Soft Wings in Black and White

I recently won a random draw at

Pixies Snippet Playground.

I was so excited because I love butterflies and

this one is a beauty.

I'm fluttering over to the playground with this, since I got to 

use up a few snippets for this gate fold card.

This Week's Addicted to Stamps has a photo inspiration.

The shades of black, gray and white inspired my card.

And I'm excited to announce that my

Thanksgiving Card

was the winner over there on August 22nd.

Thank you ladies.

I'm honored.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

is everybody's favorite

ANYTHING GOES

I hope you've had a crafty week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps: Soft Wings (Penny Black)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper:  110# Solar White (Neena), Basic Black, Whisper White

Other:  Square Lattice EF

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Going Geometric

It's been so nice to get some stamping time.

When I saw the current challenge for Addicted to CAS

I nearly choked!

Math was never one of my strengths and I've spent 

the last 50 years several years forgetting 

just about everything I ever learned in Geometry!

The Design Team helped.

Geometry is shapes.

I hadn't forgotten that.

Then I saw this card by Elizabeth

who is the Queen this week at SCS,

and an idea was born.

I had this NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff a la Darnell)

Six Sided Sampler set sitting in my need to use box.

I thought that hexagon would look great in a square.

And putting it on a rectangular card gave me 3 shapes.

And that's about all the Geometry I can handle!

This week Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

is ANYTHING GOES

so I'm heading over there.

I hope you've found some creative time today.

I'm glad you could stop by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Six Sided Sampler

Ink:  Pacific Point

Paper:  110# Solar White (Neena), Whsiper White, Daffodil Delight

Other:  Stitched Mat Squares (Lil' Inker), Hexagon Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch (retired), Basic Pearl (Colored with Blendie), Beautiful Wings Embosslit

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Merry Monday Holly Wreath

Good Morning.

It's Merry Monday time.

I'm the hostess this week and this is what I chose.

I love wreaths and I'd love to have one just like this one.

Here's what I have today.

The holly vine is from Memory Box.

I sponged color on it very carefully with a makeup applicator

and ever so gently arranged it around the aperture.

The berries were punched from a snippet of Real Red with

the 1/16" Circle Punch.

Snippet use gets me into 

Pixies Snippet Playground

I hope you'll put a wreath on your Christmas card

and take it over to 

Merry Monday.

And be sure to go over and check out the wonderful

cards that the super talented Design Team has come up with.

WOW!

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  More Merry Messages

Ink:  Garden Green, Soft Suede

Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red

Other:  Holly Vine (Memory Box), Kars Snowflake Spot EF (Cuttlebug-retired), Bakers Twine (Michaels $bin)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Rose

A couple of weeks ago I was stamping with friends

and cut this rose with Peggy's dies.

Edited to add: It's a 2 step rose die and I have no idea who makes it 
called Long Stem Rose and made by Frantic Stamper.

There were a couple of challenges at Splitcoaststampers

that I wanted to play in so I pulled out the roses

and went to work with some Stampin' Sponges

and ink pads.

After I sponged color on the pieces, I spritzed with some water

to give it more texture.

I set the flower pieces aside to dry and stenciled

a little background on the card with some ink.

I tried to use embossing paste.

That was a disaster!  UGH!

 Two times and both looked terrible.

I've decided that for texture I prefer embossing folders!

This design was inspired by this beautiful card

by Diane. She's the Featured Stamper this week at SCS.

Simon Says Monday Challenge

is ANYTHING GOES.

Seize the Birthday

is ANYTHING GOES, NO TOPPING

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps: Be Happy (Amy R.)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Certainly Celery

Paper: 110# Solar White (Neena)

Other: Moroccan Lace Stencil (Kite), Stampin' Sponge, Rose Dies (?), Gessoed Twine, Sequins (SSS)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Bloom with Hope for Queen Dini

I haven't played with the Queen for the Day challenge in quite a while.

It's nice this week to be able to stamp a bit.

This week's Queen is Dini, SCS Artist in Residence.

Wow, what a gallery!

I chose this gorgeous card to CASE (Copy And Share Everything).

I did a little bit of masking and a lot of coloring with the Blendabilities.

I even tried to mix color families.

I like the look.

Hope you do too.

I added a bit of softness to the background by lightly sponging 

Soft Sky around the flowers.

Addicted to Stamps

is having a CAS week.

I hope this is CAS enough.

And I'm entering again in the

Mixed Media Challenge

Besides stamps and ink I colored with 

alcohol markers and water marker,

sponged background and added ribbon for texture.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Bloom with Hope (Hostess set)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky

Paper:  Hello Honey, Whisper White

Other:  Blendabilities (Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Old Olive sets), Stampin' Sponge, SU Marker (Chocolate Chip), Summer Starfruit Ribbon, Simply Scored

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Merry Monday Endless Wishes

Whoosh! We're more than halfway through August!

How are you coming on your Christmas cards?

I'm glad I have a good stash thanks to

Merry Monday.

Sue is hostess this week and this is the fantastic challenge she chose.

I pulled out my Endless Wishes Photopolymer set and embossing powder

and went to work.

This was so quick and easy!

I rubbed my embossing buddy all over the card front,

randomly stamped some snowflakes and embossed with the silver.

Then I repeated the process and embossed with gold.

A sentiment matted in black, some silver ribbon and it was done.

Check out what the other DT have done.

You'll be blown away!

Then pull out your shine and join us at

Merry Monday.

I'm taking my sentiment snippets over to

Pixies Snippet Playground

where I shared the spotlight with many other

very talented artists and a sweet baby that stole the show!

Thanks so much for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Endless, Greetings of the Season

Ink:  VersaMark, Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White

Other:  Silver and Gold Embossing Powder, Silver Taffeta Ribbon

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Getting Dirty at Splitcoaststampers

I may have mentioned the Dare to Get Dirty Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.

It's for Fan Club members at that wonderful gallery and forum.

There were 42 challenges over the course of that week.

I entered 18 cards in 19 challenges.

I thought I'd share a few that were named in the Favorites over there.

What a wonderful honor as there were so many awesome cards entered in that challenge.

I was amazed at the number of stampers that actually were able to 

complete a card for each of those challenges!

What an accomplishment!

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

Forever Florals Thanksgiving

Addicted to Stamps

is having a Holiday week.

Love this Forever Florals stamp set. 

The flowers are perfect for coloring with the Blendabilities.

I used the Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive Blendie sets.

After coloring the flower, I masked it and added some 

leaves from the retired Peaceful Petals set 

and a stem from Secret Garden (also retired).

It seemed perfect for a Thanksgiving card.

I'm so enjoying this set.  I find coloring these flowers very therapeutic!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Forever Florals, Peaceful Petals (retired), Secret Garden (retired), Whacked Bright Blessings Wheel (retired)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Early Espresso

Paper:  Tangelo Twist, Whisper White

Other:  Simply Scored, Pumpkin Pie Taffeta Ribbon (retired)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Here's another very CAS card I did with this set.

There was a stamping boo boo and it ended up much smaller for cutting the bad out.

You can go to Splitcoaststampers to get the details on this one.

I'm so glad you could stop by.

Enjoy!

Summertime Corner Garden

I haven't had much crafting time lately but here's a card I made last month

for DD's birthday.

I used a NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) stamp for the garden.

It was stamped with Memento ink on watercolor paper.

I used an Aqua Painter and my Koi watercolors for coloring.

This little set of watercolors is perfect for travel. 

I took it with me on vacation along with some stamped images.

I find watercoloring very soothing.

Looking at this photo I see that I should have done something different 

on the inside of that large flower! Maybe some dots with the white gel pen?

No matter, DD loved it!

I stamped the butterfly on a piece of cardstock that had been sponged with yellow.

It seemed to look much better than any of the marker colored butterflies I had on hand.

CAS on Sunday

is looking for butterflies, so I'm playing over there.

I was so excited to see that this card was the winner of their last challenge.

I won a $20.00 gift credit at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

I've already cashed that in and can't wait for my goodies to arrive.

They really ship fast!

Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge

is asking for Summertime Butterflies

so I'll flit over there. 

I used 2 techniques besides stamping on the card

(Watercolor and Sponging [butterfly])

so I'll go over to

the Mixed Media challenge

which has a Summertime theme.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

is also looking for Summer projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Corner Garden, Papillon Potpourri

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper:  140# Cold Press Watercolor (Strathmore), Whisper White

Other:  Koi Watercolors (Sakura), Aqua Painter, Elegant Butterfly Punch

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

Merry Monday Plaid and Pine

It's Merry Monday time. 

This week, the lovely Wendy is our hostess.

Here's what she chose.



I used to use a lot of plaid at Christmas.

But my ribbon was all gone.

And there was no Christmas plaid ribbon in any of the craft stores.

Fortunately, when we were on vacation I saw a Christmas store.

All they had available was really wide ribbon for wreaths.

But the lady there was so helpful in finding some ribbon that wouldn't fray too badly when cut into narrow strips.

Phew!

I used the long retired Peaceful Wishes set to stamp the evergreen boughs.

The pine cone was stamped 3 times on a snippet with Soft Suede ink.

I fussy cut the pine cones and slightly curled with a bone folder.

They are layered with dimensionals.

I also used a snippet of some die cut greens to layer over the stamped greens.

Then I added some Dazzling Details for sparkle.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge

Make it Sparkle

I'm off to

Pixies Snippet Playground

with my pine cone and evergreen snippets.

The rest of the Merry Makers have done a marvelous and creative job.

Look closely. Some of them didn't have a stash of plaid ribbon either.

Be sure to check them out if you need some inspiration

or even if you just want to enjoy some eye candy!

I hope you'll pull out your plaid ribbon or make some and join us at

Merry Monday.

Thanks for the visit.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  Peaceful Wishes (retired), Many Merry Messages (retired)

Ink:  Garden Green, Soft Suede

Paper:  Garden Green, Whisper White

Other:  Stitched Mats Rectangles (Lil' Inkers), Pine Needle Border (Memory Box), Plaid Ribbon

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

By the Seashore Mixed Media

When DH gave me some play money for my birthday,

I bought some alcohol inks.

I'd been admiring this background technique since I started stamping.

Then I kept seeing Laurie's beautiful cards using this technique on

Stamping up North.

So I went shopping for alcohol inks.

I got the inks out and had a play with them.

They are so much fun!

And I love the mottled background.

I used Lettuce and Pool on this one with

Snow Cap Mixative.

Edited to add that Vicki suggested that I enter this in the Muse Challenge so here I go.

Thanks, Vicki.

The current Mixed Media Challenge theme is

I had the By the Seashore stamp set in my NBUS box

and thought it was a good opportunity to ink it up.

I stamped the shells with Sahara Sand ink

then fussy cut them and edged with a Sahara Sand marker.

And used a White Gel Pen on the sand dollar

one of the Skin Tone Blendabilities on the shell and starfish,

and also a Creamy Caramel marker on the starfish.

I put the shells on some burlap ribbon with lots of hot glue

and added a pearl.

For a little added texture, I distressed the Crumb Cake mat.

Maybe you'd like to try some mixed media?

So glad you stopped by.

Enjoy!

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Card Recipe

Stamps:  By the Seashore

Ink:  Sahara Sand, Alcohol Ink (Pool, Lettuce, Snow Cap Mixative, Blending Solution; Adirondack), SU Marker (Sahara Sand, Creamy Caramel)

Paper:  110# Solar White (Neena), Crumb Cake, Glossy Paper, Whisper White

Other:  Distressing Tool, Stitched Mat Rectangles (Lil' Inker), Burlap Ribbon, Large Basic Pearl (retired)

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted