KA-POW - TAWS Blog Hop!

Good morning and welcome to the March Release Blog Hop for The Alley Way Stamps!  If you've come from Christine's blog, you're in the right place!

Today I've got a card to show you that I made with the super fun, retro-comic-inspired stamp set KA-POW!  My layout is based on the latest Mojo sketch.

Does this take you back to the old Bat Man shows or what!?!  What a fun stamp set this is, with lots of great images that will definitely get your creative comic-book juices flowing!  It's rock-em, sock-em fun all over the place!

And are you ready for some more fun?  One lucky person will win all 3 new stamps sets that are being released tomorrow!  So, if you want to be that person, all you have to do is comment on the blog hop!

Here are the ways you can win.  You can pick and choose the ones you want to do, but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win!

1 - Comment on The Alley Way Stamps blog

2 - Comment on the Design Team blogs

3 - Post about it on Facebook or your blog

4 - Like us on Facebook

(leave a separate comment for each that you do)  You have until 9:00PM TAWS time to leave them.

Now, head on over to Jessica's blog and leave some comment love!  Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 75

This is my second post for today.  If you're looking for the TAWS Sneak Peeks click here!

Now, on to my Freshly Made Sketches card.  It's a bittersweet day at Freshly Made Sketches because our sweet Tui is saying farewell to the design team.  Tui has been with the team since the very beginning and I know that you and I have been dazzled by her amazing talent.  She'll be missed by all of us on the design team (and you too), but we're pretty sure we'll spot her in the gallery once in a while!!

So it is with a big smile that I present you with the final sketch designed by Tui.  I know you're going to love it!

This is a wonderful versatile sketch that's got lots of space for you to fill with pretty paper, shapes or stamps.  I chose to use a bit of my fave mathematical washi tape and these cool, funky flowers stamped in the latest Dynamic Duos colors.  

Be sure to stop on by Freshly Made Sketches and check out all the cards the design team has made to inspire you.  And don't forget to pop on by Tui's blog and show her some love.  She's got some exciting things coming up and I wish her the very best of luck!  

Supplies:

Stamps:  Funky Florals (Papertrey Ink)

TAWS March Sneak Peeks #3

Woot Woot!  Today is my first day of official duties as part of  The Alley Way Stamps design team!!!  There are three new sets releasing tomorrow and today I get to show you a little sneaky-peeky of one of them called Pillow Talk.

This set is just filled with fun geometric designs!  I colored up some of the shapes in random colors and punched out a butterfly.  It's a little tricky to see the butterfly in this pic so I took another one that shows up just a tad better.  

It's week 52 over at retro sketches and the challenge this week is to pick a past sketch.  I chose #14 for my card.  I think my card was heavily influenced by the butterfly in the skektch!  {wink}

Be sure to head on over to The Alley Way Stamps blog because one lucky commenter will win today's featured stamp Pillow Talk!  Click here to get all the deets!

colourQ 178

The colors this week at colourQ were a perfect excuse to sharpen my masculine card making skills.  Especially since I saw that the challenge this week at Addicted to CAS was to make a masculine card!

The horizontal sketch layout at CAS(E) This Sketch had me stumped at first, but then I got the bright idea to line up thin layers of cardstock on an angle.  I really like how it turned out.  And, of course, in a case of me merrily making my card and not paying attention to the challenge, I had the whole thing put together ready for photographing before I realized that I forgot the Summer Starfruit.  So I carefully pried apart my layers and stuck a piece of Summer Starfruit under the sentiment.  Presto!

Don't forget to head on over to colourQ and check out the challenge and the other cards from the design team.  They are amazing as always!

Supplies:

Stamps:  WTF (CAS-ual Fridays Stamps)

Hey Chickie!

It was very dreary weather-wise this past weekend so it was nice to go in my stamping room and pick up some pretty pinks and yellows to make my own bit of sunshine.

I started out following the latest Deconstructed Sketch but now I see that I've left off one layer.  I hate when that happens.

It seems like I'm constantly looking for a simple solution to store Copic markers and I think I've finally found it!  I had to pay a visit to Lowe's to pick up a few things, and once I finish my little DIY crafty organization project I'll be sure to show it off!  If it looks ok, that is...

Thanks for stopping by!

TAWS with Unscripted Sketches 199 and Fab Fri 12

I've been having issues with my telephone lately and yesterday my Internet connection decided to join in the fun.  All day I kept sporadically losing connection to the Internet and it's unbelievable how frustrating that is!  We all rely so heavily on the Internet to get things done, that it is practically crippling when you don't have it!

But I was able to get down to business in the old stamping room so I made a little card for someone who might be in a spot of trouble!

I used the sketch from Unscripted Sketches and the colors from Fab Fri.  I hunted around for some pretty Perfect Plum paper and all I could find was this from an old Halloween set.  I love re-purposing that way!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Gotta Bug? (The Alley Way Stamps)

Accessories:  Cast-A-Spell DSP, Twitterpated DSP, Sentiment Strips die (My Favorite Things)

Seize The Birthday Guestie

A little while ago my friend, the super-talented stamper Lesley, asked me to join her this week as a guest designer at Seize the Birthday.  I was so excited that she asked there was no way I was going to refuse!

That pink means the challenge is to make a birthday-girl-card using this very cool sketch.  And the sponsor this month is The Alley Way Stamps so I inked up my favorite splashy flower in Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple - two pretty colors that I neglect way too much!  

I found some washi tape that matches Primrose Petals pretty closely and paired it with this black washi with some script writing to create the horizontal  layer.  Some days I think I've got a bit of a washi tape addiction!  It's such an easy way to add fun color and patterns to cards and the best part is that you don't have to be careful about how you stick it to your project.  In fact the more crooked it looks the better I like it!

Thanks so much to Lesley and the ladies at Seize the Birthday for letting me join you this week!  I can't wait to see what everyone creates with this great sketch!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Awesome Blossom, Cover Ups (The Alley Way Stamps)

Accessories:  washi tape

Freshly Made Sketches 74

This week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge is brought to you by Allisa who has given us this great sketch that she considers a "go to" sketch.  I've got to agree because it's the kind of sketch that you can dress up or keep clean and simple depending on what you like.

I decided to use some of my precious Kiwi Kiss on this one mixing it up with some Chocolate Chip (a super-fabulous color combo).  And I love these grassy images because you can layer just about anything over them and they look good.  In this case I stamped some flowers and a butterfly in Poppy Parade along with a flower stem in Old Olive.

The super-amazing Freshly Made Sketches design team has got some great cards to show you featuring this sketch so be sure to head on over there and check them out.  I hope you'll be inspired to join us in the gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Inspired by Nature (SU), Summer Silhouettes (SU), Beautiful Butterflies (PTI)

Accessories:  Kiwi Kiss ribbon, October Afternoon Witch Hazel button, crochet thread

colourQ 177

I know that Christmas was a couple of months ago, but the colors this week at colourQ made me want to dig out some stamps and get a head start on my Christmas cards for this year.  

I didn't go over the top with a Christmas theme but kept it simple and used some of these fantastic snowflake die cuts from amuse studio and Taylored Expressions.  And I based the layout of my card on the Sunday Stamps sketch that I turned on it's side.

The colourQ ladies have created some great cards this week so be sure to head on over to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (amuse studio), Make a Snowflake die (Taylored Expressions), Deckled Rectangle die (Spellbinders), Basic Pearls (SU)

CAS(E) This Sketch 15 and Dynamic Duos 40

I'd been eye-balling the latest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch since I first saw it on Thursday, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to make a card for it.  I had this vague idea in my head of a pennant of chevrons but as I perused my stash of stamps I couldn't find anything that matched my vague idea. Then miracle of miracles, I realized that I was thinking of the chevrons from Border Banter and my vague idea started to take shape.

Once I decided on the stamps, it was a very short leap to the awesome color challenge at Dynamic Duos.  My only regret with this card is that the images are too close to the right side of my cardstock.  Rats!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Border Banter (SU), Thank You Kindly (SU), Stitched Together (Close To My Heart)

Baby Shower and Butterflies

This is my third week being the guest designer at The Alley Way Stamps blog.  I've got a couple of cards to show you.

I'm heading to a baby shower later today and this is the card that I made for the sweet mom and baby-to-be! The cute image is from Spring Has Sprung and I thought it would be adorable for a baby card.  The little felt "buttons" add some lovely, soft texture I think.  I used the layout from retro sketches, but I couldn't bear (pun intended) to cut off the little cutie so he is intact on the right side of the card!

My second card uses the pretty colors at Just Us Girls and features the butterfly from Awesome Blossom.

Well, it's snowing again here.  The baby shower that I'm going to was originally scheduled for last week but was postponed because of the blizzard and now it might be in danger again!  It's coming down pretty heavily now and the wind is howling so I'm not entirely sure that I want to be out driving in this.  I guess I'll have to wait and see how the day goes.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

First card stamps:  Spring Has Sprung, Mad Gab (TAWS)

Accessories:  Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, Regal Rose DSP

Second card stamps:  Awesome Blossom, Chatterbox (TAWS)

Accessories:  Wintergreen DSP

Peace - CFC90 and FTL228

I thought that the color challenge of Black & White Plus One at CAS-ual Fridays was too good to pass up so when I saw it I started to troll blogland for an appropriate sketch.  I settled on a beauty from clean&simple.

I felt like I was somewhat limited on what I wanted to do for the middle "word" portion of my card.  Despite owning an electronic cutter which would have allowed me to cut any sentiment I wanted, I was being kind of lazy when I made this and didn't feel like firing it up for this card.  Instead I relied on one of the sentiments from the Wonderful Words Holiday die from Papertrey Ink.  I punched it in Basic Black then added some Lucky Limeade behind it.  I added a small punched star and wound some baker's twine around the Basic Black layer and called it a night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Accessories:  Wonderful Word Holiday Die (Papertrey Ink), Star Punch (SU), Lucky Limeade baker's twine (SU)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just love it when a card comes together fairly quickly with a minimum of fuss!  Such was my experience when I decided that the Unscripted Sketch and the RED challenge at CASology were a match made in heaven!

I had a vague idea of how I wanted this card to look and when sat down to make it and was pleasantly surprised when my combination of red washi tape and a heart punched from red glimmer paper looked as good in person as it did in my head.  (That doesn't always happen for me)!  And although the sketch doesn't specifically call for a sentiment, I added the valentine one because today, of all days, it's appropriate!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)

Accessories:  Heart to Heart punch (SU), washi tape, dimensionals