Color Throwdown #323

Hello friends!  It’s time for another Color Throwdown, and this week will be our last one for 2014.  Lori is our hostess with these sweet pastels (pale pink, rose, olive green and kraft) this week.  What fun to try to use them for a non-traditional Christmas card, or whatever else you want to create!

I decided to make this birthday card…

I saw this beautiful card on Pinterest one day that really caught my eye, so I decided to CASE it for my design, today.  The background was created with a Heidi Swapp stencil and some embossing paste, and the flowers from LJD Peaceful Wildflowers were stamped with Worn Lipstick distress ink, Pink Lemonade premium dye ink,
and Factory Green premium dye ink.  The sentiment is from the LJD Pretty Poppies, and I added a punched butterfly for embellishment.
Be sure to stop over at the CTD blog for all the challenge details, and join us this week!  And be sure to visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration…
Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Monika Davis
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Sue Lelli,
December Guest Designer
Rosemary Dennis, Guest Star Stamper
Thanks for stopping by today!

Color Throwdown #322

Hello friends!  We've got another Color Throwdown challenge for you this week, and I'M your hostess!  I hope you'll love these colors as much as I do!  Last year, just about this time, an issue of Family Fun magazine showed up in our office waiting room, and on the cover was a cute little girl wearing an apron made from this fabric.  I just LOVED the retro combination of colors, so I just knew we'd have to have it for a challenge this Christmas!

For my card, I pulled out a stamp set I bought last year from Wplus9 Design Studio, the Strictly Sentiments 3.  I bought it because of this card... just loved how that card looked.  But with my Dad's passing just before Christmas last year I just didn't get time to make many Christmas cards, and this stamp set has gone uninked... until NOW!  I just knew I had to CASE that fabulous card for today.

I stamped the largest circles in red ink, stamping off a few times with each inking.  Then used an aqua blue, pink and dark green ink for the rest of the circles with the sentiment stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.  I applied strips of Scor-tape at the top and bottom of the stamped panel and applied some chunky glitter, mounted the panel to a dark teal green card stock and gave the whole thing a spritz of shimmer spray before mounting to a white card stock base.
I hope you'll join us this week!  Stop by the CTD blog for all the challenge details, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration...
Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Monika Davis
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Sue Lelli, December Guest Designer
Birgit, Guest Star Stamper
Thank you for stopping by today!

Christmas Canvas

Way back in May (when the temps were a LOT warmer than they are now!) I took a wonderful trip to Florida and visited the My Favorite Things boutique in Eustis.  The MFT girls had a fabulous weekend-long retreat that I got to go to where we made some wonderful cards and other things.  One of the projects we made that weekend was our own version of this beautiful canvas designed by my BFF Barbara Anders.
Well, I’ve wanted to make another canvas similar to that for the longest time, but never seemed to get around to it.  And back in August when I visited my favorite Aunt at the new assisted living she moved to, I noticed that beside the door to her room was a little shelf where she could display pretty things, and I knew I wanted to make her something to put there.  So, I was going to do something for Fall but never got around to it.  Well, NOW my daughter is heading back to my hometown for a quick visit this weekend, so I finally got the canvas done to send with her!
Here we go…

Using the canvas that Bar so beautifully designed as a guide, I created this version using the MFT Poinsettia Die-Namics.  Behind the flowers I used the (now retired) High Tea Doily Die-Namics, along with some jute string.  The canvas was prepped with some kraft paint and gesso, and then on the canvas I randomly stamped the chicken wire from the MPD Distressed Backgrounds stamp set, and the BG Romantic Script background… both were stamped using waterproof ink.  I also applied some embossing paste using the MPD Brick Wall stencil, and stamped some of the script over that, too.  The sentiment is from the Cheerful Christmas Greetings stamp set, stamped in Jellybean Green hybrid ink.  I embellished with some flat-back pearls, and some wood veneer snowflakes that were sprayed with silver shimmer.  The poinsettias, leaves and doily were also stamped with pearl and gold shimmer sprays.

My Aunt Thead has that dreadful macular degeneration, so her eyesight isn’t the greatest, but I told my daughter to encourage her to gently run her fingers around this so she can feel all the texture.  :)
Happy Friday, everyone!  Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Color Throwdown #321

Happy Wednesday, friends!  It's time for another Color Throwdown challenge, and this week Broni is our hostess.  She's got gold, silver, dark brown and white from this beautiful photo to inspire you this week...

Combine these colors with my lack of creativity and motivation right now, and you can imagine that I was a little intimidated by these colors!  But I persevered and came up with this...

I used my new (to me!) Merry & Bright and Woodland Wreaths stamp sets and dies from Wplus9 Design Studio for my card today.  The berries on the wreath were stamped in gold, then heat embossed with gold embossing powder, as was the pinecone.  In the background, I stamped the BG Diagonal Stripes background from My Favorite Things using gold Encore ink, then I added a dark brown strip of card stock to the left side, and mounted the panel over a strip of silver glitter card stock.  A few gold and silver sequins finished off my design.  I was inspired by the current Clean & Simple Stamping sketch #314 for the layout of my card.
Please be sure to stop by the CTD blog for all the challenge details, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration...
Barbara Anders 
Broni Holcombe 
Joan Ervin 
Jodi Collins 
Lori Tecler 
Monika Davis 
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen 
Sue Lelli, December Guest Designer
Joanne James, Guest Star Stamper
Thanksabunch for stopping by today!

Belated Birthday Donut

A few days ago, I realized I completely missed my Aunt Rose’s birthday.  She’s such a sweetie, so I’m hoping this card will allow her to forgive me for forgetting!  The new Donut You Know stamps and Confetti Cuts from Reverse Confetti were just perfect for my card…

For the layout of my card, I used the Sketch for You to Try from Reverse Confetti for November, but I was too lazy over the weekend to get it photographed so I missed the deadline to enter.  In addition to the new Donut You Know stamps and dies, I used the new Triple Chevies Confetti Cuts, too.  On the photo at the very top of my post you can kinda’ see how I added some crystal lacquer to the donut icing for a nice glaze.
On the inside, I added the belated birthday sentiment from the stamp set…

The colors for my card were inspired by the current Colour Q challenge #269, and I’m also entering the current Anything Goes challenge on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog.
I hope my US friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  Thanks for stopping by today!