12 Kits of Occasions - May Rewind

So its REWIND month at 12 Kits of Occasions and I'm playing along using the leftovers from the fabulous May kit sent by Joyce. My original Guest DT post featured six cards I made using this nautical masculine themed kit. 

I created a bunch of new cards this second time around and I STILL have a few bits and pieces left over! 

Thanks ladies for letting me play along with you guys again this month!

Coffee Lovers Bloghop

I'm playing along today with the coffee lovers' blog hop in celebration of National Coffee Day and joining the fun with fellow card-makers who share my love for COFFEE! 

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For my friends who visit my blog often, you may recognize a similar card I posted for the Make It Monday easel challenge earlier this month. You can see my original card HERE. It was so much fun to make and the recipient LOVED the unusual card design I decided to make another. I think the easel and chalkboard is a perfect compliment to coffee. Most of the cafes I've been in have some type of chalkboard on the premises or outside. 

I used PTI Love Latte set again and die cut and color a fun stack of coffee cups. I don't color with Copics a lot because its so hard to get the shading right sometimes. But this stack is so easy to color and I love coming up with wacky color combos. I heat embossed the outline of the cups in brown to make it easier to color. 

I created an easel by die cutting a portion of the bottom out with a Half and Half die. I stamped my sentiment in white and rubbed my ink pad along the sides of the black 'chalkboard' panel. 

I drank cappuccinos and lattes a lot back in the early 90s when these hot drinks first seemed to hit the scene. I never drank brewed coffee though until my first daughter was born and coffee helped me survive a baby and full time job. And then two years later, my twin girls were born and well, I grew quite dependent on coffee. If I'm cranky or in a bad mood, my girls will say to me 'Mommy, have you had your coffee today?'. Ok, ok, you can say I'm addicted! 

I have a Kurig now and drink several brands but don't have a favorite really.  I do have very strong feelings about what I don't like....Starbucks tastes burnt to me and I have never enjoyed 'Morning Blend' made by any brand.  

My one rule....life is too short to settle for a bad cup of coffee.

Can't wait to hop around and see everyone's coffee cards. And if you have time today, check out all the information and prizes on Chaitali's Blog where all the Coffee Lovers BlogHop starts!

Thanks for stopping by! 

CASology:Flutter

Quick share with you tonite. Working all day today and I'm exhausted but tomorrow promises to be even busier so wanted to get this in before deadline Monday. 

Wish I was a little more novel on my take of CASology challenge cue FLUTTER. First thing I thought of was butterflies of course and didn't take it any further than that. 

I wanted to simulate movement so I die cut three colorful butterflies from Beautiful Butterflies and also die cut the same out of the white card base so the colorful ones could be inlaid into the card stock.  Finished it off with a Wet Paint sentiment. 

Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

PTI September Blog Hop

Its the 25th of the month and you know what that means....PTI Blog Hop! This month's inspiration photo highlights Autumn Rose which is an often neglected color in my stash. 

I created a small thank you card set in each of the challenge color palettes. All are square....my new favorite card size. 

First card uses the recipe of Enchanted Evening, Sweet Blush, and Autumn Rose. This was my favorite of the three color palettes. 

I stamped a background in the three colors using a pattern from Ombre Builders. Sentiment from Thank You Kindly. 

I layered the butterflies from Life is Beautiful and only adhered the top one in the middle while plumping up the wings a little. 

Second card uses the the palette of Autumn Rose, Smokey Shadow, and Soft Stone. I stamped the flowers from Mums The Word on Soft Stone dotted pattern paper.

Last card features the final palette of Smokey Shadow, Autumn Rose, and Ripe Avocado which I paired with one of the challenge sketches. 

I pulled out Round Repeats for this card, one of my favorite sets which I've forgotten about for a while. 

Finished the colorful medallion off with an dusty pink enamel dot. 

That's it for me. I can't wait to see what else everyone created for this month's challenge. Thanks for stopping by! 

Colour Me......Playful! #39

Happy Wednesday! Time for a new Colour Me......Playful! challenge this week and its a really fabulous color combination!

I'm in desperate need of birthday tags for wine gifts so thought this color combination would be perfect for this. I used the wine bottle tag die which I die cut in white and also die cut the top portion in Tropical Teal which I adhered to the top to make it more sturdy. 

I stamped dotted lines in Harvest Gold across the tag and stamped a few candles from Wishes Come True in Pure Poppy and Orange Zest. Sentiment from Keep It Simple Birthday stamped in Tropical Teal. 

I hope you will play along at Colour Me this week. The Colour Me...! team has made some fabulous cards for your inspiration this week so head on over their blogs and check them out.

Claire Broadwater

Hayley Kew
Joanne James

Julia Altermann

Tara Bourgoin

And our featured designer for September......
Holly Endress

Can't wait to see what you come up with in the gallery! Thanks for taking time to visit.

CASology:Grass

Quick share this evening.....Made a card a couple of days ago but got so swamped that I hadn't had a chance to post.

This card is for the CASology challenge cue card GRASS. I only have grass stamp - an old wooded one from AMuse and wanted to pair it with a simple flower from Flower Fusion.

I stamped the grass in two greens to give it a little more interest. The top in Simply Chartreuse, the bottom in Ripe Avocado. The flower and background card base is Terracotta Tile which I thought would be a nice contrast to the green. 

I added a little bit of stickles in the center of the flower for a little interest.

Hoping to catch up on your blogs soon...thanks for popping by!

Colour Me......! Subtle! #38

Happy Wednesday friends! It's time for a new Colour Me challenge!  This week features a trio of soft colors - yellow, green, and pink - which I thought would be perfect for a baby card for my neighbor. 

I wanted to make the baby card a little more interesting by making a shaker card. I used the PTI Shakers and Sprinkles dies to create a shaker. Background paper for the shaker is from a Project Life card - love the trendy pink pattern. Card base is a fun dotted yellow paper from AMuse. 

Close up of the shaker.....

Hope you are inspired to make a fun colorful card of your own. Check out the pretty cards the Colour Me team has made  for your inspiration this week.  

Claire Broadwater

Hayley Kew
Joanne James

Julia Altermann

Tara Bourgoin

And our featured designer for September......
Holly Endress

Can't wait to see you in the gallery! Thanks for stopping by! 

Colour Me......Striking! #37

Happy Wednesday friends! Today is the reveal of the new Colour Me....Striking! challenge which pairs a creamy yellow with a bright light green/aqua color. 

This one is a challenge for me because I don't have ink colors that were a good match for these colors but I knew I had things in my stash I could use if I dug around a bit. 

The card front is covered with an amazing graphic patterned paper from the Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine collection which I cut so that the focal point of the design was not exactly centered on the card. You know that Rule of Thirds rule? Always heard about it but never consciously applied it as I have here.

I diecut balloons from Balloon Bash out of Bazzill Dotted Swiss paper and popped them up with foam squares over a simple sentiment banner.

Wow, no major stamping and I think it looks pretty cool.

I hope you will play along at Colour Me this week. The Colour Me...! team has made some fabulous cards for your inspiration this week so head on over their blogs and check them out.

Claire Broadwater

Hayley Kew
Joanne James

Julia Altermann

Tara Bourgoin

And our featured designer for September......
Holly Endress

Can't wait to see what you come up with in the gallery! Thanks for taking time to visit.

CASology:THREE

Fall is my favorite time of the year with cooler weather, cozy sweaters, and apple and pumpkin picking at our local farms. Now that its September I wanted to use my new Leaf Prints set which I've wanted for so long and finally got ,but never played with until today.......

I stamped three leaves in the center of the Rustic Cream card base in leafy colors of Distress Inks. I stamped it on the pad and then sprayed it with a shot of water in the mister to give it a little bit of a watercolor look.

Simple sentiment nestled amongst the leaves. 

Playing along with the CASology:Three challenge as well as Darnell's NBUS challenge #2. 

Unfortunately Mother Nature doesn't realize its September and we still have temperatures up in the upper 80s still. Though after last year's awful winter, I'll take all the heat for as long as we can....

Hope you are having lovely weather where you are. Thanks for taking a peek. 

It's Hip to Be Square

Just bought a used older PTI set Guide Lines last week and had a chance to play with it today. Thought it would be perfect for this month's One Layer Simplicity Challenge - Hip to be Square.

I LOVED the bright colors Ardyth's card for this challenge and was inspired to make a card set using my new Guide Lines stamps which features square shaped medallions.

I made a set of 5 cards, all 4x4 in size in keeping with the SQUARE challenge. 

I used various sentiments from the Keep It Simple sentiment line of stamps. 

I loved picking out different color combinations and almost couldn't stop at just 5 cards! Think this will make a cute gift at some point. Thanks for stopping by! 

Two Cards for the Weekend

Hi friends.....lots to share!

Hubby is back from a year of active duty with the Coast Guard (Yay!) and its been wonderful having him around this past week before he heads back to his regular work again. We had a great day at the beach to close out the summer...less crowds because most of the kids in NJ had to go back to school after Labor Day.

First week of September has come and gone. Girls went back to school on Thursday (another Yay!) and are very excited about the school year ahead (5th and 3rd grades) and hoping that once we all get back into the swing of things, I'll get more crafty time.

Now back to crafty business....

First card I want to share is using the Easel technique for the PTI Make It Monday challenge. LOVE this technique because it is so easy and the results look so cool!

I love how easy the chalkboard look was using fresh snow ink and smokey shadow paper. Although I'm in back to school mode this week, I was in the mood to mimic a coffee bar sign and use the Latte Love set which has almost NEVER been used. The cutout for the easel stand was created using one of the Half and Half dies. 

I finally used the stacked coffee cups die which I embossed in brown to make it easier to color in with Copics. 

Next card I made is for this week's CASology challenge - UNDER - which reminds me of rain and standing under an umbrella. I cut out a panel of multicolored raindrops from the Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine collection and centered it on the white card panel which I die cut a stitched border.

I recently bought a used Scattered Showers stamp set so was happy to use it with dies that have sat unused for ages.  I clustered all the elements in the center to maintain a good amount of white space.

Well, that's it for me this weekend. Hope you had a good one! Thanks for stopping by!