A Happy FUSION...

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this fortnights cool inspiration photo collage over at FUSION. However, I was slightly distracted this week, with hubby being asked to consider a three year position in Michigan. As tempting as the thought of being closer to my US and Canadian crafting buddies is, with two kiddies in high school, we think we'll be staying here for now.

How will you be inspired? This card combines the gorgeous FUSION sketch with the colours, hand drawn elements, birds in the tree and circles from the inspiration photos. Using this hand drawn chicken from Purple Onion Designs, coloured and paper pieced, these gorgeous Verve poppy blooms, and a rubber sentiment from my stash, all stamped in Versamark watermark ink and heat embossed in black.  Lil Inkers Stitched Circle and Paper Smooches curve dies used to create the pop-dotted front panel.

We'd love to see you play along! 

How to play:

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.

2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.

3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.

4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.

5. Please read the other considerations on the Rules Page before playing along.

 Stop by the rest of the DTs blogs for even more fabulous inspiration! 

Betty J - Cathy Weber - Dannielle Robeson - Deepti
Geri Freeman - Julia Aston - Katie Brooks - Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener - Lynn Mangan - Michelle Lupton
Michelle Williams - Sindhu - Stephanie Severin

Check the FUSION Mr Linky to see how much time is left to play!! 

 Love that the colours are so perfect to be able to join in with this fabulous palette from Colour Q, 

playing along with the The Card Concept Floral Theme - Clean and Layered, 

and you have a few more days to play along with Keep It Simple Things with Wings too.

 

Come Play with Me...

Created this for fun and to to play along with a few challenges too!  Inspired by Keep It Simple Things with Wings (DT), FUSION photo (DT), this fabulous Muse card by Marion, A Blog Called Hero Roy G. Biv, Verve Diva Dare Perk Up, The Crafting Musketeers Butterfly Challenge, Catered Crop Birthdays Recipe Swap and Seize the Birthday Hearts Challenges.

Pulled out my gelatos and paintbrush to create the watercolour background behind my Memory Box die cut butterfly heart. This die cut usually leaves the butterflies attached to the heart, but I carefully removed the butterflies so you could see more of the rainbow panel. Stamped with this gorgeous Verve sentiment and framed in black to help pop the colours.

Hope you are having an AMAZING weekend!

  

This made me smile...

A Butterfly KIS...

Come join in the fun @ Keep It Simple this fortnight, with "Things with Wings".
So excited to be playing along for the first time as part of the Keep It Simple DT!!

Had a play at Jenny's house and borrowed her Penny Black medallion stamp, embossed in copper on the cardstock base and on the textured tissue paper Die-namics Butterfly. combined with a Paper Smooches fishtail flag stamped with this gorgeous WPlus9 birthday sentiment, and fabulous diecut WPlus9 leaves.

Make sure you stop by the rest of the design team for some
more FABULOUS Keep It Simple inspiration!

Playing along with this Sweet Sunday Sketch, Seize the Birthday, Catered Crop Birthday Recipe Swap and
WPlus9 Week 3 Birthday Celebrations - Trend Watch, with trendy metallics and vellum too.

 

P.S. Honey I'm Home!!

Just squeaking under the wire for this fabulous Fun and Cute Paper Smooches 3rd Anniversary Challenge, and Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes Challenge., Playing along with Moxie Fab Worlds Happy for Hexagons Challenge too!  Used a honeycomb mask and Distress Inks Wild Honey (of course LOL!) Sentiment created from a combination of three Paper Smooches sets Bee Mine, Squeaky Clean and Bitty Bungalows, combined with this cutie pie Giddy Bugs bee. Added a few Prima flowers and Kaisercraft pearls to complete.

  

Love is Inspired by... WPlus9

I couldn't resist playing along again with WPlus9 Birthday Celebration Step It Up Challenge, this time I created a dimensional base by playing with texture paste and a chevron stencil, then using WPlus9 Folk Art Florals leaves in coloured vellum, pop-dotted Label Layers 5 in MME woodgrain paper,  Love Birds in white cardstock and Seasonal Sentiments hearts in red cardstock, with Damask Doilies sentiment. Just remember when you are choosing a base for die-cutting in mirror reverse, choose to cut it from cardstock or vellum, so front and back are the same colour LOL!

Playing along with Frosted Designs fabulous Love Is... Challenge, 
and Inspired By too, with its CAS, hearts, pops of colour and fabulous texture.

Happy Heart Day...

Wishing you all a Happy Heart Day!!!

Playing along with WPlus9 Birthday Celebrations, CAS(E) this Sketch and City Crafters Love Bug Challenge. Papers are a mix of Carte Bella, Kaisercraft and Simple Stories, with these fabulous dies from WPlus9, and a doily from my stash.  Layered die cuts area always an easy and fun way to add dimension to your cards.

Celebrate Birthday FUSION...

How gorgeous are all those beautiful butterflies!!! 

I can't wait to see what this weeks FUSION inspiration brings - will you be inspired by this FAB sketch, or this gorgeous photo - or BOTH?!?   This fortnight I was inspired by a combination of both the sketch, and the photo, with its butterfly theme, I focused on the colours of one of the butterflies - love the green, turquoise and orange colour combo! Created using texture paste and Heidi Swapp mask background, Kaisercraft butterfly stamped multiple times and fussy cut, Simple Stories papers, coloured vellum and gorgeous Verve sentiment.

We'd LOVE you to join in the fun...

How to play:

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.

2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.

3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.

4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.

5. Please read the other considerations on the Rules Page before playing along.

Drop by for some more fabulous DT inspiration here:

Betty J - Cathy Weber - Dannielle Robeson - Deepti
Geri Freeman - Julia Aston - Katie Brooks - Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener - Lynn Mangan - Michelle Lupton
Michelle Williams - Sindhu - Stephanie Severin

Don't forget to check FUSION Mr Linky to see how much time is left to play!! 

Joining in Seize the Birthday and CASology Bold and 
The Crafting Musketeers Butterfly Challenge too!

 

Dotty for DeNami Blog Hop...

So glad you can join us for the DeNami Polka Dots Blog Hop! Don't forget to hop along, be inspired and comment to be in the running for your chance at one of TWO $20 DeNami Gift Certificates.

The first card features the fabulous DeNami Design Peacock Feathers, stamped and embossed in gold and the second features the super cute DeNami Design Chickie Long Legs and Hatching Chickie.

When: You have until February 10, 2014, 11:59 pm PST (February 11th, 6:59pm EST Australia), to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: DeNami Design are giving away $20 gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

Card 1 also playing along with this weeks fabulous CASE Study by Danielle Flanders, inspired by the dots, gold and white and translucent elements. I used some Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing Paste over a polka dot mask to create the background, stamped the two fabulous DeNami Design Peacock Feathers on vellum using Versamark Watermark ink and gold embossing powder, die-cut masking tape shaped strips from white textured tissue paper, and sprayed the wooden Pink Paislee letters with Perfect Pearls Sunflower Sparkle. 

Card 2 also playing along with this fabulous Freshly Made Sketch, this gorgeous Colour Q palette, and Little Red Wagon Love Challenge. Created using papers from MME and Sassafras Lass, Lil Inkers Stitched Square, Love paper clip from Freckled Fawn, and wooden heart from Studio Calico, with this fabulous DeNami Design chickie family, stamped using Chickie Long Legs and Hatching Chickie coloured with Copics. 

 

If you've hopped here from the FABULOUSLY creative Dana Seymour, you're on the right track, and need to head off to visit the FABULOUSLY talented Stacey Schafer next!  If you get lost, don't forget to stop by DeNami Design blog to see the whole list.

This made me smile :)

A Tropical KIS...

I don't officially start of the KIS Design Team until next Challenge, but I couldn't resist playing along with this fortnights Keep It Simple Tropical Challenge. Once again playing with my distress inks in Squeezed Lemon, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry, using a stencil created with the negative die-cut of Lil Inkers Stitched Circle, and stamped in black Momento Ink using Bo Bunny palm tree and Kaisercraft sentiment stamps.

We'd LOVE for you to join the fun!

P.S. Wishing you brighter days...

Had a play with my Distress Inks, Stencils and Paper Smooches stamps and dies to create today's card. Inspired by Online Classes Stenciled, CASual Fridays Over the Edge and Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes challenges.  Sponged a combination of Squeezed Lemon, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade to create the stenciled background, and as the base layer for the butterfly.  Die cut the Paper Smooches Fishtail Flag, Butterflies 3 and two vellum Hickory Leaf, and stamped this cute Paper Smooches Cosmos sentiment and Flap Happy butterfly in Momento Ink Morocco, before pop-dotting to the card front.

You can join in the fun at Paper Smooches 3rd Anniversary Celebrations this month.

Playing along with The Crafting Musketeers Butterfly Challenge too.

500th post with a KIS...

 "You're the only one for me."

WOOHOO welcome to my 500th post!!! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has dropped in to say Hi over the past couple of years!!! I am incredibly honoured to be part of this community - especially when I look at the number of comments received - almost 5,700, just amazing! THANK YOU!!! If you stay tuned, I may just have a little something up my sleeve to surprise you with soon ;) 

SO excited to be able to announce that after being a great fan of Keep It Simple since it's inception, I've been invited to be part of the Design Team - and a FABULOUS team it is! Hop on over to the Keep It Simple blog to meet the rest of the team! 

Officially I don't start on the team until Februaury 21st, but I couldn't resist playing along with this weeks Keep It Simple Square Challenge, with a card created for Online Classes Stenciled homework. Even though this may not look that simple, I promise it was!

• Secure My Favorite Things Scallops stencil over your piece of cardstock and apply a thin layer of Jo Sonja's texture paste - I use my grandma's old knife - as it has a 5 inch long flat flexible blade, so the texture paste is easy to apply evenly - and I have the added bonus of feeling close to my Gran every time I use it! 
• Remove the stencil and clean it, then sprinkle American Crafts Zing Aqua embossing powder over some sections of the applied texture paste, and Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Peacock Feather over the remainder.
• Remove the excess powder by tapping the cardstock, then heat set the texture paste with a heat gun - the texture paste will bubble and rise, creating a more 3D effect.
• Die-cut the Memory Box koi fish, add Versamark Watermark ink, sprinkle with American Crafts Zing Orange Glitter and heat set. 
• Die cut Paper Smooches fishtail flag die in coloured vellum and stamp with Paper Smooches Alphadot sentiment in Momento Luxe and heat emboss using American Crafts Zing Orange Glitter, before pop dotting to the card.

We'd LOVE you to play along with Keep It Simple!

Playing along with The Pink Elephant Love Challenge

Today is Paper Smooches THIRD Birthday too - 
don't forget to stop by and say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"