May Your Day Be As Amazing As You Are

 Last Spring I was fortunate to have enrolled in the Altenew Secret Garden Retreat. It was an all day event that featured amazing instructors and a huge cache of beautiful products.

Right at Home: Stamp Launch and Blog Hop

Hello! Through Instagram, I met a wonderful woman named Nicole who has a shop called Right at Home. I was thrilled that she asked me to be a guest designer for their very first exclusive Happy Mail stamp set. How exciting!

I used the stamps to make a Happy Mail Stationery Set. I love making cute sets with matching envelopes. It's just as much fun to decorate the inside and back of the envelope too.

There's a lot that you can do with cute florals.

To celebrate the stamp launch, Right at Home has arranged a blog hop with some amazingly talented designers. Hop around and see what they've created!

• Nicole // Right at Home 
• Kari // KW Card Design 
• Audrey // Pink Ink Originals 
• Jocelyn // Red Balloon Cards
• Holly // Holly Beary Creations 
• Michelle // Pinch Your Chic 
• Laurel // Paper Crafts by Laurel 
• Eva // @Eva.Montes.3 on Instagram 

Right at Home will be giving away three sets of the new stamps through Instagram. To win, visit them on Instagram https://instagram.com/rightathome/ . The giveaway contest will be June 22nd-24th.

Quilt Stripes

The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week is "Stripes".  It's amazing how many ways that Stripes can be interpreted.  This is my take on the theme.

 

I created a 6x6 paper quilt block using some of my favorite Artistic Outpost stamps.  Inky fun!  I stamped various scrap papers and cut them into strips (or stripes!). I like that some of my strips came out a bit wonky.  It makes it look more like fabric.  The yellow circles were made by using the Ranger distress paints.  Which are very, very cool!  I only bought three colors to try them and I am going to have to buy more.  I loved them!  

 

 



I've been playing around with the quilt concept for quite sometime.  I created a different quilt square here awhile back.  Who knows?  Maybe someday I will create more and attach them all together....

Pretty Birdie

The Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Target was gorgeous this week.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to play along.  It inspired me to create this card in greys and yellows.

 

 

 

The stamps are from Artistic Outpost.  I used my pastel pencils for a light wash of color.  And I brushed the cardfront with diamond glitter to give it a sheen that doesn't photograph very well, but trust me, it's there. :)

 

This is the current inspiration trigger.

Gorgeous, isn't it?  I'm also linking my card to the Artistic Outpost Monthly Referral Program.  Each month they randomly give away stamps to one lucky stamper who plays along.  Cool, huh?

EDITED:
After I finished my post, I sat at my desk and played around with the stamps and papers scattered around and I created this card too.  Same bird.  Different look.

 

Paint Day!

Take a peek at The Rubber Café blog.  Today it's my turn to post a project, and I chose to play with paint. :)

Watercolor Inspiration

Today is Mother's Day!  I had to go to work for awhile today, but I still found time to play. I was inspired by a gorgeous stamped scene that Shari Carroll made with these Claudine Hellmuth stamps.  I first saw it about a year ago. She did an entire street scene in watercolor. I only did a few elements, but I really enjoyed playing with different watercolor mediums.  I found that I like water coloring with the Ranger distress inks the best.  They're sooo easy to use. (note lesson #1:  Shari Carroll is much better with watercolor than I am!)

I am linking this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show "Inspired by" challenge.  Thanks for the inspiration Shari! I am also linking this to the Moxie Fab World "The Wonder of Watercolor Challenge".  As well as the Twisted Tuesday Free for All.

 

 

Retro Fusion

There's an interesting experiment going on at the Fusion Card Challenge this week.  I chose Lesley's inspiration photo challenge.  And this is what I came up with:

 

I loved the colors in the floral print, so I devised something similar with an older Recollections stamp set from Michaels.  And I thought the inspiration had a bit of a reto flair, so I added some bits from the Maggie Holmes Ephemera pack.  I am also linking this to the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

 

This is the challenge photo:



A weeks worth of fun...

There's a blog that posts challenges every day.  I've always wanted to try this.  But maybe that's too much right now.  So, I will try a week's worth.  :)

Sunday's challenge at 365 Cards was a sketch challenge.  And there was a photo challenge at Paper Smooches Sparks challenge involving buttons.  I do love buttons!  I combined the two and this what I designed.   I used Paper Smooches Needle Little Love Stamps and Basic Grey's Lucille paper.

 

I really like that needle stamp. :)

 

 

I wonder what other challenges 365 Cards will offer this week. ??  Wish me luck!

 



Scrappy Paper Quilt

Be sure to check out  The Rubber Cafe blog to view my Scrappy Quilt tutorial that was posted today.  I LOVED making this.  It was so fun. :)

Mail Art

 

 

I made my first post as a design team member at The Rubber Cafe today.  Head over and check out some stamped mail art created.  I love getting mail!  And comments are fun too!  :)

 

Happy Stamping!

color challenge

This week Paper Smooches is holding a Cool Shades challenge, where inspiration is drawn from colors. I used a couple of their new sets for this card.  I used Leafy Greens and Tri-balation. 

 

 

The color story is inspired by "Carnival".  The colors are Chocolate, Cream, Aqua, Cherry Red. And of course I had to put my own spin on it, so it's a loose interpretation. :) 

 

In case you were wondering, I cut out pieces of the stamped leaf image with my trusty old exacto knife.  I also added some details with a black pen.  The background was made from a Tim Holtz embossing folder and the lacey cut-out was cut with my cricut. 

Yeah...I had fun! :)

 

 

 

  

 

Sew Much

Just recently, I purchased this Needle Little Love stamp set from Paper Smooches.  I had a lot of fun with this and I am sure that it is going to be one of my favorite stamp sets.

Winterfest is still going on at Two Peas in a Bucket.  There are stamping challenges and games going on everyday this week in the stamping forum.  This card was inspired by The Hearts Galore Challenge posted there.   

  

I challenge you!

I am hosting a stamping challenge during Winterfest 13 at Two Peas in a bucket.  Winterfest is a week-long online festival of games and challenges. Curious? You can find out more about my Little-Known Consequences Challenge here.

 For my challenge sample, I used the Artistic Outpost Ephemera Background plate as well as the Outpost plate.  Artistic Outpost has a monthly referal program where you can link up your Artistic Outpost projects in hopes of winning awesome stampy prizes!

Orange Hello!

Today's card was inspired from the Paper Smooches Sparks Picture Perfect Challenge photo you see below.  Photo challenges are so much fun, and I am humbled by the talented contributors who entered this weeks challenge. So many amazing entries!  It really is worth looking at. This isn't one of my "best" cards, but it was one that I had a ton of fun with.  Sometimes I forget how fun embossing is!

I embossed orange ink on vellum using the Potpourri stamp set, which was perfect for the photo.  And I used the same stamp set with Versamark ink on the tan "hello" banner.  The patterned paper is an old Halloween line from Websters Pages.  I love that print!

 

Oh!  And remember this?

Yes, that's what I used to punch the "hello" letters from the woodgrain paper.  Old-school, isn't it?  LOL! I told you that I had fun!  :)

 



 

 



Let's Bond

I tried something new here.  Which is half the fun, right?
Paper Smooches has a weekly challenge and this week it's a sketch challenge.  They call it A Designer Drafts Challenge.  For the challenge, I loosely followed the sketch and embossed the Great Chemistry stamp set along with a vintage prescription. 

 This is intended as a Valentine for a guy, (my hubby) but I had to girlie-it-up a bit with a ruffle. The ruffle is made with crepe paper and stamped with the Geo-Graphic stamp set for the polka-dots. (that's the "tried-something-new" part) I use that set a lot. I love that stamp set.

I love polka dots too. <3

Artistic Outpost

I love vintage.  No secret there.  And I love rubber stamps.  Artistic Outpost has some of the best vintage image stamps around.  I used "The Outpost" plate to make this card for their January referral program.

I have a hoard of vintage and antique papers that I like to pull out when using these stamps. I mixed them with some Basic Grey's PBJ.  And see the embellishment at the bottom?  I made that.  I added some cheap rhinestones to some vintage plastic buttons that I love.

And voila!  Some vintage bling!

More Smooches

I had to participate in this week's Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.  They used an awesome vintage graphic, which I adore for inspiration.  The problem?  I don't really own that many Paper Smooches sets yet. (notice the word yet)  So I had to make do with what I had on hand at the moment.  And then I remembered a technique used by stamping guru, Kristina Werner, using the Potpourri Stamp set and voila!  Here's my submission for the challenge:

The background is a Jenni Bowlin paper.  I love using it as an element, but for this, I didn't want it to be the prominent feature of the card.  I like the little finger holes made with a hand punch. :)  It reminded me of the rotary dial holes in the old phones.  And the sentiment?  It is a portion of a sentiment in the Cyber Cafe set

Isn't this graphic awesome?

Boy, I just love a challenge! :)

I really, really do LOVE a challenge! 
My "baby" is 21 years old today.  (Happy Birthday Anna!)  And 2013 is off to a great start.  This year will be a year that I challenge myself to be even more creative.

I am not really a "cutesy" paper-crafter.  Now, whimsical, that's another story.  And I love these paper Smooches stamps.  My "Grey City" was done with the Metropolis stamp set for the "Anything Goes" Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.

And in the future, you will be seeing even more very soon.  My wonderful son gave my two new Paper Smooches stamp sets for Christmas that I haven't even opened yet.  Isn't he a sweetie?

Winter Wonderland

At the Two peas in a Bucket stamping forum, there was an unusual swap that I participated in.  Each participant was asked to make a project to send to their swap partner and along with the project, they were to send a "kit" made up with the items used so said partner could make the exact project or add their own spin to it.  It reminded of the "telephone game" that we played as kids.  Below is my project that was submitted to my swap partner.

 

I used stuff from my stash for this project.  The deer was a chipboard piece covered in glitter and coated with diamond glaze.  The child stamp is one of my all-time favorites from PaperArtsy that I've had for years.  I also wanted to submit this to the Shopping our Stash Challenge 80, which is to create something related to a winter holiday- Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, etc. or simply do something with snow/winter themed components.

 



What season is it again?

 A few days at Counterfeit Kit Challenge, the Master Forgers inspired me to use a stamp.  (As if I needed any encouragement! lol)  But I was surprised at what developed.  I had some papers sitting out from my winter "kit" that I was using, and I used some of my favorite Artistic Outpost stamps...but only a small portion of the main image.  (The stamps are from the Birds of a Feather plate, which was a Spring plate, and the Ephemera Backgrounds plate, which goes with EVERYTHING) And even though I got those papers out with the intention of to being used as seasonal, the result didn't look "fall-ish" or "winter-ish", or "spring-ish".  Gotta love that!