Nancy's Creative Mess

 This week for the This or That Instagram Hop, we had to choose between dragons and unicorns.  I honestly forgot about the baby dragons stamp set I had so I defaulted to this fabulous unicorn set instead

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 This week on the This or That Instagram Hop we got to choose between fantasy and reality.  When I have a choice, I always choose fantasy LOL!  I love unicorns so that's what I played with today...

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This week for the My Favorite Instagram Hop, we had to choose our favourite pet...  Now, we aren't supposed to have favourites, I know that.  But I do.  LOL  Watson, our little chihuahua dachshund cross is just the sweetest, most loving boy.  

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Time Out Challenges wants you to be "magical" for the current challenge... and if your card is chosen, you'll win a great prize from Picket Fence Studios!

 

I had some fun playing with my favourite Gerda Steiner Unicorns and a bunch of glitter strips!  I adhered the glitter strips to the card front and used foam adhesive to add white panels on either side to create some dimension.  I hope it's magical enough!

Card Info
*Cardstock:  assorted glitter
*Images:  Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns; MFT Something for Everything
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne; Copics
*Dies:  Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns; MFT Something for Eveything
*Etc:  clear embossing powder; foam adhesive
*Challenges:  Time Out #264; Daring Cardmakers (M is for Magical!)
 

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge with the team at AAA Cards.  We want you to use "one rectangle" on the front of your card and you can choose to use the optional challenge of favourite animal.  Share your card with us HERE for your chance to be chosen as a guest designer in an up coming challenge!

As you can see, I chose the centre rectangle of my card.  I masked it off with some Post It Tape and then blended some Distress Inks in the rectangle to define the space.  I popped my image up on some foam adhesive for a little interest.

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It's the first Tuesday of February (how on earth did that happen??!!??) which means it's time for a new clean and simple challenge at CASology!  Our cue for this month is "affection".

I honestly don't make a lot of "love you" type cards... cuz I don't send them LOL.  Not that I don't have people in my life that I love, but that I just don't give them.  With design team work, I need to push myself to make cards that I wouldn't normally make... I like how this card turned out... kinda fun!

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The team at CASology is back with a month long clean and simple challenge that we hope you'll play along with!  Simply post your cards following the cue in the graphic below HERE for your chance to be chosen as a guest designer for an upcoming challenge!

I had a few ideas drifting through my head for this challenge but ultimately, I had to go with this fun dachshund image.  We have a little doxxie cross named Watson and this stamp totally makes me think of him.  He loves to run and play when we head to the off leash dog park.

I learned something with this card....  I stamped the doggie and ball in Versafine Clair ink as it is my go to ink and then realized I should have stamped with something else since I wanted to colour it with my Copics.  I decided to try my Copics and it worked!  I let the image dry for a few minutes and there was just a hint of bleeding when I coloured the ball, but otherwise it worked great!  I am so happy since I LOVE the crisp image I get from the Versafine Clair!

I wanted to add some grass or shadow under his cute little belly but I was afraid I'd ruin the card... so I left him floating in air instead LOL

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Now it's your turn!  Share your creation HERE!

I'm back with another creation for a Craft Roulette challenge... this was week #51.  Please see yesterdays post for more information about Craft Roulette... it's a lot of fun!

For week #51, the parameters were Card with Flaps, Spring Colours, Dog(s) and Book Page.  What I love about this challenge is that the interpretation is up to you.... so my book page and flap were combined to create a bookmark that you can take off and use!

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I really love these Gerda Steiner unicorns... they are just so dang cute and very easy to colour up.  

I just love these unicorns from Gerda Steiner.  They are just so freakin' adorable!!  I decided to not do full rainbow on this one....  just a few colours instead.

Someone please explain to me how we are in April already?!  You'd think with being off work since the end of October, healing from surgery and then going through chemo treatments that my days would be long...  but here we are 5.5 months in and it all feels like it's gone by so fast!  Don't get me wrong... if I wanted any days to go by fast in my life, it's chemo treatment... I hope things slow down a month from now when I'm finally done my treatments and will have a few months off work to recuperate.  I want the bad stuff to go by fast and the good stuff to slow the hell down!

But then again, I guess things did slow down...  we've spent a lot of time holed up in our home over the last few weeks, trying to keep us all healthy so as to not compromise me.  Some of those days were pretty long... and still they continue

I saw this AlteNew background stamp at one of my local stamp stores (Paper & Ink Boutique in Calgary) and I just had to have it.  It was an impulse purchase.  But then I realized it doesn't really fit my clean and simple style.  But I still love it so I went outside my usual box a little.... and now I wanna think of how I can use it in my clean and simple creations...
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*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; Stampin' Up! Lemon Lime Twist
*Images:  Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns; Alte New Play Circle
*Ink:  Catherine Pooler Lime Rickey; Gina K Amalgam; Copics
*Dies:  Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns
*Tools:  Big Shot

First off, my apologies on the photography of this card.... I didn't realize our washed out it looked until after I had sent it off.  I took a few photos on the day I took this photo and they turned out OK... not sure what happened with this one.  It's just way too bright.
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Patterned Paper:  MFT Birthday Brights
*Images:  Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns
*Ink:  Gina K Amalgam; Copics
*Tools:  Perfect Layers

Another instalment of "what's in the leftover dish on Nancy's desk"....  more pieces of that Studio Katia die as well as the little owl.... I stamped a few of the owls a few months ago and coloured them differently trying to figure out which one I wanted for the project I was working on...  this one didn't make the cut.  I'm not sure he (or she) fits the colour I made the circle, but I had it stuck down before I really realized it. 
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Images:  MFT I'm Owl Yours; Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns
*Ink:  Gina K Amalgam; Catherine Pooler Sangria
*Dies:  Studio Katia Fancy Circle
*Tools:  Brother Scan 'n Cut; Life Changing Blending Brushes

Welcome to the latest clean and simple challenge for AAA Cards.  For the next two weeks, the challenge is a sketch with the optional twist of animals.
Here's the sketch we are playing with.... you are welcome to flip the sketch in any direction.  Please remember to keep as much clean space as you can on your card... areas without embossing or embellishment or stamping.
Our sponsor for this challenge is Crafty Scrappers...

I had fun playing with a rainbow for my card.  I could have very easily made this a one layer card but I decided that I wanted to add a pop of black to the card with a thin border.

To colour the unicorn, I used a Tombow Blender Pen to pick up the colours from the lids of the Catherine Pooler inks.  I also used a paintbrush, a little water and the Lawn Fawn Liquid Stardust to add some great shimmer to the colourful parts of the unicorn.
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up Black; Neenah Solar Crest
*Inks:  Catherine Pooler Samba, Orange Twist, Limoncello, Lime Rickey, Something Borrowed, Pixie Dust; VersaFine Clair Nocturne; Tombow Markers
*Stamps:  Gerda Steiner Designs Moody Unicorns, Dachshunds
*Dies:  Gerda Steiner Designs Moody Unicorns
*Tools:  Perfect Layers Tool; Xacto Knife; Picket Fence Studios Life Changing Blending Brushes
*Etc:  Tombow Blender Pen; Lawn Fawn Liquid Stardust; foam dots

When I created my rainbow owl card the other day, I had some left over pieces... in fact, I still have left over pieces.  I had these circles sitting on my desk and I was playing with them while watching TV and thought that they looked kind of cool together like this... so I glued them together and started to think about what I wanted to do.
I guess I was still feeling inspired by that unicorn rainbow card I had seen so I grabbed my Gerda Steiner stamps and inked up one of those cute unicorns.  I coloured him up with my Copics (no shading) and cut him out using the matching dies.  I put glue on the back of his head and pop dots on his body since the circles made a pretty deep layer.  I added the cheeky sentiment and called it done.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  assorted from my stash; Neenah Solar White
*Stamps:  Gerda Steiner Moody Unicorns
*Ink:  Copics; GinaK Amalgam; VersaFine Clair Nocturne
*Dies:  MFT stitched circles
*Tools:  Big Shot
*Etc:  GinaK Connect Glue; Stampin' Up! Dimensionals

I love these stamps in the Distressed Patterns stamp set by My Favorite Things.  They are so very versatile.  They can be the focal point if you use bold colours or you could make them blend in to the background instead.
I think this is a great girlie card... maybe for a teen?  I used Catherine Pooler inks, the MFT stamps plus a sentiment from a set by Gerda Steiner.  I added a pink layer using my Perfect Layers Tool and then a few clear gems for dimension.

Happy Monday all... so happy to report that Calgary is finally seeing some warmer weather again.  After more than a month with our temperatures all well below freezing, our forecast now only shows temperatures above 0C for the next several days.  I sure hope we don't go back to the deep freeze we've been in!

I was asked by friends we bowl with to create a baby shower invitation for the one person they are inviting who isn't on FB.  They know they are having a girl so I decided to play with pinks and purples.  I also knew I didn't want to go with traditional baby images so I reached for my Gerda Steiner unicorn to create this card.

I used some silver iridescent foil on a polka dot foiling sheet to get those wonderful polka dots.  I coloured the image with my Copics but didn't worry at all about blending.  I attached the unicorn to a white rectangle with pop dots and then added the chain circle from MFT) for a little interest.  The sentiment is from an old PTI set I had laying around and I stamped it with Twilight Catherine Pooler ink.  I added the purple layer using my Perfect Layers tool and then added it all to a white card.  I added the information about the shower to the inside using my printer and a fun font.

I love dogs....  and finally have a doggie set to play with!  I saw this Gerda Steiner set with the weenie dogs and I just had to have it.  Isn't he just the cutest?

I stamped him, the balloon and the sentiment (all from the same set) with Memento ink and coloured in the elements with my Copics.  I am so thankful to Jenn Shurkus for her colour combination suggestions and for the idea that two colour shading can be just fine on a card (as I suck at three colour shading).  I used E30, E33, YG17, YG23 and R32.  I added a green layer behind that front panel and some Wink of Stella to the balloon.

I just love these unicorn stamps from Gerda Steiner...   they are just so dang cute!  I stamped this guy up and did a simple colouring with Copics.  After I cut him out, I didn't know what I wanted to do with him... and of course, I was at a crop so my supplies were limited.  I chose one of the HAPPY stamps from Avery Elle and used the unicorn as the A.