Merry Monday # 202 Something Snowy!

Kathy is our Merry maker here at the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge Blog this week and she is asking for a snowy Christmas card.!

I hope most of us in the US are done with snow for the season, but it is kind of fun

to add it to our Christmas cards though!!. 

Happy Spring Merry makers!

I had this cute little snowman from Serendipity Stamps and he is a NBUS!! 

So of course I had to use him for my "something snowy"!

I colored him with my distress inks.

The sentiment is from PTI: Think Big #20

Here is the graphic that Kathy selected for our inspiration:

 

We look forward to seeing your snowy card in the gallery!

Please check out the other gals for their inspiration on the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge Blog!

Have a terrific week!!

 Heart Hugs friends!

Seize the Birthday ~ NO TOPPING

Is it more of a challenge to have a topping or NO TOPPING?

Well, I like to do both...it challenges me to think outside the box when there is a topping, but then when there is NO topping, like this Challenge at Seize the Birthday,

I can pull out favorite stamps or try a technique I have seen.

Like this technique...Amy Kolling at Taylored Expressions Blog

 I hope you will play along with us at Seize the Birthday!
And go see what the other designers have made to inspire you!

 

stamps & dies:  HA Happy stamp & cut, PTI Heart to Heart Birthday Balloons, PTI:  SAF Ancient Rome die for stencil, PTI Balloon Strings.

distress inks 

Heart Hugs, friends! 

MIM Faux Brush Lettering

The MIM this time is a video by Amy showing Faux Brush Lettering.

stamps & dies:  Wet Paint I, Doodlie-Do

ink:  aqua Mist, Tropical Teal

copics

I added some wink of stella to the tropical teal portion of the letters and the center of the flowers, then I added some glossy accents on top of the center flowers.

Thank you for stopping by!  

Heart Hugs, friends!

CASology: MOM

I can hardly believe it has been 9 years since my Mom left this world to enter eternal life.

I am happy for her, but can't help but be sad for me...I miss her.

My church has a Women's Luncheon always the Saturday before Mother's Day...to celebrate all women...any age!

I sell my cards that day and give back to the church.

This is one of the cards I will sell, no mother, no mother-in-law to give it to...

This is for CASology cue word:  MOM

 

stamps & dies:  Altenew: Persian Motifs, PTI: Happy Hydrangea (sentiment)

distress ink for background

PPP clear sequins

copics 

Go out and make it a great day friends!

Heart Hugs, friends!

Merry Monday # 201

Welcome to another Merry Monday Challenge presented by Debbie!

She has a lovely photo inspiration for us...using purple, silver and white.

stamps:  Neat & Tangled:  Bright Baubles

dies:  Lil' Inkers Stitched rectangles

We look forward to seeing your card in the gallery at the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge

Sympathy Cards

I hate that I need a sympathy card.

A friend lost her husband yesterday to brain cancer.

I wanted a special card for her.

This is Altenew: Beautiful Day.

Oh, I love this set, the stamps just make this flower and leaves look perfectly colored!

The smaller branches and stems I had to color with copics as they just come with the outline.

I added a strip of washi tape at bottom.

I also had this NBUS little Technique Tuesday stamp called Appreciated.

I thought this would make a nice sympathy card also.

I cannot keep up with sympathy and prying for you kind of cards.

Sad, isn't it?

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Heart Hugs, friends!

Create Along with Us!

Oh Man, when I saw today's release I knew I had to play with my butterflies!!

I loved everyone's cards with the new Color Pop: Butterflies!

I chose Amy's card and I used Beautiful Butterflies.  Now this was a little tricky because I also loved her darker background (brown), so I stamped and added some of the "layers" to the butterflies, I also added some copics to the butterlies!!

I had to do this in stages so that I could stamp again with versarmark and clear emboss the images.  When I was all done with stamping and embossing, I sponged on some antique linen distress ink.  THEN, I took it to the iron and melted off the embossing paste!

No more shine, but a real soft texture to the card!

I also used the little flower cluster from the color Pop: Flowers!

Here is Amy's card:

I loved the divided panel, a signature from Maile I believe!!

I also die cut the Thanking of You three times from Graceful Greetings!

Wow, it took a few hours, but I love the end result!!

Heart Hugs, friends!

Card Concept # 53 Bright & Fresh

I have a Bright & Fresh card today for the Card Concept Challenge.

I double stamped the 'cake' with the same color 

 

stamps & dies:  SOA Sugar Peas "Bring on the Cake"

inks:  SSS Lavender, Wplus9: Sweet Gelato, PTI: Mint Julep, Memento: Pear Tart

paper:  PTI basic white, limeade ice 

Heart Hugs, friends!

CAS Mix Up April Challenge

I am playing along again with the CAS mix Up Challenge...

I took a Winnie & Walter harlequin stencil and laid down three DI on the stencil, then I spritzed it with water and laid it onto my mixed media paper.

I pulled a piece of paper from my stash that had Inka Gold Old Gold and some ink on it and die cut a HA delicate butterfly fancy.

I embossed my sentiment.

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Heart Hugs, friends!

CASology # 193 "Pink"

The Cue word for CASology is PINK!

It is all about PINK over at the CASology Challenge blog 

This is a NBUS that I have not inked up yet, thought this was the perfect time to do so!

 

stamps:  SOA Winnie & Walter: Ring in the Celebration

dies:  Lil' Inkers Stitched circles

inks:  WPlus9: sweet gelato, PTI hibiscus burst, kraft

paper:  PTI raspberry fizz pattern paper 

Heart Hugs, friends!

Muse by "Neets & Crafty"

Today I am playing along with the Muse Challenge # 161 by the talented Anita!

She used Brushos and had a beautiful piece of paper to work with, then added a delicate and intricate flower die cut.  I used some of my stash made with inka gold and a smooshing technique that Loll shows on her blog, here is a link to the video.  I had several papers made up so I pulled out two and die cut the Fresh Daisies from SSS.

The Inka gold for the flower is called Steel Blue. The background paper was made with smooshing distress ink and Inka Gold platinum onto the paper.

We had a great Sunday, up very early (5:30 AM) to drive an hour away and watch our granddaughter Ellie play in a volleyball tournament.  Her team has managed to stay in the Platinum division all season (that is above the Gold division!!).  And this was the best one of all...her team WON the division.  And that included four teams from the Washington Volleyball Ass.!  Sadly her parents missed this tournament as they planned a little get away to NYC for 5 days!!  But we cheered the team on and celebrated with them. Now they can go to our regional finals as a number ONE seed!

We have one more travel tournament to Reno next weekend before our final regional tournament!

Here is a picture of the team, Ellie is in a white jersey (she is the libero).  My husband is standing on the right.

Have a great week friends!

Heart Hugs, friends!

And can I just take a moment
to thank Loll Thompson for working with me to get a watermark and my signature on my blog?  She is awesome, because I am not sure it was easy to work with me, I am so computer challenged....but she stuck with me and we got it done and I love it and I so appreciate her talent, her time and all the energy she put into helping me with this task.

Loll, you are the best, most patient person and I LOVE the watermark and my signature, so Thank you very much!!

Merry Monday 200th Challenge Celebration & CAS Mix Up Challenge

Welcome friends to our 200th Challenge
of the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge!

We have a special line up of people to help us with inspiration this time.

We each selected someone whom we admire and asked them to join us in providing inspiration to you...so here we go:

Do you see all that shine? That is from the Inka Gold "platinum:.

I took a piece of pink paper (PTI Lovely Lady), scrunched up a piece of saran wrap and dipped it into the Inka Gold and then dabbed it all over the pink card.

I die cut that piece using Memory Box Pine Border die, I then took some PTI Luxe Silver Cardstock and die cut the MB Pine Border Outline.

I decided a little falling snow was in order, so I pulled out SSS Falling Snow stencil and used more of the Inka Gold Platinum!

My sentiment is from PTI Signature Greetings.

The strip of silver to 'ground' everything is an Inkssentials aluminum self adhesive foil tape.

And now for MY Special Guest:

Marcia Hill from Marcia's Stampin' Pad!

Marcia plays along regularly and I am always in awe of her talent and the beautiful cards she makes.  I think you will agree this is no exception.  Isn't it stunning?
Please check out her blog for the details and join us in this 200th Celebration!

Here is the graphic Lesley has designed for our 200th Celebration!
You may select any of the four choices to play along! 

 We thank you for joining us and we look forward to seeing how you are inspired!

There are plenty of people to give you added inspiration, so please go check out the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge Blog and see all the beautiful cards!

And congratulations Lesley on making this a FUN and SPECIAL 200TH CHALLENGE!!

And thank you friends for faithfully making your Christmas cards year round with us!

Heart Hugs! 

Edited to add: Both Loll and Bonnie reminded me that I could link this card up to their CAS Mix Up Card Challenge,
so that is what I am doing!!


 I stamped my sentiment, I used a stencil for my falling snow and I used a mixed media with Inka Gold.  Thank you for reminding me!

Seize the Birthday ~ Floral~

Welcome to another Seize the Birthday Card Challenge!

Today it is all about Florals for our Topping.

Remember you are always welcome to make any kind of BIRTHDAY card if you don't want to do the 'toppings'!

I wanted to try a technique I saw from Jennifer McGuire doing DISTRESS INK LIFTING.

I white embossed my flower from HA: Marianne's Flowers and then wiped the Seedless Preserves over the whole paper.

Watch the video...because Jennifer explains it step by step...

After lifting some of the color, I went back in and added some Picked Raspberry to the petals.  A little pearl gem in the center and a sentiment from PTI Wet Paint and I call it good!

 

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look !

I am looking forward to seeing what you create.

This challenge will be open until Tuesday April 19th at 9 AM.

Happy Little Stampers Designer challenge

Happy Little Stampers has a new CASE the Designer Challenge and it is awesome by Joyce Mehrberg!  I just had to try my hand at this awesome technique!!

I pulled out a piece of the PTI peony water color paper and went to town!

I used my Zig Clean Color Water pens!

I mounted the colored portion onto foam and attached it to the card!

Another Mother's Day card for the stash!

Thanks for taking a look!!

 

Heart Hugs, friends!

MIM Color Isolation

Ashley has the video up at Capture the Moment showing us a Color Isolation technique.

I used water color paper and stamped the flowers and leaves with soft stone ink.

I die cut the flower (Vintage Linens) and the leaves (Bold Blossoms) and water colored them after stamping the outline images.

My sentiment is from happy Hydrangea stamped in Raspberry fizz, then again in versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder.

The card face is mounted on raspberry fizz paper.

Can you tell I am getting ready for Mother's Day?

Sadly my mom passed away 9 years ago, but my church always has a big Mother's day luncheon with guest speakers and I sell my cards...so I need a lot of Mother's Day cards!

Have a great week everyone!!

Heart Hugs!

Merry Monday # 199 Sentiment as a Focal Point

Welcome to another Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge!

Today is my turn to select the photo inspiration and I have selected to use a sentiment as your main focal image on the card!

I can hardly wait to see what you all use and how you 'dress' it up!

sentiment:  PTI: Stylish Sentiments Christmas

stamps & dies:  WPlus9 Merry & Bright, The Ton: Holiday Flourishes, PTI: Tinsel & Tags

Please go check out the inspiration from the other designers!
Heart Hugs and have a great week!

MIM Score Lines

I really enjoyed Laurie's video at Capture the Moment using score lines on your card.

I used Happy Hydrangea and scored some lines so my sentiment would fit inside.

I did some selective stamping...mostly sponging on secondary colors after first using a lighter color ink (also some masking!).

I added some WOS to the flower petals!  and added some PTI dew drops...love those things!

Just getting this in under the wire...actualy had it done a few days ago, just didn't get around to taking a picture and posting it!

Have a wonderful Sunday...we have sun!

Heart Hugs!