ATSM #303 - Holiday

It's time for another Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge.  This time it's all about Holidays.

For this card I used one of my favourite Christmas sets (sadly retired by Stampin' Up!) called Christmas Magic.  I think it's magical the way the holiday train is coming out of that tunnel, carrying all those wonderful gifts.  I've gone over parts of the train and snow with some H2O sparkle.  In real life it makes a dazzling difference.

Check out the awesome creations by the rest of the Design Team and link up your card HERE.

I've also entered my card in the following:

Crimbo Crackers Challenge #163 - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges #183 - Christmas in July

WWC180 - Marsha's "All About Holidays" Challenge

Woo Hoo!  We have a brand new challenge today!  Marsha is hosting the new "All About Holidays" Challenge this week.  I'm excited because it means I could make a card for any special holiday.  How perfect when Easter and Thanksgiving roll around!

You can see a few of the choices of holidays on the banners shown in the challenge icon.  I've decided that I may as well keep adding to my Christmas stash.  I don't want to be scrambling to make my cards when it's time to write them, after all.

I chose a clean and simple design with my card base in the Heavy Whisper White.  On a regular weight Whisper White I used a circle mask to sponge Bermuda Bay topped with a light coat of Pacific Point.  Then I removed the mask and let my circle dry.  At that point I used my Memento ink to stamp the trees, the reindeer, and the sentiment from the wonderful (and still current) Nature Sings stamp set.

I added a bit of Soft Suede to the reindeer and a bit of Mossy Meadow to the trees, using my Stampin' Markers.  I attached the piece to my base using the Foam Adhesive Strips and then added five sequins.  Simple but I love the results, don't you?

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.   And then I invite you to link up your Holiday creation to our challenge.

I'm also entering my card in the Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #32 - Anything Christmas

as well as in the Crafty Gals Corner Challenge 170 - Christmas in July

WWC179 - Heidi's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

It's my turn to host the Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge this week.  What fun!  Masculine cards always add to the challenge, making me think outside my usual comfortable "box".  Of course I have enough men in my family to make having a stash of masculine cards a real bonus. 

I bought the Rooted In Nature Bundle right after the OnStage which Stampin' Up! hosted in Red Deer, Alberta.  Sadly this is the first time I will have used it.  And quite honestly, it's not purely a masculine styled bundle.  This set can be used for all sorts of occasions and creations.  Having used it now, and having loved all the images and framelits that make up my card, I am at a loss as to my long wait in  creating with it.  You can be assured I won't be waiting long to use it again.

Since this is a masculine challenge, I thought that using the carried-over Wood Textures Designer Series paper would be a great start.  In fact I pulled all my paper and ink colours from this designer paper.  My base is the new Gray Granite, then comes the designer paper, and then layers of Early Espresso and more Gray Granite.  That final layer of Gray Granite really shows off the great embossing possible with several pieces of the Nature's Roots Framelits dies.  I used all three of the embossing dies for this textured background. 

I also stamped the tree onto a piece of the Gray Granite using the Mossy Meadow ink, stamped off once.  Then I used the matching framelit to cut it out and mounted it onto the embossed piece using Dimensionals.  If you look carefully, you'll see that I actually stamped the tree several times and then added more dimension by cutting out three sections of foliage and mounting them over the stamped image.

I love how the copper ribbon allows itself to be pulled wider and formed.  That's what I've done here and then I've glued the undulating form onto the paper using Tombo white glue.  That embossed leaf is cut from Champagne Foil and then I've run my Smoky Slate marker over it to dull the shine and add more interest to the embossing.

I hope you'll check out the awesome creations by our other Watercooler Artists at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I've also entered my card into the Sunday Stamps SSC183 - Cottage Colours

ATSM #301 - Anything Goes

It's time for another Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge.  This time it's an anything goes.

For this card I used the sweet Moon Baby stamp set (sadly retired).  I coloured the images with my Koh-I-Noor Colour Pencils and Gamsol.  Those embossed hearts on the background textured blue cardstock echo the star hanging from the baby's hand.  Unfortunately the photo doesn't pick up the sparkle of the Wink of Stella on that star.

Check out the awesome creations by the rest of the team and link up your creation.

WWC178 - Crystal's "All About Occasions" Challenge

It's Crystal's turn to host our challenge, which is "All About Occasions" this week.  I love special occasions, don't you?  This time, since I was dying to use a brand new stamp set which I just bought, I decided on a birthday card.

Which stamp set?  I can just about hear people asking the question.  Well, I won't delay any longer.  This week I finally got an Art Impressions set which I had ordered a little while ago.  Bonnie Krebs, the original artist, has done a wonderful job creating this adorable set of Sloths.  The image of the one in the birthday hat, hanging off a branch "spoke" to me.

I wanted this to be a bright and happy card and so, after using a white card base, I used a "skinny" layer of Soft Suede as a matte for the gorgeous new Pineapple Punch In-Color.  It's such a clear and bright yellow and sets off the Real Red of the "celebrate" die-cut sentiment and rounded matte for the main image.

On a piece of Whisper White I stamped that wonderfully goofy Sloth and had a ball colouring him.  For the balloon, I coloured the image using Real Red even though it is mainly covered with that cute Real Red Honeycomb embellishment (sadly retired).  For the party hat I continued with the red and yellow theme.  To finish up the image panel, I used my aqua-painter to add splotches of Pear Pizzazz, Coastal Cabana, and Old Olive to give an illusion of leaves and sky peeking though.

What can I say?  He makes me smile.  I hope he makes the birthday boy smile as well.

For a look at the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.  And then feel free to link up your own special occasion card.

I'm also entering my birthday card into the Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge #300 - Birthdays
And also into the Sunny Day Crafting Challenge #26 - Any Animal

WWC177 - Charlotte's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Oh, so much happening today.  First of all, Happy Birthday to our neighbours to the south, celebrating their 4th of July.  Second of all, we have a brand new Watercooler Artist who is joining our team this week, Crystal Komara, who many of you may already know from her Super Stamp Girl blog.

Last but definitely not least, Charlotte is hosting our awesome Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge this week.  I'm dying to show you the card I designed!

I'm still sorting through my all-too-horrifically large stash of stamping products.  Of course it's a lot of work but every once in a while it's like striking gold.  (Okay, I'm easily excited.)  This time I found a sheet and a half of some Designer Paper which I absolutely LOVED when it came out and stashed away so that it wouldn't all be used and disappear.  (How sad is that?  Paper should be used.  Right?)

Well this retired paper inspired the entire card which I created.  You can see, it's all about the dandelion seeds in black, floating across the white background.  Simple, yes.  Striking---oh my goodness, yes!  And so I took my Fairy Celebration stamp set and stamped the little fairy sitting on the toadstool, surrounded by flowers.  Once the ink had thoroughly dried, I used my stitched oval framelit to cut it out.  Then I used my scalloped oval framelit to cut out a piece of Basic Black cardstock as a matte.

Because I wanted the card to be predominantly black and white, I coloured only the top of the toadstool and the little fairy, leaving the rest of the image black and white.  Because I'm still in love with the colour pencil/Gamsol technique of colouring, I turned to my set of Derwent Colourself pencils and had a ball bringing the little fairy to life.

For my sentiment I did much the same as I did with the image, using a sentiment from the Beautiful You stamp set matted on a Basic Black scalloped oval.  That pretty coard under the sentiment is black and as shiny as can be.  It's in the new Annual Catalogue and is simply called Black 1/8" Cord.  Its impact is not so  simple.

I hope you'll check out the cards created by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I've also entered this card in the Just Us Girls Challenge #447 - Anything Goes

And also the Try it on Tuesday Challenge - Things with Wings

ATSM #299 - CAS (Just a Little Note...)

I'm so excited to begin as a member of the Addicted to Stamps & More design team.  Since this week's challenge is all about clean and simple, I went wading through my stamps for inspiration.  Thanks to Tim Holtz, inspiration didn't take long in coming.

I love this coneflower!  It was such fun to colour, especially since these wonderful flowers come in a variety of colours.  For this one I stuck to my mauves and lilacs, using my beautiful Coloursoft pencils by Derwent and then smoothing them out with Gamsol.  For my sentiment, I used the brand new Highland Heather ink which came out in the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue.  To finish up and add a bit of pattern, I cut the white matte onto which I attached my fussy cut flower with a new Gina Marie designs set of dotted-line dies.

Check out the awesome creations by the rest of the team and link up your creation.