More Summer Lovin'

Here's my second card for the CAS-ual Friday Challenge (CFC133)  Remember the theme is Summer Lovin' and the requirements are:

Clean and Simple...
Use hearts...
Use summer colors...

This card is also done with Soft Sky paper and an Impression Obsession die.
 

I love this die cut and I've had the die for ages and never used it.  So that makes it NBUS!  That's Never Before Used Schtuff.  Thanks, Darnell, for giving a name to all that schtuff.  I promise to work on my mountain of it.  The die cut panel is shaded with ink and sponges and the panel behind is shaded with markers.

Stay cool!

Good morning everyone!  I love when the mist fills the valley in front of my house.  Unfortunately it usually moves by the time I get my camera!  That happened this morning...rats!  Still, it was pretty.

Here's my latest patriotic card for A Scrap N Place...

This was a fun card to play around with...and that's just what I had to do! ;)  I changed the backing paper, changed the diecut paper...twice!  I'm kind of fussy about color, and it just wasn't working at first.

The star dies are from Sweet n Sassy Stamps and the patterned paper is from the "Anchor" collection by Authentique.  The greeting is from Technique Tuesday.  Since my cards for the store this month will all be suitable for Operation Write Home, and hence very mailable, there won't be a lot of bulk, like big bows and gems.  Those don't go thru the mail very well, alas.

Hope you enjoy this one...and have a wonderful day!

Let freedom ring!

I love red, white and blue!  And I got a brand new stamp set from Technique Tuesday on Monday that I decided to use for this card.

So, how did I make this one?  I started with a navy blue A2 card base.  The red star paper was cut 4 x 5-1/4 to leave a border.  Then the fun began.  I cut two flourishes from the Die-namics Fancy flourish die.  After playing around with how to arrange them, I traced off the center line with pencil onto the red star paper, then cut on the line and glued the sheet to the card base.  I trimmed the flourishes where they overlapped and attached them along the curved line of the red paper.

Next I cut stars with the Sweet and Sassy star dies and stamped the images from Technique Tuesday's My Hero set on the diecuts.  They're attached with dimensionals.  The sentiment is also from the My Hero set and is heat embossed.

This card is very mailable! No extra postage charges.

I guess that about covers it...  Happy 4th!

Supplies:
Navy and white cardstocks
Patterned paper from Authentique: Pride collection
My Hero stamp set from Technique Tuesday
Star Dies from Sweet and Sassy
Flourish die from MFT Die-namics
Embossing powder from WOW

Poinsettia for Christmas

Here's my latest creation for the Bling Girls Design Team...

This is the Spellbinders Poinsettia Die and a collection of May Arts Ribbons, all of which are available at A Scrap N Place, in Loveland.

I didn't go watch Kittie's tutorial before I made this flower, and if I had, I probably would have put more shape in the petals.  But it has a good amount of thickness.  I'd want to use a dimensional envelope if I was going to mail it.

Supplies:
Cardstock in vanilla, red, green
Patterned paper from Authentique (Diverse)
Ribbons and trims from May Arts, along with Rhinestones for the flower center.

A "flocked" tree!

Years ago, when my hubby first started working at the nursery where he has worked for almost 40 years now, they would do flocked pine trees for Christmas.  They came in white flock...and...are you sitting down?...pink flock and blue flock.  They even set them up with rotating strobe lights.  If you remember those days, then you're as old as me!

But I have to admit that the white ones were okay.

Now, I wasn't thinking of them when I designed this card...I just thought of them now, when I was getting ready to do this post. 

I like using white on a color, and I thought I'd try a white diecut on a color this time.  And this is for the Bling Girls...

This was fun to make.  This is the 3rd or 4th time to use this die, and this time I wanted to see if embossing the tree in the green paper helped for placement.  It does.  But the embossing needs to be done very lightly or the paper creases.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Ivory, Green

Designer Paper: Making Memories Twinkle

Die: Impression Obsession Merry Tree

Accessories: Dimensionals, Rhinestones, Star Punch, Iridescent Embossing powder.

Another Bling Girls Project

It's Monday again!  I just can't believe how fast Mondays come around...and Fridays...and...  I think it's a sign of "advanced maturation"!  LOL!

 

Here's my next project for A Scrap N Place.  I just love the colors...red and vanilla always win in my mind.  I used only a portion of my Impression Obsession Merry Tree die, did some distressing on the edges of the layers, layered some ribbons, added some punched branches...but not too many...and some rhinestones. 

 

Supplies:

Cardstock: Red, vanilla, artichoke green

Designer paper: Making Memories Twinkle

Ribbons from May Arts

Die from Impression Obsession

Punch for the branches from Martha Stewart

Dimensionals

Bling Girls...first project

Just a bit of exciting news...I've been asked to be a guest designer with the Bling Girls of A Scrap N Place in Loveland.  Such a neat store.  They have DIES.  Oh, my, do they have dies!  Not a good place for me to go, for sure. ;)  They also have a wonderful selection of designer paper, some ribbons and trims, some nifty accessories...and BLING.  Of course, if you're Bling Girls, you have to have bling!

Well, Terri gave me a kit of papers, ribbons and trims, and bling...as well as a die...for my projects this month.  The die is the Impression Obsession Merry Tree. It was fun to work with but a bit of a challenge to glue down.

The first project I'm going to share with you is this one:

 

I kept to my preferred style, which is clean and simple, using bling and a ribbon to step it up a notch.  The star is punched, coated with versamark, and embossed.  And no stamping!  It's a fun card!

 

Supplies:

Designer paper: Basic Grey Jovial Crushed Velvet

Cardstock: White and Artichoke Green, Yellow-Gold for star

Ribbon: May Arts

Accessories: Rhinestones, Versamark, Iridescent Embossing Powder, Dimensionals



Splitcoast CAS Design Team competition

The past couple weeks or so have been taken up by focusing on the Clean and Simple Design Team competition for the summer season. The theme was a trip to the amusement part and I wanted to share my entries with you.

Challenge 1: You are walking into the amusement park and meet the photographer who wants to take your picture. Make a card that 1)has a person, character, or group as a focal point, 2)add a tiny bit of bold, flashy ribbon, bonus points for adding texture as well, 3)keep it clean and simple.
Click here for details on supplies.

Challenge 2: Make a card with a summer theme.
Click here for details on supplies.

After challenge 2, Jen narrowed the field to 20 people who would continue to the semi finals. I made this list! WooHoo!

Challenge 3: Make a clean and simple card using pop dots (aka dimensionals) to create height and dimension on your card. Since I always use dimensionals on my cards, this was not a big challenge for me, so I tried a technique I had seen before and liked.
Click here for details on supplies.

Challenge 4: Create a clean and simple card with a moveable part. It was fun seeing the great variety of cards that everyone made! I made a viewmaster card.
Let me say right now that I will probably NEVER make one of these EVER again!
Click here for details on supplies.

So now the tension has built to a very high level. Who will make the finals? Ten people would be chosen, and I made the cut! Love it!

Challenge 5: At the close of the day at the amusement park, we visit the water park. Make a clean and simple card with a water theme. I was having a difficult time deciding what to do. Not that I had no ideas, but that I had too many! I made three cards and entered these two:
Click here for details on supplies.
Click here for details on supplies.

What a GREAT time we all had. The last night was tense, particularly since Jen posted the guest designers a few at a time and left the design team to last! But I made the design team this summer! So for the next 3 months I'll be designing for Splitcoaststampers CAS design team! Cooool! I've tried for this for five competitions and I finally made it!
So, I invite you to join the fun in the SCS CAS challenge forum every Monday for wonderful challenges!

...did I really use a die cut?...

Yes, I guess you could say that...but technically it is an embosslit. So can I say that I really didn't give in to die cuts? I made this for CAS65 on SCS.

I ran the popped up panel thru the BigShot with a texture plate. The texture plate and embosslit are from SU! as is the punch for the greeting. The leaves are a Martha Stewart punch. I sponged the embosslit flowers with apricot ink to give them some dimension.
Paper: SU! vanilla, apricot, wasabi, celery
Stamps: SU! small script
Accessories: Lots of Dimensionals!

Waltzingmouse Challenge

Claire posted a sketch challenge on her blog today. I looked at it and thought, "Whatever can I do with this sketch? I'm a Clean and Simple stamper and this is definitely outside my box!" But I really wanted to try!

So this is the result. I'm pleased with it and it will make a wonderful baby card for someone who is having a boy!
Stamps: Waltzingmouse and Clear Expressions (sentiment)
Paper: Baja Breeze and White
Ink: Baja Breeze
Accessories: Ribbon, Corduroy Button, Dimensionals

Waiting.....for.....Spring.....

I'm ready! Too much snow this winter. We've had snow on the ground since last fall and that NEVER happens around here. Never say "never"!

So, in anticipation of spring coming (sometime) I have a couple of cards to share with you.

The first one turns out to be a Mother's Day card. (No, my mom doesn't read my blog or check SCS. She is somewhat computer-challenged.) The sketch was a challenge for me. I had to spend a bit of time getting what I wanted. The tulip is PTI's Wishing You set and the greeting is an old SU set called Wonderful Wishes. The kraft paper is dotted with SU's new Dot, Dot, Dot then punched with a Martha border punch. I love the twill tape! It is on a roll in the sewing department at WalMart. I'm going to have to stock up!


I've been wanting to make some of those really cute trees that are made of patterned paper and cut out. But I don't have the stamps and can't afford them right now. So I made do for this card by using SU's Sheltering Tree on some dotted-watercolor-wash type designer paper I had in my stash. The check paper at the bottom is from Creative Memories. I think it sets the card off well, don't you?


Have a wonderful week anticipating the coming of Spring!

Redo-ing those old cards that don't quite make it...

The CAS challenge at SCS this week is to re-make an old card. Well, I have a bunch of cards that are downright ug-ly. Well, at least now I think so. Then there are some in my gallery that have pictures that don't and never did do the cards justice. I'm not going to delete them, but I think I will try to improve many of them. Here are a few:


This was an old (2005) Christmas card. See how it looks now:

Stampset: Christmas Cardinals
Paper: 110# White, Real Red, Summer Sun
Ink: Basic Black
Other: Watercolor pencils with aquapainter, SU! paper piercing set


I liked this spring card then, but it is better now:

Stampset: Spring Garden, Itty Bitty BG
Paper: Cameo Coral, Mellow Moss, White
Ink: Cameo Coral, Mellow Moss
Other: sponged some Moss on the edges of the images, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

Oh, why do we even admit to making those old cards!?

Taking time...

I am realizing that if I want to do this right, I will have to "make the time" for what I really want to do. I am definitely not a journaler, and I have a 'learning difference' that makes it difficult for me to get what is in my head down on paper...or in the case of this blog...on the computer screen. But I will have to JUST DO IT! as the saying goes.

I quit my job to be available to my kids...being a grandma...and that is what I am doing. It gives me lots less hours in the day to do other things, but it is oh, so rewarding. I love my little ones...Owen and Eden, Emerson, and Danika and Maeilyn. They are little miracles! And the oldest just turned three...the youngest is three months old! Three came in just 4 months!

I'm doing a sampler quilt class/club right now. The quilt has 9 large squares, all different. We had a choice of three different color themes: Christmas, rose/green, or a black/red tulip design. I chose the last one...and am having fun with it! It is TOTALLY out of my comfort zone for colors. I'll post some pictures of my squares in a couple of days (hopefully)!

I made a collection of cards this morning. I have decided I prefer the clean and simple style. I like looking at the complex ones, and I make a lot of them, but I think I like the simple look better. My hubby does, for sure! Here are some of them. I apologize for the dark pics...will use a bit more light next time.



This card has no layers! The stamp set is Time Well Spent, from Stampin' Up. Stamped with Basic Black and colored with watercolor pencils and an aquapainter. It is for SCS Inspiration Challenge #68.



This is one of the graduation cards that I made for all the guy grads at church. The girls got the Swiss dots CB folder instead. Simple, but elegant. The stamp is from Hero Arts, and the mortarboard is from a package I got in the scrapbooking section at WalMart.

Thanks for visiting today!