PTI Blog Hop part 2

I had such fun using gold and silver for the PTI blog hop today, I decided to make another card. 

For this card, I used the diagonal cover plate cut from silver paper for my background.  Then I embossed the scribble circles in white and just swiped the Delicata ink pad over the top of them until they were all gold and sparkly and gorgeous!!  I cut them out and popped them up with some foam tape.  A small sentiment also stamped in gold Delicata ink finished it off!  When I was thinking of this card, I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out, but I am happy with it!

Thanks for some sparkly fun PTI!!

-Laura

PTI Blog Hop

Hello my blog friends!!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas yesterday and enjoyed some time with family and loved ones! 

Today is the Papertrey Ink blog hop where the theme is to use both gold and silver. What beautiful inspiration photos Nicole had on her blog to jump start our creativity!

My first card uses the rustic wreath stamp set which I embossed with silver embossing powder.  Then I added a sentiment stamped in Delicata gold ink. For a final touch I added some gold washi tape and some splatters from Heidi Swapp's gold spray.  Such a beautiful combination. 

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

-Laura

CASology Guest Designer

Hello! 
I am thrilled to be joining the CASology team as a guest designer this week!  The cue card is a fun one to play with - SNOW.   A perfect cue word to be able to create those last minute Christmas cards you may still need!   Or am I the only one who has last minute cards to make??

 I used the always fun inlaid die cut technique with my snowflake dies from SSS.  I cut them from white cardstock and then inlaid them back into the negatives that I cut from Bazzill Candy Buttons cardstock.  The small sentiment from SU is embossed in white to tie in with the white snowflakes. 

 

 

 

Thanks so much to the CASology team for having me this week! Click here to see what the rest of the design team created and to play along.  I would love to see what you come up with for this great cue word!

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Laura

 

Bokeh Joy

Hello!
Today I am sharing a card that I CASE'd from the talented Heather Campbell.  She made this great card that she shared over on Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom back in October.  I finally got around to making one like it.  So fun!!

I love the soft colors with the pop of black and the bokeh effect.  I think I need to make more cards with that fun look. 

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

Skating Penguin

Hello!
Another fun card to share made with the adorable penguins from Mama Elephant.  I masked off a border, stamped my sentiment in white embossing powder, then sponged over it with tumbled glass and broken china distress ink.  Then I added the cute little penguin to look like he skated the Merry message. 

I couldn't resist adding that super cute little present!

I am linking this up to Virginia's View Challenge where the theme is 'Distress'. 

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

Christmas Candles

Hello!
Are you getting excited about the upcoming holiday or just stressed out?  I am a little of both I think.  I feel like there is still a lot left to do, I don't have all my cards made yet, I haven't baked a single cookie, and there are presents to buy and wrap still .  But at the same time, it is so much fun to listen to Christmas songs while crafting and making something that you know others will enjoy!

This card was made with the Starry Sky background stamp from Hero Arts and the Memory Box Glowing Candles die cut.  The paper is SU Old Olive and Real Red.  I was really happy with the way it turned out.

What are you most excited about this Holiday season??

Thanks for stopping by.
-Laura

Hero Arts Scramble

The Hero Arts Flickr group held another 90 minute scramble on Saturday. The theme was to use an older HA Christmas/Winter stamp that hasn't been used in a while and show it some love again.   I have this very old HA snowman that I haven't used in a long time.  In fact it might be one of the first stamps that I ever bought!! 

I stamped him and colored him in.  Then I used a trick from Jennifer McGuire - use rubber cement to form a mask so you can add color to the background!  It worked perfectly!  After covering the snowman in rubber cement and letting it dry, I added tumbled glass and faded jeans distress ink.  Then I just rubbed away the rubber cement and my little snowman was protected from the blue inks.  I dry embossed the card base with a swirl pattern that reminded me of snow swirling in the background.  A little candy cane twine to finish it off!

Since this stamp is pretty old, I am entering this into the CASology challenge this week where the cue card is OLD.

Thanks for stopping by!!
-Laura

Tag! Your it!

I haven't played along in the Tag your it challenge before.  But when I saw Tracey's inspiration tag I knew I had to!!  Her tag had cute little jingle bells on it, and I immediately thought of the peppermint candy die that I have.  This was so easy to make but I really like the way it turned out! 

The sentiment is a mix of stamps put together to form the saying I wanted.  It was perfect for the candies!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!
-Laura

Snowman Fun

Hello!
I made this cute card and tag with some stamps I picked up at Impress when I was there taking a class last month.  I love this little snowman embossed in white!  He is just so cute!!  I stamped the trees in SU Garden Green and added some snow on the branches with a white gel pen.  Love that effect - so cool.  For the tag I decided to use snowflakes instead of the trees.  I was really happy with both of them.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

Card Chain Challenge

Hello!

Last month I signed up for Deborah Nolan's Card Chain Challenge (CCC) and had such fun sending and receiving a card, so I decided to play along again for November.  This is an international card chain, where anyone can sign up and they send a card to the person above them on the list and receive a card from the person below them.  Deborah has a sketch to follow, colors to use and a theme that you can play along with.  I decided to use the sketch and the theme of leaves.  

I sent this card off to the lovely Lucille who lives in Colorado.  I hope she likes it!  The little squirrels are from a SU set, the sentiment is Lawn Fawn, and I can't remember who make the patterned paper, but I thought the leaves would be perfect with the cute squirrels sharing a nut!  They are stamped on the inside of the card, with the circle window letting you see through. 

Check out Deborah's blog for the full reveal of all the cards that went around the world in the CCC this month. 

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

PTI Blog Hop - SNOW

Hello!

Today is the PTI Blog Hop day, where the theme is snow!!  I had this beautiful piece of patterned paper with snowflakes and thought the PTI one liner die would be perfect with it.
I cut the 'Peace' die out of some silver metallic paper and added some silver snowflakes cut from a ribbon strip.  Easy-peasy - and oh so elegant!

Thanks for stopping here along your hop!!  There have been some great snow cards out there in PTI land!!

-Laura

SNOW

Saturday was another fun scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr group!  Theresa was our host this time and she gave us a fun theme of 'snow'!  We had 90 minutes to create our card, photograph it and get it posted to the Flickr site. It is always so fun to rush around trying to come up with an idea and bring it to a finished product in that amount of time!  And knowing there are others around the world doing the exact same thing makes it even more fun!  

So here is what I came up with for my 'Snow' theme card.

I had this great patterned paper with swirls and sparkly snowflakes so I used that as my background to these cute little snowmen from Hero Arts.  I stamped them and colored in their hats and scarves.  Then I punched them out and inked the edges of the circles with distress ink and popped them up.  The punny sentiment is Hero Arts and goes perfectly with these little cuties!  They make me smile every time I see them!!

Have you ever joined a scramble with the  Hero Arts Flickr group?  You should give it a try - they are so much fun and the members are so friendly and nice, you are sure to make a new friend or two!  They are usually held every two weeks.  Click HERE to find the schedule. 

Thanks for stopping by
-Laura

CASology - Flag

 

Hello!
I am sharing a card I made for the current CASology challenge where the cue card is FLAG!  I wasn't  quite sure what to do with this word at first....I thought all week about boats with flags on top of the sails, the American Flag, and flag poles, but couldn't come up with anything that I thought would work! 

Then when I was digging through my supplies, I found this banner punch and stamp set and thought I could do something with them.  Then I remembered the cute little HO HO HO sentiment from a Hero Arts set, and it all came together!!

The little Santa hat is from the new Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins set and it fit perfectly on top of my little flags!  I am really happy with the way this turned out - especially after thinking about flags all week!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura


 

Cozy Christmas

I am sharing a card I made using a technique I saw Julie Ebersole use on a card in her Hello Monday series over at Ellen Hutson.  This is such a great technique that gives a 3D effect to your card.  It is similar to shadow stamping, but you heat emboss the second image instead of just stamping it.  It works great with snow!

I used the HA starry sky BG stamp to create my 'snow' and paired it with a great silhouette stamp from SU.   The sentiment is Hero Arts as well, embossed onto some grey cardstock.  I really like the way this turned out. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura 

Cute Penguin!

Hello!

I finally got a chance to play with the Mama Elephant Artic Penguins stamp set I picked up last week at Impress!  I just love this set, the penguins are so darn cute.  Another purchase while at Impress was this great Avery Elle Circle Tag Die.  Combine the two together and it's almost cuteness overload!!

I love the little 'extras' that you get with this stamp set.  The present is adorable and there is a coffee cup and some cute hats for the penguins to wear. 
I created the sky by blending some distress inks in salty ocean and broken china, then white embossed the snowflakes from the set.  I added a little color to the penguin and thought the red in the present and the ribbon were a nice pop of color.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts Christmas sentiment set. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm sure you will see more of this cute set in the near future!!

-Laura

Hang in There

Hello!

Sharing a card I made for a friend who needs a little encouragement right now. 

I received this great Lawn Fawn Party Banners Die set from my HA flickr friend Cat when I was the winner of her scramble a while back.  Thanks Cat!  I stamped the cute tree and critter from an SU set I got from my Mom.  Thanks Mom!  A little polka dot paper for some fun and a twine bow to finish it off.  A pretty easy card that I hope will lift her spirits.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

Virginia's View Challenge

Hello!
I am submitting another card to Virginia' View Challenge where the theme is metallic. 

I used the same Memory Box ornaments die I used on this card.  I die cut it twice, once from Cherry Cobbler and once from gold metallic paper.  Then I embossed the gold ornaments with a dot embossing folder to give them some dimension.  I added them back into the red outline and added a little gold washi tape that I picked up at Impress last weekend.  I am adding this card to my growing pile I will be sending to the Caring Hearts Card Drive. 

Hope you are having a good day!
-Laura

Another OCC Card

Hello!

Edited to Add:   I just found out about Emily Leiphart's SquirrelFest and knew I wanted to play along.  This cute squirrel card fits perfectly with her theme!

I am sharing another card I made during the Online Card Classes.  This technique results in a fun window with a shape cut from it.  You need a die cut that has a matching stamp and partially die cut the window shape.  I blended some distress ink in some fun fall colors in the background to help my cute little PTI squirrel stand out.   I think I need to go back and add the little acorn die cut to the squirrels hands!

Thanks for stopping by!!
-Laura

CASology Guest Designer

Hello!
I am super excited to be joining the CASology Team as the guest designer this week! How cool is that??

The Cue Card this week is such a fun one!  FESTIVE - it brings to mind so many things.

I made a cute little tag with a fun party scene.  I cut my tag from a MFT tag die and added some Heidi Swapp color spray splatter.  When that was dry, I stamped the champagne classes and the ornaments in Gold Delicata ink.  (love that ink, by the way)  I think the cute little confetti squiggle is what really pulls it all together!  It is from a Mama Elephant balloon set.  I added some glossy accents in the glasses to look like they were full.  A little gold ribbon and a fun sentiment finish it off.  By using all one color ink, it keeps the scene CAS. 

I also got lucky in that my week as guest designer happens to fall on Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags with the CASology team.  So of course I made a tag to play along with all the fun over on her blog.   If you haven't checked out her blog yet, be sure to head HERE and join in the excitement.  The inspiration is amazing and there are prizes from some great companies. 

• Reverse Confetti
• Clearly Besotted
• CAS-ual Fridays
• Neat and Tangled
• Paper Smooches

Tracey has kindly offered a chance to win for commenting here on my blog too!  Leave a comment by the 27th, and I will randomly choose one name and forward that onto Tracey.

Thanks to the CASology team for having me this week! I can't wait to see what the rest of the team created for the FESTIVE cue card.  You can get Festive too, just go HERE for all the details.

 

 

Edited to add:   I am also submitting this to Virginia's View Challenge where the theme is Metallic!

 -Laura

Impress Class

Hello and Happy Monday!
How was your weekend?  Mine was great - I got to spend Saturday with some of my crafty friends, Amy and Tonya taking a Julie Ebersole class at Impress!  Yes - THE Julie Ebersole!  And as an added bonus, I had Sandy Allnock of Operation Write Home sitting next to me in class!   I don't think it can get much better than that!  We had a great time making cards, talking and laughing.

 From left to right:  Tonya, Julie, Sandy, me  Front - Amy

I wanted to share a couple of the cards we made in class.  Julie is so talented and I just love taking her classes.  She is as cute and fun in real life as she is in her videos!  And the laugh sounds just the same :)

Love the silver washi tape on this card!  Trying to think if any of my word dies are bold enough to recreate this card at home.

How genius is this to create a snowbank for your snowman?  The black cardstock behind the vellum is cut shorter than the vellum to create that illusion! 

This little polar bear is just so cute peeking out of the circle punch!
This is only 3 of the 12 cards we made - hopefully I will get around to posting some of the others this week.
Thanks Julie for such a great day!

-Laura

 

OCC Day 5

Day 5 of Online Card Classes was all about Tags!  There were a lot of fun examples, and I chose to make a shaker tag.  Yana showed us how to use the same idea and make a simple, medium and more advanced tag just by adding a few extra steps.

I started by punching the snowflake from a tag, and lining it with a piece of acetate.  I added some patterned paper to the second tag and filled it with sequins.  Using foam tape, I put the two tags together to create the shaker.  It looked a little plain, so I stamped a few snowflakes in a soft blue color.  I think they add some interest but don't distract from the main shaker snowflake.   The sentiment is PTI stamped in Versamark Black Onyx ink. A little red and gold twine added to the top and that was that!  So fun to make a shaker tag.  I think it would be great on a bottle of wine as a gift to our neighbors this Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by
-Laura

OCC Day 4

I am really enjoying the Online Card Classes Holiday Workshop 2014!  Are you taking it too?  You can sign up any time and you get lifetime access to the videos and PDF's of each card.

Day 4 of class was about one layer cards.  Definitely postal friendly which is good when you are mailing out a bunch of cards for the Holidays!  I liked Julie Ebersole's card where she used a mask and created a fun 'snowy' dimension around the image.  I tried to duplicate that with the word JOY instead of a solid image like she had.  When I pulled off the mask, there just wasn't enough definition around the letters that you could tell what it said.  But I still liked the 'snowy' effect, so I salvaged the card by die cutting the word from some shiny red paper and popping it up with some foam tape.  Not exactly the 'masking' look that she had, but I like it nonetheless.  I will have to try her technique with a different die cut to see if I can get that cool result!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

Lawnscaping pumpkin challenge

Just a quick card to share today.  I made this for the current Lawnscaping Challenge where the theme is pumpkins and fall.

I used the new Sweater Weather set  (love that tree and those cute little leaves!) and the Thankful for you set to create this little scene.  Lawn Fawn stamps just make you smile don't they?

Thanks for stopping in and sharing part of your day with me!
-Laura

Caring Hearts Card Drive

I'm sure you have heard about this card drive that is going on.  Jennifer McGuire and Vera Yates have teamed up again this year to collect homemade cards to send to the elderly in nursing homes. 

A few weeks ago, I helped my daughter's Girl Scout troop make cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive.  I think this is such a great idea; it fits perfectly with the Girl Scouts and helps the girls with some service projects. 

I made three different cards as a guide and for inspiration.  Then I provided the supplies for each of the 8 girls in her troop to make one of each card.  They had a great time using the stamps, inks and punches.  It's funny how some copied my cards exactly, and others used their own imagination to make their card unique and different!  It was super fun and I think all the girls enjoyed it too!  The fact that the cards are going to a good cause is just the icing on the cake! 

 

 

 

 

I will get these cards sent off to the card drive along with some others that I have made just for this great cause.  If you want to join in the fun too, there is still time - all cards must be received by November 28th.  Click here for all the details.  (There are prizes too!)

Thanks for stopping by!
-Laura

OCC Day 3 - Watercolor

Today's lessons over at Online Card Classes was all about watercoloring!  I really like this fun technique, but don't find myself using it very often.  So it was great to pull out the watercolor paper and distress inks for my card today. 

 

 

All of the examples in class were amazing, but Kristina's card was by far the easiest to replicate.  I first stamped the sentiment from a HA Christmas sentiment set and white embossed it.  Then I added the little images around the edge and embossed them as well.  Most of them are from the SU set jolly bingo bits.  After that, I added Peacock Feathers distress ink over the sentiment with a water brush, and layered in some Faded Jeans and finally around the outer edge, I added some Memento Nautical Blue ink.  The final touch was to add some stickles.  The red stickles seemed a bit too dark for my blue card, so I choose fruit punch stickles instead.  I was happy with the way it turned out, and think I will try it with some different colors of ink.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Laura

OCC Day 2 - Interactive cards

It was another fun day over at Online Card Classes yesterday!  The lessons were all about interactive cards.  There were shaker cards, sliding cards, cards with front doors that opened!   I debated about which card to make for my 'homework' and then remembered that my crafty friend Lisa Lara had given us these super cute snowman pieces from A Jillian Vance to make a shaker card with at one of our last crafty get-togethers at Amy's house.  Everyone else used theirs already, but mine was still sitting on my desk.  This was the perfect opportunity to build that cute little snowman and fill his belly with some fun sparkly stars!

I cut some snow banks, added glitter to the top of them and created some glitter snowflakes falling from the sky.  The sentiment is from PTI Rustic Wreath set.

This was so much fun to make!  Thanks Lisa for the cute Sam E. Snowman die cut pieces!!

Can't wait for the rest of class to see what else they have in store for us.  I know it will be great!!
-Laura