Saturday Spotlight - Coffee Time

The most recent challenge over on Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential is to use 'coffee' in our projects! Perfect for me since I haven't used my Warm Happiness set nearly enough!!!

I had this great distress ink background sitting around just waiting for the perfect card. When my son critiqued my card he laughed and said that it looked like I had spilled coffee all over it!!

Off to see what other coffee cards were created!!

Check back, there will be plenty of posts today ... I made a swack of challenge cards yesterday!! !

Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Blue Topaz

So this week's challenge at Saturday Spotlight is to use our birthday colors. Well, aparently mine is Topaz Blue! Now, I'm not totally sure what exact color that is so I decided to just go with the flow!! I used a piece of Madagasgar Mint paper (from BasicGrey's Marrakech collection) and heat embossed this awesome image (from smARTworks). Added a sentiment, some half pearls, and some wide grosgrain ribbon and the card is complete! A Clean and Simple card!! It was such a blast to make that I pulled out a piece of Mandarin Slice paper (also from Marrakech - BasicGrey) and did it all over again!! Supplies: Stamps - SBO Cookie Plate #2 - Vintage Variety (smARTworks), Birthday Basics (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Jet Black (on blue card), Chocolate Chip (on orange card); Paper - Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Madagasgar Mint and Manadrin Slice (BasicGrey); Other - white embossing powder, half pearls (K&Co.), brown rhinstones (Me and My Big Ideas), wide grosgrain ribbon (Papertrey INk).

Thanks for dropping in today!! I hope you have a wonderfully crafty day!

Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Slick

The latest challenge at Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential was to use something "slick" on our cards - like slick cardstock, embellishments, acetate paper, crystal lacquar, etc. I knew instantly I wanted to do T!m Holtz' technique where he puts inks on photo paper and squirts the blobs with a can of air to make splats! You can see his tutorial HERE - he'll explain it much better than I ever could!! So I made this tag to put on a gift for my mom (who is feeling down these days). I then thought it could be a focal point for a card ... hence the stamped black butterflies behind it. What do you think....keep it as a tag to attach to a gift or add it to a card??? Supplies: stamps - Butterfly (Rubber Stampede), Paper Tray (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Whisper White, More Mustard (both Stampin' Up!),red is from my scrap bin; Ink - Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard, Real Red reinkers (Stampin' Up!), Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Other - Copics (Y13 and YR04 to add some shading to the butterfly), Dazzling Diamonds (SU!), black marker to make antenna, can of air, Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), chipboard, white grograin ribbon (SU! - which was colored with the two above Copic markers to match), Colluzle. Thanks for dropping in! Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Friendship

So this week over at Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential the challege is to "think of friendship" as a theme for a card. I instantly wanted to use one of these adorable Tilda images that a friend of mine sent me ... Hi Jessica!! I don't have a ton of Copics but pulled what I did have out to color her in.

I needed some inspiration for the layout and when I saw the great one at Friday Sketchers I decided to go with that! I don't usually go with this kind of "collage style" but the samples I've seen by some increadibly talented ladies lead me to go in that direction.

I even used some of those ribbon silk flowers that I bought at Michaels. I tend to not use them (even though I have picked up a whole bunch) because I don't know how to get them adhered to the card without their "lumpy bases" making them stick up too far or look ugly! If anyone out there has some tips for me I'd be ever so grateful!! For these ones I bent the green "lumpy bases" to fold under the popped up Tilda panel and covered it with some extra cut out leaves.

Supplies: Tilda (Magnolia), Simple Little Things, Turning a New Leaf (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Jet Black, Antique Linen, Walnut Stain (Ranger); Paper -Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Mandrin Slice from Marrakech collection (BasicGrey), text paper (unknown from a friend - Hi Cameldiva!!); Other - markers (Copic), ribbon (Michaels), coluzzle, sewing maching and thread, flowers (Michaels, dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in! and thanks for leaving me a comment if you feel like it! Your comments are like nice little hugs :-)

Donelda

Pop Can Leaf - Made with Love

Well, I was browsing around looking at some different challenges and realized that I could combine Kelly's challenge over at KL Stampin' N Scrappin where she wanted us to "Go Green" - use something you might have thrown away. I had an instant idea which I knew would work perfectly for the Saturday Spotlight challenge which was to "Mess Around" by distressing. I started out by pulling out my Ranger Distress Inks. Oh how I love them so!! But I find that I really need time to use them as I get so carried away. Creating one background leads to another and so on until I've created a dozen or so. (you'll be seeing all the others in the weeks to come LOL!!). Once I got the main background completed, then it was off to get green. I grabbed a pop can that was destined to be .... recycled... we don't just throw out our pop cans but I figure it still counts, right??!! I cleaned it out and then cut it until I had a flat silver surfact. Then I ran it through an embossing folder and punched out this devine little leaf! Love it!! I cut my circles, distressed everything a bit, sewed around the largest circle, distressed the main card base and then pulled the whole thing together! I certainly could have used my alcohol inks on these babies too...but I wanted this one to remain silver for today! Here is a close-up of the leaf. You'd never know that was a popcan!! Look at all that yummy metal in our homes just waiting to be used!! And you know that I was able to emboss and punch out a bunch of different shapes so you will also see those in the future!! Supplies: Fruitful, Background Basics: Text Style, Fancy Flourishes (all Papertrey Ink), Ink - Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Peeled Paint, Broken China (all Ranger), Black; Paper - Kraft, White, green scrap (unknown); Other - pop can, Coluzzle, Fancy Corners embossing folder (Provo Craft), Leaves die (Provocraft), Cuttlebug (Provocraft), sewing machine, white thread, dimensional, sponges. Now I must go and see what everyone else did for both challenges!! MMmmmmm, what other 'throw aways' will everyone use, and will anyone else combine these challenges.... Have a great evening!! Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Around the House

The recent Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential challenge was to use a household item on your creation that is not a craft item.

Well, I walked around my house and then it hit me.... this would be a great idea!

Hehehehehe!!!

Supplies: Stamps - Paper Tray, Basic Backgrounds:Retro (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Whisper White, Kraft (Stampin' Up!); Ink - Creamy Caramel (Stampin Up!), Jet Black (Ranger); Other - bandage, oval die (Spellbinders), dimensionals.

Hope you are feeling great!! This is a long weekend for us here in Alberta - tomorrow is Family Day so I am hoping to get some more crafting in this weekend!! Make sure you drop back in to check!!

Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Sunshine!

Ahhhh, a challenge I could get used to - Sunshine!! Over on the Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential blog, the challenge is to make cards that represent sunshine!

I've had this stamp from The Stamp Barn for a long time and I rarely ever use it. When I read that the challenge was about sunshine I thought I should dust it off and do something with it.

I stamped the image and then colored it in with my SU markers and a crayola blue marker (because I don't have a blue in SU that I liked for this image). Then, I used this great yellow designer paper from Creative Imaginations. I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture (maybe if you click on it and look at it larger) but there are embossed circles on it. It is actually Lego paper!! I found it a while ago and bought it for my son to use (he likes talking photos of all his great Lego creations and I thought he could use these pages to scrapbook them) but he has not gotten around to using this yellow up (there are other Lego colors). And besides, the yellow matched well!!

The card was too CAS so I decided to add the blue frame piece. I had to cut it from white cardstock and color it in with the blue crayola marker. I worried it would look like a 5 year old colored it, but it looks fine once the ink dried. I added this perfect sentiment and cut out the sun and popped it up on dimensionals!!

Supplies: Stamps - DES 037 CU (The Stamp Barn), Scattered Showers (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Jet black (Ranger); Paper - Really Rust, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Classic Yellow Brick(Creative Imaginations); other - Really Rust and Summer Sun markers (SU!), Blue Lagoon marker (Crayola), dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Make a Scene

This week's challenge from the Saturday Spotlight blog was to Make a Scene. I pulled out one of my favorite sets, Of a Feather by Memory Box and got to work. I stamped the various trees onto a piece of white cardstock. Then I ripped some green scrap designer paper and added it as hills. I re-stamped the trunks over top of the hills. Then I added the sun and birds. I colored in the trees and red birds with Copic markers. The sky is colored with my chalks - haven't pulled them out for a long time. Might have to challenge myself to that next week!! I stamped the sentiment (Beyond Basic Borders by Papertrey Ink) and colored it with the same chalk but it looked so lonely and boring. So, I added one of the red birds to the letter 'o' and I boxed it in. Of course I had to go back and add a box around the main image!!! Off to see all the other 'scenes' that were created for this challenge. Thanks for dropping in! Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Dress Up Those Trees

I wanted to play this week at the Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential. Last week`s challenge was soooo much fun (It was to make a Halloween but you weren`t allowed to use halloween stamps ... see my card HERE).

This week the challenge was to Dress Up a Tree. I was tempted to pick the branch from Papertrey Ink (either Out on a Limb or Take a Bough) and dress it up for Christmas but I just wasn`t feeling Christmassy. Then I thought about some of my Stampin`Up! trees and even my smARTworks tree....but I`ve been playing with them recently. I wanted to use something different, one of my lesser used stamps. That`s when I saw my Of A Feather set from Memory Box. Perfect!!

So, how did I dress up my tree? I decided to dress up the leaves in some great fall colors using my Copic markers. It turned out even better than I had expected -- gotta love it when that happens.

The rest of the card is pretty straight forward. I love using these die cuts to create great shaped cards (see THIS one as another one of my examples).

Supplies: Stamps-Of a Feather (Memory Box), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Brilliance Jet Black (Tsukinso), Versamark; Paper - Kraft, Vanilla (Stampin`Up!), Bitty Dots in Summer Sunrise (Papertrey Ink); Other - markers (Copic), Oval Die, Label Dies One (Spellbinders), Chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon (Stampin`Up!).

Okay, now I`m off to see all the other dressed up trees.

Thanks for dropping in!!

Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Halloween ... but not Halloween

(Note that this is my 3rd post for today...cruise down to see them all) So there is a new challenge blog out there called Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential . What a great name hey!! It sounds like their challenges are going to be lots of fun...like their very first one - It's Halloween...but NOT! They started out with a bang challenging us to create a halloween card....but without using halloween stamps!! What!!?? At first I was a bit concerned that I would never figure out a way to do it but laying in bed late last night it came to me....my favorite scribble cat would be perfect!! I decided to go with a Michelle Zindorf brayering style and add the cat in front of a full moon. My favorite part are the clouds in the sky....I did that by swiping my Chocolate Chip ink pad directly onto the paper. I was just "winging it" so I was so glad it turned out. A few brads and a sentiment and voila, a halloween card without one halloween stamp used!! Supplies: Stamps - Scribble Cat (All Night Media), Everyday Flexible Phrases (Stampin' Up! retired); Paper - Whisper White, Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); Ink - Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip (SU!); Other - 1 1/4" circle punch, Post It notes, corner rounder, brads, sponges. I can't wait to see what everyone else does. And if this is the first challenge on the Saturday Spotlight blog, I can't wait to see what's next!! Donelda