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

WWC196 - Heidi's "All About Occasions" Challenge

I'm so glad that we're having our "All About Occasions" challenge this week.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to use Gina Marie's wonderful layered stamping set, Tabby Cat.  I thought it would be fun used for an anniversary card.

What I love best about this stamp set is that with each layer stamped, more detail appears in the image until, when one is finished, it looks absolutely realistic.  Isn't that a wonderfully stamped tabby cat?  I love it!  I chose to use a base of Heavy Very Vanilla and then added a layer of Poppy Parade.  On top of that I added a retired piece of the Naturals Ivory cardstock (love those little flecks in it, don't you?)  But first I ran that cardstock through the lovely Basket Weave Dynamic embossing folder.

Then I cut out a heart from a piece of Poppy Parade cardstock, using Sunshine Wishes Thinlits.  The red really showed off the cat well, didn't it?  To anchor my cat, I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and then cut it out using one of my stitched rectangle dies. and then had the cat sitting on 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:

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #80 - Anything Goes

Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge #36 - Furrything Goes

WWC182 - Tristan's "All About Occasions" Challenge

This week Tristan Dawes is host for our popular "All About Occasions" challenge.  I know that there are a lot of possible occasions that we celebrate throughout the year, but for this one I had to use one of my brand new Art Impressions stamps.  Who can resist these plump chickens?  Especially when one of them is offering a "coop-cake" for your birthday!

I had a lot of fun setting up this card.  Once the worst was over (fussy-cutting those chickens), the card just came together beautifully.  I watercoloured the chickens using my Aqua-Painter and a mix of the following inks:  Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Mango Melody, Smoky Slate, Gray Granite and Poppy Parade.  For my background I used a wide brush and my Balmy Blue and Crushed Curry inks.

 I wanted seeds scattered across the bottom and found that the sand image from the Magical Mermaid set worked perfectly.

The foil chicken wire?  Who knew I had a die for that?  I plan to use this one a whole lot more!

And, of course, I had to create a fun envelope to go with the card.

I hope you'll be joining us by linking up your awesome creations before Monday, August 13th at 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.  To see the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Water!  (although I've kept to the "anything goes" theme)

Art Impressions Blog Challenge #238 - Card and envelope

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

WWC174 - Gail's "All About Occasions" Challenge

Oh what fun!  This week's challenge is hosted by Gail Allen and is "All About Occasions".  I love this challenge because there is such a wealth of occasions to choose from during the year.

I had been playing around with an idea for a while and decided it was time to see  if reality could come close  to my imagining.  It all began with the gorgeous Share What You Love Specialty Designer Paper pack.  Those of you who have it will know exactly what I mean.  This paper is enough to inspire anyone.  And while I absolutely love the weight  of it and the indescribable look of the translucent and pearlized finish on the one side, it is the other side of one of the designs which set me on the road to my design.  The pattern which I used has no addition of shimmer but it makes me think of someone watercolouring the series of small circles.

There are some awesome colours in this particular designer paper and so it was easy to choose the colours I used for both the watercolouring and the mattes.  My mattes are Mint Macaron and Rich Razzleberry.  For the die-cut birthday and the paint "dripping" from it, I used Mint Macaron, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Pear Pizzaz and Grapefruit Grove.  Those colours are all echoed in the background designer paper.

I've been  going through my retired stamps and came across the Talented Trio set (which I've decided to keep) and realized that I hadn't yet stamped with the little artist.  Well this card took care of that omission.  For her I used the Rich Razzleberry and So Saffron for her smock and the Mint Macaron and Rich Razzleberry for her paint brushes.  I really enjoyed using my inks and AquaPainter for this card.

I hope you've enjoyed checking out my card and reading about the materials.  You'll find more when you visit the blogs of the other Watercooler Artists featured in our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge post.  I look forward to seeing your awesome cards linked up to the challenge.

By the way, you'll see we're also having a Design Team call.  Sadly we lost two of our team members because of personal and family responsibilities.  I'm really going to miss Penny Hanuszak and Tenia Nelson.  Now it's time to see who wants to be part of our awesome team.

WWC161 - Helen's "All About Occasions" Challenge

This week's challenge is being hosted by Helen Finlay and it's all about the special Occasions in our lives.  You can see a few listed in the challenge icon, but you can probably think of a bunch more.  Let's face it, special occasions are one of the reasons we create our cards.

Here in Canada it's still quite a while before Mother's Day occurs in May but it was my mother's birthday last week and I've been thinking of her a lot lately.  Making a Mother's Day card just felt totally natural under the circumstances.

I kept this card very simple.  In fact it's a one layer card except that I matted the one layer and then adhered it to a base.  But you know what I mean. After stamping it, I masked the pretty stone wall image from the Hostess set, "Cosy Cottage".  Then I stamped the trees from the retired "In the Meadow" set so that they would appear to be behind the wall.  The sizing of the two sets is perfect.  They appear to be made for each other.

The scene I've created and watercoloured reminds me so much of a pretty garden to which we'd frequently go for a little picnic when I was growing up in Victoria.  After a snack, I'd weave together the little wild daisies so I could wear them like a crown in my hair.  Most of the time both my sister and I wound up wearing the daisy "crowns" which our Mum had made.  For some reason mine seldom held together properly.

While the outside of my card is rather simple, without embellishments or surprises, I had to do something special for the inside.  So I took the Sale-a-bration "Blossoming Basket" set and stamped the basket in the centre of a piece of 8" x 5" Whisper White and then watercoloured it before carefully cutting around much of it using my craft knife.  I left enough attached so that it would "pop out" when the card was opened.

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

I've also entered this card into the CAS March Watercolour Challenge which is all about Gardens.

I've entered this card into the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #283 - Holidays.

I've entered this card into the That's Crafty! Challenge - Spring Into Action

And, finally, I've entered this card into the The Crafty Addicts Challenge #46 - All About Mums

WWC157 - Heidi's "All About Occasions" Challenge

It's my turn to host the challenge this week and it's an "All About Occasions" challenge.  What fun!  There are so many occasions during the year.  Wouldn't you know it, I had a birthday card in mind.  That has to be one of the most frequently celebrated occasions of the year.  After all, everyone has one--birthday, that is.

What's a birthday without a bit of whimsy thrown in?  I've been dying to use the Party Pandas stamp set which I received free with my qualifying order (it's Sale-a-bration time--Woo Hoo!)  But I kept reaching for other newly purchased stamp sets.  Well, all that changed with this card.  I reached for those Pandas and introduced them to ink.

So where's the whimsy, you ask.  I did my usual mix and match bit with my stamp sets and added some fun from the Birthday Memories Suite as well.  Guess what!  That cute little girl and her friend, the Panda, are going to a birthday party.  Are you ready?

Don't you just love it?  I used the matching framelit to cut the little cutie from the Birthday Memories Designer Series paper.  Yes, they work on the patterned paper as well as on the stamped images.  Bonus!  I also used the framelits to cut out those party hats and the little gift which her friend the Panda is carrying.  The clouds?  They're from the Up and Away thinlits set and that wonderful red foil "celebrate" is another free Sale-a-bration item, the Celebrate You thinlits.  The background is just a watercolour wash using Soft Sky and Pear Pizzaz.

But there's more fun inside!  Why just use one Panda when you can use two, after all?  And the Panda inside the card is an especially talented little guy.  He's taken five of the cupcakes (all fussy cut) and is showing off his juggling skills by keeping them in the air.  I've made the inside a "pop out" so that our friend the Panda is standing away from the card and I've added a carefully cut "tree" of window acrylic to his back so that the attached cupcakes appear to be hanging in the air.

I decided to keep the background pale and neutral by adding a piece of Soft Sky cardstock and then the die-cut Happy Birthday (using the Happy Birthday thinlits) in Very Vanilla.  Any more fuss behind our Panda and those sweet cupcakes would not show up as clearly.

And there we have the complete inside of the card.  I hope you love it as much as I do.

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

I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

Crafting From the Heart #194 - Anything Goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #1806  - Anything Goes