16 to go (card concept, make the day special, sprinkle of imagination, KIS)

I'm gettin' there. Only 16 more invites to make for our "161" party. And before you raise your eyebrows on this one... may I remind you that our last name is Fischer...

Ready for card #1? I started with the sketch at Make the Day Special challenge #3.

And because the challenge requires you to use stamps from a company the store carries (they carry all the good ones!) I started thinking about which stamps I could use. Because I was also challenging myself to create a nautical card for the challenge #12 at The Card Concept and the June challenge at A Sprinkle of Imagination

the little fishies from Fish More from WPlus9 sprang to mind . It's one of those never-thought-I-would-have-needed-but-love-to-use-it sets. Still remember our last name?... and this card was spawned (tee hee hee). I'm callin' this one Clean and Layered. Sorta.

I even used the dots from WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals (I've yet to make a flower card with that thought-I-had-to-have-it-cuz-everyone-else-has-it set) to make some bubbles in the Distress Inked water. The images are heat embossed with glitter embossing powder. They look like real fish reflecting the sun. Cool! Took some artistic license with the banner/sentiment part of the sketch as I am restricted to using my Dieversions "party" die cut. Does it remind you of a life preserver? It should ;))

Which brings us to card #2. I'm callin' this one Clean and Simple. Actually this beaut by Julie E. brings us to card #2. Enter a white die cut. Which needs to rest upon something. Enter the life preserver. Floating in the ocean. Nuff said.

Hooking up at Keep it Simple - Splatters. Got the water spots on the first and the watercolor splatters on the second card.

Are you getting sick of me and this die cut yet? I had my moments today. But maybe that's because I made four more cards. Come back tomorrow to see 'em. Hint: Shirley B. made me do it...

And while I toil away at invitations, DD is baking a batch of these every day in an attempt to create the perfect macaroon.

Supplies for #1:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: WPlus9 

Ink : Distress inks, Versamark

Tools: die Dieversions

Other: glitter embossing powder, crochet thread

Supplies for #2:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps:  

Ink : Distress inks

Tools: die Dieversions, circle dies MFT

Other: waterbrush

STAMPlorations sketch #14

Here's a fun sketch for you, brought to you by STAMPlorations.

I'm using it to continue my mission of 40 invitations to our "161" party.  Only 16 to go, BTW. This is what I did with the sketch and the soon-to-be-released set called Sentiment Builders: Celebrate. There are 24 - count 'em, 24 - individual words you can use to create sentiments! Thanks for designing this set, Shery R. It's perfect for me on my mission ;)

Have a look at the DT creations here, as well as our oh-so-talented Guest Designer Deepti M.'s beauty here. You've got til June 27 to hook up.

Thanks for coming by. Have a great day.

Supplies for party time:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, Neenah, PP Pebbles

Stamps: STAMPlorations 

Ink : Distress inks, Versamark

Tools: die Dieversions

Other: scoreboard, white embossing powder

you know you're a cardmaker when... (Fusion)

I was actually going to use the term "card artist" in the post title, but thought that might be stretching it. What am I talking about? This. You create an inked strip of CS to die cut something from.

And you can barely bring yourself to cut into the strip cuz it's so darn gorgeous as is. Ever have one of those moments?

Well, I forced myself to make the first cut. And this is what happened.

And you can probably guess what the next card is gonna look like...

All that inked color gorgeousness going on... couldn't not use the negative pieces! I was completely and totally inspired by the current challenge at Fusion. I actually combined the sketch and photo.

Ever have one of those I-know-I-am-truly-a-card-artist-when moments? I'd love to hear about it...

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.

22 to go (CTS, Iron Craft, MIM,Colour Q)

Someone please tell me again why card challenges are only open for a week??? Seems I just saw this sketch at CTS, thought "oh cool, I like that" and today it's already closing!

Miss Ellie got spayed yesterday morning (poor groggy thing) and my day was crazy just watching/helping her. But I snuck down to the basement in the evening ;)  I made six cards. SIX. I'll keep it short.

Let's just call this first one Swiss Cheese. What can I say? Everyone was doing rectangles so I had to do circles! 

I'd remembered a great 12x12 paper pack (Seen and Noted by Pebbles) I'd won last year and pulled it out to combine with some bright colored CS for "Swiss Cheese". So then I opted for the PP rectangles myself on #2. Put some vellum behind the die cut to tone down the PP.

So what else could cascade down the side besides rectangles?  How about party balloons? After struggling with their placement in a vertical design, I figured out it was much easier if I flipped the sketch ;) Added wispy strings to each balloon - fun IRL.

Make it Monday #168 was stuck in my cabeza, so pulled out the balloon stamp from Birthday Style, added some reinkers to two folded baby wipes and used it as a stamp pad to create this card. I heat embossed a stem from Garden of Life as the strings on this one.

TIP: Don't just throw away your baby wipe stamp pad - that would be such a waste ;) I pressed the ink blob to CS when I was done and die cut my sentiment from it. I also have two dry baby wipes waiting to be turned into flowers or something somewhere down the road.

And since my soon-to-be-released STAMPlorations stamps arrived in the mail yesterday and were screaming to be tried out, I grabbed the colors from Colour Q #245 (although I think looking at it on my PC now, the Starfruit color is more green - I thought it looked like yellow. Oops) and made this one. The theme of the July release is "birthday". Let me just say... sketchy, large word, wonky cake. Interested? Hop with us on June 26 to see all the stamps in action and maybe win some.

TIP: Or check out this deal here. STAMPlorations is offering the whole July release until June 20 at 30% off!

Bringing up the rear we have the oh-so-expected washi tape variation. I partially heat embossed a CHF BG on the front of my Soft Stone CS (nice stuff - NBUS) before adhering the washi and die cut. Although most of my washis are bright and bold, I went with nearly all neutrals for this card.

Done! I'm also joining the Iron Craft challenge #2 with a couple of these. I actually saw the sketch over there for the first time as part of the Inspiration Board from Mayuri's segment. That's where the B/W on the last card came from as well as the use of the turquoise/yellows in the first cards.

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

28 to go (Craft Stamper, Curtain Call, Feeling Sketchy)

Good thing the party's not til September. Just sayin'.

Movin' on with two invitations that were inspired by the Take it Make it challenge at Craft Stamper. You're to use the Bleach Blocking technique.

I say "inspired by" cuz I didn't exactly follow the rules. On the first card I wanted to try something. Stamp the circles with Distress Ink (using the reverse of some Waltzingmouse Dainty Doily stamps) and then take off the ink from the larger circles by stamping with a "party time" die cut cut from craft foam and using water. Thought it would make a cool BG. As a card front.

Didn't work. Don't know if it was cuz a) the ink wasn't applied heavily like when you use an applicator tool or b) the mini mister I grabbed to "soften the edges" of the circles happened to have perfect pearls mixed into the water or c) craft foam doesn't hold enough water.  I even sprinkled water onto it after the first try and you don't see any of the speckles!

Whatever. You know I don't throw things away. SO... I chopped the cardbase in two and made this pocket card out of it. Dry embossed the vellum and stacked several die cuts for interest. And made a second pocket card (as my Dad would say - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" - I'm diggin' the pocket card idea ;)

Distress inked the entire card with my applicator tool using Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers and Iced Spruce. Can't see the gray since I covered it with the vellum pocket ;( Used a wet square sponge and voila! Bleach blocking worked! Used the silver negative die cut remains of yesterday's card for my sentiment. Backed it with white CS.

Since I stamped one card and bleach blocked the other one, I'm hooking up to the challenge. I think that's cheating ;)

On to two completely different takes. Inspired by Feeling Sketchy #91 and Curtain Call Something Simple.

Loving that white-stones-on-whitewashed-woodgrain inspiration photo, I was headed toward my woodgrains in a Kaisercraft Basecoat paper pad, but got waylaid by these two PPs. Bricks and tin roofs. Keepin' it simple.

We've a long, hot weekend for Pentecost. Hope your week is off to a good start.