Joining "Happy Little Stampers January 2016 Challenge" and "Share the Joy Challenge #16"

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope that 2016 brings you all happiness and joy!

I have been creating on and off all week. I am officially on a spending freeze for craft items. I need nothing. It is already killing me because My Favorite Things has been showing peeks of their new release and I WANT so many things. However, I don't use half of what I own and I really need to concentrate on using it up.

In that spirit, I have two cards for you today. Both are sympathy cards. People are always asking if I have any on hand so I decided to make some for my stash.

The first one I created for "Share the Joy Challenge #16. " The challenge was to use the sketch they posted and make a clean and simple card. Here is the card I made:

Here is the sketch:

I chose purples and grays for the color scheme. To emboss the background, I used Taylored Expressions "Snowfall" embossing folder. I used it upside down so that it just looks like random polka dots.

The triangle is a corner of a piece of watercolor paper that I "smooshed" inks on. The flowers are from the "Fall Florals" set from My Favorite Things. It was kind of fun to do stems and leaves in gray rather then green. I love how easy this card came together.

My second card is for "Happy Little Stampers January 2016" challenge.

This was perfect timing for me because I was having fun making backgrounds with this technique last night. If you don't know what "smooshing" is, click on their link above. They have posted some links to tutorials. It is a fabulous way to stretch your supplies.

Again, I created a sympathy card and chose to use purples like I did for the first card.

After "smooshing" my background, I stamped the sentiment and two stems from My Favorite Things "Fall Florals" set. I then placed a stamped die cut over them with foam adhesive. It is hard to see from the photo but the purple stem on the die cut is over a light gray base. My last step was to glue some iridescent sequins on. They really pick up the purple from the background.

I have a few more cards to post this week. I am hoping to start "scheduling" my card making and my blogging in during my week. I think this will help me get more done if I treat it like I do my work out.

I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a great night!!

Supplies:
"Share the Joy Challenge #16"

InLinkz.com

"Happy Little Stampers January 2016 Challenge"

InLinkz.com

Stamping Smiles Design Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #1

Happy New Year!! The first Stamping Smiles Design Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge goes live today. Yippee!!

I actually created TWO projects for this challenge, using the middle column from top to bottom.

I chose to use sparkles, embossing and new on my cards.

For my first card, I chose to emboss the Soft Stone card stock with a new embossing folder from Kaisercraft and added sparkle to the card with some glitter tape and silver hearts.

The gray card stock was cut to 4" by 5 1/2" and popped up over the card base with foam adhesive.

I then adhered stamped "envelopes" from Simon Says Stamp!'s "Happy Thoughts" set over the embossed paper. These "envelopes" were stamped onto patterned paper scraps and fussy cut by hand. I actually have to admit that I sat down one night to do the stamping and then another night to do the cutting so that I could have these images on hand to eventually make a card set.

The sentiment is from Hero Art's "Act of Kindness" set (also new) and stamped in PTI Smokey Shadow ink onto a piece of white, scrap card stock. I popped it off the envelope cluster using a piece of foam adhesive. My last step was to randomly adhere the little hearts using Ranger Multi-Matte adhesive.

I was so excited with how easy this card was to put together using the Tic-Tac-Toe board that I decided to create another card with a similar design.

For this card, I embossed a white background using a heart embossing folder, which I adhered to a 4 1/4" by 5 1/2" card base.

I then adhered the "envelopes" that I had stamped on scraps in the same general area. However, I decided to tuck the sentiment into one of the envelopes. I love how it looks!!

The last step was to adhere a variety of shiny, different shaped sequins randomly around the envelopes.

For someone who takes a long time to make a card, I created two cards in no time using the challenge card. I know that I will be making at least one more card using a different row because I had so much fun!!

I thank you for stopping by!! Have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com