Cards in Envy - Snowbirds challenge

This is the first time I've joined a challenge at Cards in Envy, but I've always loved seeing the cards from their blog.  This challenge is to create a card with a bird and some snow.  So, here's my first Christmas card of 2017!

The stamps are from two different Hero Arts stamp sets, colored with Copic markers, and then the snowflakes were stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with glitter embossing powder.

One-layer card challenge at A Blog Named Hero

The January challenge at A Blog Named Hero is to create a one-layer card.  That sounded easy enough, but it ended up being hard than I thought!  After a few unsuccessful tries, I went a completely different direction and came up with this card.

I used neon green, orange, blue and pink inks from Hero Arts, along with their Brush Strokes and Glow Girl stamp sets.  I added a little bit of clear glitter and a few sequins for some sparkle. 

Creature Feature challenge @ Jingle Belles

The current challenge at Jingle Belles is to include some type of "creature" on your Christmas card.  I used these cute little penguins from Mama Elephant's "Polar Pals" set. 

The background die is from Simon Says Stamp, and sentiment and tree are from Hero Arts.  I used some curved stitch dies from Paper Smooches to make the snowy hills, and then added some stickles and some touches of clear Wink of Stella glitter pen on the stamped images.

I'm also entering this in the Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge, which is to create a card with no patterned paper. 

Warm holiday wishes

I made this card as part of the "homecoming" celebration going on at Catherine Pooler's blog.  Catherine is the owner of StampNation, a SU representative and pretty much an expert on rubber stamping!  She just gave her blog a completely new look, and to celebrate, she is hosting a challenge to create a card with a "home" theme. 

The stamps used on this card are from Hero Arts (house and tree) and Mama Elephant (sentiment).  The house was stamped, then masked off so the trees could be stamped behind the house a little bit.  The image was colored with Copic markers and then I added some Stickles for a little bit of snowy shimmer.

 

Check out Catherine's blog and join in the challenge for your chance to win some fabulous prizes!

12 Tags of 2014 - January - inspired by Tim Holtz

Every year I look at Tim Holtz's monthly tags and am amazed at his creativity.  This year I'm hoping to play along each month and try some new techniques.  Here is the link to the tutorial for his January tag:   http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2014-january/

Here is my version of the tag.  I didn't have some of his supplies, so I used some similar items from my stash.  I used Weathered Wood Distress Stain, Black Soot and Pumice Stone Distress Inks, some of the Chit Chat Word Stickers and one of the Ideaology Custom Brads.  The pocket watch is a Hero Arts stamp.  

 

I loved the look of embossing the chipboard circles covered with metal foil, and then distressing the embossed metal with black paint.  I didn't get the ink dry enough before adding the rubon numbers, so they didn't adhere too well, but since I would have sanded part of them off anyway, it worked out.

Retro sketches #59

I've been playing with some techniques from the True Stamp 2013 classes last month, one of which is stamping on kraft and embossing with white embossing powder.  I used some Hero Arts stamps for this card, based on sketch #59 from Retro Sketches (they have some fabulous sketches - be sure to check out their blog). 

Marker Pop Challenge #21

Challenge #21 @ Marker Pop is to create a spring or shower card.  Tulips are always a welcome sign of Spring, so I decided to use them on a card.  I used a old black & white digital stamp from PC Hug Club, colored it with Copic markers, and added some Echo Park papers, a bow, and a Hero Arts sentiment stamp.

MUSE challenge #12

Time for another challenge from MUSE.  This week's card inspiration can be found here.  I loved the way the stamped image was positioned slightly off the left edge of the card, and the way the leaves flowed off to the right from that main image.

I used a couple of heart images on the left side of my card, with the larger one hanging slightly off the edge of the card, and then used a stamped sentiment to flow from that image across the right side of the card.

The sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts and the larger heart stamps are from Simon Says Stamp.

Up, up & away - with Frosted Designs

For our second Frosted Designs challenge in March, we would like to see your projects with the theme of "up, up and away".  Just include something on your project that goes up:  birds, butterflies, planes, rockets, etc.

I combined stickers and stamps to make this card to welcome Spring (hopefully it will get here to Ohio soon!)

The card base with the polka dots & scallops is from Doodlebug Designs.  The tree is a sticker (I think it's from Pebbles) and then the birds, nest and sentiment are all stamps from Lawn Fawn, Hero Arts and Paper Smooches.

I hope you'll join in this challenge.  Just link up your project to the Frosted Designs blog for a chance to win this week's prize from

It's time to stamp a little with Frosted Designs!

This week's Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs is to create a project using stamps.   I love stamps, I collect them, and use them a lot on cards, but don't use them nearly as much as I should on scrapbook pages.  So I took this as a personal challenge to use several stamps on my layout.

There are five stamps used on this page:  the large star journaling block (Paper Studio), the July word collage (CTMH), the small gold stars (Stampabilities), the red "ribbon" (Stampin' Up), and a plaid background stamp (Hero Arts) that I stamped in red onto white alphabet stickers.  Stamps are a great way to make your own embellishments and add a lot of flair to your page without too much bulk.

We'd love to see how you use stamps on a project!  Link up your card/layout to Frosted Designs for a chance to win a prize from this week's sponsor:  Pink by Design stamps.

Sketch #53 @ Cardabilities

It's time for our first April card sketch @ Cardabilities, and the first reveal for the new Design Team!

Here's sketch #53:

And here's my card from the sketch.  I used some Little Yellow Bicycle papers (love the shade of blue!) and a Hero Arts sentiment stamp, along with my Cricut and the Lacy Labels cartridge to make the scallop oval.



I hope you'll share your card creations from this sketch @ Cardabilities.  You could be one of our Top 5 Featured artists later this month!

CAS-ual Friday's Sketch Challenge

This week's challenge @ CAS-ual Fridays is a sketch challenge - one of my favorite types of challenges!

Here's my card based on the sketch.  The patterned paper is from Pink Paislee's "Snow Day" line, and the sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts.  I cut the snowflake with my Cricut and then embossed it with a swirly Cuttlebug folder and added a Prima gem center. 

It's a hoot of a card!

Today's challenge @ Practical Scrappers was to use stitching on a card.  I combined this with a challenge at Hero Arts to use non-Christmas stamps on a Christmas card.  I used the owl and branch stamp from Hero Arts, and added a freehand cut Santa hat, and some stamped ornaments.  Machine stitching and an embossed frame add a little texture.