One of a Kind

Hello. Goodness, the weekend is over already. We went back to the stamp show for a few hours today. Of course, more money was spent. Why is it that for every make & take you do or demo you watch, you have to buy everything? No will power. Yep, that's it! None.

Isn't this zebra beautiful? You don't think I could leave him hanging on the hook at the Rubber Cottage booth, do you? Of course not. I mean, look at those eyes. So, he came home (with "a few friends")  in my bag. Wouldn't want him to be lonely either.

Anyway,  looking through my list of challenges, I saw he would fit in very nicely at some. So, I had to play with him. He's inked in black on Neenah CS, die cut with my favorite SSS Stitched Rectangles, and adhered to black CS. I then adhered the panel to a card base, added a sentiment from Tim Holtz Simple Sayings and that's it. Did you know that no two zebra's stripes are alike? So he really is one of a kind. The sentiment inside says "That's you!"

I will let my zebra play at these challenges:

     Less is More: Lucky Dip Week #226 - 2 or 4 Legs

     Addicted to CAS: Challenge #64 - Animal

     The Pink Elephant Challenge # 300 - Anything Goes

 I have a very busy few weeks ahead of me. Two weeks to finish everything for the baby shower and three weeks until the end of  the school year. There are lots of end of the year activities; concerts and graduations, and more ball games. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a little time to play with some of my other new 'friends'. I know they want to come out of those packages as much as they wanted to come home with me. 

Have a great week. Enjoy!

                                                                     Pam

Beautiful Beginning

Today I have a card for Inkspirational: #83 - Purple with the added option of making a wedding card. Design Team member Pia is getting married, so this challenge is a surprise for her.

Here's my card. I inked Dusty Concord Distress Ink over the SSS Stenciled Heart. Then I die cut it with Mama Elephant Femme Frames. The 'love' is die cut from a scrap of inked CS with Wplus9 Love Showers. I then inked the sentiment from SSS Beautiful Words in Dusty Concord and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. After cutting the piece into a banner shape, I popped it up on the heart panel. The panel was then added to my card base with foam tape. 

I will also enter this into:

     Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #146 - Anything Goes

     Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge May 2015 - Die Cuts/Punches

     Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

We had a great time at the stamp show today. I was able to get some really nice stamps and good deals. It's always fun shopping for stamps with friends and I'm so lucky to have them.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend. Enjoy!

                                                                  Pam

Bokeh Birthday

When I saw the May challenge at House of Cards was bokeh, I knew I had to make a card. I love this technique. If you haven't tried bokeh yet or don't know what it is, visit challenge owner Mynn for a how-to and some inspiration.

To start my card I blended Wild Honey and Mustard Seed Distress Inks on my panel. I then inked several of the dots from SSS Lots of Dots stamp set in Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink and stamped them randomly. The SSS Leanna Butterfly was die cut from orange CS and adhered with a foam dot. I used a sequin from my stash on the body. The sentiment was white heat embossed on vellum. I adhered a piece of the orange CS to my card base, added the vellum to my panel, and then the panel to the orange CS.

I will also enter this into Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #146 - Anything Goes and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which is also Anything Goes. Also playing in Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #311 - Bugs & Butterflies.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. The Syracuse, NY Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Show is this weekend and my stamping buddy and I spend a lot of time there. Friday night we are doing the Make & Takes and we will hopefully spend all day Saturday on the floor. Maybe Sunday, too. We love seeing everything that the vendors are showing and watching all the demonstrations. 

I am really going to try very hard to limit my spending this year to only what I need and know I will use. (We all need and know we will use everything we buy, right? uh huh) Enjoy!

                                                                         Pam  

Stencil It

Hello. Today I'm sharing a couple of cards I used stencils on for some challenges. As I mentioned in this post the other day, I belong to a Paper Arts Club that meets monthly. Not only do we swap cards based on a predetermined theme, we also do a challenge card. This month the challenge was hexagons.

Rather than go the obvious route of die cutting hexagons, I decided to stencil some. This was Mustard Seed and Wild Honey distress inks blended on Specialty Stamping Paper. I spritzed my Tim Holtz Honeycomb stencil with water, placed it on the inked paper and then took it off. I was left with this cool background where the water had reacted with the DI and left the random honeycomb pattern. Again, I  die cut the panel with SSS Stitched Rectangles. The sentiment is from winnie & walter's The Big, The Bold, The Happy set that was heat embossed in gold. The stars were also done in the same manner,

I will enter this into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stencil It, On A Stampage - Mynn's Birthday Bash Giveaway, Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes, as well as my Club challenge card.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The same technique was used for my second card. I changed the inks to Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon. For this card I added a piece of stitched die cut gold paper behind the stenciled panel. I left this stencil on longer and it turned out much less random. 

I will also enter this into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, , AAA Cards: Game 40 - For the Guys,  Craft Stamper Take It Make It May Challenge - Take a Stamp, Anything Goes and 613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes ( without optional twist).

Thanks for looking and hanging in so long. I love doing stenciling techniques and I'd love to know what you think. Comments just make every day better, don't they? Enjoy!

                                                                                   Pam

Vintage Flowers Shaker

Happy Memorial Day! Hoping everyone is enjoying their day and remembering the many men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could enjoy our freedom.

I'm sharing a card I made with one of my new Altenew stamp sets. I've been playing with  the layered Vintage Flowers set and my MISTI. Love my MISTI!!

For my flowers I chose 3 different pink inks. I've found I get the best results stamping the full layer first in the lightest shade, the middle layer of the flower in a medium shade and the top layer in the darkest shade. I then fussy cut them out. I've made a shaker with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles , Stitched Rectangles Die Cuts, acetate and fun foam. The shaker holds an assortment of Pretty Pink Posh sequins. The leaves were stamped and the flowers adhered with foam. The sentiment is from the Reverse Confetti Lots to Say stamp set. A scattering of the same sequins finished off my card. 

I would like to enter this into these challenges:

     Sparkle and Shine Challenge - photo inspiration

     Uniko Challenge #21 - Flowers

     Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Flower Power

     Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

I'm off to watch our 2 local parades.The school Marching Band will be playing and it's Toby's first time marching. Then I'll head to the cemetery with new flowers for my parents' graves. My dad served with the Marines in Korea during the Korean War. Thank you, Dad.

Have a wonderful day. Enjoy!

                                                                 Pam

Curtain Call - Totally Tassel

Happy Sunday of our long weekend! Just popping in quickly to squeak a card into the current challenge at Curtain Call. It's an inspiration challenge - Totally Tassel. Here's the inspiration photo -

As it's graduation time, I need to make several cards for school, the gift shop, a few commissioned ones and I just may need some myself. Here's what I came up with -

My inspiration for this came from the tassel and gold. I've used a NBUS set, Clearly Besotted's The Graduate, that I purchased last year. I love this quote by Emerson, especially appropriate this time of year. Nothing fancy on my CAS card. Stamped the sentiment, diploma and cap in black. The cap was fussy cut and popped up on the panel. I adhered the panel flat to my card base and added some gold sequins. 

This would be a great card for a guy, so I'll also enter it at AAA Cards: Game #40 For the Guys.

I hope you have a wonderful day. Our weather is gorgeous, sunny and headed for 80 degrees. Hope it doesn't rain for tomorrow's parades. Enjoy!

                                                                  Pam

Mr. & Mrs.

Yes, I've been AWOL for the last week again. Busy with baseball, softball, t-ball and shower preparations. I'm so glad we have a 4 day weekend so I can catch up on some things. After a noon softball game today, I spent the rest of the afternoon making cards.

The gift shop that sells my cards is in need of more wedding cards, so I made this today. The image is Stampendous Happy Couple and the sentiment is from the Mama Elephant Bountiful Blessings stamp set. The couple was fussy cut and I used Spellbinders Labels Forty Dies to die cut the sentiment. I then sponged the label die cut with Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink. The ribbon is from the April Really Reasonable Ribbon Club.  The images were adhered to the card base with foam and I used a WRMK Corner Chomper  on two corners.

I will enter this into these challenges:

     Freshly Made Sketches # 187

     CASology Week 147 - Wedding

     Just Add Ink #263 - Just Add...Weddings!

     Simply Create Too - Keep It Simple

Also, if I don't have a chance to make another wedding card, I'll be taking this to Paper Arts Club, run by Lyn Bernatovich - Lyn's Paper Petunia at our Wednesday evening meeting. Our May swap card is June Bride. Lyn is so very talented and we are so lucky to have her running this club. She designs for Stampendous, Dreamweaver Stencils, and A-Muse Studio. Check out her blog to see all her amazing creations.

I'll be back tomorrow with some cards for more challenge. Enjoy!

                                                                     Pam

     

Rainbow Distress

A few weeks ago I saw a beautiful rainbow background on a card made with only 3 distress inks. I'm sorry but I don't remember whose blog it was on. Anyway, I set out to make one of those backgrounds. I smooshed Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers distress inks on my craft sheet. I very liberally sprayed water on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and pressed it into my smooshed inks.

One of the backgrounds I made is used on the card I'm sharing today. I had to make several of these because no matter how much water I sprayed on the paper and the inks on my craft mat, they just wouldn't blend well for some reason. I sprayed until my mister was empty. A whole mister of water on 4 pieces of watercolor paper. What was going on? I finally looked at the bottle in my hand. It wasn't water. It was Tsukineko Shimmer Spray! No wonder my inks weren't blending and running together correctly. This panel is really sparkly IRL, but my camera didn't pick it up. 

I decided to use one of the pieces that have been lying on my table since then on today's card. It was die cut  with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles. I then die cut it again on an angle to create the opening for my sentiment which is from SSS Balloon Sentiments. Next I die cut a SSS Leanna Butterfly, swiped it in Picked Raspberry DI and added Wink of Stella to make it shimmer.  

Since I've used several Simon Says Stamp exclusive products I will enter this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, which is to use Simon brand products. I have also used the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Also playing at AAA Cards 1st Birthday, Just Us Girls #293, Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes and Simon Says Stamp Flickr: Make Your Own Backgrond.

Have a great week! Enjoy!

                                                                  Pam

#3 for CASology

I couldn't resist. This is actually the first card I made for the CASology: Music challenge. I wasn't really happy with it, so I made the cards in my previous two posts. (I couldn't link all 3 from the same blog post, hence 3 separate posts.)

Remember this one? (address it to my wife...) The sentiment was made with Lawn Fawn Smitty's ABCs. The letter is from SugarPea Designs Happy Mail. I thought the card was too plain, so I masked the letter and used the Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background stamp to add some subtle texture. That's three.

I am also entering this into Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #144 - CAS.

I promise I'm finished. Along with dating myself, I can't stop singing now. Sometimes I miss the old days, don't you?

Have a great rest of your weekend. Enjoy!

                                                                      Pam

Celebrate

Here's card #2 for the CASology: Music challenge. Once I started making these, I couldn't stop.

This one is Celebration (celebrate good times, c'mon). My son was a DJ at one time. After heaven knows how many times he played this at the weddings he did, he hates this song now. It still makes me happy though. The celebrate is CAS-ual Fridays Shenanigans and the rest of the sentiment was made with Lawn Fawn Smitty's ABCs. The sequins are from winnie & walter Big, Bang Bling.

That's two. You guessed it - I have one more!

                                                                    Pam

1-2-3

It's been a busy week, full of baseball & softball games, a ballet recital and making baby shower centerpieces. I didn't have any time for card making at all until now. After seeing the brilliant cards Michelle from I Card Everyone made for the CASology: Music challenge here and here, I had to make one.

 

Remember 1-2-3 oh, that's how elementary... ? The numbers were die cut from Wplus9 Modern Numerals dies in yellow, orange and green the colors for the current challenge at The Challenge #34. Some music notes from CAS-ual Fridays Love Notes were added and I rounded the bottom right corner.

I have some more ideas, too.  Enjoy!

                                                             Pam