PCCCS142 --- Enjoy the ride!

There are a number of stamp sets and tools which are retiring from the Stampin' Up! catalogue which I will miss a great deal.  This time of the year, with the retiring list out already, I feel a real need to use my old friends again before they are finally gone.

This is the sketch for this week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge:

I don't always use the same shape in my creations as are used in the challenge sketches but, since the Starburst framelits are retiring, this time I was anxious to use the dies for my card.  

I decided to use a couple of the retiring 2013-15 In-Colors as well:  Coastal Cabana and Baked Brown Sugar.  They're two of my favourite colours from that set and they also compliment each other beautifully.  I also used some Pistachio Pudding to colour in the grass in the background using my Aqua Painter.  The sky, of course, is done with Coastal Cabana ink.

The background also includes Lovely as a Tree which, thankfully, stays current.  The image in my circle, however, from the Today and Everyday stamp set, is retiring.

I hope you'll join us this week for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

And, of course, I had to enter my card into the "make your mark" challenge at the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge blog.

Lovely Amazing EARTH

I couldn't let Earth Day go by without a special card.  Thanks to the gorgeous image of our Earth from The Open Sea stamp set and the mask from the Hooray It's Your Day Simply Created kit, it came together quickly.

Doesn't the sentiment from the Lovely Amazing You stamp set go beautifully with the Little Letters Thinlits?

I've entered my card in the Addicted to Stamps and More "Anything Goes" challenge.

I've also entered my card in the rainbow challenge at the Time Out Challenges.

And finally, I've entered my card in the Make My Monday Challenge  for Earth Day.

PCCCS141 --- Hats off

I know Mother's Day comes before Father's Day but the Paper Craft Crew Challenge this week made me think of those cute hats in the Guy Greetings stamp set.

As soon as I thought of them, I could imagine the whole card.  The strip along the bottom of the sketch would be perfect, I thought, using the Adventure Bound Designer Paper stack.  Each hat could be in one of those squares surrounded by another square cut with the Postage Stamp punch.  It just came together in my head and on my crafting table.  I love it when that happens, don't you?

I used Basic Black for my base and then took the colours from the Designer Paper strip:  Basic Grey, Cajun Craze and Whisper White.  The little "bow tie" cut with the Bow Builder punch is perfect beside the DAD cut into the Designer Paper using the Little Letters Thinlits, isn't it?

I hope you'll join us and link up your own version of the sketch for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

I've also entered this card in the Male Room Challenge.

WCC22 -- Heidi's Combination Challenge

Welcome to my combination challenge.  What does that mean?  It means that the project for this challenge will have a watercolour background with a silhouette in the foreground.

I had such fun with this challenge.  For my background I used watercolour paper and, using my Stampin' Spritzer, sprayed it generously with plain water.  Then, using my aqua-painter and ink pads, I went to work doing a "patch-work" of colours.  I kept the colours subtle.  That's something one can easily manage with watercolours:  keeping them subtle or making a very colourful, bold statement.  I love the way the colours blend into each other where they meet, too.  While you can exert some control on the results, there are always some unknowns with watercolouring this way.  That's what makes it exciting.

For my silhouette, I used the Serene Silhouettes stamp set.  The images have such realism and are wonderful against a watercolour background.  For my sentiment, I turned to the Blooming With Kindness stamp set and used my Hexagon punch.   A little vellum butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set, stamped in black, and some black Candy Dots and the card was done.

I hope you'll join us for the Watercooler Challenge and link up your own creation for us to enjoy.

I've also entered my card in the Paper Players Challenge.

The Wacky Watercooler April (Fools) Blog Hop

If you've been joining us for our monthly blog hops, you'll probably be wondering why there are water bottles at the sides of the banner instead of those old-fashioned water-coolers.  Well, this is April and even though it's no longer the official April Fool's Day, we're improvising and having our own version.  One of our projects has to be something that isn't what it seems.  I'm as much in the dark about everyone else's projects as you are and am dying to see what everyone's special project might be.  This should be a very entertaining blog hop.

Our Blog Hops run in a circular manner.  What this means is that no matter where you begin, as you go from one participant to the next, you will inevitably wind up at the point where you began.  I hope you'll find time to check out all our Blogs.

If you've been moving forward in the Blog Hop, you'll have joined me after visiting the very talented Marsha Reed's Blog.  Marsha is extremely creative and is on the design team of several Challenges.  I'm sure you loved her projects today.

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My first project is a birthday card which I created for my brother-in-law.  It's very convenient having his birthday just when I needed an idea for another project.  Masculine birthday cards are such fun to create, especially when you have the Adventure Bound Designer Paper Stack.  For a guy who is very outdoors-y and loves wildlife, there are some wonderful paper design choices in that stack.

I love the way the quail looks, don't you?  It's from the Walk in the Wild stamp set.

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My next card is for Mother's Day.  I hadn't used the Corner Garden background stamp yet and this seemed like the perfect Occasion.  I used a combination of stamp pads, Stampin' Markers and Blender Pens to colour the beautiful blooms.  

The card really didn't need anything more than the sentiment from the Sweet Laughter stamp set.

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Finally, my third project is the surprise which isn't what it seems to be.  For this project I decided to make a Secret Door card.  I haven't made one of these cards since 2013 so it was definitely time to pull out my template and see what I could create.

The Secret Door card looks just like a simple gate fold card with a girdle around it.  

Even the inside doesn't hint at the difference.

But then you take the card, push the corner folds towards each other to meet at the back, and split the centre.  

The secret "door" opens and reveals messages that have been hidden from view.

Don't you just love it?  Who wouldn't want a wedding card like this?  The Something Borrowed Designer Series Paper is perfect, isn't it?  I had such fun making this card.  Yes, it's fussy and time-consuming, but when you've finished the card you forget all the fuss and bother.  

I think the added lace and embellishments on the girdle make it look just like a wedding garter.  

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Well, that's it for my projects.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed creating them.  If you get a moment, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of them.

Your next stop will be with another very talented and creative member of our group, Jackie Susnik.  I'm sure you'll be amazed with her wonderful projects.

PCCCS140 -- You Rock

I bought the You Rock stamp set and put it aside.  Today I finally used it and had such fun that I wonder why it took me so long.  The rocking chair allows for a lot of interpretation.  It could easily be used for a retirement card, a get well card, a birthday card or, as I've used it, simply as a card for a friend I admire.  Who wouldn't like to be told that they "rock"?

I am so happy that Stampin' Up! is offering the Sale-a-bration Designer Paper, Irresistibly Yours until the end of April if one orders the Butterflies Thinlits bundle.  I know several of my customers loved this paper as well and were waiting to buy the Butterflies Thinlits bundle during Sale-a-bration.  With the bundles becoming available again this week, at least they will not feel as if they "lost out".

I used the stars design and sponged it liberally with Daffodil Delight ink.  My card actually uses only three colours:  Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy and White.  Sometimes less is more.  I've interpreted the sketch for this week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge loosely, using the rocking chair in place of the
circle.

I had fun repeating the star motif by using the Lucky Stars embossing folder on the Daffodil Delight banner and by adding a Night of Navy star cut using the Itty Bitty Accents punch.  In the centre of the Night of Navy star, I glued a Daffodil Delight star cut with the Confetti Stars punch and then topped it with one of the small stars from the Itty Bitty Accents Epoxy stickers.

The hardest part of the card?  Fussy-cutting out the rocking chair, of course.  But it sure looks good raised on Dimensionals, doesn't it?  

I've also entered my card into the {PIN}spirational "anything goes" challenge.  

PCCCS#139 --- Birthday Greetings

Sometimes it's fun to use frills, flowers and butterflies.  That's just what I did for this challenge.  I love how beautifully the doily frames the blossoms. The butterflies, which I kept to the same subtle pallette, and the pearls add just the right touch of class.  It's always fun when you enjoy the sketch:

I chose to use primarily neutrals.  Even my touches of colour are very subtle.  My neutrals are Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso, Baked Brown Sugar and Very Vanilla.  I also added a piece of the Baked Brown Sugar pattern from the 2013-15 In-Colors Designer Series Stack.  And, of course, I added the doily.

For more interest, I used the Spring Flowers embossing folder on the Baked Brown Sugar cardstock.  There are other "behind-the-scenes" touches that you notice as you examine the card.  I cut two pieces of Early Espresso with my Circles Collection framelits, one larger and one smaller.  The larger circle frames the doily and the smaller circle frames the Very Vanilla piece on which I stamped the floral branch from the Indescribable Gift stamp set.  After colouring the image using a combination of Stampin' Markers, Blender Pens and ink pads, I cut it out using the Starburst framelits.  You can just see the Early Espresso peeking through the zig-zags.

I stamped the small butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set onto vellum using StazOn black ink and then coloured them from the back using my Stampin' Markers.  The sentiment is from one of my favourite stamp sets, the Petite Pairs.  With the feminine, vintage look of the card, it just seemed to be begging to be finished off with some Pearls.  And so I did just that.

I hope you'll join us at the Paper Craft Crew Challenge to see what the remaining members of the Design Team created.

I've also entered this card in the Just Add Ink Inspiration Photo challenge.

WCC21 -- Susan's Colour Challenge

It's time for Susan's Colour Challenge, and what a wonderful set of colours we have!  Since this is the Easter weekend, isn't it wonderful that the colours wound up being perfect for the occasion?

I had just about decided to use the dancing Easter bunny again but then decided to use the Sweet Laughter stamp set instead.  Luckily the background I had created worked perfectly either way.  Thank goodness for small mercies, right?

In describing my background, I would have to say it began one way and then "grow'd like Topsy"---to quote Harriet Beecher Stowe.  It really did grow without apparent design or divine intervention.  That said, I like the final results.  I'm going to try to explain how I got there.

I began with a 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" piece of Whisper White.  Before I began stamping, I stamped my lacy image from the Petal Potpourri stamp set onto typing paper a couple of times.  I fussy-cut the images even though I do own the matching punch.  I needed to have the images as close to the stamped size as possible since they would be the masks that allowed me to stamp over close-by images without  leaving a margin.  For my stamping I used Sahara Sand, Pool Party and So Saffron.

Once I was finished stamping my background, I knew I wanted something a bit more but wasn't quite sure what.  So I put the stamped portion aside and waited for inspiration.  That happened while I was in the kitchen cooking and so I turned off the burners and went back to my card.  I had though I might sponge some Pool Party around the perimeter of the stamped Whisper White but instead I followed my inspiration and used the striped Pool Party Washi tape from the Beach House package.  I used the tape along the perimenter and then made a "grid" by adding two lines of tape cutting up the 5 1/8" length and then added one line of tape, cutting the 3 7/8" length in two.

That left me lots of room to add my Calypso Coral On Film die-cut and all the rest of the embellishments.

That's also about the time I decided not to use the bunny but, instead, turned to the Sweet Laughter stamp set.  I love those two potted flowers and used the nice, bright Bermuda Bay for their petals.  I also used a Bermuda Bay matte for the sentiment to add a bit more of the colour to my card.

As the base for my card, I used the Sahara Sand and then added a layer of Calypso Coral before adding the stamped and decorated Whisper White layer.  I love the colours in this challenge and must say, I would use them again.  They really compliment each other beautifully.  Thanks, Susan.

I hope you'll join us for this week's Watercooler Challenge and link up your card for us to see.

I've also entered my card in the Just Add Ink photo challenge.

SSC98 --- Picture Perfect

I'm a real camera nut.  Ask anyone that knows me.  Of course they'll exaggerate about how many cameras I own (but not by that much).  Given my love affair with cameras, I had to get the Snapshot stamp.  The camera even looks like several that I own.

The Sunday Stamps Challenge is having a Design Team call as well as their regular challenge.  I love that it calls for single layer stamping.  It's fun and more challenging than cutting out all sorts of layers and embellishments.  For mine, I used the Snapshot stamp.  I also used the wonderful Stars Decorative Mask.

When you look at someone taking a photo, you can see the image of what they're taking reflected in the lens.  I wanted to have the same effect for my card and so made sure that I didn't stamp the large black area in the lens by covering it up with a mask cut with my 3/4" circle punch.  I just put that right onto the stamp after I inked it up and the area was left clean and ready for the image I wanted to have "reflected".  For that I used the wild-looking chicken in the middle of the From the Herd stamp.  Luckily I have the stamp in Photopolymer and so by simply inking up the chicken I could see where to stamp it to have it centred in the lens.  Great, huh?

I added the sentiment in Coastal Cabana using the Project Life Remember This stamp set.  After colouring my camera and chicken, I used the Stars Decorative Mask and carefully sponged some So Saffron around the camera and sentiment.  As an added little touch, I cut a 3/4" piece of Window Sheet and glued that carefully over the chicken to make it look like a glass lens.

Check out the rest of the entries at the Sunday Stamps Challenge.