grateful triple challenge entry

Wow! I surprised myself with this card. I receive email updates when new challenges are posted on other sites and as I perused three different challenges, I kept forgetting which one I was creating this card for and would you believe it??!! In the end it works to enter it into THREE different challenges!

CYCI#92  is the first one. From "CanYouCaseIt".

 Here's the second:

And this one comes from Paper Craft Crew Challenges PCCCS#167.

And here's the third challenge: SU Only Challenges with this challenge being "Thankyou Very Much" using ONLY Stampin' Up products, which I can proudly say I did just that!

I still can't believe my good luck, although it would be fun to make three separate cards for the three different challenges, this just was too good to be true!

what summer means to me (CYCI challenge #74)

Over on CYCI they have the "Summer Fun Edition" on for this week's challenge. Check it out:

Summer means fresh fruit and veggies to me. Maybe because I live in the north, I dunno, but succulent berries, crisp cucumbers, juicy peaches all speak to me as much as or more than frosty drinks. We live on bought produce for so many months of the year that when the seasonal fresh stuff is out I tend to go a little crazy! That's why I was inspired to make a raspberry card.

Stamps from Flourishes.

wild roses on the pebbles (CYCI#73 A Color Challenge) (picture tutorial)

"Can You Case It" Week #73  is a color challenge this time, using Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride, and Black. I KNEW I had to join this challenge since color SPEAKS to me! See which colors these are right below:

And now I must really give credit to whom credit is due...for the card I created this week! My Very Creative son brought me several wild rose buds sitting atop some pebbles in a bowl full of water. Soooo beautiful. So perfect for the color challenge this week! Now follow me on how I did it.

 First cut a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock 3" by 4 1/4".

 

Since I could find absolutely NO tutorials on how to make nice pebbles, I decided to just wing it, using a sort of Bokeh technique. I punched circles and tore shapes for masking from a piece of white paper.

 

Using ink black and different browns and tans, I "Bokeh-ed" (sponged) around, alternating masks, until I was happy.(I was happy the whole time, but this made me REAL happy!)

And THEN, I took those gorgeous Crystal Effects which I can't figure out how I ever managed without them, and I squeezed little water ways among the pebbles. I didn't let it dry enough, but you don't know that!!! Anyway, I attached it to my card front, a piece of black cardstock.

 

For my wild roses, I simply stamped a flower image from "Flower Shop" using Cherry Cobbler ink onto a piece of Blushing Bride cardstock. Then I punched it out and adhered it to my watery pebbles and black background.

 

The bird builder punch gave me some nice green leaves which I touched up with markers and gel pens. Oh! And I also added some verrrry thin pink strips to the edge of my pebbles to define them better. And that's all folks! Now YOU go make yourSELF a nice bowl of wild roses!

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:

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...)