Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes!

Time for the easiest challenge theme of all at Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes! I decided to go with one of the stamp sets I bought when Concord and 9th had their huge sale a few months ago... 

I stamped the single poppy stem, added the leaf, and embossed both. I chose to watercolour with distress inks, as I knew I also wanted to use the brushstroke swath that comes with the set. For it, I used sponge daubers to add ink and misted lightly before stamping. After letting it dry AND using a powder tool to prevent speckling, I stamped and embossed the sentiment. As a final touch, I scattered a few Studio Katia gems near the sentiment.  

If, like me, your crafting mojo tends to come and go these days, there is bound to be something inspiring on the ATSM post with the wide variety of styles and techniques the design team has used! Hope you will make a card and join us. 

Supplies: Hero Arts colour layering cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Concord & 9th Pretty Poppy stamps, Versafine & faded lipstick, festive berries, brushed sage & mowed lawn distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Studio Katia May crystals, MRMK corner-rounding punch

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Seize the Birthday: Totally Tropical

Time for a Seize the Birthday Thursday! Spring has at last sprung here in Central Ontario, but that would not stop me from accepting a few days on a tropical beach right about now - except of course for the pandemic, sigh. So we are going Totally Tropical for our challenge topping, instead! As always, if the theme doesn't inspire you, all birthday cards are welcome in our link-up. Here's my tropical inspiration:

My tropical vibe comes from stencilling the background panel - the stencil is called "Botanical Lush" and tropical vegetation is so often lush. This is a current favourite stencil, so of course seems to have disappeared from the STAMPlorations website. Nevertheless, I'm entering this in the May STAMPlorations Stencil Challenge, as well as their Spring Fling challenge. :D The sentiment is from a new-to-me Studio Katia set. 

I'm also adding my card to the current CASology challenge, where the cue word is PLANT. 

For more tropical inspiration, visit the Seize the Birthday page - my snarky sister Jo continues as our surprise party guest, joining my regular teammates.  

 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, MFT Dots & Stripes Neutrals patterned paper, Studio Katia It's Your Birthday stamp, Versafine onyx black & spun sugar, faded lipstick, bundled sage & mowed lawn distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, ARTplorations botanical lush stencil

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Travels with Shopping Our Stash, Part 4

Yep, it's me again, back with a FOURTH card inspired by the current Shopping Our Stash challenge, "Oh the Places You'll Go!". You'll be relieved to know I think this is it for me, though. :D Even though I still have a patterned paper pad or two that didn't make it onto a travel card. I'm ending with a much more *me* card: 

Clean and simple, some ink blending, some stamping and embossing - but notice I managed to sneak patterned paper in there as the base layer! No one will be able to tell, but it's subtly patterned with postage stamps and postmarks. This simple card contains so much irony... not a lot of travelling for fun right now, and much travel these days is more fraught than happy - at least that's how I feel when I go grocery shopping. 

Feel free to take over from me in the travel card department! Meanwhile, I'm back tomorrow with a birthday card... that's only a little bit travel-themed... ;) 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Kaisercraft Check In patterned paper, Clearly Besotted Happy Travels stamps, Versafine onyx black & faded lipstick, shaded lilac, blueprint sketch & chipped sapphire distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway die

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Travels with Shopping Our Stash, Part 3

Another day in quarantine, another travel card for Shopping Our Stash. Their current theme is "Oh the Places You'll Go!" and since I have no plans of going anywhere anytime soon, I'm pulling out my travel-related paper pads and busting a bit of stash. Here's card number 3:

This one is my simplest yet, but look! I used up two sheets of the same paper by cutting out some of the smaller elements and popping them up over their counterparts on the other sheet! I can't decide if it's a fun design idea or just kind of goofy. :D Still not wanting to rely solely on patterned paper, the tiny plane and sentiment are from a Neat & Tangled stamp set. You can see my popped-up elements a little better on the angled pic...

I have not run out of themed paper pads yet! :o I may be running out of steam on the whole idea though. I _think_ I have at least one more in me... 

Supplies: Stampin' Up bashful blue cardstock, Simple Stories Urban Traveler patterned paper, Neat & Tangled Origami Map stamps, MFT blueberry ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle dies, foam tape

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Travels with Shopping Our Stash, Part 2

Another day, another travel-themed card for the current Shopping Our Stash challenge: Oh the Places You'll Go! 

I haven't just had this paper pad in my stash forever, I've also had this panel die cut forever! I paired it with my favourite stamps for using with map paper, an Itty Bitty set from Unity. It may be that the rest of the stamping world does not like this set as much as me: when you go to Unity's web site, one of the two card samples is actually made by me! :o At least I've used it differently here than for that card. :D For the sentiment, I blended a little distress ink onto white cardstock - I like the way the Glossy Accents on the two hearts lifted the colour a bit, even if the GA ended up more blobby than heart-shaped. 

Off to pick out another travel-themed paper pad... 

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, vellum, Teresa Collins Far & Away patterned paper, Unity Stamp Co. Direction of Your Heart stamps, Versamark & tumbled glass distress ink, Simon Says Stamp antique gold embossing powder, Mama Elephant Femme Frames & Spellbinders circle dies, Glossy Accents, Echo Park Magic & Wonder enamel dot

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Travels with Shopping Our Stash: Part 1

Shopping Our Stash's current challenge is called "The Places You'll Go". This travel theme coordinates quite nicely with my quarantine goal of using up some of my stash of patterned paper! I have a number of travel-themed paper pads, most of them hand-me-downs. (Thanks, Em!) Checking over the SOS rules, I don't see anything about maximum number of entries, so we'll see how many I make before I tire of the concept. :D Here's my first one: 

Two papers from an October Afternoon paper pad - the polka dot panel has destinations written faintly in the background. I ran the edges along my blue ink pad instead of adding another matting layer. Since Palm Beach girl is waving, I paired her with this sentiment from Neat & Tangled. Everything is serious stash, even my cardstock, since I haven't bought anything from Stampin' Up for years. :D 

Someday, maybe, there'll be travel again. :( For now, I'll travel virtually with my cards, I guess! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla & Recollections textured navy cardstock, October Afternoon Boarding Pass patterned paper, Neat & Tangled Sailmates stamp, MFT blueberry ink

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