A day at the beach

Here is a card for the Cornish Heritage Farms' Lighthouse/Beach theme challenge. http://www.cornishheritagefarms.blogspot.com/2013/07/its-challenge-time.html

 

 

 

I used the Cheesecloth background stamp, the shell from the Sara England Emerging Crab set, and "Simplify" from the Rummage Bin Primitive Beginnings set. All the stamps are CHF. It was a fun challenge.                                                                                                                 

Fork over the cake!

It has been a while since I last did one of the Sunday sketch challenges from the Star and Stamps blog. This is from their sketch #179 challenge. http://operationwritehome.org/sketch-challenge-179/

How fun is this bear and girl image from Birdie Brown's digital images on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop/BirdieBrown  I added the text before printing the black and white image.
Used Prismacolor pencils in yummy brown and pink. Pulled out one of my earliest dies from Cuttlebug for the 'mod' flowers and raided my old packets of gold sequins. It was a fun project.

I bought a new toy, a floral heart die from Impression Obsession. This just happens to fit in with their current challenge- "blooming where they're planted". http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/ This is my first time trying one of their challenges and I hope I got it right.

 

The idea of using die cuts as a stencil occurred to me when planning my card. I did that by cutting the floral hearts from Reynolds Freezer Wrap which is plain paper on one side and plastic on the other. Once cut I ironed the die cuts onto the white cardstock and sponged on Distress inks. The wrap needs to be rewarmed with the iron in order to peal it back off. The focal heart is one of the stencils adhered to a cut green heart and embellished with punched hearts, Viva Pearl Pen, and sequins. The printed ribbon tied it all together.

Michael's Sept. challenge

Michael Strong's challenge to the enjoyMichaelStrongStamps yahoo list:

Our card making challenge is a little different this month. There is an old standard called "September Song" composed by Kurt Weill in 1938. It's a wistful almost sad song. Here are the words:

"Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December But the days grow short when you reach September When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few September, November And these few precious days I'll spend with you These precious days I'll spend with you"

 

Your challenge this month is to express any part of this song in a visual composition. It's you choice, pick any part of the song for your inspiration. Colors and images are also up to you. It is not necessary to use a MSRS. "

The stamped oval image is one of Michael's stamps. The rest are die cuts and punches with Distress inks and copper embossed dots for texture and color.

Lynda's Gold & Sparkle card

In the enjoyMichaelStrongstamps Yahoo list we are doing a mingle. the challenge was to make the card with gold and sparkle and a Michael Strong stamp. It has been years since I last did one and this has been a blast. Lynda sent me this amazing card! She created this beautiful painted paper with some sort of mica powder and gold paint on a black background. If you have tried to photograph metallics and sparkle you already know I was not capable to capturing how this really looks. Still here is the best I could mange.

Inside the card were these die cut butterflies made with the painted papers and a panel with Michael Strong's heart stamp (small version) as the focal point.

Closer versions of the butterflies and the panel.

Michael Strong's May challenge

This month Michael gave us a digital image to use on our card and the challenge to use only black, gray and white. The red is just a paper on which I photographed the card for some contrast. The digital image is the central rectangular image on the card. You can find it here- http://strongstamps.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-card-making-challenge.html I added some Spellbinders die cut circles, the sentiment Spellbinders ovals and the Sizzix heart eyelets. There are clear gems for bling. The sentiment is a Cornish Heritage Farms stamp. The gray printed paper circles are cut from envelope liners. I do love using those!

Simple and masculine

This is my sketch card for May's enjoyMichaelStrongStamps group. My Easter card was selected for April's home page image and included with the honor was a new Michael Strong stamp, his Cloisonné Fleur De Lis set. I used the smaller of the stamps as the focal image on this card. Love how classic the image is! The printed background papers are actually wallpaper samples. They have just the right look to go with Michael's stamp.