Altenew: From Places Abroad

Good Morning - the sun is shining and there are no more weather catastrophes coming our way - not in the next day or two anyway. This Florida season has been a trial as far as weather goes - yikes.

Simon Says Stamp has their "Anything Goes" challenge on right now AND Altenew has a challenge which features an inspirational theme --"From Places Abroad" -- this month's photo comes from Cypress.

I received a few sleepy head photos of my grandsons this morning, and I got a BIG pang of loneliness - I miss my grand kiddos so much, the youngest was not quite three months old when we left - I'm sure he will be walking by the time I get home next month lol……

sooo….I had to use this "miss you" sentiment from Painted Greetings.

I first stamped the Wood Pallet Background in Kraft ink and trimmed it up to adhere to my panel of Hawaiian Shores cardstock.  That, in turn, was adhered to a sheet of patterned paper.


I stamped the outline only - twice - and water coloured the Peony from the oh-so-popular Peony Bouquet.  I trimmed the centre of one of the flowers and adhered it to the other one - make sense?

I stamped the leaves right onto the wood pallet background and then popped up the water coloured Peony.

Of course - my card is not finished unless I add twine or ribbon - and since I couldn't make up my mind - I added both…. why not?

Why don't you head on over to Altenew and try out the challenge - you only have a few more days?

Cast all Your Cares

Good Morning - it is starting out to be one of those fabulous mornings!  The sun is shining - my daughter FaceTimed me - I'm eating oatmeal!!!….what could be better?!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their 9th year in the stamping business - I can remember their first release with those Photopolymer stamps oh my!… how innovative, how NEW!...and my daughter and I being all over it!  Now they have come so far with so many beautiful releases.

There are several challenges and giveaways these 10 days so of course I am partaking in as many as I can.

The one today is the first challenge they offered a few days ago - yes, I'm just getting around to it haha

The challenge is to be inspired by a piece of clothing or an outfit from our closet or an online retailer. - I took a photo of glorious ME in my outfit and created a card from said outfit.

No Laughing at my wrinkly pants.

I love the nautical theme and if you look closely - you will see gold buttons and detail.

For my card base I die cut the Cover Plate: Center Stage Die with Enchanted Evening cardstock.  I layered that over Stampers Select white cardstock.

I embossed a sentiment from Phrases & Praises Stamp Set in gold, and popped it up onto the card base with some messy gold thread behind.

Well, there you have it! - why don't you join in on the challenges - you could win prizes!!

One More Time…..Get your Color On!

Good day! I am pretty pumped because I am this week's Guest Designer over at The Color Throwdown….woohoo!

Here are the colours this week… I was told they were Light Pink, Dark Pink, Gold and Purple - so I went quite literal and used purple!!

I got out my new Cover Plate: Bitty Butterflies and started die cutting using Royal Velvet and white cardstock, along with some glittery gold cardstock.

I stamped several of the bitty butterflies from the Bitty Butterflies stamp set using Raspberry Fizz and Lovely Lady ink and inlaid them onto the die cut white cardstock.

I then adhered that to my Royal Velvet card base.  I die cut another Cover Plate out of the large Polka Dot vellum in the Sheer Basics Vellum Patterned Paper 

The sentiment was embossed in white on a strip of Royal Velvet cardstock.  I placed a messy blob of gold thread under the strip of cardstock before it was adhered.

Why don't you give it a go - you can use any stamp set you want!! Hope on over to Color Throwdown and get your colour on!

Happy for you….

Good morning and welcome to my fall creation - hah!

I've been water colouring again and I just bought the Papertrey Ink Sunflower Cover Plate - of course I am late to the table once again….

It has been just like autumn down here in Florida - just damp and chilly - I suppose it is all relative but for a warm state - it has yet to live up to it's reputation this winter……I know - whinewhinewhinewhine…

Let's get on to the card shall we :)

I began by using the thinnest pad in the embossing pad kit and just impressing the image onto my watercolour cardstock.  Then I had a base to colour.

Using my Zig Real Brush Markers I painted away until I was happy with my image.

I then die cut the sunflower all the way through and painted it with my markers.  I carefully adhered it to my water coloured image - I loved how the colours just pop!

Using the die and sentiments from One Big Happy - a fabulous free set offered over the holidays - I finished it  - along with adding some sparkly sequins from Pretty Pink Posh!

I love watercolouring and Papertrey Ink is coming out with NEW watercolour sheets to colour - yay!!!

Thanks from all of us!

I really liked this week's sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch and so I played along….

I began by simply "smooshing" a watercolour background onto Ranger watercolor cardstock using pinks and yellow re-inkers and setting it aside to dry.  I decided to buy the 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock and cut it into quarters - it saves a bit of money and that's a good thing….

I die cut the Simon Says Stamp "thanks" sentiment from Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz cardstock and then actually HANDCUT a piece of white cardstock with my paper trimmer and stamped the sentiment (from Mama Elephant Photobomb).

So weird…..I looked for a die that would cut a piece of white cardstock and nearly panicked when I couldn't find the size of die that I wanted…..soooo dependent on those dang dies….. haha!

Using my "smooshed" background, I die cut the Single Roses Wafer Die - I had not even separated the dies yet, but I thought it looked great.  I only used the positive part of the die cut - (at least I think - I was never too good with my positives and negatives) I will save the positive (?) die cuts for another project.

I die cut my background cardstock with Your Next Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies and adhered it to a white card panel.

I adhered my two sentiments together,  popped it up onto the background and adhered it to a Raspberry Fizz cardstock base.

Okay that is all for today - Thanks for coming around!

Let the Adventure Begin!

I'm playing in The Color Throwdown challenge this week --the colours are so soft and muted.  And it has been raining non stop here for two days for what else is a girl to do but create?!

I decided that the grey would have to signify mountains….so I pulled out various Papertrey Ink's Petite Place's dies….mountains, trees, sunrises to name a few.

 

I used Lemon Tart card stock for my base and added some patterned vellum over top to soften it up.

Then I put together a ton of Petite Places dies - Papertrey Ink Scene It - Mountain View die, the Adirondack chairs from the Happy Camper die, the Pop Up tree die, along with a sunrise Petite Places die - I can't seem to find it on the site right now.

And then I had to add a bit of brown for the sentiment and the tree branches- just HAD to!

Come and play along with The Color Throwdown!!

Friend

Good rainy morning! Another rainy one here in Southwestern Florida - blech…but it gives me a chance to create which is a big YAY!

The Challenge has a masculine theme inspiration photo this week - NOT my favourite definitely lol, but I perservered and came up with a colourful Friend card - because having a male friend is absolutely do-able!

I used the oranges and blue as my inspiration and came up with a Friend creation that could be sent to a male friend.  Using Mama Elephant's Friend Indeed and some colourful papers - one with bit of glitter because I don't care WHO you are - you are getting a glittery card from me!

I added the matching die cut "friend" along with some twine - because I'm pretty sure that guys like twine - yes they do.

Thanks for coming out and hope you get on with The Challenge this week!

Hugs and Critters...

Good day and what a sunny gorgeous day it is here!

Simon Says Stamp 's Wednesday Challenge is to use a "critter" on your creation - no problem here - I won a gift certificate from Newton's Nook and I loaded up on some of their cute critter stamps yay!

I did just a little bit of masking to place the bunny behind the fence, sort of sideways.  Using Zig water-colour pens, I coloured them up and then fussy cut it and added it to my card.

The various background papers were die cut with the Landscape Trio Creative Cuts die from Mama Elephant.

I have a lot of different paper pads here and some of the sheets are all over the place in my drawer so I used some of them for my card - I don't like it when the patterned paper is not known to me but such is the life of a disorganized stamper - ME!

The sentiment "hugs" is from Simon Say Stamps newest release and I see it is out of stock right now - but I am sure it will be replenished soon!  I die cut two and offset each one so the sentiment was more noticeable.

I tied it with some ribbon because I have so much that I need to use --yikes!

Take a peak at the challenge and have fun!

You Brighten My Days

Good day - we have had some crazy storms happening in southern Florida and I really miss my basement up north eek!  So far so good….

This week's The Challenge and The Color Throwdown were so similar that I combined them ...I think it works out wonderfully!

I used Papertrey Ink's Winter Woods (again) but used the more vintage-y colours and inspiration offered up in the various challenges.

The bird and branch was stamped with Sweet Blush and Classic Kraft ink with the branch having the added Aqua Mist berries…..soooo true to life haha

I popped them up onto the Rustic Wreath Die which is adhered to a sheet of Sheer Basics Vellum cut with the Mama Elephant Scalloped die from All Prettied Up.

The sentiment is from the Scripted die and stamp set.  I added a few 4mm and 8mm clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh - such sparkly fun!

Loves mew!

I'm starting my Valentine's cards and this one is for my one and only granddaughter!  I need to pop it in the mail so that it reaches Canada before that special day - the postal service in Florida is 'delicate' to say the least.

This week's Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge has a "Girly" board this week - perfect for a Valentine's theme!

This is the theme board

I was inspired by the kitty, the polka dots and the pink shades - as you can see, so I watercolored the cute little Newton kitty from Newton's Nook stamp set Newton's Antics.  I won a gift certificate in the Coffee Lovers Holiday Blog Hop and I was able to choose a few sweet stamp sets from Newton's Nook- yay!

The scalloped frame -cardstock and Swiss Dot vellum - was diecut using Mama Elephant's Creative Cuts - All Prettied Up!  I adhered "Newton" to a circle die and added him right in the middle of that pretty scalloped circle.

I coloured and die cut the sweet little ball of yarn and popped it up onto the kitty.  The bow is also one of the dies from All Prettied Up - a little added specialty to make my creation all girly!!

Thanks for coming around - and check out this "Pretty" inspiration board at Curtain Call!

A Lovely Hello

I haven't been able to find the time - in between all of this golfing haha - to enter The Color Throwdown Challenge, but I finally got it all together and came up with a Lovely Hello.  Since my flowers are also a little bit ombré, I am placing this into Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge which is Ombre!

Here are this week's lovely colours for the Throwdown......

Using Papertrey Ink's Bitty Bouquets, I diecut and stamped three of the blossoms using Summer Sunrise inks and also Orange Zest to make an ombre effect , along with New Leaf and Soft stone.

I popped them up onto white card stock that was cut using Sentiments Splits: Curved Vertical Die.

I also die cut yellow card stock and layered it all onto Soft Stone patterned paper that was stamped with the Sentiment Splits stamp set!

A little bit of twine was tied around the panels and it was done - and sweet I might add!

Blue Hello

Hello! - have you been following all of the new product from CHA? I am in awe and  I really need to win the $450 million lottery Lol

This month at Butterfly Reflections Ink there is a mood board - well I guess it is every month but this is the first time I have joined in with the pretty fun!

Here is the board and my take on the challenge…

In retrospect, I should have added a butterfly or two, but I fell in love with the colours!

I used Papertrey Ink Vintage Linens stamp set and white embossed them onto Tim Holtz water-colour paper.

I coloured the flowers with my Zig real brush markers, in various shades of blues as per the mood board.

I added a few pretty baubles and a die cut hello and I was good to go!

Now I am off golfing - thanks for coming around!!

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!

Good morning! I'm joining in the 2015 Holiday Coffee Lovers Blog Hop yay! There are prizes to be won - tons of them, so start getting inky and join in the fun!

…..and really….Who doesn't like coffee?! - well never mind - I have a couple of friends who don't drink the loving potion and who am I too judge?!

I just had to ink up my new Papertrey Ink set - Cup of Cheer - I mean what is NOT to love?!

I stamped the Coffee Pot with OceanTides ink and the coffee cups with Classic Kraft.  I added the cute little poinsettias with Kraft and Pure Poppy and popped them up onto the mug and carafe.

My patterned paper is also from Papertrey Ink - last years choice pulled out of hiding for this year - it is pretty classic.

Thank you for popping around to see my creation today -lots of things to love on the hop so check it out!

God is Good!

I had a few minutes - and some fun stamps - to do some creating yesterday….in between golfing in the sun and gardening!

I followed Reverse Confetti's December SFYTT for this card….stamping with one of the sentiments from RC's God is Good…..I love this set and so I made sure to bring it with me to Florida so I could finally get it inky!

I stamped the sentiment with Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides

I stamped the sentiment with Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides and used Your Next Stamps Stitched Rectangle Die set for my rectangle front panel.  I had a few odds and ends of patterned paper and a sweet water coloured panel to use for my card - yay!  I finished it off with some fun twine and sequins.

I hope to get some stamping done in the next few days - I haven't even started my Christmas cards - eek!

DTGD Sweet Little One!

Hey there! I was totally inspired by this post of Jennifer McGuire's on "Copic Dot Coloring" so I had to give it a go - and I used her sketch - which, naturally, is brilliant!

Along with that, I am continuing with the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges for 2015 and this is for Sweet Miss Daisy's challenge.

I began by picking my image - this sweet little bunny from Your Next Stamp's set called Woodland Cuties - I use this set quite often for baby cards - so cute!

I lightly coloured him with C1 and then (held my breath) using C3 and C5, I made little dots where I thought there would be some darkening or shadows.  I added a touch of C7 - which close up looks kind of weird, but the overall effect is eye-catching!

Finally I "coloured" a few dots for some grass and sky to finished it off.

My circles were die cut using the MFT Stitched Circle dies - I love them!

I popped it all up onto my card base that is covered with a piece of Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush patterned paper  - just perfect!

Thanks for visiting - try some of those Splitcoaststamper Challenges - tons of PRIZES to be won!

Color Throwdown and DTGD Combo!

Good day and hello!

Another day and another Dare to Get Dirty Challenge - of course I can't tell you any of the details - but if you are a fan club member, you can find those challenges in the Dare to Get Dirty Forum on Splitcoaststampers - but it is a fun one for sure!

I CAN tell you that I have combined it with The Color Throwdown colours this week - gorgeous naturally!

I used Reverse Confetti stamps and Confetti Cuts - Love Blooms to be precise…..along with the "hello" Confetti Cuts !

I die cut and stamped some of the pretty flowers in Melon Berry ink and added some glitter to the flower centres.   The leaves are stamped in New Leaf - a gorgeous green!  I popped everything up onto a die cut piece of Papertrey Ink Damask Designs patterned paper .

I doubled up on the "hello" sentiment and tucked it in behind a few of the flowers.

Finally, I added a few little Your Next Stamp gumdrops - perfect!

Welcome Little One and DTGD!

Woohoo! It's that time of year again - Dare to Get Dirty Challenges are up and running yay!  I made this card for one of the challenges, which of course are top secret - unless you are a Fan Club member!  

There are tons and tons of challenges all week and PRIZES woohoo!

I pulled out my newest stamp sets from Your Next Stamp - Woodland Cuties and Forest Friends for my creation today, and followed this week's Your Next Stamp sketch challenge.

I stamped the background onto a 4 X 5 1/4 sheet of white card stock and then cut out the middle square using two of the square dies so I could create a frame.

I stamped, coloured and die cut the sweet little fox and popped him up on the square diecut.  Then I added a couple of clouds and some YNS Cotton Candy blue gumdrops (LUV!) along with a die cut heart- and the stamped sentiment.

Oh how I love this little guy!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Holy cow - this week's colours at The Color Throwdown threw me for a loop...... but perseverance is my middle name (not really - it's Joan)  so I kept at it and came up with a celebratory creation!

I used Papertrey Ink colours - Summer Sunrise, Royal Velvet and Limeade Ice, along with their stamps - Hooray!, Birthday Style Die Collection and the Good Times die.

I die cut the "celebrate" with the delicious Luxe Gold Adhesive sheets - oh my word - what a gorgeous pure gold - yummy!

I added some pretty sparkly gold gumdrops from Your Next Stamps along with the sparkly bows from my stash!  - I love a handy go-to sparkle!!