Twofer Challenge #6

Are you ready for the Twofer Challenge #6? This month we want to see what you can do with trees!

I love trees. For me that's reason enough to buy every tree stamp and die I can! Just for fun I counted all the tree stamps I own and the result was 62!!!! And I was NOT even counting Christmas trees or any trees I might have in my NBUS box... Wow! I didn't expect that! Do you think I need therapy?
Of course that made the decision which tree to use really hard. What helped me was that I needed a retirement card and had this idea to use all four seasons on one tree. So I thought of this tree from Sarasota Stamps that comes with an extra foliage stamp (picture further down).

Stamps: Sarasota Stamps (tree and foliage), Avery Elle (sentiment), Impression Obsession (nest, apples)
Other: Snowflake (punch)

I used the foliage stamp to create a border. The card is 5 x 7 inches.

Stamps: Sarasota Stamps (tree), Hero Arts (cat, bats), Impression Obsession (spiderweb background)

On this card I used glossy paper for the panel and Distress Inks to create the background.

This is the tree stamp with the foliage stamp from Sarasota Stamps. I bought it many years ago at a convention I used to go to with my friends. I googled it and it's still available! 

Here is a reminder what this Challenge is all about. For the exact rules and to check out the creations of the fabulous design team plus our guest designer Maria Rodriguez please click here.

Looking very much forward to seeing your cards in the gallery!

Be well and keep in touch!

Baby Girl

It's been a long, long time since I needed a baby card, so I had a lot of fun creating and personalizing this one for a little girl. I got the elephant theme from a quilt the mother and her cousin made that featured an elephant. What a great excuse to finally use this cute one that was a gift from a friend and has been patiently waiting  in my NBUS box for it's moment to shine. Same goes for the welcome die.

I used products from lots of different companies to make this card. It makes me happy when they play nicely together. *wink* The background is watercolored.

Stamps: Inkadinkado (letters)
Dies: Impression Obsession (welcome), Memory Box (tags), SSS (balloon), Cottage Cutz (baby elephant), My Favorite Things (hill)


Challenges:

Inkspirational #153 "Word Prompt: Attachment"
The balloon is attached to the trunk, plus a baby is very attached to it's mother in the first months...







CAS Watercolor February Challenge "Hearts"
Dear Design Team, I am not sure if my card is CAS enough... If it isn't, please delete it.

Be well and keep in touch!

More Cards with the Cling Wrap Technique

As I told you in my last post I had made three more cards from the panels I created using this awesome technique (see CAS Mix Up for details) but had to wait for the cards to arrive. Well, I don't know if they have been received but the challenge is closing so I am going to post this anyway. 

I made the first two cards out of one panel and was pretty happy with their modern look. It was only the day after that it occurred to me that there was no stamping involved! And the girls at the CAS Mix Up Challenge like to see some stamping on the entries, in fact it's a rule.  I didn't see a way to add some stamping to these cards so I made a third card.

Stamp: Hero Arts (sentiment)
Dies: Impression Obsession (Happy Birthday, little hearts), My Favorite Things (snowflake), Nestabilities (circle), Jillybean Soup (tag)

You might have to enlarge it to notice the little hearts sticking out of the tag...


The third card goes to

CAS Mix Up January Challenge






That was it for now with cards featuring this technique. But you know (if you read my last post) that I have a lot more panels...

One more thing: A lot of bloggers are now responding to every comment. While I enjoy it, I hope you'll forgive me if I don't do it. I can barely keep up with my commenting alone (you might have noticed that I am quite late sometimes)... Thank you for understanding and please know that every one of your comments brightens my day and is treasured!

Be well and keep in touch!

Sympathy and Halloween

Hi there,

Thanks so much for stopping by! Today I have two cards for you for very different occasions.

First a sympathy card because my stash has dwindled down. I like to keep them simple.

Stamps: Stampin' Up (leaf), Uniko (sentiment)

I smooshed a background with Distress Inks. Stamped the leaf and the sentiment, tied a piece of raffia around it, mounted the panel on a piece of dark brown card stock, and attached it to a card that has pieces of dried flowers in it (from Marco's paper).

The second card is for a more fun occasion that's coming up: Halloween.

Stamps: Hero Arts (tree trunks background), Inkadinkado (sentiment, spider)
Die: Impression Obsession (ghost)

I stamped the moon surface (unmounted, unknown stamp) in white on yellow copy paper, punched it out and glued it on the blue card stock. Then I stamped the tree background on top of it. I cut a slit in the blue card stock and slid the ghost in there. The glittery bats with the fun googly eyes are stickers I found at Michaels. The rest is pretty self explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions.


Entering the first card in the

Time Out Challenge #95 "Sympathy with and optional twist of distressing"





Fusion Challenge 
I was inspired by the leaves





The Card Concept #80 "Autumn Love"

Be well,

Pink, Navy & White

A few weeks before her birthday my niece Anja, an avid reader of my blog, sent me a picture of a combination of fabrics in case I wanted a "challenge" for her birthday card. I loved the idea and tried to use all the colors and patterns. Here is the photo she sent me.

And here is the card she got:

Stamps: Dotted background (Hero Arts), roses background (Impression Obsession), sentiment (SSS)
Dies: Heart (Wplus9), banner (SSS), butterfly (Poppystamps)


The pink I used was an envelope in a former life that I recycled and it shimmers although not quite as much as the fabric.


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries)

CAS-ual Fridays #172 Color Challenge






Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"






Time Out Challenge #82 "Flowers with the optional twist of kissing"
No twist






Seize the Birthday "Anything Goes"






Have a fantastic week and

Be well,

Happy Easter!

Just hopping by to wish you a Blessed Easter and a Happy Spring full of sunshine, laughter, family, friends, and, of course, chocolate! Here is a chocolate bunny for you:

Stamps: Egg (Michael's $1 bin), happy (W&W)
Dies: Bunny (Impression Obsession), Easter (Cottage Cutz), Scalloped Edge (MFT)


The eggs are white embossed. As they don't have an outline around, the watercoloring looks a bit sloppy or let's call it loosely watercolored or artsy. The word "Easter" is die cut from white glossy paper which makes it a little more interesting.


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries) - graphics at the end:

Happy Little Stamper April Anything Goes with Dies Challenge







Happy Little Stamper April Watercolor Challenge







Inkspirational Challenge #132 Word Prompt "Spring"

Be well,

Happy Halloween and a Christmas Card

Popping in to wish you a Happy Halloween and "scare" you with my card!

Stamps: Impression Obsession (background), others are from Hero Arts and Martha Stewart?
Dies: Impression Obsession (ghosts)


This weekend I spent a good chunk of time working on Christmas cards. A while ago I was the lucky winner of the monthly prize over at papierelle (have you checked out Gundi's fun blog yet?) and I finally played with the embossing folder and one of the cute images. Aren't that dragon baby and his friend, the mouse, adorable?

Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration from the DTs and the galleries):

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #305 "Anything Goes"







52 Christmas Card Throwdown"Pick a Previous Sketch"
I picked sketch # 32 from September 2014










Weekly Christmas Card Challenges "Anything Goes"

That's all from me for today! Hope your week will be full of fun moments!

Be well,

More ghosting and some Watercoloring

Check out my new signature at the end of the post that the amazing Loll created for me! The one that I made a few months ago caused a warning to pop up every time I wrote a new post, so sweet Loll offered to design a new one for me! I love it and hope you do, too!

Today I have two cards for you!

This past weekend I spent with my 7Cardologists friends (although one was missing) in the mountains at our annual Stamp Camp. I taught them the Ghosting technique which is the current theme at the CAS Mix Up Challenge. We all used different stencils and colors and had so much fun. I made this card from my background.

Stamps: Happy Little Stampers (sentiment)
Dies: Impression Obsession (tree)
Other: Tree stencil (TCW), Distress Inks


Challenges (click on the links for more information and lots of inspiration):

CAS Mix Up October Challenge "Ghosting"
plus Stamping and Die cutting
*This card was a runner up!*







On my second card I did some watercoloring with Distress Inks. I don't own Copics and use a lot of colored pencils when I am stamping with my friends but what I really love is the look of watercoloring.

Stamps: Winnie & Walter (sentiment)

Dies: Impression Obsession

Other: Distress Inks, copper embossing powder from PSX (that I've had for more than 20 years!!!)

The word "autumn" is embossed in copper. Hard to see in the picture but very pretty in real life. Will take a picture tomorrow and post it on instagram (button on the right sidebar).

Sending this card to the following challenges:


CAS Watercolor October Challenge "Fall"

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesdays September "Yellow, Orange, Red, and Brown"





The Gossip Column with Taheera Atchia on the W&W blog #5 "Precious Metals"








Both CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolor Challenges are having an Design Team call and since I really like that style and enjoy playing in these challenges I am being brave and throwing my hat into the ring. Wish me luck...

Phew, that was a longish post! Thanks for sticking with me 'til the end!

Be well,