Farewell T-Man

A quick Farewell Card for a work colleague.... wanted to use some new bounty and turned automatically to PTI's Polka Dot Basics II.  Teamed the F Plaque with the strip of dotted red and a group of images from SU's In the Stars; these are stamped in Basic Black Ink on the same Real Red Card and then glossed.  The letters for the name are by Spare Parts and the Farewell is rub-ons from American Crafts...

Butterfly Prayer

A little Butterfly Prayer with the intended use as a Sympathy Card.... I love Kraft, have you noticed!!  Even better when paired with Close to Cocoa DSP, the Circle of Dots from SU's So Much and this Unity Butterfly.... I have been trying to use my corner tab punch lately too!!  Sentiment is from SU's Thoughts and Prayers... thanks for stopping by...

A Fiver for Verve

Here are my contributions for the Verve Release Party.  There was a quintet of challenges, of course I would love to have incorporated some Verve Stamps but haven't adopted any of these yet, plan to soon:

I started the sketch challenge with the thought of making a yo-yo flower for the circle feature; the rest came together from there.  Surprisingly I used Creamy Caramel ink and card as the background palette... these have not been in use for a while but went well with the Graphic 45 Paper--Always on My Mind from the Baby & Bride Collection.   I used both sides of the paper and a piece of So Saffron for the 4 petals of the flower, all of which are distressed, slapped with CC ink and then sparkled with Old Lace Glimmer Mist.  The centre brad is from Spare Parts, with the thought of bringing out the green from the paper.

I used Prima Journal Stamps both in the top LH Corner and for the sentiment panel.  The Sentiment is from Stamp-It.  The panel beneath this is So Saffron stamped with Old Lace in Creamy Caramel.  I made a crumpled ribbon from a strip of the paper and finished off with an extra slap of ink on the edges of the card.

I translated these colours to Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Taken with Teal and Perfect Plum.  Using a Confetti White card base, the sentiment is a from Stamp-It; the main panel uses Old Olive Card, Ribbon and DSP and is topped with SU Petal Pizzaz Flower stamped off in OO, TwT and PP on GG card.  I hand cut these right on the ink line and secured with matching brads... it seems to be a day for either distressed or CAS cards... so I ran a little PP ink around the edge of the card to finish off.

Well I actually had the Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Mellow Moss that this colour challenge called for, so that was a good start.  Opted to keep it simple and focus on the colours, so used the Heart Winged Butterfly by Hero Arts, stamped in the three colours on some Very Vanilla card, cut and popped up on the VV card which was pre-stamped with the scroll from Autumn Leaves and sentiment from the Great Friend set by SU, before adding the embossing with my Scor-Pal.  I love love love cream so it is nice to see it in CAS cards and really let the clarity shine on through.

Distressing is easily come by in my creative space, I love to apply a good bashing to some paper and trimmings.  This offering is somewhat on the mild side of distressing, but includes a border stamp by Kelly Panacci and another Prima Journal Frame, both stamped in Basic Gray on Regal Rose.  I used minimal ink when stamping to provide a more distressed look, roughed up the edges of the journal space and crumpled the border to make it into a shabby ribbon.  Sanded back and inked up the little piece of DSP and applied some more random RR ink across the card before finishing with some Lullaby Thickers in Charcoal.  I have played around a lot with Pink and Gray lately, but am liking this bolder pink combo.

A bit of BLING.... OK! ... and some SHINE.... OK!!  Haven't used enough white lately and this is always a good background for bling and shine so I reached into the 'new' stash and pulled out this Coaster Cutie by Bella, unfortunately these have been in the 'new' stash for some time but now that they have arrived all is well.  I hand traced and cut the piece of Pink Pirouette so that it sat inside the embossed line on the coaster.  Two Flourish Flowers, by Hero Arts, was stamped first in Purely Pomegranate and then in Versa Mark before being dipped and embossed with Kaleidoscope Transparent by Stampendous.  The swirl is from the Round and Round by Rhonna Farrer, a Stampology set by Autumn Leaves; stamped in Versa Mark and embossed with Pink Crystal by Stampendous on a scrap of Cool Caribbean card.  I hand cut this and placed over the image, adding some bling to the embossed dots on the coaster and the flower before mounting on what I think may be my last piece of Cool Caribbean.

MTSC39 Scrappy Birthday

I have been meaning to play along with Mercy's Sketch Challenge for some time, and finally found the motivation this morning to do so... here is a little offering for MTSC39 which was a great sketch to apply yet another label from my recent Prima Journalling Stamps.  I inked it up in Warm Violet Chalk Ink from Colorbox and then rubbed some Antique Linen distress Ink around the edges.... the chipboard is by Basic Grey, inked in Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink.  A dash of handwriting along with some scraps of paper and card from the stash bought this little number together.  I am not a big fan of bows so used a paper ribbon edged with my new EK Success Dotted Scallop punch, replacing the bow with the brad.

Shannan ROCKS!!

The Featured Stamper at Splitcoast this week is Steubner, Shannan is a gem, she adds Fun and Frivolity to stamping and card making, and has a great clean style with heaps of colour.  I chose her Fabulous Olives card to CASE, and changed the following:

Used an alternate punch, still a large EK Success Scallop but the Diamond Lace version.
Personalised the sentiment, using American Crafts Smoothie Thickers and Ned Rub-ons.
Replaced the Flower Stamp with an American Crafts Spring & Summer Rub-on.

I used Papertrey's Berry Sorbet ink on the backgrounds, Canvas by Stampin' Up! on the main panel, and Chandelier by Unity Stamp Company on the base of Pink Pirouette card stock.  Kaiser gemstones finished the detail, both on the RHS and the rub-on.

I am rather late in posting this, but was good to contribute to Shannan's week as Featured Stamper.

Beauty of the Butterfly

I delayed posting this so that I could undertake a RAK for an online friend... carried on the theme of a previous post by using clear embossing with a Prima Journal Frame to create the centre panel for this card. This time I aged the panel with Antique Linen Distress Ink. The large butterfly and the words from the sentiment are from the Butterfly Delight stamp by Hero Arts but I have only used portions of the image... this butterfly and the others from DarkRoomDoor are again stamped in Versamark and clear embossed, cut out and raised with foam tape.

I used River Rock card for the base and stamped some of the corner scrolls from the same Prima Journal Frames stamp set in the Antique Linen ink. I made the paper ribbon from a piece of River Rock stamped in ColorBox Colonial Blue (had to dig deep for that one) using an Anna Griffin stamp, this strip is distressed on the edges and has Antique Linen ink swiped all over it. I pleated the paper ribbon on one side and added a Making Memories Antique Copper Lacy Brad to the RHS.

A little difficult to photograph as a lot of the stamping is very subtle, but hopefully you can see some of the detail.

Girly Grid with a Dash of Bling

Here is a little offering for Card Patterns Sketch 31... got out the girly pinks and oranges for this one, and also resurrected an old stamp... from D.O.T.S -- Thank You.  I triple stamped this image so that I could have the white background, frame it in Regal Rose and have the flowers match one of the papers in the Grid.  The orange card is from Bazzill and the patterned papers from the In Stitches range by Sassafras Lass.  I think the scroll is by Autumn Leaves, this was hand cut and placed on top of the grid before attaching the Thank You Frame.  Some Glitter and Kaiser Rhinestones along with a touch of piercing finished off this card.

Flourishes Feel of Fall Challenge

Put this offering together for the Flourishes Feel of Fall Challenge to go into the draw to win 4 of their stamp sets to be released in a few days... of course I have no Flourishes stamps, hope to soon!

I inked up another of my new Prima Journal Frames, stamping it on Kraft card.... strangely enough this company and Hero Arts must use the same illustrator as the Hero Arts Card Art Happy Wishes image mimics the LHS of this Journal Frame, this is stamped in chocolate on the yellow card (PTI Lemon Tart) and mounted on some chocolate card which was punched with Fiskars' Treading Water.  The sentiment is stamped from SU's Whimsical Alpha and hand cut.  Finished the card off with some matching yellow and kraft ribbon, threaded through a large eyelet.  Thanks for looking, and for those of you playing along, good luck with the competition.

Another Hero

The Cut Out Flower was the first stamp on my wish list from the last Hero Arts Catty.... I have used and used and used it, in so many different ways but for today I returned to basics... I love the simple lines and texture of this image, has some lovely music notes as background... this is a way out colour combo for me but resulted from scraps on the creative table; namely--River Rock, Groovy Guava and Regal Rose. The background is double stamped SU Dots and the sentiment is from Stamp-It.... had to add in some border punching via EK Success Parisian on Chocolate Chip... the button is from Making Memories and jazzed up with some bling.

Circles and Stripes for LMcAree

Today's Featured Stamper on the Splitcoast Forum is LMcAree, I chose her Daisy Six card to CASE, taking inspiration from the feature circle and the stripes in the BG Paper for my version of the card.

I decided to resurface my Hero Arts Stamps with a plan to use these a lot this week.... this time I used the Flower Wood Background Stamp, for the main circle image, stamping in Prussian Blue Colorbox Chalk Ink.  The scallops are hand built with circles cut from stamped off images from the Hero Arts Artistic Window set; Woodgrain in Chestnut Roan, Script in Olive Pastel, and Scrolls in Warm Violet. 

The background panel is edged with EK Success Scalloped Scallop and masked and stamped in Versamark before clear embossing these distressed lines by Printblocks.  I finished with some white and brown stitch lines and dots; along with the sentiment, flowers and ribbon.

Let me know if you also play along with this challenge.  Thanks for Looking and have a great week ahead!!

Prima Thank You

I found the Prima Journal Frames the other day for a reasonable price and couldn't resist them, in this example I have clear embossed one of the frames on Bordering Blue card before adding the cream Giggles Thickers, it seamed appropriate to add a Prima Flower.... added this to some gorgeous textured paper--Lotus by Amy Butler for K&Company; finishing the card with some ivory grosgrain and some little cross-stitches. I used the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge as inspiration which this week was "not to colour", this is not hard for me as colouring is not something I turn to often...

Ode to Stamp Muse

My online buddy Stamp Muse was named as Featured Stamper on Splitcoast a few weeks back, just as I was out of town... yikes, not great timing... so I missed out on a timely upload but hope to make it up with a few CASEs from her gallery.

The first is of Mono Butterfly, rather than use her technique I have stuck with my new Unity Stamp Co Distressed Dots and CASEd the panel theme, using a similar bottom panel, replacing the butterfly (don't do that often) with a star and sentiment for Father's Day (this Sunday). I have snuck in a piece of sunny card with the Dotted Wave punching on the bottom, this allows the card to also qualify for Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16, which asked for Sunny Gold, Chocolate, Cream and Kraft combinations. The sentiment is from Stamp-It and I have once again used my Vintage Cream PaperTrey Ink.

The next CASEs Stamp Muse's Birthday Blast, following the space theme but changing up the stamps and colours. I finally pulled out these Sandylion Boy Clear Stamps which I picked up in NYC last year, this was just the right project for them. A little colouring in and some background stamping allowed for an OK CASE of this one.

And then I chose Spunked Up Silhouettes, I liked the embossing and simple nature of this one and tried to pull of a similar feel using this lovely Card Art Happy Wishes from Hero Arts. I stamped the image and then a portion of it along the botton of a piece of Creamy Caramel card in versamark and then embossed with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo Distress powder. This stuff is really cool, you rub the top layer off after embossing and it takes away the sheen and applies a vintage feel. I applied Antique Linen Distress Ink directly over the embossing to get the background effect and applied the same ink to the other two layers of card. The sentiment is again from Stamp-It and I finished with some fine strips of the hay coloured bazzill I used on the second layer.