What colour is YOUR umbrella? Dynamic Duos #87

 More multi-media messing with water-colour paper this week! 

Here's the colour challenge from The Dynamic Duos:

Delicious, huh?

I HAD to go with the umbrella option, and what better way than to feature a wet and cloudy sky?

I saw a tutorial by Laurel Beard, where she stamped with water onto Distress inks.

I don't have any Distress inks (markers, yes) so decided to experiment with my CTMH re-inkers, applied with a blending tool onto water-colour paper. 

I used some cute cloud images from this CMTH stamp set,

 spritzing with water before stamping. The inks didn't blend all that much, but the stamps turned a kind of pretty pink!  I added some Smooch spritz in grey, for added splotch and shine.

I love the current trend of angled panels, and used a variation of this sketch for the card:

 

 The umbrella is a stamp-n-die from The Stamps of Life.

A few little grey pearls, and done!

Time to check out the creations by the rest of the Dynamic Duos team:

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

Hope you'll play along with us this week!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Paper: Black cardstock, Wausau Papers; White Daisy, CTMH; water-colour paper, Ranger 

Inks: Grey Wool & Grey Flannel re-inkers, Black and Hollyhock ink-pads from CTMH

Blending tool: Tim Holtz for Ranger

Smooch Spritz in grey

Stamp set: umbrellas4us and umbrella die from The Stamps of Life

Grey pearls: CTMH

My Punny Valentine... Simon Says Stamp challenge

Still having fun coming up with cards for Kim Kesti's Big Picture Classes "Create and Share Card-making."

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge this week is to create something humourous, or with a play on words. They are featuring Paper Smooches stamps, which have some of the punniest sentiments around!

Here's an example:

 I used up some very old paper, softening the look by layering vellum over the DP. Also used a new stamp set with coordinating dies, Love-Struck. For the fuzzy heart I used some Mulberry paper my son brought back from South Korea, where he was visiting our exchange student and his family. Remember that stuff? Very fun to work with. Had to add a little pink to those cute arrows.

Lots of other fun Paper Smooches stamp sets on display at Simon Says Stamp. Check it out!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

More text-talk for Keep it simple! #31

Here's a peak at the birthday card I made for my nephew back in October.

I CASE'd it from one I found on Paper Smooches' Flickr site. (Sorry! Can't read the watermark to give full credit). The original card had a game-controller as the image in the central panel. Much more appropriate for a 16 year old! I made do with what I had--thought it looked pretty cool; he is an awesome drummer and loves jazz. But we had to tell him what a cassette tape was...

Anyway, I though it'd be perfect to link up with Keep It Simple!'s present challenge: TEXT.

A head-on view:

The words were fun to doodle on!

Make sure to check out Keep It Simple's challenge blog!

And don't forget to check out THIS POST for a chance at some blog candy!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock in white daisy, pear--CTMH

Ink in black, pear--CTMH and Memento Tuxedo black

Paper Smooches' stamp sets: Digits, Slang Gang, Beboppin'

Copic Markers

Monday, Monday....Atlantic Hearts Sketch #39

(hum some "Mamas and Papas" along with me...)

So today is a little bittersweet.

This is my last posting as a member of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch challenge team.

I've had a great time this past six months, playing along with Michelle's sketches, and chatting with Darla and the other gals on the DT. I had the GREAT pleasure of meeting Michelle and Darla in the flesh this past summer, while on vacation out East. They truly are a dynamic duo and the team is well-run; the group is very supportive and the sketches really stretch your creativity. Atlantic Hearts has a design team call open--check it out at:  THIS LINK.

Anyway, I'm trying to simplify my life a bit. The amount of time I spend online commenting, linking, etc was starting to create some friction on the home front. Plus I return to work this week, after several months of only sporadic hours. So I've cut down my DT work to just one team at a time.

SOOO, without further ado or navel-gazing, here is the sketch!

I've used some old, long retired CTMH striped paper for the background. The focal image is a stamp I received for Christmas from the fam-jam (see supply list below), dressed up with some clouds and a sentiment from a CMTH stamp set.

I embossed the vertical red panel with some hearts, and mounted the circular panel on a vellum mat. I've seen this out on the Interwebz--it gives dimension and interest without hiding the other elements on the card.

Sending love to all the Atlantic Hearts gals!

❤❤❤❤❤

Want to try your hand at this sketch? Head on over to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch challenge. You have until Sunday night at midnight to link up. Design team inspiration will be posted Wednesday.

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock: CTMH Cherry-O (retired), black, white daisy, tulip (retired); vellum (Michael's)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black; CTMH Whisper grey

Hearts embossing folder: Provocraft 

Nestabilities cutting dies: circles, scalloped circles

Copic Markers

Stamps: Frog's Whiskers Ink "Bird Tree"; CTMH "Lifting Spirits," C1570 

Wink of Stella glitter pen 

Just a quickie... for Colour Me...! & Crafting by Design

Wanted to link this one up with Colour Me...!'s challenge this week:

Not sure if my colours are entirely right, but the gals at Colour Me...! can decide.

I'll come back later to fill in the deets on materials and inspiration. Off to bed right now!

Happy snoozing!

Caroline

P.S.: card created for Kim Kesti's Big Picture Classes: Create & Share Card-making.
P.S. 2: As this card features a great big blossom, I'm linking it to Crafting By Design's current challenge: FLOWERS.

Supplies:

Cardstock: CTMH. Champagne, Barn Red and Sorbet; Claire DP (retired)

Ink: CMTH chocolate and Sorbet

Stitched Ribbon: CTMH. Crème brulée

Martha Stewart border punch

Paper Smooches Hickory leaf die

Paper Smooches "We Connect" stamps and die set

Flowers from the stash

Back to Business! Dynamic Duos #86

 

The crafting world gets back to normal after this year's CHA...

It was fun seeing the sneak peeks of products and people. One of my favorites is Jennifer McGuire. This week's Dynamic Duos card is a tribute to her!

First, the colour challenge:

Its soft and subtle week, with an aqua and dusty rose combination.

I reproduced an effect Jennifer demonstrated HERE: she calls it "faux letterpress."

It involves using a cutting plate to emboss onto watercolour paper, then using Distress Markers to "paint" the resulting image. Here's the materials I used:

 The Distress Markers are evergreen bough and tattered rose.

The cutting plate is Lil' Inker's swirls cover-up die.

Here's the card:

I couldn't bear to cover up that lovely organic image, so I heat-embossed my sentiment onto vellum, another technique I've been seeing lately. I used some more Lil' Inker products: Spot On stamp set--great big sentiment words and cute circular accents; and their new On the diagonal die  which has the LID distinctive stitched edge. I machine-stitched the banner onto the card and left the thread ends hanging. Another new thing, but it has me itching to trim them!

Time to check out the creations from the other Dynamos!

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Caroline Bredeson

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger 

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

 

Hope to see you playing with these colours this week! at The Dynamic Duos.

Happy crafting,
Caroline

More thank-yous...

More fun with Kim Kesti's Big Picture class, Create & Share card-making.

a) I am SOOO far ahead in my card-making for all those special occasions this year (feels good!);

b) I am using up LOTS of old patterned paper (feels even better!)

One of my colleagues at work is off next week, taking maternity leave for her second child. I liked the design of the Thank-you cards HERE so much I thought I'd crank out some thank-you-for-the-baby-gift cards for her (above) and below:

Love that little baby carriage! It is another of Close to My Heart's M-size stamps. Cute images and such a bargain at $2.95.  See my post HERE to help me celebrate, and win THREE of these adorable stamp sets.

As I did some dry embossing on the first card, I'm entering these in Simon Says Stamps' Wednesday Challenge: Emboss It.

 

Enjoy a crafty weekend!

Caroline

Supplies:

Card stock and patterned paper: Close to my Heart

Memento Ink: Tuxedo Black

Nestabilities cutting/embossing dies

Martha Stewart embossing board

Washi tape

ribbon: JoAnn's

Enamel dots: Close to My Heart

Orange Gems: Hero Art

Liquid Pearls

Copic Markers

Silver Pen: Signo-Uniko

Wink of Stella pen

Paper doily: Paper Wishes