You're Awesome

Over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (click here) the topic is Out With The Old In With The New. My card features my brand new Jane's Doodles Surf's Up set and my also brand new Pretty Pink Posh Layered Surfboard Stencils. My Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink is something that I have had forever and is my "old" for this challenge!

As soon as I saw the previews of this mouse surfing with his swimmies on I knew he was going to be mine! I knew I would use Glossy Accents to shine up his swimmies, goggles and surfboard, and make splashes of water, too! The Pretty Pink Posh layered stencils surfboards are fun and really quick to use with Ranger Distress inks. I used Prismacolor pencils to color my mouse. The aqua vellum waves were cut with My Favorite Things Ocean Waves die set. 

And because these stencils are SO fun, I am entering my card in the Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge Anything Goes. Click here to see their challenge!

Hope you are enjoying your summer activities!

-Carol

Bee Mine

The Paper Players PP550 Clean and Simple Challenge requires a bee...and I didn't think I had one. I got up this morning to look one more time and found this cute little guy! 

This card is gift-sized. It is made with two die cut Simon Says Stamp Wonky Hearts adhered at the top, above a score line just a little more than 1/4" down from the top edge of the heart that is behind the card front. I added tying ribbons to the cards. The bee is from the Stampin' Up! Crazy, Mixed-up Love stamp set. I might make a little set of these for Valentine's Day next year!

I'll "bee" back soon,

-Carol

Orange You So Sweet

This week at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge tttc#123 (click here)we have a fun new board for you! I chose the right column: Orange, Free, Alphabet Stamps. My "free" space stands for masking. I decided to make it kind of a CAS (Clean and Simple) card with lots of white space and pops of the color orange as well as orange slices.

When I saw this board I immediately thought of the Lined Alphabet stamp set from Stampin' Up! because I knew I could put a design inside of each (outline) letter. I used my new Pretty Pink Posh Summer Drinks Stamp set to mask off and stamp the orange slices inside the letters O, M, G, and also used one of the cute drink stamps. I colored them all with Copics and fussy cut them. 

Next, I die cut orange slices for the background from white cardstock with my Concord and 9th Orange You Sweet Dies. I had to glue the inner pieces back into the "frame" for each orange, but I sat and listened to Pandora while I did it, making it fun and relaxing! LOL. (I'm sure there is an easier way to die cut these so that the little inner pieces and frame stay as one after die cutting, but I didn't think of it. Let me know if you think of a way to do it!) 

After I glued the oranges down, I stamped the sentiment from the Concord and 9th companion stamp set also called Orange You Sweet. I played with the placement of the OMG, sentiment and cocktail until I was happy with the layout. It just so happens that I just got the fruit confetti from Pretty Pink Posh and thought the oranges would add color to my CAS card. I need a class on sequin/enamel dot/rhinestone placement! I am never happy with where I end up putting them on projects. Any hints besides an odd number of them? 

I hope you will join us over at Tic Tac Toe Challenge this week. I think it's a really sweet, bright,  summery one!

-Carol

A Sailing Thank You

I'm starting a much needed stash of thank you cards to have ready and waiting. I have had these cool sailboat dies for a just a short time and wanted to try more ways to use them in scenes! They are so realistic and simple to die cut and color. I am entering my 6 1/4" x 3 1/4" mini slimline card in the MFT Slimline Challenge Feeling Beachy this month here and The Poppy Stamps PSC#82 Just Add Water here.

Yesterday I was out browsing craft stores and I fell in love with the dainty fonts of this sentiment. It's from Stampabilities. I thought the fonts paired well with the calm water scene. The dies are from Poppy Stamps, by Memory Box, called Marina Sailboats. The sunshine is a Tim Holtz stencil and I used Distress Inks to ink blend all the colors on this card.

"Sea" you soon with more summer cards,

-Carol

Quilty Watercolors

I recently WON (Yay!) a gift voucher and  got this Quilt Circle Panel Die from Waffle Flower Stamps and Dies. I was excited to watercolor with it and play around a little. These cards are for a friend who wants to have a stash of all occasion, no sentiment cards to give to her clients when they bring her gifts or do something nice for her. They are my first sales as a cardmaker! I thought I would take a few pictures of my process.

Using a water brush, I wet a piece of watercolor paper. Next I used the water brush to pick up Distress ink that I had squished onto my glass mat so that I could add some pretty colors to the panel. Then, I dried the paper with my heat gun on both sides. Finally, I ran the die and the watercolored panel through my Big Shot machine.

I  used temporary adhesive to attach the background panel to a card front, then moved the circles around so they were not by the same color in the background. (I wasn't sure if I was going to glue the circles AND the background onto the same card.) Once I liked where the circles were, I permanently adhered the circles to the card front. I removed the background panel which left just the circles on the card front.

I added Pretty Pink Posh gems on some of them.

I glued the background piece to another A2 white card front and added gems to every other opening.

The final products.

Pretty easy cards. Quick, and very versatile for any occasion. The circles could be grouped/randomly placed along one side or, using the negative piece, put little Copic-colored die cuts in each opening. I think I will get a lot of use out of this die!

See you soon,

-Carol

Sweet

I am really enjoying citrus fruits this summer, on cards, in drinks, on fabric. This card is for The Paper Players PP549 color challenge with Bumblebee, Misty Moonlight, Just Jade. I have another card coming soon with these lemon dies to prove my fascination with them lately!

Products:

Concord and 9th: Orange You Sweet Stamp set and dies

Paper Smooches Fruitastic stamp set

Stampin' Up! Classic ink pads and Ranger Distress Oxide inks 

Glossy Accents

Ink blending brushes

Pretty Pink Posh Fresh Fruit Clay Confetti (Obsessing over these chunky little guys!)

Altenew Hibiscus 3D leaves dies 

White  and "jade" cardstocks

I decided to ink blend on white cardstock with the blue and "jade" inks, spritz some water on it, then blot it off. 

Next, I used white cardstock to die cut the lemons and ink blended the edges and the inner wedges, leaving the white in between wedges. (I had to removed the wedges, ink blend them, then fit them back in their places...like a puzzle.) 

I turned over the Paper Smooches lemon stamp and inked the back, solid side of it for the background cardstock strip. 

The last little thing was making the sentiment ombre with blue and jade inks using a blender brush. I tried to capture it with my pictures but it isn't as pretty as in person.

I think that one of the best things about summer are the flavors and scents in everything! Hope you are enjoying your favorite parts of this season as well!

-Carol

Altered Books, Part 2

Here is the first altered book I made with my stamp club years ago.  You have to read my last post to get the back story, but this one was made month by month by a different friend each time in our club, and I was delightfully surprised each time I got it back! My favorite has to be the one with the pictures of my family in it. My friend Sharron, a colleague, asked me for a picture of each of us and this is what she used them for when it was her turn. Can you see the shaker embedded in a page? I didn't show the whole book, just the highlights. The 4th picture has a lot of black threads...they are attached to tags that fit into a pocket on the bottom corner of the page. So cool! Needless to say, there was a LOT of talent in that group and I always felt like the weakest link. We had a lot of fun and inspired each other with our things we brought to share (could have been something we made or received from another friend somewhere) and what we made each month at the gathering. Here is my game-themed book!

Hope you enjoyed this crazy book of games...I look at it and think of all the work and thought that everyone put into each others' books for a good part of a year! 

Hope to see you back here soon,

-Carol