WWC201 - Marsha's Special Two-Week Year-End "Anything Goes" Challenge

Wow!  The year is almost over.  Did anyone else think  it went super-fast?  It's already time for our special year-end challenge, which is always two weeks long to allow everyone time to enjoy those wonderful holidays.  I love that it's an "Anything Goes" challenge.  I have just the right stamp which is perfect to end one year and begin the next.

This stamp set by Gina Marie is s triple stamp set.  So you stamp the first image which is really just the light greys of the elephant and then, with the second and third image, you stamp in the details.  I love how realistic the finished image is, don't you?  Since I don't like my images to just "hang" in mid-air, I used my AquaPainter and Smoky Slate ink to create a shadow-shape .

I kept all my colour to greys and black.  I like the way it looks against the white.  The sentiment is, I think, perfect for many things, including looking forward to the New Year.  After all, isn't that what we're doing when we approach the new year?  We set new goals and dream ourselves more dreams.  It's a new beginning.  To finish off, I added three black rhinestones to the top right and three to the bottom left.  It's a CAS design and I love it.

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

I've also entered this creation in the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge #210 - New Year/New Beginnings

{PIN}spirational Challenges #231 - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenges #380 - Anything Goes

WWC200 - Helen's "All About Occasions" Challenge

Wow!  We're celebrating our 200th Challenge this week.  Isn't that extraordinary and wonderful, all bundled into one awesome celebration?  I felt like celebrating earlier today when my Stampin' Up! order arrived.  All those wonderful goodies from the upcoming Occasions and Sale-a-bration Catalogues--YAY!  So, of course, I had to jump right in and use some of the new stuff.

Needless to say, I had to mix and match.  (There was so much to play with!)  And so I grabbed the new Tea Together stamp set and a piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped the teacup as well as the teapot using Balmy Blue ink.  Then I took the green twig from the Wonderful Romance stamp set and, using Tranquil Tide ink, stamped it across the lower portion of the teapot and then stamped only a portion of it diagonally across the teacup.  For this creation, I just didn't want flowers.

The framelits for the teapot and teacup are only available free with a purchase of $120 in regular products.  So, of course, I have the framelits.  I cut out the teapot and teacup, put them aside, and proceeded use the framelits from the Wonderful Romance bundle to cut that beautiful grid and leaf background out of Tranquil tide cardstock.  Finally, while I was still at the Big Shot, I used the gorgeous new Lace Dynamic embossing folder on a narrow piece of Whisper White.

Colouring was easy since I had the Balmy Blue Watercolour Pencil which is part of the Cute Crew Punch Box in the Occasions Catalogue.  For the leafy twig, I used the Tranquil Tide ink and my AquaPainter.  For the sentiment, I used the Tranquil Tide Stampin' Marker on the stamp from the Tea Together set, colouring the tiny heart with the Berry Burst Stampin' Marker.  After "huffing" the stamp to remoisten the ink, I stamped it onto a piece of Whisper White and then cut it out using the Stitched Round framelit.

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

I've also entered this creation in the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments Challenge - Celebrate challenge

{PIN}spirational Challenge #230 - Inspiration photo

Creative Moments Challenge #158 - Always Anything Goes

Enjoy the Warmth of the Season

When I saw the image of those adorable House Mouse characters huddled inside a broken ornament, warming their little hands with the flame of a candle, I knew I had to have it.  And now, having bought it, I've loved every moment of bringing the little characters to life.

Once I had stamped my image on a piece of Whisper White cardstock, I proceeded to colour it using my Kooh-i-noor Woodless Colour Pencils and Gamsol.  In order to make the ornament appear to be glass with a shiny finish, I went over it with my H2O paints.  The shine is subtle but makes it stand out against the furry mice.  For the snow, rather than colour it, I used my White Embossing paste and a spatula.  I didn't like the way it looked against the Whisper White once it dried and so painted over it using the Frost White Shimmer paint.  For the candle's flame, I set some yellow and red colour around the wick and then covered it with a coat of clear Nuvo drops.  Once it was dry, I added some more yellow with my Stampin' Blends and a coat of Wink of Stella.

I cut the image using a large Oval Die and then cut a matte from Poppy Parade using an Oval Rickrack Die.  I mounted it onto a piece of the versatile Wood Textures DSP and backed it with a piece of Kraft cardstock before mounting it onto a base of Heavy Whisper White.  The sentiment, from  the Hearts Come Home set, is heat embossed on Kraft Paper using White embossing powder.

I created this card for fun but am entering a couple of appropriate challenges with it:

HMFMC #280 - Anything Goes with an option of "Something Warm"

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge week 49 - Anything Goes Colouring Challenge

Winter Wonderland:  End of year, Anything Christmas goes!

WWC199 - Tristan's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Oh, I had such fun with my card!  I used the Seasonal Wreath embossing folder for the first time and added the sweet mice from the Sweet Storybook stamp set.  Don't you love it?

Of course my plans for the card forced me to do a whole lot of additional work.  You see, I wanted to use the Softly Falling embossing folder for my background, to give the card a wintery feel.  That meant I had to give us either the Softly Falling or the Seasonal Wreath since it's rather difficult to use two embossing folders without winding up with a mess.  But then I thought, why not fussy cut the embossed wreath?  Now that I've done it, I love it, but I freely admit there were some rather strong words said during the cutting, which wound up being fussy, indeed.

Once the wreath had been cut, I took a small paint brush and the Frost White Shimmer Paint.  I carefully painted the entire wreath and put it aside to dry.  While it was drying, I stamped the two little mice and then realized that, for placement on the wreath, I would have to fussy cut them rather than use the die from the bundle.  A small setback but at least they were easily cut out.  By this time the wreath was dry and so I took the Soft Sea Foam ink pad, forced some ink into the lid, and proceeded to colour the twigs in the wreath using my AquaPainter.  Because I painted over the Frost White Shimmer Paint, the pale green has a real shimmer to it.  I love it!

So, with my base of Heavy Whisper White and a matte of Soft Sea Foam, I took a piece of Whisper White and embossed it using the Softly Falling embossing folder.  I adhered that to the matte and then glued on the wreath, being careful to simply glue the edges so that the depth of the embossing wasn't affected.  Then I used Dimensional foam to attach the little mice.  I held my breath while stamping the sentiment (from a retired set) but luckily it stamped cleanly.  A trio of little Faceted Dots and my card was done.

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

I've also entered this creation in the following challenges:

Cards in Envy:  The Spirit of Christmas Challenge

Papercraft Challenges #26 - Wintertime 

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #42 - Anything Christmas Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge#379 - Anything Goes

ATSM #321 - A piece of my heart

Oh my goodness, today it's "Anything Goes" for the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge!  How much fun is that?  I love it when I can just go off and do what I want, don't you?  And with a new House Mouse stamp having arrived, can you guess what I'm using for my card this week?

This one is called Paper Clip Heart and sweet little Maxwell is offering Amanda a heart which he's just created out of a paper clip.  I used my Watercolour Pencils and Aqua-Painter for the colouring.  Of course once I got into the paper clips, I turned to my Silver Gel Pen.  And for a few of those paper clips, I turned to my Gold Gel Pen.  After all, don't we all have a mix of both?

For the paper clip heart I decided that I would give it a bit more of a 3-D effect and used the Silver Liquid Pearls for that.  Before adding my coloured image piece, I put the base through my Big Shot with the Falling Petals embossing folder (retired).  It just continued the heart theme.

This was such fun to create.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else links up as their "anything goes".

Check out the creations by the rest of the Design Team and link your own project up HERE.

I've also linked up to the following:

House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #280 - Anything Goes