5 Cards for Thursday

I am squeaking in at the last moment with a card for WPlus9's Throwback Thursday challenge.  I used WPlus9 inks and Pretty Little Peonies and Pretty Peonies along with a sentiment from one of the Strictly Sentiment sets for my card.  I followed the basic sketch of one of Maureen's inspiration cards.

My next card is inspired by the sketch at Sweet Sunday Sketch #272 and uses the Stamping With Neutrals technique shown in Make it Monday #214.  You can see that I rotated the sketch counter clockwise 90 degrees.  

It was my first time using Brushed Blooms and Background Basics Random Stripes and I don't know why I waited so long.  My focal point is on a panel cut with MFT Pinking Edge rectangle dies, and I only had them for a couple of hours before using them on two cards, so I feel pretty good about that purchase already.  I am also entering this card at Simon Says Monday For the Love of Plants.

I used the Old Rose Prints stencil from Stamplorations on my next card.  I sprayed a ton of Heidi Swapp pink color shine through the stencil and then let it dry.  IRL, it is very shimmery.  I am liking the look of pink, gold and black lately, so I paired that panel with some gold striped washi tape and a PTI die cut frame stamped with a gold border.

I am entering this card at Stamplorations June challenge:  Stamps and Washi and Stamplorations Anything Goes.

I have been really enjoying playing in the Retro Rubber challenges, as it encourages me to pull out some of my older stamps that I still love.  The challenge at A Blog Named Hero is Favorite, so I pulled out one of my very favorite Hero Arts Stamps--Birthday Gift, and used it in one of my favorite ways--stamping it multiple times in different colors, cutting them apart and then stacking them back together.

I used the same WPlus9 inks that were still out on my desk from the first card.  I sponged Little Piggy ink on the edges of my pinked layer to match the 2nd layer of my Birthday Gift image.  

The challenge at Retro Rubber #16 is tie it on, and so I cut off the stamped bow from the very top layer of the stack and replaced it with a tiny twine bow.  The stamp I used for this challenge is one of the very first wood stamps I bought when I started stamping about 5 years ago.

Last up is a very quick card I made as soon as I saw the latest CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.  I took a pretty literal interpretation of the sketch, and used a butterfly from Hero Arts Antique Engravings, embossed in white and water colored with Distress Inks.   I masked off a square on my card front and stamped it with the PTI Crackle stamp using WPlus9 Fairy Dust ink.

I am entering this card at Addicted to CAS #65 Butterfly and the Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe Challenge, where I used the diagonal 'watercolor-birthday theme-heat embossing.

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Made From Scratch

I created a tag today, inspired by these adorable tags by Tracy at Tag You're It #23.

I love how simple and graphic Tracey's tags are.  I was inspired by the simple apple die cut on Tracey's tag that required no stamping to indicate what it was, the adorable clothes pin and the twine.

I went searching through my stash for a die whose silhouette would be immediately recognizable for what it was, and decided to use this cat from Paper Smooches.  I die cut the cat once from black card stock, and then cut the eyes out of green card stock and inlaid the green eyes into the black cat.

I am also using this tag to put my name forward for the Design Team Call at Tag You're It.

I am also entering this tag at Paper Smooches Sparks, where the challenge this week is Anything Goes, and Shopping Our Stash #205, where the challenge is Cute Critter Alert.

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CASology Week 150: Graduation

Hello and happy Tuesday.  It's time for a new challenge at CASology.  Our cue word this week is GRADUATION.  My oldest daughter graduated from high school last week, so this is a very convenient cue word for me.  Here are the two graduation cards I made for her.  They are both made with PTI Retro Style stamps and dies.

This card was from her father and me.

Here is some extra inspiration for you.  I made this card for my youngest daughter to give to her sister.

While I was at it, I made some very simple thank you cards for Rachel to use.  These cards are 3.5 x 5.

Congratulations Rachel!

So, how about you?  How are you inspired by GRADUATION?  I hope you play along this week. Please remember to keep it Clean and Simple.

Head on over to the CASology blog and gather some inspiration from the design team.

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: Sarah


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Exciting News!

I am so very happy to announce that I will be joining the Happy Little Stampers Design Team for their Monthly Sketch Challenge starting in July.

Just for fun, I am playing again in their (our) June Sketch Challenge with a birthday card using the cutest little stamp set I just got from Avery Elle.

I hope you will play along in our sketch challenge this month.  If you need more inspiration, click here to see the first card I made for this challenge.

I am also linking this card up at Seize the Birthday where the toppings option is animal.

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Weekend Recap

I have two cards to share today.  My first card is a(nother) redo of my sponged/sprayed/ghosted birthday card from yesterday.  I took Loll's advice, and pulled the stencil off right after spraying the water, and also changed my design to feature more white space.  The stencil I used was a Chevron Mask by Studio Calico.

I am happy to report that Loll was right, and I got much better ghosting by removing my stencil immediately.  So, if you are ever lucky enough to receiving any stamping tips from Loll, you should definitely take them.

I am entering this card at Happy Little Stampers June CAS challenge Sprays/Mist challenge, Less is More #227 Sunset Colors, Pretty Pink Posh Watercolor Blog Hop and Seize the Birthday without Toppings.

This next card is for the bus driver from my daughter's school.  Getting my girls to school safely every day while saving me hours in the car--that is what I am grateful for.  I used lots of different die cuts to make my little scene.

I am entering this card at Paper Players #248 Masculine, Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Masculine, and Simply Create Too #87 Masculine.

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Three Cards for Saturday

Happy Saturday.  I have three cards to share today.  I bought Paper Smooches Perpetual Bliss used the other day, and wanted to make a quick card with it in time to enter this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Anything Goes challenge.

I used Copic markers to color the clocks, using the colors from this week's ColourQ 292.  I also colored a little pattern for the left side of the card.  I am entering this card at Addicted to Stamps and More Make Your Mark.

I was inspired by the second card on this post of Kara's for my next card.  I loved the look of those black lined images overlapping her big polka dots.  I used Distress Inks and a Simon Says stencil to sponge my polka dots.  I used lots of post its to mask off all the dots around the dot I was sponging each time.  When that was done and dried, I stamped some butterflies and other images from one of my oldest PTI sets--Butterfly Kisses, then embossed with the Picnic Plaid impression plate.

I am entering this card at Addicted to CAS where the code word is Butterfly.

Last up is a card that should have been so simple, but took 3 attempts.  I saw this card on Loll's blog and loved the ghost images on her background.  After watching this video, getting hints from Loll, and throwing out a few misted muddy messes, I finally managed to create this.

Here is what I ended up doing:  I heat embossed my sentiment in black onto a piece of water color paper.  Then, I sponged and blended color over the entire piece using Distress inks in sunset colors to play along with Less is More.  I placed my stencil (Bold Florals from ARTplorations) on top and spritzed with lots of water--waited 20 seconds or so and lifted up the stencil, blotting dry and then using my heat tool.  In person, you can see the bold flowers ghosted images a little better.  My final step was to spray the entire card with Frost Shimmer Spritz.  Very quick and easy, when I finally did all of the steps right without messing up.

I am also entering this card at Happy Little Stampers CAS June challenge sprays/mists, Pretty Pink Posh Watercolor Blog Hop, Stamplorations Anything Goes, and Seize the Birthday without toppings.

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