Tag You're It 46

TGIF!  It's always good when Friday comes around.  First, it's the end of my work-week and second it's the start of a new challenge at Tag You're It!  This week our inspiration comes from Susan.

I didn't have any garden gnomes to play around with but I did have a Santa that had a similar fun and festive look to it.  I embossed the background with sparkle medium that I first learned about from Hazel.  Every time she used it I was smitten with how it dazzled the eyes!  She told me where to get it and I proceeded to order a whole bunch of colors.  This is the first time I used it and the look in real life is as dazzling as it gets!  I wish you could see it!

The challenge this week at Christmas Card Challenges is Anything Goes so I think this fits!  Another Christmas project to knock off my list!  Yay me!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can join us at Tag You're It!  Tags aren't just for gifts - they look great on cards too!  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler (SU); Neenah Solar White
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); White (WPlus9); Copics
Accessories:  Tag Die, Tag Die Layers (My Creative Time); A Birdie Told Me die (Lawn Fawn); Starry Nights stencil (Memory Box); Diamond Sparkle Medium (Imagination Crafts); baker's twine; embroidery floss

CAS(E) This Sketch 170

Here we are at Thursday again  and it's time for a new challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.  Our sketch is designed by Hannelie and it is so cool, you are going to love it!

The other day I made a card with a color block design and I had that on my mind when I sat down to make my card for this challenge.  Using colors inspired by the photo at Just Us Girls I started layering strips of pink first then I intersected those with some thin gray lines.  I cut out several of the sentiment die, glued them together, and layered that on top.  That's it!  An easy card to make, but kind of cool looking, if I do say so myself!

The CAS(E) This Sketch design team has made some really beautiful cards with the sketch this week so I hope you have some time to check them out and join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Smoky Slate, Basic Black (SU)
Accessories:  Thanks Script die (Mama Elephant)

Freshly Made Sketches 234!

What a time I had on the way to making my card this week for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our design comes from Jen Timko - and what a great design it is!

First of all, I recently got the Clarity Stencil Brushes that everyone is gushing about and everyone else is sold out of.  Luckily I found out they were in stock at an online store and scooped them up before they were all gone again.  I got them just in time for this sketch challenge was excited to try them with a stencil to see if I could apply some color without the streaks I usually get with sponges.  Well it wasn't long before I could see some positive results.  The color was a breeze to apply and the brushes cleaned up easily with just water.  I was so excited at the results that I quickly stamped the floral images in one color, silhouette style, then my sentiment.  And then I realized my mistake.  I put the sentiment in the upper left corner rather than the lower right.  Rats!

As you can see, the sentiment is in the right place on the card you see here.  That's because I couldn't bear the guilt anymore and late Tuesday night re-did the layer with the image in the right place!  The colors on this, by the way, are from the awesome color challenge at As You See It.

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to pop on by Freshly Made Sketches and see what our design team has got up to with this sketch!  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Botanical Silhouettes, Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Soft Suede (SU)
Ink:  Soft Sky, Soft Suede (SU)
Accessories:  Basket stencil (StencilGirl Products)

colourQ 339!

Here we are at Tuesday again and, of course, that means it's time for a new palette at colourQ.  This week's color combination always makes me think of a more masculine card and so that's what I did.  I'm pretty sure that I've made variations of this card before with similar colors, but I just love how these bold colors lend themselves so well to a bit of a color-block design.

I used the April sketch from Viva la Verve as my layout and gave the two background layers some texture with this awesome new embossing folder that I got recently.  The die cut sentiment was cut three times and glued together for a bit of additional dimension.

Be sure to pop on over to colourQ and check out these gorgeous colors and the inspiration from the design team.  It's our last week that design team member Amy will be with us so be sure to pop on over to her blog and give her a little colourQ farewell!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Painted Sayings (Whimsy Stamps)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Pear Pizzazz, Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango (SU)
Ink:  Night of Navy (SU)
Accessories:   Weathered embossing folder (Taylored Expressions); Wonderful Words Birthday die (Papertrey Ink)

Cupcake Inspirations 357!

Hello, hello!  Today I have the distinct pleasure of being the Surprise Sweetie at Cupcake Inspirations!  I love to play along over there whenever I can and this week they were gracious enough to invite me along for the ride!  This week the theme is ladybugs and the sponsor is Doodle Pantry so I hopped on over to the shop and bought the sweetest digis that I used on my card today.

I think this may be the first (or close to it) time that I printed my own patterned paper and I can't believe how great it looks.  I've got a pretty decent color laser printer and I used heavyweight (32 lb) copy paper and it looks really good.  That's it peeking out from under the little layer with the ladybug.  The sketch from Fab Friday gave me the layout and the perfect opportunity to show off that pretty paper.

That's it for me today!  Special thanks to everyone at Cupcake Inspirations choosing me as your Surprise Sweetie today.  And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Lady Bug Hugs (Doodle Pantry)
Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Basic Black, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight (SU); X-Press It Blending Card; Lady Bug Hugs (Doodle Pantry)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics
Accessories:  Petite Scallop Circle die, Standard Circles die (Spellbinders); Banner Trio die (WPlus 9)

CAS(E) This Sketch 169

I can hardly believe it's Thursday already!  My vacation is nearly over but on the bright side there's a new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch!

I did a pretty liberal interpretation of the sketch this week.  The sentiment is doing double-duty as the horizontal line and since it didn't go all the way across the front of the card I stuck on a sequin to sort of carry the theme across.

My Christmas card stash is sorely lacking this year, surprise surprise, so I figured I better hop to it.  I really liked the challenge this week at Merry Monday to use purple, white, and silver but I can say, with no shame, that this card looked much better in my head than it does in the execution.  But I can at least knock one card off all the ones I'll need come December!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the cards from my CAS(E) This Sketch teamies this week.  I hope to see you in the gallery over there!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Elegant Eggplant, Brushed Silver (SU)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Sketch Tree die (Memory Box); Midnight Blend sequins (Avery Elle); silver embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 233

Somehow it is Wednesday already which means that my vacation is half over.  Boo.  But on the bright side it also means there is a new challenge starting at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Amy, our resident fearless color mixologist.

It will come as no shock to find a butterfly on my card.  But in my defense the challenge this week at the Paper Players was to make a clean and simple card with a butterfly.  That's right up my alley so I had to play along!  I also used the colors from Cupcake Inspirations.

I got some new stamps the other day and the scribble image fit nicely into this sketch (that's my circle in case you couldn't tell), a bit of long-unused washi for the horizontal layer, and a butterfly in place of the rectangle.  Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the cards that my amazing Freshly Made Sketches teamies have made.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Happy Art, Blossom (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pretty in Pink, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Pretty in Pink (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Cheviot Butterfly die, Delaney Butterfly die (Poppystamps); Lucky Blend sequins (Avery Elle); Basic Pearls (SU); washi tape

colourQ 338!

I almost didn't make it this week for my colourQ card!  There's a new palette up but I took a little impromptu trip and didn't have time to make my card when I usually do.  Luckily, I'm off work on vacation this week so I managed to squeeze in a card this morning in between cleaning and unclogging drains!

I started out following the sketch at As You See It, but I guess I wasn't paying very good attention to the layout because I see now that I missed some stuff and got some stuff in the wrong place!  What a mess I am today!

Hopefully the rest of the week will be a bit better for me.  The weather is a little iffy today so it's a good day to stay in and do some cleaning and crafting!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you in the colourQ gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Amazing (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Basic Black, Cool Caribbean, Berry Blossoms DSP (SU)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Chevron Stripes die (My Favorite Things); Totally Fabulous die (Ellen Hutson); Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); translucent embossing paste (Dreamweaver); black button (Amuse Studio); white crochet thread

CAS(E) This Sketch 168

Here we are at Thursday again.  And Thursday means a new challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.  Our sketch this week is from Sam Simpson.

That teeny-tiny trapezoid shape had me stumped for a bit but once I decided to use three enamel dots in its place I was okay. The colors for my card come from the latest challenge at The Paper Players and I promise you that the enamel dot on the right is not black (as it looks in the photo) but a dark green in keeping with the color challenge!  A photographer I am not!

I used a stencil and some embossing paste on the big Soft Sky layer to give it some interest. Otherwise it would have been a big, boring blue layer!  Then I got the bright idea to use vellum for that wide horizontal layer and from there I stuck on the enamel dots.  If the right side of the vellum looks like it is sticking up from the card base that's because it is.  A little glue remedied that after the fact, but I decided not to re-shoot my pics so you get to see the floating vellum version!

Thanks for stopping by!  There's loads of inspiration at CAS(E) This Sketch so be sure to pop on over there to see what's what.  You won't be sorry - and I hope we can see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Much Appreciated (SU)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Soft Sky, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Jet Black (Stazon)
Accessories:  Dot Fade stencil (Tim Holtz); translucent embossing paste (Dreamweaver); enamel dots (Doodlebug Designs); black embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 232!

This week at Freshly Made Sketches, our sketch is brought to you by Narelle.  Now, don't adjust your sets folks your eyes are not deceiving you.  Our resident Queen of Layers has designed a sketch that only has a couple of them!  Maybe there's a CAS designer inside of her sometimes that's just busting to get out!

I'm also following along in a couple of other challenges here.  At Addicted to CAS they are looking for inlaid die(s) so I've got three.  I think it's hard to see in the photo but one of the inlaid dies is a white pierced rectangle.  In hindsight I don't think the white-on-white was such a good idea because it's so hard to photograph but in real life it looks a lot better!  The other challenge is Paper Smooches Sparks which is a black, white and one other color challenge.  Whenever I see those I like my other color to be something bright so I chose Melon Mambo.

Now make sure you check out the other cards from the design team at Freshly Made Sketches.  They will knock your socks off.  And you can be somewhat sure that Narelle managed to sneak in a few extra layers on her card!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I get to see you in the gallery this week!

Supplies
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Melon Mambo, Basic Black (SU)
Accessories:  Pierced Rectangle STAX, Blueprints 15 die (My Favorite Things); Thanks Word die (Paper Smooches)

colourQ 337!

Hello!  Time for a new challenge from your friends at colourQ!  We've got another great color palette for you.  So come on and take a look!

Sadly my stash of Going Gray card stock is depleted so I had to substitute a different light gray.  Going Gray was one of my favorite grays and I was so sad when Stampin' Up! discontinued it.  Ever since then I've been on the hunt for a close replica and I haven't been able to find one yet.

I used the sketch from Match the Sketch for this card and I love how it allowed me to show off these colors in a fun way.  The little flower die cut is doing double-duty covering up an inky blob too!  I always seem to make a card with either an ink splat somewhere or some cat hair included!

My colourQ teamies have made some beautiful cards with these colors so be sure to head on over there and take a look.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Words of Wisdom (Verve)
Paper:  Fog (Simon Says Stamp); Blushing Bride, Hello Honey, Twitterpated DSP (SU)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle STAX, Stitched Rounded Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Petal Party die (Memory Box); Pool Party seam binding ribbon, Basic Rhinestones (SU)

CAS(E) This Sketch 167!

Despite the recent snow here, spring is definitely on my mind.  I guess that's why I've used a butterfly on my cards two days in a row.  I just love how pretty they are and they can really dress up an ordinary card!  Today I've got a card for the latest sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch designed by N@ Ali.

The colors at Cupcake Inspirations also made me think of spring.  I stamped a little grungy dotted background in a light blue first then stamped my vertical "layers" in pink over it.  All that was followed by the sentiment and my wee butterfly and I was done.  Easy peasy.

There are some great cards to see from the design team at CAS(E) This Sketch so be sure to check them out!  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Kinda Eclectic (SU); Abstract Art (My Favorite Things); Many Thanks (Simon Says Stamp); Mini 72 (PaperArtsy)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Accessories:  Basic Pearls (SU)

Freshly Made Sketches 231!

Here we are at Wednesday again and a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week my friend who lives halfway around the world from me, Karren is the hostess.  If you are a fan of crooked panels you're going to love this sketch!

I recently got this stitched butterfly die and had been dying to try it out.  I think it is just a teeny bit to big for the card but it's soooo pretty I can forgive myself!  Normally when I layer butterfly die cuts I do cardstock on the bottom and vellum on top, but this time I did the opposite.  I think you can just see the vellum peeking out from under the stitched layer.  I added a row of small pearls down the center - one of my favorite embellishments on butterflies.  And the colors for this come from the latest challenge at Fab Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!  The Freshly Made Sketches design team has made some beautiful cards with this sketch so make sure you pop on by and check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Extreme Elements (SU); Simple Sayings (Tim Holtz)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Pool Party, So Saffron, Vellum, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Calypso Coral (SU); True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Vivienne Butterfly die, Stitched Vivienne Butterfly die (Memory Box); Basic Pearls (SU); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

colourQ 336!

Tuesday again and it's time for a new challenge at colourQ.  This week our colors are bold and bright and perfect for spring.  Ironically, after a very warm February and March I thought for sure that spring had sprung a bit early in these parts.  Then April showed up and brought some snow.  Snow!  Can you believe it?  The only good thing about snow in April is that is disappears quickly, but still...I wish we didn't have it at all.  But anyway, on to my card and this week's inspiration photo.

The challenge at Sketch Saturday had a layout that was perfect for a subway style sentiment so I grabbed this stamp set that I haven't used in a long time.  Some bright flowers and a patterned paper background and I was done.  Easy peasy!

That's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out all the inspiration at colourQ!.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes (SU); Subway Series Basics (Fresh Squeezed Stamps)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Black (Simon Says Stamp); Lucky Limeade (SU); Adorbs (My Mind's Eye)
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Land of the Free

Well, hello Monday.  It has been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog that was not made for a design team challenge. And I'm super excited to post this particular card because there's a bit of a story behind it.  I used the sketch at Can You Case It, which was perfect for what I wanted to do.

I flipped the sketch to accommodate the flag and used stars instead of flower shapes.  And now for the story:  My uncle was chosen for the Honor Flight New England which is a program that honors veterans by flying them on a VIP trip to Washington DC.  Before they leave on the trip each veteran is given a mail bag full of letters and cards from family and friends to commemorate the special day.  Since I'm the resident card-maker in the family I just had to make something or my name would be mush!  I'm really pleased with how this turned out (except for the crooked striped paper), so I'm hoping that my uncle doesn't notice that it's crooked!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Old Glory (Deep Red); USA 1776 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Real Red (SU)
Ink:  Crumb Cake (SU); Dark Chocolate (Papetrey Ink)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things)

Tag You're It 44

Today may be April Fool's Day but there ain't no fooling at Tag You're It!  It's time for a new challenge and this week our inspiration comes from Nancy!

Sadly, I don't have any umbrellas in my stash, but I do have loads of flowers so I took my cues from that.  Nancy did a wonderful watercolor splash on her background but I chose to stamp a couple of grungy images instead.  I chose some of of the same colors for my flowers and arranged them randomly along with some leafy die cuts.

I love how Nancy's tag reminds us that all those April showers bring beautiful May flowers.  Let's hope it happens for real.  We've had an unseasonably warm winter around these parts and the flowers got off to an early start.  We really need those rains since we didn't get much snow {insert happy dance here} otherwise those flowers will be in for a long, hot, and dry summer.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to join us at Tag You're It.  We love to see your tags, whether they be stand-alone or used to embellish the front of a card, so don't be shy!  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Modern Blooms (My Favorite Things); Mesh, Mini 72 (PaperArtsy)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pear Pizzazz (SU)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Cool Caribbean, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Riding Hood Red (SU); Pretty Amethyst (Fun Stampers Journey); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things)
Accessories:  Tag You're It die, Sentiment Strips die (My Favorite Things); Clear Droplets (Pretty Pink Posh); seam binding ribbon, crochet thread