You're a Star

It's Saturday!!  That means it's time for another challenge from Di's Digi Designs.

The challenge this time is: For the Boys
And here is my card for your inspiration:

My mother and I went to the Stamp and Scrabook Expo two weekends ago and she bought me this fun flip card die for my birthday!  I just had to pull it out to make this fun masculine birthday card. 

It comes with the flip die, layering dies and a whole bunch of little dies including the striped star on the front and the solid star and sentiment I used on the inside.

I wanted to dress of the back of the flip panel a bit, so I added a star and the "you rock!" sentiment; I thought it fit perfectly with the little guy rocking out on the front.

Since there really isn't any room on the inside for a greeting or a personal message, I added this panel to the back.  I used the layering die from the front, and die cut the stars with a die that is also included in the set. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope this will inspire you to create a card for those special men in your life.

Supplies:

Stamps: Di's Digi Stamps "MP3 Mike" digi; Verve "Better Together" sentiment

Dies: Stephanie Barnard/Sizzix "Framelits Flip-its"

Challenges:
Little Miss Muffet #198--anything goes
Penny's Creations #298--anything goes
MFT Birthday Challenge--Interactive birthday card (I think flip cards are interactive)
Crafting By Designs--You're the Man
Tuesday Throwdown #410--add some texture (popped up image, enamel dots, texture from the die cuts)
Sweet Stampers #24--bright colors
Try Stampin' on Tuesdays Tic Tac Toe #5--tic tac toe (I used the diagonal: dimension, die cut, green)

Craft Rocket #52--boys/men
Always Happy birthday--anything goes
Crafty Calendar--unusual folds
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper

Have a Merry . . .

Happy Friday!!  It's time for another challenge from Jo's Scrap Shack.  As always, we are now an Anything Goes challenge and our sponsor for the week is Digital Delights by Louby Loo.  

Here is the card I created using an adorable image from Digital Delights:

I printed it out quite large so I could create a CAS card with it.  Then, all I had to add was a strip of my patterned paper stripe creations and a bit of ribbon to hide the seam.  I colored the image with my spectrum noirs and added clear wink of stella pen to the snowflakes and snowbank.  Oh, I almost forgot!  The image comes with both a blank sign and one with a sentiment on it.  I chose the blank one and then with some masking, stamped the sentiment on the blank board.  It looks like it belongs there, doesn't it??

Thanks for stopping by!

What do you need to do to enter?

Challenge Rules

1.  Please post a direct link to your blog post that includes your challenge entry project, using the linky tool on Jo's blog.

2.  Be sure to include a link back to Jo's Scrap Shack and to the challenge post you are entering your project into.

3.  THREE entries per person are allowed for each challenge and you must post a separate blog post for each entry.

4.  For all entries-NO BACK LINKS ACCEPTED--the date on your blog post should be dated between the start date and the end date for the challenge you are entering, in order to be eligible for the challenge prizes.

5.  You may link up to other challenges but be sure to link back to Jo's Scrap Shack and to the challenge post you are entering.

*All entries that do not meet the challenge requirements WILL NOT be eligible for the top 3, any sponsor wins or any random wins by Jo.

All random wins will only be mailed within the US and Canada only.

You have until Sept. 28th by 12:00AM  (eastern, USA) time to link up.

All winners will be announced during the week of Sept. 30th.

Have fun and we look forward to seeing what you create.

Supplies:

Stamps: Digital Delights by Louby Loo "Santa Across the Miles" digi; Verve "Peace On Earth" sentiment

Challenges:

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #149--fairytale/fantasy (Santa and his flying reindeer, I consider fairy tale and maybe fantasy)

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #26--anything goes

Brown Sugar Challenge #287--all creatures great & small

ABC Christmas--S is for Snow, T is for teal (I have snowflakes and a snowbank in my image)

Pile It On #146--Think Big (my image fills up almost my entire card)

Creates and Makes #24--anything goes

A Snowflake's Promise #53--anything goes

Merry Little Christmas #2--anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #352--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Moving Along with the Times #30--use ribbons

Crimbo Crackers #167--anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #403--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #90--anything goes

Fab n Funky #408--Christmas

The Paper Shelter #354--sentimental

The Merry Christmas Challenge--anything goes

Kiss-a-Bull

My husband's birthday was yesterday (and mine is tomorrow!); this is the card I made for him:

I have had this Sugar Pea Designs stamp set for AGES, but haven't inked it up yet!  It needed just the right occasion/recipient and this fit the bill.  I didn't want to add a lot of patterned paper or distractions, so I stenciled a brick wall on the background.  I think it adds just enough.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sugar Pea Designs "Hug-a-Bull"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" fishtail banner
MFT "Brick Wall" stencil

Challenges:
Cards Galore #55--anything goes
Crafting with An Attitude #43--anything goes
Love To Craft Challenge #26--anything goes
Brown Sugar Challenge #287--all creatures great and small
2 Crafty Critter Crazies #18--anything goes
Craft Rocket #52--boys/men
Sugar Pea Designs Mix it Up #47--sketch

Word Art Wednesday #352--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #90--anything goes
heARTful Stamping--anything goes
Incy Wincy--Sweet and Sassy
Double Trouble #10--Thing 1: 3 or more colors plus a stamp or digi image (my colors and red, white and black with a little gold thrown in) Thing 2: critter with a punny saying and Thing 3: enter the Brown Sugar all creatures great and small challenge
CASology #313--dress (the little guy is all dressed up for bullfighting)

Crating By Designs--You're the Men
Penny's Challenges #398--anything goes
Sunny Day Crafting--animals

RI--inspiration photo template

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for another challenge from the House That Stamps Built!  This week we have a beautiful inspiration photo to inspire you:

Yeay, sunflowers!!!  They're such happy little (or giant) flowers, and this is the perfect color combo for Fall, too.  Here's the card and bookmark I created:

 I actually started out with the bookmark, though it wasn't intended to be a bookmark at first.  I stamped the sunflower images with my mini Misti so I could stampe the solid images with yellow and the line images and centers with brown.  Then I colored the line images and adhered the panel to some lime mulberry paper.  Looking at it, I started to think it would be fun as a bookmark, and it just so happened that I had a small strip I had cut off a card base a while ago that I had been saving thinking it would make a perfect bookmark.  It's folded at the top, so I adhered some magnets to the bottom inside of each half so it can be more secure in the book.  I added an eyelet, some ribbon and a charm to the top.  It seemed a little plain, so I added a partial sentiment matted on dark brown card stock.

Then, I needed a card to match.  I stuck with the same elements: the lime mulberry (which is part of a big pack of scrap pieces I acquired from somewhere), the sparkly brown ribbon (which is now all used up), the full sentiment, matching charm and sunflower.

 I stamped the flower, colored it, and fussy cut out just the bloom and the leaves. 

To finish off the sunflowers, I added some cinnamon stickles to the centers of all the flowers.  It adds a great sparkle which you can see a little better in the photo below.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the House blog to see the rest of the DT's creations and then get inky and play along with us.  And if you need any of the stamps I used, check out my 10% off your ENTIRE order coupon code over in my left sidebar.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Sunflower", "Floral Positive" and "Be Strong . . ."
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"

Challenges:
Unicorn Challenge #36--add a charm
Die Cut Divas--yellow
Power Poppy--hitting the books (a bookmark)
Fashionable Stamping #158--quote away
Hand Stamped Sentiments #298--sketch

Word Art Wednesday #352--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Pixie's Crafty Workshop #335--anything goes with snippets (the mulberry papers were scraps, the ribbon was just enough for both projects, the fussy cut sunflower was stamped on scraps, and the circle element was in my bits and  pieces stash, plus the bookmark was leftover, trimmed off card base!)

Happy Anniversary

I had another chance to play just for fun this afternoon.  I mean, I need an anniversary card for my in-laws' anniversary coming up this week, but I didn't have any DT responsibilities that had to be finished, so I got to play with whatever stamps I wanted to.  It's so fun when that happens.  I pulled out this Fiskars set to use and then realized that I already had three of the flowers colored and cut out, sitting in my bits and pieces stash.  All I had to do was stamp, color and cut out the stems.

 I used my scor-pal to score a rectangle in the lower right corner; a way to set off the flowers without adding extra layers.  Then, I glued the stems in place and adhered the flowers with  foam tape for dimension.  I heat embossed the sentiment onto black card stock (the strip was already cut for me) and adhered it with foam tape as well.  Then I finished everything off with some gold sequins.

 Here is the inside of the card:

I had one flower that didn't seem to fit on the outside, so I adhered in on the inside with the sentiment.

Supplies:
Stamps: Fiskars "Flowers Sketched"; MFT "Essential Sentiments" and Sweet n' Sassy Stamps "Anniversary Innies" inside sentiment

Challenges:
Cardz TV #65--anything goes
CAS-ual Fridays #208--use those sequins

Crafty Creations #374--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #352--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--pop it up
Tuesday Throwdown #401--one layer
Creative Inspirations--anything goes
Scor-Pal #52--CAS (I used my scor-pal to scor the 4 lines of the rectangle)
Card Mania #108--color combo

Through The Purple Haze #148--bright colors

Far, far away

With DT projects and homeschooling three kiddos, I don't get a lot of time to just play and stamp for projects I want to do.  But the timing was right this week and I needed a birthday card for one of my brothers-in-law.  I got these two Neat and Tangled sets quite a while ago with the intent to use them for a different brother in law, but when his birthday came around, I totally forgot!!  Luckily, I discovered them while going through my box of stamps and pulled them out.  Neat and Tangled is hosting a challenge to create a card/project and create a tutorial for it, so here I go (sorry, this is going to be a photo laden post):

 I started out by finding a rectangle die that fit the Time Warp Image

 A created a frame using that die and a large stitched rectangle die.

 I used sponged daubers and these inks (SU! Basic Black, Lovely Lilac, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy and I switched in Rose Romance for the lighter PTI Sweet Blush and I used PTI Lemon Zest)

 to sponge my galaxy background.

I cut a piece of acetate from some stamp packaging to fit behind the frame and used my Mini Misti to stamp the sentiment with Versamark ink on the acetate.  I used my frame for placement and you can't see it, but the acetate is under the frame in the photo below.

 Then I heat embossed the sentiment with black embossing powder.

 I squirted a tiny bit of white acrylic paint on one of my clear blocks and spritzed it with some water, mixed it up

 and used a paintbrush to flick it onto my frame to create the look of stars.

 As you can see, this was a bit messy with paint getting all over my desk, but never fear!

A couple months ago, I bought myself a microfiber cloth meant for dusting or cleaning at Walmart.  I think there may have been two in a pack for under $5.  I keep one at my desk and it is awesome for cleaning stamps AND other things.  I get it wet and it cleans stamps like a dream.  No more of those little linty bits that I always got when I used baby wipes to clean the stamps.  I just used it to wipe up the paint splatters and the best thing is that when it gets too dirty, I can just throw it in the washing machine and it's as good as new.  And look, clean desk!

 I put my sponged panel in my mini Misti and stamped the Time Warp stamp with Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

 I adhered the sponged panel onto a black card base, marked the frame opening lightly with pencil and placed foam tape all around the edges.  Then I filled the shaker box with die cut gold and vellum stars and some gold and clear seed beads.

 And here is is all put together:

 And here is the shaker element in action:

 On the outside, the sentiment says "A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . ." and I finished it on the inside with the rest of the sentiment "You were Born" and the Time Warp stamped in yellow.

 Thanks for hanging on until the end!!  I hope you enjoyed yourself!  I know my brother-in-law is going to love it!

Supplies:

Stamps: Neat & Tangled "Time Warp" and "Far, Far Away"

Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A" small rectangle and MFT "Blueprints 25" Large rectangle and stars

Challenges:

Cards Galore #155--anything goes

Crafting with An Attitude #43--anything goes

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #26--anything goes

Creative Inspirations--anything goes

Crop Stop Challenge #43--anything goes

Craft Rocket Challenge #152--boys/men

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie #102--anything goes

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog #152--anything goes

Crafty Friends #90--embossing (heat embossing)

heARTful Stamping--anything goes with a stamp

Shopping Our Stash #371--upcycle (I used a piece of acetate upcycled from some stamp packaging I had saved--you know, for that time when you might need it for something!)

The Paper Shelter #353--embossing

Penny's Challenge #397--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--pop it up (used foam tape to pop up my shaker element)

Crafty Creations #374--anything goes

Pause, Dream, Enjoy--cards + anything goes

Neat and Tangled--photo (or video) tutorial

Cardz TV #65--anything goes
Simon Says STAMPtember Neat and Tangled link up--anything goes with Neat & Tangled

So sorry

Happy Friday!!  It's time for another challenge from Jo's Scrap Shack.  As always, we are now an Anything Goes challenge and our sponsors for this week are Little Blue Button Stamps and Morgan's Art World. 

Morgan's Art is a new sponsor for us and I got to work with one of their gorgeous images.  Here is my card:

 I am going to need a sympathy card in the very near future, I'm sad to say, so I thought these gorgeous roses would be perfect.  This card is one that at every step of the way, I wasn't really happy with, but by the time I was finished, I was in love!!  First I printed out the roses and die cut them using the out of the box technique.  I colored them with my Spectrum Noirs and I just didn't love how it turned out, but then I used a pink colored pencil to add shadows and some veining and it was so much better.  But then, of course, I didn't really have any paper to match, but I found this light blue dotted paper that actually looks like a gray when paired with the peach.  Didn't know what I was going to use as a card base until I remembered I had some Mambo Melon from PTI, which was a bit too bright, but I softened it with a sheet of vellum and it is perfect!!  The ribbon has been in my stash for a super long time and there was just enough and it was the perfect shade to add a bit of contrast.  I finished everything off with some peachy pearls, and let me repeat, I love how this turned out!

Here is a close up of the gorgeous roses and a better look at the mulberry paper matting the image panel:

What do you need to do to enter?

Challenge Rules

1. Please post a direct link to your blog post that includes your challenge entry project, using the linky tool on Jo's blog. 

2. Be sure to include a link back to Jo's Scrap Shack and to the challenge post you are entering your project into

3. THREE entries per person are allowed for each challenge and you must post a separate blog post for each entry.

4. For all entries -NO BACK LINKS ACCEPTED- 

The date on your blog post should be dated between the start date and the end date for the challenge you are entering, in order to be eligible for the challenge prizes

5. You may link up to other challenges but be sure to link back to Jo's Scrap Shack and to the challenge post you are entering 

 * All entries that do not meet the challenge requirements

WILL NOT be eligible for the top 3, any sponsor wins or any random wins by Jo

All random wins will only be mailed within the US and Canada only.

You have until Sept. 21st by 12:00AM (eastern, USA) time to link up.

All winners will be announced during the week of Sept. 24th.

Have fun and we look forward to seeing what you create.

Supplies:
Stamps: Morgan's Art World "My Rose Flower" digi; Raisin Boat "Flourishing Sentiments" sentiment
Dies: Spellbinders "Filigree Delight"

Challenges:
Moving Along With the Times #80--use ribbons
Time Out Challenge #118--inspiration photo (I was inspired by the colors of the flowers and the greenery)

Pause, Dream, Enjoy--anything goes as long as it is a card
Crafty Creations #374--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #352--anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--pop it up (my image/sentiment panel is popped up on foam tape)
Crafty Gals Corner #174--3+ layers
Penny's Challenge #397--anything goes
Crafty Sentiments--dies and/or punches
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Creative Craft Cottage #111--ribbon and/or lace
Creatalicious #146--anything goes with pastel colors
Creative Inspiration--anything goes
Craft Dee BowZ--anything goes with handmade bow
Crafting with an Attitude #43--anything goes