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!

Stamp What?! ~ Everything nice ...

 

Hi friends!

Happy weeekend!

Today's card is for the Stamp What?! card series

that was created by my teenage son :)

Here is how it all started and his creative idea 

is to breath new life into {much} older stamp sets that go unused!

This month, here is the stamp set he chose:

And Everything Nice w/Hollyhocks

circa 2005

As always, I like to 'rib him' a little bit and ask why he chose it :)

Me:  'INTERESTING choice!  Why did you pick this one?"

Him:  "It reminded me of Singing In The Rain."

Wow I haven't used this stamp set in a month of Sundays!

And ... I was a bit stumped so here it is.

Not my favorite card I've made but it. is. what. it. is!

How I modernized this older, wooden stamp set is

that I've used copics (didn't own those in 2005),

designer paper and dies that are current to the last few years.

And that's my card!

Barb and Jeanette are joining me this year on this card journey

and you can see there cards on their blogs, too.

Here's one final look:

Thanks for stopping by 

and have a wonderful weekend!

3M: Hey there, crafty friend!

 Hi friends!

Happy Friday to you all

and wishing you the best start to your weekend :)

Today's card is for the 3M card group, or 3 Musketeers,

which is Jeanette, Barb and I.

This card group was started by Jeanette many years ago

where we take turns sending a stamped image to each other

and all 3 of us make a card.

Jeanette sent us this month's dreamy bouquet of flowers

from Taylored Expressions called Field Notes 2.

Oh, how I've drooled over this stamp set!

like .... drooled!

I decided for this card to color with my Karin markers.

I have the regular set and the neons which I LOVE ~

they give way brighter pops of color!

I've added these colorful blooms to a distress ink grid background

that I'd previously done and tucked a circle die cut behind them.

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips - friendship

and I've used the simple strips die to cut out the strip.

You can see Jeanette's card here

and Barb's card here.

Next month, I'm up to send the image and it's already on it's way!

And that's one of the wonderful things about this card group ...

The super fun part of going to the mailbox and finding a surprise :)

Here's a final look:

Thanks for stopping by

and have a GREAT weekend!

Card entered to: word art Wednesday 

http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/?m=1

CCEE2114 - Zoo Lovers Day!

Hi friends!

Today is Zoo Lovers Day!

And that's also the theme this week for the new 

CCEE Stampers weekly challenge.

It's brought to us by Frances, our hostess for the month of April.

She writes:

For this week's challenge, create a card that features 

at least one animal found in the zoo.

My card is using Sugar Pea Designs Caring Critters.

This stamp set is long retired but I still think it's adorable!

My coloring isn't the best here - eeeek!

But do love the sweet addition of the zoo designer paper :)

Be sure to check here for the DT card inspirations

and to link up your cards, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS - Optical Illusion!

 

Hi friends!

Spring Break is over here and today school starts once again.

I LOVED being off for the school break

but I also know that before I can blink, it will be summer :)

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter week/end!

I went WAY off the deep end with my healthier eating lifestyle

and have not exercised in 4 days :(

I know as soon as I drop my son off at school ...

at 6:15 AM - eep! -

I'll be hitting the track and going the EXTRA mile!

I. Got. This!

Today's card is (sort of!) an optical illusion.

I was looking at this card after photographing it

and realized the left looks WAY larger than the right ....

except .... they are equal!

I've used the Dragonfly Garden stamp set from Stampin' Up

because .. of course .. dragonflies :)

This is the first time I've used this wildflower bunch included in it

and I love the contrast of the stark black in against the sunset colors.

I know this is a set I'll use over and over and over :)

My card is very clean and simple because it's for the CAS card

at Splitcoaststampers where it's a One Sheet Wonder challenge.

Thanks for stopping by 

and Happy Monday!

I'll enter this to:  World Art Wednesday

One Plus Twelve - April

 Hi friends!

Happy Easter ~ He is Risen!

I hope today is a sweet day for you all :)

My card today is for my April card challenge called One Plus Twelve.

It's where I take one stamp 

- and just one -

and use it creatively twelve different ways!

The stamp I chose for 2021 is Altenew's Build-a-flower Magnolia

and this is my April card ↓

I love coming up with creative ways to use this ONE stamp!

Sometimes it's hard not to stamp it twice or repeat stamp

but I am personally sticking to the challenge 

and just using the magnolia once.

There are so many techniques and ways to create a card.

I love that it's a challenge to be so out of the box creative

AND keep the intrigrity of the challenge :)

For April, I'm using a technique called Wrinkle Free Distress 

(you can see how it gets it's name here)

Instead of using the distressed background as just that,

I stamped directly to the background and die cut the flower out of it.

And that's my card :)

If all goes well, my May card is already thought out and planned!

Thanks for stopping by!

Entered to: Beyond the Blue: wrinkle free distress 

https://beyondthebluechallenges.blogspot.com/?m=1

CCEE2113 ~ Find a Rainbow Day!

Hi friends!

Happy April!

There's a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers

and our hostess for this month is Frances.

She says: 

Did you know that the 3rd of April is Find a Rainbow Day.

For our challenge this week, include a rainbow of some type on your card 

either a rainbow image or rainbow colors … whichever you prefer.

Such a fun theme!

I decided to use a rainbow panel that I created for a distress oxide

class last month.

I decided to switch it up and use it as the focal point!

I used Floral Focus from My Favorite Things stamps

and stamped directly onto the rainbow panel to create the flowers.

The sentiment is from another stamp set Cheerful Blessings.

I used Black Soot distress oxide inks with water to create splatter

and added just a few sequins.

Be sure to stop by the CCEE Stampers blog

and add your RAINBOW cards using the Mr. Linky.

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenge entered to:  Word Art Wednesday