May the beauty of the season bring you joy...

I made this card as part of the World Cardmaking Day challenge @ TopFlight Stamps and also for the current embossing challenge @ Jingle Belles.

For the challenge @ TopFlight Stamps, you needed to use something that could be purchased in their store.  I had bought this Indigo Blue background stamp several months ago but hadn't yet used it.

My original thought on this was to use it for vintage/heritage cards/layouts, but the more I looked at it, the more it seemed like it would work as a cracked ice background with some snowflakes, so that's what I did on this card.

The background was stamped in Versamark, then embossed with Wow glitter embossing powder.  The sentiment and snowflakes were inked with Catherine Pooler's It's a Boy ink, and then I added some tiny glitter stickers.  

And by the way, I highly recommend TopFlight Stamps.  They carry brands not usually seen in US stores, and they have very fast shipping.  (Check out the Katzelkraft jungle animals stamp set - it just cracks me up!)

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #18

Here is the board for the current Tic Tac Toe Challenge:

I used the far right vertical column:  bakers twine, masking, die cut

For the background, I used a leaf stencil and embossing paste for texture.  Once that dried, I inked over the top with Distress Oxide inks.  I stamped the leaves, stamping the smaller one first, then masking it to stamp the larger one behind.  That way I could cut the leaves as one  piece.  The leaves and the thankful die cut are all from the Fall Stamp of Approval kit from Catherine Pooler.

Hauntingly Halloween

I love Halloween with all the spooky decorations and scary movies (and candy!)  And I love making Halloween cards.   For this one, I used Distress Oxide inks and several different Tim Holtz stamps.

This is for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge  and also for the first WCMD challenge at StampNation (create a scene).   

Happy Little Stampers - CAS challenge for October

I'm playing along with the October clean & simple challenge at Happy Little Stampers - clean & simple, one layer, lots of white space card.

I used several different stamp sets for this card:  the background blocks are from the new Simon Says Stamp kit, the sentiments are from Technique Tuesday and the leaves are from Catherine Pooler's fall Stamp of Approval kit.  The inks are Hero Arts ombre inks.

Happy Little Stampers has several challenges on their blog each month.  Check them out if you have a chance!

Guest Designing at Stick It Down

This month, I'm excited to be the single page guest designer @ Stick It Down!  I love their sketches and this month's single page sketch was especially fun to work with.  Here's this month's single page sketch:

When I saw the sketch, I thought of rainbow circles and sunshine. Ever since she was little, I've sung "You are my Sunshine" to my oldest granddaughter, so it an easy choice to use that for my title, and a photo of my granddaughter.

I can't believe she's eight already - growing up way too fast!  The circles and the title were all cut my Cricut.  I just added a few puffy stickers and some sequins.

You have until the end of the month to play along with the challenges at Stick It Down.  There are three: a card sketch, single page sketch and double page sketch.  Hope to see your creations on the blog!

Another Stamp-a-faire challenge

For challenge #4 at Papertrey Ink, the challenge is to use die cut fabric flowers on a project.  Here is the inspiration piece:

I used my Cricut to diecut these flowers from cotton fabric (stabilizer fused onto the back) and then added button and twine centers.  The sentiment was stamped from the Paper Tray stamp set and adhered to some of the same cotton fabric used for the flowers.  The inking was done with Papertrey's Classic Kraft ink.

Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-Faire Challenge #1

This is the first challenge at Papertrey Ink's Stamp-a-faire this weekend, and it involves creating some paper embellishments.  Here's the inspiration piece and you can check out the video here:

I chose to create the little confetti bag, so used a small glassine envelope and cut very narrow cardstock strips, then snipped them into tiny pieces and sealed them inside the bag.  I added a little double twine bow and a stamped sentiment, along with a few sequins.   The stars on the background and the sentiment are both from Papertrey's Limitless Labels stamp set.