Retiring stamp challenge with Elements of Style and Pursuit of Happiness

I find it easier to answer to a challenge than to come up with a brand spanking card idea myself- this week's sketch and color challenge from splitcoast was a good one for me so I thought I would use it to come up with this card- Elements of Style is one of my favorite sets with this beautiful flower that I love to use for backgrounds- I love to have it cascading down from the top of a card with a little Asian girl below it for example.

The color challenge was for bermuda bay, certainly celery and regal rose. The celery and Regal Rose is retiring and I could not get refill inks before it disappeared sadly-  I used a white basecard and stamped the sentiment from Pursuit of Happiness using Bermuda and Regal Rose markers.  I stamped the image in Memento black and colored it in with celery, pink pirouette and then regal rose markers. It was layered with bermuda bay and then celery.  I stamped another scrap piece of white with the flowers and cut some of them out and added them with dimensionals to add some dimension and a clean and simple card.

Enjoy.
Lynda

Splitcoast Sketch Challenge 405

SC405 challenge is such a great simple layout I had to try it out.  It's just that I did not have a large selection of "large" sentiments to use.  Then I found this one I had from CTMH and then remembered this little girl from MFT (isn't she sweet?  Some people collect dolls, I collect sweet little girl stamps- tee hee)   Stamped her on whisper white with Memento black colored her in with crumbcake, bashful blue and real red and Blush Blossom for skin. Paper pieced the umbrella out of Crumbcake, and then the jacket using the Summer smoochesDSP.  The words were stamped with Bashful blue and real red. Layered the white CS on the same colors (I find repetition is something I like to do- use whatever you are using 3 times and it creates a better balanced card. - I tried to layer the white on just the blue and it seemed wrong somehow - with the hint of red, it seemed more "balanced" - just sayin'. )

Perfectly Preserved

 Splitcoast this weekend had a SC401 challenge and the color challenge CC391 was for Basic Gray, chocolate chip and Gumbo green - not my typical go-to colors but nevertheless intriguing so I had to give it a try. I give myself 10 minutes for a card if I have the idea of what I want but this unfortunately took a little bit of working it.

Take a base of basic gray, then layer a chocolate chip embossed with woodgrain.  I then took  white CS diecut with with framelets from Stampin Up and poked holes to match using the stencil.  Then I cut another framelet one size

 smaller and diecut a scrap piece of paper then used it as a negative stencil to dauber some gumball green on the white sheet to add some interest (see left).  I stamped the jar from Perfectly Preserved on a piece of acetate then die cut it and another piece of white CS.  Stamp 2 pears and stemps using gumball green and chocolate chip (I did use blender pen to remove the ink from the seed section and used a real red marker to add some color to the seeds) then die cut them out and attached them using gluedots over the seeds to stick the acetate.

The sentiment is from Pursuit of happiness set inked with gumball green then using blender pen remove the ink over the heart and used chocolate chip marker to highlight the heart.  I layered it over a gumball CS diecut and punched a hole using my cropadile and wrapped some linene thread to add some interest.

So it was more of a 30 minute card but then who's counting?

Blooming with kindness color challenge

Splitcoast had color challenge for burgundy, regal and starfruit which I thought was pretty in a weird way so here is my version.  Basecard is starfruit layered with burgundy then another starfruit then a regal rose cs that I stamped the flower with versamark then embossed with white embossing powder. I then used my aqua painter to take some ink off the lid of the burgundy ink pad to water color the flower a bit. I ran the border in the tulip embossing folder just to get a little edge of the pattern  tied a ribbon (in the corner to make it look like some leaves then added the message  in the sketch challenge way for this week.  Truly a take ten card. enjoy!

Papaya Collage

 Some birds on some stampsets freak me out but some I don't mind so much and this one from the new Papaya Collage set is one of the latter.  Splitcoast challenge for color was pumpkin, Night of Navy and bashful blue and I thought of the Travel Journal DSP that I was hoarding from several seasons ago. I have promised myself not to be afraid to use some of my stash so here it is.  The sketch challenge for today was really amazing adn WT374 was to use birds so here is my triple challenge card.  Basecard is very vanilla with a layer of bashful with the travel journal DSP on top with rounded corners.

 I punched 1/8 inch holes to thread the 1/8 in navy taffeta ribbon and tied a knot.
Then I stamped the frame in navy, made another for masking and used the opening in the mask to stamp the bird in navy too and then masked the bird to stamp the leaves.  I stamped the leaves in limeade then did rock and roll around it with pumpkin to give it a fall feeling.  I thought it added additional depth. The whole thing was mounted on navy then pumpkin then I stamped the butterfly in pumpkin then edged it with the navy marker.  Cut the butterfly out and add little pearls to the

center as shown.

Happy Hump Day!
Lynda

Just Believe SCS IC333

Today's inspiration challenge IC333 from Splitcoast was awebsite called BHLDN and this simple napkin image http://www.bhldn.com/explore_the-look-party-print-novelty_the-look-decor/undersea-cocktail-napkins-12  stuck with me so I used it to inspire my card for today.
Take Whisper white CS and emboss with the houndstooth folder.  Take another piece of whisper white stamp Just Believe flowers tiwce and sentiment as shown in Tangerine Tango. Edge the layer with the ink from the paper direct to paper and tie with calypso coral twine. Layer with dimensionals to raise it up a bit and a really simple easy to demo card. 

Lynda

P. S. I Love you Framed hearts

Don't you just love the P. S. I love you set? So many cute images and sayings - I had to have it of course. Then the matching framelets die just got me hook, line and sinker. The base card is real red of course with whisper white layered on it. I took crumbcake CS and die cut the largest heart from the framelet die set. Took another whisper white and used the same die to cut another whisper white which I embossed using the Elegant Lines EF and layered it exactly over it and put some jewel rhinestones into the little circle embossed areas.

I stamped the little cherub in real red craft ink and angled it (yes, using the stamp positioner! Ouch!) and emobssed with iridescent ice EP and stamped the cicle heart in crumbcake. Stamped the modern label image in chocolate chip again on white and stamped the sentiment in real red and punched it out and used dimensionals to layer it. Added some more rhinestone jewels to make it look like the arrow was shooting out the message.

The little heart was stamped with Kraft white and embossed with iridescent ice- really sparkly in real person, then framelet cut with coordinating heart frame. Mount it with dimensionals to pop it up.

It is a really sweet card. Now if I would send it to someone......

Why is it that with all the cards I make, I still don't seem to be able to get it out to all the people I love? I end up just calling them at the last minute to tell them I love them or sometime not even that. But know this, I am thinking of you, and I really do love you and some day I may get my cards out to you so you would know for sure....

Happy Friday!

Lynda

CAS141 sketch challenge

My wednesday morning quickie version for the Splitcoast challenge for sketch here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2018072?cat=500&ppuser=9306 Base card is real red with white on top stamped with balloons and sentiment from Crazy for cupcakes, color the balloons in then take a small square of red stamped with dot dot dot with versamark then tied up with the daffodil 1/8 inch ribbon mounted with dimensionals. Really simple card but I thought sweet.

Lynda

SCS SC347

A sketch challenge card for splitcoast SC347.

Base is poppy with Pear pizazz DSP stamped with the grass image from inspired by nature in wasabi . then a layer of pink pirouette. The flower white layer was stamped using pretty in pink craft and rose red craft ink but the stems were colored using wasabi directly on the rubber before stamping then embossing with clear EP (to make just the flowers pop a bit).

I added the wider twill tape (retired) stamped with the butterflies from Kindness Matters set and cinched it all using a vintage brad.

I then stamped a white scrap
with the butterflies and cut one out and colored it in with pool party and daffodil and adhered it using the multimono liquid glue in the center and a quick Wednesday morning card!

enjoy!

Lynda

CAS 130

Today's CAS challenge was a sketch by Die Cut Diva that hugged the bottom and left borders - so here is my version using the Creative elements set stamped in basic grey, colored in with grey with some few added tiny blings. Really simple- I thought I would remake it for a simple wedding card- using a different sentiment of course.

Delicate Doilies emboss resist

Splitcoast challenges this week were CAS129 belated birthday and CC324 White Gray and Turquoise. I thought this simple card fit the bill perfectly.

Base card is turquoise with layer or basic gray on top with corner rounded. Take a whisper white cardstock and stamp the delicate doilies using versamark then heat emboss with white or clear EP- I then used a dauber to dab on turquoise ink all over and stamped the sentiment using the same color ink. Easy peasy take ten card.

Happy Fourth of July!

This was a challenge card that I did for splitcoast few weeks ago for CC328 and SC338. I dreamt about the card and how I wanted to do it and it came out exactly how I envisioned it (that rarely happens though...)

Basecard is crumcake with cherry cobbler layered on top stamped with Open Sea with versamarked. Next the layer of navy cut with circle cutter and the rest cut with the a straight edge and a smaller version in white.

After swishing a embossing buddy over it, I used versamark to heat emboss the patriots (Rubber Monger). I then stamped the flag (Ann-ticipations) with cherry and blocked it to stamp the lady liberty(Stamp in Hand). I used the dauber to add some more navy and crumbcake, distressed the edges to add more old world charm, added a star brad (stampin' Up -retired) to finish it out.

Thank heaven for all the brave men and women out there that make possible our freedom and way of life! possible today!

Lynda

Embossed Reverse Highlighted Window

A technique with no name- hmmm.

It's a embossed window but with the reverse of the highlighting technique- gotta love it!- Did take a little thinking to figure out what to do though.

This combines 2 challenges from SCS TLC331 and CC329 for suede, mambo and crumbcake.

The base is soft suede with a layer of melon mambo embossed with Elegant lines EF.

Then another layer of soft suede in a oval, then a crumbcake oval, stamped with suede using Just Believe stampset and then whole thing was embossed using the Square lattice EF.

I cut another oval slightly larger than the opening in vanilla - and although I usually just "eyeball" stamp, I did take out my stamp positioner to amek sure I got the right position for the images I wanted to use in the vanilla oval- used wasabi, then wiped the flower parts with the blender pen and then reinked it with the melon marker, added a little bit of highlights with soft suede on the leaves- then huffed and puffed and stamped the image. The whole window is raised using dimensionals.

The ribbon is crumbcake seambinding that I gathered by pulling just on the middle thread of the ribbon. Added the sentiment punched out with curly label - the layer is done with 2 curly labels punched soft suede pieces cut in half and spread out in both directions to add a bit of color behind the sentiment. Enjoy! Lynda

To you and yours one layer card- well, almost

I really am trying to simplify my life and I guess it is reflecting some on my cards as well. The ideas of a simple one layer card especiallyf for Christmas keep coming up in my head. I also wanted to meet the SCS challenges this week: the CAS layout, the F4AFriday for a christmas card on a fly, and TLC303 to use sponging and then the color challenge of grey concord and marina mist. Thsis image(retired SU) came up to mind which I think is perfect in marina mist.

The base card is just 4 1/4x4 1/4 ( so that it could be mailed in the standard envelope). I scored te edges 1/4 " so that it would have a border without adding another layer. I then punched out a scrap piece of paper using the 2 1/2 inch circle punch and used the paper as a mask to stamp the image in arina mist. Then I sponged some grey on the bottom and some concord on top. Unfortunately some of the color rubbed onto the house image and it muddled it up a bit- and I really like the crisp white of snow on the house so I used the signo gel pen to add some white back over the roof line and in front of the house whern the snaw would be and a little on the trees where there were supposed to be snow too. I then stamped the sentiment in concord grape. I diecut a snowflake from the Northern Frost die ( actually it was a left over from another project but who would know?) and added a crystal jewel to the center then used 2 way glue pen to adhere the dazzling diamond glitter to it and some parts of the card, the roof, the snow and the trees to add a little sparkle. It is a simple card and one layer- if you don't count the snowflake that is.

One Layer Christmas Card- Medallion

This came out of a request by my friend Helen who wanted to use medallion for christmas in an easy to make card so this was what I came up with. Stamped the Medallion in Garden Green onto whisper white CS. Stamped the Merry Christmas from All Holidays set in real red onto another piece of scrap whisper white, punched it out with 1 3/4 inch circle punch and mounted it with dimenstionals. Added a 5/8 inch real red satin ribbon and it really is a simple 5 minute card that you can make on a fly. I thought you could add some red dots around the wreath but thought it better to keep it simple.

One Layer Holiday Cards

I was thinking about creating some simple one layer holiday cards and this is one I started to play with at my last workshop. I still love the Lovely as a tree set but wanted to make it more winter snow covered scene. I ripped a piece of paper to make the snow covered ground and stamped the image using versamark on top of it so that the bottom part of the stamp would be hidden by the "snow". It was stamped onto whisper white CS and embossed with clear embossing powder (but you could also use white if that's what you have) . I then sponged bashful blue- I think it had some celery in it from an old project so it had bluish green hues which was actually quite pretty.

I took sentiment Peace on Earth from Four the Holidays set and embossed with versamark with iridescent ice EP to make a simple wintery card. You could add a little gliter along the snow with 2 way glue pen if you want. Hope your day warms up!

Lynda

Greeting Card Kids winter

I just can't enough of this sweet stampset- love the little girl- I have a picture of myself when I was about 7 or 8 with pigtails in a coat just like this one. The sketch is a challenge from splitcoast SC310 herehttp://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/card-sketches-f41/sketch-challenge-310-12-8-10-a-t514333.html. The base card is Artichoke. The image was stamped with memento black and colored in with copics except for the scarf which was pretty in pink marker. After coloring, I used 2 way glue pen to add dazzling diamonds to the trim. Layered it on artichoke as well.


I used the Deck the Halls DSP to layer, then added cherry seam binding ribbon to it on top then diecut snowflakes which I glittered with dazzling diamonds as well and added some jewels for sparkleas shown.

Layered the image onto another piece of DSP paper and voila! It literally took me 15 minutes to make it- the longest was getting the little chads out of the snowflakes after diecutting!

Enjoy!

Lynda

A RAK from Tami- my version

My upline is so super supportive, when I meet my goals for the month, she sends me a little surprise. This month it was a white on white card that I thought was really cool but of course I had to do a variation of it to make it "mine"- wink wink- but the basic card idea is from her. Take shimmer white CS and stamp Always elegant on it in crumb cake. Emboss elegan lines with vellum CS then add pearl jewels and tear the top to add texture. Tie a vanilla seambinding ribbon around the cardstock and tie a ribbon . Tuna brad around the ribbons and close off to secure the ribbon (not using any holes to secure the ribbon. Stamp Mr&Mrs in crumbcake, then add a pearl. Secure onto ribbin with a dimensional.

I added a line of 2 way glue and sprinkied dazzling diamonds on the front edge to add a little subtle sparkle and easy wedding card.

Emboss Resist Foliage

The Technique lover challenge this week is emboss resist- one of my favorite techniques- . Here I combined it with the color challenge 300 from splitcoast using artichoke, cherry and pretty in pink with a little daffodil and cajun sponged in as well. The base card is artichoke. the leaves are stamped using versamark on white glossy CS using clear embossing powder and heat embossed. The cardstock is then sponged with variey of classic ink colors to blend and make the images pop out.

I had stamped a sentiment in the corner but it looked really flat- out of necessity as no punch shape would fit over my booboo- I tore it out which I REALLY liked. I then stamped the sentiment with versamark and embossed it with gold EP as shown.

a
The other challenge was CAS96 for bows- I love mixing up the challenges and trying something different.

I auditioned the artichoke and cherry seam binding ribbon but the vanilla seem to fit better and less intrusive. I stamped the snowflake from snow swirled in artichoke and punched it with the 1/2 inch circle punch, and used the build-a-brad to make a custom brad- don't you just love it?

Mounted the torn piece onto the cherry piece, then I pierced the hole where I wanted the brad legs to go and used it to hold down the ribbon through cherry cardstock. I then mounted the whole thing on the artichoke base card and another easy card. Three challenges in one card whew!

Good Morning Cup

I've been so busy with my trip to Atlanta, the school work with the kids, the office still not up and running trying to get that up I have not had time to even think about cards. But I started to feel tired, lackluster, not my usual over the top bouncing off the wall self- I needed to get some time off to stamp is what I think. I am taking just a few minutes to stamp for the CAS93 challenge and it really feels good. I got this set Morning cup few months ago and it still sat in its original package so I dug it out for this challenge. It seems so appropriate given how I've been feeling.

Take bridal bliss basecard. stamp the percolator with black and do it on several other pieces of DSP- here I took itsy bitsy pieces left over from sending love DSP retired and put it on top. the handle is too much to cut out so I just colored it in with markers. The mug was done the same way with real red colored in heart then crystal effects on top. The chocolate chip circle was cut out with the circle cutter to layer. Add a piece of chocolate ribbon and mount the circle and the mug with dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped in black, punched out then mounted with just regular double stick tape with little pieces of bling added for that just little extra sparkle.

Thanks splitcoast for your inspiration! You can find the challenge here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/clean-simple-cards-f239/cas93-sketch-ltecler-11-15-10-a-t512119.html

Lynda