Distressed Sunflower Card - STAMPlorations sketch challenge

As I laid in the grass gazing up at the sky bursting with fireworks last night, I was so grateful for my country and my family who'd come to visit. It was a quintessential summertime moment. I decided to capture that summery feeling on card stock with another quintessential summertime emblem - the sunflower.

Here in the midwest, those hot summer days make for big ol' sunflower blooms. I used the gorgeous sketchy sunflowers from The Birds and the Blooms STAMPlorations set and embossed them in white before filling them in with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. (GB3, GB7, EB8, BGR4, TB6, TB5, TB4). 

There's a new sketch in town over at STAMPlorations, 

so I squared up to make a card today. 

Isn't it a beauty?! Sometimes I don't know what to do with a sketch, but this one gave me all sorts of ideas! 

To create the grunge background, I stamped a bunch of grungy stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. (Seriously makes mixed media soooooo easy). and then I used a stencil (Brackets ARTplorations stencil) and embossing paste to create texture. 

I used some Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo Distress Inks to sponge around the edges and a little over the top of the embossing paste. Then I stamped a sentiment from the Bloom Sketches set and, after a little gluing, had a completed card!  

I'm also going to join the fun over at:
Crafty Gals Corner - Rays of Sunshine
Simon Says Stamp Monday - Summer
Mixed Media Monthly - Summer Days

Inkspirational - Grunge


As for you all - You should definitely go play along with the sketch at STAMPlorations and check out what the rest of the designers made! 

Distressed Frilly Card - STAMPlorations June Challenge

Ok, I am going to share my new favorite card with you crafters. Every once in awhile I get done with a card and I just sit back and say, "wow! I'm glad my brain still has some beauty left in it after all those terrible puns it has to make room for!"

I was over-the-moon elated about the July challenge happening over at STAMPlorations. 

Hulllloooooo?! Damsel of Distressed anyone? Hooray! Sometimes I go through phases where I keep things pretty clean, and I feel like I've been in one of those moods lately, so this card really helped to spur the distress comeback. 

I started by smooshing Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks onto my craft mat and then I spritzed it with water. 

This technique is called Distress Dipping (at least in my brain). It's a really easy way to create a gorgeous watercolor-esque background. 

Lay your card stock into the inky mixture and press down and move it left to right, trying to get all of the white area inked. 

Lift up and dry (air dry or heat dry works). I usually repeat this step 3-4 times to add lots of pretty layers and depth to the background. 

Next, I sprayed the background with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain to add a little white. Please note that you should not just do this anywhere, as you will wind up with white splatters all over your ink pads. *Ahem*


Next, I added a layer of Mixed Media Grunge stamping and applied a layer of white gesso through the Gridlocked ARTplorations stencil. 

 

Before that layer dried, I added some rock glitter to it. Then I die cut a frame (coated with perfect pearls) and added some flowers, an embossed gold butterfly from the Trendy Butterflies and a sentiment piece from Hashtag Authentic. 

I really enjoyed getting back to my Distressing roots! 

I have to give  BIG shoutout to {PIN}spirational challenges for giving me this awesome inspiration image to work with:

I'm also going to join the fun at:
Frilly and Funkie - Sentiment as the focal piece
613 Ave Create - Use Roses or pearls 
In the Pink - Shabby Chic/Vintage
Craft Stamper Magazine Take It Make It - Take a Stamp

Thank you for popping by and I totally think you should try distressing. If you need any tips or pointers, I'd be happy to help you out and there are several tutorials you can find on my blog! 

Once you're done, make sure you link it up to STAMPlorations for your chance to win some awesome prizes! You can use ANY product or ANY brand of stamps. 

Transport - Eclectic Ellapu Challenge

Happy Friday! Oh, wait, it's Thursday... well close enough in my book since I have tomorrow off. My lovely cousin is coming into town and she's going to spend the weekend with me! 
This post is going to be quick and dirty, because once again I have procraftinated and I have like 2 minutes to post this. So I'm sorry for the brevity!

Over at Eclectic Ellapu, our new monthly challenge has started. The Pink team is bringing you creations with the theme of "Transport" and the Purple team is bringing you creations with the theme of "Favorite Holiday".

Since I happen to be on the Pink team, my card features a vintage car from the STAMPlorations Enjoy the Ride set:

I've added in a bunch of hand-drawn swirly dos, some grungy stamps (Mixed Media Grunge from STAMPlorations), some splatters and little arrow bits from a Heidi Swapp collection. 

I've used the awesome sketch from the Paper Players.
 

I'm also going to send it over to:
Cardz 4 Guyz - Somethign beginning with B (blue car)
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

As for you! Well you should head over to Eclectic Ellapu and play along with us!

Mixed Media Flowers - Mixed Media Card Challenge

It's my first challenge over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge!! I'm pretty thrilled to have another reason to get all messy and inky, and am pumped (say that in Arnold's voice and you'll laugh) to bring you this card today.

The theme over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge this month is:

Blue can be taken a number of ways - literally the color, sadness, or maybe even you want to get all funky creative and channel Picasso during his blue period. 

As for me, when I set out to make this card, I was having a bit of a mixed media block. So I did what I always do in this situation and broke out the gesso and a palette knife.
 

The scariest thing about mixed media is staring at a white page, so whenever I'm having troubles, I just start slapping things on and hope for the best. 

Lo and behold - as soon as I had some texture on my page a plan shaped in my mind. I used my Cricut to die cut an elaborate frame and then I painted it with a shimmery layer of deep blue Perfect Pearls. 

As you can tell from my whack-a-doodle process photos, it was late when I was making this. :) That's ok, I've decided that I'm going to be like the Rachel Ray of cardmaking. I'm going to be real! I always think it's super weird when I see process photos that have a pristine white background. Like what happened?! Did you really take the time to clean up the mess between each photo?

Anyways, back to the show. 

I ultimately opted to incorporate the optional vase element into my design. I cut out some heavy weight vellum and scored it to look like a vase, then I applied a layer of rock glitter. 

To that, I added some stamped, fussy cut flowers (from the Dee's Artsy Impressions - Blooming Buds set) that I colored with layers of gelatos. I also used Old Paper Distress Inks to make the gesso texture in the background pop and speckled it all with some Perfect Pearl splatters. 

Et voila!

My card, for your perusal. 
I'm going to join in the fun at
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Dots or Spots (my splatters)
Sparkle and Sprinkle - Use loose glitter, flocking, embossing
Glitter and Sparkle - Must have a sentiment

Isn't it blue-tee-ful? (You didn't really think you were getting out of here without at least one bad pun, did you?!)

So come get blue with us over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge! You'll be happy you did! 

STAMPlorations Birthday Bash Blog Hop Day 2 - $100 in Prizes!

Pssssst! If you haven't heard yet, STAMPlorations is turning the big 2! I've been so blessed to be able to be involved with this amazing company and I'm so happy I get to put on my party shoes and celebrate with them!
 

In honor of the big celebration, they are giving over $100 worth of prizes away over at the STAMPlorations blog, including 3 sets of the new birthday-themed stamp releases.

I got to play with Party Mates, an adorable stamp set filled with all sorts of party-themed schtuff. I saw these candles and my head just popped with the idea to do a shaker card surrounded by them. 

So here's the result!

I added in some shimmery, teensy stars to the center shaker part and surrounded it with a shimmery star yellow paper. The inside of the shaker is also stamped with a sentiment from the new Party Time sentiment stamp set.

I'm going to play along in the following fun challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown - It's in the Stars
Corrosive Challenges - Leave a Little Sparkle 

We've got some amazing guest designers partying with us this week. Today the fabulous ANNI LERCHE is strutting her stuff with us! 

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all birthday blog hop projects here.

There are two different ways to get in on the mega-prize-giveaway-action:

1. You can hop along with the STAMPteam and comment 

2. You can link up a party/celebration/birthday project! (Using ANY products)

Remember there are over >>$100<< of prizes that will be given away, so you don't want to miss out!


Thanks for popping by!

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Bash Day 1 - $100 in Prizes!

Today is a day for celebration, my friends!! 

STAMPlorations is turning 2!!

If you've stopped by my blog, you know how much I love this stamp company. It's owned by the incredibly thoughtful, generous and talented Shery Russ and I'm so proud to support them. 

We would LOVE for you to celebrate with us! And to win some of the amazing prizes that are available!

In honor of STAMPlorations 2nd birthday, there are three new birthday-themed sets available and I am loving them. 

We've also got a stellar guest designer celebrating with us today - Amy Tsurata of Tsurata Designs! 

For my day one card, I played around with the  PartyGirl and Party Time stamp sets and made this card:

Isn't it fun and bright?! I stenciled fun Distress Ink colors with the Confetti Circles ARTPlorations stencil and paper pieced a matching dress for my Party Girl. I embossed the sentiment and added in some texture with some green sparkly mesh. A perfect card for a celebration!

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all birthday blog hop projects here.

There are two different ways to get in on the mega-prize-giveaway-action:

1. You can hop along with the STAMPteam and comment 

2. You can link up a party/celebration/birthday project! (Using ANY products)

Remember there are over >>$100<< of prizes that will be given away, so you don't want to miss out!

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On a more personal note - I just got back from a 3-day kid's camp and will be making the rounds to visit all of you kind folks who left amazing comments for me. I haven't forgotten about you!

Googly Eyes!! ATG at Crafty Gals Corner

Well folks, it's my swan song over at Crafty Gals Corner. I can't believe I've spent a whole term with the fabulous ladies on their DT, but it's true! I've been inspired, cheered on, and beyond honored to spend the last few months creating with them. 

A giant thank you to fabulously talented Samantha of Designs by Sammy for giving me the opportunity and for crafting the challenge blog from scratch. You are incredible!

So for my last card, I knew I wanted to do something crazy, outside the box, and fun. Luckily the sponsor of CGC this week is Rick St. Dennis who is KNOWN for crazy outside the box digital images. Woop!

I chose to work with Cat Glasses, a funky sassy retro woman. 

Here's the card I made:

I can't even look at it without laughing! Haha! I chose some funky wild papers from Bo Bunny and I chose to put googly eyes on her to make her look a little ga-ga. 

Did you catch that sentiment? It's not what you think at first glance. Here's a close up:

It's from a hilarious Lil' Inker Designs stamp set that's packed with snarky sentiments like this. And it also has a little illumination stamp for the inside, just in case the recipient misses it the first time. 

I'm going to link this up to the following challenges:

Retrosketches - thanks for the awesome sketch!


Inkspirational: Wild


As for you all - you should head on over to Crafty Gals Corner and link up any and all creations you have made! We'd love to see them and you could win an amazing prize: 

Our sponsor this week is:

Rick St. Dennis

Etsy Shop / Zibbet Shop

Prize: 2 Digital Images or 25% Coupon to Zibbet Shop

By the way - if you don't hear from me for the next week, please don't think I've forgotten you. Starting tomorrow I'm heading off to a 4-day children's grief counseling camp where I'll be paired up with a kiddo and we'll do all sorts of fun things. But I will be completely away from the interwebs and will come back completely pooped out if last year was any indication. 

But I promise I'll make the rounds to see what you've all been up to when I come back. :)