LIM #20, OLS #15 & Uniko Challenge #20

Hello. It's been a busy week, but  I did find a few minutes to make a CAS card for some challenges.

For this I used the Make a Wish stamp Set from The Craft's Meow which, sadly, is no longer in business, I merely inked up the the image and sentiment with black ink and stamped onto a top folding card base.

I will enter this into these challenges:

     Less is More Week 220 - Up, Up and Away!
     One Layer Simplicity Challenge #15 - Blowin in the Wind
     Uniko Studio Challenge #20 - Things with Wings
     Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Clean & Simple

It's hard to believe the weekend is almost here already. This weekend the Irish Princess has three dance recitals - another feis, a tap recital and the Irish Dance School Showcase. Did I mention she also takes ballet? One talented little girl! I also have a birthday party thrown in. Need to get wrapping! Also, finishing my 60+ baby shower invitations. Oh, my ...

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by. Enjoy!

                                                         Pam

Love You!

Hello. After a whirlwind trip to Wildwood, New Jersey for Feis at the Beach this weekend, I'm back. The Irish Princess, AKA Mischa who is 6 years old, competed in the jig, slip jig and the reel. She came home with a 2nd and a 3rd place win! Oh, what a happy little girl she was. So exciting!

My card today is a watercolor bouquet. I used the Avery Elle Thanks a Bunch set and water colored onto Tim Holtz watercolor paper. The flowers were colored with a Mustard Seed Distress Marker and spritzed with water, then stamped onto the watercolor paper. The leaves were colored with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress Markers. The tag was stamped in black, fussy cut and embellished with some yellow and white twine.

The water color panel was die cut using Mama Elephant Peek a Frame dies and adhered with dimensionals to a watercolor base.

I would like to enter this card into these challenges:

     AEIHeartU Watercolor Challenge #23 - Watercolor

     Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge _ Bouquet

     The Paper Players #241 - CAS Watercolor

     

I want to thank everyone for all of the lovely comments that were left on my posts while I was out of town. It made me so happy reading them when I got home. Thank you very much! 

Have a wonderful week. Enjoy!

           

                                                                 Pam

Hello Little One

I hope everyone is enjoying their week. The week back after spring break is always tough. This year it was compounded by state tests and out first taste of warm spring weather. Sure made it tougher for the kids to be in a classroom.

Spring also means lots of  babies starting to arrive. I needed to replenish my supply of baby cards and while looking through my stash, I came across a stamp I have never used and forgot I own. I'm sure that's never happened with any of you. (wink) The stamp is from the Unity Stamp Company Hello Little One stamp set. In addition to the cute elephant, the set includes a sweet penguin and giraffe. 

I used a SSS Stitched Circle die to die cut the front of my card base. I used two of the dies to create the gray frame around the opening. The elephant was stamped inside the opening with Memento gray flannel ink. I added a heart from the set with Picked Raspberry distress ink. Wink of Stella was used over the stamped images for added shine.

One of the sentiments from the set was stamped with the same gray ink and cut into a banner. I then used the gray CS to mount the banner on.

I would like to enter this card into these challenges:

     Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge #3 - sketch below
     The Card Concept #33 - photo inspiration below (I used the gray & hot pink colors)
     Shopping Our Stash #197: Lost & Found  (use something recently rediscovered - my stamp set)
     CASology: Week 142 - Sweet

I'm off to the New Jersey shore tomorrow. My Irish Princess is competing at Feis at the Beach. The dancers are competing on the beach and there's an amusement park. Looks like so much fun!

As always, thanks for stopping by. I love reading your wonderful comments. Enjoy!

                                                             Pam

Watercolor Flowers

Happy Wednesday. We've made it half way through our week back after Spring Break. I'm sharing another card I made for Mother's Day.

This card features the SSS Artful Flowers stamp set. I heat embossed one of the blooms and stems in white three times. The blooms were water colored with Picked Raspberry Distress ink and the stems with Peeled Paint Distress Ink onto Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper. I used one of the SSS Stitched Rectangles dies to die cut the watercolor panel.

My green card base was covered with a stitched die cut piece of vellum. The vellum makes the color underneath so soft and pretty. I then adhered my stamped panel onto the vellum leaving room for my white heat embossed sentiment at the bottom.

To embellish my card I added sequins from Pretty Posh Pink. I've used 6 mm Pink Peonies, 6 mm Mossy Green and 4mm Sparkling Clear sequins. I've also added a single butterfly made with a Martha Stewart punch from yellow water colored paper.

I would like to enter this into several challenges:

     House of Cards: April Challenge - Add a Butterfly and/or Color Inspiration

     The Mixed Media Card Challenge #10 - Flowers ( I used watercolor & embossing)

     Take It, Make It Challenge: April - Take a Technique: Color

     Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #16 - Water Coloring
     AAA Game #37 - It's Springtime

Thanks so much for stopping by. Enjoy!

                                                             Pam

Happy Birthday Shaker

Hello. I'm sharing another card with those adorable elephants from the Wplus9 Unforgettable stamp set today. Now that I finally used the set, I cannot put these darling elephants down.

Aren't they just the cutest?!? I've stamped all 3 of the cuties, colored with Copics and made a birthday shaker card. I love shaker cards, too. 

The shaker piece is one that I made by first die cutting one of the By DIEzyne Stitched Strips, and then die cutting one of SSS Stitched Squares evenly spaced inside the strip. I added a piece of acetate behind the die cut and used foam tape around all three squares to keep the shaker elements inside. The elephants were stamped on the card base where they would be seen through the clear acetate. I did some simple Copic coloring on my little ellies. 

For the shaker element, I used Pretty Pink Posh Razzle Dazzle Seed Beads. This is the first time I've used seed beads in a shaker and they are so cool! The small size fits the small openings perfectly and the colors in this set are so pretty.

To finish the card, I added the die cut strip to the card base. The foam tape allows the seed beads to move freely. The sentiment is one from the stamp set.

I'm adding this into these challenges:

     ShowCASe Your Style Challenge #12 - a sketch

     Your Next Stamp Sketch Challenge #11

     Just Us Girls Challenge #288 Trend Week - Shaker Card

     Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes Option

Thanks for stopping by. Your comments make my day! Enjoy!

                                                            Pam

More CAS Cards

Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. I have 2 CAS cards to share this morning.

My first card is for the current Less is More Challenge #219, which is "One Layer Splatters". I've used a top folding Neenah card base and stamped an Inkadinkado Peony stamp in Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. I then smooshed some of the ink on my craft sheet, spritzed with water, and splattered droplets of the resulting watercolor ink on my card with a paintbrush. A sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Hand Lettered Encouragement stamp set was added and that's my one layer splattered card. Thanks to Viv of Viv's Visuals for alerting me to another new to me challenge, I will enter this at Stamping Sensations April Challenge = Pretty in Pink.

For my second card, I finally opened my new Wplus9 Unforgettable stamp set and inked up one of the adorable elephants with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I actually did some Copic coloring that looks pretty good. (It's so small, you can't really tell if it's pretty good or not, but I'm sticking with pretty good!) I used W1. W3 & W5 to color my elephant. She's wearing an orange and blue party hat (sorry, I've forgotten which markers). The set has 2 small grass images that I've added with  Hero Arts Green Fields ink. I added a sentiment from the set and some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I am totally in love with this card! That elephant is just so sweet. I can't wait to make something with the others in the set. I will add this to Seize the Birthday  in the "Anything Goes" category.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a fabulous day. Enjoy!

                                                            Pam  

Sketch Poppies

What a fabulous day! Sunshine all day and in the 60s. Finally! I hope this weather is here to stay.

Another card with flowers today. I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for this CAS card. The stamp set is Rubbernecker Sketch Poppies that I bought at the Syracuse, NY Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Getaway 2 years ago. My stamping buddies and I look forward to going to this every year at the end of May. We always say we won't spend so much money this time, but we all know how that goes, don't we? I'm pretty sure I spent more last year than I did the previous one. 

I colored directly on the stamp with Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers and Peeled Paint Distress Markers. Next I spritzed the stamp with water from a Ranger Mister and stamped onto Neenah CS. The spritzing gives the image more of a watercolor look. The panel was then die cut with my favorite SSS Stitched Rectangles, adhered to fun foam for dimension and mounted onto my card base. I added a vellum strip that had been white heat embossed with my sentiment.

I am entering this into these challenges:

     Freshly Made Sketches #181

     The Card Concept #32 - coral, aqua, green & white (I was inspired by the colors & flowers)

     Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - April Showers and/or Spring Flowers

     SugarPea Designs #14 - Celebrate Spring

Spring Break has come to an end, so it's back to work for me tomorrow. As always, thanks for stopping by and looking. Your comments are so appreciated. Have a great Monday. Enjoy!

                                                                  Pam

     

Forever & Always

Hello. We have sunshine in Central New York! It's still pretty chilly, but the sun is shining and beautiful. The forecast for Monday is for around 70 degrees, just in time to go back to school.

Today I spent a few hours making some cards. This is what I finally came up with for the current challenge at Time Out. The super talented Kim, of Art Keeps Me Sane, created a card and our challenge was to CASE it and put our own twist on it. Here's Kim's  fabulous card - 

Stunning, isn't it? This may just be the hardest card I've ever cased. I wanted to keep the black card, because I've never made one before. I tried white ink, white embossing, gold ink with clear embossing, nothing looked good. 

Finally, I decided to try gold embossing powder. I used the SSS Forever & Always stamp set that came in one of their card kits last year. (Their kits are worth checking into, by the way.) Versamark was used to stamp the flowers along the top and side, three leaves and the sentiment. I then heat embossed with Stampendous Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder. That gold is very shiny and I loved the contrast with the black CS. 

I matted the embossed panel with DCWV Glitzy Glitter paper and then added it to a black card base. I'm fairly happy with how this turned out. Happy enough that this didn't get tossed like the others. 

You can see how the DT cased Kim's card and the fabulous entries at Time Out Challenge #28. 

Tomorrow I'll be attending a Bridal Show with my niece and my sister. The big day is in August of 2016 and will be here before we know it. My niece is coming over early to help me with the baby shower invitations for another niece. Babies and weddings ... I suddenly feel very old.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

                                                                Pam

Always Playing with Paper #29

Hello. I have to share my fabulous news. My MISTI shipped today! I'm soooo excited that I am finally getting this. Haven't heard of this? MISTI is the Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented. If you haven't seen this yet, check out this YouTube video. Ah-mazing! 

In honor of all my wooden stamps that will soon be taken off the blocks to use in my MISTI, I used one of them today. This is the Hero Arts Flower Swirl Vine and I have loved it ever since I first saw Jennifer McGuire use it on this card back in December, 2010. 

The image was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on a panel die cut with - what else - SSS Stitched Rectangles. I used Tombow markers to color the image. The panel was matted on yellow CS, 

Following the current sketch challenge  at Always Playing With Paper Challenge #29, I adhered a strip of polka dot pattern paper to the left side of my card base. I then adhered my stamped panel. Both the  4mm & 6mm Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh  were added to the flowers, as well as a cascade of 6mm Lemon Meringue around the image. The triangular cascade helps draw you eye to the sentiment at the bottom of the card. 

My sentiment, from the SSS Best Mom Ever stamp set, was inked in Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder onto a of vellum. When heat embossing on vellum, make sure your heat gun is hot before you bring it to the vellum. That way the powder melts quickly, before your vellum gets overheated. I then adhered the vellum strip near the bottom of my card. 

I would like to enter this into these challenges:

     Always Playing With Paper Challenge #29 - A Sketch

     Take It Make It Challenge: April - Colour

     Mixed Media Card Challenge #10 - Flowers (I used die cuts and embossing)

Thanks for visiting and taking the time to leave a comment. I love reading them. I also want to extend a warm thank you to Shona from Twine Around for following my blog. Shona is such a talented card maker. Be sure to stop in at her blog.

Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy!

                                                                   Pam

CAS on Sunday #55 - Numbers

Hello, again. This is my second post today. I have a card for another new to me challenge, CAS on Sunday, that is closing shortly. This week is Challenge #55 - Numbers. I just happen to need a birthday card for a very special soon to be teenager.

 

Recently I received an order from Avery Elle, that included Numbered Balloons Clear Stamps and the coordinating die cuts. These number balloons are so fun. I stamped the balloons with A Muse Studio Ocean ink and then die cut them. They are popped up with foam dots. The balloon strings and sentiment are from the same stamp set. 

The white and blue CS panels were die cut with By DIEzine Stitched Strips Dies, designed by my friend, the one and only Rhea Weigand, Passionate Paper Creations. This lady rocks everything she creates and is an ah-mazing Copic artist. Run to her blog to see her stunning projects. You'll see why she's referred to as Queen Rhea.

The panels were then adhered flat to a white top folding card base. 

I am entering this card into these challenges:

     CAS on Sunday Challenge #55 - Numbers

     Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge #139 - CAS (my 2nd entry)

     The Paper Players Challenge #239 - to "die" for (my 2nd entry)

Thanks to Carol, I will also enter this in  STAMPlorations April Challenge - Stamps & Numbers

Thanks again for stopping by. Enjoy!

                                                               Pam

WPlus9 TBT Challenge #2

It's Throwback Thursday time! WPlus9 started a new challenge and I am entering Challenge #2. All you need to do is use an older WPlus9 stamp set.

I used the  WPlus9 'Mother's Day Bouquet' stamp set, which is evidently a really, real throwback. Dawn doesn't have it listed on her site anymore, nor do I see it in stock anywhere else. Several inks from A Muse Studio and Hero Arts were used to stamp 2 different size flowers from the set on my panel. Each color of flowers was stamped 3 times in a triangle shape, remembering the rule of thirds. Using images from the set,  I also stamped 5 leaves and 3 butterflies. The sentiment was also in the set and was stamped with A Muse Studio Slate ink. I used the gray ink because black would have been to stark with all the pastel colors.

Once again, I die cut my panel with SSS Stitched Rectangles. I also made a stitched frame with gray CS to tie in with the ink used on the sentiment.

I will enter this into the WPlus9 TBT Challenge #2. Also, this card will fit nicely into a new to me challenge, The Pink Elephant Challenge #293, which is a color challenge this week using pastel colors.

Sadly, I have been remiss in acknowledging my newest followers and offer my apologies. A huge thank you to Cornelia of Stempel Spass, Sandie from London Days, and Kathy of Stamps at Play. Also to Karen from Karen's Kreative Kards, Chana from Redora Lee Designs and Ardyth of MASKerade. If I have missed anyone who has started following recently, I apologize. If any of you aren't familiar with any of these extremely talented ladies, please visit their blogs. You will not be disappointed. I draw sooo much inspiration from all of my followers, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have you follow little ole me. Thank you!

     

Well, Spring Break is almost over. Maybe I should start cleaning soon - maybe. Enjoy!

                                                      Pam

Happy Mother's Day

With Easter behind us already, I decided to start making some Mother's Day cards today. I used The Mini Blooms stamp set from A Muse Studio for this card.

I created a circle mask from Post-It Tape for the center of my stitched panel. The panel was die cut with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles from cream CS. Picked Raspberry Distress Ink was used to stamp the mini blooms around the mask. I used Grass Ink from A Muse Studio to stamp the sprigs between the blooms. They were stamped twice without re-inking to create second generation stamping. 

The sentiment from SSS Best Mom Ever, which was included in the May 2013 Simon Says Stamp Monthly Card Kit, was stamped with the same green ink and added after the mask was removed. The tiny heart stamp is from the same stamp set. I used my clear Wink of Stella pen on the blooms and the heart for some shine. 

The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh. I used 6mm Pink Peonies and the pink flowers from the 6mm Springtime Mix Sequins. My favorite way to adhere sequins is with Ranger Multi Matte Medium. To assemble the card, I matted the panel onto green CS and then a cream card base.

I will enter this into these challenges:

     Sparkle and Shine Challenge 3 - photo inspiration

     AAA Cards: Game # 36 - Easter Colors

     Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #304 - color challenge: grass, berry, cream

     Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - April Showers and/or Spring Flowers

     Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #139 - CAS

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving such kind comments. They make my day.  Enjoy!

                                                                      Pam