Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope the stall-talkers stay far away from you!
This card meets a challenge to use only stamps, no layering, no embellishing. This is much harder than it sounds! It also meets a challenge to use a solid flower stamp. There is alot of masking on this card. The main image was colored with markers directly on the stamp and then spritzed with water.
This one is for Jan's acetate challenge. I stamped the images in staz-on on one side of the acetate and then used alcohol inks on the other side. Markers didn't work! Then I used a little stickles for some sparkle. I found that I had to put white cardstock behind the acetate for the best effect.
This one was a huge challenge for me. The challenge was to do white on white using vellum. I heat embossed the image with winter white EP. I had to add some of my bargain lace and a little flower. I really wanted to keep this one simple, but couldn't resis the urge to embellish. This is also my card for my own monochromatic challenge this week.
This one was a real challenge for me, too. It was Isa's challenge to use distress inks and a paper towel on the card. The paper towel is in the corners there. It was a really great challenge. I used a ton of different inks and stamps on this one.
This last one is for a beach theme challenge. I used a crayon resist on the sand dollar images and some shell pieces for embellishments.
I hope this gives you a grin to start the weekend off right. Our summer vacation begins today...oh happy day! Wishing you all the joys of summer. Don't forget the popsicles and root beer floats.
I have been playing around with backgrounds this week using glossy paper and distress inks. These are the two that have made their way into actual cards so far. I'm just using the inkpads directly on the paper and it's very forgiving. The combination of these inks and the glossy cardstock are a really fun. You can wipe with a tissue if you don't like what you get and it makes it blended and lighter. Try it out using different designs or ways of moving the inkpad around. The trick is to keep the ink moving. I like the streaks on the pink card. For that one I used worn lipstick, peeled paint, and fired brick. After getting the background looking the way I want, I then spritzed on a little water to age it further. I let them sit for a bit before stamping on the images. 
I am a regular at the little community thrift shop here. I stop by at least once a week for a visit. This week I hit the jackpot. There were boxes and bags full of lace and trim. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, especially if it's old. These goodies had been in someone's stash for many years and then got cleaned out for whatever reason. So, I dug right into the first box, filling up my basket with beautiful lace of all sorts. I moved onto one of the bags, and that's where the trouble began.
There are events that happen in life that I can't explain, and I don't try. I believe that we have control of our destiny to some extent, but also there are plans for us of which we are not aware. 12 years ago today was my due date to have this very handsome young man on the left. He came a week early because the very handsome man on the right asked me to go to a formal with him 8 years before that. Two of the most important events in my life happened on June 6th. My husband and I found each other and I became a mother. I can't begin to imagine what my life would be like without these wonderful men. They bring immeasurable joy to my life. I love you guys!
I was playing around with a reverse mask technique tonight for a virtual swap hosted by Jan over at the stamp shack. She punched out the Marvy giga square scallop in a piece of heavy plastic with a grid on it and sent them to us to play with. I layed down the piece with the hole punched out of it as a mask to create the green area of this card. I stippled on green tea ink, then stamped script background and leaves in the same ink. The songbirds are stamped with vintage sepia ink. Then, I removed the mask and put down the punched out part over the green area as a mask and stamped the music notes and stippled around the outside of the mask with the vintage sepia ink. I guess that description is about as clear as mud. It was a fun technique that I hadn't tried before. The little tag is an office supply Avery tag that I got at the dollar store in a huge box full. You'll probably see them on all of my cards now.
Just some fun with the color challenge this week. I really like these colors together and had fun working on all 3 cards at once. I had to clean off my table to make something, since it was piled so high. I just set aside things that might work on the cards as I was cleaning and this is what I got. I used a variety of goodies here including copper embossing powder, some vintage pink lace, a piece of an old earring, every pink & rose inkpad in the house, and a pile of stamps. 
I hope you have a great weekend free of unwelcome visitors and telemarketers. I think I fell off the do not call list recently, and have been bombarded. The only people who haven't called lately are these guys!
I colored this image for a merry go round swap with markers, and made it into this cheery card. I love this kind of swap. Each person stamps an image 6 times and sends them to me. Then I swap out all the images so everyone gets one of all the other images to make into cards and sends them all back. Then I swap them out again and we all get a set of cards made with our images by 6 different artists. Clear as mud? It's so fun to see how everyone interprets the same image so differently. I've done this type of swap at least 5 times and it never gets old. Can't wait to see what everyone else does with the images. TFL
I just posted this to make you say "aww." We noticed the dogs sleeping like this last night. Hubby and I both took pics, but I think his looks better. Mabel does everything her big sis, Shelly does. They are quite a pair and bring us lots of joy.
So many colors, so little time. I just looked over the past challenges and I didn't see any green, which is my favorite color. I guess using green isn't a challenge for me, so I didn't think of it. Let's jump right in and try out moss, cocoa, and apricot this week. I actually made my card already, so I hope it doesn't sway your interpretation of the challenge that I posted it. I hope find inspiration in these fall colors as we begin summer. I'd love to see a link if you are inspired by these colors. 
