Isn’t this a great design? I so blatantly CASED it from a picture from a simple single kit that I got free at a SU party. I didn’t do it EXACTLY but pretty close. I love the simplicity of this with it’s multi colored strops and the bonus was getting to use a bunch of scrap pieces. That little spokie die cut was
a part of the kit and I just stamped my Prickely Pear Pumpkin in the center and colored it in with SU markers. I will have to remember this layout. Another HYCCT card.
Check it OUT!! that skull just makes me chuckle. and those black cat pairs, too cute. I used some Gina K Designs paper from the kit. I have the perfect friend to send this too. She will get a kick out of it. Ya gotta be careful about things like this, you know? She is six months older than me and we always send funny cards to one another. MFT dies. Aren’t those sequin dies fabulous? I get a lot of use out of them.
Entering this into the MFT Sketch Challenge for this week
This fabulous sketch came from My Favorite things BluePrints dies. When you buy their blueprints they give you access to a PDF file that shows several different ways to use the fun dies. I loved this sketch and all the pieces are from BP #6. The images are from two different Stampin Up sets. And there you have it. HYCCT challenge.
Who doesn’t love these sweet critters from Penny Black? Another SCS challenge, this time the Sketch challenge. I really do love sketches for stretching out ideas. This also goes to HYCCT. I know that looks like really fine stitching, but you know me, no sewing allowed!!
I was so pleased how this turned out. Another HYCCT card. Using clear embossing paste after stamping with Versamark, I then sponged over the image with a couple of different distress inks for an emboss resist technique. I added that funky back ground piece in which I didn’t cut all the way to the ends with the paper punch. The red background has a faint spray of red mist over a stencil. BARELY discernable in the photo but way 2 kewl in real life. Thanks for looking. Mucho appreciando or something like that.
I’ve been making a bunch of cards that haven’t made it to my blog this week. I am playing catch up this Saturday evening.
What a fun image to use the paper Tole technique with. This is the first card for the HYCCT (Hope You Can Cling To) Challenge on SCS. Lots of dimension going on here. Using my new Stamp TV kit called Simple Things.
I sent this to a cyber- friend who’s son and wife were murdered. It gives me chills. They have a four month old baby left behind. What can a person say in such a situation?
I have used this stamp before in my countdown so it doesn’t get a number.
My first art journal page. I’m so excited. I got my journal while in Colorado this past summer at the bookstore Allan Zink took Nancy and me to. I didn’t intend to purchase one but while we were looking around I saw this and it was water color safe so it had a new home from that day forward. Summer has been so very active I didn’t have time to play in with it. But my online stamping friend JoAnn Crayton encouraged me by posting pics of her first journal. It looked so fun I had to get started.
My first page is going to be entered into Simon’s Monday Challenge Finishing touch. After all my other steps, it just needed a little something in that corner and I inked up my MFP foxy autumn stamp sprayed it with a bit of water and pressed and just like that I qualify to enter this challenge. 
I actually taped this leaf to the page. It was such a gorgeous red when I found it and put it beside Gilbert’s plate that night at supper and he enjoyed it too. It needed a permanent home.
I marker colored distress inks on my mat and pressed the leaf into it to get the color to make the shadow leaf beside it. Love when what’s inside of me comes out in art.
Thanks for looking and being a part of my new journey.
I won the cutest set of stamps from Prickley Pear back in the spring and have been patiently waiting to use them. Isn’t this just the cutest circle stamp ever? It is actually two stamps. The cat and moon are one and the circle of bats another. The little scalloped circle die is from them too. I like how the die picks up the spider web theme of the DP. Add a touch of orange and we have the perfect Halloween card. I am entering this into Simons Says Anything Goes.
Alrighty then, I am having fun with all these color challenges and they used to be one of the most difficult challenges for me. But once I figured out that what works best for me is to go through my scrap envelopes and pick out a scrap of each color then it seems easy to come up with a plan because I have all the colors right in front of me in real life and not just looking at a palette on paper. I encourage you to try that.
Simon’s color challenge is part of their Work It Wednesday month end challenge. I chose their beautiful Chrissie butterfly die to go along with this really cool paper from Creative Memories that looks like old post cards. The sentiment is a Simon exclusive.
I tore the paper on the dark chocolate and layered it with the burnt orange and the CM background paper. I used a portion of a Tim Holtz embossing folder to give some pow to the green strip that was looking a bit undone after I put the butterfly and the sentiments on there. I started out with th embossed sentiment but it didn’t show up to well. I touched my finger to a white Colorbox ink pad and rubbed it over the sentiment but it still lacked “oopmh”. Once I added the sentiments in black to the top and bottom of it , I liked it much better. I die cut the butterfly out of the green cardstock and then used spray adhesive on the die cut itself to hold most of the pieces in place. I punched some out and then also adhered a couple of the negative parts to the paper beneath the butterfly. I like the dimension I got from doing this. You can find the Simon Work it Wednesday challenge HERE.
MFT has a Color Challenge Monthly and I thought I would play along with their images Hang In There. Isn’t this jus the sweetest? I have used the boy before but not the dog so I get to count this for the NUBS (never used before stuff) and also will enter into MFT’s challenge. I was using the red scrap from a cut out made long ago. I colored my image with Staedler watercolor pencils and used a blender pen. It’s the easiest way to color that I know of. The piece the little guy is mounted on is a scrap from long ago also. I fussy cut him and the poochie out. I get a certain kind of satisfaction out of fussy cutting. 
What I do, is pick out all the colors from my scrap box, and then decide what I am going to do with them as I play with the different sizes of scraps.
I will also enter this into Simon Says Stamp anything goes Wednesday challenge.
I caved! I saw this Gina K Designs Simple Things kit for the month of September and I loved it. I resisted most of the month to see if the feeling would leave but I kept thinking about it. Wow, you get so much in one of her kits, it’s really worth it. I love the quality of everything. Inks, Papers, ribbons, clear stamps, rubber stamps, they all are the best I’ve ever worked with. 
My daughter gave me a bunch of things she never uses and this stencil was one of those gems. This came together very quickly. I did run the stencil through the Big Shot and it kind of ripped the paper so I went with that and tore the other edges too. I like the look. I am entering this into the Simon Says Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.
Playing in Simon Says Wednesday Challenge and combining it with the perfect sketch from MFT, I came up with this card.
I wanted to use monotones to give the illusion of sky and SSS is featuring Tim Holtz which made it easy to reach for his Distress Markers in various blues. After spritzing the craft mat and dragging the tag through a couple of different times I then spritzed the tag and layered different shades of blue from light to dark. Then the fairy princess from MFT stamps was stamped. (she has her head in the clouds, eh?) I then colored her up with two different Sakura glitter pens and added a Simon Says glittered die cut heart. I touched a bit of blue to the clouds. The flat clouds are MFT dies and the curvy one is from Memory Box. This was such a fun card to make and I have the perfect recipient in mind. Isn’t that always fun.
In real life the dark blue doesn’t look as dark as it does on here. I tried to lighten it up to no avail.
Stamps 298-299-300-301 A masculine card. For a birthday or Just Getting their drivers license.
Using an old Stampin Up image I made this fun card for a special friend. I had fun doing it and it started out with a scrap. That mauve mist piece had the oval cut out of it for a different project and I wanted to use the negative piece to create “something” and this is what happened.
A big ol’ sponge stamp that I picked up as part of a Good Will package. I love this acorn and this is the first chance I have had to use it. Perfect for this card with die cut leaves from Sweet N Sassy.
I am entering this into Simon’s Wednesday challenge to make your own background. I used inkadinkadoo swirl stamps to make a back ground on the main layer.
Also entering into MFT Sketch Challenge 193. The little banner piece is one of their fish tail dies and the wonky piece is from blueprints 16.
Wow, summer was busy and I neglected my blog. I am up to stamp 294 & 295 now and no where near through them all. Keep pushing, it’s still fun.
I made this for Simon Says Stamptember Monday challenge. It is a Kelly Purkey Simon Exclusive stamp. I hand lettered the Are You Cured and then grabbed a sentiment stamp from MFP since I didn’t have a Simon Get Well sentiment. I love the fun of this Sizzle On Stamp set.
