Shake It!

Happy summer Saturday! Where did July go? It certainly seems to have disappeared quickly for me. The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is back for our final July challenge: 

S is for Shaker! You may have noticed a distinct lack of shaker cards in this little corner of blogland. I had rather thought I would let the whole shaker trend come and go without my participation. But the duty of the sisterhood called, so here is my very first attempt: 

This task was made so much easier thanks to snarky sister Chris generously sending her coconspirators these terrific drink die cuts. I just happened to have a jar of red microbeads to use as my filler. Without shaker card experience to guide me, I may have overfilled my glass a bit. Not that there's anything wrong with a full wine glass! ;)  
Whether you are a shaker card novice or professional, I hope you'll consider joining us for this latest challenge. Make sure you pop by the Snarky Sisters blog to see all the other inspiration from the design team and our current Queen of Snark guest designer, Michelle!

Supplies: white cardstock, Simple Stories Summer Fresh patterned paper, acetate, Avery Elle Wine Shaker dies, American Crafts Pop! rouge metallic microbeads, pop dot tape

DE-stress

This week the Shopping Our Stash challenge is asking us to visually interpret how we relax, or de-stress. The design team seems to have gone in for beaches big time, with a side of art therapy. For me the answer was immediate: 

Books have been my escape for as long as I remember. So it was entirely too easy to use this great blueprint image that my friend Angela stamped and sent me a while back. (Ang is likely thinking, "and about time, too!" :D) The book covers are done with watercolour pencils, and the pages and sponging with distress ink. The October Afternoon sticker was just the right sentiment. 
I'll be back bright and early tomorrow (thank goodness for post scheduling) with the latest fun Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up garden green cardstock, Strathmore bristol paper, Tim Holtz books blueprint stamp, Memories black ink, antique linen distress ink, October Afternoon Public Library sticker

Snarky, Rude... and Cute?

Well look at that, it's Saturday! Must be time for a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge. 

We had so much fun with our P is for Profanity challenge last year, we renamed it for this year! Now I know this will be hard to believe, but a number of the Sisters struggled with this challenge. For me, the muse seemed to have decided to go on holiday, but I took some inspiration from a nightshirt I saw in a store last weekend. 

More cute than rude, but sometimes you just work with what you've got. ;) Since I needed some extra inspiration, I turned to Leslie's latest Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge (CSSC#6):

I took the sketch and... squashed it. Seems only fair, since my fox stamp is rather squashed-looking, too. Hmm, is it more polite to call him chubby, or squashed? :D He's watercoloured with the same ink he's stamped in.
You will not be surprised to hear that some of the Snarky Sisters ultimately channelled the Rude Muse much more successfully than I did. As did our encore Queen of Snark, Jane, as our guest this week! I hope you're feeling the need to be rude and will join us! 

Supplies: Cougar cream cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, Studio Calico Darling Dear Garland patterned paper, Paper Smooches Chubby Chums & Studio G alphabet stamps, Memento morocco & tuxedo black inks, Papertrey Ink Tag Sale #2 die, American Crafts/Kelly Purkey alphabet stickers, (?) washi tape, May Arts jute twine, pop dots

Have a Lovely Day

This has NEVER happened before. I made a card for two different challenges... and they both just started today. This will never happen again, so I shall enjoy this momentous occasion. ;) 
Ellen Hutson has a new Mix It Up challenge combining their products with Paper Smooches. I used the new sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, and came up with this: 

The flowers and leaves are from Essentials by Ellen, while the sentiment and panel die cuts are by Paper Smooches. And another rarity: I got out my spray mists to colour the flowers and leaves. Here's a close up of their splotchy goodness:

I used a thin layer of foam packaging to pop up the cream panel just a bit. Possibly the hardest part of making this card was adhering those impossibly tiny sequins (a toothpick and tweezers were involved), but I do like them. 
I think this will make a *lovely* birthday card! 

 

Supplies: Cougar cream & Stampin' Up garden green cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, Paper Smooches Blossoming Buds, Versafine onyx black ink, Zing clear embossing powder, Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossom dies, Paper Smooches Borders 1 & Stitched dies, Mr. Huey's Water Cooler & Boss Lady mists, Tattered Angels LED Red glimmer mist, Smooch Spritz Pink Sprinkles, Perfect Pearls Forever Violet mist, Art Anthology Colorations Timeless mist, Simon Says Stamp sequins

Starry-Eyed?

It's July, and that means it's time for a new Naughty or Nice Challenge! This month, we're all seeing stars...

Stars seemed like the perfect theme for an end-of-school-year card for a boy, so alas, it's perfectly nice. ;) 

Since I didn't think up anything naughty, I decided instead to see how many different ways I could get stars on my card. The gold ones on the main panel are embossing paste mixed with galaxy gold ink and applied through a stencil, while the stars on the tag are embossed in pale gold pearl embossing powder. The dark and medium blue stars are either punched or die cut, from both regular and glitter cardstock. The pale blue stars are stamped. And of course there's also the patterned paper. 
I had hoped to make a slightly less nice card also, but sometimes life just seems to get in the way of card-making plans, doesn't it? ;) So you will just have to check the main challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team troublemakers created. Then I hope you'll join us!  And...

Supplies: white and scrap blue cardstock, My Mind's Eye Line Twist Go Fly a Kite patterned paper, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies & Studio G stamps, Versafine onyx black, Brilliance galaxy gold, Versamark & tumbled glass distress inks, clear & pale gold pearl embossing powders, Simon Says Stamp stars stencil, Dreamweavers translucent embossing paste, Sizzix crescent tag thinlet die, assorted star dies and punches, Hemptique twine, pop-dot tape