Trust your crazy ideas

 Today's inspiration was color. A call for pastels, popsicle colors and a wonderful mood board formed the starting point to which I wanted to the prompt 'up' and make it a card for a friend. Who doesn't need a friendly nudge or encouragement in the form of a card once in a while.

My supplies were very simple: a shiny new die set, a gelli print and a pastel colored paper pack.

 

I started by die cutting the shapes. This is my first die set which requires serious assembly. I think I am not made for it, I can spot several boo-boos, but I can only hope my friend doesn't see them.

The sentiment came from TH Chit-chat booklet. I combined two partial saying to a (for her) fitting whole.

 

Entering this in these great challenges that served me well today:

Just Us Girls: #832 Mood board week 

 

Shopping Our Stash: #578 Popsicle colors 

 

Tic-Tac-Toe: #279  I used the row "Friendship- Any color - Any shape die"

 

Addicted to CAS: #312 Code word Up 

 

Just Add Ink: #790 Dies, stencils (or both) - I used both if you count the mini strip of gelli print at the bottom.

 

You can do it!

Today's inspiration was actually the word 'stars'. There is a challenge going with that prompt, but that requires an embossing folder and I couldn't do that because of the stamping and die cutting I had in mind. But let's keep the word 'stars' in mind and add a few challenges to that. 

I wanted to make an encouragement card for a child. I have this wonderful stamp set with whimsical animals. The top hat of the rabbit boy(?) offered a great place to die cut a starburst. It is a stamp which actually mostly perforates the image. To make the cut out look like stars I adhered a piece of yellow gelli print behind it. I also die cut and colored a few stars. The rabbit was also colored in with pencils. The sentiment reads: "You can do it!"

 

I am entering this in these challenges that I followed:

 Sparkles Monthly: #202 A kid's card

Sweet Stamping: For the children

Moving along with times: #191 Use a coloring medium

Cut it Up:  #360 Create your own background - I'd like to think the perforation with gelli print behind and stars on top of it is creating a background

A Perfect Time to Craft: July, open challenge 

When life gives your cherries...

 ... there is really nothing to complain. It's my favorite of seasonal fruit. And this of course means that I make a cherry card at least once a year.

My supplies were ink heavy and paper poor. In the beginning I didn't have my greens and browns out yet. It's a layering stamp, I stamped the first layer with oxides and the defining layer with Versafine. 

 

The pink background was made from an assembly instruction for flat-pack furniture which I brayered with pink acrylic and cut to size. As the text was still rather visible I stamped over it with an argyle style stamp to confuse the eye.

The cherries were fussy cut. As they looked rather forlorn I rummaged through my stash and found a cut-up doily which still hat a piece left. It serendipitously fit just perfectly under the cherries to bring them some depth. The sentiment reads 'Happy birthday'.

 

 

I am entering this in these wonderful challenges that inspired me today:

Double D: #dd7/26 Favorite fruit 

 

Snippets Playground: #536 AG with snippets 

We Love Stamping: Summertime

Little Red Wagon: #867 P is for Pink 

 

Green and yellow friendship

 I had so much fun with paints today. I don't play with them often enough. I made an enjoyable mess which resulted in just one print, though, because of time restraints.

Today I gathered some nice inspiration: a friendship card in a color scheme of green and yellow using a stencil, fitted in a layout prompt. I used greens and lemon yellow for my background paper. 

I then cut the panel according to the sketch. The result looked minimal which was not quite the look I had in mind. I rummaged through my ready stash envelope and found a large lacy circle that I had cut for a project that never happened. It was yellow and it fitted nicely behind the green triangle. The flowers were left white.

 

 

Entering this in these challenges that served me as guidance today:

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Fun with paint

Creative Color Girlz: #25 Geel en/of groen (yellow and/or green) 

Allsorts: #853 Stencils 

Cardz 4 Galz: #280 For a friend / Friendship 

TSOT: #699 Two sketches - I chose to work with sketch #1, but made a teeny tiny addition to it after turning it around... 

 

Birthday bouquet

 I haven't done flowers for a while - or so it seems. Actually, the last couple have included flowers, but they weren't the focal point, just a supporting character. Today I went full in with a new old stamp set - one I bought two years ago and haven't broken it out yet.

These were the supplies. I am making a further small dent into my sizable card stock hoard. I found an exact match for a challenge inspiration photo. (Such a lovely color combo, btw!) Also on the table my Gansai Tambi watercolors and a background die. 

 

I started with cutting the top half of an arch with the die, then added a straight piece underneath. I stamped the wildflower bouquet and clear embossed it for easier water coloring. Afterwards I fussy cut it out and placed it into the arch. It is raised with foam adhesive strips. The sentiment reads "More wonderful with each passing year".

 

I am entering this in the following challenges that were my inspiration today:

Sunday Stamps: #ssc390 Garden grandeur 

 

Alphabet challenge: F is for festivities - my card is for a birthday 

Simon Says Wednesday challenge: Fabulous Florals 

We Love 2 Create: #7 open challenge 

Creative Artiste Mixed Media: #128 Anything mixed media 

Enjoy your day

For today's card I let myself be inspired by several challenges. I thought the combination of flowers, butterflies, music and a sketch would be a good one to try, especially as I was asked to present a GD project @ Ellibelle's I Spy With my Little Eye - challenge. Please head over and join the fun!

So I pulled out  the supplies I thought I would need: a stamp with both a butterfly and flowers (Stampendous), a die set with a frame, butterfly and flowers (Studio Light) and some sheet music together with Oxides and Gansai Tambi watercolors. I stamped the background with Oxide ink on a wet background and saw the image almost dissolving. The color is just enough for a background, the flowers are still visible, but they don't take the center stage. (The butterfly was unfortunately covered but subsequent layering.)

I then applied water color on the die cut flowers and butterflies. I set the sheet music as a background for the frame. The sentiment reads: Enjoy the day.

 

I am entering this in the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches: #744 

 

Sisterhood of Crafters: July / Flowers

 

Little Red Wagon: #866 The piano man

Ellibelle's Garden Party: # 17 Anything in / from a garden

I Spy with my little eye: #39 ... something with wings

 

Seeing the positive

 Today I chose to 'follow a lead', in other words take inspiration from a card posted for that purpose. I lament that all 'CASE' challenges seem to have disappeared. When they were active I was too new to card making to participate, but now I find the idea fun.

But I digress. I decided to keep the layout,  but build my own scene. I found a lovely sentiment in a stamp set that also gave me the idea for the scene. In the end I settled for my beloved cute cat stamps and small cloud+raindrop dies. 

The background was a simple three color blend. I had created a mask to protect the stamping which allowed me not to worry about getting color on the cat. I die cut the cloud and rain drops from colored papers and backed them with card stock so they would have some heft. I also added some Wink of Stella onto the rain drops and lined the cloud with it.

 

I am entering this in these lovely challenges:

AAA cards: #318 Follow my lead 

 

A Cut Above: July AG / 2 year anniversary challenge 

 

Cut it Up: #360 Create your own background 

Polkadoodles: #7 AG 

Gem of a Challenge: AG 

 

 

A summery thank-you

 Today's inspiration came from a list of ingredients, a photo, a layout and a recipe. In my mind they would play well with each other.

The ingredients were simple: a die, a sentiment stamp, pink and yellow gelli printed papers and vellum.

 

The making was anything but. I haven't used these floral circles a lot and now I remember why: they are overly fiddly to release and then glue on. For the layout background vellum seemed like an obvious choice as I wanted to keep this clean. The sentiment was stamped and embossed on vellum. Then I surrounded the sentiment with small diamonds for glitter. The sentiment reads "Thank you".

I am entering this in the following challenges that were my inspiration today:

Festive Friday: #FF0213 World emoji day - I used yellow, glossy embellishment and circles from the list

TGIF: #585 Sketch challenge

 

Inkspirational: #371 Photo inspiration

 

CAS on Friday: #338 Use dies and only word stamps 

 

Roses for birthday

 Today's inspirations lead me towards a birthday card. Always seem to be needing those!

The main supplies were a stamp of a layered rose and a die set for decorative lanterns. I have had both for years, but have seldom found use for them. The auxiliary supplies were designer paper, a pad of ready cut lattice designs and inks. I toyed with the idea of adding an arch via Spellbinders oval dies, but in the end didn't find it necessary.

 

I adhered the lattice on top of the designer paper, cut two lanterns out of the other two, stamped and fussy cut two roses and stamped the sentiment ('Happy birthday') and assembled the card.

 

I am entering this into these challenges that were my guiding light today:

Altenew: July 2026 inspiration challenge 

 

Daisy Chain: #109 Birthday 

GCFAOS: #23 Gebruik designpapier (Use designer paper)

The Neglected Stuff: July challenge 

 

Merry Christmas to 'ewe'

 Today's inspiration came from many sources: a sketch, prompts for Christmas in July and animals. And my new sheep (ewe) stamp. 

 

I gathered the supplies, having the vague idea of using the stars and the designer paper in my card. I later ditched that idea and settled for the baubles instead. I fell in love with this ewe stamp, it lends itself to marker coloring really well.

 

I am entering this card in the following challenges that were my inspiration:

 CAS Colours and Sketches: #589 Sketch

 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Four-legged friends

Passion for Markers: #845 Animals 

Crafty Chicks: #828 Christmas 

 

Sweet Stamping: Christmas in July