Skyline Flight

Hello Crafters!

For today I am playing with The Challenge at Always Playing with Paper and House of Cards. Their theme this week is a photo inspiration with a definitive masculine theme. Here is my card for tonight, enjoy.

The 'happy' sentiment looks so good against the silhouette of the skyline. 

Popped out the airplane with dimensional adhesive giving 
it a bit of depth.

Entering Challenges:

The Challenge: Masculine Inspiration #62
House of Cards: Silhouette  (DT member just playing along)

   

This card has been sitting on my craft table forever!! I had it bookmarked for about six or more challenges but nothing really fit until I saw the challenges from The Challenge and House of Cards. Thank you so much finally gettting this card off my table.. Now I am off to all the other half done projects on my table. 

All the Best,
Shawna 

Krafty Card

Hello Everyone,

For today I will playing along with The Challenge, Inkspirational and Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge. The photo inspiration from The Challenge was my jumping off point for this card and then I saw what HLS was doing and it all came together. Here is my card for today.. Enjoy!

Spotlighting the poinsettias on the tag and coloring
the rest of the image on kraft paper in white.

 Entering Challenges:
The Challenge: #50- photo inspiration
Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge: November 2015- Tag
Inkspirational: #95 Colour Challenge: Anything goes with silver

   

Just a bit of silver to lighten up the design.
The silver is actually ribbon that I had to cut and then tie.
for the sentiment I laid them out in strips
and die cut the sentiment.

Close up details of the card. I think the spotlighting is really effective and the 

silver finishing touches is just what this festive card needed.

Usually I go into a project with an inkling of what the design might look like. For this one however, I had no idea... So I'm lying in bed thinking of the card-to-be with all the challenges at the forefront of my thoughts. Then I thought of this stamp came into play and spotlighting it with a tag. The rest just fell into place.. ah! Time to find another challenge to enter.

That should do it for me.. Thank you so much for visiting me today and I hope I made your day a bit brighter. Take care all and we will see you soon.

All the best,

Shawna 

Buttoned Quilt Card

Hello All and Happy Friday,

I don't know why but it has been quite a long week.. No particular reason just long... So for today I am playing along with Always Playing with Paper sketch challenge and Pals Paper Arts color challenge. Here is my card for tonight!

These are remnants from a previous project. I couldn't let them go to
waste so I used them for another card.

Entering Challenges:

Always Playing with Paper: Sketch Challenge #49

Pals Paper Arts: Color Challenge PPA274

  

The card is a bit different from the sketch in that
I used a portrait layout vs. the sketches landscape layout..
But I feel the essence of the design is clear. 

Dry embossing the quilt base gives it an authentic feel
of a quilt. The brown banner and embellishment look black
but in actuality is a very dark chocolate color following the
color challenge as much as I could.

I thought the sentiment was well suited for the card. the button embellishments
are just a nice added touch to this country quilt.

Like I said previously this card uses remnants from a previous project which looks considerably different then this one. Both of them have their merits and I feel they are both so pretty in their own way.

As you can probably surmise, paper piecing was an important part of this design. The lattice die cut from Stampin' Up! was used to create the quilt. After each piece was placed I ran it through my machine to dry emboss the card for more texture. I think this card feels like country meets white modern and I think they do get along..

Thank you so much for joining me tonight and I do appreciate your visit. If you feel so inclined to leave a comment that would be appreciated as well.. Take care everyone and we will see you soon!

All the best,
Shawna

Helloween

Good Evening Everyone!

For tonight I am playing along with Just Us Girls, TimeOUT Challenge, Always Playing with Paper and Fusion. This week is the their color challenge and here is my card for tonight.

It is of course a play on words. Thought I would keep the background
clean and white so the sentiment will be the star of the show. 

This card will fit in a standard letter envelope.  Also its flat design
will allow for easy mailing. 

The brackets around the word 'hello'
helps it to be more pronounced

Linking up with the following Challenges:

Just Us Girls #315-Color Week- Purple, Orange, and Black
TimeOUT Challenge Blog: Challenge #42- Photo Inspiration

Always Playing with Paper: The Challenge- #47 Photo Inspiration

Fusion- All Hallows Eve

      

When making this card I unknowingly misplaced my letter 'a'. However, very close by was one of the letters 'e' then, Eureka!! I had it.. I thought the play on words was pretty witty. Plus you probably wouldn't notice it right away because it is such a small 'error'. The parentheses help to pop out the word 'hello'.

That should do it for me.. I hope this finds you well and I want to thank you for joining me this evening. If you are so inclined I will delighted if you leave me a comment.. Take care and we will see you soon!!

All the best,
Shawna

Shiny Happy Mermaid

Good evening (or morning),

Here I am again with another card.  I have had this card sitting on my desk for two days and I need to send it out. That is why I am posting for a second time in less then 24 hours.

So here we go! For tonight I am entering The Challenge by Always Playing with Paper and you can probably tell by the title what the focal image of this project will be....

Linking up with
The Challenge #38

Yup. A mermaid.. I have had this stamp forever and always meant to use it and never did.. 'Later' I would tell myself.. Well here we are!

I hope you like what I created. Hopefully I didn't break any challenge rules by using another lighter blue...

Light streaming through the water from above making sure to
fade out the color as I went down the panel.

The black 'bubbles' acts to frame the sentiment without
overshadowing the focal image.

I created this card for my niece. It is her 8th birthday in a few days and I am sure she is going to love this card! My 9 year old daughter wants it so I am positive it will be a hit.

How to:

1. Cut and scored my kraft paper base to 4.25" x 5.5" (A2)
2. Cropped another kraft panel to 1/4" smaller then the base.
3. Stamped the mermaid then created a mask and placed it on top of the original mermaid.
4. Sponged my smaller kraft panel using Paris Dusk Memento ink making sure to fade out the color on the top of the panel.
5. Removed mask and colored the mermaid and its scene using PrismaColor pencils as per the color challenge.
6. Re-stamped the mermaid and heat set using black embossing powder.
7. Shaded the top of the ocean with an almost white, light blue pencil to create streams of light fading out as I went down the panel.
8. Rounded the corners of the panel
9. Die cut the panel and adhered the kraft panel to the kraft card base
10. Added three black die cut bubbles.
11. Stamped the sentiment
12. Outlined the ocean scene with a black Sharpie.

Wow! I am going to have to sign off for now and get my beauty sleep (Okay just sleep, no beauty involved).. Thank you for stopping by and hope to see you soon! Don't forget to leave a comment good, great or otherwise. 

All the best,

Shawna 

Thank you!

Hello all,

As the school year comes to a close it is time to thank all the teachers that have helped my children grow. So when I saw 'the challenge' at Always Playing with Paper I knew I was in.

Entering 'the challenge' #36
'Celebrating Teachers'

Appreciation for our teachers is something I don't do enough. I mean they have to deal with us all. Teaching takes a ton of perseverance, patience, and loads of grace. I know because I volunteer in my children s classroom three days a week in the mornings. There is no way I could do what teachers do. Hats off to them! Here is my entry.

The large sunflower, sentiment, and colored sunflower
make the eye pleasing triangle.

All the elements from this card all work todgether
to form a clean design.

The twine looks like one string but in fact it is two.

I am in L-O-V-E with this card! It almost pains me to give it away! The simplicity of the design is so out of my comfort zone but I had to push my limits and here is the result.

The gigantic sunflower started it all off. As it is very large, the light 'wild hare' color calms it down and draws it back from the larger then life sentiment. A touch of color is all this card needed from the small sunflower. Why? Because the over exaggerated sentiment needs its space to dominate. So much so I stamped some of the 'thank you' off the card. I liked the way it worked.

As for the twine it is actually two pieces of twine made to look like one. The twine wrapped around the card is adhered with a dimensional dot and the bow was tied to a die cut paper button then glued on the flower.which was then put on the dimensional dot.

Well that is all for me tonight. I hope this post finds you well and I hope to see you again.  Don' t forget to leave comments good, great, or otherwise. 

Thank you for stopping by!

All the best,

Shawna 

Zeal for Teal

Hello Readers!
For today I am playing along with Always Playing with Paper #29 (a sketch). At first I looked at this sketch and thought of a million possibilities for it.

At least I had a purpose, my new friend Monika is having a birthday and thought I would make her a card!  So I had inspiration and purpose, good start! Well here is what I came up with!

Blue banner and sentiment fit perfectly with
this DIY background.

Using VersaMark for the
swirl was just enough detail.

This teal background for the flower
focal image sets off the entire card.  

This is how I did it:

1. Cut my card base to 4.25" x 5.5". Set aside.
2. On a sheet of CS I used Distressed Ink and sponged color on various parts of the paper.
3. Using water and rubbing alcohol I diluted the colors so they all ran into each other.
4. Stamped the flower pattern with VersaMark Ink then heat embossed it using clear powder.
5. Sponged a darker blue so the flower would resist the ink. Ironed off the embossing powder.
6. Stamped the same flowers in black to create a background.
7. Cut the BG per the sketch and adhered it to the card base.
8. Adhered coordinating blue paper for the rest of the background.
9. Cut teal CS to match the sketch then stamped the flower. 
10. colored the petals and stem metallic white but not too much.
11. Using VersaMark Ink I stamped the background for the flower and let it dry for the watermark look.
12. Rounded two corners and mounted that onto black CS using the same method as the teal. 
13. Adhered that to card base.
14. Made banner with sentiment and added that to the card too.

And that is all she wrote.  I really hope you enjoy the design and Happy Birthday Monika!! This one is for you!!

Take care all and have a great night!!

All the best,
Shawna

Anything Goes.. Well... Okay!!

Today my card will be all about Easter.  What a wonderful time of year of rejoicing, refreshing, and renewing ourselves for now and the future. So I thought this card is applicable. I am also entering the Always Playing with Paper Challenge #28: Anything goes.  It also happens to be their one year anniversary and for that I congratulate you on a job well done and wishing all the best for years to come!!

Entering Challenge:
Always Playing with Paper: Anything Goes

This is my submission for the challenge!! I hope you like it!!

Fun Easter card with Jelly bean background.

The word 'easter' is done using a
technique called partial die cutting.

This card has a ton of dimension. 

Jelly bean background is so colorful and cheery.

Okay so this is how I did it:

1. I stamped the jelly bean background stamp by Peddler's Pack.  I just love the background stamps from Peddler's Pack.. All you have to do is essentially color.. The shading is all done for you on the stamp in the form of stippling. Awesome effect with awesome results. Trimmed the image to the shape of the card. Approx. 6" x 4". 
2. Then I used the alphabet dies and spelled 'easter' using a technique called partial die-cutting. Click here to see how to do it.. Adhered it to the background image with dimensional adhesive. 
3. Stamped the lilies using Stampin' Up!'s Fifth Avenue Floral (retired) colored and fussy cut the images. Again, using dimensional adhesive I popped the lilies up for dimension and some differentiation from the flowers to the background. 
4.  On the bottom of the card the three words that wrap up Easter so perfectly were stamped in black. These sentiments came from the Stampin' Up! set Indescribable Gift..
5. Added some dots to separate the words.

I just love the way this turned out and hope you do too. Thank you so much for stopping by and hope to see you soon. Now it is time to play with my son!! Yippee!! 

All the best, 

Shawna 

Spotting Flamingos

Hello Again!
For today I am entering the Gina K. Design weekly challenge with a technique called spotlighting. Click here to see more. This previous post shows a similar approach to spotlighting.

I am also entering Always Playing with Paper challenge #27.  I took a different approach to the sketch; I used the spotlighting for the banners and the coconut drink for the additional image. Just wanted to think outside the box (no pun intended.).

Entering Challenges:
Always Playing with Paper #27
Gina K. Designs weekly Challenge (STV15MON12)- Seeing Spots!

       

Well here it is.. Very fun and very colorful.. BTW I would love that yummy drink!

The color scheme from Always Playing with Paper
and the spotlight technique from Gina K.Designs make a perfect match

Showing the spotlight technique
Card Size: 4.25" x 5.5"

Tropical drink image seems to anchor the sentiment. 

  So this is how I created it:

1. Stamped and masked the flamingos and the background palm trees using Gina K. Designs 'Aloha' stamp set
2. This step got a bit tricky at first. How am I going to exactly duplicate the flamingos I just stamped on my card to another sheet of paper so I could color it? Well after a couple of minutes I thought 'of course', the printer.  So went to my printer and made a copy. 
3. Now the image is ready to color. I used the color palette from Always Playing with Paper. 
4. Mounted the colored image onto gray paper and added it to the card.
5. On a separate sheet of paper stamped the sentiment and coconut drink.
6. Colored the coconut and fussy cut.
7. Cut out the sentiment and adhered it to the card.
8. Then lastly, adhered the coconut drink image under the sentiment.

Well that brings me to the end of this post.. Thank you so much for stopping by and do hope to see you soon!

Take care all,

Shawna 

Poppies

Hello Again!

For this post I am entering (unlike my last post) Always Playing with Paper Challenge. I really like this blog because their challenges are like a one-stop shop.  In that they give you a color and sketch challenge. 

Entering challenge Always Playing with Paper #26

This card features lots of poppies and when I say a lot I mean it. Each poppy was colored by the now discontinued Stampin' Up! Blendabilities markers. Which is too bad they seemed to be such a good product. And knock on wood I haven't had any issues.

On with card, first I used my teal CS and bleached it using the Hardwood Stamp by Stampin' Up! then distressed the edges. For the poppies, I colored and cut each flower and assembled them to form a bouquet-like configuration. Added the gray banners using patterned paper for interest and the sentiment banner plain white. 

Stamped wood background using bleach.
When bleaching CS you never know what color you will come with.
In this case it turned out perfectly! Phew!

Card Size: A2- 4.25" x 5.5"
The layers of poppies and banners intertwine
for a more cohesive look. 

The layers of poppies add tons of dimension. However, I didn't want to adhere the poppies then banners on top. Instead I layered the flowers with the banners. This way the banners wouldn't hide too much of the poppies. As for the color combination, I just think it is wonderful and will definitely be used again! Well I guess I am short and to the point tonight.. I hope you have a wonderful night and we will see you real soon.

All the best,
Shawna