The Snarky Sisters are Underwater

It's a snarky Saturday! Our new challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is U is for Underwater. Edna has unfortunately taken this challenge far too literally! You don't even have to be underwater while you make your card, unless that's a new technique you'd like to attempt. :D I stuck to having an underwater theme:

This will make a good encouragement card, but really, from the point of view of the small fish, it is rather snarky, don't you think? I started by making my background panel, blending the cardstock with distress ink, laying the wave stencil over and adding more ink, then a layer of translucent embossing paste to finish. While that dried, I got my fish ready. Because the tiny fish get cut all together with one die, I added some blue marker to the white around them so it would blend better with the background. Then, when my shark die cutting was imperfect, I added blue to his edges, too. :D 

Where does our newest challenge take you? Be sure to check out the underwater designs of the Sisters as well as our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Monika! I hope you'll jump in and join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, MFT Beach Buds & Sunny Studio Stamps Best Fishes stamps & dies, Poppystamps Whittle Sealife Sentiments, Versafine onyx black & mermaid lagoon distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, Studio Katia brush stroke waves stencil, Dreamweaver translucent embossing paste

Inkspirational: Bark

Welcome to a new Inkspirational challenge! We have a word prompt for you: BARK. I thought my teammates might tend toward the four-legged association, so I went with the tree kind: 

It also never hurts to add another Christmas card to the stash, and I tend to use my paper birch dies that way. (I like them, so yes, I have more than one set of birch dies. :D) I almost always hide the cut off ends of these trees behind a frame of some kind, but for a change, let them show atop a patterned paper mat. It was also the first time I just Copic-coloured the outlines instead of cutting them out of dark cardstock - I'll definitely do it that way again! After I added the sentiment and the little red flower/snowflake/? it still seemed to need something, so I added a sparkly snow crystal. It may still need a little something, but I'm not sure what. :D 

Fun and inspiring cards from my Ink teammates! Whatever direction the word prompt takes you, we'd love to have you join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & SU real red cardstock, Echo Park Keeping' Cozy patterned paper, Paper Smooches Birch Trees & Merry dies, MFT stitched rounded rectangle & (?) flower dies, Copic marker, Marvy-Uchida corner-rounding punch, Studio Katia iridescent ice flakes crystals

Seize the Birthday: Butterflies/Hummingbirds

Welcome to the newest challenge at Seize the Birthday, where our optional topping, chosen by our leader Nancy, is Butterflies or Hummingbirds! I do have a hummingbird stamp, but decided to go with butterflies for my card: 

These two butterflies came out of my stash of die cuts, and dictated the colours for my card. I used a turnabout stamp in two shades each of teal and purple for the wreath, then found a birthday sentiment that would fit nicely in the centre. After I added the two butterflies, the card still needed a little something, so I added a trio of sequins under the sentiment. 

Be sure to check out the beautiful birthday creations by the StB design team and our current surprise party guest, Deepti! Our toppings are always optional, so make a birthday card and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & (?) purple & teal cardstock, Concord & 9th Wreath Turnabout & Taylored Expressions Diamond Botanicals stamps, Catherine Pooler All That Jazz, Mint to Be & Serene & MFT Purple Rain ink, (?) die cut butterflies, Catherine Pooler Maui sequins

Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays

It's birthday card time at Addicted to Stamps and More! When I sat down to make mine, I wasn't particularly in a colouring mood. Fortunately, there are stamps for that: 

I hadn't used this ice cream cone layering stamp set before, so out it came. Strawberry is not my favourite flavour (and neither is pink) but I thought it would look more fun than a chocolate one in brown. I lightened the darker pink layer by off-stamping it first. I at least added chocolate sprinkles! The two cone colours show up better in person than in my photos. 

Since I haven't used this stamp set before, I'm linking it up to Darnell's April NBUS challenge. 

Lots of birthday inspiration for you over on the ATSM blog! I hope you'll join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white & Amarican Crafts pink cardstock, Hero Arts Color-Layering Ice Cream stamps and dies, Versamark, Memento angel pink & rose bud, MFT biscotti, PTI fine linen, Catherine Pooler Icing on the Cake & spun sugar distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Tim Holtz burlap & STAMPlorations oval flexi-template stencils, Studio Katia pink tourmaline crystals

It's Easy Being Green at Scrap n Stamp

I'm on the Scrap n Stamp blog today with a card for today's Random Acts of Cardness inspiration: GREEN! I hope you will check it out! 

Color Hues: Purple and Green

Happy Easter/Passover weekend, and welcome to a new Color Hues challenge! My friend and teammate Tracey has picked our duo: purple and green. Earlier this morning, I posted a card for another challenge; after I made it, I realized I had used today's colours! :D So I decided to use the same stamp set and make a second card: 

I used a different stamp from the set, and chose a bluer purple to watercolour the flowers, rather than the more violet tones of my first one. Once I had my stem, I was unsure what to do with it, and wandered off in search of a sketch. Then, not being satisfied with just having a sketch to draw on, I CASEd DT member Jennifer's beautiful card. I was going to say that her splatters are SO much better than mine, but then I read she used a stamp; I just splattered. :D Still undecided about whether they add or detract from the finished card. I did decide to leave this without a sentiment; I think it will be a great all purpose note card. 

Beautiful cards in purple and green from the design team! I hope the colours and cards inspire you to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Canson watercolour cardstock, Echo Park For the Record 2 patterned paper, Studio Katia You're So Sweet stamp and die, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Zig watercolour markers, Provocraft scalloped circle die

Some Snarky Layers

L is for Layers at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers! Edna is taking the challenge quite literally, but the rest of us created our layers with paper, I do believe. ;) As a clean and simple cardmaker, I am not a big fan of layers, but I gave it my best shot: 

Some pretty patterned papers always help me when it comes to extra layers, so after I coloured (and matted - layers!) my ATC, I found a coordinating paper. The flowers on it inspired me to make some floral embellishments from another sheet in the pad - three layers of petals and a centre! Plus the blue stem thingies! :D I added a mat layer to the sentiment (designed by sister Chris) as well, breaking the sentiment into two parts to better fit alongside the ATC. 

I'm adding this to the never-ending STAMPlorations anything goes challenge. 

So many layered cards on the blog, from my sisters and the current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Rachel! Add some layers - and perhaps some snark! - to your project and join us. 

Supplies: Recollections black cardstock, Prima Introspection patterned paper, STAMPlorations Some Snark stamp, MFT intense black ink, STAMPlorations retro fashionistas ATC, Copic markers, Spellbinders mini blooms & sprigs & MFT diagonal stitched rectangle dies, Opalite golden mist reinker

Inkspirational: Watercolour

Inkspirational is back with a new Technique Challenge: Watercolour! I like the forgiving nature of watercolour; if I stray outside the lines, I can often "erase" the extra with more water, or failing that, decide to call it artistic. :D On my card today, I decided to show that watercolours can be either bold or more muted:

We recently needed to make use of a sympathy card, and since my husb mentioned how much he liked it, I decided to more or less recreate it. The pretty stem of sweet pea flowers is stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with Zig markers: intense for the blossoms, and more watered down for the stems. To add a little interest to the background, I dry embossed it with a triangle embossing folder. The sentiment comes from the same set as the flowers. 

The cards by my Ink teammates will show you just how varied and versatile watercolours can be! I hope they will inspire you to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white, Recollections black & (?) green cardstock, Ranger watercolour paper, Studio Katia You're So Sweet stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Zig markers, Echo Park mini triangles embossing folder

A Tiny Craft: Bunnies!

Welcome to the April edition of A Tiny Craft! With many celebrating Easter and/or spring, our theme this month is BUNNIES! I have a set of Tim Holtz critter dies that have been waiting patiently in my stash, so out came the rabbit:

After watercolouring and assembling these four bunny faces, I know why I would never be on a die cutting design team. :D Fiddly!!! The four coin bases all come from pre-made backgrounds, but I added text stamping to two of them. The die cut "hellos" also came from my stash. The other two I decided to make specifically for Easter. Here's a closer look:

And now, a bonus special guest appearance by a lamb! 

I surprised myself by willingly making one more ATC with another of the critter dies, but I also now know that using coloured cardstock is considerably easier than colouring each. tiny. piece. :D The base was already dry-embossed, but I added some sparkly mica mist to colour it. The flower components were already die cut, too - and amazingly, coordinated with the spray. My lamb's little meadow? A leaf from a Catherine Pooler peach stamp set. :) 

ATCs with Heart/ATCs mit Herz has a Spring challenge, so I will join them with these! 

Artist trading cards or coins are so much fun to make - I hope you'll join us! 

Seize the Birthday: Signs of Spring

Welcome to a new Seize the Birthday challenge! It was my turn to pick the challenge "topping", and I picked Signs of Spring. Apologies if you're reading this in Australia. ;) In my garden, daffodil blooms are definitely a sign of spring's arrival: 

I love that this is a layering set and gives lots of depth and definition to the flowers. I even managed to stamp them more or less correctly! :D For the blooms, I used two colours of ink, using second-generation stamping for the first layer, then the same ink full strength for the second, before a more orange-y ink for the final layer. The stems and leaves are all in the same green ink, for just a little subtle shading. The green gingham mat gives a fresh spring feel too, I think. Nothing groundbreaking in the design, but I quite like the finished result. 

Not too surprisingly, most of the team also thought of flowers for their spring signs, but there are lots of other ideas to consider, too. And we always have our anything goes option, as well. Make a birthday card and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & SU garden green cardstock, Jillibean Soup All About Plaid patterned paper, Sunny Studios Daffodil Dream stamps, Stampin' Up garden green & Catherine Pooler tiara, tiki torch & garden party ink, Sizzix/Tim Holtz deckle die, The Twinery marigold twine 

Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas

It's time for a new Addicted to Stamps and More challenge, and this one is all about helping to build up a stash of Christmas cards! I suppose I could call this post "one stencil, two ways": 

This is a new-to-me stencil from my friend Julie, and I thought it would look good in red on white. After I had done that, I thought it might be even more fun with some texture, so used it again with glitter gel on some navy cardstock! (I'll be trying it in white on red, too.) I decided to use one horizontally, the other vertically. These sentiment strips fit nicely in the most open area of the stencil. A closer look at each:  

With the stencil so prominent, I'm adding these to the April stencil challenge at STAMPlorations. 

Lots of festive variety to inspire you on the ATSM blog - hope you'll join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white, Recollections red & Fabriano textured blue cardstock, Taylored Expressions Simple Strips - Christmas stamp, Versamark & festive berries distress ink, Wow white embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp holiday sweater stencil, Gina K. Designs/Thermoweb white glitter gel, Spellbinders mini Christmas sentiment strip foiling die, GoPress blue foil 

Hope Your Day is the G.O.A.T. at Scrap 'n Stamp!

I'm on the Scrap 'n Stamp blog today with this card! I hope you'll pop over to read the story behind how this clean and simple card came to be. Happy weekend! 

Happy Little Stampers: Stencils

It's time for the April Stencil Challenge at Happy Little Stampers! Our stencil challenges are anything goes, so I picked a stencil I hadn't used before: 

This is a turnabout stencil, meaning I could rotate it and make a design using four different colours of ink - I went with four shades of blue. I used the same four inks to colour my big die cut sentiment, backing it with a black die cut to help it stand out against the stencil pattern. I cut the panel at an angle and added the smaller congratulations right on the card base. 

Lots of fun ways to use stencils on the HLS blog, so be sure to visit - and then join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Concord & 9th In Bloom sentiment stamp, Versafine onyx black & Catherine Poolersomething borrowed, suede shoes, dress blues & juniper mist ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Concord & 9th Joyful Tiles turnabout stencil, Ellen Hutson Yasss die

Happy Little Stampers CAS: Tropical

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge is going tropical for April! Since I have a stamp set called Tropical Sensations, it seemed only right to use it: 

The hibiscus and sentiment make me think of Hawaii, ahhhhh. After stamping both, I added some splatters of the peach and yellow inks using a paintbrush. I know there's no green on the main panel, but this strip down the side seemed right, anyway. :D 

The cards on the HLS blog will also transport you to the tropics! I hope you will make a tropical CAS card and join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, American Crafts Amy Tangerine Sketchbook patterned paper, MFT Tropical Sensations stamps, Versafine onyx black & Catherine Pooler bellini, tutti frutti & tiara ink

The Snarky Stampers Do ATCs

It's time for a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge - too bad we missed April 1st by a day! ;) Our new theme is A is for ATC. Also known as Artist Trading Cards or Coins. Edna has helpfully offered the correct dimensions for both! 

I had some packaging I thought would make for fun ATC bases, and had enough to cut a pair: 

It's a fairly porous kraft-style card, so I used distress oxides with my stencil to make sure the colours would show up. I thought these two Mod Birds from my Favorite Things went well with the snarky stickers from Tim Holtz. These were fun and easy to put together - here's a closer look at each. 

More fun inspiration from my sisters in snark as well as our current Queen and guest designer, Fran! Hope you decide to join us. 

Inkspirational: Photo Inspiration

Welcome to the newest Inkspirational challenge, where we have a pretty photo to inspire you! I was inspired by the flowers in glass containers, and the grey backdrop: 

...and inspired to make another sunflower card as the war in Ukraine continues. :( The image is watercoloured with Zigs. I actually looked at a few tutorials for watercolouring glass, but they were way above my pay grade. :D After the flowers were done, I went a bit nuts with patterned paper! For my usual style, at least. I liked how the yellow brought out the sunflowers and the small, darker grey panel added a bit of contrast. Hugs seemed an appropriate sentiment. 

I love the variety of cards my teammates were inspired to make from this photo - and I hope you'll feel inspired to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Authentique Be(you)tiful patterned paper, Technique Tuesday Sunny Flowers stamp & die, Clearly Besotted Many Mini Messages stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Zig markers, Sizzix/Tim Holtz deckle die, foam tape