Mojo Monday

Its the last Monday of the month, so that means a different shaped card for the Mojo Monday Challenge!  Mine is 5 1/4" square and uses papers from My Mind's eye "Christmas Wish" 6x6 pad.  I took the wreath image from Verve's "Autumn Blessings" set and dressed it up for Christmas by adding sequins!  The sentiment is from the "Unto Us" set and the poinsettia is from "Joyous Noel" - both by Verve.  A simple and self-explanatory card.

If you'd like more inspiration for this sketch, click on the mojomakers' blog links below...or...you can go to the Mojo Monday blog and click on the first seven thumbnails.
Julee Tilman (Owner)
Justin Krieger
Lori Tecler
Marisa Ritzen 
Sarah Bigelow
Teresa Kline
Wanda Cullen (you are here)

Joyful Tag

It's been a super warm and gorgeous weekend off for me and I'm loving it! After lunch clean up, I ventured into my crafty space and came up with this card for Tag, You're It Challenge and Freshly Made Sketches Challenge!  I started with Bright Opera and Lemon Yellow watercolors from my Mijello Mission Gold watercolor palette (love their vibrant colors!).  I was inspired by Rubeena Naz' lovely tag with the offset image, layering with a glittery tag, and using a pink and green color combination.  I used 3 different wreath stamps with WPlus9 inks: Old Gold, Mojito and Last Leaf.  I heat embossed the tiny

flowers with Melon Mambo embossing powder (SU) after stamping with Versamark ink then added Lemon Twist Enamel Accents to the centers.  The sentiment was die cut with WPlus9's Hand Lettered Holiday die and metallic silver cardstock.  The plaid green CS is a clearance bargain by Recollections.  I used the Charles border embossing folder along the bottom edge of the card.

STAMPS: Woodland Wreaths (WPlus9).

Tonight will be Game 5 in the World Series, so I'll be cheering on the Cleveland Indians once again!  I was born and raised about 60 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio so this is what I consider to be my "home" team!  Go Tribe!!  :-)

Inspired By...All the Little Things

Happy Saturday everyone! It's time for another great inspiration photo for the Inspired By...All the Little Things challenge!  I was inspired by the muted leafy background and the pop of stark white in the cups as well as the pumpkin and latte theme!  I knew I wanted to use Verve's free digis from last year...paired with Reverse Confetti dies and PTI patterned papers.

Here's my take on it...

STAMPS: Digi stamps by Verve.
PAPER: Fall Prints and Patterns by PTI; Always Artichoke by SU; X-Press It Blending Card.
DIES: Edge Essentials, Topped Off Tag, Hang Ups Double Edge Scallop Border, Wreaths - all by Reverse Confetti.

So, let us see how YOU are inspired!  The challenge linky will close on Friday, November 4, at 12:00 pm (PST), so be sure to check out all the inspiration over on the Inspired By blog - the design team has some awesome samples!

Color Throwdown #416

It's time for a new Color Throwdown Challenge and Lisa Henke is our hostess this week with a great color combo we hope you'll enjoy - cranberry, dark teal, peach and kraft!  With these barrels of flowers in the inspiration photo, I couldn't resist using flowers (no surprise there - lol!).  

Here is my take on it using stamps and dies from Reverse Confetti...

It's not my standard Christmas style, but I thought why not?  I used WPlus9 inks - Ocean Drive, Siron Song, Sweet Nectar and Cranberry Crush.  The only SU ink is Crumb Cake.  I sponged Siron Song ink with RC's Pointed Out stencil.

STAMPS: Blooms 'n Buds, Winter Word Coordinates by Reverse Confetti.
PAPER: Tropical Teal, Kraft and White by PTI.
DIES: Blooms 'n Buds, Winter Words by Reverse Confetti; Stitched rectangle by Lil' Inker Designs.
MISCELLANEOUS: Pointed Out stencil by Reverse Confetti.

I'm excited to see one of our regular challenge participants as our guest star stamper this week!  Congrats to the talented Cecile Ribon!

For more details on how to play along, head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog and you'll find the information on the right sidebar!  You can also visit the rest of the design team's creations for more inspiration...see links below:
Amy Rohl 
Amy Rysavy
Barbara Anders  
Broni Holcombe   
Jodi Collins 
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put  
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen (you are here)  
Erin Lee - October Guest Designer

Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge

Good Tuesday everyone! I'm playing along with PTI's October Blog Hop Challenge where they have this incredible fall photo for our inspiration!  My card was inspired by the woodgrain background, the music and of course, the berries, leaves and pumpkins.  

Here's my interpretation...

I stamped the wreath using PTI's Wreath For All Seasons stamp set with Baked Brown Sugar and Riding Hood Red inks (SU).  The sentiment was gold embossed and includes one of PTI's Tiny Tags stamps and dies - probably my most frequently used products from their company aside from their white CS that I use for nearly all of my card bases!  The pumpkins and leaves are dies by Simon Says Stamp which I used with some leftover watercolor scraps.  The flag banner was die cut from paper (Strathmore Bristol smooth surface) that was printed using a 3" x 5" Gelli Arts brand gel printing plate. I randomly added about 2 dabs each of Liquitex Basics acrylic paints: Yellow Oxide, Cadmium Orange Hue, Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Light Green Permanent.  I first reviewed this YouTube tutorial for beginners since it had been many months since I used this technique.  You don't want to mix the colors up very much with the brayer or it will just appear muddy.  I used Tim Holtz stencils - burlap then bubble. I still had a good amount of paint on the gel plate after "printing" a couple of times, so added a few tiny dots of gold acrylic paint to the plate, brayered lightly, then placed one of the TH mini stencils (looks like hexagons or boxes) from his stencil set #13.  You never get the same results with this technique and I learned to keep all "prints" even if I don't care for them.  You can add layers of different colors until you get a desired result!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  If you would like to join in the hop, you have until midnight tonight EST to add a card to PTI's blog post HERE.

It's A Celebration!

Here's a quick blog post of my CAS card entry for Splitcoaststampers' CAS challenge yesterday!  Here are the requirements:
C - Celebration theme (birthday, christmas, retirement, etc.)
A - Aqua (monochromatic blue/green color scheme)
S - Sparkle (add a touch of glitz)
Nothing says celebration in my book like a shaker card, so here's what I came up with...

I already had this emboss resist panel in my leftover pile, so I quickly die cut the tree shape using Sizzix' Christmas Tree #2 die and created a shaker card. The background was white embossed using a woodgrain stamp then a light watercolor wash using Cracked Pistachio and Evergreen Bough distress inks was added.  Mixing those two colors results in an aqua shade of color.  The sentiment die is by Papertrey Ink and the star embellishment is an iron on piece I've had in my stash forever.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Mojo Monday #471

Whoa...can you believe another week has rolled around and we've got a new Mojo Monday Challenge?! I decided I really need to get started with my Christmas card stash, so went with these cool winter colors in Bo Bunny's Altitude 6x6 pad.  I did a quick watercolor wash using Tumbled Glass distress ink then stamped the sentiment from Verve's Richly Blessed set twice using my MISTI and Night of Navy ink.  The Snowflake Trio dies are from Reverse Confetti. 

If you'd like more inspiration for this sketch, click on the mojomakers' blog links below...or...you can go to the Mojo Monday blog and click on the first seven thumbnails.
Julee Tilman (Owner)
Justin Krieger
Lori Tecler
Marisa Ritzen 
Sarah Bigelow
Teresa Kline
Wanda Cullen (you are here)

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Inspired Be...All the Little Things

Isn't this such a gorgeous photo of autumn leaves?! Hope it inspires you to play along with the new Inspired By...All the Little Things challenge #29!  I love the warm color palette that nature brings to us in October and thought it would be fun to do some Gelli plate printing for this challenge!  It's always a messy and daunting task yet I always love the end results and wonder why I don't do it more often.

I used orange, green, gold and red acrylic paints and brayered over the Gelli plate, adding the Tim Holtz burlap stencil for the first step.  I like adding a hint of metallic gold paint as well, so used this

with a different TH stencil (bubble) for the second step.  After that was dry, I die cut a trio of leaves (Sweet 'n Sassy's Season of Change).  The subtle French Script (retired SU) background stamping was done by partially inking up the stamp with Cajun Craze (SU) ink.  I then inked up Concord and 9th's Lace Leaf background stamp with Crushed Curry (SU) ink.  The leaves were popped up using foam dots and the sentiment was layered with black then metallic gold cardstock - die by Concord and 9th.

The challenge linky will close on Friday, October 28, at 12:00 pm (PST), so be sure to check out all the inspiration over on the Inspired By blog, and link up your creation!  Speaking of grateful, I'm so glad you stopped by and hope to see you in the gallery!

Freshly Made Sketches

My card uses the layout for the new Freshly Made Sketches Challenge and I was inspired by the photo for the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge with a glittery gourds theme. I started with the heavy weight cardstock from Recollections' Vintage Glam 6x6 pad using the dotted paper for the base and the striped paper for the horizontal elements.  I gold embossed the pumpkin using Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder.  The stem was stamped with Early Espresso

ink and the leaves with Lucky Limeade ink - both by SU.  The matching dies make it so easy to assemble the card!

STAMPS/DIES: Pumpkin Patch by Reverse Confetti.   

On an oily side note...
My current fave diffuser blends to build up immunity at home and at work are Thieves and Orange oils in the nurses' station and Orange, Cinnamon and Clove oils in the family room.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't use a variety of Young Living oils!  Love them!

Color Throwdown #415

It's Wednesday, so that means there's a new Color Throwdown Challenge on board!  Jodi is our hostess and she's got some really yummy colors based on this throw pillow: cream, red, brown and a bluish green.  Here's my take on it...

I initially thought of going with a geometric design, but these Altenew Vintage Flowers won out! :-)  I stenciled with Chocolate Chip ink using a Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil then lightly sponged some Sea Breeze ink...a new shade recently released by WPlus9.  The flowers and leaves are all 3 step stamping: Primrose Petals stamped off once, Primrose Petals then Raspberry Ripple - both by SU.  The leaves were done with Sea Breeze on the outline stamp then Sea Breeze stamped off once then Mojito - both by WPlus9.  The sentiment is from Altenew's Painted Greetings stamp set.

Congrats to Robin Feicht, our guest star stamper this week!  She's a faithful follower in the throwdown challenges and you'll want to be sure and stop by her blog and say hello!

Our talented October guest designer - Erin Lee of Erin Lee Creative - is back again with another beautiful creation!

For more details on how to play along, head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog and you'll find the information on the right sidebar!  You can also visit the rest of the design team's creations for more inspiration...see links below:
Amy Rohl 
Amy Rysavy
Barbara Anders  
Broni Holcombe   
Jodi Collins 
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put  
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen (you are here)  
Erin Lee - October Guest Designer

Tag, You're It Challenge

I couldn't resist this unique tag by Leigh Penner for the current Tag, You're It Challenge!  I was inspired by the gray base with white silhouettes and just a wee pop of color.  My tag will become the focal point on a card for one of our two pastors for Pastor Appreciation Sunday this week!

STAMPS: Blooms 'n Buds (Reverse Confetti).
DIES: Leafy, Tag Me Too, Thankful Pretty Panels (Reverse Confetti).

Since the flower and leaves were leftovers from a previous project, this was a very quick and easy tag to  create.

Later in the day...editing this post to add my completed card.  I used Reverse Confetti's Leaves Cover Panel die for the white on white background...

It's another gorgeous fall day in VA and the leaves are really making a noticeable change in color here in the Shenandoah Valley!  Have a great day!

Mojo Monday

Hello blog friends!  I recently received the Autumn Blessings stamp set and matching dies from Verve's last release and knew I wanted to initiate it with Julee's great sketch for the new Mojo Monday Challenge!  I started with patterned papers from Prima Marketing's Stationer's Desk 6x6 pad and added an open frame, then layered up the different elements.  I didn't want to cover up much of the corner floral design, so opted for a narrow gold cording.

INK: Riding Hood Red, Old Olive (SU); Versafine Onyx Black.
 

If you'd like more inspiration for this sketch, click on the mojomakers' blog links below...or...you can go to the Mojo Monday blog and click on the first seven thumbnails.
Julee Tilman (Owner)
Justin Krieger
Lori Tecler
Marisa Ritzen 
Sarah Bigelow
Teresa Kline
Wanda Cullen (you are here)

Inspired By...All the Little Things

The weekend is here and it's a good day to get inky! Why not join us at Inspired By...All the Little Things challenge? Each Saturday there is a new inspiration photo to get your mojo going!  We are thrilled to have Marisa Ritzen join us as guest designer, so be sure and stop by her blog - Rosemary Reflections - and check out her creation!  

I just loved these fabric pumpkins which inspired me to add texture on my card.  I also wanted to use the bokeh technique which incorporates overlapping circles (aka overlapping pumpkins) sponged through varying sizes of circles die cut out of an acetate sheet.  I call it my ghetto stencil - lol!  I first smooshed some distress inks - Carved Pumpkin, Peacock Feathers, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint, and Barn Door - on watercolor cardstock, dried with a heat gun, then sponged the circles with white pigment ink.  After that dried, I embossed it using Cuttlebug's Pumpkin Harvest embossing folder. To echo the stitched pumpkins and leaves, I embossed a stitched line to border the panel.  Papers were all from my massive leftover pile, so I'm not 100% sure what I used.  The edges of the pumpkins were sponged with Carved Pumpkin distress ink.  The sentiment is from Verve's recently released Autumn Blessings stamp set and I used Simon Says Stamp's Stitched Maple Trio and Stitched Pumpkins dies.

Since my card is all about pumpkins...I wanted to share you this pumpkin advice board I came across on Pinterest.  Thought it was fitting and fun!

 The challenge linky will close on Friday, October 21, at 12:00 pm (PST), so be sure to check out all the inspiration over on the Inspired By blog, and link up your creation!  Hope to see you in the gallery

CAS(E) This Sketch

**Scroll on down for my Color Throwdown card**

A quick CAS card using Leigh Penner's great layout for the current CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.  I recently came across this QuicKutz 'Feathers' die set in the depths of one of my drawers (while looking for another lost die - lol), and decided to cut a trio of feathers from the beautiful papers in the Blush and Mint 6x6 pad by Recollections.  I wanted a bit of gold in all 3 so used a Versamark pen and gold embossed on the two pink feathers.  The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp's Uplifting Thoughts stamp set.  The tiny scalloped borders are one of my fave dies by Reverse Confetti called Edge Essentials.  

Thanks for stopping by...heading out to work soon and will have a busy afternoon giving flu shots to our students at the rehabilitation center's annual Fall Fest.  Nothing like mixing in a little vaccine with Brunswick stew, apple butter, chili cook-off, and kettle corn!

Color Throwdown #414

Happy hump day and welcome to another Color Throwdown Challenge! Amy Rohl is our hostess this week and she's chosen an awesome color combo - aqua, lime green and gray! Here is my card...

The challenge was perfect for me to use my two favorite distress inks - Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron.  I smooshed ink on acrylic blocks, spritzed with water then pressed some Ranger watercolor cardstock over the blocks until I had a good mix of color.  I dried the ink with a heat gun between color changes.  The watercoloring makes this card eligible for Concord and 9th's second Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge.

STAMPS: Love You. Mean It and Barnwood Background by Concord and 9th.
INK: Silver Lining, Fairy Dust (WPlus9); Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron (Tim Holtz' distress inks); Versafine Onyx Black. 
DIES:  By Your Side Bird die by Concord and 9th; Traditional Tags STAX by MFT.

For more details on how to play along, head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog and you'll find the information on the right sidebar!  You can also visit the rest of the design team's creations for more inspiration...see links below:
Amy Rohl 
Amy Rysavy
Barbara Anders  
Broni Holcombe   
Jodi Collins 
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put  
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen (you are here)  

 

Mojo Monday #469

Good Monday everyone! I'm off work today and excited because I'm meeting up with an old college roommate from my junior year...also a nursing major! She's in VA visiting all the way from Oregon!  I'm sure there won't be any lack of conversation - lol!  

Oh...it's also Mojo Monday Challenge time and yes...I'll admit this was a bit of a challenging sketch for me. 

I never seem to have enough birthday cards on hand, so knew that was my starting point.  I used this patterned paper and pearl embellishments that were freebies with my last Verve order.  The metallic silver scalloped circle and the stitched fishtail flag banner are dies from MFT.  The stitched rectangles are by Lil' Inker Designs.  Though it doesn't show up well in the photo, the sentiment was silver embossed.

STAMPS: Framed Florals (Verve); Sentiment is a Plain Jane single stamp by Verve. 
INK: Lake House by WPlus9; Versamark; Memento Tuxedo Black.

If you'd like more inspiration for this sketch, click on the mojomakers' blog links below...or...you can go to the Mojo Monday blog and click on the first seven thumbnails.
Julee Tilman (Owner)
Justin Krieger
Lori Tecler
Marisa Ritzen 
Sarah Bigelow
Teresa Kline
Wanda Cullen (you are here)