Calling All Sistahs' Blog Hop - July

UPDATE - I was away from home and experiencing technical difficulties and was unable to "officially" join the Calling All Sistahs' Blog Hop.

Calling All Sistahs is a campaign started by Michele Gross of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps after her discovery of breast cancer.   The idea behind it is to remind our sistahs to do their monthly self exams and yearly mammograms.  Michele designed the Calling All Sistahs collection during her cancer treatment and is now donating 50% of her profits from that line to National Breast Cancer Foundation.  This is an important reminder for all my sistahs.

Did you know that 1 in 8 women in the US and 1 in 9 women in Canada will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. Look around, do you see 8 (or 9) women? Think about it, on average, one of them will develop breast cancer. It's up to us to do something to do what we can to reduce that incidence. Annual mammograms and monthly self exams are one way for us to take an active role. This is your monthly reminder.

Michele is being super generous by offering 3 - $15 gift certificates to CAS-ual Fridays Stamps to those leaving comments on the various stops of the blog hop. Only the comments left before 12:00am on the 19th of July will be considered for the gift certificates.




Here are those participating in this month's blog hop.

And here's my card

I used CAS-ual Friday's Calling All Sistahs stamp set with two shades of pink ink.  I tried to create a word cluster type of effect. The large scripty words were made sparkly by adding Wink of Stella to them. Here's a close up.

To further up the sparkle, I added a few sequins.

Thanks for visiting. Now on to  ........

sue

Time Out Challenges #61 - mid Challenge post

The challenges at Time Out Challenges are for two weeks. It gives us all a little bit more time to take Time Out to craft for when our lives get crazy busy.

This time we are Inspired by Words again. 

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine"

Anthony J. D'Angelo

 

Here's my card for this week

 

 

 

 

I took this card in an entirely different direction from last week's sunny card here.  I focused on the word "you".

 

I used CAS-ual Fridays' All About You stamp set from Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection.  I used the three "you" stamps and stamped them with Hero Arts Shadow Inks (Orange Soda, Pale Tomato, Lime Green, Tide Pool and Cornflower) in a random pattern. I was trying to achieve a "word cluster" look. I liked the look of the finished panel but then was a bit stuck on how to finish the card. I settled for stamping the "thank" using the "thanks" stamp from Simon Says STAMP Thanks stamp set by only inking the first five letters onto a scrap piece of blue cardstock, cut into a banner and popped up with dimensionals. The entire card front was matted with the same blue.

 

Thanks for visiting

sue

TIME OUT Challenges - Challenge #61

I am so honoured to be guest designer over at TIME OUT Challenges

It is one of their inspired by words challenges and here’s the quote:

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."

I was inspired by the phrase "always bring your own sunshine". So I thought I would create my own sunshine.

Here's my card

I started with the Sew-Craft Sun stencil and ink blending tools with distress inks (mustard seed and spiced marmalade). I felt that my sun needed some personality, so I added the cute face from The Alley Way's Neener Neener stamp set. I"m still sad that there is no longer "The Alley Way" - I loved the cute stamp sets there.  I added Glossy Accents to the star-shaped sunglasses to make them more realistic.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine stamp set.

Thanks for visiting and check out the design team's great cards.

 sue 

Muse Card Challenge #173

This is definitely a first. I have a card ready on the day that the challenge at Muse Card Challenge was posted. It's because the Muse card by Anita Bowden just makes one want to pull out some inks and stamps and craft. Look at this stunning card.

 


Here's my card

I think that it's pretty obvious where I took my inspiration:

• the sketch, with a thin black mat on a white card
• silhouette stamped images
• "sunset" colour scheme
• sentiment, with punctuation (OK, that's a stretch!) 

I started by adding colour to my card panel with ink blending tools and distress inks (spiced marmalade and mustard seed). The flowers are from My Favorite Things LJD Peaceful Wildflowers stamp set. The sentiment is from Simon Says STAMP Whimsical Flowers stamp set.

Thanks for visiting
sue

Essentials by Ellen June Pin-Sights Challenge

Hmmm - looks like I've been spending some time over at Essentials by Ellen. The current challenges are so fun.

Here's the Pin-Sights Inspiration



Here's my card

I was inspired by the colours and the balloons. I used Essentials by Ellen's Wish Big stamp set. I masked the balloon so that the balloons overlapped when inked with Versafine Black Onyx ink. I added colour with copics. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. I used a fine black marker to add the balloon strings.

Thanks for visiting
sue

Share the Love Week - Winnie & Walter and Essentials by Ellen: Day 5

There are several challenges to mark "Share the Love Week" featuring Winnie & Walter and Essentials by Ellen.

This one is for Day 5 - Mood Board Challenge

Here's the mood board




Here's my card

I was inspired by what I perceive to be gold frames on the bottom left corner, the geometric-y shapes on the bottom right corner and the black stripes of the woman's dress, bottom row. I used Winnie & Walter's Do You See What I See stamp with versamark ink, gold embossing powder and heat set. The sentiment is from Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea.

Thanks for the inspiration
sue

Share the Love Week - Winnie & Walter and Essentials by Ellen Day 3

There are several challenges to mark "Share the Love Week" featuring Winnie & Walter and Essentials by Ellen.

This one is for Day 3 Background Building Challenge at Ellen Hutson

Here's my card

For my background, I used Winnie & Walter's Big Bang Bling stamp set with three shades of pink ink. For the foreground, I used Essentials by Ellen's Bold Blooms stamp set with the two darkest shades of pink ink.

I appreciate the reminder that we can use stamps to create backgrounds for cards.

Thanks for visiting
sue

Less is More: Recipe Week

The current challenge at Less is More is a recipe challenge where the challenge is to

USE A STENCIL

Here's my card

I found the Tim Holtz Collection Stamps/Stencils Mixed Media 8 set at JoAnns and "had" to purchase it. I used the stencil with pumice stone distress ink applied with an ink blending tool. For the bird, I stamped it, coloured it with copic markers, fussy cut it and then added some Glossy Accents to the eyes. Here's a close-up.

The sentiment is by Papertrey Ink - Keep it Simple Thank you stamp set.

Thanks for visiting
sue

A2Z Scrapbooking - July Challenge

WOW! I'm so excited to tell you that I'm now a member of the design team here at A2Z Scrapbooking  

The challenge for the month of July is

ANYTHING GOES

Here's my card

I started by using an ink blending tool with mustard seed distress ink to cover the entire card front. I took the "insides" of the butterfly and the sentiment, used embossing ink and clear embossing powder and heat set the "insides". Next, I used an ink blending tool with barn door distress ink to cover the entire card front. The result was an orange-y colour. I used the solid butterfly stamp, with embossing ink and clear embossing powder and heat set the butterfly. Finally, I used an ink blending tool with faded jeans distress ink to cover the entire card front. I trimmed down the panel and matted it with a yellow cardstock.

Check out the a2z scrapbooking store and use the code Sue15 for a 15% discount off of purchases of $25 or more.

Supplies:

Hero Arts Color Layering Butterflies  

Distress inks - mustard seed, barn door, faded jeans

Ink blending tool

  

 

House of Cards July Challenge

It's July 1st. It must be time to introduce July's challenge at House of Cards

JULY 2016

Fruit/Drink Image and/or Colors

Here's my card

OK. I admit it. I didn't know what I was going to do. Then, fortunately for me, I was visiting my friend Amanda and told her that I needed to create a card with a fruit/drink image. She said that she had a stamp set I could use - CTMH Little Treasures (with the mason jar). I had the idea to stamp on vellum. I unfortunately didn't have any Staz-On ink, so I used Versafine. It didn't dry - so, I got creative and added clear embossing powder and heat set it. At least, I didn't smudge the ink - right?  I coloured with a yellow copic on the reverse side to mimic lemonade. Amanda also had a cute little lime green coloured straw that was perfect to match the colours of the photo inspiration. I found a piece of patterned paper that worked with the colours of this challenge. Finished the card with a yellow banner, stamped with the sentiment from Paper Smooches Birthday Sampler stamp set.

Thanks for visiting
sue