Be Fearless!

Hello again.  I'm sharing a card I made a few weeks ago.  I made this for my DIL who recently took her comp exams for her Master's degree and passed with flying colors!  She has a few more weeks of classes and then officially graduates in May.  We will be flying to OK for her graduation in May.  

I used the Marble Swirl stamp set by Catherine Pooler Designs stamped in Samba, Tiki Torch and Orange Twist.  I also used a sentiment from the Fearless Pursuit stamp set, part of the Tropically Yours Collection.  I made it larger than a card and framed it so she could set it on her desk or hang it on the wall.  So the "super troll" sits on my stamp shelf, a trinket from the hub's childhood, so it's a classic just like him!  😉LOL

Fearless Blessings!

Krafty Chicks Challenge #448 Coffee, Tea or Cocoa

Happy Thursday!

It's time for a new challenge over at 

Krafty Chicks Challenge!

Amy is our hostess and she's looking for hot beverages.

Krafty Chicks Challenge #448 - Coffee, Tea or Cocoa

It's the last challenge for March and so the last challenge Danielle, our March Guest Designer will be with us.  Please be sure and visit her blog and help us thank her for adding such wonderful inspiration to our challenges this month!

Now here is my coffee card ---

I used four different stamp sets by Catherine Pooler for my card today.  The coffee cup is from the "Put a Pin It"set, which is part of the Canvo Collection.  I stamped them onto the shelf stamp from the "Book and Film" set, also a Canvo Collection stamp set.  I first masked off the other elements that are actually on the shelf stamp to stamp just the shelf.  Then I masked off some of the stamp again except for the flower vase and stamped it on.  Then, I took the coffee cup stamp and stamped it five times along the shelf.  Next I stamped the wreath from the Sweet Home Wreath stamp set. The leaves and coffee beans are from the "Perfect Blend" stamp and die sets.  I colored the cups, vase, flowers and shelf with a blender pen and Catherine Pooler inks.  

Now go stop by the Hen House and check out all the rest of the team's wonderful beverage projects!  Then come play along with us and show us your favorite beverage project of coffee, tea or cocoa!

Krafty Chick Blessings!

Keeping Christmas - March 2019

Good Morning!

There is just one week of March left.  It looks like it is going to go out like a lion instead of a lamb. It's been very breezy here in NC the last few days, and the forecast for the last days is rain.  So it seems like it is going to go roaring out. At least it's been warming up and things are beginning to bud and bloom. Spring is here.

Ok, so you're probably confused with me talking about spring when the post says "Keeping Christmas".  Well, it is March 25th and while spring may be in the air, the monthly Keeping Christmas Inspiration Blog Hop is always on the 25th of each month. It is designed to give you some holiday inspiration throughout the year to help spur on some Christmas mojo and help you build your Christmas card stash.

I have to admit I woke up last Monday in a panic thinking it was the 25th and my project wasn't finished.  The past two weeks my crafty time and creative mojo has taken a hit due to some major plumbing issues we are having.  It is now going on the third week and we still don't know how extensive the problem is, what the actual cost will be or how long the repairs will take.  We've had to fire one plumber and hire a new one so we are hoping things will move along a little quicker now.  It does make me want to just close myself up in my craft room and not "adult" much right now.  Particularly since I've also been ill several times in the last month.  Why do things always seem to come in bunches, at least the not so good things? 

Anyway, I got it done and here it is ---- 

I decided to look through my current stash of Christmas backgrounds, die cuts and other unfinished pieces that were waiting to be made into cards.  We all have supplies like that, that we made for one thing and then it didn't work out or maybe ran out of time to finish others.  Whatever the case, I think sometimes just pulling out some previously created backgrounds, die cuts or stamped images and pulling them together can help get the flow going again.  That's what I did here.  I had the background image and sentiment already stamped from when I created a bunch of backgrounds with the similar stamp set in January.  So I decided to keep everything monochromatic by swiping the front of a cardbase with the same ink color as my background image and sentiment, It's A Boy, by Catherine Pooler.  I had the stitched label die already cut as well and swiped it with the same ink.  After gluing everything together, I added the blue heart enamel dots and clear gems to finish it off.  Probably the quickest card I've pulled together.  This would definitely be an easy card to mass produce in different monochrome colors from scratch as well, using a Misti to line up the stamps for the background and just switch out the cardstock and ink color.  

Now, hop along the Design Team below and see what everyone has created.  There is always a plethora of different projects to fit just about anyone's style, from shabby chic, graphic to clean and simple.  Take any or all of it to inspire you in your Christmas card creating.

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggin

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld (You are HERE)

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger

Nancy Guse

Keeping Christmas Blessings!

Krafty Chicks Challenge #447 Polka Dots

Happy Thursday

and 

Happy Spring!

It's time for a new challenge at Krafty Chicks Challenge and I am your hostess this week!  

So this week's Twist is Polka Dots!  

Krafty Chicks Challenge #447 Polka Dots

I decided to make a birthday card because polka dots and birthdays or celebrations seem to go hand in hand.  I used the turtles and sentiment from Jane's Doodles Belated Birthday.  The party decor and cupcake are from the Birthday Icons Stamp set by Catherine Pooler.  I stamped the images with CP Midnight archival ink onto CP white cardstock and then colored them with Catherine Pooler inks and a blending pen.  My goal was to make the turtles polka dotted so that's why they are different colored spots.  I then shimmered them A LOT with a Nuvo shimmer pen.  I also shimmered the icing on the cupcake and some of the banner and the balloons. For some added interest I bumped up the balloons and the party hats.  Oh, the red hat is from the Jane's Doodles set and the other from the Catherine Pooler set.  I shimmered their tops too.  Ok, so I went a little crazy with the shimmer on this!  hahaha But, hey, a birthday should be full of lots of shimmer and sparkle!  I created my own polka dot background using a small dot stamp from the CP set, Punctuated Party stamped in Midnight black.  Lastly, I stamped and white embossed the sentiment onto Midnight cardstock by Catherine Pooler.

Next stop by the Hen House and see the rest of the Design Team's projects with polka dots.  Play along with us and link up your own polka dot project for our twist!

Krafty Chicks Blessings!

Merry Little Christmas

Half of March is G-O-N-E, GONE!

This year is whooshing by!

Today is REMINDER DAY

at

CAS Christmas Card Challenge.

This month's challenge is Deer 

and

hosted by Susan.

It's also our 1st Birthday Celebration

so come join us!

There are PRIZES!

I wanted to "think outside the box" a little, so thought a reindeer peeking behind an ornament would be different.  So, as the hubs remarked, it's either a really tiny reindeer or a gigantic ornament!  HAHAHAHA!  I used the reindeer stamp in the set "Peeking Friends" by Gerda Steiner.  I don't color as much as I would like and so this gave me some time to practice coloring with Copics.  I need more practice.  I did shimmer his nose with some Nuvo Shimmer.  The ornament is a stamp/die by Hero Arts, one of their monthly kits, November 2017 I believe.  I started out by cutting the ornament on the white Bristol cardstock and then stamping the reindeer above the hole.  Next I took my Versamark pen and outlined around the edge of the ornament cut and embossed in WOW Fine Gold embossing powder.  The inner ornament piece is a watercolored background piece that I stamped the "Christmas" word in Versamark and embossed in the gold as well.  After coloring the reindeer, I stamped the rest of the sentiment in CP Midnight and then adhered the inner ornament piece behind the panel.  I used the white ornament piece that had been cut out and versamarked the hanger end and embossed it in gold embossing powder three times and then added the gold twine and adhered it to the card before placing the panel on some gold mirror cardstock between it and the cardbase.  A very simple card that could be reproduced even by just using the ornament stamp and stamping it instead of the die cut.

Please stop by the CAS Christmas blog and see all the other Design Team's mid-month projects.  Come play along and get some "deer" Christmas cards made for next Christmas!

CAS Christmas "Deer" Blessings!

Krafty Chicks #446 Shades of Green Only

Happy Thursday once again!  

Man they seem to fly up on us awfully fast!  

Anyway, it's time for another challenge at Krafty Chicks Challenge.  Leanne is our hostess and she wants to see GREEN, lots and lots of Green shades and ONLY GREEN (of course neutrals are fine with it)!

Krafty Chicks Challenge #446 Shades of Green Only

I was playing around with the Marble Swirl stamp set by Catherine Pooler and different color combos and this is the green version, which I really love! It's such a cool stamp, looks like marble of course, but can look like lava, or a river, or terrain.  I even recently used it to add pattern inside flower petals.  So today it's the green one for our Shades of Green Twist at Krafty Chicks Challenge.

So stop by the Hen House and check out the rest of the Chicks' GREEN projects.  Come play along with us and ink up your own shades of green.  You can also play in our always "anything goes" challenge as well but if you play with our twist, you could be one of our next showcase winners! 

Green Krafty Chick Blessings!

Hello...You Did It!...Thanks

Happy Friday!

The weekend is here!  Hope yours will be a fabulous one!  I've been crafty busy, just haven't had a lot of time to share the results.  Some will come at later dates since they are DT cards.  Today however, I wanted to share some stenciled cards I made while participating in the Stenciling class over at Stamp Nation.  

Ingrid Blackburn was our instructor and she had some great techniques to share with us.  These cards I made from Lesson #1, Stencil Blending.  Basically you take some dark colored cardstock with a stencil and apply white pigment ink and let it completely dry.  Then, you choose 2-3 other colors, move the stencil over slightly and blend those colors on top.  You get the cool effect of the background on the left above.  I decided to leave most of the backgrounds intact for this time.  I made my own stencil from craft plastic using the CP Stained Glass cover plate. 

I made three cards from my two backgrounds above using all Catherine Pooler Designs products and inks:

The "Hello" card I die cut the center with the CP basic circle die, then replaced it with the brighter design circle cut also and bumped up with craft foam.  The hello die I added a white one behind one of Smoke cardstock as a shadow and then added crystal glaze to the grey one on top.  I shimmered the stars with a Nuvo shimmer pen.

The "Thanks" card, I took my homemade stencil of the Interlocked Die by CP Designs and brushed on Orange Twist and Flirty Fushia on Mirror cardstock.  Then I adhered the circle cut from my first blended stenciled background with a white scallop edge around it.  The sentiment die I shimmered with Nuvo shimmer pen.

My last one, my favorite one of the trio, I used craft foam to bump up the second stenciled background, with the middle cut out, onto a Smoke colored cardbase after I stamped the sentiment in the center and embossed in white embossing powder.  I then cut the heart border and inked it in Flirty Fuchsia for some depth and interest.   The other sentiment, I cut two "celebrates" one in white the other in Smoke and shadowed the white behind the smoke. I added shimmered hearts and clear sequins.

CARD SUPPLIES:
STAMPS: Sentiment - "You Did It" Set by Catherine Pooler.
PAPER: Neenah White Solar 110 lb cardstock; Smoke & Mirror cardstocks by Catherine Pooler. 
INK: Orange Twist, Flirty Fuchsia - Party Collection by Catherine Pooler. White pigment ink - Stampin' Up. Versamark.
EXTRAS: Thanks, Celebrate & Hello Dies - Catherine Pooler; Heart Circle die - Love Connection by Catherine Pooler. White Emboss powder - WOW; Stained Glass Cover plate - Catherine Pooler; Stars and heart dies - 2 You's by Cas-ual Fridays for Catherine Pooler. Purple and orange enamel dots; Clear sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; Nuvo Crystal Glaze; Nuvo Shimmer Pen.

Stenciling Blessings!

Krafty Chicks #445 - Babies

OOOPS!  

Someone photobombed again and tried to steal my card!

It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks Challenge.

Lori is our hostess and 

she has chosen Babies for the twist this week!

Krafty Chicks Challenge #445 - Babies

Also, beginning this month, we will be having special monthly Guest Designers with us.

Our first Guest is Danielle Vincent!

Please help us welcome her and leave her some blog love!

Now, here is my Baby card for this week ---

I used mostly Lil' Inker Designs products, except the "girl" sentiment is Paper Sweeties and the scallop and heart dies are Avery Elle.  I love that embossed stork, embossed in        Wow Oyster Glintz embossing powder.  It's a really pretty creamy glittery color.  The background behind the heart shape and the diaper were cut from some alcohol inked background in pink shades and a hint of gold that I had in my stash. I embossed the "girl" sentiment in gold emboss powder. 

Stop by the Hen House to check out the rest of the Chicks' projects, as well as GD Danielle.  Then go get inky and play along with us, either in our always anything goes or add our twist of "Babies".  If you try the twist you may be one of our next showcased winners!

Krafty Chick Blessings!

CAS Christmas - Deer

Hello Sunday!

Hope you are having a wonderful first weekend of March!

Boy, this year is just "marching" along!  

Ok, I just had to say it, pun definitely intended! LOL

Anyway, it's time for a new monthly challenge

at

 CAS Christmas Card Challenge!

It's also our 1st Birthday, so come celebrate with us!

There are prizes so stop by the CAS Christmas blog for details!

Susan is our hostess this month 

and

she is requesting Christmas cards featuring Deer!

I wanted to use this cute little deer from Stamping Bella for this month's challenge.  I stamped him on the smooth side of watercolor paper, then used my Zigs and waterbrush to color him, add a rink and sky.  The die cut is Catherine Pooler Designs.  I cut the image out with the largest die and then cut a frame using the two largest dies and cut it from silver foil cardstock.  I added WOW Wunderlust to the "ice", shimmered his skate blades and the scarf fluff with Nuvo Shimmer pen and added Nuvo Crystal Glaze to his red nose to make it shiny, even if it doesn't show up well in the picture.

Stop by the CAS Christmas Challenge blog and see all the rest of the fabulous inspiration from the CAS Christmas DT and our Guest Designer, Chrissie.  Then, come play along with us and get some CAS Christmas cards done, just make sure this month the main focus is DEER.

CAS Christmas Blessings!