Share the Joy challenge #4 - Happy Harvest

Have you played along in the Share the Joy challenges?  They are fun challenges where you can choose to do the sketch or the other challenge (sometimes a color combo, sometimes an inspirational picture, etc...), or you can combine both of them together.  

I decided to try combining both of them this time - the sketch and keeping it CAS.  I watercolored a circle of white cardstock with some yellow and orange inks and glued it behind the beautiful tree silhouette circle.  The tree die cut is from Taylored Expressions and it's called Beauty Lies Within 2.  The sentiment is from the Autumn Wreath set from Taylored Expressions.  The camera had a hard time focusing for this picture so that is why the tree looks a little blurry.  Just pretend the wind is making the branches move (*wink*).

Go check out the challenge over on the Share the Joy blog.  Make a card using the sketch or make a CAS (clean and simple) card and enter it into the challenge.  You could be the next winner of a fun shopping spree!  :-)

Share the Joy Challenge #3 - Fall Prairie

It's time to play with the Share the Joy challenge again, and this time I've decided to go with the tic-tac-toe game instead of the sketch.  I chose to go with the embossing (by using an embossing folder), sequins, and twine.  

I started by sponging green, yellow, and orange inks onto some cardstock, and then I ran it through an embossing folder.  I used this gorgeous new embossing folder from Taylored Expressions called Prairie.  I then stamped the sentiment (Autumn Wreath stamp set from Taylored Expressions), added the sequins, and wrapped the twine around the bottom.

Go check out the challenge over on the Share the Joy blog.  You can do the sketch or the tic-tac-toe challenge, or you can do both!  It's a fun take on doing challenges!  :-)

Share the Joy Challenge #2

I'm playing in the second challenge over on the Share the Joy blog, and I decided to use the sketch to inspire my card today.  I pulled out an old Taylored Expressions set called What's Cooking and colored the mixer with Copic markers.  I used some papers from the Buttercup 6x6 pad (lilybee designs) and I added that fun sentiment at the bottom.  I love that sentiment!  LOL

I want to extend some big congratulations to my friend Chrissy!  I challenged her to play in the Share the Joy challenge last week, and she won the very first challenge!!!!!  Yay!!!!!  How fun is that???  So now I challenge YOU to play along, as maybe YOU will be the winner of this second challenge!  How cool would that be?

Winner of BLOG CANDY!!

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Thank you all so much for leaving comments on my cards this week.  As promised, I have collected all the names that were entered for the blog candy, and a winner has been picked. 

Congratulations, BARBIE!  You have won this sheet of fall stamps from Art Neko!  I didn't see your email address in your comment, so please contact me and we can make arrangements to get these stamps in the mail to you.  

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.  It looks like we have a few more days of hot weather, and then maybe, just maybe, we'll have some fall-like weather moving in at the end of the week.  Oooooohhhhhhhh, I can't wait!  :-)

Bamboo Cards - Two Ways

Happy Saturday!  Did you sleep late like I did today?  Ahhhhhh, such a wonderful way to start the day!  :-)

I've got a couple of fun bamboo cards to share with you today.  These bamboo rectangles are actually part of a set of stamps intended for bookmarks, but I wanted to see how they would look on some cards.  I started by stamping the bamboo rectangles with permanent black ink onto some white cardstock, and then I covered them with some Color Burst watercolor powders and misted them with water.  It's so much fun to play with the Color Bursts because you just never know what you are going to end up with.

I let those pieces dry completely and then I cut them out.  The colors of the powders were a perfect match to some of the papers in the cardstock and envelope assortment offered by Art Neko.  I pulled out the blue, neon yellow, and green cardstocks and cut them to size.  

For the blue card, I die cut some bamboo leaves from black cardstock and tucked them in behind the colored bamboo panel.  The "friend" kanji is from the Friendship, Thank You, and Get Well sheet from Art Neko.

The green card was stamped with the mini bamboo stamp from the Oriental Dragons and Geisha sheet (Art Neko) before I added the colored bamboo rectangle.  The "kindness" kanji is also from the Friendship, Thank You, and Get Well sheet at Art Neko.

Don't forget, you still have time to enter my blog candy before I pick a winner tomorrow.  Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win some free stamps from Art Neko!  Enjoy your weekend!

Share the Joy Challenge #1

Hi everybody!  There is a new challenge blog in town called Share the Joy, and I just had to play along with their very first challenge.  They offered a sketch challenge and a color challenge, and you could do either one or both.  I decided to try doing both, and I came up with this card.

I pulled out my Taylored Expressions die set called Bloom Where You're Planted, and I cut out some yellow flowers, some yellow flower centers, and some lime green leaves.  I then pressed the small circles (the flower centers) into a yellow ink pad to make them a shade darker and then I adhered them to the centers of the flowers.  

I found a chevron stencil and sponged some soft gray ink through the stencil onto some white cardstock.  This was glued down to a gray card base.  I added a small gray banner to the edge of the panel with the flowers and the die cut "hello" to the side of that.  I then wrapped some baker's twine around the top of the card.  

I love this color combo!  I never would have come up with these colors on my own, so it was fun to break out of my box and do something new and different.  Go check out the challenge over at Share the Joy and play along!  

Geisha in Aqua

 

I've been coloring some more with my Polychromos pencils, and this time I used a beautiful geisha stamp from Art Neko. This one can be found on this sheet at Art Neko, and I stamped it onto some Canson sketch paper and colored it with shades of aqua and red. These colors coordinate beautifully with the aqua cardstock from Art Neko, which you can find here. I added some bold red strips behind the image for a fun graphic effect.

Did you see the BLOG CANDY that I'm offering? You still have time to enter, so go check out this post and leave a comment with your email address. You could win some free Art Neko stamps!

Two Versions of Framed Bearded Iris

Hi friends!  Today I'm sharing two different versions of the same stamp.  I used the beautiful Framed Bearded Iris and Butterfly stamp from Art Neko and colored them both with Polychromos pencils.  These were carefully colored to match two of the purple cardstocks from the cardstock and envelope package offered by Art Neko.  The top one is more of a fuchsia color and the bottom one is a softer lavender color.

Did you see the BLOG CANDY that I'm offering?  You still have time to enter, so go check out this post and leave a comment with your email address.  You could win some free Art Neko stamps!