CAS(E) this Sketch | Challenge #98

Happy Halloween, crafty friends! The boys just got home from school and I have a few minutes to post before we head to Publix to trick-or-treat. Evan and Jack are going as a Creeper and a Steve from Minecraft and the excitement is pretty high around here. I think they both consumed ridiculous amounts of sugar at school and they are bouncing off the walls. Hopefully no one melts down before the trick-or-treating actually starts!

For today's CAS(E) this Sketch! card I pulled out Stampin' Up's Into the Forest stamp set and my Copic markers. The little animals are so cute, and I created a mini scene on my card front. I used Papertrey Ink's Double Ended Banner die and stamped Paper Smooches' Sentiment Sampler for the sentiment.

I also want to wish Heidi, from Chickaniddy Crafts, a very happy birthday! The entire design team created cards to celebrate her special day. Here's mine:

Happy Halloween and have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Papertrey Ink | Make it Monday #186

This week's Make it Monday challenge is partial die stamping. In the video, Laurie used one of my favorite word dies (the PTI "hello" die), but I wanted to use the butterfly from Life is Beautiful. These big butterfly dies are some of my most used (and loved!) dies. 

I used Papertrey Ink's Circle Scribbles stamp set on white cardstock for my butterfly. After I stamped the circles in Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, and Tropical Teal inks, I die cut the butterfly and adhered it to my card. The sentiment is from Wet Paint III, and the big polka dot button is from Doodle Bug. 

The font used on the "celebrate" stamp looks great with the Circle Scribbles stamped images. 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great week. :)

CAS(E) this Sketch | Challenge #97

Good morning! Today I have a card for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge:

I was inspired by this card (by Erin Lincoln). I like the bright colors paired with black glitter stars. I pulled out my Paper Smooches stars dies, and die cut them out of black cardstock. I used my Wink of Stella pen to color the stars, giving them an awesome shimmer. I let them dry over night before assembling my card.

That's it for me today! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Paper Smooches Sparks | Designer Drafts Challenge

It's Sunday, which means another Paper Smooches Sparks challenge is live! This week's challenge is Designer Drafts... a super cool sketch challenge. 

I pulled out one of my favorite fall stamp sets, Gently Seasoned, and four pigment inks for my card. Memento Luxe has a great selection of inks that work perfectly for autumn/fall cards. 

After I stamped the trunk, leaves, and sentiment, then I added two orange buttons and mounted the stamped panel onto Papertrey Ink's orange bitty dot patterned paper.

I hope you can play along with us this week! Make sure to check out the rest of the Design Team's awesome creations:

Alice

Angeline

Jenny

Savannah

 Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Retro Sketches | Challenge #138

Hello, crafty friends! I hope everyone had a great week.

Today I have a card for this week's Retro Sketches challenge:

I pulled out my new Papertrey Ink Make it Monday Tinsel and Tags kit for my card. I LOVE the patterned paper collection from this kit and used three pieces on my card. 

I die cut the bow from Simply Chartreuse cardstock, then stamped the image with Ripe Avocado ink. I used pigment ink for the "be merry" tag. It's hard to see in the picture, but I used my Wink of Stella pen to add shimmer to the pink triangles, a few of the circles, and some of the flowers on the patterned paper. 

I hope you can join us this week! You can see the rest of the design team's project here. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Paper Smooches Sparks | Anything Goes Challenge

When my mom visited last week she talked a lot about the Copic Marker class she is taking at Online Card Classes, and how much she is learning from the videos and PDFs. I didn't take the class, but I pulled out my Copic markers to do a little coloring earlier this week (and I LOVE the results), and again tonight to create a card for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes challenge.

I pulled out Love Struck, Sweet Hearts, and Blissful Banners to work with. I colored in the Cupid image with Copic markers, then used my Wink of Stella marker to make the heart and wings shine. The hearts were stamped on the background cardstock with various pigment inks from Avery Elle, Memento Luxe, and Impress inks. I stamped the sentiment onto Aqua Mist cardstock and cut it out by hand. 

I added three enamel hearts, from My Mind's Eye, over the stamped hearts. I felt like the card needed a "finishing touch" and these hearts, from the Jubilee collection, are perfect. 

 That's it for me tonight! I hope everyone has a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Mama Elephant | Anything Goes Challenge

Hello, hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. After our crazy weekend earlier this month (a birthday party, dinner with friends, my parents in town, a baseball game, four soccer games...) we needed time to relax and recharge. The boys crave downtime and like having a day or two to kick back and just be. 

Today I have a card for this month's Mama Elephant Challenge: Anything Goes. I purchased this stamp set, Bootastic, last year but didn't get around to using it. It is absolutely adorable, and has some of the best Halloween sentiments I've seen. I used another Mama Elephant product, their Femme Frames creative cuts, for the background. 

I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the cute little witch, sentiment, and Frankenstein, and Archival black ink for the bats. I used Copic marks and Spectrum Noir markers to color in the sentiment and trick or treaters. I used my Wink of Stella pen to add a bit of shimmer to the bats, hat, and Frankenstein's shoes. The only embellishment I added was three tiny enamel dogs (from My Mind's Eye) under the sentiment. I didn't want to detract from the stamps! 

I am also entering my card in this week's ColourQ challenge:

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

RetroSketches | Challenge #137

Today I have a card for this week's Retro Sketches challenge. I LOVE this "happy" die from Papertrey Ink, and I used it with some fun Lawn Fawn patterned paper. 

This sketch is super fun to work with. I wanted a very clean and white Christmas card, so I used just a big of patterned paper, some twine, and clear sequins to accent my card.

I die cut the "happy" card from Neenah Solar White cardstock, then used foam tape to pop it up on my card from. I cut tiny strips of foam tape and used tweezers to place the pieces before the "happy" letters. This step took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r, but the results are worth it!

I hope you can play along with us this week! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

Chickaniddy | Pinspiration

Hey there! I have two cards on the Chickaniddy blog today for their Pinspiration challenge. Here is a sneak peek of one of the cards:

Hop on over to the Chickaniddy blog for the rest of this project, and a bonus project, both inspired by Pinterest!

Gossamer Blue | Blog Hop

Good morning! I am so excited to be participating in the October Gossamer Blue blog hop! I have several cards to share today, all created with the October Main Kit, Life Pages Kit, and add-ons. 

First up is a card using one of the Theresa Collins tags from the Life Pages Main Add-on. I love this little fox, and the enamel hearts added the perfect finishing touch.

The Nine & Co. Ephemera Die Cuts from Teresa Collins are one of my favorite pieces in the October Main Kit. I used one of the big flower clusters on this card, along with a mix of patterned papers and a chipboard sticker from Teresa Collins' Nine & Co Chipboard Buttons. 

Has anyone else hopped on the watercolor trend? I have... in small doses. For this card, I cut the white cardstock at an angle, then used my ink pads to create the background.

I swiped each ink pad onto my craft mat, then used my water brush to splatter the ink over the cardstock. I matched the ink to the patterned paper and die cut, and created my own background paper. Super fun, fast, and easy.

My final card features a gorgeous floral die cut, more heart enamels, and a sentiment rub on that ties the whole card together. This aqua/green/red/black color combo is one I'm going to reach for again... it feels modern to me, but the flowers and gold add a vintage touch. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my Gossamer Blue projects! Next up is Eunyoung Lee. If you get lost and want to head back to the beginning of the blog hop, click here. Thanks for stopping by!

GB Blog

Anabelle O'Malley

Beshka Kueser

Brenda Weaver

Cindy Liebel

Danielle Flanders

Diane Payne

Emily Spahn

Erin Taylor  <<< you are here!

Eunyoung Lee

Evgenia Petzer

Heather Leopard

Jill Cornell

Jill Keller

Joy Taylor

Katie Ehmann

Keisha Campbell

Laura Crosby

Maria Lacuesta

Melanie Blackburn

Michelle Wooderson

Rebecca Luminarias

Sabrina Alery

Tara Anderson

Vanessa Perry

Yana Smakula

Retro Sketches | Challenge #136

Hello there! I'm a couple of days late with my Retro Sketches card... we have family in town and Evan played in a soccer tournament this weekend (they took second!), so I've been running back and forth between our house and the soccer fields... almost 40 minutes away! 

This week's Retro Sketches challenge is a super cute sketch:

I pulled out my October Studio Calico kit for my card. The little pumpkin image is darling, and I really wanted to use one of the included kraft and gold glitter pockets. How adorable are those?!? I left the gold and white twine on the tag, and decided not to put anything in the pocket. I like it just as decoration.

I hope you can play along with us this week! You can check out the rest of the design team samples here. Thanks for stopping by!

Make it Monday | Challenge #183

This week's Make it Monday challenge is dry embossing over heat embossing... how fun! I created a fall card with Papertrey Ink's Leaf Prints stamp set, and the sentiment is from Falling Leaves. 

I used three colors of Zing embossing powder for my leaves: Mustard, Cricket, and Apricot. I stamped each leaf separately and heat embossed them one at a time. After all the embossing had cooled, I ran my argyle impression plate through the big shot. I stamped the sentiment onto Kraft cardstock with black Archival ink, and the leaves were die cut from Leaf Prints dies and vellum. The super cute polka dot button is from Doodlebug Designs. 

I've tried so many different types of vellum, but the Papertrey Ink vellum that I use now is my absolute favorite. It's thicker than regular vellum and die cuts perfectly every time.

 

That's it for me tonight! My parents are flying in tonight for Evan's soccer tournament, and we have a very busy week planned. I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday! 

Paper Smooches Sparks | Anything Goes Challenge

Good morning! Today I have a card for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks: Anything Goes Challenge.

Evan started a new book last week and he was using a crumpled up receipt as a bookmark. Well, I can't have that! So I whipped up a new one using a couple of cute supplies from Paper Smooches: the Cuteasaurus stamp set and Bookmarks die set. 

I don't have the matching dies to the Cuteasaurus stamp set, so I fussy cut around them with my Fiskars scissors. I used Copic markers to color the palm tree and dinosaur, then stamped the sentiment with Archival black ink.

I hope you can play along with us this week! Check out the rest of the design team for more Paper Smooches inspiration:

Alice

Angeline

Jenny

Savannah

Have a great weekend!

Retro Sketches | Challenge #135

Happy World Card Making Day, crafty friends! I was really hoping to get some cardmaking done in my studio today, but it hasn't happened yet. Too busy getting the house picked up (my laundry pile is out of control!), playing with the kids, taking Jack (unsuccessfully) to three different stores looking for a Minecraft shirt, and a baseball pizza party. Our weekends are always so busy! Tomorrow should be less busy and I have quite a few projects planned. The three new Gossamer Blue collections are calling my name! 

  
This week's RetroSketches challenge is called "your choice". Head over to the RetroSketches archive, pick a sketch, and create a new card based on that sketch. Sounds like fun, right? I picked sketch #50 to work with:

For my card, I flipped the orientation from vertical to horizontal, and used two stamps sets from Wplus9: Fair Isle and Pretty Poinsettias. I have the matching dies for Pretty Poinsettias, but my top cutting plate has vanished, so I fussy cut the stamped imaged instead. I also fussy cut the leaves. If I can't find my cutting plate tomorrow, I will have to make another trip to Michaels to buy a replacement! 

I used Memento Luxe ink in Gray Flannel, Love Letter, Rhubarb Stalk, and Olive Grove. The sentiment was stamped with Ranger Archival Black ink. Three My Mind's Eye enamel dots in the center of my flower finished off the card.

 

I hope you can play along with us this week! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge | Smooch

Hello, hello! I hope everyone is having a great week. I finally have a few minutes to sit and work on a blog post... it's been a busy day! Evan had a baseball game tonight after weeks of rain. His first four games were cancelled due to inclement weather, but today the weather held and his Oakland A's team played a great game. 

While the boys were at school today I had a chance to play with this week's Curtain Call challenge. I haven't played along with this challenge before, so hopefully I do everything correctly. :)

Here is the inspiration photograph:

Let me tell you... this card took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r, but it turned out so much better than the 
red/black/kraft hot mess that I started out creating. It just wasn't working, so I put everything away and started over. This is the result... pink/green/mint and so pretty! 

Supplies used - Cardstock: (Neenah) Solar White. Patterned Paper: (PTI) Hibiscus Burst patterns pack. Dies: (PTI) Limitless Layers Hearts. Vellum: PTI. Stamps: (PTI) With All My Heart. Ink: (Avery Elle) Raspberry, Mint, Green.

I'm off to catch up on a few projects-in-progress (and watch tonight's episode of How to Get Away With Murder). Thanks for stopping by!

Get Happy Card | Gossamer Blue Collection

It was like Christmas at my house yesterday... my Gossamer Blue box, filled with the three newest collections, arrived! I absolutely love each of these collections. You can purchase them on the Gossamer Blue website, as well as local retailers. I received Gramercy Road back in August, and  the Get Happy and On My Desk collections are beautiful as well.

I couldn't wait to play with these products, and last night I pulled out some of the Get Happy collection to create a Christmas card. I used the Get Happy-Wonderful Life patterned paper for the card base, plus the pockets, stickers, and stamp set.

Those enamel dots... swoon! So many pretty colors on one sheet!

To create my card, I adhered one of the Get Happy pockets to the front of my card base. Then I trimmed down a piece of white cardstock to fit into the pocket. I used pigment ink to stamp the wreath twice on the white cardstock, then added "ornaments" (enamel dots) around the wreath. 

I added a "merry" sticker from Get Happy, then the letters to create "Christmas" (from the Gramercy Road collection).

I originally stopped there, but the top of my card looked a little plain, so I added some twine and a snowflake sticker & enamel dot. The twine adds to the rustic charm of the card, and the snowflake sticker is there because it's cute. :)

Thanks for stopping by!