Hugs!

Good Morning! It's my month on the Crazy 4 Challenges website - I have some fun challenges for you this month and I hope you will join us!

We have a Guest Stamper all month - head over to the Crazy 4 Challenges website and check out who is joining us - *hint - she's pretty darn close to me in more ways than one!!

Today is National Cardmaking Day - a day full of crafty experiments or just stamping for fun!

My challenge to you is to - Make a Card!! Such an easy challenge - it's all about having a good time relaxing in your craft area.

Papertrey Ink is the star of my card this week - Using Mini Blooms, I stamped several small flowers in different colours along the bottom half of the card panel.

I die cut the word HUGS from the Papertrey Ink HUGS die set in cardstock and textured vellum and layered it on top of the flowers.  I trimmed the top corner and layered it onto red and kraft cardstock.

Well, that is it for this week - please link up any card you have made this week to our Crazy 4 Challenges link - it's fun!!

Crazy 4 Challenges - Happy Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day and it's time for another Crazy 4 Challenges post!

This week our challenge was to create a card with a park theme!  Something that you would see in a park -- swings, trees, animals, children, a pond....

Since we travel to beautiful Florida for the winter, we see trailers in our park!  I think this tag would be great on a bottle of wine or a gift to celebrate a retirement or a new camp site lol!

I stamped the little trailer from Papertrey Ink's Petite Places: Happy Camper Mini Stamp Set all over white cardstock with red ink - since it is Canada Day!

I diecut the word "Hooray" (from Shaker Shapes: Balloon Die) 3 times and adhered them together and then added it to the "patterned paper".

The sentiment (from Hooray Stamp Set) was stamped and embossed onto a strip of black cardstock. The whole things was layered onto a die cut of the Quilted Die tag and then I added a bunch of red and white embroidery thread!

I hope you join in our challenge this week- there are so many things to see in the park in the summer time!

Crazy 4 Challenges - It's all about Water!

Today is Swim a Lap Day!  We want you to include some form of water on your card for our challenge this week......a river, the ocean, a pool, raindrops, bubbles - you can go crazy!

I used a water stamp from Hero Arts and inked it up with all sorts of blues.  I added some sand using kraft cardstock and sponged kraft ink onto my stencil to jazz it up a bit.

I stamped the Lockhart Adirondack chair and flowers with Memento Ink, coloured it haphazardly using Spectra Alcohol Markers and fussy cut it out so I could pop it up onto the "sand".

I die cut the Papertrey Ink hearts and stamped the Reverse Confetti sentiment using black ink.

Why don't you swim over to the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and enter your creation?!  Great fun and fabulous practise!

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C390

Hey everyone! Since it is the third week of the month for Crazy 4 Challenges, we have a sketch  - quite easy for you (and me-yay!).

I decided to do a bit of watercoloring - just a bit - and water-washed a blue and green background with Zig Real Brush Markers onto Crafter's Companion watercolour cardstock.

After drying with my heat gun - because I'm impatient - I diecut the watrecoloured panel with an MFT stitched rectangle.  I adhered that panel to a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 piece of patterned paper which was adhered to my white card base.

Using Papertrey Ink's Inspired by Prayer stamp set and Prayer die, I crafted my sentiment. A few sporadic clear sequins from Pretty Pink Post and it was finished!

Take a hop over to Crazy 4 Challenges and try out the sketch and link up!

SaveSave

Wishing you a Beautiful Day!

Good Morning...I have some exciting news - I am now on the design team with the crazy girls over at Crazy 4 Challenges! There are exciting challenges to come!

Tuesday the 14th March is both Moth-er Day (focusing on Moths) and Learn About Butterflies

Day.  So our challenge this week is for you to include a Butterfly or Moth on your card. Bonus points if you include a flower on your card to celebrate Plant a Flower Day tomorrow (12th March)

Since I didn't include flowers on my card, I don't receive any bonus points this week booo!

I decided to use Papertrey Ink's Life is Beautiful stamp set and dies. I really like how you can use the butterfly dies or double stamp to create the feeling of using a die - a lot of potential for this set!

I added a button to each butterfly tied with some twine - to add a third colour for interest - along with sequins for fun!!

Join us over at Crazy 4 Challenges- won't you?!!

Just a note to say Hello!

Good morning - we have wind warnings out today - crazy weather lately, so I may be ducking for cover at any moment yikes!

Anyway, the Inspired By challenge has a pretty inspiration photo this week - I was a bit wary of it at first, the colours are so muted - but I think I pulled it off!

Here is the inspiration photo:

And using those beautiful shades of greens and greys, I created this.

I used Papertrey Ink's Topiary Trio and Home Made for a combination on this card.

The trees are stamped in Aqua Mist with Ocean Tide "leaves", while the door is stamped with Classic Kraft.  I used Soft Stone for the pots and Smokey Shadow for the sidewalk.

I had a few little gold stickers that I added for the bows.  The door handles were coloured with Spica Gold pen.

Why don't you try out this week's inspiration photo at Inspired By All the Little Things?

Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop

Good Morning - it's time for another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop and this month we are all about black and bright colours - woohoo!

The inspiration photo is gorgeous - as usual - cookies!!

I decided to bring out my Bitty Butterflies Cover Plate - because I absolutely love it!

First I diecut the black frame from Papertrey Ink patterned paper from the Black and White Basics paper pack (on sale for $1.00!!)

I watercolored pinks and greens onto watercolour paper and when it dried, I diecut that with the Cover Plate also.

I adhered the black and white negative frame to card stock and inserted the pretty watercolored butterflies into the negative space.

The sentiment is from the Life is Beautiful stamp set and I added a few little enamel dots to highlight the sentiment.

After die cutting Raspberry Fizz cardstock and vellum using the Branching Out die, I decided to go crazy and use them both on my card - right in the corner!

Thanks for popping around today and have fun hopping!!

....just because it's the Color Throwdown!

Good day and another nice one it is!  Actually it's raining and drizzly but smiling is always an option - so here we go with a quick post.

The Color Throwdown has some warm colours this week - red, kraft and grey so I put together a 'just because' card.

I used Papertrey Ink's Petite Places: Main Street stamps and dies along with Simon Says Stamp ink.

I finished the card off with red and white twine - cute.... I love making little scenes!

Take a trip over to the Color Throwdown and ink it up!!

January Winter with Time Out

The Time Out Challenge is all about "Winter" this session with an optional white on white touch - if you wish.

I used Papertrey Ink's Birthday Classics: January Mini Stamp Set for my sentiment.  I stamped it in Versamark Ink onto vellum and embossed it with white embossing powder.

And......after sprinkling on my embossing powder, I remembered that I didn't pack my heat gun when I came home from Florida. I tried to use my hair dryer, but it just didn't work - not even one little granule of powder was melted.  Thank goodness I have a crafty daughter who lives so close - I ran over to Marcie' s house and used her heat gun - problem solved!

I die cut white cardstock using the Winter Woods Cover Plate and layered it onto patterned paper. I tucked a hill made from Soft Stone cardstock behind the Cover Plate and adhered the vellum onto the cardstock.

To finish, I added Diamond Lace Stickles and pretty sequins for a great effect!

Why not join in on this fun challenge - it's too darn cold to exit this house today!

What is Nature(ally) Done in Love!

Inspired by All the Little Things has a beautiful back to nature inspiration photo....Love it!

I immediately thought of my Paper Clippings - Done in Love die from Papertrey Ink - perfect!

Here is the inspiration photo:

and here is my take on this fun challenge!

I love everything about this card - I die cut the main image from Papertrey Ink patterned paper - Don't Forget to Write Refill paper - it all comes out in one beautiful piece!  

I adhered it to a piece of wood plank patterned paper using Tombow adhesive - just a dot here and a dot there. Nothing is easier than this!

I added a little bit of ribbon and more paper clippings to the top of the card, attached with a clothespin - more natural-ness is good!

Go on over and link up your naturally fabulous creation!!

Enjoy the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!

Just quickly popping in with my final coffee/tea card for the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop using What the Doodle: Tea Time and a host of other heart dies from Papertrey Ink.

This card did NOT come together as well on paper as in my mind, but I thought I would post it anyway....why not?!

This is the last day to enter your creation - so get to it!!

Giving Thanks....for Coffee?!

Today, I have another card for the Fall Coffee Lovers Bloghop!  I had some of those delicious mum's left over from this post yesterday, so I used them on today's creation. I love when that happens - it makes for a quick card!

Using a dark wood patterned paper as my background, I adhered the mum's along with the stamped and diecut coffeepot from Papertrey Ink's Cup of Cheer.

Using my MISTI, I was able to use three shades of ink for the coffee pot - Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise and then swiping Canyon Clay on a diagonal for a fun shading effect!

The sentiment, from the Giving Thanks  mini stamp set, was stamped on a stitched diecut from MFT's Die-namics Blueprints 20.

You have until September 30th to add your coffee loving (or tea) creation to the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop - get your stamps out and have some fun!

Creative Guest Designer at Inspired By!

Good Morning - I was just thrilled to be invited by Tracey McNeely to be the focus of this week's Inspired by All the Pretty Things challenge!  This is one of my favourite challenges - the inspirational photos just get my creative juices rolling rolling rolling!!  Head on over and find out a wee bit more about little old me!

So how about this week's photo?! How could you NOT be inspired - such a pretty theme, not to mention those autumn colours - I can feel it in the air - can you?!

The mum's just drove me crazy so I dug out Papertrey Ink's Mum's the Word stamp set and dies and stamped away to my hearts content.....:)

Using my MISTI (which makes this kind of stamping soooooo easy)  I used three different Papertrey Ink inks on the mum's - Bright Buttercup, Summer Sunrise and Canyon Clay. All those cute little leaves were stamped with Papertrey Ink Green Parakeet and New Leaf.

Using the Sentiment Splits: Curve Vertical Die, I diecut white and Harvest Gold cardstock.  I only showed a sliver of the Harvest gold to highlight the yellows in the mums - I'm so so so so smart hah!

The patterned paper is from the Woodblock Prints Patterned Paper Collection - I love the autumn colours!

I stamped the sentiment, from Sentiment Splits Stamp Set, in Versafine Onyx Black ink and popped up one of the smallest little mum's as an embellishment.

So happy to have been a guest this week at Inspired by All the Little Things - thank you to Tracey for having me design this week - LOVE it!!

Color Throwdown - The Lord's Strength

I'm on the time line (again) and want to post this card before the end of the Colour Throwdown deadline!

I loved the soft colours which I thought went along with a sympathy card....an unfortunate necessity sometimes.

I didn't go with flowers this time - crazy I know, I'm a flower lover! but instead I went semi-trendy.

Using the new Reverse Confetti Wheat Confetti Cuts, the sentiment from Reverse Confetti's The Lord's Strength and Papertrey Ink's Cover Plate: Centre Stage Die my creation came together quite nicely!

My cardstock is Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist and Pale Peony along with Simon Says Stamp Smoke.  The circle dies are the cross-stitch from Cottage Cutz.

Thank you for visiting today - there is still a wee bit of time to get your entry into the Color Throwdown - play along won't you?!!

I think you are Amazing!

It's all about the Rainbow Connection this week at The Card Concept and I'm so happy that another of my favourite challenges is back after their summer hiatus....yippee!

The inspiration photo is fabulous but isn't it always?!!

I really was mesmerized (I know!) by the cascading lights so my idea was to mimic it as much as I could.

I watercolored a sheet of watercolour cardstock using my Zig Real Brush markers.  I just swiped the rainbow coloured markers across the paper horizontally, and then waterspritzed the heck out of it!  I had to use a paper towel dab up some of the water - but with those fabulous markers, the colours just melded together quite nicely!

After it dried, I diecut using Papertrey Ink's Cover Plate: Scallop Die.  It's has kind of a wonky funkiness to it that I love.  I adhered that to a white cardstock base.  

Next, I diecut and stamped the leaves twice from Stylized Autumn, trimming them so they could fit nicely under my "Amazing" sentiment from It's The Thought Die.  I diecut "Amazing" twice - once in black and once in white and adhered them together, offsetting a bit to form a shadow.

The stamped sentiment is from the Make it Market Kit: Nostalgic Notions.

I finished by adding some beautiful Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh - a perfect embellishment!!

Thank you for visiting again today!

Mr. and Mrs. Inspiration

Good morning!  There's a new challenge inspiration at Inspired by all the Little Things!

First of all -  I love the Black and White .....and then there is that pop of Peach! Ooo-la-la!

Using Reverse Confetti's All Framed Up, I diecut frames from white and Soft Stone cardstock and picked a few of my favourites and adhered them to a black cardstock panel.

I stamped and diecut those pretty flowers and leaves from Papertrey Ink's Sketchy Flowers in Altenew's Peach Perfect Ink, SSS Fog and SSS Smoke inks.  I highlighted a few of the flowers with my copic markers.

I stamped the sentiment from Reverse Confetti's Bitty banners and diecut using the matching Confetti Cuts - love it!

However, the finishing touch has got to be those Rose Gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh - they bring out the peach perfectly!!

Now go and be inspired and create!!!

Guesting at The Challenge!

I'm so thrilled to tell you that I was the winner of the very last challenge, at The Challenge's end of season challenge (can I hear everyone say "Challenge"??!!) with this card!

So for the very beginning of their season, I am guesting with their talented Design Team yay!

Since it is Week One at The Challenge, we are working with a sketch!

To me, this sketch called for a focal point where the circle is located, and since I already had my What the Doodle series stamp set on my desk - namely the Waves Mini Stamp Set, I inked it up.

I had a piece of watercolored cardstock already on my desk (I know - my desk is a messy area full of unused pieces of love!) so I diecut the waves along with the sailboat

I stamped the doodly waves - and a few extras- in Stormy Sea ink and then popped up the waves and sailboat onto the stamped image.

Using Platinum embossing powder, I stamped and embossed the sentiment- from Clearly Besotted- onto a strip of Soft Stone cardstock and tucked it behind the sailboat.  The whole thing still looked a little bare to me so I kept on tucking and that vellum circle went in behind the boat.

I adhered my card panel onto my soft stone card base and I was finished!

Thank you to Lesley and company at The Challenge for having me as the Guest Designer this week - loving it!!

O Canada!

Good Morning! I am again honoured to be the guest over at Create Together with Marcie Sharp.

I am so happy that I have a creative minded daughter with whom I can swap ideas (and product lol!) 

With Canada Day- July 1st, being right around the corner - Marcie has challenged me to come up with something related to this day.

I pulled out Papertrey Ink's Blue Sky's Rays Die along with the Cover Plate Blue Sky's Die and created a red and white sunset-- or sunrise I suppose!

Using Concord & 9th Sophisticated Script, I inked up O Canada for my sentiment.  With a few added wooden hearts, naturally and twine, I wrapped it up hah!  I see after I took some photos, that I added some red sequin hearts - oops!

I hope you have a wonderful Canada Day with fireworks and swimming and lots of fun things to do!

Summer Coffee Lover's Blog Hop!

Sorry I haven't been on the blog lately - I had my Calling All Sistahs Blogshop preposted - so that was no problem.  It was all because of that darn bat!  It had me completely freaked out - going downstairs to my craft room was a process for me LOL and ugh.

Any WHO - let's get on with the show..

This week is the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop - a hop dedicated to coffee (or tea) lovers! There is a ton of inspiration to see - not to mention prizes woohoo!!

I created a card combining Papertrey Ink's Cuppa Love Die along with the Make it Market Mini Kit: Lovely Laurels.

I stamped the Laurel Wreath onto the Cuppa Love die and added some copic marker touches.

Patterned Paper and stamped backgrounds worked wonderfully for my card base, and then I popped up the mug and added a pretty bow!

Hope you like!  - Take a look at the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop to find some great inspiration!!

Paper: Lavender Moon, Vintage Cream, Pretty Pastels Patterned Paper (Papertrey Ink);  Stamps: Make It Market Mini Kit: Lovely Laurels, Background Basics:Hearts Stamp Set (Papertrey Ink);  Ink: Spring Moss, Spring Rain, Lovely Lady, Harvest Gold, Winter Wisteria , Lavender Moon (Papertrey Ink); Coloring Medium: Copic Markers; Tools: Cuppa Love Die, Heart Border Die, Make it Market Mini Kit: Lovely Laurels Dies, Paper Trimmer (Fiskars), Big Shot (Sizzix); Other: Ribbon (The Cat's Pajamas);  Spring Rain button (Papertrey Ink); Foam Tape