Pilin' on the Monsters and/or Fairies

The theme this fortnight at Pile It On is Monsters and/or Fairies. The only really rule is to be inspired by more than one papercrafting challenge. We're sponsored by Pink Gem, and I adapted their Beer Monster to make this creepily cute card.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cardz 4 Galz #41: Cardz 4 Teenz
Crafty Awesomeness: Anything Hand-colored
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
Scrapy Land Challenges: Add Texture (Flowersoft) + die sold by Scrapy land (Sizzix border die)
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: X is for Extreme
Star Stampz Challenge: 2 Or More Patterned Papers

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Pilin' on the Winter Cheer

The theme this month at Pile It On is Anything Christmas/Winter. We're sponsored by Pink Gem Designs and I used their "Chilly Ice Skating" digi stamp to make an interactive easel card. This is a regular A2 sized card, but there's a lot going on!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Sentiment Designs: Winter
Creaine Challenges: Sketch
Creative Card Crew: Cold outside
Mod Squad Challenge: Recipe (bottom row: Favorite Color (yellow) + Glitter/Bling + Die Cut)
Ooh La La Creations: Let It Snow
Pink Gem: Anything Christmas
Paper Minutes: Christmas cards with Birds
Simon Says Stamp: Let It Snow
Sisterhood of Crafters: In The Meadow We Will Build A Snowman
A Snowflakes Promise: Anything Winter or Christmas Theme



I donated this card along with several others & a bunch by my talented Mom to the church on the corner, who were having a craft fair at their Advent celebration. I really want to get my cards out there, and this was a fun opportunity. All the funds are going to their charitable fund. Here's how they displayed my cards -- love how they described me, made me blush!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Pilin' on the Summertime Fun

The theme this week at Pile It On is Hot Fun in the Summertime, and we're sponsored by Pink Gem Designs, so I used their Beach Fence and Sunshine & Smiles digi stamps to create this beach-scene easel card:

I had lots of fun with this card! I fussy cut the image. I colored the Beach Fence scene with a brown marker and painted it with white Crackle Paint, heating it to give it a worn look. The umbrella is pieced with a digital paper from Mel Stampz. I cut it twice, popping the top portion with foam tape. I added color to some of the stripes with a hot-pink marker. The umbrella stand and ball are also colored with Copic markers, but I popped the ball with more foam tape.

The sailboat, sandals, and coconut cocktail are buttons from Dress It Up (a "must use my coupon" splurge purchase I made at A.C. Moore this week!) and are adhered with Glossy Accents. I also used some actual shells as well.

The crab and starfish are stamps from a Recollections rubber stamp set, and the white shell is a cut file from SVG Attic's Just Beachy set. I used shiny papers for them. The background waves are from the same Just Beachy set, and were cut from a neon-blue paper. The front piece is heat-embossed with a Peacock powder (a glittery blue). The sand sections are heat-embossed with Brown Sugar powder from ZING! The Sunshine & Smiles sentiment was printed on neon-yellow paper. The star shape was cut from shiny paper. The final card folds down to a regular A2 size.

P.S. I have Blog Candy until the end of July 5. Hope you'll sign up!

Challenges/Inspiration:

1. A Gem of a Challenge: Red, White and Blue
2. City Crafter Challenge: Let's Go Nautical
3. Creative Moments: Embossing
4. Fussy and Fancy: Fancy Folds
5. My Time to Craft: Paper Piecing
6. Natalie and Amy's Challenge: Summertime
7. One Stitch at a Time: Red, White and Blue
8. Ruby's Rainbow: At The Seaside
9. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Dots
10. Wags 'n Whiskers: More Than One Fold

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On (we're also having a DT Call),

Easter Daffodils with Pink Gem Designs at Pile It On

Our theme this week at the Pile It On Challenge is "Easter Joys," so I made this Joy Fold card featuring Daffodil Vase by Pink Gem Designs:

I colored the Daffodil Vase with Copics, and the center flower is popped up with foam tape. The vase was pieced with a shiny white paper, colored with Sakura glaze pens, and coated with Ranger crackle paint.

The "Happy Easter" sentiment is from a Fiskars rubber stamp set, and is heat-embossed onto white silk ribbon from MayArts (this was the very last of this spool of ribbon...must get more!) The ribbon is finished with some liquid pearls. The green mesh is recycled from a bag of avocados!

The Joy Fold card is one of my favorite techniques, but I haven't made one in ages (see my past Joy Fold cards here). It opens up to reveal a sentiment from a Hero Arts rubber stamp, heat-embossed in two green Stampendous powders:

The leafy background was made with a K&Company clear stamp set and the same two colors of embossing powders. I added some Liquid Pearl accents in the corners. I used a Cuttelbug folder to deboss some of the white pieces, and backed everything with a bright green, textured Core'Dinations cardstock.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Card A Day Blog: Baby, Spring, Congratulations or Easter
2. Charisma Cardz #5: Something Not for Crafting (mesh from bag of avocados)
3. Crafty Boots: Green
4. Crazy 4 Challenges: Be Sentimental
5. Created With Love Challenges: Think Spring
6. Emergency Crafters: Flowers
7. Love to Scrap: Create your own Background
8. MarkerPOP Challenge: Lucky Green
9. Really Reasonable Ribbon #90: Show me the Green & Ribbon
10. Sweet Stamps #151: Fun Folds

Update: This was the winner for Sweet Stamps Challenge #151!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,

Cacti Christmas

Our theme this week at Pile It On! is Non-Traditional Christmas, either non-traditional colors or a non-traditional image. I played with the idea of Christmas being traditionally being portrayed as a snowy time; my folks live in Arizona, and lots of people decorate their cacti!

I used a digi stamp from our sponsor, Milly with Toffee Apple by Pink Gem Designs: 

I've hand-cut my own step cards before, and I've even designed my own version in SCAL to cut on my Silhouette, which is why I was very willing to pay the 99¢ for this Side Step Card by Lori Whitlock from the Silhouette store. Funny story: a local crafting friend got a Silhouette around the same time I did, and we laughed that some of the first files we bought were cut designs we've hand-cut in the past! Nothing like experience to foster commerce.

I also used the Cactus Set by Sarah Bailey, which I layered with both sides a Core'dinations cardstock and a shiny red paper. I bought the caramel apple brads last year at Scraps of Love, and the geckos are from a punch also purchased there.

Challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge: Winter Wishes
A Gem of a Challenge #107: Sparkle + Pink Gem digi
Aud Sentiments Challenge #94: Any Sentiment
Creative Corner #45: Heavy Metal
Crafter's Cafe #38: Metal
Crafty Creations: American Thanksgiving/Christmas
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday: Winter Scenes
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge: Warm Christmas
Stampin' For The Weekend: Feeling Festive
Stamps & Fun = Creativity: Digi stamp

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,