Dueling Darlings: We Are a Rainbow!

It's the 15th of the month, and time for another Duel.  A group of friends on Split Coast Stampers have joined together to challenge each other with a monthly Duel.  Our hostess this month for both teams is Kelly and she dished up a great challenge for us!

As Kelly wrote in our instructions:

"...your theme is "We are a Rainbow!"  Each of us brings a light and color to life...each of you are an important 'band' of the rainbow, because in order to have it, we all need to be together as one."

Kelly randomly assigned each of us to a color and challenged us to use ONLY that color to make our card. We are allowed to use a white base for the card. My color is red.

Here's my card.  

May I just make this PERFECTLY CLEAR?  My face is as red as my card!  Hahahaha   It was a day where nothing went as planned.  What can I say? 

Kelly included red rainbow die cuts from My Favorite Things, red gems from Horizon Group Go Create and a rectangular scallop panel cut from white Stampin Up card stock.

I found THE LAST piece of SU Real Red card stock in my stash and used that for the base panel. Searched everywhere for a stamp set by Taylored Expressions with a rainbow image that would have been perfect as a background.  No luck. I think it may have been paid forward to someone in a card kit.

Then I decided to try this jar of chunky red glitter gel by Stickles and painted it on to the rainbow pieces.

Next I thought, "Ah ha!! I'll use Red Cosmic Shimmer paste on the scallop rectangle."  You can see that the color was not at all compatible with Real Red.  What to do?

I'll die cut "Friend" out of the panel, leaving the outline on the panel. Could not find the exact die that I wanted (it's still MIA) so I subbed this die. Yep, you guessed it! The word did not show up well on top of the Real Red panel. 

Ok, now I've ruined the scallop rectangle panel...what to do? I fiddled around a ridiculous amount of time and ended up using the die cut "friend" on the front of the card, cut some the rainbow segments to decorate lower left and right of "friend", and cut the remainder of the scallop rectangle and used it on the inside panel.

Kelly, I'm sorry!  You really came up with a fun idea for us.  Maybe it's the whole Mercury in Retrograde that made my attempts run amok. Now I'm off to admire the cards by the rest of the Dueling Darlings!   

Holographic Dueling Darlings!

Here we are on the 15th of the month and it's time for another Duel!  

The ever-so-creative Terry and I are partners this year and this is our month to choose the theme.  A while back some paper by Pink & Main caught our eyes. "Holographic Set 2" and the rest is history, haha!

I put together a kit of items that I thought could further the holographic theme and sent them out to my team mates.

Pink & Main's "Holographic Set 2" papers

Die cuts with Altenew's "Fine Frames Diamonds" die set - also cut onto the Pink & Main's holographic stock

Say it With Stamps by Beck Moore, by Photoplay, Birthday images and sentiment. 

Sparkly and Gem laden ribbons from Merchant 41

Gems from Paper Studio

Here's my card:

It was a bit of a trick to get the fun holographic papers to photograph at all, so the card is tilted toward the light and maybe it gives you an idea.

I fussy cut out the balloon shapes onto one of the holographic papers, and used 3 others behind them. The gift and sentiment panel are colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

I really hit the jackpot at Hobby Lobby and found some great gem/holographic ribbons for the kits. Hopefully everyone had a good time with their kit.  After so many years of Duels it's getting to be a challenge to come up with a new idea!  But I wouldn't trade this group of friends for anything!

OK!! Time for me to admire the Galleries and Blogs of the other Darlings. Thanks for stopping by!

March Double Duty with Pinkfresh Studio Stamps

It's the 22nd and time for another Double Duty Challenge.  A group of friends invited me to join the fun this year. The concept is to use one stamp set from a specific company each month to create two cards, (Double Duty). 

At least one thing should be the same on both cards. We can use different images and sentiments from the same set. Or we can use the same image two different ways. As an added challenge, one item must be used on both cards, Double Duty yet again.

Posting day is the 22nd - another double!

This month's company is Pinkfresh Studios, a new favorite of mine.  Here are my cards:

The set is called Just a Little Lovely and has a matching die for the floral spray.  

The image is colored with Karin Brush Marker Pro markers and is on Gina K's Heavy Weight Pure Luxury white stock.

The background panel is on watercolor stock, colored with Brushos and then spritzed with Shimmer Mist by A Muse.

This is a picture of the panel drying.

Here's the other card using the same image and sentiment. 

The panel was colored with blending brushes using Magenta Madness ink by Stampin' Up. 

The image was stamped directly onto the tinted panel and then die cut. I used my Castle Arts pencils to color it and framed the panel in black.  Don't look too closely because I had to hand cut the black panel, ha ha!

The last part of double duty on each card are the clear water droplets by Dress My Craft.

Both of these cards have been mailed out to two friends in other parts of the country. Each of them is working very hard at reshaping their life at this time. Hopefully this gives them a smile!

Hop on over to the blogs of my team mates and admire their own Double Duty Cards:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol

Thanks for stopping by!

Dueling Darlings - "Team Tea"

I am a few days late with this, our Dueling Cards are to be posted on the 15th...I seem to have a streak of Too Much Life.  More likely it's Too Disorganized...but that's another story!  

Barb ("Team Coffee") and Lorraine ("Team Tea") brewed up a coffee and tea challenge for this month. Lorraine put together a fabulous kit for us to work with!  Thank you Lorraine!!

Here's my little cuppa:

Image/Sentiments are Hampton Arts Heart Mug, steam wisps and small hearts.  The mug and sentiment are stamped with New England Ivy ink by Close to My Heart.

Designer Papers are Close to My Heart green, Papertrey Ink Ivy paper and Simply Stories brown polka dot.

Ribbons are Close to My Heart Sheer Green and Celebrate It tan jute polka dot ribbon.

Embellishments are Jolee's small white mugs (which I colored with Spectrum Noir markers), white hearts by Park Lane and a green enamel dot by Close to My Heart.

Lorraine also treated us to a teabag in our kits, thereby sending us a "hug in a mug". Isn't that thoughtful of her?

Lorraine, I truly apologize for being late, but let me assure you that it was not because your kit was hard to work with!  Thank you so much for a fun challenge this month.

February's Double Duty (A Bit Late)

First, let me apologize to the team for being so tardy!  This is supposed to be posted on the 22nd. Barb, Jeanette & Carol should put me in the naughty corner, LOL.

This fun challenge is the brain-child of Barb. Each month we use a stamp set from a predetermined company and make 2 cards with it. Plus, we are to used at least one element on each card.  Then, we are to post on the 22nd.  This gives us a minimum of 3 sets of doubles.

This month we used Hero Arts and I picked the 2012 background stamp called "Leafy Vines".  Inspired by Carol's brilliant black and white cards over the years I decided to give that a try.

The white paneled card was heat embossed with Ranger's Black Sparkle embossing powder. 

My photography skills come up short to do it justice.  But hopefully this shot at an angle gives you some idea of the sparkle

Here's the black paneled card.  It took 3 attempts to get what I wanted. 

This is heat embossed with Taylored Expressions Fine Detail White embossing powder.

Both sentiments are from sets by Simon Says Stamp. I must admit that cutting them is a challenge for me!  

Thanks for stopping by. Double Duty Team, I promise to be on time next month!  Hop on over to their blogs and admire their Double Duty creations with Hero Arts stamps:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol

Dueling Darlings February 2022

Did you know that February is LIBRARY LOVERS Month??!!  I didn't 😉.

However, our team leaders knew and used this as our theme.

Tracie is this month's leader for our team and sent us a kit full of fun library themed papers, die cuts and sentiments.

Of course I had to make a double pocket card to hold two bookmarks.  

The pink bookmark was included in the kit from Tracie. Isn't it pretty?

The other one I made with a piece of the designer paper, a bookworm and stack of books that were included in the die cuts that Tracie sent.  I topped it off with one of the buttons and some twine which was also in the kit.

Here's a look at the card front with the 2 pockets without the bookmarks. I thought it was a nice way to feature the pretty papers that Tracie chose.

This is a top fold card, on Stampin Up Early Espresso card stock and layered with their Pool Party card stock.

The inside is finished with one of the sentiments and another piece of the designer paper from the kit.

Kit Contents:

Stamped images from "Book Worm" by Fun Stampers Journey
Designer Papers: 
  Books: Witches & Wizards by Echo Park
  Words: Scribe by Authentique
  Cubbies: Farmhouse Market by Carta Bella
Ribbons from The Ribbon Boutique (Red) and Island Indigo (Blue) by Stampin Up.
Gems from Fun Stampers Journey
Buttons and twine from Tracie's stash.

Tracie and Carol, this was a great theme.  Thanks Tracie for such a generous kit! I'm saving the adorable die cuts left over for another card or two!

February Hot Mess = Success!

One day late to post this, lots going on last week.

Our group of friends have a challenge. Make a card that involves a mess. I don't think that anyone in the group likes our stamping area to be too messy, so this is a stretch for all of us.  

Here's my Hot Mess = Success! card for February:

I was back to playing with Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polishes by Creative Expressions. I think I'm in love with these.

The stencil is one of a 3-part layering stencil called Balloon Party by Taylored Expressions.  The matching stamp set provided the black balloon ribbons.

This is white, 110# card stock with the Mediterranean Blue and Lush Pink sponged on. 

Then the stencil was used to heavily sponge on Tangy Tangerine, Gold Treasure, Red Bronze and Enchanted Gold polishes for the balloons. It all needed some drying time.

Stamping the black ribbons on top of the gilded background was a little tricky. I used Gina K Designs' Black Amalgam ink.  It did pretty well, but it is different to stamp onto the gilded surface. I masked some of the balloons to get the ribbons behind them.

The Happy Birthday sentiment had the Mediterranean Blue polish applied directly to the stamp and then stamped onto the card stock. Then it was hand trimmed.

Hop on over to these blogs to admire the Hot Mess Successes created by my friends:

Kelly

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

Thanks for stopping by!