Golden Birthday

Here's my 2nd card tonight for Stamplorations and Curtain Call:

I've had the medallion type stamp for a very long time and as I was pulling out background stamps tonight I decided to use it again.  I inked it up with Pink Pirouette.  It has an oval shape in the middle and it just looked like a really neat place to put a gold balloon.  So I did!  I wanted to keep the card fairly simple with that big medallion.  So I cut a gold balloon, embossed it with a small dot emboss folder.  Then I just layered some black striped vellum behind the stamped panel and cut a small banner from the same vellum.  Then I cut my "happy" and "birthday" dies in black and added some gold sequins.  Easy peasy!

Birthday Blessings x 2!

In Party Form

Late night tonight.  Hubs is on call for Hospice so I stay up and craft while he charts.  I wanted to play in the Stamplorations 2nd Birthday Linky party, so I made a couple birthday cards.  

This first one I was inspired by the new party dress stamp set at Stamplorations.  I have a couple dress stamps but I decided to use my Stampin' Up dress form die.  I was also inspired by the current Curtain Call challenge to use some gold party favors.

I had some background paper I  made a while back with my Dylusions sprays and so I cut the form from it.  I used a border stamp on the bottom of the dress form and another one for a little necklace around the neck. 

I used a background stamp for my card background, inked it with Peacock Feathers distressed ink, spritzed it then stamped.  After it dried I added some gold stars (Paper Sweeties) and gold strings (Papertrey Ink stamp).  The party hat die (Taylored Expressions) and balloon die (Paper Sweeties), I cute from gold glitter paper.  I cut a black balloon too to add a little "shadow" with the gold ballonn.  The large streamer is also Paper Sweeties and the small one is Taylored Expressions.  I stamped the sentiment stamp, a Michaels $1 Bin stamp in Versafine black.  I adhered it all to a black background cut with a rectangle stitched die from Lil Inker Designs.  I finished the card off with some red candy dots from Stampin' Up and purple enamel dots.

Birthday Blessings!

A Sheri Gilson CASE - TPE #306

Good Morning Monday!

Today is a special day over at

The PiNK Elephant Challenge --

Challenge #306--

It's Case Your Favorite Sheri Gilson Card!

It's a bittersweet day 

because we've had to say goodbye 

to

Sheri Gilson, 

our fabulous Challenge Coordinator and Co-Creator of 

The PiNK Elephant!

We are sooooo going to miss Sheri!  She has been a fabulous leader, friend, inspirer and incredible crafter!

So, to thank her for all of her dedication, hard work, friendship, craftiness, leadership and just being an all around fabulous gal, Ella's girls decided this week to CASE one of their favorite TPE Sheri cards to share!

There were several of Sheri's card I love.  It was hard to pick just one!  I love the soft, neutral tone of this card and her beautiful layout.

Sheri's card:

Here is my card:

I chose the color challenge at The Card Concept to use for my card and I would think that my card or actually Sheri's design, would follow along the lines of Classy & Elegant.

For Following Challenges:

So stop by The PiNK Elephant Challenge and check out the rest of the team's cards cased from Sheri's cards.  Then, check out Sheri's TPE cards and case one yourself and share it with us to thank Sheri for all of her hard work and dedication to Ella and the TPE Challenge!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sheri!  

See you around the crafty blogland and good luck with all your new endeavors and adventures!

Blessings to Sheri!

Happy Day

It's a quiet pre-4th here.  Hubs has to work in the ER tonight for the holiday.  Crossing my fingers it's an uneventful work night for them.  Holidays can be really crazy for the ER especially at night!  So, I'm chilling out with Riley and Socrates crafting and eating, eating and crafting...isn't that how it's suppose to go?  hahaha

 So, I wanted to play in the challenge at Addicted to CAS.  Haven't played in a while there.  This time the theme is "Splash".   It may not be totally CAS.  It's not my usual forte usually, so I try to work outside my comfort zone sometimes.  I also decided to go stamp free so I will also play along with the 4 Crafty Chicks challenge of No Stamping and Little Tangles Die Cutting challenge.  

Here are my deets:
Paper: White & Turquoise green cardstock.
Dies: Stitched Circle (Lil Inker' Designs); Waves are actually border dies (Spellbinders); Crab (WPlus9); Surfboard (Taylored Expressions); Clouds (Taylored Expressions); Happy (Spellbinders); Day (Serendipity Stamps).
Patterned Paper: Summer Lovin' by Carta Bella.

FOR FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:

4 Crafty Chicks #253 - No Stamping

Summer Blessings!

Me=Grateful

Playing with some mists and paints again today...

Used some Heidi Swapp Color Shine mists for my background.  I used coral and gold.  Some of the gold looks smudgy with the angle I took the picture.  I cut a dummy tag and banner and taped to the card base before misting so when the vellum dies were adhered there wasn't so much paint behind them.  I used the feathers die cuts from Paper Smooches and cut them from gold vellum.  Then cut the tag and banner from vellum.  The sentiment, Stampin' Up is versamarked and embossed with gold.  I added some coral enamel dots to finish it off.

I used the sketch at Less Is More Challenge for some inspiration and the Friday Mashup "use 3 of something".

Less Is More #15

The Friday Mashup #215 - Sketch/Use 3 of Something/Do Both

Grateful Blessings!

Cool-tastic!

Good evening! 

Another nice less humid, Carolina blue day here turning into a nice pleasant evening.  You'd think that would mean I'm outside enjoying it!  

Nope! I'm inside creating...

To be punny, isn't this guy a hoot?  Hahaha!  I love this stamp from Your Next stamp.  I bought it because my hubs loves birds/owls and my daughter inlaw loves owls.  So naturally I'm always checking out birds and owls wherever I go and even when I'm stamp shopping!  Anyway, I colored him with Copics, Spectrum Noir, Distress markers and even a Blick marker (one named Beach).  

This card was inspired by the sketch challenge at Happy Little Stampers this month.  Nothing like getting in under the wire!  LOL  

FOR FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:

Cool Blessings!

Anything Goes! - TPE #305

It's the last Monday in June!

The year is flying by just a tad too fast don't you think?

Mondays are always fun though

with

The PiNK Elephant Challenge- #305!

It's the end of the month too so that means ---

Anything Goes Challenge!

Make anything you want and share it with us!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Team's wonderful projects and leave them some blog love!

Here's my card --- I used a stencil from Stamplorations and sponged on distress ink-- orange marmalade, worn lipstick and mustard seed.  The background paper is patterned vellum.  The sentiment is a die from Paper Smooches and the photo corner die is Sizzix.

For Following Challenges:

I was inspired by the colors at the Fusion challenge, the stenciling challenge at AAA and it is the first time to use this stencil which is from Stamplorations.

AAA Cards - #42 Paste/Stencil Techniques

PiNK Elephant Blessings!

Thinking of You ---Thinking of You --- Thinking of You

Good Morning again!

It's time for 

The PiNK Elephant Challenge!

It's a Sketch - TPE #304

Stop by Ella's blog and check out the rest of the Design Team's projects -- Super fun! 

And don't forget to leave them some blog love too! 

💛💙💜💚

Then, link up your card using our sketch this week and play along with us!

Here's my card:

Picture if you will a neon sign blinking relentlessly late at night when you read my post title!  LOL  I'm went NEON again!  I used them to sponge up the background using a Heidi Swapp stencil. Then, I decided to make a tag so I used my Reverse Confetti tag die and cut a white tag and vellum tag.  I used the neon ink to stamp flowers (Taylored Expressions) and fussy cut them. I also used some neon embossing powder too on the sentiment.  The leaves are Taylored Expressions die cut out of neon paper.  I set it all on a black background and used a black seam binding ribbon (Paper Sweeties) and some enamel dots to finish off the tag.  Just call me a NEON freak right now!   I'm not sure, but maybe next week I'll try and figure out how to add flashing lights!  hahahaha  

My inspiration for using the neons came from this week's The Card Concept.  I thought it would look cool for Ella's sketch to stencil a bright and colorful background to kind of take center stage.  By the definitions it probably falls  into the Classy & Elegant with a twist of Clean and Graphic and Freestyle.  There's no specific neon/loud category.  LOL

For Following Challenges: 

PiNK Elephant Blessings!

Let Your Light Shine!

Happy 1st Monday of Summer!

(At least for the Northern Hemisphere)

I guess it's Happy Winter for the Southern Hemisphere!

Since it's Monday ---

it's time for 

The Challenge!

This week is a theme-

Nautical

Look and "Sea" the team's fabulous projects:

Karolyn Loncon - Featured Designer

Haylely Kew - Guest Designer

Design Team Members:

Anita Madden
Claire Broadwater

Kim Heggins

Kimberly Wiener

Lee Ann Barrett

Lesley Croghan

Lori Tecler
Michele Ferguson

Nance Salkeld(You are here!)

Be sure and leave each of them some blog luvin'.  

Designers love comments too!

So when we got this challenge theme, I wanted to think outside the box a bit.  So, I've done a twist on the "ship in the bottle" thing, stamping a lighthouse inside a mason jar stamp.  I really need to break down and get a jar die.  I originally wanted to have a clear jar overlay but it didn't work out how I hoped.  So I went with what I have here.  

The stamp is a digital stamp and I do not remember where  got it.  The sentiment is all PTI including the word die. 

For Following Challenges:

Nautical Blessings!

Shirt & Tie

TGIF!  

And Happy Almost Summer!

The last days of spring have felt like the dog days of summer already here in the Triangle of North Carolina.  About seven days already in scorching hot temps, muggy humidity and daily thunderstorm! And, Mr. Weatherman says at least another week of the same.  WHEW!  What a summer to decide not to have the pool going.  

However, there are other nice things happening. 

Father's Day is Sunday!  

It will be a bittersweet one for me as my dad passed away in April, so I'll be looking heavenward to send my wishes. 

So, as a little tribute to my dad, I've made a shirt and tie card. My dad was a minister and so he was a shirt and tie man most of the time, particularly Sundays.

I used the color scheme from The Paper Players challenge this week.  

For Following Challenges

The Paper Players #249

4 Crafty Chicks -- #251 Father's Day

Cardz 4 Guys - #75 Father's Day

Mod Squad - Father's Day

BLESSINGS FOR DADS!

Awesomeness

Happy Thursday!

I have a quick post this early morning ---

I've been playing around with distress inks again while participating in the new class, "In The Mood" over at Stamp Nation.  Such an inspirational community of stampers! 

I got inspired by the Dreamy Rainbow section of the class as well as the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch.

I soaked up some watercolor paper and then using a small stamp block, I applied various distress inks one or two at a time to the block and then pressed the block onto the paper.  I was going for a rainbow pattern starting with Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick.  Then I cut a butterfly out of the middle using my fancy butterfly die from Impression Obsession replacing the colored butterfly with a black decorative one.  I versamarked and embossed the sentiment (from Stamplorations) with white emboss powder, cutting it from a label die.  I popped up the label and butterfly frame onto a black patterned background of cut squares.  The final touch was some candy dots from Stampin' Up. 

For Following Challenges:

Awesome Blessings!

Hugs & Fishes - TPE 303

Good morning again!  

It's now time for 

The PiNK Elephant Challenge!

#303 Theme- Fathers Day!

Play along with us by sharing your Father's Day projects on Ella's blog!

Don't forget to check out my design teamies' projects too and leave them some blog luv! 

I chose a Penny Black stamp from the set, Sunny Days, for my card:

Is he not the cutest thing?  I used the sentiment from Your Next Stamp and the "dad" stamp is Fiskars I think.  It's kind of old.  I used Copics and Spectrum Noirs on the image.  The background paper is from 

I used the sketch at Fusion challenge and the Friday 

For Following Challenges:

The Friday Mashup #213- 

use Cajun Craze, Island Indigo & Garden Green OR 

make a Father's Day card OR Both 

PiNK Elephant Blessings!