Friends are treasures

Today’s card came together thanks to some of the challenges over at SCS this week. The color challenge375 (navy, pumpkin pie & baby blue), the sketch385 and the ways to use it challenge375 (Colorful Complements)!

My color complements are mainly blue and orange with a tad bit of red as seen by the flowers.

I used the stamp set, Treasured Friends, by Our Craft Lounge and masked the girls into the beach scene. Stippled on a sunset and the ocean and used mudd puddles Cabana sand for the beach. Added some mudd puddles shells on the twine from May Arts. And found the perfect paper from DCWV Tahiti Beach stack!

          Thanks for stopping by!

                     Amber

Just Strolling by

Time for a Paper n Such blog challenge. The first one of the year! We are going to start off with an easy one…. a color challenge!  Here is a picture to inspire you:




I used Basketful of Flowers for my card and used Flower Soft to portray the flowers in the basket. Sponged with distress inks. My blue/greenish cardstock looks pretty off from the picture above but in real life it does match pretty well! honestly! lol

Be sure to play along - someone always wins a prize and people always win badges!


           Thanks for stopping by!

                        Amber

Happy Birthday

It’s Friday which means it’s time for a challenge from Our Craft Lounge!  This week Our Craft Lounge is also sponsoring the color challenge with Lily Pad Cards!   So here’s our pretty color palette today…



If you play along over the next few weeks and add your link to the Lily Pad Blog, you could win a gift certificate from Our Craft Lounge.

I used two sets for my card. The main set being Spilling Over. Then I took the sentiment and clouds from Love in the Air. Colored with copics and used silver & blue Smooches on the hearts. I cut the sentiment apart to fit it in the circle and masked to stamp the clouds behind the balloon. Did a little out of the box cutting too.

So come play along and add your links on the OCL Blog and over on the Lily Pad Cards blog for chances to win in both places! You have until 11:59pm Thursday, January 12th to enter at the OCL Blog & you have 2 weeks over on the Lily Pad Cards Blog.   Participate as many times as you like!   A random winner will be selected and posted here on the OCL blog at the beginning of next month.

Here are the rules:

* use any stamps that you wish – get BONUS POINTS when you use OCL stamps!

* link to your card/project at the bottom of this post using the link tool provided – **be sure to link DIRECTLY to your challenge card – not a general blog or gallery link & add the appropriate photo.**

* use the challenge as your basis – do whatever inspires you, but please base it on the challenge

If you upload to SCS, please use the Keyword OCL99.


       Thanks for stopping by!

                       Amber

Birthday Fishes

So this week over at the Paper Pretties blog, the challenge is a color challenge. No problem you say? Well the colors are….. white plus ONE other color! Just ONE other color! Yeah, I had a moment of freaking out before I took a deep breath and dove in.

I used Fish Wishes by Paper Pretties and picked red as my one color. I picked red as I wanted to use the Red Sea Glass by Mudd Puddles. Found some red design paper and went to work. Layout is this week’s sketch363 over at SCS.

 

 

Hope to see your white + one color card over at the Paper Pretties blog!

  
           Thanks for stopping by!

                    Amber

What’s black, white and pink all over?

My Paper Pretties card for today’s Paper Pretties challenge!  This weeks challenge over at Paper Pretties is a color challenge of black, white and one color.

I used the birthday sentiment set and went with pink as my color. Pulled out some design paper that had the white flowers on it and added rows of scalloped border edges, some pink brads and pink bling. Perfect feminine birthday card!

Hope you come play with us over at Paper Pretties! Can’t wait to see your one color choice.

 

        Thanks for stopping by,

                     Amber

OCL challenge day–Clean & Simple

It’s Friday! That means it’s time for a new Our Craft Lounge challenge. Clean & Simple with embossing!  Check out The Lounge for all the details.



I combined a couple of challenges for my OCL card today. Color Challenge 314 which was Soft Suede, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake and Neutral. Free for All 56 which was “How does YOUR garden grow? What makes you thing of a garden and happy springtime??”

Clear embossed Whispy Patterns onto the background. Clear embossed flower from Whispy Blooms and colored with copics. Added Chunky Crystal crafty sparkles to the middle of the flowers. Sentiment is embossed in clear too.


Layout is from Tuesday Morning Sketch #85. And the card is also in the following challenges:

Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes
Pink Elephant - Spring Time
PaperPlay - Embossing
MyGrafico - Anything Goes
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Anything Goes

I also have a second card for you using OCL images. I made this during the week for the Featured Stamper 214 but never got around to posting it. It is also clean and simple but no embossing. I cased this card of Bridget’s. Changing images but keeping layout the same. I used Bees Knees and colored with copics. Images are attached with Glue Dots. Curved the sentiment more to fit in the space.



Also entered in the following challenges:

PaperCrafting Journey - Up in the Air
MyGrafico - Anything Goes
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Anything Goes
Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes
Pink Elephant - Spring Time

     
        Thanks for stopping by!

 
                   Amber

True Love

I was still up when the SC312 was posted. It seemed like a simple sketch that I decided to make a card real fast while I watched November Christmas.  I went with the colors black/red/white because that was the CC302 this week. The dessert option was to use hearts.

I used True Love by Our Craft Lounge, using just the sentiment True Love from the set. There is a heart image right after the sentiment but I covered it up with a heart brad. I then added a heart lock and key underneath using a black brad to secure it. The black layer is actually faux and the entire layer is on dimensions. I remembered I had heart ribbon in my stash and found it to use for the middle strip. The black layer is cuttlebug’d with the bird folder instead of hearts!

supplies: True Love – Our Craft Lounge, black/red/white cardstock, shimmer pieces, brads, dimensions, cuttlebug, ribbon

           Thanks for stopping by

                       and

              Merry Christmas!

    

                          Amber

Crafty Sentiments challenge #2 – Color theme

This week’s Crafty Sentiment Digital Design challenge is a color theme: green, yellow & brown. We were asked to play with certain digital images and I was given Toby in Basket to use.

I colored Toby’s basket with copics in brown and yellow. Used some green thread to do a little stitching which was very easy as I just went over top of the “x” that was on the image.
 

Toby was colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. Had to add a little diamond stickles to the butterfly and crystal effects on the flower. Some flower soft for the grass. Used a mixture of design paper from My Mind’s Eye and some ribbon that was pregathered.

Don’t forget to hop over to Crafty Sentiments Digital Design blog to see what the rest of the team has been up to.

         Thanks for stopping by!

                     Amber

Thanks for being my Friend

OCL sketch and Color Throwdown #100 is represented here in my card today.

The colors to use were certainly celery, regal rose, real red and baja breeze (but I used bordering blue as I don’t own baja breeze).  I used OCL Treasured Friend and sentiment from OCL Say it With Flowers. I cut the sentiment apart and shaped it to fit my circle.  I stamped the image on watercolor paper and used watercolor crayons to color my image.  Stamped the sand dollars on  light brown cardstock, cut them out and strung them on the linen thread.

Stamps: Treasured Friend, Say it with Flowers

ink: black

paper: regal rose, certainly celery print, bordering blue, real red, watercolor, brown

acces: watercolor crayons, linen thread, nesties, border punch, circle coluzzle

            Thanks for stopping by!
                    
                    Amber

Aloha!

Sketch Challenge 281 was a simple, quick layout that I needed for today. I used Our Craft Lounge’s Life is a Beach. I also decided to try out the Color Challenge 271, Dusty Durango, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron & Neutrals of Choice, as I haven’t played the color challenge in ages.

I stamped the palm tree on vanilla cs in soft suede and again in green which I cut out the palms to reattach to the tree. Coated the coconuts with  Coffee Bean Brown Sparkly Fluff using diamond glaze. Stamped waves from OCL’s Whale of a Tale and colored in with Copics B41. Masking the tree and a circle (that I punched out of a post it note) I blended Dusty Durango, Rich Razzleberry & So Saffron for the sunset. The colors may have gotten on the waves some as I wanted a reflection of some of the sunset. Add Diamond Glaze to the waves to make them look more like water. Stippled the sand with soft suede and then covered with Mudd Puddles Malibu sand.

Layered on Rich Razzleberry with a little So Saffron sticking out the side with a few rhinestones. For the oval I stamped “Aloha” in Rich Razzleberry, inked up the flowers in Dusty Durango and did a little Rock ‘n Roll with Rich Razzleberry. Punched out saying with oval punch and layered on Spellbinder scalloped oval. Attached with dimensions.  All this was layered on Soft Suede.

 

           Thanks for stopping by!

                    Amber

Day 2 of OCL Sneak Peeks

Hello! Today I have a sneak peek at Thankful Flourishes that is being released from Our Craft Lounge.

I love the elegance of this set, the flower, the flourishes, the wording… Love it!! I love it so much that I wanted to keep it simple by striking for my first card. I used only black ink and only colored in the flower using Prismacolor pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits. Masking was done with the flower and ‘leaves’. The 2 ‘flourishes’ I eyeballed in place and love how they look like one stamp.

 

Thankful Flourishes, black, white, prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits

Card #2 – Color Challenge 230 of Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral (Optional), Whisper White (Optional)

This time I used the Top Note die to layer my flowers on. The flowers were stamped on watercolor paper and colored with markers and a little water to reduce the color. The middle of the flowers is another stamp and is popped up. The middle flower is popped up also.

 Thankful Flourishes, Top Note, Eyelet scallop border punch, cameo coral, black, certainly celery, close to cocoa, blush blossom, swiss dot cuttlebug folder

Thanks for stopping by. For the main starting/stopping point in this big release party (and to find the links to all the other sneak peeks) stop by the OCL brand new blog, THE LOUNGE.

I cased myself and Blog Candy link

The 20th of every month is a challenge for the Dirty Dozen Alumni. Today, Holly was our 'hostess' and challenged us to case ourselves. The only catch was that we had to case one of our oldest uploads to SCS or one from the very first page. I went with this card. (please excuse the lack there of... it was in my early stages of stamping and I have grown so much since then ;) )

I flipped the card to fit the image I was using. Changed colors, stamp, changed one layer to the top note and add bling and ribbon.

The MFT WUW challenge this week was to try your hand at masking. I love to mask and went to town on MFT Presents Sara Williams Funky Flowers set. The flowers were colored with prismacolor pencils that were close to the Color Challenge 210 of Summer Sun, Real Red, Kraft and Black, and blended with odorless mineral spirits. I attached them to the Kraft cardstock with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots.

stamp: Funky Flowers - MFT Presents; paper: real red, summer sun, kraft, black, white; ink: black, summer sun, real red; accs: rhinestones, ribbon, ticket punch, top note, helmar crackle medium, helmar liqud scrap dots, helmar quick runner adhesive, cuttlebug

For the vase, I used Helmar Crackle Medium that is shown below in the picture. When it was dry, I rubbed Real Red into the cracks.

I am so loving this crackle. So fast, so easy and such a strong crackle. Do you like this look? Would you like to try your hand at the crackle? Then head over to the Helmar USA Design Team blog as our fearless leader, Tracy, is giving away some crackle as blog candy!

Not only is this for the DD/DDA challenge but the 20th is Celebrate MFT day. See this thread on SCS if you would like to see how you can Celebrate MFT. And one more challenge.. this also qualifies for Sharon's blog challenge of using ribbon tabs!

To see what the other Dirty Dozen girls and Dirty Dozen Alumni girls did, check out this gallery. (this gallery is open to the public)

Some new, some old and all that in between

Last week was MFT's release. Here are a couple cards I posted on SCS for the release plus an oldie but goodie set that i used a few weeks ago. Enjoy.

Sketch challenge218 was used here. Paper pieced her pjs and gave her fuzzy paper pieced slippers and collar. Nite Nite Ellie was released last week from MFT. $2.00 from each retail sell of this set for 6 months will be donated to St.Judes Children Hospital.

Another set released last week from MFT, MFT Presents Hooga Booga. Paper pieced the little one. Again used stamps from the set to make design paper. This sketch is from Card positioning systems105 and also color challenge208.

Birthday card for a young man. Sketch challenge217, Color Challenge207, Limited Supply209 and MFT challenge all rolled into one. Both the Limited Supply challenge and MFT challenge was to use stamps to make designer paper. Limited Supply took it one step further in that it you could only use one set and one set only to make your card. I used Icing on the Cake from MFT. The stars were faux dry embossed and middle cake is on dimensions.

Birthday invites for my soon to be 13 yr old daughter! This was also a Ways to use it... ATC's. They are small trading cards that are 3.5 x 2.5 in size. MFT's Nite Nite Ellie set was used along with JustRite's Brayton Font set.

Thank you for stopping by. I'm sorry if I don't update regularly but I have not been doing much stamping... well at least stamping that you are allowed to see ;)

Count Your Butterfly Kisses!

Treehouse Stamps is releasing some new rubbah this Friday and I have some sneaks to share with you! I think these are my favorite sets so far from Treehouse! First we have

Butterfly kisses

I loved the colors Emily picked for the Color Challenge 205, (pink pirouette/pretty in pink, perfect plum, kiwi kiss/old olive) this week over on SCS. So springie like that I just had to use Butterfly Kisses! I even used the layout from this weeks CPS sketch102.

I stamped the butterfly in perfect plum twice. Cut both butterflies out and then layered them by gluing only their bodies together. I used Helmar's Premium Craft Glue. I then took Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots and added different amounts to the wings to give them dimension. Using the three little butterflies, I stamped all over the white in pink and sponged on more pink around the edges. Sentiment is stamped in old olive and a little star burst is stamped on the old olive cardstock. I used Martha Stewart's doily punch on the pink cardstock.

This set has another big butterfly and a few small ones plus some more sayings. Like I said... I'm loving this set!


stamp: Butterfly Kisses - Treehouse Stamps; Paper: pretty in pink, old olive, white, perfect plum; ink: perfect plum, pretty in pink, old olive; accs: martha stewart doily punch, artist pen, helmar liquid scrap dots, helmar premium craft glue

Count Your...

For sketch challenge 215 on SCS I used the second set being released from Treehouse Stamps, Count your blessings. Since I still had the colors sitting out from the color challenge, I just used them. I thought the Basic Grey dsp went perfectly with the colors. A little sponging around the cross in pretty in pink and old olive. Rounded the corners with the small corner round punch and added the 'corner' stamp that is in the set.

The Basic Grey paper and Cuttlebug folder can be found at Treehouse Stamps. Count Your Blessings has another cross and more sentiments in the set. Did I mention I'm loving this set too?

stamp: Count Your Blessings - Treehouse Stamps; paper: Sultry BasicGrey, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, White; ink: Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip; Accs: corner round punch, cuttlebug

FYI.....You will not want to miss my post tomorrow!!

Happy Valentine's Day

You know me... the queen of combining challenges! lol For this card I combined the color challenge, featured stamper and the dirty dozen alumni challenge! Also this card is for part of an order I need to fulfill.

The color challenge was regal rose, bravo burgundy and kiwi kiss or old olive. The dirty dozen alumni challenge this month was to make a lovey-dovey Valentine card without any red and using textures of some kind and trying to use different non-Valentine colors. (pink was allowed)

I need a masculine valentine card for part of the order I received so I pulled out Dr.Pea-nut by Our Craft Lounge. Yes, I said Dr.Pea-nut! In the set is also valentine items to use with him/her. I stamped her on white and watercolored her by using watercolor crayons. I started with Regal Rose first and then highlighted with Bravo Burgundy.

After completing the background scenery, I attached her with glue dots and dimensions. The dimensions are under her trunk and left ear as I cut them apart from her body. The box of candy is attached to her trunk with a glue dot. I applied crystal effects to her eyelids and toenails. The sentiment is actually one whole line but I cut it apart so I could use it within the hardware.

On the old olive, I stamped Linen in old olive and then I scored it into diamond shaped pattern. I used my fiskar cutter with the score blade as I'm not one of those lucky people to own a Score Pal. :( Added Hodgepodge hardware to complete the card.

stamp: dr.pea-nut by our craft lounge, linen; paper: bravo burgundy, old olive, brown, white; ink: black stazon, bashful blue, old olive; accs: watercolor crayons, dimensionals, crystal effects, hodgepodge, fiskar score blade

You can see what the rest of the Dirty Dozen and Dirty Dozen Alumni did for this challenge by clicking here.

Today is also the start of another MFT Hop around the Block as a new BC Dyzn set is introduced along with a saying for another set. I'm not a part of the BC Dyzn DT but wanted to share the hop so you don't miss out on these fabulous creations and to find out what the sentiment set is and who it goes with. :) The Hop start's at Kim's blog so go visit her now! As always, there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! :)

A Little Miracle

No, I am not talking about the little miracle that is always talked about at Christmas time but rather about baby Francesca Maria Bucci who was born with complications. Andrea over at Crafty Engineering is offer up blog candy for those that send a RAK to the family, please see her blog for more info on the baby and how you can send a RAK. As much as I would love to win the blog candy, the motive for making the card was not for that but for the family in hopes that it brings them a small amount of comfort.

This card combines a few challenges: Try New Technique 200 (faux silk with pop), color challenge 198 (so saffron, cameo coral & orchid opulence) and Sketch challenge 208. I used Flourishes Rock-a-bye Baby set for my image and JustRite Stamper's Brayton Font for the sentiment.

I did the faux silk with pop on the moon only. I stamped on tissue paper with black soot distress ink, let it dry, crinkled up the tissue paper and then cut it to exactly fit the moon that I had stamped on white cardstock. I used Helmar V2 Vellum Adhesive to attach the tissue paper moon to the stamped image. The spray soaked through the tissue paper just a little so it made the ink look 'softer'. As I haven't tried the Vellum adhesive on anything but vellum, I wasn't sure of the results but really like how it didn't run the ink but 'soften' it a little. I paper pieced the rest of the image with Spring Flower dsp and orchid opulence cardstock for the blanket. I attached the paper/cardstock with Helmar Acid Free Glue as those pieces were just too small for double sided adhesive. The image is on dimensions ( I know.. completely forgot about using Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots instead! It was midnight when I was making this card, think my brain was asleep!)

Used an artist pen to add all my Faux Stitching and some paper piercing in the corners of the main image panel. Black Rhinestones by Kaiserscrapbook were added to the corners of the cardfront. The sentiment was stamped on vellum paper and adhered to the cardstock with Helmar's V2 Vellum Adhesive. All cardstock/dsp was attached using Helmar Quick-fix Adhesive Runner.

stamp: Flourishes - rock-a-bye Baby, JustRite Stamper's Brayton Font; paper: cameo coral, so saffron, orchid opulence, white, spring flower dsp; ink: black soot distress; accs: black rhinestones, artist pen, helmar v2 vellum adhesive, helmar acid free glue, helmar quick-fix adhesive runner

A Baja Breeze Christmas

I decided to take a small break today and do the sketch challenge 207 combined with the color challenge 197 (baja breeze, kiwi kiss, basic gray with opitonal not quite navy) (Infact I loved this sketch so much I actually did two cards, second card will be in a seperate post as it is special.)

Thomas Kinkade's Stonehearth Hutch was perfect for the sketch. Wanting something quick but stunning, I stamped the image in Baja Breeze on very vanilla. Colored in the windows with barely banana marker and added a little crystal stickles to the lights. Layered, distressed, add Ski Slope design paper for the background. When I attached the image to the card, I used Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. I took a couple pictures this time to show you exactly what they look like.

Here is how I applied the Liquid dots to the back of the image.

Here are the Liquid Dots after 5 mins of sitting. After 24 hrs they will be completely set and you can try to squish down the image and it won't budge!

Here is what the complete card looks like:

stamp: Thomas Kinkade Stonehearth Hutch; paper: kiwi kiss, basic gray, very vanilla, not quite navy, ski slope dsp; ink: baja breeze; accs: barely banana marker, crystal stickles, distressing tool, Helmar liquid scrap dots

Speaking of Helmar, the Helmar blog is having a count down to Christmas with the design team members taking turns posting some kind of project using Helmar adhesives each day. Some very cool projects being shared there. And you never know when it will be my day so go check it out!

Owl always love you!

Was able to squeeze in the color challenge today with a quick card using sketch 203 as I never got to that sketch when it was posted. The color challenge was black, sahara sand and vanilla. I decided to use the set "Owlentine" from Treehouse Stamps. They are watercolored lightly with Sahara Sand and the scarf is paper pieced with black cardstock. I decided to distress all the layers and distress the main image with Sahara Sand and Black ink. The sentiment comes with the set.

stamp: Owlentine by Treehouse Stamps; paper: black, vanilla, sahara sand; ink: black, sahara sand; accs: distressing tool

Like I said, a real quick card as I was busy getting ready for demo camp as we were having our Christmas exchange! It had to be a 3-D project and under $5.00 at least. What I made and what I recieved will be posted shortly.

Flourishes in the house!

I finally got some Flourish stamps. Just had to use a few of them for the Limited Supply194 (acrylic stamps only) last Friday. I also added in the Color challenge192 and Ways to use it 192 (watercolor paper). The sketch comes from Beate's blog sketch challenge.

I used Certainly Celery, Not quite Navy and Basic Gray cardstock plus Watercolor cardstock. The flowers were stamped in Basic Gray and then watercolored Not quite Navy and Certainly Celery on for the sky and ground. Pulled out the distressing tool again!

The faux brads are acutally Basic Gray cardstock with cyrstal effects added on top. The cardstock is attached with glue dots.

stamps: Flourished Elements & Summer Botanicals; paper: certainly celery, not quite navy, basic gray, watercolor paper; ink: certainly celery, not quite navy, basic gray; accs: crysatl effects, distressing tool

I haven't forgotten about my blog candy. Should be up by the end of this week. :)

Medallion Geranium - Blog Hop

Welcome to MFT's first Blog Hop! Hopefully you just came from Shannan's blog to mine if not and you would like to start from the beginning, please visit Kim van den Sanden's blog. At the end of the blog hop, don't forget to leave a comment on the last blog as there is some wonderful blog candy being offered. (of course you are free to leave comments here too, they just won't count towards the blog candy)

Now you may have seen my card on SCS yesterday but I didn't go into much detail there. I used the soon to be released stamp "Gernaium" by Annie LaPoint, MFT Presents series. The color challenge for yesterday was kiwi kiss, riding hood red and pretty in pink. I combined the Try New Technique 193 which was to make a decorative "circle" Medallion. Well i had to be different and do an Oval instead!

To see a video tutorial on a Circle Medallion, go here. I'm going explain how I did the oval medallion though. I used my coluzzle and cut my oval at least 3 times bigger than normal. Now i did try to do the 'cheat paper' that is described in the tutorial but with the oval you don't need it. I just stuck my corner punch (with the guide off) over my paper and punched away making sure it was close the previous punched section. I tried different sizes of oval cutouts and never once did i end up with an odd punch or overlapping.

I used inks to watercolor the image. The pot is paper pieced with Berry Bliss dp that was also used for the medallion. A single layer of kiwi kiss cardstock was cut with the coluzzle and placed around the geraniums. The medallion is on dimensionals with some faux stitching added to it. The background is cuttlebugged with the swiss dots and sponged with pretty in pink. Oval punch with faux stitching added to top and bottom of card front. I only used a little bit of Ruby Red as I didn't want much of a Christmas card look.

stamp: Geranium - Annie LaPoint; paper: berry bliss dp, vanilla, kiwi kiss, ruby red; ink: old olive, ruby red, pretty in pink, black; accs: corner punch, coluzzle, brads, white gel pen, oval punch, cuttlebug, aquapainter

Now it is time for you to leave me and head on to your next stop in this great MFT blog Hop! You are off to visit Lauren and her wonderful creations. Enjoy and I will see you again at our next MFT blog hop if not before.

Don't forget to join us tonight in the MFT member forum in SCS from 9pm-11pm EST for the release party.