Over The Moon Monday - Pick 3 Challenge

Good Monday morning!  How was your weekend?  Weekends are always too short for my liking.  We need a weekend in the middle of the week.  Don't you agree?

Today is my daughter's birthday.  I hope she has a happy one.  She loves giraffes, and so I thought the card I made for today's challenge would be an appropriate one. I think she'll like it. The giraffe stamp is from My Paper Moon. For the next couple of days, if you enter the code MADNESS at checkout, you will get 17% off your order.

Today we will have a Pick3 challenge.  Here are the selections:

• Animal
• Anniversary
• Brads
• Brown
• Ribbon
• Lace

Choose 3 and make your card.  Then leave a link here in the comment section and share it with us. I chose animal (giraffe), brown and brads.  Here is the card:

If you click on the card above, you will get a larger image.

I used a lot of left overs making this card, which is a good thing.  I had small bits of some cuttlebug embossed folders, some glossy cardstock with alcohol ink spots, and some glimmer mist cardstock.  They all came together very nicely with the giraffe that I stamped on the piece of oval cardstock.  I used browns and  yellows to age the oval, which also helped color the giraffe.  I used a scalloped nestability die to punch some brown cardstock, which I put behind the giraffe layer. The edge is punched with a Fiskars scalloped punch, then the brown cardstock is layered behind, and I used a brown marker to make the dots. I finished it off with 3 antique brown brads. There is a shimmer to the glimmer mist cardstock that is barely visible, but beautiful nonetheless.

I hope you have enjoyed my card today, and I hope you will post a link to your challenge. If you are reading this somewhere besides the blog, you might be missing out on valuable coupons.

Have a great week. Do something crafty.

Over The Moon Monday - Paper Piecing

Good morning!  I hope you had a great weekend.  I think spring has finally arrived.  I am hearing more birds and things are starting to green up a bit.  I like the cool weather, though, and hope it stays this way just a bit longer. I would much rather deal with the cold than the heat. (But not too cold - I am a southern gal after all).

I love to go shopping, and one of my favorite things to buy are shoes.  A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes. I have been known to find a comfortable pair of shoes and buy them in several colors (hence the saying stamp). And so, one of my favorite stamps is the shoe stamp from My Paper Moon (03-167J).

Today I am going to use the shoe stamp and paper piecing to make a whole closet full of shoes.  (grin)

I simply stamped the cardstock, then stamped onto patterned paper, cut out and adhered to the cardstock. I can make any color or pattern of shoe I want.  And then I get to embellish with rhinestones, glitter, beads, pearls, ribbon, flowers, sequins, other paper, etc.  You get the picture.

This is a great way to use up scraps.  The red shoe used a little scrap I had, then I embellished it with a scrap of holographic paper and some gemstones to give it some extra bling.

The black shoe is almost identical to one I had several years ago. I loved that shoe and wore it out. So when I saw the patterned paper, I had to make the card.  The medallions at the top were cut from the same paper and the centers are punched out of holographic paper, as is the stripe on the shoe.

You can click on each picture for a larger version.

I like to paper piece, and this is a great stamp to use because it doesn't have any really small places to cut out.

The shoe stamp is #03-167J and the saying stamp is #01-129F at My Paper Moon. I hope you have  enjoyed today's cards.  Post a link to a scan of something you have paper pieced.  If you are reading this somewhere besides the blog, you need to click here to post a comment. We would like to see your creative efforts.

I hope spring is showing it's head where you live.  It's been a cold winter and I'm sure you could use some warmer weather.  See you next week!

Over The Moon Monday - Pick 3 Challenge

Good morning. Did you have a good weekend?  I had a wonderful time this weekend.  On Saturday my daughter and granddaughters picked me up and we had a girls day out.  Everybody needs one of those every so often.  We dropped of my eyeglass prescription, then went to lunch, the flea market, the pet store, Jo-Ann's, and shopping.  A full day!  But I had so much fun, and can't wait to do it again.

Today we are going to have a Pick 3 Challenge.  Those are always fun.  Here are your things to choose from. Just pick 3 of them and make your card.  Pretty easy, huh?

• 
  
  Metal
• 
  
  Butterflies
• 
  
  Alcohol Ink
• 
  
  The color green
• 
  
  Ribbon
• 
  
  Textured cardstock

I chose metal, alcohol ink, ribbon, and textured cardstock. Here is my card:

The metal is the part that "Dream" is stamped on.  I colored it with alcohol inks.  When I stamped the Dream stamp, it removed some of the color, which I thought was great.  It's a pretty simple, easy card, and doesn't need much explanation.  Both the white and blue cardstock are textured.

I hope you have a great week.  Take some time for yourself.  And as always, if you want to share your creation with us, please leave a link in the comment section. We'd like to admire your work.  To do that, you have to come here if you aren't reading this at the website.

Over The Moon Monday - Sponging

Good morning!  Welcome to Over The Moon Monday.  This is my 250th post!

Did you have a great weekend?  The weather here in Florida is finally warming up a bit. I don't want it to get too warm yet.  I'm enjoying the coolness. Like I tell my hubby, I can always add more clothes, but when it gets hot in the summer I can't always take more clothes off.  I'll take the cool weather any day.

I always enjoy my weekend, but I look forward to Monday so I can share with you.  Today I want to share some cards using the sponging technique.

Since so many of you have had lots of snow this winter, I chose to make snow scenes.  The stamps are from The Angel Company. 

I like to pick 3 colors to use when I'm sponging a sky. And depending on which colors you use, it can look like a morning sky, or an evening sky.  Cardstock makes a difference, too.  Glossy cardstock can give you a lighter sky.

I think the first card looks like a morning sky.  I used post-it notes torn to make a ragged edge as the horizon.  Then I sponged my lightest color of ink onto the cardstock.  Moving up a bit, I sponged the 2nd lightest color, and finally at the top I sponged the darkest color, being sure to overlap them some to blend.  The top card is on glossy cardstock.  I punched a yellow circle to be the sun/moon.

On the 2nd card, I used regular cardstock.  The colors tend to be darker because it takes more ink to cover the cardstock.  This could be an early morning or twilight card. Again, I overlapped the colors to blend them.  And again, I used a punch to make the moon.

On the yellow card, this is definately going from midday to evening. If I had reversed the colors on the cardstock, it would have been daybreak.

Instead of using a punched out sun/moon, I used the negative space from where I punched the others, and sponged in the sun.  I like the look...it's softer.

The next card, is definately evening/night. I used several colors of dark blue and purple, and they are subtly blended. I used a white gel pen to add falling snow, and added some crystal clear glitter to the snow to give it a glisten.  You can't see it in the scan, though.

I hope you have enjoyed the cards for this week.  I have enjoyed making them, and if you need any further information on sponging, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and ask. 

I hope you have a great week.  If you get to try your hand at sponging skies, please leave a link in the comment section. We'd all like to enjoy your creation. And you never know, I might just decide to give out a little blog candy, and you might be the lucky winner.

See you next week!

Over The Moon Monday - Green Challenge

Good morning and welcome to Over The Moon Monday here on the blog.  Did you have a good weekend?  I can't believe it's March already and it's still cold. Did you stay warm?  If you live in the northeast, I hope your power stayed on and you were able to stay warm and cozy.  It's been very cool here in Florida, but I am enjoying it.

Let's do a color challenge this week.  Since March is the month for St. Patrick's Day, how about having a green challenge?  I know exactly the stamp I want to use.  I don't have many St. Patrick's Day stamps, but I have a little guy named Shamrock Sam, and he's a cutie. I have put him on sale for you, too.  Go check him out.  I hope you like him as much as I do.

  To make this card, I first cut a card base for an A2 card (5-1/2 x 8-1/2) and scored it. I cut a piece of medium green cardstock for the bottom of the card, and a piece of patterned paper for the top.  You can cut it half and half or in any proportion you want.  My patterned paper is less than half of the card, so I used the medium green for the rest.

I thought the plain green was too plain, so I used a Stampin' Up canvas stamp to give it some texture. It still wasn't quite what I was going for, so I added a little drywall tape, then used white gesso and gold acrylic paint and sponged it on the tape, then removed the tape.  That gave it more texture, and I was happy with it.

I cut out a piece of white cardstock with a nestability die, then stamped Shamrock Sam in the center. I colored him with alcohol markers. I put the die back on the cutout, then sponged green ink around the image. He's a leprechaun, right?  So he needs some gold bling.  I found some gold glitter that I've had forever, and it was very chunky, so I added a little glue under the image and put the glitter on. Now it looks like he's gathering gold and putting it in his bags.

Before I adhered the image to the card, I glued a piece of dark green ribbon over the seam where the two papers come together, then adhered the image.  I punched 4 hearts out of a lighter green paper, and adhered to the card to make a 4 leaf clover. I used a green marker to loosely outline the hearts.

I don't have a St. Patrick's saying stamp, so the words are computer generated.

I hope you have enjoyed today's card and I have inspired you to create something. If you do, please leave a comment and a link to your creation so we can all ooh and ahhh over it.  I hope you have a great week, and you get to do something crafty.

Inky hugs,