Challenge Your Stash: Christmas

Can you believe that I am posting AGAIN in the same month???  Wonders never cease...

Maybe it's Carol's great theme this month for the "Challenge Your Stash" (CYS) group on Split Coast, that helped inspire me. We are to use only things that we already have in our stash, this month we were to make a Christmas card.

It's white card stock that has been sponged with various inks, then stamped using the longtime favorite "Lovely as a Tree" set from Stampin' Up.  The center tree is white embossed.

The Merry Christmas ribbon must be years old too...I know that it's from my early card making days.

Hopefully no one has been hurt from fainting that July has TWO posts from me.  LOL

Bijou says hello too.

A Darling Midsummer Night's Dream

July 15th and time for another Duel!
Paola and Heather chose Shakespeare's comic work as our theme and we are to use a fairy image and the red maple leaf in recognition of Canada's 150th anniversary.

Paola's kit had the most beautiful papers from Graphic 45's Nature's Sketchbook collection.  I wanted a style that could show off every side of the papers, so an easel card it is!  

Look at those pretty papers.  

Embellishments include Turquoise dots from American Crafts and gross grain ribbon by Stampin Up.

The red maple leaf is stamped with a Stampin Up stamp.  I sparkled the leaf and portions of the image with a Wink of Stella clear glitter pen.

The image is a Cam & Chloe fairy by Hampton Arts.  It's colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

Paola included the beautiful leaf and vine die cut, which I mounted on top of one of the reverse sides of the DP.

Here's the card fully opened, where you can see the middle panel of the easel fold and yet more of the pretty paper.  I cut out one of the sentiments Paola gave us, colored it with markers and glittered the butterfly.

Paola: THANK YOU for such a fun theme and incredible papers and die cuts!  It was easy to get inspired by the kit and theme.

Oh, I almost forgot, we are to post which quote from Shakespeare we use the most...which is difficult because whether we know it or not we often use his words.  I guess I would choose "To thine own self be true".  Polonius' wise words from Hamlet.  

Roses in June!

Back again (don't faint!)  - Yep!  I am getting caught up with my Dueling. Tracie is the hostess for the Dazzler Team of the Dueling Darlings and Roses is the theme she chose.  In particular, she loves pink roses, so mine are colored pink.

The image is from Flourishes, "Calendar Set 2" and it's hard to think of a better rose image.  Her creativity really shone through with her choice of papers, ribbons and other embellishments.  Here's what I came up with:

Above is the front, and to the right is the inside.
Just look at those papers, so fun.

The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol.  

The papers are Neapolitan by American Crafts, "Dear Lizzy" and the doily is by Recollections.  Flowers, ribbon and lace are also Recollections and Tracie punched the leaves using Martha Stewart's leaf punch.  I just love the yellows and pinks against that brown background on the front.  And that gorgeous lace trim just had to be used!!

Thank you for such a great kit Tracie!  It was no problem to color the roses pink.  In fact, we have pink roses in a blue vase now beside a photo of my daughter.  She loved pink.

Peace and hugs to all the Darlings! 

May's Dueling Darlings Card

Debbie was May's hostess for the Dazzler Team of the Dueling Darlings and the theme was "May Flowers".

Here is the card that I made from the wonderful kit she sent to the Dazzlers:

Kit Contents:
Image: "Bloomin Beautiful" by Stampin Up
Papers: My Mind's Eye "Cambridge Court"
Ribbon: Rose Red Grosgrain & Coastal Cabana Stretch Ruffle Trim by Stampin Up
Rhinestones & Pearls by Stampin Up
Blue adhesive gems from Colorbok
Pearls from Michaels & Joann Fabrics

What a pretty image!  I liked it so much that the inside includes one in lavender:

Both are edged with Old Olive ink by Stampin Up and are colored with Spectrum Noir markers.  

The papers Debbie gave us are so pretty, I love the colors!

Now I am off to visit everyone's blogs and admire their creations.  Plus, I need to find June's kit, and make that card.  If I do, you'll see me post again today.  (Time to clean up the clutter in my craft room!)

Sunshine for the Dueling Darlings!

April shot right by me - hard to believe we're looking at May!

Jeanette was the hostess the Dazzlers in April, picking "You Are My Sunshine" as the theme.  It's a great theme for many reasons, not the least of which is the sunshine and friendship these ladies share!

The WONDERFUL kit included:
"Sunny May" image by Some Odd Girl (so cute) and sentiments by Some Odd Girl, AMuse and Printworks.
Gina Marie Stitched Sky (sun die cut) and Hello Sunshine Frame by Simon Says.
Designer Papers by DCWV Kidlet Paper pad.
She also gave us a bounty of embellishments: Michael's Rhinestones, Prima Flowers, Robin's Nest Dew Drops and Rain Drops, SU Ribbon and yellow brads and flip flop brad.



Here's what became of my kit:




































A closer look at the darling image and embellishments.


She's colored with Prisma's and blended with Gamsol.  Sparkle to her flowers and the die cut sun added with Spectrum Noir's glitter pen.





The papers were so nice, so I decided to dress up the inside panels too:

I dry embossed the left panel (Crushed Curry by SU) with an old Fiskars plate, die cut the sentiment and larger heart out of the DP that Jeanette gave us.  I really love this color scheme...thanks Jeanette!

Now that I've finally created this, it's time to send it off to someone I know and love who is ESPECIALLY sunny!

February Dueling Darlings

A bit late, but here is my February Card for the Dueling Darlings:

Debbie was the hostess for the Dazzlers and she sent the following in her kit:
Image & Sentiment from Stampin' Up "Loads of Love" - timeless favorite!
Paper: Red Denim and Black & Tan Paisley by Recollections and Cinnamon Stick & Ruby Slipper solid CS by Bazzill.  
Burlap twine and red elastic ribbon by Brother & Sister, and red flat ribbon by Celebrate It.
Adorable buttons by Sew-ology and Dress it Up-Love Potion.

A seriously great kit!

The image is colored with Spectrum Noir markers and the hearts are glittered with clear Spica pens.  I die cut some hearts from the red and brown paper that Debbie sent us.  Since I also have this stamp set I white embossed the Loads of Love sentiment from the set onto the red heart.

Thank you Debbie for a wonderful kit.  Those heart buttons are dang cute!  I'm off now to visit the blogs of the Divas and other Dazzlers to admire their work. Wishing everyone a great week.

January Duel

It's the 15th and that means it's time for the first duel of 2017.  The Dueling Darlings are a group of 2 teams of friends who receive a challenge kit each month.  We create our card and post it on the 15th.

This month's hostess for the Dazzlers Team is Terry and the hostess for the Divas Team is Tami.  

Here's what we Dazzlers received from Terry:
Image and Sentiment: Heartily Yours - GinaK Designs
Paper: Months Stack (hearts) - DCWV, Blush Red - Core'dinations, Black - The Paper Studio
Embellishments: Red Gems, White pearls - The Paper Studio, White paper dots - Candi Dots, White Ribbon - MichaelsNo specified theme - they wanted us to be able to put together a card to use in the near future....so they offered a Valentine's day image. How fun!

Here's my card:

What an adorable well, right?  To get back in the saddle with card making, I flat-out copied our Jeanette and used black CS to layer each panel.  And I copied the layout from one of our Barb's swap return cards for this card.  

However, what's kind of interesting is that I used an older color CS from SU called Pale Plum for the layer under the heart designer paper, and used SU Perfect Plum card stock for the base.  My photography skills probably dont give a true representation but IRL it actually looks nice!

So, here's the card opened up:

The big heart is die cut from the Blush Red stock in the kit, and the ribbon & pearls are also from the kit.  I hand cut the sentiment into a banner and colored it with my Spectrum Noir marker to match the Pale Plum cardstock.

I'm not sure what this type of layout is called, I'll have to look it up, but it wasn't hard thanks to Barb's card as a template!

Thank you, Terry, for such a cute image and fun kit.  It feels great to get back into card making.  Now I'm going to make sure that my blog is updated to show our newer team members and then go and drool over admire their creations! <wink>