A Double Challenge

Hi Friends,

Less is More wants us to use a flourish on a one layer card.

Well, Downton Abbey ends with this last season and I hope it ends with a flourish and lots of love, hence my card. How I am going to miss that show.

The base is quite white and the ink is black versafine. The gem is embossed silver. I just couldn't get a crisp photo. Our weather has been a bit unusual for us...very cloudy and quite wet.  I have used a stamp which is part of a set of flourishes I've owned for many years. It's moved from one kind of storage container to another and has lost it's cover and details. The gem is from a planner set by Starsinpalm, available through YouTube.

I am also submitting for the challenge at Stamplorations CAS/Silver where a bit of silver is the order of the day.

Blessings,
Erica

Red and White Sorta' Day

Good Day friends,

Here are two cards that I made in a nice and simplistic way using dies I've had forever. I felt like red and white today, so the thank you card was perfect. It uses a spellbinder die that's been its storage pocket for quite a while and the second is a Marianne Designs die and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp's kit a few months back. I love their kits. The stamps are great. I love the little extra stamps they include with the set. I often find myself using them interchangeably with other stamps for that little extra something. But today, it was all about the font used for this birthday sentiment.
Into my stash these go. I know they'll come in handy soon.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Simply Create Too Dt Challenge no. 100

Happy New Year to everyone who stops by. We're well into the century and I'm feeling super blessed to have experienced 50 yrs. of the previous century and now 16 years of this one. Oh my, the changes I've seen.

Here is my card for the SCT DT with a theme of "Celebrate." Won't you join us in celebration of anything that suits your fancy and post your card in our challenge. My card celebrates one of the February birthdays in my life. I used my new Kureake watercolor pens. A banner from IO and some sequins enhance the celebratory mood. There's a lot more sparkle IRL, but you get the picture.

I also found a "new to me" challenge Seize the Birthday I know I make far more birthday cards than other occasion, so this challenge will be a good for me to find new inspiration as well as to post my cards.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Simply Create Too DT Challenge no. 98

Give Thanks friends. Yes, we all have lots of things to be thankful for.

Do you keep a gratitude journal? I just began one in October and will add to it until the end of the year. When I get a bit stuck...I take so much for granted...I just write that I'm glad I got out of bed in the morning. It doesn't have to be that way. Make sure you don't forget it.

Off my soapbox and onto my card for Simply Create Too.

This card used stamps from Simon Says Stamp. I've been subscribing to their monthly kits and enjoying them quite a bit. There were lots of goodies to choose from. I'm not in the habit of using chips for my cards, but these fit perfectly. The papers except for one were from the kit too. I added some bakers twine and a button from my stash. The heart was made using my Brother Scan 'N Cut machine. I added the faux stitching to make it stand-out.

You have an entire week to make a thanks card, so won't you join us?

Blessings,
Erica

I'm So Broke, but it's nearly Christmas

Hello everyone,
My title is so apt. I truly don't want to go on-line and look at my checking account. I went to a local Stamp Convention this past weekend vowing and re-vowing all last week not to spend more than $100. Alas, I am so very weak when it comes to these events. It wasn't even as good as it usually is. Quite a few well-known vendors were missing. But somehow, yes somehow, I think I used my debit card to the tune of $400. I seem to be on some kind of a die cut  journey. We used to have only Spellbinders...with Sizzix in the mix a bit. I can no longer keep track of the companies and the beautiful lines of products. So, that's what did me in. And let's not even mention the $99 kit from Catherine Pooler's new "Stamps of Approval" line. This kit is different. It doesn't have paper, washi tape, ribbons, etc., Just stamps and some dies. I think she's on to something, because you have to hurry and order as soon as the kit goes on-line or you'll miss out. It's pricy initial, however when I averaged out the price of each stamp set and the dies, it came to a savings of about $40 if I were to buy them from individual companies and that doesn't include shipping.

So here's my card made with a set from SOA. The company is called, the ton Coutour clear stamps.
www.thetonstamps.com. I've never heard of them, but Catherine did. Go check out Chatherine's kits and her website StampNation. She's been around awhile, but I found her her somewhat recently.
Glad I did.

I pieced the leaves using some long-retired SU dsp. and fastened them onto a a mat of watercolored paper. The base is A2 SU artichoke green cs. The medium I used for coloring are my new set of Inktense pencils. I wanted to try them out so I bought a set of 12. Now I want the big girl set of 72. Hmmm, but under the circumstances, not any time soon. The sentiment and little bitty images are from another SOA find by Casual Fridays, called "Snowy Sayings." They're embossed in Ranger's liquid platinum embossing powder.  A bit of glossy accents for the berries and we're done.

Hope you like my card.

Blessings,
Erica

Get Creative Challenges no. 26, Use Halloween Colors

So Fall is trying to come here in AZ, but it's a bit of a haul as temps struggle to stay in the double digits. Nevertheless, the kids come out for Halloween. My family doesn't get into it much, preferring to do the Harvest Festivals that several churches have for families.

That doesn't stop me from making a card or two to celebrate it. At Get Creative Challenges, we have a sponsor who graciously offered a few digi images to play with, SamiStamps. Go check out her shop. There's a sale going on this week.

I struggle with coloring faces, so I opted for the easy way out...flowers. This digi image is called  butterfly flower. Can you see how the top flower is shaped like a butterfly?

I couldn't exactly envision Halloween colors for the flower, so I reached for the bleach and used that technique. It worked perfectly on some Coredinations premium krafty card stock. It was the right color and thin enough to absorb the bleach. The leaves were colored with pencil. The other papers were from Graphic 45, French Country. I used a cream heavyweight base and some beige baker's twine. The sentiment is from a Flourishes set. I stamped it in SU whisper white craft ink and then embossed it with white embossing powder. The colors are the subtle side of Halloween on a get well card which thankfully, I don't need right now so it will be added to my stash.

You'll have two weeks to play along with us at Get Creative Challenges. I hope you can join us and play.

Blessings,
Erica

Get Creative Challenges no. 24

Hi Stampers,

Yes, I know, my card has been posted on the challenge blog and I haven't bothered to post it here. Well, I'm not quite sure why, but my visitors are few and I don mean few. Not even more than one or two of our team visit my blog. It's kinda sad and that is just one of the reasons that I don't rush to post. Another is my horrible photo taking skills. Certainly I am to blame for it. I don't own a tripod, though I have 2 or 3 on my Amazon wish list. It just isn't a priority for me. However, I know it may be part of the reason I don't get more visitors. I promise my cards are often more than passable, but you can't tell from my poor quality photos and of course, I just have the basic edit capabilities.
So at the end of this year, if I haven't persuaded myself to purchase a tripod, I will be leaving one of the design teams I'm on. I will probably give the other one, Simply Create Too another year.

The image is a digi from Fantasy Art by Niki Burnett. I have tried to accustom myself to digital stamp. And I feel I've made quite a gallant effort, but for me, mounting, inking and pressing the stamp down to paper is a most gratifying thing to do. While downloading, sizing and printing out an image doesn't cut it. There may be a point in time when I totally have run out of space to store even one last clear stamp set, but I pray when it does, my eyes will have grown too old to see, my hands will be too arthritic and my back just won't allow me to sit long enough to finish a card.

In the meantime, our challenge is to use the fantastical and I made a step easel card and lots of fussy cutting from a Recollections 12x12 paper pad to get all the animals on board. The pumpkin was made with my seldom used, but much loved Brother Scan n' Cut, which cut the shape from its inventory and I just had to color him up.

And before I say good-bye, I entered my card here, Creative Craft Cottage, because I couldn't resist an Anything Goes challenge.

I hope you get a chance to play along with Get Creative Challenges this weekend or soon We have just one more week.

Blessings,
Erica