SCS CAS DT cards

That would be short for the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge design team cards! There are currently 3 challenges as part of the application for the team. Here is what I came up with:

Sketch Challenge:

I cut out a stencil using the negative part of the Vine die from Sizzix. I used 3 different inks to sponge the shape onto my card base...red & green first, then I moved the stencil over slightly and sponged brown to make a shadow. I added piercing around the sponged vine which made it look quite dimensional considering it's a one layer card. The clear sentiment curved easily on my block to follow the shape of the leaf, and a thin ribbon completed the card.



Paper: SU barely banana
Ink: SU (old olive), Palette hybrid (burnt umber & moulin rouge)
Stamps: A muse (simple wishes)
Accessories: paper piercer, SU twill ribbon (old olive), Sizzix vine die


Colour Challenge:

Monochromatic brown with a smidge of red...I love Kraft cardstock, so I had to use it for this card. I also recently splurged for some PTI rustic white cardstock which is, well, rustic! It has bits of natural flecks and fibres in it. AND I just received my order of new A muse fall stamps. When I thought about the smidge of red, I knew I should use the tiniest apple from the School Time set. I stamped the apple repeatedly in brown, did a few in brown stamped off once, then added one red apple in the mix. I used my SU circle punches and a circle nestie to make the main image and its mats. I roughed up the edges of the circles a bit, popped them up on dimensionals and stamped the sentiment below. I was inspired by he disposable coffee cups at work. On the side of the cups, the logo of the coffee company is in red and the name is centered below in brown, and I've been wanting to use this design idea on a card for awhile now...I love its simplicity!



Paper: SU (kraft, chocolate chip), PTI (rustic white)
Ink: Palette hybrid (burnt umber & moulin rouge)
Stamps: A muse (school time, delicious day)
Accessories: SU circle punches, circle nesties, pop dots, heidi swapp edge distresser, EK success corner rounder punch

Theme Challenge:

Fall...it's here! Nights are cooler, it's getting dark sooner and my DS starts school next Tuesday!! He is so excited! This card is for him...
My new A muse purchases from the fall release are awesome...love the school lined cardstock and all the new stamps! I used primary colours and black for some contrast/to tone down the loud yellow base. The wider edge at the top of the lined paper fit the line up of school kids perfectly. I used the SU spiral punch on the left margin of the paper, and matted it in black. I was originally going to place the main image diagonally across my card, so I added a notebook line ( from the clear School time set) stamped in versamark diagonally across for some grounding of my main image. Once I placed it on the diagonal, there seemed like too much "white" space, so I ended up putting the main image on straight. I still like the subtle diagonal underneath...the adorable sentiment from the School time set completed the card.



Paper: SU (summer sun, basic black), A muse (school lined)
Ink: Palette hybrid noir, versamark
Stamps: A muse (school line, School Time clear set)
Accessories: copics, SU spiral punch

Whew...marathon post! Be sure to check out all the amazing submissions for the design team! Thanks for visiting!!

Pyjama Party - Challenge #4

Pretty woman yeah yeah yeah....love this movie!! Wouldn't it be fun to go shopping for a new wardrobe with a gorgeous rich man's credit card??? Here is my rendition of Julia Robert's red dress:



Simple dress was coloured in copics, popped up for dimension, grounded and highlighted with light yellow and framed in black to make it pop. I added the score lines and piercing for a bit of subtle interest...wouldn't want to outshine the red dress, you know!!

Stamps: a muse (simple dress, what fun, clear ovals)
Ink: palette hybrid noir, moulin rouge, SU so saffron
Paper: SU very vanilla, basic black
Accessories: scor-pal, paper piercer, pop dots

Pyjama Party - Challenge #3

A card for a girlfriend...well I have been meaning to make something for a friend at work since I saw and bought this stamp from a muse. I have had to bribe this particular friend on several occasions with chocolate!!



This card turned out a bit frilly! I don't usually make frilly cards...I would rather work outside than do housework, I am the only female in my household and I am not a huge fan of the colour pink!! Frills I used on this card were:

1) scalloped border
2) scalloped punch for the main image
3) pink accents (coloured in some of the open spaces in the madeira paper with pink, stamped the clear oval with 3rd-generation-stamped palette hybrid moulin rouge to make a pink base)
4) velvet ribbon
5) rounded corners

Now I feel like I need to go play in the mud, climb a tree and make a long skid with my bike!!

Stamps: a muse (truffle, everyone has a price, frames, clear oval)
Ink: palette hybrid burnt umber, moulin rouge
Paper: SU very vanilla, close to cocoa, a muse madeira
Accessories: SU scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches, scallop punch, ek success corner rounder punch, pop dots, velvet ribbon (Mike's), copics

Pyjama Party - Challenge #2

I used to love sleepover parties for my birthday when I was younger...as my birthday is near Halloween, we used to tell creepy stories in the dark...EEK!!

This was the fastest card on the planet...I stamped the letters "boo" (made sure they lined up using my stampamajig), then stamped the ghost inside the "o" (SAMJ again to line it up). I coloured the polka dots in the alpha with orange, purple and green copics, outlined the ghost a wee bit and DONE!!



Stamps: a muse (polka dot alpha, ghost)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: PTI white
Accessories: copics

Pajama Party - Challenge #1

My favourite food/drink? Ice cream...pralines and cream preferable, but I'd take anything with caramel in it!! I kept these ice cream treats plain and simple as I only had 30 minutes to put this card together. You can imagine your own favourite flavours of ice cream for this card!



I have a small stash of twinkle stickers...they make perfect cherries, and provide a bit of colour pop here. A little bit of stitched ribbon leftover from last year's a muse peace and cheer kit serves as a ground for the ice cream bowls. A muse's new gingham paper works well as a table cloth. Mmmm...now I need to raid the freezer!! Care to join me??


Stamps: a muse (sundaes, treat for you)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Paper: PTI white, a muse (gingham)
Accessories: stitched ribbon (a muse), twinkle stickers (a muse), SU word window punch

Art Challenge!

I participated in the CAS (clean and simple) challenge on SCS this week...

The card I made was inspired by this piece of art by Alan Buckle called Teal Bubble Flowers. It caught my eye because it would be perfect for my bedroom...



I cut out a square of so saffron and ran it through a cuttlebug embossing folder. I inked over this with gold ink to make it stand out more. I added some random fuzzy teal brads (aren't they fab!!) and a sentiment. I matted this in chocolate and pierced around. Pretty simple!

I made it a birthday card 'cause I have 4 birthdays coming up in my family...must get shopping!! Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: PTI faux ribbon
Paper: SU vanilla, chocolate chip, so saffron
Ink: palette hybrid burnt umber, brilliance galaxy gold
Accessories: cuttlebug embossing folder, fuzzy brads by creative cafe, paper piercer, SU small oval punch, pop dots

Cupcake Sunshines!

Here's a card to fit 2 challenges...AMAP #4 "SPOT!" and SCS's CAS22 "Hey, Hey, It's your birthday!". This card was done in 10 minutes tops! Easy to mass-produce!

I marked out a 3x3 grid in pencil for spacing of the sunshines, used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up, added the sentiment, erased my pencil lines and added popped up punched circles to the centres of suns. Pretty cool that the paper I used has spots on it, huh? Thanks for stopping by!!



Stamps: A muse (funnest birthday, Sun)
Paper: SU very vanilla, BG cupcake
Ink: Palette Hybrid noir
Accessories: SU 1/2" circle punch, pop dots, SAMJ

Twilight Challenge...

Another AMAP challenge...Twilight!! I just started reading this series...I resisted the hype long enough...I'm anxious to get started into the third book! I decided to make a card with Eddie coming in the window- he does that so often!



I stamped A muse's Classic Window, then masked the bottom part and stamped Eddie. The images are coloured in with copics and the window cut out. I was able to make a night sky with a mix of blues, greys and violets. I consulted my book and read that Bella has light blue walls and wood floors in her bedroom...that helped me pick the card's colours! This was an easy and quick card to make! Hope you like it, and if you have not read the books yet, what are you waiting for???!!!

Stamps: A muse (vampire, classic window, in my thoughts)
Ink: Palette Hybrid Noir
Paper: SU (kraft, very vanilla, dp)
Accessories: copics, pop dots

Announcing...

I am still up...it's after 1am...I started fiddling around with my ribbon scraps and I ended up making another card for AMAP's second challenge. I used my scraps of ribbon to make a stage curtain for the Announcer. The ribbon is cut into small pieces and adhered to the back of a strip of black gingham with glue lines. I popped up the strip on glue dots for dimension.

I started out colouring the Announcer in shades of blue/turquoise only, but then decided to add a bit of red for some pop. I was tempted to add a bit of crystal effects to his hat and boots for dimension, but at this hour of the night/morning, I figured I'd likely just make a big mess. So I didn't. Maybe tomorrow...

The announcer is shouting "You're the best"...the perfect sentiment to use on a card for one of my bosses who is retiring next week. I will miss her...a lot!


Stamps: A muse (announcer, you're the best)
Paper: A muse black gingham, PTI white
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: copics, unknown ribbon, glue dots

AMAP...second challenge!

First of all, I must brag a wee bit! The card I made with the mosaic squares made the AMAP challenge round up here. Go check out the other gorgeous cards that were featured...lots of inspiration!!

Ribbon is AMAP's second challenge. I love ribbon! I am usually pretty predictable with my use of ribbon...I just lay it across the width of my card and tie a nice knot in it...done! For this challenge, I wanted to use it differently.

Enter Snail...one of the latest additions to my "collection". I decided to dress him/her up in a lovely red stitched ribbon shell. This card went together in 5 minutes!!



Stamps: a muse (snail, sentiment from simple wishes)
Paper: PTI white
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: copics, paper piercer, ribbon (amuse), glue dots

A-Muse-A-Palooza challenges have begun!

I am back to blogging...A-muse-a-Palooza (henceforth known as AMAP) was what got me started with this blog last year...posting was OK for a bit, then my blogging slowed down to a trickle and then stopped. UGH. Hope I can keep a trickle of posts going from now on.

Jennie's first challenge for AMAP is SQUARE! I love squares. I love clean lines. I love 4.25" square cards. This challenge is perfect! I ended up making two cards...

I started with the idea of using my tiny 1/4" square punch to make a frame of little squares around my main image...after playing around a bit, the idea morphed into making a mosaic out of the tiny squares to accent my main image. Once I got my main image stamped and matted, I decided the little mosaics were too much for it so I kept the card plain and accented the image with a sentiment stamped repeatedly as a frame. I once took an online class with Julie Ebersole (fab class, learned a ton!!). She had us plan and sketch our cards out in rough before making them. Although it was a great exercise, I can't seem to do it in real life...I'm too impulsive and just need to do things...thinking about things for too long before doing them is not my forte! So my creative process is very much "fly by the seat of my pants!".

Here is the first card that "happened":



Now I had two cute little 3/4" square mosaic tiles to use up...so I stamped a sentiment on the bottom right corner of a square card, made one more mosaic tile, played around with the position of the three tiles for half an hour (yikes!) and stuck 'em on with pop dots. I added a little paper piercing on the bottom (I love piercing, it's subtle but adds something). Done. Not at all what I envisioned at the beginning, but now I have 2 cards that will definitely use within the next week! Here is the mosaic tile card:



What's in card #1:
Stamps: a muse
Paper: SU very vanilla & basic black
Ink: palette hybrid noir & SU soft sky
Accessories: SAMJ

What's in card #2:
Stamps: a muse
Paper: a muse, SU basic black, very vanilla
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: SU 1/4" square punch, pop dots, MM paper piercer