Freshly Made Sketches #679!

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #679!

Clean Team designer Karren Johnson has given us a fabulous sketch this week! I had The Stamp Market Bitty Bunny die sitting on my desk and kept thinking the fishtail tip reminded me of the bunny ears. It took far too long for the lightbulb to go off and me to realize if I flipped the sketch, I could make a fun Easter card.

The flag became a bunny by adding an oval die cut body stamped with a PTI Simply Spring Borders sentiment to the head.  The big bunny is overseeing several of the Simply Spring bunnies hunting for Easter eggs on the gingham hillside. ETA Or maybe they are putting out the eggs for a children's hunt Easter morning.

I hope you check out the amazing Clean Team designs and play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches this week!

I have been so privileged to work with these creative and inspiring artists for several years, but I am stepping down to concentrate on a working my way through a big pile of abandoned craft projects along with a health challenge.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #577

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #577!

I was already thinking about Easter when I saw the trio of circles in the fabulous Judy Rozema's sketch this week, so it became a decision on whether I was going with bunnies or eggs in my design. As you can see, eggs won out. 

We celebrate Greek Orthodox Easter so I wanted to highlight the red eggs that are always part of the day.

A piece of glossy paper was colored with alcohol inks and Distress stains to get the deep red color and the shine of the finished eggs polished with olive oil. The Poppystamps Egg Cetera die is cut several times and my three favorites added to an oval plate stamped with the PTI Simply Spring Borders sentiment.

Finding the dye for red eggs is challenging, especially if there is a big gap between western Easter and orthodox Easter, and I don't really want to buy a set of dye colors just to get the red so a few years ago I explored options for natural dyes. To my surprise, boiling eggs with yellow onion skins leave us with the perfect red. I've already started saving the skins for this year.

  

I hope you check out the amazing Clean Team designs and play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches this year!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CASology Challenge #402: FLUFFY

 Welcome to CASology Challenge #402!

These sweet PTI Simply Spring Borders bunnies came to mind immediately when I saw the cue word this month. The border stamp was masked to center five of the bunnies in the MFT Stitched Mini-Scallop Rectangle panel.

The Paper Smooches Critter Card Puns sentiment fit the mood of the card. After playing around a bit, only three of the bunnies were given mini felt ball tails to add to the fluffy theme.

Check out the fabulous design team cards!

Åsa Johannson

Deidre Payne

Jacquie Southas (you are here)

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Melissa Chipperfield 

Nancy Elrick

Sandie Munro

Sue Symens

Guest Designer: Ishani!

 

We are looking forward to seeing how FLUFFY inspires you - just remember to keep it Clean & Simple! This is a month long challenge, so you have until 9 AM Monday, May 2nd (CMT) to link your card to the CASology blog.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #526

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #526!

Designer Amy O'Neill has given us a classic and versatile sketch to work with this week! I knew I wanted to add a bit of color and pattern to my background and pulled out a stack of softly colored gingham and polka dot papers. These papers always make me think of Easter, so the Easter stamps and dies made their way to the desk, too.

The aqua and green gingham papers are lined up to give a sense of grass and sky backing the MFT Mini-scallop Stitched rectangle panel. A PTI Simply Spring Borders sentiment is heat embossed before the pile of eggs is created.

A pair of Poppystamps Bunny Buddies dies finish off the design.

I hope you check out the fabulous Clean Team cards at Freshly Made Sketches and play along with us this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #475

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #475!

I'm hosting the challenge this week and created a sketch with three panels because I wanted to use the adorable Poppystamps Bunny Ears on an Easter card. My design took quite a few twists and turns, getting more and more complicated until I took a step back and walked away for a while. 

It was a quick flip through my stencils that triggered a completely different idea of backing the brightly inked eggs with a lighter colored ink splat. Each egg is layered with a white egg to lift them out of the ink and give the bunny ears a little more room to flap around.

A sweet sentiment from Papertrey Ink Simply Spring Borders finishes the design.

Check out the fabulous Clean Team cards and play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Twofer Card Challenge 14: Balloons

I have a couple of cards to share based on the Twofer Card Challenge 14: Balloons!

It took me a while to remember thinking the inside piece of Papertrey Ink Shaker Shapes: Balloon Die looked like a giant Easter egg, but once I did the cards for this challenge came together pretty quickly.

For this first card a watercolor paper panel is inked with orange and yellow watercolor paints before the large balloon is die cut. A little extra Mustard Seed and Spices Marmalade Distress Inks are sponged over the die cut before the Simon Says Stamp sentiment is added.

The MFT cloud stencil along with Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans Distress Inks adds a bit of interest to a white panel before the balloon is adhered. The top of the balloon is popped up and the bottom adhered snug to the panel before the panel is added with foam adhesive to a blue card base.

For this second card, the balloon shaker is transformed into an Easter egg by simply turning it upside down and snipping off the bottom piece. The same balloon die used on the first card is used to cut a transparency piece and a light aqua balloon. This balloon is embossed with a dotted chevron embossing folder to form the base of the shaker. The shaker is filled with assorted sequins and confetti pieces before being sealed.

The Papertrey Ink Simply Spring sentiment is stamped on the designer paper panel before the shaker piece is added. A couple Poppystamps Egg Cetera eggs and a set of Bunny Ears finish off this little scene.

I'm also adding this card to Poppystamps Challenge #54 Spring Cleaning (with the sequins, confetti, designer paper and embossing folder all being something old that hasn't been used in ages) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Simon Says Cute.. 

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

 

Freshly Made Sketches #380

Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #380!

I'm thrilled to have designed the sketch for this week and looking forward to see what you do with it! Whether you see the squares as part of a grid, plaid, tartan, buffalo check or as multiple small images is up to you. I did a little of both, using the bunnies on a check designer paper.

The Papertrey Ink Simply Spring Borders bunnies are stamped, the ears and cheeks lightly touched with a pale pink Copic marker and fussy cut before being added to the inked paper background.

The sentiment is stamped on a MFT Miniscalloped Stitched Die-namic die cut panel before the bunny square is added and the finished panel popped up on a Limeade Ice card base.

The Clean Team has terrific cards at Freshly Made Sketches and we hope you play along with us this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CASology Week 332: FURBABY

 Welcome to Week 332 at CASology!

I went with a nontraditional furbaby, using a Paper Smooches Bunny Card die and Critter Card Puns sentiment to make this super quick and easy card.

The bunny ears are adhered on a diagonal line for a little added interest.

This is my real life furbaby, Bella, the world's sweetest Maltipoo. Does anyone make Maltipoo stamps?

The design team has great cards this week!

Bharati Nayudu

Deidre Payne

Jacquie Southas (you are here)

Janet Ribet 

Jen Wills 

Joyce Mehrberg

Karen Haman

Melissa Chipperfield

Rachel Bergfeld

Sue Symens

Guest Designer: Lindsey!

Sponsor: STAMPlorations!

We are looking forward to seeing how FURBABY inspires you - just remember to keep it Clean & Simple! We are back to one week challenges so you have until 9 AM Monday, February 25th (CMT) to link your card to the CASology blog.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Pepertrey Ink February 2018 Blog Hop

We were given this pretty Easter tablescape to inspire us for the Papertrey Ink February 2018 Blog Hop. Follow the link for the details on how to join in the fun!

This inspiration photo immediately made me think of the PTI Simply Spring Borders stamp & die set.   I wasn't sure how I was going to use it until I saw Kim Heggin's card for the Muse inspiration this week, with her animal friends playing in the grass.

The PTI Balloon Shaker die, turned upside down and with the bottom of the balloon snipped off, provided an egg shaped framed panel for this spring scene. The eggs were stamped first, then masked and a trio of bunnies added. The bunnies were also masked so that the background lawn & sky could be inked before the grass border was added in multiple layers.

The eggs were colored with Copic markers and another line of the grass border stamped over the bottom of the eggs and bunnies so they are sitting in the grass. A stamp positioner helped create a two colored sentiment and a trio of larger eggs finish off the card.

Kim Heggins Muse #254

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CAS(E) This Sketch #216 + Simon Says Spring Colors

I've been missing my craft time. When I realized their worlds had aligned and my kids had the same Spring Break, we planned a quick trip to Texas to knock The Alamo off my husband's bucket list, eat BBQ and listen to a lot of great music. I had a one day turn around to do laundry and fill the fridge for the family before heading off to Palm Springs to spend a week with a few of my oldest and dearest girlfriends. I am slowly getting through the transition back into real life and took a break to create this morning.

This card was inspired by CAS(E) This Sketch! #216 and and the Wednesday Challenge Blog at Simon Says Stamp where the challenge is Spring Color Inspiration.

I selectively stamped the "happy" part of the sentiment on my panel before embossing it with a dotted chevron design for the horizontal line element in the sketch. The "Easter" part of the sentiment was die cut and colored with a rainbow of Copic markers before being adhered.

A trio of chocolate Poppystamps bunnies are cut and placed under the sentiment. The third bunny has wised up to the fate of chocolate bunnies everywhere and decided to head for the hills.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Muse #207

This card was inspired by Tracey McNeely's card for Muse #207.

Muse #207

As you can see, I completely CASEd Tracey's layout, made an Easter card and used a bit of patterned paper.

Instead of die cutting my main image, I masked the Lawn Fawn Chirpy Chirp Chirp 

stamps so that it looks like my bunny ears wearing chick has just hatched from the Easter egg. A few smaller eggs from the PTI Simply Spring Borders stamp set were also stamped and masked. A very light touch of green and blue were added to the scene before the smaller eggs were unmasked and the Lawn Fawn grass border added.

The eggs and chick were colored with Copic markers before being mounted over the Lawn Fawn diagonal striped paper panel. The PTI sentiment is selectively stamped so that two colors could be used.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Muse #203

This is one of those cards that came to me almost immediately after seeing Tracey's card for Muse #203. I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Chirpy Chirp Chirp stamp set for the Easter egg and paintbrush images and used MFT Abstract Art for the Distress ink paint splotches on the eggs. The paintbrush are colored with Copic markers and a PTI sentiment heat embossed on the black banner.

Tracey McNeely Muse #203

Even though I had a design idea immediately, this card took hours to make because my little paintbrush stamp went MIA in the office. Has this ever happened to you? I cleaned off my desk, swept the floor and went through the recycling and garbage piece by piece and it still didn't turn up. I checked myself in the full length mirror to see if the stamp had attached itself to my clothing. I retraced my steps and gave the pup a pat down and still no stamp. Finally I walked away from the office in frustration. When I returned, I carefully tried to retrace my steps from earlier and found that little sucker attached to the storage envelope for my wonky stitched rectangle dies. One day I will learn not to leave tiny stamps sitting out.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie