Classy Card Ladies' January Duel!

A group of friends on Split Coast Stampers have been "dueling" on the 15th of the month for years. This year we did a refresh, changed our name and team names and Bang! We're off for a fun year of dueling again!

This month "The Pearls" (my team) hosted by the lovely Jeanette, and "The Diamonds",  hosted by the effervescent Kelly chose "Winter Fun" as the theme.

Here's my card with Jeanette's great kit:

I folded the card off-center by about an inch to give me a panel on the right and die cut 3 hearts from the pretty papers that Jeanette included.

The image is colored with Stampin' Up Blenders and the snowball and ground are accented with Stickles.

Here's the opened card where I cut apart the sentiment and stair-stepped it.

Kit contents included:

CC Designs "Snowball Heidi" and sentiment by Close To My Heart's "Flakey Friends" collection.

All designer papers are from Recollections "Fa La La" paper pad.

Red snowflake ribbon is from Joann's and the teal ribbon is Offray.

Jeanette's generous kit also included rhinestones, sequins, a wooden snowflake (that I really wanted to use but couldn't work it in) and a charm with a snowflake brad.  I'm thinking another card is in order to feature these goodies!

Time for me to run over to my folks' house and get their dinner ready, but when I get back home today I'll finish this post with the names of everyone on the Pearls and the Diamonds.  I will also update my side bar with links to their galleries or blogs to make it easy for you to visit and admire their cards.

Good bye for now!

January's Hot Mess!

 On the 12th of the month, a group of friends on Split Coast have formed a "Hot Mess" challenge group.  The only requirement is that your project is messy to create!  No need to check your calendars...I'm a couple of days late.  Below is my card.

The colors are purple and yellow.  This card is for Barb's swap on Split Coast and the challenge is to use only two colors.  

It's a full sized floral background stamp and the large rectangle mask was used from Taylored Expressions Masking Stencils.  Then the Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped.  Purple ribbon and yellow flower finishes it off.  

End result is an easy-to-mail card because it's flat!  The other end result were several stained fingers and fingernails from removing the mask, washing it off, then making the next card!  My cotton wash cloth that I use for stamping is also stained, LOL.

Here's the inside of the card:

I hope that Barb likes these cards.  I sure thought it was a fun swap theme.  It challenged me to only use 2 colors.

Now I'm off to these blogs to admire their Hot Mess Successes:

Kelly

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

Thanks for stopping by!

A Red Nose Duel!

Time once again for the Dueling Darlings to show off their cards created from a fun kit sent by the team hostess for November!

Carol is the hostess for the Divas and Shelly is the hostess for the Dazzlers, and they chose Red Nose as the theme.  How fun!

Here's my card created with Shelly's kit:

And here's the inside:

Kit contents:

• Images: CC Designs on Recollections 110# stock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.
• Papers: Buffalo Check by Recollections, Inside panel with holly/music/trees by Simple Stories, Santa/snowmen used for front panel by Echo Park and red-copper glitter paper used to mount sentiment by Best Creations, Inc.
• Red glittery sequins by Creatology
• Ribbons from Offray, Celebrate It!, Shelly's friend in Greece sent the beautiful green organdy

I colored up the adorable little friends with Spectrum Noir markers. 

Shelly, I have to give you a big "thank you" for such a generous and fun kit!  I just love the images and may "have" to go shopping for them <wink>

Thanks for stopping by to see my card.  Do yourself a big favor and go admire the rest of the cards made by the Divas and the Dazzlers.  Their names and links are in my sidebar!

Stay safe and healthy!

Halloween Gnomes!

Today is the 15th and that means it's time for the monthly Duel!  Dueling Darlings is a group of friends on Split Coast Stampers who are divided into teams, The Divas and The Dazzlers.  Each month one member of each team is the host and sends a kit to members on her team.  

The Dazzlers' host this month is the lovely Terry Serman.  Host for The Divas is the one-and-only LJ!  They picked Halloween as the theme, and as a Dazzler, let me tell you - Terry sent us a fantastic kit!!!

Here's my "side step" card made with the contents of Terry's kit:

I chose a side step card because of the wide assortment of great papers and embellishments!  

Kit Contents:
Images are Photoplay Gnome for the Holidays Halloween Shout out to the company for granting Terry permission to share with us!)
Papers are Photoplay potions & spells, hocus pocus and batty; Polka Dots by Paperstudio.
Embellishments included Gina Marie enamel dots, Paperstudio gems, an action wobble and assorted ribbons from Ribbon Boutique.

Well...I have never seen an action wobble before!!  How fun is that?  Here's a side view of it (behind the pumpkin)

I finished off the inside with more of the cute papers and colored the sentiment with a Spectrum Noir marker.  All images are colored with Spectrum Noir markers. 

   I had such a blast with this kit.

      Thanks Terry, for a really fun round this month!

A "Roaring Good Time" with the Dueling Darlings!

It's time for another Duel - the Dueling Darlings have a "Roaring Good Time" '20's theme brought to us by Heather for the Divas and Beth for the Dazzlers.

Beth sent the Dazzlers such a cute kit, choosing beautiful papers resembling fabrics and a super cute image and sentiments from CCDesigns: "The 20's Fellas". 

Here's my card:

Our dapper dude is colored with Castle Arts Premier Soft Touch colored pencils. 

The papers sent by Beth are "Typewriter" by Bo Bunny and the Leather and Denim are by Ella and Viv.  Below is a close up to show how rich the papers are:

The sentiment was lightly colored and mounted on a piece of the Leather paper, small copper brads and some brown gems finished off the card.

Beth, thank you for such a fun kit and creative theme!!  You really gave us something different to work with this round.  Check out the Divas and Dazzlers blogs or galleries for more good times - links are in my sidebar on the right!

September's Hot Mess: Brushos v2!

 It's the 12th of the month, and a group of friends on Split Coast have formed a "Hot Mess" challenge group.  The only requirement is that your project is messy to create!

Last month was my first time using Brusho water color powders, and I learned a lot.  So I decided to continue the learning and use them again.

Here's my 3rd or 4th attempt...who's counting? Hahaha!

This is a 6x6 card, because the stencil is about that size.  It's on 110# white stock, but not watercolor paper.  I misted lightly it with water, tapped out small amounts of Brusho powders onto a coated paper plate for a palette.  Then mixed water into each powder with a small paintbrush.

The sun is Lemon Yellow, the sky is Turquoise and the ground is Mossy Green with some added Lemon Yellow.

After allowing the panel to dry I sprayed temporary adhesive on the back of a thin plastic stencil: "Mini Butterfly Meadow" by The Crafters Workshop.  I used sponge daubers to add colors using Stampin' Up colors: Mellon Mambo, Emerald Envy and Bumblebee.

I really held my breath lifting the stencil up, fearing that it would tear my panel.  But slowly separating it was the key.

I did use glue to adhere each panel together due to the moisture in the image.  Finished off the image with some Stickles and a ribbon.

Hop to these blogs to admire their Hot Mess Successes:

Kelly

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

10 Year Anniversary of the Dueling Darlings!

Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the Dueling Darlings! Our leaders, Jeanette and Kelly have really outdone themselves with games, prizes and other fun things in our thread on Split Coast Stampers.  Thank you for all of your hard work!

Kelly sent us all kits - and for a fun twist randomly assigned everyone to a team.  I am normally on the Dazzlers Team, but this month I get to be an honorary Diva!  Ha ha ha.

Here's my ticket and assignment.  I decided to use some of the kit elements to jazz it up a bit:

And here is my card:

This card is a bit over the top but hey - it's am important milestone!  I decided to add the party blower and some of the yellow crinkle filling that Kelly used to pack our kits.  Unfortunately, I ended up covering all of the ADORABLE papers she sent to us!  

Be sure to hop on over to all of the blogs or galleries of the other Darlings and admire their work!  Links are in my side bar.  Get hoppin'!