CASology Week 134: Monochrome

Hello and happy Tuesday.  It's time for another cue word at CASology.  This week, our cue word is MONOCHROME.  I looked this one up, not being exactly sure of the meaning.  Here is one of the meanings from Dictionary.com:  a painting or drawing in different shades of a single color.

I had an idea to use a paint chip and some inlaid die cutting.  You may have seen me use paint chips here.  The card I am showing today was actually the first one I made.  The blue one came later, when I still had the paint chips still sitting out on my desk.

I die cut the word 'happy' using a die from Embellished Elegance, and then filled the space with several layers of the same die cut word in white.  I made those sequins using a sequins die from Lil Inkers, using extra bits of the same paint chip and then covering them with Glossy Accents.

A few days ago, I was lucky enough to meet one of my CASology teammates in person, when she was in San Diego on vacation.  We talked and laughed, and then shopped for crafty supplies together. She has a heart of gold, and it was so nice to get to meet her in person.

I hope you will play along with us this week, and show us how you are inspired by the word MONOCHROME.

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Gillian Ross
Hazel Hodgkins

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg (that's me)

Judy Marino

Kimberly Wiener
Kymona Tracey

May Park

Melissa Chipperfield

Tracey McNeely 

Guest Designer: Maria

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PTI Blog Hop April 2014

I have a funny story about my blog hop card this month.  I saw that the theme was Embroidered inspiration, so I pulled out my Embroidered Elegance stamp set and made my card, inspired by Maile's post here on divided panels.

After I made the card, I realized that the stamp set is called Embellished Elegance, not Embroidered Elegance.  Oh, well.  It is still what I was inspired to make after seeing the beautiful inspiration photo, and I hope that is all that counts.

I do have another idea for this blog hop, and will possibly pop back in later in the day, if I can find the time to pull it off.

I am also linking up at this week's CASology challenge where the cue word is Garden (and I am on the DT!!).  There is still time for you to play along.  There is even a prize this week.  Cathy Parlitsis from Stamps and Scrapbooks is offering this week's winner a free spot in the online Occasions 2014 Online Paper Crafting Class.

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Retro Sketches and a ColourQ Card Set

Happy Sunday.  I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.  Things are pretty sunny and quiet here, as college testing and research project dates loom.

I have a card for this week's Retro Sketches rs#108 challenge--and I am using a brand new to me Hero Arts baby set called New Baby.

I chose a gender-neutral color scheme of Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores and SU Baked Brown Sugar.  I paper pieced one of my favorite images from this set--the little elephant, and started with Happy Spots paper.  The colors look off in this photo, but the elephant is actually Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate, and White.  I made my own plaid paper for the bottom layer using WMS Offbeat Backgrounds.  The heart on the elephant's ear is Hawaiian Shores coated with lots of Glossy Accents.

I guess you could say that I really loved this week's ColourQ cQc #234 colors, since I am back again with an entire card set made with those colors.  I used one of the masking techniques taught by Kara in the most recent on line card class.


I was able to create one mask and use it three ways to make three cards.  I did this twice--once with butterflies, and once with mini flowers.

The following three cards use the smallest butterflies from Beautiful Butterflies.  First, I used the negative piece and stamped around the inside border.

Then, I used the die cut butterfly as a mask, and stamped around the outer edge.

Last, I used the negative mask again, and stamped in the entire space.  I started out by stamping around the outer edge, because it is important that the entire outer border is stamped--that is what will give your stamped shape its definition.  Then, I just randomly filled in the center.

Here are the three butterfly cards together.  I also made lined envelopes for the set.  Thanks to this post by Joan, I was inspired to use Distressed Stripes to make matching envelope liners.  I don't know why I never thought of it before, but I love the idea of stripes in matching colors, rather than trying to replicate the pattern on the card.  I embossed all three cards first with the largest Lil Inkers Stitched Rectangle die and then with the Burlap Impression Plate. Impossible to see in the photos, but all the butterflies are coated with Wink of Stella.  

Edited to add:  I am also linking up to a new challenge:  Time Out Challenge #2 where my butterflies fit in with this gorgeous inspiration picture.  (Thanks, Lynn).

Same concept as above for the other three cards in the set, but this grouping uses some of the smaller flower images from Embellished Elegance.

All three of these cards were also embossed with the largest Lil Inkers Stitched Rectangle die and then with the Woodgrain Impression Plate, then coated with Wink of Stella. The sentiments are from a variety of sets.  

I knew which types of sentiments I wanted to include in this set, and just flipped through my sentiment binder looking for versions that would fit in the space and that I thought would look good.  Occasions like this make me really appreciate the time I have invested in my Sentiment Binder.

I used kraft packaging paper, some twine and a die cut butterfly (dolled up with Wink of Stella and Stickles) to create a very simple packaging.

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