it's over... the cas watercolor that is

Bringing up the rear are two birthday and one hello card. Sure hope my Mom likes my prolific creations...

Papertrey die meets Sweet Stamp Shop sentiment

Only Papertrey products

FYI, I agonized on this one. Add a tiny strip of black CS after the "Y" and off to the edge? Nope. Add skinny washi (yellow and turquoise) down to the "happy" and after the "Y"? Nope. A tad of B/W chevron washi somewhere??? Nope. Call me crazy.

And meet my favorite of the whole bunch...

QuicKutz die meets Prima sentiment

This little kitty from Prima Yuki (I don't even like cats - all they do is mess in my garden) just jumped out at me (OK, fell out of the cupboard) to perch on the U. How cute is that?!? Which almost sent me off to peruse other stamp sets for image/word combo stamps that could be used with die cuts. Almost.

Hooking up at:
Mod Squad - Use Water

Bright and Beautiful

#99 CAS

#53 watercolor

CASual Fridays 136

still not over... but embossed

Pretty monotonous here on my blog lately, eh? CAS and watercolored rainbow paper heaven. But monotonous. Today I've a couple cards that I took up a notch. Still CAS but not as extreme.

A wedding card. Absolutely inspired by the inspiration photo at Altenew's February challenge.

Pink, burgundy, glitter, gold, love theme, embossing. Got it all. I stamped the gorgeous blooms from Persian Motifs in gold. Partially embossed the top with Maggie Holmes Doily embossing folder. TIP: Put cardboard over the areas you do not want embossed before running your folder through your Big Shot. A strip of glitter CS and hand-stitched metallic gold thread up top finished the white panel.

Then I die cut "celebrate" from Essentials by Ellen Zipper Panel from my rainbow watercolored paper, using the purple to pink spectrum of the lighter version. Stacked it, inked the edges with a Distress marker and wink of Stella-ed it too. The secondary sentiment from Persian Motifs completed the sentiment.

And I even channeled my inner Joni A. and Jocelyn O. (notice the inked panel underneath and the lifted edges of the panel?!?!)

My second card is also love related. An anniversary card this time. 

Papertrey (Tipped Tops die) meets Technique Tuesday sentiment (Swanky Sentiments which BTW is a fabulous set for "go to" sentiments) meets a dry embossed Sizzix heart for a bit of interest in the background. "Happy" was also die cut from the lighter rainbow watercolored version and stacked before adhered. TIP: I use a skinny paintbrush and Matte Medium for stacking and adhering die cuts. It's still tedious work, but beats the days of adhering skinny strips of foam adhesive doesn't it?

I'm hooking up to these challenges:

Mod Squad - Use Water (I've used watercolors)
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - "H is for"
Happy Little Stampers February

Inkspirational #75

AAA Cards #32

CASual Fridays #136

1. TGIF. And happy weekend!

CAS watercolor

I have a problem with watercolor. When I've created some gorgeousness with it, I have a really hard time not plastering an entire card front with it. Take this, for example.

Grabbed a sheet of watercolor paper and my kids' old watercolors and created the one on the left. Cuz it was such fun, I created the one on the right too, using a bit more pigment.

I had seen this card of Kylie's and just loved the ombre look on her die cut. My plan was to create a set of super CAS cards for my mom. So I die cut some word dies from vellum and used them as a guide for where to place my dies for the color gradient I wanted.

My plan also included combining die cut words with stamped words. Took me the longest to decide on the right sentiment/font combinations! This is what happened.

Dee's Distinctively meets Papertrey

WPlus9 meets STAMPlorations

Paper Smooches meets STAMPlorations

Amy Tangerine meets STAMPlorations

Essentials by Ellen meets Avery Elle

And may I introduce the set for my mom. I think they are going to be right up her alley. Do you have a favorite?

 I'm joining a few great challenges:

CFC 136

HSL Feb Sketch Challenge

Anything Goes

and Addicted to Stamps #129 - Clean and Simple cuz yep, they certainly are! Happy weekend.

you've got this (Curtain Call, KIS)

Happy first anniversary to Curtain Call! Do you play over there? They always have the most beautiful inspiration photos and great design work from the team. And this time the theme is Anything Goes AND  there are lots of prizes to celebrate. I'm in :)

How can you not love all that white space? (How can you not love all that storage space? I'll keep dreamin') I picked up on the touches of pink and made a card of encouragement.

Stamped trees onto panel of CS using Distress Inks spritzed with water.  Stamped sentiments. Die cut ampersand from cereal box and used it to dry emboss the panel. Highlighted ampersand with Wink of Stella for a bit of glimmer. Punched a hole and threaded the ribbon. Made a pocket of vellum by stitching it to the card. Even added a bit of PP to the inside a la Kelly G.

I'm also joining the fun at Keep it Simple #44 where it's about bows!

We've got wonderful (read: hot) summer weather at the moment. Out to enjoy it. Happy weekend all.

Supplies for you've got this:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, vellum, PP Pink Petticoat

Stamps: CASual Fridays

Ink : Distress, Versafine

Tools: corner rounder, sewing machine, die Kelly Purkey

Other: ribbon

19 to go (AAA, CFC)

Three more invites for our "161" party...

The first two are brought to you courtesy of the, hmm hmm, weekly, challenge over at AAA. I'm squeakin' in under the wire.

Inspired by the DT over there, I pulled out my STAMPlorations Chevron and Arrows and stamped the arrows (not well, but I'm thinkin' my non-cardmaking friends who will be receiving this may forgive me). Added some frosted embossing paste through a Studio Calico stencil. Die cut the sentiment from a panel I masked, stamped with the chevron from Lawnscaping Interlocked Backgrounds and inked.

As for this bugger, don't look too closely. The star sequins... trying to hide the spots I mangled. Maybe cuz it was midnight. Maybe cuz I adhered the color blocked CS strips with double sided adhesive. Maybe cuz this poor die is just getting tired of all the work it's doing lately...

It wouldn't cut through the color blocked panel! What I wanted, was to use the negative parts to fill in the white space of the largest circle. What happened, was that after I ruined the first die cut when realizing it wasn't cut through and running it (incorrectly aligned) through the Big Shot again, even five passes on the new one wouldn't get that bugger to cut all the layers.

Plan B. Die cut a white one and adhere it over the embossed-but-not-fully-cut circle and put that whole package back into the largest circle. Could have saved myself 20 minutes and a battered front panel by just die cutting a white sentiment and adhering it over the color blocked panel in the first place! But I had wanted the negative die cut look... (still whining)...

One more for you, by no means original, for the current CASual Fridays challenge.

Got the masculine going. No kraft. Ribbon's there. For one of our single, male friends. Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy your weekend.

shake your bowtie (CFC)

Here's a quick one for the current challenge at CASual Fridays.

Here's the catch. A guy card, but no kraft allowed and must include ribbon. Tricky, eh? I happened to have this shaker guy card just laying around (tee hee hee... made it for a recent "bow" submission call) and I thought it would look even better with a strip of black satin ribbon added between the black card and the white sentiment strip. Agree?

Don't you get a "tuxedo" vibe from it? I kinda like it. Check out the gallery. There are plenty of ideas for how to get ribbon onto a guy card!

Supplies for shake your bowtie:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, glitter CS The Paper Studio, recycled acetate

Stamps: 

Ink :

Tools: die MFT, diamond die Lifestyle Crafts

Other: sequins, ribbon

handwriting (CFC, Moxie Fab)

Quick but effective, agree? I used a Stampendous "congratulations" stamp and one of the MOM Subway Art stamps from STAMPlorations atop a hand-drawn belly bump silhouette for this card.

I'm hooking up to:
Moxie Fab World - Hip on Handwriting
CASual Fridays #131 - Three Thirds

Thanks for looking.

hatee-hatee-hatee-ho (CFC, Simply Create Too)

Forgive me in advance for giving you an earworm....  but c'mon, how genius was it of those guys to pick up on this idea and make a song out of it. In case you aren't familiar with THE fox (insert doubtful look), here ya go.

In case it's been too "lo-o-o-o-ong"... go have a watch.  And come back singing, OK? Cuz of course you want to know the answer to the question...

So...  THIS fox says "i'ma-i'ma-i'ma-re-ject". Made for a recent submission call honoring Mr. your-fur-is-red-so-beautiful.  Not having made the cut for the mag, it's purr-fect for the current Shades of Gray challenge over at CASual Fridays.  It's even donning three shades of gray with the CS, heat embossing and washi. Since they're now keeping their doors open for three weeks, I may manage to join the fun more often.  Yippie-yippie-yippie-oh.

With all the rage in hand lettering these days, I mimicked it by freehand-forming a piece of wired ribbon (like stiffening twine with glue - without the gl-ue-ue-ue-ue!) The ribbon was originally yellow, just painted it black when I was done.  TIP: Use temporary adhesive to help you while forming.  The wire tends to have a mind of its own.

So have I got you feeling frisky? The current challenge at Simply Create Too is "Animals".  How will you speak to that "cha-al-al-al-lenge"?

You will forgive me, won't you?

Supplies for party on foxy:

Paper:  gray cardbase Bringmann 

Stamps: Studio Calico, sentiment CASual Fridays

Ink : Versamark

Tools: stencil Crafters Workshop

Other: clear embossing powder, acrylic paint, embossing paste, wire ribbon, gems

hello 2014 (STAMPlorations, SCT, CFC, ATCAS)

It's a new year (yes, I'm just emerging from the fog of Christmas holidays as the kids go back to school today) so HAPPY 2014 to you all.  Hope it's off to a great start!

I'm sending warm thoughts to those of you stuck in the deep freeze.  We are and have been quite balmy over here for awhile.  I may regret saying this, but I'd prefer the cold!

Well  I wanted to hook up at STAMPlorations where I'm so thrilled to be joining the talented DT next month.  This month's challenge is "Stamps and Feathers".  Since I don't have my Trendy Feathers yet, I reverted to this design, deciding to call it a feather!

So I got myself a new Cat's Eye Queue - Rain Forest.  Probably influenced by the "emerald" and "mint" of 2013.  Just in time for the "orchid" of 2014.  Whatever.

Stamped the little squares with those green hues and a couple Delicata gold ones.  Gold structure paste through the old stencil again and then a die cut.  Or two. (And therefore I'm joining the fun at Addicted to CAS where the challenge is "Die Cuts".

Now I don't know if this is my word of the year for the new year, but it certainly stands for something I'm hoping to get more of in 2014 - face time.  As in, "Hello girlfriend, glad to sit here and drink a glass of wine with you."  So I'm joining the fun at CASual Fridays CFC#125.

And since the theme is "Anything Goes" over at Simply Create Too for Challenge #52, I'm joining my teamies over there with this card too.  It's a happy 2nd birthday to Diane and her just-for-fun challenge and this time there are even prizes to celebrate!  Join us for the fun.

Whew!  Thanks for visiting today.

Supplies hello:

Paper: cardbase TPC, Neenah white, aqua DCWV

Stamps:  PTI

Ink:  Cat's Eye pigments, gold Delicata

Tools: stencil, die PTI

Other: gold structure paste Goya

bang for your buck (CFC, SSS)

Hey there.  In case you don't have enough on your plate at the moment, here is a project that gives you THE best bang for your buck.  Seriously, this is SOOOO effective and basically so easy.

Saw one of these at my girlfriend's house years back and was flabbergasted when she explained how easy they were to make.  I then taught DD's grade school class how to make them and they were hanging all over windows in Nierstein!  When I recently saw this tutorial, I figured it was high time to share this idea.

Now you can make the arms of the snowflake with any size squares you like.  How about with neon Post-it notes?  But I used construction paper pieces that were about 8" square for each of the arms.  This puppy is huge!  See?

Speaking of puppy... that fencing is to keep Miss Ellie off of our open steps.  DD is slowly teaching her to do steps but she's basically a main floor pooch.

So, if you're not crafty burned-out yet, give this a try!  BTW, the tute tells you to draw or print out the lines to cut along on your folded squares.  I just snipped in from the folded edge, no guidelines ;)

I'm hooking up at these snowy challenges:

CASual Fridays #123 - Let it Snow

Simon Says Stamp - Let it Snow

the month of december (Stamplorations, CFC, SSS)

Whew.  It's a wonder any card magazine gets published in July when the work for it has to happen in December.  My Christmas cookies still are not made.  But I got some cards in for the PC submission call.  Something wrong with my priorities?!?!?

Anyhoo, my bronze glitter embossing powder was calling out to me again.

I tried a Laura B. technique - heat embossing the snowflakes, masking and then applying Distress Inks.  How fun.  Then a cool sentiment and deer silhouette from the Kesi Art Avent stamp set. Kinda likey.

I'm going places with this one:

Stamplorations December challenge - silhouette?  yep.

CASual Fridays #123 - snow? yep.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Let it Snow.  yep again.

And now, this is the word of the day week pour moi...  thanks DD ;)

Thanks for visiting today.  Hope your holiday preparations are joyful.

Supplies for mois de decembre:

Paper: cardbase The Paper Studio

Stamps:   snowflake Artemio, other Kesi Art

Ink : Versamark, Distress Inks, Versafine

Tools: circle die MFT

Other: Zing embossing powder