Butterfly Fusion

Hello & Good Morning, Everyone!  Hope you are having a great start to your day.  I was asked by my fabulous stampy friend Linda Callahan to be a guest stamper on the latest Fusion card challenge.  This week's challenge is a sketch or butterflies or both!

I haven't bought much of the latest butterfly stamps (many to choose from in the Occasions catalog), but I could not resist the Sale-a-Bration Botanical Butterfly paper.  I love the black & white patterns, and so that's my focus today.

I cut a couple butterflies from the paper and colored them with Stampin' Blends for a vibrant bold pop.  I doubled up on Dimensionals to make room for the cord.

Stamps: Silhouettes & Script; Paper: Whisper White, Botanical Butterfly DSP; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends; Accessories: 1/8" Black Cord, Dimensionals.

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SSC195 Winter Sunset

The card that just didn't want to be made....

Hi Everyone!  Welcome to another Sunday Stamps challenge, for which I'm terribly late.  I have tried several times to make a card with a particular stamp image, and it just wasn't working out for me.

I'm going to stick with this CAS winter sunset.  I did some masking and brayering.  The shadow was added using the mirror technique on my plastic Stamp-a-ma-jig sheet.

This card seems appropriate right now, as we have basically spent our Christmas vacation in the woods, either mountain biking or making new trails... several times until after sundown.

Here's this week's color challenge; use a minimum of 3 colors and a neutral of your choice.

Stamps: Winter Woods; Paper: Dusty Durango, Smoky Slate, Whisper White; Ink: Dusty Durango, More Mustard, Soft Sky, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray; Accessories: 3/4" Circle Punch, Sponges, Brayer, In the Woods Framelits, Big Shot.

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Wishing You Well & Online Extravaganza

Hello Everyone!  I find these new type of stamps, called DistINKtive by Stampin' Up, so attractive.  Have you seen them?  This type of stamp impression leave a variety of intensities to allow for lighter and darker images with one try.  There's a new one in the Holiday Catalog, called Wishing You Well, that I couldn't resist.

I couldn't quite find the color I wanted for the bouquet, so I combined two colors.  Using the Stamparatus, I stamped with Lemon-Lime Twist, following up with Crushed Curry inks.  This card uses Freshly Made Sketches #361.

Stamps: Wishing You Well; Paper: Emerald Envy, Whisper White; Ink: Crushed Curry, Lemon-Lime Twist, Emerald Envy; Accessories: Linen Thread, Dimensionals.

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Stampin' Up High Tide

Here's a clean-and-simple birthday card I created recently.

I started off with the blues from Sunday Stamps's color challenge but deviated with the lighthouse color.

Stamps: High Tide, Lemon Zest; Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White; Ink: Cherry Cobber, Bermuda Bay, Pacific Point, Night of Navy; Accessories: Brayer.

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FM239 Sending Good Wishes...

This week's Friday Mashup is a color challenge with snowflakes.

I was taken by the inspiration photo, which reminded me of the little whimsy stamps in the new Balloon Celebration set from the Occasions catalog.  They are really a bottom shadow image from a balloon, but they sure do look like dandelion fluff, don't they?

After sponging and stamping, I wanted to use a little bit of bokeh and splatter to really make it look like the photographic effect of focusing on the fluff floating in the air.  It adds a lot of fun dimension, don't 'cha think?

Using My Digital Studio, I found Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, and Almost Amethyst to be the closest Stampin' Up colors to the challenge color palette.

This week's Mashup Challenge is:  

Photo Source 

• Create a project featuring at least 3 of the colors above and Neutral of your choice. 
• or Create a project featuring Snow/Snowflakes. 
• or Mash it up! and create a Snow themed project using the colors above.

Stamps: Balloon Celebration, Lovely Amazing You; Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White; Ink: Almost Amethyst, Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Night of Navy marker, Whisper White Craft; Accessories: Rhinestone jewels, Sponges, Watercolor brush.

The Stamp Review Crew: You've Got This

Welcome to another Stamp Crew Review Blog Hop!  We share our take on a selected stamp set every first and third Monday.  This week we are looking at a main catalog stamp set, You've Got This.  This set has a nice line art flower for coloring, a great background stamp, and some wonderful sentiments.  If you are following the hop in order, you've arrived from Jen Timko's blog.  She always has such elegant projects!

I'm a big fan of watercoloring, and often I like to make monochromatic projects, usually in gray or sepia tones.  I haven't inked up this flower image yet, so I thought coloring in gray tones would be fun.

What fun and how relaxing it was to color while watching television on New Year's Eve!  I went with a clean layout from Freshly Made Sketches #217.  Don't you love how that large stamp subtly fills the background?

Stamps: You've Got This; Paper: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Watercolor paper; Ink: Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Basic Black Archival; Accessories: Pearl jewels, Aquapainter.

I thought I'd include a project designed by Lydia (UnderstandBlue) at her pre-Convention retreat last summer, highlighting the Water Magic Stamping technique.

Since this project is the reason I bought this stamp set, to share with my club members, we'll give this technique a try at stamp club this month.

Stamps: You've Got This; Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Basic Black; Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Memento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: Washi tape, Water-soaked paper towel, Sponge.

Hop on over to Sue Plote's blog to see what she put together with this set. Her projects are always amazing!

 

The Control Freaks Welcome the Holidays!

Welcome... It's time to hop along with the over-the-top fabulous Control Freaks!  This month we will be sharing fall and holiday projects, some of which with swapped with each other.  You've probably arrived here from Mindy Backes's blog.  I just love her clean style!

Around here, Halloween is a holiday!  At your house too?  I need to get on the ball and play with the Halloween goodies before time ticks on by...  I decided to focus on the Sweet Hauntings set.

I love this card layout, which allows a clean & simple design while also giving a nice peek of the really fun Happy Haunting patterned paper.  This is also a great opportunity to have some fun coloring.  Doesn't the new Basic Black archival ink stamp such a crisp image?

The Sweet Hauntings set also includes three fun images, which coordinate with the Note Tag punch, and can be used on a variety of tags, 3-D candy holders, or cards.  I created a fun and easy matchbook candy holder, holding a snack-sized Almond Joy.  To recreate, score a 2 x 7-5/8" piece of patterned paper at 3-1/4, 3-3/4, and 7".  What a fun way to give a little treat to co-workers or kiddos!

Stamps: Sweet Hauntings; Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Happy Haunting DSP; Ink: Old Olive, Cucumber Crush, Tangelo Twist, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate, Basic Black archival; Accessories: Aquapainter.

Stamps: Sweet Hauntings; Paper: Tangelo Twist, Very Vanilla, Happy Haunting DSP, Black Glimmer; Ink: Tangelo Twist, Basic Black markers; Accessories: Spider Web Doilies, Vanilla thick baker's twine, Mini Stapler, Note Tag punch.

Labor Day may have been the last foray for summer, but I was working diligently on Christmas swap cards while on vacation.

This set took more than a week to get done, mostly because of the watercoloring.  There's about four layers of Marina Mist and Night of Navy color there.  Here's a work-in-progress shot - tough view to work by, huh?

Stamps: Jingle All the Way; Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer, Watercolor paper; Ink: Marina Mist, Night of Navy; Accessories: Confetti Stars border punch, White embossing powder, Watercolor brush, Softly Falling EF, Sleigh Ride edgelits, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Jump over to Mary Brown's blog to check out what fabulous ideas she has; they are always so creative!

FM219 Wild About Summer Flowers

It's my turn to host the Friday Mashup challenge.  As I shared earlier, I had goldenrod flowers, with the new stamp set Wild About Flowers, in mind for this time of year.  When we arrive to our family cabin in Canada every year, there are many flowering weeds around, including goldenrod.

Along with a Friday Mashup card, this was my Convention swap for both the Control Freaks and our roomie shoebox swap.

This week's Friday Mashup is:

• Create a project using "Delightful Dijon, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry". 
• Create a project "Inspired by Summer Flowers". 
• or Mash it Up and create a "Summer Flowers Project using Delightful Dijon, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry".

Stamps: Wild About Flowers, Papillion Potpourri, And Many More; Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White; Ink: Delightful Dijon, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black, Black Stazon; Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Bitty Butterfly punch, Aquapainter, Dimensionals.

FM218 It's Been Oolong

Hi Friends! Time for another Friday Mashup; this week Holly brings us a food/marker challenge.

This is a cute stamp from Sweet Stamp Shop, and I colored it with both Blendabilities and Chromatix markers.  Isn't this so fun and clean?

This week's Mashup Challenge:

• Create a project with "Food or Drink."
• Create a project using "Markers to Color."
• or Mash it Up and create a project with "Food/Drink with Markers."

Stamps:Oolong by Sweet Stamp Shop; Paper: Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Afternoon Picnic DSP; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake Blendabilities, Grass Chromatix markers.

June Paper Pumpkin: Groovy Kind of Flowers

Aren't the flowers from June's Paper Pumpkin fun?  Feel so groovy and retro.

I'm playing along with My Pumpkin Challenge, and I found a fun sketch in the old Clean&Simple sketches, FTL #230.

This is a fun alternative card I will be sharing with my Paper Pumpkin club members.