Crazy Amigo Challenge

This week's Crazy Amigo challenge is to use quote stamps. For this first card, I used "Love" from Quietfire Design, in a clear embossing/resist technique with an Ecoline Watercolour Inks background, along with my very favourite Madonna and Child stamp from Toybox.

This card also uses the same clear embossing/resist technique, with a lace stamp from Paperbag Studios
and a quote stamp from Quietfire Design.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Ismaki Challenge

Here's my card for this week's Ismaki challenge sketch,
and below the card is their sketch.

I used a Paper Inspirations Santa stamp and one of my
favourite snowflake stamps from Impression Obsession.

This snowflake is a smaller version of the stamp I used

to create the Christmas gift tags just below this post.

Thanks for visiting!

Impression Obsession Team Challenge

Our team challenge this month is to create tags. For these Christmas tags, I used various Impression Obsession stamps with the Nestabilities Classic Circles set, a Cuttlebug die, and a Stampin' Up Round Tab Punch. Impression Obsession also has several "To and From" stamps to personalize the reverse of your tags.

This tag uses one of the Leigh Hannan Damask snowflakes with gold embossing powder and dimensional pearl paint. The sentiment is from the clear set "Mini Messages."

This tag uses a section of the Flower Background stamp, designed by Leigh Hannan, and this sentiment stamp. I added gold Stickles, and edged the circles with gold metallic ink.
This tag uses the Leigh Hannan Swirl Background stamp, which I think looks beautiful all on its own on an ornament shaped tag.

This tag uses the small Damask Snowflake, and
this sentiment stamp.
This tag uses the Small Leaf Wreath stamp and a sentiment
from the Mini Messages set.

This very simple tag was cut from a Cuttlebug die and stamped with the Swirl Background stamp, and embossed with Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder.

Please look to the right side of my blog, where you'll find clickable links to all other Impression Obsession designers' blogs, where you'll find more delectable tag ideas!

Thanks for visiting today.

Created By Hand Challenge

This week's Created by Hand challenge is to use walnut ink. The background for this card was created by mixing two colours of Ecoline watercolour ink with Winsor and Newton Iridescent Medium, spraying onto wet 140 pound Arches cold pressed Watercolour paper, then spraying droplets of reconstituted walnut ink crystals onto the still wet first layer. After it was dry, I stamped this beautiful new Quietfire Design sentiment stamp with Black Versafine Ink, then outlined the stamped layer with Krylon 18Kt gold leafing ink. I mounted the stamped layer on a a piece of formerly ecru cardstock I'd sprayed with walnut ink, then mounted both pieces on another piece of the prepared watercolour paper. After I mounted these on black cardstock, I added the organza ribbon and teapot charm.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.

Thank you

This week's Created by Hand challenge is to do a thank you card. For this one, I used a beautiful new hand lettered calligraphy stamp by Suzanne Canon. I decided that I wanted the lettering to be the focal point, so I kept the card simple, and simply outlined the Thank You piece with metallic ink. The punch is one of the new edge punches by Martha Stewart. Please believe me, this card is perfectly rectangular (lol). I'm away from home right now, and have no access to my scanner, of course, so I used my camera, and can never get a shot that perfectly captures the correct dimensions.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Remembering my friend Deb...

I created these cards remembering my dear friend Deb, who died on October 11th. during Breast Cancer Awareness month last year. This card will go to her husband Jamie, the love of her life.

I created the two following cards at the same time, with the same techniques, while I was enjoying time spent remembering her wisdom and her friendship. This all came about as a result of a card making celebration over at TwoPeas. I participated by creating a challenge for card makers. You can read about the challenge and see cards created for other wonderful women
right here at TwoPeas .

The stamps and the majority of supplies are from Quietfire Design. This is my Quietfire design team project for October. Thanks for stopping by and remembering with me today.

Christmas challenge

How LUCKY I am to be able to design for Impression Obsession! This month, we were challenged to create a Christmas "set" of some kind. I decided to do this set, using RED for this week's Arty Girlz challenge, and lots of Swarovski crystals (one of my favourite ways to add bling and texture) to fit with this week's Wednesday Stamper challenge, and vibrant metallic colours, to fit with this week's Crazy Amigo challenge. My set includes this little box with tiny gift cards. After temporarily removing all the hardware on the box, I sprayed it with white Gesso (Krylon) first, then painted the inside with Lumiere Metallic Silver, and the outside with Lumiere Metallic Crimson. After it dried, I lightly distressed it with sandpaper, then stamped all over with a Top Boss Tinted Embossing Pad and one of my favourite background stamps, this Swirls background here. Then I replaced the hardware (painted silver with a Krylon Silver Leafing Pen) and glued lots of Swarovski crystals for the necessary Christmas bling effect (lol).

I created the cards, with horizontal and vertical folds, to fit inside the little box, using the Leigh Hannan Holiday Set, and the Oblong Ornament, using silver embossing, StazOn stamping, and Tombow colouring,
then adding lots more Swarovski crystals.

I LOVE the holiday season, so it was pure bliss creating this set, which will be going to my daughter (who's raising four little boys, and studying full time at university, and too busy to create anything herself! lol).

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today, and please be sure to stop by to see the fabulous work of other Impression Obsession designers, who'll all be posting some time today:Daniela's, Dina's, ,Julie's, Kelli's, and Laura's.