PTI March Blog Hop

This is my first time participating in the PTI Blog Hop!  This month, the challenge is to use sequins on your project.

I made a card for the challenge using Hello Sunshine.  I was inspired by the photo of the stars (upper right 2nd row) covered by all those beautiful sequins.  The dotted sun rays are embossed in Butter Zing embossing powder.  The remaining sun rays are stamped with Summer Sunrise.  Not having a good place for a sentiment, I channeled my inner Jess Witty and embossed the sentiment on a clear overlay in detail white embossing powder.  The PTI clouds die cuts are covered with iredescent white sequins purchased from Ellen Hutsen.

Making this short and sweet so both you and I can hop to the other blogs!

Linda

CAS stamping

Hello!  Two posts from me in one day?  Must be the cold weather (aka perfect stampy weather).  This post even has TWO cards, which really is unheard of for me.  LOL!

I'm trying to dabble with a CAS style.  So many stampers that I admire do it so well.  I thought it was time that I gave it a try too.  It definitely is out of my comfort zone, but one can't grow if one is not willing to try new things.

The first card is for PTI's Make it Monday #108 to make Inked Backgrounds.  I used my new  Wonderful Words: Birthday (PTI)  to emboss the word Birthday in detail white embossing powder.  I then created a mask for the two opposing corners and used my ink blending tool to blend Spun Sugar, Wild Honey, and Tumbled Glass distress inks (Tim Holtz) on my panel.  I don't know how well you can see it, but where the yellow and blue meet in a couple of spots it made green (gotta love how those distress inks blend)!  I then added some new sequins that I purchased from Ellen Hutsen and then mounted the panel using dimensional adhesive on a white card stock panel.

I am also taking an online card class.  This class in particular is one that I desperately needed.  It is the Pattern Play class which is teaching me how to use all the pretty patterned paper that I've been hoarding buying over the years.  All I can say is it is money well spent as I have a ton of new ideas and techniques in my stampers arsenal that really are quite simple.  

This is a pretty straight forward case of Laura Bassen.  I had never heard of her before I started this class but will be visiting her on a regular basis from now on.  What a talented lady with a wonderful CAS style.

The card uses the Wonderful Words: Hello die (PTI) cut from eclipse masking tape.  I applied my mask to Soft Stone bitty dot paper (PTI) and then stamped stripes (PTI Background Basics Super Stripes) in Hibiscus Burst, Summer Sunrise, and Limeade Ice. I mounted this to a white cardstock panel and added a few sequins purchased from Ellen Hutsen.

Hope it's Spring where you are!

Linda

Blue Moon

I

Hi!  I am coming at you from snowy CO with another card for the TCP Tuesday challenge.  This challenge is a neutral challenge plus we are allowed one patterned paper and one other color.  Oh and lest I forget Alma also is limiting the number of layers to two only (not including the base).

In my mind I was rebelling a little when I first colored this image.  After all, TCP images look super cute with lots of bright colors and patterns.  Lots of fun layers too!  You know what though?  Alma's images ARE super cute with all of the above but they are also cute when you simplify things.

I colored BunBun up with Copics (W1, W3, W5, W7) for this neutral look.  The cloud border die got a workout and is cut from SU Brushed Silver and then layered with SU Basic Grey.  The Blue Moon is the Sunflower Rosette die from Night of Navy.  The patterned paper is from October Afternoon (campfire I think).  The exhaust from BunBun's plane is stamped on vellum.  

Hope you enjoy!  I have a card I made for the Pattern Play class that I'm taking that I'll post a little later.

Linda

Leprechaun captured!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  In the Nicholson household, we are always trying to build a bigger and better leprechaun trap.  Look at the cutie we captured!

I made this for the month long TCP Tuesday challenge (and what a challenge it is).  We are to have only one patterned paper (one...uno...no double sided), can only be TWO layers (not counting the base) and it is a Neutrals challenge (white/cream/craft/black + one color).

This challenge is...
shall we say it....
CHALLENGING!

When I use my TCP stamps...
they look best with lots of bright colors...
and fun layers...
but Alma in her infinite wisdom knows that her cutie pie images can handle a CAS type card.

Well I'm off to go eat a bowl of Lucky Charms and do some productive things for the day (which may include another card or two for this challenge)!

Stamps: A Beary Good Year (retired image from TCP)
Paper:  SS white and New Leaf (PTI), patterned paper from Reminisce, glitter paper from Doodlebug
Other:  Divine Twine and Cloud border die (TCP),
Sunrise Impressions 1 (PTI), bling from stash

Lovely Larkspur (or a lesson in creativity)

So Splitcoaststampers have these challenges going on...
the first challenge is one of those word challenges....
LOVE....
you know L is for Lavender...
O is for Oval...
Etc...
I went to bed last night thinking about what I could do...
L is for layers....
Hmmmm.....O...
this one vexed me a bit..
V can be Violets...
and I did just purchase the YOF:  Violets dies...
E can be embossing....
Oh and V can also be for Vellum...
Anyone who is a die hard PTI fan can probably already see where this is going...
So I'm just going to say it...
I CASED BETSY'S CARD!

Phew....got that out of my system...
I definitely didn't use this card in the contest...
and believe me when I say that I had all the intentions of NOT casing her card...
but what I found is that the arrangement of Violets was perfect...
the use of Embroidered Blooms as accents was just perfect...
Believe me when I say that MANY pieces of cardstock were stamped with other things...
and discarded...
die cut with Edgers dies and Oval dies (trying to get my O in there)...
and discarded...
Nothing looked right except for the perfect arrangement that is Betsy's card...
So I just went with it !

But that card lead me into creating THIS card...

Very easily I may add as the creativity juices were flowing...
and I managed to use one of those stamped backgrounds on this card...
so all is good....

L is for Larkspur...
O is for Off the Page
V is for Vellum
E is for White Embossing.
There always are a bunch of butterflies flying around in my mother's garden so there are a few of them on here too...

Oh and by the way, if you have the YOF series and are wondering if the newly released dies are worth it?  All I can say is YES!  I found that using a black piece of card stock underneath the die cut really helped me stamp accurately.  I will be adding more of these to my collection when they are back in stock.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linda

Salud

Good morning!

I was able to play around in my craft room yesterday and made a card suitable for a couple of challenges.  First off is the member company Love Fest going on over on SCS.  The first is a challenge by Simon Says Stamp and is to incorporate a die cut element on your card somewhere.  I can't recall the last time I didn't have some kind of die cut on my cards, so this one was easy-peasy!  :-)

The second challenge is from The Cats Pajamas, and it is for their month long TCP Tuesday challenge where everything old is new again.  With this challenge we are to think "outside the box" and use your stamps or dies in a different way then originally intended.

This turned out exactly like I envisioned and I am super stoked about it!  Do you see all those little chili peppers?  That is actually the Mustache Slide die from TCP.  I ran the die every which way on my cardstock panel and then hand cut every one of those little mustache's out with an exacto knife and then backed each opening with different colors of cardstock.  The cute little penguin (named Larry) is from the Salud clear set.  Everything was colored with copics and then coated with Ranger glossy accents.  I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the rim of the glass even has a coating of salt (aka Holiday glitzy German glass glitter).  The coloring on Larry was largely influenced by an ATC that I received in a swap that was created by Miss Meowy herself!

Have a great remainder to your day!

Linda

Stamps:  Salud (TCP)

Paper:  Simply Chartreuse (PTI), Basic Black, Real Red, and So Saffron (SU), Doodlebug Sugar Coated Beetle Black, Thin Birch Wood (TCP)

Dies:  Mustache Slide and Inside Pinking (TCP), Wonky Rectangles (Nestabilities)

Other:  various Copics, At You Spica (Copic), bling from stash, Glossy accents (Ranger), Holiday Glitzy german glass glitter (TCP)

Wishing You Sunshine

Hello!  This evening in CO, there is a snowstorm coming through.  Perfect weather for hunkering down in my craft room and playing with my goodies.

Over on Splitcoaststampers, they are having a Love Fest challenge for all the member companies.  The Cats Pajamas just happens to be a member company there, and yesterday they posted a pretty awesome inspiration challenge.  Check it out!

I am also submitting this for their new TCPTUES challenge which is to think "outside the box" and use your TCP stamps and dies in an innovative way.

This card was very difficult to photograph and truly capture everything going on with the card.  Let me just say though, I am super thrilled with how it turned out.

Inside shot without vellum overlay:

As you can see, I really took  inspiration from the colors and the spring like feel of the patterns.  When I think spring, I think of rain and yellow wellies (and flowers of course).  It all started by stamping the cutie pie image Wet Puddle (from TCP) on Copic express cardstock. She was colored with various Copic markers and her coat and boots were paper pieced. Her boots also have a nice coat of Ranger Glossy Accents.  The Lemon Tart cardstock panel was impressed with the Sunrise IP (PTI) and then adhered to a Soft Stone card base.  I then die cut some clouds from the Cloud Border (TCP) from white cardstock and some hearts that are performing double duty as "raindrops" from the Heart Rosette (TCP) from Aqua Mist cardstock.  The vellum overlay has the sentiment heat embossed in white and the "puddle image" heat embossed in clear.

Detail shot:

I would love to hear what you think!  Have a wonderful night!

Linda

Stamps:  Wet Puddle (TCP)
Paper:  Soft Stone, Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist (all from PTI), Copic Express, Yours Truly (Echo Park)
Other:  Cloud Border and Heart Rosette (TCP), Sunrise IP (PTI), Copics, detail white and detail clear ep, polka dot embossing folder, Glossy Accents