Hello Stamplings! I hope you're doing okay today. This is my inaugural launch of the New Blogger, so if anything looks wrong, it's not my fault, their fault. I finally gave in because when I reverted to Legacy and came back just five minutes later, they had switched me to New Blogger again. We played that game of Tag You're It about 30 times and I finally gave up. There was a time when I was ornery enough to keep clicking back til I'm blue in the face, but now, shrug, ain't nobody got time for that. It seems New Blogger was created to make it easier for people to blog from their phones, which is the way of the future. Unfortunately for some of us, blogging from our phones is impossible due to eye problems and/or arthritis in our hands and wrists, so we just have to be grateful they are still making a laptop/computer platform available for us to enjoy while we can. Sala Vee. To be honest, it isn't as bad as when I first tried it, so they have fixed quite a few things. If you are hesitant or if you tried it once, please try again rather than giving up if you enjoy blogging. We will help each other through the transition and to that end, I have a couple of questions after my cards. Onefer My friend Nancy Leppek has started a new challenge blog called Color Hues and I wanted to make sure I got a card made to support her. I'm very becited to have this new challenge in Blogland and she has a very talented Team working hard to inspire us! I kept my design very simple so the yellow and green colors could be in the spotlight. The beautiful butterfly die is "Delicate Butterfly" from Memory Box and I cut several layers to give it more dementia. The layered stitched squares are from MFT, the little NBUS tag is also from Memory Box, called "Classic Tags," and the sediment is from Creative Time, "Teeny Tiny Greetings." Challenges Color Hues: Yellow and green. NBUS #18: Never Before Used Schtuff. Pixie's Snippets Playground: Anything snippets goes. Retro Rubber: Also colors! The butterfly die is from 2019, the stitched squares are from 2015, the little NBUS tag is from 2011 (what?!), and the sediment is from 2012. Twofer This design was a bit of struggle. I wanted to try embossing with dies and I really liked a video I saw where the card had both the usual embossing with a folder (evergreen branch from Stampin Up) and embossing with a die (evergreen tree from Taylored Expressions). First, I dry embossed with the embossing folder. Check. Next I watched several videos about embossing with dies, but they all used the Big Shot and I wanted to know how to do it with my Gemini Jr. I did find one video, but the sandwich the lady showed did not emboss for me. It cut through the paper when I tried it and mustard went everywhere. Three hours later I still didn't know, but I saw lots of other interesting videos when I veered off onto Squirrel Alley. I finally got out my Big Shot and was able to emboss without the die cutting the paper. Check. Then I gold embossed the sediment, rimmed the edges of my panel with gold ink, and then attached it to a gold panel. Hammy and I thought it needed a little sumpum sumpum, but nothing too busy like sequints, so we decided it would be pretty to add another tree to that little empty space just waiting for it. We dressed it in gold, and stacked it six times. I'm sorry I didn't ground my trees. There was just too much snow everywhere to get in close to them. Of course, the tree and sediment don't even look gold above, so here's a closeup to prove it: Challenges CAS Christmas: Christmas tree. CAS Mix Up: Embossing with dies. I embossed two ways, stamped, and die cut. Jingle Belles: Baby, it's gold outside! Krafty Chicks: Christmas. ~~~ You might have noticed my images have a sort of sepia glow to them. That's because of the smoky haze, or smaze as one of our weathermen calls it. At least it's not weirdly red anymore, but our smaze is still thick and for several days it has been at the very unhealthy 180-200+ mark. Now they are saying it won't be safe to go outside until next Tuesday. I feel so sorry for all the critters. And, of course, poor little Nellie doesn't understand why we aren't doing walkies any more. ~~~ New Blogger Frustrations: [Already tried to find answers via Blogger/Google black holes.] I've discovered that I am no longer receiving notifications of blogs to which I am subscribed, including challenges. Has anyone heard if this is temporary, or if we have to resubscribe to blogs, or what the blazes? Does anyone know how to wrap text around images in New Blogger so they can be placed somewhere other than centered? For Nellie's photo above, my hack was to revert to Legacy to place the photo. Then when I went back to New Blogger, it stayed to the left, but I don't know how long Legacy will be around. Thank you! ~~~ Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, but stay safe and well! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor! *Life is too short! To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

I have been so inspired by my friend Karen (Snippets) background techniques that she has been sharing with her Blog friends during this time of home isolation. My card was inspired by Karen's smooshed watercolored background cards:-) Be sure and check out her awesome blog. You will be inspired too:-) I used Leaf Green and Turquoise Brushos. Sprinkled the green onto my glass mat spritzed generously with water and smooshed some areas of a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper in green inks and let dry. Cleaned glass mat. Then sprinkled Turquoise Brushos onto mat, spritzed with water and smooshed other areas of the MM paper. Let dry and then stamped with an older wood mount Penny Black "Scented Message" collage style stamp using Archival jet black ink. Die cut smooshed and stamped layer with Reverse Confetti "Lacy Scallop Frame". Added Penny Black "Happy Snippets" sentiment stamp, "believe". Popped up layer using white craft foam onto SU Whisper White 100# cardbase. I loved the collage design and the Quick Clean and Simple design. I added Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops to the centers of the flowers, that show up well IRL and add such pretty glittery shine. Thank you again Karen for always Inspiring me and sharing your detailed descriptions of your techniques. Stay safe dear friend and keep on Creating. Hugs.. Supplies: Stamps: Penny Black Scented Message and Happy Snippets sentiment Paper: Strathmore Mixed Media. SU Whisper White 100# CS. Inks: Brushos: Leaf Green and Turquoise. Archival Jet Black. Accessories: MISTI. Glass Mat. T.H. Spritzer. Reverse Confetti Lacy Scallop Frame Dies. Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops. White Craft Foam. ************************ Sharing our well loved 35 acre paradise! We have a Large 50' x 100' garden and many flower gardens and ornamental trees :-) So plenty to do during this time of self-isolation, especially in the Spring! We have spent 48 years developing our paradise, raising our 3 kids and now enjoying retirement. We both have hobbies, no TV and plenty of books and music:-) Photo of about a third of our 2019 garden, Denny's 2019 firewood drying and barn. Our Lindal Home built 21 years ago. Denny tilling garden. Three Apple trees are on outside of fenced garden. Pink dogwood and our gorgeous SW Oregon blue sky:-) Stay Safe and Creative dear friends.

Hi everyone. Start of our last challenge for the year at CAS Mix Up. The team will be taking a break for the month of December. This month is hosted by Susan (Cat Ink.corporated) and has chosen a really fun technique to try. I had a lot of fun playing with re-inkers and metal card stock! Arlene (Sunday Stamper) is joining us this month as our Guest Designer. Welcome Arlene! Please check out the challenge blog to see ?'s oxidized metal card, along with the other amazing cards done by our Designers. I followed Jay's video tutorial. Turns out you can play around with this and keep adding layers of ink and clear embossing powder until you're happy. I started with a piece of blue mirror card stock (Tonic). LOVE this paper! Since it's quite dark to start with, I decided to use Peacock Feathers and Basic Black re-inkers for my design. It's mostly the black that shows, although where the two colours ran together, the black ink does have a turquoise tinge. So cool. I dried it with my heat tool and then clear embossed the whole panel. Don't dry completely before heat embossing, otherwise the embossing powder won't stick. If you dry it too much, just spritz with water again and then heat emboss. The framed fern was die-cut from black mirror card that has the same shine. It was glued on top of the background and a simple black stamped sentiment finishes the card. Here's a close-up ... Hope you'll come play along! Stamps: Many Everyday Messages (Hero Arts) Paper: Imperial Blue Mirror card stock (Tonic); Black Mirror card stock (Tonic); White card base (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Re-inkers: Peacock Feathers Distress (Tim Holtz); Basic black (Stampin' Up!); Black (Memento) Accessories & Tools: Water mister, water brush, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Framed Fern die (Penny Black) Challenges: CAS Mix Up November Challenge- Oxidized Metals

Every spring I dig out the dandelions, proudly growing in my grass, and curiously I find this bloom so pretty. For this card, inspired by the Freshly Made Sketches #389 design, is composed of 3 co…

Hi everyone. I'm really enjoying the mixed media on my cards. Today's card has stenciling, sponging, embossing gel with glass beads, and a heated copper die-cut butterfly as the focal point. LOVE the sparkle and shine from the clear embossing gel that gives a raised effect with tiny glass beads to catch the light. Since it's clear, sponging colors underneath works well as the colors show through. I've also added some of the clear paste on the left side of my card, just over the white card stock and you can still see how it sparkles. One of my most favorite new toys! :) This gel is not a new product ... it's been around for a while, sold at art supply stores and mostly used by artists. It is fairly new to card making, I believe. Seems like more and more art supplies are making their way onto cards ... especially with the mixed media - so fun! :) And I've learned I save money shopping at the art supply store ... embossing gels and pastes are cheaper and come in large sized containers - bonus! Here's a close-up ... There's a new challenge starting up on July 1st called The Mixed Media Card Challenge. Really looking forward to playing along. Right now they are having a DT call and there are already six entries that are all so amazing - it's worth checking it out. I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and see what happens. :) I also used my new distress inks from Simon Says Stamp ... and the butterfly die that I bought from there to make this card, so I'm entering it into the current Simon Says Stamp challenge - Anything Goes. It's Sunday, so that means our family are coming for dinner. Today I'm making it very easy on my self by cooking up a lasagne and garlic bread from Costco, and then making a Caesar salad, veggie tray and fruit tray to go with it. This means I have more time to spend on making dessert, which is the favorite part of the meal for most of us :) I baked up some gingersnap cookies along with a Rhubarb pie. Yum, yum! I'll send leftover goodies home with the kids. That's it for me ... off to add the meringue topping to my cooked pie. Stamps: Handwritten Notes (Avery Elle) Paper: 110 lb. white (Neenah) Ink: Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade (TH Distress Inks) Accessories & Tools: Big Shot, Moonlight Butterfly die (Memory Box), Silhouette Cameo for cutting stencil, grid cut file (Silhouette America), sponges, Clear Glass Bead Gel (Golden), palette knife, copper metal sheet .005 thickness (K&S Precision Metals), mini butane torch Challenges: The Mixed Media Card Challenge Simon Says - Anything Goes

Good morning... I hope you are having a good week We've had a fair amount of rain this week, not that I'm complaining as it's still war...

Welcome back for our last 2018 CAS Mix Up Challenge. This month of December Loll is attacking “EMBOSS RESIST” + stamping + your choice listed on the side bar. Please NOTE that the Dece…

Hi everyone. Welcome to the last challenge in 2018 for CAS Mix Up. This year has flown by, but it has been so much fun!! Thanks to everyone who played along with us this year. It's been awesome! NOTE: December challenge will run Dec. 1 - 15 Thank you! I love this grid background stamp for the emboss resist technique. I embossed the grid in white and then sprinkled two colours of magicals over top (autumn crimson maple, ramblin' rose). The watery ink pools in the squares to create variations of colour. I added a white frame with silver stamped sentiment and beautiful die-cut flowers that were gifted to me by a sweet friend. Sequins add a little sparkle to finish the design. Here's a close-up ... Check out the challenge blog to see the Emboss Resist CAS cards from our Designers, and special Guest Designer, BozenA (Art Card Box). Then come play along. We are also saying good-bye to Julia from the CAS Mix Up Team. Thank you Julia, for all your hard work and inspirational cards you've provided since being one of the first DT at CMU! Thankfully, Julia isn't going far!! She will be part of the newest CAS Challenge (see announcement below). Stamps: Grid (Simon Says Stamp) Fond Expressions2 (STAMPlorations) Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb. 400 Series); White (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Silver Delicata (Tsukineko) Accessories & Tools: Lindy's Magicals, water mister, flower die-cuts (gift from a friend), Rectangle frame die (Spellbinders), sequins Challenges: CAS Mix Up December Challenge - Emboss Resist * * * * * I'm excited to announce the launch of a new challenge! CAS Stencil Card Challenge I'm thrilled to have a very talented group of Designers joining me. Check out the new challenge HERE. * * * * *

Today is the reveal for the January Card Chain Challenge. This month I sent a card to Suze in New Zealand and I received a card from GerJanne in the Netherlands! Here is the card I sent to Suze. Each month we are given several design options for the card we are creating - you can do one option, a few of the options or all of the options! For this card I used several of the options: The Colour Palette Option - Kraft, Blossom, Gold The Sketch Option: One of the Theme Options - Flowers One of the Technique options - stenciling I die cut a panel of white card using Crimped Frame Die from The Greetery. I partially stenciled the panel using a Knit Wits stencil also from The Greetery, sponging kraft ink over the stencil. I die cut the Botanicuts: Sunflowers again from the Greetery out of Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz card. When I layered the pieces together to make each flower I alternated the two colors. I die cut the centers out of Metallic Gold paper as well as the leaves. I adhered the flowers to the panel following the sketch (sort of!) two flowers are up on foam dots. I added a Small Talk Sticker for the sentiment and then splattered the panel with Bluish Gold water color paint using a watery paint brush and tapping it with my finger. Please check out the Card Chain Challenge and see all the cards exchanged all over the world and join in! All the details are on the challenge blog. Paper: White, Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Kraft - Papertrey Ink, Kraft Stock Metallic Gold - Tim Holtz/Idea-ology. Ink: Classic Kraft - Papertrey Ink Accessories: Crimped Frames Die, BotaniCuts: Sunflower die, Knit Wits Stencil - The Greetery, Bluish Gold watercolor paint - Kuretake, brush, water, foam dots.

Hi everyone. I'm so excited to announce that I have joined the Design Team for The Flower Challenge - YAY! I do love making cards with flowers, so this is just perfect for me. I'm thrilled to be working with a very talented group of Designers. And this month, we have a lovely Guest Designer, Colleen Balija (Irish Rose Creations). Welcome Colleen! The Flower Challenge #49 ... And this is also a very special month at The Flower Challenge We're celebrating 4 years of challenges! Congrats to the team! Please help us celebrate our birthday by joining in our challenge. Prizes are listed on the challenge blog. * * * * * I started by creating a soft background with a stencil monoprint of tiny circles, done in soft green ink. Once dry, I stamped the flowers and leaves in Archival Black ink and watercoloured using Distress Inks. The simple sentiment was stamped in black before the image was die-cut using a circle die. Very simple and quick card. Close-up ... I hope you'll come join our challenge. Please make sure a flower or flowers is the main part of your card design and follow the challenge prompt. Hope to see you in The Flower Challenge #49 gallery! Products Mini Tiny Circles (The Crafter's Workshop) Spring Sentiments - Stampendous Stamps: Cosmos Spray- retired; Spring Sentiments (both from Stampendous) Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.) Ink: Archival Black Ink (Ranger); Distress Inks: Shabby Shutters, Ripe Persimmon, Aged Mahogany, Peeled Paint (Tim Holtz) Accessories: Mini Tiny circles stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), water brush, circle nestabilities - retired (Spellbinders) Challenges: The Flower Challenge #49 - Circle / Circles

♥ ♥ ♥ Jag har pysslat ihop några småkort som mäter 7 ggr 11 cm. ♥ ♥ ♥ Har använt mig av väldigt många olika saker som bl.a. clearembossing, embossingfolder, flera olika dies, mönstrat papper och distress inks. Här kommer en lista på vad jag använt mig av: Dies Gummiapan - bil, fiskar, nät, grattis, hjärta Tim Holtz - paket, stjärna Cuttlebug - ballonger, tag Florilèges Design - kanin, elefant, björn Crealies - bakgrunden Schablon My Favorite Things - Snowfall Embossingfolder Darice - Brick Wall Stämplar BoBunny - Distressed Textures Stamp Kortbas Gummiapan cardstock ♥ ♥ ♥

Hi everyone. I'm back with my final share using the new release from Penny Black - Timeless. For my last post, I'm sharing a beautiful flower image, 40-680 at grace, using the no-line watercolouring technique. I started by inking the image in a very light blue. It mixed really well with the purple ink to create lovely colours for the flowers. I used just part of the image and framed it up in white to create a CAS (clean and simple) design. I masked off part of the sentiment, 30-541 good wishes, using just the Happy Birthday stamped in the same ink colour as the leaves. ... and a close-up ... Thanks for stopping by for a visit! I hope you enjoyed my cards using the new Penny Black release - Timeless! Penny Black Products: 40-680 at grace 30-541 good wishes Stamps: at grace (Penny Black); (Penny Black) Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb. 400 Series); White card base & frame (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Wilted Violet, Peeled Paint (Tim Holtz) Accessories & Tools: Misti, water brush, Rectangle frame (Spellbinders)

I’m the host this month at CAS Mix UpChallenge and we’re featuring inchies. As usual there are videos and plenty of inspiration to be found by our creative design team and our special g…

The Inspirational Challenge #181 is “USE YOUR STASH”. My stash box has lots of unused pieces from other projects that just didn’t fit. For this Challenge, lots of heat…

Hi everyone. I have a super CAS card for you today using one of the beautiful images from the Floral Silhouette Stamp set (30-563). I think this is a very peaceful and soothing monocromatic design. It could be used for a lot of different occasions. I stamped two of the flowers (off set from each other) in smoky slate ink (softer gray). I stamped one more of the same image over top, in the center of the other two flowers, in granite gray ink (darker gray). The sentiment is stamped using the lighter gray ink. Close-up ... Thanks for stopping by! Products: Floral Silhouette (30-563) - Penny Black Special Sentiments (30-574) - Penny Black Stamps: Floral Silhouette; Special Sentiments (both from Penny Black) Paper: White card stock (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Smoky Slake; Granite Gray (Stampin' Up!)

Well hello there! It's the first Saturday of the month, so we have a new challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge. This month our theme is 'ANYTHING GOES' or the twist 'Embossing - Wet or Dry'. The beautiful image was coloured with Karin Markers and Prismacolor Pencils and then fussy-cut. The embossed panel was swiped with Distress Oxide Ink and spritzed with water. The sentiment was stamped with Delicata Gold Ink. Stamps: Penny Black Captivating, Banner Sentiments Embossing folder - unknown We are lucky to have the talented Loll Thomson as our Guest Designer this month. You can see Loll's card and more inspiration from our talented DT at our blog. I hope you have the opportunity to join in our challenge. The prize for this challenge is provided by our generous sponsor: Prize - $20 voucher! If you'd like to be considered for a guest designer spot for a future challenge, please add 'GDT' after your name on the link-up...and remember to check back to see if you've been chosen! Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog! I love to read your comments:)

Celebrating 5 creative years with the gals over at CAS Mix UP Challenge where Bonnie is asking us to play with watercoloured print making with our die cuts. I used Zigs and Tombow brushes for my tw…

Time for our March STAMPlorations Stencil Challenge: Anything Goes. We would love to have you join us with your Stencil project! ARTplorations Sanna designed Flowers1 Stencil ARTplorations Flourishes Stencil Monika's Flexi-Template CUTplorations Crazy Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies STAMPlorations It's a Girl Thing: Kindness (sentiment) I used a new to me technique for my background by following Eileen Godwin's Video for the stenciled with Gesso EB Resist Technique. I sprayed the back of Monika's Rectangle Flexi-Template with Pixie Spray and centered it over a Strathmore Mixed Media A2 cardfront. Then placed sprayed ARTplorations "Flourish" Stencil with Pixie Spray and placed over Template and attached 3M masking tape for the wide frame. I put a dab of Gesso on glass mat and spread thinly with a paint brush. I used a small makeup sponge to carefully pick up Gesso from mat and apply thru stencil. Removed stencil and let Gesso dry. Used i-Crafter i-Brushes with a sweeping motion and light touch to add Distress Inks: Scattered Straw, Barn Door, and Broken China. Then replaced stencil and using a damp paper towel carefully removed ink from the stenciled images. Removed stencil and let dry. Next placed part of Sanna Flowers1 stencil over background and outlined the flowers with Staedler Black permanent ink. Removed stencil and filled in flowers with the same pen. Voila'...I got a Silhouette image😊 Stamped the sentiment using STAMPlorations "It's a Girl Thing:Kindness" and Archival Jet Black Ink and MISTI and Done! I was very pleased with the results and hope you like it too. Be sure and check out our Design Team Projects too. Love and Hugs.. STAMPlorations Products ARTplorations Sanna designed Flowers1 Stencil ARTplorations Flourishes Stencil Monika's Flexi-Template CUTplorations Crazy Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies STAMPlorations It's a Girl Thing: Kindness Unable to find photo in STAMPlorations Store ************************ The Rules: Players can link up a maximum of 3 projects -- any type of project is welcome as long as a stencil is used -- but each project must be in its own blog post. Use of stencil (any brand) is a requirement. Non-STAMPlorations products are OK No sneak peek project entries; full project photo must be displayed on blog post in order to qualify for the prizes. To qualify for the prize, players must display challenge graphic and have a text link to the challenge post (blogs only) Prizes: $20 prize code to winner / $7 prize code to 3 randomly picked entries ******************* Use my STAMPGIRLNANCY 20% off Code

Hello Stamplings! I'm coming to you live at six o'clock in the morning from the House of Waffles. Doesn't that sound delish? But, no, that's silly. The truth is even better than that because I am actually here as an honored Guest Designer for the Waffle Flower Challenges - Week 2, thanks to an invite from my friend Jeanne! This month's challenge theme is Scrap Your Stash - Unexpected Supplies and each week there is a different mini-challenge. Jeanne came up with the fun idea of having us play with our stash of embellishments, especially those embellishments that we haven't used in a while. Who knows, sometimes we bring things out of the past and they become new again! I do still have a small supply of eyelets, brads, buttons, glitter, and ribbon in the Playhouse. After a rather amusing discussion with Hammy, we finally decided on buttons. And not just normal beautiful buttons, but a button from the Special Button Box! It was fun going through all the button shapes and the winning button was this cute little clay pot. The gorgeous triple frame is Waffle Flower's Stitched Layers die and the leaf sprig in the pot is Waffle Flower's Sprigs die. The sprig was watercolored with my Ziggies. The teeny tag is from My Creative Time. Hammy tied it to the pot with a piece of floss because my fingers are too big for such delicate work. I hope you will be inspired to join in the challenge! Thank you, Jeanne, for asking me to be a guest this week along with my talented friend, Nora! You have until August 31st to play and you can find the simple rules and linky here. ~~~ Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and keep safe! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and becoming a follower. And really huge thanks for all the loving comments on my last post regarding Twofer. p.s. I just have to share this. A new reader told me he searched on Google for the word "poycienality" from a recent post (thinking it was actually a word that he had never heard before) and the only thing that showed up in all the world was my blog! Haha! Of course, I'd rather be known for curing cancer or something huge, but still, it pickled me tink! *Life is too short! To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Celebrating 5 creative years with the gals over at CAS Mix UP Challenge where Bonnie is asking us to play with watercoloured print making with our die cuts. I used Zigs and Tombow brushes for my tw…

I have a totally white slimline card featuring Simon Says Stamp's Beautiful Butterflies ... clearly not winter themed!

These fish were cut from some of the shaving foam prints as on my previous card. I took the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and played with it a little. PS Just realised I missed the boat on this one! The Card Concept I took the sea theme from this photo! The seaweed escaping from the frame were unintentional, but somehow a tiny smidge of ink found its way on to the card! SO rather than make a new frame (I had to fiddle around extending the length of one die cut) I decided to disguise the boo boo on this one!

Good morning ..... Well we've made it to Friday again. I've got a little reminder for you this morning about the current Uniko Challenge. If you want to join in the fun then there's still plenty of time to play along. It's Challenge #58 and we would like you to include Spots and Stripes. As always there's an optional twist ....... for this challenge it's to use a stencil, or stencils if you like. I haven't included the twist, instead I went for a nice CAS design but, I have used the spots and stripes. The stripes (Background Block - Pinstripe) were stamped onto a piece of white card and then die cut using a nesting circle die. I used a matching scalloped circle die to add a decorative layer behind, and then attached this using foam pads onto the front of my card. I then stamped the flowers (Pure Florals - Cosmos) onto a piece of white cardstock and also onto a snippet of dotty patterned paper. The ones on the white card I fussy cut around the image in full, and the ones on the patterned paper I just cut around the flower heads, paper piecing these on top, and then I attached the flowers to the side of my circle I added a simple sentiment, and finished off by adding some dots of Black Enamel Accents around the scalloped edge of the circle Don't forget to check out more inspiration from the rest of the Uniko Brand Ambassadors and, we also have a fabulous Guest Designer too ...... the very talented Mac Mable is joining us for this challenge so be sure to pop by and say Hello. Full challenge details and a list of prizes can be found on the Uniko Studio Blog. Happy stamping! Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your day and have a nice weekend. Cheerio until next time ...... Products used: Stamps: Background Blocks - Pinstripe, Pure Florals - Cosmos, Simply Said Blocks II (Uniko) Inks: Versafine Clair - Nocturne Others: Double Dot Patterned Paper (BoBunny); Nesting Circle Dies; Scalloped Edge Circle Dies; Green coloured pencil, Black Enamel Accents, Gold Glitter Glue.

Ha! A little quarantine humor. But seriously, I am finding that I have more time these days to catch up on projects. I seem to work in little spurts of dedication, interspersed with long periods of sleeping and reading escape fiction. How about you? My friend Pam is enjoying doing her Spring gardening in her beautiful yard. As for me, I did go out once today, to the front yard. It was bright, and I came back in. I'm not going to judge myself too harshly right now. I think we need to be good to ourselves. I am making 10 cards each month to donate to my friends' church. They have a sale every February and sell cards to buy blankets for the homeless and for accident victims. My April cards for this charity came together very quickly. the front panels of most of these were something I got from a packet that was bequeathed to me by my dear friend Marj. She had these in her stash and left them to me. I'm sorry I don't know where they came from, it was an open packet of 11 pieces. I thought this was the perfect way to use them. They are embossed and have a circle cut-out and some flower cut-outs. I cut them down a little and went to find some already made backgrounds to adhere them to. These are mostly glossy cardstock with different mediums added. Most of then have Nuance (powdered color from Magenta) with Perfect Pearls Powder added; some have alcohol inks, and some of them are not glossy, but watercolor cardstock. They are just pieces that I was playing with putting some color down in the past, and I grabbed them out of my stash. I would say that I was not super happy with some of these backgrounds at the time I made them; but this project is perfect for that, since the background only partially shows through the circle cut-out, the flower cut-outs and around the edges of the card. This is a good reason to save everything, even if you don't love it at first. I pulled out a background for each panel, and cut out a "hello" from coordinating cardstock. I got this super cute "hello" die free from Poppy Stamps during one of their promotions. It's 1690 Scribble Hello, and is the perfect size for inside the circles. When I was searching for backgrounds, I pulled out 2 too many, and rather than put them back, I thought I would try to make up 2 additional and similar front panels. I don't have an emboss and cut die that would do this all in one step (do they still make those?), but I got out an embossing folder, a circle die and a little leaf punch. What do you think? This is one of the cards I made the front panel for. I'm pretty happy with it. Did you notice that the close up above is this same card and a little different than the others? At the end, I added different sizes of silver/gold glitter dots from Elizabeth Craft. These are nice and flat, so they won't make the card overly bulky, but they still add something. Okay, here they all are, and I think they will be great "generic" cards for the church to sell. Can you spot the two that I made the front panels for? The front panels are unknown provenance, but you can make some yourself with white cardstock (textured or not); a 2" circle die; an embossing folder with some blank space in the design; and a small die or punch to allow more of the background to show through. The front panels are cut to 3 3/4" x 5". The background panels are cut to 4" x 5.25" using the Lawn Fawn LF768 die. The cute hello die from Poppy Stamps is only 1.5" long and less than 1" tall I hope you enjoyed this project. Take care of yourselves, be kind to yourselves, and please stay healthy everyone! Magenta Products used: Various Nuance Powdered Colors Other Products used: Poppy Stamps die 1690 Scribble Hello Lawn Fawn LF768 die Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables Perfect Pearls powder Glossy cardstock Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock Various colored cardstock for die cut sentiment

Hi everyone. Today's card is a reminder for the CAS Mix Up September Challenge - Inchies, which is being hosted by our wonderful Designer, Joanna. The inchie is a piece of chipboard that has been "encrusted jeweled" with gold embossing powder, gold glitter, and a little gilding flakes added for good measure. It is so sparkly and shiny in person. I acetate smooshed a background using Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles distress inks as well as splattering gold acrylic paint. I thought the Pine Needles was a good match to bring out the greeny-blue in the gilding flakes. A simple sentiment was stamped and heat embossing in gold to match. Close-up ... We're so thrilled to have Stephanie as our Guest Designer this month. Come check out the reminder post to see Stephanie's fabulous inchies card, along with the cards from our amazing Designers. There's still nine days left to play along before the challenge closes. Hope to see you in the gallery! * * * * * Jessie (Falling asleep waiting for me to shut down the computer for the night) Stamps: Happy Messages (Stampendous) Paper: Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.); white card stock (Neenah 110 lb.) Ink: Versamark; Pine Needles Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) Accessories & Tools: chipboard, gold embossing powder, heat tool, seed beads, gilding flakes (Cosmic Shimmer), water mister, gold acrylic paint (Lumiere), peek-a-boo window die (AliExpress) Challenges: CAS Mix Up September Challenges - Inchies

Since I’ve been busy gardening lately I’m optimizing my crafting afternoon playing with several challenges: CAS(E) this sketch #377; Color Throwdown Challenge #598 (gold aqua and pink);…

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This is the card which evolved after making my video yesterday on the Faux Cloisonné technique. It’s strange how things happen… I decided to put a ‘thank you’ sentiment on it and thought it might be suitable for a chap. Last night I was presented with the perfect opportunity to use it. I have a friend whom I met through card making, whose son is now a respected and acclaimed crime novelist. Last night my daughter informed me that he had taken the trouble to write to my 13 year old granddaughter to encourage her with her writing. It was an amazing letter and Daisy was absolutely thrilled. Co-incidentally, the stamp I used was one I bought on an occasion when I met up with my friend at Ally Pally. This card was obviously meant to be! I was introduced to the technique through the challenge CAS MIX UP, so I thought I'd add this there, although I am on the DT and have made another couple of cards using the same technique already! https://youtu.be/d7nIE5wXPls This link will take you to my video

Colorful bubbles...created by Melanie-Jane

Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches! I took a little creative license with Narelle Farrugia's great sketch, turning it to a horizontal orientation, pulling the strips apart so they don't overlap and placed them on top of the leafy embellishment. A Memory Box Bamboo Shoots die cut is selectively trimmed and placed along a diagonal line on the embossed panel before adding the MFT Greetings and Salutations sentiment strips. The top strip is adhered to the panel, with the other two added with two different height foam adhesives. The Clean Team has terrific cards this week! I hope you are inspired to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by, Jacquie

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and Glenda has chosen a sketch for us this fortnight. Of course, you can always play along with an anything goes birthday card too. and here's the sketch. Our party guest Carol and the DT have some great cards to inspire you, so hope to see you in the gallery! Sketches are a struggle for me, I'm spatially challenged! I turned the rectangle on it's side and moved the sentiment accordingly so I think it fits OK. The background was made by spritzing distress oxide sprays in antique linen, peacock feathers and mermaid lagoon, then sprizing with water. I removed some of the colour from the bubbles with a water brush and paper towel, and added some colour to the seahorse with an Inktense pencil and waterbrush. The highlights are from a white gel pen. I'm linking up to these challenges: This Lavinia seahorse and bubbles have been inked for the first time, so I'm visiting Darnell's NBUS challenge. Allsorts, add a stamped image. Retro Rubber, anything goes using a stamp at least one year old. The Sebastian Seahorse stamp was released in 2018. Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge, anything goes. Supplies: Stamps: Lavinia Sebastian the seahorse and bubbles.Other: distress oxide sprays; versafine clair nocturne ink & clear ep; Uniball signo white gel pen; sentiment sticker. Thanks for visiting, Cathy x

Productive day! Indulge me in another project… Over at Paper Players (#599), this week is color. I chose the Sketch Saturday (#704) layout for a very clean and simple card using the stamp se…

A couple of cards for this week's The Paper Players Spring is in the Air. I am all about Spring and looking forward to it. Today we have a beautiful sunny day, but still only 49 degrees. Had a play day with Colleen a week or two ago and she brought over this stamp/stencil set that I have been playing with. It is Pinkfresh's, Beautiful Blooms using Gina K. Inks. The butterfly is from Pinkfresh's Small Buttlerfiles stamp/stencil set. The second card has a piece of AI background that I had in my stash.Makes, making florals so easy and beautiful. Thanks for stopping by.