SOS572: Up, Up and Away

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, the challenge is to make a card that contains something you'd see in the sky. Such as? Well, there are birds, butterflies, balloons, airplanes, a rainbow, the sun, the moon, satellites, or... in this case... clouds!

Having decided on clouds, I had some trouble choosing WHICH of the many well-hoarded, cloud-bedecked patterned papers I should use, so I finally chose two for the card and one to stage with. I broke out one of my all-time favorite classic stamp sets (and yes, by "classic" I mean "OLD" lol!) My Favorite Things' Polynesian Paradise, colored the adorable hula girl, a pineapple, some flowers and YES, why not add a handsome toucan for one more sky-centric element.

 Hop over to SOS to see what the rest of the crew have made to inspire you. Challenge 572: Up, Up and Away runs until the evening of Monday May 4th, so you have lots of time to join the fun.

Treeskirt Tic-Tac-Toe

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is kind of like "Beach Blanket Bingo"...but Christmassy... and with a lot more embellishments! We'd love for you to join us; all you have to do is pick a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and create a lovely new holiday card featuring all three elements in that row. 

and here's my card:

I chose the left-hand column, which gave me: Animal + Diecut + Red, so I went with the sweet bunny (plus a couple of trees) from Pretty Pink Posh's Holiday Pals stamp set; Diecuts in the form of Penny Black's Trees and Hills in the background and MFT's Happy Holidays frame; and three different patterned papers (plus a mat) in Red. 

I'm joining the Christmas in July fun at Addicted to Stamps and More, which runs until July 29th if you'd like to, as well!

JB2515: Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe runs until the evening of Wednesday, July 30th. Join us today at Jingle Belles!

SOS515: Put Your Best Face Forward

Time for a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, and if you've surmised, from the title, that the brief is to include a human face on your card, well done, you're exactly right!

Something I learned while choosing supplies for this challenge is that I have A LOT more cute critter stamps than I do humans. I'm sure that says something about me, but let's move on! I've definitely had MFT's Polynesian Paradise stamp set for years and years (possibly a decade?) and I suspect it's probably out of print, but I still love it and use it, as you can see. This time I stamped all the elements on scraps of ancient, Basic Grey not-quite-solid-colored papers, then added a bit of shading on top with my Prismacolor pencils. I diecut that super-chunky Lawn Fawn sentiment twice, so that I could add the white layer behind the red and have it pop out a bit more. I also used a black brush pen to add just a tiny bit of depth around the edges for the same reason. The square panel with the foliage is from a company called Paperhouse and I have no idea how I came to have it; behind that is more Basic Grey solid-not-solid goodness. 

SOS's Put Your Best Face Forward challenge runs until the evening of February 26 and we'd love for you to join the fun!

SOS513: Once Upon a Time

Welcome to the first Shopping Our Stash challenge of 2024. If you've guessed by the title that we're looking for cards and projects inspired by fairy tales, well done, we can get right to what I made:

I think MFT's Rainbows & Unicorns stamp set is out of print, but I still love it; it's hard to imagine a better set of images for this challenge, and it also has half a dozen cute sentiments in the perfect font. I colored with my Tombows and was able to sneak in an Eyelet Outlet Frog Brad, a Sun, plus the Crown & Tiara set. I cut the clouds out of some uber-cute Simple Stories paper, added scrap mats and used up the last scrap of Creative Imaginations' paper, purchased when my eldest niece Riley (who's currently a senior in college!) was about nine and deeply into princesses. Luckily I now have grand-nieces (from the other side of the fam) who are the right age. 

The "Once Upon a Time" challenge at Shopping Our Stash runs until Monday evening, January 29th so why not unearth some of your older stash items and join the fun?

Gnome Alone

I come from a family that loves puns, and luckily that skill is appreciated in my role as an Eyelet Outlet Design Team Member. When I saw the adorable (g)new Gnome 2 Brads and Mushroom Washi Tape I couldn't wait to use them together with a suitably punny sentiment!

I couldn't decided whether to use the tape as a background or as part of my sentiment, so I decided to do both! I made two mini slimline cards, which each measure about 3.25 x 6.25". For the first, I applied the Mushroom Tape to some plain white cardstock, diecut the letters of "GNOME" (using Altenew's Bold Alphabet Die Set) added a pair of Gnomes to the M and E, and set the whole thing against a strip of Grass Washi. For the second card, I framed a single strip of the same Mushroom Tape with strips of Glitter Red Washi and Brick Tape, then stamped the sentiment and the little mushroom house from Lawn Fawn's Gnome Sweet Gnome stamp set. I added a Gnome 2 Brad in front of the house, and a Sun and Cloud Brad to the scene. Since I had used the Red, Green and Brown Gnomes from the set, it seemed wrong not to make an extra little tag for the Blue Gnome to inhabit; it features the same Mushroom and Grass Tapes, plus letters cut from Wood Washi (using My Favorite Things' "Connected" Alphabet) and a couple of Bee Brads up at the top.

If you can't get enough Gnomes, there are still a few original EO Gnome Brads in stock and they're on sale... while they last!