September Duel: It's a Free For All!

It's the 15th of the month and time to post our Monthly Duel cards!  

Terry and I are the hosts for the two teams of the Dueling Darlings, and we chose a "Free For All" theme.  We decided to send out the little freebie stamps that we all receive from time to time. You know, when you receive an order and the vendor includes a little gift?  So everyone received a little stamp and coordinating papers and embellishments.

Here's my card:

I used a cute little cake and sentiment set that came from Taylored Expressions.  It's colored with Spectrum Noir markers and the entire cake and plate are coated with a  clear glitter pen, also by Spectrum Noir.

The top of the banner was punched with a tag punch by Stampin' Up.

Designer papers are all by American Crafts, and so is the ribbon.

Gems are from the Paper Studio.

The papers are cut with a fun die set by Jaded Blossom called "Card Layer 2".

These die sets are made so that multiple coordinating shapes can be cut from a 6x6 piece of paper in one pass!  You may want to check them out here: jadedblossom.com. 

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit the blogs and galleries of the other Dueling Darlings! 

June Duel: Women of Strength!

I'm finally catching up on the Duels!  June was hosted by Jeanette for both teams and she wrote: 

"Knowing that we all face challenges from time to time, I wanted to remind all of us that we are 

Women of Strength"

Here is my card:

Image: Hello Bluebird, "Frosty Mornings"

Sentiment: "Next Level Amazing" by Simon Says/Pink Fresh

Papers: Moxxie Coffee Addict (the circles at the bottom of the card)

Paper Studio Cozy Little Christmas (green polka dot)

Recollections Stocking Stuffer (green striped layer)

The background panel is from Jeanette's stash. 

Ribbons: Ribbon Boutique (brown polka dots) and Sheer Creations (green sheer).

Jeanette made our kits with a special nod to Kelly, our friend and fellow Darling. Green is Kelly's favorite color, and coffee is her favorite beverage. Kelly also uses circles on a lot of her cards, so I tried to do that here!

Jeanette made an extra request: "...post a story or thought that highlights Kelly's strength". Hmm...there are so many over the years... How about a list of words that immediately come to mind when thinking of Kelly?

• Devout
• Family 
• Loving
• Faithful
• Creative
• Compassionate
• Fun!

No doubt that this list could be a LOT longer, and it would all be true!  We are blessed to have Kelly in our lives and I am blessed to have her as a friend.

Crafting Duel (August)

 Hello!

Barb and Lorraine chose "Crafting" as the theme for our August Duel.  I'm on Lorraine's team and she sent us the most wonderful kit.  Sweet papers, adorable die cuts, images and sentiments and a bag full of sequins and gems.

Here's my card:

I tried to use every page of the lovely papers she sent to us. 

Kit Contents:

• Images and Sentiment: "Craft Notes" by Gina K Designs. Sentiment stamped with Primaworks Primrose Pink ink.
• Designer Papers: "Love This", "Bright Ideas" and Cute & Crafty" by Doodlebug Design Inc.
• Ribbon: Offray
• Gems from Lorraine's stash

Lorraine, I am sorry that my card is late. As you said, "Crafting is my hobby, relaxation and escape all rolled into one!"  I couldn't have said it better myself!

Thanks for stopping by

Double Duty-Squared!

On the 22nd of each month a group of friends have a challenge called Double Duty. We have a predetermined stamp company assigned to each month. We are to make two different cards, using the same stamp (or stamp set) from the designated company. 

As another way to double up, at least one item has to be used on both cards. It could be card stock, an embellishment, embossing folder, a stencil, etc.

Since I'm a bit behind on this fun challenge, so this month my Double Duty is squared! That is, I'm posting 4 cards. The current month's DD and the DD from May.

July's Double Duty:
Unity Stamp Co. 

Both cards use the same stamps, same ink colors and same card stock. Both are highlighted with Spectrum Noir's glitter pen.

Stamp Set: Born Again Today by Unity Stamp Company.

Card Stock: Stampin' Up Barely Banana and Cameo Coral.

Designer Paper: "Vanilla Sunshine" paper pack by S E I.

Ink: "Ocean Mist" by Gina K Designs. 

Embellishments: hearts and ribbons are from Stampin' Up. 

May's Double Duty:
Stamping Bella 

Both cards use the same stamps, the same marker colors, the same stencil and the same card stock. Both are highlighted with Diamond Stickles and a clear rhinestone on her belt.

Stamp Set: "Tiny Towne Haley the Super Hero" by Stamping Bella.

Stencil: "Here Comes the Sun" by Taylored Expressions.

Card Stock: Purple and yellow from my stash, possibly Stampin Up.

Ink: Image is stamped with Hero Arts INTENS-ified black. Stenciled yellow is Pineapple by Taylored Expressions & the purple is Plum Punch by Gina K Designs.

Markers: Spectrum Noir.

Please visit the blogs of my team mates and admire their own Double Duty Cards:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol

Thanks for stopping by. Please be kind to a neighbor or a random stranger today!

Dueling Darlings: Christmas in July!

 Tracie and Carol hosted this month's challenge and decided to feature the often overlooked Mrs. Claus.

Here is the front of my card, featuring some of the lovely papers sent in Tracie's kit.

Image: Mrs. Claus Baking Co. by Jaded Blossom.

Designer papers by Authentique Rejoice

Embellishments: 
Doodlebug red doily, miscellaneous sequins and crochet lace.

The image is colored with Spectrum Noir markers and a Spectrum Noir glitter pen highlights her apron, glasses, hair and ribbon. I just HAD to sparkle her hair, because she's a magical person after all!! Here's a close up.

The papers were so pretty that I used more on the inside.

Thank you Tracie for such a fun kit!

Tracie included one of her favorite holiday cookie recipes and asked that we also post a favorite cookie recipe.

After some thought I remembered how much my kids liked Spritz cookies and how my Mom would bake them every Christmas. 

So here's the recipe, although we never decorated our cookies. They are delicious as is!

• 
  
• Spritz Cookies
• 1cup butter, softened
• 1/2cup sugar
• 2 1/4cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4teaspoon salt
• 1egg
• 1teaspoon almond extract 
• Food color & currants, raisins, candies, colored sugar, finely chopped nuts, candied fruit or fruit peel, if desired

• Heat oven to 400°F. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, salt, egg, almond extract and a few drops of food color.
• Here, I refrigerate the dough to make it easier to work with.
• Place dough in cookie press. Form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with currants if desired.
• 
  
  Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. To decorate cookies after baking, use a drop of corn syrup to attach decorations to cookies.

Hot Mess = Success July, 2022

I am determined to get caught up with my card making commitments.  Life has been a little too full the past few weeks, and my amazing friends understand that. However, I don't want to abuse their generous nature!

Today is posting day for our Hot Mess = Success cards! This is the brain child of our dear Kelly. The idea is to create a card while getting messy. 

Way outside of my comfort zone is GLITTER.  To me, it just has messy written all over it.  Inspired by Carol, who has glitter and glitz in her veins, I decided that it was high time to tackle glitter!

Here's my card.

Please overlook the poor attempt to hand cut the brown card stock as a layer behind the glittered medallion.

Card stock is old Stampin' Up stock. The ribbon and gems are from my stash.  All other components are pictured here and can be purchased at Taylored Expressions.  

Stencil: Mandala (a clear favorite of mine)
Glue: Glitter Grab 
Glitter: Cookie Monster

I used Scrapbook.com's "All Purpose Craft Scraper" to apply the glue over the stencil.  It takes some practice since it is different than applying other mediums.  Then I removed the stencil, popping it immediately into warm soapy water.  Holding my breath (literally) I shook out the glitter, patted it gently into the glue and WALKED AWAY. Hahahaha.  Returning later to shake off the excess.  Then walked away again for several hours before attempting to brush off stray glitter.

Then I hand cut the edges and really wanted the dark brown accent behind it. Not satisfied with any choice of die cut panels I hand cut the border. Now I wish I would have just used a die cut shape. Oh well.

Will I try the other fantastic colors of glitter from Taylored Expressions?  You bet!! Will I use Glitter Grab? Yep! 

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!

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!