A Flamingo FUSION...

I don't know why, but when I spied this gorgeous FUSION inspiration photo with all it's shiny pink and reflections of palm trees, the first things I thought of were Florida and flamingos! Combining the sketch and inspiration photo this fortnight, I paper pieced this cute TAWS flamingo, and paired it with the Mama Elephant die cut banner and "feeling tickled (pink!)" sentiment.

How to join in the fun...

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 Our Rules Page before playing along.

Can't wait to see how you will be inspired by this fortnight's FUSION!

The Design Team have some FABULOUS creations to inspire you!

The fabulous Amy Tsura is back on the team!

Betty J - Dannielle Robeson - Deepti 
Jeanne Jachna - Julia Aston - Katie Brooks

Kelly Griglione - Kimberly Wiener - Lynn Mangan

Michelle Folland - Michelle Lupton - Stephanie Severin

Please check the linky for the days left to play with us.

Playing along with Virginia's View Patterned Papers Challenge, 

and a reminder there's still time to play in KIS Baby Challenge too!

Keep It Simple with Ombre...

I can't wait to see what you create for this fortnights Keep It Simple Ombre Challenge. I broke out my Gelatos again to create this watercoloured ombre background. The cute little owl and friend from Hero Arts Operation Write Home Lil Hoot, was stamped in Versamark Watermark and Zing Copper embossing powder and coloured with Copics (N0, N3, E00, E03, E37, YG03, YG17, B95, and BG11). The Hero Arts Find Joy sentiment, was also stamped in Versamark Watermark and Zing Copper embossing powder.

You can catch some more FABULOUS DT Ombre inspiration over at Keep It Simple.

Playing along with A Blog Named Hero Ombre Challenge and Crazy for CAS Watercolour too!

Keep It Simple with Arrows...

Hooray! It's time for Keep It Simple and the first thing I thought of when I knew this fortnights' KIS inspiration of "arrows" was cupid! So I'm playing along using these gorgeous Mama Elephant cupid stamps and sentiments.

Created by die cutting the MFT heart shaped base, and stamping the Mama Elephant cupid and sentiment in Versamark Watermark ink and Zing Gold embossing powder. The red heart was created by die cutting a Verve heart diecut from a scrap of cardstock and using this as a mask, then filling the heart using a combination of Barn Door Distress Ink, and appropriately, Momento Luxe Love Letters. Whilst the Momento Luxe ink was still wet, I sprinkled a little of the Zing Gold embossing powder over the heart to add some gold cupid dust flecks.

Remember to visit Keep It Simple for some more fabulous DT inspiration.

Also playing along with

Virginia's View Shaped Cards

Addicted to CAS Gold

Keep It Simple with Stickers...

Time to play along with Keep It Simple Only Stickers Challenge! I have to admit, I did find this challenging, until I realised I have a truckload of gorgeous alphabet stickers, just waiting to be upcycled LOL! These American Crafts Topography letters were a perfect match to create this "I'm lost without you" sentiment.

Remember to stop by the blogs of the Keep It Simple DT 

for some more terrific Only Stickers inspiration...

Christine

Mia

Tanja

Tenia

Love to see how you are inspired this fortnight!

Inspired by the subway art with a twist by Shari Carroll, over at CASE Study.

Celebrating with Curtain Call Anything Goes Challenge too!

My Word, A-very Happy Die-cut...

I broke out my Gelatos and watercolour brushes, together with my Avery Elle die cuts and stamps to play along with the current Moxie Fab World: Wonderful Words Challenge - Word Dies, along with a few other challenges, AEI{heart}U One Word Challenge, Virginia's View Die Cut Challenge, Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge 1st Anniversary Anything Goes, and Seize the Birthday With String Topping ;)

My first thoughts for this card were to repeat the "happy" across the watercolour stripes, but I couldn't resist incorporating the Avery Elle balloon die. I achieved the inlaid word die cut by first running the watercolour paper through my die cut machine, then using masking tape across the back of the watercolour paper, to keep the little pieces in place before carefully removing the watercolour "happy" and replacing with white cardstock "happy". I stamped the Avery Elle balloon string before I added the white cardstock "happy", then filled in the missing piece of string with a black Zig pen, so it looks as though the string is looped around the letters. I diecut and stamped the Avery Elle bow onto the balloon a couple of times, as the first few attempts I tried adding the string with the Zig pen around the end of the balloon to make it look more realistic - but decided in the end I preferred the bow floating by itself!

 

 

Don't forget, you still have time to Keep It Simple Take a Bow!

Keep It Simple and Take a Bow...

OK I have to admit, tying beautiful bows is definitely not my forte, so when this fortnights Keep It Simple card is "Take a Bow", what is a girl to do? I had to Keep It Simple of course - and created my beautiful bow by using three loops of ribbon, and two fancy cut end pieces, all cleverly adhered together - you won't tell on me will you?!? The gorgeous sentiment is from Kaisercraft, stamped in Momento Ink Rose Bud, which matched perfectly with this hot pink ribbon from my stash.

Remember to stop by the blogs of the Keep It Simple DT 

for some more terrific Take a Bow inspiration...

Anni

Christine

Mia

Tanja

Tenia

Love to see how you are inspired this fortnight!

Playing along with Sister Act Card Challenge Anything Goes too!

A-very Golden Goose...

Playing along with Avery Elle's AEI{heart}U Challenge #10 Gold. I loved the combination of turquoise and gold in Yana's card, so thought I'd give it a go!

The watercolour background was created by smooching Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Evergreen Bough and Tumbled Glass Distressed Inks on wax paper and spritzing with water, then smooching the watercolour paper in the ink pools. Loving Avery Elle's Simply Said Happy die in gold vellum, stamped So Happy sentiment and Storybook Duck / Goose in gold embossing powder. Die cut the watercolour panel with Stitched Rectangle, and layered with more gold vellum, before adhering to white cardstock base.

AEI{heart}U Challenge #10 Gold

Don't forget there's a few days left for Keep It Simple Lots of Turquoise!

Playing along with Virginia's View Challenge #5 Die Cuts, and 

Moxie Fab World Wonderful Words Challenge: Word Dies too!

A Little KIS Splatter...

Had super fun with this fortnights Keep It Simple Splatter theme, perfect for this gorgeous Ink Splatter stamp from Neat & Tangled, combined with this cute birthday sentiment stamp by The Alley Way Stamps, and finished with three little MME enamel dots. 

Hope you take the time to get inky with Splatters! 

Remember to stop by the blogs of the Keep It Simple DT for some super Splatter inspiration

Anni

Christine

Mia

Tanja

Tenia

Love to see how you are inspired this fortnight!

Used the colour inspiration from Little Tangles Inspiration Photo Challenge, and 
The Alley Ways Stamps Be Inspired too!

Bookmark it with a KIS!

With the cold weather creeping in, it's a perfect time of year to curl up with a book!

I couldn't resist creating a bookmark from a page of a book for this fortnights Keep It Simple challenge. Combined with paper piecing from my paper scrap bag, stamped with this gorgeous Little Red Riding Hood character by Avery Elle, and die cuts from Mama Elephant Landscape Trio and Lil Inkers Small Stitched Sunshine, on this purpose built bookmark die cut from Paper Smooches.

Remember to stop by the blogs of the Keep It Simple DT for some more 

FABULOUS bookmark inspiration.

Anni

Christine

Mia

Tanja

Tenia

Love to see how you are inspired this fortnight!

Playing along with All Crafts Challenge Anything but a Card, and 

Virginia's View Tags and Scraplings!

Keep It Simple - Watercolour...

Watercolour is all the rage at the moment. I'll be joining in the fun with the Online Classes Watercolor for Cardmakers starting on Monday. Co-incidentally this fortnights Keep It Simple Challenge is... Watercolour, so hope you get a chance to play along!

Believe it or not, this card started out as a panel of watercolour paper dry embossed with Stampin' Up poppies! I filled in the poppies with watercolour paints and Twinkling H2Os, before overspraying with Sunflower Gold to add highlights and spread the colour.  I didn't LOVE the panel as a standalone panel, but I thought it would create a cool background to fill the negative space behind my diecut bird, which I then popdotted and added a Lil Inkers Stitched Rectangle. The Memory Box Woodland Branch was diecut from watercolour patterned paper. The Papertrey Ink Wet Paint "Happy" sentiment was inked with Distress Inks Wild Honey then misted with water before stamping, similarly the "Birthday" sentiment was inked with Distress Inks Barn Door then misted with water before stamping, as the smaller letters ran quite a bit, I overstamped the "Birthday" sentiment so it was easier to read.

Remember to stop by the blogs of the Keep It Simple DT for some more 

FABULOUS watercolour inspiration.

Anni

Christine

Mia

Tanja

Tenia

Love to see how you are inspired this fortnight!

Also playing along with Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes, Seize the Birthday,

Moxie Fab World Hip on Handwriting Challenge, with this handwritten style font,
and Virginia's View Stitching Challenge too.

This MFW Shout Out made me smile...

Avery Elle - You are the icing...

Playing along with Avery Elle's Challenge #2 Embellishments and Avery Elle's May Guest Designer Search. Stamped and embossed this delicious Avery Elle Cupcake in gold, before adding white texture paste for the icing and digging deep into my embellishment stash for these gold beads to use as sprinkles and some gold ribbon to tuck behind the Avery Elle Pinked rectangle die cut panel.

I got my cupcake paper stripes on for
Keep It Simple Stripes Challenge (DT) and

created a FUSION (DT) of a monochrome palette and this versatile sketch.

Keep It Simple Stripes!

Time for another challenge at Keep it Simple! This fortnight we want to see stripes! What will you be inspired by Zebras? Jail? Vertical stripes or horizontal? Perhaps it's time to break out that washi tape!

The first thing I thought of for stripes... a zebra of course! I thought I'd create her a bit differently this time, using stripes of watercolours as the background, layered from yellow through orange and pink, I stamped the Paper Smooches zebra on the orange to pink section using Versamark ink and then embossed in black, and added the Paper Smooches sentiment in Versamark ink embossed in black too. Finished with an Avery Elle tag and Lil Inkers Stitctched Square.

We'd love you to join in - remember to Keep It Simple (CAS) and up to 4 other Challenges max!

Make sure you stop by the rest of the design team for some 

more FABULOUS Keep It Simple inspiration!

Tagging along with Simon Says Stamp Tag It. 

Loved playing with my watercolours for Virginia's View Watercolour Challenge.

Playing with Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes, and Curtain Call Perfectly Peach.

  

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...