Sketch Time

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  This week we have a fun sketch for you:

I love sketches and had so much fun with this one that I made two cards.  My first one is a bit fancier:

 This was inspired by this card I found on Pinterest a while ago:

I thought of it immediately when I saw this week's sketch.  This card was actually part of the reason I got the clock face stamp. : )  I had fun rooting around in my "bits and pieces" stash.  I pulled out the two smaller flowers (I had to recolor them a little to match my color scheme), the sentiment strip (I had to mask and selectively ink the sentiment to make it fit), and the fun paper stripped panel (which were scraps from paper pad I finished up last year).  Since I had half a sheet of the raspberry card stock and half of the paper strip panel left after the first card, I decided to make a quick Valentine's Day card using the same sketch:

This time the white circle and the fancy pink circle were in the bits and pieces stash.  All I need to do was stamp the image and sentiment, add a strip of ribbon and a few pearls and this one was done!  I hope you will play along with us this week.  Sketches are a great starting point for your creations.  And if you need any of the stamps I used today, check out my 10% off your total order coupon over there in my left sidebar.

Card 1:
Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Flower Power Separates: Daisy Outline Large, Daisy Outline Small, Leaf Outline small, Stem Outline", "Clock Face #3" and "Happy Birthday"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large" and "Teardrop Circles"; MFT "Stitched Scalloped trio" and "Bold Stripes Cover-Up"; PTI "Hands of Time"

Challenges:
Divas That Cut--do or use something new (the clock face stamp is new, first time I've used it)
Creative Inspiration--something new (new clock face stamp)
Always Happy Birthday--birthday + a pink card base
Penny Black--something new (clock face stamp)
Use Your Stuff #294--something new (clock face stamp)
Crafty Catz #491--anything goes with optional twist: something new (clock face stamp)
Fussy and Fancy #204--fussy and fancy
Cardz TV #32--anything goes
Crafty Friends #16--anything goes
heARTful Stamping--anything goes
Cuttlebug Mania--hip hip horray (birthday)

Card 2:
Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Love Stencil"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large" and "Teardrop Circles"

Challenges:
ART Impressions #224--feel the love
Southern Girls--round and round the mulberry bush (round dies)
Hiding In My Craft Room #337--any holiday
Sweet Stampin'--Valentine's/love
Shopping Our Stash #339--he loves me he loves me not
Die Cuttin' Divas #354--anything goes

Simple Love

Valentine's Day is coming!!  I usually make about 14 cards to give/send to family and a few friends.  This one is for my oldest daughter.  Her favorite color is green and every Mama dragon should be pink, right!?  I just love how cute these dragons are!

 The little green dragon, paper pieced heart and the sentiment strip were all in my "bits and pieces" stash.  The pink dragon was stamped on scrap card stock and the strip of brown card stock was also a scrap.  Nice and simple and adorable!  I used wink of stella on their wings.  You can see the sparkle a bit in the photo below:

Supplies:
Stamps: MFT "Magical Dragons" and "Essential Sentiments"
Dies: MFT "Stitched Heart STAX" and "Bold Stripes Cover-Up"

Challenges:
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #74--anything goes
Creative Fingers #142--anything goes
Hiding In My Craft Room #337--any holiday
Sketch Saturday #498--sketch

Crazy 4 Challenges #419--opposites (I used both stripes and dots on my heart and a large and small dragon)
heARTful Stamping--anything goes
Shopping Our Stash #339--he loves me, he loves me not
Die Cutting Divas #354--anything goes
Crafty Sentiments--anything goes

Winter

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

The challenge this time is:  Winter
And here is my card for your inspiration:

Di's images are all so adorable and I just love this one for winter and/or Christmas.  I decided to color with colored pencils this time.  Partly because I wanted a more muted, vintage look and partly because my kiddos got these HUGE boxes of crayola colored pencils for Christmas and I wanted a chance to play with them. : )  By huge, I mean 64 pencils!  I'd never seen that many before; they even have gold and silver!  My blending needs a bit of work, but it did give the muted look I was going for.  This card was a jackpot for my "bits and pieces stash": the piece of ribbon, one of the leaves, the center layer of the large flower and the black corner piece were all in there.    The corner piece was actually a light gray, but I painted it with some black paint and then dry brushed it with some silver.  In real life it looks really cool; a bit like wrought iron.  Also, the green patterned panel was two scraps that I cut to the same width and pieced behind the circle.  I love when I can use smaller pieces to create the look of a large piece.  Thanks for stopping by, I hope you will get a chance to play along with us.

Supplies:

Stamps: Di's Digi Stamps "Snuggle Muffs" digi; Repeat Impressions "Large Leaf, Ouline"; Fun Stampers Journey "Winter Stitches" background stamp

Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large" and "Scalloped Circles, large" and corner bracket; MFT "Pretty Posies"

Challenges:

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #142--fun in the snow

Dare 2 B Artzy--winter wonderland

ABC Christmas--A is for antlers, B is for Birds (penguins are birds)

Hanna and Friends #290--winter

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #22--anything goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #10--anything goes with the optional twist: cute

Sweet Stampers #16--winter/snow

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2--sketch

Crimbo Crackers #150--anything goes

The Merry Christmas Challenge #274--Let it snow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--layer it up

C.R.A.F.T. #452--distress/vintage

Whopper of a day

Masculine cards: so hard to make!!  Unless you have a super cute stamp set like this one from Sugar Pea Designs!  This is only the second time I've inked this guy up, but I think he will be making more frequent appearances.  This was a rather quick one, other than the coloring which always seems to take forever.  The bit of patterned paper I used has little woodland forest creatures on it, even a raccoon, so it was perfect!  You can see the little guy peeking out from the bottom right corner.  So cute.  In keeping with my self-made challenge to use things from my "bits and pieces" stash, the strip the sentiment is printed on was from the stash.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps: Sugar Pea Designs "Great Catch
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle and "Bold Stripes Cover-Up" sentiment strip
Darice woodgrain embossing folder

Challenges:
The Paper Nest Dolls--anything goes
Crop Stop Challenge Blog--anything goes (using MFT dies and Darice woodgrain embossing folder)
Brown Sugar #274--birthday
Sugar Pea Designs #39--I used the sketch

Creatalicious #130--anything goes with the optional twist: cute
Inspiration Destination #142--anything goes with optional twist: embossing
As You Like It--favorite die (this MFT stitched rectangle is my favorite.  I must use it on almost every other card I make--the perfect second layer and adds a nice finish detail)
Aud Sentiments #195--anything goes with a sentiment
Crafty Catz #420--anything goes with optional twist: male's birthday
Cardz TV #31--anything goes
Hiding In My Craft Room #336--color it
Sweet Stampin'--men's cards
Tuesday Throwdown #376--anything goes
Shopping Our Stash #338--you say it's your birthday
Penny's Challenge #364--anything goes
Crafty Creations #354--anything goes
2 Crafty Critter Crazies #10--anything goes with critters

Scrappy Birthday

Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built!  This week we have a nice, easy one for you: Anything Goes.

I've been trying really hard to dig into my "bits and pieces" stash for each card I've made this year and so far I'm doing pretty well.  I am in need of some masculine cards and the strip of card stock stamped with the Metro Map stamp has been in my stash for a long time.  Then I found this sketch from Power Poppy's CardMap challenge this month:

I did flip the sentiment strip portion up to the top to cover a seam in my stamped panel.  I would have put the strip upside down but if you looked closely, you would have seen that the words were upside down, so I had to get a little creative.

So, I went digging in the stash to see what else I had and I found the gray scalloped strip and the white strip for the sentiment.  And this is what I came out with.

 The card base and the star scalloped border strip are both a deep navy, though they look a bit black in the photo.  I die cut the "happy" out of light blue and then 3 more times out of cream so I could have a bit of dimension.  My "washi tape" was cut with a die and in keeping with using up scraps, I added a left over piece to the inside:

This is definitely not my usual style, but I think it turned out pretty well.  I hope you will get a chance to play along with us;  I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Metro Map", "Birthday" and "I always remember"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle, small banner (I trimmed off the second end) and washi tape strip and "Happy Trio"; Verve "Scalloped Trim Trio"; Spellbinders scalloped border (I used the negative of the die cut)

Challenges:
Shopping Our Stash #338--you say it's your birthday
Tuesday Throwdown #376--anything goes
Power Poppy--sketch (see picture above)
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #74--anything goes
Pixie's Crafty Workshop #317--anything goes with snippets
A Gem of a Challenge #211--cool in blue
Sweet Stampin'--Men's cards
Cardz TV #31--anything goes
Crafty Catz #400--anything goes with the optional twist of Male's birthday
Aud Sentiments #195--anything goes
That's Crafty--feeling blue
Brown Sugar #274--birthday
Love To Craft Challenge Blog #18--anything goes
Card Mania #100--monochromatic

Sprinkled

Last month, Esther from the Crop Stop Challenge Blog had asked me to be a guest designer on the blog and as she was having a bit of difficulty finding some for this month, she asked me if I would be willing to guest design again today.  Of course, I said "yes!"  Here is my card for your inspiration:

I created my tag with a bunch of scraps from one of my favorite paper packs (alas, it is all used up now.) and a Spellbinders scalloped tag die.  I layered it with a Pierced Heart die from My Favorite Things (which happened to be in my bits and pieces stash) and then my cupcake image, colored with spectrum noir markers) and sentiment banner.   I finished the tag off with some ribbon tied in a bow using my bow-easy tool.  Since there were so many patterns/colors going on with the tag, I wanted to keep my background more neutral.  I used core-dinations white card stock embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and die cute with an MFT stitched rectangle.  Thanks for stopping by, and thanks, Esther, for inviting me back again.

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI "Baker's Dozen"
Dies: PTI "Baker's Dozen"; Spellbinders "Scalloped Tags"; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle
Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" embossing dots

Challenges:
Aud Sentiments #195--anything goes
ART Impressions #224--feel the love
As You Like It--favorite die and why (My favorite die would have to be this stitched rectangle from Blueprints 13--it just adds a finished touch to the second layer  and is the perfect size)
C.R.A.F.T #451--love/Valentine's
Double D Challenge--Kitchen is the heart of the home (inspired by the colors of the aprons in the upper photo and the baking theme)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--add a sentiment
Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #137--anything goes
Penny's Challenge #363--anything goes
Fab n' Funky--girly
Cuttlebug Mania--Valentine's Day
Incy Wincy--tag
Hiding In My Craft Room #335--hiding in my craft room
Craft-Dee BowZ--anything goes with handmade bow

Sweet 16

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built!  This week we have a beautiful inspiration photo for you:

You can be inspired either by the photo itself or the colors or both!    While I love all those snow covered trees, I decided to go with the color combo.  I added a little bit of silver glitter for some sparkle. 

This card is to celebrate the 16th birthday of a young woman at our church.  I was digging in my bits and pieces stash and found the die cut striped panel.  I thought it made the perfect background; subtle but interesting.  The flowers were all stamped on scrap pieces of white card stock.  And the sentiment was stamped on a scrap of black; it was even that width already.  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you will get a chance to play along with us this week.  And if you need any of the stamps I used (or any for that matter), take advantage of the 10% off your entire order coupon code in my left sidebar.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Daisy Outline, large", "Daisy outline, small" and "Happy Birthday"
Dies: MFT "Bold Stripes Cover Up"; Spellbinders "Butterfly Corner" frame; Verve "Sprightly Sprigs"

Challenges:
Card Mania Challenge #100--monochromatic
Crafting with An Attitude #35--anything goes
Sheep Ski Designs #10--anything goes
Love To Craft Challenge Blog #18--anything goes
Brown Sugar Challenge #274--birthday
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Cas-ual Fridays #190--all that glitters
Crafty Creations #358--anything goes
CAS(E) This Sketch #254--sketch

Crafty Catz #399--anything goes with the optional twist: one for the ladies
Pixie's Crafty Workshop--anything goes with snippets
Hiding In My Craft Room #335--super scraps Saturday
Fashionable Stamping #131--anything goes

It's Simple

Usually when I make a card, I start with a sketch and then check out some challenges to see what I might want to incorporate into my card.  But as soon as I saw the current challenge from Mod Squad: kraft, white and black, I KNEW I had to make a card with that color combo.  It just really struck me.  I'm cutting it close, but finally had time to play with the color combo and an idea that was floating around in my head.  This is the result:

I heat embossed the flower background with white ink and white embossing powder and then softened the edges with some white craft ink.  I also heat embossed the sentiment.  I went back and forth about whether or not I should add embellishments, but I like it like this and it's simple to go with the sentiment.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Flower Power Background"; MFT "Essential Sentiments"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:
Mod Squad--kraft, black and white ONLY
Unicorn Challenge #28--anything goes
Crafts Galore--anything goes
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
As You Like It--anything goes
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #73--anything goes
Crafty Creations #358--anything goes
Fashionable Stamping #131--anything goes
Southern Girls--stitch me up

Sweet Birthday Wishes

I get so busy with DT work that I rarely have time to just "play" and create a card that I need "to have" not need "to make."  And it's just as rare that I get to play with just any stamp that I want.  But I have a bit of a vacation from one team and another one closed down, so I have that free time and this is the result:

 A young girl at our church just turned 14 this past week and this card is for her.  Here is the inside of the card:

 Continuing in my quest to use my bits and pieces stash, the die cut 4 was from the stash.  I just needed to die cut the one to complete the number pair.  It small, but it's a step in the right direction.

Supplies:
Stamps: YNS "Phoebe with Her Wagon"; PTI "Big Birthday Wishes"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large"; PTI numbers border die; Sweet n' Sassy stamps grass die
Papers: Pebbles "Garden Party"

Challenges:
Dies R Us #89--kids kards (teenager but still a kid)
Crafty Friends #75--new beginnings (a new year of life)
Paper Creator #65--anything goes
Cardz TV #30--anything goes
Crafty Catz #399--anything goes with the optional twist: one for the ladies
Penny's #362--anything goes
The Paper Shelter #321--new beginnings
Fab n' Funky Challenge #376--let's be happy
Double D--anything birthday or anniversary with inspiration from this mood board (I used butterfly paper that reminds me of the photo in the lower right corner and the cake)


A Gem of a Challenge #210--Happy Anything
Creatalicious #130--anything goes with the optional twist: cute
Stamplorations Theme & sketch--stamps and curves
Alphabet Challenge--use three of something (three enamel dots)
YNS #80--sketch

ART Impressions #223--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #316--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Brown Sugar #274--birthday
Crop Stop #36--anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes
Crafting with an Attitude #35--anything goes
Crafts Galore--anything goes
Unicorn Challenge #23--anything goes

Pink Birthday

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

The challenge this time is: Birthdays (It's Aud's birthday, so make sure to wish her a happy day!)
And here is my card for your inspiration:

I'm continuing in my quest to reduce my bits and pieces stash (that pile of stuff I have that was cut/stamped/etc for a different project and just didn't make it) and on this card, both the white sentiment strip and the little red heart are from the stash.  Unfortunately, I added three pieces back to the pile so I worked with a deficit for this one!  Hmm . . . that's not really how it's supposed to work.

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us in this challenge; I know we all need birthday cards.  I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Supplies:

Stamps: Di's Digi Stamps "Izzy" digi; MFT "Essential Sentiments"

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 25" stitched rectangle; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched line: MFT "Bold Stripes Cover Up" sentiment strip; Spellbinders scalloped border; Sweet n' Sassy Stamps heart die

Challenges:

Southern Girls--stitch me up (I used stitched dies)

Little Miss Muffet--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--use patterned paper

Fab n' Funky #376--Let's be happy

Shopping Our Stash #336--out with the old, in with the new (the gray card stock, stitched line die and scalloped die are OLD, old, old--this sentiment set is one I won about a month again and this is the first time I used it.  The paper, I also got with in the last month or maybe two.)

Power Poppy--sketch

Stamplorations theme & sketch challenge--I used the theme: stamps & curves (scallops)

A Gem of a Challenge--Happy anything

Cardz TV #30--anything goes

Crafty Catz #399--anything goes with optional twist: one for the ladies

Thanks

Here were are a week into the new year and it's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  This week we have a fun tic-tac-toe challenge for you:

I love tic-tac-toe challenges because you can basically pick your own challenge.  And with this one, I managed to run the entire board!  Usually there is one element that I just can't fit in, but this time they all seemed to work together.

Let's start with the background, which turned out nothing like I intended but is really fun anyway.  I started with about 4 different shades of blue and purple gelatos.  I scribbled them on my plastic craft mat and spritzed with some water to create my water colors.  I cut a piece of water color paper and spritzed it with water and then used a brush to brush on my gelatos.  It really didn't bleed as much as I wanted to I get watering and adding colors until it was "ok". Then I watered down some silver paint to create splatters.  Unfortunately, it turned more into blobs, so I ended up using the brush to lightly smear the blobs across the paper. As it dried (with a little help from my heat tool) it created a really shimmery look.  I then cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die and embossed it with a snowflake embossing folder.  Then, I stamped my snowflake with blue ink, fussy cut it out and covered it with micro glitter.  The whole card is so shimmery and glittery in real life.

I finished the card with the sentiment on the inside:

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Snowflake Solid, lg", "Snowflake Solid, sm" and "Thanks Cling Set" for, your, thoughtfulness
Dies: Simon Says Stamp "Painted Thanks"; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle
Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder

Challenges:
Creative Craft Cottage #103--January Blues
Tuesday Throwdown #374--layer it up
Simon Says Stamp Monday--winter blues
Power Poppy--sketch

Cardz TV #29--anything goes
CAS-ual Fridays #190--all that glitters
Crafty Catz #398--add sparkle after Christmas
Time Out Challenge #100--thankful
Crafting By Designs--anything goes
Creative with Stamps #22--snowflake

Things with wings

Happy New Year!  And welcome to the first challenge of the year from The House That Stamps Built.  This week is a Designer's Choice Challenge and Laurie is challenging us to use something with wings.  Here is my card for your inspiration:

These papers are all scraps from one of my favorite paper packs (and pretty much all that was left of the pack).  The sketch I chose was just perfect for using them and after making this card, I used the remaining scraps to make a few tags which you will be seeing in the near future, I'm sure.  And now, the paper is all gone.  So sad, but happy at the same time that I managed to use them all up.  After piecing everything together for the layout, I had just enough of the blue pattern left to stamp my butterfly and fussy cut it out and than punch out the remaining two butterflies.  I selectively inked up the butterfly stamp to add the antennae to the punched butterflies and I ran a black marker around their outside edges to help them match the stamped butterfly a bit more.  The "Hello" was in my bits and pieces stash.  As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for the sentiment, I remembered that I had seen one in my stash while looking for something else.  When I found it, it turned out to be the perfect, bright, cheery yellow to coordinated with the yellows in my papers.  I masked part of my sentiment stamp so all I stamped was the "A happy" and the die cut finishes it off.  I hope you will get a chance to play along with us.  Let's start off the new year on a crafty note. : )

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Butterfly, sm." and "Happy Hello"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle and "Smartphone" hello

Challenges:
CAS(E) This Sketch #252--sketch

SheepSki Designs #10--anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes
Cards Galore--anything goes
Unicorn Challenge #28--anything goes
Hiding In My Craft Room #333--freestyle
Cardz TV #28--anything goes

Hope always

Happy 2018!!  Welcome to the first challenge of the year from the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog!  Here's to another fabulous year full of inspiration and challenges.  This month the theme is: Anything Goes.  Our sponsor is Cas-ual Fridays Stamps:

I combined two of their stamp sets to create this simple, but fun card:

 I was going to color the flowers all the same color.  I had the first row colored and had started on the second, when something made me think about creating an ombre look.  I had the perfect amount of markers in this color family and I think it turned out really cool.  I did the same with the yellow dots atop the flowers.  I stamped the "hope" in black, used a white get pen to outline it where it overlapped the flowers to help it stand out a little more and then I used a clear wink of stella pen to cover the entire word for some subtle sparkle.

Oh, and I did manage to use a piece from my "bits and pieces" stash--the little banner that 'always' is stamped on.  I am on a roll!!  : )
I hope you will get a chance to play along with us this month.  I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:
Stamps: Cas-ual Fridays "Powerful Words" sentiment and "Mon Ami" flowers
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:
Sweet Stampin'--anything NEW (the sentiment stamp set is new; sent to me for this challenge)
Hiding In My Craft Room #333--freestyle
Cardz TV #28--anything goes
Cute Card Thursday #510--anything goes
C.R.A.F.T. #448--anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes
MFT #365--sketch

 Word Art Wednesday #313--anything goes with uplifting sentiment