Ouch...Freshly Made Sketches #238, Happy Little Stampers~Anything Goes with Dies Challenge, Happy Little Stampers~Anything Goes with Dies Challenge, Simon Says Wednesday Challenge~Anything Goes

Hello,

Happy Memorial Day weekend to my wonderful friends in the USA!

My husband and I are at my mom's, readying ourselves for officiating at the second event of a two day road-bike racing competition. Today: criterium races.  Fast and furious laps around a 1km circuit. They're fun to watch....as long as everyone stays upright!

So...here's my card, inspired by my wonderful friend, Kim, over at Freshly Made Sketches #238

Some sweet succulents...and in the context of what we're off to do today, I hope this sentiment does NOT ring true *grin*!

NOTE: Honoured and delighted to receive an Honourable Mention at Freshly Made Sketches #238! THANK YOU, Jen T!

I'm also joining the galleries at:
Happy Little Stampers~Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge~Anything Goes

I'm delighted you spent some time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

Strike Up The Band...AAA Cards Game #65~The Second Big Birthday Bash, CAS(E) this Sketch #173, CASometry Challenge: Make 5~Stage 2

Hello,

Zooming in with a quick card for the amazing celebration happening at  AAA Cards Game #65~The Second Big Birthday Bash

Have you checked out the celebration? If not...go. NOW!  I'll wait...la la la la la...See?  Told you! A fabulous blog hop, a 'word' treasure hunt, a challenge and the prizes...oh. my. stars! Those gals know how to throw a party!!

My card....another round of Strike Up the Band bunnies from MFT. They are way too cute. Way. Too!

My layout was inspired by CAS(E) this Sketch #173....the fully coloured bunny mirrors the larger triangle, flanked by the other two,  lightly shaded.  My bunny sort of stands atop the sentiment...a wee 'stretch o' the sketch' happening...

I'm also sharing over at incredibly talented Anna's CASometry Challenge: Make 5~Stage 2. Three more bunny cards yet to happen...Hope I'm up for the full deal!

So glad you spent time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

Happy Birthday...Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #195~Photo

Hello...

Hard to believe how quickly the long weekend passed; soooo much fun with my family visiting.  I had some major *sads* when they left yesterday, but Friday will be here soon enough and we'll be heading their direction.  Yayyyy....

Today, my marvelous DT and I invite you to play alongside us at Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #195, with this photo as inspiration:

Treat-table temptation! Popcorn, cupcakes, beverages, cake....yum-fest galore!

My card is ultra CAS...mainly because 'someone' left things too late to get a really cool card done! Time management lessons required! Still, after nearly not posting, I decided I would, nudged along by my husband, who thinks the big ol' Memory Box candles with their Stickles flames are rather cool...

Some blue STAMPlorations stars stenciled in the background, a Clearly Besotted sentiment and...tah dah.  Another birthday card to add to my sister-in-law's stash for my niece's or nephew's friends. Next time, I need to figure out how to add stripes to the candles along the embossed lines; my white gel pen was being finicky....

I'm so glad you spent time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

You are my Sunshine...The Card Concept #55~You Are My Sunshine, Little Tangles Challenge #68~Anything Goes

Hello...and to my Canadian friends, Happy Victoria Day Long Weekend!

The past few days have been jam-packed with all kinds of fun, fabulous time, along with a bazillion hugs and cuddles, with my visiting family.  They'll be leaving at some point today; I will *NOT* be happy. Not even a little bit.  On the plus side, my husband and I are officiating bike races next weekend in their city, so we'll see them in four more sleeps....

Sneaking in a VERY simple card I made last week, but totally forgot to post until this morning, for
The Card Concept #55~You Are My Sunshine.

The DT cards are wonderfully inspiring, especially since *yellow only* isn't a colour scheme I use often.  The 'specific' sparks for my clean and simple design came from Nina's background inking and Laurie's pops of pink,,,

NOTE: Thrilled and honoured to be one of the three Honourable Mentions at The Card Concept. THANK YOU!!

The fabulous big sentiment is from Neat and Tangled, so I'm also heading to Little Tangles Challenge #68~Anything Goes

To all my wonderful friends: I'll be catching up on your galleries ASAP!  My laptop is a 'niece-and-nephew' magnet, so I've been trying to keep it turned off, as we know what happens when one little one wants what the other has! Still, we've managed some opportunities when they each had turns 'practicing' something on their respective word-document 'papers': Mr. C practiced typing out his name and the ABC's (he figured out the keyboard  quickly!) while Ms. T learned  (took me all of 2 minutes to teach her...she caught on to the mouse concept fast!) how to change colours (rainbow, of course) and fonts on her name and every letter of the alphabet.  My cutie-patootie smarties!!

I'm so delighted you spent time with my today; your visit brings me immense joy!

Eye Think You're Neat...Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #361~Punny

Hello,

Long weekend in our parts..yayyyy! My husband and I are having far tooooooo much fun with my family visiting. In. my. glory!

Time for my amazing DT and I to invite you to play alongside us for Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #361:

Source

Got something punny you'd like to share? Well, bring it on, because that's what this theme is all about...giggles, smirks, laughs out loud, eyeball rolling...

This week,we're sponsored by incredibly popular Lawn Fawn,who are generously offering the winner  a stamp set and 6x6 Paper Pad of his/her choice.  Incentive? Only YES!!!

For my card, *eye* couldn't resist the cyclops smile-maker from Monster Mash. These dudes make me smile....

Your turn!! Looking forward to seeing your fun puns in the gallery!!

*NEWSFLASH*

Cupcake Inspirations is having a DT call!  We're looking for a few new Sweeties to join our team! If you love cupcakes and crafting, we'd love for you to join us!  Check out the link here for details.

I'm so delighted you spent time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

You are Amazing...Inkspirational Challenge #109, STAMPlorations Anything Goes

Hello!

Are you ready for another Inkspirational Challenge?  Hope so!  What's on tap for Inkspirational Challenge #109, you ask?  How about this ah-mazing photo; isn't that colour combination striking!  What catches your eye, hmmmmm?

Over at the challenge site, you'll see an array of wonderful cards by my amazing DT; please be sure to visit and leave some love for Sandie, Shauna, Nonni, Marina, Kim, Yvonne.

One of my favourite stencils came out to play - STAMPlorations' Leaf Prints - and after some tricky (for me, anyway) masking with washi tap and sponging with a variety of distress inks, this happened....I was aiming to capture the colours (the pop of red from the left side of the image and the purple from the right, specifically). Kinda-sorta got them in in...now I wish I had some teal blue to make the purple stand out more. Oh well...more distress inks on the shopping list *grin* The sentiment is a combination of a STAMPlorations stamp and MFT die cut...

Your turn!  

Looking forward to seeing your photo-inspired creations in the gallery!

Also linking up at STAMPlorations~Anything Goes

Side note: My brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and my MOM (first visit!!) are spending the long weekend with us!  I'm sooooo excited!  If I fall (even further...sighhhh) behind in commenting, you'll know why - at least this time I have a 'real' excuse (as compared to my perpetual-state-of-being-disorganized one). Cuddles galore happening over at our place!!

So delighted you spent some time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

Happy Birthday, Sandie!!

 Hello,

I'm a late-comer to the various parties happening in celebration of our sweet, wonderful Sandie's 50th Birthday! One is happening over at Kylie's place

and another over at TIME OUT Challenges, where CAS and purple are on tap.

So, my friend, here I am, with from-the-heart Happy *Belated* Birthday wishes, accompanied by a fairly CAS purple number that I'm hoping will make you smile! You know what else should make you smile: knowing you're still a young'un compared to me *grin*

My card is pretty much a literal translation of the sketch for the STAMPlorations May 2016 Sketch and Theme Challenges:

A variety of STAMPlorations products came out to play, along with a couple of purple inks...

May you celebrate alllll month long, my wonderful friend and may your year be filled with an abundance of blessings!  You deserve to feel like a princess every. single. day! Hugs!!

Also joining the galleries at:
STAMPlorations CAS Card Challenge~ Anything Goes (optional twist of Magenta)

 STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge

 Seize the Birthday~Anything Goes

So glad you spent some time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

PS: I'm late because <insert ecstatic squeals of joy> my family - brother, sister-in-law, Ms. T and Mr. C and MY MOM (first time visit our way) are coming to share the long weekend with us! Cleaning, laundrying, reorganizing our teensy space to accommodate 5 more people, happy dancing....getting ready has kept me on my toes! Call me excited!

Quartet of Hot Air Balloons...Guest Designer at Serendipity Stamps Challenge Blog #55~Use A Die Cut

Hello,

I'm sooooo honoured to be back as a

with a reminder post for Serendipity Stamps Challenge #55~Die Cut

In my first post, I designed a quartet of Floral Butterfly cards; this time...my quartet features the

Hot Air Balloons Reverse Die and Stamp Set  

 

I LOVE hot air balloons and I hope my fascination shows in the cards below.

My first card is a simple number; sponged a background panel and ran it, with the die cut, through my Big Shot.  

I incorporated a twist, however, in adding double sided adhesive to the back of the panel, so that I could do a 'little something' with the die cut pieces afterwards.  See?  A negative, followed by a positive...A bit finicky to poke the the little bits into place, but I'm pleased with the clean look...

My third card came as a result of 'trying out the die' on a piece of scrap cardstock...which lead to a stencil...which lead to this....I love stenciling!

Finally, the card that had me holding my breath as I created:  this glimmery, sparkly number inspired by Jennifer McGuire's video glitter technique (here). I strategically placed my double sided adhesive (made a template), so as not to waste the wee bit of glitter I have, brought out my *huge* collection of Copics (all eight of them *grin*), followed Jennifer's directions to a "t" and...voila! One VERY sparkly balloon card!

I was skeptical about  how successful this technique would be, so imagine my surprise when the *forging ahead* actually turned out!  Want a shimmer close-up?  Okay...

  

Definitely worth a try if you have glitter calling for attention!

Anyway...thank you for bearing with me through yet another novel-length post.  Please be sure to visit the Serendipity DT, where  dazzle and delight (along with a blog hop and prizes) are guaranteed!

Remember: the Lemonade Pitcher is this month's 50% off feature product...

Thank you to Jeanne, Mary and the DT for inviting me to be this month's Guest Designer!  Looking forward to seeing everyone's *Use A Die Cut* creations; come and play!

I so appreciate that you spent time with me today; your visit brings me immense joy!

Beautiful Day...Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #360, Just Add Ink #311~Masking, Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge #47~One Element Wonder,

Hello,

I hope everyone is having as delightful a weekend as I am. We're at my mom's (yayyyy): my husband is officiating the first bike race of the season (three events in total). I am not. I am being Aunty C (quadruple yayyyyyy - time with my niece and nephew today AND tomorrow!) and a race spectator.  My first officiating gig isn't until the end of May (back here...more cheering); after that, race-after-race every weekend until mid-July; a wee break and then back at it...My clipboard and stopwatch will get quite the workouts!

Today, my fabulous DT and I invite you to bring your designer delights to Cupcake Inspirations #360~Pink, Blush and Gold.  Check out these lovely treats...starry-scrumptious!

Source

This week, we're fortunate to have sponsorship from Altenew.  I'll turn my post over to them for a bit, so they can share with you who they are, what they're about (creating awesomeness, in my books) and what the lucky winner of this week's challenge will receive:  Take it away....

Established in April 2014, Altenew strives to bring elegant, natural and versatile designs in paper crafting products. Altenew firmly believes in sharing happiness and comfort with our loved ones through creative expression of crafting. We know that personal, delicate touches of a hand-made card or scrapbook page can bring joy to people that are important in our lives and we are proud to create products that help inspire alluring projects/creations.

Way Too Sweet

Now if that isn't incentive to play along, I don't know what is!!

I recently found a 'local' scrapbook supplier who can bring in Altenew products, on occasion *fist pump*!  So stoked! One of  the sets  I ordered is Beautiful Day, making its debut for this challenge. Those layered leaves and flowers. Oh. My!  In love... I used the outline stamp, along with the second and third accent layers (pink and blush, respectively), leaving the flower's background white. The leaves,were stamped with Delicata Gold; once for the background image and once again with the accent layer. I even managed a little masking action...

In real life, this is wonderfully pretty (gloomy day when I took the photo and since we were traveling, I didn't have a retake opportunity).  In fact, I may have made a second...and perhaps a fourth...

Looking forward to seeing your pink-blush-and-gold creations in the gallery!  Elegant and classy, or cute and sassy...bring it on!  See you soon!

Also sharing at:

Just Add Ink #311~Masking

Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge #47~One Element Wonder

Thank you so much for spending time with me today; your visit brings me immense  joy!