope this works - my shades of blue are just a bit more blue than the sample colors. I used three different shades of blue and two different shades of red (however, that's harder to see). Notice how I pulled in the cherries from the photo as well?  As soon as I saw this pic - I knew just exactly what image I wanted to use to make this card for a wonderful friend.  That little cherry is punched from the Two Step Cupcake punch from Stampin Up!    

I'm also entering this at Divas by Design where the challenge is to create a "CUTE" card, and Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #192 "F is for...".  I made this card for a friend - but if that's too much of a stretch, I'll say that it also incorporates fresh cherries, one of summer's best treats :o)

Thanks for stopping by to visit me today - I'm sure glad that you did. Til next time...hugs and happy crafting friends. D

Addicted to Stamps and More! Challenge #52 - "Make Your Mark"

Hello and Happy first week of July!! Time for the Make your Mark Challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! I must admit that this my favorite challenge that we do as I LOVE using my copic markers and coloring my little heart out :o)  It's like a second level dose of creative therapy for me :o)  This is a NICECRANE DESIGNS digital image that was so kindly given to me as part of the DT for our recent blog hop using these products.  Isn't she lovely?

Once again I've made a square card (really on a kick with that lately).  I used a Sizzix Framelit die for the main image and a punch for the sentiment.  A quick strip of an embossed piece of cards stock and a few coordinating buttons and I was done. The coloring of the image took the longest - but even that was very quick due to the shading built into the image.  I added a bunch of dots around the image as the background - not crazy about how that turned out, but it will do.  Colors are Stampin Up! - Always Artichoke and Peach Parfait (sentiment is in Wild Wasabi).

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit me today - I'm sure glad that you did!  Thanks to all of you who leave me such lovely comments each week.  It makes my heart happy to hear from you.  I was thinking the other day how much being part of a DT has helped me achieve a happier balance in my life.  I get to do something each week that I love and to share it with others.  I receive such lovely and supportive comments from my friends and and followers and I get to visit the participants of the challenges each week (as well as my own lovely DT teamies) to gain constant inspiration and to leave positive notes for them as well.  Its so much easier to look at life as if it the glass is half-full when I have that constant piece of positiveness in my life - and for that I am very grateful!

I hope you will decide to join us this week at ATS&M for Challenge #52 - "Make Your Mark". Remember that we have added colored pencils to the mix as well for those of you who don't use copics or other similar markers on your cards.  The other lovely ladies at ATS&M have also made some gorgeous creations to share with you so please go visit them as well.

Til next time friends...hugs and happy crafting! D  

'ABC' Challenges - Anything Goes!

Hello dear friends and followers - Happy 1st day of July!  We have had a rainy month of June here in Montana and as a result everything is very green and lovely.  Lots of pretty flowers and bushes right now practically everywhere you look - it's wonderful.  I used the beautiful summer scenery for my inspiration this week for  'ABC' Challenges - Anything Goes.  Oh boy... this is always a popular challenge and we see so much creativity and beautiful cards in our gallery.  I'm doing my finger and wrist exercises to get ready for all the comments I plan to be leaving for our participants this week. We love visiting you and seeing  your beautiful cards, but get very disappointed when we absolutely LOVE an entry that has broken the rules and therefore can't be chosen for our Top Award and guest designer slot (and its really not fair to the others who have entered).  So please remember to follow the rules (your entry must be a card, the number of challenges you can enter in addition to ours is limited to 10 and no back-linking is allowed).

So enough chit-chat from me.  Here's my card this week - enjoy!

I've really been into making large square cards lately (this one is 6"x 6").  Those fun colored dots that look like little brads are actually some new self-adhesive dots from Stampin Up! I love them. They come in each color combo family so there are lots of options.  Often it seems that I decide I want to add a brad after I've glued everything down and don't want the prongs poking through into the inside of the card - so then I just have to forget it.  With these great dots I no longer have that worry :o).  The stamp is one that I've had in my drawer from quite some time.  It didn't stamp well in the middle so I used my copic liner to fill in the spaces (thank goodness for that little marker).  I used glittery copic Spicas on the butterflies (that doesn't seem to show up too well in the photo).  As a last minute touch, I crimped the edges of the paper corners so that it didn't look so neat a tidy. Kind of a combo of different styles -but it seems to work (at least to me).  

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For more inspiration from the other talented DT members at ABC Challenges - just click here and it will take you right to the challenge site.  Til next time...hugs and happy crafting! D