My Crafty Weekend

Hello, hello.  This post is going to be heavy on photos and light on the chit chat.  As you will see, I had some BIG FUN in my craft room this week.

First up is a card using some fabulous CASual Fridays stamps gifted to me by Tracey when I went to see her in Canada earlier this month.  They are called Floating, and I don't know how she knew that this stamp set had been on my wish list for so long.  I pulled out my Inktense Water Color pencils for the first time in forever, to color some of the flowers in the challenge color scheme.  I am entering this card at CAS-ual Fridays 198: April Showers bring May Flowers, Calling All Sistahs #12 and Addicted to Stamps and More #289: CAS.

I stamped the Concord &9th floral image while I was at Tracey's and colored it with Copics at home yesterday, and I am entering this next card at Where Creativity Meets C9 #20: Spring.  I am also entering this card at Simon Says Monday: Flower Power.

My next card is inspired by the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #334 and the challenge at CAS on Friday #131: Black, White & Pink.

Next up is a pretty literal interpretation of the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch #269, using the leaves from PTI Meadow Green.  I am also entering this card at Simon Says Wednesday Anything Goes.

This week's Make it Monday #320 is all about Spot Color Die Cut Words, and I used Folk Art Floral and a Happy die for my card.  I won't say anything about this card other than I did my best to use the technique.

I did not have to look far to find a card I wanted to do over for this week's PTI Transformation Tuesday.  It is the card above.  I wanted to try to play around again with die cut words and colors, and came up with something else that I think works better on my next card.

I think that the die cut word I used for the MIM card was too small, and it was getting lost in the busyness of the image.  I played around with the idea, and ended up using Doodlie Do to stamp an all over background pattern, then inlaid a solid die cut word into the pattern, and used a Copic marker to color all of the non-stamped area.  I am much happier with how this second card looks.

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PTI April 2018 Blog Hop

I'm a little late to the party, with my card for this month's PTI Blog Hop.  I actually made my card days ago, but forgot to write up and schedule my post.

I was inspired by the stack of cups and the colors.  I decided to stack bowls instead of cups, and used darker and brighter versions of the colors in the photos, as I am not much for pastels.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the hop.

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CASology Week #297...Active

Hello and happy Tuesday. It's time for another challenge at CASology.   This week, our cue word is ACTIVE.  I think that sometimes, it is nice to encourage a friend to keep at their goals--stay active and move ahead.

Now it's your turn.  How does ACTIVE inspire you?  I hope you play along this week.  Please remember to keep it Clean and Simple.

Please head on over to the CASology blog and gather some inspiration from the design team.

Anna

Bharata

Diedre

Jacquie

Janet

Jen

Joyce (that's me)

Karen

Kevin

Kymona

Melissa

Rachel

Our Sponsor is Uniko Studios

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My Crafty Weekend

Much of my crafty time this week has been spent cleaning, purging and organizing, but I do have a few cards to share.  I have started the process of entering all of my stamps into Evernote.  It's slow going, but also fun to go through my stash to see what I have forgotten all about.

I just had to play along with Muse #262 this week, as the inspiration is this adorable card by my friend Kim--and I was there when she created it with my stamps when we were at Tracey's house.  Such fun.

Kim's Inspiration Card

I was inspired by Kim's classic clean and simple design, her bird and her colors.  I pulled out an old set I had forgotten about--Tweet Talk--for my card.  I am also entering this card at Less is More #369: Bring Something Back.  I brought an old stamp set out of the shadows and onto my desk.

Make it Monday # 319 is all about graffiti street art, and had me getting a little messy (for me).  I sponged and stacked my die cut word, surrounded it by a couple of matching sentiments, and then colored the edge of the die cut stack with a black marker.  Then, I used some black water color ink to create splatters--wherever they fell.  No control.  I do like the final result, and it was good for me to move out of my comfort zone a bit.

I am also entering this card at Seize the Birthday, where the toppings option is Vibrant Colors.

Last up is a card for PTI Transformation Tuesday #5.  I realized that I bought a stamp and die combo a while back, Enclosed Star, and had only used it once.  I decided to redo that card, using the same stamps and die, but a totally different take.  I wanted something brighter and more feminine, and I based my new card on a card Laura Bassen made during the initial launch.  It also gave me a chance to play with some of my new Copic colors I recently got.

Original Card

New Card

That's it for me today.  

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Time Out #107...Reminder...Birthday Wishes

There is still time to play along with our current challenge at Time Out.  Our challenge this time is a theme challenge.  The theme is Spring with the optional twist of making a one layer card.

I used stamps from our sponsor, Uniko called Originally Organic.  This is such a beautiful and delicate stamp set.  I used some of the floral image stamps and used a spotlight coloring technique and happy spring-like colors.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our Design Team and Guest Designer. Our Guest Designer this week is Kimberly, so please stop by her blog to see what she has created for this challenge.  Uniko is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.


This challenge will run another week.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.

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CASology Week #296...Parent

Hello and happy Tuesday. It's time for another challenge at CASology.   This week, our cue word is PARENT.  I am getting ready for Mother's Day, so decided to make a Mother's Day card.   I used a busy patterned background stamp and then cut the center out to make a frame.  That is one way I made sure that there was enough white space to keep my card CAS.

Now it's your turn.  How does PARENT inspire you?  I hope you play along this week.  Please remember to keep it Clean and Simple.

Please head on over to the CASology blog and gather some inspiration from the design team.

Anna

Bharata

Diedre

Jacquie

Janet

Jen

Joyce (that's me)

Karen

Kevin

Kymona

Melissa

Rachel

We are sponsored this week by STAMPlorations.

Our Guest Designer is Rahmat.

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Crafty Friends are the Best (Joyce edition)

I just returned from the most wonderful get-away--spending 5 days in Canada visiting Tracey McNeely with Kim Heggins.  We have been plotting and planning this visit literally for years, and we were all pinching ourselves when it actually happened.

We all met through our blogs and challenges, and have had a FB chat open and going for 6 years.  I have been lucky enough to meet and hang out with Kim a number of times over the years, but this is the first time either of us met Tracey.

Tracey and her wonderful husband hosted us for 5 days, where we crafted, laughed, ate, and even managed to do a little sight seeing.  We pretty much took over her house...We are so lucky that her husband is such a good sport (and grill master, uber driver and host par excellance).

All the snow was very exciting for Kim and I, as we are California gals through and through.  We were lucky enough to see Ardyth twice--once when she drove up to Tracey's house and then again when she hosted us for lunch on our way to the airport.

It was an amazing week.  We are already planning our next Crafty Caper.  Take a look at Tracey's blog and Kim's blog for their write ups of our visit.

And, now, on to the cards.  I made several cards while at Tracey's and also stamped and cut loads of things to work on once I got home.  We each tried to use each other's stamps and dies to create as much as possible using things we didn't have at home.  It's going to take a long time to finish everything I started there, but I do have 2 cards I made for different challenges ending this week.

I made this challenge using some of Tracey's stamps, and I followed the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #332, where Tracey is the Guest Designer.

I also made a card for CAS(E) this Sketch #267, using some PTI stamps and dies that Tracey has but I don't.  I am also entering this card at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge to Add Some Texture.  I added Texture through different layers of die cuts.

Well, I still have a lot to unpack, so that's it for me today.

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