CCEE2117 ~ Superhero Day!

 

Hi friends!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a WEEK since my last blog post!

It's been ... hectic here :)

But, this weekend I have a lot of free time finally 

and plan to craft and catch up!

Today's post is for Superheroes Day!

The theme this week is to include a superhero

(or two!) on a card in any way that you see a hero ...

think superheroes, nurses, doctors, teachers, soldiers, etc!

                             I went with the traditional route 

and used an MFT stamp called Super Boy.

 I also followed the weekly sketch#539 from MFT Stamps 

which made the card creation so much easier!

I used the MFT Cloud stencil to create a background

and the MFT Stamps banner dies (ret'd) to make the strips

and stamped the sentiment directly onto the cardstock. 

The superhero is nestled onto the MFT Square dienamic (ret'd)

Be sure to stop in the CCEE Stampers blog and 

see what the DT created this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

CCEE2116 - Tea or Coffee /Earth Day!

Hi friends!

It's time for another challenge at the CCEE Stampers

and this week we are celebrating National Tea Day in the UK!

This week, we are creating cards wtih tea - or coffee - 

and although I have an English born mum, I'm a COFFEE girl!

My card troday is sharing some recycling since it's Earth Day.

First, here's my card and then the 'how I made it" will follow!

Here's how I recycled:

I started with a base layer of white carstock and used acrylic paint

and instead of a stamp or brush, I used a Starbucks coffee sleeve!

I had this in my stash (several, actually!) to mail with bulky cards

but it was perfect for creating a background with some drama.

And, ya know, I'd do this technique again :)

I chose green and blue acrylic paint to represent the colors of earth

and just stamped in random patterns.

Once that was dry, I stamped/die cut/colored the a la mode girl

and set it aside with foam backing.

Next, for another upcycle, I used my little granddaughter's

Starbucks crossaint pastry bag and cut circles to use as 'dsp.'

With all the pieces finally together, 

I glued it all down and added the sentiment to the inside of the card.

And that's my Team Coffee card!

Please stop by the CCEE Stampers here 

to see the Design Team's cards and link up yours, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ready, Set, Go - Body Parts!

Hi friends!

Today's card is for the Ready, Set, Go monthly card group

where we take turns coming up with extreme card challenges.

This month, it was my turn and I chose a theme

that I thought of (like most of my ideas) at 2 am-ish :)

APRIL RSG THEME:  Body Parts!

Last year, I had news that I needed  medical hip surgery. 

 Although I was bummed, I turned that frown upside down by thinking - let's make the best of it and have some fun with body parts!

Your challenge this month is to create a card using a 

(as in one, SINGLE) body part.  You may chose any stamp company/image you like but it can only show one body part.  And because we're creative and often use the rule of 3's, let's take it up a notch!  Your body part can only be on 1/3 of the card!  The other 2/3 of the space you can use however you like, or not at all, and use whatever papers, EF, techniques, etc you like. You may also include one sentiment. Think outside the box, get as creative as you like and most of all, have fun - now let's get Ready, Set, GO!

Ready: For my card, I am using Birthday Bear

 from Gerda Steiner Designs stamp and die set.

 I'm using the ONE arm that's holding the balloon.

Set: For my 1/3, I've measured out the square and it's a folded 1/3

(in other words, if you stretch it out straight, it's an equal part).

Go: I've added a matching sentiment  to the front of the panel.

I colored the image with my copic markers

and popped the front panel and arm/hand up with 3d foam.

This turned out to be a lot harder than I expected

but it was a lot of fun :)

Thanks for stopping by!

April showers!

 

Hi friends!

Mondays are always fun at Splitcoaststampers

because that means it's CAS card day!

Clean and Simple

 - formerly known as One Sheet Wonders -

are actually harder for me to do :)

I'm more of a pile on the layers

and use some fun dies 

and add othe embellisments kinda girl!

The theme this week is:  April Showers

so I chose My Favorite Things Puddle Jumper Rain or Shine.

I started by stamping the image,

then masking it off.

Next, I used Lawn Fawn's mermaid ink and a blender brush

to lightly ink the background.

Once that was blended, I pulled off the mask 

and used my copic markers to color the image bright colors!

In hindsight, I wish I had spritzed water on the background ink

but that's probably why they say it's 20/20 - LOL!

I was inspired by my friend, Timothy, on Instagram 

to color outside my norm of using peach tones.

Truthfully, I'm often shy and super conscientious about coloring 

skin tones and hair!

And the reason for that is I don't think that I'm very good at it.

I try and try and I get embarrassed because it doesn't look as good

 so I sort of "stick to what I know."

His IG is filled with Stamp Anniething chibis of all colors

and walks of life - from Black and Brown friends to White 

and everyone in between!

AND - for this one - I did do the water spritz! :)

For that reason, I decided to *try my best* to use darker skin tones

and created the same card - twice!

I'll enter my card to Simon Says Stamp - Monday - Brights!

Thanks for stopping by!

Papercrafters ~ Unite!

 

Hi friends! 

Today I'm part of an Instagram hop ~

click on the link and it will take you there

and I thought I'd share my card here on my blog, too!

 

The goal of the hop is to continue to raise awareness about anti-racism; to stand with our BIPOC friends and family, and to keep encouraging everyone to start the necessary conversations.

  We are all one humanity and should find a way to #showup for equity and equality in a way that makes sense for YOU.  

In the smallest of ways, including creating a card and adding a hashtag can help to promote unity among papercrafters!

For my card, I wanted to do something a little different.

Rather than be 'stuck in one box' and being traditional,

I'm sharing a card with flamingos that are NOT pink.

Rather, they are the skin tones that show from black to white

to all the colors in between, we STAND together.

I've used a variety of distress oxide inks for the background

and used my scrapbook.com domed blender foams to blend them.

When I tell you I'm obsessed with these ... I am!

Next up, I've used Lawn Fawn's Flamingo Together and Life is Good 

to create the beach sunset scene.

I chose this as my background to represent where I live - Miami, Florida.

We live in a melting pot of cultural diversity with many colors,

languages and cultures!

I speak both Spanish and English daily!

Thanks for stopping by 

and remember - love one another!

I'll link my card to:  Dragonfly Dreams - feature a creature

Dare 2 B Artzy - Bright Colors

Word Art Wednesday - AG

International Art and Soul - winged things

Day 3/10 ~ Happy BEE-day!

Hi friends!

It's my husband's birthday this weekend 

so we are in full *celebration* mode!

He's such an incredible man and 

does such amazing work for others in need ~

we are happy to celebrate him AND finally take some time off work! :)

It's also Day #3 of The Daily Marker 10 Day coloring challenge.

I won't be making full cards this time around but

I do have a theme for the first time:  Things With Wings!

 I thought that would be a different and fun approach this time

and you can follow my coloring on my Instagram daily posts :)

Here is my card for the 3/10 days of coloring:

For this card, I've used MFT Stamps "Meant to BEE" stamps

and my Brother Scan N Cut to die cut the images.

After creating a card base,

 I used a stitched circled die from Simon Says  Stamp

 to create a background circle from the designer paper.

The images are colored with copic caio makers

and there's a light dusting of Wink of Stella on the bees wings.

My card is a little on the simple side but I colored not created

and it's for the Inspiration Challenge at SCS this week.

And that's my card!

Thanks for stopping by today and

I'll see you soon!

Look Up At the Sky Day/ The Daily Marker 10 Day!

                                                                     

I have two blog posts today! For the CCL duel, click here! :)

Hi friends!

Today is super exciting ... it's the return of The Daily Marker 30 Day,

a coloring challenge hosted by Kathy Rac.

For this round of coloring, it's only 10 days

 and I've decided to do a theme:

Things With Wings!

Which is perfect since today's CCEE Stampers challenge is

 "Look up at the Sky Day" 

and airplanes are definitely up in the sky :)

To create this card, I colored with prismacolor markers

and colored up this cute image from PInk and Main called Plane Sweet.

I stamped and die cut the images and decided to use just this one ~

future card coming up soon!

 I went with a distress oxide background,

using Ranger DOI and the domed blending foams from Scrapbook.com.

At the 11th hour, I took the banner off and popped on some clouds

instead and added  a different sentiment - it looks more cohesive now!

I so love these segments of  The Daily Marker coloring!

 You can follow my Things With Wings coloring here on Instagram

for next 10 days ~ it's going to be FUN!

For the CCEE Stampers challenge of the week, go here

and link up your Look Up At The Sky Day cards, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Classy Card Ladies: Spring sketch!

Hi friends!

Every 15th of the month, there's a new CCL challenge

and our hostesses this month are:  LJ and Darlene!

The CCL = Classy Card Ladies and we're divided into 2 teams:

The Diamonds and The Pearls and we 'duel' card kits once a month.

For April, our hostesses came up with a theme of:

spring sketches!

Our gorgeous kit is from LJ and we received the stamped image,

beautiful embellishments and pretty papers 

AND

 Team Diamonds were asked to create our cards using THIS sketch:

This is a beautiful sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches #592!

Here is my card based on this sketch 

and using the beautiful spring flower as a focal point.

This flower is part of the spring Tim Holtz collection

and I was inspired to go with the color yellow.

To follow the sketch, I used the designer papers as a base

and cut up one of the squares into stripes

and highlighted the flower with vellum underneath.

And here's the inside:

that's it for this month's card duel!

Here is the full list of the cardmakers on both teams:

Diamonds

Barb

Carol

Kelly (you're here!)

LJ

Suzy - in the SCS Gallery

Pearls

Darlene

Deb - in the SCS Gallery

Shelly 

Jeanette

Tracie 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hot Mess = Success: Acrylic Block Watercoloring

 

Hi friends!

I hope you had a marvelous weekend

and your Monday is off to a great start!

Today's card is for the Hot Mess Success card group

and you can see how it started here.

In August 2019,

 I posted a very messy card to my Instagram

and the very person himself Tim Holtz commented on my card <3

I was gobsmacked to say the least and over the moon :)

And the idea to do it EVERY month was born so here we are!

HOWEVER.

It's not *the* card.

I made my un-be-lie-va-ble messy card for this month

and had an absolute BLAST!

It was something I'd never done before

 and I can't tell enough you how fun it was!

But the cards weren't dry and the video for my YouTube channel

wasn't quite ready and the clock was ticking so .........

You'll see it next month :(

And I can't WAIT to do it again - absolutely fun, fun, FUN!!!

So!

In lieu of that card, I'll share the one I had to scramble to make.

I took a page from Simon Hurley and watercolored with acrylic blocks.

I saw this video on his channel and it was quite fun.

The idea:  Add ink to your acrylic block

 (I used a square 2" block and Catherine Pooler inks

in Flirty Fuchsia and Tiki Torch) and spritzed it with water.

I quickly flipped it over to blot it down onto the cardstock and held it.

In a few seconds or so, the ink transfered with the water to the paper

and I repeated this step 6 times 

until the background squares were done.

It's fun to find colors that marry well together and create patterns 

like I did here and even overlap the colors. 

The sky's the limit!

Once it was dry, I added a die cut silhouette from Altenew

as a focal point and used a large on to take up most of the card front.

Here are the cards from Barb, Carol, Darlene, Jeanette and Terry

and stay tuned for the OG first card that was crazy fun to make :)

Was this month's Hot Mess a Success?  Absolutely!

Would I do this technique again?  I sure would!

Thanks for stopping by!