Bountiful Sunflower

I believe I mentioned visiting a wonderful craft store, The Enchanted Cottage, 

with a group of crafty ladies.

I saw a sample of this sunflower on display and immediately went searching for it.

When I saw the Poppystamps Challenge for this month,

I knew this would be perfect!

So what does this challenge mean, you ask?

"PSC#24 So Boss!  This month we're looking for projects with embossing.  You can dry emboss, deboss or heat emboss (is'nt it magical watching embossing powder go from solid to liquid, back to solid?)   Have you tried heat embossing your die cuts?  How about debossing your die cuts - running them through your die cut machine with an embossing mat to press crisp lines into your card stock?   Whatever method you use be sure to include at least one Poppystamps die or stamp on your design! "

I die cut this beautiful, Poppystamp sunflower twice 

(hint: I needed a piece of cardstock to use as a shim)

and sponged some color onto it.

Then I smacked it with VersaMark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The photo doesn't show the shine, but IRL it shines beautifully!

I cut the flower off one of the pieces and glued it to the back of the complete die cut.

For some added fun, I used another NBUS from Poppystamps,

Stick Frames, and dry embossed it twice on a piece of Naturals White cardstock.

I love how it made a textured but subtle background for the sunflower.

I added a few splatters to the background too.

I stamped the sentiment on a snippet of Early Espresso,

embossed it with White EP and popped it up atop the stem.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Painted Butterflies (Altenew)

Ink:   Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip (SU), VersaMark

Paper:   Crushed Curry, Naturals White, Early Espresso (SU)

Other:  Bountiful Sunflower Die, Stick Frames (PS), Clear and White EP (SU)

Prim Poppies for The Challenge

This card was inspired by a card that Bobby (Bits & Pieces) sent me for my birthday.

I loved the intense colors and had to CASE it.

I've used the sketch from Lesley's the challenge #76 over at Always Playing with Paper.

Well it's sort of like the sketch if you look at it upside down and backwards.

Hopefully it will be OK.

I did some die cutting, sponging, stamping and colored the poppies with markers.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps: Timeless Textures (SU), Lots of Thanks (SSS) 

Ink:   Mustard Seed (Distress), Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Markers (Real Red, Garden Green)

Paper:   Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Whisper White (SU)

Other:  Prim Poppy (MB), Stitched Mats Rectangles (LI)

We're Back at Merry Monday

 Good Merry Monday morning.

I've enjoyed our summer break but I'm happy to be back to making Christmas Cards.

Do you realize that Christmas is less than 4 months away?

Yikes!

Deanne has chosen our challenge this week.

This was such a quick and easy card to make!
The Prancing Deer is a Bigz die that does most of the work.

I just dry embossed the rest of the piece and added some gold highlights.

We have 2 guest designers this week, Loll and Kim S.
And we're welcoming a new member to our Design Team.
Welcome, Marcia!

Do go over to Merry Monday and check out their cards.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Mixed Medley (retired SU)

Ink:   VersaMark

Paper:   Basic Black, Whisper White, Gold Glimmer (SU)

Other:  Prancing Deer Bigz Die (TH), Snowflake EF (Darice), 3/4" Circle Punch (SU), Gold Twine (retired SU)

NBUS Crazy Bird

Last week, my friend Nance (SoulStampin'), invited me to her crafty room to play.
I decided to take my NBUS Bird Crazy stamp set that had been nesting in my
NBUS box for over a year.

I got all the birds stamped and colored while I was with Nance.
(I probably could have done more if I'd stopped talking once in awhile!)

I left the birds and dies with her so she could have some fun with them.
After all, I hadn't been in a big hurry to use them.

She posted one of her Bird Crazy creations here.

She had the perfect sentiment for it, don't you think?

She sent me a photo and it inspired me to put a bird on a card.

Thanks for the crafty time together and the inspiration, Nance!

I had a piece that I'd die cut a square out of for another project and
my bird kind of landed on it.
He looked very much at home and it said "shaker card" to me.

So I pulled out my Fuse Tool and made a shaker bag.

I used some snippets of marbled paper to die cut balloons.
The marbled paper was made using shaving cream and food coloring.
My grandkids made some during Camp Nana last month.
I let them die cut their pieces and kept the leftover bits.

Marbling is our challenge at CAS Mix Up this month.

My snippet balloons will let me in at 

Pixie's Snippet Playground

and last but definitely not least,

Darnell's NBUS Challenge

Thank you, Darnell, for compelling me to pull out some of that mountain of NBUS!

I actually used way more than 3 in the course of this week.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Bird Crazy (TH), Crazy About You (SU)

Ink:   Tuxedo Black (Ranger Archival ), Distress Marker (Stormy Sky)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Watercolor (TH), Marbled Paper 

Other:  Bird Crazy Thinlits (TH), Celebration Time Dies (SSS), Aqua Painter, Crystal Effects (bird's eyes), Fuse Tool (WAMK), Micro Beads, Sequins and Glitter

Marbled Prayers for CAS Mix Up

We have a new challenge at CAS Mix Up

This is a technique I've been wanting to try for ages.

Using Stamping, Marbling, Heat Embossing, Die Cutting, Fussy Cutting

I sprayed some shaving cream in a foam tray, smoothed it and dropped

2 colors of re-inkers into it.

Swirled with a wooden stick and laid some paper on top.

(I later found that a toothpick works better get more delictate swirls of color.)

After pressing it down on the swirls, I lifted the paper and

scraped the shaving cream off with a piece of heavy acetate 

that started out as backing for clear stamps.

It sure made the house smell good!

Here's a closer look at the shine of that embossed shell.

There's several ways you can do marbling and we have some videos over at

CAS Mix Up

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

EDITED TO ADD THAT AAA CARDS TO  USE A NEW TO ME TECHNIQUE

Marbling was a new to me technique.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

IT"S A STITCH UP

I have a double stitched frame

and

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

ANYTHING GOES

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Antique Engravings (retired HA), Beautiful Butterflies (PTI)

Ink:   VersaMark

Paper:   Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Distress Woodgrain (Tim Holtz)

Other:  Double Stitched Frames Die-namics (MFT), Copper EP (Zing), Shaving Cream, Re-inkers (Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi)