Guest Designer Time Out #239...Thank You

 

Hello and welcome to my sadly ignored blog.  I have been doing lots of crafting lately, posting occasionally on Instagram, and not doing much with this dear old blog.  Happily, I am here today because I have the honor of being the Guest Designer at Time Out this week.  I get to play along with my friends and colleagues on the Design Team plus all the talented new DT members who joined after I left.  

We are challenged to make a card inspired by this photo:

Here is a bigger picture:

I was inspired by the bottles on the tray, and pulled out a Greetery set I haven't used in a long time called Bottled Up.  I stamped and cut out each of the two bottles in various colors, added texture to two different card fronts, and then played around with them until I had two cards I liked.

Color scheme one...

And color scheme two...

And, here they are together.  

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Guest Designer...Poppystamps

Hello and happy March.  I am posting on my blog for the first time in a long time.  It may seem like I haven't been crafting, but nothing could be further from the truth.  I've been crafting--just not posting.  Call me lazy, and you would be correct.  I am posting occasionally on Instagram--so much quicker and easier.

This is an exciting post for me, however.  I am joining you today as the Guest Designer for Poppystamps in March.  The challenge this month is "Die Cuts Only" and I pulled out a few different Poppystamps dies to create this card.

The dies I used are:  Thank You Background, Pine Twig, Whittle Fox, Whittle Moose and Whittle Squirrel.  I wanted a masculine look for my card, so went with kraft and some other rich fall colors.

While I was fiddling around, I made another version of this card using a completely different color scheme.  Hard to imagine that it is the same main die cut.  This card says 'spring' to me.

I hope that you will pull out some dies and join us for the March Poppystamps challenge.

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Time Out #228...Winter/Holiday Season

On a personal note, this will be my last post as a member of the Design Team at Time Out.  I have been on the team since 2015--I started on Challenge #58, and am ending on Challenge #228.  I cannot believe it has been 8 years.  I would like to say a big thank you to Sandie and Nonni for bringing me on to the team all those years ago.  I am grateful to my teammates at Time Out, our sponsors, as well as all the talented card makers that have played with us over the years.  You are all a constant source of inspiration.  I'll see you all around blogland (and perhaps even Instagram), and hope to become a regular participant here at Time Out, my favorite challenge.

It is time for a new challenge at Time Out.  This time it is a theme challenge, and our theme is:

Winter/Holiday Season

I used this very fun Main Street Christmas stamp set from our sponsor, Newton's Nook.  

Where will this challenge take you?  We would love to see you make a card inspired by our theme.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer, Sue Symens and the Time Out Design Team.  Newton's Nook is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.

This challenge will run for 2 weeks.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

Time Out #227...Running Stitch Design

 

It is time for a new challenge at Time Out.  This may be my most favorite challenge of the year because take a look at our inspiration!  This adorable bag is both our inspiration and our prize, and it is hand made by our own Time Out DT member, Kim Heggins.  Check out Kim's Etsy Shop, RunningStitchDesign.  It is full of beautiful, hand made gift items.

The inspiration for my card came from those adorable dogs in their fall sweaters.  It doesn't get any cuter than dogs in sweaters.  Take a look at my dog in his sweater.

Where will this challenge take you?  We would love to see how you are inspired by Kim's adorable prize.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer and the Time Out Design Team.  RunningStitchDesign is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.


This challenge will run for 2 weeks.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

Time Out #226...A Good Head

 

It is time for a new challenge at Time Out.   We have a quote to inspire you today:

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." by Nelson Mandela

I was inspired by the word 'heart' in our quote, and decided to make an encouragement card.  I just love this sentiment, and find it is so very wise.  I used stamps and a stencil from our sponsor, Stamplorations, called All Your Heart and Old Rose Prints.

After doing my stenciling and then stamping, I decided my card needed a bit more interest.  I die cut a square from the center of the front panel, layered it up, and then inlaid it back into the card front.

Where will this challenge take you?  We would love to see how you are inspired by Nelson Mandela's inspiring words.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer, and the Time Out Design Team.  Stamplorations is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.


This challenge will run for 2 weeks.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

Time Out #225...Thankful

 

It is time for a new challenge at Time Out.  This is a theme challenge, and our theme is:

THANKFUL

I used a stamp set from our sponsor, Lawn Fawn called Simply Celebrate Critters, and created this row of bunnies looking over a brick wall.  They are all saying thank you in some form, and all the little sentiments fit perfectly into the speech bubbles.

I added a bit of grass in front of the brick wall to add some color and interest.

Where will this challenge take you?  We would love to see how you interpret the word 'thankful'.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer, Deepti Aggarwal, and the Time Out Design Team. Lawn Fawn is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.

This challenge will run for 2 weeks.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

Retro Rubber #193...Guest Designer...Happy Birthday

 

Today I am so happy to be playing along with one of my favorite challenges, Retro Rubber, as their Guest Designer.  I love this challenge because it reminds me to look through my stash for some older stamps I may have forgotten about.

Because I am guest designer, I decided to pick one of the oldest of my oldies....PTI Dot Spot.  This set is so old that it is in a CD case.  I'm thinking more than 10 years.  I pulled out out and was reminded all over again about why I love this stamp set so much.  I did a bit of inlaid die cutting, an old technique that I haven't used in quite a while.

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Time Out #224...Cancer Awareness/Encouragement/Friendship

It is time for a new challenge at Time Out.  This time it is a theme challenge:

Cancer Awareness/Encouragement/Friendship

We challenge you to create an encouragement and/or friendship card! This is our cancer awareness challenge and we want to recognize all those who have struggled and fought through a cancer battle, and to pay homage to those whose journey has led them out of this world. 

 

We want to give a special shout out to our friend Shery at STAMPlorations. She has been fighting a cancer battle this year and she has been heavy on our hearts here at Time Out. Thank you Shery for all the years of support and creativity.  We stand with you as you walk through this journey.

Unfortunately, the CAS-ual Fridays online store has closed down. However, we still have a prize package from CAS-ual Fridays that will be sent to the winner of this challenge!

 

We want to take a moment and thank Michele, owner and designer of CAS-ual Fridays, for all of the creativity that she has brought to so many over the years. We also want to thank her for the strong support of Time Out. Your shop and journey has been an inspiration to us!

Now, on to my card:

I decided to focus on the Encouragement/Friendship portion of the challenge.  I pulled out the Cup Refills set from our sponsor, CAS-ual Fridays stamp to create this clean and simple card.   It is almost completely one layered, as the only thing I did to the card front was cut out and pop up the lid on the coffee cup.

Where will this challenge take you?  We would love to see how you are inspired by this challenge.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer, Elizabeth Stewart , and the Time Out Design Team.  CAS-ual Fridays is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.


This challenge will run for 2 weeks.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

Guest Designer...CAS on Friday #241

 

Hello and happy Friday.  I am so pleased to be playing along with CAS on Friday as Guest Designer when this card of mine was chosen as the winner of a recent challenge.  The theme of this challenge is 'STARS', so I went with an older PTI cover plate called Night Sky.  Lots of stars in this sky.  I paired it with some really sweet Mama Elephant images I stamped using Kim's stamps when she recently visited me.

I hope you will play along with CAS on Friday this week.  My biggest challenge was to decide which stars in my stash I should use.  I bet you will have the same issue.

Thanks for Visiting

Time Out #223...A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

It is time for a new challenge at Time Out.  We challenge you to make a card inspired by the photo on our badge.  Here is a larger version of the photo:

I think it is pretty easy to see how I was inspired by this photo.  I was inspired by that beautiful green Christmas tree.  I colored the star on top in silver, inspired by the silver star in the photo. 

Where will this challenge take you?  We would love to see you make your own card inspired by this photo.

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from  the Time Out Design Team.  Newton's Nook is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.


This challenge will run for 2 weeks.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting