Winnie & Walter Birthday Bash Fun

Hello, friends!  As always, I have more ideas than time, but I did manage to finish up a couple more projects for the Winnie & Walter's Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Challenges.  I didn't do anything fancy, and I loved creating without pressure.  

The first is a tag for the "Anything but a Card" Challenge.  I was also inspired by the Image Inspiration Challenge.  I pulled my sequins color scheme from the beautiful piece of art hanging on the wall in the photo.  Larger areas of color were represented by larger sized and more of that color sequins.

I made this tag with my tween-aged nieces in mind.  The sentiment is from W&W's The Big, the Bold, and the You (one of my best purchases).  I'm also linking to the "Create Your Own Background Challenge" because I created the patterned paper with an "xoxo" stamp.  And trust me, I initially made this tag with just white and creating my stamped background made all the difference in the word for this particular project.  It went from "meh" to something I really liked.  Finally, I was inspired by the "Two" Challenge because I decided to split my sentiment into two parts and the "Over the Edge" Challenge because the sentiment banners bleed off the side.  I know...how many challenges could I possibly combine on one card, right? :)

I guess I just had my sister's family on my mind, because my 2nd project was inspired by my brother-in-law.  Pretty much every deer card is.  I used the stamp swiping technique I discovered last fall to make the woodgrain looking deer.  This card is so simple, but I really delight in simplicity.  Maybe because it's kind of a life goal I'm constantly working on. :) I'm linking this one up to W&W's "Over the Edge" Challenge and their "Two" Challenge (two trees).   

I hope you all have the best week.  I have several posts coming in the next few days.  Fingers crossed they all work out.  (I've been having strange never-before-had issues with blogger this last week.)  See you soon!

12 Kits of Occasions - February '16

Welcome to another month of The 12 Kits of Occasions!  This month was a really fun one.  The theme is "Watercolor Wonder", and our oh-so-generous host Nancy really created a kit chock full of all things watercolor related.  She included so many cool things in this kit beyond the typical papers, die cuts, and embellishments like watercolor pencils, masking fluid, and rock salt to name a few.  She even sent us all watercolors and water color brushes.  So nice, huh?!  So many of these items were new to me, and this kit really stretched me to say the least.  I love the watercolor look but struggle with it and had many do-overs.  I'm not totally sold on any of my cards, but I did enjoy what I learned in the process.  And that is what is important right?  We can't grow if we don't stretch ourselves.  And I can't think of a more beautiful kit to help inspire me to stretch.

A card for a purple-loving sister of mine. :) I had to leave and come back to this one a few times, but I'm hoping she'll like it.  I know she'll appreciate the effort. :) I'm also linking this one up to the Simon Says: Anything Goes Challenge.

There was a really fun butterfly die in the kit, and I used the negative as a stencil to watercolor my butterfly on the next card.  I topped it off with some gold shimmer and some of the fun sequins from the kit.

This next floral card was inspired by ColourQ #330.  I was inspred by the colors, floral arrangement, and even the black accents.

I used the watercolor pencils on the flowers and the palette watercolors Nancy sent us for the watercolor wash.  I was trying to channel the fabulous Dawn McVey on this one. 

Nancy also included Papertrey's beautiful Butterfly Cover Plate die cut, but I wanted to think of a different way to use it, so I placed it behind this circle window.  I watercolored the background and put the rock salts on it, which created the fun big splotches.  I'll be honest...I'm a little unhappy with how it turned out.  The sentiment is off.  Sigh.  

I really love the simplicity of this last one.  It was completely inspired by CAS(E) This Sketch #161.

I think Alenew's Magnolia's are beautiful and I thought about adding pink watercolor, but decided the gold embossing was pretty fabulous on it's own.  My gold stem was the leftover piece I trimmed of the birthday Swoosh die on the card above and the the leaf (it seemed like it needed one) was a petal I trimmed off another magnolia.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not capture the beautiful shimmer on the navy blue birthday die cut.  It's the prettiest paper! 

Phew.  We made it!  I barely scratched the surface of the goodies in this kit, so make sure you visit the 12 Kits Blog so you can see how the other 12 Kitters and our guest were inspired.  They are amazing!  I'll leave you with one last shot of them all together.  Thanks for stopping by!

Graciellie Design Stamps Sneak Peek

Hello!  I have a  little sneak peek to share today.  The kind and talented Gracie of Graciellie Design has invited me to participate in a Blog Hop March 1st featuring some of her brand new digital stamps.  They are beautiful and will definitely have you excited for spring.  Make sure to come back March 1st for the full reveal! :)

Papertrey February Blog Hop

Happy Thursday!  I'm happy to be joining Papertrey's February Blog Hop today.  I didn't think I'd have time, but it was such a pretty inspiration photo that I couldn't resist.  

Inspiration Photo Source

I knew I needed to be quick, so I open for a mostly stamped project.  I should have taken a picture of all the ink pads together...it was quite beautiful to see them all in a row.  I was inspired by the colors and the fern print being cut off by the towel with the pink plate on top.  (Hence the leaves being cut by the strip of paper with the pink "hugs" on it.)

This card is so simple, but the combo of Papertrey's Big Hugs Die, the leaves from Turning a New Leaf, and these beautiful colors on Rustic White paper just makes me happy.  Isn't it fun to get use out of old stamps?  I'm also happy to be linking up at the Simon Says: Anything Goes Challenge.  Thanks for visiting!

Soft Cardinal Shaker

Hello, friends!  Thanks so much to all of you who popped over to take a look at the card I posted on the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge earlier today. You are the best!  As you can see, this card has a much softer palette. I was inspired by the Image Inspiration Challenge at Winnie & Walter.  Here's the inspiration photo:

You are probably looking at this card and wondering how in the world this inspired me.  Allow me to show you. :)

Yep, I honed in on this little corner of the table.  My color scheme was drawn from the white couch, silver bucket, and peach wine glasses.  I wanted to incorporate clear cardstock to represent the glass table, and the Simon Says: Shake It Up Challenge gave me the idea to make it into a shaker.  I filled it with clear sparkly seed beads because they reminded me of the neck on the wine glasses. 

This card started with scraps.  The card front is actually the leftover piece from the circle card I made here, and I had a fussy cut silver stamped branch leftover from my December 12 Kits of Occasions.  The cardinal was a natural addition, and I love how the softness of the color and the slight blending of ink on his tummy really change the feel of the stamp.  Winnie & Walter's Two Challenge offered further inspriation - two branches, two colors (peach, silver), and two words in the sentiment.  I was so happy with how the card turned out, but when it was finished I realized it looked familiar to me...a little too familiar.  It was kind of that uh-oh feeling, so I thought I better look back through my Pinterest pins to see if I had unintentionally CASEd someone, and sure enough I had.  The lovely and talented Kay Miller made a very similar card back in November.  Apparently it really stuck with me!  Truthfully I can't believe how similar my card turned out especially since I started with a bunch of leftovers.  I guess it just shows how powerful art can influence you even when you don't realize it.  Thanks so much for visiting today!  Hope this week started out to be a good one for you!  

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge 4...Take Two

Hello, friends!  I'm over at the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge Blog today sharing another card I made for Challenge Four.  I kind of love it...a lot, so I hope you'll head over and take a look. :)

Valentine's...Just a Week Late!

It dawned on me that I never shared my son's Valentine's that we made together.  I did the stamping, but his muscles can attest for the fact that he helped die cut all of these out...and there were a lot (+25).  He also wrote his little name on the back, which was no easy feat let me tell you.  He also had a lot of input on the colors.  Green is his favorite color, so all the boys had to be green.  But for the girls he wanted purple and pink and he was very particular about that...couldn't be pink and purple on the same tag.  There had to be two separate tags.  I stamped out samples and he okayed them. :)

I used Paptertrey's Love You To Pieces: Airplane Stamp Set and Die Collection for everything.  I even used the Love You To Pieces: Additions, so we could add to/from on the back of the tag.  I loved that the die is sized to fit perfectly on the coasters, but I actually think that the plane might fold better if it had been made of heavy weight cardstock.  I noticed that if I folded the coaster plane quickly, the coaster sort of pealed a bit on some of the folds.  I don't think that would happen with cardstock, but at the same time you wouldn't get the same nice weight of the coaster.  I didn't have time to test it out, though, because I started so late making them.

The MISTI was so helpful for this project.  Even with three different colored tags I was able to stamp all 28 of them in less than a half hour.  Yay!  I stamped the rest by hand, but I was able to do all the stamping and packaging in two hours total, which I thought was pretty good.

In the end we added a sucker.  I was ready to go with a non-sugar Valentine's, but my cute little boy was not and since these were his Valentine's, I caved. :) Or maybe I should say that we both got something we wanted.  I totally forgot to take a picture of all of them when they were done, but luckily was able to snag a quick shot of my son's Valentine right before he ripped it open to get out his airplane and sucker.

All in all I think it was a hit.  At least it was for my son and that is what matters most!  

Happy For You

Hello!  I'm happy to be back and to be able to share a card for a few challenges that I've been dying to participate in.  All month long Winnie & Walter have been having their 2nd {Belated} Birthday Bash,   and I made this card with two of their challenges in mind: Create Your Own Background and "Over the Edge".  I'm hoping it was okay that I literally let the images go over the edge...it just looked better that way.  I also used CAS(E) This Sketch #159 and the bottom row of Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #4 (one layer, stencil, plants) for additional inspiration.  I created the background by sponging W&W's Classic Diagonal Creative Screening in two directions.  I chose a bright, cheery color combo because those are two of the words I would use to describe the dear friend this is going to. :)  Hope that you are having a wonderful week!

 

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #4

I'm so happy to share my card for the 4th Stamping Smiles Designs Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  I chose to do the diagonal again: thank you, distress inks, plants.  I've always loved PTI's Petite Pots, but somehow haven't hardly used them, so this challenge was a great reason to pull them out. 

I used the simplest application of distress inks and just stamped with them.  I love the richness of Distress Inks, the Mowed Lawn ink in particular.  I added a bit of shading to the pots by lightly inking them the first time and then inking up just the edges of the stamp again and stamping it a second time.  The leaf images are meant to have flowers stamped atop them, but I think they look beautiful all on their own.  I'm loving one layer cards lately, and the Simon Says: One Layer Challenge couldn't have been more timely. ;)

I had the best time visiting and seeing everyone's creations last challenge. Can't wait to see how this next challenge inspires you.  Make sure to go to the Stamping Smiles Designs Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge blog to get all the details and see how all the other designers were inspired!

Hugs (PTI Anniversary Grab & Craft Challenge)

My husband's out of town this week, which makes for very little crafty time or time for anything else for that matter.  I made this super simple card for PTI's Grab & Craft Challenge and Simon Says: One Layer Challenge.  It took me the full 5 minutes to grab the few supplies I used because I still don't have all my crafting things unpacked and I was searching through boxes and about the same amount of time to make it.  lol.  I'm looking forward to the day that everything is unpacked and organized again.  But I do love that the purposeful unevenness of the watercolor brushstrokes makes for super quick stamping.  Hope that this week has been a good one for you!  Thanks for stopping by!

Clothing Inspired PTI Anniversary Card

Hi! I'm so excited about this card for lots of reasons.
1. I have been wanting to use this particular outfit for inspiration for a LONG time and had just never gotten around to it...until now!
2. It's the first I've been able to participate in PTI's Anniversary celebration this year AND this challenge was to use clothing as inspiration...perfect [See reason 1 :) ].
3. It came about after a series of card fails...lots of attempts for a different card in the trash.
4. It's bright and cheerful and happy, which makes me feel bright and cheerful and happy. :)

So here is the inspiration photo that I took last August, but actually it isn't the first time I'd seen this outfit.  I think I saw this Liv and Maddie (from Disney) episode last winter, but this fall when we saw the rerun I stopped the tv and took a picture of it.  I do that all the time.  Ask my husband. :) And I was smiling from ear to ear Saturday night when I showed him this card and had a smidgen of justification for all the pictures I've taken and especially the ones I've asked him to take since I'm forever losing my phone. Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Hope you have a wonderful week!

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #3

Hello!  Today I'm so happy to be sharing a card I made for the Stamping Smiles Designs Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #3.  This was a really fun board use.  I chose to do the diagonal: love, paperclip, sketch. 

The light bulb is a shaped paperclip that my sweet friend Jeanne included in this kit last year.  I'm so glad I finally got a chance to use it! :) I had so much fun making this card.  I really wanted the sentiment to stand out, so I kept the card white and just embossed dots on the diagonal strip of paper to create the layer needed for the sketch.  This view shows it a little better.

I built the sentiment with Winnie & Walter's "The Big, the Bold, and the Happy" and Lawn Fawn's "Milo's ABC's".  To create the rectangular color blocks, I simply put one of the alphabet stamps backwards on my acrylic block and stamped using the back of the image.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I look forwarding to seeing what you create with Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #3!