Fla-la-la-la-la-mingo

Happy Sunday! It's time for a new challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog and this week we have a fun color challenge to play along with.

I always struggle with pink because I absolutely despise the color. After thinking about it for a while I decided to plan ahead and create a Christmas card for one of my best friends. She absolutely adores flamingoes and during the summer months has a bunch of plastic ones that she puts in her yard. It's quite the sight to see!

From the graphic I used the 2 shades of pink and the navy blue. My neutral color is gray and I snuck in a few small pops of color for the light strand.

My layout is from the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. The shaded snow/ice behind the flamingos is in place of the heart and the flamingoes are in place of the greenery.

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us, we'd love to see what you'd do with these colors. There is also still time to play along with the Freshly Made Sketches challenge!

Merry Christmoose

This year I'm forcing myself to make time for my crafting, especially since one of my jobs can be pretty stressful. Getting the time to unwind and be creative is much needed for good mental health care. With this in mind I decided to play along with 2 challenges over at My Favorite Things...the Outside the Box challenge and the Ready, Set, Christmas! challenge. Anyone who knows me knows Christmas is my absolute favorite and I also really enjoy the box dies from MFT, so what better 2 to combine?!

It's been a pretty harsh winter here in my part of Alaska and it's been especially hard on the moose. When I was thinking about what kind of Christmas card I wanted to make I immediately thought of the Merry Christmoose set, it's one of my favorites. The theme for the Outside the Box challenge is Cozy at Home so I decided to do a box card with a moose sitting inside, a cup of hot chocolate in his hooves, the tree by the window with presents underneath and his 2 furry little friends close by. My living room is full of moose decorations so a girl can dream about a real moose hanging out in the living room right? 

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my posts about this mama and her twin babies. Mama had a severely injured leg but it wasn't keeping her from moving around. They were hanging out in front of one of the stations for the fire dept I belong to and every day after my regular 9-5 I would go and check on them. On this day mama and one of the twins were hanging out on the snowmachine trail that runs in front of the station.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ski-son's Greetings

Happy Sunday! It's time for another Sunday Stamps challenge and this week we have a great sketch from Annette to play with.

For my card I used the set Alpine Friends from MFT. I bought this set back in November and I planned on making some Christmas cards with it. However, life was crazy and I never got any Christmas cards made with it. That's why I decided to pull it out and use it for the sketch this week.

I did take some liberties with the sketch. The tram cars represent the flowers and the wires, trams and house with trees help form a bit of a circle in the middle. I did move the sentiment further down, putting it in the bottom right of the card.

To create the sky I used distressed oxide inks Salty Ocean and Broken China and blended them together, going for a winter bluebird sky. My inspiration for the card was Alyeska Resort here in Alaska. It's located south of Anchorage in Girdwood and last year when my daughter was working there I went down to visit her and we took the tram to the top of the mountain. The views were amazing and we couldn't have asked for a nicer day!

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us, we'd love to see what you do with this sketch!

Christmas Greetings

Happy Sunday! It's time for a brand new challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog and this week Heather has such a fun sketch for us to play with!

The SU July-Dec Mini Catalog is out and I feel in love with a set called Trees For Sale. Growing up getting the perfect tree was a big thing for my dad and he made it so fun. Seeing this set brought back all the memories of Christmas with my dad and grandparents (who also always had the most amazing tree). Because it is also Sale-A-Bration time you can get dies that go with this set if you spend $100. I definitely took advantage of that.

The dies that go with this set include a fun retro camper and some fabulous trees. I decided to do my camper in brown and red and then added a green curtain and a fun wreath on the door. The trees and camper were the perfect elements for the circle shape on the sketch. From the stamp set I used the 'Christmas Greetings' sentiment and the DSP is from the lights aglow pack.

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us, we'd love to see how you interpret the sketch!

Christmas in July

Happy Monday! It's time for a new Blossom Challenge over at the Power Poppy blog and this month it's all about Christmas in July. Anybody who knows me knows how much I love Christmas so I am thrilled with this theme!

For my card I went with one of my very favorite sets, Season's Greenings. I just love the little Santa in this set and so that is the image I went with for my card.

My card layout came from the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use it for this card!

Don't forget, by entering the challenge with a Power Poppy image you are in the running to win a $20 gift code to the Power Poppy store. How awesome is that? Marcy has also discounted all of the Christmas digi's in the Happiest Holiday Category. If you like the image I used on my card you can find it HERE in the store!

Head over to these fellow Bloomie Blogs to see what they created for Christmas in July!

Christine

Gloria

Dashing By

It was a busy weekend with a road trip to Denali National Park but this afternoon I managed to squeeze in some time to play along with the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches!

I've had this Pure Innocence image colored and sitting on my desk for a while now and really needed to figure out what to do with it. When I saw the FMS sketch I thought it would be the perfect layout for this image!

I used  MFT dies to cut my squares out of some retired SU DSP and then I popped my image up over the squares, pointed a tad down so it looked like she had some forward motion. Then I took my sentiment and stamped it underneath the bottom square. To finish the card off I took some of the tree DSP (middle square) and put a strip of that across the bottom inside of the card. Easy peasy!

There is still a bit of time to play along with the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge, they close it at noon PST on Mondays! 

Make the Holidays Bright

It's Sunday and you know what that means, another challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog! This time it's my turn to bring you a fun and easy sketch to work with.

For my card I decided to use the brand new Christmas Pure Innocence image released by MFT. I just adore the Pure Innocence stamp line and this latest addition is just too cute, I love it! I colored the image with copic markers and then used some retired SU DSP for my background. The sentiment was stamped on a banner and then popped up for some added dimension.

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us, we'd love to see how you use this sketch!

May Your Holidays Bloom

It's time for a new challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog and this week we have a fun sketch from Mellissa!

For my card I used an image from a brand new Power Poppy set called Garden of Gratitude. I just love this unique image of oranges growing on a trellis. You can even change them from oranges into any color ornament you desire!

I kept my card simple, coloring my image on a separate piece of paper and then using my Scan N Cut to cut it out. I popped it up with dimensionals and then stamped my sentiment in orange below it. I got out my paper piercing tool and pierced a border around the card base.

Head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with and then play along with us, we'd love to see how you interpret the sketch!

Merry Christmoose

It's been a while since I've been able to play along with a challenge so since I was crabby and needed some creative time earlier today I decided to lock myself in my craft room for a bit and play along with the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

For my card I used the newly released Forest Fellas set from Power Poppy. I just adore this moose! I grabbed some plaid paper for the back square and mounted it all on some green patterned paper with a brown card base. The sentiment was stamped in red on a white banner and the moose head popped up with dimensionals. Quick and easy but enough to make me feel better and ready to join the household again :)

Power Poppy Part 2- Day 5

Welcome to the fifth and final day of the Power Poppy Quiet Christmas release! I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the various sets and the endless possibilities with each one. All 10 sets from the release can be found in the Power Poppy store in both clear stamp and digital form so there is something for everyone!

The last set for this release is called the Joy to the World Bouquet. Look at all the details and variety of flowers...a poinsettia, hellebores, ivy, cranberries, pomegranate and pine needles. Such a lovely feast for the eyes!

For my card I cut out the image with my Scan N Cut and then colored it with copics. I really wanted to try some black hellebores, I though the contrast would be great against the poinsettia, pomegranate and cranberries but in the end I chickened out. Maybe I'll try it on a scrap and see how it comes out. I stamped the sentiment in the bottom right corner in a poppy red and then embossed the white panel with a wood plank design. I then popped up the bouquet across the white panel.

Make sure you stop by the Bloom Brigade blogs to see all of their amazing creations and then head on over to the Power Poppy store to grab your favorite sets!

Jenny 
Leslie 
Christine 
Gloria 
Julie
Barbara C 
Allison 
SathyaKala 
Broni 
Catherine 
Stacy 

Power Poppy

Peace and Joy

It's time for a new challenge over at the Sunday Stamps blog and this week we have a fun sketch from Amy!

For my card I used a set from My Favorite Things that has been in my collection for a while but yet has never seen ink. Sadly I have way too many sets like that and I really need to break them out and play with them, no matter how old they are.

I stamped the large sentiment in blue and then cut out some MFT snowflakes to go along 2 of the edges. I also stamped little snowflakes around the sentiment in 2 different shades of blue. The paper is from one of the hot buy pads from Michaels.

Head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the team came up with and then play along with us, we'd love to see how you interpret the sketch!

Power Poppy Part 2- Day 3

Welcome back! It's Day 3 of Power Poppy's  Quiet Christmas Release Part 2. Today's release is a great set called Season's Greenings!

For my card I decided to use the fun Santa gnome carrying a Christmas tree and shovel. One of my best friends loves gnomes so I think this card will be perfect for her! After coloring my image with copics I used my Scan N Cut to cut it out and then I picked out some background paper and just did one wide strip across a plain white card base. I then stamped the sentiment "Here comes Planta Claus" in green ink under the strip. I normally don't do embellishments but I thought the sequins worked well here. (my layout was inspired by this card I saw on Pinterest)

Shall we go see what the rest of the Bloom Brigade did with this fun set? Let's go hopping!

Barbara W 
Jenn Dove 
SathyaKala 
Leslie 
Gloria 
Barbara C 
Julie
Christine 
Broni 
Allison 
Jenny 

Power Poppy

Power Poppy Quiet Christmas-Part 2

Hi friends! I'm so excited to be back to showcase the 2nd half of the Power Poppy Quiet Christmas release! Today is Day 1 and we are starting with an amazing set called Forest Fellas. I can't even begin to say how much I absolutely adore this set!

Forest Fellas is a bit of a departure from Marcella's usual images yet it is still perfectly inline with all of her amazing nature drawings. The set features a moose, bear, fox, owl and some amazing sentiments that are good for Christmas, winter and year-round. If you've been to my blog before it shouldn't surprise you that I decided to use the moose image for my card. I have secretly hoped that Marcella would do a stamp set with a moose someday so I seriously squealed with joy when I saw this set. 

A lot of folks don't realize that moose have a lot of red tones to their fur so when I color my moose images I tend to pull out my copics that have more of a golden tone. The colors on the antlers can differ depending on the time of year but I like to keep mine more of a lighter tone. I wanted to keep my background simple so I pulled out some plaid paper from my stash and paired that with a banner dry embossed with an argyle pattern. I stamped the sentiment in red and then popped up the moose along the side of the banner. I think I'm going to mass produce some of these to send out to friends for Christmas this year!

Are you ready to see what the rest of the Bloom Brigade came up with? Trust me, you won't be disappointed! After hopping through all the amazing blogs head on over to the Power Poppy store!

Barbara W 

Jenn Dove 

SathyaKala 

Leslie 

Christine 

Gloria 

Barbara C. 

Julie

Broni 

Allison 

Saskia 

Cheryl

Power Poppy

Power Poppy Quiet Christmas-Day 5!

Welcome to Day 5 of the Quiet Christmas release! I hope you've been as excited about this release as I have been! Marcella has truly outdone herself with these amazing sets. The best news? It's not over yet....we'll be back on Nov.12 to showcase round 2 of new sets and let me tell you, 2 of my absolutely favorite sets of this release are in Collection 2 and I cannot wait to show them off!!

Today's set is called Heavenly Peace Dove and it is such a beautiful image. The lovely dove on an olive branch is so eye catching and I just love the sentiments that are in this set!

For my card I colored the dove with some of my T copics and then used YG's for the olive branches. I mixed some dark olives with some green ones on the branches for some contrast. I adhered my image panel to some patterned paper with silver on it and adhered that to a green card base. I thought the card needed something else to finish it off so I took a sheer ribbon and tied that across the bottom of the card. I know it's hard to see in the picture but it's there :)

It's time to visit the rest of the Bloom Brigade to see their amazing creations!

Allison

Christine

Gloria

Broni

Barbara C

Leslie

Nancy

Power Poppy Blog

Power Poppy Quiet Christmas-Day 4!

Happy Monday and welcome to day 4 of the Power Poppy Quiet Christmas blog hop! We're highlighting another brand new set today called Let It Glow.

How fabulous is this set? I love Christmas lights and I'm always wanting good sentiments to put inside my Christmas cards and this set offers both of those! Look at all the fun elements in the set, there is just so much you can do with these images and sentiment!

For my card I decided to create a Christmas tree made of lights, with the Let It Glow sentiment as the tree topper. I created lines of lights, decreasing them in size as I went up the page until I hit the height I wanted. Then I added the sentiment and turned it until I was happy with the way it was positioned above the lights. I then used my copics to color the lights and sentiment and I also went around all the lights to make it look like there was a bit of a glow coming from them. It's a nice and simple card but I really like how the lights and sentiment take center stage.

Let's go hop and see what the other Bloom Brigade members did with this great set!

Gloria 
Christine 
Broni 
Barbara C
Jenn Dove 
Stacy
Julie 
Nancy

Power Poppy Blog

Power Poppy Quiet Christmas- Day 3!

I hope everyone is enjoying the Power Poppy Quiet Christmas blog hop so far. My mojo has been gone for a while but all of these wonderful new sets have my imagination spinning, it's good to be excited about creating again!

Today's set is called Garden of Gratitude and is one of my absolute favorites! I love the boots with the Christmas flowers in it and that trellis with the vine and fruit? Perfection! Marcella's images are so unique, that's one of the reasons I fell in love with Power Poppy when I discovered  them!

For my card I decided to use the fabulous trellis image. One of my very best friends lives in Florida and I thought of her and her family as soon as I saw this image. Since I colored the fruit as oranges I tried to keep the colors of the presents more toned down and garden feeling with the colors while still staying traditional. I printed the sentiment out and changed the font color to green to go along with the green in the image. I went with a simple kraft background on a green card base.

Now it's time to see what the fabulous Bloom Brigade did with this fun set...READY...SET....GO!!

Allison
Leslie
Gloria
Broni
Barbara W
Stacy
Christine 
Nancy
Barbara C
Lisa

Julie

SathyaKala

Jenny

Power Poppy Blog

Power Poppy Quiet Christmas- Day 2!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Power Poppy Quiet Christmas blog hop! I hope you took the time yesterday to go and see all of the fabulous inspiration from the Bloom Brigade. I honestly had my jaw on the ground looking at their amazing creations!

Today's release is titled Enchanted Branches-Nativity and has so many beautiful, peaceful images. I decided to go with the image of Baby Jesus as it reminds me of the nativity my grandma would put under her Christmas tree.

I really wanted to keep this card as simple as possible. I colored the image with copics, tossing in some gold and a rust color for the blanket. I originally just had the white image against the green background but didn't like it much so I decided to add the patterned paper behind it. The gold from the image carries through to the paper and the red from the berries balances nicely against the patterned paper. I took the pine branch from the set and cut and colored out 3 of them. I laid 2 of the branches flat on the card along the top of the image panel and then I placed the 3rd one across the middle of the other 2 branches and popped it up for some dimension. The green paper in the background is embossed with a wooden plank design to keep the outdoor feel going.

Time to see the gorgeous creations from the Bloom Brigade! Click on each name to see their designs and then finish up at the Power Poppy blog :)

Nancy

Allison

Gloria

Broni

Lisa

Stacy

Barbara W 

Christine 

Barbara C

Leslie

Julie

Catherine   

SathyaKala

Power Poppy Blog

Power Poppy Quiet Christmas Release-Day 1!

I am SO excited! It's time for a brand new Christmas release from Power Poppy ((squeal)). It's been 2 years since the last holiday collection and wow, you will NOT be disappointed with what Marcella has designed for this new Christmas collection. Finally, something good to come out of 2020 LOL

Today we are highlighting a new set called Mossy Pots with Paperwhites. I decided to use the image of the paperwhites in a bowl with ornaments leaning up against the bottom of it. Because paperwhites are a very pure looking flower I wanted to keep the background very soft and quiet. I mixed and matched 3 different patterned papers that use the same colors and then I popped up my image over the papers. For a little pop of color I added some red with the ribbon through the flowers and then red stickles for a few of the ornaments. I used silver stickles for the other ornaments. I colored the flowers with my C copics and also used a hint of YG. I wanted my bowl to have an outdoorsy/nature feel to it so I carried the brown from the flower bulbs into the sides of the bowl. This image was so fun to color!

Are you ready to see what the rest of the Bloom Brigade did with the new set Mossy Pots with Paperwhites? Click on the names below to visit the blogs and see the amazing talent!

Jenny

Leslie

Broni

Barbara C

Nancy

Christine

Gloria

Allison

Cheryl

Stacy

Barbara W

Julie

Jenn Dove

Catherine

SathyaKayla

Power Poppy Blog