Guest Designing At Tag You're It

When Bobby emailed and asked if I'd like to be Featured Artist at Tag You're It, it was a no-brainer for me. Absolutely, positively had to say yes (and maybe do a little happy dance for good measure!!)!! How exciting! TYI is such a fun place to play, and the DT is fabulous. Thank you so much for having me!

I don't know how your nearly-Fall weather is, but here in SE Wisconsin, it's been hot. Eighty plus degrees as of late, but today it's definitely more seasonable. Since I'm not quite ready to let go of summer yet, so these warmer days have been good with me! The longer I can wear my sandals and tee-shirts, the better! My tag reflects these very last vestiges of summer:

A while back, I was perusing SSS without the intention of actually shopping (snort, giggle, laugh, yeah right...) and came across this set by Photoplay. The bathing suit image immediately caught my eye, and somehow, this set jumped (all by itself, I swear) into my cart! Isn't this just a fun image?!! It's paired with a SSS sentiment and some AE flowers which are colored with a Copic marker, die cut and popped up. The striped PPP ribbon reflect the stripes in the suit, and because I had no matchy-matchy hot pink ribbon, I used the same Copic as the flowers to color a bit of white ribbon. Worked well and my sense of matchy-matchy is happy! Do stop over at TYI and see the wonders that the DT has created and play along! It'll be fun, I promise!!

Case This Sketch

I've got one errand to run in just a few minutes, so will keep this short. I saw the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch, and wasn't sure I could make anything work. As it turns out, something came to mind and worked the first time around! So happy it did!!

My take looks like this:

Lately, I'm enamored of Gina K's ivory cardstock. Had to use it here along with a few scraps from the blue folder. They've been cut with a PPP die - isn't that just the sweetest??!! The sentiment is from SSS, and the flat, red sequins are from Amy Tsuruta. (Thanks Amy!!) While there are tons of patterns in the papers, because just a hint is showing, surrounded by all that ivory, it remains pretty CAS. And I'd better get moving, kids. Have a great day!

Darnell's NBUS #12

It's time for this installment of the incredible Darnell's NBUS Challenge. Isn't she just the best????!!!! I absolutely adore her, and I'm 100% sure that there are thousands of us in this lovely card making world who love her as much as I do!! If you've gotten to meet her in person, then you know she's as genuine and funny in real life as she is on her blog. Darnell has challenged us to grab our newest, "Never Before Used Schtuff," and ink it up. And since I had a few (cough-cough) new things, I had to play along! You will be playing, too, right?! Hope so!!

Everything on this card, except the ink, sequins, and papers are NBUS.... I'm so bad....

Just thought this was fun. The cut-out die is from Memory Box, as are the fish stamps, fish dies, and sentiment. My sister liked this one. She's a very good 'chooser.' Hi Sue... And I hope to see you and all your NBUS enabling goodies in the gallery, too! Sending a big thank you to Darnell for having this challenge! I look forward to it each and every time! As always...

Here Again

I'm back in blogland again. We had company and a birthday party last weekend, then for some reason unbeknownst to me, the migraine troll decided to have a five-day vacation in my head. Ugh. That despicable troll finally checked out late yesterday morning, and I couldn't be happier! Since he left, I played a little in the old craft room! I've got one card for you to scope out today, and unintentionally, it's a one layer card. This one will go into Where Creativity Meets C9, where the challenge is to use Ink Only.

  

For this card, I've used the Flourish Stamp Set

For this I've layered inks both on the blossoms and on the leaves. I love the way the peeks of browns show on that pretty green in the leaves. I chose orange and yellows for the blooms in honor of Fall. That's an RC sentiment, stamped like those leaves. I've got to run for now; that migraine troll did no cleaning, so that's on my agenda for today. As always...

Happy Stamptember!!

Who doesn't love Simon Says Stamp??!! And I'll admit, I look forward to Stamptember every year, so when on August 18th, Heidi Crowl posted this on Facebook, I thought, "Why not?!!"

‎Heidi Klausing Crowl‎ to Simon Says Stamp Steals and Deals

August 18, 2015 · 

Hi Crafty Friends! I had an idea today.... STAMPtember is coming very soon and we would love to GIVE some of our crafty friends some of the new products to try! You can tell your friends about the products if you love them and tell us about how you want us to make them better if you don't love them. The question is... WHO WANTS TO TRY SOME NEW STAMPtember products!? If you think you would like to.... please comment and like this message. Email Marketing@simonsaysstamp.com with your name and mailing address. We will chose (MANY!) wonderful crafters to mail sneak peek parcels to this week. If you are chosen, we will REPLY to your email and let you know. Sound good!? Yes? Then Ready..... Set..... GO!

So I commented and sent off an email. And then this was delivered in my mailbox:

Along with this:

I waited until today to post, because I happen to have a "Stamptember" birthday... Containing myself this long was not an easy task, believe me! And of course, I made a card with that fun set!

I love this sentiment! For other supply details, shoot me an email and I'll be happy to let you know what I've used besides this amazing sentiment set. I've got to run, as I'm getting ready to party!

Coffee Lovers

It's that time of year, when Amy and the amazing team at the Coffee Loving Papercrafters have the very fun Fall Hop. In the midst of my busy-ness, I had to make a rather quick and (I think), fun card. I enjoy these hops immensely. All those different coffee, tea, and cocoa cards blow my mind! Hope to see you as a neighbor in the gallery!

(Sorry about the gap... I don't have time to figure out why it's doing this, and even less to correct it today) But I do have a card:

This cracks me up:

White base, deep brown panel, a scrap of a grid paper, a computer generated sentiment, a die cut coffee cup with a SSS leaf stamped in brown, MB giraffe die, and an MFT wonky die. Gotta run, but as always...

Just One

Just one card this morning. So glad this sweet little card was a very QAEZPZ (quick and easy peasy) card to make, as I've a million things to get done today. You probably do too. Sometimes, as my mother used to say, "there just aren't enough hours in the day..." Did your mama say that too? Mom was full of wisdom that I thought was nonsense when I was growing up. And here I am repeating it as an adult. Moms are sneaky like that. I can only think of one instance when she was absolutely wrong - my face did not freeze like that! hahahahaha.

So. Card. I thought I'd play along at CAS on Friday, where we are to, "Color Me Pretty." You know, use markers or colored pencils. Sending this little cutie off to one of the grands. And I'll be making six more, so that all the littles get their own mail from grandma, too!

Oh so cute (imho)

I say this to my grandchildren every time I see them or talk to them. I want them to know just how much I love them. The sky was just blended a bit with some Ocean ink from ME. The stamps are all NBUS from WPlus 9 and are colored with Copics. The scalloped frame is the smaller of the two from a PPP set of dies. And I've got to run, but as always..

Guest Designing at Inspired By All The Little Things

Happy Friday, everyone! And it is a very, very happy Friday for me! The effervescent, the ebullient, and the ever-amazing Darnell ask me to be this week's Guest Designer at Inspired By All The Little Things challenge! I was more than happy to say yes, as it's such a fun challenge and the DT is just incredible! Thanks, Darnell!!

Now the inspiration photo is chock-a-block full of things to get your mojo going. The colors (wowzers! if you ask me), those sweet flowers, the burlap, the Eiffel Tower, the script... There are just so many directions to go with this! I do hope you'll join me in the gallery!

I chose the flowers and the greenery as my inspiration:

I didn't have any minty green ink (must remedy that...) so I chose a bluey-green for the smaller flowers, (which didn't photograph very well), and a peach and coral for the larger one. The flowers and some of the leaves are from MFT, and the more palmy leaves are from SC. I found a scrap of scripty paper and stamped a HA sentiment in the darker green. I popped up two of the flowers to add a smidgen of dimension, too. Since I thought the flowers from the inspiration photo looked like boutonnieres, I tried to emulate that on my card front. Not sure I'd wear something that big though, lol!! Thanks again to Darnell and the DT at Inspired By All The Little Things for having me. Sure hope that you'll all play along with me! As always, 

A "Manly" Card

Like most of us, I needed more 'manly' cards in my stash. Not only to send out to family and friends through the year, but also to be put in the collection of cards I have in my credenza (just had to use that word - go ahead, say it out loud...lol Cre Den Zaaa). Those cards are sorted and divided and piled onto a dining room table full of card-sized boxes, where they're given matching envelopes, and placed inside those boxes. Then they're given to all the kids, several of the grown-up grandkids (who've begged for a box), and a couple of special friends as Christmas gifts.  I always try to put a couple of 'manly' cards in everyones' stash. And I'm behind on those. This is all a prelude as to why you'll see the card I've made for today. I used the sketch portion of the Fusion Challenge and gave it a very (to me) masculine feel. I may just make a couple more!

I love the colors and the kitschy look of that camper, but as mentioned, I needed to make masculine cards...So I came up with this:

I'm desperately trying to use some of the papers that I love so much. This is one small section of one of those well-loved and never-used papers. The Verve sentiment was heat embossed on a scrap of black, and the circle was cut with MFT dies. I made some triangles with my Silhouette, and added some green dots for color. And there you have it. Pretty EZPZ. Hope all is well with you and...

Nothing Like Early Saturday Mornings...

There's nothing like an early Saturday (and being retired, everyday is pretty much Saturday) morning to get up and craft! I was up with the sunrise, and after a cup of coffee to get the brain cells moving, I decided to craft a bit. I'll get to the cleaning in a while, but it was lovely to see the inspiration out there and to just get to it! I've got two cards for two challenges each.

The first card will head off to Time Out, where we are to CASE this amazing card by Bev Brown from Uniko, and the Anything Goes at SSS Wednesday Challenge. 

I went with a squeency bit more white space, but the idea is there as you'll see:

I cut slender strips of scraps in the colors that Bev used, and used a couple of Uniko images linked together to make my floral swag. The sentiment is from PTI. EZPZ lemon squeezy.

The second card will head off to play at CASology with the cue card "square," and at CAS on Friday where it's One Layer Wonder. I love how this one turned out!

 

Perfect for a Fall birthday, and this will work as a more masculine card, which I'm lacking in right now. They're all SSS stamps. I used a plethora (fun word) of pigment inks; from Avery Elle, Mama Elephant, and Fresh Ink. I made a mask and just stamped inside the square. Geri G. had the leaves set at our last Lake House adventure, and as soon as I got home, I ordered it! Thanks, Geri!! And since I've a few chores to do, and since DH is safely ensconced, I'd better get moving. Have a lovely weekend, and as always...