Two days ago, I woke up with ideas for this month's blog hop. I wanted to try the watercolor technique with the Spruce and Sprigs stamps, and it took awhile before I got anything I was happy with. I tried painting directly on the stamp with watercolor paints which I've see done on the card blogs with great effect. I never managed to get the right consistency, so I went back to using the Papertrey inks and spritzing them with water. I also added water directly to the watercolor paper before stamping.

The inspiration piece for this month uses pretty non-traditional colors, but I ended up liking them a lot. 

Here's the first of two cards I created with the watercolored images.

I cut the watercolored piece with the Stitched Tag die and adhered it to a Tropical Teal card. Then I added a die cut sentiment (Christmas Cheer) and a snowflake (old Sizzix die) from silver adhesive paper and some sequins. The "Merry" came from the Stylish Sentiments: Holiday set from several years ago. I tied two different kinds of silver twine through the tag to finish it off. I also added some Clear Star Gelly Roll pen to the sprigs. 

Only one card can be posted for the blog hop, so I thought I was done, but as I was cleaning up, I picked up another piece of the watercolored paper, and came up with another card, which I like just as much.

Most of the supplies are the same. The two stitched rectangle dies are from Simon Says and they're added to a Rustic White card base. 

You can find more holiday inspiration on Nicole's blog right here.

On this week of Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S., the Ten Things prompt is so appropriate:  10 Things You're Thankful For. I have a lot more than ten, but these came to mind in a matter of minutes.

1. Our health
2. Our family
3. A wonderful marriage
4. A warm and comfortable home
5. Good friends
6. The library
7. Retirement
8. Crafting space and crafting time
9. Photography
10. The internet—source of inspiration and ongoing learning

And a big part of the inspiration I get comes from this wonderful blogging community, so this card's for all of you! Thanks for visiting, for taking the time to comment, and for including me in your blogging family.

All the supplies except the card (Memory Box) came from the November Simon Says Card Kit. I'm linking this to the Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Thanks/Thanksgiving. 

Hope your week is off to a good start!

It's been quite awhile since I participated in a card challenge, but the fall inspiration at Card Concept caught my eye this week.

It's an interesting challenge since you must identify your entry by its style. Typically that would be an easy one for me since most of my cards fit the category of Clean and Simple. But not this one, which was made specifically for a friend who definitely falls into the more Shabby Chic /Country category. I suppose it could also fit the Layered Clean and Simple style, but the doily, the twine bow, and button seem to put it in the Shabby Chic category.

When I was die cutting and coloring images for Skylar, Ella, and Caleb's Halloween cards, I die cut and colored some of the other images from Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers by Papertrey Ink. I was happy to have this one already for a card when it came time. I die cut the Shaker Friendship Jar, backed it with clear cardstock and bumped it up with some fun foam before adding the fall images. The patterned paper is from a Papertrey Ink pack called Autumn Abundance—just perfect!

My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have suffered losses in the horrendous massacres in Paris this weekend. The world can be a very frightening place these days, but I do believe that it's important to carry on so that the terrorists do not win this battle of fear and intimidation. Nonetheless, it gives one pause.

This month's inspiration piece for the Papertrey Ink blog hop is just gorgeous, and although I am so not ready to think about Christmas, I really wanted to create something for the blog hop.

Right before we left for Chicago, I grabbed a little time and sat down to make a tag. It gave me the perfect opportunity to use the new Mini Market Kit:  Holiday Folk. From the inspiration piece, I used the tag, and the color combination—Pure Poppy and New Leaf.

I picked up a pack of these beautiful gold embossed tags in August at The Paper Source thinking they'd be great for the holidays. I stamped the tree and the sentiment embellishment from the Holiday Folk set, and the sentiment from the 2009 Holiday Tag collection. I colored the berries with a red gel pen and covered the stars with some glittery stars from my stash.

I also added some Clear Star Gelly Roll along the branches and outlined the sentiment embellishment and put a dot of gold in the tiny stars with a gold pen. It's a bit easier to see here than in the first photo. You can check out other Christmasy creations right here on Nicole Heady's blog.

It's been awhile since I've entered a card in a challenge, although I do keep track of them in Feedly. Yesterday I saw two different challenges, and knew immediately what I wanted to do. (Rather unusual, I must say.) The first is a "word" challenge and the other is a sketch challenge.

For once, the card materialized just the way I envisioned it. It was a quick one, once the watercolor background dried.

I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and spread some Kertake watercolors around. I have several different kinds of watercolor, but these seem to work best for this technique. All the stamps are from a small Simon Says set, "You." Usually I use the coordinating die, but this time the word in the different fonts worked perfectly for the sketch. The last part of the sentiment was white embossed on black paper, and it was all mounted on Orange Zest and then on a Summer Sunrise card. I decided I didn't want the star covering part of the sentiment so I took a little liberty with the sketch.

You can check out the other entries for CAS(E) this Sketch here, and for Caseology here.

Shortly before we left on our summer travels, I purchased a wonderful stamp with a graphic leaf design from Simon Says ("One With Nature"). I'm in need of several birthday cards for September birthdays, so it seemed to be a good stamp to put to use. I'm really pleased with the results. Both are for good friends (one female and one male.) The stamp worked well for both.

The first one meets the challenge at Less is More this week. It's a color challenge of green and gold.

After gold embossing the leaf on watercolor paper, I used my Kuretake Gansai watercolors to color the leaf. The card is from Memory Box. I would love to find more of these in a variety of colors, but a search on the internet doesn't produce much. I'm guessing they've been discontinued. They're a wonderful cardstock, colored on the outside with a bright white interior. The gold paper framing the watercolor is from Paper Source, and the sentiment is from Papertrey's "Petite Pots." (Also a new stamp set ordered before vacation.)

This shows the lovely gold much better. 

This seemed a bit feminine, so for our other friend, I stamped the leaf in black, and colored it with some watercolor markers Sarah and Adam gave me for Christmas—Akashiya SAI. This time I mounted it on a scrap piece of black card stock and then to a Hero Arts kraft card.

We're off to an annual Labor's Day barbecue at friends–always held on Sunday rather than the actual holiday. It's hot and humid, much more like July than early September.

It's Mother's Day here in the States, and I've had a lovely day—flowers, phone calls, Face Book compliments, and a lovely afternoon at my sister and brother-in-law's where we celebrated with Tracy's family.

I made just one card this year—for my mother-in-law. You couldn't find a more devoted mother anywhere, and she extends her love and devotion to her daughter-in-laws and son-in-law as well.

On my last trip to Buffalo Stamps and Stuff I picked up a Penny Black set ("Kind Words") that has a wide variety of sentiments. This one for Mother's Day is just perfect. The frame is cut from patterned paper by Amy Tangerine "Plus One" with the Monthly Moments Slide Frame die by Papertrey. I fussy cut the little flowers from "Happiness in Bloom" and adhered it all to the card front after scoring five lines. Two enamel dots filled the flower centers.

I'm linking this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Let's Get Sentimental." 

If you're celebrating Mother's Day, I hope it was a good one!

It's 90° as I write this. We've gone from winter to spring to summer in less than three weeks! It won't last, but I never complain about the heat. It does seem odd, however, to have turned on the air conditioning in my car this early in May. We won't do that in the house for awhile as it always cools down nicely at night in the spring.

We're off to help our friend, Bill, celebrate his retirement tonight. I hope he enjoys it as much as I do!

I started with a piece of white cardstock that I scored on the scoreboard every half inch. Then I used the Sentiment Splits die and backed the split with patterned paper from the Mini Market "Clipsters" kit from Papertrey Ink. The "Oh Yeah" die and stamp are from the same kit as is the sentiment on the bottom of the card. The starts are left over from die cutting the Simply Stars cover plate a long time ago. I layered three of the "Oh Yeah" dies to get some extra dimension.

I find it hard to believe given how many stamps sets I have that there are very few (I found two!) sentiment stamps for retirement. This one is from one of the first sets I purchased from Papertrey many years ago, "Mega Mixed Messages." The "Cheers" die cut and stamp are from Retro Birthday.

I'm linking this up to Virginia View's latest challenge "Layers and Dimensions."

It's been a long time since I posted a new card here. I made all the cards for March/early April birthdays and anniversaries before I left for Florida, and got this one done between our two trips. I love that the Retro Graduation and Retro Birthday die cuts/stamps work so well with the Zappy Birthday dies I bought a few months ago. This card is a birthday take on one Betsy Veldman created as a graduation card for the Papertrey release last month. It's a fun set that will work for almost anyone, but especially good for guys, teens, and kids (three of the harder groups to create for.)

I started with a piece of paper from the Comic Strip paper collection and cut two images of the skyline from black cardstock with the Zappy Birthday dies. The rest of the card was made with the Retro Graduation dies and Retro Graduation and Birthday stamps. I stamped the lined image on the main area of the sign with an old Hero Arts wooden stamp. The little stars were die cut with the Star Border die from Papertrey.

This gives you a better view of the dimension. 

Happy Birthday, Adam! I hope you have a great day!

I'm linking up with Virginia's View Challenge. I totally missed out on last month's since we were on the road, but I do love her challenges. This month it's Layers and Dimensions. This certainly fits.