CAS and fully loaded (Moxie Fab)

Hi followers.  Remember me?  Not surprised if the answer is no.  What started as a wonderful month-long vacation back in the good ol' USA continued into three more relaxing weeks of summer break back in Germany and then a couple more weeks of decluttering both my house and my brain.  And I ain't done yet.

Simplify.  My new word.

To make a long story short, I'm reading "Steve Jobs" and loving it.  What a stinker he could be, but what a genius!  Anyhoo, one of the company's first advertising slogans was a DaVinci quote

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

Wow.  How true.

As for my house, imagine you have two teenagers, boy and girl, and you've never gotten rid of their clothes.  Get the picture?  22 garbage bags full in my attic (the problem of having space).  Can you feel those 22 bags weighing on my shoulders?  That was my project last week - either find neighbors who would like things or give them away.  Simplify.

As for my brain, I've been all over the board as a cardmaker.  CAS or fully loaded shabby chic (not that I can really pull off either).   Can't seem to decide what I want to be when I grow up ;)  Which has also led to an accumulation of  stash.  As in piles of "maybe I'll need that scrap/TP roll/piece of cardboard one day" all over my laundry room.  Feel that on my shoulders too?

So.  It's pretty simple actually (no pun intended).  Ya know how you like a lot of cards you see out there in blogland.  But there are those precious few which you actually love.  They catch your eye when you glance over the InLinkz thumbnails - like, wow.  For me, it's the truly CAS beauties.  So now I know what I want to be when I grow up.  Clean and simple.  In my house and my cardmaking brain.  And I'm pretty certain it's gonna be quite a challenge.

And that wasn't very short either, was it?  Sorry.  Here's my CAS card for the Repetition challenge over at Moxie Fab.

Lotsa white space plus one of my fave techniques - heat embossing then distress inking.  Then punching.  Voila!

It's nice to be back.  Thanks for looking.  Happy Friday!

Supplies thanks again:

Paper: CS Neenah
Stamps:   CHF, Prima

Ink: Versamark, Distress Ink, Versafine

Tools: circle punch EKS, butterfly punch Martha Stewart

Other:  embossing powder, brad, scoring stylus

Gotta love Moxie Fab!

Still catching up on what's been happening in blogland.  And lo and behold, Cath has a trigger photo which I saw somewhere in my life, which totally inspired this card awhile ago.

Now I can finally give credit where credit is due.  Check out these amazing cakes - lots of inspiration there.  This card is actually leaving my house next weekend when the couple is having their civil ceremony before they marry in the church on New Year's Eve in New Zealand.  How romantic, eh?

edit:  When I saw the latest challenge at Casual Fridays, Banners and Flags, I had to hook this lovely up.

Supplies :

Paper: CS American Crafts, PP Usurus 

Stamps: Artemio 

Ink: Cats Eye

Tools: embossing folder (Craft Concepts), sewing machine, decorative edge scissors

Other:  satin ribbon, doublesided tape/glue, scrap silver paper, digital cake stand (123RF)

Good day blogworld!  Nice to be back after a wonderful few weeks with the folks and the lake!  Brought some new crafting supplies with me.  Will have to give them a go after I catchup a little on what you've all been up to...

it's an alien

Filling the summer slump... a card I made last year for my BF's son.  You cannot name a piece of merchandise from Toy Story that he did not own.  Thus this card to accompany the Lego set we gave him for his bday.

Since we were hand-delivering I went with an A5 sized card.  Created my own PP using an online image of the logo.  Looking for some image that I could superimpose his face onto (with a piece of acetate over it like a real astronaut), I found a catalog offering for a clock.  OK, that led me to an idea for the computer-generated sentiment "It's time..." and on the inside

The hoops we jump through for kids today...  He was so overwhelmed by the room full of presents, I don't know if he really appreciated the card.  But his mom did :)

it's a graduate

Summer slump?  How about a card from the past.  Interesting to see how one's style changes and develops over time, isn't it?

Received a graduation announcement from an old friend's daughter who I'd recently run into and decided to use the 2009 part of it to make a card.  Her photo was a bit fuzzy because I cropped it out of a family photo.

This was pre- large stash of PP.  And pre- die cutting.  And I'm not sure about the strange application of ribbon around the edges of the photo?!?!  But I like the strips of PP (some of which was gift wrap I believe - probably even used!) as a BG.  And I do like including something personal on a card when possible.

The sentiment was computer generated but I obviously already owned the flower punch - and the decorative edge scissors that I snitched from DD!

wedding bells all around

Thought I'd share a couple wedding cards with you that I have made.  Really makes me feel old when friends' kids start getting married!

This is by no means an original idea, but I thought it was cute.  Adhered PP to card front after wrapping a funky ribbon (the color looks gold but it's kind of an olive/gold) around it.  Die cut the hearts and turned them into the bride (jewels) and groom (bow tie).  Decided to package this one in a vellum envelope to let the beauty shine thru ;) so I embossed a sentiment on it too.

Then there was this one, made for a friend's grandson.

 Scored the front panel with diagonal lines, creating diamond pattern, then stamped the little heart in all the "Vs".  Die cut oval and stamped main image.  Colored little heart and added pearls and lace before attaching.

I didn't photograph it, but on the inside I attached a piece of white paper onto which I printed a faded image of my friend with her grandson when he was little.  She is holding him and they are both grinning from ear to ear.  On this she sheet of paper she wrote her greeting.  She loved the card.  Apparently he and his young bride did too.  I was a happy camper.

And a while back I made a few more cards and said I'd let you know which one my friend decided on.  She actually took two because there were two nephews getting married.  This one went to the one marrying a Mexican gal:

A focal image modeled with paper napkin layers on a foam stamp and some fun stitching, pearls and a homemade bloom.  And this one (blogged here) went to the nephew marrying a Belgian gal.

 Happy summer vacation. And summer weddings.

Supplies happily ever after:

Paper: CS American Crafts; PP me and my big ideas
Stamps: Hero Arts

Ink: Versafine

Tools:   die Sizzix, embossing folder Cuttlebug

Other: embossing powder, ribbon, bling

 

Supplies True Love:

Paper: CS American Crafts; Neenah
Stamps:   BoBunny

Ink: Cat's Eye; Versamagic , Versafine

Tools: score board, die Spellbinders

Other:  lace, pearls

 

interactive kid's card

I decided to give interactive another go at.  This time for my 5-year-old niece's bday card.  Thought she might get a kick out of it and apparently she did.  (Or was it the money attached to the pull out card?!?!?)

What did I do here?  Wanted to use lots of girly, sparkly PP cuz my niece loves it.  Made a base.  Cie cut another layer.  Made a pocket out of old book page.  Stamped on the base and the pull out card and added her name to the banner.  Added some glimmery stickers, twine and a button.  Felt like an engineer putting this one together!

Hope you're having a glittery day.

Supplies hi:

Paper: Ursus, old book

Stamps: Paper Smooces, alpha Hero Arts

Ink: Versafine

Tools: border punch Martha Stewart, dies Spellbiners

Other: stickers, twine, button Sew Sweet