Crafting Again, Finally

 

Happy Easter for those who celebrate!!

I took a break from crafting because I was finally able to travel!!  I saw my parents for the first time in over a year, and I am so grateful that I was able to see them because we all were vaccinated.  Now I am back, and had some fun in my craft room this weekend.

First up is this birthday card, which I made by blending a background with a variety of blue Distress inks, then adding this squares cover plate from PTI.  I stamped my focal point with Twisted Citron Distress ink and then rolled the edges with Mowed Lawn.

I am entering this card at Ink to Paper: The Great Cover Up: Ink Blended Background, Seize the Birthday #211: Squares, The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #183: Distress, Addicted to CAS #194: Birthday, WWC312: Occasions, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

It's graduation season, and I have quite a few graduates in my life, so I had to get to work.  Up next are two graduation cards.  For my first card, I used the Lil Inkers Stitches & Stripes Cover Up die to create a striped backdrop for my subway-style focal point by Taylored Expressions.  I stamped an extra graduation cap in the school colors and popped it up with foam tape.  

I am entering this card at Just Us Girls #578: Stripes, WWC312: Occasions, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

I took a shortcut with this card, as I started with a pre-printed card front--I am trying to use some of the many pre printed card fronts I bought during my PTI days.  This one was perfect for this graduation cards, as the school colors of the recipient are Gold & Green.  I added 2 embossed sentiments--'Congrats' in Pinefeather and 'on your graduation' in gold, using PTI Layered Banner Banter stamps and dies as well as Keep it Simple: Graduation.

I am entering this card at Ink to Paper What Do I Do With This: Embossing, WWC312: Occasions, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Since it is Easter, I had to have a bunny somewhere, right?  Isn't this bunny cute, with his little birdie friend?  I was inspired by the sketch at MFT Sketch Challenge #535, where I flipped the sketch, and the colors at MFT Color Challenge #163.  I am also entering this card at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Easter/Spring, Shopping Our Stash #442: Peter Cottontail, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Last up for today is this CAS Thank You card, inspired by the challenge at Ink to Paper Video Series: Gratitude, Less is More #440: Pink, Grey, Gold, both the sketch and the photo at Fusion: Bee Kind (hexagons for the bee honeycomb), and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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Time Out #184...Reminder...You Are Simply Amazing

There is still time to play along with the current challenge at Time Out.  We challenge you to make a card inspired by the quote above.  I just love this quote, and am quite ready for the sunshine and long days of spring that April brings.

I was inspired to create a card showing several plants that are currently in my backyard.  Sunny San Diego is actually a desert climate, and we recently added lots of different kinds of succulents to replace much of our grass.  There is a double meaning to this sentiment, as it will be going to someone I think is amazing, but also expresses the amazement I have for these hardy plants in my yard.

 

I used Indoor Garden stamps from our wonderful sponsor, Altenew, to create the focal point on my card.  The sentiment is from an old stamp and die combination from Verve (sadly out of business now).

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer, Helen, and the Time Out Design Team.  Altenew is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.


This challenge will run another week.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

CASology Week #387...Comfort

Hello and happy Tuesday. It's time for another challenge at CASology.   This week, our cue word is COMFORT.  I always like to keep a supply of sympathy cards on hand, in the hopes that I won't need them.  Kind of like carrying an umbrella to make sure it won't rain.  When I saw this week's cue word, COMFORT, I decided to make a sympathy card.

I used a set of stencils from The Greetery to create my tree, having about 1/3 of that tree going off the side of the page as a way to create more white space on my card.  The sentiment is from a very old PTI set, Botanical Silhouettes, that I still turn to time and again.

Now it's your turn.  How does COMFORT inspire you?


As always, remember the following CAS guidelines when creating your design:

1. One main image
2. Lots of open space, uncluttered
3. Limited layers & embellishments
4. Quick & easy to recreate (Note: It may take a while to create a design you like, but once you have that design, making more should be a piece of cake!)

I hope you play along this week.

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

Thanks for Visiting

Time Out #183...Reminder...Different

 

There is still time to play along with the current challenge at Time Out.  We challenge you to make a card that is 'DIFFERENT'.  You can interpret this in any way you want.  For me, I was thinking of what would be the most different thing I could ever do.  Playing the drums, on stage and in the spotlight is about the last place I would ever find myself.  Even just the idea of being in the spotlight is giving me the shakes.

I used a stencil from our wonderful and generous sponsor, Funky Fossil to create my card.  I put a little MFT mouse playing the drum in the spotlight.  

Please head over to Time Out to see more inspiration from our fabulous Guest Designer Lisa, and the Time Out Design Team.  Funky Fossil is our sponsor for this challenge.  Details for the prize are on the Time Out Challenge Blog.

This challenge will run another week.  I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule to play along with us.  

Thanks for Visiting

CASology Week 386...Long

Hello and happy Tuesday. It's time for another challenge at CASology.   This week, our cue word is LONG.  There are so many ways to be inspired by this word.  How about how LONG this pandemic is lasting, how LONG since you have seen or hugged friends and family, the list of ideas is very LONG, indeed.

I have had a few LONG distance happy hours, cocktails and other get togethers with friends over Zoom, so that is what inspired my card.  Plus, I had this sentiment in my stash, and I thought that this would be the perfect way to use it.

Now it's your turn.  How does LONG inspire you?


As always, remember the following CAS guidelines when creating your design:

1. One main image
2. Lots of open space, uncluttered
3. Limited layers & embellishments
4. Quick & easy to recreate (Note: It may take a while to create a design you like, but once you have that design, making more should be a piece of cake!)

I hope you play along this week.

Please head on over to the CASology blog and gather some inspiration from our Guest Designer Kuni  and the design team.  

Thanks for Visiting

Thursday Post

 

Hello and happy Thursday.  I bought some of the new Lawn Fawn bubble mice, and have been having such fun playing with these cute stamps and dies.  I am entering these cards at  Just Us Girls #574: Animals, Addicted to CAS #192: Animal, Lawn Fawnatics #96: Happy Birthday, and Addicted to Stamps and More #400: Die Cuts.

I am playing along at the new challenge at Ink to Paper, The Great Cover-Up, to make a water color card.  I used various shades of blue and yellow water color pencils, inspired by the color combo at Color Hues #13.  I am also entering this card at WWC311: Feminine.

Last up is one more card for the International Women's Day Blog Hop, and I am also entering this card at WWC311: Feminine.

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Empowering Women

 

I was so inspired by all the beautiful cards I saw on the International Women's Day blog hop yesterday that I decided to play along today.  I used some beautiful new stamps from Ink to Paper called She Blooms--I just love the look of this gorgeous dress, and it was kind of a treat not to have to color, as there were various layering stamps that created the entire image.  There are some wonderful and inspiring quotes in this set..not sure who this quote is from, but I really like it.

I am also entering this card at CAS on Friday #200: Spring, Rainbow Challenge #27: Judiciously Jade, The Paper Players #531: Spring, and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Add Some Green.

The starting point for my next card is an inspiring quote from Simon Says Stamp Hand Lettered Encouragement.  I really love this quote.  I used the Old Rose stencil from STAMPlorations to create a background for my card, sponging the roses first in Distress Oxide Spun Sugar and adding Abandoned Coral to the flower centers.

I am also entering this card at Addicted to Stamps and More #400: Die Cuts and Stencil, Happy Little Stampers Stencil March Anything Goes, Stamplorations Stencil Anything Goes, Stamplorations Never Ending Anything Goes, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Beautiful Blossoms.

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