WINNER AND THE MISSING MISTI MAGNET MYSTERY

First of all I would like to announce that Sue LD is the winner of my sequins from the A Blog Named Hero hop celebrating their 5th anniversary.  I am amazed at the number of comments I received and am grateful to every one of you who took the time to comment on my card and celebrate with us.  

 

No card in this post - just a funny little story.  This past week one of my Misti magnets was missing for several days and even tho I looked all around my craft room, it was nowhere to be found.  Wasn't too concerned 'cause I still had two more.  Then this morning when I went into my freezer part of my side by side frig, there it was just inside the door.  How crazy is that!!!! - and at first I couldn't figure out how it got there.

Here's the only solution I can think of.  I wear an IWatch with a stainless steel band and also the watch has a magnetic back that is used for recharging.  It must have somehow attached to the watchband and then hopped onto the frig door and I just didn't notice it for several days.  Gonna have to be careful with that watch from now on!!

Thanks for stopping by today - have a great rest of the week.

 

MARCH 12 KITS OF OCCASIONS

In February I was lucky enough to win one of the March 12 Kits of Occasions.  This month the theme was "out of this world"  and the kit was put together by Jeanne Jachna.  I received a box full of papers, stamped images and sentiments, twine, die cuts, embellishments - honestly I was overwhelmed by all she included.  It must have taken her ages to put this all together for all the participants!!  The other part that was a bit daunting is that I really don't ever use little astronauts, spacehips, etc. - so huge challenge right there.  But after having a think about it all, once I got going I made four cards.

I'm not going into detail about each card.  On the first card the background was done with Brushos and the astronaut was colored with Zigs.  The background on the second card is a piece of patterned paper.  Smooshed some distress inks for the background of the third card and embossed the stars and sentiment with liquid platinum.  Made the background on the fourth card by blending distress oxide inks on black cs and spritzing with water.  

Every month these gals give away kits to someone who leaves a comment.  I have been following them for ages - I think they started out with kits about Christmas and since then has changed to holidays and now occasions.  So check out their blog and enter.

I've already mailed off my "congratulations" card to my DIL who was just made head teacher (the principal in USA language) of St. Joseph's Primary School in Kingston on Thames, London - I'm so pleased for her and so proud - lucky staff and really lucky kids to have her!!

Thanks so much Jeanne for this wonderful kit that made me go way out of my box - or maybe I should say way out of space!!!

TIME TO CELEBRATE

A BLOG NAMED HERO IS 5 YEARS OLD!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 

To CELEBRATE, present and former DT members are all taking part in a huge blog hop - and today is the second day.  I am currently a member of their Facebook team and am also a past DT member.  

Jess and Lisa asked us to celebrate with our favorite Hero Arts products.  I had a hard time deciding, but finally went with the original hydrangea as it has been my favorite "go to" stamp for years. 

Since this is such a long post, I'm just going to list the main supplies as it is pretty straightforward - used just a damp brush with the Zigs to do the shading on the flower.  The main flower was stamped in black and clear embossed, colored and then fussy cut.

HA Infinity Rectangles

HA Black Dye Ink

HA Clear Embossing Powder

HA White Embossing Powder

Zigs - tea rose, light carmine, mid-green

Misti - to get a good crisp black

Even though the hydrangea stamp I used is discontinued, Hero Arts has some new ones complete with matching dies (yay!! no more fussy cutting!!)  Be sure to check them out here, here and here.

A Blog Named Hero is so thankful for our wonderful sponsors and collaborating companies!  Several companies decided to help us celebrate our fifth anniversary with giveaways and they were so generous that we decided to spread the love over both hop days with different prizes to be won each day!  Giveaway prizes total more than $500!  To win, leave a comment on each hop stop.  We will select winners randomly from different blogs so the more blogs you visit each day, the greater your chances of winning!  And be sure to visit the Saturday post from A Blog Named Hero for the list of Saturday hoppers and prizes!  Comments must be left before 11:59 PM EDT on Tuesday, March 28th and winners will be announced on March 30th.

Today's prizes are:

$50 gift card to Simon Says Stamp
$50 gift card to Gina K Designs
$25 gift card to Winnie & Walter
$25 gift card to Lawn Fawn
$20 gift card to Avery Elle
prize pack from Mama Elephant
gift card from Studio Katia
one Online Card Class of your choice
one set of distress oxide inks from Jennifer McGuire Ink

In order to win prizes from today you need to comment on today's hop participants who have posted cards. 

Your next stop on the hop is Danielle Walls from Neat and Tangled.   You may find the complete hop list for Saturday and Sunday here.

I am also offering a little prize to one of my commenters - it's a small bag of each of the new Hero Arts ombre sequin colors - five varigated colors (ocean, blush, sunshine, purple and blue) in various sizes.  So fun to use in shakers or for just some bling!!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Hopping!! 

POPPIES & BLING

This month the challenge at A Blog Named Hero is bling.  The inspiration for the design of my card was this post from Jennifer McGuire - she always has such unusual techniques and this one really caught my fancy!

Received my order of some new HA products last week and had to try out the new Color Layering Poppy.

I stamped the smaller poppy and stems directly onto the inside card and the larger poppy was stamped, die cut and popped up (just a little bit!).  Then stamped the sentiment in black and clear embossed on the vellum.  Added a few sequins and some clear Spectrum Noir on the poppies both on the inside and out.  These new Hero Arts poppies are so easy to layer and stamp - used pale tomato and a pink from the HA Lia inks.

You can see the clear glitter on the closeup a bit better.  Be sure to check out Jennifer's post for the complete technique - and be sure to enter the challenge here at A Blog Named Hero.

This weekend on Saturday and Sunday A Blog Named Hero is having a huge blog hop to celebrate their fifth birthday - big prizes and big names in it - like Hero Arts, Simon Says Stamp, Winnie and Walter, Jennifer McGuire, Yana Smakula. My post will be on Sunday so be sure to stop by.  Each day has special prizes so make sure to check everyone out and comment on each post!!  The pic below shows all the great companies who have sponsored us in the past and some have offered generous prizes.

 
Thanks for visiting today - love to read your kind comments.

PEONY IN PINK

The main theme this month for CAS Mix-Up challenge is smooshing and I had some fun smooshing my new distress oxide inks onto watercolor paper.  

Put some worn lipstick and fossilized amber inks on my craft sheet, added lots of water and played.  My paper was pretty warped by the time it dried and just ironed it between two sheets of copy paper and it was fine.  Stamped the peony quite a few times in black using my Misti - bumpy watercolor paper is so hard to get a nice crisp outline - then added clear embossing powder for darker black and die cut it. Did the same stamping and embossing for the leaves and the sentiment.  After I had put it all together and added the black dots, decided it needed something - so using my clarity brush added some of the worn lipstick around the flower.  In retrospect, I should have done that last step before stamping the leaves and sentiment - live and learn!!

Smooshing + stamping+embossing is my formula for the challenge.  

Thanks for visiting today and all your kind comments.

 

PEONY IN GREEN

The Ellen Hutson Pinsights this month contains wonderful images in greens for inspiration.  Since a friend asked me to make a wedding card for May (emerald is the gem for May), I combined the two.

I stamped the EH peony in black and clear embossed; colored with Zigs (pale green and light green) and a damp brush; covered with Spectrum Noir.  Popped up the flower with foam tape and added the sentiment - also stamped in black and clear embossed.  Added  some Nuvo crystal dots in silver, stamped "best wishes" inside and chomped the corner.

The photo in the center second from the bottom was my inspiration for colors and lots of white space - also the silver in the spoon and the scripty writing.

Thanks for stopping by today and always love to read your kind comments.

FUSION CHALLENGE

My card today is rather a happy accident.  I was looking through my patterned papers to find some on which I could do some stamping and found that wonderful alphabet piece - light bulb went on!!  Perfect for the Fusion challenge going on right now.

I cut a piece of the alphabet paper to fit the front of my card.  Had lots of scraps from which to choose for making the little banners - stamped the sentiment in black ink and clear embossed.  The flower is the new layering poppy from Hero Arts and the leaves were die cut from an old Sizzix die.  Put it all together and added some Spectrum Noir to the flower and leaves.  Never did get around to doing any stamping on pp today!

Thanks for visiting and also your kind comments.

COLORING ON PATTERNED PAPER

Therese Calvird's card last week inspired me to create my card.  I had never tried coloring on patterned paper before and she made it look so easy.  Then along came the Inspired by All the Little Things photo and Addicted to Stamping's "make your mark" challenges and hence my card.  I will also add this Kathy's coloring challenge and The Flower Challenge "anything goes".

I stamped Altenew's freesia on the patterned paper from their Refection kit with black ink and heat embossed.  Colored my flower with Prisma pencils in the blues and greens and softened the color with the light gray pencil.  Added the sentiment and a few clear drops and put it on a white card base.  And happy with the results.

Thanks for visiting today and always enjoy your comments.

HERO ARTS SCRAMBLE

The Hero Arts discussion group's scramble today was hosted by Cat Craig and her operative word was "cut" - make a background and cut it for your card.  The other stipulation for this challenge is design, make and post your card in 90 minutes and of course, use Hero Arts product.

After deciding on a stamp and sentiment (both HA discontinued), I stamped the background and white embossed and then colored with my new distress oxide inks (iced spruce, broken china, faded jeans and wilted violet).  WOW - do they blend like a dream!!!!  Then I die cut it with MFT's stitched edges.  Figured out where the sentiment was going to be and stamped that with black and clear embossed.  Put it all back together with fun foam for a little dimension and added some new HA sequins - done and photographed and posted in a little over an hour.

Thanks for stopping by and always love to read your kind comments.

 

HAPPY FLOWERS

My cards today were inspired by this card by Lydia Evans.  I don't own the dies or the flowers she used, so I went hunting through my Hero Arts stuff and came up with lots of little flowers and quite a large die that I thought would work.

What a good time I had playing with different colors and stamps!!  I actually made two die cuts using various Hero Arts colors and stamps.  The "happy" die cut was popped up on some fun foam (so good to use up some of those small pieces I've saved!).  The tiny sentiments were stamped in HA black and clear embossed.  After playing around a bit with the arrangement, decided to add the stitched frame and a few Nuvo jewel drops.  Two very CAS cards - lots of "white" space and one focal point.

Supplies:

Hero Arts Stamp & Cut: DC150, DC130, DC149

Hero Arts Inks: Sea Glass, Butter Bar, Cornflower, Field Greens, Pale Tomato - pinks that were in MMH kits, Intense Black

Sorry I don't know the manufacturer of the "happy" die.

MFT Stitched Rectangle Frames

Nuvo Jewel Drops-Rosewater

The challenge at A Blog Named Hero this month is CAS and you still have time to enter here - challenge closes on 26 February. 

I am also entering this The Paper Players challenge which is to use a sentiment as the focal point.

 

Thanks for visiting today and love to read  your kind comments.

SCRAMBLE #148

Today's scramble on the Hero Arts discussion group was to design a card by making your own background.  This has always been a challenge for me as I always seem to mess it up just when I think it's all good!!  And of course that is what happened - started it out in black and the third one I stamped didn't stamp all the way :(  So switched to gray which worked out much better.  

After stamping all the leaves, I added the sentiment on a piece of vellum and gold embossed.  Popped it up with some fun foam and finally added some black Nuvo dots (risky as I've been known to mess those up too!).  This actually was a very quick and easy card to make and plan on trying more with different leaves.

This also fits Muse Challenge203 as the background and a single sentiment are also prominent in the challenge - so will enter it there also.
 

Thanks for stopping by and love to read your kind comments.

FEBRUARY CCC

This month's card for the Card Chain Challenge is going to Lucille in Colorado - I used the colors (purple/pink and two shades of green) from the challenge and the theme of friendship.

I die cut the leaves from a piece of Yupo  colored with alcohol inks.  Instead of putting the centers of the leaves back where they were originally, I exchanged them.  Added the "hello", various purple/pink sequins, a few Nuvo black dots and done!

Thanks for stopping by and all your kind comments.

 

JUST A PLAY DAY

Today was just a day for creating for no particular reason except to try a couple of techniques.  TaeEun always has such lovely alcohol inked flowers and Jennifer McGuire has a gatefold card technique I wanted to try - so put them together in this card.

 

First I used glossy card to create pink and green alcohol inked background pieces.  Then using Versamark and gold embossing powder stamped the flowers and leaves and fussy cut.  After arranging the flowers and leaves, I used Press 'n Seal to keep all in place so I could put them on the bottom of the front flap.  Adhered that on and again fussy cut away the bottom of the flowers and leaves.  Added the sentiment - left the inside blank until I need this for some special occasion.  If you watch Jennifer's video you'll easily understand how I did this.  It makes a different and fun card - altho a real pain to photograph!!   It was so nice to create today with no agenda.

 

Thanks for visiting today and all of your kind comments.

 

 

LOVE YOU

This month the challenge at A Blog Named Hero is CAS.  Not too much of a challenge for me as I tend to be a little too much CAS and really have a hard time creating anything else.  As I often do, I had a little wander through the $ bins at Target and found some darling notecards - I think they were eight or ten for $3 with the envelopes included.  These inexpensive cards make a great base for a quick and easy card - especially if you need to send out multiples.  Another bonus - since these cards were glossy and I only used the front, I ended up with some glossy pieces from the back to use on other cards.

I first die cut the card with an HA rectangle die.  Added the "you" from one of the sentiments from the January My Monthly Hero kit (did a little surgery on the stamp),  It was stamped in HA black and embossed with HA clear powder.  Stamped a hibiscus flower with pink and pale tomato and some of the leaves from the January kit.  Put this all together with a pale pink mat onto a white card base - quick card - easy to make in multiples!  The inside is stamped "happy valentine's day" (from January MMH kit).  Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to enter the February CAS challenge at A Blog Named Hero here!

I am entering this in LaVon's LOVE challenge where the theme this month is hearts & flowers, Addicted to Stamps - Holiday and The Paper Players - Valentine.

My DIL posted this today on Facebook and I thought it was so appropriate for Valentine's Day and everyday of the year - it is truly a "be the change you want to see in the world" message.

  
Thanks for visiting today and enjoy reading your kind comments.

  

KandR 300 WEEKS OF INSPIRATION

I have been a follower of Kara's Friday Inspiration File and she has a challenge to choose one of her Friday choices and CASE it.  I picked a card by Shona Chambers in week 282 - loved the soft colors and the simple design.

I used an old Technique Tuesday stamp from their Greenhouse Society line (I think it's called Cosmos).  Stamped and embossed in gold and colored with my Zigs shaded with a damp brush.  Added the sentiment and some sequins and done!

A couple of years ago, Kara chose one of my cards (it's the second card) for her FIF#241 - one of the best honors I've ever had for a card.

Thanks for visiting today and love to read your kind comments.

POPPY LOVE

The Flower Challenge this month is to CASE designer Therese Calvird's card and the theme at CAS Watercolour Challenge is "love".

Therese designs gorgeous cards and this is no exception.  Much as I wanted to use the same die as she did, I resisted and chose another favorite of mine.

Basically made the card the same way she did - die cut the flower, added a watercolored piece behind and added the die cut back in. Die cut the "love" in black and added glossy accents on top.  The "you" was stamped in black and embossed in clear. Added the sentiment and some Nuvo drops and done!  Inside is "happy valentine's day".

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy reading your kind comments.