Pinks & Pearls

I'm excited to share that I am the guest designer at As You See It for their Pinks & Pearls challenge.  It seems that the design team over there liked one of my cards recently and invited me to be a guest designer!  I always get a goosebump or two when I get recognized for one of my cards!

It's no secret that I tend to gravitate towards clean and simple cards so I love a challenge that has got lots of elements to it.  I get to stretch my creative wings!  For my card I embossed the background and sponged on some color to give it a little depth.  Then I added two layers cut with a deckle die set in shades of pink.  The top layer was cut in white with the same deckle die and sponged on the edges to create an aged look.  Then it was stamped with a simple branch.  The blossoms on the branch were colored with different shades of pink.  I added a few pearls and I was done!  I love how this came out!

Thanks again to the design team at As You See It for inviting me to play along with them!

Supplies
Stamps:  Artfully Asian (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Whisper White, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Weathered embossing folder (Taylored Expressions); Deckled Rectangle dies (Spellbinders); Basic Peals (Stampin' Up!)

Fusion - Hello Hat

We've got a fun new challenge for you at Fusion!  This time around I created a little fusion myself by combining the inspiration photo with the sketch.

By embossing some cardstock with burlap texture and cutting a couple of circles I made myself a little "hat" and topped it with some flowers just like the photo.  I used some woodgrain patterned paper to mimic the door.  The sentiment was stamped in black onto vellum and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder so that it wouldn't smear.

Thanks for stopping by!  There's some great inspiration at Fusion so be sure to check out the design team cards and play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Kinda Eclectic (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Naturals White (Neenah); Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Marigold Morning, Woodland Walk DSP (Stampin' Up!); Blueberry Sky, vellum (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink); Onyx Black (Versfine)
Accessories:  Burlap embossing folder (Taylored Expressions)

Freshly Made Sketches 535

Hi all!  I'm a wee bit late with my card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches but here it finally is!  Our hostess this week is Amy and I love the banner she incorporated into the sketch.  So many possibilities!  

I chose to use the colors from The Paper Players and the flowers challenge from Just Us Girls and combine them with the sketch to create a CAS thank you card.  The banner was die cut with some parchment-style vellum and I stamped the sentiment on it using my go-to ink for crisp images.  But by the next day the sentiment was a fuzzy, blurry mess.  This looks cute as long as you don't look too close!  😂

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches! Our fabulous design team has made some cards that will surely inspire you to play along with us so check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Celebration of Thanks (Verve)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Lavender Moon, Green Parakeet (Papertrey Ink); Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Weathered embossing folder (Taylored Expressions); Pierced Fishtail Flags die, Plentiful Petals die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 360

Happy Wednesday!  Today we've got a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches designed by Amy.  I used her inspiration to make another Christmas card.  (I'm trying to stock up on my stash)!

These "grumpling" images are adorable and they are perfect to make fun Christmas cards.  The classic design of the sketch inspired me to make a dent in my prolific stash of patterned paper and I'm so glad I did.  The polka dotted background is fun!  I'm also joining the challenge at Jingle Belles which is to use an animal on a Christmas card.  I actually have no idea what kind of animal this grumpy fellow is, but he's got fur and paws and, oddly enough, antlers so I'm going with it!

Thanks for stopping by!  Once again our Freshly Made Sketches design team have created some beautiful cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out.  And then join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Grumplings (Taylored Expressions)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Jolly Holiday DSP (Stampin' Up!); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Nocturne (Versafine Clair); Copics
Accessories:  Classic Scallop Ovals dies, Classic Ovals dies (Spellbinders)

colourQ 353!

Hello!  This week at colourQ there is a color combo that gave me a little case of the hiccups!  But never one to back down from a color challenge I persevered through a couple of iterations until I ended up with, of all things, a baby card!

Ha!  And now that I've posted this here I see that I completely forgot to use green!  Believe me, I had every intention to but I think I must have been so obsessed with explaining why I would use these colors for a baby card that I forgot that I had one more color to explain!

I should also mention that I am also playing along with the Sketch Saturday challenge, which is to pick a past sketch.  I chose #225.  And I'm also playing along with Addicted to CAS where the cue word is "welcome."

I was going to make a floral card using these colors but I kept coming back to the "welcome" challenge and couldn't get a baby card out of my head.  I really don't know why because these are some pretty strange colors for a baby card!  I didn't want it to be too pink or too blue, rendering it useless in those instances where the gender of the baby is unknown, so I thought the coral would draw some of the attention away from those colors and make it a little more neutral.  Too bad it drew the attention away from the green too! Yikes!

Despite my faux pas I hope you won't hold it against me and that you can join us in the colourQ gallery this week. We love to see you there!

Supplies
Stamps:  Grunge Cirque (Tim Holtz); Onesie Twosie (Taylored Expressions); Onesie Two-sie (Wplus9)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Night of Navy, Calypso Coral (SU)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Night of Navy (SU)
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Baby die (Simon Says Stamp); Decorative Dots embossing folder (SU)

CAS(E) This Sketch 151

We're back after a little American Thanksgiving hiatus with a new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.  I'm not ashamed to say that this was a bit of a stumper for me!

I went around and around in my head with ideas for this card and rejected a ton of them before I pulled out this new stamp set and got to work.  Then I had a heck of a time making sure that this little guy was somewhat evenly spaced all over the front of the card!  I'm sure if you look closely (and please don't) you'll find the spacing is off in a few places!

This week we are joined by my friend Linda as a guest designer.  Her card will knock your socks off - as will the cards by the rest of the design team.  It's fun to see everyone's interpretation of these dots!  I hope you've got some time to squeeze CAS(E) This Sketch into your crafty goals this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Grumplings (Taylored Expressions)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Garden Green, Real Red (SU); Copics

It's Tagtastic!

The ladies at Nacho Average Challenge have got a color challenge with some of my favorite colors to use at Christmas time.  And since I'm still in tag-making mode I thought it would be fun to create a gift tag for one of my Christmas gifts using the colors.  Lucky for me the cue card at CASology is GIFT so that fit right in with my plans and since it is the season of snowflakes I decided to add a few to fit in with the snowflake challenge at The Paper Players.

The picture is horrible, but in real life this gift tag is full of glitz and glam!  The washi tape is striped with some shimmery silver and one of the snowflakes is cut with the Silver Glimmer paper.  And even though it is nearly invisible in the picture, the tag is topped with some silver organdy ribbon and some silver cord.  The sentiment is from my recently re-discovered Warm Words which, so far, has been pretty handy this holiday season.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Tomorrow I've got another fun tag featuring the new colors from colourQ!

Sparkle for CASology 22 and Cardabilities 64

You would think that a challenge about sparkles would be pretty easy at this time of year, but apparently my mojo has gone on walkabout because I had a hard time with the CASology Sparkle challenge.  I spent some time at my crafting table on Tuesday night and despite drawing, cutting, stamping and dreaming I had nothing.  So I took a little break, which means I went to bed then went to work the next day, and sat back at my table Wednesday.  Armed with the Cardabilities sketch I finally got some inspiration and made a sparkly snowflake creation.

And how cool is it that I actually have a stamp that says "sparkle?"  It's from Warm Words and I'm pretty sure this is the first time it's seen any ink.  The snowflakes are cut in Silver Glimmer and Champagne Glimmer paper and I stamped the sentiment directly on some silver striped washi tape.  Super simple and super sparkly!

I've recently been reminded that Christmas is slightly less than three weeks away (yikes) and I'm beginning to feel like I'm not quite prepared.  I've almost got my shopping done, but I think I'm running behind in my wrapping and tag-making duties.  Hopefully this weekend, I can get caught up.  I'd really like to enjoy the magic of the season rather than worrying about shopping and all the things that Christmas is NOT!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you take some time to enjoy this holiday season!