Dragonfly Prayers

Here's another card where the pretty paper does all the work. All I had to do was add a nice sentiment, in this case, something from Hero Arts "Prayers" Stamp & Cut set. The word "prayers" is die cut, but the rest of the sentiment is stamped.

The hardest part of all of this was the dragonfly's wings; I usually use vellum when I make a dragonfly's wings, but the vellum just kind of disappeared on top of the paper design. White paper stood out as too bold. I finally settled on adding glitter spray to the white wings, which toned them down a bit and added a nice shimmer as well.

I've entered this card into Splitcoast's Clean & Simple challenge for the week - to make something with wings. There are some great entries there if you want to take a peek.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Supplies:

Stamps - Hero Arts "Prayers" Stamp & Cut set

Paper - From Love Nicole "Aquarelle" pad

Ink - Memento "Sweet Plum"

Dies - Hero Arts "Prayers"; Memory Box "Dazzling Dragonfly"

Accessories - Tattered Angels "Iridescent Gold" Glimmer Mist

Out on a Limb

It's been a while since I've used my Hambo Stamps, mostly because I've been concentrating on making card ministry cards, and I lean towards more elegant images and sentiments for those. But then I have to remind myself that different people enjoy different things, and maybe a pun will be just the thing to brighten someone's day!

Here, I've used the Hambo clear "Owl" set, and colored the owl and the branch with copic markers. I'm identifying with this owl, as I too am feeling extra "fluffy" around the middle. Summer is a time for ice cream and milkshakes, and, well, you know how that goes. But I digress... The beautiful leaf print is another design in the "Aquarelle" pad, by Love Nicole. I popped up the sentiment with dimensionals, thus satisfying the "Ways to Use It" challenge for this week at Splitcoast. I love using dimensionals, so there was really no challenge in it for me. Perhaps I should push myself a bit harder next time.

Hope your weekend is a HOOT!!

Plaid with Flowers

This week's CAS challenge at Splitcoast asked us to use plaid in our creations. I actually had a piece of plaid out on my table with this teal textured cardstock that I thought could work together, and when I found this scalloped circle in a baggie of leftover elements, the card came together.

The flowers are from the "Enamor" clear set by Penny Black, and the sentiment is from "Kind Words" by Verve. I used copic markers to color the flowers. The plaid paper is from and American Crafts 6x6 pad called "#summer" -- which is filled with some of the brightest colors and designs I've ever seen in papers! Just using a small strip like this helps to tone it down a bit.

I have a special coupon code for Hambo Stamps that is good thru the rest of this month. Mention "CAS35" when you order to save 35% on all Hambo stamps thru next Tuesday (31st). This code is not referenced on the Hambo website anywhere, and is a special code just for my blog readers.

Have a great day!

Sailboat Peace

I played along with the Splitcoast "Clean and Simple" challenge #489, which was to make a "tropical" CAS card. If I went on a tropical vacation, I'd hope it would be like this "Beachfront Boat" stamp scene by Stampendous. Whether on that boat or on that beach, it looks so quiet and peaceful, I could think of no better sentiment! And because I will be using this in my card ministry, I paired the idea of peace with the inside scripture "Be still and know that I am God. - Psalm 46:10"

I'm also submitting this to the Dragonfly Journeys "Summer Lovin'" challenge. I'm sure everyone has some kind of summer stamps or dies, so link it up so we can see what YOU made! :)

Supplies:

Stamps - "Beachfront Boat" by Stampendous; "Holiday Word Borders" set by Hero Arts
Paper - "Aquarelle" (6 x 6 pad) by Love Nicole
Ink - Versafine onyx black; Ranger Distress Oxide inks for watercoloring 

Pretty Poppies

It's been forever since I played along with a Splitcoast sketch challenge, so I'm patting myself on the back a little, because I found this one to be kind of tough. I had several images that could take up the longish space on the left, but what would coordinate for the smaller boxes on the right?

I really wanted to use my Stampendous "Poppy Scene" stamp on the left, but adding further to my problem was that the frame around the image was irregular. My solution? Doodling!

That's right - those boxes on the right were doodled with a Micron pen. I stamped poppies from a Technique Tuesday clear set, but they didn't look right. I settled on keeping the stems from that stamp, but then re-stamping the Stampendous one, and cutting out some of the poppies to glue on top of the Techique Tuesday stems. Then I used a sentiment from Hero Arts to complete the layout.

I always like a red/white/black combination (maybe because of my love for the Detroit Red Wings?), and I think this pops. Hah! Appropriate for "Pop"pies! LOL (I crack myself up.)

Enjoy the last few days of June. See you in July! OH - And look for a big Hambo Stamps sale coming up next week! 40% discounts on everything - spread the word!

Have a great weekend!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous "Poppy Scene"; Technique Tuesday "Growing Wild" set (stems); Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings"
Paper - "Garden Party" by Pebbles (DP); Stampin' Up real red cardstock
Ink - colored with Copic markers; sentiment embossed with white powder
Dies - banner from Becky Higgins set

Rusty Rose

If you're like me, when you flip through a designer paper pad, there's usually one or two patterns that you kind of say "Aaack! What in the world will I do with THAT??" This was one of those patterns for me. While I really love almost all of the prints in Love Nicole's "Aquarelle" pad, this one was quickly skipped past. And, as has happened before, what I originally didn't like ends up being a favorite. Go figure.

The thing that originally stumped me was the color combo, I think. Powder blue, mixed with rust, mixed with purples? Oh, and some olive green for good measure. I was trying the print out with different solids, and when I hit upon this SU rust color, I liked it! Suddenly, it seemed like the color combo made sense. I added this flower from the Penny Black "Enamor" set, which I colored with Copics. This is probably the first time I've used my Copic markers in at least a couple of years, but I'm happy to say they were still mostly juicy.

I added the Hero Arts sentiment, stamped on a banner die from a Becky Higgins (American Crafts) die set found at Tuesday Morning. There are 8 really useful dies in the package, for $4.99. Score!

Since I still have time, I will enter this into Jeannie's "Rose Garden" challenge that ends this weekend. There's time for you to play along too!

Have a great weekend!

All My Hope

When I did a shout-out to Verve Stamps a couple of weeks ago, I pictured the freebies that had accompanied my order, including designer papers, a doily and a printed sentiment. The card above is what I was able to make with those things. I also used Stampin' Up grey cardstock for the card base, and old olive cardstock to frame the sentiment. I sponged "Worn Lipstick" Distress Oxide Ink over the doily.

I am entering my card in Jeannie's Dragonfly Journeys challenge, which is to include roses on your card. There are lots of them in the DP, so this is an easy qualifier. There's still more than a week left to play along if you have a rose project to share!

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

More Color!

My friend Jeannie runs "Dragonfly Journeys," a challenge blog, and her challenge this week is called "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It sent me looking for rainbow paper so that I could play along.  I found a perfect sheet in an American Crafts 6x6 pad called "#Summer" that allowed me to make two cards. This first one uses a strip of the striped paper, along with a sticker I found in my stash, which I popped up on dimensionals.

My second card uses the same paper:

This time, I added a tag with a die cut "hello" (Hero Arts), and stamped a sentiment below from Hero Arts' "Everyday Sayings" clear set. This is perhaps my most used set in my card ministry, because it contains nearly every saying I need, including "thinking of you" in 3 different fonts. Inside this card, I added a verse from Hampton Art's "Hope & Faith" set:

I AM truly glad, because today is the first day of June, and summer break is just around the corner. "Wonderful Joy" indeed! Wishing you joy as well!