Life Measured

The first card I am sharing today is a CAS card. I stamped my daisies (Mark's Finest Papers) on the white card base. They were colored with distress markers. I then added Viva Decor glitter liner to the flower heads. Over that I sprinkles a little distress glitter. The sentiment is from Verses stamps.
My card was created for the challenges at Addicted to CAS -- glitter and Marks Finest Papers Friends of Speedy Challenge -- no design paper.

Postage Stamp

I am joining a new challenge for me today. SerendipityStamps wants to see something inspired by a postage stamp. Hooray, I finally got to use the postage frame from the Tim Holtz Collection. The stamps are from Serendipity Stamps. I used a scrap of cardstock from Club Scrap to paper piece the vases. The cardstock was a mixture of colors, so I cut each bottle from a separate part of the paper. The lightest section was the reverse of the paper. I love that I could get different looks from one scrap. The postcards were also stamped on the reverse and then given a touch of color using distress markers. The two 4's were stickers I had in my stash. The base card is also from Club Scrap.

Shabby Chic Midge

I just shared a card with a designer paper background using the sketch from the current Rogue Redhead Designs Rebel Challenge. The background on this card was hand created. First I stamped the bubblewrap background stamp from the RRD Behind the Scenes stamp set with embossing ink. I then heat embossed it using clear powder. I masked the embossed sections. Using a brayer, I brayered distress stains over the sections and wiped a damp paper towel over the embossing. Using Cheery Lynn dies, I cut the oval and frame. First I stamped Midge (This 'n That). Then I masked her and stamped the hand writing background stamp. (RRD Behind the Scenes) I think the distress and embossed background gives a very shabby chic feeling to the card.
I am entering this card into the SweetStamps challenge and the Great Impressions challenge. Both sites have an anything goes challenge.

Blossoming

The current challenge at Fashionable Stamping is Flora and Fauna and the challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is anything goes. I am entering my card in both challenges.
To create this card I followed the sketch challenge at Rogue Redhead Designs. Its an easy sketch to follow, but you can do so much with the background. For my card I stamped stamps from the RRD Floriculture stamp set. I then die cut the oval and frame (Cheery Lynn Designs). I gave the image a touch of color using my distress markers. The background design papers are from the Graphics45 "Secret Garden" paper pad.

12 Tags of 2013 -- July

I can't believe that I'm finally posting my July tag from the 12 Tags of 2013 challenge from Tim Holtz. It took me several days to complete this tag. Don't get me wrong, it was really rather easy to make. However, my first attempt at the flag was not to my liking. The difficulty started when I pulled out my rock candy distress crackle paint. First, the cover was stuck hard to the jar. By stuck I mean hammer and then throw on the cement floor stuck. However, perseverance paid off. I got the lid off--only to find the contents to be the consistency of rubber. At that point, since the crackle paint was totally unusable, I decided to try the old Ranger crackle medium. But, I also decided to put water in the jar and soak my rubberized crackle paint. I couldn't lose anything by trying. After the crackle medium dried, I wasn't really too pleased since it only crackled slightly along some of the edges. I tried to color it with the stains, but that didn't work very well, so I tried the distress paints. That covered the medium, but actually came out flat. Then I added a little distress glitter. The results were better, but definitely different from what the crackle paint would give. After completing the flag, I remembered the water and distress crackle paint. I had soaked the contents overnight. I picked up the jar and shook it a bit. When I looked in the jar, it actually looked like crackle paint. I had nothing to lose but a part of a piece of grungeboard, so I cut another flag. I am ecstatic to report that my crackle paint was revived and worked perfectly and I love the results.

Stroll Upon the Beach

Keeping with the summer theme, I created this card showing two children walking on the sand along the ocean. The image and sentiment are both stamped using Rogue Redhead Designs stamps from Beach Babes.
To create my card I first stamped the background with the Beach Babes background stamp. I used Pan Pastels to add the beach colors. I stamped the two children over the background to maintain the fine details and then again on white cardstock. Distress markers were used to color the children. I fussy cut them out and layered over the stamped image on the background. I took a layering panel and dry embossed it. The sentiment was then stamped on a scrap from that panel. I thought that the kraft base card went well with the sandy beach image. It really was a simple card to make. The background looks complicated, but it is a single stamp with three swipes of a sponge for color.
This card will be entered into these challenges: City Crafter -- cooling down; Mark's Finest Papers Simple Salutations -- By the Beach; and Addicted to CAS -- water.

Bathing Beauties

Lately I've been on a summer kick. Today's card uses the Mojo Monday sketch as its layout. The gorgeous bathing beauties (and sentiment) are from the Artistic Outpost Boardwalk stamp set. The sand background is stamped using a Rogue Redhead Designs stamp from Beach Babes. Although the sparkle doesn't show very well on the scan, the deep teal background panel and the circle were die cut from glitter paper.
This card is being entered in these challenges: Mojo Monday -- sketch; Simon Says Stamp and Show -- anything goes; Artistic Stamper -- Ladies' Day; and Artistic Outpost referral program -- anything goes.