This particular challenge reminded me of a Hero Arts Kit I have, so I pulled it out and decided it was perfect for meeting the challenge. I love the background stamp and there are several dies that go with the theme. In this case I just used the lighthouse one. The background was stamped with chipped sapphire first and then I took some sponges and added in the colour for the light show and the sea. I added some white paint to the ocean part and then some additional colour. Once the colours were dry I added some sparkle using a Spectrum Noir shimmer pen. It adds just enough sparkle for interest without being over the top. Unfortunately as always, I can’t get it to show in a photograph. The sentiment is from the same set and once stamped I added some sparkle to it, fussy cut and popped it up. It is a very dramatic background so using only the silhouetted die cut was the perfect addition without detracting from the sky. Thanks for sharing time with me and I wish you a joyful day.

Although I didn’t know Lindsey, having gone through my own cancer experience I understand the loss of a colleague and friend. As I also love purple, I thought making a card using the colours would be a nice thing to do. Supplies used are: butterfly stamp from Penny Black, PP from CTMH, purple paper from a kit many years ago, Verdant Arch leaf from Memory Box, flat back pearls from my stash, Hello die and stamp is Creative Expressions, and finally the labels are a set from Spellbinders. I scored the panel first and then added the labels as you see in the photo. I backed the panel with the same paper as the leaf die cut and then added the leaf to the other stacked labels. The offset label was stamped and the hello die cut added just above. After stamping and colouring the butterfly I fussy cut it and popped it up on top of the leaf. I added a bit of sparkle to it as well but photo never shows the sparkle. Inspiration was something seen on Pinterest but mine is very different than the one I looked at. The original was a square while I kept mine the usual A2 size. I quite like the result and kept it fairly clean and simple. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Most likely I bought these sparkly things because I like sparkly, but I’ve never really done anything with them and they get forgotten about as well. I had this slimline card cut, but hadn’t used it, I also had the die piece cut and had set it aside since earlier this year. When I found the sparkly leaves I thought they would look okay underneath the word window and I added a paper bow, also from my stash, to the offset leaves. The pearls are a strip set that I added to the circle center to give some interest and I added a few more at the bottom of the slimline piece. A very simple and somewhat plain card in spite of the sparkle’s, but it uses up some items that were sitting around as well as forcing me to use the embellishments.

Well I’m certainly lucky today as I managed another card that fits 2 challenges. The one at CYHTP has a twist of using a beach theme along with an EB folder and the Fusion challenge is also beach related. I chose to use the inspiration photo only rather than the sketch. My folder is an old one by Couture Creations called Deep Sea Diver, and I added a wash of colour to the embossing before adding the scene. The little die cuts are all from a Hero Arts set and I went over them with a black glitter pen before adding them to the sea and sand. I also die cut some paddle boards and another small image of a surfer carrying his board. The sentiment is from another older set by Inspired by Stamping. I added the layer to a Navy card front and decided I liked it well enough to post. Have a great day everyone and thanks for looking.

This card is made up from a few bits and pieces I had leftover from prior projects. Yesterday I had started to put the vase and black embossed piece together but didn’t finish it and this morning I saw the two challenges and decided to finish it for entering in to them. The black piece is embossed down the leftside but the photograph didn’t pick up much of the texture. The vase and flowers are, a new to me, stamp set by Penny Black that I had water coloured and set aside so the Nuvo Crystal Glaze could dry. I fussy cut the vase out before popping it up with foam onto the black layer. I added some leftover strips to ground the vase, as close to challenge colours as I could get, and then added the image. This in turn was added to the floral layer and then onto the card front following the sketch from Sunday Stamps. I die cut the circle and stamped the word which is from a Joy Clair set and then added some colour to the entire piece with a sponge. I’m not sure about any additional embellishments and can add them later if I change my mind.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope anyone dealing with a heat wave is able to stay cool somehow. We are into one here and the reports suggest that it is going to get very hot as the week progresses. Thankfully living where we do means we get a constant sea breeze and that helps to keep the house cool without air conditioning.

This is my final effort for the Double D challenge and I’m happy with the result on this one. I got the colours and a design that I personally really like. The flowers were made by die cutting a couple of different Memory Box dies from a background piece I made with some mixed media CS and inks. I sprayed the paper with water until saturated and then added the inks using purples, dark blue and some greens. Once it was fully dry I used some watered down gilded Opal Blaze, which when dry added a ton of shimmer to the surface. I die cut the oval opening using my new infinity die set from Hero Arts and some DSP from StampinUP. To get this the way I wanted it I went around the back of the oval and edges with foam tape and picked up the flowers and leaves so they showed through the oval. Then using more foam tape I popped up the entire piece onto the white card base. Added a few extra flowers and a sentiment (by Penny Black) and some pops of colour to a few flower centers and it was done. The way the colours blended when doing the background was interesting and adding the shimmer gave it something extra. Thanks for spending time with me today.

When I saw one of our Angie’s recent posts using a new lavender die from Memory Box I remembered that I had a die from them that was lavender too. I considered CASE’ing her card but I also had the embossed background piece leftover and decided to go with that instead. I guess her card inspired me in a big way. After die cutting the flowers several times in purple, blue and green, I paper pieced the stems to make them green and then added them as you see to the card front. The stamp used for the circle window is from Impression Obsession and I’ve had it forever, and the sentiment stamps are from Joy Clair. The folder is a 3D from Tim Holtz. I added some sparkle to the flowers and to the sentiment using a Sakura glitter pen. My Mojo is better today but still not great so in my mind I haven’t done this challenge justice. Maybe I’ll get another one done before it ends. Thanks for spending time with me today.

Considering this mood board features my favourite colours one would think I would be totally inspired to make a card. I must have been tired yesterday (bad night) because none of my ideas worked and in the end I compromised with this card. I am honestly not sure it is good enough for the challenge, but decided to add it anyway as I like it better today than I did when I finished it yesterday. The background piece was done by smooshing into wet ink and as an experiment I added a bit of gold using the foundry wax. While that worked I didn’t like the result much so decided to cover up most of the gold bits. The stamp sets used are from Penny Black and one from Inspired by Stamping and the sentiment is a die cut. I coloured the images with Inktense pencils and distress inks. The window is a die I’ve used recently, cut from a store bought card and was on my desk so I popped it up over the top of the other images with the sentiment below. Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Using a matte gold background initially, I then die cut the leaf frame, using an MFT Lots of Leaves die, in coral. Taking a light gray piece I die cut the same frame again and this time selectively hand cut a few leaves to tuck behind the coral layer in several places. Using a Creative Expressions stamp and die set I cut the hello out of both coral and gray, added them together and then to the card front. From the same set I stamped the smaller word onto a scrap piece of coral, fussy cut, and then glued underneath the Hello. I had wanted to stamp the word directly to the card front but it simply wouldn’t stamp clearly enough so fussy cutting meant I could make it look okay. A few gold gems from Trinity stamps and I called it finished.

It has been so long since I used this set of stamps that I thought I would dig them out and make a card for the AAA challenge. As it is Christmas themed I’m also adding to the Peace On Earth challenge as well. No plaid in my card but it is an anything goes so it works.

I found an old stamp that has curved snow flakes by GKD and after making a circle mask I added the snowflakes all the way around. Then I stamped the cats, masking off one and partially masking the other for the hat. These were coloured with Prisma pencils and a bit of Sakura glitter as well as a new Spectrum Noir glitter set I now own. The googly eyes and sentiment are a separate layer and sentiment was stamped using a Hero Arts set and fussy cut before adding to the front. I added a bit of glitter to the sentiment and to the dots between the snowflakes. I kind of like the googly eyes myself. Thanks for looking.