Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Today, I have a card to share for the current Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

My inspiration came from the recent Stamp of Approval collection, which contained a border die that reminded me of the border die that I won a long time ago but had never used ... until now.

Materials used: 
Dies - Lace Edger 2, Joanna Sheen Signature Dies; SSS stitched rectangle die
Stamps - All you need is coffee, STAMPlorations/Shery Russ
Patterned paper for paper-pieced cup and background panel - DCWV
Ink - Versafine sepia; Antique linen distress ink
Colouring medium for the coffee in my cup - Prismacolors

MCV100 Merry Christmas

I'm popping in with a quick post and a card celebrating the 100th Christmas challenge party at Muse: ChristmasVisions. Congrats to Ardyth and the inspirational muses.

Here's my card:

Below is the inspiration card from our Christmas Muse, Chriss:

I copied all of Chriss's elements: flower arrangement with one white poinsettia and three red ones plus greenery, blue background and gold embossed sentiment. I stamped the white poinsettia (Winnie and Walter) in Antique linen distress ink, masked it off and then stamped the red poinsettias and holly (Uniko) using dye inks (Frayed leaf - Altenew, Pale tomato - HA and Ruby red - Altenew). I coloured in the white poinsettia and the background using Prismacolors. The sentiment stamp is an older one by Elle's Studio. I adhered my die cut panel (SSS stitched rectangle) flat onto my card base.

I'm also linking up my card at:

SSS Wednesday - Use more than one stamp

ABC Christmas - K for Keep it simple

ATSM - 293 Holiday

It's also time for the May Rudolph Days at Maureen's blog

Best birthday wishes

Here's one of four cards that I created using the stamps from an older Stamp of Approval Collection by Catherine Pooler.

I stamped the medallions using Catherine Pooler inks onto a large panel and then cut up the panel to create my four cards. Since I'm rather in a rush right now, I will share the other cards in my next blog post. I white heat embossed the Birthday wishes sentiment onto a snippet of black cardstock and the  Best sentiment was die cut from another snippet using a die that was included in my SOA box. 

I'm linking up my card at:

Allsorts - 9th birthday celebration

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes (no toppings for me, 

although you could argue that I created my own patterned paper LOL)

Pixie's Snippets Playground -  #326 Alwaya anything goes with snippets

More butterflies

I recently purchased this beautiful butterfly stamp by STAMPlorations and could not wait to use it on a card, just in time for the current CAS Mix Up challenge as well as the current STAMPlorations linky party.

After stamping the image in Archival black ink, I applied a layer of  Crazing Distress collage medium over my card strip. Once this layer was dry, I added rainbow colours to the butterflies using distress crayons and then pulled out the colour to the rest of my card strip using a moist finger. I ran the buttefly strip and a panel of black cardstock through my Cuttlebug with my STAMPlorations crazy double running stitch rectangle die. Before adhering the strip to my panel, I added two strips of washi sheet (Lifestyle Craft) behind my butterflies. To bring in a little more colour, I cut my white card base slightly wider than the standard A2 size and used my distress crayon to colour the edges.

I'm linking up my card at:

CAS Mix Up - I used distress crayons, stamping, 

die cutting, collage medium (crazing), washi

STAMPlorations - Things with wings

STAMPlorations - Never-ending 

anything goes with STAMPlorations

Double twofer butterflies

My sister Ineke is visiting and we're having lots of fun crafting together. We have set up our crafting table just outside of my craftroom on the terrace where it's cooler than inside, while we are still close to any materials we may need.

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to participate in some challenges together, which is why we decided to create some cards using the butterfly stamps from the Beautiful Day stamp set that came in the SSS card kit that I purchased last month.

First up, I have the cards that my sister created.

She stamped the butterflies and coloured them in using Prismacolors.

The happy birthday sentiment is from a small but useful sentiment set by Simon Says Stamp (Birthday messages). The tiny envelope is from a stamp set by Whimsy Stamps (Smarty pants).

The strip of patterned paper is from the Bubblegum Hills Collection by KaiserCraft.

And here's my own twofer.

For my A2 card, I stamped the leaf images and coloured them in using Prismacolors and then added the sentiment and butterfly. I matted my panel using one of the pretty Lawn Fawn papers from the kit.

For my second card, I wanted to show that a small stamp like this butterfly can be used in many ways. I used a pencil to lightly draw in some grid lines onto my square panel, and then used an acrylic grid block to do my rainbow stamping using Catherine Pooler inks (Sauna, Lemon ice, Grass skirt, All that jazz, Juniper mist). The sentiment is from Everyday Sayings by Hero Arts set and was stamped in Versafine black and clear heat embossed. I die cut my panel using a stitched square die by SSS and foam mounted it to my square 4½" card base.

We are both linking up our cards at:

Twofer card challenge - #5 Butterflies

SSS Wednesday - Use more than one stamp

STAMPlorations - Things with wings

Christmas recycling

This past fortnight, the lovely Jingle Belles have encouraged us to recycle and/or upcycle our stash to create a Christmas card to celebrate Earth Day. I intended to play along, but my card did not quite come together, until I saw Kimberly's card for MCV99 earlier today.

I focused on the embossed base (I used a stencil by SSS), the layered topper with the scalloped border and the use of ribbon. My topper was cut from some recycled wrapping paper. To make handling the delicate paper easier, I adhered it to a panel of double sided tape before cutting it to size with my paper trimmer. My scalloped panel was die cut using one of the Noelle cutaways dies by Winnie and Walter. The green ribbon is also recycled. I thought about stamping my sentiment, but since I also wanted to play along at Merry Monday, I used this Penny Black die cut from my UFO box and applied a little Inka gold in copper using my finger.

I'm linking up my card at:

Jingle Belles - Earth Day

Muse: ChristmasVision #99

Merry Monday - #288 No stamping

CAS mixed media birthday

I have a fun birthday card to share with you today, based on a very easy mixed media technique that I learned about in the recent mixed media class at StampNation. To create a background like this one, you only need some acrylic paints and an old credit card to scrape the paint across your card surface.

I die cut my panel using one of the Crazy running double stitch dies by CUTplorations and adhered it to my base card. The birthday die is also by CUTplorations, while the wishes stamp and the arrow stamp are from a stamp set by Catherine Pooler (Simply the Best).

I'm linking up my card at:

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Cards in Envy - It's Birthday party time

Never-ending Anything Goes with STAMPLorations products