O IS FOR OLD

I can't let the current Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #216 challenge end without at least taking a pass at it. I have these Tim Holtz cut-outs that I need to start using up, so this seemed like an opportunity. 

I started this card by masking off about 2-1/4" on a 5-1/2" square side-folded ivory card and stenciling a Crafters Workshop pattern with Hero Arts Shadow Ink "Wet Cement". Then I overprinted the Impression Obsession #WP684 "Leaf Set" sentiment with PTI "Soft Stone", added VersaMark to it, and heat embossed it with transparent embossing powder. I added some silly embellishments to the ladies' hats and attached them to the face of the card with dimensional foam. They don't show well in the photo, but the embellishment on the left is a couple of spiders. The hardest thing about today's effort was cutting down an old envelope into a square one to fit the card. 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: SoSS #216 - O is for Old

Added September 6, 2022:

THE LEAVES OF A BOOK

I recently happened upon a challenge I was not aware of - Shopping Our Stash - and I'm fully on-board with the mission of this challenge! I think I came upon this blog via The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. The current challenge is SOS #477 "Back to Books". So, from my stash I submit the following:

Digging deep into my stash, I had forgotten I had a sheet of marbled rice paper, the paper that was (and still is sometimes) used for endpapers in bookbinding. I die-cut the maple leaves (PTI) from the marbled paper and overprinted them with PTI's "Leaf Prints" in their "Dark Chocolate" ink. In my kraft/tan drawer I found this already top-folded tan card. I mounted a deckled edge rectangular die (Tim Holtz) cut from a scrap of wood-grained kraft paper and a smaller deckled rectangle from the page of an old book. The sentiment is from a very old autumn stamp set and I heat embossed it in white on a dark brown tag tied with brown twine and mounted it with dimensional foam. (Albert Camus was an early 20th century Nobel Prize-winning author, and I've used this stamped quote many times over the years.)  I glued the two leaves to the face of the card after scoring and bending the top one for dimension. I used some of the marbled paper also to line the ivory envelope. 

What a great idea for a weekly challenge blog!

  Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS477 - Back To Books

Added September 25, 2022:

 

HAPPY 13th B-DAY

I can hardly believe that my oldest grandchildren (the twins) are turning 13 on 9/09! I used Addicted to CAS #227 "Pink" as inspiration for my granddaughter's card. 

There are so many tones of pink, but I was looking for one dark enough to contrast with white heat embossing. I started with a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" top-folded card base. I used an Inkadinkado #60-31604 "Funky Flowers" clear stamp, repeating it so that it would reach the entire width of a bright pink 5" square of cardstock. After sprinkling the white embossing powder on the flowers, I brushed it off the little bee and sprinkled black powder in its place. I stamped the tiny sentiment from Lawn Fawn's "Tiny Tag Sayings: Birthday" in black and colored some of the flowers and leaves with Copic markers. Finally, I die-cut the numbers from PTI, stacked 4 layers of white cardstock underneath (learning from yesterday's letters that were too flat), and mounted the square to the cardbase. I'll be adding a folded vellum interior, so tied a yellow twine bow to slip it into. I used PTI "Berry Sorbet" for the flowers on the front of the square envelope.  

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #227 - Pink

GRATEFUL

Even though summer is showing no signs of letting up, I'm starting to think of fall - my favorite time of the year and also my birthday season. I have a strong preference for autumn colors and, in fact my home is predominantly fall in tones. So, this is my first card for the fall season. I was inspired by the CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #484.

I had a heck of a time photographing this card! It just looked flat, and it's really not. I think one of the reasons it was so hard to photograph might also be that I chose to translate this into a slimline card.

  

The leaf stamps are from Impression Obsession's #CL698 "Early Sunsets". The set has four small squares, but I repeated the oak leaf and rotated the view of it. After stamping these with black ink I colored all of them with Copic Markers and die-cut "Grateful" (Papertrey Ink) from the face of the images. I die-cut it an additional 3 times with dark chocolate cardstock and stacked the letters. Before gluing the letters to the face of the top layer, I stamped "FOR YOU" in PTI "Dark Chocolate" and tied some brown twine to the letter G. I trimmed the top layer to the same proportion as the card and matted it with a matching white rectangle. 

CAS Colours & Sketches: Challenge #484 -Sketch (cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.com)

CAS CHRISTMAS

Another quiet morning and a few stolen moments in the craft room. I decided to try my hand at the CAS Christmas Challenge for August - "Pine". I hadn't intended to do this challenge because I didn't remember any pine bough or pine tree stamps. Digging through the old Christmas stash I came up with a couple but decided to use this one.

I think this is from one of my very first clear Christmas stamp sets. I stamped it twice with PTI "Pinefeather" ink - once on white cardstock and a second time on a pale gray textured paper. On the gray one I white heat-embossed some snow with Alexandra Renke "Accentuation - Areas". I die-cut it with a stitched rectangle and then die-cut a matching smaller rectangle out of the face of the white one. I mounted a silver vellum slightly larger rectangle to the face of a top-folded card and glued the gray snowy trees to that. After mounting the white rectangle to these layers with dimensional foam, I silver-embossed a couple of stars from PTI's "Winter Hills" set and lined an envelope with the same silver vellum. I'm still trying to get the hang of the camera on my new phone - this card doesn't quite look white!

CAS Christmas Card Challenge: August Challenge

Added August 30, 2022:

    

CAS LADYBUGS

This morning my hubby returned to his classroom "in service" in preparation for the students returning to school on Thursday. What that translates to for me is a less structured day and a little guilt-free time in my craft room! The result is a card inspired by AAA Cards Challenge #221 - "Small and Few + (Lady) Bugs" and Paper Players #PP604 Color Challenge - "Black, White, and a Pop of Any Color". 

This ladybug image is so old - I don't remember when I got it, but I'm suspecting that it is an old Inkadinkado stamp set. I black heat-embossed the initial image and colored it with a red Copic marker. I then masked her and stamped and masked a couple more times with Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink and added the tiny sentiment from Hero Arts #CM351. I die cut the images with a stitched rectangle and mounted it to the face of a top-folding card that I had partially embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder and added 3 enamel dots to her back. That's it!

AAA Cards: Game #221: Small and Few + (Lady) Bugs

The Paper Players: PP604 - A Color Challenge from Anne Marie

Added August 20, 2022:

COLOR THROWDOWN

Despite all of my best intentions, here I am uploading a second card today! Hubby and I went for a long walk this morning to and from a favorite coffee shop and I just settled into my craft room instead of gardening. I was inspired by the Color Throwdown Challenge #705 - Purple, Red, and Green. 

The floral "frame" is an Impression Obsession rubber stamp that I haven't used yet, although I've had it for a couple of years. I stamped it onto ivory cardstock with VersaMagic "Purple Hydrangea" chalk ink and colored the flowers with Copic markers. The sentiment is from PTI's "Stylish Sentiments: Birthday". I trimmed it down with a rectangular die and mounted it to two iridescent purple mats, separated by dimensional foam, and mounted this all to an ivory textured card. I'm still getting accustomed to a new phone, and this doesn't come off as ivory, but it is. I finished it with a length of satin ribbon pulled through a double punch.

I love the photo used for this week's challenge! As an interior designer I really appreciate bold color decisions, although my own home is a bit more dialed back than this.

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown Countdown #705

Take a look at what the Design Team members came up with, inspired by this photo - really wonderful!

HALLOWEEN CAT

I'm playing this morning with the Two Old Bats - August Anything Halloween Challenge. I chose to be inspired by the bottom right quadrant - the orange tabby with a decorative witch's hat and jewelry. I decided to use one of Tim Holtz's "Snarky Cats" stamp/stencil sets.

I started by stamping the cat image on a piece of white cardstock and coloring him with my Copic markers. I then masked him and stamped the batty background splatter with PTI "Smokey Shadow" and added the Tim Holtz "Stitches" #CMS365 and some spiders for a necklace in Memento "Tuxedo Black". I white heat embossed the sentiment onto a black strip, mounted it to the front of the white cardstock, and die-cut a stitched rectangle. This was then attached to the face of a top-folded black card. I die-cut a black cardstock witch's hat and silver hat band from Tim Holtz #664209 Halloween dies and glued those to his head. The final step was to add a black gem to the hatband and clear gems between the spiders on his necklace.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: AUGUST Anything Halloween

 

Added September 1, 2022:

  

WINE WITH ME

So, the current challenge at Fusion Card Challenge - Wine and Cheese caught my attention - two of my favorite pairings! 

I started with a top-folded black card base. The wine bottles and sentiment are from Unity Stamp Company's "Let's Get Sip Faced" set of rubber stamps. I heat-embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder and printed the bottles (2 rows of 6 bottles each) repeatedly on white cardstock with Memento "Black Tuxedo" die ink and trimmed off 2 rows of the pattern and mounted it on the face of the card. Then I colored one bottle with Copics and white gel pen, fussy cut it out, and mounted it to the last row of bottles with dimensional foam. I thought I was finished but kept looking at it and decided it needed a bit of relief from the unrelenting CAS, so I punched a hole near the top and threaded a string and beads through it. I thought the wooden beads looked kind of like corks - yeah, I know, that was a stretch! The final step was to stamp a bunch of the bottles onto white print paper to line the envelope. That's it! 

Fusion Card Challenge: FUSION - Wine and Cheese 

Added August 18, 2022:

On a personal note, I finally figured out how to use a watermark, so you'll notice my blog address on all of my cards going forward.

THE BEACH LIFE

There are so many challenges right now referencing the beach that I thought to take advantage and see how many I could hit! I started with Time Out Challenges #219 "Photo Prompt", combined with AAA Cards Challenge #220 "Along the Edge + In the Sea".  I am also including Addicted to CAS #225 "Nautical" and Paper Players #602 "Tic Tac Toe Challenge" (diagonal elements - yellow/blue/water). It feels like a real jackpot!

While this has a watercolor look to it, I don't have any watercolors, so I combined stamping with ink blending. The water, boat, and sentiment are all Hero Arts "Color Layering". I used Washi tape to tape off a strip and when I was finished, I was really bummed that the tape pulled paper away. I had looked for my purple tape but couldn't find it anywhere. After completing the image and sentiment, I die-cut a rectangle from the face of the card and re-attached it using dimensional foam. 

Here are all of the challenges I'm entering this in:

AAA Cards: Game #220: Along the Edge + In the Sea

Added August 14, 2022:

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge 219 - Photo Prompt

Added August 18, 2022:

Addicted to CAS

Added September 21, 2022:

The Paper Players: PP602 - A Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge from Claire

  

TRIBUTE TO LINDSEY

This week I am Guest Designing at Color Hues - the color challenge #46.  Today's color challenge was chosen by Lindsey. The Design Team wants to honor and celebrate her beautiful, creative life by sharing "Lindsey Inspired" projects using her Blue and Purple combination, along with things she loved the most, as inspiration. We hope that you will join us as we pay tribute to our dear friend and teammate. 

From Nancy:

Hello Crafters,

We are deeply saddened to share the news that we lost our treasured friend and teammate, Lindsey, last week, following her hard-fought battle with cancer. Lindsey was well-known for her amazing creativity, witty sense of humor, and immense capacity to support and encourage her design team members and challenge participants. The crafting community will miss her shining light.

 

Here are a few of her favorite things:

humor, cats
gardening/flowers
love of reading
friendship
wine
tea

For my tribute to Lindsey, I am honoring her favorite CAS style. I'm sorry that I haven't been participating in the challenges long enough to get to know her, but I understand that she was "one of a kind".

I used a new Lavinia LAV621 "Fish Set", combining it with schools of fish from Penny Black's #30-846 "Birthday Fishes". I started by stamping and masking the four fish with PTI "Enchanted Evening" and the single fish with Momento "Grape Jelly". I next blended some pale blue water by turning a wood-grain stencil horizontally and trimmed this with a stitched rectangular die. I added the sentiment in purple, colored the purple fish with a blue Copic marker, and added some clear gemstones to her scales. I mounted this to a side-folded card with dimensional foam and tied it off on the side with purple baker's twine.