The Challenge Spark (showcase product from the New Annual Catalogue)

Jane from White Orchid decided the challenge for this week would be "Showcasing New Product from the New Annual Catty". Tara from Country Girl Creates plays along with us and we three take turns choosing our weekly challenge. As soon as I spied this stamp set I KNEW what fun I'd have with this week's challenge! And sure enough, I can hardly quit using it in EVERYTHING!!

This stamp set, "Sprinkles of Life" is one of my very favorites this time. It has two more benefits relating to it other than just the sheer fun of creating with it. 

#1. $3 of every sale of this set goes Ronald MacDonald House Charities and 

#2. There is a coordinating punch for this set! SU really did a grand job of the charity stamp set this year!

I have a sis-in-law who is pure fun...and she's far away in Africa and I miss her like crazy. As good friends often do, we have a senseless li'l joke between us relating to calling each other a Piece in Our Pie of Life. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but it does to us! ANYWAY, this card about the sprinkles on the cupcake of life reminded me so much of our ongoing pie joke that it's gonna fly away to Africa as soon as I get it to the PO!!! 

spring blossoms and retiring colors (CYCI#71)

My best (4-year-old) friend is a fount of inspiration! He says to me, "Now it's time to watercolor!" And sure enough, he digs out the old watercolor paper, re-inkers and aqua painters. And we watercolor myriad backgrounds which often in the end just go into the heap of already finished masterpieces. After all, the joy of watching that ink spread across the dampened paper is so great he and I MUST make design after wonderful design! He shrieks with joy.....and I join him! Life is good...when you watch watercolor paintings happen before your eyes!

This week's challenge over on CYCI#71 A Color Challenge is challenging us to use two of Stampin' Up's retiring 2013-2015 In Colors...PLUS gold! I chose to use Strawberry Slush and Baked Brown Sugar, the natural choices for cherry blossom branches. You will also see some Pistachio Pudding in the sky. Ya, strange, maybe, but I kinda thought this already-finished-and-in-the-pile watercolor background was perfect to give the blossoms and the banner with the golden word "Live" a springy backdrop. You just MUST have a li'l green with anything spring! That branch (don't laugh; I know it looks like a skeletal hand) was a freehand cut, just my scissors, me, and a bit of Baked Brown Sugar card stock!

Created especially for:

vintage poppies (TGIF Challenge)

I'm kinda new to this "challenge" thing other than The Challenge Spark that Tara and Jane have joined me on, but new or not, I'm loving the inspiration it gives me. Inspiration to delve into my own brain and study out what different images and sketches mean to me. To be fearless in scoping out new areas and forget about copying other's ideas. Not that it's wrong to use ideas from others, but sometimes it's neat to be able to say, "Hey! I didn't know I could do that!" 

Today I used the challenge found on #TGIF04 Inspiration to create this vintage poppies card, made with Happy Watercolor, a retired SU stamp set. I never get my fill of either vintage OR poppies!

Following is the Inspiration Challenge image for this week. We are to design something, anything that is inspired by what we see in the picture. What do YOU see?

I saw an old English garden with a frayed scarecrow and old signs. And poppies. Always the poppies! I colored the stamp with Stampin' Write markers, misted it and then stamped it onto watercolor paper. I misted the paper some more after the image was stamped on. From Gorgeous Grunge I added the "frayed burlap", echoing that idea with actual strings pulled out of an old piece of sacking. A few smudges with earth toned ink and bit of sewing on the edges and I was done!

Now I'd like to know what that TGIF image reminds YOU of!

May flowers (CYCI#70)

I've been so inspired with this week's challenge over on CanYouCaseIt? that I just HAD to make another floral card! I kept thinking of how I used to design arrangements in my flower shop years ago and the first thing that came to mind was ferns. Back then we started with a base of leather leaf fern. How wonderful that SU has the Butterfly Basics stamp set which includes this lovely fern image. I used a lot of emboss resist on the background and then what else did I use but FLOWERS!!! Flower Shop and Petite Petals with their coordinating punches made this so easy!

Designed especially with canyoucaseit #70 in mind!

The Challenge Spark and CYCI#70

Tara from Country Girl Creates got me interested in a new challenge, Can You Case It as well as our usual weekly Challenge Spark.

This week for CP it was my turn to choose something and I chose an easy topic: bridal. Since most of the brides from 2015 will be thinking wedding already, I thought we could make something wedding-ish or like I did, something for a bridal shower. I did tell Tara and Jane from White Orchid that we could add a picture tutorial for our cards this week IF we found the time, but HA! Time!! What's that??? I never found it, so the tutorial didn't get done!

However, I was able to use this card for both "bridal" from our Challenge Spark as well as "May Flowers" from CYCI.

All product is from Stampin' Up. I'm LOVING this new set Sprinkles of Life, which you can purchase through me from SU as soon as June 2nd. And get this!! It's got a coordinating punch!!!

You will see more of this set next Friday as our Challenge Spark, Jane's choosing this time, is Showcasing New Product, from the new annual catty. Stay tuned, my friends!!

(Need a catalogue? Let me know...)

Challenge Spark (ombre technique)

This time Tara from Country Girl Creates challenged Jane from White Orchid and me to come up with a card using the ombre technique. I've loved this look ever since I saw it the first time. If you check it out on Pinterest, you will see many many ways to create it. Often a brayer is used. This time I chose to use the Stampin' Spritzer. I loaded it with plain water and then added a few drops of Tempting Turquoise re-inker. It's a first for me, so I kinda just winged it! (If winged is a word! Ha!) First I spritzed a little all over the paper and then dried it with my heat gun. I spritzed layer after layer, concentrating on the bottom right side. I heat-dried it every time. After I was done I sponged a teeny bit of navy in the darkest corner, embossed the stars on with the star embossing folder and then added the rest of my yellow embellishments and focal points.

diy dsp (do-it-yourself designer series paper)(effortless)

I got inspired when I saw this tutorial by Brandy Cox. How could I not?! Using her idea for a background this card came to be! I'm definitely going to do this again. You can customize it using any color you desire. That's right; those lines are just hand drawn using nothing at all except a few Stampin' Write Markers! Neat, eh?

miss me...but let me go

 This poem is a favorite of mine when I think of someone going Home. Especially and elderly person or someone who's fight with poor health or circumstances has been long. I printed the poem off from my computer and made the two sympathy cards (above).

Miss Me, but Let Me Go

When I come to the end of the road

And the sun has set for me,

I want no tears in a gloom-filled room,

Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little – But not for long

And not with your head bowed low,

Remember the love that we once shared,

Miss me – But let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take,

And each must go alone,

It’s all a part of the Master’s plan

A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart

Go to the friends that we know,

And bury your sorrows in doing good works,

Miss me – But let me go.

(unknown)

 

from the herd

This stamp set has long spoken to me, especially since moving onto a farm. And those animals make me laugh every time!

So here's a chuckle for you again!

Challenge Spark (retired product)

Jane from White Orchid asked Tara from Country Girl Creates  and me already LAST WEEK to create something using a retiring product. Due to springtime busyness I had to delay my submission. However, I DID want to post something yet and HERE I AM!!!

It makes me soooo sad that the Dictionary background stamp is retiring, but surely SURELY Stampin' Up will have a really nice replacement for us. The teacher in me has considered this stamp a favorite for the few short years it's been available. Maybe we'll see some good teacher and school themed product. Cross your fingers!

This card isn't layered as it appears. I did a bunch of masking and sponging, my favorite technique! Maybe I'm lazy, but I don't enjoy cutting out very much! Give us a sponge and ink pad and we're away!!!

Challenge Spark (retired product)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She who prides herself in being on time ALWAYS or even EARLY...is running dreadfully behind!! I'll let my new baby chicks and ducklings tell you a huge SORRY for me! Truly I'm having a lotta fun with the babies, and my crafting table is a lot smaller due to an incubator (my Prize White Hen!) who should shortly deliver us a batch of quail and a big big batch of novelty chicks.

But Jane has a challenge for us that I MUST find the time to do between fluffy chicks and their needs! And believe it or not, I JUST decided what to do with which retiring product just as I typed in that line there! Ha! Tara will also have a fabulous card to show us I'm certain, so just hop on over and see what marvelous things these two girls have on their sites. I've often been amazed how differently our three minds interpret a challenge, each coming up with a wonderful idea. But lately it seems ESPECIALLY that way! I look at Jane's or Tara's example for Challenge Spark and say to myself, "WOW! That's gorgeous! I'm gonna use that idea myself!" So ya, click on their names above and you will behold beautiful sites!

Ok, I must run, but I will be back. I've got something brewing for today's Challenge Spark and hopefully I can get it uploaded onto here in a day or two! Next week Tara's asking for the ombre technique and I also have a delicious idea stewing for that one!

Till then...happy cardmaking! AND HAPPY SPRING!!! (Does it do for you what it does for me?? Put a SPRING into your step and a smile on your face and a song in your heart?!)

The Challenge Spark (something tropical)

This week, since I am so loving anything springy and colorful, I challenged Jane and Tara to "think tropical" with me, using coral, yellow and green. My inspiration was triggered by this card by Ann Fitzgerald via Pinterest and I followed her directions, except for adding Butterfly Basics fern image on watercolor paper and then misting it, before adhering the heliconia blossom. I also added the rhinestones as water droplets. See? I was aiming for a rain foresty jungly look! All we need is a parrot and a monkey.

Next week Jane says we will make a card using something currently retired. Make sense? Not really? Newly retired. Is that better??!! The new catalogue is on the brink of bursting into our lives so now's the time to order those retiring products that you still have on your wish list.