Club Scrap Cherry Blossom Bloghop

There's a blog hop going on over on the Club Scrap Blog.  I'l be adding this Cherry Blossom card I created to the Linky at the end of the blog hop.

I am sorry the colors are not right.  What looks like dark blue is really a soft purple and looks great with the pink flowers.  Hop on over to the Club Scrap blog to see what the design team members have created with their Cherry Blossom kits.

Happy Crafting!
Donna

Club Scrap Cherry Blossom

Today I am a guest artist on the Club Scrap blog for the Greetings to Go Cherry Blossom kit.  I am thrilled that Club Scrap picked my idea (and combined with Roni Johnson's) of a Japanese Cherry Blossom theme.

There is a special story behind my love of Japanese art and images.  In 1945 my father joined the Army (as soon as he was out of High School) and was stationed in Japan during the occupation after the end of World War II.  He traveled the whole country as the driver for the Chief of Chaplains.  As kids growing up we were acculturated into Japanese food and art through my father.  We were eating in Japanese restaurants (on the floor as tradition) long before they ever became popular.  Our house was decorated with beautiful Japanese woodblock prints that my father brought back with him from Japan.  I love the arts of  Ikebana and Bonsai.  I try to attend the Japanese Festival of Dolls every year at one of our local Methodist churches (they have displays of Ikebana, Bonsai and gorgeous dolls). So it is with great joy that I get to create some special Cherry Blossom cards for the Club Scrap Greetings to Go kit and honor my Father's love of all things Japanese.

Come visit the Club Scrap blog to see the entire collection of cards I created.  

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Cards in Envy Pastel Cards

Time for another challenge over on the Cards in Envy blog.  This time we are looking for cards that have only pastel colors.  Once again I decided to dig into my Graphic 45 stash for this cute Easter card.  Don't worry - I have plenty more stash and it's time to start using it!

The sentiment is Stampin'Up!  So pull out your springtime pastel papers and ink and link up with us over on the Cards in Envy blog.  Check out what the other Design Team members came up with too.

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Cards in Envy Fantasy and Flowers

Time for a new challenge on the Cards in Envy blog.  Show us your cards using lots of flowers and a fantasy character (unicorns, fairies, etc).  It can be an any occasion card.  Here's my card.

The Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime paper is so perfect.  I stamped (Hampton Art), colored and Stickled my fairy.  Some of the flowers are fussy cut and shaped.  

Show us your flowers and fantasy characters by linking with us on the Cards in Envy Challenge Blog.  Check out the other Design Team members creations too. 

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Cards in Envy Black and White with a Smidge

It's time for a new challenge on the Cards in Envy challenge blog.  This time we want to see Black and White cards with a "smidge" of color.  (Card should be mostly black and white).  Here's what I came up with.

The Die-Namics striped die is a NBUS.  I dug out an old Cricut/Cuttlebug die for the Thank You and flower.  

Come on over to the Cards in Envy challenge blog.  Check out the other Design Team members cards and then link up your Black and White card.

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Cards in Envy Keep it Simple

The new challenge over on the Cards in Envy blog is to "Keep it Simple."  One-layer, CAS, Stamped only, quick cards you could make in 10 minutes or less.  I chose the quick cards idea.  Here's my card.

Here's my recipe for a quick card.  

1) Pretty DP

2) Matching cardstock

3) Stamp set with matching Die

4) Versamark ink & embossing powder

5) Embellishments to cover up where I dropped the ink pad on the card stamping the sentiment (LOL)

Come see what the rest of the design team came up with on the Cards in Envy blog.  Then link up your simple card with us!  

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Club Scrap Succlents Blog Hop

With February being a short month I did not get my Club Stamp Succulents kit until yesterday.  So I am late posting to the Blog Hop and Linky Party.  Actually the linky party is open all month so I guess I am not late posting to it!  

This is the first card I created with the kit. It's done with just a simple masking technique.

That large "thanks" stamp really packs a punch!  I used a combination of  Distress ink in Bundled Sage, Iced Spruce and Aged Mahogany.  Check out what the design team has created for the blog hop and then join in on the linky party.  

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Cards in Envy Red and Blue Challenge

There's a new challenge over on the Cards in Envy blog.  It is a color challenge based on the old "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue" poem.  Red and blue are required but white is always OK on our color challenges.  Here's my card.

I thought a western theme would work great with the red and blue color challenge.  I had this great October Afternoon DP sitting around and it worked perfect for the challenge.  The star border is from Die-Namics and the sentiment is from Amuse Studio "Southern Sass."  

Come check out what the rest of the design team came up with and then post your red and blue cards on our linky on the Cards in Envy blog.

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Cards in Envy Be My Valentine Challenge

The latest challenge over on the Cards in Envy blog is to show us your Valentine Cards.  Cards should say "be mine' or "Happy Valentine's Day."  I decided on a masculine Valentine's Day card.

I used the Hero Arts (OWH) "Dude" stamp set for the bacon and "more than bacon" sentiment.  The original sentiment was "I like you more than bacon."  I definitely wanted to say "I love you."  Since I use Evernote to catalog my stamps it was easy enough to type in "I love you" and see all the different versions of that sentiment I had.  I settled on CTMH Wild Thing stamp set and was able to get exactly what I was looking for as a sentiment.  I was thrilled to find a piece of DP in my stash that had wavy lines similar to the stripes in bacon.  Perfect for the background.

Come check out the rest of the Design Team's cards over on the Cards in Envy blog.  Then link up your Valentine cards with us!

Happy Crafting!

Donna

Archival Ink Resist on Yupo

My January Club Stamp kit "Color Me Happy" has arrived. There was Yupo Paper in the kit to play with. I had Yupo paper but had not done anything with it yet until today.  I watched a Tim Holtz video where he demonstrated the Yupo paper with alcohol inks.  He showed a technique where you stamp with archival ink over the alcohol ink background and immediately wipe the ink off to create a resist on the background.  Here is how mine turned out.

I have more Yupo paper to play with.  I'm loving this technique and how the alcohol inks work on this paper.  I'm linking this card up with the Club Scrap blog hop linky.  Come check out the great ideas from the design team.  I am also linking it up to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #9.

Happy Crafting!

Donna