CCEE1713

March 30 is the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh. Today he would be 164 years old! Let the lyrics of Don McLean's time-honored classic, "Vincent," inspire your design today. Don McLean wrote this song in 1971 after reading a book about the artist's life.

Vincent 

by Don McLean

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They did not listen,
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand




We hope you choose to be inspired by Mr. McLean's beautiful words to create a card to honor Vincent Van Gogh and his contributions to the world.

If you post to Splitcoaststampers or any other on-line gallery, please include keyword 1713

I thought this embossing folder would be a great one to smear ink onto and spritz and print with to gain that feel of Van Gogh's starry night

CCEE1712

Can anyone resist the cuteness of a puppy, man's best friend? In honor of National Puppy Week, find your cutest image a puppy and feature it on your card this week! Heck, you could even throw in two or three! I love puppies!

Join us in this challenge and post your link below. Should you share your design at Splitcoaststampers or another on-line gallery, add keyword 1712.

CCEE1711 Buttons

Lynn's challenge for us today:
National Button Week is coming up, so let's be ready by adding buttons or faux button to our cards or projects today! Perhaps it might even be a specially made box or jar in which to keep your favorite buttons! Have fun with this and be sure you return to share you creations here!

If sharing on Splitcoaststampers or another on-line gallery, please add keyword CCEE1711.

Thanks for dropping in today! Hope you decide to play along!

This is a digital image from Power Poppy. The top sentiment was part of the set. I computer generated the buttoned part and handwrote the "care" on it. I love buttons and I loved playing with my grandmother's button jar when we went to her house. Funny how we could entertain ourselves with simple things like that when toys were not available. I don't remember sitting around whining about being bored either. I guess we right brained individuals could use our minds in creative ways even with something as simple as buttons and the Sears Roebuck catalog.

Let's Go Green challenge over at Power Poppy

s

These gladiolas are from a Power Poppy digital as is the sentiment. I decided they would do well on the March Challenge to Let's  Go Green at Power Poppy.  Spring is definitely the time of year that the earth begins to laugh, so decided to drop that sentiment in the midst of these gladiolas.

CCEE1710 Bubbles

This week is National Bubble Week. To celebrate bubbles, you might create a design using a technique like painting with bubbles or stamping with bubble wrap. You could also certainly use any stamps you have which incorporate bubbles in the image.

Use your imagination and join us this week in celebrating bubbles! Link you creations below!

Those adding your design to Splitcoaststampers or other only line galleries need to add keyword CCEE1710.

Thanks for visiting us today! We love seeing you here!

I started this card by adding reinker to some dish detergent and blew bubbles with a straw. It didn't turn out all that well, so I added the stamped bubbles too. For an embellishment I added dew drops because they looked bubbly. A fun challenge and who doesn't love blowing bubbles.

Trying out my new digi

I was inspired by a beautiful card made by a stamper I admire so much over on SCS, Linda Paider. She used this new digital from Power Poppy, and the nice thing about digitals is that you can purchase it and have it the same day. Can't beat that, right?  So looked to see what challenges this card might be suitable for and decided on these two: Cute Card Thursday and Double D Challenge.

I colored this image with my chromatix markers. I embossed the two front pieces with a Sizzix folder. I also embossing the pink mat for the image.

CCEE1709 old stuff

Lynn is our new hostess for this month, and she has asked us in honor of "Old Stuff" Day to make a card or project making use of some of the earliest stamps in your collection, or make use of old supplies in your stash. A fabulous vintage image would also be great for this challenge!

So dig deep and pull out that "Old Stuff" to play along. If adding your challenge card to Splitcoaststampers or another gallery, add keyword CCEE1709

I love looking through all my old stamp sets that I couldn't seem to part with and found two retired stamping up sets. One had this vintage lace glove, lacy border, and sentiment, and the other set had these pretty long stemmed flowers. I thought this pretty much fit the bill. Showing a little love to these not so frequently used stamps, seem to bring me some smiles too. What's that saying, "Everything old is new again."

SC634 and Mod squad "bleach technique" challenge

I combined the sketch challenge for today over at Splitcoaststampers with the bleach challenge going on today over at the Mod Squad Challenge. Technique challenges are always about playing and experiementing for me, as I have very few that turn out like I visualize them in my mind. Today I tried not to have that preconceived idea of finished card in my mind other than to follow the sketch I had in mind. When bleaching out colored cardstock, you might be surprised with the color that appears, but this one came out a cream color. I dipped the stamp into the bleach and stamped the image so that it would bleach out. Then with a paintbrush I painted leaves with bleach. After this dried, I used versafine black ink to restamp the image, and I used black sharpie to draw details to the leaves. Then I added copic markers to add color. I really was pleased with the results. It reminded me of a pretty floral fabric when it was finished. I then cut it down to be the size I needed for the sketch challenge.

Thanks, Mod Squad for mentioning my card as one of your top three for this challenge. I am honored beyond measure.