CFC90--Black and White plus 1

Have you been following all of the excitement at CAS-ual Fridays?  Tonight's the night when the new team of Girl Fridays is being introduced, and I'm thrilled to say that I will be staying on for another term!  You can see the rest of the DT announcement on the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge blog.  Let me just say--I feel incredibly humbled to part of such a talented group!

As if that weren't exciting enough, tonight is also Release Night for the latest batch of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!  To celebrate, CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is sponsoring this week's challenge, which is to use black and white plus one other color on your clean and simple design.

I used an image and sentiment from one of the newest sets, Only You.  I love the clever mix and match sentiments in this set, centered on the word "you".

I chose Lucky Limeade as my accent color, stamping the flourish with it and coloring some rhinestones with my Copics to match.

The black cardstock panels are debossed with a diamond pattern for subtle texture, but the sentiment panel is really the star of the show in this design.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Black, White)

Stamps:  CAS-ual Fridays Stamps (Only You)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Lucky Limeade), Memento (Tuxedo Black), Copic markers

Tool:  Papertrey Ink (diamond impression plate)

Accessories:  rhinestones

I hope you'll join in the fun this week!  I always love seeing the splashes of color in the gallery.

I promised you photos of my daughter's Valentines, and I hope to be back with those over the weekend.  There just aren't enough hours in the day since I took on teaching a class this semester, and I've missed spending time with all of you here in blog land.

Have a great Friday!

WPlus9 February/March Release Day!

It's finally here!  It's Release Day at WPlus9, and all of the new stamps, dies, ink, and cardstock that have been previewed over the past few days are now available in the WPlus9 store!  

To celebrate the release, I have one more project to share which uses three of the new stamp sets and two of the companion dies.  This is my last post as a Guest Designer, but I want to say a huge thank you to Dawn, the Design Team, and all of you for your wonderful comments and enthusiasm over the past week!

For my card, I stamped the mesh panel from Chantilly Trim onto kraft cardstock using the new white ink.  The sentiment, from Embroidered Bouquet, is stamped on top of it in black, and I die cut and stamped flowers from Very Vintage Florals to embellish the corner.

I die cut the left side of the kraft panel using the Scalloped Border die and pierced along the edge, then mounted the entire panel onto a Cupid's Bow card base.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Cupid's Bow, White), Papertrey Ink (Kraft)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Very Vintage Florals, Chantilly Trim, Embroidered Bouquet)

Ink:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White), Stampin' Up! (Real REd, Lucky Limeade), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Very Vintage Florals companion dies, Scalloped Border die)

Now that I look at it on the screen, I'm thinking I'll add some bling around the sentiment, but as is this would be great for mailing.

Stop by each of the Design Team blogs to leave some love for those incredibly talented ladies!  They really are the best in the business.  :)

Dawn Woleslagle

Elise Durenberger

Kerianne Gwin

Cristina Kowalczyk

Lea Lawson

Jean Martin

Jinny Newlin

Sarah Martina Parker

Savitri Wilder

Thanks again for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with me!  Happy shopping!  :)

CAS-ual Friday's #72--Toot your own horn!

Hey there, lovely people!  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  It's been an especially busy week at work, so I'm very happy to be *almost* to the weekend.  Luckily, that also means it's time for a new CAS-ual Fridays challenge!

This week we're asking you to "toot your own horn":  create a clean and simple project based on your own blog header.  How fun is that?!

We're sponsored this week by A Muse Studio, and you'll have to stop by the CAS-ual Fridays blog to check out the awesome prize up for grabs.

I think it's pretty obvious how I was inspired this week.  *grin*  I can't take credit for the design, of course, since I just copied the lovely colors and arrangement of elements that Karen Baker came up with for my new blog header.  Have I mentioned how much I love it?

The colors I used are SU's Island Indigo, Pool Party, and Peach Parfait.  Stamps are from WPlus9's Guiding Light and PTI's Faux Ribbon and Think Big Favorites #4.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Stamps:  WPlus9 Design Studio (Guiding Light), Papertrey Ink (Faux Ribbon, Think Big Favorites #4)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Island Indigo, Pool Party, Peach Parfait)

Tools:  WPlus9 Design Studio (starfish die), Papertrey Ink (Linen & Canvas impression plate), corner rounder

I always look forward to seeing the creations in the challenge gallery, but I think this week will be especially interesting.  How does your blog header inspire you?

Thanks again for your sweet comments, my friends.  I always appreciate your visits!

Have a great start to your weekend!

CAS-ual Fridays #56--Sponsored by DeNami Design

Welcome back, friends!  This week has just flown by!  My parents are visiting, so I've had very little time for stamping or visiting blogs--I hope you'll forgive me.  *smile*

I had so much fun looking at your blinged-out creations for last week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, and I know you're going to love the new challenge for this week.  We want to see your clean and simple designs using polka dots or spots!

Our generous sponsor this week is DeNami Design, where you'll find tons of cute rubber stamps.  They provided the DT with stamps for our projects today, and I had a lot of fun working with them.  Thanks, DeNami!

I used DeNami's Polka Dot Circle with my stamp positioner to create a rainbow of dots across a white card front.  Next I stamped the Hello Friend sentiment in black and added scored lines on either side of it and below the row of dots.

As a final touch, I attached a black-and-white twine bow under the sentiment.

Cardstock:  WPlus9 Design Studio (White)

Stamps:  DeNami Design (Polka Dot Circle, Hello Friend)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo), Memento (Tuxedo Black)

Tools:  Martha Stewart Crafts (Scoring board)

Accessories:  The Twinery (Charcoal baker's twine)

I hope you'll find some time to join us this week with your polka dotted, CAS design!  And don't forget that the rest of the amazing CAS-ual Fridays ladies have even more inspiration for you over on the challenge blog.

Enjoy the start of your weekend, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Birthday ColourQ!

Hello, friends!  I'm so glad you stopped by today, because it's a very special week at the ColourQ.  The challenge is celebrating its second birthday with color combo #104, and there's a fun twist this week.  In addition to a fabulous color palette (as always!), we are choosing a past Colour Queen to CASE!  Arielle has worked hard to create a photo album of all of the past winners, which you can find linked on the ColourQ blog.  I hope you'll take some time to browse through all of the amazing creations and choose a favorite to CASE!

For my card, I chose an awesome grid design by Colour Queen #74, Lindy G.  You can check out her winning card along with all of the fabulous Courtiers HERE.

I love the versatility of Lindy's design!  She used some wonderful patterned papers on her card, but since I didn't have patterned papers in the challenge colors, I used a few different techniques on the blocks to give them some interest.

Lots of Papertrey goodies on this one!  Three of the colored squares are stamped with medallions from Iconic Images.  Three more squares are debossed with impression plates (Polka Dot Basics, Cane Print, and Diamonds).  Two squares use the faux embossing technique, where I die cut a shape from the same color cardstock and adhered it to the square, trimming the edges to fit.

The squares were adhered to a white panel, then I stitched a grid with brown thread just like in Lindy's original.  For the ribbon, I decided to wrap it around the top corner and add a simple die-cut tag, from PTI's Tiny Tags.

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Early Espresso, Rose Red, Pool Party, Old Olive), Papertrey Ink (white)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Iconic Images, Tiny Tags)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Rose Red, Pool Party, Old Olive, Early Espresso)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Polka Dot Basics, Cane Print, Diamonds impression plates, flower, heart, tag dies)

Accessories:  Michaels (ribbon), thread

It was so much fun revisiting the past Colour Queens for this challenge, and I hope you'll take a peek at the gallery, too!  Happy birthday to the ColourQ, and many thanks to Arielle for inspiring us every week with amazing color palettes and for all of the hard work she puts into the challenge!  Be sure to stop by the ColourQ blog to congratulate her!

Thanks for visiting!

ColourQ #103

Welcome back, friends!  It's a dreary day here, so I'm more than happy to be sharing some cheerful hues for this week's ColourQ challenge.  Wouldn't these dishes brighten up anyone's day?

The florals had me thinking immediately of Stampin' Up!'s Fabulous Florets.  After a few trials on scrap paper to get the right placement, I stamped the leaves with Pear Pizzazz in the bottom left corner of a white cardstock panel.  I added the large solid blossom in Wisteria Wonder.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the large open flower is stamped in red and the smaller flowers are stamped in Calypso Coral.  I cut these out and popped them up on foam dots.

The sentiment is from PTI's Signature Greetings, and the whole panel has a pretty texture from the Linen & Canvas impression plate.  I adhered it to a Wisteria Wonder card base and wrapped some gorgeous Coral ruffled ribbon around the top.

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Wisteria Wonder), Papertrey Ink (white)

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! (Fabulous Florets), Papertrey Ink (Signature Greetings)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Wisteria Wonder, Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral), Clearsnap (Scarlet)

Tools:  Papertrey Ink (Linen & Canvas impression plate)

Accessories:  Stampin' Up! (ribbon)

This card is on its way to an amazing friend of mine.  I think she'll like it!

I hope you'll play along with us at the ColourQ this week!  Be sure to check out the samples from the rest of the Royal Court DT and link up your creation to be in the running for Colour Queen.

Thanks for visiting today!  Have a good one!