a CASE in blue

 Hi there peeps! 

I was very inspired by a card Andrea M. made recently and it actually moved me to hit my craft room and CASE it.

Loved her color combo so I stuck with it. Perused my dies for something that would give that fall feel, but keep my life simple. Chose a bit bigger pattern for my BG but it sure looks a lot like hers. Love it.

Because I loved the design so much I decided to put a twist on it and go a bit masculine. Same colors. Different motif. Feathers this time. And an embossed plus clock BG to go with the happy birthday, time passing theme.

Inkystamp sentiment stamp,

Penny Black Berries and Leaves die,

embossing powder, twine

Lifestyle Crafts feather die,

A Pocket Full of Happiness cover plate

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.  

use those scraps

I was cleaning up my paper scraps mess from last week's cardmaking sessions and decided to actually make cards with some of the scraps rather than put the scraps back into my scrap storage. Makes sense, right? How come I never do it?

I took a look at the Distress Ink mop up scraps which were red and realized I needed an anniversary card ... soooo, why not die cut lots of little hearts? This card was born.

Amuse Studio Heart die

Hero Arts All Occasion Messages stamp

Heidi Swap spray ink

The next scrap was from this card way back when. It was pulled out of scrap storage for my pop up box card bouquet making but didn't get used cuz of the blue. So was it to go back to scrap storage? Again? Nope. The negative of the bloom got backed with a portion of it and I even managed to get the sentiment out of skinny little areas of the scrap! That, folks, makes me happy!

Pinkfresh Studio Floral Square Frames die

Penny Black Many Thanks die

The leftover little hearts from the first card had to go somewhere ... four of something isn't the easiest to design with. So I added a sentiment as the fifth element and voila! A birthday card.

Amuse Studio Heart die

Inkystamp Geburtstagsgruesse stamp

I'm joining these challenges:

Use Your Stuff - Out with the Old (YEP! All three cards!)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - AG with option of  "Something New" (card #2)

The Cat's Pajamas - January

 

another twofer fer the flower challenge

Remember this card? It's Ericka's DT card for the current Flower Challenge where the theme is 

It knocked my socks off so I'd already pulled stuff out of my Mt NBUS and made two cards. Today I'm posting two more.

I went back into my pile and looked for flowers. I found a The Stamp Market flower stamp set with matching dies and although it took me forever with layered stamping and then die cutting, this happened. BTW, those leaves are gray...

   Cover plate die from Action Deutschland

The Stamp Market Beautiful Blooms stamp and die

Inkystamp Alles im Rahmen stamp

Altenew inks

And because I had also stamped a couple extra blooms, I turned them into another card using the whimsical Charming stamp from Penny Black. Yay for making multiples!

 Penny Black Charming stamp

The Stamp Market Beautiful Blooms stamp and die

Inkystamp Alles im Rahmen stamp

Altenew inks

Hope you liked this twofer too ;)

I'm heading over to:
Casology - Bouquet

Happy Little Stampers - AG with Dies February

Papercraft Challenge - Something New (my die and stamp!)
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with option of tags
Penny Black Saturday - AG with flower option

twofer fer the flower challenge

OK. Have you seen this card? Knocked my socks off. It's Ericka's DT card for the current Flower Challenge where the theme is 

I need that challenge every day to even keep up with my NBUS! So I went into the pile and looked for flowers. And found this new die from my dollar store. And the Penny Black sketchy flowers. Then I went to my stash of backgrounds looking for something with reddish pinks and blues to die cut cuz I needed a nod to Ericka. And this happened.

  Flower Frame die from Action Deutschland

Penny Black Charming stamp

Inkystamp Winzige Gruesse stamp

acrylic paint Gelli print

And because that die created a pretty little rectangular piece leftover, I turned it into a spotlight card.

Hope you liked my twofer.

I'm heading over to:
Papercraft Challenge - Something New (my die and stamp!)
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes with option of tags
Stamping Sensations - All things Bright and Beautiful (blooms of course)
Watercooler Wednesday - AG Feminine

christmas cacti shaker

Not one for making Christmas cards when it's not really Christmas-time, (though the crazy weather in MI at the moment would sure inspire holiday cards - geesh - got outta there just in time but my poor Dad is wearing a jacket in the house cuz the power/heat went out too!) but I got some goodies from Spellbinders to play with and when I saw the dome in this die I couldn't get "snow globe" outta my mind!

 Spellbinders Build a Terrarium Etched die

Hero Arts Merry Cactus to you stamp

Penny Black PP

acetate

sequins

twine

white embossing powder

So why not cacti in the snow? I added some white heat embossed dots to the BG panel and some acetate to the die cut front panel and created a little shaker to mimic a snow globe. There's just something fun about cacti isn't there? Only from afar of course ;)

Thank you Team Spellbinders for the fun cacti to create with. I've another creation tomorrow.

I'm joining the fun at:
Mod Squad - Simply Clean

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Texture

ABC Christmas - I for ice (guess it's actually snow, but with the weather in MI right now...)

Crafty Hazel's Christmas Challenge - April

STAMPlorations Release - Christmas in August Day 5

It's Christmas release time at STAMPlorations! Every day this week, the STAMPlorations girls and I will be sharing projects we created featuring the new products. Be sure to hop along!

FIVE (5) lucky hoppers randomly drawn from the comments on the blogs will win a gift certificate to the STAMPlorations store or one of the new products. And there are prizes on Facebook and Instagram too! You have until the end of the day August 21 to comment here and on my fellow designers' posts for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on the STAMPlorations blog on August 24.

Today, we're putting the spotlight on the new Christmas dies coming to the store. 

Ready for my projects? Be sure to check out the other gals' projects here.

First using the fabulous Layering Baubles #1 and Merry Christmas Word Art, CAS and pretty easy to mass produce if you're good at glueing stacked die cuts! I spent the most time fiddling with the bow!

Double stacked the die cut sentiment. Swiped Broken China, Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks across glossy cardstock to create the solid ornament backing. So easy and what a great effect! Just be sure to let it dry.

A snippet of silver string to attach the ornament to the die cut sentiment and voila!

My next card using one of the Christmas Icons uses the classics of dark blue, silver and gold. I white heat embossed a tiny sentiment from Homespun Christmas too.

Using the angel from Christmas Icons, I felt the need to create a shaker.

I die cut the angel from the white panel and a panel of fun foam to create the shaker area. Filled it with seed beads and backed it with PP. Heat embossed a sentiment from Homespun Christmas onto a snippet of the same PP.

I won't keep you any longer. Thanks for stopping by today. Remember there are prizes for comments. You can start the hop here if you'd like.

test driving full bloom

How fun to win a stamp from the lovely Loll that is actually one I would purchase myself, Penny Black's Full Bloom. It just  arrived and I had to hit my craft room and test it out. Three times. Learning curve, ya know.

Numero uno. Tapping Distress Ink pads onto the stamp and spritzing with water before stamping. Not thrilled with the coverage. It's a cling stamp and kinda hard to see the ink on the red rubber ...

Numero dos. Distress Markers directly onto the stamp, then spritzed and stamped. Getting better. I should mention that I stamped a second generation image each time too. And used sentiments from Inkystamp. Used Fired Brick, Spiced Marmelade and Wild Honey, but the contrast still wasn't doin' it for me, though my Mom would probably be all over these orange hues ...

Numero tres. Maybe it's just that I'm a bold and bright gal at heart, but I had to pull out the purple Zigs and color up the stamp. More contrast maybe - not sure why - but now I'm happy.

Vielen dank, liebe Loll! And I finally, FINALLY gave my Gelli plate a test drive. OMG it is such fun!!!!! Took one NBUS item (the plate) and created a Mt. NBUS of prints! Geesh! Have to make at least one card for Darnell's challenge before it ends.

I'm joining these challenges with today's cards:
NBUS over at Darnell's

Bastel Traum #38 - Birthday (dos and tres are actually going to a friend and her mother!)
Craft Stamper TIMI - Anything Goes with a Stamp
Cards and More #153 - Spring

it's a happy blue world

I love Pinterest Inspired Challenge. The last inspiration photo totally spoke to me and this month's is no different. Had to play along and it was the perfect chance to give my new watercolors a test drive.

I heat embossed Penny Black Retro Pattern BG stamp onto watercolor CS. Then I went to town randomly watercoloring the little spaces. No thinking. So soothing. Thanks for the 30-Day Coloring Challenge Kathy R.!

It's amazing how just by adding a bit more water, you get such a range of hues with the colors. Strong stuff those Gansai Tambis. Added the sentiment from Bold Blooms to qualify for the current Mix It Up Challenge at Ellen Hutson. I'm also joining in at Seize the Birthday (without candy toppings) cuz I plan to use this as a masculine birthday card.

And then I dug out this bridal couple who had come to live at my house just before Shirley B. brought out her bridal couple stamp set. They kinda got lost in the shuffle. But don't they look great paired with some Essentials by Ellen loveliness? And a touch of color to her bouquet.

My sentiment is heat embossed "best" and die cut Merry and Bright. I'm joining the Cupcake Inspirations, Simon Says Wednesday (One Layer), Challenge up your Life and Stempelkueche challenges too.

roses in december

Death comes in threes. Do you believe that? I don't know, but there are certainly times when there are more deaths in my world than at other times. DH thinks it has to do with the gray days of November. Who knows. I know it's a part of life (isn't that paradox?). But it's a sucky part of life.

There's one quote I always turn to to seek comfort. Or to write on a card. I used it on this card .

Memories. All that's left when the loved one is gone. I have a couple rose bushes that, even without leaves, still proudly display a couple buds in December. And that makes me smile. Thanks, God. For roses and memories.

So, the card. Roses. Because roses! It also happens to be a stamp designed by the recipient. Blue. Well I feel a bit blue. Hole-y die cut. The holes represent something missing. Splodging. Because splodging.! Gold thread. Well, just cuz. Gotta be something to bring a smile, right?

Shirley-bee, I hope you've received the card by now. And I hope you have lots of wonderful memories to eventually bring you roses in December.

christmas tags

Doubt that there is much traffic in blogland today, but I'm sharing a couple tags I finally got around to after being totally inspired by Tracey M.'s series 25 Tags of Christmas. Which is ending today. There is a Flickr group if you want an inspiration overload :)

There were multiple shaker tags. What a cool idea. Loved the idea of letting a pretty PP shine as the shaker backing. Used a PTI tag and Waltzingmouse sentiment. I'm joining the Anything Goes fun at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

On this one I was inspired by some tags which were heat embossed and watercolored with shimmery paints. I didn't achieve nearly the same shimmer, but oh well.  Thought the floating vellum circle with the embossed circular Penny Black sentiment worked well with the rest of the tag.

I did heat emboss a couple of the snowflakes (PTI) with holographic embossing powder which adds some interest and a bit more sparkle. And added a big ole sparkly Marianne Creatables snowflake. Can ya see it? (tee hee hee)

It's actually a tag card. Did some simple stamping of the images on the inside and softened them a bit with my water brush. I'm playing at Cards and More #120 Simply Blue and Inkspirational #70 No Red or Green and Time Out #19 Embossing with Sparkle.

This was the result of my post-perusing (Tracey's blog) crafting session. The ornament tag is blogged here. These were such fun to make and will adorn the bags of cookies we are making for neighbors this year. Yippie! More to come soon. Thanks for visiting.

polka dot snuggly elephants (Paper Smooches)

One of my favorite stamp sets out there is an oldie, but goodie from Paper Smooches, A Little Lovin' - don't ya just love the name alone? My favorite image is the snuggling elephants. And I reach for the "welcome baby" sentiment for nearly all baby cards I make, like here and here. Here's another one for ya.

Debossed the circle die into the card front as a frame.  Stamped and paper pieced the elephants. Thought the dangling sentiment reminded a bit of a mobile which hangs in the nursery, and the circle shapes mimic the polka dots. Even added a strip of PP to the inside (note to self: why don't I do that more often?)

Happy that this happy card was published in the March 2014 issue of Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking in the Polka Dots for Baby feature. (And I'm sharin' a page with the one and only Jocelyn O. and one of her digi cuties.)

I'm playing at Paper Smooches Sparks where this week's theme is Anything Goes! Thanks for coming by.  Come back tomorrow - there's a blog hop with giveaway coming your way...

Supplies for welcome baby:

Paper:  cardbase The Paper Studio, PP Bo Bunny, Studio Calico, Penny Black

Stamps: Paper Smooches

Ink : Versafine 

Tools: circle die MFT

Other: twine, corner rounder

fully loaded thank you (CASOS, Catered Crop, Sprinkle of Imagination, Simply Create Too)

Are you blog hopped out yet?  I took a break yesterday to make a card for a few challenges.  A feat for moi, as you know I'm usually getting my card ready as the challenge doors close.  But mostly, this card was about the process.  Shirley B. has been creating beauties with her Gelli plate and I decided to give the monoprinting technique a go using a good ole acrylic block.

This is not for control freaks.  Once you smoosh that paper onto the paint there's no telling what you're going to get.  But I like that.  Although I am a control freak.  Hmmmm.

And you use up your stash of acrylic paint before it dries up.  Fabby, eh?  Anyhoo, I masked the spot for the sentiment, fearing stamping on paint wouldn't work well.  Smooshed the yellows. Stamped with pale sage which I brayered onto parts of a BG stamp.  Stamped the sentiment and then made a stencil with dies to make the arrows. Mixed a clear embossing paste with some purple paint for those.  I think doing that makes the paste a bit runnier, which may or may not be what you want! Ran a purple pigment ink pad around the edges.

This is a one-layer card.  But lotsa depth and interest happening there.  My let's-keep-it-mailable heart likes it.  Hope you do too.

I chose my colors, kinda, from the palette at A Sprinkle of Imagination - it's their first challenge.  I used ochre, a lighter yellow, pale sage and then purple (looking very dark in this photo) mixed into the modelling paste.

Over at CAS on Sunday#21 they're looking for one-layer wonders.  Wonder, nah.  One layer? Check.

And then we have a Thank You Kindly recipe swap going over at Catered Crop where I was lucky to be chosen for the Washi Tape challenge so I get to GD for this challenge.  Thanks Linda!

And... I'm not up this week at Simply Create Too, but Challenge #50 is "Give Thanks" so I'm adding my two cents.

Whew, thanks for looking.

Supplies for thank you:

Paper:  cardbase Bringmann

Stamps: BG Penny Black, sentiment PTI

Ink : Versafine, Aladine

Tools: corner rounder EKS, arrow dies Kesi Art

Other: acrylic block, acrylic paint, brayer

parade of rejects: winter wishes (CASOS, The Paper Players)

OK.  So then there was a call for submissions for Christmas cards.  Sticking with my "I have to have a theme" line of thinking, I went with stars.

You may remember I was on a bokeh kick awhile back.  Well bokeh met stars for this card.



I stamped the bokeh dots on the cardbase and then adhered vellum between the base and the textured and die cut CS.  Added sequins like the night stars and one star "falling" with the sentiment.  "Wishes", as in "wish on a falling star."  I kinda liked the idea.  But the mag didn't.

I was happy to get some constructive criticism on this one and was told that the sentiment didn't really fit the theme and it was hard to read.  OK.  Back to the drawing board.

I tweaked this guy and tried again.  Just keep watching.

I'm joining the Christmas in July fun over at CAS on Sunday as well as at The Paper Players #153..  Join in.


Supplies warm wishes:

Paper: CS Bringmann, American Crafts, vellum

Stamps: sentiment Penny Black

Ink: Hero Arts, Adirondack, Versamark

Tools: die Sizzix

Other: crochet thread, sequins

gift tags in a bag (Catered Crop, Lessology, Moxie)

Big post comin' at ya.

I was thrilled to win a spot as Guest Designer for the Fabric of Friendship Recipe Swap at Catered Crop so the plan began.  Fabric.  Hmmm, make a flower?  Use fabric for a card front?  Well, if you check out the challenge, you'll see a board of ideas Linda has put together including two CAS beauties which look like they have an element of the design done in patchwork.  So my gears started rolling.

Tomorrow is girlfriend's bday.  Guess what she's getting?  Gift tags. I sure hope all my friends think they are just as good for hanging around the neck of a wine bottle as I do...  Maybe I should just start making wine bottle tags like Erin T....

So how about if I edged the tag with "patchwork" - that looks fabric-y - and stamped a simple image onto fabric (recycled canvasy stuff)?  Then it occurred to me to use PTI Button Bits in keeping with the fabric theme.  Done deal.  Here's my fave of the bunch:

And here's the bunch:

Die cut tags in two different sizes - once from CS and once from canvas.  Cut strips of PP (it's a Christmas PP pack from Penny Black! - wanted primary colors) and cut the strips into different sized pieces.  Adhesive  around the edges then I stuck them on randomly  (such fun for all you control freaks out there).  Stamped the images with Versafine and sewed on the buttons.  Glued and stitched the fabric tags to the paper tags, punched a hole and added seam binding.  Hmmm, how to package them?

Just bought a T-shirt at Aldi and was throwing away the packaging when I thought "hey I could sew myself a small pouch out of that and the tags will be visible through it."  Done deal.  TIP:  Sewing machines don't like slippery plastic.  Use temporary adhesive to lightly adhere the plastic to a piece of paper (the feed dog - is it really called that? - likes paper better than plastic), sew and then carefully tear away the paper.  I even stitched at the top of the packaging so I could use the sticky foldover flap.  A die cut patchwork heart, a sentiment stamped on a fabric scrap and a tiny clothespin and she's good to go.

Whew.  Oh, I'm also playing at Lessology - #25 For the love of fabric and Moxie Fab's The Gift Tag Challenge as well as The Gift Packaging Challenge.

Note:  I'm still reeling from my watercolor related wins over at Moxie Fab.  Playing with colors is SO MUCH FUN and there is so much inspiration over there to be had.  The challenge is over but you must check out the gallery if you haven't.

Supplies tag set:

Paper: CS scraps, PP Penny Black

Stamps: Papertrey

Ink: Versafine

Tools: die MFT, sewing machine

Other: buttons Sew Sweet, needle/crochet thread, seam binding