An Awesome Birthday Card with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps

Hey there!  I have a card featured over on the store blog for CAS-ual Fridays Stamps today, so I'm popping in quickly to share it here, too.

Our good friends have a son who will be turning 8 this year, so I thought it would be fun to use stamps from Rad to get a head start on his birthday card.  His dad is the only person I've ever heard use the phrase "like a boss", so it seemed appropriate.  :)

This is super easy to put together, once I'd settled on my design and colors.  I placed the uninked stamps on the top red panel to line them up, picked them up all at once with my acrylic block, then stamped them with Real Red ink.

The nice thing about the white strip?  If you mess up the stamping on the white card base, you can always stamp it again on a separate strip and slip it into place.  Not that I would actually know that from experience or anything.  ;)

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Tangerine Tango), WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Stamps:  CAS-ual Fridays Stamps (Rad)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Tangerine Tango), Versamark

Tools:  Fiskars (star punch)

Accessories:  Filigree (white embossing powder)

Like the punched holes I've done before, I like the simple look of the punched out stars for a masculine card, and it's a bonus that it stays flat for mailing.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Come back tonight for a new CASE Study challenge!

Card Patterns sketch #171 & An Announcement

Hello!  I'm back with a card using this week's Card Patterns sketch, but first I want to share some news.  It was announced today on the Card Patterns blog that the challenge will be closing at the end of June.  The Card Patterns sketches have been a source of inspiration to many of us for a long time, and it will be sad to see them go, but you will still be able to access the archives of prior sketches and design team inspiration to help jump-start your projects in the future.

I have enjoyed being a part of this wonderful team and want to thank Tracy and Michelle for all of their hard work!  I hope you'll stop by and wish them well in their future endeavors, too.

Please play along with us on our last 2 sketches, including this week's layered beauty:

This is the last day to enter my giveaway for the Half Pint Heroes set!  I've shown you cards this week using the rocket and car images, so today it's the submarine.  I love how it turned out!

I stamped the sub onto white cardstock, colored it with Copics, and cut it out.  It's popped up on the white panel, where I added three fish and a sentiment from the set.

The starfish are from WPlus9's Guiding Light--I thought they were perfect for this design.  I also stamped "waves" on the background strip using a border stamp from The Craft's Meow's Retro Foundations.  I added shading with a Copic marker to give the waves some depth.

Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (Smokey Shadow), WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Patterned paper:  Papertrey Ink (Men of Life)

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse (Half Pint Heroes), WPlus9 Design Studio (Guiding Light), The Craft's Meow (Retro Foundations)

Ink:  Memento (Tuxedo Black), A Muse Studio (Apricot), Stampin' Up! (Pool Party), Copic markers

Tools:  Spellbinders (circle die), We R Memory Keepers (Corner Chomper)

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the Half Pint Heroes set!

CAS-ual Fridays #46 & Retro Sketches #5

Good evening, friends!  It's been a crazy week so far, but I'm thrilled to say that my 5-day weekend starts tomorrow.  I have so much catching up to do!

I found a few minutes tonight to combine a couple of challenges:  CAS-ual Fridays and RetroSketches.  

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to be inspired by the lyrics of a song.  How fun!  I thought of a few but needed a card for a friend whose son recently turned four, so I thought of a song by Feist, 1,2,3,4.  The original version of the song is HERE, but I'm a little partial to her version on Sesame Street:

Feist on Sesame Street--1,2,3,4

Everything's better with Muppets, right?  

I started with a kraft card base, then debossed a kraft panel with PTI's Sunshine impression plate and sponged the edges with white ink.  

The patterned paper is from Echo Park's A Boy's Life collection.  I stamped the yellow strip with numbers from PTI's Fresh Alphabet (1,2,3) and Outlines Alphabet (4).  The star stamps and dies are also from PTI.

Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (Kraft)

Patterned paper:  Echo Park (A Boy's Life)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Star Prints, Fresh Alphabet, Outlines Alphabet)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Not Quite Navy), ColorBox (Frost White)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (star dies, Sunshine impression plate), corner rounder

Coloring medium:  Prismacolor Premier pencil

Off to watch the Celtics with my hubby before bed.  Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back in a few hours for a new Muse at CASE Study!

Card Patterns sketch #152

Hello, friends!  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  If you have plans to get inky, I hope you'll play along with the new sketch at Card Patterns!

This week we're being sponsored by another fantastic stamp company, Sparkle Creations!  The DT was provided with a few of their cute images to use on our cards, and my card features Football Josh.

This image had me wishing I had some skills with the Copics so I could really bring it to life.  But it was fun to color!  The rest of the DT has done an amazing job with their images, so be sure to check out their creations, too.

I used papers from Echo Park's A Boy's Life, but I colored the teal piece to match my image (it was originally more of a navy blue).

Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink (Dark Chocolate, White)

Patterned paper:  Echo Park (A Boy's Life)

Stamps:  Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps (Football Josh)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Chocolate Chip), Inkadinkadoo (Black), Copic markers

Tools:  Spellbinders (oval, scalloped oval dies), Papertrey Ink (double ended banner die), corner rounder

Accessories:  Michaels (ribbon)

Other:  Prismacolor Premier pencils

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'm off to my daughter's basketball game today, then I need to get some cleaning done before my parents come to visit later in the week.  Oh, and the kids' Valentines aren't done yet!

Have a great day!

WMSC #54 & PDCC #88

Ahoy there, friends!  (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!)  I have a cute little card to share that I made for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.  I also used the colors of last week's Play Date Cafe challenge, but I missed the deadline to enter it.  Still, it was just the color combo I needed for this card.

As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew I wanted to make a card using the portholes from Half Pint Heroes.  I was inspired by the submarine included in this set to make the whole card look like the side of a sub, complete with fish swimming by!

I drew lines and dots by hand onto a Baja Breeze card base, then sponged the edges with Baja Breeze ink.  I stamped the portholes onto cardstock and cut them out, leaving a window in the center.  I adhered white cardstock behind the window, stamped two little faces and colored them with my Prisma pencils.  Then I popped the portholes up on foam dots.

The tiny fish is included in this set, as well.  I stamped it a few times on Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight cardstock, cut them out and adhered them to the card.  

Finally, I stamped the sentiment onto a white cardstock strip, notched one end, added a fold, and adhered it with a foam dot to balance the other two raised elements.

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Baja Breeze, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight), Papertrey Ink (white)

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse (Half Pint Heroes)

Ink:  Inkadinkadoo (Black), Stampin' Up! (Baja Breeze)

Coloring medium:  Prismacolor Premier pencils

Other:  Sakura (black pen)

Here's a look at the inside so you can see the cute little submarine in this set.

I can't believe I'm leaving for a road trip to Indiana in less than a week!  I'm trying to get some cards finished up before I leave, but with the kids home and wanting to play in the kiddie pool every day, I still have lots to do!

Thanks for dropping in today!  See you back here soon!