Lovely as a Tree

It's time for another Make Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! and I had some fun with an oldie but goody, Lovely as a Tree. For my first card, I used the challenge at The Friday Mashup! and used embossing and a tree, as well as the tall and skinny sketch challenge at Mojo Monday.

I thought this would be a great chance to get a head start on some Father's Day cards, and I just got the perfect stamp in my My Paper Pumpkin kit to accompany Lovely as a Tree.

I started by sponging a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock with Marina Mist and Night of Navy ink. I then spritzed it with water. I'm sure you have noticed that I use this technique a lot! :) I think it ended up looking like a globe! I then embossed the tree on Very Vanilla cardstock with Early Espresso cardstock and used my Blendabilities to color the tree in, followed by some sponging with Marina Mist and Night of Navy ink. My tree kind of disappeared so I embossed it again on top of all of the coloring.

I used similar techniques on my second card, along with The Friday Mashup! challenge again, as well as the sketch challenge at The Paper Players.

This time I started with a few more colors on my background panel.  For the tree panel, I embossed the trees on Vellum and colored the back with Stampin' Write markers. I then used my two-way glue pen to glue it down to another panel that was sponged and spritzed.  I pulled it off of that panel, and it left the lighter colors on the vellum. I love how it turned out!  I think the trees pop a lot better on this one.

I hope you enjoyed my cards for our Make Your Mark challenge. Make sure you stop by the other gals' cards from ATSM and leave them some love as well!

Clockworks

Wow, this month is flying by and it is already time for another challenge at ATCAS! The design team members each take turns choosing the code words, and WOW have they been choosing some great ones. :) This week was no exception.

Darnell is continuing on as Guest Designer this month and has another great card to share with us. I always look forward to seeing what she has created!  Make sure to stop by her blog and give her some love! 

When I saw the code word, I immediately knew I wanted to do a masculine card. I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch!.

I had some burlap ribbon left over, so I tried something new and embossed my sentiment on the burlap. It worked beautifully with the Early Espresso Embossing Powder!

This sentiment is from the brand new Bravo photopolymer stamp set that will be available for purchase on June 2nd. I earned it as an incentive and I just love it. The fonts are really large and there is a great variety of sentiments.  I thought the gears from Clockworks worked perfectly for my masculine card. After I stamped them, I sponged on Crumb Cake ink with a sponge dauber.  The edges are also textured with the texturing tool, so there is another use of the code word!

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to check out the card by the rest of the design team!

Stamp Sets: Bravo, Clockworks
Cardstock: Crumb Cake
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Tools: Texturing Tool, Sponge Dauber
Accessories: Burlap Ribbon

In This Together

It's time for an ANYTHING GOES challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! This worked out to be the perfect challenge for me because I have been in Indy working with Brett for the past five days, so I had to take limited supplies with me. I did have some time to make a few cards though, so that's good!  I was afraid I wouldn't have time and would have to find a back up card that I had already made when I got home. Nope! :)

This was actually a panel I colored as soon as I got my Blendabilities, so it's before I had a lot of practice. :) I still really like it though!  I wasn't sure if it would work to color in a background very well, but it worked okay!  I like how it looks kind of watercolored. I wanted to keep the rest of the card simple since there is so much going on in the panel , so I just added the chevrons from Work of Art and the lovely new Blackberry Bliss Stitched Satin ribbon and Ta Da! :)

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to stop by the ATSM page and visit all the other ladies!

Stamp Sets: In this Together, Work of Art
Cardstock: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White
Ink: Blendabilities (Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Skin Tones, Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Blackberry Bliss Stitched Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

For the Birds

It's time for a photo challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More!

It's a beautiful photo, but I was absolutely stumped this week!  Does that ever happen to you?  I hate it when I get a creative block! I decided to go with the colors and use pink and brown. I also threw in a little birdie stamp for good measure. :)  I used the sketch at retro sketches to give me a little additional help.  

This was a fun sketch, but for my card it just looked off in the center, so I moved the rectangles to the right of my card. 

The rectangles are sponged with Pink Pirouette and Crumb Cake ink. I then spritzed some water over it, dried it with my heat tool and stamped the birdie image. The top panel is adhere just with a tape adhesive, the middle panel has on layer of Dimensionals and the bottom panel has to layers thick of dimensionals. 

Hope you enjoyed my card. Make sure to stop by the ATSM blog for tons more inspiration!

Stamp Set: For the Birds

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Primrose Petals

Tools: Mosaic Embossing Folder, spritzer, sponges

Accessories: Dimensionals

Introducing...Blendabilities!!!

I am SOOO excited about this new line of alcohol-based markers that Stampin' Up! has introduced, Blendabilities. I used them here with Secret Garden on our challenge at Addicted to CAS.

Darnell is our Guest Designer this month and she has come up with a really cute and creative card for this challenge. Make sure to stop by and give her some love!  There is also a call out for a new design team member so check out the requirements for that too! 

I'm sad that Secret Garden is retiring, but there is a set I like even more in the new catalog that is PHOTOPOLYMER!  It also has matching framelits, so it will be on my first order for sure. :)

My first two attempts at using the Blendabilities were so-so, but I was quite pleased with my third through fifth attempts, these three flowers. :) They are not difficult to use at all, and they are very forgiving. I prefer to color starting with the dark color first, then the medium, and finally the lightest color.  Stampin' Up! has made it so easy for us by packaging them in sets of three like this so you don't have to figure out which shades go together. No thinking involved!  Also, if you notice on my Rich Razzleberry flower, the center is Daffodil Delight.  I actually colored my entire flower Rich Razzleberry, then decided to go back and add the Daffodil Delight OVER it for the center. It colored over it perfectly!  Isn't that so cool?!  I thought so, considering the Rich Razzleberry was so dark!  I am easily amused though. lol

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure you check out the rest of the cards by the ATCAS design team using this awesome code word(s). :)

Stamp Sets: Happy Day, Secret Garden
Cardstock: Whisper White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities
Tools: Simply Scored Border and Borders Embossing Plate
Accessories: Dimensionals

Tag It

It's time for one of my favorite challenges that we do at Addicted to Stamps and More...CAS! Talan was invited to a birthday party on Saturday and needed a card. Of course, I had NO little boy cards. I hardly even have any boy stamps at all!  I used some inspiration at The Friday Mashup! and made my card using the colors Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Wild Wasabi.

I scanned my stamp sets and saw this cute little lizard from Tag It. This Ronald McDonald set is retiring soon, so this was probably my last time to use it!

I first stamped my lizard stamp and then I stamped it again on a Post-it-Note, cut it out and masked my little guy on the card so I could stamp the grunge over it. I got a little carried away and stamped more red there along the bottom that I originally wanted, but I figured it was for a 9-year-old boy who was probably going to be throwing it away, so I didn't want to waste any more cardstock (or time! lol) to redo it. How bad is that?!!!!  I decided to roll the corner and add a peek of  DSP behind it. Of course, everyone in my house thought someone ripped my card when they saw the corner like that. lol I know you crafters all know better. :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to check out all of the other beauties the ATSM design team have created for you!

Stamp Sets: Gorgeous Grunge, Off the Grid, Tag It
Cardstock: Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Brights DSP Stack, Dimensionals

Flower Shop

I am anxiously waiting for my Stampin' Up! 2014-2015 preorder to arrive. In the meantime, I am having fun playing with some "toys" that haven't seen that much use this year!  I figured now is the time to play because once my Blendabilities get here, it is going to be hard for me to put them down! :)

I loved this inspiration photo from Just Add Ink and knew what supplies I wanted to use right away. I love it when that happens!  Less time thinking and more time playing!  I will also be entering my card in the color challenge at Colour Me...which is to use up to five colors of my choice.  The colors I chose to use are Gold, Pink Pirouette, Coastal Cabana and Crisp Cantaloupe.

I love the chevrons and the colors in these photos. They are so soft and gorgeous!  

I had fun layering the flowers with the Pansy and Boho Blossoms punches. I rolled the edges of each flower out with my Bone Folder to give them more dimension. I finished them off with the big pearls in the center. This is one item I will really miss since it is retiring!  

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my card!

Stamp Sets: Feel Goods, Flower Shop, Positively Chevron

Cardstock: Gold Foil, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

Ink: Gold Encore, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pink Pirouette
Tools: Boho Blossoms Punch, Pansy Punch, Labels Collection Framelits, Bone Folder

Accessories: Large Pearls, Doilies, Dimensionals