SOS161 - Eat Five a Day

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is called Eat Five a Day - yes, we mean fruits and vegetables :) I think it's a perfect challenge for summer when we go fruit picking and also have all kind of goodies in our garden.
I'm a fruit person so for my card I used a blackberry image from Flourishes and colored it with Blendabilities markers. Papers are also from Stampin Up  - Moonlight collection

Challenges:
Sketch Saturday - Sketch
Love to Create - Bright and Sunny

SOS160 - CAS embossed cards

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to use something that you can't seem to put down, or put away. Something you are using a LOT lately.
Lately I've been watching Jennifer McGuire videos and creating lot of embossed backgrounds with watercolor papers and inks. So I turned couple of them into cards and here are the results:

and here is another bunch of embossed background papers:

Challenges:
Amusing Challenge - watercolor
Glitter n Sparkle - anything Goes
Fantasy Stampers - Anything Goes

Christmas tree in July

Today is a very special day for us, as we at Shopping Our Stash are teaming up with the Jingle Belles for a BONUS challenge. This special challenge is in addition to our regular Tuesday challenges. Those are still scheduled as normal, which is what makes this one a bonus! :)

Here's the scoop:
We'd like you to make a Christmas/Holiday/Winter card or project using something from your stash that is at least one year old. Please make sure to tell us what it is.

You can post your project BOTH here and over at the Jingle Belles blog.
Last time I went digging through my paper stash I realized I still have LOADS of old Christmas paper. So I decided to make them into flowers and attach them into a styrofoam tree form.

I used up 2 different partial packs of MME Christmas papers and then  - since I still had some space  - used some random sheets in similar colors. I used a Stampin Up Spiral flower die and Spellbinders pointy flower die.
I also planned to glimmer mist the whole tree to add shimmer, but since the project was more time consuming than I expected I didn't... but there is a lot of time till Christmas, right?
and here is a detailed look:

Challenges:
Fab 'n' Funky -  Christmas in July
Simply Create Too - Christmas in July
Dies R Us -  Christmas in July
Divas by Design - Flowers and Ribbon

SOS158 - Red & White purse

Good morning and Happy Canada Day to my fellow country men/women! :)
This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash  is to use Red/White/Blue or your country's flag colors.
And here is my Red & White Purse:

It's pretty big (as far as paper purses go) - made out of 12x12 piece of retired DP from Stampin Up. It would be great for smaller gift or bigger party favor.

Just Add Ink - Sketch Challenge

As a winner of one of the Just Add Ink challenges this month I had a fabulous opportunity to join them as a guest DT member.
This week's challenge is this simple sketch:

and here is what I came up with:

the background was made  Ink + Embossing folder technique from Jennifer McGuire's blog.
Then I embellished it with Stampin Up and other treasures from my stash :)

Challenges:
Penny's Challenge - Embossing
Stampin' Royalty - picture inspiration - inspired by colors and flowers
Deep Ocean Challenge - favorite color combo (turquoise/aqua with a touch of yellow and white)

SOS157 - Color my World / Snowflakes

It's Tuesday and that means a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash! This week's challenge is called Color My World and we want everyone to use their favorite color. Super easy, right?
My favorites are all shades of aqua, turquoise and teal and here is what I created:

all the white places are embossed with Shabby White Frantage embossing powder - super shiny. The seam binding started out as white and I colored it with Blendabilities marker. Sentiment is from SU.

Challenges:
Completely Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes
Christmas Stampin All Year Long - inspiration:

Masculine card in a box

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to use our oldest punch or die.

I used my old wavy border punch and created this masculine card in a box. Stamps are from various Stampin Up sets, papers are mostly SU too.
Fitztown Challenge - Masculine
Southern Girls - punches or dies (border punch and banner punch)
Try It On Tuesday - for the boys
Tuesday Throwdown - Celebration (Birthday)

Inspired by Nature and watercoloring

Here are 2 cards made with the same technique just different colors

First I created the softly colored backgrounds behind the flowers. I stamped the script stamp several times on a piece of watercolor paper with Versamark and embossed it with clear EP. Then I applied distress inks on a large acrylic block, sprayed them with water and the pressed the watercolor paper panel into the watery ink..dry and reapply as needed.
Then I inked the large flower stamp with SU markers, misted it with water and stamped. The clear embossed script I did at the beginning now creates an interesting pattern on the flowers. Then I just added a couple more splatters and script with distress inks slightly darker than the background.
Background is an embossed piece of Very Vanilla CS, card bases are Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow CS

Challenges:
Just Us Girls - Watercolor Stamping
Sweet Stampin - flowers
As You Like It - favorite embossing technique (emboss resist - love the white peeking through darker colors on the top)

Acacia Fairy in Blue

I was feeling blue (Avatar blue, not sad blue) so I colored The Acacia Fairy from Norma J Burnell (digi from Sweet Pea Stamps) in shades of blue and created this card:

Added Stickles and pearls on her wings for extra magic :) and here is a detail:

Challenges:
Sweet Pea Stampers - things with wings
Crazy Challenge - bingo - diagonal - lace, digi, die cut
Crafty Bloggers Network - bingo - die cuts, ribbon/lace, pearls

SOS154 - Critters Galore

It's Tuesday, and time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash. This week our theme is Critters, and we'd like you to use a pet or animal theme on your project.

I used one of my 3D decoupage sheets.. and here is the detail

 Challenges:
House Mouse & Friends - lots of layers
My Time To Craft - no designer paper
Sisterhood of snarky stampers - R is for Ribbon