rockin' geometric

Do you love all the geometric patterns floating aroud the blogosphere lately? If you can't get enough of 'em, you must check out Taheerah A.'s Gossip Column over at Winnie and Walter. And then join the challenge like I did.

Kinda crazy, eh? In my mind I planned to use this little gal from Aha Arts, backed with a bit of the Multifaceted die cut from pink metallic CS and some big sentiment all attached casually to a white card. Ha!

The purple glitter CS caught my eye, which led to the purple cardbase and incorporating touches of yellow, and this card was born! Notice how the corner with the heat embossed sentiment (inside reads "birthday girl") looks pinker? That happened when I heat embossed. Hm. What up with that?

The challenge at Mod Squad is to use stamps from two or more stamp sets. I've got two Aha sets and two Winnie and Walter sets (Mini Scenery: Multifaceted and My Precious) on this card!

Wanna see something cute? DH and DS had to solve a problem in my laundry room which involved me having to move my craft stuff out of a whole corner of the room for them to be able to work. When they were done I found this. Notice the boxes which hold my dies...

See what DS added to the chalkboard panels - normally there are only the letters (I have them sorted by manufacturer). Is he a charmer or what?!?

Have a good one.

one layer christmas #9

A Christmas card for you today. Was made for a publication call way back when, but uses an interesting technique I'd like to share. Great for adding interest to a one-layer card.

Take a good look at your stamps and see if you have some that are symmetrical. They can be used like this.

Use the reverse of the stamp to stamp solid color and then use the outline image to heat emboss. Even cooler - some letters can be used the same way.

I used large circle stamps inked with Distress Inks and spritzed with water. Then I used the reverse of poinsettia (Waltzingmouse) and alpha stamps (Hampton Art) with darker colors in the same manner to stamp the shadows. When it was dry, I heat embossed the poinsettia and letters!

So, one layer and Christmas. Quite the clever challenge idea, eh? Get 'em done early to avoid the end-of-year rush. And keep 'em one layer to avoid paying extra postage.

Hook up a one-layer card with an angel on it and you could win an ARTplorations Christmas stencil.

STAMPlorations inspiration #17

Have you ever snitched a swatch of wallpaper from the builder supply store to test it on your own walls before buying? Or, um, just to craft with?

Makes the perfect backdrop for a vibrant, large sentiment, right? Like this one from STAMPlorations Noteworthy. Just add some torn cardboard and vellum, stitching and a couple sequins.

Of course some red heat embossing, re-embossed with some glitter embossing powder doesn't hurt either.

Check out the other inspiration projects over at STAMPlorations. Feel like CASEing one of them? Then be sure to join us in the Inspiration CASE Playground.

I'm heading over to SSS Wednesday challenge where it's all about the Sentiments this week. And to Shopping our Stash #200 where it's about Big, Bold and Beautiful.

Thanks for visiting.

STAMPlorations inspiration #16

It's inspiration time again at STAMPlorations. Check it out, there are lots of great baby card ideas.  I used the mom-to-be from The Bee's Knees BabyBump.

And some balloons die cut with SSS Balloons from watercolored scraps. And a rounded corner. That's all. If you feel like CASEing this card, I'd love to see it in the May Inspiration CASE Playground.

Have a fabulous weekend, friends.

simply create too 85

What's your favorite color combo? Use it and show us your project over at Simply Create Too in challenge # 85.

I really can't say what my favorite color combo is. I love colors and so many work so well together. One that I think is underrated is yellow and purple. I see lots of it these days in the form of pansies adorning people's patios.

I've captured that inspiration on this thank you card using posies from Techinque Tuesday (using the reverse of the stamps to stamp the solid colors) and a die cut from Cuttlebug.

Join us at Simply Create Too, won't you?

bleeding tissue and puffy stickers

The next challenge for iNSD that I am joining at Winne Walter and Pinkfresh is Make your own Background. This would logically have been the first one I jumped at, but there were just too many possibilities!

Enter Loll, who told me about Eileen, who has a video about bleeding tissue paper. Frugal gal that I am, recycled tissue paper (from gift bags) became the starting place for my first card today.

Bleeding tissue paper gives you a variation on the watercolor look. It is so cool. And fast. And can be so wonderfully pastel. TIP: Use crepe paper if you want more vibrancy. To the blue, pink and yellow splotches I added some frosty pink splatters and tiny white stars using Sugar Rush. Voila! A background.

I stamped and fussy cut the cupcake from the same set and gave it a topper of sequins (cuz I'm joining the Sequins challenge too) and cuz they shine so purty :) And this was obviously a girlie card so I die cut "celebrate" from Big, Bold Party from metallic silver CS. When I saw the cardboad (from a package of cookes!) it matched the silver perfectly so I went with some recycled cardboard too. You can see the sparkle on the splatters and die cut and even the WoS on the cupcake frosting better below.

So next up, Puffy Stickers. I don't have a lot of these but I did recently pick some up at my dollar store cuz I found them so nice and graphic.

How to incorporate little French puffy stickers onto a card?



Tried to incorporate some Francais, but didn't have a huge choice of messages to go with the "hello" from In a Word Hello. I went with "thinking of you" from Artemio floating on a banner (Big, Bold Extras) from the top of the Eiffel Tower!

I'm going over to SSS Wednesday challenge where it's all about Sentiments this week. My die cut sentiments pretty much take center stage. Card #2 even has two sentiments!

Hope you enjoyed. Au revoir!

lotsa white

I'm still having fun with my Winnie and Walter goodies and playing in the iNSD challenges WW and Pinkfresh Studio are holding. Ready for lotsa white space?

My inspiration came from the lower right and upper left photos from the Mood Board challenge - light and airy white on white like the gown and a touch of yellow like the washi tape. This is actually going to the same sweet girl I made this canvas for.

I layered white embossing paste through a stencil sent to me by the lovely Loll to my cardbase. I layered In a Word Hugs, which was watercolor paper smooshed with Distress Inks and splattered with gold, onto three layers of yellow CS to achieve a glow behind it. Notice the sweet little butterfly perching on the "s"? From Essentials: Audrey.

Isn't that light and airy dimension wonderful? The roses and leaves are from Maggie's Roses.

Then there is this Card Sketch challenge. Hard not to go with circles, but I ended up using stars.

Notice the multifaceted star? Like Kelly G., I had perused the facets of the Multifaceted die cut for geometric shapes and found this wonky star! Even used some of the "fallout" to make my little stitched banner under the sentiment :)

The stripes behind the focal image were made with clear embossing paste through the SSS Diagonal Stripe stencil. The other stars were die cut with Sizzix Star framelits die from tissue paper and CS. My sentiment is composed of a stamp from The Big, The Bold and Extras and a word from ARTplorations Hello and Company.

Notice the hole in the turquoise star? I'm playing here.

 And I may be pushing the limits of CAS, but I'm hooking up at Happy Little Stampers.

Lots to do today. Hope the sunshine sticks around. Enjoy your day.