Best Fishes

 Happy Monday morning!  

The new challenge #536 at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge gave me some inspiration for using some pieces from two of the backgrounds on my desk. I had a really fun Gelli print session with my friend this weekend and have so many great prints to use for cards.

I had made an ombre blue and rolled little seashells randomly, so used that for two banners.. The other was made using up some of the paint on the breyer inside the Beach Waves embossing folder.  The little mermaid is from Brutus Monroe, and was colored with Copics and lots of shimmer pen. The tiny fishes and sentiment are from an very old Close to My Heart set, Under the Sea.

 

Please join the sketch challenge! And check out all the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team on Wednesday.

Linking to The Paper Players - used Blue, Die Cuts and Embossing.

And also to Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - Anything Goes with Option of Nautical

my card isn't exactly nautical but close :-)

Life is Short

A new sketch at Sketch Saturday!

#731 has an option: Feature a Food Item, so I dug into my fun set from Brutus Monroe. It was a kit in December 2021 called Sugar and Spice. 

I stamped a lot of images and colored with Copics, cut them with the coordinating dies and arranged as the shapes on the sketch indicated. I decided to stamp some circles on the stitched panel behind them and adhered it all to a Neenah Desert Storm card.  The sentiment is from a set included in the kit.

                        My teamies have lots of inspiration for you on the Sketch Saturday blog 

                                Our challenges run for two weeks, so I hope you will join us!

No Squares

 This challenge at Allsorts will last two weeks. The prizes for the challenges (739/40 and 741/42)  will be drawn at the end of August and these wonderful products from Craft Stash will be split for the winners.    The first challenge #739/40 is "No Squares" or you can always do the Anything Goes option.

                                           

The Design Team has lots of inspiration for you. My DT card uses circles. I've stenciled some with an ARTplorations stencil, Bloomdalascopic #2,  added a sentiment from Gina K Designs Grateful Greenery, and some Nuvo drops. I stenciled on the front panel and then cut three apertures and adhered another layer behind to show the flowers and leaves of the stencil.

Summer Blues

 Challenge #738 this week at Allsorts is 

               ***  Summer Blues - or Anything Goes  ***

Prizes from Oakwood, Sizzix, AALL and Create and Craft Stash, please visit our Patrons page to read more about each.

My Design Team card was inspired by the Blues option and then by an amazing art piece that I saw this past weekend at the Museum of Glass in my town. It is all glass - a work by Amber Cowan that is among many pieces in the current exhibition entitled "Boundless Curiosity," all works from the collection of Robert M. Minkoff. I took this photo.

So I began by laying out a number of small dies in a rough circle, I pressed into them with a circle of Simon Hurley stamping foam. I inked using Gina K Designs inks: Sea Glass, Blue Lagoon, and Tranquil Teal, spritzed lightly with water and stamped.  While that dried, I used the same inks on some scraps of white card and cut out all the dies I'd used to make the foam impression. Some were cut multiple times. I also cut some sea shapes from a Savvy Summer Set. I cut the circle out with a stitched die and began assembling the die cuts on the stamped piece. I added some sequins, Nuvo Jewel drops, and a spritz of Sheer Shimmer spray (which is subtle and hard to capture in the photo).  Both the white panel and the circle were adhered with dimensional foam tape. This was really fun to make!  

What inspires you when you are creating? I hope you will join this week's challenge at Allsorts!

Cheers, Friend!

So many reasons to celebrate milestones in ours lives - small and large. Summer is such a fun time to gather in the backyard and celebrate.  So the 'Summer Drinks' option in challenge #616 at                       Try Stampin' On Tuesday inspired my card.  It will go to a dear friend who celebrates the completion of her cancer treatments and a clear health report. 

The image is a free black&white clip art that I colored with pencils and some shimmer pen. MFT gingham and some sentiment strips from my stash. The circle frame is an Altenew die.

Hope you will check out the marvelous work of the design team and join the challenge at TSOT.

Oceans of Joy

  

Good Morning!

 Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge is a great way to begin your crafty week.

My Design Team inspiration for you uses the small die of the month set from Spellbinders, a cute sentiment from a fun set from jillibean, and a Brutus Monroe stencil I used as a dry emboss. 

Please join the challenge! We love to see what you create.

Lots of Happy

 

Good Morning!

A new challenge at Sketch Saturday for you today.

My inspiration card for you today is all embossing and die cuts and scraps of pretty paper. Last winter I went through scraps and put patterns and coordinating colors together in little bundles that I can pull and use for a card. It has been the best organizer for my scraps and I really use them frequently.

The Option for todays sketch is to 'Feature a Sentiment'

The rest of the Design Team has some fabulous work to inspire your creations. Hoping to see you there:-)  Link up at SS

Summer Mood

      Challenge #737 at Allsorts A/G or option Summer Mood Board for your inspiration.

Prizes from Oakwood, Sizzix, AALL and Create and Craft Stash, please visit our Patrons page to read more about each.

My Design Team card this week used the butterfly as my inspiration. My garden has been blessed with several of these beauties this past week.  

I used the die ( Hero Arts) to emboss a heavy piece of card and then ink blended on the raised parts. Then I placed the black die cut over to give an inlay effect. The sentiment was cut twice in black and once in matte gold and stacked for dimension. I splattered with some gold water color and added a few gold confetti.

The striped paper from my stash.

Wreath and Embossing Folder

 This week challenge #736 at Allsorts 

                     *** Anything Goes with Option: Use an Embossing Folder ***

Prizes from Oakwood, Sizzix, AALL and Create and Craft Stash, please visit our Patrons page to read more about each.

For my Design Team card I attempted to use the Gina K wreath builder. It is a bit more difficult than it looks on tutorials :-) but as Gina says, "It's better than horrible."  I used a sentiment from the same mini stamp set and some circle dies. I used a piece of Schoolhouse red card with a Gina K embossing folder, Tapestry. 

Hope you will join the challenge at Allsorts!

With Hugs

 Sketch #614 at Try Stampin' On Tuesday

This new sketch has an Optional Theme: Campfire

My card used some floral dies from an older Lan Fawn set called Fab Flowers.  I brushed the edges with some Whisper Gray ink and drew in black centers to copy the patterned paper.  I used oval dies to cut the center and frame, used a sentiment from the stamp set, and added a few black crystal sparkles.

This is a quick and easy card - a fantastic sketch with so many possibilities.    Hope you will play along at TSOT.

AHSC 532

 

This new sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge is perfect for using those pretty little scraps of paper that you just can't bear to toss.  A few of the tags are from a wax paper embossing playtime, the others from my Simon Says Stamp kits scraps.  The sentiment is Gina K Designs. Grey, charcoal and pink are so pretty together.

As usual, the Design Team cards are posted on Wednesday along with the top 3 selections from last week's challenge.  We love to see what you create each week. Please head on over to AHSC and play along!

Let's Celebrate

 

Sketch #729 at Sketch Saturday has an optional theme: Celebrate.  So my Design Team card for this challenge was inspired by the stripes and option. I used watercolor to loosely draw my stripes and a little cluster stamp of stars in blue. I water colored another piece card with blue and used some dies to cut out a sentiment strip, added some gold thread and stars. A fun card for the holiday on Tuesday here in the USA.

Check out the Design Team creations and play along with us! The challenge lasts two weeks.

Summertime

 Challenge #735 at Allsorts

           *** Anything Goes with the Option of Summertime ***

Prizes from Oakwood, Sizzix, AALL and Create and Craft Stash, please visit our Partons page to read more about each.

My Design Team inspiration for you uses a sweet mini stamp & die from Altenew, a sentiment die from Simon Says Stamp, Gina K Design inks and a bit of ribbon. I used Fiskars Deckle scissors on a scrap of green card stock.

Hope you will join the challenge this week!