Stained Glass Technique {Verve, MOJO & CTD}

Happy Friday! It's me again, back with another card! The weekend is my time to craft and I have been saving up all week! I have been challenging myself to use techniques! Tonight I tried the "Stain Glass" technique. I was inspired to use the MOJO Sketch, the Verve Inspiration Challenge and the colours at The Colour Throwdown.

 

To achieve the stain glass look:

1. Choose a stamp with lots of "space" to colour.
2. Heat emboss the stamp on vellum with white embossing powder.
3. Turn the vellum over and colour on the BACK of the image. It is very important to NOT colour on the actual white embossing as it will hurt your Copic marker.
4. Fussy cut the images out and add to your card.

Paper Smooches and Color Throwdown {Love Will Keep US Warm}

 

Did you see the fun colours over at the Colour Throwdown? I just love the mix of pink, green and yellow with kraft!!! Swoon! And then I was inspired by the FUN inspiration photo over at the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge...have a look!! Hilarious! 

So I created a love themed card and don't the two lovebirds in the photo look warm and cozy, hence my sentiment "Love Will Keep us Warm". I decided to also use the sweet heart image from the Paper Smooches set called "Warm Hearts". I love the country feel of these hearts and the graphic in the CTD colour story got "Country" in my brain!

{Supplies}

Stamps: Warm Hearts

Inks: Melon Mambo, SO Saffron, Lucky Limeade and Black

Papers: White, Kraft, Melon Mambo, Bazzill (Avalon Paper)

Extras: Baker's Twine, 1" Square Punch

I also decided to play along with the lovely ladies at The Pink Elephant in their Anything Goes Challenge!

Paper Sweeties {Peaceful Snowflakes}

Family Day today and so I am taking advantage of some stamping time. Mind you, the laundry is calling my name, so I must get back to "working" at home!!!

Last month I won the FACEBOOK contest for the Paper Sweeties Stamps and the owner Debbie, sent me a super adorable snowman set!!! I love the snowflakes in it and I noticed that on her Paper Sweeties Blog, there is a sketch challenge this month! So using the Color Throwdown Colors and her sketch, I created a sweet and simple Christmas card!! Thank you Debbie for the chance to win one of your adorable stamp sets! I just love it!

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: Snow Friends (Paper Pretties), Sentiment is from a MFT set

Inks: Copics and Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Papers: Crumb Cake Cardstock, Verry Vanilla Cardstock

Extras: Heart Die Cuts (Spellbinders), Gemstones (SU!)

Also Entered in: Simon Says Stamps "Have a Heart Challenge"

Paper Players Sketch #92 and Color Throwdown #188 {Happy Day to You}

April is flying by! I can't believe how quick the days are getting, so much to do everyday and suddenly it is 9pm and I need to get to bed. It is actually Thursday night and I managed to get my Paper Players Challenge card done before the weekend! Woo-hoo! I am usually "Last Minute Lesley" and making my card on Saturday night, so I am pretty pumped to have my ducks in a row! At least for this week anyway...

This week's challenge comes from my pal Nance. She did up a sketch for us this week and I love all the possibilities it holds!  My inspiration comes from the colours at the Colour Throwdown.  I love the soft, springy hues and decided to get out my favourite stamp combo from Stampin' Up..."Elements of Style" and the "En Francais" background stamp! I also used my newest sentiment set called "Friendly Phrases". I liked the look of the modern script with the romantic roses.

We hope that you will join the Paper Players Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations! I also created a brand new FACEBOOK page for us! Wahoo! I hope you will "LIKE" us!!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy
Jenn Picard
Heidi Boos

Shirley Pumpkin (April GD)

The Paper Players Challenge #81 {Flowers}, CTD and I Spy Sketches

Welcome to another week of the Paper Players Challenge! The lovely Nance has a fun theme this week...FLOWERS!!!  I LOVE flowers and so I was doing a happy dance when I found out this week's challenge!

I also wanted to combine our challenge with a challenge out there that I love to play!  The Color Throwdown.  I have been playing their wonderful challenges for a few years now...I love them!  And this week is Hot Pink, Black and White! OH baby!! So much FUN! I also wanted to join in on a brand new sketch challenge blog called "I Spy Sketches" founded by Kim Teasdale. Kim has put together an amazing team of designers...so inspiring!

We hope that you will join the Paper Players Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

{Supplies}

Stamps: SU! Happy Moments

Paper: {Echo Park} Be Mine, {Echo Park} For the Record, SU! cardstock

Ink: Copics, Memento Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo

Extras: Scallop Edge Border Punch, Word Window, Big Shot, Spellbinders Ovals

Some FUN Challenges!!!

Wow, a week has flown by and I have been taking a wee break from stamping due to some life stuff that needed to be dealt with!  But I am now back and wanted to play with some challenges.  Here is my card!  I seem to be in a creative slump, this card took a long time to create!!!  But I had fun playing along and really was inspired by the awesome challenges below.

I decided to try the Sketch for You To Try Challenge:

And I also loved the challenge of the Color Throwdown Colors...I love that ornate bed frame and used an ornate style embossing folder for my background.

And there is a relatively new challenge out there created by pals called the Paper Lovin' Gals, and they are using this GREAT inspiration photo.  It is all about butterflies and flowers.  Hence the flowers and butterfly on my card!

Friday Mashup #41-{Thank You} and the Color Throwdown #174

Friday is here! Yahoooo! Another Friday Mashup Challenge! Thank you to everyone who joined in with Holly's challenge last week.  This week I am the hostess and I am in desperate need of thank you cards! Being a Primary Teacher, thank you cards are always a "must" to have on hand!!!  So this week I am challenging you to make a project with a Thank You sentiment and some Designer or Patterned Paper!

I used the colours at the Colour Throwdown for this card!  My designer paper comes from Kaiser Kraft and I used my Marvy Punches for the circles. The background is embossed and the whole card is on a Naturals Ivory card base.

We hope that you will join the Friday Mashup Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lesley

Inspired by Stamping Release Day!! {Soar to New Heights}

I wanted to play along with the Mojo Sketch and the Colours at the Colour Throwdown this week.  I had to use Cherry Cobbler instead of Bravo Burgundy for the paper.  I am all out of Burgundy!!  I loved the inspiration that these challenges gave to me!

Today is the official release day at Inspired by Stamping!  This week I have been showcasing the brand new stamp set called "The Sky's the Limit" and today it is available for purchase.  In fact, there is also FREE SHIPPING today!  The promo code for the FREE SHIPPING is BALLOONS (which is case sensitive).




Here are the other cards I created this week with this set! My focus technique this week had been Paper Piecing.  I went for an earthy feel to all of my cards this week when it came to colours.

I hope you have enjoyed my week of samples. I truly had fun using this set and creating these cards.  To visit my fellow design team members, please click on their names below. Be sure to join the Mojo Sketch and the Colour Throwdown this week.

Amber Goble

Deb Hickman

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Gini Williams Cagle

Irit Shalom

Jennie Garcia

Joanna Munster

Kendra Sand

Kassi Hulet

Kim Score

Lesley Croghan (that's me...you are here)

Susie Moore

Thanks for stopping by!!!

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: The Sky's the Limit (Inspired by Stamping)

Paper: Crumb Cake, Black, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive(All SU!), Retired Christmas Paper from Stamping Up

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Bravo Burgundy

Tools/Extras: Snips, Dimensionsals, MFT Dienamics (Medium Scallop Edge), Big Shot, Scallop Rectangles, Rectangle Nestabilities, Twine

Cardabilities Sketch #42 and "The Colour Throwdown" #167 {Sweet Winter Wishes}

The weekend is here and I am so excited to have a day to stamp! All week, I have been meaning to get to the Colour Throwdown and Cardabilities challenges!  Both were really fun this week and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I love that!  I used my new My Favourite Things stamps to create this card!  I was also excited to use some scraps of DSP that I had been hoarding saving for a layout just like this!!!

My image is coloured with Copics and I pulled out some Circle Nestabilities to create the frame around the main image. The background is Pretty in Pink, embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.  I also decided to add some bling to the image and punched out two snowflakes from glimmer paper. I love that stuff!  The inside is also finished off with DSP and a sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!!!
Smiles,

Color Throwdown...Stockings

Happy Monday! I was so inspired by the beautiful creations over at The Color Throwdown, I knew I had to play along! The colours are lovely and I decided to ink up a new set called "Stitched Stockings" for the challenge.

I used the new christmas designer paper in the mini catalogue for the woodgrain background.  Not a Christmas card I would normally create but I am happy with it! 


Thank you so much for stopping by!

Friday Mashup Challenge #28-Vintage Birdy

Shirley over at the Friday Mashup Challenge has another great challenge for us this week!  She wants us to use birds on our project!  I can't tell you how much I wanted to use the new "Nature Walk" stamp set from the new Mini Catalogue but I don't own it yet!  I have been waiting for Sale-A-Bration to start as I am sure many of you have been too!!

I wanted to created something vintage and I was lacking MOJO!!  I went looking at some of the other awesome challenges out there to get inpsired and decided I would try the Sketch 124 from the Clean and Simple Blog and The Colour Throwdown Challenge-Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz and Crumb Cake (I add black and vanilla as a neutral accent).  I think I over did it with my Crumb Cake "distressing"!! 

I hope you get the chance to play along with the Mashup Team this week!!!  Be sure to check out the Colour Throwdown and the Clean and Simple Sketch too!

I love reading your comments and hearing from you!  I can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by!

Smiles,

Lesley

Supplies:

Stamps: Elements of Style, Because I Care (Hostess Level 1)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Crumb Cake

Inks: Pretty in Pink (subbed for Blushing Bride), Pear Pizzazz, Black, Crumb Cake

Tools: Decorative Label Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Black Satin Ribbon, Sponges, Crimper, Pearls, Dimensionals