Now We're Going to Extremes...

Edna is definitely going to extremes with the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers latest challenge! We are asking you to go to extremes by stamping off the edge of your card panel or other project. Of course, I had to take that idea to extremes by stamping, sponging, and die cutting off the edge... 

I started by cutting a circle out of some scrap paper so I could sponge blue inks on the side of my cardstock panel. Leaving the mask in place, I stamped a cloud background off the edge in white ink. My always innocent-looking bird is coloured with Zigs and had his tail lopped off a bit to go with the theme, as did one end of my sentiment banner. 
Who knew extreme could be so easy? (Or maybe that should be, that easy could be so extreme???) Be sure to check out the challenge to see what the sisters have come up with, as well as our newest Queen of Snark, Emily! We would be extremely pleased if you joined us for the challenge! 

Supplies: white & mauve cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous Bird Crazy stamp & die, Unity cloud background & Taylored Expressions Party Grumplings stamps, Versafine onyx black, MFT black licorice, Colorbox frost white & tumbled glass & broken china distress inks, Hero Arts sparkle embossing powder, Lil' Inkers stitched sentiment flag die, pop dot tape

A Sympathetic Blue Sketch

Sometimes when I feel like playing around with my stamp stuff, but don't have anything specific that I need to do, I turn to challenges. I've combined two here today to make a sympathy card to add to my stash. 

I used the latest sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I didn't really capture the essence of the sketch — off the edge image, tall narrow panel — but I was inspired by it, so I say it counts. The blue theme comes from the current Shopping Our Stash challenge, Winter Blues (make a not-wintry card with blue). I likely would have used blue anyway, but hey, it can still be a challenge entry. 😉

Supplies: white & navy cardstock, vellum, Strathmore watercolour paper, Altenew Tulip & Hero Arts sympathy stamps, Versamark, Altenew sapphire & tumbled glass, broken china & faded jeans distress inks, Ranger clear & Wow white embossing powders, Marvy/Uchida corner-rounding punch

Canine Valentine

In a happy confluence of events, I wanted to make a valentine with a dog on it, and there seem to be a number of pet/dog-related challenges out there in cardmaking land! Here's my card: 

So far, this is my favourite of the Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs. He's stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with Zigs. For the background, I mixed embossing paste with a drop of red reinker and applied it through a stencil. After that was dry, I used watercolour powder for the background. Hey! Now I know that dye ink will still run with water even after it's mixed with embossing paste and left to dry overnight! I decided I could live with it since it somewhat camouflaged the way the embossing paste splooched under the stencil in a couple of places. Wouldn't "wet, slobbery kisses" be the perfect sentiment for this? Alas, I don't have that, so this one had to make do. Finally, I bordered the main panel with some textured black cardstock and pawprint washi tape. 
Challenges I'm entering: Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Pets Corner; Just Us Girls: Dogs; and Addicted to CAS: Pets (borderline on the CAS, I know, but with one main image and sentiment and not too many layers, I'll risk it). 

Supplies: white & Bazzill textured black cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Mini Crazy Cats & Dogs stamp & die, Simon Says Stamp Furry Kisses sentiment stamp, MFT black licorice ink, Zig clean colour real brush markers, Heidi Swapp confetti stencil, Dreamweavers translucent embossing paste, Stampin' Up real red reinker, Magenta Nuance cerulean blue watercolour powder, Queen & Co. washi tape, pop dots, fun foam

Outrageous!

Happy Saturday! The snarky sisters are back with you for a brand new challenge... O is for OUTRAGEOUS! 

Speaking of outrageous... what, you may be asking, is that THING on Edna's forehead? It is a bagel head, believe it or not. It's a thing, although thankfully apparently a minor thing. First pioneered in Canada, even! 
Let's move on, shall we? I struggled with this prompt for a few days, then finally an idea popped into my head. From there and onto paper, here it is: 

Doesn't seem outrageous at all, until you read the inside...

A bit of an outrageous spin on the well-known fairy tale! For me the hardest part of making the card was having a clock set to midnight... most clock stamps seem to follow the old Timex ad rule and are set at ten to two, or at least some other random time. This clock, which also was ornate enough to go with the theme, originally was set to three o'clock, so a little creative masking was in order. After embossing in gold, I used a tiny paintbrush to dab a little black ink onto the one hand and embossed it in clear. The shoes have both shimmer paint and a thick coat of Glossy Accents to give them a bit of a glass slipper look. This card was also great for using up a few sheets of a really old patterned paper pad. 
You won't be surprised to hear that some of my sisters in snark have created far more outrageous projects than I have! Be sure to see what our current Queen of Snark Michelle has come up with, too. I hope you'll join in on the outrageous fun! 

Supplies: white cardstock, Heidi Swapp No Limits patterned paper, The Girls Paperie Paper Doll stamp, Versamark & Versafine onyx black inks, pirate gold & Ranger clear embossing powder, Winsor & Newton iridescent medium, Glossy Accents

Love is in the Air at Naughty or Nice!

Welcome to February, or as I think of it, the longest shortest month of the year. Can you tell I'm not a winter person? Fortunately, Naughty or Nice Challenges has a new challenge to bring cheer and warmth... 

Using the colour palette is optional, but I decided to go for it. Challenges with that many colours often make my brain hurt, but I decided that shading and blending could allow me to say that all the colours were there, at least in some small way or another! So with inks and pencils, here it is: 

To accommodate the pinks, I decided to use this hearts stencil, even though I had not yet decided what to do beyond that. I had a circle mask cut out of a sticky note that just happened to be handy, so I popped that on before inking in a variety of pinks. Next I thought, cats are good and could be coloured in the shades that are left, and went with this cute Siamese. I even added tiny bits of extra colour, green for her eyes and grey to ground her. My perfect pearls ran together more than I would have liked but still make for a luxe collar. 
Nice, naughty, with or without the optional colours — come and play along with us this month! 

Supplies: white, black & Hero Arts sunshine mix cardstock, Paper Smooches Party Posse stamps, Versafine onyx black & spun sugar, picked raspberry & worn lipstick distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, STAMPlorations Hearts All Over stencil, Prismacolor pencils, white opal Perfect Pearls