FUSION - 5th Anniversary Challenge

Welcome back to a new challenge and a new year!  We have a feast for the eyes today because it's our 5th anniversary and following our tradition, our design team have invited guests to join us.   And as a special treat, our friends at CAS-ual Fridays have offered us a $25 gift code for one randomly drawn entrant in the gallery.  Thank you so much to Michele from CASual Fridays!   Click on the logo to be taken to their store.

We would love if you would join us and create a card based on either the sketch, the photo or a fusion of both.  Let's fill the gallery with beauty!

Scroll down and check out the gorgeous cards based on our challenge graphic.

PROCEDURES:
1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.
5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team and their guests showing you how it works!

Barb Ghigliotty

Barb's Guest - Michele Ferguson from I Card Everyone

I asked Michele to be my guest because I love how she uses supplies from several companies on her designs. I also love how she plays with color...especially her favorite color 'gray' ~

Betty J

Betty's Guest - so sorry, no guest :-(

Jeanne Jachna

Jeanne's Guest - Michele K. Henderson from Crimson Owl Creations

I love Michele's use of bold color and how she has a die cut for just about EVERY occasion!  Her crisp clean designs are always a delight to behold! 

Jen Mitchell

Jen's Guest - Lisa Elton from My Paper Tales


I chose Lisa to be my guest because her designs are always a wonderful blend of sweet nostalgia and fun whimsy. She's never afraid to mix colors and patterns and is no stranger to a polka dot or two!

Karren Johnson

Karren's Guest - Ksenija from Sweet Kobylkin

Ksenija has a wonderful card-making style and every card of hers is gorgeous and unique - just like this one.

Linda Callahan

Linda's Guest - Heidi Baks from RunningwScissors

I am a total fan of Heidi's creative work! She always adds that extra creative element to her clean designs like today's typeset sentiment!

Lyndal Higgins

Lyndal's Guest - Jenny Martin from My Paper Epiphany

I love Jenny's use of multi media techniques, perfectly demonstrated here!

Michelle Leone
Coming Soon!

Michelle's Guest - Nancy Penir from Artful-Notions

Nancy has the loveliest design sense - with beautiful colors/coloring and amazing detail and dimension......you are sure to enjoy this Artful-Notions creation !

Michelle Lupton

Michelle's Guest - Ardyth Percy-Robb from MASKerade

I just love Ardyth's Clean and Simple style: always clever, always stylish, always elegant!

Wanda Cullen

Wanda's Guest - Broni Holcombe from Splashes of Watercolor

Broni has inspired me over and over with her wonderful eye for design and her fabulous coloring skills! 

What a wonderful collection of cards!  Please play along and link your card below.

An InLinkz Link-up

FUSION - 4th Anniversary Challenge

Hi and welcome back to Fusion!  We are thrilled to be back with another year of what we hope are fun and inspiring challenges.  As always, we are kicking off the year with a special anniversary edition - yep, that's right, it's our anniversary.  This is our fourth year of Fusion and we are so thankful to everyone who plays along with us in our bi-weekly challenge.

The design team members have chosen a guest to play along with us so scroll down to see some gorgeous cards and read a little bit about why we chose our guests.  We hope you'll have time to join us!

Photo Source

PROCEDURES:
1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.
5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team showing you how it works!

Becca Cruger

Guest:  Kevin Bray
Kevin's style screams CASawesome (it can be a word if I want it to). He always seems to know how to use minimalism to pack a BIG design punch. I first "met" him on Instagram and I love following his creativity. Like me, he also lives right on the border of ND/MN! 

Carol Mayne

Guest:  Bev Buenker
I’m thrilled to have one of *the* darlings of the crafting community as my special guest for this celebration:  Bev of Happy Dance blog fame. Most of know this sweetheart, with her cards that delight, a personality that invites and welcomes, and comments that encourage, motivate and inspire. The best part about my friendship with Bev is that we met, in her home city, in July 2015! Like old friends reuniting, we enjoyed a few far-too-short hours, chatting up a storm, comfortable and delighting in one another’s company. We already love her from her blog, but in real life...WOW!  She’s touched and enriched many of our lives; she is, in a word, a treasure!  I’m proud to count her as one of my besties! 

Jeanne Jachna

Karren Johnson

Guest:  Jen Mitchell

I've worked on a design team with Jen for almost 4 years and admired her work long before that.  She has a classic and clean style, but with clever touches which make her cards stand out.  As well as being a superb card-maker, she is also a wonderful person with a great sense of humor and willingness to help and I hope that one day we can meet in person.  I'm so glad Jen agreed to be my guest for this challenge.

Linda Callahan

Guest:  Amy Koenders

I first met Amy Koenders a few years ago when she was just starting in the stamping world.  But her energy, enthusiasm and talent for stamping was obvious!  She has a clean style and a great eye for design and color. Her blog is full of inspiration! She is an accomplished Stampin' Up! demonstrator and is now ranked 9th in the US out of over 40,000 demos!  I am happy to call her my friend and am delighted she is joining us this week as a guest!

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Leone

Guest: Karen Walker
I am happy to have Karen play along with us for this very first Fusion Challenge of 2018! She is not only a phenomenal inspiration re: all things creative (stamping, photography, etc.), but is also a selfless volunteer and skillful organizer - all qualities that I quite admire. I am delighted to call her my friend (IRL!) and am so excited that she is joining us as a GD!

Michelle Lupton

Guest:  Linda Trace
I met my friend, Linda, back in 2012 in blogland (but in person in 2013). Have you ever met someone and felt like you've been friends forever? Yep, that. But then she moved to the other side of the country - booo! I love her style - she can move from cute to elegant to artsy with ease. I'm so glad she is my guest today!

An InLinkz Link-up

FUSION - 3rd Anniversary

Hi and welcome to our first post of 2017 and our 3rd Anniversary celebration!  In keeping with the past two years, we have got a special challenge for you today.  Each of the Design Team has invited a special guest to create a card using our challenge graphic.  We have a wonderful lineup of guests who have created some amazing cards.  On top of that, the DT have outdone themselves and produced gorgeous cards to inspire you.  

So, sit back and scroll down slowly and take in all the beautiful crafty goodness on display. Click on the links to be taken to each blog and get more information on each card.  And to make it even more special, one of our guests has very generously offered up a prize to a randomly drawn gallery submission, so be in to win 😊

Finally, I'd like to thank our wonderful guests for taking the time to create a card and join us in our anniversary celebration.

PROCEDURES:
1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.
5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team and guests showing you how it works!

Becca Cruger

Amy Tsuruta (Becca's Guest Designer)

When I saw the challenge graphic, I was pretty much bound by the oath I took to the magic powers of caffeination to ask THEE coffee queen herself, Amy T., to be my guestie. Amy founded The Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I have loved her sense of style from the moment I landed on her blog's homepage. I'm not sure there's a design team that Amy HASN'T served on because she's just that talented. I totally wish I had her brain for designing in the CFS style (clean, fresh, sassy).  

 

Carol Mayne

Leigh Penner (Carol's Guest Designer)
I asked my talented friend from 'just down the road' in Manitoba, Leigh Penner (To the Full) to be my guest designer. She is a gem - sweet, warm, supportive, encouraging - and oh, so creative! She's on a variety of teams (Reverse Confetti, CAS(E) this Sketch, Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge) and her passion for crafting is expressed loud and clear through her gorgeous cards.  I'm thrilled that she accepted my invitation to join us!

Jeanne Jachna


Laurie Schmidlin (Jeanne Jachna's Guest Designer)
One of my very first blog crushes was on Laurie!  She's a rock star designer for lots of your favorite places.. Gina K., Reverse Confetti, Paper Smooches, Carta Bella and more!  I'm inspired by her chameleon ability to do it all - fussy, CAS, and everything in between.  I'm so excited that she's joining us for our Birthday celebration!  

Karren Johnson

Michele Ferguson (Karren's Guest Designer)
I invited Michele from I Card Everyone to be my guest as her cards are always a delight!  She has a style all her own and is so very generous and friendly.  Having exchanged a couple of cards with Michele, I can attest to the fact that her cards are even more beautiful in real life - as if that were possible :)


Linda Callahan

Brian King (Linda's Guest Designer)

The best way to start a new year is to have Brian King as your guest!  He is one of Stampin' Up!'s top demos and is a master at combining colors and patterns.  His style is all his own.......CAS but with many layers that are oh so perfectly put together!  His energy and enthusiasm for card making is contagious as you may know if you have ever attended one of his amazing World Card Making Day events!  I am delighted that he joined us today!

Lyndal Higgins 

Christine Drogt (Lyndal's Guest Designer)
So happy to have Christine here as my guest today. Christine and I both started our card design journey back in 2011. I have always loved her fabulous use of colour and her inspirational videos. With this gorgeous sketch and winter photo, I immediately thought of Christine with her gorgeous pops of colour and fabulous range of products she has designed for her online store Create a Smile. 

Christine super kindly offered a fabulous 25 euro prize to her Create a Smile store for one randomly selected FUSION entry, so there is even more motivation to join in the celebrations! 


Michelle Leone


Kelly Schirmer (Michelle's Guest Designer)
I am excited and honored to have Kelly join in at The Fusion Challenge celebration! She has an amazing way with color and pattern (and shares a love of many of my favorite stamping companies!). Kelly has an impressive resume and has previously worked with the A Muse Studio Catalog team, Pink Persimmon Stamps Creative Team, Waltzingmouse DT and The 12 Kits of Occasions DT.  SO very happy to have Kelly as our guest today!


Michelle Lupton

Jennifer McGuire (Michelle Lupton's Guest Designer)
Jennifer McGuire IS stamping.  She is the queen of techniques, and makes the most amazing videos to inspire crafters.  She is the co-owner of Online Card Classes, and she is all about sharing handmade kindness. More importantly, she is the most kind person in the industry, and so very generous. She has made not one, but two cards to share with us today AND a video, too! I am beyond thrilled to have her as my guest today. 


Michelle Williams

Therese Calvird (Michelle W's Guest Designer)

I've invited along fellow Australian, Therese Calvird. Therese is an artist! She makes the most beautiful cards and while she leans towards a Clean and Simple style (which I love), she is not afraid to use all the tools and techniques available. Therese provides me with endless inspiration, both on her blog and in her fabulous videos. I'm so excited that Therese agreed to join us today!