Mantle Village with Tic Tac Toe

Hi everyone we have a new Tic Tac Toe challenge board to play along with and I thought I would play with my new to me Mantle Village dies. I only bought the houses and trees but now wishing I also bought the accessory dies to hang under the mantle but I'm really happy how it all turned out. I used the picture on the die packet to colour up my images and also added Distress inks to darker the card stock and shimmer sprays to make "shimmery". I've used an embossing folder to add embossing and to also add "snowflakes" which was one of the criteria. I've used a die set from Newton's Nook to cut out my panels on the card.

The line I chose was the middle horizontal line: gems, dry embossing, snowflakes.

I'm also going to play along with Time Out Challenges "Happy Holidays" Challenge. Also Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to add some blue.

Supply List:
Stamps: Whimsical Trees (SU! - sentiment)
Dies: Mantle Village (SP), Frames & Flags (NN), Everyday Sentiment Banners (LF)
Ink: Cranberry (C9), various Distress inks to darken or shadow the card stock
Paper: Knit Picky 6x6" DSP (LF), Sahara Sand (SU!), Crumb Cake (SU!), Lemon Lolly (SU!), red, blue and green are all scraps of Spellbinder card stock
Other: Wintry 3D embossing folder (SU!), Gems: clear with gold dust (PFS), stamping foam 2mm, shimmer sprays

Challenge: TTTC#262, TOC#278, SSS Wednesday

I do love the sentiment on the stamp set and I sincerely hope "that the love of the season, warms your home and fills your heart".

Thanks for popping in and I hope you have time to play along with TTTC gang, if you're like me you are still making cards for Christmas as I never seem to have enough. If I'm honest I just like to share and give away as many as I can at this time of the year. This appears to be the last challenge for 2024 from Tic Tac Toe Challenges, so I'd like to personally thank everyone for supporting our challenge site and I look forward to catching up with you all in 2025. 

✿Karen✿

Loads of Joy with Tic Tac Toe

Hello and welcome to another fab Tic Tac Toe challenge and this week the board has been chosen by Vicky and I had so many possibilities looking at it but I had to go with the left hand vertical row as it contained 3 of my favourite things to do on a card: ink blending, CAS and die cut. I could also have chosen the top line: ink blending, snow and tree; as well as diagonal from top left hand corner: ink blending, foliage and festive sentiment.

I'm also going to play along with Simon Says Stamp Instagram Challenge for November wanting Holiday-themed projects.

To KReate my card I blended a sky with three Distress inks; Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Chipped Sapphire on Distress Heavy white cardstock. I sprayed the background with a shimmer spray to create some "snow" but ended up with some big blobs which I did not like so have added a few dots with a very fine paintbrush.

I've used my Copics to colour up the scene and tried to only use a few colours to keep it as clean as possible. I've used RVs to work with my sky. Colours used follow (darkest > lightest):

Presents and hat: RV19/17/55

Trees and presents: YG17/25/21 E13
Greys: N8/6/4/2/0

Yellow: YR12/21/20
Snow: B000

Other Supplies Used:
Stamps: Loads of Joy (MFT)
Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne - sentiment, Memento Tuxedo Black - images

Paper: Neenah White, Sahara Sand (SU!), Distress Heavy white (RNG)

Dies: Sweet Stacks: Circles (HB), Stitched Hillside border (LF), the cool wee rail track is part of the dies included with the Loads of Joy set (MFT)

Other: Prismaglitter (LF), blending brushes (TE), clear embossing powder, Quickie glue pen (Sakura), Frost shimmer spray (imaginecrafts)

Challenges: TTTC#260, SSS IG Challenge

I hope you can find time to play along with us at Tic Tac Toe Challenges team this week, we'd love to see what you create with any line; remember it can be horizontal, diagonal, vertical; there are so many possibilities

✿Karen✿

Easy thank you card for the latest Tic Tac Toe Challenge

It's time for another fun challenge board at Tic Tac Toe and this week's board has been created by Felicitia. I had so many ideas looking at the board, it is a fun one but at the time of creating my card  I was  having surgery in 2 days time, so  I went with embossing, thank you and free as I seem to be needing thank you cards lately. I'll also enter my card in Simon Say Stamp latest challenge to add some texture.

I wanted to play with the new to me Spotlight on Nature stamp set and dies from SU!. I bought this bundle as the dies are really cool circle dies and I had nothing like that in my stash. I die cut out the 2nd to largest circle from watercolor paper and then stamped with Versafine Desert Sand ink which is a water proof ink. I did some very simple watercolouring with my ZIG real color brushes (Bright Flamingo, Sage Green and Leaf Green) and a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush on the flowers and a water painter for the leaves.

Otherwise I think it's all pretty self explanatory.

Supply List:

Stamps and Dies: Spotlight on Nature (SU!)
Versafine Ink: Desert Sand and Acorn
Paper: Petal Pink (SU!), Soft Suede (SU!), Watercolor (Fabriano Artistico - cold pressed), coral (?name in my SSS kit papers)
Other: ZIG real color brush markers, Wink of Stella Clear, water painter brush, Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder (SU!), linen thread (SU! - original one), Master Layouts 2 (GKD - tag die), 2mm foam squares (SP), distress tool (SU!)
Challenge: TTTC #258, SSS Wednesday

Well I hope you can find time to play along with us, as always you have 2 weeks to have a go - just choose a line (vertical, diagonal or horizontal) and have a play.
✿Karen✿

My first Tic Tac Toe board

It's my turn to design the board for Tic Tac Toe Challenges and my prompt for this week was to use Fall on the board and then the rest was up to me. Now living in the Southern Hemisphere I always struggle with Fall challenges as we don't celebrate the season fall/autumn at all or send cards to celebrate it's arrival, if anything we'd send a sympathy card.

I do love seeing the leaves on the trees change colour but they almost turn brown over night and just fall off and make a mess. So to cut a long story short I added Spring as an option to my square with Fall.

So if you live down under I hope you can play along with me and make a "Spring" card. I've chosen the left hand column to play along with Spring/Embossing/Layers.

I've actually stopped watching Jennifer McGuire videos as she makes me buy stuff and Honey Bees last Spring release was no exception, I bought most of it including the Lovely Layers : Dogwood dies and until now haven't used them, but aren't they gorgeous. I've added a Sweet Birdie (SP) in Spring-like colours (to be honest I just grabbed scraps that I liked the colour of and Spring-like). I've used Glacier card stock for my background to make the diecuts have a contrast behind, as it adds a hint of blue.

Supply List:

Stamps: Tweet Sentiments (SP)

Ink: Warm Buff (PFS)

Paper: Glacier (SP), Persimmon (SP), Rainforest (SP), Lemongrass (C9), Honeysuckle (C9), Pink Lemonade (C9), Harbor (C9), Soft Suede (SU!), white and black scraps, Neenah Solar White #110

Dies: Lovely Layers: Dogwood (HB), Sweet Birdie (SP), Stitched Banner stacklets (TE)

Other: Cloudy Day EF (SU!), foam squares (SP)
Challenges: TTTC#256

Well I hope you can join in with my very first Tic Tac Toe board; when I was creating it I tried to imagine me making a card using any line and I had ideas for all but I had to make a SPRING card to justify buying something after watching Jennifer McGuire creating with the new release at that time.

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

I'm going to the Beach with TTTC

We have a fun challenge board at Tic Tac Toe Challenges this week, so many possibilities but I chose to go with  the bottom line of Beach, Dies and Blue.

I've used the fab die Flip Flop Builder (HB) to create my flip flops which we call jandals in New Zealand. Some patterned paper and viola all done and its so fun and cheerful, just what I need to dream about as its the middle of Winter down under.

I'm also going to play along with Simon Says Stamps Monday challenge wanting a little bit of sparkle or shine.

Supply List:

Stamps: Flippin' Fabulous (HB)

Ink: Sand Dune (Versafine)

Paper: Wheat (C9), Sand, Surf & Sky DSP (MFT), Essential Glitter cardstock : Color Sampler (PFS), Neenah Solar White

Dies: Flip Flop Builder (HB), Master Layout 2 (GKD), Stitched Hillside borders (LF)

Other: 2mm foam squares (SP)
Challenges: TTTC #254, SSSM

✿Karen✿

Who's ready to play Tic Tac Toe??

If you've ever been scared about entering a challenge I personally think Tic Tac Toe Challenges are a great starting point as you get to choose a line and when you have 3 parameters to work with it makes it really easy to get the creative juices flowing. This week's fab board was chosen by Betty and its got some lovely choices, my only dilemma as I had lots of ideas looking at it, was which one to do!

In the end I chose the first column: foliage, layers and butterfly and working with the Fluttering Butterflies set from Pinkfresh Studio which I've blogged a few other cards using this set HERE and HERE.

I received this set and a lot of the products I'm using today from a Virtual Create and Connect event but the products are widely available now. I'm also going to play along with Inkspirational Challenges as they have a challenge to use products from 2 companies; now this is a great challenge and most of my cards have more than one product on my card. I've used mostly Pinkfresh Studio here but have the fantastic sentiment from The Ton Stamps.

And I'll also play along with both Simon Says Stamp challenges, Wednesday's would like some sparkle and Monday's would like some layers.

I've backed up all die cuts with at least one layer to help stabilize them and the frame has 3 extra layers behind it.

This is a 5 layer stencil set and these are the colours of PFS inks I used:

• Stencil 1: Lemon Whip, Marigold
• Stencil 2: Sunkissed, Mango Sorbet
• Stencil 3: Marigold
• Stencil 4: Waterfall, Turquoise
• Stencil 5: Waterfall, Turquoise, Fruit Punch

Other Supplies used (all PFS unless stated otherwise):
Stamps: Fluttering Butterflies, Easy Expressions Birthday (The Ton)

Ink: as above, Acorn (Versafine), Versamark

Other: Gilded EP (BM), Octagons coverplate die, Notched corner frame die, Rose gold glitter card, Gems: Clear with gold dust, 2mm foam squares (SP) 
Challenge: TTTC#252, Inkspirational #320, SSSM, SSSW

Thanks for fluttering by and hope you can find time to join in with us at TTTC, its easy just choose a line and create. As always you have 2 weeks to submit a card and if you are chosen as the winner you are invited to be the Guest Designer on a future challenge.

✿Karen✿

Using my most used stamp set for the latest Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hi everyone it's time for another challenge chosen at Tic Tac Toe. This is a fun board and to be honest I was seriously thinking about using all 9 elements on my card which would have been relatively easy; as it is I have 3 lines ticked off. I'm using an oldie but a goodie stamp set, Mondo Hydrangea which makes the most dreamiest of watercoloured cards.

I've used this design on another card with more muted colours which you can see HERE. But I've gone for the parameter "bright colours" as one of my choices. I've actually used a trio of lines; the top line (friendship theme, gems, layers); a diagonal line (friendship theme, flowers, bright colours) and the central column (gems, flowers, watercolouring).

I'm also going to play along with Colorful Options Challenges as they are celebrating Aqua as the colour for June.

I've used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to watercolour up the image blending the colours with a barely wet no. 4 round paintbrush as below:

Flowers: Dark Pink, Pink and Lilac
Leaves: Apple Green, Lime Green, Light Green, Turquoise Mint 

Wash: Turquoise Mint

I've also used a different Strathmore Bristol Paper to watercolour on, I normally just use the "smooth" but I'd read good reviews of the "vellum" so when my local craft store got some in thought I should try it and I can confirm that for me it was incredibly easy to blend on so it may become "my go to" for my Zigs.

Supplies used:

Stamps: Mondo Hydrangea (EBE)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Bristol Strathmore Vellum surface, Mermaid (LF), Basic Black (SU!), Glimmer specialty (SP)

Hot foil: Everyday Sentiments II, Glimmer machine,  Teal glimmer foil (all SP)

Other: Pretty Print EF (SU!), Master Layouts 3 (GKD), Spectrum AB crystals (SP), Featured sentiments die set (ALT), 1mm and 2mm foam squares (SP)

Challenges: TTTC #250, CO June2024

Well this truly is a beautiful board to play along with and I hope you can play along too. As always you have 2 weeks to submit your card to Tic Tac Toe Challenges.

Thanks for popping in and hope you have a beautiful day.
✿Karen✿

Old School Masculine Card for Tic Tac Toe Challenge 248

Hi everyone I'm very excited to share the good news that I have joined Team X at Tic Tac Toe Challenges. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the TTTC faithful and this week we have a fun board to play along with chosen by Felicita. 

I just had to choose the bottom line (die cut, drink, masculine sentiment) as I bought a stamp set because my partner actually does drinks Whiskey BUT I've never used it for him after many years of hoarding it, so this seemed a really good reason to ink it up.

I've managed to pick up a head cold from my grandson and I meant to make a card using this set last week and it would have looked a lot different than today's efforts. So the head cold turned out to be fortuitous as it delayed me making the card and I got to watch Kristina Werner making a piece of white card stock look like weatherboards this morning whilst I was lying in bed watching YouTube videos on my tablet. So I thought I'd give it a go and would make my own DSP (instead of using a brown one in my stash). You can click on her highlighted name to see her blog post and links to the video.

Basically you score the card. Kristina used the old kind of rounded embossing tools we all used to have and yes I have several in my stash but I have no idea where I have stored them so I just used a bone folder and my Scor-pal and scored at 1/4" marks. I used  Distress heavy card stock for this step. You then swipe ink over them semi-randomly, I didn't go as dark as Kristina as I knew Whiskey is a golden brown/amber colour.

I then went a bit rogue and did my own thing as I thought it might look quite cool with an a bit of woodgrain embossing folder on it as well.

At this stage I decided it needed darkening and I had originally wanted to add Scorched Timber to the mix so decided I might as well be brave and add it now on the raised embossed areas lightly.

I've then trimmed my A2 panel down to 4" x 5-1/4" and used an old school distressing tool to distress the edges but I do think they might have made a come back.

I've never coloured up whiskey before but it looks pretty close compared to my partner's bottle.

Copics used (darkest >lightest):

Whiskey: YR27/24/23/21

Decanter and glass: C5, B34/32, 0

Decanter stopper: C7/5/3

Ice cubes: BG11/000/0000

And the final card all by itself:

Supply List:
Stamps: Whiskey Business (SU!)

Distress inks (RNG): Scattered Straw, Tea Dye, Shabby Shutters, Brushed Corduroy, Gathered Twigs, Scorched Timber

Ink: Crunchy Leaf (LF), Mango Melody (SU!), Acorn (Versafine Clair)
Paper: Distress Heavy (RNG), Natural white (Neenah 1101b)

Dies: Fancy Circles (PFS), Stitched Sentiment strips (MFT)

Other: Copic markers, 1mm and 2mm foam squares (SP), Scor-pal, Woodgrain embossing folder (SU!), distress tool (SU!)

Challenges: TTTC #248

If you're new to my blog I have a list of abbreviations for my favourite companies at the very bottom of the blog.

Well thanks for popping in, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone KReates, do check out the fab designs from the rest of Team X as inspiration for more masculine themed cards.

✿Karen✿

I was a bit stumped with this colour combo

I have to admit the latest colour combo challenge at Just Add Ink had me a bit stumped: Coastal Cabana, Starry Sky and Berry Burst - these are all Stampin' Up! colours and I have in my stash the first two. I thought Dragonfruit (C9) looked pretty close to Berry Burst so that's what I used instead. Often when I stumped I will just watercolour something up using the reinkers and as I had recently received a hydrangea stamp I thought that would be a great flower to colour as hydrangeas often have a real range of shades.

I also wanted to play along with the latest Tic Tac Toe challenge using the first column (flowers, embossing, gems). I have dry embossed with an embossing folder plus white embossed the sentiment and added lots of gems.

Of course the flower I coloured doesn't have a die so I ended up fussy cutting it out and as it was watercoloured I used my 100 Copic black marker to try and blacken the edges and tidy the cut edges up a bit, this worked fine apart from where the marker went for a skid on the petal!!

I've also acquired from the SU! retirement sale the Dots & Spots coverplate die, I was so happy they reduced it finally to a "real price" as it retired. I wasn't prepared to pay $72 (kiwi dollars I'm talking about) for a coverplate die no matter how cute it is, when most companies charge half that price and I added a really old SU! embossing folder for some more dots (Perfect Polka Dots).

Supply List:

Stamps: Paint-A-Flower: Hydrangea (ALT)

Ink/re-inkers: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Versamark, Coastal Cabana (SU!), Starry Sky (SU!), Dragonfruit (C9)

Paper: Coastal Cabana (SU!), Starry Sky (SU!), Dragonfruit (C9), Neenah solar white #110lb, Watercolour (Fabriana Artistico cold pressed)

Other: Dots and Spots die (SU!), Perfect Polka Dots EF (SU!), white EP, no. 4 round paintbrush, Magic Potion Ombre glitter drops (PFS), 2mm foam squares (SP), Copic 100 black marker

Challenges: JAI #699, TTTC #246

I'm really happy how my card turned out - I don't make enough flower cards, so it's nice to tuck one away in my stash. Also, again those colour combos that stump me always look fab when KReated too, Thanks for popping in.

EDITED: 2/5/24: Really happy to be chosen as the JAI Winner and big thanks to them for pushing me outside my comfort zone. This was the kind comments from their DT:

Striking combination of dotted background and

beautifully soft hydrangeas

Beautiful hydrangeas are a lovely way to use

the challenge colours in Karen's fun design

Such a pretty use of the challenge colours.

✿Karen✿

Surprise Easter Card

I wanted to play along with CAS on Friday's Easter challenge plus combine with the elements from Tic Tac Toe too. So my card front is my clean and simple card for CAS on Friday:

I wanted to make a peek-a-boo window for my wee Easter chicken but I only own a square one from MFT so made my own using Just Stitching Double Circle dies (LF) and a circle die to make a window inside the double stitching.

Now I could have stayed with the CAS theme for Tic Tac Toe but I wanted to make a wee scene inside the card so I'm entering the inside of the card for TTT243 (Easter Eggs, pastel colours, grass). I'll also enter the inside of the card into the collaboration for "birds of a feather" with Time Out and Just Us Girls as well, plus Simon Says : Easter/Spring for their Wednesday Challenge too!

Aren't they just adorable, I've used an older stamp set from Lawn fawn called Chirpy Chirp Chirp and it has stamps to fill in the Easter egg and also the wee flower petals and wee butterflies, which made Copic colouring the chickens and bunny helmets easy.

I just grabbed 2 colour combos from my earliest blends I have, so nothing too fancy but I do like the peachy one a lot.

Supply List:

Stamps: Chirpy Chirp Chirp (LF), Eggstraordinary Easter Add-on (LF - sentiment)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Fresh Freesia (SU!), Pale Papaya (SU!), Sparkling Rose (PFS), Sunshine (PFS)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #110, Xpress IT blending, Flower Market DSP (LF - retired)

Dies: Grassy border (LF), Just Stitching Double Circles (LF), Sweet Stacks : Circles (HB)

Other: Copics

Challenges: CAS on Friday #279, TTC#243, TOC#259 , JUG#718, SSSW

Well that was a lot of fun combing a CAS card front with an Easter scene inside, hope you can find time to join in with one or all of the challenges.

EDITED 29/3/24: Very excited to say my wee card was chosen as the winner at CAS on Friday. I loved the card so pleased others agreed.

✿Karen✿

Overboard on green

I've been inspired by a few challenges for this card, Time Out Challenges latest photo inspiration is a GREEN frog as their challenge started on Leap Day (29 February), Simply CAS monthly challenge has the option of Green, Tic Tac Toe wants your "favourite colour" and mine is Lime Green (the line I choose also had "free" and CAS") so the stars seemed to be aligning and Lawn Fawnatics want Spring Cards. I always think of the colour Green when I think of Spring, new leaves and fresh lush grass; hopefully green frogs and green clouds are Spring-like - well my frog can do "springing too" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge has an Anything Goes.

As it's clean and simple I tried to keep it to minimal layers so used the double stitched circle die to add some interest to my card  panel. I then made a mask out of a 4.25" x 4.25" square of masking paper and die cut out a circle from the middle of the square that was slightly smaller than the stitched circles.

I placed this mask panel over the stitching and added a post it note top and bottom to protect the top and bottom of my panel. From the die cut circle middle I drew a "hill" free-hand which I cut out. I placed this bit back inside the circle mask and keeping with the GREEN theme did a very, very light blend of Twisted Citron to make my clouds. I placed the top of the circle back in and removed the bottom bit blended with Salvaged Patina to make my pond then splattered with a small paint brush some smooshed Blueprint Sketch ink. I felt it was too white at the end which is why I used my Master Layouts #1 to add a hint of a green mat.

Supply List:

Stamps: Toadally Awesome (LF), Hive Five (LF - wee trail)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Versafine Clair Nocturne, Twisted Citron (RNG), Salvaged Patina (RNG), Blueprint Sketch (RNG - splatters)

Paper: Cilantro (LF), Xpress IT blending, Neenah Solar White

Dies: Toadally Awesome (LF), Just Stitching Double Circles (LF), Everyday Sentiment Banners (LF), Sweet Circle stack (WF), Master Layout 1 (GKD)

Other: Copics, mini cloud edges stencil (MFT), Masking Magic (GKD), blending brushes (TE), 1mm foam squares (SP), white Gelli roll pen 10 (Sakura), clear embossing powder

Challenges: TOC#258, TTTC#242, SCS Cards March 2024, Lawn Fawnatics #167 , SSS Wednesday #114

Well that was a lot of fun I'd better go sort out the craftastrophe as surprisingly for such a simple card it actually used a "lot of stuff"

✿Karen✿

The Gnomies are Sharing some Love

This hopefully is the last love/Valentine's card for this year from me and it was pretty quick and simple apart from letting the Crystal Glaze dry. I wanted to play along with CAS on Friday's Valentine Challenge (CAS and Valentine), The Paper Player's Love theme and Tic Toe Toe's challenge board (today I'm using the diagonal: enamel dots, die cut, dry or heat embossing). I'm also going to play along with Simon Say's Stamp's Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes).

I've had this wee set in my stash for a while and haven't used the gnomies before, I do love the size of them small but not too small. 

Looking on the MFT site I saw a fab colour combo from Rachael Alvarado and really liked how bright her pink was and that she had added green to the blue-green combo. I think I may need to practice some more to even slightly emulate her but they are fun and vibrant colours. I'm laughing today I can see what I thought was a face she's coloured as a beard!! I also discovered that if you have a few bubbles in your glaze don't add more to it, it may make it worse. I only used the Crystal Glaze as in the end I thought the RVs were too bright but liked her BG combo and will definitely do that one again. I added clear embossing powder to my stamped sentiment so it's nice and shiny and black. I added Rock Candy glitter to the cap stripes and Prisma Glitter to the pom pom. I also die cut out 2 more gnome shapes and glued them all together to give him a bit more dimension but otherwise a one-layer card.

Copic Colours used (darkest > lightest):

Bright pink: RV66/55/52/00

Teal blue: BG18/23/11 G00

Pom pom: C2/0

Skin: E13/21 RV10

Supply List:

Stamps: Love to my Gnomies (MFT)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Versafine Clair Nocturne, Salvaged Patina distress oxide (RNG)

Paper: Xpress IT blending, Neenah Solar White #110

Other: Copics, Fine sparkle adhesive backed gems (SU!), Crystal Glaze (Nuvo), Prisma glitter (LF), Rock Candy distress glitter (RNG), clear embossing powder, blending brush

Challenges: CAS on Friday #276, PP#675,  TTTC #240, SSS Wednesday Challenge #113

Well this was a really quick Valentine/love card to come together, so another one for my Galentine's cards which I'd better get in the mail today so they could arrive by the 14th. Have a fab day and thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿