Card Drive for Emma, ColourQ, RetroSketches, Lawnscaping, Paper Smooches and Some Homework, too

Hello friends.  I have been busy these past few days playing along with some challenges and doing homework for my online card class.  But, the most important cards I have made this week are for a sweet 7 year old girl named Emma, who is battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  I came upon Kelly's blog and learned that Kelly is hosting a card drive for Emma.  Please click here to read more about Emma's condition and how you can help by participating in Kelly's card drive for Emma.

I have three cards for Emma so far.  My first card uses Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Burbs stamps and AC Color Crush paper.  I used Smitty's ABC's to personalize the card.

Lots of sparkly and shiny stuff on this card--what young girl can resist a bit of bling--Wink of Stella, Stickles and rhinestones.

I am linking this card up at Lawnscaping #78 and Simon Says Wednesday Glitter it.

My second card for Emma uses my new Paper Smooches Party Pals set.  I paper pieced using Lawn Fawn paper, and personalized the balloon with the Mini Monograms alphabet set.  Lots of Wink of Stella on this card, too, so I am linking to Simon Says Wednesday and Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes.

One more card for Emma--this one uses SU Banner Blast, a new set I just got and was eager to link up.  Emma's favorite colors are blue, green and purple, so that is the color scheme I used.  Lots of Wink of Stella on the banners saying 'hi', so I will link up again at Simon Says Wednesday.

I wanted to make some cards for Emma, but you could definitely participate in the card drive by sending a card you already have in your stash.  Just check out the guidelines here before selecting your card.

While I was at spin class this morning, I had two different ideas for cards using this week's RetroSketches sketch and ColourQ colors.

The roses from Rosie Posie are generously coated with Wink of Stella, so I will also link this card up at  Simon Says Wednesday.

I am also counting this card as homework for Day 1 of the online card class, as the banner is an inlaid die cut using SSS Sketchy Banners.

The greeting continues on to the inside of the card.

Here are the two cards together.  They have the same sketch and color scheme, but are so very different.

Homework for Day 3--Optical Illusions:  To make this card, I masked a frame around my card front using post it note tape, and stamped the open area with Background Basics:  Postmarks.  Then, I stamped 'birthday' in the lower right corner and the green bubble 'happy' nearby.  I then stamped more 'happy' bubbles and other colors of polkadots in a well planned out (random) fashion until the card looked done to me.  The sentiments are from Neat & Tangled Everyday Circles and the other dots are from Beautiful Blooms II.  (I had no idea that there were four different sizes of polka dot stamps in the Beautiful Blooms II set--I believe they are there to be flower centers--until I saw this set on Laura Bassen's supply list.)  Just makes me love this flower set even more.  Love stretching my stamps.  I am linking this up at The Card Concept #6 in the category of Clean and Simple. 

Last card--are you tired yet?  Homework for Day 7--Simple Copic Coloring.  This card was so simple to make.  I die cut 'hello' and some stars out of my card base.  Then, took a quarter sheet of vellum and colored overlapping stripes of Copics in rainbow stripes.  I adhered the vellum to the back side of the card front, put a piece of white computer paper on the inside to cover up the vellum, and it was done.

That's it for me today.  I am a bit behind in my class homework, and hope to get caught up over the weekend.

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CASology Week #87: Blush

It's time for another CASology challenge.  This week, our cue word is BLUSH.  What do you think of when you see the word BLUSH?   I had to have a real think about this one, but am happy with what I came up with.  I decided to make a card designed to cause the recipient to blush.  A sentiment a bit over the top complimentary.  Have some fun with this cue word, and then please link up your creation on the CASology blog by Monday 3/24 at noon (CST).

 

I used a masking technique taught by Kara in one of the Clean and Simple Card Making classes last week to make my card.  I took a piece of 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 computer paper and die cut a piece right out of the center using a PTI Mat Stack 1 die.  I temporarily adhered that mask to my card front and proceeded to stamp all along the edge of the mask.  I stamped my sentiment right in the center.  

When I removed the mask, I was left with that lovely floral frame.  Hard to see, but all those flowers got a generous coating of Wink of Stella.  

Wouldn't you blush down to the tips of your toes if you received this card?

Since CASology is a Clean And Simple challenge, I thought it would be helpful to review some things to keep in mind when creating a CAS design:

1.  One main image
2.  Lots of open space (uncluttered)
3.  Limited layers & embellishments
4.  Quick & easy to recreate

 

You can see that my card meets all 4 criteria above.

 

Just for fun, I made another version of this card, but I used the die cut shape, rather than the negative mask. I used the same stamping technique and applied the same CAS principles to my design.

 

 

 

 So, what do you think of when you see the word BLUSH?  

Check out the beautiful designs from the CASology Design Team members and see how they were inspired by BLUSH.  Then, please play along and link your creation to the CASology blog by Monday 3/24 at noon (CST).  

 

Don't forget to keep your card Clean and Simple.

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Gillian Ross

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg (that's me)

Judy Marino

Kimberly Wiener

Maureen Merritt

May Park

Meghan McMillan

Melissa Chipperfield

Tracey McNeely

And our guest designer this week, Jeanne.

 

 

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Quelle Surprise!

Bonjour Mes Amis

SURPRISE!!!

Bon Anniversaire a Toi

Photo Credit

Bev and Darnell have organized this little surprise birthday party for Anita, and I am happy to be posting birthday wishes from across the pond.  We are a little late because we did not know about the date until it had past, but hopefully that will just add to the surprise.  Anita is such a fabulous and creative card maker and finds the time to wander all over blogland, leaving sweet and kind comments wherever she goes.

I made a little Parisian street scene for Anita's birthday card.  I must admit that it is one of my favorite cards of the year, and it is winging its way over to France right now.

Darnell has a birthday linky party going on right here on her blog, so please feel free to hop on over and post a belated birthday card for Anita.

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Online Class Homework, Colour Me and Bonus

I did a little homework this weekend.  First up uses a masking technique taught via picture tutorial on day 4 by our very own Kara.  It was so exciting to see Kara featured as a class instructor, and she showed us some masking tricks.  

I cut a mask out of an MFT die, and temporarily adhered it to the middle of my card front.  I used Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf and Ripe Avocado inks to stamp a pattern of leaves around the mask--partly on and partly off.  When I removed the mask, I had that beautiful white center, and I stamped a sentiment from Say it With Style using Brilliance Lightning Black ink.  You cannot see in the picture, but the ink has a bit of gold shimmer in it.

My next card uses the video tutorial by Laura Bassen--I used post it notes tape to mask off a frame around the card, stamped the center with the Crackle background stamp, added a sentiment from MFT and then thoughtfully/randomly stamped happy colored polka dots within the frame.

I had an idea to use the Text Block Birthday stamp in this week's Colour Me colors.  I ran a piece of Enchanted Evening and Canyon Clay paper through the Xyron machine and then die cut each with the Text Block die.  Then, I was able to make two cards that are mirror images of each other.

I stamped the kraft card base with Versamark and a Distressed Corduroy stamp from IO.

I impressed the kraft card base with the Woodgrain IP for the next card:

So, now I have two masculine birthday cards ready to go.

Some of the blue bits got lost somehow, as I was pulling the adhesive off the die cut, so I had to cut another blue piece to get the little pieces.  I was able to make a 3rd card with the extra blue die cut--my bonus card.  Rather than cut another piece out of red, thus perpetuating this endless loop, I just adhered the blue die cut to a piece of red, trimmed it down to size, and then adhered it with foam tape to a piece of Simple Stories plaid patterned paper.

That's it for today.  I'm looking forward to seeing what is in store in the classroom tomorrow.

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ColourQ, Make it Monday and Simon Says

 I took a break from my online card class homework yesterday to make this card for ColourQ cQc #232.  One of the 'colors' this week is newsprint.  How fun is that?  I used some SU newsprint paper to make some flowers using my new Button Stack dies.  Each newsprint flower has a black card stock button die cut underneath cut from some other button dies I have--they looked better with something behind them.  The leaves are from Waltzingmouse Simple Sprig.

My second card today is for this week's Make it Monday #155:  Create your own confetti with Papertrey Ink Dies and Simon Says Wednesday Mother's Day Special Girl.  I used the small numbers dies from the Hands of Time set to make a bunch of colorful number confetti.  I used that confetti in a shaker card that I will be sending my niece for her 16th birthday.  The card base as well as the Text Birthday Die cut use some silver shimmer paper from Michaels.   I have been surprised to see some really high quality papers at my local Michaels lately.

The confetti is cut from Limeade Ice, Raspberry Fizz, Lemon Tart, Harvest Gold, Orange Zest, Tropical Teal and SU Tempting Turquoise.  Here is a peek at that confetti.  It was probably the most time consuming part of the card because most of those tiny numbers had to be picked out of the dies--but I moved my die cut machine to my desk and cut while watch I watched my online craft clas videos.

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Clean & Simple Card Making 3: Day 3

I've got a quick post this morning of two cards I made for Day 3 homework.

I used a Heidi Swapp stencil, a MFT Label die I found in my stash, and 5 different colors of Distress ink for this card.  Believe it or not, it was really quick to make.  My sentiment is from SU Send a Celebration.  I am trying to pull out older stuff that I either have never used or haven't used in a long time.  All my sentiments are stamped in a sentiment binder, so it is not that hard to find my older sentiments.  It's fun to discover stuff I forgot I had.

I pretty much copied the sample card for my next card.  Unfortunately, I did not have any dies that would work, but I was able to use my T-ruler and an exacto knife to make the masks I needed.  The stamps are from WPlu9 Fresh Cut Florals.  It was fun to play around with them in a random pattern and not have to worry about organizing a bouquet, which is always difficult for me.  I probably should take a flower arranging class some day.  I found the purple longer flowers hardest to line up, especially the first two layers.  If you have any hints for me, please leave them in the comments.  I definitely need help with this set.

That's it for me.  I am still behind in this class, but making progress through the tutorials, and am learning a lot of good new stuff.

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Clean & Simple Card Making Days 1 & 2

I have two cards for the first two days of class.  I'm already a bit behind, as there are two more videos I have yet to see.  But, I did watch Debbie Hughes' video about faux layered die cuts and thought it was brilliant.  Here are my two takes on this technique.

This first card is very close to the example Debbie showed.  However, I used washi tape on the back to hold everything together, while Debbie used computer paper.  Here is a peek at the messy back.

My second card is also for the Hero Arts Birthday Challenge in the Rainbow of Color category--using PTI dies and a sentiment from Hero Arts Birthday Messages.

I will be around later, to see what everyone else is up to in this class.

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