Scrapping Everyday Miracles - September Challenge!

I cannot believe it is September already! It feels like it was just June - and now the kids head back to school here in Alberta today! Well, with the start of a new month comes the start of a new challenge over at the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog, and since it's Tuesday I'm posting over at the Scrapendipity Way Of Life blog - so what better than to combine them :) I'm not quite ready to let summer go, so as you'll see my card is celebrating catching that last bit of summer fun!

This month my project is based on the awesome card sketch by DT member Bev!

I recently picked up the Crazy Birds, Crazy Things and Crazy Talk stamps from the Scrapendipity Truck (we have an awesome scrapbook truck and online store full of amazing papercrafting goodies since our LSS closed!) and I've been having so much fun using them! I also picked up a goody pack of BoBunny Ephemera full of papers from the Boardwalk collection as well as coordinating stamps and accessories. They were a perfect addition to my summer fun card!

I stamped my bird on white cardstock and coloured him in with Prismacolor Markers, which are alcohol based. I added some glasses from the Crazy Things set and popped them up with foam dots, and then I stamped a surf board from the BoBunny Ephemera set and popped it under his wing. He's totally ready to catch a wave! I also used a Tim Holtz sunray stencil on my background along with some Distress Ink to brighten up my card.

Inside, I added a stamped sentiment from the Crazy Talk set - love the handwriting in this set - as well as some shades and a splash of water from the BoBunny set.

Lastly, I had to decorate my envelope! I added another cute bird and a few more stamps and coloured them in with Distress Markers. Time to send some Happy Mail off to a friend!

Thanks so much for joining me today! Whatever your week has in store for you, I hope you get to take some time for yourself to relax a little and be crafty :) Don't forget to check out what all the other Design Team members have come up with and enter your own project for a chance to win a sweet prize!! 

This month I'll be giving away the prize for this month's challenge winner - a gift certificate to Pretty Cute Stamps! You don't want to miss out on your chance for some sweet stamps, so head on over to the SEM blog and get started!

FCCB 228- Tag You're It!

Welcome to another Challenge Me Monday...

Challenge #228 Tag You're It

This Weeks Sponsor

Crafter's Companion Prize Package which includes
4 sets of alcohol markers that have 6 markers in each set, a 20 pack of alcohol marker paper, some marker trays and one of the Spectrum Noir DVD's

~This Weeks Challenge~

Tag You're It!

Create a project that uses a tag

To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used.

For my project this week I started by creating a background on a plain off white piece of cardstock cut into a tag shape. My diecuts are from the Straight From The Nest Cricut cartridge. The feather is cut from watercolour paper and the bird from vanilla cardstock.

Since I simply love all things Distress I started my background by stencilling Mustard  Seed Distress Paint on the Tim Holtz Sunray stencil. Then I sponged Distress Ink over top.  This is one of my favourite techniques! I love the way the paint acts as a resist and really pops!

I then stencilled with Distress Inks over the heart Tim Holtz stencil and a Heidi Swapp stencil and added a stitching stamp before attaching my feather. 

I added a couple stamps with black ink. 

To colour my bird and feather I used another fav technique and smooshed Distress Inks on my craft sheet, spritzed them with water and pulled my diecuts through the inks. 

I used some Festival Hemp cord at the top of my tag - I love the bright look of this tag! We had snow this past week here, so this was the perfect thing to brighten up my craft room :)

I hope you all enjoy a fabulous week! Be sure to check out all the fun tags the rest of the Design Team has put together for this challenge at FCCB and enter your own for a chance to win an awesome prize!

Challenges-

DL Art - Thankful Thursday September Linky Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make Your Own Background 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - Rock the Techniques

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/

Slothsome Day!

I am absolutely loving the new Pretty Cute Stamps I'm getting to play with!  This Slothsome set is adorable! 

I used a wood grain embossing folder on some brown Core'dinations cardstock and a Spellbinders Nestability die to cut the shaped diecut from watercolour paper.  The super cute sentiment is from the set as well - I white heat embossed it. 

I cut the butterfly and flowers from the Gypsy Wandering cartridge and I sponged Distress Ink on my watercolour background. 

I used the heart stamps in the set with white embossing powder on a pink patterned cardstock and then coloured them in with Distress Markers in Picket Fence white and various pinks. I white embossed the leaves and added Distress Stain on top, added Distress Ink to the edges of the flowers and layered them together with some pink brads. 

I watercoloured this cute little guy with Distress Markers and used Tumbled Glass to create a shadow around him, which then blended into the sponged inks. 

Inside I added a greeting from the Wish Big set along with another from the Slothsome set. I love all the cool sayings that come with these sets!

http://prettycutestamps.com/item_12/Slothsome.htm

http://prettycutestamps.com/item_4/Wish-Big.htm

Challenges-

Deconstructing Jen - sketch

http://deconstructingjen.com/

PDE - Use 3 patterned papers

http://pdelinkyparty.blogspot.ca/2014/07/pde-linky-party-15-with-team-b.html?m=1

4 Crafty Chicks - Anything goes

http://www.4craftychicks.blogspot.ca/2014/07/anything-goes-challenge-and-crazy-egg.html?m=1

Little Scrap Pieces - Show It Off Saturday

http://littlescrappieces.blogspot.ca/?m=1

Diecuttin' Divas - Anything Goes

http://diecuttindivas.blogspot.ca/2014/07/challenge-176-anything-goes-challenge.html?m=1

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

http://avenue613.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/challenge-83-anything-goes-woptional.html?m=1

Crafting From the Heart - Anything Goes

http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.ca/2014/07/challenge-29.html?m=1

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/

Hope you all enjoy your weekend! We have a holiday here in Alberta tomorrow, so we will just be takin' it easy!

Happy Crafting!

Karla

Fire and Ice Tags

The swap last month with Lefty Productions was to create and swap Fire and Ice tags.  I used the Prima Paper Doll stamps by Julie Nutting, which totally remind me of my Nanny who used to draw paper dolls for us.

Fire

 

Ice



 I used Distress Paints to sponge through a stencil onto the background of a vanilla cardstock tag (above), and then I sponged Distress Inks over the background and the paint acts as a resist (below).  Next I sponged Distress Ink on top through another stencil and then added some stamping with black ink and used Brilliance ink in blue and pink to stamp a scroll stamp on each stamp.  I love this ink, it's so shiny!

 For the dolls, I stamped them with brown waterproof ink onto watercolour paper and then water-coloured the skin and hair with Distress Markers.  I paper pieced the dresses and added glitter to the headbands. After gluing down the dolls to the tags I added some embellishments and a piece of yarn to the top.

 

 

 Hope you all have a chance to get some crafting done this weekend!

Karla

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Bling it on!

December 2013 Sketchy Challenge

Wow, how did December fly by so quick?!!! In November I felt like I had everything under control and now I feel like I'm scrambling.  But, of course, I have a list (a long list) so I feel like I'm progressing :).

I just had to make a layout for the December Sketchy Challenge at Canadian Scrapbooker, and I pulled out some pics I just took after an early November snow this year when the girls headed outside to play. 

Erica is so excited to get outside and experience snow, since, of course, she doesn't remember last winter! It is very exciting to say the least.  

The background paper is from the Heidi Swapp Believe collection, and the smaller patterned papers are from the Simon Says Stamp December card kit. I also used the stencil from this kit and sponged snowflakes with Distress Ink, as well as the really cute mitten stamps from the kit.

I stamped the mittens on striped paper, then the little heart stamps in the set on the mittens and used a white gel pen to highlight the zigzags. 

I used some snowflake die cuts from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, which I sponged with Distress Ink and added Stickles to.  The letters are by Kelly Purkey, included in the SSS December kit.

The little tags are cut out of the Heidi Swapp paper.

 



 Just love this little snowflake stencil, which came in the SSS Dec kit!

 



I think the snow is here to stay so I can foresee lots of snow pages this year!

Challenges:
Canadian Scrapbooker - December Sketch
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Bling it on (use something sparkly!)
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Use a stamp

Happy Holidays,
Karla

Snowflakes and Mittens

There is a great sketch right now at Die-Cuttin Divas. I pulled out the snowflake stencil from my Simon Says December 2013 card kit and sponged with Distress Inks to create a cool background.  The so cute little mitten stamps came with the kit as well, and I stamped on some AC cardstock, which has texture on one side, creating a neat fabric effect when stamped on.

I die-cut the scalloped rectangle from the Just Because Cards cartridge and sponged a little ink around the edges before popping it up with some foam dots.

 

 

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - make your own background

Die Cuttin Divas - Sketch Challenge





Snowflake Stencilled Card

I am really enjoying the Simon Says December Card Kit! It is the first kit I have received from them and am so pleased with it.  I love that there are so many samples and videos from their amazing design team to get ideas from, and there are enough supplies to make a lot of cards!

For this card I used May Flaum's example - this cute snowflake stencil is amazing! I used Distress Ink to sponge over the stencil, around the sentiment (also included in the kit) to create a background.

 The pretty little sequins are perfect for adding to cards and I stuck them on with Glossy Accents. Simon Says Wednesday Challenge this week is to create a background without using patterned papers - so I think this qualifies :)

The next card I make was inspired by a video by Nichol Magouirk, using the supplies in this kit.  I used the pretty polkadot paper included in the kit and stamped the string, mittens, and hearts on white cardstock. As you can see we have started opening the Lego Friends' Advent Calendar...

 

I used a white gel pen to create dots on the hearts and scattered the sequins around, gluing with Glossy Accents. I popped up the stamped piece as well as the sentiment banner, both sponged with pink Distress Ink.



 You can check out the gallery at Simon Says Stamp to see more inspiration!

Happy crafting!
Karla

Blueprint Christmas Tags

I just love these Tim Holtz blueprint stamps! I decided to try out my new Distress Markers (Christmas gift to myself!) and thought they would make cute tag fronts.

I first stamped with Archival ink in black on watercolour paper and then used the Distress Markers to watercolour in the images.  I absolutely love how these markers blend.  I still really like my Tombows, but these are much softer colours and give a completely different look.

After colouring the images in I sponged on Distress Ink around the edges and tied on some Baker's Twine.

 



This week's challenge at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Blog is to create a background without using patterned papers.  Check out the amazing samples the design team has put together!

Summer Card Camp 2 - Pre-class Challenge #2!

The second pre-class challenge for the Summer Card Camp 2 about to begin at Online Card Classes next week is a sketch challenge. 

 

For this challenge I decided on a grungy look, using Distress Inks and Dylusions Sprays (both favs of mine!) and a tag.  I sponged my card base and then stamped on it.  Then I sprayed my tag, over a stencil, with red and blue Dylusions Sprays and then sponged with Distress Inks and after drying misted again over a stencil with white spray. I added some vintage cut outs which I brushed some glossy medium on to make a bit shiny as well as some bakers twine, sprayed crinkle ribbon and added a paper flower.  For the banner I attached a sentiment from the same cut out sheet and edged it with white paint after distressing.

 

Be sure to check out Online Card Classes for some wonderful summer inspiration!

Playing in Paradise Guest Designer

I was so fortunate to have won the challenge over at Scrapbookers Paradise 2 weeks ago, and now I get to be the guest designer!

This week's challenge is a color challenge. These aren't colors I normally choose to use, but I decided to pull out my Distress Inks in Old Paper, Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough and create a tag. I first blended the inks on the background, distressed my edges, used a bit of Vintage Photo, and then gave a spray with blue Smooch Spritz. I used a gears Tim Holtz embossing folder In the top left corner and blended the Iced Spruce over top. Then I stamped Tim Holtz stamps on the bottom and middle and used some Crackle accents on part of the timepiece. I also sponged on ink to add color to the ribbon before tying it on.

This is one of the reasons I love doing challenges; you get to try something you normally wouldn't and then your mind starts thinking about all the other possibilities!

 

Happy Friday everyone! Have a wonderful, crafty weekend and be sure to play along at the Scrapbookers' Paradise Blog!