BIC #60

It's time for another Be Inspired Challenge by The Alley Way Stamps.  Here's the inspiration photo:

I was inspired by the tree in the upper left of the picture.  I loved the contrast of the white tree with the bold red and green.  I also was inspired by the snowflakes in the opposite corner of the photo.

I just purchased TAWS's Chick Magnet stamp set.  The expression on the chickens crack me up!  I wanted to use it, but wasn't sure how to make it a holiday card.  Then I thought how I always make a tangled mess of lights when setting up the tree and realized that chicken's surprised expression probably matches mine in a holiday light mess.  I used Jolly Holiday for the lights and sentiment to make a hilarious Christmas card.

I'll probably have a few more holiday cards posted before the 25th.  Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet?  Mine are still in a pile on my craft desk.  Better mail them soon.

Linking To:

The Alley Way Stamps-BIC #60

613 Avenue Create-Anything Goes

A Song in Your Heart-I'll Be Home for Christmas

Just Us Girls-Mixed Media (I used markers, papers, ribbon, glossy accents, pens, etc.)

Spectrum Noir-Simple Cards

Christmas Card Time

I haven't posted in a long time because I've mostly been working on Christmas cards.  I love holiday cards.  I could make them all year round.  Unfortunately, I didn't, so now I'm trying to get all of my Christmas cards made so I can send them at the beginning of December.  When did the holidays sneak up so fast?!

My main holiday card focuses on the infant Savior.  I just love this stamp set (Seek Him) from The Alley Way Stamps.  It shows the true reason for the holiday season so simply.

Supplies: Stamps-The Alley Way Stamps, Paper-DCWV, Cork-K&Co, Ribbon-Offray, Other-Glossy Accents, Stampin' Up Ink, Spectrum Noir markers, and gold glitter

My camera didn't want to cooperate.  It's much warmer toned in person.  I colored on cream cardstock and then masked the spotlight area and inked the sides using my distressing tool.  I made a dozen of these which was a really dumb idea.  Inking the blue sky for that many cards was miserable!

My other holiday card is a festive bird card with a pun (of course!)  I've made 3 of these so far, but I might make a few more.

Supplies: Stamps-Lawn Fawn, Paper-DCWV, Ribbon-American Crafts, Coloring Medium-Prismacolor pencils

I rarely make duplicates of cards, but it has been a good change this month.  I doubt I'll do it often, but holiday cards are always an exception.

TAWS Love

Here's some of my latest cards using The Alley Way Stamps.  First is a card for my best friend's housewarming party.

And here are two cards made just for fun.

Finally, the last card I made for last month's Be Inspired Challenge.

TAWS Be Inspired #57

Wow, I have a stack of cards to photograph and put on this blog!  School started and I've been swamped.  But I always make time to craft.  (Just to save my sanity!)

I won the BIC #55 challenge and was asked to guest design for BIC #57.  Make a card using The Alley Way Stamps?  How could I resist?!

I love the inspiration.  It's got fun colors and images.  Lots of inspiration with this one.

For my first card, I was inspired by the mint and pink colors and the circles in the bottom right photo.  I used TAWS stamps: Tropic Tropic, Crazy Critters, and Mrs. Roger's Neighborhood.

Images-The Alley Way, Paper-Paper Studio, Embellishments-Making Memories

Can't wait to see your take on this challenge.  Enter it HERE.  If you don't have any TAWS stamps, they have freebies available HERE.

Cool off

I live in Utah.  It's famous for snow.  But regardless of that, it is in a desert and has scorching hot, dry summers.  I hate the winter, but this week I've been pining for it.  This heat is sweltering!  So I pulled out my "coolest" looking stamps to play with, and found one of my favorites.

Stamps-There She Goes, Paper-DCWV, Rub ons-Fancy Pants, Ribbon-Offay, Twine and Buttons-American Crafts

It's designed by Tortico for There She Goes, which tragically closed its store at the end of last year.  But Tortico is now designing for My Favorite Things, so you can find her cute images there (not this one, but some really fun others).

I wanted to make a Christmas card without the standard red and green.  Think it works?  I love the teal and purple, but am not sure about that sunny yellow.  Guess summer snuck into my card after all!

Linking to:

Craft Your Passion-Christmas in July

Merry Monday-use ribbon and buttons

Top Tip Tuesday-material girl

Crafting for All Seasons-Christmas in July

Color Throwdown-teal, purple, and yellow

Just Add Ink-Christmas in July

Avenue 613-anything goes

Through the Craft Room Door-anything goes

Penny's Challenges-anything goes

Crafty Creations-just for fun

TAWS Be Inspired #55

I've been in a crafting slump for the past couple months.  But nothing brings back my inspiration like The Alley Way Stamps.  This month's Be Inspired Challenge was a little more challenging but way fun:

At first, I drew inspiration from the ombre effect that berry lemonade has.  (Once you taste the berry-filled bottom...MMMM)  Not quite sure how, but my ombre background turned into a monochromatic flower pot.

Stamps-The Alley Way, Paper-Basic Grey, Coloring Medium-Prismacolor pencils, Ink-Stampin Up and Ranger

I was inspired by the summery feel of the photo, the ombre look of the glasses, the stiped straws, the splotchy pattern from the ice cubes, and the pink and turquoise colors.  The flowers come from TAWS's Awesome Blossom and the bird from Chill Out

Linking To:

The Alley Way Stamps-Be Inspired #55

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge-lots of pink

Avenue 613-anything goes

Through the Craft Room Door-anything goes

Penny's Challenges-anything goes

Crafty Creations-just for fun

GDT-Celebration

A Song in my Heart has a new challenge this week.  This week's theme is

Celebration

I'm guest designing for this challenge too.  The song instantly made me think of all those fun watercolor backgrounds that I've seen lately.

My card uses all Stampin Up products this time.  I spread colored ink in a Pyrex dish, spritzed it, and then dipped the watercolor paper in it to get the rainbow look.  The fun part is I only used 3 colors.  They mixed to create all those vibrant hues!  After it was dry, I stamped the flowers with Versamark ink and clear embossed the design on top.

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you have something to celebrate this week.

GDT-Time Flies

Hi Everyone!  I am this month's Guest DT at the new challenge blog, A Song in Your HeART.  Every two weeks, the lovely ladies at the blog challenge you to be inspired by a song.  This time, the challenge song is "Time Flies" by Johnny Reid.

The lyrics to the song definitely made me think of clocks, vintage aging, and living life to the fullest.  Time to search my stash for distressed paper:

Paper-7 Gypsies, Stamps-Tim Holtz, Embellishments-Doodlebug

Vintage is definitely not my style, but as I worked on it, the card took an eclectic artsy feel which is much more my style.  The paper is black on one side and white on the other.  I cut it into strips and then lined the strips with alternating patterns to make the funky striped background.  Love the way the chalkboard banner turned out.

Be sure to check out this week's challenge at A Song in Your HeART!

Linking to:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge-clocks/time

Make It Monday-anything goes

Avenue 613 Create-use your stash

Cheerful Stamp Pad-anything goes

Through the Craft Room Door-anything goes

Mr. Roboto

I've got a few cards to share from the past couple weeks.  Here's a silly robot!

Paper-Paper Studio, Stamps-The Alley Way Stamps and Technique Tuesday, Colors-Distress Inks and Spectrum Noir

I love the grunge metallic look that I got with my Spectrum Noir markers.  This was my first attempt embossing, I think there will be a bit of a learning curve!  You can view this card in my Etsy shop HERE.

Linking to:

Spectrum Noir-cards for boys

Make It Monday-anything goes

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Thinking of You Fairy Card

I got some super cute stamps from a fellow OWHer last week.  You should really check out her shop, she's got some great stamp sets for sale.  Anyway, I couldn't wait to ink up this adorable image from Sugar Nellie.

Stamps-Sugar Nellie, Hero Arts; Paper-Paper Studio, Coloring-Prismacolor Pencils

She was so much fun to color!  I used my Prismas, which was a nice break from all the marker coloring I've done lately.  I made a similar card for OWH, but this card's going in my Etsy shop.  The shop is really starting to take shape.  I'm so excited.

Linking to:

Through the Craft Room Door-anything goes

Make It Monday-anything goes

Craft Your Passion-girly (Hi ladies-miss ya!)

613 Avenue Create-anything goes

Just Us Girls Challenge-color challenge (yellow, pink, purple)

Meme's Crafts-things that make you smile

You are my true north

I'm not one for mushy Valentines.  The whole holiday is a bit too sappy for my taste, but my hubby loves it, and I love him, so... guess I have to celebrate it.  But my husband's Valentine doesn't need to be frilly or mushy or sappy at all:

I used the Knotty stamp set by Avery Elle.  The sentiments match the nautical images perfectly!  The sketch is from The Deconstructed Sketch.

Linking to:

Avery Elle

The Deconstructed Sketch #137

Just Add Ink-color challenge

CYP-Dotty for Stripes?

It's bittersweet as this is my last card for the Craft Your Passion Design Team.  What a fun year it has been and what a great group of crafters!  I'm going to miss them terribly.  But it's time for new crafty adventures and there will be a whole new team (plus some familiar faces) to be inspired by starting next week.

We've got a super fun theme this week-one of my very favorites.

Stripes and Polka Dots

Time for some fun patterned paper!  Bugaboo is sponsoring the challenge this week and I used a super cute digi from them called "Ava and Deacon Friends Swing."

The yellow light in my kitchen didn't want to cooperate, so the whites look cream colored.  They're white, I promise!  I'm going to give this to my best friend-my hubby.  I even colored the people to look like us, but I wish my messy hair would be that cooperative.  Hope you join the fun at Craft Your Passion this week.

Add Some Color

I'm sick of winter.  It's far too gray.  So I pulled out my most colorful paper and new stamps for these cards.

Paper-Basic Grey, Stamps-Paper Smooches, Coloring Medium-Spectrum Noir

Paper-Basic Grey, Stamps-There She Goes, Coloring Medium-Spectrum Noir and Ranger Distress Ink

It's time for some new adventures.  My DT terms end next week and so I decided to try something new.  I've opened an Etsy shop for my greeting cards.  These are the first two in the shop!  You can see them for sale HERE.

MIA no more!

I've been gone for a bit.  Computer trouble-grrr...  I'm always astounded to realize how much I depend on technology once it goes down.

I feel really bad that my Craft Your Passion posts haven't been put up for the past two weeks.  I had to take the photos on my phone for the challenge, but couldn't upload them to my blog.  Thankfully, I've finally got the bugs mostly figured out, so I'm back!

This week's challenge is sponsored by Kenny K and the theme is

Music

You still have 24 hours to play along if you want to join the fun.

And just because I spent hours coloring, here's last week's challenge card:

CYP #195-bordering fanciness

Eep!  It's Wednesday and I was supposed to post this on Monday.  Christmas break spoiled me too much and now that school's back in full swing, I can't seem to stay caught up.  This week's Craft Your Passion's challenge is

Fancy Borders

I used a cute image by Stitchy Stamps called Teddy N Me.

I'd say where the other supplies are from, but they're from my scrap pile so I'm not sure.  The stamp is by Hero Arts.  Be sure to join the fun at Craft Your Passion this week.