THD Challenge #12: Flights of Fancy

When I think of this month’s challenge graphic, fancy free comes to mind.  This is absolutely one of my favorite inspirations of the year– and our team really rose to the challenge in their bold and fanciful interpretations.  Can’t really get better than aqua, hot pink and silver or gold.  Look at those old books stacked up (those colors–swoon) or that gilded table setting; not to mention the dress with that bag!

Last month’s turnout was stellar, and I hope you will participate again, and bring your friends to this colorful party!

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I’ve incorporated the colors, butterflies, florals and even books into my piece– and I’ve even upcycled!  The craft/art world sadly generates quite a bit of plastic and waste, so I try to reuse as much of the packaging as I can, and recycle what I cannot.  Here I have used a glossy cardboard purple-dotted background piece from a selection of paperclips. It is cut from the Gina Marie Cross Stitch rectangle die.

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My card also features a favored technique you’ve seen me use before with the Altenew Wild Hibiscus florals and butterfly stamped on vellum and, this time, patterned paper, then heat embossed.  This set is designed for Mother’s Day, which is coming up soon, so I will be featuring the set in a future post that also uses our challenge graphic.  Stay tuned!

Wild Hibiscus

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Where are the books in my design?  Well, hidden a bit, but I have cut a strip from Maggie Holmes’ Chasing Dreams paper collection that matches our inspiration graphic perfectly. This paper is a line up of vintage books– and all our colors are featured!

Crate Paper - Chasing Dreams Collection - 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper - Library

 

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I am having a serious love affair with these Doodlebug Design Matte Sprinkles.  They are exactly  like the old-fashioned button candy that comes on the paper strips.  I loved this candy as a kid, but hated getting the paper off the candies.  The goal was a perfect peel-away.  Nothing worse for a kid with hyper-sensory processing than eating paper!  I am a really tactile person, and certain textures create extremely negative responses. But these little epoxy dots, I really, really want to eat. The colors are ridiculously delicious too. (No sprinkles were hurt or consumed in the making of this card)

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Finally, I used Waffle Flower’s With Love die for the sentiment, adhering only one corner and popping it up for dimension.  You know I love my dimension and texture!  The inside is finished with some ombre washi.  If you are wondering about the phenomenal background paper– well, sadly it is no longer available.  This is truly a one-of-a-kind card because it uses a scrap of old Basic Grey paper.  Amy and I horde our Basic Grey, but it comes out every now and again for special cards!  I sure do miss that company!

But Tonya’s has many great items from some of your favorite companies– so this month play along, possibly with some new goodies from THD–check out her updated selection!

I can’t wait to see how you’re inspired!

Take flight!

The Heart Desires: Challenge 9

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Hey Everyone!  It’s that time of the month again over at The Heart Desires and I am so excited to bring you some cards to brighten your February!

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Using Altenew’s Wild Hibiscus and Concord & 9th’s Crazy Awesome sets, I created my first card.  The flowers and bird were stamped on vellum in Unicorn white, heat embossed and fussy cut.

I have layered the focal point on Maggie Holmes’ Bloom and Gather papers.

For my red card, I am featuring Studio Calico’s scissors die— which isn’t easy to find, but Tonya has it for sale in the store!  Cut from foam and layered with pattern paper.

The flowers below are from the Crazy Awesome set, created the same way as those on the other card.  Border papers are from Maggie Holmes’ Bloom collection.

I hope you will get crazy creative with us this month over at The Heart Desires!

Advent Calendar Extravaganza with Taheerah Atchia

 


Advent Calendar Extravaganza is the festive event of the season! This ‘hop with a twist’ was dreamed up byTaheerah Atchia and features surprise destinations each day! Joining in the fun with Taheerah are ONE HUNDRED special guests – each serving up some fantastic Christmas inspiration! Just like an Advent Calendar, you’ll never know where you’re going to be visiting next until you ‘open the door’!

And that’s not all! With 25 *amazing* sponsors taking part as guests as well, your crafty wish list is bound to get a boost with a chance to win a prize EVERY SINGLE DAY!!


Join in the fun every day at taheerah-atchia.com to see what special surprises await behind the door!

Hey all! I’m excited to be behind door #20 and participating again this year in the Advent Calendar–I love advent calendars and it’s such a great idea to have a virtual one!

So excited, I have not one, two, three or four offerings today, but five that feature awesome Pinkfresh collections, and a mini journal that mixes it up with Crate Paper’s Snow & Cocoa.

I love Pinkfresh designs, and their papers are such a joy to work with–they almost create a card by themselves! You can see an earlier collection of Pinkfresh creations I designed here.

First up some fun, simple cards using Oh Joy, Christmas Wishes, Indigo Hills collections from Pinkfresh and ephemera from Snow & Cocoa.

A few puffy stickers and acetate sentiment make a simple, but fun card.

Crate Paper’s acetate deer works perfectly with the clear pieces from Oh Joy! So do the stripes and colors from Indigo Hills base paper.

An easy shaker card can be made from the acetate pieces in the Oh Joy ephemera pack. I stamped the presents from Christmas Wishes and made a little sequin strand to top the card.The bottom features a rubber sticker from Pinkfresh.

I created a repeat background with house stamps from the Christmas Wishes collection, copic colored and added mica flakes. The bear is from the same stamp set, colored and fussy cut. Layered papers and the sentiment are from Oh Joy.

Next up, my mini journal.

I have made quite a few of these layered journals, two of which you can see here and here. I plan to use this one for our trip to Indianapolis with some changes, but here is a way you can make one merging the Snow & Cocoa, Oh Joy, Indigo Hills and Happy Things collections!

When making the 2-layered covers, I always leave openings for tags as a way to close the journal.

Inner flaps have pockets to store tickets, photos, receipts, or journal cards.

Love howthat Crate Paper girl works with the Oh Joy tree paper!

The Indigo Hills blue splattered paper is like a winter snow blast, much like the weather we’ve been having in Indy and across the US.

The inner book here features more Indigo Hills paper with a pocket for ephemera and a wood clip from the same collection to hold a ticket or photo.

Here’s the back  inner cover and below, a small journal I’ve embellished with wood sticker from Happy Things.

The back of the journal with washi from Oh Joy and tag from Snow & Cocoa.

What is different about this journal is that I have created more of a spine so the journal can accommodate more pages, photos and ephemera. Overall spine is 1/2″. The journal is 3.5″ wide by 7″ long.

Hope you found some holiday inspiration here today and before you go, make sure to keep reading. You could win some of the products featured here today!!

It’s not a party without a prize – and with prizes every day there are several chances to win!

Today’s prize is generously supplied by Pinkfresh so you’ll definitely want to win!

Simply leave a comment on this post – then head back to taheerah-atchia.com and leave a comment there too!


You must leave a comment on Taheerah’s blog as well as mine in order to be eligible to win! Don’t forget to grab the other surprise destinations from Taheerah’s blog and head over to them to leave comments there as well to improve your odds even more! You have until 23:59 EST on 31st December 2016 to enter.

Don’t forget Advent Calendar Extravaganza runs from 1st-25th December inclusive so make sure you visit taheerah-atchia.com every day for fabulous inspiration and amazing prizes every single time! Merry Christmas!

Bright Birthday

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Happy Birthday, Lenae! Love this graphic Kimberly picked for Lenae, as she spent the last month, and then some, in Hawaii. I lived vicariously through her gorgeous pictures, and can’t wait to finally catch up with this girl soon IRL, as it’s been far too long.

I hope today brings her some sun (after a rainy, cold PNW weekend so far) and fond reflections on her past year with an eye on all that is to come!

Won’t you join me in wishing a bright, creative, lovely lady a day that is just the same?!

Hop along with us for inspiration and fun!

I actually made this card for Lenae specifically back in April!!! Early for once! 😉

Digi 1″ flair made with epoxy clear sticker. Up cycled coffee bag cottage leaf die.

Tonya sent me some goodies from The Heart Desires shop, including the new Concord & 9th Cake Stamp. So I figured I’d do it up for our hop, tropical style, coloring it with Prismas and Gamsol.

She also has the fab We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folders, like this pillow design. She has Maggie Holmes’awesome Bloom paper too. 

Don’t you love how the little bird is popping up behind the cake? I deliberately cut and positioned the panel, and punched a hole on the banner, threading the sequin strand behind.

The sentiment is cut from Rose Gold metalic paper from Bazzill.

Hope you have lots of cake, Lenae, and enjoy your hop!

Hop Participants:

Amy

Kate: You’re here!

Katie

Kimberly

Laura

Lisa 

Toni 

Tonya

Vicki 
Birthday Girl! Lenae

We’re Getting Nautical!

Hey everyone, it’s been slow sailing for me the past 3 weeks after being very ill with a flu that left me bed-bound for nearly a week and affected my eyes so I could not read or look at screens for many days; my eyes and brain are still giving me trouble, so I am following up on that, but am happy to say that my energy and joie de vivre have returned!

Just in time for all the activities this month over at The Heart Desires and the upcoming Coffee Lovers Hop starting next week, June 17th.  Head over the The Heart Desires to see more of my card featuring Carta Bella papers and embellishments.

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Shop The Heart Desires for the papers and the adorable slide frame from Crate Paper.

My card also features MFT rectangle diagonal stitch die, Savvy Stamps banner die, Studio Calico Wheel die, and an old Kelly Purkey sentiment stamped in Delicata gold on vellum.

We also have a challenge going on until June 30th, with gorg

eous graphics and options for play.  I am happy to say we have some excellent entries already and still have nearly 3 weeks to go!  So please play along and spread the word!

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Thanks for dropping anchor with me today and I hope life is smooth sailing for you this week!