Happy Little Stampers - February Challenge

Today's card was created with the current challenge over at the Happy Little Stampers in mind.  The theme for February is Dies.

I love cards created primarily from die cut images but don't make nearly enough of them.  For today's card I chose a fence die that "I had to have but haven't used" as my focal point. 

I die cut two of the fence panels and then adhered them to the edge of a piece of blue cardstock along the scored lines provided by the die.  I added some grass along the bottom edge and some purple foliage along the top.  I didn't want the gate to be open so I wove a small piece of black cardstock through the fence to secure it, keeping the sentiment a secret until opened. 

To create my sentiment I white heat embossed the greeting onto a smaller piece of the same blue cardstock and adhered it to the inside of the card.  All the recipient has to do is slide the black cardstock out and voila....secret message. 

This card was a lot of fun to make.  I'm so happy to have the right challenge to push me to use those "gotta have" supplies that are gathering dust.  (Tell me I am not alone!)

Supplies:
Mama Elephant - Gatefold X Fence
MFT - Tucked in Turf
MFT - Get Well Wishes
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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

The Flower Challenge #41

I swore 2020 was going to be the year of florals and watercoloring but I'm doing a sad job of keeping up with that crafty resolution.  Today I'm giving at least one of them another go.

The current theme of the Flower Challenge is "add leaves."  I'm not exactly sure what that means as most of my floral images do indeed have leaves so we'll leave this up to their interpretation.

Kathy Racoosin did such a beautiful job coloring this stamp while at the MFT Boutique last December so of course I HAD to buy it.  Now if only I could remember her tips.  (I plan on purchasing her Online Classes course soon to refresh my memory.)  

This particular stamp is HUGE.  I only used part of the image for my card.  

Dare I show a closer look at my coloring? 

 Disclaimer...I am not an expert.

Baby Steps.  It's still only February.  :-)  

Supplies:

MFT Floral Focus

MFT Bitty Birthday Greetings

Copic markers

Sparkle gelly roll pen

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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

A Two Challenge Card

Maybe some of you can relate.  I don't really feel my age until my eldest's birthday comes around.  Then I feel darned old.  I mean, how can I be old enough to be his mother when in my mind I'm still his age?  *sigh*

Today is my son's 37th birthday and I made this card with him (and two challenges *blush*) in mind.

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

I wanted to come up with something really clean and simple that wasn't overly girly.  Green is is favorite color so I pulled out some cardstock scraps and put on my thinking cap to come up with something that would fit the shapes theme.  Here's the result....

It meets the "shapes" requirement as well as the white space/birthday requirement.  I thought the sentiment was appropriate for how I'm feeling today.  ('cause in the end, it's still all about me.  ROFL!)

I cut the rectangles out with my paper trimmer, added the stitched stamp line and sentiment and called it good. 

Happy Birthday to my first born!

Supplies:

MFT Bitty Birthday Wishes (sentiment)

Simon Says Stamp Crafty Friends (stitched line)

The Stamp Market (card stock scraps)

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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS Colours and Sketches #358

It's Tuesday which means I'm back with a new color challenge for the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog.  Samantha has chosen a great trio of spring colors for us to play with this week.

Our blog uses Stampin' Up colors as a guide but remember, you can use any brand or type of coloring materials that you own as long as you stick to this color trio and neutrals. 

Here's my card....

I took the liberty of creating my own genetic color variation to traditional lavender by creating a gradient effect with dye inks.  I stamped a trio of the florals, added the sentiment and then double matted the piece onto a piece of diagonal b/w striped paper and white cardstock.  

If you live in a cold area of the world these colors may be just the ticket to bring a bit of sunshine into your February.  Me?  I'm in Florida where the weather is gorgeous right now.  :-)  Whatever your weather, I do hope you'll find some time to join us at the CC&S blog this week. 

Supplies:

Altenew - lavender stamp and sentiment

MFT Stamps - diagonal striped pattern paper 

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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS(e) This Sketch #359

True confession time once again.  (Dang, I am letting you guys know all my secrets!)

I stamped and colored an image last week for the previous CAS(e) This Sketch challenge but as I started to put my card together I noticed I'd missed last week's deadline. Oops!  Fortunately for me the size of my image was perfect for the current challenge so I switched gears and created a card with this (current) sketch in mind....

Here's my card....

My original card design didn't include die cutting out the coffee girl but it was an easy switch.  

I used a gingham stamp to create the background and matted it onto a scalloped tag cut from white card stock and colored in with the same green Copic I used for the cups.  (One for me, one for a friend.)  I heat embossed the two sentiments in white onto black card stock and called it good.  

I think I love this card more than the other one that now shall remain in my head.  LOL!

Supplies:

MFT Miss You Latte

MFT Scalloped Bookmark

MFT Bitty Thanks

Waffle Flower Simply Plaids

Taylored Expressions Banner Stacklet 3 

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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

The Library Challenge #52

There is some cute inspiration over at Marina's alter ego at The Library Challenge Blog.  My dear friend Michele is the guest hostess this time around and she's chosen a really fun and colorful book cover for us to play with.   (And if you look at the direct link I provided you will see that she made a card with my little grandson in mind.  It's soooo awesome!  Love you Michele!)

I have not personally read this book but I'm thinking you can definitely 

judge this book by it's cover and I'm definitely going to seek it out.

My interpretation was pretty straight forward using the reds and purples along with a little monster.  

To create the background I used one of the purple Distress Oxides to stamp onto the large swirly thing-a-ma-bob.  I embossed it with some sparkling clear powder and then did a bit of ink blending with several pink/red shades of original Distress Ink.  I used the same purple ink and sparkling clear embossing powder to stamp out my little monster.  The sentiment was done with white embossing powder.  I added the little white dots around the heart's perimeter and adhered some black and white clay hearts as the final touch.  

I'm sure you all can guess who the recipient of this card will eventually be.  Do you think he'll notice that this monster has no arms???    (Just how did I manage to choose the only armless monster in the set to give him a hug? ROFL!)  

Supplies:

MFT - Abstract doodles, pierced stax heart, monster stamp set all are from MFT.  

Ranger Distress inks

HoneyBee Stamps clay hearts

Wow sparkling clear embossing powder

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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers #153

I'm back with one of my favorite challenges - The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where the prompt is C is for Cats. 

I wonder if Edna sheds?????

I really had to dig deep into both my memory bank and my stamp stash to find a cat stamp.  Yes, I own a cat.  I also own three dogs.  I do not however own many cat/dog stamps, much to the amazement of my friend Lindsey.  (Am I supposed to?)  

Somewhere I had a few firing neurons (I'm still in sad grandma mode here) that recalled an old Christmas set from Simon Says Stamp that featured a cat.  I paired the kitty with a couple of small images and sentiment from an awesomely snarky set made by Hero Arts and came up with this lovely card.

I think he rather looks like a butler, don't you?

In the original stamp set the kitty's arm is outstretched to hold a pile of wrapped Christmas gifts.  I thought it was purrfectly designed ;-) for serving some wine and cheese.  

I created the soft background using one of the newer masking stencils made by Taylored Expressions.  I must say that little mask set is very handy indeed.  The weight is quite substantial and the embossed marks make it very easy to not only center my image but also serve as a border for my (subtle) ink blending.  I will be using this little guy A LOT.

Look at that nice crisp edge to my border.

Supplies:
Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love Stamp Set
Hero Arts Irreverent Birthday Stamp Set
Taylored Expression Rectangular Masking Stencil
Simon Says Stamp Fog Ink
Copic Markers

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Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules