Happy Little Stampers: Watercolour

We're rolling into a new month (hello, May!) and that means it's time for the next round of Happy Little Stampers challenges to begin, starting with the Watercolour Challenge! 

A few weeks ago, my friend Tracey posted this card on her blog, and I was immediately inspired! Both because it's a beautiful card, and because I have the same stamp set, which hadn't seen ink in a while. So I decided to CASE it for my watercolour card: 

I stamped, embossed and die cut an assortment of these amaryllis bloom and leaves. To change mine up from Tracey's card, I watercolored the blooms in peach, using Catherine Pooler Bellini ink. The leaves are coloured with Gansai Tambi paint. As I played around with how I wanted to arrange the flowers, I decided to add a little interest to the white background panel by stencilling some dots very lightly in grey. After I adhered the images, I added a sentiment in the same ink as the flowers and put everything on a green card base. A few little sequins finished everything off. 

It's anything goes as long as you watercolour, so be prepared to see a whole range of great designs from my HLS teammates! You have the month of May to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white & Hero Arts green cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Pretty Pink Posh Amaryllis stamps & dies, Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamp, Versafine onyx black, Catherine Pooler bellini & weathered wood distress ink, Wow fine clear gloss embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolours, ARTplorations Dots All Over stencil, Little Things from Lucy's Cards sparkling rainbow sequins, Creative Memories corner-rounding punch

Seize the Birthday: Furry Friends

It's *gasp* the last Thursday in April, and time for a new Seize the Birthday challenge! Teammate Cathy has picked a fun topping for us this time: FURRY FRIENDS. As always, the theme is optional, but I know many crafters have some cute critter stamps in their collections!

A few weeks ago, I bought the Cats and Plants card kit from My Favorite Things, and while I'm the type of person that hesitates before breaking out the brand new stuff, I thought this challenge was the perfect reason to christen it. Here's my first card with it! 

I wanted to use a couple of the cats in some kind of frame, and after playing with a few different ideas, decided these two kitties worked well in this particular frame. The cats and accessories are stamped, clear embossed, and coloured with Copics. Only then did I decide to pick the colour for my frame and find patterned paper that would work. (It's ridiculous how seldom I think to pick the patterned paper as a guide to my colour choices. :D) The kit comes with patterned paper, but the designs were all a little busy for how I wanted the background frame panels to look. Once I had picked, I stamped and embossed the sentiment for the lower left panel, and arranged my little framed scenes. Another sheet of paper from the same (ancient) paper pad makes a fun and bright background. The sentiment looked a little lonely, so I added the heart gem - this is a card for my niece, even though she is a little bit more of a dog than a cat person. ;)  I built up dimension on the frame and the cats by adding die cut layers. 

This card definitely qualifies for the current Time Out challenge PETS. (With the colouring twist, too!) 

My teammates have shown some card love to cats and dogs and more - visit the STB blog to see their creations! We also have Lynda - my teammate on Happy Little Stampers and ABC Christmas Challenge! - continuing as our surprise party guest. Hope you'll join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & American Crafts textured green cardstock, American Crafts Amy Tangerine Sketchbook patterned paper, MFT Housecats stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, MFT blueprints 29 frame & Sugar Pea Designs card front elements builder dies, Studio Katia iridescent heart gem

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion

It's time for a new Addicted to Stamps and More challenge, and we are back to a popular theme: ANY OCCASION. Mother's Day is coming up in North America, but I have no personal need for those, so I went... Christmas: 

Since I didn't get much chance to use these snarky Christmas cats before Christmas last year, I was more than happy to pull them out for this challenge. Originally, I coloured him for Kathy Racoosin's recent colouring challenge, knowing he would soon come in handy. I kept my card really clean and simple, die cutting the panel and layering it on a textured green card base. Usually I have a lot more holiday cards made by this time than I do this year, so it's good to have another for the stash - and know that it can be replicated easily if I choose. 

The ATSM designers have made terrific cards for a variety of occasions, so be sure to check them out for more inspiration. So many occasions to choose from - I hope you'll join us! 

Supplies: American Crafts green cardstock, Master's Touch watercolour paper, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Stamptember Snarky Christmas Cats, MFT extreme black ink, Zig watercolour markers, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle die

 

Time for Sweets at Scrap n Stamp!

I'm on the Scrap n Stamp blog today with a stencilled birthday cake card! I hope you'll visit to find out how I made this. 

Remember you can use my design team code "10Lindsey" for a ten percent saving at Scrap n Stamp! And if your click through my design team badge over on the right, I will get a small commission from any purchase you make - at no extra cost to you! 

Day 10 of the Colouring Challenge!

It's Day 10 of Kathy Racoosin's current 10 Day Coloring Challenge, and while initially I had hoped to go out with a big, colourful flourish, the day turned out to be more of a clean and simple card day for me. So some on purpose not-blended colouring for my card: 

I hope this gives you a chuckle! I thought the mood of the card lent itself to more of this quick kind of colouring over a super-blended look. While I could have used googly eyes or Glossy Accents for his eyes, I used a couple of dew drop embellishments instead! 

I'm adding this to the current Time Out challenge: Pets. I've even got the optional colouring twist! ;) 

Hope you're having a great weekend! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Snarky Cats & Impression Obsession sentiment stamp, MFT extreme black ink, Copic markers, Studio Katia clear drops

Another Day of Colouring

Day 5 of Kathy Racoosin's latest 30 TEN day colouring challenge! Today I found another stamped image that I've had in my stash for a while, coloured it, and took the time to even make it into a card. 

This little spray of lavender is very pretty, but those little petals are... little! So I added little flicks of colour to them with three different shades of Copic marker, then filled in with a light mauve Prismacolor pencil. I was able to do a bit more shading on the stems and leaves. I offset layered my hello sentiment, giving the top one a coat of sparkle marker. I used the same cardstock to back the die cut aperture as a focus for the lavender. Along with my daily dose of colouring, I kept three challenges in mind - CASology, where the cue word is HELLO, Addicted to CAS with their code word FLOWER, and Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge, which this week is CLEAN and SIMPLE. 

Halfway there!

Supplies: Neenah white & (?) mauve & purple cardstock, Technique Tuesday Lovely Lavender stamp, Memento tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, Little B Handwritten Sentiments & Studio Katia Elegant scallop oval dies, Spectrum Noir clear sparkle brush marker

Colouring and Challenges

It's Day 4 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 10 Day Challenge, and so far I'm keeping up! Today I had time to both colour an image and make a card to fit a few other challenges. Here's the card: 

I've had this Paper Smooches rose stamped for a long time, and today it finally got to see some colour added to it. I used both Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils. Although I added a few layers to the design, I think it still qualifies as a clean and simple card - it certainly did not take long to put together - so I'm adding this to The Paper Players Clean and Simple birthday, Addicted to CAS flower and Wednesday's Simon Says Stamp Clean and Simple Challenge. 

Stay safe and well! 

Supplies: Neenah white, Stampin' Up garden green & Bazzill red cardstock, Paper Smooches Rosy Posy & Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear sparkle embossing powder, Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, Pinkfresh Studio braided tag & MFT blueprints 24 banner dies, Studio Katia May crystals, foam tape

The Sisterhood Goes Monochromatic

It's time for a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge, yay! We are challenging you to be MONOCHROMATIC. Edna chose to be monochromatic in purple, and I chose blue: 

I found some light blue cardstock in my stash, and used a stencil and light blue ink to add a background of martini glasses. I used the same ink to stamp the martini and shaker, as well as the embossed sentiment. Martinis, what more can I say? :D 

Of course, monochromatic lends itself to lots of possibilities - as you can see from the cards that my sisters and guest designer Carole have made! Create something monochromatic, add some snark if you can, and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & (?) blue cardstock, MFT Martini Time stamps & dies, Versamark &Catherine Pooler stone blue ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Picket Fence Martinis stencil, foam tape

Inkspirational: Photo

Welcome to a new Inkspirational challenge! Look at this cute picture we have to play with! I was inspired by the colours (yellow and grey again!), the rainy background, and the overall layout of the elements in the picture to create this: 

Taxis become flowers with red taillight centres, the taxi-hailer becomes a vertical sentiment, and the rain becomes a sparkly background. :)  For the flowers, I coloured some watercolour paper with yellow watercolour powder, and on another scrap brushed some red paint. To avoid adding an extra colour, I cut the little branches out of vellum. The grey background is stencilled with glitter gel. I don't have very many vertical sentiments, but this one worked for me. Yet another pandemic card, sigh. 

I love all the different ways the Inkspirational team chose to interpret this prompt, so make sure you visit the Ink blog to be inspired! (If you leave out the red, you could combine this with the current Color Hues challenge!) 

Supplies: Neenah white, Stampin' Up basic grey & black cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, vellum, Unity sentiment stamp, Concord & 9th Everyday Bouquet dies, Magenta Nuance bright yellow watercolour powder, Gansai Tambi watercolour, Memory Box scraped paint stencil, Gina K white glitz glitter gel

Friday Dots and Drinks at Scrap n Stamp!

I'm on the Scrap n Stamp blog today with a card for Day 16 of Random Acts of Cardness - the prompt I picked is DRINKS. Of course I could have made a card featuring coffee or tea, but it is Friday, after all. ;) 

Don't know about Random Acts of Cardness? Each month, the design team picks words for each day to help jumpstart your creativity! If you play along, please tag your project with #snschallenge to make sure we see it. 

Happy Friday, and I hope you're heading into a great weekend! 

Color Hues: Yellow and Grey

It's Friday! And it's the 16th day of the month, which means a new Color Hues challenge. Today we present YELLOW and GREY. We are so trendy. :D But you are not limited to just the two Pantone colours of the year, you can use any shades of the two that you like. While yellow and grey could make for an elegant floral card (as many of my teammates prove), I went a slightly different route... 

I do still love these Hipster stamps! I stamped this one on watercolour paper with Zig markers in a few shades of yellow and grey. For a background, I stencilled a burlap background in distress ink. Looking through sentiments of all kinds, I thought this sticker one went well with his expression. :D 

Be sure to check out the wide assortment of creations by my Color Hues teammates and our current guest designer, Amy! And then I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Stampin Up basic grey cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Hipster stamp, MFT extreme black & hickory smoke distress ink, Zig markers, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous burlap stencil, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle die, Tim Holtz snarky small talk sticker

Seize the Birthday: Spring Flowers

Hello and welcome to a Seize the Birthday Thursday! We've got a perfect "topping" for you if you live on the north half of the globe... SPRING FLOWERS! I have a pretty posy of daffodils from our back yard on our dining room table right now, but for my card, I chose tulips: 

My decision may have been influenced by the fact that I already had these two flowers stamped and ready to be used. :) At the time, I hadn't quite layered them perfectly, but since then, I've learned from Kathy Racoosin about filling in nooks and crannies with pencil crayons, so why not fill in slight mis-stamping the same way? :D Once I'd done that, I did a little trimming and fussy cutting, added a sentiment and matching side panel, popped on a trio of dew drop bling, and the card was done. 

My teammates at StB excel at flowers, so be sure to check out their creations, as well as that of our current surprise party guest, Lynda! If spring flowers aren't your thing, we love to see any birthday card in our gallery, so I hope you'll join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white & Bazzill yellow cardstock, Altenew Tulip stamps, Versafine onyx black, Altenew rouge, crimson & velvet & Memento bamboo leaves & cottage ivy inks, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Studio Katia clear drops, foam tape

Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays

After a few days blog break, I'm back with the new Addicted to Stamps and More challenge! And we are looking for BIRTHDAY creations this time around. My card features a big birthday cake: 

If this cake looks a tiny bit familiar, I stencilled it at the same time and with the same colours as this card. The main difference is the addition of the stencil cake stand. I found a piece of pink patterned paper in the same tones of the birthday candles, and then added a confetti strip of patterned paper down the side. I really should probably look at card sketches when I attempt a layered card like this, but... it's okay. :D The popped-up sentiment is from the same paper pad as the confetti. I added lots of sparkle marker to the candle flames, so much that you can actually see it in the close up! 

I'm not sure you can ever have too many birthday cards on hand, so after checking out the beautiful assortment of cards from the rest of the design team, I hope you will join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Echo Park Be Mine & American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray paper pad, spun sugar, picked raspberry, antique linen, ground espresso & hickory smoke distress ink, Simon Hurley Cake Maker stencil, MFT rounded stitched rectangle dies, Spectrum Noir clear sparkle marker, foam tape

ABC Christmas: H & I

It's the first Wednesday of April, and that means it's time for a new ABC Christmas Challenge! Working our way through the alphabet, we have come to H is for Homes/Houses and I is for Icicles. For the first time since I joined the team, I only made a card for one of the prompts. :( Well strictly speaking, I made a second card, but it went directly into the recycling bin. Here, at least, is my card for H for homes/houses:

Gingerbread houses! I die cut two kraft houses, and two white houses, so I could use the white for the icing parts. I added some extra browning to the gingerbread with a little distress ink. The gumdrops for the roofs are coloured with Copics, then brushed with sparkle mist for their sugar frosting. The sky background is lightly blended with tumbled glass distress ink. 

You can see a little bit of the gumdrop sparkle in this close-up: 

I have never used this Paper Smooches die set before, and I don't think its original owner had, either! (I love hand-me-downs. :D) So off this card goes to Darnell's April NBUS challenge. (Challenge #25 already; congrats, Darnell!) 

Lots of great inspiration on offer from my ABC teammates - including some successful icicle cards! ;) April is a great time to make holiday cards to avoid that last-minute stress in December, so I hope you will join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & desert storm cardstock, Studio Katia Holiday Village stamp, Stampin' Up real red & tumbled glass & gathered twigs distress ink, Copic markers, Paper Smooches gingerbread house & Sugar Pea Designs card front element builder dies, Tsukineko clear shimmer sparkle mist

Happy Little Stampers: Stencils

It's time for the April Stencil Challenge at Happy Little Stampers! My choice for this month's anything goes challenge was to make a sympathy card to add to my stash: 

I masked off a rectangular strip on my card panel, and created a muted background by blending the entire section lightly with blue ink, then overlaying the stencil to add the plaid pattern. A week or so ago I spent some time with my distress oxides, trying out different ways to make backgrounds. I used a piece of a coordinating one to die cut my simple flowers. The sentiment is stamped with the same ink as I used for the stencil. I offset the main panel on the card base with some blue cardstock. I am adding this to STAMPlorations April stencil challenge. 

My HLS teammates have used stencils in a variety of ways to inspire you to join us! I hope you will take a look and play along! 

Supplies: Neenah white & (?) blue cardstock, Clearly Besotted Message Me stamp, Catherine Pooler stone blue & tumbled glass, faded jeans & wilted violet distress oxide ink, Simon Says Stamp Fresh Daisies die, ARTplorations just plaid stencil

The Snarky Sisters Distress

It's a Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Saturday! Our newest challenge: D is for DISTRESS. (First layers, now distress - are my sisters trying to get rid of me?) Instead of roughing up the edges of my cardstock, I went with the name that goes with all things distress - Tim Holtz: 

Distress inks, TH paper dolls and TH sentiment stickers - that's my version of distress. :D For my background, I sponged my cardstock lightly with three colours of distress ink, then added my stencil to apply the extra later of colour. Die cutting it with a deckle-edge stencil is close to distressing it, right? I added a few details to my paper doll with Copics. To tone down the bright white of the sentiment, I added a little colour with antique linen distress ink. (Wait, is that like... distressing?) Everything is put together on a tan card base. I'm adding this to the April stencil challenge at STAMPlorations. 

After I made this, I had to do a grocery store run - and believe me, the people did indeed make it distressing! 

My snarky sisters show off lots of different ways to be distressed! As does our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Tristan.  Don't be distressed - join us! 

Supplies: Koh-In-Oor smooth bristol & Hero Arts tan layering cardstock, mermaid lagoon, bundled sage, picked raspberry & antique linen distress ink, ARTplorations cracked glass stencil, Tim Holtz paper dolls, Tim Holtz snarky small talk sticker, Sizzix deckle die

Inkspirational: Grow

Inkspirational is back with a new word prompt challenge that is perfect for spring: GROW! I have lots of plant sets, plus a few more specifically garden-related sets. I pulled out a ten year old stamp set to see what I could come up with:  

This watering can stamp has a built in weathered look, so all I had to do is ink it up in grey. I masked off the top and added the stems and yellow blossoms. To ground it, I used a couple of the other stamps in the set, along with a little ink blending, to create my own version of washi tape. The sentiment is from a probably equally old set. I added a few small blossoms to accent it.  

Lots of beautiful inspiration from my Inkspirational teammates! Grow a card and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Stampin' Up basic grey cardstock, Papertrey Ink Garden Variety & Simple Sunflower stamps, Stampin' Up basic grey & garden green & Catherine Pooler tiara inks, MFT stitched rounded rectangle die, foam tape