Hugs, Kisses & Fairy Wishes...FUSION Challenge (March 30)

Hello,

Welcome to the new FUSION Challenge~Easter, where once again we have a lovely photo and pretty sketch to spark your creativity.

Yes, the gorgeous floral and table arrangements (the jelly beans in the glasses add such a charming touch) speak clearly of Easter, I decided to create a card that focused on the colours, specifically the light purples and pinks of some of the blooms and the mint of the napkins,, the woodsy-ness of the flower box and table, and the 'airiness' of the pretty blooms.  The math of that combination added up to this: 

You first saw these lovely Hero Arst fairies when I shared my niece's colouring; Aunty c's turn this time.  And yes, I drew inspiration from her!  

That's it from me!  Please head over to the FUSION site to gaze and admire the beauties created by my design team. Guaranteed, they'll leave you breathless with awe! 

Becca Cruger

Betty J

Jeanne Jachna

Karren Johnson

Linda Callahan

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Leone

Michelle Lupton

Michelle Williams

Also sharing at:

Simon Says Monday Challenge~Things With Wings

Simon Says National Craft Month~Show Us What You're Working On

4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #344~Crazy Egg/Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #471~Warm Colours/Tones

So delighted you found time to drop by; your visit is both welcomed and deeply appreciated!

Lacy Butterfly...Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #235~Photo Inspiration

Hello, hello...

Welcome to Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #235, where we have a gorgeous butterfly image as our photo inspiration.  As many of you know, I have a 'thing' for butterflies; I may have emitted a wee squeal of delight when I saw this gem!

I decided to forego any attempts at water-colouring (my last couple of cards where I did plum wore me out!), choosing instead to give my faux-water-colour stamps some TLC A trio of blue inks (off-stamped a couple and double/triple stamped others), added my fabulous Fancy Butterfly from So Suzy Stamps and ta dahhhh...Done. I'm tempted to replicate this with different colours. Rainbow would be cool...may have to give that try down the road!

Please be sure to visit my fabulous DT to see their lovely takes on the photo.  After that, you know the drill...join us in the gallery with *your* version!

Also sharing at:

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #170~No Dies Allowed

Simon Says Monday Challenge~Things with Wings

Busy-ness galore in my world...doing my best to leave comments. Your patience is beyond appreciated as are your visits here!  Thank you so much for dropping by!

Coffee Themed Happy Birthday....Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #400~Happy Birthday, featuring STAMPlorations

Hello,

Today at Cupcake Inspirations' 400th Birthday Challenge, we're featuring products from one of our generous sponsors....

STAMPlorations, who are generously providing one lucky winner a $20 gift certificate to their store.

Two cards from me.  First, the beautiful A Cup of Roses, coloured with Prismacolour pencils...

and  the second, another pencil coloured versions, featuring the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies stamped with a variety of images from Coffee Happy and a sentiment from Dee's Arsty Impressions Balloons and Banners.

Please be sure to join us every day this week for more inspiration from our fabulous sponsors:

I also hope you join us in this wonderful challenge. The guidelines are super easy:  combine a birthday theme project with a past Cupcake Inspiration Challenge. Past challenges can be found on the CIC Pinterest Board as well as on our Cupcake Inspirations Blog. 

Looking forward to seeing you in the gallery!

Also sharing at:

Coffee Lover's Spring Blog Hop

STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge

Seize the Birthday~Anything Goes

Butterfly Birthday...Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #400~Happy Birthday!!!!

Hello,

Welcome to Cupcake Inspirations 400th...yes, that's correct 4-0-0 challenge!  Milestone, indeed!  Calls for a celebration and that we are doing! We have a number of sponsors who have donated prizes to winners of this week lone, every-day-DT-inspiration challenge. You can see them over at the Cupcakes Inspiration blog

Each member of the DT has selected a previous Cupcakes Inspirations challenge and, using either the theme or the colours, we've designed a birthday card..  That's what we're asking you to do: combine a previous Cupcake Inspiration Challenge with a birthday theme project, Past challenges can be found on the CIC Pinterest Board as well as on our Cupcake Inspirations Blog. 

For my card, I decided to use products from one of our amazing sponsors:

My *from the  past* Cupcake Inspiration Challenge was this one:

My card uses STAMPlorations Flutterby ARTplorations Stencil, Birthday CUTplorations and Crazy Double Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies

We would love to have you play along during our Celebration! Be sure to display BOTH the 400th challenge inspiration AND a past CIC inspiration on your post, so we can see how you combined the challenges. 

Here are the oh-so-friendly guidelines:

You many enter multiple times. 

Each challenge entry must be a new creation and have a separate URL link.

All entries for the 400th Challenge Celebration close on March 31st at 12:00 MST.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for more DT inspiration and a sponsor spotlight!

(And if you didn't know, we are on Instagram too...You can find us here at Cupcake.Inspirations.  If you share your projects on Instagram, please use #cupcakeinspirations so we can find you!!!!)

Also sharing at:

STAMPlorations Anything CAS Goes March Challenge and Anything Goes

Thank you for dropping by; your visit brings me joy!

Welcome Baby...Welcome Little Miss Croghan Blog Hop

Hello,

I'm ever so excited to be part of a surprise blog hop, organized by sweet, wonderful Lori, from Caffeinated Creativity (and a fellow Albertan, to boot!) and Nancy, from Soul Stampin,' to celebrate a most wonderful event.  What is that, you ask?  

Welcome Little Miss Croghan Blog Hop!

Isn't this an adorable banner?  Thank you, Nance, for your fantastic design!

Many of you know exponentially sweet, talented Lesley of Always Playing with Paper fame and the mastermind behind a variety of challenges. She and her husband, Corey, along with their fur-babies, Penney and Rolley, will be welcoming a BABY GIRL into their lives, in April.  If you've seen photos of her on FB recently, she is positively radiant with joy! We are sooooo thrilled for her and for Corey!

I've brought a sweet pink fox to welcome Baby Girl...let's pretend she's a stuffie, something to cuddle once she's a bit older....

Lori and Nancy would love it you created a baby card to link up to the online shower...and so would  I.  You can join the gallery at Lori's place

Lucky Baby Girl to have you, Lesley and Corey, as her mommy and daddy! She will be ever so treasured!  Can't wait to see photos once she's arrived....

Thank you for dropping by; your visit brings me joy!

Happy Easter...Inkspirational Challenge #131~Photo Inspiration

Hello,

A hearty thank you and round of applause for those of you who joined our Inkspirational Smooshing challenge! Such fabulous creativity and inspiration; I may become addicted to this technique after all!

Now, 'tis time to invite you Inkspirational Challenge #131~Photo Inkspiration.

Our wonderfully talented guest designer this week is Birgit; you'll find her card wonderfully magical, as you will those of my marvelous team-mates (who now know I was this close to bailing...). Please leave them some love: 

Yvonne - welcome back!!!!

Marina 

Shauna

Pia

Sandie

Nonni
Kim

Okay...ahem...here's my card.

I know exactly what  just ran through your mind: "What the heck?", right?  And yes, I completely accept that.  But...bear with me as I babble out my connection. Sooooo, as challenging as I found the smooshing to be, this photo took the proverbial cake in proving to be nearly 'un-do-able' for me.  Yes, plenty to draw from...cards, a key, a magic hat, a candle stick, colours, shapes (diamonds/circles...), tricks,  but nothing...absolutely x 100% nothing would gel for me.  I was about to play hooky (I'm serious...I had an 'I'm soooo busy' ruse lined up *grin*), but then I spotted the bunny.
So...I went with:

• my Uniko Some Bunny bunny (fussy-cut, even!)...
• and a circle...
• and colours (if you zoom, you'll see pink in the candlestick, yellow to the right of that, on the photo's edge and orange, on the book), using my Uniko Background Blocks Halftone Clear Stamp
• and a heart (several appear around the arrangement).

Before I knew it, an Easter card appeared! Magic! Just like waving a wand and pulling a bunny out of a hat!

And that, my sweet friends, is my story of how this inkspirational photo proved not to be my undoing, but a muse...an Easter muse, of all things!

Turning the stage over to you.

Looking forward to seeing your 'magical' creations in the gallery!

Also sharing at:

Uniko Studio Challenge #40~Spring, with an Optional Twist of Easter

Thank you so much for dropping by;your visit brings me joy!

Coffee Lover's Spring Blog Hop...STAMPlorations Style!

Hello,

Woo hooo...time for the Coffee Lover's Spring Blog Hop, where yet again, our incredibly talented, energetic, dynamic Amy and Chaitali as our hostesses, assisted by their fantastic team of dedicated coffee-loving crafters.

For this round, over 67 (that's right...sixty-seven!!) sponsors have offered up prizes! Talk about generous!

One of those amazing sponsors is sweet Shery, from STAMPlorations, who has an absolutely delightful array of products in the Coffee/Tea Lovers section of her store. Be sure to take a wander through...you will be dazzled!  And yes: I am enabling you!  So much fun stuff to be had!

To launch the hop, I have the honour of joining the STAMPloration family to showcase a few of the charming coffee/tea products.

First up, a loosely water-coloured (yep...did it! Distress inks) A Cup of Roses, placed atop a panel cut from the  Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies that I smooshed using the saran wrap technique I learned from a recent Splitcoast Stampers video. The background and roses both sport the same colours (worn lipstick, spun sugar, tea die and just a wee bit of picked raspberry and peeled paint), in lighter/darker shades.

My second card features a Stained Glass ARTplorations Stencil,background (picked raspberry, spiced marmalade, abandoned coral), on a Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies panel and, in the starring role, the fabulous mug and sentiment from Brew-tiful Day~The Bee's Knees,

Third, another bout of water-colouring, this time with an assortment of images from Coffee Happy stamped onto a  Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies panel,  Coffee o'clock: love it!

Since you have a LOT of hopping/creating to do, I'll sign off...for now. I'll be back with more STAMPlorations cards soon. Very soon!

Also sharing at:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #274-275~Anything Goes

STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge

Thank you for dropping by; your visit brings me joy!

Just Because Brushed Blossom...CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge #213, TIME OUT Challenge #79~Case Jenny, The Flower Challenge #6~Anything Goes

Hello,

Hope you're having a wonderful week. I'm cleaning a bit here, card-making a bit there and, in the evenings, tuning in to the World Baseball Classic. So engaging!  My post will be quick, as the final game starts here in about an hour...

Two cards, both the same, since the supplies were out and the technique I was doing is finicky. If one flopped, at least I'd have a backup. Remarkably, both turned out...yayyyy...although I'll ask you to bear with me about the photographs.  You'll see why in a moment....

Inspiration came from a fusion of three challenges:
CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge #213,

TIME OUT Challenge #79~Case Jenny and The Flower Challenge #6~Anything Goes

We'll also add some sparks from the Concord & 9th shopping site, too...

Soooo, based on the sketch and Jenny's placement of her elements, paired with a desire to use flowers, I opted to give the aperture technique another try.  Of course, this would be much simpler if I made a one layer card but nope, nope and nope! I "need" my panels (they 'sort of' hide my seemingly perpetual askew card bases, which is weird because I've followed Jennifer McGuire's advice in having my cardstock cut at an office supply shop.  Maybe the person navigating the ScorePal and bone folder is the issue *grin*)

 Anyway, I lined up my brand-spanking new C&9th Brushed Blossoms die on the panel and then on the card base  I fit he stamps into the openings and inked away onto the inside of the card.

Taking photos was more of a challenge than usual, as the cards didn't want to stay closed.  Here's the gist, in three parts.

Part 1: the card partially opened...you can see the blossoms from the inside peeping through the outside...

Part 2: both cards, just to prove I actually did make two....

Part 3: a not-so-great shot light/angle-wise, but here, with the card laying flat, the image is more visible...

As I mentioned, finicky but fun! I like the results!

NOTE: Honoured and thrilled to be selected as one of the Favourites at CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge #213. THANK YOU!!!

Time for me to scoot!  Enjoy the game, if you're watching; if not, enjoy whatever you may be doing!

So glad you dropped by; your visit brings me joy!

My Guest Designer Niece, plus Amazing and Happy Birthday...Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge~Fluff, CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #169~Off the Edge

Hello,

Well, the cleaning/laundry/grocery shopping elves didn't make an appearance, sooooo....guess I'll have to tackle those tasks myself.  Maybe...

I have the honour of guest designing for the current Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge~Fluff, so I decided to add another duo to the previous twosome.

The first is inspired by the top left pillow (simplified) and

the second, to the floral's right. I used an oldie but goodie set from Annabelle stamps (sadly no longer in business) for my images here....need to remember to pull it out more often, as it has some cool designs.

My own guest designer - my sweet niece -  is making another appearance! Yayyy....

First, from her CARS colouring book....this gem! I especially love her rainbow flowers!

Second, the leprechaun she hand drew in school, following a step-by-step process. Wouldn't this make a fabulous St. Patrick's Day stamp?  He makes me smile with that big ol' grin he's sporting!

Time to decide whether to vacuum, do laundry, wash the floor or make cards....I think we know the likely winner from this list *grin*

Also sharing at 
CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #169~Off the Edge

The Flower Challenge #6~Anything Goes

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday and sooooo appreciate you dropping by!