Fusion Card Challenge - April 24th

I'm so excited - it's Thursday and time for a new Fusion Challenge!  I am in awe of how many of you participate in the challenges every other week -  I get such inspiration from everyone's take on it!  So here we are with a brand new challenge!  How bright and colorful is this?!

I just had to go literal with my card - since I purchased SO many of these colored straws from Michaels  after seeing Kelly's post of her picture ornaments here. (at $1 a pack, how could I leave them there??!  I haven't made the ornaments - yet....but I have all my supplies ready for when the spirit moves me!)  I used the Stripes Horizontal Cover Plate from PTI for the panel and cut the straws to fit inside each cut out accept for one - where I popped up the cut out piece stamped with the sentiment from Woot Woot by Cas-ual Friday Stamps.

I popped up the die cut panel with lots of foam tape and adhered the straws with ScorTape to be sure they'd stay stuck! You can see the raised panel and dimension the straws give the card from this side angle.  I refrained from adding any sequins or enamel dots - as I think this would be great as a guy card.

How are you inspired by this week's Fusion Challenge?  I can't wait to see your cards linked up in the Fusion Gallery!

I hope you will check out all of the DT's blogs linked below for some serious inspiration!

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Jeanne Jachna
Julia Aston - me!
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu
Stephanie Severin

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Cut it Up -  a birthday card and use at least one die cut

Keep it Simple - Bright Sparks 

Less is More - Makes me smile (the colorful straws!)

Seize the Birthday -  anything goes.

Stamps:  Woot Woot - Casual Fridays

Paper:  White - PTI

Ink:  Archival Watering Can

Accessories:  straws - Michaels, Stripes Horizontal Cover plate die - PTI, Scor Tape, foam tape 

Monday Noel

Today I have a card that combines two of my favorite Monday Challenges.

First -  Merry Monday  was to use a Christmas word and decorate each letter

  I die cut the "noel' from PTI block letters and decorated them with tiny twinkles from Taylored Expressions

I used red sparkle card stock for the base, layering a striped and black piece die cut with Mega Mat stack layers.  I punched the drippy snow/icicles out of watercolor paper so it has some texture and popped it up on foam dots across the panel.  I adhered the letters along the top edge of the drippy snow.

and the Cure for the Monday Blues challenge was this photo inspiration.  I was inspired by the red/black/white colors, the striped mug, the black frame and chair for my card design.

 I'll be back on Thursday with my card for the new Fusion Card Challenge 

and on April 30th I'll be starting 3 days of sneak peeks for the May Waltzingmouse release along with the rest of the WMS Design Team - fun stuff coming!

Paper:  white, True Black - PTI, watercolor paper - Ranger, glitter red - Michaels, DP - Sn@p/Simple Stories.
Accessories:  drip punch - Martha Stewart, Tiny Twinkles - Taylored Expressions, Block Alphabet die and Mega Stack 3 Dies - PTI, Glue N Seal - Ranger, foam dots, Zig Glue Pen

Cheer Up Buttercup

Well - it's Monday once again - I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  We had some sunshine but it was rather cool (50's) and the nights have still been COLD (30's)!   Today is the running of the Boston Marathon - and I work at a hospital right near the finish line.  I decided to take the day off, rather than be in the middle of all the crowds honoring the anniversary of last year's tragedy.

For today's card - I used some new things and some old things on my card -  

The  new thing is the fun background stamp from WPlus9 Borders and Backgrounds set - it's a strip of dots and when you stamp them repeatedly, it looks like rain falling, doesn't it?!  The old thing is the umbrella and sentiment stamps from Scattered Showers from Papertrey Ink.  I stamped the dotted umbrella in Mustard Seed Distress Ink onto Harvest Gold card stock - then stamped the outline stamp over the dotted stamping, cut it out and layered it onto the panel with foam dots. I love this sentiment - it cheers me up just reading it for some reason!  I cut my panel with a stitched mat rectangle die and layered it over a piece of Washi tape adhered onto the card base.  I made my own enamel dots by baking Perler beads which I showed on this post.

I'm linking this card to two challenges:

My design was inspired by Seize the Sketch

And the Card Concept challenge is to use an umbrella - my card is Clean and Layering

Stamps:  Scattered Showers - PTI, Borders and Backgrounds - WPlus9.
Paper:  White, Harvest Gold - PTI
Ink:  Ranger Distress Mustard Seed and Tumbled Glass, Archival Garden Gate
Accessories:  foam dots, washi tape - Michaels, enamel dots - home made from Perler Beads.

He is Risen!

Wishing all the Christian's in the world celebrating the Risen Lord today -  a very Blessed Easter!  I'll be at church in the morning - then spending the afternoon with my family for Easter Dinner. 

"They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus"  Luke 24:2-3

"The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said."  Matthew 28:5-6

" Don't be alarmed", he said.  "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He has risen: He is not here."  Mark 16:6

Happy Easter, Bunny!

One final bunny card - using my brand new Lil' Inker Designs Bunnies and Bows dies (SO cute!) - along with the ever present Stitched Mat Rectangle and with the addition of a Stitched Mat Circle today!

I die cut 2 stitched mat rectangles - one in vintage cream and one in Berry Sorbet - then I cut them into uneven strips and pieced them back together alternating the colors.

My card was inspired by the Cure for the Monday Blues challenge

I was inspired by the bunnies, the little vase of tiny blooms and the little drink bottles with striped colors.  This photo sure does cure the Monday Blues!

Wishing everyone who celebrates - a most Blessed Easter!

Stamps:  Happy Easter, Bunny - Penny Black, little blooms - from Fresh Cut Florals set - WPlus9
Paper:  white, Vintage Cream, Berry Sorbet - PTI
Ink:  Archival Jet Black, Adirondack Salmon and Mountain Rose.
Accessories:  Stitched Mat Rectangles and Circles, bunny and bow dies - Lil' Inker Designs,  black rhinestone - Kaiser, foam dots, 1 1/4" circle punch - EK Success.

What Feelings Sound Like and Spring in the Woods

Today I have two creations to share -  one very clean and simple and the other a more detailed shadow box!

My card base and layered panel are Ranger Watercolor Paper.  I brushed on Ranger Distress Stains for my background and stamped the sentiment from Serendipity Stamps over the colors using Archival Watering Can Ink.

I'm linking this card to Cas-ology Cue Card NOTE

and Just Us Girls Water Colored Background (mine is actually Distress Stains - but they are brushed on and I did use watercolor paper (?!?)

I made my next project for a friend at work who asked me to make a special card for her mother's 80th birthday which is in July.  Her mother loves feeding the birds and being outdoors - she's an LL Bean kind of girl!

So after pondering what I might make for her - I remembered I had purchased this tree shadow box cut file from the Silhouette Shop. So I quickly cut it out with my Silhouette Cameo after deciding the colors for each layer and before assembling it I had to think about what I would add to it.  I decided the woods needed some sun, birds, grass and leaves!  The sun is made from Sunshine dies - large and small by Lil' Inker Designs.

The perfect day stamp is from the Sentimental Art set from Study 490 Wendy Vecchi.

The blue birds are from the Mini Bird and Cage die from Tim Holtz Alterations. The grass die  and sentiment banner are from My Favorite Things.  Happy Birthday and Mom are from Women of Life by Papertrey Ink.  I added green sequin 'leaves' to some of the branches.

I added a die cut Tim Holtz small easel cut from grunge board to the back so the box will stand up.

My friend said her mother will LOVE this shadow box -and will most likely place it on her kitchen windowsill where she can look at it every day!  It's nice to know that the receiver will appreciate the art we create isn't it?!

I'm entering my spring woods scene in a new challenge I just discovered -  Art With Heart Challenge - April Showers/Spring Theme

 Music card:
Stamps:  Music is what - Serendipity Stamps
Paper:  Watercolor paper - Ranger
Ink:  Archival Watering Can
Accessories:  Ranger Distress Stains - Worn Lipstick, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw

Woods Shadow Box:
Stamps:  Sentimental Art - Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi, Women of Life - PTI
Paper:  Ideology Grunge Board, Coredinations Canves Texture Ice Cream, Ranger Distress Coredinations blue and green, Simply Chartreuse , Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold and Blueberry Sky - PTI.
Ink:  Archival Watering Can
Accessories:  Fresh Cut Grass and Dimensional Banners Dies - MFT, Curly Label Punch - SU, Mini Bird and Cage  and small easel die- Tim Holtz Alterations, 1" circle punch - EK Success, Tiny Twinkles - Taylored Expressions, Lucky Blend sequins - Avery Elle, foam dots, ScorTape.

Make It Monday - Easter Tag Cards

Today I have something I made for the PTI Make It Monday Challenge - Heat Embossing on die cuts.  I needed 3 special Easter Cards for my grand nephews and niece and when I saw that Erin used the Special Delivery stamps, Sentiments and dies for her sample - I knew I wanted to design something with that set - seeing as I just had to have that set - and then never used it - until today!

I made Tags for the kidlettes - and used a really long piece of twine on them - so they could wear them like necklaces if they so desired - or they could hang them from a lamp or something.   

I like to try and use ALL PTI products when I participate in the PTI challenges, but I thought I didn't have any Easter stamps to use even though I have a plethora of PTI stamp sets!!??!!  

So I went to the PTI shop and typed in SENTIMENTS in the search box to see if I could find a set with Happy Easter in it  -  and Limitless Labels was one of the sets that came up - (an older PTI set which I happen to have!) and lo and behold - the set contained happy EASTER AND a little egg!  

Then I checked my Tiny Treats Valentine's set because I knew that had a lot of little animals in it - and sure enough - there was the little bunny with a heart cottontail, sweet as you please in the set!

And did you notice the cool little blue and pink 'enamel' dots on my tags?  I made them myself (!) - out of Perler Beads  -  which I had never heard of (not having young kids doing crafts in my home anymore).  I came across a tutorial in blog land on how to make dots out of them.  I found this package of them at Michaels for $5.99.

Basically -  you heat your oven to 325 degrees F,  place a piece of parchment paper on a small baking sheet (I used a pizza pan!), stand up the pieces on end - leaving enough space between them so they don't melt together, and cook for 35 minutes!  It doesn't smell at all (sometimes when you melt plastic in the oven it stinks!) and they come out perfectly round!

Here they are all standing up on their ends before going in the oven.  Here's a link to the tutorial I found by Katie Gehring

Here they are after 35 minutes in the oven - perfectly round shaped little 'enamel' dots! (you[ll notice two of my orange ones were too close together and they merged!)

and here they are taken off the parchment - Gosh -  just looking at these makes me happy!!

The beads that are in two colors - the light blue and light pink in my package shown above - melt down to look like little flowers or pinwheels - those are the ones I used on my tags today.

 

I'm also entering these in the Curtain Call Challenge - Confetti Crush

 

 You never know when you are going to find something fun and new out there!

Stamps:  Special Delivery, Special Delivery Sentiments, Tiny Treats Valentines, Limitless Labels - Papertrey Ink.
Paper:  Sweet Blush, SPring Rain, Harvest Gold - PTI
Ink:  Versamark, Hibiscus Burst, Spring Rain - PTI
Accessories:  Perler Beads (to make enamel dots) - Michaels, Ocean and Blossom Twine - The Twinery, Ranger Distress Marker - Spun Sugar, Word Window Punch - SU, Tag Sale Die #3 - PTI, white embossing powder, Special Deliver Die - PTI, heat gun.