One Last Coffee Card...

I'd planned on one card for the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, but as it turned out, I ended up making three, including the one you'll see in a minute. I knew I wanted to make a card for CASEing the DT #11, and thought it might work for the SCLBH too. Since I know that the Superstar commenters are feverishly typing comments, I won't make this post very long. Let's get to it, shall we?!

(For some reason, the links are broken at CASEing the DT, and I can't show you either the banner, or the inspiration card by Andreea Raghina. Sorry. But do click on the link in the text and visit!)

Here's my card:

I watercolored a panel and built my little 'scene.' An EH cup and sentiment, a frame from a scrap of striped paper I made the other day on my Silhouette, and cut with a TE polaroid frame twice. The heart is a LF wood veneer that I added some gold to, some gold splatters, and a little bit of twine finish this. That's it for me, and...

Don't Want to Jinx It...

...So I'm not going to say that those things that hurt my head have taken their leave for a little while, but they are much better, and thank you for your kind wishes. I am just dashing in today with a couple of cards. One is for Muse, and the other is for CASology and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge.

This first card is my take on Guest Designer SonjaK's card at Muse. And all I can say is WOW.

Amazing colors. It's really, really lovely. Mine has a bit more purple and I was inspired by the large hydrangea.

While the bordering panel shows up as black in the photo, it's really a rich green, in the same tone as the stem of the flower, but darker. I made several of these panels while we were at the Lake House in October, and the stamps could be Darnell's, Anita's, Kim's, or Ardyths...I can't recall, sorry. I watercolored them with Zigs, and added some veining with a colored pencil.

My next card will visit Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where it's "anything goes," and then to CASology.

 

I used a TE polaroid die to cut the frame. The stripes were created on my Silhouette. The interior panel is just a leftover scrap from a My Mind's Eye, On Trend 2 kit. The 'text' is from Avery Elle, and I added three green sequins just for good measure. And I need to get a few more things done, so will end here for today. As always,

Doubling Down

It's been an "interesting" day. And not happily so. Day four of migraines. Just wanted you to know that in case this post turns out really weird. While I was writing and editing yesterday's post, an idea popped into my brain for a card using the same two challenges; Muse, and the Spring 2017 Coffee Lovers Bloghop. I'd expound more on each of these two wonderful challenges, but my brain isn't functioning as well as it should. Sorry about that. What I can say, is that they're terribly fun! Do consider joining me at both! Once again, it was Jenni's card that really inspired me. Her card makes my heart happy:

I just love Jenni's card!

And my card:

The pink gingham is from my scrap files, as is the black card stock. All stamps are from PTI, as is the cup die, and that's an AE bow. Those cupped flower-shaped pink sequins are from Paper Sweeties, and there are green sequins under the outer two in my feeble attempt to add a teensy bit of another Springtime color, and to give the impression of leaves. It's a good thing that this was not terribly difficult to make, lol! Since I can feel my brain draining onto the floor, I'm heading off now. Hope you're enjoying your weekend, and as always,

Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop

It's that time of year when Amy and the incredible Design Team at the Coffee Lovers Papercrafters,  have a fabulous blog hop, or as I like to think of it, extravaganza. These fabulous hops come once a season, and just in case you haven't heard of this (which I can't believe), or haven't checked it out, I urge you to do so. The array of cards and projects is both amazing and considerable. Go. Check it out. Leave some comments. Make a card. Maybe even win a prize! Oh...and have a cuppa!!

I made a little card for my incredibly talented, intelligent, beautiful, kind, and wonderful granddaughter, Melissa. She's a senior at the University of Wisconsin in the Journalism School. This girl was chosen as Wisconsin's only representative for the National Newspaper Association Foundation Washington News Fellow - Wisconsin Chapter. She spent time in D.C. interviewing members of Congress, and learning about a Supreme Court current case under review. Along with seven other college students, her job was to research, write, and submit a story for publication (the story is due in early April), based on the court case. She got home Tuesday, and stopped over to visit us old folks on her Spring break. We're so proud of her. Sure wish you could all meet this amazing young woman! Who knows, maybe someday soon you'll see her work...! 



Oh yeah... Card!
She's not a girly-girl, so I went with some Springtime blues and greens:

Springish, I think. The base is a very old piece of SU, either Ballet or Brocade blue. The stripes and polka dots are old as well, found in my scrap drawer, and just the colors I wanted. I used both an image file, and a font file from Silhouette and rather than cut them, I printed them and used an MFT die for the square. And one LF wood veneer heart. 

I've also made a card for the current challenge at Muse. As soon as I saw Jenni's card, I knew exactly which stamp set to use! Here' Jenni's card:




I went with the theme and colors:

All the stamps are from Newton's Nook colored with Copics. A scrap of white, pink, and pink gingham. Don't you just love baby cards?! Heading off...have a great weekend! As always...

Happy Spring

It really feels like the first day of Spring. The sun has been shining all day, and the big snow that we got last week is nearly gone, YAY!! Perfect way to start out the week. So how was your first Monday in Springtime? If yours was as lovely as mine was, then you've had a good start to the week and the season!

I've only one card to share today, but it will make visits at two challenges. Firstly, this card will pay a second visit to The Heart Desires. You can see my first card here, but I couldn't get that mood board out of my head. Decided to try the inspiration colors for my next card. But I needed a design. I've visited this blog, Kool Kitty Musings, owned by Nat, and it's definitely a very cool place to stop. You can see just how Nat's card inspired me. I'll also be playing along at The Flower Challenge. Hope you can stand one more watercolored flower!

This is Nat's card:

 

I sure hope I did it justice! Isn't it just gorgeous??!! Chock full of sweetness! Mine looks like this:

Naturally, I've put my own spin on Nat's card, but I couldn't get those polka dots out of my head. I dug through every 6x6 tablet, all my scraps, and every single piece of 12x12 paper looking for a blue polka dotted piece. I did have some, just not the exact color or size I wanted. So I made my own on my Silhouette. A TE polaroid die, a SC 'birthday' die, and an EH stamp and die which I watercolored. A pink scrap, some pretty gold and white vellum (thanks, Geri!!), and if you look really closely between the flower and the 'birthday,' you'll see a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy 'happy.' It's also from Studio Calico, and I stamped that in gold. I'm going to run for now, but will be thinking of you all. As always,

Snow

So we are, by calendar, about a week away from Spring. I had daffodils and tulips coming up, there was no snow on the ground, and there was not even one dirty, gray pile of hard, filthy snow in any parking lot. But Monday and Tuesday didn't care.... We got 7" on Monday, then yesterday we got what is known as, Lake Effect snow. Nearly 21 inches.... I don't shovel anymore. My driveway can fit about seven cars, one in front of the other, and I have a decent length of sidewalk in front of and leading up to the house. I did the whole thing once about 15 years ago and after that, I decided that it was worth the money to hire someone to do that kind of work. So instead of even attempting to go out, I thought I'd have a much more productive day in my craft room. It was way more fun than shoveling, too!

My first card will play along at CASology and CAS Colours and Sketches. 

 

My card looks like this:

Pretty sure you can see both the foliage and the sketch, though I did take a little liberty with the sentiment strip. Those are MFT leaves, stamped in Winter ME ink, then heat embossed in silver. A Verve sentiment on a strip of vellum (which looks way more blue for whatever reason...). I cut a circle out of my panel and added an MFT 'ring' to frame it. The leaves are stamped on the base. 

Next I've made a pretty little tag for the current challenge at Tag You're It. Marion Vagg created this beauty, and while I knew I couldn't CASE this, I knew that there was tons of inspiration here. Take a look:

Isn't that just pretty and delicate? Mine's a bit different:

See that string at the top? Well, that's much closer to the color of the tag. I have no idea why the blue is way more vivid in the photograph. The swirl die is from MFT. The vellum leaves are from Poppystamps. The tags are from Studio Calico. Maria Fischer sent me the bird a long time ago, and I've been hoarding it. Finally, it comes out to play! And I've got to go down and throw another load in the washer and then fix a salad for lunch. So I'll leave you all. As always...

Card Heavy Post

So I won't chatter one little bit. I'll get right to the cards, as I have four of them for today. 

Let's start with my grandson's birthday card, which is heading over to the current Time Out Challenge where they're celebrating their third birthday. If you haven't, go wish them a 'happy birthday' and play along!

Did I mention they're offering prizes? You can tell by the above banner! The theme is:

Love and/or Friendship with the optional technique twist of spotlight stamping.

Naturally, I love little Drew to the moon and back. Can't believe he's seven already!!

It's not very little boy, but he'll like the colors and better yet, the present that accompany's it! I didn't have a number stamp that would work with my idea, so I generated the whole card, except for the MFT frame, on my Silhouette. EZPZ lemon squeezy.

Next card is going to Freshly Made Sketches and City Crafters Challenge. It's "Tutti Frutti" at CCC.

Here's my card:

The little cherry from AE was feeling neglected, so I pulled her out! I made the red gingham on my Silhouette, cut a white circle with my WPlus9 die, and popped the little sweetie up next to the AE sentiment. Then a scrap of red and three white sequins. Still pretty EZPZ.

(Still with me?) (Hope so!)

Next I've got a card for two more challenges. Color Throwdown, and the CAS Mix-Up Challenge.

Smooshing. Very scary for me, as I'm not big on 'messy' techniques. I calmed my fears by using a big piece of Saran wrap on my counter. Take a peek:

Now the color looks goofy here, but they really do match the CT colors pretty well. I smooshed some LF Celery Stick dye ink onto the Saran wrap and sprayed a smidgen of water. Then I just laid my cardstock chunk on top of it and smooshed away. Oh. My. Gosh!! It worked even better than I'd hoped!! And no mess! Once it dried, I cut a section with an AE die, added some AE bitty hearts, and a Savvy 'hello,' and some clear sequins. 

And last, but not least, I've got a card for The Heart Desires challenge. This card took top honors, thank you sooooo much, and since I fell in love with the current Mood Board, I had to play along!

This small photo doesn't do it justice. Please head over and see all the wonder in a larger format, as well as all the gorgeous cards by the DT! For my card, I concentrated on the top and bottom left photos. 

I wish you could see this in person; it's much prettier irl... Since we have been recycling some old books, I found the maps there and thought, "why not?!" I cut a world map panel and punched some hearts with other maps. That's an MFT die, and a Studio Calico sentiment heat embossed in gold. Still EZPZ, but (if you don't mind me saying so) I love this card. And because this was so full of cards and photos, I'll stop for today. As always, 

Sorry...

For some reason, this past week has been weirdly busy. It seems every time I try to sit down in my craft room, something comes up. Nothing big. And we're okay health-wise, but all those little things that have to be done right this minute keep cropping up, and then it's on to another 'thing.' Those 'things' are beginning to get on my last nerve, however. I just want to craft, visit your blogs, and make cards! *sigh* Life. It really isn't all about me, is it? So I apologize for my absence. I got up extra early this morning, so I could get a few 'things' done and then put everything else on the back burner so I could play a little.

At first when I saw Anita's card over at Muse, I was sure that nothing would come to mind. I don't have a single cone flower stamp, and I wasn't sure if I had anything even close. So I shut the tab and moved on. But my brain was cooking, and unbeknownst to me, it planned a card all out by its own darn self. My brain waited until I was working on another card idea, then went, "PING." We argued. I didn't think this idea was anywhere close to Anita's card. Brain said that her card was meant to be a muse, as in inspiration, and if I didn't post this one, that would be the last idea it would share for the rest of the week. *sigh* I gave in. Obviously brain went with flowers and colors. And don't tell brain I said this, but in real life, it's kinda pretty....

My brain's card:

The tag was a RAK from Amy T. The flowers are a sort of NBUS from MFT, and the sentiment is from AE. There's a bit of gold heat embossing, and a few sequins (which really do match the orange flower centers...), and that's about it. Popped up two flowers just for funsies. And I've got to get back to doing a few more things. DH needs to get out of the house, so I dreamed up a few errands for us. You all have a great day, and as always...

Ash Wednesday

Since it's Ash Wednesday, and I have quite a bit to do before I head to church tonight, I'll keep this short. Only one project and one challenge. It's a tag, and I'm going to play along at Tag You're It. Maureen Merritt has a fun, flowery tag which I practically CASEd.

Had to photograph it on my kitchen counter as we're overcast today, and the light (such as it is) was better there. 

The tag is from RC and I cut the bottom with a ME scalloped border. LF and HA greenery, LF and HA flowers, then the popped up bigger blooms are dies from WPlus9. I inked the paper, die cut them, and added some white dotty centers with a gel pen. Lots of inks. Then just a bit of twine and done. Oh, and a Jane's Doodles sentiment. So if I want to get anything done, I've got to run. As always...