Happy Little Stampers: CAS

The May challenges at Happy Little Stampers continue with the CAS Challenge! For May, we are looking for clean and simple cards that feature FUN and GAMES. Which made me realize I don't have a lot of stamps featuring those. But I think summertime swimming counts! 

I love this little Unity stamp, and got it out for Kathy Racoosin's recent ten day colouring challenge. For the first one, I ink blended distress oxides and splattered with water before stamping and embossing the image. I realized I had always used warm sunny colours with this stamp, so then watercolored a panel in cooler shades to see if that worked. I like it! To turn them into cards, I trimmed the images and ran a black Copic around the edges. Then I grabbed a couple of mini slimline stencils and added the backgrounds to my two card bases in distress inks. I stamped and embossed a couple of sentiments, adhered the images, and called them done! 

Lots of CAS inspiration to be had on the Happy Little Stampers blog! I hope you'll have some fun of your own and join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Unity Good Day Sunshine, Clearly Besotted Many Mini Messages & Technique Tuesday Sweet Summertime stamps, Versafine onyx black, fossilized amber & wild honey distress oxide & squeezed lemonade, carved pumpkin, tumbled glass & shaded lilac distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, ARTplorations mini slimline Burst & Wavy Dots stencils, black Copic marker

Pin It Now!

Color Hues: Red and Orange

Here I am with my third post of the day, and this time it's for Color Hues! Teammate Kristie has picked the new colour pairing, and it's RED and ORANGE! Red is my favourite colour, orange not so much - and the two of them combined might not have been been my first choice. But with a little thought, I came up with this: 

You've heard of Christmas in July of course, and here I am with autumn in May. ;) For me, that was the ideal way to pair these two hues - in a beautiful autumn maple leaf. To start, I smooshed a panel of watercolour paper with distress inks in carved pumpkin, barn door and fired brick, drying and repeating until I was happy with it. I then cut it with a large maple leaf die. This die has a narrow border around the leaf, which includes the stem. I've never been quite sure what to do with the border, it sort of accordions out of shape as soon as it's cut. But light bulb moment! I also cut it out of this off-white panel after I splattered it with the same orange and red inks, then popped up both the panel and leaf on a red card base. To finish it off, I added the sentiment banner. 

Beautiful interpretations of these two colours from the Color Hues design team, and our latest guest designer, my talented friend Tracey! I hope you will take up the challenge of these two hues and join us! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up naturals white & Papertrey Ink pure poppy cardstock, Canson watercolour cardstock, Clearly Besotted Message Me stamp, Versamark & carved pumpkin, barn door & fired brick ink, Wow fine white embossing powder, Poppystamps maple leaf & MFT blueprints 29 sentiment banner dies, foam tape

Pin It Now!

The Sisterhood Braves the Outdoors

It's the first of May, and a Saturday - and time for a new challenge from the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: O is for Outdoors! Edna is showing off her outdoorsy side, my card... not so much: 

The outdoors has taken on an entirely new meaning this past year, with the threat of the coronavirus seeming ever-present. Also, I would never have thought I'd still be making pandemic cards! My card started with this sheet of patterned paper, which used to look just dotted, but now seems to have little covid virus particles all over it. So I paired it up with a nervous looking cat, a snarky sentiment, and ta-da, my latest pandemic card was done. I'm adding this to the Wednesday Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge. 

Lots more snarky outdoor inspiration from my sisters in snark, as well as our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Robyn! Stay inside, create an outdoor card, and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Basic Grey Kelly Purley Mon Ami patterned paper, Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Crazy Cats & Taylored Expressions Snarky Sentiment Strips stamps & dies, MFT extreme black ink, Copic markers, Sugar Pea Designs card front element builder die

Pin It Now!

Inkspirational: Sketch

Welcome to a brand new challenge at Inkspirational! It's Shauna's turn to pick the theme of our challenge, and she has provided us with a sketch! 

This versatile sketch has lots of possibilities, but I kept my card quite close to the original design: 

I thought three Bitty Bears would be perfect for the squares, and chose a trio that have a bit of a birthday theme. The colouring was quite simple, with just some shadowing on the bears, and a little colouring for the cupcake, balloon and gift. Next, using some wicked math skillz :D I cut the three squares out of a card front of linen cardstock. Using the cutouts as a guide, I blended distress inks directly onto the card base in shades similar to the objects the bears are holding. After stamping and embossing the birthday sentiment, I adhered the card front to the base, then popped up the bear trio. The cupcake, balloon and gift all got some sparkle for extra birthday fun. My colours aren't exact, but were definitely inspired by the current My Favorite Things colour challenge - the brown shows up on the cupcake wrapper! ;)  I'm also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge.

The Ink design team have terrific interpretations of this sketch - you'll be sure to be inspired! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white & linen cardstock, MFT Bitty Bears stamps, Versafine onyx black & twisted citron, picked raspberry & salty ocean distress inks, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, MFT stitched square die, Spectrum Noir clear shimmer marker, foam tape 

Pin It Now!

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

Pin It Now!

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

Pin It Now!