CAS-ual fridays: long cards

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is to create a 4x9 card... clean-and-simple-style!  And their words of instruction: you must resist the urge to fill it.

I kept it to one side with my bitty party birds... the birthday boy wears the hat!



stamps: little bitty bird+simple sentiments (both PTI)
paper: pear pizazz, blushing bride, marine mist, concord crush (all SU!), grid lines+kraft (PTI)
ink: versamark, chocolate chip (SU!)
misc: taffeta ribbon

princess-worthy

A card fit for a princess.

Not too much chatter today, since I have great friends coming over to make us a pot of gumbo.  They were appalled that my hubby and I had never tasted real gumbo... so in exchange for my making an apple pie, they are bringing the fixings for a great meal - can't wait!

A bit of sparkle on the wand was a must.

And I'm pretty sure I had a white "my little pony" with the same multi-colored mane when I was little...

My MFT mini-rolled rosette added a sweet, girly touch.





Have a fabulous weekend!

Baby on board!

One of my besties is having her 4th baby in October (yes, she is a very brave woman...) and I wanted to make her a special set of baby thank you cards.

I was inspired by Betsy's post on re-organizing her paper stash, and using up the scraps.  I covered a sheet of white cardstock with different-sized strips of patterned paper and chopped each 8.5x11inch paper into 4 mats.  So quick and easy!

The main image is from PTI's "enjoy the ride."  I die-cut the car shape, and stamped it with the car-outline.  I then inked up the filler stamp in baja breeze ink and "kissed" it to a grid-lines stamp inked up in walnut stain distress ink before stamping it onto the car outline.  Gives it a fun texture, doesn't it?

The car is popped up on foam squares and nestled onto a mat stack 1 shape (stamped with a coordinating image.)  The "thank you" on the banner is from a floral fusion set.

Each card is just slightly different - because of the patterned backgrounds - but I love them all lined up!

Thanks for looking!

there's no place like home...

Are you clicking your glittery red shoes together?

This week's MIM challenge was to paint with white ink.  I stamped the house from "boards and beams" onto craft paper, and colored the roof, door, and shutters before taking an aquapainter (a paintbrush with water built into the barrel) and painting the main part of the house white.

If you look closely, can you see that I masked all the windows and stamped a woodgrain pattern over the white ink?  I really did!  It's so faint in the picture...

I also did a bit of layering with the clouds, stamping the notebook lines from "it's official" on top of the white clouds.  I like the subtle texture it gives!  My sentiment was stamped into a label basic shape and stapled to the side.

Thanks for looking!

rub on the CAS

The challenge over at CAS-ual fridays is to create a project incorporating a rub-on or sticker.  I used rub-ons a lot when I first got into card-making - they're quick and easy, and no inky fingers!  But, I have to admit that the more I fell in love with stamping, the less I used my stash 'o stickers...

I dug up an old sheet of SU rub-ons - who knew it would be a clue into the future: the little owl became a punch and part of a stamp set later on :)

 I started out with a white cardstock base and stamped that with my large SU polka dot background.  On the kraft mat, I stamped "look who's turning" from PTI's "big birthday wishes" and found a jar die-cut in my scrap pile and rubbed-on the group of numbers inside.  I also rubbed-on the owl (and I had to rub a little flower onto her ear  - she was so old that a bit of her was missing!)  The arrow pointed right to the 2 makes it a cute little birthday card for a toddler!

Thanks for looking!

PTI blog hop: photo inspiration

I drooled over this pretty photo awhile back when it was popping up on pinterest... and now it's our inspiration for the PTI blog hop!  There was so much to work with here - this is what I came up with:

I like how the curtains frame the bench and all of the lovely fabric in the inspiration photo, so I took an orange mat and cut into it with mat stack 4 to create a frame for my own lovely "fabrics".  I cut strips of different patterned paper and sewed them into ruffles to mimic the mix of patterns found in the photo.

A bit of faux stitching around the frame, the corduroy button, and the stitching in the center of the butterfly were added to echo the "sew-y" goodness of the inspiration picture.

I layered 3 butterflies before stitching them all together - I love the little cushion with the floating butterflies!

Thanks for looking!

stamp-a-faire challenges 1, 3, 5, 8

I've just gotten home from a beautiful day outdoors - getting blistery red while my half-indian kids roasted themselves a beautiful tan color...

I thought I would see what I could whip up for the challenges - I've combined a few of them!

challenge 1: Create a project featuring patterned strips that are created with some of your favorite decorative elements.
challenge 3: Punch a window from you card cover and tie ribbon or twine from the window to the side of your card.
challenge 5: Your challenge is to take a solid shape, just like she did, and create your own custom "faux" border!
challenge 8: Create a card with an front cover that is cut back by an inch or so.  The extra lip invites you to add a sentiment, a strip of patterned paper, a bit of glitter, just so many opportunities!


And here's the card:

My cute little monkey of a nephew will be getting this card very soon!  There is a lot going on here, but I hope that a 3-year-old won't mind!  The border around the white mat was made by using a button stamp from button boutique.  I'm hoping the rest is pretty self-explanatory!

and, the inside:

Thanks for looking!

Bridal shower+PTI princess challenge

My sweet cousin, Julie, is having her bridal shower this weekend!  We're all really happy for her (mostly, that my grandmother can stop asking her when she's getting married... but I'm pretty sure as soon as the ceremony is over they'll have to deal with questions regarding when they're planning on having kids - ha!)

I used the special occasion as an excuse to do a little emboss-resist with PTI's "scattered showers".  I first inked up the umbrella in versamark ink, then white-embossed the image.  Overtop, I layered the Hero Arts Envelope background stamp and sponged bashful blue ink.  The white-embossed image "resists" the blue ink - love that!  My hot pink rosette was made using the MFT mini-rolled-rosette die (I had a question yesterday about how I made the felt rosette - same die!)

I don't know if you can see, but I sprayed the heck out of the card (except the rosette) with a homemade glimmer mist.  It really shines in real life!

I'm also using this card for the new PTI princess challenge - that was some great timing, Leah!

Have a wonderful weekend!

last class card!

I thought I'd give it one more shot before the week (and camp) is over!

I started out using my new "vintage wallpaper" stamp (my freebie for winning at CAS-ual Fridays!)  It's so pretty... I then stamped out the wreath (PTI's wreath for all seasons) on a mat stack 4 shape and layered the blues and teals overtop.  I couldn't resist adding a little felt rosette and brought in the green color with the leaves.

In other, non-crafty news, I'm trying to transition my almost 15 month old to 1 nap per day.  I think she's sleeping too much during the day, and then ready to party at night... any advice on how to get Maia to last past 10am?  And sleep longer than her regular 1 hour nap?  Or maybe I'm just dreaming on that last one... You'd think by the 3rd it would all be a breeze - amazing how different they all are!

Thanks, friends!

birds of a feather...

The challenge over at the lawnscaping blog:

I don't have any of the critter sets from lawn fawn, but what I do have, is "bannerific"... which I used to create a little scene I like to call: birds on a wire.

  

I started out with a piece of white cardstock and layered stormy sky, antique linen, and walnut stain distress inks to make up my cloudy blue sky.  Then, I took a stamp from lawn fawn's "schoolhouse backdrops" set (the long skinny line) and stamped it 3x in fresh snow ink - that's my wire!  The cute birdies from bannerific grew legs - doesn't it look like they just all came and perched together?  I used smitty's abcs to form the sentiment.

I hope you liked my scene!  

CAS-ual Fridays & cotton candy...

Is it normal that looking at a gallery of cards is making me hungry?  I decided it was time to check out this week's CAS-Fridays challenge, and I scanned the cards already up for the challenge: popsicles, lollipops, and cake - oh my!

So... what's a gal to do?  As I crafted my card, I slipped some cookies into the oven... my friend/baker extraordinaire taught me to always freeze a batch of cookies so I can pull out a few at a time, whenever I needed them.  (I think she meant when I have company over, but I do need them right now...)

I started out with a kraft base, and stamped a few rows of cotton candy (from Lawn Fawn's "admit one").  The ticket image was stamped 4x in a row and cut out as a whole.  The tiny heart in the center of each ticket is from Paper Smooches' "vegtastic" set.  I love how quirky it is!  I stamped another cotton candy image on a separate sheet of white cardstock and copic-colored it in before snipping it out.  The "you're sweet" sentiment is also from "admit one" - I inked each word separately so that the words could be side-by-side instead of on top of each other (as they're originally intended to be).

I gave the main cotton candy a little swirl with a 2-way glue pen and then sprinkled some glitter over-top.  Yummy.

Thanks for looking!  My cookies are smelling heavenly - wish I could share some!

card class - week 4!

I'm pretty sure this is going to be like all the summer camps I ever attended, where everyone is standing around crying at the end because we all had such a great time... I can't believe it's almost over!

Isn't that a great color combo?  Very watery... or... like upholstery!

As soon as I saw this week's colors, I had a mental image of this scrapbook paper that I knew was in my stash.  It is so old that I have no idea who makes it, but it has the green and teal that I was looking for.

I built my scene (using "on my couch" and the additions set from PTI) and paper-pieced the couch and lampshade with the same patterned paper.  Adding bits like the painting and the mug on the side table made it easy to incorporate the rest of the colors.

Thanks for looking!

papertrey princess challenge

I'm a papertrey princess!  They had an opening in their group, and I asked if I could join - so happy they said yes!  (ever since being dubbed a papertrey princess, I've had to stop myself from humming "I feel pretty, oh so pretty..." ha!)

Diane's challenge was to make a card using only the outline of flowers.  No problem.  I'm not a great color-er... (although my Sofia thinks I'm fabulous just for staying inside the lines) and this saves me the trouble of all the fussy-cutting I usually do to paper-piece my florals.

I hope I'm not bending the rules by offering up this card:

I used YOTF: marigolds (the only one I own...).  Before stamping the outline in memento black ink, I flipped the stamp over and created blotches of yellow, red, and blue using the "wrong side" of the stamp.  The "hello friend" sentiment and a little rhinestone finished off my bright & fun card.

Thanks for looking!

baby thank yous

One of my favorite things to give an expectant mom, along with teeny-tiny clothing, is a set of thank-you cards.  You know she'll be needing them!  I'm seeing a dear friend in a few weeks - and she'll be ready to pop soon after that!

I was so inspired by Melissa Bickford's card, that I used it as inspiration to make this set.  Here it is, all packaged up... with a cute tag and some soft yarns...

When we peek inside,

there are 6 of these little cuties!  I stamped the stork and baby images from PTI's bundle of love set onto a tag-sale 4 die cut.  The card base is stamped with their newsprint background, and the "thank you" sentiment is from a floral fusion set.  

As a little final touch, I stamped the baby image onto the back flap of each envelope.  I wanted it to be very subtle, so before stamping his little blue blanket, I stamped off on some scrap paper... 

Thanks for looking!

a pocketful for you.

My sis came over yesterday, and we put my mini-rolled rosette die to good use.  She's so excited to have a baby girl she can doll up, and I needed to make a present for a little girl I'll be seeing soon...

I'm loving the blue and peach combo - I hope she does too!  I made her 3 clips - one with a blue rosette, one with a peach rosette, and one with 2 tiny little buds (one in each color).

With the clips made, I had to find a way to package them!

I'm entering this into the MIM challenge: creating a pocket with edger dies.  I used my mat stack 4 to cut a decorative top on my little vellum pocket.  I love how they look like a little bouquet of flowers, peeking out of the top!

Happy weekend, all!

from all of us!

I had a gum graft yesterday afternoon.  Not usually the kind of information you share on a crafty blog, I know, but since I'm on a liquid diet for the first 2 days, I'm finding myself with so much more free time... surprising, but true ;)  So, I whipped up a cute little card with my 2nd new SU set, "furry folk."  They're so cute, right?  I love them holding hands and being all adorable.

When I stamped them out, all in brown, I thought they looked yummy.  Like all the chocolate I couldn't eat.  So I started thinking picnic, and stamped myself a red-gingham banner (PTI).  I really wanted a sentiment that would make sense with all these cuties in a row, but didn't have one.  So I made my own.  With the best alpha set I have: lawn fawn's "smitty's abcs."  The frame image is from PTI ("fillable frame 10"), and was stamped with fresh snow ink.

Like I said, I have lots of free time.  Non-munchy, ultra-crafty time.  I may have created more than one card...

monogrammed.

For no good reason, other than I just got some brand-new SU stamps, I made myself a little set of monogrammed cards.

Each one of the cards started out with a kraft base, and a layer of SU's baja breeze cardstock.

Black ink, white-sponged and roughed-up edges, and a single rhinestone on each card - these elements tie it all together.

I also used lawn fawn's quinn's abcs for my letter "e".

That's about it - a set of simple cards just for me!  Thanks for looking!

card #2 for week #3.

I really do love these colors together!  I couldn't help but put together another card.

It's so easy when you have most of the elements already created (I have a pile of stuff that didn't work out from other cards or were just extras - so handy for crafting in a pinch!)  The only thing I stamped especially for this card is the leaf image.  I colored the stamp with my SU creamy caramel marker and it gave me this soft, dewy look that I rather like.  Oh, and I stamped on top of the music background with the hero arts envelope pattern again.  I can't promise I'll stop using it anytime soon.  It's so subtle, you hardly notice it - but something's missing without it.

Have a great day!