America's Favorite Red Head

This month's challenge at Stampsmith was a photo inspiration challenge. My focus, of course, went to the stylish red shoe. I knew immediately what I wanted to do on my card.  I would use one of my new Lucy stamps for the challenge. After all she is America's favorite red head. I chose the one of her on the telephone. My background became a page from the telephone book. The sentiment (Club Scrap) seemed so Lucy...talk, talk, talk. (I'm not sure why photo stamps scan like a checkerboard for me. In real life, the image looks like a photo.)
I am also entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp challenge which is anything goes.

12 Tags of 2013 - February

Time flies, especially when the month only has 28 days. Here is my tag for February from the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013 challenge. I always try to follow Tim's tutorial pretty closely. I feel I can learn from his instruction. This time I had to do a little improvising. I didn't have all the the supplies. However, I think I kept the flavor of his tag.  Instead of the Queen of Hearts blueprint stamp, I used the Queen of Hearts texture trade. I did use the distress marker watercolor technique to color her and popped up the queen's image. I also don't have the kraft core seasonal impressions so I embossed some kraft core core'dinations with a Valentine texture fade.  Just think in about  four days, it'll be time for a new tag.

Easter

I created this card for the challenges at Our Daily Bread Designs which is Easter and at SweetStamps which is sweet and simple.
Before I go into detail, I must give credit to Roni at Ink Stains for the scribbled gelato background technique. When I saw this on Roni's blog, I knew I wanted to try the technique. It seemed the perfect technique for this Easter card. The card is fairly simple. On top of the technique colors I stamped the beautiful bouquet from SweetStamps. The main sentiment is from ODBD. The Easter joy stamp is from Penny Black.

Good Friends

The Bloggers Challenge and the Cheery Lynn Designs challenge went hand-in-hand this week. The theme at Bloggers Challenge is friendship and the challenge at Cheery Lynn Designs is to create a shaped card. These three ladies from Rogue Redhead Designs with the accompanying sentiment worked so well with the oval card using the Japanese Lace Oval diecut from Cheery Lynn.  I cut out the ladies and adhered them to an oval panel.  The frame was adhered to an oval cut card. I used distress stickles to bling up the frame. The sentiment was the finishing touch.
I am a day late with my Bloggers Challenge, but I'm glad I didn't have to miss the challenge.

Snowmen

Card Front

Card open

I'm blogging this a day late. I wanted to wait until it was a little brighter to photograph the open card. Then my daughter decided that we needed a nice lunch without children, so she took me to Red Lobster (It's lobsterfest!). I think that's a wonderful reason for being late.

My card is the result of several challenges and a fantastic bargain on the Sizzix pop-up house die. At Kraft Journal the challenge is white on kraft. Critter Sketch wants to see snowflakes. Tuesday Throwdown has a monochromatic challenge. City Crafters has the theme all that glitters.

The card base and house is cut from kraft paper. The roof was painted with picket fence distress paint and the icicles were made with Viva Decor ice white paint. The snowflake edges of the inside and bottom of the card front were cut using Tim Holtz's on the edge snowflakes die. The snowman is also a Tim Holtz die. The snowflakes were cut using Cheery Lynn dies. All of the snow pieces were covered with picket fence stickles so they all glitter a lot.

It was a fun card to make and quite appropriate since we had the biggest snowfall of the year here in Chicago last night.

Featuring London

I love it when I have some creative time for myself and things come together. I started this card with the sketch from Mojo Monday and three sets of London stamps from Artistic Outpost (London Elements, London Underground, and Loverly London). I wanted something eyecatching for my background. When I found this piece of copper, I decided to use one of my favorite techniques of embossing the metal and highlighting it with Staz-on ink. I stamped the images on white cardstock and cut them into the circle shapes. The bird is popped up using a foam dot.
I am entering this card into several challenges. The Artistic Outpost monthly challenge is anything goes. Simon Says Stamp and Show has metal-ology as its theme. Three Muses has the theme of time to time. Fashionable Stamping wants to see a bird. Frilly & Funkie has the theme layer it on and share a word (London).

floral Tag

I had a little fun time this afternoon, so I thought I'd change up a little and work on a tag instead of a card. I started with a piece of kraft cardstock which I cut into a tag. Next I pulled out my Dylusions sprays and added color to the tag. I just received some new colors, so it was fun to try them out. I had to do a Tim Holtz on my Cuttlebug folder--I cut the top so that the tag would slip through. That way I could emboss the whole tag. I stamped a SweetStamp floral image on white cardstock and colored the image using distress markers. I used a Cheery Lynn die (Manon's Wedding Garland) as a frame for the flowers. I used their leaf edger die for the bottom edge. The letters are cut using a Tim Holtz die.
I am entering this tag into several challenges. Cheery Lynn Designs has the challenge frame it. Simon Says Stamp and Show wants us to get messy (using the sprays definitely qualifies.) SweetStamps wants to see romance. The Mark's Finest Papers Friends of Speedy challenge is to create a non-traditional Valentine. The Inspiration Journal challenge is to spread some L.O.V.E.

Queen of Hearts

I went quite a ways off my comfort zone when I created my Queen of Hearts. My background is grungeboard die cut into a heart shape. I then used picket fence and pewter stains to color the heart. It actually is very silvery (the lighting today was very poor.) I embossed the heart for texture. The queen is actually an angel die cut, but I thought that she looked very queenly without the wings. On the right is a diecut heart with one of Tim Holtz's sayings stamped on it. "The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. On the left are two diecut and rolled flowers. I think these are really cool flowers. The heart background is bordered in lace and stands on a diecut easel.
The queen is being entered into Bloggers Challenge with the theme of cut it out; into Creative Belli with the theme of Valentines/hearts; into Frilly and Funkie with the theme of lacy, heartsy Valentine project; and of course, into the Quietfire Queen of Hearts Challenge.

Happy Valentines Day

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentines Day. I'm sharing cards I made for my grandchildren to celebrate the day. Unfortunately, the sunlight was poor and the photos do not have their sharp colors. Suffice it to say, there's a lot of red and purple on the cards.
I'm entering Joshua's card into the Tuesday Throwdown challenge which is anything goes, into the Cornish Heritage Farms challenge which is Valentine, and into Mark's finest Papers Speedy Fox and Friends challenge which is love.
Jayda's card is being entered into Critter Challenge which is red and purple and into Three Muses which is red.

Love Just Gives

I've had this card in my head ever since I got my orchid die from Cheery Lynn Designs. This card is for the SweetStamps challenge which is Valentine or love and for Take a Word with a challenge of hearts/Valentine.  I created my background by stamping a part of a SweetStamps stamp in London Fog over the background panel. I then die cut the heart (Spellbinders) and stamped the sentiment (ODBD). The orchid was die cut and adhered aaround the heart.

Love is in the Air

I can't believe it...this is my 1000th post! What better topic to celebrate this milestone than LOVE! I'm actually going to make this a double post. I have 2 cards to share on the theme, but I'll be linking each to different challenges.

My first card is done all in pink except for the sentiment. Cheery Lynn Designs challenge is tickled pink. I used both the tropical flourish and the daisy strip dies on my card. The card just designed itself when I realized by accident that two tropical flourishes  put together made a beautiful heart especially when flowers were added to the tip. The background paper is very glittery. I've had it in my stash for quite a while waiting for the perfect time to use it. Well, here it is. I am also entering this card into the Great Impressions challenge which is have a heart.

For this card I used an image from Stampendous and stamped it on my card front panel. I then stamped it on a piece of flowery design paper and paper pieced the clothing.  The side border is the mesh strip from Cheery Lynn cut down to fit. The red hearts are stickers that just showed up on my work table. I guess my muse was working overtime today. The letters are die cut..  I'm entering this card into the Stampendous Impressions challenge which is love is in the air; into the Artistic Stamper challenge which is hearts and flowers; into the Fashionable Stamping challenge which is show some love; and into Mark's Finest Papers Speedy Fox & Friends challenge which is paper piecing.

CHAPTER 24: Romance in Wonderland

...next [came] the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with diamonds, and walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens...

The theme of this quote is couples, and that's what we are celebrating  in February with Valentine's Day. For the month of February, we are celebrating Romance in Wonderland at the Altered Alice! As always, you may enter any project that fits the challenge theme, but those that feature Wonderland will have two chances at the prize instead of one. Multiple entries are encouraged but each must be on a separate post; enter by Feb. 23.

[ Store | Simply Betty Blog | Challenge Blog | Steampunk Challenge Blog ]

We are using the fabulous Steampunk Romance images by Simply Betty Stamps . The people pictured in this stamp line resemble grown-up characters in Wonderland, don't you think? You should also check out the whimsical Alice in Wonderland collection. Here is what the oh, so talented Betty has to say:

Simply Betty Stamps started in 2010, when I was forced to close my little scrapbook store due to my last baby coming early.  I was home, with a preemie  couldn't do much but draw, craft, and had just discovered blogging!  I started to nose around about digis, how could I do this, how could I do that?  Slowly but surely Simply Betty Stamps was born!  I have a quirky sense of humor and I believe it shows in my images.  I have immortalized my kids in my images as it is what I love creating with, their everyday shenanigans and goofy ways.  I love sharing my creativity, I can't tell you how awesome it is to see others creating with SBS images!  I look forward to continuing to bring in the quirkiness to crafters across the globe and look forward to many years of fun images.

So get busy and show us your interpretation of  Romance in Wonderland!

Here's my interpretation for this challenge.

Card Front

Look Who Pops Up when the card is open.

Each Flower

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love creating backgrounds for my art. The new Behind the Scenes   background stamps (on sale thru March 31st) from Rogue Redhead Designs gave me a delightful afternoon today. This is one of the cards I made. First I took a panel of kraft paper. I swiped it through several colors of distress stain that I had put on my craft sheet and spritzed with water. I then dried the cardstock and stamped parts of the background stamps by rolling small sections on the cardstock. I love the grungy look against the gorgeous colors of the stains. The flower image is a Penny Black sticker that I have had for several years. The sentiment is from Rogue Redhead Designs' Floriculture stamp sheet. Once the image panel was compete, I adhered it to a kraft base card. Even the sentiment is stamped on kraft paper. (nothing but kraft)
I am entering this card into the following challenges: the Kraft Journal nothing but kraft challenge, the Simon Says Stamp anything goes challenge, and the Mark's Finest Papers Simple Salutations anything goes challenge with sentiment.

Mardi Gras

"With the most recent unmounted stamp plate, Rogue Redhead Designs has gone "Behind the Scenes" with a set of background stamps.You can add some stylish flair to your paper crafting and mixed media creations with these versatile background stamps.  Alone or paired, they are sure to steal the scene with your next stamped project.  Featuring reverse sequin waste, handwriting, bubble wrap and a handwritten music sheet, these backgrounds will lend themselves to a variety of projects.

Get Behind the Scenes until March 31, 2012 for the low introductory price of $17.60, 20% off its regular price of $22.00. Don’t forget that Rogue Redhead Designs also stocks mounting supplies!  You can also get this plate bundled with a sheet of EZ-Mount Cling Foam for $21.10 or bundle this plate with both a stamp storage panel and a sheet of EZ-Mount Cling Foam for the low price of $22.60."

Today is Bloggers Challenge Day and the challenge theme is create your own background.  I created my card by stamping the the bubble wrap background stamp twice. First I stamped it in denim blue. then I moved the stamp down and to the right about a quarter inch and stamped it again in butterscotch. The image and sentiment are both from the Rogue Redhead Carnival Dreams stamp set. I thought that the theme was an appropriate since Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is February12th.

I colored the image with Tombow markers and added a little rhinestone bling to the Mardi Gras costumes. I will also be entering my card into the Creative Belli challenge which is rhinestones, Tuesday Throwdown which is bling it on, and Cornish Heritage Farms which is use a die cut on your card.