Coffee Lovers Blog Hop {Verve & MFT Stamps}

Today is the big day! The "Fall" Coffee Lovers Hop! I have recently given up coffee...for a while anyway! It is tough on me, as I love the rich taste and the amazing aroma is gives off! Sigh! Hopefully I will be able to drink some soon!!!

Using a MFT coffee cup die that I picked up from Butterfly Reflections Ink and some Verve sentiments from the set One Cup, I went to work and made two simple cards! I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. The first card uses the "Coffee" die from Verve and I hope you can see how the die cut word "Coffee" from Verve, is the top of the sketch...that piece that goes across the top of the card.

 

The second card uses the same colours but different stamps and some plaid paper to mimic a nice cozy blanket! I wanted the cards to match, and to have a Fall "flavour". I have been feeling so cozy lately...drinking tea and wearing sweaters. Have you?

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you get the chance to hop along and play along. A special thank you to Amy Tsuruta for doing this magical hop! 

The Challenge #43 {Inspiration Challenge}

Hello and welcome to The Challenge! 

We are so excited about this week's challenge because we get to introduce you to a new team mate!!! I am thrilled to welcome, Diane Jaquay to our team! Welcome, Diane. I asked Diane to share a bit about herself...here's what she had to say!

Diane Jaquay

Hello!  My name is Diane Jaquay and I'm super excited to be a part of The Challenge design team!  I love paper crafts, particularly creating cards, I think I'm "addicted" to it!  Anytime I can sit down and find time to create I'm a happy camper.  I live in beautiful Lancaster County, PA with my programmer/analyst husband and 14 year old daughter.  My son recently left us to attend Bloomsburg University, and I'm definitely missing him like crazy.  I home school my daughter and currently don't have a job outside of the home, and I think I like it that way.  My home is my haven and I love being here.  In addition to crafting, I love nature, reading, spending time with my family, and watching good TV shows and movies.  I also love to watch some of the reality TV shows that are on, my favorite being Big Brother (ha ha, yes, I'm not too proud to admit that, it's my guilty pleasure).  I'm thankful that Lesley asked me to be a part of her team, and I hope that my creations inspire you.

Thank you Diane!!! This week we have an inspiration challenge and I was so excited to make my card! I really wanted to do some watercolouring and some fussy cutting. I will admit, this card did not turn out as I had hoped...it is a little "weird" to me but I think you can see I was inspired by the colours and the textures of the photo. I usually like to have a white or "clean" card base but I was trying to recreate the wall in the background of the photo. I also used the awesome sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch! Love it! I thought it worked perfectly for the design I had in my mind! I hope you do too! I used a retired My Favourite Things stamp set.

The design team have created some inspiration to get you in the crafting mood! Come and join us! Our weekly winner will be our next Guest Designer! So come and join the fun!

Alanna 

(Featured Designer)

Kim Heggins	Anita Madden	Kimberly Wiener
Lee Ann Barrett	Claire Broadwater	Nance Salkeld
Lori Tecler	Diane Jaquay	Michele Ferguson

An InLinkz Link-up

The Challenge #34 {Yellow, Orange & Green}

Hello and welcome to The Challenge! Every week I host a new challenge on my blog and this week we have a fun and summery "Colour Challenge" to inspire you! We hope it does!

For my card, I decided to use a stamp set from Verve called "Kind Words" and I paired it with the "Vintage Roses" set from Altenew. I have been watercolouring a lot lately and I decided to add some water to the floral images. I am playing along with a couple of other challenges today! Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Let's Get Sentimental, Altenew's Tunisia Inspiration Challenge and Verve Floral Inspiration Challenge. 

 

I added some neutral twine to my card and used a background die from MFT Stamps and their Stitched Rectangle Die to mimic the design in the Altenew Inspiration photo. I thought the background die looks like the inspiration and texture. I hope it worked!

This month we are honoured to have Sandie Munro with us as our Featured Designer! I absolutely LOVE her CAS (clean and simple) design.

Sandie Munro

(Featured Designer)

The design team has once again shown all the way you can be inspired this week! 

We hope you will join us!

Kim Heggins	Anita Madden	Kimberly Wiener
Lee Ann Barrett	Claire Broadwater	Nance Salkeld
Lori Tecler	Colleen Foelker (Guest Designer)	Michele Ferguson

Winnie & Walter, Butterfly Reflections Ink & Simon Says Stamp {Hello}

Another post from me! I am enjoying my tidy craft space and some fun National Scrapbooking Day challenges in blog land. I am a newbie to the Butterfly Reflections Ink Challenge, I am linking up to the Simon Says Stamp Challenge and I am also playing with the Winnie & Walter Sketch Challenge. 

   

I pulled out an old retired floral set from Stampin' Up and matched it with some pretty washi tape. Heat embossing the flowers in white and then watercolouring them with distress inks on watercolour paper was fun! I wanted to reflect the mood board challenge. I love the trend of these bright colours matched with gold and I wanted to give it a whirl!

CASE this Sketch #89 {Hello}

Time for another challenge at CASE this Sketch! This week the talented Leigh is our sketcher and she has come up with a simple sketch that is fun to work with! 

I immediately wanted to play along with my MFT Silhouettes stamps...and inked them up in red, aqua and espresso for a bold design. I added a couple of sequins and a small butterfly. Easy peasy and a CAS to have on hand to send to a friend.

Come and play along with us at CASE this Sketch.