PDCC128, CFC49, Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Watercolor Butterflies

Time for a Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge - I haven't done one of these challenges in what seems like forever.  At first I was definitely stumped with the trigger image - while I love the loose water colored look it was a little too loose for me.

I splish-splashed some orange and pink watercolors and then used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die to cut out some blooms.   This way I could enjoy the watercolor look in a more graphic, contained way.

This card also fits the requirements for the Play Date Cafe Challenge and loosely matches the sketch challenge from CAS-ual Fridays.

Sentiment, embossing plate and pearls from A Muse Studios.

CFC45, PDCC124, FTL183 - Thinking of you

One card - three challenges!  That's the way I like to do it!!  

The CAS-ual Friday challenge is to use pastels and black together - sounds so easy but is tougher than I anticipated.  Next up is The Play Date Cafe Challenge and last is the Fall To Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping.

Swapped the circle in the layout for ovals that were stamped with the Cornish Heritage Art Nouveau backgrounder (retired) with A Muse Studio Papaya ink.  

A spritz of Blue Skies Glimmer Mist added the blue without being too overpowering.  The rounded corner and pink sparkly swallow help keep the card from being too "right heavy".
Other supplies - Swallow dies, Diamond glitter, Smile Inside stamp set, Bubblegum and Sky cardstock (all from A Muse Studio)

PDCC119, CAS178 - Splash of PINK!

PINK - I can't escape pink!!  When I was young it was among my favorite colors - now my favorite color is brown closely followed by green.  That is a long road away from PINK!!  However, the current challenge in the Play Date Cafe is Black/White with a splash of Pink so I gave it my best shot.

The sketch is from Clean and Simple Stamping.  The flowers (PTI) were diecut directly from the white cardstock and then backed with a piece of pink cardstock cut just a hair bigger to make the frame.  My favorite part of these flowers are the centers!  Roni has the Prima Donna Petals Die-namics die from My Favorite Things and when we stamped together on Friday I spent a great deal of time cranking out centers!  I have a plethora of dark brown centers that will be visiting some blossoms soon but I also cranked out black and dark grey as well - I'm wishing now that I did some in white/yellow.

The background was stamped with the retired Cornish Heritage Farms - Scalloped Tile Backgrounder and the sentiment is from A Muse Studio.

My favorite cards from 2011 -

This is the time of the year when lots of bloggers are reminiscing about their favorite projects of the past year.  Karin Martin is hosting "A Year in Review" on her blog, so I thought I'd jump on that bandwagon with my favorite cards from 2011.

This bird makes me happy since he is from cardstock that was covered in washi tape stuck in a plaid pattern.

Colored with Copics, this card features a fun layout and a set from SU! that has been sadly neglected -

The flower on this card is a removable pin - a card and a gift all in one!!

Carved my own chevron stamps - boy, have I loved using these on lots of projects this year.

Patterned paper that matches any color combo you want is possible if you stamp your own.

Sometimes everything adds up just right - That's how I feel about this CAS butterfly card!

The colors, stamp set and "beachy" feeling of this card set makes me miss living in Florida.

A gorgeous coat in a Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger sparked this yellow paper rose on a pink damask background.

This is one of my favorite cards ever from last year.  All the vintage images (Graphics Fairy) were imported, resized and printed onto vellum.  I cracked myself up with the punny sentiment - 

YUP - those are my favorites from 2011 - 

CARDS Challenge - Chevron

This week's challenge on the CARDS blog was to use Chevron.  If you haven't already noticed, Chevron is one of the hottest trends around.  Why do we love chevron so much - could it have something to do with that stripe of chevron on Charlie Brown's shirt?

When our older son Connor was small he had a rather large, round, bald head and Corey wanted to take his picture in a Charlie Brown shirt and I wouldn't let him do it - I wish I had cause it would be funny to me now but at the time I was insulted that he was poking fun at our son.

This chevron is made with a muse|studio Washi Tape and Tim Holtz Tissue Tape using this tutorial from Julie Campbell.  The flower is PTI felt and dies.  The sentiment, cardstock and texture are from a muse|studio and are available in my online shop.

Embellish Circles Trends Challenge

It is so nice to be back on the blog again.  I've had a super busy last two weeks with little/no time for crafting so when I got home from work this afternoon it was play time!  This card is for the current Embellish magazine challenge -

CIRCLES.  Watercolor markers made the background using the technique seen here.  The circle was cut with a Nestabilities die and popped up on white cardstock that had the same size circle cut out.  TIP - have the circle/cardstock nested together when you stamp your image - then you'll only have to stamp one time and you are guaranteed to have your images line up!!

Buttons threaded with skinny strips of paper add additional circles and the "weed" (a muse|studio Beautiful Botanicals 2) has stylized circles too.

All supplies used on this card are available in my online shop - 

FTL159, CFC21 - Warm Thoughts

Wheat, Kraft and Squash - 3 monochromatic colors linked together with dark brown - makes me happy and meets the requirements for the current CAS-ual Friday challenge!!  Layout is from the Clean and Simple Blog.

The flowers are from the a•muse|studio Clever Girls stamp set and sentiment is from Ooh La La!  It is fun to mix match images/sentiments from different sets - usually I am drawn to "printed" looking sentiments but the flowers and color palette made me lean toward the "script-y" look for this card.

The middle die from the scalloped border die set and some pretty brown pearls finish off a card that is very simple and straightforward but seemed to cause me no end of grief and consternation while it was being constructed - don't ya hate when that happens?

All supplies used in this card are available in my online shop  - 

Corey is happy cause the Bills and the Lions won today - here is a Corey quote -  "I picked them from last year so it's not like I'm on a bandwagon or anything".  I personally do not get the fascination with football at all - in fact when someone asked me recently about Fantasy Football I told him that, "my fantasy is that there would be no football".  However, I'm going for the Patriots this year cause I think Tom Brady is cute - and cute is what counts in football, right??

FTL158, Embellish Paint and Mist Challenge

"I've been misting/splattering up a storm around these parts here lately.  Why, I even made a flower outta burlap.  Gotta dash - the calf has done busted outta the corral."        - The Crafting Cowgirl

Colors courtesy of the Embellish Paint or Mist Challenge.  Layout from Clean & Simple's FTL158 sketch.  

Patterned paper from Basic Grey (Ambrosia, Basics Kraft); SU! ribbons; PTI sentiment; Making Memories cabachon; Glimmer Mist (Blue Skies, Key Lime Pie); Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

LIM33, CFC20, PDCC99 - Thought of you today. . .

This week's CAS-ual Friday challenge is to make a mini card - This 3" sweetie uses the current Play Date Cafe Challenge colors of lavender, yellow and white.

The Less is More Challenge is "anything goes" - they are aiming for 1,000 players so be sure and link up your CAS cards!  I'm sure they will appreciate it -

Got a chance to play with my new a•muse|studio heart dies.  It is always fun to turn your cardstock "inside out" - using a die makes that color visible from the outside - some of the new a•muse|studio felt is featured inside the card - that stuff cuts like a dream!!  The woodgrain impression plate adds some texture to the white space.

This is just the sort of card I like to hide in my husband's work clothes.  Makes him happy when he finds it and since I have a bad memory and usually forget about putting it there it makes me happy too.

All supplies are available in my online a•muse|studio shop!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger - Garden Glory

Time for a new Tuesday Trigger - Garden Glory.  As the days are starting to get a little shorter and cooler it is certainly refreshing to see my favorite spring flower in an inspiration picture.  I love Peonies so much that I used them in my blog banner!

There is one element missing in this gorgeous inspiration picture?  Do you know that it/they are??  ANTS!!  It takes the diligent work of lots of ants to open all the layers and layers of petals on those gorgeous showy blooms.

This fun layout is courtesy of the current Clean and Simple Stamping's FTL157.  The bloom is made with tissue paper and cut with my Tim Holtz' Tattered Floral die (a kinda spendy purchase but one that I use all the time).   A jeweled brad in the flower's center and the brown cardstock are reminiscent of the table in the inspiration pic while the green filigree (courtesy of a Lifestyle Trellis cutting die) is an obvious reflection of the chair.

Sentiment is from the a•muse|studio Monogram Frames set.  Patterned paper from Memory Box (Jubilee Collection).
My 10 year old son is off with some of his younger friends to cavort at Chuck E Cheese's tonight.  Can I tell you how happy I am that it isn't me there?!!  WHOO HOO!  YIPPEE!!

Embellish Rainbow Challenge, CFC8, LIM21 - Miss You

This fun, colorful card is based on three current challenges - the CAS-ual Friday's Getting Edgy Challenge utilizes the largest of the new a muse|studio Scallop Border Set.  The sketch is from the Less Is More blog.

 The colorful rainbow inspiration comes from the Embellish Magazine Color Trends - Rainbow Challenge.

The stamp set is On The Wing - I think it looks as if the birds are kinda chatting on an awning outside a candy store.  The color paper is Cherry Polka Dot, Orange Gingham, Buttercup, Grass Gingham, Blueberry Polka Dot and Blackberry.

All inks, paper, stamps and accessories are available through 

my online a muse|studio shop.

PDCC87 - Moxie Fab World Challenge: Beautiful Borders

This card is my entry to the current Moxie Fab World Challenge - Beautiful Borders and uses the colors from the Play Date Cafe Challenge 87.

When is the last time you had a "if I don't purchase _________, I will turn purple, swell up and DIE!!  When I first started stamping I had those moments pretty often - things were constantly catching my eye.  But now that several years have passed, my collection of things has grown and my budget has had to be restricted, I've managed to keep that feeling under wraps for the most part UNTIL -

I laid eyes on this Trellis cutting die from Lifestyle Crafts!!  Truly - I thought I'd turn purple, swell up and die if it weren't mine.  I had some money in my Paypal account so "technically" it only cost me around $5 for it to come live at my house!

One pass of the die isn't enough to cover the front of an entire card so two strips were quickly cut from
a muse|studio Eucalyptus cardstock.  Lifestyle Crafts has other cool dies but I LOVE this one because the pattern is "never ending" - you can match one piece to another and have a seamless look.

Admittedly, it can seem to be a challenge to adhere but some spray adhesive applied to the back does the trick and then a quick couple passes with a brayer makes sure the adhesive is really sticking to your paper.

Trimmed off the sticky ends with my Cutter Bee teflon scissors so no sticking - WHOO HOO - Now that is the way to start off a card!!  SO COOL!!

Tim Holtz Tattered Flower die cut out my flower and my crimper scrunched it up a bit.  Some glass beads finish off the flower and the sentiment is an old one from SU!

Look what I got when my doorbell rang on Friday!!  My good friend, Roni, made me this card and gave me the new Medallion stamp set from PTI just cause she felt like it!!  Doncha just LOVE a friend like that??!!  Plus she knows me so well - look at all the lovely green and brown!!  THANK YOU, RONI!!! You made my whole day!!