MCV112 - Peace

Here's my card for the current Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge, where Guest Muse Becca gave us this peaceful inspiration:

I focused on Becca's:
-bird
-branch
-turquoise and white

I ran a panel of white cardstock through my Big Shot with all 3 dies on at the same time - pierced square, Paper Smooches dove and MFT Peace.

I inlaid the peace for a subtle tone-on-tone look (like Becca's branch) and coloured the outline of the dove with Copics before inlaying it back into the panel as well.

I used:

Paper Smooches Winter Challenge

Here's a fun, quick little Christmas card for the current challenge at Paper Smooches.

 I cut  my Paper Smooches Snowman 2 pieces and then coloured them with Copics (faster and more efficient than cutting him several times out of different colours of cardstock). I then cut out the JOY but had to cut it in half and spread it a bit wider to allow for the snowman's head to become the 'o'.

I used:

MCV 83 - Card 1

Here's my first card for this month's Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge, where Cornelia has provided 4 inspiration cards for us:

There are 3 ways to win prizes this month, so I hope you'll pop over and check it out - and play along with us. I've made a card inspired by each of Cornelia's cards and I'll space them out over the month.

I focused on Cornelia's (top left card):
-colours
-use of kraft
-use of washi (and positioning)
-tilted element
-gingerbread theme

I used:
-Doodlebug Santa Washi

Paper Smooches Wise Dies, Gingerbread House

Paper Smooches Wise Dies, Christmas Words 2

Ranger Stickles, Disco Ball

Neenah Cardstock, Neenah Heavyweight, Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb, 25 pk

Sizzix Big Shot White & Gray

High Tack Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape, 1/2"

November Nephews

We have 3 nephews with birthdays in November. Two (twins) are turning 9 and one is turning 8. Because their birthdays are so close together, they often get 'variations on a design theme' cards from us.

I used Paper Smooches Bam Bubble dies with and Lawn Fawn Louie's 1-2-3s to create these. I cut a 4 inch square in each colour and then cut out the shapes and interchanged them (you can see each card separately below).

Warm Hugs

This is a card I made when I was October Guest Designer for Paper Smooches, but it didn't get blogged because I had so many others.

I used the cats from the Comforting Hugs stamp set and matching die. I wanted to convey warmth, so I added a 'blanket' by cutting a circle out of felt.

I am also linking up to Virginia's View Texture Challenge.

Happy Birthday, Lynn!

Saturday is Lynn's birthday. Lynn has a big job and a big family and as a result, she must have very little spare time. And yet she still uses her big talent to inspire and her big heart to encourage and support other crafters - she amazes me!


I started out CASing this card of Lynn's.

I love the layered flower and the clean simplicity of Lynn's card. And as I was working on my card, I remembered that I really admire a technique that Lynn often incorporates into her designs - she stamps tone on tone on die cuts.

I used Paper Smooches Botanicals 3 and matching dies to create my cut and stamped flower. For the layer underneath, I used the smallest of the Big Bloom dies. My sentiment is from Birthday Bash. My dp is from MFT and I used an MFT Pierced Square for my white panel. My flower centre is a sparkly Doodlebug enamel dot.

Happy Birthday, Lynn! Wishing you a wonderful day and an amazing year!

(on another note, I'm spending the weekend with my sister in Virginia. I've got cards posted, but my commenting will be very limited until Wednesday).

I'm also linking up to the Paper Smooches December Guest Designer Search.

Paper Smooches October Guest Designer - Part 4

Today is my final post as Paper Smooches October GD (sniff, sniff!). I've got two cards to show you.

My first one is pretty tradtional - I started by cutting a white panel as a square and then cut the bottom off using the bottom die from the Large Ornament die (I saw Nina-Marie do something similar last week). I inlaid the Merry Christmas die into that and then stamped a sentiment from Holiday Cheer.  I cut some pine sprigs from the Wreath Builder die in two colours of green and laid them onto the panel to emphasize the curves of the bottom of the white panel. Then I cut some berries from the Holly Dies (both the 3-berry cluster and a single berry to dot my 'i'). They are all coated in Christmas Red Stickles.

My second card combines Comforting Hugs (and matching dies) with sentiments from Sugar Rush and dots from Spreading Sunshine.

These bears are of the gummi persuasion - I was nervous about colouring them with Copics after stamping them with Stampin' Up ink, but there was no smudging at all!

I want to say a heartfelt thank you to Kim once again for choosing me this month - it's been so much fun having the opportunity to play along with the DT!

Paper Smooches October Guest Designer - Part 3

I'm back for my 3rd week as October Guest Designer for Paper Smooches. Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having? Only about a million times? Good!

For this card, I used the Large Ornament die. There are two pieces so you can adjust your ornament in lots of different ways. I liked the shape of the short ornament, but I wanted a little more detail, so I cut the bottom again in pink. I used the string from Holiday Lights Dies to create my loop and the leaves and berries are from Holly Dies.

I love shiny ornaments that catch and reflect the lights on the tree, so using foiled cardstock seemed like a natural choice. But as you know, it's not easy to photograph! I usually like to use natural light, but I pulled out my Foldio light tent, thinking I might have more luck. 

Just for fun, here's a neat effect I got when the little LCD lights reflected on the card stock.

My second card for today uses the new Comforting Hugs set and matching dies along with a sentiment from the Holiday Cheer set. I added tiny hats from the My Peeps set. I created a background by sponging Tumbled Glass ink around a mask created from one of the Big Bloom Dies. To make it really frosty, I coated the whole panel in Stardust Stickles. This warped the panel a little, so I went with that and left it lifting a little from the edges, almost like the paper itself is getting into the hugging too. (Too corny? lol!)

MCV24 - Sending Holiday Cheer

Here is my card for this week's MCV Challenge, where Chriss has given us a card with this frosty winter scene:

I don't always CASE the Muse cards this closely, but I knew I had just the right Paper Smooches supplies (I've been looking at them A LOT lately, as October Guest Designer!).

My friend Emily made the sweetest card with this snowman die last year - it's what prompted me to buy it. I found it a little fussy to inlay the eyes, nose and mouth, but it turned out so cute that I think it was worth putting on my new, old-lady 'see-up-close' glasses! lol!

I focused on Chriss'
-basic layout - blue sky over snowy hills
-snowman element
-tree
-holly

The tree and snowflakes are from Gently Seasoned, stamped in Stampin Up Soft Suede and WPlus9 Fairy Dust, respectively. The Snowman, his scarf and the holly all come from Snowman Dies.  The sentiment is from Holiday Cheer.

I used an MFT Stitched Snowdrift die and sponged Tumbled Glass on the bottom of the 'sky' (just like Emily did!).

Also linking up at Paper Smooches Sparks: Anything Goes.

PSS - Happy New Year!

As you can imagine, I've got all my Paper Smooches stamps and dies close at hand this month as I make cards for my stint as October Guest Designer. So it was easy (don't look in my recycling bin!) for me to come up with a card to play along with the current Sparks challenge photo:

I combined a partial sentiment from Holiday Cheer with the fireworks from Metropolis. I added some Stardust Stickles, and layered up a couple of pierced squares from MFT to finish it off.

Paper Smooches October GD - Part 2

Welcome to my second post as October Guest Designer for Paper Smooches (I LOVE saying that!). I've got two cards for today!

For the first card, I used the round Garland die to create an ornament. I cut it 5 times, using some Doodlebug DP. I folded each one carefully on the score line and then glued them together to create a 3 dimensional ornament. I edged the circles in Stardust Stickles for some sparkle. I used the ornament cap from the Large Ornament Die cut in silver foil, and the string from Holiday Lights cut in the same Doodlebug purple as my mat.

For my sentiment, I combined two different stamps from Holiday Cheer, stamping one in Ranger Grape Soda and the other in Versafine onyx.

I also want to link up (it's the last day!) to the Hop to Stop. It's to raise awareness of domestic violence and the resources available to people who are experiencing it. October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and their colour is purple - head over to see the whole gallery full of amazing, purple cards!

For my second card, I basically remade this card with the newest PS product, including Holiday Cheer and Holly Dies.

I love the almost "Suessian" feel of these holly leaves and I played that up by colouring them in Grinch-y greens. But these work equally well on a very elegant card - check out how Emily used them here! My leaves and berries were coloured with Copics, Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents.

Paper Smooches October GD - Part 1

Today's my first post as October Guest Designer for Paper Smooches. I'm so excited to be playing with new stamps and dies and really mixing them up!

First I combined a sentiment from Holiday Cheer with the new Merry Christmas die. The Merry Christmas die was cut in white and coloured with a red Copic. To ensure my mat matched, I coloured it with the same Copic.  Then I cut and coloured some of the adorable Holiday Lights. See how you can actually hang the lights off their string (or a die-cut sentiment!). They were all coloured with copics, given two coats of Wink of Stella and then a top coat of Glossy Accents. Unfortunately, only the green decided to sparkle for the photo!



Also linking up to Simon's Wednesday Challenge - CAS Christmas and Viriginia's View Colour Challenge.

MCV21, LIM243, PSS - Christmas Greetings

This is my card for this week's Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge where we have a Guest Muse: Ingrid Blackburn. Ingrid gave us this wonderful, holly-ful inspiration:

I focused on Ingrid's:
-theme (holly - my leaf is from Paper Smooches Christmas Words 2 dies and the berries are from the Poinsettia set).
-gold sentiment (Christmas is also from the Christmas Words 2 set, greetings is from Metropolis).
-layout (I kept the white panel slightly longer so that the black cardbase only shows at the sides).
-bling (Ingrid used Gold ep and sequins, and I used inlaid foil cardstock).

It was fun to use foil cardstock to get some real shine and colour, but man, it's hard to photograph!

I'm also linking up to the current Paper Smooches Sparks challenge as well as Less Is More, where the recipe is 'Something Shiny'.

ETA - Oct 9 - this card was Showcased at LIM!

Anyway, I hope you'll join us - we are now less than 3 months away from the big day, people! The deadline for this challenge is Wednesday morning at 8 am EDT. At that time you can vote for your 3 favourites until Thursday at 8 am. Voting results will be posted on Thursday at noon.

MCV20 - Season's Greetings

This is my card for this week's Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge, where DT Member Betty has provided us with this lovely inspiration:

I'm also linking up to Paper Smooches Anything Goes challenge.

I focused on Betty's:
-colour scheme - red, green and white (mine are Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow)
-sentiment (mine is a Paper Smooches die, inlaid)
-circle element (I used a circle panel rather than a wreath)
-flowers (mine are Paper Smooches Poinsettia dies, along with Impression Obsession Pine bough dies)
-stitched/pierced element (my circle is an MFT Pierced Circle).

I hope you'll join us this week! The deadline is Wednesday morning at 8 am. At that time you can vote for your 3 favourites until Thursday morning at 8. Voting results will be posted on Thursday at noon.

Muse 133 - Happy Birthday

This is my card for this week's Muse Challenge, where Joan has given us this inspiration:

I focused on Joan's
-focus on related sentiments
-tilted panel (I tilted a few more)
-colour scheme (black, white, yellow plus some others)

It's got quite a different feel to Joan's, but it's also got a different purpose - I wanted to capture the crazy fun of a birthday!

I'm also linking this up to the Paper Smooches call for October's Guest Designer. I took advantage of the consistency of size and font of sentiments from different sets to create a multi-messaged birthday card.

I used
-Birthday Bash (main sentiment)
-Knick Knacks ('you rock', 'aged beautifully')
-Wake Up ('have a nice day', 'this calls for a toast')
-Metropolis ('let's celebrate', tiny stars)
-Perpetual Bliss ('let the good times roll')
-Bold Buzzwords (larger stars)

Mix-it-Up Challenge

This is my card for the July Mix-it-Up Challenge at The CLASSroom. This month we're mixing Essentials by Ellen with Paper Smooches.

I was inspired by some packaging and by this card by Anita (leaves don't always have to be green!!) and used Fancy Thanks and Reflections. I pulled out my old SU! Tempting Turquoise ink so that it would match the card stock. It still stamps very well (although I did use my MISTI to restamp just to be sure). The Sunset Adirondack ink is the perfect orangey-yellow, I think!

Muse114 - Thanks ever so much!

This is my card for this week's Muse challenge, where Michele provided us with this inspiration:

I focused on colour scheme, the row of blue elements and the sentiment on the right. This card is made using a mishmash of manufacturers' products and I love that we have the freedom to mix and match! The 'thanks' dots are made with a Neat&Tangled stamp, an MFT die and Hero Arts new ombre inkpad (Pool to Navy). The 'ever so much' is from Paper Smooches.

The deadline for this challenge is Monday at 8 am. At that time you can vote (even if you don't link up a card) for your top 3 until Tuesday at 8. The voting results will be posted Tuesday at noon. I hope to see you there!