Let’s Celebrate

Hello, everyone.  I have 2 cards for The Paper Players’400th Challenge:

I do love the Paper Players challenges – lots of variety and fun.  Happy 400th Challenge!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.

-Ally

Fab Friday 133

First usage of my Stemmed Statements stamp set here.  I am thinking that I should have purchased a TON more of the Pale Peony papers during the big sale last year.  I really love this gorgeous color, and I have swept through much of the bitty dots part of the package already.  I can tell that it will go fast!

Loving the flowers in this stamp set.

This card is up for the Fab Friday #133 challenge:

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

-Ally

PTI Color Challenge

Monday’s Papertrey Ink Anniversary challenge was for color combos.  I ordered the Birthday Balloons stencils from last month’s release, and I have been very eager to do some ink sponging with them.  I used Laurie Schmidlin‘s rainbow color combo to create this card:

I stenciled the balloons onto the panel, then I doodled the balloon strings and outlines over them.  I also used a gold paint marker to add the dots on the balloons and the rest of the panel.

This card is going into the linkup for the Papertrey Ink Day 8 color challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
-Ally

PTI Dies Only

Sunday’s Papertrey Ink Anniversary challenge was to use dies only, no stamps.  That is a difficult challenge, for me.  I absolutely LOVE dies.  In fact, I love them so much that I have far more dies in my stash than stamps.  But when restricted to ONLY using dies…..?

Well, here is what my “Great Brain” conjured up for me:

Using my Shaped Sayings and Brushed Off Rectangle dies for the first time here, in addition to my Sheer Basics vellum paper that I purchased during that crazy paper sale last year.  Oh my goodness, we’d better not talk about the ridiculous hoard of paper I have a result of that! LOL.

Moving on…

This card is going into the linkup for the Papertrey Ink Day 7 challenge.

My teenage daughter has dubbed this card THE perfect card, so I must have done something right – LOL!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
-Ally

Pink, Red, and Gray

In addition to coloring all my stamped images, I sometimes like to sit and do some sponging on white cardstock, just to have some on hand for when I get around to using them and also to practice my blending skills.  I used one of the ombre panels for this card.  I’m not much of a Valentine kind of person, so I turned these Color Throwdown Valentine colors into a birthday card, instead.

This card was designed for the Freshly Made Sketches #323 challenge:

And also for the Color Throwdown #479 challenge:

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
-Ally

PTI Retiring Stamps Challenge

Friday’s Papertrey Ink Anniversary challenge was to use a stamp set from the 2018 retiring stamps list.  I chose to work with the Framed Out #12 stamp set to create this card:

I also used some striped paper from the Clipsters Make-It-Market Kit and also the “happy” die from the One Liners die collection, both of which I had never used to this point.

This card is going into the linkup for the Papertrey Ink Day 5 challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
-Ally

Floral Challenge

Thursday’s Papertrey Ink Anniversary challenge was to use florals on a project.  Not too difficult for me to do, since I feel like I generally use florals on most of my projects.  Maybe I should branch out a little.  Here is my project, anyway:

 

I used some of my pre-stamped images from the Gran’s Garden stamp set.  I do love the florals in this set – so fun to mix & match colors, so modern and fun!  I also really love the Pen & Ink stamp set.  The sentiments are a great mix of occasions and sizes, but all of them in the same fabulous font.

This card is going into the linkup for the Day 4 Challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Happy Saturday. 🙂
-Ally

Butterfly

A clean and simple Butterfly card:

This little butterfly is one of the many pre-colored images in my hoard which I have been trying to use lately.  It really is nice to be able to just grab something and go with it!  I think this one has actually been sitting around for a year or more.  So, fly free, little butterfly!  Off you go into the world at last!   Haha.  😉  Don’t you just love that Clearly Besotted Stamps sentiment?!  The Brushed Greetings sentiments are among my absolute favorites.  And this is the inaugural usage of my Garden Garland die set.  Yay!

This one is being linked to the CASology #286 Butterfly challenge:

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
-Ally

Viva La Verve Flower Challenge

Here is a different look at the papers I used for my previous cards:

What is not visible from the photo is that the tips and the center of the flower layers are touched with a little bit of Wink of Stella glitter pen, and the flower is paper pieced with some pink paper from the previously-mentioned collection.

I love that when using my Verve stamps (which I adore!), I always find that my “style” of card making seems to change just a smidgen, especially when I work with the Viva La Verve challenges.  I use a few more layers, I gravitate to a different style of paper, and my card design isn’t so typically simple.  It’s a fun change of pace!

I am linking this up to the Viva La Verve February 2018 challenge:

And also to Flower Challenge #17 for Paper Piecing:

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Happy Middle of the Week! 🙂
-Ally

One Heart Is Not Enough

One thing I have that takes up a great deal of craft room space is patterned/designer paper.  I just have boxes and boxes of it all.  I promise myself over and over again that I will use some of the gorgeous papers I have all around me.  I generally use my Papertrey Ink papers.  But there has been one pad of 12×12 paper that peeks out from a box beneath my craft desk and catches my eye every time I am in the room.  I have wanted to use it because it has such lovely papers!  So I am thrilled to be able to say that I finally pulled it out and used it.  Completely on an impulse.  But I find that it is sometimes more fun to just go with the impulses and see where they take me.

This impulse led me to these two cards:

 

For the first card, I used the negative from the Happy Hearts cover plate to help me with placing the hearts.  For the second card, I pretty much used my magic eye-balling power to place them.  I am thinking I like the first one better.  But I guess I honestly like them both.

I am linking this up for the Papertrey Ink 11th Anniversary design team sketch challenge.  My card is very loosely based on Michelle Leone’s sketch:

And also for The Paper Players “Will You Be My Valentine” challenge:

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Mondays always kick my tooshie, but this one hasn’t been too bad!  I hope your Monday has been great, too.
-Ally