Wish Upon A Star Birthday

Happy Saturday, peeps!  My card today is a little out of my norm, but I needed a card quickly and just sort of threw this together!  A sweet church friend is a dog lover....I mean a REAL dog lover, and her birthday is coming up.  The challenge at JUGS is to use stencils, and the Seize the Birthday challenge is to use red as the main color:

I pulled out the retired Happy Tails and its matching punch, some star stencils I received as a gift, and here is my quick card:

I remember experimenting with red inks on red cardstocks but I forget what I ended up thinking was the best color...this was Cherry Cobbler, and I don't really like the muddy effect it created, but I needed to get this in the mail, so I'll have to experiment again!  Anyway, I stamped my pup on Crumb Cake and punched him out:

The sentiment on the front of the card is a from Lawn Fawn's Upon a Star:

and on the inside, the sentiment is from Spellbinders, along with some paw prints from Happy Tails:

I hope she likes it!  And just to show you how special my friend is, she volunteers for an organization called Canine Partners for Life.  They train service dogs for people with disabilities and are seizure-prone, and besides the regular trainers, they use people like Sue who raise and foster puppies to be service dogs. They also use prisoners who train them as well.  It's a pretty cool setup! She brings her dogs to church and sometimes we can hear them as they are napping and dreaming, LOL!  Check it out at their website!

Thanks so much for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happy Tails (ret), Upon a Star (Lawn Fawn), Greetings (Spellbinders)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, Real Red
Ink	Real Red, Versafine Black, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Nested Essentials Dies, Dog Punch (ret), Star Stencil (A Color Life Designs), Blending Brush

Most Adored in Color

Happy Friday, peeps! I have a pretty little card today which uses some of the SAB Most Adored DSP!  I fussy-cut one of the smaller gold-outlined rose images and colored it with some Blends...here we go:

I popped it up on a diecut panel, added a gold heat-embossed sentiment from Lasting Joy, and embellished it with two little Bubble Bath diecut banners:

All of that went on a Soft Seafoam panel, embossed with the Countryside Blossoms embossing folder.  This is such a soft, pretty color combo, don't you think?  I am entering this at the Seize the Birthday challenge; they are looking for dry or wet embossing...and this fits both bills!  

Thanks for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Lasting Joy, Itty Bitty Backgrounds (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Soft Seafoam, Bubble Bath, Most Adored DSP
Ink	Versamark, Soft Seafoam
Accessories	Dimensionals, Gold Embossing Powder
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Nested Essentials Dies, Countryside Blossoms Embossing Folder, Heat Tool, Blends

STB270 Pumpkin Birthday

Happy Monday, peeps! I have a very quick card today, I let the papers do most of the work! It's for a very creative friend of mine; she is an accomplished seamstress, bakes and cooks the yummiest delights and we have spent lots of time stamping together!  So I thought these country-themed, fall-hued papers would be fun for her October birthday! So here we go:

My papers are from Carta Bella's Fall Break, and I used the Charming Sentiments stamps and dies, in Mossy Meadow ink, to create the sentiment.  A little piece of the opposite side of one of the papers, along with a scrap of Mossy Meadow, created the banner.  A simple sentiment on the inside, and it was done!  

I am going to enter this at the Seize the Birthday challenge, where it's always birthdays!  I did not choose the option of repetitive diecuts, but I do have one, LOL!  

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Charming Sentiments
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Mossy Meadow, Fall Break (Carta Bella)
Ink	Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Charming Sentiments Dies

PP624 A Little Birdie

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge with Jaydee hosting our latest Clean-and-Simple challenge!  Check it out:

I have tons of bird stamps, but most of them are "serious" bird stamps and I wanted a more "whimsical" bird for my card today!  I sort of hit a happy medium; I used a "semi-serious" diecut bird, coloring it to resemble a Carolina wren, and "sort-of whimsical" sentiment from Pure Innocence.  So here we go:

The bird was diecut from Sahara Sand cardstock and watercolored and perched on a Soft Suede branch:

I found some DSP in my stash that looked like little birdie foot prints, so I used the Stitched With Whimsy die on it and mounted it on a card base of Crumb Cake as well.  I heat embossed the sentiment on a Basic Black banner:

And since I LOST the stamp that said "Happy Bird-Day" in the abyss of my stamp room, I resorted to a computer-generated sentiment to adhere on the inside!

I am also going to enter this at the Seize the Birthday challenge--Winged Things!

I really wish I could have come up with a more whimsical image for my creation today, but sometimes you've just got to go with what you have! I hope you can find something to play with for our "Happy Bird-Day CAS" challenge and share it with us at the Players this week too!  Be sure to see what the DT came up with...they'll make you smile!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	You're So Tweet (Pure Innocence)
Card stock & Papers	Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Share What You Love DSP (ret)
Ink	Craft White, Cinnamon Cider, Crushed Curry
Accessories	White Embossing Powder
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Aquapainter, Stitched With Whimsy Die, Bird & Blooms Dies (ret), Sweet Birds on a Branch Die (Spellbinder), Banners Dies (Nestabilities), Heat Tool

Sparkly Birthday Candles

Happy Friday, peeps!  Gray and cloudy here, hope all down south are doing okay.  I have a card for three challenges, and let me say, it was a dastardly card to create, LOL!  First, the challenges:  Seize the Birthday wants many of something (I used candles), CAS on Sunday wants sparkle, and I used the sketch from Fusion:

So here we go:

Although the concept of this was simple, diecutting all those itty bitty candles and flames from various scraps of glimmer paper tried my patience, LOL!  I was happy with the end result, though...it was worth it.  I did use my new Sticky Mats from Sweet Petunia...they're very helpful for keeping wee little pieces from straying!  Here's my  candle lineup....probably a bit crooked but they're down for good!

The candle dies as well as the sentiment and die are from Charming Sentiments and the matching Sentiment Silhouette dies.  I also used a retired Jumbo Polka Dot embossing folder for my Basic White card!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Charming Sentiments
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Misc Glimmer Paper Scraps
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Sentiment Silhouettes Dies, Jumbo Polka Dot EF (ret)

CAS Mix It Up Things with Wings

Happy Saturday, peeps!  I stepped a wee bit out of my comfort zone with the CAS Mix it Up challenge for this month:  Things with Wings!

So here we go, although I am not sure if the watercoloring is the "main element"...oh well!:

I had a piece of 3" x 6" Very Vanilla cardstock already scored for another (unused) project, and a piece of watercolor paper already cut to this size, so I thought I'd used them together. I heat-embossed a Tim Holtz butterfly image in black, then added a watercolored background to each one.  I chose blue, green and purple so I could play with the Seize the Birthday challenge:

I used Mint Macaron, Balmy Blue and Highland Heather inks with an aquapainter and just blended them into each other:

I did a bit of speckles with some Highland Heather ink.  The background looked a little blah, so I coated it with some Wink of Stella.....that really jazzed it up a bit!  Too bad you can't see how awesome it looks here!

I added a sentiment from a really old Crafty Secrets bird set, but I thought it was appropriate since it was about wings!

I added a birthday sentiment on the inside and it's added to my stash!

Thanks for visiting today!

The kids went to Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island recently:

It's a pretty amazing place!  Check out that driftwood!  It's hard to imagine how huge these pieces of wood are!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hold on to Hope (ret), For the Birds, Garden Notes (both Crafty Secrets), Butterfly Melange (Tim Holtz)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Watercolor, Purple Posy (ret)
Ink	Versamark, Stazon Black, Highland Heather, Mint Macaron, Balmy Blue
Accessories	Dijmensionals, Black Embossing Powder
Tools	Aquapainter, Heat Tool, Wink of Stella

RRCB186 Sunshine & Laughter

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Doesn't it feel like Monday?  Yikes, I love long weekends but it does take a bit of adjustment to our schedules!  Well, we have a new Retro Rubber challenge for you, where we encourage you to dust off those older stamps and show them some love!  We have a sketch challenge for you (my favorites!) so here we go:

I love all the elements in this sketch!  I pulled out some older Unity stamps to create my summery card:

I stamped the image in Stazon on Thick Basic White cardstock and used reinkers and an aquapainter to color them in.  I matched up some DSP with the colors I used and happened to find a perfect sentiment in an old Hero Arts set I had, cutting it in two sections to make it fit:

I paper pieced the bathing suit too, and added some Wink of Stella but unfortunately you can't see it.  I went a little overboard with the inside; these Unity sentiments seemed fun and whimsical to add for a summer birthday:

And I am going to squeak this in just under the wire for the Seize the Birthday challenge of  summer activities!

I hope you'll be able to find some time amidst your own summer activities to play with our Retro Rubber challenge this week!  Remember to use stamps older than a year, and tell us the approximate age!  So happy you popped in today!

Wayne's family had a reunion over the weekend and they had a chance to meet Wayne's niece's new baby!  I think she was born the day after Ganae's passing, so she is a double blessing!  Cassidy was in heaven:

Dana got her baby fix too!

 Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	All Smiles (Unity, 2011), Sentiments O'Simple (Unity, approx 2011??), Sentiments CL342 (Hero Arts, 2015)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Basic White, Poppy Parade, Retired DSPs in Balmy Blue, Pear Pizzazz and So Saffron
Ink	Stazon Black, Balmy Blue, Poppy Parade, Bumblebee, Granny Apple Green, Pacific Point, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Aquapainter

FMS450 Birthdays

Hi everyone!  Happy Saturday...praying for all those in the hurricanes' paths!  Like we need more things to worry about, right?!  Well, no worries here, just two birthday cards using the Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

 

The first one uses some printed paper from my stash (thanks, Teri!) and some diecut flowers to match:

I used a favorite My Favorite Things stitched flower die, cutting flowers in So Saffron, Poppy Parade and Soft Sky, and since there are flowers in a garden, I am entering this at the Inspire.Create challenge this week as well:

The sentiment is from Many Mates, heat embossed in white on Basic Gray and diecut with a Stitched So Sweetly die; it's all mounted on a Pool Party card base!

The second one uses the same sketch, and I chose gold pumpkins for a fall birthday card for Seize The Birthday's challenge:

This idea looked better in my head than it did on paper, but you know how it goes...you don't want to toss it after spending so much time on it, LOL!

It's so hard to see, but the W+9 pumpkins are gold embossed and watercolored with Cajun Craze and Terracotta Tile inks:

I used Papertrey's A Wreath for All Seaons to create a fall birthday sentiment, stamped in Cajun Craze and Old Olive, diecut with a Stitched Rectangle die and embellished with Gilded Gems:

The printed paper is from Recollection's Thankful Heart pad; it features some pretty gold embossed designs as well!  Thanks for popping in today!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

All Things Fabulous for Summer

Hello, peeps, and happy Monday!  I am getting a laaaate start today, but it is Monday, after all!  I have a birthday card I made for a special friend who loves the ocean!  It uses the sketch from Fusion Card Challenge and the theme from Global Design Project:

So here we go:

So, this whole card was a bit of an experiment!  I recently got SU's stencils, and I wanted to play with them, so I stencilled the leafy pattern in Pool Party on some Whisper White cardstock, and added some of the "leaves" (that look like bubbles to me) from the new Life is Beautiful set.  They are stamped very lightly, but maybe you can see them here:

I added some Soft Seafoam seaweed using a die from Smooth Sailing and three little sand dollars from Seaside Notions:

They were stamped in Sahara Sand on white cardstock, and to give them a wee bit of color, I also brayered them to color them, then added a little darker color with an aquapainter.  My sentiment is from All Things Fabulous, stamped in Pool Party and I used the Banners Pick a Punch to notch the edges:

The last thing was to add a couple of sequins, and mount it on a Pool Party base.  And since my base is a non-neutral, I am squeaking this in at the last minute for the Seize the Birthday challenge, as well as the Always Fun Challenge of stencils!:

Thanks so much for popping in today!!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Seaside Notions, All Things Fabulous, Life is Beautiful (avail. August 4), Comfort and Hope (small bubbles)
Card stock & Papers	Pool Party, Soft Seafoam, Whisper White
Ink	Pool Party, Soft Seafoam, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Sequins, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Smooth Sailing Dies, Banners Pick a Punch, Sponge Roller, Basic Pattern Decorative Masks, Aquapainter