Grateful for You for SPARKS challenge

It's been awhile since I played along with the PS SPARKS challenge.  It's an Anything Goes week, and I decided to pull out my favorite set, Blossoming Buds.

I decided to piece, it's a great way to use up some of your stash/scraps.  There's a little bit of everything on this card:  Studio Calico, BasicGrey, October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye....

Hope that your week is off to a good start, we're enjoying some really gorgeous weather here!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Supplies Used

Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - White Cardstock; Misc Patterned Papers

Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Blossoming Buds

Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black; Versafine

Other:  Kuretake - Glue Pen; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

You can make a flower out of anything

....well, just about anything.  I was messing around with some Paper Smooches stamps the other day, and for whatever reason decided that the duster from Squeaky Clean should really become a flower, or medallion.

This actually took a while to make since I decided that paper piecing was the way to go, so I stamped a gazillion dusters, some on white cardstock to use as bases and others on pink and green patterned paper for the duster bottoms and handles.

After piecing all the dusters, I adhered them to a yellow patterned paper circle and then added a gem in the center.



Since I wanted that to be the focal point, I tried to keep the rest of the card pretty CAS.  A little gray mist, some sequins, and a popped up sentiment.

I'm going to link this up over at SPARKS since it's an Anything Goes week.



Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  MME - Record It, Just Splendid 6x6 pad; AE - White Cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Squeaky Clean
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Dylusions - Slate Gray Ink Spray; Neat & Tangled - Translucent Sequins; CTMH - Liquid Glass and Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Cure for the Monday Blues - You Are Beautiful

I thought this week I would FINALLY throw my hat in the ring for my friend Taheerah's Cure for the Monday Blues challenge.

I love the colors in the inspiration photo, and this is what I came up with:

This was so easy to create.  I used a tag shaped journaling card from Maggie Holmes' Styleboard collection as the base, although I did trim it down at the bottom just a tad so the printed heart at the bottom was more centered vertically.

Lots of inlaid die cutting here.  The hearts and words are both Paper Smooches.  I cut the hearts out and replaced them with hearts cut from pale gray cardstock that I colored with a Spectrum Noir marker.  It turned out a little too dark, so I went over with the colorless blender to lighten it a bit.  The words were cut from gold foil cardstock and inlaid also.  

Some Twinery twine added a little extra sparkle and texture.

I'm also going to link up with the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge since it's Anything Goes week.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies Used

Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - Silver Fox cardstock; Recollections - Gold Foil Cardstock

Other:  Crate - Styleboard Journaling Card; Paper Smooches - Hearts and Kudos Words Dies; The Twinery - Gold Sparkle Twine; Spectrum Noir markers; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

I'm Impressed for Paper Smooches Anything Goes

Thought I would play along with the current challenge over at Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge which is Anything Goes.

Just a fun little card, not my normal style, but it's nice to try something a little different every so often, and I love how quickly this came together too....so apparently, my normal style is SLOOOOW.

Keeping this post short as I've got several deadlines coming up, but I also wanted to remind you if you haven't yet, and don't mind registering, I would very much appreciate your votes in the Gallery Idol competition.  I'd love to get to the next round.  Just click on the icon in the top right and it will take you there.

Thanks and hope you have a great day!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  MME - Record It Just Splendid 6x6 pad; Avery Elle - Fog cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Squeaky Clean
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Misc Washi Tape; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

It's Your Birthday - Squeal

Playing along with a couple challenges today - Simon Says Stamp's Happy Birthday challenge and Anything Goes at SPARKS.

I recently got Paper Smooches' Party Posse set.  The critters are so cute and I chose this little guy for a really quick and easy card.  I cut a few random strips of patterned paper from SC's Snippet's collection, adding a bit of stitching detail.

Then I colored the little critter (I'm really not exactly sure what it is, hamster?) with Spectrum Noir markers and fussy cut him.  The word bubbles are Lawn Fawn....I actually have the dies, but I was lazy to go upstairs and get them, so I just fussy cut them and added the PS sentiments.

Hope that your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Studio Calico - Snippets 6x6 pad; Avery Elle - White Cardstock; CTMH - White Cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smoches - Party Posse; Lawn Fawn - A Birdie Told Me
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Spectrum Noir Markers; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Sewing Machine

Thanks for SPARKS Anything Goes Challenge

It's another Anything Goes week for Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, and this really is an Anything Goes card for me as I stamped on paper towel for this one.  What do you think?  Weird, or cool?  I've got mixed feelings on this one, but I think it's kind of cool.

I used pigment inks from CTMH for the flowers/leaves and Smokey Grey Versafine for the sentiment.    You really need to use pigment inks because dye inks will bleed too much.

The paper towel is pretty sheer, so I added a piece of white cardstock behind, cut just a bit smaller.

Short and sweet today.  We are finally getting back to a 'normal' routine after our snowfall this week. Schools are open today albeit two hours late.  Hope that you are having a great day!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - Kraft and White Cardstock; Paper Towel
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Calico and Simply Said
Ink:  CTMH - Adventure Mini Pigment Ink Pads; Versafine - Smokey Grey
Other:  Tombow - Mono Adhesive

What's the buzz - SPARKS Anything Goes

Thought I would play along with the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge this week since it's Anything Goes.  I used my Cyber Cafe stamp set for this card and managed to use a fair number of the stamps in the set to decorate an Elle's Studio journaling tag.

Also got to use up some of my stash on this one as most of the papers came from my scrap pile.  A little piecing, a little generational stamping (coffee stain image is second generation), and a little stitching.

We are back to work/school today.  Hopefully all goes well.  I think the girls are still a little short on sleep from New Year's Eve.  We always spend that evening with my friend Shannon and her family.  This year we went to the Japanese Steakhouse - Carina's first time, and her reactions were fantastic - and then watched Despicable Me 2.  We had the girls to bed by 11, but that is way late for them.  Wish us luck!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  MME - Six by Six My Favorite Things; PTI - Kraft Cardstock; CTMH - White Daisy and Cocoa Cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Cyber Cafe
Ink:  CTMH - Cocoa
Other:  Elle's Studio - Serendipity Large/Medium Journaling Tags; Sewing Machine; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Joy for Sparks Challenge

I had some time this weekend, so I thought I would play along with the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.  It's been ages since I did, and I was feeling like doing some piecing.

This week's challenge was a sketch, and I thought I would pull out my Warm Hearts set, and I really haven't gotten to use it much at all.

The papers are older, a mix of Echo Park Seasons Greetings (patterns) and Fancy Pants Home for Christmas (solids).

I first cut the background and polaroid so I could lay out the scene.  I wanted the trees to spill over the frame a bit for dimension.  The tree image was stamped twice on each of the patterned papers, on the blue base and on some kraft cardstock for the trunks. I fussy cut and adhered the entire image even though I knew I was going to pop up the outer trees because I didn't want you to be able to see the blue behind them.

The snowdrifts I just free hand cut, and added a line of color using a Spectrum Noir marker and then softening it with the blending pen.

Some snowflakes were stamped for the sprinkled elements in the sketch, and I did some very light distressing with Antique Linen Distress Ink on the base.

I adhered the tree scene and snowdrifts to the blue sky piece and then that entire piece to the card base.

After embossing the sentiment, and adding the fussy cut hearts, I adhered the polaroid frame with dimensional foam tape and then popped up the extra tree pieces I had stamped for the outer trees.  A little bit of twine finished it off.

I had a great time making this one.  Hope you enjoy it and are having a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  EP - Seasons Greetings Collection; Fancy Pants - Home for Christmas Collection; CTMH - White Daisy, Colonial White, and Kraft cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Warm Hearts
Ink:  CTMH - Cocoa; Versamark; Ranger - Antique Linen Distress Ink
Other:  CTMH - White embossing powder, Dimensional Foam Tape; Liquid Glass; Twinery - Maraschino Twine; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Kuretake - Glue Pen; Spectrum Noir Markers - BT2, Blender

Card for SPARKS Challenge

This idea has been percolating in my brain for a week or so now, but of course I waited until the last minute to get it down on paper (literally).

Here's the inspiration from PS:



Super simple card to make, just a lot of cutting tiny little sugar cubes (that's what the blocks are, the sugar cube from the Hot Concoctions set), and then getting them in the right configuration....a good card to make while you're catching up on some TV shows.

The other great thing about this card was that I got to use scraps. I opted for some of my old Creative Memories cardstock, great bright colors, and a little thinner which makes cutting tiny pieces out a little easier.

Originally I wanted the sentiment to say Practice Joy, but I was reading about choices last night, and choose seemed so much more appropriate, I mean, if you're choosing then you're practicing too, right?

For that piece on top that says 'choose' I wanted to use vellum, but I don't actually have any vellum. What I do have is parchment paper. Parchment paper is a bit slick, so I sanded it down to get the ink to stick. I also didn't have a stamp that said choose, so I printed the word in a font that I liked (just from Microsoft Word), then put the parchment paper on top and traced it using a zig marker.



I punched a couple holes in the vellum using my soft set eyelet setter and threaded through a rainbow of Twinery twine colors to complete the look.

This was fun, and I'm thinking it would be easy to make a whole set of cards spelling things out this way. This card is also a great reminder that even the smallest stamp in your set can be the star. Love those little stamps!

Two more days til the weekend!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock: CTMH White Daisy, Creative Memories, colors (sorry don't know the names)
Ink: CTMH Black
Other: CTMH Dimensional Foam Tape, CTMH Softset Eyelet tool, Twinery Twine (Maraschino, Mandarin, Lemon Drop, Peapod, Denim, Lilac).

SPARKS Challenge Card - Get Well

I've got another SPARKS challenge card for you today.

It just so happens that in my recent CTMH order, in addition to my new sanding kit, I had two new ink pads: Grey Wool and Sunkiss Yellow...providential when you look at this inspiration photo, don't you think?



For this card, I was really inspired by the line/shadow of the gray branch of flowers. I used the flower and leaf from the Hot Concoctions stamp as well as my trusty blending pen to mimic that branch. Then I cut around it, leaving a little bit of a white border and adhered it to some Juniper cardstock with liquid adhesive.

I also really love that the fabric texture comes through in the photo, so I wanted to sand the entire piece once I got it adhered....DISASTER!

Turns out sanding doesn't work so well when you fancy cut an intricate piece (which is very thin in places, and on which you also did a lot of shading with the blending pen)....the whole top layer (with all the stamping) came right off! Not what I was expecting, but it turned out to be a happy accident.

When you sand the top layer of your cardstock off, you end up with a kind of felty looking layer. So, I went ahead and re-stamped on that layer....being a little more careful with the blending pen this time as the color shows up more saturated on this layer. (I'm planning to do a lot more experimenting with this. You can create some pretty neat textured backgrounds with this technique.)

The teapot and cup which are also from the Hot Concoctions set are stamped (three times) on some Grey Flannel cardstock which is then sanded. I added the ground for the teapot and tea using the blending pen.

I scored another piece of Gray Flannel cardstock and sanded that to create a mat for my main piece and to add a just a touch of that yellow, I swiped the Sunkiss Yellow stamp pad around the edges of the white card base. By the way, I found the cheapest, and best scoring tool....an old (dried out) ball point pen. Love that it never 'jumps' like the old scoring stylus I have!

So there you have it. This card has a much different look than the other Paper Smooches cards I've made, but I really like how it turned out.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Paper Smooches - Hot Concoction; CTMH - A Little Bit of Everything
Ink (CTMH): Grey Wool, Sunkiss Yellow
Paper (CTMH): White Daisy, Juniper, Grey Flannel
Other (CTMH): Blending Pen, Sanding Kit

SPARKS Challenge Card

I wanted to play along with Paper Smooches current SPARKS challenge. I was inspired by the shape of the apples and the leaves as well as the colors. Here's what I came up with:



All the stamps used on this card are from the PS Hot Concoctions set. I used the steam swirls to echo the leaves on the apples, and did a fair amount of paper piecing for the card.

The tag/tag frame were cut with the Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge, and I freehand drew the little smiley face on the spoon.

It took me a while to come up with a plan for this card as the Orla Kiely print is so bold, but I think the card does evoke the graphic nature of the print.

Hope everyone had a great start to the week!

CTMH Products Used:
Ink: Black, White Daisy
Paper: Sunset, Outdoor Denim, White Daisy, Lucky Level 2
Other: Cricut AP Cartridge, Craft Knife, Dimensional Foam Tape

Other Products Used:
Paper Smooches Hot Concoctions Stamp Set