Marlboro Coyote

I'm not sure how it happened, but Marlboro has been sending coupons to my best friend at my mailing address for years. It's one of those random things; neither of us remember why he needed to register so badly for Marlboro Miles that he used my address (he's moved around over the years, but I've stayed in our old, beloved money pit!) or if they got his address some other way ... but we joke about it, and I couldn't resist using their newest mailing to make a card for him. The graphics were so pretty, and worked well with my ODBD "Surprise Box" die set.

I cut the Howling die by Spellbinders/Shapeabilities/InSpire from a shiny gold paper, and used an embossing pen to add gold embossing power to the Moon portion. I backed it with vellum, and added a Starform sentiment sticker that I colored red. The treelines were cut with a Memory Box die. I edged the pieces with a Krylon gold leaf pen (man, this thing has lasted forever!) and cut a message section [not pictured] from white cardstock for the back. I'm sure my friend will have as much fun receiving this as I had making it!

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on a Pink Pop

The theme this month at Pile It On is Thank You and/or Shades of Black & White + Optional Pop of color. We're sponsored by Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps, and I couldn't resist using their Winter Flamingos digi stamp again!

I was inspired by the fact that flamingos are naturally gray/white & get their pink color from their diet. Guess this guy ate all the shrimp!

For the background, I dry-embossed a black-and-white textured cardstock (Core'Dinations); I sanded the black side, and inked the white side. The sentiment piece is made with the same paper. I stamped the round sentiment in gray & the center sentiment in black (both stamps are from Scrapper's Paradise). The base card, mat, and image frame are 3 different gray cardstocks.

I colored the Flamingos image with Copic markers; mostly their Warm and Cool Grays. The background was colored with W1, then textured with alcohol & a paper towel. I added white flocking to the gray flamingos. The pink guy was colored florescent pink. The ribbon (Offray) has been in my stash forever. I had lots of fun making this!

Inspiration/Challenges:
2 Crafty Critter Crazies : Anything Goes with a Critter
CCEE Stampers #177: Baby It's Cold Outside
Classic Design Team Open Challenge #21: Any DT Project
Simply Create Too #134: Use Embossing
Tuesday Morning Sketches #436: Sketch

Thank you for visiting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Chic Invaders -- Digital at International Art & Soul

Our theme this fortnight at the International Art & Soul Challenge is Do Something Digital.

I won a gift certificate from Our Daily Bread Designs from the Coffee Loving Cardmakers' Winter Blog Hop, and used it to buy myself their "Surprise Box" die set. It's so fun to use!

The adorable "Space Invaders in Disguise" digi stamp is a freebie from Wonderstrange. The "Out of this World" sentiment is a free digi stamp from Digital Doodling. The patterned, digital papers are from WeeDesignStudio.

For the third card, I made a old-school computer monitor-inspired sentiment. I die-cut the square pieces, and heat embossed the sentiment (Stampin'D'Amour) in white on the same shiny green paper I used for the base of the other two cards; I used a shiny black base for this card. Can't get enough of these Hipster Invaders!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafting By Designs: Out of This World (Outer Space)
Simon Says Wednesday: Add a Sentiment

Thank you for visiting! Hope you'll join us at International Art & Soul,

Smiles across the Miles - Cards at Crafting with Dragonflies

Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies is Anything goes - Cards only. I made this box card, inspired by my crafting friends around the world!

This [long-hoarded] paper from American Crafts has Australia on a lot of it, which made me think of Hilde and my Crafting with Dragonflies teamies who live there. The "Smile" die cut was a gift from Keti in Slovenia! The Card-in-a-Box die is from Lawn Fawn. The globe-patterned paper is from Authentique.

I created the sentiment "Sending smiles across the miles" with the American Typewriter & Eutemia fonts, and die-cut it with a banner die from a patterned vellum. The globe & plane are from an in'spire/Spellbinders emboss/die set. I used pieces of acetate to make the pop-ups "float" above the strips.

For the third card, I used a word die to create a pop-up piece. The washi tapes are from Paper Studio.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge: V is for Vellum
Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes with Dies
WordArt Wednesdays #318/319: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting & hope you'll join the fun at Crafting with Dragonflies, 

Hole in One

I've wanted to make a golf-themed card-in-a-box for a while & finally got some of my favorite things together! I used a dragon stamp (Dustin Pike) that I've had for years, my mom's golf cart dies (Memory Box), and this great patterned Designer Paper (AdornIt) that I've had for at least a year. I made the base card by hand from the double-sided DP. I colored the image & die-cuts with Copic markers. The inside pop-up piece is green cardstock that I dry-embossed & inked with 2 greens. I decorated the bottom panels with plastic sushi grass.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Calendar January Challenge: Mythical Creatures
Simon Says Wednesday: Patterned Paper

Thank you for visiting!

Pilin' on the Thankful Family Flock

The theme this month at Pile It On is Thank You. The only real rule is to be inspired by more than one papercrafting challenge. We're sponsored by Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps, and I used their Winter Flamingos.

We spent the Christmas holiday in Arizona with my parents. We took a little drive through the rose fields in the desert to the Wildlife World Zoo. When I was a child, it was mostly a rescue zoo that you could drive through & view the animals, but these days my family is more interested in eating BBQ & watching the shark tank at Dillon's Restaurant! Their patio looks out onto the Flamingo pond, and I captured this photo. The photo of me is actually from a few years ago, with a plastic flamingo in Baltimore's Sherwood Garden.

No visit with Mom would be complete without a trip to her awesome local craft store, Scraps of Love. She let me pick out a Christmas present, and I just had to have this Newton's Nook snowglobe die set. The "merry" is from the same set, and the number dies & flamingo die are from Mom's stash. The base card is made with a favorite piece of Graphic 45 DP. The speech bubble stamp is from Latina Crafter, and I hand-wrote the silly sentiment. I sent this to my folks as a memento of another memorable holiday.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge: U for Use 3 of Something
Crafty Animals #10: Anything Goes + Animal
Creative Sketchy Girls: Christmas/New Year
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Something New (Snowglobe die was a Xmas gift)

Thank you for visiting!

White Winter -- WOW at International Art & Soul

Our theme this fortnight at the International Art & Soul Challenge is WOW (white on white) + the option of a smidgen of color.I made this shaker card using dies from Sweet Stamps (leaves), Newton's Nook (snowglobe & snowflakes), and Cottage Cutz (scene inside snowglobe).

Inspiration/Challenges:
Little Red Wagon #424: Winter Wonderland
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Something New (snowglobe die)
Sparkles Forum Christmas #84: White on White

Update: This was chosen as a Top 3 for Sparkles Forum Christmas #84!

Thank you for visiting! Hope you'll join us at International Art & Soul,

One is Silver & the other Gold

I couldn't wait to use my new ampersand dies from my crafting buddy Keti! The ampersand is my absolute favorite punctuation character (along with the interrobang [‽] & the semicolon [my only tattoo]!)

I used the smaller ampersand die to create a stamp from adhesive foam. I heat-embossed the stamp with glittery black powder on shiny black paper. I cut the larger ampersands from silver & gold papers. The sentiment is from a Recollections stamp set, and is heat-embossed on a shiny green paper in a glittery white powder.

Remember that Girl Scout song?

Inspiration/Challenges:
A2Z Scrapbooking Linky Party: New To Me (ampersand dies)
Die Cuttin' Divas #350: Sketch + dies
Tuesday Throwdown #373: Silver and/or Gold

Thank you for visiting!