Double Duty Cards Featuring Pinkfresh Studios

I am a day late in posting this, but on the 22nd of each month a group of us challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards using the same set, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go!

Stamps by Pinkfresh Studios (one of our favorite companies!) were selected for this month's challenge. I decided to a set that we received from one of their virtual events,  "Pure Joy" stamps, stencils and dies.  A personal favorite of mine.

Here are the two cards that I made. 

This card was watercolored with Yasutomo pearlescent paints on a bright blue card stock. I do not know the origin of the card stock, but it's been in my stash a long time.

The border features a die from the "Rounded and Braided Rectangles" set by Pinkfresh Studios.

The images and sentiment are gold embossed. Then the images were  painted free hand.  Everything is popped up for dimension.  A sheet of glossy gold card stock is layered on the reverse side of the front panel.

The second card is ink blended using the stencils and a combination of inks from Taylored Expressions and Gina K Designs. A light amount of pink ink was blended onto the front panel of the card, and the sentiment is stamped directly onto the panel.

A layer of pink card stock is mounted inside the card, onto the back panel so that when the card is closed the pink shows through the die cut border.

Repeated on each card are the die cut images, the border dies, the round layout of the images, and the sentiments from the same stamp set.

I have to revisit this set again and experiment with the images and sentiments in a layout that isn't circular. That could be fun.

Please drop by the blogs of the other Double Duty members and comment on their work:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol 

Creative Crew: Brutus Monroe's "Gingerbread House-Peppermint Lane"

Here we are, the 15th of the month and time for another round of the Creative Crew Challenge!  

Our hostess this month is Lovely Lorraine and she gave us the adorable Ginger Bread Houses by Brutus Monroe:

Papers: Lily White Sugar Coated by Doodlebug Designs and the blue & white star paper from "Let's Go Camping" by Echo Park.

Images are colored with Olo Markers and Pops of Color "Snowflake" was used along the roof line and on top of the chimney.

I hand cut the Sugar Coated card stock into hills, glued the back layer flat and used thick foam tape to give some dimension to the front hillside. The gingerbread houses were then attached, using glue and foam tape, as needed for the dimension.

The inside features the other designer papers from Lorraine: "Homemade Holidays-Sweets" by Colorplay.

The sentiment is by Darcie's and is ink blended with Cherry Pop ink by Taylored Expressions.  It's mounted on top of the reverse side of the paper from Colorplay.

Thank you, Lorraine for a fantastic set of papers and images!! This was such a treat to work with!  

Here are the links to the other Creative Crew members blogs and galleries. Be sure to visit and admire their creations.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie 

October's Hot Mess = Success

Back to my Astro Pastes by Simon Hurley! I never cared for working with glitter until this medium came along. They are so fun!

This card is a black base with Hero Art's "Swirl" stencil and three colors of Astro Paste applied with the wide spatula tool. Colors used are Later Gator, Bee Sting and Slippery When Wet.

Excess pastes were applied to a scrap of black card stock and the "Be Kind" sentiment was die cut from that. It's glued to a black shadow piece and popped up with foam onto the center of the panel.  The Be Kind die set is by Altenew.

The whole panel is foam mounted onto a white card base.

Just look at that texture and shine! What still amazes me is how the glitter stays put. You can't rub it off, zero shedding!

"Be Kind" and visit the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

Double Duty Cards Featuring Gina K Designs

On the 22nd of each month a group of us challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards repeating the same image, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go!

Stamps by Gina K Designs (one of our favorite companies!) were selected for this month's challenge. I decided to crack open my unused 2022 kit,  "Joyful Holiday" stamps and dies.  It was definitely time to let it see some ink.

Here are the two cards that I made. 

Both were made with the "Playful Penguins" stamp set and dies included in the kit.

This card also used the star stamp from the "Star Struck" set which is part of the kit.

The white panel was blended with "Confetti Cake" ink by Taylored Expressions and the stars were gold embossed.  The images were colored with Olo Markers.

The second card is made with images that are all in the "Playful Penguins" set.  The panel and base of the card was ink blended using "Strawberry Milkshake" ink by Taylored Expressions.  

There certainly is a lot of product in this kit. I should get a jump start on making Christmas and winter greeting cards using it.

Please visit the blogs of the other Double Duty members and comment on their work:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol 

Creative Crew Featuring Newton's Nook

Barb is our hostess this month and she sent us adorable images from the "Happy Howl-oween" set by Newton's Nook.

Her kit also included designer papers by Echo Park Paper and Around the Block.  They all were so cute that I found a way to use all of them.

The sentiment and image has been colored with Olo Markers. Stickles added bling to the pumpkin costume, hat and corners of the sentiment square.

The cute candy corn ribbon completed the whole look.

A big shout out to Barb for such a cute kit!   Here are the links to the other Creative Crew members blogs and galleries. Be sure to visit and admire their creations.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie

September Hot Mess = Success

On the 12th of each month a group of friends challenge ourselves to get messy.  It doesn't matter how we define messy, or what we create.  As long as the process meets our definition of messy!

Lately I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with Lunar, Solar and Astro Pastes by Simon Hurley.  So this month, I set out to use some Solar Pastes with a stencil and see if I could get a jump on my Christmas cards.

These are the two cards that I came up with.

Both card stocks are from a pack of my favorites for holiday cards.  It's by Recollections and is at least 15 years old.  Unfortunately I don't know the name of the pack, but it has this beautiful plum color, an evergreen color, the dark blue and a beautiful Christmas red in the pack.

This card was made with the Cross My Heart color of Solar Paste, applied with a foam dauber tool.

This card was created by sponging on Golden Hour and Beluga Solar Pastes.

Both card bases were edged with matching Solar Paste to accent the panel.  Both panels are popped up with foam.

The stencil is called "Graceful Snowflake" by Gina K Designs.  The sentiment strips and die are also by Gina K Designs and all of these were part of her kit in the October, 2022 Crop & Create Delivered virtual event held by Scrapbook and Cards Today.

I used my finger and rubbed the Solar Paste onto a scrap of card stock as shown here.  When it was dry, which only took about 5 minutes, I die cut the "holidays" sentiment for the card front.

I think that the next time I try this technique, I'll do something different for the die cut sentiment so that it has more contrast. It sort of fades into the base of the cards in these versions.

Lessons learned: 

• Don't try this type of stencil with a regular scraping or spatula tool that you can use with these pastes.  
• Be careful not to overload the dauber with the paste. With this stencil it was easy to get the paste squished underneath the designs.
• Wash out your foam topper on the dauber right away so it's good to go for other cards.

Stop by the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

Catch Up Cards with Spellbinders

It's the last day of the month, and time for some Catch Up cards. A few of us  dedicated the last day of the month as our Catch Up day.  We pick any unfinished kit, event, class, etc from the past and complete it, posting our project on the last day of the month. I decided to dive into the most recent Let's Stamp Together kit.  The live class was held back in July, and the featured company was Spellbinders.  

Here are the cards from the class:

These cards are designed by Spellbinders.

The Stencils, stamps and dies are by Spellbinders and are called Jump for Joy.

The first card caught me off guard since it didn't use any of the die cutting homework and the colors were not noted anywhere (unless I missed it).  Good thing there's a pause button on the replay!

The instructions were to use modeling paste and glitter for the flower, Lily pad and swirls on the pond.

I opted for 2 colors of Astro Paste by Simon Hurley: Frostbite and Tropical Tango. I applied with a spatula over the stencil.  After cleaning up the stencil and spatula, a heat gun was used to speed up drying time. 

Blending brushes were used to color the leaves and flowers. The second stencil was used to add the background leaves and cat tails.

I painted on some light blue stickles for the pond water.

The next two cards used the die cuts from our homework.

This card has a blended cloud background created by using one of the dies in the kit and making a mask.

The gold cardstock on the bottom was free hand cut.  Each sunflower, leaves and the frog have light ink blending for some added shade.

The second card used the die to cut the top of both the front and back panels of the card base.  The sentiments were curved to fit the scallops.

There's a stamp in the kit for clouds, but since my mask from the second card already had blue on it I decided to cut it into cloud shapes and use that.

The grassy hill is ink blended, again using a piece cut with the die to create a mask.

I really like the mushrooms, cone flowers and frogs in this kit. I admit, when I saw all of the die cutting and piecing together, I almost quit. For me, that is intimidating. But now I'm glad that I stuck with it. 

Here are the links for my friends in the Catch Up Club.  Please visit their blogs and admire their work from some past project or class.

Barb's Inkin' to Retirement

It's Totally Terry

Cre8tive Play: It's Cheaper than Therapy

The Stamp Market for Double Duty in August

On the 22nd of each month a group of us challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards repeating the same image, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go!

The company chosen for August is The Stamp Market.  I dug out the set called "A Bit of Everything" stamps and dies.  I just used the dies for this challenge and here are my cards:

The hearts were all cut from a panel made
earlier this month with a mixture of Simon Hurley's Astro Pastes. 
The top panel shown to the right 👉

Things doubled on each card include:

• Green base card stock
• Black panel embossed with the Diamond Cover Plate by Scrapbook and Cards Today and sprayed with Stardust Finishing Spray by A Muse Studio
• Die cuts from a panel created by spreading Astro Pastes onto black card stock
• Green gems by Pinkfresh Studio

I hope that you like these two cards. It was fun to take a kit that I received back in 2021 and use recent items (the Diamond cover plate and Astro Pastes) to create something different.

Please visit the blogs of the other Double Duty members:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol 

Summertime Grillin' with the Creative Crew

It's August 15th and we've had quite a hot summer this year.  Perfect grilling weather!  

Our hostess this month is Jeanette and she offered us this adorable image by CC Designs called "BBQ".  

The main image is colored with Olo Markers.  The background was created by pouncing the small, flat-topped blending brushes, which creates the mottled look.  To me, this looks more like grass, sand and sky.

The card base is Stampin Up's Old Olive and the main panel is a sunburst pattern from the "Hot Tropics" paper pack by Honey Bee Stamps. 

The gingham and barbecue papers were supplied by Jeanette and it is "Camping Cookout" by Reminisce.

The cute little puffy smilies were left over from a past kit, which I think may have come from Tracie.

Jeanette asked us to share something that we like to grill.  That's tough for me to choose since I LOVE grilling!  I like to grill almost everything - beef, pork, poultry,  fish and other seafood, vegetables, breads and even fruit!  I must admit that salmon and shrimp are right at the top of the list, along with peaches and pineapple.

Thanks Jeanette for giving us such a perfect challenge for August!  Here are the links to the other Creative Crew members blogs and galleries. Be sure to visit and admire their creations.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie

Hot Mess Definitely = Success With Astro Paste™

Here it is, the 12th of August and it's time for another Hot Mess=Success card! 

Lately I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with Lunar and Solar Pastes by Simon Hurley.  When his Astro Pastes™ came out, I didn't hesitate to get some in my hot little hands, haha.

I went with an Easel card made with the Astro Pastes: 

Astro Paste Colors:

• Bee Sting
• Later Gator
• Clear Skies

The stencil is Mini Slim Polka Dot by Taylored Expressions.

The sentiment is also by Taylored Expressions from the "Sentiment Staples" set.  It is embossed with Black Sparkle by Ranger.

Here's a look at the dotted panel when it's wet, right after the stencil has been lifted off. 

I had a lot of paste left over on my spatula so I grabbed an extra black panel and just swiped it across, laying on a rather thick layer.

This took a couple of hours to dry since it was such a thick layer.  Below you can see how both panels look once they dry.

I'll be using that second panel for other cards. It's a nice combination of each of the pastes and VERY sparkly!

Here is a close up to show the big sparkle that the Astro Paste gives you.

Astro Pastes are really fun to play with. One important quality is that the glitter stays put! It absolutely does not rub off.  Very nice!

Be sure to stop by the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol  

July Creative Crew Challenge: National Get Out of the Doghouse Day!

Today is the 15th and that means it is time for another Creative Crew Challenge.  Jeanette is our hostess this round and she discovered that the 15th is National Get Out of the Doghouse Day.  That's a new one for me 😆

Our challenge is to have a dog or another pet on our card, and include a dog house if we want.

I don't have many options for dog stamps, but did receive a Gus & Gertie stamp in my registration packet at Taylored Expression's Virtual Stamp Joy held last March.

This image warms my heart, because my daughter was quite an accomplished skate boarder. So, I think she would really like this image.

The background is blended with two inks, "Sprinkles" for the sky and "Granny Smith" for the grass.  Both of the inks are also by Taylored Expressions.  The stencils are by My Favorite Things: "Grassy Edges" and "Mini Cloud Edges".

Gertie and the skateboard are colored with Olo Markers.  The sentiment is also by Taylored Expressions and was part of the Virtual Stamp Joy package.

Thanks Jeanette for a fun and unique challenge this month! 

Drop by the rest of the Creative Crew to see their work. Links to their Blogs and Galleries are listed below.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie

July's Hot Mess = Success

Hot Mess = Success Day is the 12th, and I am a day late to post. Every month a group of friends challenge ourselves to get messy. We can do any sort of card or technique, as long as it meets our personal definition of getting messy.

I like to do this monthly challenge because otherwise I would avoid messy mediums and techniques. This stretches me and gradually increases my skills.  

Last month I played with Simon Hurley's Lunar Pastes and this month I tried his Solar Pastes.

Here is my card. 

All of it was done with three colors of Simon Hurley's Solar Pastes:
Golden Hour (gold)
Beluga (Blue)
Royal Flush (Purple)

These pastes are AMAZING! They apply so easily, very creamy. I also like how the colors vary when applied on black or white card stock.

I followed Simon's technique and put a blob of each color at the top of the black card stock.  Then I took the scraper and dragged the paste down the paper, over the stencil.  

The stencil is also by Simon Hurley and it's called "Deco Diamonds".

Using my finger I applied the same Solar Pastes to black card stock and cut the Be Kind sentiment and the oval.  The Be Kind dies are from Altenew.

The oval is popped up off the card front.  

I had so much fun with these Solar Pastes that I've already started my Hot Mess for August!

Be sure to stop by the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

June's Catch Up Cards

Here it is, the last day of the month, and time for some Catch Up cards. A few of us were talking about our various virtual events and card making classes and our need to catch up.  So we dedicated the last day of the month as our Catch Up day.  We pick any unfinished kit, event, class, etc from the past and complete it, posting our project on the last day of the month.

Here are my cards for June:

These are from my subscription to Let's Stamp Together by Scrapbook and Cards Today. A kit comes every other month, each designed by a different company. An online class led by the company or designer is provided.

This kit is by Gina K Designs.  The kit included two stencils, dies and stamps and is called "Sending You a Squeeze".  I really like how bright and cheerful these are.

Gina led us through a great process where we made a template to use in a stamping platform, making all of the fruit at once.  This makes generating the cards easy and quick!

This one has a slight blend on the background panel using one of the stencils and light gray ink.

The sentiment is stamped directly onto the panel over the top of the stenciled design.

This card also has light blended gray using the other stencil in the kit.  

I like Gina's style with cards. She uses black so well to create crisp clean lines and highlight the other colors.

For the last card we created our own background panel by randomly stamping the cherries.  

I love going back to our beginnings in stamping. 20+ years ago, there was very little in the way of specialty papers, embossing folders, etc.  Randomly stamping smaller images was how we created a background.

All in all, these are a great set of cards for summer gifting.  They're going in the mail soon. Keeping my personal goal of sending cards to friends and family.

Here are the links for my friends in the Catch Up Club.  Please visit their blogs and admire their work from some past project or class.

Barb's Inkin' to Retirement

It's Totally Terry

Cre8tive Play: It's Cheaper than Therapy