Inspiration Challenge - Faux Stained Glass

So I had almost a whole day of card making today as I took part in an afternoon shoebox swap. We made some great cards and I was so inspired that I decided to come home and make even more cards!!!

This is for today's Inpsiration Challenge on SCS. The inspiration source was stained glass windows by Frank Lloyd Wright. I am a huge FLW fan so this was especially meaningful as a challenge for me.

For this card I took a piece of 5x5 acetate/transparency and covered it in a double sided adhesive sheet. Then I laid down a design in nonstick punch outs and stips. The background is a cool highlight glitter. I took off the punch masks one by one and added layers of glitter colour to create the design. Afterwards I cut out a piece of black cardstock for an overlay and attached the window onto the card base with foam mount adhesive to allow light to pass through the "window".

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill), Stamp (Amuse Artstamp), Ink (Adirondak), Glitter (Glitter Ritz), acetate, double sided tape, rhinestone (Hero Arts).

Color Challenge - Inked Up Transparencies

For this week's colour challenge on SCS I thought I'd try something different. Yesterday I had experimented with running a piece of cardstock through an inked up embossing folder and today I thought I'd give it a go with a transparency sheet.

The colour challenge was for Kraft, black and Soft Sky (Stamping Up!) papers. I inked the folder with Stazon black and ran it through my cuttlebug. The result was ink on some parts of the transparency and clear spots in others so when it was put on the card it allowed the cardstock underneath to show through. I like this effect a lot.

The stamp is Lizzie Anne - one of my favourite sets from the company. This is a nice colour combo and probably not one I would have picked on my own. That's why its always great to do these challenges - to stretch the mind a bit!

Supplies: Cardstock (SU!), transparency, ribbon (SU!), embossing folder (Cuttlebug), stamps (Lizzie Anne), epoxy tag (Making Memories), nestabilities

Technique Lovers Challenge - Glimmer Mist

This card was for today's Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoast which was to use a glimmer/shimmer mist. I happen to have bought some Glimmer Mist a few months back while shopping across the line and this was a good excuse to use it.

The House Mouse image is from a WISHRAK so I really felt like I was getting into my stash with this card.

I spritz the inside of my embossing folder with the glimmer mist and then ran the folder and cardstock through my Cuttlebug so it was coloured and embossed at the same time. Its a fun effect and gives it a nice distressed look.

I absolutely love the ribbon on this card - perfect for a coffee themed project. This is the first chance I've had to use it.

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill, PTI), Stamps (House Mouse, SU!), Glimmer Mist, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Bella Baubles, ribbon, ink (Pallette), water colour pencil crayons

Featured Stampers Challenge - Is it Christmas Yet???

So, I've been very negligent about posting this week as we've had company and I've been too wiped at night to do anything.




Here's a quick card tonight for today's Featured Stampers Challenge on Splitcoast. My card is based on this cute card by Splitcoast member denidill. Check out her great gallery.

I love, love, love this new little Whipper Snapper guy I picked up recently. Thought I'd better start making the Christmas cards soon or I'd fall way behind.

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill, SU!, PTI), Stamps (Whipper Snapper - penguin, PTI - sentiment), paper flowers, baubles, ribbon, Copic markers, Nestabilities

I promise to post more tomorrow!

Featured Stamper Challenge - Happy Birthday Cupcake!

Today's challenge on SCS was to CASE (Copy and Share Everywhere) a card from a featured stampers gallery. The stamper is YLM and this is the card I CASEd.

This was a lot of fun. Its always great to find inspiration in the work of other talented stampers. Also, I just joined a Birthday group on SCS so I'm going to be needing a LOT of birthday cards!

I love these great papers by Three Bugs in a Rug - the bright colours are perfect for birthday cards. The cupcake die cut is from Quickutz. The layout of this card is very clean and simple but I think it works well as a quick and easy b-day card.

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzil), Patterned Paper (Three Bugs in a Rug), Cupcake Die (Quickutz Revolution), ribbon, stamp (SU! - Happy, Happy Birthday wheel)

Inspiration Challenge - Travelling Vines

Today's challenge on Splitcoast Stampers is an "inspiration challenge" where you are given a photo, an object, a magazine ad or whatever and are asked to use it to "inspire" your card or project. I've never done one of these before but I've been a lazy crafter this weekend due to some family events, so I thought I'd give it a go.

This week's inspiration was a layout in Domino magazine. Here's one of the pictures. I was mostly drawn to the brightly coloured bolsters in the images. I especially loved the leaf motif green bolster. I used the lipstick pink and lime green as my main colours in this card.

I've had this traveling vine die cut set from Quickutz Revolution for ages and never used it but I thought it would be perfect for this project. This almost became a "no stamp" card but I decided to add a sentiment to finish it off and to give it a more triangular composition.

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzil, SU!, PTI), ribbon, Prima flowers, Bella Baubles (Stamping Bella), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Swiss Dots), Quickutz Revolution 4" die (vine), Ink (Adirondak), Stamp (Savvy)

I've been busy rearranging my craft room this past week so hopefully I'll get some increased productivity in the project department.

Remember - tomorrow I'm drawing for blog candy so don't forget to enter here.

SCS Challenge - Sketch Challenge 179

Here's my entry into today's sketch challenge. I normally don't care for sketch challenges but this one was okay. I had a no good, very bad day, so the sentiment on this card is particularly fitting I think.

I did something on this card which I rarely do - I stamped on the patterned paper and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I actually like the subtle effect it gives in the background. The margarita and sentiment stamps are from Amuse Artstamps. I just love their stamps!

I'm also really grooving to this Tart and Tangy set by SU!. It took me a while to finally commit to buying it but its just so cute. Plus, this particular stamp is versatile - it can be a lime, an orange, a lemon -even a grapefruit if you want with a simple change in ink colours.

Supplies: Paper (SU!, Deja Views, PTI), Ink (SU!, Versa), ribbon, Prima flower, Dew Drop, clear embossing powder, Stamps (SU!, Amuse Artstamps)

Don't forget to enter for the blog candy down below. You have until Sunday to post a comment!

Technique Lovers Challenge - The Whole Enchilada

Today's TLC on Splitcoast was to create a set of 3x3 mini cards, matching envies and a little box to put them all in.

This was a fun challenge and I got to ink my newly acquired Tart and Tangy stamp set. I really hesitated on buying this set but now that I have it I'm glad I did. Its perfect for these little cards.

For the envelopes I die cut a square, scalloped nestabilities and used it as a mask to sponge around.

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill, Prism, SU!, PTI), Stamps (SU!), Ink (SU!, Versa), Nestabilities, embossing powder, ribbon)

Thanks for looking and don't forgot to post a comment on the blog entry below for some BLOG CANDY!!!

SCS Challenge - TLC170

Okay, so I'm not really sure how I feel about this card. This was done for today's Technique Lovers Challenge. The challenge was to combine three challenges on one card from a selection of earlier challenges. I wasn't really grooving to any of the techniques, colour combos or layouts but I thought I'd better get out of my "comfort zone" and give it a go, so this is what I came up with.

The technique is spotlight. I've never done it before but now that I have I can see some possibilities with it for other cards. I do love this BBQ guy though... My LSS had this amazing sale over the weekend (50% off EVERYTHING) and I finally picked him up after debating him for the past five visits... The sentiment goes with one of the changito (is that how you spell it?...) stamps from Stampendous, but they are not my cup of tea so I bought it to go with my Grill Seargent.

Supplies: Stamps (Whipper Snapper, Stampendous), Paper (SU!), Ink (Palette, SU!), square brads, Copic Markers, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Diamonds in the Rough)

SCS Challenge - Sketch Challenge 177

Here's my "submission" for sketch challenge 177 on Splitcoast. I'm a day late (an a dollar short...) on posting it as my daughter is teething, poor thing. Anyway, I had fun doing this and I usually don't like sketch challenges. I thought I'd "challenge" myself a bit and try and use up one of the multitude of images I've received through PIFs and WISHRAKs. I have a whole photo box full of beautiful images that I never seem to get around to using!

Anyway, this image seemed particularly fitting as we've had a lot of rain the past couple of days. Anyone who's ever visited the west coast of Canada knows that rain is pretty much par for the course around here. I love this little Hanna image and I happened to have six of them sent to me by some of the lovely folks in WISHRAK. I cut one out to use as a mask for another.

Just as a side note, you don't need anything fancy to mask an image. In this case I don't even own the stamp so I just took a second image, stamped on white cardstock and cut it out just inside the outter edge of the black line. Then I covered the back with repositional (temporary) adhesive and placed it over my working image and voilá, instant mask.

I used the raindrop image from MFTs Rain or Shine to creat the rain background and then sponge daubed the puddle under her feet. After that I removed my makeshift mask and watercoloured the image with pencil crayons. The rain clouds are from the MFT set as well. They are a solid coloured image, but to make them more "whispy" I inked them and then gently brushed them on a cloth before stamping them. It created a more patchy look that I wanted. I outlined the bottoms with a silver Sharpie to create a "silver lining".

Supplies: Stamps (Hanna, My Favorite Things), Cardstock (Bazzill, Prism, SU!), Ink (Palette, SU!), Dew Drops (Robin's Nest), water color pencil crayons.

SCS Challenge - Color Combo 167

Today's Color Challenge on SCS was for Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou and Soft Sky. Very nice color selection IMHO. Anyway, I needed to make an anniversary card for hubby so this is what I came up with. I decided to try my hand again at the old watercolouring technique, so I went out and bought a proper selection of water colour pencil crayons from the local art supply store. I also found some water color cardstock tucked away in my supplies and this worked much better than yesterdays attempt.

Supplies: Cardstock (SU!, watercolor paper), Stamps (Voila, Voila to Go, Spunky Dots), Ink (SU!, StazOn), watercolor pencil crayons, Robin's Nest (blue baubles)

SCS Challenge - TLC168

So today's SCS "Try a New Technique" challenge was watercoloring combined with embossing. Now, embossing I do - a lot. I have a drawer full of embossing powders that I actually use. But watercolor...never... So, I found this little 12-pack of cheapo watercolor pencils in the bottom of my coloring supplies drawer and thought I'd give it a go. I had a really limited palette so this does not have the depth of colour that I'm used to with my markers. I guess I should get myself a bigger set and practise a bit. Next time I would use a different paper as well as the one I used pilled a bit when I was blending. In any case, I like the card - its fun colours and I think it would make a nice kid's b-day card. I would definately try watercolouring again. The fun thing about these kind of challenges is getting out of your comfort zone!!

The funniest thing about doing this card was that my husband and I sat down for our evening activities at the same time. He wanted to watch a movie that I knew I wouldn't enjoy (depressing drama) and I thought I'd craft for a bit. Just as he finished watching I took my picture to post to my blog and I realized it took me two whole hours to do one card!!! No wonder I never seem to get as much done as I plan on...

Supplies: Cardstock (unknown), paper (3 Bugs in a Rug), Stamps (mouse - Whipper Snapper, balloons - Sunshine Designs, sentiment - Amuse), lime baubles (Stamping Bella), Ink (Versa, SU!), embossing powder, watercolor pencils

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge

This is my first time doing the "Cupcake Challenge" and I had a ton of fun. I don't know why I haven't tried these before given my unusually large collection of cupcake stamps... Anyway... I made this card by masking the three squares and then using a Stampin' Up! large wheel in pink ink to fill in the background. Then I airbrushed over the stamp with a pink Copic marker and removed the masked squares to leave a white space for my stamped cupcake images. The stamp is by Sunshine Designs. I coloured in the cupcakes with Copic markers, added the sentiment (by Stamping Bella) and a little bling with the glitter on the sprinkles and voilá!

Supplies: Cardstock (PTI), Stamps (Sunshine Designs, Stamping Bella, Stampin' Up!), Ink (Stampin' Up!, Adirondak), Copic Markers, Bella Baubles, glitter (Glitter Ritz).

Sketch Challenge

I wasn't going to post today. Instead I was going to tackle the disaster area that has become my craft desk. I was going to go through my stamps and pull out those I no longer use and set them aside to sell or trade. I was going to catalogue the pile of new stuff that's just been sitting there...

While I still intend to do all that (and I did get started today), I couldn't resist putting together this card for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. I've never done one of her challenges before but I've seen some of the beautiful cards that other folks have done for them.

Anyway...here's my contribution. I've had these little velvet flowers for months and haven't used them yet so this was a good excuse. I also used up some scraps so I can say I was "tidying up".

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzil, Crate Paper), parchment paper, velvet flower (Imaginsce), ribbon (various), Stamps (SU!), glass pebble (Michaels), Bella Baubles, tools (Cuttlebug embossing folder, Nestabilities)

SplitCoast Sketch Challenge SC163

This is a card I did for the Splitcoast Sketch Challenge today. I decided to make a Valentine's card for hubby since I needed to make one anyway. I don't usually do Sketch Challenges because frankly I'm not very good at them. I don't know why, but for some reason sketch challenges seem to really stump me...

I tried to make this card a bit more masculine looking with the colour selection and the avoidance of "froofrooness". My husband is a pilot - hence the airplane love stamp (which I was thrilled to come across). The airplane is Savvy Stamps and the sentiment is Amuse Artstamps. I think they go quite nicely together. The little spots are espresso Bella Baubles which I got with my Bella order a couple of days ago. I'm really loving these as an alternative to brads or eyelets on a card.

I'm not really grooving to this card all that much but I think its really important to do things that are a little outside of your comfort level. After all - we never learn anything by not making any mistakes. I do like the colour combination - I don't think I've put red and brown together before.