Hop to Win!

My talented friend Ardyth now has more than 1000 Youtube subscribers! She is celebrating with a video hop, and there are lots of prizes. I do NOT make videos, so I'm not participating. (Hey, I think that means I'm eligible for prizes, too! 😂) There is sure to be a ton of inspiration, so check it out! 

P.S. In the meantime, I am psyching myself up for Kathy Racoosin's June 30 Day Colouring Challenge. June will be busy! 

Seize the Patterned Paper!

It's another Seize the Birthday Thursday! This week we have a fun optional "topping" for you, one that may even help you put a dent in some of your crafty stash... use patterned paper!

There's a craft store I go to most every time we visit Ottawa that has lots of 12" x 12" patterned paper on sale. I'm always on the lookout for Graphic 45 sheets there, but also sometimes pick up sheets with fun journaling cards on them. Not that I journal; but I always think they'll come in handy if I need to make a quick and easy card. Luckily today's challenge encouraged me to actually use a few of them. In only a couple of hours, I had four finished cards! 

It started with the journal card and scrap of polka dot paper you see below. They'd somehow ended up together on my desk, and I liked how they looked. They'd likely still be there but for this challenge. 

All I really needed to do was add a bit of twine
and trace the balloon strings with glitter.

While I was at it, I thought I might as well make more cards with panels from the same sheet (ancient Fancy Pants Designs).  I found equally ancient different patterned papers to use with two others. 

This one has clear glitter pen on the
candles and candle glow.

See the black pearls? The card attributed the quote to Abraham Lincoln,
which to me seems about a accurate as a chocolate quote
I've seen ascribed to Charles Dickens. 

I felt this one looked best on a solid-coloured mat.
I got to stamp the sentiment, yay! 

To join the challenge, you definitely do not have to make four cards, and you don't even have to use patterned paper if you don't want to! We like to see all birthday-themed cards in our gallery. 
P.S. "There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate." A quote by Charles Dickens? I somehow think not. :D

Supplies: white, Hero Arts daffodil layering & Bazzill dark red cardstock, various ancient patterned papers, Unity sentiment stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, Hero Arts clear sparkle embossing powder, MFT blueprints 24 & Winnie & Walter Katharine rectangular frame dies, Hemptique twine, Gelly Roll clear glitter pen, Nuvo white blizzard glitter drops, ReCollections black pearls, Marvy/Uchida corner-rounding punch, foam tape

Christmas in May!

Muse: ChristmasVisions is celebrating challenge #100! To mark this milestone challenge, we are offering a few stocking stuffers to those who participate in the challenge! 

The stamps and dies used in our Muse's project!

All these ink cubes!

This beautiful stamp set!

This steel die!

To be eligible to win one of these fabulous prizes, simply make a Christmas/winter card inspired by the card made by our current Muse, Chriss Blagrave. Here's her inspiration: 

I decided to play along, even though for some crazy reason, I'm not eligible to win. :D Here's my card:

I was inspired by Chriss's floral spray, wash of blue, and large sentiment, as well as her general layout. I really liked her central white flower, too, but knew I wanted to use these layering poinsettias for my card, which don't really lend themselves to white. The flowers, leaves and evergreen branches are all die cut and then layered together. For the background panel, I sponged Versamark through a snowflake stencil and embossed in clear before sponging with distress ink. The sentiment is stamped in distress oxide ink. 
There can't be a better excuse to make May Christmas cards! You have until May 28th to play along and be eligible to win. 

Supplies: white cardstock, WPlus9 Pretty Poinsettias & Hero Arts Lower Case Christmas stamps, Altenew crimson & velvet, Memento bamboo leaves & cottage ivy, tumbled glass distress & fossilized amber distress oxide inks, WPlus9 Pretty Poinsettias & Paper Smooches Wreath Builder dies, Memory Box winter tiny snowflakes stencil, foam tape

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Time to Get Inky!

It's Saturday, and time for a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge! 

I is for Inky! We are looking for lots of inky goodness on your project. And while I didn't get quite as inky as Edna did, I did decide it was time to take my distress oxides out for a proper test run. Of course I had to buy a few when they first came out, since all the cool kids were playing with them! In my limited tests with them, I was rather underwhelmed. So thank you, Edna, for the push to get them out again! Of course when in doubt, what does a crafter do but refer to Jennifer McGuire, so I watched her original distress oxide video and tried a few of her ideas. Here's my first and favourite:

Look at how vibrant splatters of oxide inks are on black cardstock! I used all five colours of ink I owned and splattered each on regular black cardstock. The Tardis and sentiment are painty, not inky, but the background more than makes up for it, I think. :P Here's a close-up of the background — notice how the different splatters overlap, rather than blend as regular inks would: 

For my second background, I used my oxides as watercolours to create a soft rainbow background for the farthest thing from a snarky card...

I was able to use one of the colours to stamp my sentiment too, since the oxides stamp more solidly than regular distress inks tend to do. 

Are you ready to get inky, too? Just before you do, hop over to the challenge blog to see all the inky goodness my sisters have on display, as well as our current Queen of Snark and  guest Mimi!

Supplies: (hello sweetie) black cardstock, Canson watercolour cardstock, Viva Las VegaStamps Tardis & sentiment, Versafine onyx black & faded lipstick, fossilized amber, bundled sage, faded jeans & wilted violet distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, Magenta Nuance violet watercolour powder, MFT blueprints 24 die, foam tape; (thinking of you) Neenah white & white linen cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Unity Tulips & Daisies sentiment stamp, faded lipstick, fossilized amber, bundled sage, faded jeans & wilted violet distress inks, Simon Says Stamp Cattail Triptych & Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway die, foam tape  

Psst... Prize Alert!

Muse: ChristmasVisions is celebrating its 100th challenge with prizes! Check out the inspiration from muse Chriss Blagrave, join us, and you might win a fun "stocking stuffer" prize! I hope to be back soon with my own interpretation of Chriss's seasonal card. 


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It's Just a Number...

It's another Seize the Birthday Thursday! 

While we always welcome any birthday-themed card, we do have an optional "topping" for you this time out, and it's a good one... It's Just a Number. Strangely, not everyone on the design team seemed to see this as an invitation for age-related humour the way I did. :D 

If I have the challenge theme practically word for word in a sentiment, well, how can I not use it? Since I'd used cats for the last two challenges, I thought it was time to show a little love to those of the canine persuasion. This wiener dog that my snarky sister Chris stamped and sent to me seemed to have just the right expression. I wanted to make sure he showed up on the patterned paper, so left him largely white. the colours and themes make this great for a guy card, so I'm entering it at the latest Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge, For the Boys. 
Be sure to check out what the other designers have created for this challenge, as well as our latest surprise party guest, Sonja! 

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up crumb cake cardstock, Crate Paper DIY Shop patterned paper, Katzelkraft Les Chiens & Hero Arts Irreverent Birthday Messages stamps, MFT extreme black ink, Copic markers, Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway die, foam tape 

It's That Time Again...

Time for the yearly STEAMPUNK challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers! 

Yep, it's steampunk time again. We do it every year, even though I do think a majority of the sisters find it a difficult genre! But every year I summon that small inner steampunk persona, and here is this year's result: 

I started with an inspiration pic that I found on the web...

Image source

I had already decided that this was the year for a hot air balloon, so this image was perfect. I started with a hot air balloon image from the Graphics Fairy, that I printed and coloured with distress markers. I cut the gears die cut from textured metallic paper. For the skyline, I sponged some grungy, industrial colours of distress ink onto cardstock before die cutting. I silver embossed the sentiment onto my patterned paper background (that includes some gloss) before putting everything together. 
Lots more steampunk inspiration from the sisters and from our current guest designer, Queen Sharon! I hope you seek out your inner steampunk fan and come and join us! 

Supplies: white & DCWV gunmetal metallic cardstock, DCWV Timeless Type patterned paper, Unity sentiment stamp, Graphics fairy vintage hot air balloon image, Versamark & antique linen, vintage photo & black soot distress inks, Ranger silver embossing powder, Ranger distress markers, Sizzix/Tim Holtz gears & MFT skyline dies, foam tape