A Rose by any Other Name Stamped Card

A rose by any other name doth smell as sweet. 
A rose colored with any other medium doth look as lovely. 

Don't you just love quoting Shakespeare. I'm pretty sure he wrote both of the two lines above. 

Today, I'm doing a reminder post for STAMPlorations theme and sketch challenge, so I'm popping in with a quick, but lovely little thank you card I made using watercolors.

I used the rose from the STAMPlorations Blossom Overture set and the sentiment is from the Strong Women set, designed by yours truly.

For the theme & sketch challenge, you can use EITHER the sketch OR the theme OR both. And you can use ANY stamps from ANY company. We're pretty easy huh? So get on over and play along with us already!

This card is also going to go play along in Tuesday Throwdown's anything goes challenge.

This posting is also a two-fer because I want to remind you to play along in the STAMPlorations Stencil Hop & Linky party, too! 

 

We're celebrating all things stenciled with a 7-day inspiration hop complete with TONS of prizes. If you're feeling inspired, you can also link up a stenciled card of your own for even MORE prizes. 

As for me, I'm also going to link it up to:
Cards Und More - ooooh it's cold
A Snowflakes Promise - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday -  Let there be Snow

I showcased how I created this background in >>>this post<<< using the Broken Glass stencil. The sentiment is from the HOLIDAY SKETCHES: Christmas Candles set.

Thanks for popping by! Hope you enjoy the weekend. Considering it is going to be a high of -15 degrees F tomorrow... I'm not sure how much I'll be enjoying it! BRRR

Coffee & Books Stamped Gift Set

Hello homies! Today I've got a card gift set that I'm gonna show off.

I don't know about you but I L-O-V-E to give presents! And I also like to make friends. Which puts me (and my wallet) in a conundrum when it comes to Christmastime. This year, I've decided to make a card gift set tailored to each of my friends' personalities.

I have one particular friend who loves coffee and loves books, so I broke out the new Good Books & Coffee stamp set and the Literary Caffeine-ations stamp set and got to work. 

I used all different shades of Tim Holtz Distress Crayons to smudge and smear and create an artsy (but very easy) coloring technique. 

I just LOVE the sayings in the Coffee & Books set (I know I'm biased because I designed them) but they are perfect for anyone who loves coffee as much as I do. 

And now I have an easy peasy little giftie to give a friend. 

This set is going to go play along in:
Crafty Creations: Masculine Challenge
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes

 

And of course the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop. 

Stenciled Mixed Media Snowflake Holiday Card

Hippity hoppity stencils on their way! Today at the STAMPlorations blog we are doing a fancy-dancy ARTplorations Stencil Hop where we're showing off all the fun techniques you can do with stencils.

As per my regular MO, I decided to get all messy and inky and create a mixed media card. Since Christmas cards are still very much needed (woops!) that's what I decided to focus on.

Before I get too far into the weeds, I wanna talk about the logistics of the Hop - For the next 7 days, we're showcasing stenciling techniques and we'll be giving away at least >5< prizes to those who hop along or make a project featuring stenciling and link it up to our Linky Party Gallery. Check out all the details here.

Now, back to my tutorial. I used the Broken Glass stencil for my background and did a little bit of experimentation. This isn't a technique I've tried before - but I'll definitely be trying it again! I spritzed my paper with some water, and then I sprinkled my Ken Oliver Colorburst powders on to the paper. 

Using a paintbrush, I moved the colors around, and left some of the crystals still intact. 

I wound up creating 4 different backgrounds - one with a dark usage of powders, one with a light usage of powders, and 2 where flipped my stencil over onto a blank piece of paper to capture the "extra" powder that was left on the stencil. 

OoooooOoooo.

 

I also used some Distress Paint and Distress Spray Stains to die a piece of gauze for additional texture. Lastly, I altered some chipboard snowflakes with Picket Fence Distress Paint and some sparkly embossing powder. 

 

My sentiment is from the Holiday Sketches: Christmas Candles set.

I hope you think this is as pretty as I do! It's so frosty - I can almost feel the crisp winter air just by looking at it! 

Please come join us in our ARTplorations stencil hop! Can't wait to see what you dream up!

My card is going over to play along in:
Mixed Media World Challenge - Winter Wonderland
Mixed Media Mojo - Winter Holiday with a  Sparkle Twist

 

Simon Say Stamp Monday - Let there be snow

CLBH - Coffee Winter Cards - Day 1

I'm actually pretty harrrrible about putting out Christmas cards, but I l-o-v-e making Valentine's Day cards. So when I was gearing up for the winter Coffee Lover's Blog Hop, V-day popped right into my head. 

Since I know you have so many coffee cards to experience for the hop - I'll keep this short and sweet. 

STAMPlorations has TEN new coffee stamps! And they are all 10% off through December 19th!! 

  

A CUPPA LOVE | COFFEE FOR ALL SEASONS

  

COFFEE PETITES | GOOD BOOKS AND COFFEE

  

TEA BLEND WORD ART | WINTER MUG

      

BETTER THAN AUTUMN | WINTER FOR MOCHA

SUMMER SUNSHINE AND COFFEE | NATURE HAVING COFFEE

 

My card above was made using the brand new "A Cuppa Love" stamp set that I designed! 

 You know me - I can't resist a good pun! :)
I love how the little coffee bean heart turned out.

 

 Enjoy the coffee hop! If you want to see what the other designers have done with these awesome new releases, make sure you pop up to the STAMPlorations blog today!

Collage Christmas Card

It's hard to feel very ho-ho-ho without any snow-snow-snow and we've got a problem here in the typically blustery land of North Dakota. There's no snow. We've gotten one good flake-fest, but it melted within 24 hours. There is *gasp* greeeeen grass. 

Well, this is just depressing. 

What better way to ease me out of my funk, then by making a funky Christmas card?
 
It's a brand new month - and that means a brand new challenge up at STAMPlorations theme & sketch. 

Here's the deets - You can play with the sketch OR the theme OR both! You can use >>ANY<< kind of stamps that you want (I know - easy peasy, right?). 

As for me, I snatched onto that theme so hard and I just ran with it. And ran, and ran, and ran. 

My dear bloggy friend, Betty Keefe, kindly contributed to my hoarding errmm... collecting? ways by giving me a bag full o' vintage sheet music. Yes, yes, there apparently is a song entitled "My Papa Was a Woodman". (Cue next stop - a  youtube hunt to find a video of this).

As tempting as the woodman was... I found this fun green cover and decided to die cut some trees using CUTplorations Trendy Christmas Tree matching die set. If you haven't noticed lately - I'm a little obsessed with this die set. 

Next, I took on the current challenge over at Shopping our Stash, which has a new-to-me technique on display called the Borgello Technique. My other dear bloggy friend, Lauren Bergold also contributed to my collection (ok, ok, it definitely is a hoarding situation) by sending me a bunch of random bits and vintage bobs - including some weird book pages and sheet music and a cool fabric patch. 

If you haven't heard of the Borgello Technique - you're in good company. It goes a little something like this:

I started stamped a layer of ho ho ho!s (or oh! oh! oh!s depending on which way you're reading from) around the edges using Warm Hands, Warm Hearts stamp set and then layered on my layers. I also cut two layers of wording using CUTplorations Jingle All the Way Phrase Die Cut.

Taaaa-daaaaa!

Decidedly merry in a very different, collagey way! As  you can see, I added some "stitching" using a white gel pen. 

This card is also going to hang out with:
Crafty Creations Challenges - Christmas
Try it on Tuesday - Layer it Up
The Crazy Challenge - Christmas 

Thanks for popping by!

Reindeer Games - Stamped Christmas Card

Jingle Jingle Jingle!
I'm back with ANOTHER Christmas card. I'm not even sorry because this one is just plain adorable. 
I started crafting last night and new I wanted to try out the new Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations die cuts. What followed was a card that just makes me grin all over my face. 

This post is also serving as a reminder to go play along in the STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch Challenge. 

I chose to play along with the theme portion - but you could use the sketch or the theme and sketch. 

I began by sponging a background using Salty Ocean Distress Inks. 

I created three snowy hills from the Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations dies and sponged around the tops to give them a little more dimension.

 

I also die cut three bright green patterned paper trees and sponged around their edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

I assembled the background and used Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains to create some white splattery "snow". 

Here's the final product. Don't you just adore that happy little reindeer? He is from the Reindeer Games stamp set (designed by yours truly) and he makes me so happy. The sentiment is from the Trendy Christmas Trees stamp set. 

I'm going to link this up to:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Christmas Critters
Just Add Ink - Choose 2 (Die Cut, Patterned Paper)
Winter Wonderland - Poinsettias or Snow is Falling (Snow)
Cute Card Thursday - Christmas/Holidays

Thanks for popping by! I hope this card makes you smile as much as it did for me! :)

Joy to the World Holiday Card - FUSION

Well, my Christmas bubble was popped and now all I can seem to think about doing is making pretty little glittery, snow-filled, wintry cards!! 

But I suppose, when you have inspiration images like the following one from Fusion, you'd want to make holiday cards, too. 

It's the start of Fusion's new challenge today. You can play long with our sketch OR our inspiration image OR both! 

I started out by making a rustic background for the card. Originally, I was going to use gray for the background, to emulate the door, but I just couldn't get the color scheme to work in my head! 

Instead, I focused on the brown neutrals and added hints of gray to the background paper and to the focal die cut using my Distress Crayons. 

Die cuts used: Winnie & Walter In a Word: Joy Cutaway, Stampin' Up Swirly Scribbles Thinlits Die,

I'm going to link this card up to:
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies
Open Minded Crafting - Christmas/Hannakuh
Tuesday Throwdown - Add Gems or Pearls

We hope to see you over at Fusion! My fellow Design Teamies pulled out all the stops!

Giving Thanks Blog Hop

Hold on to your turkeys, ladies and gentlemen, because this is one BIG hop and linky party with some BIG prizes.

STAMPlorations is hosting its annual Giving Thanks blog hop and featuring 38 designers - 15 of whom have been sponsored by STAMPlorations in the past year.

Prior to showing off my card, I'm going to get a little misty eyed and talk about Shery Russ, the owner of STAMPlorations. When we talk about things (or in this case people) to be thankful for, Shery tops the list. She was the one who gave me my first ever design team assignment from an official company. She's given me the opportunity to design stamps (a dream I never even knew I had until she asked) and she's sponsored causes that are so important to me (The Hop to Stop Domestic Violence).

I'm also SOOOO thankful for my STAMPteamies, who are constantly inspiring me with their creativity, uplifting me with their comments, and being all-around badass people. (pardon my French).

Ok - I know you've got some hopping to do, so that's my reverie.

Now here's my card.

I made this sweet shaker using the brand new Be Thankful Bundle (stamps and coordinating die cuts). 

I watercolored my apple basket and turned the card into an adorable little shaker with some fall leaves and shimmery sequins.

I'm going to link this card to the Dragonfly Dreams Autumnal Colors challenge and Fashionable Stamping Autumn or Winter challenge.



I love the brand new bundle sets being released for this hop. Each bundle includes a stencil, die cut, and harvesty stamp set.

And just because Shery is thankful for YOU, her customers, she's giving you all a 35% off discount in the STAMPstore.

Go wild and get to shopping!!

But before that - get to hopping and/or link up to the linky party below- because for all the hoppers and linkers there are 

>>>9 BIG PRIZES<<< 

up for grabs.