August Duel (Overdue!)

I lost my crafting brain this month...not sure where it went, but I'm working on getting it back.

My patient friends, the Dueling Darlings have a monthly challenge, due on the 15th.  Well I decided my funk had gone on too long and I needed to get back in gear!

Terry was the hostess for this month's round with the Dazzlers & she sent us an adorable House Mouse image to work with, and loaded her kit with great papers, ribbon and fun candi dots.  Here's what I came up with:

Terry's generous kit included this adorable apple paper.  I cut one out and put it on the tag, which was made with some other paper she sent.  Remember penmanship paper?  Yep!  That's what she sent!  Too clever.

Here's a look at the inside:

A strip of her school bus paper and more of the fun penmanship paper on the inside.  I've left it blank for a personal message for a friend.






Here's the back panel.  Just couldn't resist adding another school bus, they're so cute!

Thank you Terry for sending the perfect kit to inspire me to break out of my slump!  Now that I finally have my card posted I can go find more inspiration on the blogs of the Darlings.  Links are in my sidebar-go and check them out!

Unity's "Enjoy, Explore, Believe" is Image for Round 9 of Unidentified Image Swap

Here we are, the 10th of August and we who participate in the Unidentified Image Swap get to reveal this round's image and what we created with it!

This round is hosted by April and she gave us something a little different to work with: Unity's "Enjoy, Explore, Believe".  I really must thank you April, because this made me stretch and, if I may admit it, I'm a little pleased with the result!!

The idea was to make a bookmark with the sentiment, and include it on the front of the card with a pocket.  

I took a Very Vanilla SU envelope, sealed it and cut off one of the narrow ends.

Then it was stamped with a collage stamp by Hero Arts called "Musical Collage".  SU's Crushed Curry, Creamy Caramel, Tempting Turquoise and Cameo Coral inks were sponged onto the image.  Then the envelope was spritzed with Stardust Finishing Spray by A Muse Studios.  

When fully dried the envelope was then crimped and trimmed with brown crochet ribbon and flowers from my stash.

Here's a closer view of the envelope attached to the front of the card.

This is the sentiment as the bookmark.  SU's Tempting Turquoise and Chocolate Chip CS create the base layers, with a portion of the collage stamp watermarked on the TT layer.






The sentiment by Unity is sponged and edged, then the entire bookmark was also spritzed to give it the soft shimmer from the finishing spray.  When dried, an eyelet and satin ribbon was added.























Here's a view of the card front with the bookmark removed.



The upper edge of the card front is stamped with a French script stamp (not SU) that I've had in my stash for years, not sure of the origin, though!






























A great big "THANK YOU" to April for providing us with such a unique and different image this round!


Hopefully everyone who receives one of my creations won't be disappointed.  As for me...I can hardly wait to see what beauties my return will hold!


Thank you for taking the time to stop by and thank you for leaving comments.  They sure do brighten up my day!

Blessings to all of you.

"Each New Wave..." by D. Morgan

Over at the Crafters of Faith group, we host a monthly card challenge.  Our July challenge comes from Kelly:

"Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." ~ John 7:38

Hi Faith sisters!  This month’s Crafter’s of Faith challenge theme is inspired this verse and your theme is: Water!  

 It’s summer and many of us are enjoying the splendors of the outdoors – boating, swimming, walking along the lakes and rivers.   Summer rains, as heavy and burdening as they can sometimes be, bring us new growth all around ~ trees, green grass and gorgeous flowers blooming.   Even spiritually, many people accept Jesus into their hearts and become baptized in water and have beach baptisms.  Water is a beautiful, healing, essential!  This month, I want you to use WATER as your theme on your cards:  Be as creative as you like -  think boats, oceans, the beach, tilted watering cans, bird baths, falling rain, etc!   Let water be the focus of your card and extra brownie points for using the color BLUE!!   Blessings! 

As many of you know, I am a fan of stamps with the art work by D. Morgan and am lucky enough to have quite a collection.  Lots of them involve lighthouses and ocean scenes, so I knew right away that I would use a D. Morgan stamp for this challenge.  In the end, what may be my favorite won out:

It's stamped with Marvy Matchables ink in Dark Brown onto Wausau's Stardust CS.  The Stardust has little flecks of color in it and a slightly rustic texture, both of which I really like for scenic/nature cards.  The card is colored with Prisma and Derwent pencils, blended with Gamsol.

Here are two closer views of the sentiment:

The inside includes another blank panel of the Stardust card stock, and a panel of vellum that contains pieces of pressed grasses.  The sentiment is an old SU, stamped in Old Olive ink.

   

The card's front panel is matted onto a rust colored vellum that compliments the color of the row boat.

The only part of this great challenge that I forgot about was including blue!  It would have been easy to change the color scheme to blues, but I just didn't remember that part in time.  Sorry Kelly!!



Songs that accompanied me while making this card included Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" and a good many Jimmy Buffet tunes, sprinkled in with some Bobby Darin.  All in all, a happy escape from the daily grind.

Wishing you all a wonderful day and thank you for stopping by!