I’m right under the wire with these cards. Every month I think I’ll get to the monthly Altenew Challenge, and it just hasn’t happened. I was determined that I’d  make July’s challenge since I absolutely love the inspiration photo.

Thanks to Stef Perry, one of my DT members at Color Hues, I now own the Altenew Craft Your Project Kit: Fragrant Florals. I’ve hesitated many times about these suites of products, but Stef’s card was so beautiful, that I broke down and ordered this one. I’m not sorry. The floral image is huge, and more than fills an A2 card front. I decided to cut it into two pieces and create two cards.

I used a combination of Pinkfresh Studio and Concord & 9th inks to inkblend the florals with the four piece layering stencil. I love how it came out.

After cutting it in half I layered both pieces on separate cards with an embossed brick pattern. I found three of these in my stash. I don’t own the embossing folder and didn’t write down the manufacturer when I used it at a friend’s. 

The sentiments on both cards are from Altenew’s  One-Go Birthday Greetings. 

I’m also entering this in the Inkspirational Challenge: Use a Stencil.

Hopefully, I’ll be back tomorrow with another challenge card that’s due by midnight tomorrow. It’s a bit iffy since we’re planning a trip to the local amusement park if it’s a nice day. 

It’s Woodblock Wednesday, and for once I was ready ahead of time.

I had two wooden stamps on my desk contending for this post, but one of them was co-opted for an earlier challenge. This floral image is from Judith stamps. I’ve owned it for many years, but surprisingly the company is still around and has an active Facebook page. The sentiment is from AMuse Artstamps which is also still creating and selling stamps. 

Judith stamps is know for its whimsical images and this certainly is one. It’s a simple image but makes a wonderful CAS card. After watercoloring it, I die cut it with Ellen Hutson’s Essential Rectangles and then used the next two larger ones to cut both a green and a purple mat. I chose to stamp the sentiment in purple ink.

Thanks to Amy Tsuruta for hosting these monthly blog posts. I’m once again using the wooden stamps which have seen very little attention in the last decade. 

I’m also sending this to the new Simply Clean and Simple Challenge. This is my third and final entry for July. I can see that this will be a regular on my challenge list—three entries are allowed each month. 

One of the more recent kits from My Favorite Things featured a die set called Bold Blooms. I didn’t want all the extras in the kit so I ordered the dies and an accompanying sentiment set with a large word die. This card just uses the blooms and started with the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches.

I had previously die cut all the of the Bold Blooms with white cardstock and I used a variety of Pinkfresh Studio inks to ink blend the blooms before assembling them. After die cutting the white panel, I scored five lines to represent the rectangle on the sketch. and arranged the three blooms. There were several other blooms, but three worked best and these were my favorites.

I was somewhat surprised when I turned my birthday calendar to the August page to discover I need four anniversary cards. Sadly, I have none in my stash, so I added one of Spellbinders Yana’s Special Sentiments, hot foiled in gold on white and die cut. 

There are also three other challenges for a CAS card, including a brand new challenge called Simply Clean and Simple. A favorite of mine (but one I haven’t played along with for awhile) The Flower Challenge, is looking for CAS designs, and Tic Tac Toe has a diagonal that works well: CAS/Free/Any Shape Die. I’m not totally sure I’ve met the last requirement–does the die need to be a specific type of shape, or does the white panel die cut with a rectangle die or the flower die work? I’m also sending this to NBUS since Bold Blooms has never been used before.

The wooden stamp for this card was sitting on my desk as a contender for the July Woodblock Wednesday post. But when I saw current The Paper Players Clean and Simple Challenge, I decided to put it to use right now. The card is also going to the Four Seasons Challenge-Summer.

I have to admit, stamping with a wooden stamp can be a challenge sometimes. It took four tries before I got a dark impression. Once it was stamped, I colored it with Copic markers, and die cut it with a Simon Says Stitched Rectangle. The wooden stamp, Watermelon Checkerboard, is from That’s All She Stamped. The only place you can find a stamp by that company now is on Etsy or eBay.

I added a narrow black border to the image with dimensional tape after stamping the sentiment from My Favorite Things, Itty Bitty Gifting. 

Tracy’s in the beginning stages of painting my craft room. That plus a busy schedule the last few days has meant little creative time. Hoping that changes over the next few days when my calendar opens up! I have other challenges I’d like to play along with before they close. Thanks for stopping by!

My Wisconsin grandchildren recently attended a huge family reunion on their father’s side. When we asked about their favorite activity, they both responded “canoeing.” I’ve had this stamp for almost two years, and every summer I think I’m going to get the card made for them before we spend a week on a lake with them. Their response was the motivation I needed to finally get the card made. It’s an interactive card, and I would have never managed to figure it out it in a reasonable amount of time without a wonderful “how-to” video by Jessica Frost Ballas for Ellen Hutson. The stamp set, Peek-a-Boo Pals: Camp Wanna Stamp, was a collaboration with Ellen Hutson and Avery Elle. My card is definitely a CASE of Jessica’s card.

I started by stamping and coloring the animals and canoe and cutting them out with my Scan-N-Cut. The next step was to ink blend the sky and water for the background. Next was to assemble the My Favorite Things  Twist and Turn interactive die which allows the paddles to move back and forth when the white tab is pulled. Once that was accomplished, putting it all together went fairly quickly. If I had better video skills, there’d be a little video showing how the paddles move back and forth. These two photos are the best I could do. Both critters lean to the left and the paddles move to the right.

The card arrived in Wisconsin earlier this week, and was a big hit with the six year old. Not sure what the eleven year thought about it. He was busy making zucchini muffins while we were talking.

The current Double D Challenge is The Great Outdoors, so this is a perfect match! We’ll be on Big Twin Lake in Michigan in August with Sarah and her family. We have a boat for the week, but I’m not sure about canoes. It also fits this month’s Colorful Options where the colors are red, white, and blue.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the new Color Hues Challenge.

I was the lucky winner of an Altenew gift card several weeks ago. I didn’t have anything specific in mind, so I waited for a sale and was able to pick up several items I like quite a bit. This Abstract Seascape die for a slimline card is one of them. The photograph below is a bit confusing since I laid the card on a blue slimline envelope to photograph it. The card base is white, and I’d retake the photo, but one of the challenges ends shortly. I may retake it tomorrow and edit the post. 

Once I had chosen the blues and yellow (see the inspiration board for the Sunday Stamps Challenge, piecing it together went quite quickly. The card took an unexpected turn, however, when I went to chose a sentiment. We have a BIG anniversary coming up, and this will be my card for my husband. He never reads my blog (to my knowledge) and I won’t post it on Instagram until our anniversary.  I do know, however, that he will definitely like the design.

The sentiment embossed in white on black and bordered with a scrap of the aqua cardstock is from Papertrey Ink’s Sun and Moon set. Here’s the perfect inside sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s Seas of Life.

I’ll add a long letter inside, so I don’t think I’ll add an anniversary greeting. The sailboats which I stamped and fussy cut are from W+9’s Dockside.

The colors came from the Sunday Stamps Summer Days Inspiration photo. Just Add Ink’s challenge is for an inlaid die design, and Addicted to Stamps and More is Use a Die or Stencil.

There are a lot of bridge cards being made this week. First, Jennifer McGuire published a wonderful tutorial, and then Freshly Made Sketches posted this challenge:

I didn’t expect to have time to make a card, but circumstances opened up just enough time today. The challenge closes in less than an hour, but here’s my card!

It’s a free standing card, but folds and fits into an A2 envelope. After creating the card base, I used The Greetery’s Wicker Weave stencil to create some patterned paper. Once that was done, I need to find some way to create the bridge, and luckily found Papertrey Ink’s Shape Shifter Circle 2 which was just perfect. The sunflowers are from My Favorite Things’ Sunflower Wreath die and were already assembled just waiting for this card.

I had also already foiled the sentiment from Spellbinder’s Yana’ Special Sentiments. This is such a fun design, and I’m sure another bridge card is in my future. I’m also sending this to NBUS since it’s the first run for the Wicker Weave stencil.