CWS May Challenge; Flowers

The stamping challenge at http://creativewithstampschallenge.blogspot.com for May is Flowers.  Join us this month with your stamped creations.  This month's sponsor is Pattie's Creations Digital Stamps.

Sponsor:

Selected winner will receive 3 digi stamps

I used the Rubber Boots/Tulips image from Pattie's Creations Digital Stamps for this card.  The best thing about working with digital stamps is you can customize the size for your need.  I made this pretty big because I knew I was going to fussy cut it. I used markers that I have in my stash to color the image - a combination of alcohol markers and Tombow markers.  I use a white pen to add some highlights here and there as well.

Close Up:

The background was done by adding gesso, acrylic paint and some walnut ink on old book paper.  Then I added some random marks using my Elements Set by Bloom Art Stamps.  I tore a piece of a yellow doily, washi tapes and thread and added them behind the rubber boots.  The image was placed on the background with dimensionals. 

Rubber Boot Digi Stamp - Pattie's Creations Digital Stamps

Background Marks - Elements by Bloom Art Stamps

Sentiment - Stampin' Up

Remember to join the challenge at Creative with Stamps challenge site for a chance to win some great prizes!  Stamp on my friends!

Virtual Scrapbooking Night (VSBN) Variety B

I'm so glad I was invited to play at the Virtual Scrapbooking Nights in Splitcoaststampers.  It's not an exclusive group, just one that I didn't know about.  LOL

Since I joined in the month of April so late, I was only able to complete two of the challenges.  I posted my Variety A (1st Challenge) earlier and this is my Variety B (2nd challenge) layout.  This one was to use bundles of three.

As you can tell from the photo, I created three areas of embellishment clusters.  Each cluster has three items...washi tape, enamel dots and a patterned paper punched circle.

I love those photo booth photos taken at my SIL's surprise 60th birthday party.  So fun!!

That gorgeous doily was cut using my Artbooking Cricut Cartridge.  The title says "Be Your Beautiful Self".

This was a pretty simple layout to create.  I layered some scrap pieces of black/white patterned paper, vellum w/gold highlights, doily & the embellishment clusters.  I layered the photo booth photos so that the top photo covered the right hand "title".  It worked out perfect.

WOYWW #412

Hello Wednesday!

Here's a shot of my desk this morning.  I finished this layout last night and my mother's day card.  Those "polaroid" pieces on the left will be embellished for a swap I'm doing.  I cut them using my cricut.  The big bag of Starburst jelly beans were 70% off at my local Walgreens and they are yummy!  LOL

When organizing my craft room earlier this year, I found this 2 3/4" circle punch that I forgot about and have been using it a lot lately.  Isn't that funny?! 

Many people asked about the Rainbow Goldfish container on my desk a couple of weeks ago.  They are cheese flavored crackers in rainbow colors.  They all taste the same, just different colors.

Click over to Stamping-Ground to read all about the WOYWW challenge and "travel" around the world to visit other desks and work areas.  Enjoy and Happy Wednesday!

Virtual Scrapbook Night - Variety A

I'm excited to tell you that I am participating in a month long Virtual Scrapbook Night at Splitcoaststampers.com.  I realize that I love forum chatting and "meeting" new scrapbooking friends.  Since I joined so late this month, I don't think I'll participate in each challenge, but I was able to complete the first one.


Variety A is to use one photo.  Bonus if you use a sketch.  I don't usually scrapbook one photo but I only had one photo of our new years day adventure so this worked out perfectly.  Also, Stuck?! has a one photo sketch this month - SCORE!  Click Stuck?!.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

Close up of the embellies:

Now let me tell you about it:
I received this 6x6 paper pad & embellies at the 2016 Scrapbook Expo in my crop swag bag.  I love all the bright colors and it's a whole "city" theme, but didn't have any reason to use it.  I'm not sure why I decided to use it with this photo but the purple in my friend's scarf made me think to use purple.  The base paper is from SU! and is also very vibrant.  I scraped some gesso over it with a credit card.  While that was drying.  I grabbed two lt. gray 6x6 sheets to anchor the photo & embellies.  Dripped some black ink randomly & hand drew lines around it.  All the embellies are from the pack except for the black #1 and the punched "arrows".  I was also able to add dots with my Nuvo.  I also stamped the title which I have not done in a long time.


New Years Day:
Last minute plans involved us meeting Victor & Virginia, Larry & Monique at Pete's Fish Market in Moss Landing.  Kenny does not like seafood but I was really excited about going.  So we went.  Food was amazing.  We had a few drinks - played some music and had a great time.  It's quite an experience going to Pete's Fish Market!  After that we headed to the "Hole Enchilada" bar (that's where this photo was taken) - FUN - then we went to Monterey to three different bars before heading to our friends, Mark & Stella's in Salinas.  Ok, first of all, I have never bar hopped - not even when I was young - that in itself was hilarious!  We spent the night in Salinas and were slightly hung over on the drive home.  Good times!!

Homegrown Crop & The Bounty

Carly & I decided to host our own crop in the Command Center - just the two of us. So this is what we did:

• Purchase a bunch of snacks
• Set up a snack table in the room
• Play some favorite tunes
• Make stuff

 It's been a while since I pulled out my artsy stuff and just played so that's what I did.  You've all seen the Elements Stamp Sets from Bloom Arts that I designed (click here to purchase) but what you haven't seen is me using the circle stamps on the Elements 3 set. 

These sets can be used on everything!  Yup...tootin' my own horn.

  I used the three solid circles on Element 3.  I wasn't sure at first how I was going to use them, then I thought I'd experiment with the baby wipe technique.  (You can Google this technique but basically you drip re-inker drops onto a baby wipe and use it as a stamp pad)  Before I stamped on the cardstock, I also spritzed some water on the inked stamp to give it a cool water-colored image.

 As you can see, I also used an assortment of each Elements lined circle stamps to stamp around the water-colored circles.  LOVE!!  You'll see in the finished cards that I water-colored some light yellow over the white areas. 

  OOH AAH!  I'm swooning right now! 

Then I tossed the baby wipe. Once in the garbage, I did a double take. I grabbed it and swiped all that beautiful ink across another card.  You can see what I did with that HERE.  But here's what it looked like before I mixed-media'd it.

 I probably could have swiped more from this baby wipe, but I was done with it for now.  Here's one finished card from the circle background.  Added some gold thread, gold heart washi and a stamped image I made earlier in the day. So sweet! I love the colors & that yellow is so lovely.

Now for the other cards:

This is the swiped ink card.

Three cards from this tiny stamp set! Each a little different.

I used a circle punch to create a reverse mask and stamped inside it. 
If you look closely, I scored some lines above & below the washi tape.



Attempted a Shaker Card.  Love this stamp by Peggy Harris - first time using it!

I was determined to make at least one Shaker Cards since I bought all those sequins during the Expo earlier this year.  I should have put more in the card and I definitely will next time.

It's Been A While

Even though it's right on my bedside table, I hate to admit it, but I haven't opened my bible in a long time. I rarely stay in my bed long enough to grab something to read and it's one of those "out of sight...out of mind" things. (Not very Christian-like but hey if you can't be honest in your own blog, where can you be?) So, the other day like I always do when I read my bible, I said a prayer and then opened it. It opened to 2 Chronicles - read some versus and thought, WHAT? Then I read the introductory & felt so much better about what I read.
The chapters mention names - giving some history of the kings, etc. Nothing in particular. But the intro said the same thing I was thinking. The point is the more faithful the person was, the more he was noted in the Bible and in more detail. In other words, he found favor in God's eyes.  Sort of like a squeaky wheel but in a good way. I like that!
 

I did this simple bible journaling in the left side corner.  I was going to throw out the banner stamp but before I did, I cut out the sentiment that was in the middle.  I decided to keep it afterwards and I'm so glad that I did!  What a great versatile stamp!  The flowers are from Michael's dollar stamps and the letters for TRUST are Tim Holtz letter stack.  Just some simple water coloring from my water color pencils and done!

FCCB #299; Spring

The current challenge on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog (FCCB) is Spring.  Be sure to click on over to the blog and join the challenge for a chance to win:

The FCCB Design Team is sponsoring a $25 gift card at

Amazon!

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. If you use a Cricut Explore machine, at least one cut must be from the Cricut catalog of images.

If it isn't a card, you will get two entries into the drawing!

I made these super cute tags for gifts I purchased for the two school R.N.s in our district.  I used the Everyday Paper Doll cartridge to make the nurses.  It was fun personalizing the dolls to look like each nurse.  I used pretty Spring colored papers for the scrubs, the tag bases and the ribbons.

May 6 - 12 is National School Nurse Day which falls in the Spring so I thought this project would be perfect for the current challenge.  They work hard all the time and deserve a little THANK YOU every day!

I love making these messy bows out of ribbon scraps.  Basically, it's just layering multi pieces of ribbon together and then using another ribbon to tie them all together. It's a great way to use all those ribbon scraps you cannot part with (or is that just me?).  I used white string to attach them to the cellophane bag.

Photos:

Don't forget to click on over to the FCCB site.  Take a look at the DT projects as well as the linkers for inspiration.  Pull out your Cricut and join the fun!  You must use at least one cut on your project from the Cricut and be sure to let us know which cartridge(s) you used.  Have fun and Happy Spring!