Mix It Up Challenge - Paper Piecing

 Here we are at the beginning of November, the start of the holiday season!  Our new challenge at Mix It Up Challenge Blog is to use paper piecing on your project.  If your're not familiar with this technique, it involves stamping a base image, then stamping parts of that image onto cardstock/patterned paper and adhering to the base image.   Here's my card for the challenge:

The stamp set is from Unity Stamps.  I stamped the snowman onto a white cardstock base, then stamped it again on some scraps of orange, green, grey, black print, red and red polka dot patterned paper.  I fussy cut around those stamped pieces (hat, hat band, holly, nose, scarf and buttons) and glued them onto the base image.  I used Copic BG000 to lightly shade around the edge of the snowman and added some clear Sticklers in small areas for some sparkle, along with tiny dots of red Stickles for the holly berries.  The sentiment was stamped in black ink, and then I lightly ink blended some pale aqua ink around the edges of the finished piece. 

If you don't like to color stamped images but you like to fussy cut, paper piecing is a fun technique, and a great way to add some pattern detail to a stamped image.  I hope you get a chance to play along with our challenge.  You have until December 15 to join us with your paper piecing project.

Mix It Up Challenge - Smooshing

 Heading into fall now, and time for another Mix It Up Challenge.  The challenge for the next six weeks is to use the "smooshing" technique on your project.  Here's my card for the challenge:

I started by smooshing some Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide ink onto a piece of laminated cardstock, spritzing it with water and dabbing the white cardstock onto the ink.  I used my heat gun to dry that slightly, and then repeated the process with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink.  Once the background was dry, I stamped the leaves and sentiment with a dark brown ink.  I thought about adding some dark brown ink splatters, but decided it was enough to leave it as is.

You have until October 15 to join in with this challenge.  We'd love to see your projects!

 

Jingle Belles Holiday Leftover challenge

 The current challenge at Jingle Belles is to use some leftovers from your holiday stash to create a card.  I used some patterned paper scraps, a leftover die cut frame and journaling card, and an extra stamped sentiment for my card.

The snowman was fussy cut from a journaling card.  I added some glitter pen to his scarf and hat band and some clear glitter glue to the background snowflakes.  I still have a ton of leftover holiday papers and embellishments, but it's nice to use up some of them!

ABC Christmas Challenge - N (no stamping) or O (off the edge)

 The current challenge at ABC Christmas Challenges is N or O - No stamping or Off the edge.  I just finished a one-day card event with Scrapbook and Cards Today, and used some of the ornament dies in that kit to make this "no stamping" card.

The burst and scallop frame die is from Avery Elle, and is one of my favorites for framing an image on a card.  I used a combination of gold and red metallic cardstock on this one.

Mix It Up Challenge for July - August

Hard to believe it's already July - this year is going quickly!  It's time for a new challenge at Mix It Up Challenges Mix It Up Challenges and this one is a doozy!  For this challenge, you are to use veggie stamping - yes, you read that right - stamping with some type of vegetable instead of your rubber stamps.

This one had me stymied for a bit.  The only veggie stamping I'd ever done was many years ago, when you learned how to cut an image out of a potato and use it to stamp.  This time, though, I switched from potatoes to peppers for my stamping.  

I buy small sweet peppers for salads, so I cut the top stem portion off one of the peppers and dabbed it onto some ink pads.  This made the splotchy, wonky circle images.  The I dabbed the edge of the pepper top in another color and rolled it onto the paper.  This made some curvy line images.  Here are the cards I made from some of the stamped pieces above:

The images on the peach and green card were stamped, colored and diecut, while the image on the blue green card was stamped directly over the background stamping, and then colored in with gel tints. I don't think anyone would guess that the backgrounds were stamped with peppers, do you?  😄

We look forward to the creative ways you use vegetables in your stamping projects this month!  You have until August 15th to join in the fun.  

CAS on Friday - challenge #285 - Embossing

 The current challenge at CAS on Friday CAS on Friday is to use embossing on your project.  Here's my card for the challenge:

I used a Gina K lattice embossing folder with some teal cardstock, then lightly swiped a white ink pad over the raised edges.  I cut some strips from the embossed panel and adhered them diagonally onto the card front.  The ephemera piece was adhered with some foam tape and I added three tiny crystals to the flower centers for a touch of sparkle.  Very simple, and can be used for many different occasions.

Jingle Belles Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe challenge

  Jingle Belles has a tic-tac-toe challenge going on right now.  Here is the challenge board:

I used the bottom horizontal row for my card:  silver, diecut and trees.  

The trees were diecut from metallic silver paper using two Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in silver and then used silver metallic ink for the splatters.  I just love the dark blue and silver combination.