a CASE in blue

 Hi there peeps! 

I was very inspired by a card Andrea M. made recently and it actually moved me to hit my craft room and CASE it.

Loved her color combo so I stuck with it. Perused my dies for something that would give that fall feel, but keep my life simple. Chose a bit bigger pattern for my BG but it sure looks a lot like hers. Love it.

Because I loved the design so much I decided to put a twist on it and go a bit masculine. Same colors. Different motif. Feathers this time. And an embossed plus clock BG to go with the happy birthday, time passing theme.

Inkystamp sentiment stamp,

Penny Black Berries and Leaves die,

embossing powder, twine

Lifestyle Crafts feather die,

A Pocket Full of Happiness cover plate

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.  

guest designing at Paper Girls

Howdy! I'm happy to be joining the ladies at Paper Girls Challenge today where for the next two weeks the theme is "Embossing". I went with a couple variations on dry embossing.

 Craft Concepts Woodgrain folder

Lifestyle Crafts Woven folder

Simply Graphic rectangle die

STAMPlorations 5 Love Words die

Hero Arts Thinking of You stamp

pink acrylic paint

sequins

Must admit these items were all discovered in my stash as I was organizing my craft room. Saw those soft, spring-y colors and pulled them out to finally use. A bit ago I had had a go at dry embossing in conjunction with acrylic paint. The BG was dry embossed and then I sponged paint across the raised areas and around the edges. The smaller panel I had painted and splattered with gold spray ink before dry embossing. The stamped image was colored with markers and spritzed before stamping.

Just did some die cutting and arranging and the result was this birthday card!

How about doing some embossing and joining the challenge?!? I'm joining the fun at:
The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes

Joy Clair - March Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers - AG with Dies March

Cuttlebug Mania - Springtime

papertrey january blog hop

It's that time of the month over at Papertrey! When I saw this photo I knew I had to play along. It's right up my alley. B/W. Lots of white. Polka dots. Rainbow sprinkles. And those cone shapes, see 'em? Looked like unicorn horns to me...

PTI Big Hugs die

PTI Scene It Skyscapes (stars) die

PTI Scribbles stamp

Lifestyle Craft diamond die

Concord and 9th Awesomeness stamp

Concord and 9th Grateful stamp

Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens

Stamped the sentiment on my cardbase. Stamped and fussy cut the unicorn, watercolored with blue, yellow and pink Zigs and gave some shimmer with Perfect Pearls mixture. Shaded a bit of gray too. Die cut a diamond and stamped scribbles and some black polka dots on it then colored. Die cut the starry sky circle and the hugs sentiment and layered it all together! Added a few iridescent sequins - cuz unicorn!

Thanks for stopping by. Can't wait to see how you interpreted the photo.

I'm taking my creation to:
Where Creativity meets C9 - Use your first C9 stamp
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Layer it up

#thedailymarker30day

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

The Paper Girls - Water Colors

STAMPlorations inspiration #145

Time for another Tuesday inspiration from the STAMPlorations inspiration team where we all feature stamps from one of our talented stamp designers. Today it's our fearless leader's turn.

Today we're using Shery's Shery Russ Designs stamps. From now until July 31st all of Shery's stamps are 10% off in the STAMPlorations store! Faith Expressions is 20% off this week. Remember you can use the code STAMPGIRLMARIA for an extra 20% off anything you order too! If you missed the 4th Birthday celebration, you should check out all the new goodies in the store - stamps, dies and stencils!

In my series of cards stamping on patterned paper (like here, here and here) I chose to use a feather stamp and went in search of a fitting PP. Found one in a Heidi Swapp 6x6 pack.

I thought the "life is beautiful" phrase on the PP worked well with the artsy feathers. I heat embossed them in teal cuz there are little splodges of teal in the corners of the PP ;) And keeping with the feather theme, I added my sentiment on a die cut feather. This works well as it creates a trio of images on the card pleasing to the eye.

Trendy Feathers 2

Wanna see more feathers? Here is a another project using Shery's feathers with a different technique. And another with some different feathers. Guess I like feathers, eh?

Don't forget to leave comments on the July inspiration posts. One random commenter will be chosen each month to win a $10 GC to the store. Here's the lineup.

I'm going over to:
Danipeuss - Quick and Easy (cuz it was!)

CUTplorations january - reminder

Happy new week. It's time for a little reminder to play with us at CUTplorations this month where this is our inspiration.

image source: Smashing Magazine

Here's what I did with some new product which you'll see coming to STAMplorations soon.

Dies make it so easy to create a fun card quickly. Stamped a few triangles (Balloons and Banners) randomly on my cardbase. Then layered a fun coming-soon full-of-numbers die cut which I cut from a gold foil scrap and a full-of-triangles die cut, cut from Concord and 9th (Modern Edition Paper Route) tissue paper.

Topped it off with a die cut diamond on which I added a snarky coming-soon sentiment and candle which I gold embossed. Three sequins continued the gold/black/party feeling and voila! The perfect card for my BFF who will always be older than me ;)

Check out the additional inspiration from my teamies and throw your hat into the die cutting ring with us.  Deets are here.

I'm hooking up at these fun challenges:
Little Tangles - Anything Goes with NT product

Where Creativity Meetc C9 - Try Something New (brand spanking new dies)

it's party girl friday!

or: Oma goes Androgynous as the caption of my inspiration photo reads ;)

Yep, get ready for another installment of my inspired by fall/winter 2016 fashion. A trend I'm calling (thanks to your help) Shakespearean Punk. This was my inspiration today - still from the ASOS catalog.

What inspired me? Well, is there anything not in her style - there's everything but the kitchen sink. And actually, there's some hardware in the purse strap!!!

Well, I picked up on the pink of her hair, the rainbow of her turtleneck, the embroidered stems on her leather jacket, that texture of her sweater. Remember my take on this fashion - the weirder, the better.

So out came STAMPlorations Party Girl. She got all gussied up in her party dress with a Zig clean color pen striped bodice topped with Wink of Stella, and a skirt colored then twice-heat-embossed (my new technique for AAA Cards challenge!) in a nod to the sweater. I used the hair stamp and Versamark, stamped it randomly on the skirt and heat embossed black. Then I repeated the step over the black embossing and heat embossed it with glitter embossing powder. Talk about layers and texture (so I'm joining the fun at A Blog Named Hero where it's about Texture!). Notice I even gave the BG around her a pink watercolor wash in a nod to the hair!

I die cut her using a Lifestyle Crafts Diamond die and popped her up on my cardbase which I'd stamped using STAMPlorations Smile - heat embossed black and messy watercolored with my Zigs.

A double-stamped sentiment from Party Time (once blue and once heat embossed black) seemed strong enough to  match Party Girl and a strip of washi (in yet another weird pattern!) finished up the inside.

Go, Party Girl, go! And y'all have a wonderful weekend. We've still got summery temps here so we plan to take advantage of that!

I'm also playing at:
Craft Stamper Take it, Make it - Take a Stamp Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers - Inspired by What a Wonderful World and all its beautiful colors
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Stamp It
Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday - Use Stamps in honor of STAMPtember

MMCC #24 - reminder

I've got a card for you today, inspired by the "Sunset" challenge still happening over at the MMCC. You still have time to play with us until the end of day June 25th.

Once again, I have a card using sunset colors.

Trimmed CS panel. Inked it with Wild Honey Distress Ink. Used a die cut of PTI Chevron plate as a stencil to ink with Spiced Marmelade. Applied Ripe Persimmon through Prima's Perforated Dot stencil. Spritzed with bronze Perfect Pearls mixture. Splattered with water. Applied Versafine through the Crafter's Workshop Henna Hand stencil. Die cut “u” (Lifestyle Crafts) from vellum and put the negative on my panel. Placed the Crafter's Workshop dot stencil over the negative and applied Versafine through both.. Die cut Sizzix “love” and adhered it. I just love me some graphic images!

A closeup so maybe you can catch the shimmer of the Perfect Pearls. I love that stuff.

So although I didn't actually use stamps, there's lotsa ink on my card as well as:
TEXTURE - die cut and shimmery surface
DIMENSION - die cut and the depth of the various inked layers
TECHNIQUE - die cutting and stencilling

Not sure this fits the bill due to that die cut sentiment, but I'm joining the "Stencil" fun over at One Layer Simplicity. Thanks for visiting!

STAMPlorations inspiration #64

Welcome to the first March STAMPlorations inspiration post. You may remember my Lake Huron sunrise from my last inspiration post. I made two cards out of one stamped image from New Beginnings. This is what I did with the "chunk" die cut from the first.

I had applied Distress Inks to Neenah CS and stamped the image in black Versafine. Then I had decided that was just way too much goodness for one card, so I had die cut a chunk out of it using a Lifestyle Crafts diamond die.

So to spread the goodness, I stamped the image again on a white cardbase and took that diamond and adhered it where it fit the design. I felt that a circle would be a good complement to the rectangle and diamond shapes, and mimic the sun, so I heat embossed a sentiment from Floral Bliss onto a black circle and popped it up. CAS. But bold CAS.

Here are both cards from the one stamped image.

This was another of those creative sessions where I have no plan of attack, and after a few detours a card (or two) happen. Love it when that happens. Does that happen to you too?

Check out the inspiration from the other DT members and remember to leave a comment to be in the running for a prize!

This is my last coloring entry at Kathy R.'s 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I'm playing at Inkspirational where the theme is Geometric (rectangle, diamond, circle - geometry played a large role in my design actually). And at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday where it's Anything Goes.  And finally, at Penny Black and More where we're to use Stamps and Dies.

gold glittered eggs

Saw this and this. Made this.

Couldn't have done it without some PP scraps and my PTI Egg die.
AND dear, sweet happy-dancing Bev who sent me some chunky gold glitter. Vielen dank, Bev!

What do you think of my sentiment? I die cut a Lifestyle Crafts feather to stamp on. Those teensy letters are from one of those cheapie self-inking stamps (thanks, Aldi) you can use for your return address. It ran out of ink, but I figured I could keep and use those letters one day. Enter one day. But do me a favor and if you buy one just to use the teensy letters cuz you're a stamper and you just have to have one, don't just toss all the letters into an envelope. 41 minutes just to find 11 lettters. Geesh!

I'll be quick and head over to:
Time Out where the B/W photo has been in the back of my mind all week

Inkspirational cuz I think my gold eggs kinda "Pop" off the card

A Blog Named Hero - A Bit of Sparkle

STAMPlorations inspiration #62

Welcome to some STAMPlorations inspiration. I've made two cards out of one stamped image from New Beginnings and here is the first one for you.

New Beginnings

Maybe cuz I'm a Lake Huron gal at heart, but I just love this image. I applied Distress Inks to Neenah CS and stamped the image in black Versafine. Then I decided that was just way too much goodness for one card, so I die cut a chunk out of it. (Come back for my next inspiration post to see what happened to that chunk!)

This design emerged. The image again, heat embossed in white onto black CS, also creating a black mat around the inked panel. An extra seagull and some washi, all on a kraft cardbase.

"Morning has broken", Cat Stevens, remember? I'm playing with Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge to be inspired by a song. We in MI have this saying "Red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in the morning, sailor take warning." Being on Lake Huron (facing the East), a sunrise like this doesn't always mean good things to come, but it sure is purty.

I hope you've enjoyed this. The DT has created some great cards this week. You can check them out here.

I'm hooking up at Kathy R.'s 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

At Penny Black and More - Anything goes with a Stamp and Die

And to the Home challenge at Addicted to CAS, cuz for me "home" is still MI and my lake ;)

At Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes.

lime and grape - yum!

Wings and foil - that's what it's all about at the Mixed Media Card Challenge in May. Butterflies, insects, birds, angels... find some wings and show us your mixed media skills.

We received a graduation announcement and it had a wonderfully 1960s/hippie vibe to it. I checked out the gal's school website for her colors and purple it was. Even found her class motto "live, love, dream".  (How did we ever live without the Internet???) So off I was...

Guess I don't have a "live love dream" sentiment, but thought this one from Freckled Fawn would do the job. So I heat embossed it onto a panel I'd watercolored and splattered lime green.

Stitched it with a layer of vellum to a cardbase that I smooshed and splattered with leftover watercolor before splattering some water droplets onto it which I covered with platinum embossing powder and heated. TIP: Heat from underneath the paper to melt the powder if it is only "attached" with water.

The feathers from Lifestyle Crafts (wings have feathers, right?) were die cut from watercolor paper and painted purple and blue before being edged with platinum embossing powder. A smidge of washi finished the card.

Voila! A somewhat unconventional, but very personalized graduation card.

Since I used NBUS - the feather die and the sentiment stamp - I'm joining the "New" fun at A Blog Named Hero.

triple embossed (WW, CMBC)

Well I think it's here to stay. Embossing paste that is. Used to be we had two kinds of embossing - dry and heat.  (TANGENT: Did you see Tim H.'s wunnerful interview where he says embossing got him hooked on cardmaking. I paraphrase.) But I think now that embossing paste has come to town, let's call it three.

There's a "Stamps and Embossing" challenge during October over at STAMPlorations. I made another card using stamps and embossing. Triple embossing even. Can you spot all three?

The peach damask is white embossing paste colored with orange acrylic paint and applied through a stencil. The pink is dry embossed after swiping Spun Sugar Distress Ink onto white CS  and I fussy cut the heat embossed sentiments. Voila!

Since I missed WCMD on Saturday, I've been playing catchup. I'll have a couple more cards coming at you this week.

I'm hooking this card up at Cure for the Monday Blues #31 cuz I think the colors are appropriate and the textures remind me of the comforter and rug. But I've got a better one coming ;)

The colors are from Gayatri's challenge over at Winnie and Walter:

So much great inspiration out there after the WCMD weekend. Are you making cards? See you shortly.

Supplies:

Paper:  Bringmann

Stamps: STAMPlorations, Winnie and Walter

Ink : Versamark

Tools: stencil Prima, die MFT, embossing folder Lifestyle Crafts

Other: embossing paste, orange acrylic paint, gold spray ink Heidi Swapp

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

mixed media happy birthday (PCC)

There's another new kid in town (card challenge that is) and it's kinda exotic. Mixed Media CAS. Sound good? It's called The Mixed Media Card Challenge.

"Do you enjoy playing with a variety of mediums and techniques in your cards? Do you often find yourself creating cards that area a little more than CAS?" These are the words of Shery R. (of STAMPlorations fame) to explain her reasons for starting this new challenge.

I love to experiment with techniques and the result is usually more than CAS! I look forward to playing along and am even hooking up to the DT call. As have several other amazingly talented card artists. Looks like there's a market for this type of challenge ;) Well, here's my card.

Oh man, has Blogger made this photo look awful. Can you say frustration? Tangent.

So this card was born as a byproduct of a card which appears in the July issue of Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking where I stencilled colored modelling paste onto acetate. Of course there was paste left over. Of course I couldn't throw it away. So I stencilled it onto a page in a notebook I keep handy. And a BG was born. (And since I stencilled, I'm hooking up at Paper Crafting Challenges #11.

The "U" was die cut from a plaid stamping experiment. The other sentiments were die cut from papers used to soak up excess spray ink from other projects. And the "2" from a PP circle that was living in my scrap pile.

More Mixed Media CAS creations from the past? Here (with tissue paper and modelling paste and glitter) and here (with fabric and modelling paste and watercolors) or here (with washi and modelling paste and wire ribbon and embossing).

Oh and actually, here is the plaid stamping experiment - just realized I've never shared it. Made it for a hashtag submission call.

Appreciate your visit.  Have a great rest of the week.

Supplies for happy birthday 2 u:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, watercolor paper, gingham PP Pink Petticoat

Stamps: PTI 

Ink : Hero Arts

Tools: happy die SSS, birthday die PTI, 2 die Memory Box, U die Lifestyle Crafts

Other:  spray inks, modelling paste

Supplies for back in the saddle:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: PTI 

Ink : Hero Arts

Tools: die PTI

Other:  ribbon, PC

hey there birdie (Paper Players, SSS)

Oopsy daisy.  (On a tangent... I actually say that.  As does Hugh Grant in Notting Hill (LOVE THAT MOVIE). And I think Nichole H. must follow my blog (HA!) and liked this card way back when enough to create a new stamp set based on it. Of course, right? (HA HA HA HA HA HA))

Anyhoo, I guess in the excitement of the blog hop for it I forgot to post a card from the Card Creations Volume 12 that came out back in March.  It truly is a great (and still paper, folks) issue. Martha will second me on that - she was lucky to win a copy on my blog back in the hop.

Well I want to share this card with you cuz of how I was inspired.  Got a circular in the mailbox and there was a set of sheets with lotsa white and a branch and leaves in citrusy colors.  So I pulled out a NBUS, Bird die from Lifestyle Crafts and set about to create this card.

Moral of the story... inspiration abounds.  Just gotta keep your eyes open, like this birdie here. Thanks for looking.

I'm joining the fun over at Paper Players where the colors are Coral, Saffron and Pear.  Close enough, I hope. And this week at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge it's all about Die Cuts.  Can do.

Supplies hey there:

Paper: cardbase Bringmann, PP Bringmann

Stamps: W Plus 9

Ink:  Versafine

Tools: rectangle die Lil Inker, bird die Lifestyle Crafts, branch die Sizzix, leaves die MFT

Other