Reach for the Stars Card

Hello and happy Tuesday! We have an Out of this World challenge for you this week at Tuesday Throwdown and the design team did an amazing job with their inspiration. Click HERE for all the challenge details and design team inspiration. Our sponsor this week is MyGrafico and they provided the Space Art Digital Stamps for the design team to create our examples. I seem to be the oddball this week, but that's really "normal" for me. I used the alien, moon and shooting star to create this Reach for the Stars Card. We would love to see your Out of this World creations! You have until mid-day on Monday August 7th to add your link.

This was my first attempt at a space background! I started with a piece of mixed media paper and sponged on distress oxide inks in Broken China and Salty Ocean. Then I mixed in some Lucky Clover but I wanted the background darker and those are my only oxide inks. So... I used distress inks in Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves. Then I used a water bottle and sprayed the paper. To speed the drying process I used a heat gun and repeated until I was happy with the results. The stars and sentiment are from the new Cosmic Newton stamp set by Newton's Nook and they were heat embossed with white embossing powder. The background was then matted to a piece of Navy cardstock. The images were colored with Copic markers. For the moon I printed it on Sahara Sand cardstock by Stampin' Up! and then used a splatter stamp from the retired Gorgeous Grunge stamp set by Stampin' Up! using Sahara Sand ink. All the images are fussy cut, so don't look too close this is not my best skill. Some glossy accents were added to the alien's eyes and that's it! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will play along in our Out of this World challenge.

Feminine Sympathy Card

Last week I made a sympathy card using this same layout and stamps but I really wanted to see what it would look like in different colors. You can click HERE to see the first card. Don't be surprised if you see yellow butterflies on the next attempt.

For this Feminine Sympathy Card I dug out some long retired patterned paper by Stampin' Up! called Twitterpated. Colors include: Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo and Basic Gray. The butterflies are from the Watercolor Wings stamp set with coordinating Butterflies Thinlits and the sentiment and label die are both by Verve Stamps. The embossing folder is retired and I added some zig zag stitching with my sewing maching. Dimensionals were used to pop up the sentiment and butterflies. That's it! Thanks for stopping by my blog and enjoy the rest of your day.

Challenges entered:

• Just Us Girls: Something Old and/or Something New
• Sweet Stampin': Sympathy or Thinking of You
• Glitter 'N' Sparkle: Things with Wings
• Ooh La La Creations: Anything Goes
• Use Your Stuff: Free Week

Give You Strength Card

It's been awhile since I've made a sympathy card but this week a church friend, from my high school days, lost her husband. Although I haven't seen her in a very long time I want to send her a card. This Give You Strength Card was inspired by and example on Verve Stamps website for their Forever in Our Hearts stamp set, click here. The butterflies are from my favorite stamp set by Stampin' Up! called Watercolor Wings and they were stamped using Peekaboo Peach and Cajun Craze classic stampin' pads. The patterned paper is by Quick Quotes and the Fancy Fan embossing folder is retired by Stampin' Up! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Challenges entered:

• Inky Chicks: Sentiment Instead of Image
• Shopping Our Stash: Butterflies, Bees & Bugs
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Happy Together Toucans Card

When the mail arrived today I was thrilled to see my Newton's Nook order!!! Last week when they revealed their new July release I couldn't wait to order the Toucan Party stamp set and coordinating dies. So I immediately went into the house and got inky with my new goodies. This Happy Together Toucans Card was made for the following challenges:

• Newton's Inky Paws: Tropical
• Creative Knockouts: Sew It Up 
• Through The Purple Haze: Anything with Wings

The finished size of the card is 5.25" square. I started by using the Newton's Nook Tropical Leaves Stencil and a piece of retired Pistachio Pudding cardstock by Stampin' Up!. The ink colors include both distress inks and Stampin' Up! classic ink pads in several shades of green. Copic markers were used to color the Toucans, leaves and flower and then the images were die cut. I decided to cut a heart into the middle of the stenciled paper and then added a piece of tumbled glass inked cardstock. A piece of Garden Green cardstock was used as a mat and then I stitched around the edges. Then I dug through the scrap bin to find the right piece of woodgrain paper for a little ledge for the toucan image to sit on. The Be Happy Together sentiment was stamped using Memento black ink and three blue sequins were added for sparkle. That's it! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

For more Toucan inspiration visit the Newton's Nook Toucan Party Stamp Set reveal!

You're Just Lovely Card

When the new Stampin' Up! catalog launched I wasn't sure what I wanted to buy first. It would be nice just to buy everything on my list at once, but I do want to stay married (or at least today I do). So, I place smaller orders here and there throughout the year. My last order included the Oh So Eclectic bundle and Naturally Eclectic dsp. The colors in the dsp really won me over and I like the versatility of the thinlit die set. This You're Just Lovely Card is my first attempt using the set and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. The card is a little larger 4.50" x 6.25" (A6 size). Ink colors include: Emerald Envy, Lemon Lime Twist, Peach Peakaboo, Berry Burst and Night of Navy. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!


Challenges entered include: SU-Only (New Fun from Stampin' Up!), Mod Squad (Layered Florals) and Word Art Wednesday (Anything Goes). 

Merry Christmas Card

The Christmas in July challenges have started and I like making Christmas cards when it's super hot outside. Since I tend to procrastinate on my holiday cards I found the July challenges really helpful.

This Merry Christmas Card features a retired quirky bird by Bugaboo Digi Stamps and some fun patterned papers. The polka dot red paper has glitter dots but it doesn't show up well in the photo. Both the plaid and candy cane papers are by The Paper Studio and I used a Merry Christmas sentiment from a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set. Three green sequins add some extra sparkle and that's it for this Christmas card.

Challenges entered:

• Catch The Bug: Make It Sparkle
• Christmas Card: Christmas Anything Goes
• Come and Get It: 2 or More Designer Papers
• Simon Says Stamp: Use Plaid
• Dragonfly Journeys: Christmas in July

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Tic Tac Toe at Tuesday Throwdown

Hello and happy Tuesday! I know I've said this before... but it's amazing how fast two weeks goes by!!! This week is Team B's turn to inspire you to play along with our Tuesday Throwdown challenge and it's one of my favorites... Tic Tac Toe. Our sponsor this week is Sparkle N Sprinkle and I'm using an image they provided called Brighten the Holidays Penguins. It came with a colored version and that's what I used for this Cheery Penguin Christmas Card. We would love for you to play along with us this week! Click HERE for all the wonderful design team inspiration and challenge details. You have until mid-day on Monday, July 24th to link your creation. I hope to see your creation in the Gallery!

The Tic Tac Toe choices used to create this card include: Christmas, Silver and Ribbon or Twine. Since the image was Christmas that box was easy, so I decided to get a little messy for the sliver requirement. I used silver texture paste by Heidi Swapp with a diagonal striped stencil. The texture paste was applied on top of a red piece of Bazzill dot textured cardstock. At first I wasn't sure but I like the dot design and the picture doesn't do the the card justice, it looks pretty cool in person. Once the panel was dried I matted it to a piece of Cucumber Crush cardstock by Stampin' Up! and then wrapped green twine from The Twinery before adhering it to the white card base. The image was adhered with dimensionals and I adhered the sentiment flat to the card. That's it! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!