Bloom for You Thanks Card

My new favorite Stampin' Up! color is Blackberry Bliss and it looks beautiful paired with Old Olive or Mossy Meadow. This Bloom for You Thanks Card is a combination of two cards I recently made, you can see them here and here. It seems I have a habit of using what is on my craft desk. Right now I really love the subtle polka dot patterned paper from the retired Watercolor Wonder dsp. Another new favorite of mine is the Thanks sentiment from the Another Thank You stamp set. The leaves and butterfly were stamped using the Kinda Eclectic stamp set. Before I chose the accent color for the butterfly and embossed strip, I played around with three different colors, Coastal Cabana, Soft Sky and Pool Party. It was Pool Party that had the right color tone to go along with the other colors. This card was pretty easy to make and I can see it working with many different color combinations. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Bloom for You Thanks Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Suzy Bee's: Anything Goes w/ optional Spots or Dots
• Sister Act: Anything Goes
• Crafty Girls: Anything Goes
• Creative Corner: Favorite Color Combo 

Umbrella Mouse Sorry Card

Hello! I hope you're having a lovely week. Mine has been pretty quite so far. My latest card is this Umbrella Mouse Sorry Card created using the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches. Their sponsor this week is Bugaboo Digi Stamps and I was happy to color up this cute Umbrella Mouse to play along. After selecting my image, I started looking through my patterned papers and found what I think looks like big rain drops on a sea of Lost Lagoon by Stampin' Up! (Moonlight paper stack). Perfect! I decided to use Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight for accent colors and punched circles for my embellishment detail. Then I decided it needed a small sentiment and the little mouse looks like it wants to apologize for something so I went with the Teeny Tiny Wishes sentiment, I'm So Sorry. Cute critters make everything better! Hopefully, I won't need to say I'm So Sorry, but if I do I hope this card makes forgiveness easy. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

My Umbrella Mouse Sorry Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Tuesday Morning Sketches: Sketch
• Lawnscaping: Critters Galore
• Crafty Boots: Anything Goes

Noble Deer Thanks Card

Oh boy! Cardz 4 Guyz has a NO Patterned Paper challenge this week and for me, it was a challenge. We all have our favorite things to use and mine is patterned paper. So, when I sat down to create a card without it, I decided to do a little water-coloring. Searching through my stash I noticed there were zero masculine thanks cards. So I decided that's what I would make. Using the retired Noble Deer for the focal image it was stamped using StazOn Timber Brown ink and then I used my Aqua Painters and classic stampin' pads to add color. Ink colors used include: Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake and Baked Brown Sugar all by Stampin' Up!. The card base is made from kraft cardstock. Then I trimmed a piece of Pear Pizzazz cardstock the same size as the front of the card. To make it smaller and to give it a decorative edge, I used a pair of Fiskars Deckle scissors. To darken the edges I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink by Tim Holtz. The next step was adhering the focal image and twine and adhering the panel to the card. Instead of stamping a sentiment I decided to use my Cricut machine to create the layered Thanks and that completed this Noble Deer Thanks Card.  We would love for you to play along at Cardz 4 Guyz! For more inspiration click here to see what the design team is sharing. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Noble Deer Thanks Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Just Us Girls: Water-Coloring
• Cards in Envy: EnTWINEd
• Animal Friends: Use an Animal

Regarding Dahlias for The Paper Players

Maybe it's me, but did last week just fly by??? It's already time for another challenge at The Paper Players. This week the wonderful Anne Marie has a Color Challenge for us. The colors are warm and just perfect for this time of year!

One thing I love to do is make the same card with different color schemes to see how it changes the overall look. That's exactly what I did with this weeks colors. I used a card from last month (click here to see original) and recreated it with the challenge colors. Again, I've used a combination of new, current and retired products. The Baked Brown Sugar background panel was stamped tone on tone with the retired En Francais stamp. For the center panel a strip of Blackberry Bliss dsp from the Park Lane collection was used. The striped Always Artichoke paper is from the retired Designer Series Paper Stacks and the retired Delicate Details Lace Tape adds some contrast to the dark colors. Using Cajun Craze ink the current Regarding Dahlias image was stamped onto Whisper White cardstock. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from the retired Morning Meadow Hostess stamp set and was stamped using Blackberry Bliss ink. A piece of textured gold paper from Recollections was punched using an Elegant Butterfly Punch and three small pearls were added for detail. All supplies are by Stampin' Up! unless noted.

Here are the colors:

Now, we would love for you to join us at The Paper Players (click here)! All brands of paper crafting products are welcome. The challenge is open until NOON (PST) on Friday, Sept. 19th. I hope you will stop by and see the fantastic creations the design team is sharing this week using the challenge colors. Can't wait to see your card in the gallery! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Quilt Inspired Feel Better Card

Good evening! It's getting late but once I got started I couldn't stop until my card was done. This Quilt Inspired Feel Better Card was made using the colors and photo inspiration from the Color Throwdown Challenge. I went with a literal interpretation from the quilt photo inspiration. The Stampin' Up! colors I used are:

• Basic Gray
• Lucky Limeade
• Pool Party
• Pacific Point

This was the first time I've used bleach on cardstock. Mainly because I don't buy bleach, but the non-chlorine version didn't fade my cardstock at all.  So, in the pursuit of creativity I made a late night trip to the grocery store. I would love it if you would let me know what you think of the bleached effect?

The focal design for this card was a technique I learned a couple of years ago. However, I haven't used it since and had to dissect my original to figure out how it was made. Here are the directions I followed: Cut two cardstock pieces 2 5/8" square (these will be your matting pieces), cut two patterned paper pieces 2 1/2" square, cut the patterned pieces into square quarters 1 1/4" x 1 1/4". Ink the edges of your pieces and apply adhesive to the backs. Arrange pieces as shown, making sure they will fit onto the backing cardstock squares. To finish the center I used a Martha Stewart punch and a Basic Gray glitter brad.

The Feel Better sentiment from the Sassy Salutations set was heat embossed. Then I added stitching on the border of my card for a little more quilt inspired detail. That's it! Thanks for stopping by.

My card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Color
• Penny's Paper-Crafty: Stitching, Real or Faux
• Our Daily Bread: Stitch It!

Blended Bloom Thanks Card

This evening the hubby is working late, so I decided to play in my craft room. While looking at cards this afternoon I found a new to me SU-Only Challenge. The current challenge is to use embellishments. Keeping this in mind I decided to make another Blended Bloom Card to use my recently purchased Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities markers. The image created by the Blended Bloom stamp is a lot of fun to color. Eventually, I will probably create a bloom in every marker color.  All the supplies for this card are by Stampin' Up! and all expect the patterned paper are current products. The stamps sets used are: Kinda Eclectic, Another Thank You, and the Blended Bloom. The leaves were stamped using the rock-n-roll technique using Old Olive and Mossy Meadow stampin' pads. I wanted a little pop of color so I added the Itty Bitty Butterfly in Pool Party with three Rhinestone Basic Jewels. Then I scattered three additional rhinestones around the image and sentiment. That's it! I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

Casual Frog Card

Hello and Happy Tuesday! It's time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and the theme this week is Casual. For this challenge I dug out my Frog on Lily Pad stamp by Rubbernecker Stamps. I colored the image with my Copic markers and then fussy-cut it. To create the look of water I used a torn piece of blue Bazzill Basics Dotted Swiss and added some darker blue with my aqua painters. I used the heat gun to dry it quickly. After adhering the blue piece I stamped the sentiment and adhered the fussy-cut frog with dimensionals. That's it! I hope you will play along with the Casual Challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day.