Elegance and Sparkle

I'm in the mood for some bling today. Let's start it off with another card for the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This time I used sparkly silver stickers, floral background paper, two pink teardrop rhinestones (put together to form a sparkly heart), a Love die (from SU), and cut an "I" to match! This card is being given to a friend to use as décor in her office. She loves coffee and all things sparkly. 

  

Entered into: 

2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop   (Coffeelovingcardmakers.Com/2018/05/2018-Spring-Summer-Coffee-Lovers-Blog-Hop)

Power Poppy- B&W with a pop of color                (Powerpoppy.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-spark-with-bit-of-drama.html)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge      (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)

The Paper Shelter- #341 Flower Power                 (thepapershelter.blogspot.com.ar)

                  

This next card has more elegance than bling… oh… and has a very high yummy rating! Used one of my newest digi sets from Beccy's Place named "Just Desserts." All of the desserts are amazing, but I opted to go with something chocolate.  Also, since I love to color, I don't usually use pre-colored images (in truth this is only the second time I've done it) but I knew that I couldn’t ever make this dessert look as pretty as Beccy did! So, I just added a little shading to the left edges to "anchor" it on the card.  Isn't it gorgeous?! I love it, but now I am really, really hungry for chocolate cake!

Entered into: 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes      (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

CAS-ual Fridays- #200 Happy Birthday                        (CAS-ualfridays.blogspot.com)

Beccy’s Place Challenge- May                                             (beccysplace.blogspot.com)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes       (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

I am fairly new to the Outlawz Challenges and really enjoyed this one. In early May I was provided a free digi, this beautiful perfume bottle. Wasn't sure what I'd do with it until I realized that the bottle looked like one a Genie could live in. I then raided my stamping stash, pulling out patterned vellum (from a packet of champagne glass lanterns that I found at the local Goodwill store), two sizes of stars (from shaker card packets) and some beautiful new roles of mini washi tape that I recently picked up at the local JoAnnes. With some fussy-cutting, coloring and lots of adhesive, I had fun creating this magical card. (Developed the sentiments on my laptop and printer.) 

Entered into: 

Outlawz Challenges- Progressive Freebie-                    (Outlawzchallenges.ning.com)

Double D’s Challenge- Bling It Up                                  (daranddiane.blogspot.com)

Artistic Inspirations Challenge-Challenge #201          (artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

Extreme Cardmaking

Today's first entry into the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is a 3D Pop-up card. I usually like challenges in cardmaking and this one was extremely challenging to make! But the results are kind of nice. (Tutorial is here- extremepapercrafting.com/2011/05/cup-pop-up-card-tutorial.html)

The sentiment (divided between the front and inside of the card) is a freebie from lovesvg.com.  (They have a ton of great coffee related sentiments. So fun!) And the coffee mug on the cover is a Jolee's sticker.

Entered into:   

2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop     (Coffeelovingcardmakers.Com/2018/05/2018-Spring-Summer-Coffee-Lovers-Blog-Hop) 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes  (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge             (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)

Sketch Saturday- Week #515                                          (sketchsaturday.blogspot.com) 

This little freebie from Gerday Steiner makes a really cute graduation card. I rolled a small rectangle of white paper into a diploma and tied a small piece of gold cord around it. Then cut his wing away from his body, inserted the diploma and taped the wing over it. A added a little bling with gold photo corners and gold stars, which I also carried over to the inside sentiment.

Entered into: 

Gerda Steiner Designs- Share you Designs Challenge                  (gsd-stamps.com/blogs/share-your-designs) 

Artistic Inspirations Challenge-Challenge #201                            (artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

My third and final entry into the current SumMoreFun challenge is based on the top right photo on the mood board. I was excited to learn, via google, that Royal Enfield is a motorcycle brand, and it sounds like a pretty famous one. (However, I live in Wisconsin, the home of Harley Davidson, so it was a new name to me!) I used a motorcycle stamp (don't know the name of the company, it is no longer mounted) plus a sentiment that I found on Pinterest. I used a fun font to write it out and printed it off. To add the illusion of movement to the motorcycle I purposefully smudged the image, pulling my fingers through the ink before it dried.   (This works best if you stamp the image on glossy paper and gently pull the ink in the opposite direction of the desired movement.) Am also entering this card into several other challenges, one requires a masculine card, another requires a color scheme of B&W and one other color.

 

Entered into: Motorcycle

SumMoreFun  Challenge- Mood Board             (summorefun.com)  (Add what inspired you; photo, colors, theme)

Simon Says Monday Challenge- Masculine      (simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge)

Power Poppy- B&W with a pop of color             (powerpoppy.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-spark-with-bit-of-drama.html)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes       (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

"Old School" Stamping

Most of my card making these days is using digi images. So it was kind of fun to pull out some of my rubber mounted and clear stamps to create the cards in this posting.

I had a great time making a bunch of coffee themed cards during my three-day weekend. Here is another one that I'm entering into the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. The sentiment on the front is made with stencil stickers. (They looked a little blah so I prettied them up a bit with my always-trusty white gel pen and fine-line black Marvy Marker.  You can see this in the close up.) This sweet little coffee cup image is from is a wood-mounted SU stamp from 2003. And the sentiment on the inside slider is a freebie from TLC Creations (createwithtlc.blogspot.com) Instructions for the interactive card upon which I based my creation are here-

www.confessionsofastampingaddict.com/2011/07/coffee-cup-video-tutorial.html) Am entering this into a few additional challenges including SumMoreFun (color scheme matches their current mood board.) 

Entered into: 

2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop    (Coffeelovingcardmakers.Com/2018/05/2018-Spring-Summer-Coffee-Lovers-Blog-Hop)

SumMoreFun  Challenge- Mood Board                 (summorefun.com)  

Doing Life- Create with TLC Challenge                  (desiref.blogspot.co.za)

                        

For my final entry into the current Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "More than one stamp" I pulled out an old rubber-mount SU set named "Baby Firsts." I was getting low on baby cards so this will help a bit.  Making this card also reminded why seldom use this set. It is hard to stamp a clean image (no matter how hard I tried I kept getting messy smooshed little fingers!)  Accessorized the card with some items left from my scrapbooking days.

Entered into: 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- More Than One Stam        (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

Artistic Inspirations Challenge-Challenge #201                           (artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

Wanted to make a special card for the 4-year old daughter of a dear friend and I know that she loves fairies. So… made this sweet card!  I used a Penny Black Clear Stamp set named "Fairy Sweet" plus freebie sentiment from www.winkwinkink.com to make her this card. I think she will feel very special… especially since I'm sending it my snail mail! I'm entering this card into a few challenges including Di's Digi "Load on   the Embellies" ( 7 layers including lace, ribbon, vellum and mini-butterflies that I stamped then fussy-cut!)   

Entered into:

Di’s Digi Stamps- Load on the Embellies                                       (disdigidesignschallenge.blogspot.co.uk)
Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge                               (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)
The Cutie Pie Challenge- #123 Add a Butterfly                             (cutiepiechallenge.blogspot.com)
Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes      (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

Misc. Themes

Another entry into the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This one is made with a stack of coffee cups digi (etsy.com/ca/shop/carmensplace) and directions for paper piecing this fun card (beyondthefringecrafts.blogspot.com/2018/04/getting-creative-with-digital-stamps.html) The fun sentiment is from kelliewinnell.typepad.com/blog/freebie-Friday.

Entered into: 

2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop       (Coffeelovingcardmakers.Com/2018/05/2018-Spring-Summer-Coffee-Lovers-Blog-Hop)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge          (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)

Artistic Inspirations Challenge-Challenge #201      (artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

Made another masculine card with an upcycled a scene from an old calendar plus sentiment and anchor image from a Beccy's Place set named "Smooth Seas." (beccysplace.com)

                 

Entered into: 

Beccy’s Place Challenge- May                                                          (beccysplace.blogspot.com)

Simon Says Monday Challenge- Masculine                                  (simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes     (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

Cute Card Thursday- #531 Little Boy Blue                                    (cutecardthursday.blogspot.com) 

These two characters from Art Impressions (named Eunice and Cliff) always make me smile, especially when paired with this sentiment, also from Art Impressions. (I keep a number of these cards on hand because my hubby and I send it to friends and family, mainly because as the years zip past we resemble Eunice and Cliff!) Am entering this card into several challenges including Art Impressions "Door Openings" (hope that a  gate fold design qualifies),  Simon Says "More than one stamp" (I used three AI stamps) plus CAS-ual Fridays 8^th Anniversary "Happy Birthday" challenge.

Entered into: 

Art Impressions- #233 Door Openings                                         (artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.com)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- More Than One Stamp    (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

CAS-ual Fridays- #200 Happy Birthday                                      (CAS-ualfridays.blogspot.com)

Upcycling Galore

Another entry into the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This one is made with freebies from freedeariedollsdigistamps.blogspot.com (image) and  kelliewinnell.typepad.com/blog/freebie-Friday (funny sentiment.) I made the coffee bean stamp with scraps of rubber (from the last time I purchased a set of wood mount stamps from SU!) Love the look of the coffee bean stamped in brown ink on a scrap of an old yellowed dictionary page. (Ha! Old as in the copyright date on this paperback dictionary is 1963! I never throw anything away!)

 

Entered into: 

2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop     (Coffeelovingcardmakers.Com/2018/05/2018-Spring-Summer-Coffee-Lovers-Blog-Hop)

The Paper Shelter- #340 Digital Image                   (thepapershelter.blogspot.com.ar)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge        (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)   

My final entry into the current QPR Challenge includes one of my favorite rubber stamps from Biblical Impressions. (It is named Lg Hermit Crab. Although BI has gone out of business I was happy to see it is still available- in unmounted rubber from www.stamponit.net). I stamped the crab onto kraft brown cardstock and colored him with Tombow markers and white gel pen before fussy cutting the image. (Added a close up so that you could see those details.) Created and printed the sentiments on my computer and laptop and used a strip of scenery from an upcycled calendar page for the background. 

Entered into: 

QKR Stampede- #297 Anything Goes                      (qkrstampede.blogspot.com)

Kitty Bee Designs -#119 Anything Goes                  (alohafridaychallenges.blogspot.com)

Artistic Inspirations Challenge-Challenge #201   (artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

For my final card this posting I upcycled a scene from yet another calendar, then added a sentiment and anchor image from a Beccy's Place set named "Smooth Seas." (beccysplace.com) I never seem to have enough masculine cards so this will go into that box! Am entering it into several other challenges including SumMoreFun (color scheme and masculine theme both fits into current mood board.)

Entered into: 

Beccy’s Place Challenge- May                                                            (beccysplace.blogspot.com)

SumMoreFun  Challenge- Mood Board                                           (summorefun.com) 

Simon Says Monday Challenge- Masculine                                    (simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- More Than One Stamp       (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes       (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

Cute Card Thursday- #531 Little Boy Blue                                     (cutecardthursday.blogspot.com) 

Graduation Gift Packets

Still making cards for the card packets that will be graduation gifts to a few high school seniors, I needed a few Mother's Day cards. So, used an adorable digi image from Little Scraps of Heaven named "Love Bots" to make this fun card. (You can find the image here, in a set with several others, and now on sale for just $1.20! littlescrapsofheavendesigns.com) I fussy-cut the sweet little bot from brushed metallic silver cardstock. And used a new Darice die set to make the gears. And the "chest plate" (my husband called it "a Robot 6 pack") is made with a scrap of metallic metal ribbon that I found in the clearance bin at JoAnne's for 25¢ per yard. The background paper is printed on regular copy paper using the free digi that I found here- www.papercraftinspirationsmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pin81.free_papers3.pdf  The sentiment is an old rubber stamp from Printworks. I'm entering this card into several challenges including LSOH "All for Mom", Di's Digi's "Load on the Embellies", and Simon Says "More Than One Stamp" (In truth, I used one stamp and one digi image. Hope that counts since I now use digis over half of the time because I like to be able  to adjust the size of the image and ease of storage.)

 
Entered into: 

Little Scraps of Heaven  All for Mom                                              (lshdesigns.blogspot.com)

Di’s Digi Stamps- Load on the Embellies                                       (disdigidesignschallenge.blogspot.co.uk)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- More Than One Stamp      (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes      (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

Another card for the grad gift packets was made with a cute digi from Whimsy Stamps named "Basket of Bunnies." Colored it with Spectrum Nior markers and mounted on strips of pastel background papers, the card just shouts of springtime. The sentiment is a freebie from desert diva (desertdiva-hannelie.blogspot.com/) I'm entering this card into several challenges including Whimsy "Anything Goes" and Simon Says "Inspired by a Song" (after waiting so very long for Spring to arrive this year, that song is "Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles.)

Entered into: 

Whimsy Inspirations- #106 Anything Goes                  (whimsyinspires.blogspot.com)

Simon Says Monday Challenge- Inspired by a Song   (simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge               (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)

For this whimsical card I used a Tiddly Ink digi ("Dandylion Pixie") and sentiment (from Tiddly Ink set "Willow the Greeting Fairy"). I sponged chalk clouds onto a white A2 card and colored the Pixie with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I added depth and texture to the dandelion with Polar White Flowersoft. Added a little clear glitter to the Flowersoft to provide a little sparkle for this cutie... and I think she likes it! (I also hope that little Pixies doesn't  mind that the sentiment refers to fairies. I actually googled to see if there is a difference between fairies and pixies. And… guess what? There IS! There's a lot of info on the web about the differences between these two mythical creatures. It appears that they are not on friendly terms and are actually territorial enemies. So funny! But I won't laugh since I am a lover of make-believe and also a die-hard Trekkie that prefers Captain Janeway over Captain Picard and even- gasp- Captain Kirk!)  

 

Entered into: 

Tiddly Inks- Florals & Plants                                    (tiddlyinkschallenge.blogspot.com)

The Paper Shelter- #340 Digital Image                  (thepapershelter.blogspot.com.ar)

Penny's Challenge- #381 Anything Goes                (pennyschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

Had some time to make a handful of cards for the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop this weekend. Here is the first of those. I used a Bugaboo digi image "Coffee Words Cup" (this great digi is available for $1 because of the misspelling of Mocchiato in the design.  I was able to cover two of them up with a stripe or digi image and trimmed one from the bottom of the mug. Easy peasy! The heartbeat coffee sentiment (that is stretched across the middle of the mug) and the inside sentiment are freebies from lovesvg.com.  (They have a ton of great coffee related sentiments. So fun!) I made the steam by die cutting a few border swirls on cardstock. Then I traced a few of the swirls- simplified- onto vellum and fussy-cut them to add a fun extra to the card. Am entering this card into the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop plus Power Poppy's B&W with a pop of color challenge and Bugaboos Photo Inspiration Challenge (the black and bright red tent drew my eye in the photo. I used a specialty cardstock that looks a bit like the shiny tent fabric.)

Entered into: 

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop  (Coffeelovingcardmakers.Com/2018/05/2018-Spring-Summer-Coffee-Lovers-Blog-Hop)
Power Poppy- B&W with a pop of color   (powerpoppy.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-spark-with-bit-of-drama.html)

Bugaboo Stamps-Photo                               (catchthebugblog.blogspot.com)