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.

32 to go (WW, Make the Day Special, Lawnscaping, CASE, Time Out)

I so loved the color combo from the Winnie and Walter Playdate #2 that I've four more invitations for you today. (Then I'm moving on, I promise.)

You saw my Distress-Ink-to-acrylic-block-misted-and-squished-to-paper technique BG yesterday. Well I made another while I was at it, just using the pink tones. That's what you see above. I used the sketch from the current challenge #3 at Make the Day Special. Because I embossed the words from W&W onto the vellum banner I'm hooking up to the current Lawnscaping challenge - Embossing too. And I'm going over to A Sprinke of Imagination one more time, too (peony, fuschia and lime)!

I only wanted the words for my sentiment above so I partially die cut them with my Dieversions die from a third panel I had created, the remainder of which you see in the next card.

Angled the panel,  heat embossed the cascading confetti stars in silver and die cut the sentiment from silver CS. Opted for a green base for this one. 

This BG I created by swiping Adirondack ink pads across normal CS then spritzing with water. The result is more vibrant but also watercolor-y. I die cut the sentiment from the center of the panel and heat embossed some of the twinkle confetti in gold on the cardbase before adhering the negative. I also heat embossed "birthday" and "anniversary" across the bottom cuz we are celebrating both events at our "161" party. I'm joining CASE Study with this one where Pamela H.'s amazing card is up this week (negative die cutting, birthday sentiment at the bottom).

So where did the positive die cut go from that last card? Funny you should ask...

Now doesn't that look like a party invitation? Totally inspired by Vanessa M.'s card in the W&W gallery, I changed it up a little and love the result.  I'm playing at Time Out challenge #7 where the theme is "summer" and this definitely says summer party in my opinion. Some of my DT teamies run Time Out and I've been meaning to join in!

Whew, that's it for today. TTFN. But I've still got 32 to go...

36 to go (WW, Lawnscaping, NBUS)

Have you seen this inspiration photo for the Playdate over at Winnie and Walter? Gorgeous, don't you think? Speaking of Winnie and Walter, isn't it incredible how they designed a stamp that is instantly recognizable all over blogland.  Know which stamp I'm referring to? The Big and Bold series.  Those sentiments - I used them here - are wonderful.

But, today it's not about those sentiments ;) It's about my invitations for our "161" party, 'member? So I pulled out those colors of ink, the Big Bang Confetti stamp set for its maiden voyage and my Party Time Dieversions die and went to town creating. Seriously.

Found my inspiration in the W&W gallery. Here are my first two invites for this challenge.

Some ink-to-acrylic-block-misted-and-squished-to-paper technique for the BG. Some heat embossed twinkles. Some sequins. And the die cut.

And this one is a pocket. I 'm planning to PC generate the who/what/when/where info for the inside of the invites, but on this design I can fold it up and stick it in the pocket. Isn't this fun?

I'm playing at Lawnscaping Challenge - Embossing

and have you seen this? Ms. NBUS herself, Darnell K,  has a 500 followers celebratory challenge going on right now to break out the NBUS and U it! (Should you have no clue what I'm talking about... click on the link. You'll be very happy you did ;)))

I'll be back at ya tomorrow with more invites using W&W and these scrumptious colors. Thanks for looking.

Supplies for #1:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: Winnie and Walter

Ink : Distress, Versamark

Tools: die Dieversions

Other: sequins

Supplies for #2:

Paper:  CS Neenah, PP Lawn Fawn, vellum

Stamps: Winnie and Walter

Ink : Distress, Versamark

Tools: die Dieversions, wonky border die MFT

Other: sewing machine

STAMPlorations june challenge "stamps and borders" (PCC)

That's right, it's a new month and time for another themed challenge at STAMPlorations.  "Stamps and Borders". Does it stump you?  It sure stumped me.

But as I was perusing my stamps the name of one set caught my attention. VIGNETTE: Art Deco Border Builders. Duh!

Now what exactly is a border? Did I even create a border here? But I used a stamp called border so I'm callin' it good ;)))

Stamped the pattern on my cardbase. Overstamped a random few with white ink. Made a stencil using a label die (so I'm joining the fun over at Paper Crafting Challenges #11 again) and piled on the modelling paste. Before it was too dry, but not too wet (yep, I had to resmooth it a couple times before I got it right) I stamped the stamp into the paste for that wonderful texture. It took forever to dry but then a few tissue paper scalloped circles under a square piece of CS for my sentiment and voila!

Why don't you put your thinking cap on and give "Stamps and Borders" a try. Remember, there are good prizes.  If you win the monthly challenge, you receive a stamp set of your choice.  If you win and you used STAMPlorations stamps, you win two sets of your choice. Pretty cool, eh?

And on a side note, Shery R. is starting a new challenge soon called The Mixed Media Card Challenge.  It's about Mixed Media (duh!) and CAS. She's got a DT call going on right now. Check it out.

Happy weekend, all.

Supplies for thank you so much:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: STAMPlorations 

Ink : Aladine, white pigment Hero Arts,  Versamark

Tools: die Spellbinders

Other: modelling paste

simply create too 63 (celebrate your country)

Did you see all the great ideas for Father's Day cards in the last challenge over at Simply Create Too? This time we've a fun one for you. Make a card using your country's flag's colors! How's that for different?

I chose the colors of the German flag, thinking there would be enough red, white and blue beauties showing up. This is what the flag looks like - they're all over the place at the moment in anticipation of the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament!

And here's my card.

Channeling my inner Aga, I used the Papertrey Circle Scribbles to make some poppies - they're all over the fields and paths here right now. Stamped them with spritzed ink using the reverse of the stamp - once in bright red and once in darker red - and then turned the stamp over and stamped it normally in black.  Hand drew the stems and added a sentiment and enamel dots. Easy peasy as they say!

Join us for this fun "color" challenge.  

Thanks for visiting.

Supplies for cheers tag:

Paper:  CS Bringmann

Stamps: Papertrey

Ink : Distress, Adirondack, Memento

Tools: 

Other: enamel dots MME

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