Huge thanks

I have fallen in love with using Distress Paints on my Gel Press™ plate. ( Thanks Anna for reminding me about this technique! ) There is something so mesmerizing about watching the paint move on it...now who says watching paint dry is boring? Well, not me I say! lol
I also am crushing on this 3x5" size plate, just perfect for printing directly onto my card face.

The most important thing to remember is to not place too much paint on it to get this effect. This is the first pull from the Gel Press™ plate.

Next I stamped my whale and sentiment ( Paper Smooches - Surf and Turf stamp set ) on a separate piece of white cardstock and then cut them out to adhere to the front of the card. I colored them in with my trusty PITT pens.

I will have a video up on my Youtube channel this Sunday under Sunday's with Sandee, hop over and subscribe now so you won't miss it.

Go on now, I'll wait for you right here :)

entering my card in 

Simon Says: Animal Magic

Free bear hugs

Simon Says: Animal Magic

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set ( I really need the matching die set! )

Joggles Woodcuts stencil, DecoArt Neon Light acrylics, along with my Gel Press™ plate made for a wonderful background for my images.

I masked off the bottom to the sign stamp so I could elongate it and then wrote in the word FREE over bear hugs. ( I love altering stamps and adding to them )

You're swell

Simon Says: Animal Magic

Paper Smooches Surf and Turf stamp set

I really tried to keep this card simple with lots of white space which is not my usual style. :)

So Simon says to shows pictures of your pet, and this is mine, her name is Daisy Mae, and no matter how much I tried to clear off my desk she found the one opening where the paintbrushes were!!

 She was not in a cooperating mood for being photographed with her sun hat today and kept throwing it off.

 Or the preferred method, chewing on it...the life with a guinea pig :)

Bitmap image

 A pixel-based image (.BMP) with one bit of color information per pixel, also known as a bitmapped image. The only colors displayed in a bitmapped image are black and white. Its quality decreases when the image is enlarged.

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Happy Valentines Day

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - A is for Anti Valentine

get it? sucks...vampires?...OK, so I watch True Blood way too much :)

Cricut Craftroom - Paisley cartridge p. 26 ( heart )
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Moxie Fab World - Happy for Hexagon challenge

Paper Smooches Sparks - Picture Perfect Challenge

 

also 

Paper Smooches - Fun & Cute Extra Challenge

Spritzed some spray onto a hexagon stencil, once dry I outlined in a controlled manner around the hexagon shapes. Stamped, colored and fussy cut out my bear image. Printed out my sentiment and glued a few bee stickers on. 

I love this bear image so much and bought the stamp set just to get him, lol You will be seeing a bear in my future very soon. I can't release the details yet...OK, so I might have told a few friends, but as soon as I can let you know the details, I will be shouting it from the rooftops....I can "bearly" wait ;)

Heidi Swapp - Color Shine spray

random and old hexagon stencil

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set

Hope you "bear" with me.....lol

Asymmetrical balance

Placement of non-identical forms to either side of a balancing point in such a way that the two sides seem to be of the same visual weight.

I tried to use this design principle with the sentiment being the balancing point and the stamped images and doodling to give visual weight.

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The background was washed with a light water color and the colored PITT pens to color in the smaller areas. I used my Sakura Pigma Sensei Magna pen for the black.

I like the written happy birthday sentiment coming out from the grass horizon. Now that I am looking at it, I think the y needs a little daisy added to the end of it.
What do you think?

I think I like the black and white doodled background the best.

  

I love the doodled cloud and sun!

Paper Smooches -Anything Goes Challenge

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper and 

Helmar - Liquid Scrap Dots

Faber Castell - PITT pens and watercolor crayons

Approximate symmetry

The use of forms which are similar on either side of a central axis. They may give a feeling of the exactness or equal relationship but are sufficiently varied to prevent visual monotony.

( My circle would be the central axis of my card with the footprints in approximate symmetry. )
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Jan. 26-Feb. 1 Designer Drafts challenge

I stamped the footprints first and then took my paper to the Cricut to cut out a 2½" hole. Used Ranger Distress paints to color the inside of the circle and then stamped the tent. I stamped the tent on pattern Love paper and paper pieced it together, free hand the sentiment. Inked lightly around the edge of the base.

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set
Cricut - Paper Trimmings p. 52
Ranger Distress Paint - Broken China
pattern paper -Authentique
Sakura - Pigma Sensei Manga pen
Quick Quotes Powder Puff Chalking ink - Ameretto

Accent

To stress, single out as important. As applied to art it is the emphasis given to certain elements in a painting that allows them to attract more attention. Details that define an object or piece of art.

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This card will be entered in:

Paper Smooches - Anything Goes Wk. 1 challenge

I love my whimsical bear...I think the "giggle" is the perfect accent to bring out the humor of the colorful zentangled bear and zen dangled heart leads you right to it.

Paper Smooches - bear stamp

Darkroom Door - sentiment

- giggle

Sakura Glaze pen - heart

Faber Castell - watercolors

Sakura pens - doodles

Postprandial: adjective

occurring after a meal

pronunciation
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Paper Smooches - August 19-25 Cool Shades challenge

All That Stickles -"The Great Outdoors" Linky Party

I took the digi image and enlarged it for my horizontal card, knowing that it would pixelate but I had planned on outlining it with liquid pearls anyway. I also added an extra outline of stickles to make sure the original inked outline wouldn't show. I gave it a shot of Goosebumps too so when I inked in his color, he would have even more texture.

Coral was the hardest color to come up with, so at first I mixed stickles together but it wasn't quite right until I added a gelato layer over the stickles on the beak and feet, I love the yummy layers of yellow,orange and melon to get a wonderful coral color.

Paper Smooches - free digi
Viva Decor - Liquid Pearls
Ranger - stickles
Helmar - Liquid Scrapdots
K&Co. - pattern paper
I Imagine - Goosebumps spray
Recollections - glitter sticker letters

Gamy:adjective

having the flavor of game; especially: having the flavor of game kept uncooked till near tainting

pronunciation

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Jo's Scrap Shack - Anything Goes

Little Scrap Pieces -  Fun Friday Linky Party!

Simon Says - Monochromatic

 

I don't do a lot of monochromatic cards and rarely anything monochromatic intentionally, mainly because I just love an abundance of color! So, thinking of creating a monochromatic Halloween card kinda made me itchy, but in a good way, because I like to make myself stretch a little bit out of my box, don't you? I mean, that's the main reason why I enter challenges.

I always have fun playing around with spooky moons and this one turned out well. I spritzed water on the card stock die cut and then dragged it through the distress ink, blotted and voila, a spooky moon just perfect for a Halloween card. ( I have a Halloween tag coming up in the Cricut Magazine October issue which uses the same technique. ) I also ran the edges of the moon through the same distress ink while the paper was still damp so that it wicks a little bit of the ink into the card stock.

Usually I pick one area to talk about, but today I had to choose 2 because I LOVE the little sign post that comes on the Paper Smooches stamp set, Happy Camper. I have such fun fitting sentiments in it and this time I found a clear sticker that fit perfectly! It's so CUTE!!

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set

Owl, sentiment - OLD sticker stash

Graphic 45 - pattern paper

Faber Castell - PITT pen

Close to my Heart - net stamp

Ranger - distress stain

Cricut - Paper Trimmings, p. 52 (moon)

( which is actually the circle from the base card that I made the day before! waste not, want not!! )

Balthazar:

an oversize wine bottle holding about 16 times the volume of a normal bottle

pronunciation
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Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly challenge - #47 Up, Up, and Away
Paper Smooches - August 12-18 Designer Drafts challenge

OK, so I messed up, but sometimes I get too excited about an element and skip a step I had planned to do! :( In this case I meant to run my sky pattern paper through the printer for the sentiment but just got too darn happy over the bear and the balloons and next thing you know they were adhered to the paper!! I really hate it when I do that, but I persevered onward anyway, I simply wasn't going to waste the paper or the time I had put into the making of the bear.

 I masked off the "s" in hugs and used the stamped sentiment from the set.

I love to paper piece so I had a lot of fun withe bear. ( As I can attest with the above confession ) He has 3 layers, the original dark brown polka dot, then his lighter dot muzzle and then another layer for the body which I snipped off parts ( the back ear, the tail and the back leg ) so that I could get a little dimension into him. Added some glossy accents to his nose and tied the balloons around him and set him free to fly!

Reminisce - cloud pattern paper

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set

Helmar - Liquid Scrapdots

Ranger - Glossy Accent, stickles

Sakura - Glaze pens

Faber Castell - PITT pens

everything else - stash and scraps

Blatherskite: noun

voluble nonsensical or inconsequential talk or writing; blather

pronunciation

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PaperSmooches - July 29- August 4th ANYTHING GOES challenge

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Inspirations - Inspired by Anything Goes

 

 

Well, roasting smore's would make ME happy!

 I did a small amount of masking so that the smore's branch would appear to be in his mouth and a little bit of paper piecing to give the marshmallows some dimension.

Gelli print background

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamp set

Viva Decor - pearl pen ( branch )

Tulip - puffy Paint - ( leaves )

Helmar - Liquid Scrapdot ( marshmallow layer )

Faber Castell - PITT pen

Sheena - sentiment stamp

Ranger - Distress Ink

Codswallop:

 words or language having no meaning or conveying no intelligible ideas; drivel

( Does that mean that supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a bunch of codswallop? )
trying saying that fast, lol

pronunciation
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Paper Smooches Sparks challenge - Anything Goes
 
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - # 44 ~ Animals
Craftin Desert Divas - Birthday Linky Party
Creative Inspirations - Inspired by: Anything Goes

 After stamping the pelican and coloring him in with distress stains, I cut around his beak so I could slide the tail of the balloon around his beak and then let the balloon "float" out of the Polaroid frame using LSD for support.

Paper Smooches - Surf and Turf stamp
Little Yellow Bicycle - paper, frame, heart
CARDZTV - sentiment stamp
Faber Castell - PITT pen
Helmar - Liquid Scrapdot
Ranger - Distress Stains
Cricut - Everday Paperdolls cartridge

Buffoonery: noun

foolish or playful behavior or practice

pronunciation
:)
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Chocolate, Coffee & Cards -  44 ~ Animals

Sparkles Monthly Challenge - #46 * Autumn Colours *

Craftin Desert Diva's - Craft It Up & Link It Up Party #11

Jo's Scrap Shack - #10 Bling it Up

I added some bling for the leaves in the tree

Did a little bit of masking for the 3 stamps.

Hero Arts - Sparkle Gems

Paper Smooches - Happy Camper stamps ( deer, sign ), Hello Fall ( tree )

Ranger - Distress Stains, stickles

Faber Castell - PITT pen

CARDZTV - sentiment stamp

fard: verb

To paint (the face) with cosmetics
pronunciation
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Electric Paperie - eTeam picks challenge

Teresa Jaye picked the challenge this go around and it is

Use Papers from your Kitchen in a Collage

hmmm? I knew I had napkins I could use for this challenge because I collect and hoard napkins like I do pretty scrapbook paper, lol 

So I chose this one, because it had a retro funky feel to it.

I didn't intend for this to be so Autumn looking...but the turkey along with the color combination really brings that out. Maybe because I had Shaz's color challenge on my mind is the reason I took out this napkin to use but I did try and make it not so Thanksgiving looking by adding one of my favorite sentiments:

I dream of a better world where a chicken can cross the road

without his motives being questioned.

I used some Gelli print paper for the word strips, ( love the color layers ) and painted the background out first with acrylic paint and then added a layer of twinkling H2o's over it.

I used a pearl pen for the outlining and doodling of the edges, I love that you can get different effects from this particular pen. If I lay down the dots and then gently tap my board on my table top, the drops flatten out ( inside the turkey's body ) but if I leave them alone they hardened to a nice raised edged ( the outlines and drops ).

also entering this in:

Sparkles Monthly Challenge - #46 Autumn Colors

Apple Barrel - acrylic paint

Viva Décor - Pearl pen

Copics -marker

LuminArte' - Twinkling H20's

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Paper Smooches -  July 22-28 Picture Perfect challenge

I was very drawn to the colors and to the sun, so I spritzed my background with 2 shades of ink to simulate the sun, and since it was a beach picture I was inspired to use the cute little whale. The front of the card was run through the computer to print out the sentiment.

After stamping, coloring and cutting him out I sliced my paper and slid him into the water, I could have masked it but I preferred the paper piecing route. I really like a little dimension on my cards.

Paper Smooches - Surf and Turf stamp set

Ranger - Dylusion ink sprays, Distress stains

StazOn ink

pattern paper - misc. from stash