Flamingo Birthday

 Today's cards are for Addicted to Stamps (Birthday), Seize the Birthday (Anything Goes) and Shopping Our Stash (Tropical Delights).  I broke out of my usual CAS style today with bright card bases and patterned paper.  It's 12x12 paper that's been kicking around for ages so I was excited to make use of it.  The flamingos are oldies but goodies from Reverse Confetti and I snagged the second sentiment from an MFT set.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, Basic Black) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Margarita 12x12) American Crafts

Stamps:  (Face, legs & sentiment from Fabulous Flamingo) Reverse Confetti, (Sentiment from Tickled Pink) My Favorite Things

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Dies:  (Flamingo) Reverse Confetti, (Speech Bubble) XCut, (Scalloped Rectangle) WPlus9

Other:  (Nuvo English Mustard Crystal Drops) Tonic

You Make My Tail Wag

 I've got a card tonight for three challenges - Colour Hues, Shopping Our Stash (Fur babies) and My Favorite Things (sketch).  This pooch is from an older MFT set and I've not used this particular image before.  I thought he'd fit perfectly peeking out of the circle and leaning over the flag.  This came together pretty quickly given how rarely I've been crafting lately which isn't usually the case so I was pretty chuffed about that!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Pool Party, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (All from You Make My Tail Wag) My Favourite Things

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black, Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko

Dies:  (Essential Circles) Essentials by Ellen, (Flag) My Favourite Things

Markers:  (E33, E35, E37, 100) Copic

Other:  (NuvoNavy Blue Crystal Drops) Tonic

Leaf Blessings

 I haven't played along with the Shopping Our Stash challenge in forever but this time the theme is plant life and I felt inspired.  These leaves are from a Craft's Meow set.  I've had them so long that the company doesn't exist anymore so I think this definitely counts as shopping my stash!  I used an ink smooshing and misting technique to colour the leaves and added an MFT sentiment, some twine and a few Nuvo drops to finish it off.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Watercolour) Ranger, (Basic Black) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (Leaves from Beautiful Spring) The Craft's Meow, (Sentiment from Essential Sentiments) My Favourite Things

Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Cracked Pistachio, Lucky Clover) Ranger

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Twine:  Darice

Other:  (Nuvo Oyster Grey Crystal Drops) Tonic

Neon Birthday

Hi there! I'm popping in to share a card for Sweet Stamp Shop's Use What You Have Challenge and the Shopping Our Stash challenge Embossing Times Two.  I decided to use some of the coloured embossing powders (neon pink and neon green) that have been collecting dust (since I pretty much only use clear and white).  I used stamps from Old Fashioned Afternoon and Drops Background and the Sweet Pieces Snapshot Die.  

I love penny farthings.  There's one in the town across the harbour from me that I've been fascinated by since I was a kid.  I always wanted one but I'll have to be content with a stamped version for now!

September Is Back!

Hello and welcome to a new week!  I've been a bit quiet over the weekend because my brother is home for a visit!  Yay!  He hasn't been to the island in over 3 years and even though we saw him in Chicago at Christmas it's not the same as all of us being back together at the homestead.  :D  I also took advantage of his visit and broke my shopping ban.  Actually I smashed it.  I bought my first Avery Elle, Mama Elephant and Simon Says Stamp stamps.  I also added to my Paper Smooches, Fresh Squeezed Stamps, Sweet Stamp Shop and WPlus9 collections.  It was like Christmas when Phil arrived! 

I broke out some of my new Sweet Stamp Shop stamps for this card so I could play along with 3 challenges. Curtain Call is having a Back to School challenge. The other two challenges are about using your stash.  The Shopping Our Stash challenge theme is School or Office/Workplace. Sweet Stamp Shop has a weekly Use What You Have challenge.  For both of these I dove into my 6x6 paper stash.  I have a pile of random papers from all sorts of collections that I bought from someone last year.  I used them to paper piece my school items - beaker, books and gym shoes!  Hope you've all had a good start to your week and I'll see you tomorrow!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Patterned Paper:  Assorted

Stamps:  (Beaker from Chemistry, Books from Geek Chic, Sneakers from Get Fit, Calendar from Calendar, Letters from Alpha Tabs) Sweet Stamp Shop

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey) Stampin' Up

Strange Stash

** This is my 2nd post for the day.  Please scroll down or click here for my previous post!**

This week Shopping Our Stash has asked us to 'fess up about the strangest or weirdest purchase we have made for the purpose of creating something.  I've got a doozy for this one! Back when I was first just dipping my toe into card making I read an article about being more creative by repurposing things for cards so I bounded off to the Dollar Store and bought this:

Yes, that is in fact an apron and it's made of some weird thin plastic stuff.  Not sure what I was thinking but 6 years later it was still waiting patiently in a drawer for me to put it to use.  So I took the SOS challenge by the horns and introduced that apron to my Cuttlebug. Above you can see the result.  The centres of the flowers are a lilac colour which is why I used this colour scheme but then I covered up the centre with Perfect Pearls so I guess I could make more with different colours.  Perhaps a set of repurposed apron note cards!  Or maybe I should paper piece (or apron piece?) an apron image with this!  Oh the possibilities are endless!  Thanks SOS!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Kraft) Gina K, (Real Red, Wisteria Wonder) Stampin' Up

Stamp:  (Think Big Favourites #6) Papertrey Ink

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Dies:  (Beautiful Blooms II #1) Papertrey Ink

Other:  (Lavender Lace Liquid Pearls) Ranger

Old Paper

My fabulous bloggie buddy Jessi is on the design team for Shopping Our Stash and this week's challenge is to use your oldest patterned paper.  This paper is from a K & Co 12x12 paper pad that I picked up back in 2008.  It's got a couple of little pieces snipped from it here and there but for the most part it's pretty intact!  I thought it would be perfect for the challenge and for the thank you card I needed to make.  I cut the paper with a Nestability, inked the edges with Dried Marigold Distress Ink, added the die cut and sentiment and called it a day for a clean and crisp design.  I've never played along with Shopping Our Stash before but I'm guessing it could be pretty useful for nudging me along to use up all those hoarded bits and pieces.  Hope you all had a lovely weekend!  :) 

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Patterned Paper:  (Que Sera Sera collection) K & Co

Stamp:  (Sentiment from Botanical Silhouettes) Papertrey Ink

Inks:  (Memento Gray Flannel) Tsukineko, (Dried Marigold Distress Ink) Ranger

Dies:  (Fresh Dasies) Simon Says Stamp, (Nestabilities Small Labels) Spellbinders

Gems: (Beetle Black assortment) Doodlebug