Hey!

Hey friends!

How are you? We have been having some fantastic weather in Pittsburgh recently - it was almost 60 degrees today! Rain is headed our way, though, but hopefully the temperature stays mild. Maybe all the snow will finally melt out of my gutters?

Fun card for you today - perfect for any occasion.

I saw this card on Mercy's blog earlier this week and loved the layout. It went straight in my sketch book and I thought I'd use it for this one.

The crossword stamp is a Scrapblock from Cornish Heritage Farms. I think it is so fun! Just imagine the possibilities!

I stamped the crossword in Frayed Burlap Distress Ink onto Kraft cardstock. I did some fancy stitching around the outside (love it!) and added the scalloped portion to the bottom. The flowers were cut with my Slice and sprayed with Antique Linen Distress reinker and some Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls. The sentiment is from PTI's Say It With Style.

I picked up a few other Scrapblocks, so look for more fun stuff using them coming soon.

Some other reminders for you:

WMS is holding a St. Patrick's Day blog hop next Wednesday. You can check Claire's blog for the details and also pick up a fun button for your blog! Claire has created a few digi stamps if you want to participate but don't own anything St. Patricky :) She's the best, isn't she?

Also, WMS is sponsoring the challenges on the Stamping Around blog. The current color challenge runs until the 14th.

Thank you for visiting today - have a fabulous day!

#Anya

Recipe:
Stamps: Crossword Scrapblock - Cornish Heritage Farms; Say It With Style - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Dusty Durango - Stampin' Up!; Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo Distress Ink - Ranger; Dark Chocolate - Papertrey Ink
Other: Slice and Wedding Design Card - Making Memories; Scallop edge punch - Stampin' Up!; Fabric brad - K&Company; Antique Linen Distress Ink reinker, Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls - Ranger; sewing machine

Table for Two

Today is another challenge day for the Serendipity Stamps Design Team. We were challenged to make a 1-2-3 card. One button or charm, two ribbons, and three layers. Fun!

I used one of the new spring releases, Table for Two.

I colored the table and chairs with Copic markers and then went over everything with a Spica glitter pen. When I was finished coloring, I stitched across the top and bottom of my image. Then I decided I would go looking for some patterned paper to match. Luckily, I had a pack of Basic Grey's Eva Collection, which has lots of raspberry and brown tones. I picked this fun floral-y pattern to use.

The cardstock is Purely Pomegranate, which is retired, but is so very close to Rose Red if you're looking for a similar color. I added a pretty frame shape that I cut with my Slice, my two ribbons and my one button to finish it off. This was fun! I liked the 'recipe' idea of card making. I even finished the inside, too - cute sentiment, huh?

Thank you for stopping in today, you won't want to miss what the other Design Team members have come up with!

Amy
Jennifer
Kathie
Lynda
Sue

Have a great day!

#Anya

Recipe:
Stamps: Table for Two (1200QCL) - Serendipity Stamps
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate - Stampin' Up!; Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink
Patterned Paper: Pannier from the Eva Collection - Basic Grey
Ink: Rich Cocoa Memento - Tsukineko; Antique Linen Distress Ink - Ranger
Other: Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon - Stampin' Up!; Sweet Blush satin ribbon, Rustic Cream Button Twine, Dark Chocolate Vintage Button - Papertrey Ink; Slice and Wedding Design Card - Making Memories; Copic markers; Spica glitter pens; sewing machine

Paris

Thank goooodness its Friday. There's a little cold bug making its way through this Schrier household (all two of us) and I'm the lucky next recipient. Hopefully with some rest and medicine this weekend I'll be right as rain.

Today's card is for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge. You can see the sketch here.

I started with another ATC transparency from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. This one is also from the Birds & Flourishes ATC Transparencies.

I stitched the transparency onto some patterned paper and built the rest of the card around that. The patterned paper is from the Life's Journey Collection from K&Company. The fleur-de-lis was cut using my Slice, the design is from the Basic Shapes 3 Design Card.

Love this card! I hope you have a great weekend, I am going to rest up! Take care!

#Anya

Recipe:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink; Sage Shadow - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: Life's Journey Collection - K&Company
Ink: Antique Linen, Vintage Photo Distress Ink - Ranger
Other: Transparency from Birds & Flourishes ATC Transparency - Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps; Scroll edge punch - EK Success; Scallop edge punch - Stampin' Up!; Slice and Basic Shapes 3 Design Card; Pearl flower - Making Memories; sewing machine

Faux Embossing

Happiest Friday to you, my dear friends! Sleeping in, soft pretzels, and some good, clean.. cleaning are all on board this weekend! :)

A technique that I like to use now and again is faux embossing (at least that is what I call it). Basically, you layer die-cut or punched elements on a card in a tone-on-tone color scheme. It creates that same 'shadowed' look that you could get my embossing or dry embossing an image. Make sense?

Here is the card I created using shapes I cut with my Slice.

Isn't is pretty?

I thought I'd share some step-by-step photos to show you how easy it is!

I started by choosing the shape that I wanted to use. This is a tulip-like design that is from the Basics Shapes 3 Design Card, cut at 2 inches. A simple circle or square shape would be just as fab.

I cut a bunch of these out and decided how I wanted to orient them on my card front. I lightly sketched a pencil line down the center of my card base that I could use to line these babies up and then got to adhering.

Here's what it looked like once I had them all attached. When I got to the edges, I just overlapped my shapes knowing that once everything was all together, I could just cut the excess off.

And here is the final product, all trimmed and cleaned up.

I wanted to keep this simple, letting the design take center stage, so I just added a simple tag (also cut from the Basic Shapes 3 card) and sentiment. The sentiment is from Say It With Style and was stamped in Going Gray. I added a vintage keyhole and some sparkle. What do you think? Pretty elegant, isn't it?

It is a fun technique - I encourage you to try it out! Here is another card I made using the same technique.

I hope your weekend is great - its time for the Christmas decorations to make their way back up into the attic. I never really like the process of putting all that stuff away, but am looking forward to feeling like everything is so spacious! Have a fabulous night!

#Anya

Recipe:
Stamps: Say It With Style - Waltzingmouse Stamps
Cardstock: Soft Sky - Stampin' Up!; White - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Going Gray - Stampin' Up!
Other: Basic Shapes 3 & Slice - Making Memories; Vintage Keyhole - Melissa Frances; Scalloped oval punch - Punch Bunch; Dazzling Diamonds glitter - Stampin' Up!

I Just Love You

Good morning, all!

Another peek of the upcoming release from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I had a bit of fun playing with my new toy on this one - I got a Slice from Santa this year!

I started by stamping a few rows of the medium-sized heart in different colors onto white cardstock to create some custom patterned paper. Then I used my Slice to cut out the word 'love' from this paper (I used the Basic Shapes 1 Design Card). I layered this onto a piece of plum cardstock that I had punched with a scalloped edge. The polka dots on the card base are from the Off Beat Backgrounds set. Then I went ahead and stamped the sentiment right on top of everything. I was a bit worried, but the coverage was great! This one is fun and graphic!

If you're looking for more ideas and sneak peeks for this set, then you had better check out the other fabulous DT members' blogs! Belinda, Bonnie, Jennifer, Julia, and Laurie are all sharing new things! And I'll have more tomorrow, so be sure to stop back. Have a great day!

#Anya

Recipe:
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps (to be released January 4th)
Cardstock: Melon Berry - Papertrey Ink; Perfect Plum - Stampin' Up!; White - Georgia Pacific
Ink: Groovy Guava, Perfect Plum, Pink Pirouette - Stampin' Up!; Aqua Mist, Spring Moss - Papertrey Ink; Jet Black Archival Ink - Ranger
Other: Scalloped Edge Punch - Stampin' Up!; Basics 1 Design Card & Slice - Making Memories