The Open Sea-FMS136, CMCC#20

Hello again... it's still Monday, and it's still a holiday, and I am still nursing this gigantic head cold... so I am still gonna be quick!  Here's the other card I had a chance to make this weekend.  I was inspired by the colours at Colour Me...! (hi girls!) and the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Here's my card!

I still had The Open Sea on my desk and wanted to make another nautical card... so I did!  I hope you like!  I hardly dare to admit this, but this was also the VERY FIRST TIME I inked up my Tape It stamps.... shame on me!  I like them... ALOT!

OK, thanks for taking time out of your day to look!  That's it for me then!  

xo Anita

Stampin' Celebration! Sketch Inspiration

Welcome back to another episode of Stampin' Celebration!  It's the middle of May (already) and we're back with some more inspiration for you.  This is a brand new challenge... click on over to the Stampin' Celebration website to see who our Pick of the Party for the last challenge was!

 This time around we have a sketch challenge for you...

I'm still on the nautical theme... but that's what all this gorgeous warm sunny weather will do to you... make you dream about being out on the ocean or lake... so that's what I've got for you today!  And, sorry if you can't find the sketch in my card... I got all turned around when I decided to turn it on it's side, but then forgot to account for the elements on the lower right hand side, and put them in a different spot altogether!  Oh well... all in the name of creativity, right?

 So it's pretty obvious what I've done here... and I have to confess that while I was making this card, I totally didn't even know what I really wanted or was even doing!  I was just sort of stamping and sponging all over the place... which is really a poor excuse for a way of doing things, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!  

Be sure to check out the awesome samples from the other DT members... there's so much inspiration there!  I'm looking forward to checking out all your lovely projects in the gallery... so be sure to play along!  

xo Anita

Nautical Inspiration! SC78I

Happy Thursday to you all!  And... it is May!  Just like that!  I love the month of May... soft spring mornings... hints of summer... the end of the school year is nearer!  Ahhh....

And because it's the first of May, the girls and I from Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge have a new challenge for you!  And what better to get you in the mood for those hints of summer... than this inspiration photo!  Love it!

And it's perfect because it seems like the whole nautical thing is 'in' right now!  For once I can say I am 'on trend'!  haha

Take a look at the card I made using this inspiration board as a starting point!  I used it for the elderly men's birthdays in my church last month.  

I really love this stamp.  What I love even more is that it's great for colouring.  I find watercolouring so relaxing.  I made about 6 or 7 of these cards, and it didn't take me long at all!  Love that!

So make sure you click on over to the Stampin' Celebration website, and check out the other design team member's awesome stuff!  Those ladies never cease to inspire me!  Be sure to get creative, link up your card or whatever it is you make, and we'll come by to check out your project and leave you some love!  

There have been a few changes to our challenge again.  Our challenges will no longer run for the whole month, but rather, we will have two separate challenges.  The first half of the month will be an inspiration challenge and the second half of the month will be the sketch challenge!  So, that means more chances for you to win, since we will be choosing a Pick of the Party twice a month now!  Great, right?  So what are you waiting for?  Get creating!

We'll see you later!  I know I said to come back today for a spring-y card... and it's not really a spring-y card.... so be sure to come back tomorrow for that!

xo Anita

Happy Birthday to You!

So... no more rain... we didn't get that much after all... certainly not enough to melt all our snow.  But we did get ALOT of sunshine and awesome warm temperatures which took care of almost all the snow anyway... so we're all happy here!

I've got another birthday card to show you today!  I really love this one.  It's perfect for that man in your life!  Take a look!

I used Brushed Gold cardstock  and also used Gold EP.  And the other 'golden' idea I had was to colour some rhinestones with my gold Sharpie! Oh, I also used my colour spritzer tool with my gold Sharpie... it worked perfectly!

Here you can see a bit more of the detail.  I really have to do heat embossing more often, it can pack a real punch!  The part of the First Edition DSP I used was all about kangaroos... which is perfect, because my husbands family is from Australia!  I know my father-in-law will really like that!

On this last one I coloured pearls with my gold Sharpie... and I think I like it better than the rhinestones.

Here's one more card that I made... totally different, but using the same stamp set.

This one is really bright and fun in real life.  Well... hope you've enjoyed my cards today.  We'll see you tomorrow!

xo Anita

For You - FMS111, CQC#214

Hello again!  Another post for today!  

I wanted to link up with Freshly Made Sketches and the ColourQ for this one!  

 

I had to dig into my box of retired colours for this one!  Still have a teensy bit of Dusty Durango left, and lots of Bashful Blue!  Such a lovely colour combo.  I made my brother in law to be a birthday card.  Hope he likes it!  I used my Truly Grateful stamp set for the first time with this one.  Love it!  I actually used a few different stamp sets... Truly Grateful, Gorgeous Grunge and Chalk Talk.  The Bashful Blue ribbon I cut down from a 1" grosgrain with stitching on each edge, to a narrow one with stitching down the middle!  I heat embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder on the Early Espresso label for some added interest and detail.  I love little details like that!

 It's a great masculine card don't you think?  Thanks for taking the time to look!

Have a fabulous day!  xo Anita

Masculine Birthday! PP170, RS#88

Good morning!  Welcome to Monday!  It's another ab.so.lutely gorgeous day here in the Fraser Valley!  I'm going to take advantage of the sunshine and wash my bus after this, so let's get right to it!  I needed another birthday card, as it's my big brother's birthday tomorrow... so I pulled out my dusty Nature Silhouettes stamp set to play along at the Paper Players and their 'wildlife' theme.  I used the sketch at RetroSketches... and I was all set!

 Love the way my card turned out!

I embossed my Island Indigo panel with the woodgrain embossing folder, topped that with a Whisper White panel tied with some non SU! (sorry!) black and white baker's twine, a SU! black button and a little tag with the sentiment on it!  For my focal panel I heat embossed my stamped image with black embossing powder, then used my 1" circle punch for a mask for the moon, and using a mixture of 5 different blue inks, I sponged my night sky!  The colours I used were Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Island Indigo, Night of Navy and Midnight Muse.  Love the 'glowy moon in the night sky' effect when I pulled that sticky note off the moon!  Absolutely beautiful!  My brother will be impressed!

OK, I'm off to enjoy the bright sunny day.  Have a great day yourself!

xo Anita

Happy Fall Ya'll!! JUGS212, AW03, FMS109

Good morning everybody!  I'm late, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!  It was my brother-in-law's (the hilarious one from Friday's post!) birthday on Saturday... and I forgot to send him a card, much less make him one!  Thankfully I know that he totally doesn't care if he gets his card in the mail a week late!  He's probably used to it by now... although lately I've really been trying to get better and I think I'm improving!

Anyway, today's card is for three challenges... I grabbed the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, used the colours from the inspiration photo at Just Us Girls, and am also linking up with the Around the World challenge, since for once I used all current SU! products.  

 

Here's my card!  I love it!

And a little closer up view of the most darling teeny tiny little sentiment.

I used a few different stamp sets for this one.  I took the sentiment from the Apothecary Art stamp set, used the Lovely Little Labels to frame it, and punched out a couple little labels with the Little Labels Punch Pack.  For my focal panel I used the lovely tree from Lovely As A Tree, and coloured it using my markers and the thumping technique.  Totally fun!  It reminds me of all the beautiful trees we are seeing around my neighbourhood right now!  I used Naturals White CS as my card base, Eastern Elegance DSP for the Crushed Curry, Early Espresso and Cajun Craze!  Awesome fall colours!  To finish it all off I wrapped some linen thread around the main panel and tied a naturals wood button on!

Let me know what you think of my card!  I love hearing from you!  Hopefully I'll have lots of crafting time this week!

xo Anita 

For You-Masculine Birthday

Hello again!  Another quick post for now.

I've got a really nice masculine card for you again.  This one uses the (retired) Backwoods stamp set.  It's got some great images in it for guys cards, I think it's too bad it's retired!  I also used the Vintage Labels stamp set, along with the Curly Label Punch.  The Spiral Punch is also the one thing that I don't think I will EVER get rid of.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you've been inspired to make something today!

xo Anita

Another Masculine Birthday!

Another quick post for Wednesday!  Scroll down to see my first one.  It's another masculine card that I found in my folder that I had not yet posted for you.  This one uses the Backwoods stamp set (retired!) and a classy colour combo, to make a super simple, quick, easy and fast card!

Here's the supply list!

Paper:  Real Red, So Saffron, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point
Stamps:  Backwoods, You're My Type
Accessories:  Chocolate Chip Button, twine, Old Olive marker, sponges

Masculine-Lovely As A Tree

Happy Wednesday!  Hope your week is going great!  We're halfway to the weekend!  Yay!

Today's card is pretty much the same as this one here.  I just changed the colours and stamps, nixed the sentiment, and WAH-LA.... a different card, but without all the figuring out of a layout, and all that jazz.  I often do this if I'm in a crunch to get a card quickly.  Oh, I know there are 10 minute cards out there, but it would take me 20 minutes to find them!  This way, I just check my own archives, find one that I can quickly recreate... and then.... DONE!

I love the colour combo on this card.  It's a very masculine looking card as well, which is great, because I never seem to have enough of those!  If I create just for fun, I usually make something pretty, or girly, or do some digi scrapping.  

Thanks for looking!  Hope the rest of your week is just fabulous!

xo Anita

Supplies:

Paper:  Old Olive CS, Whisper White CS,  Early Espresso CS, Daffodil Delight DSP, Early Espresso DSP

Ink:  Early Espresso

Stamps:  Lovely As A Tree

Accessories:  Early Espresso Grosgrain Ribbon, Brights Buttons, Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Sponges (Yellow Baker's Twine-contraband!)

Lovely As A Tree Masculine Birthday!

Good morning Stampers!

Today's card uses the catalogue's oldest ( I think!) but loveliest stamp set... Lovely As A Tree!  I'll get right to it!

Isn't it a beautiful card?  I used the stamping off technique to make the trees recede into the distance and also did a fair amount of sponging on here to aid in the more masculine feel.  I used the modern label punch and the word window punch to make the tag, which I stamped with the Vintage Labels stamp set.  The Bashful Blue panel was embossed with the wood grain folder.  Love that thing!

xo Anita

Warmest Wishes!

Good morning all!  I've got a quick card post for you today.  

Here's a card I made some time ago.  I used the scallop square punch on here to make it come together VERY quickly.  Love that you can use a card like this to get rid of some of your scraps!

Here it is!

For the base of the card I used Garden Green.  After punching out some co-ordinating scraps with the scallop square punch, I stamped, fussy cut and layered the flower from the retired hostess set, Apple Blossoms.  A few buttons tied with hemp twine and a flag greeting finishes off the card perfectly!  Easy, done!

Happy Birthday!

Good morning stampers!  Today's card features the Botanical Blooms set and the colour combo of Marina Mist, River Rock, Tangerine Tango and Cajun Craze!  It may seem like an odd combo, but the flowers look great stamped in Tangerine and Cajun.  The Marina Mist looks pretty bright on here, so my picture is probably off a little, but it looks stunning in real life!  This is one of those very simple, fast cards you can whip up when you suddenly need one in a pinch! 

Thanks for looking!  Have a great weekend!

Masculine Best Wishes

This card has a lot of layers and small details... all worth the extra time.  Sponging, paper piercing, curling the edges, the brads, etc.... all come together to create a gorgeous card.... for a man, no less!

FM114, CCMC256

Today's card features a new-to-me technique.  The brick wall!  I've seen this technique before, but never really felt like trying it... too lazy I guess!  I was spurred on to try it at The Friday Mashup!  Their challenge this week was a sketch or the brick wall technique... or a mashup of both!  I went with the colour challenge at Create With Connie and Mary.  It's really beautiful!

 

I chose to mashup my challenge and do the sketch along with the brick wall technique.  It turned out perfectly using my CCMC colour combo as well.

Since I don't know yet what I will be using this card for, I went with no sentiment, instead opting to use a row of pearls.  I stamped my main image on First Edition DSP, and after cutting my 'bricks', I sponged them all with Early Espresso ink, mounted them on Very Vanilla, which I adhered to some Island Indigo DSP for a tiny border, and then finally adhered to Early Espresso CS.  I used my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch for a tiny peek of Island Indigo at the bottom.  Using my Early Espresso and Summer Starfruit markers to colour my image was a cinch and couldn't have worked out any nicer.  I love the look of it stamped on the First Edition.

Thanks for taking the time to look!  Leave me a comment.... I read and appreciate each and every one of them!  Have a great day!

Birthday Wishes

 I made this card a long time ago... I still really like it.  It's a pretty simple card if you need one in a hurry.  I'd try it again... with maybe a different colour combo.

Lovely As A Tree Reflection

I love this technique.  It has such a huge impact in person.  I must do this more often.  I used glossy paper (photo paper) and an acetate sheet.  There's a tutorial on SCS that tells you how to do this technique.  For the moon I used my circle punch on a post it note.  This is a fabulous card.

Sail Away

An easy card to mass produce.  I love that it is another masculine card... I always seem to run short of these.... or short of ideas for these anyway!

Masculine 4 You

This is a great masculine card.  Change up the colors easily for a few different looks... same goes for the sentiment.  I love this stamp set... ALOT!