To all the Heroes...

Thank you for all you do and have done...this card is for you.

Everyday when I drive to and from work, I pass a house with a big yellow ribbon tied around the biggest tree in their yard. Ever since I knew about the theme for this week's CAS challenge on SCS, "Heroes", I knew I wanted to make a card with a yellow ribbon on it.



Supplies:

Paper: SU (going grey, very vanilla)
Stamps: A muse (thanks)
Ink: palette hybrid noir
Accessories: SU ribbon, A muse twinkle stickers, pop dots, corner chomper, black copic marker

This is the last card for my stint on the CAS design team...the selection process is in full swing for the summer term. I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this...CAS is right up my alley!!

The card is pretty self explanatory...I attached the ribbon with glue dots, stamped and fussy-cut the sentiment (don't you love it's size?!), popped it up and chomped the corners off. I added the twinkle stickers (coloured black with copics) as an afterthought because the card was missing something. Thanks for stopping by...hope you can play along!

Overlapped...

I'm a bit slow getting Susan's (LateBlossom) One Layer Wednesday card done...here it is in all its overlapped glory:



Supplies:

Paper: A muse notecard
Ink: Palette hybrid noir & charcoal, SU soft sky & cool caribbean
Stamps: A muse (big bl, jellyfish, hello)
Accessories: copics

Amazingly enough, I did not feel compelled to add any glitter, bling or any other dimension to the card. WOW. I chose to pair the jellyfish and the hello sentiment because I thought the tentacles were similar to the hello font. I stamped the jellyfish in charcoal ink and the sentiment in noir so that it would stand out from the tentacles. I added big bl in the background to ground the image (stamped off once to be more subtle). Done. I may mass produce these or some variation for my son's teacher. Need to get working on that....4 teachers to make card sets for...

Hope your weekend is enjoyable...maybe you'll have time to try Susan's challenge!

Summer Time...

As this post goes up, I am in the Big Apple for a long weekend getaway with my hubby! I will have to post some pics when I get back...

This week's CAS challenge on SCS has to do with summer. The weather here lately has been so warm and sunny, perfect inspiration for this card:



Supplies:

Paper: SU(barely banana, kraft, summer sun), PTI white, A muse (gingham)
Ink: Palette hybrid burnt umber
Stamps: A muse
Accessories: copics, cricut (going places cartridge), MFT large scallop die, SU chunky glitter, pop dots, SU word window punch, corner chomper

I started this card out with the sandcastle stamp. I made a sandy border with a strip of kraft that I ran through the xyron and glittered. I made the waves with my new MFT scallop die (LOVE it!!). I added the sunny coloured background and a sparkly sunshine. The sun was cut out using my cricut. I had to fiddle with the sentiment to get it to fit into the word window punch...it's actually longer than the punch shape. I won't try to describe this myself as GinaK has already made a lovely tutorial with pictures about how to make a long word window punch shape. This card certainly isn't my usual CAS style, but I like it!! There's still some white space, right??!! Have a great day...hope you can play along in the challenge!

Three Latte Thanks...

I can't stop buying A muse stamps...I got a wee shipment in the mail from tamijo on SCS - the clear coffee break set. Had to ink it up tonight...perfect for a friend who just returned from Cuba and brought me back a gorgeous little espresso cup. Also perfect for this month's A muse Lounge Challenge, "2, 4, 6, 8, Who Do We Appreciate?"

Here is what I made:


Supplies:

Paper: SU (kraft, cranberry crisp, very vanilla)
Ink: palette hybrid burnt umber, PTI tea dye (chai & chamomile)
Stamps: A muse (coffee break & ovals)
Accessories: copics, pop dots, SU curly label punch, paper piercer, SAMJ,

I stamped three coffee mugs and coloured them with my copics. I masked them and used one of my oval stamps to ground them. I was going to punch them out with a circle punch, but my hubby thought I should use the "funky square" punch instead. Good idea!! I couldn't resist a little distressing around the edges with the tea dye inks (I'm likin' this shabby thing...)

I stamped the sentiment repeatedly along the bottom third of the card. Thank goodness for my Tim Holtz ruler - amazingly easy to line up images so they are straight. I added a strip of red under the "funky squares" because they seemed too stark white compared to the rest of the card. Then I used the ruler again to pierce lines above and below the sentiment & the images. Hope you like it!!

Shabby Chic...

I have never ever made a shabby chic style card in my life! It was fun to try it out for this week's CAS challenge on SCS. I really put my PTI tea dye ink to work on this one...


Supplies:

Paper: SU vanilla, blush blossom
Ink: PTI tea dye (chamomile & chai), Palette hybrid burnt umber
Stamps: A muse (congratulations)
Accessories: EK success dotted scallop punch, sizzix tag dye, flower (Stamping Bella), Pearl (K & Co), Ribbon (SU), pop dots

I punched a piece of very vanilla with the dotted scallop punch, then scrunched up the paper until I could peel it into two pieces (faux suede technique). I layed down some sticky strip and attached the faux suede pieces in a ruffle shape. I highlighted the ruffles with the tea dye ink. The ribbon was tied to hide the edge of the ruffle. I just love this label die shape and it seemed perfect for a shabby chic card. The font on this sentiment also seemed shabby chic-ish. I finished the card off with a gorgeous flower embellishment that I have been hoarding. Everything on this card got distressed both on the edges (I just used my fingernail) and with the tea dye ink. Hope you like it...and hope you can play along this week!

A second choice card...

I am posting a card that I made for CAS60 on SCS - a sketch based on my fellow-DT member Carly's card. I ended up using another card for that challenge but I still like this one...


Supplies:
Paper: SU (barely banana, sage shadow, basic grey, very vanilla)
Stamps: a muse (it's your day, simple wishes), PTI (Green Thumb)
Ink: Palette hybrid charcoal
Accessories: liquid pearls, pop dots, circle nestibilities, MS scallop punch, ribbon (SU)

I stamped 3 baskets on the circles and embellished the flower centres with liquid pearls. I added the scalloped edge and ribbon to ground the circles. The thing that took the longest was placing the flowers. I played around with that for 1/2 an hour!!

I have a few other cards like this that didn't end up being my first choice for the challenges that I will try to post over the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by!

A day for Umbrellas...

Susan's One Layer Challenge this week is to use ribbon. She said only one piece of ribbon; I said "these ribbons are so skinny, I need to use 3 of them"!! It's a rainy, miserable day today, so umbrellas were the perfect stamp to reach for for this card.



Supplies:
Paper: PTI white
Ink: Palette hybrid noir
Stamps: A muse
Accessories: ribbon (May Arts), MM paper piercer, copics

I stamped the umbrellas using my SAMJ, grounded them with 3 ribbons, added some piercing and a sentiment. For the sake of simplicity, I resisted the urge to add some raindrops. Hope you like it...and hope you try out Susan's latest challenge.

From a sketch...

Kelly made this lovely card which is the sketch inspiration for the 66th CAS challenge on SCS. I also had this month's A muse Lounge Challenge in mind when I made my card.


Stamps: A muse (backpack, school time)
Ink: Palette hybrid noir & moulin rouge
Paper: A muse (school lined cardstock), SU (very vanilla)
Accessories: copics, pop dots, corner chomper

I stamped the backpacks repeatedly on a strip of paper, then coloured them with my copics in bright primary colours. The alphabet line from A muse's School Time clear set made a perfect border underneath the main image. I hand cut a heart because I did not have a punch or a die in the exact shape/size appropriate for this card (GASP!!). I stamped the sentiment from the same clear set and sponged the edges of the heart in red. I decided to chomp off the corners of my card at the last minute as I seemed to fit with the roundness of the heart.

Hope you like it! It is just about time for teachers' thank you cards...hope you feel inspired to join these challenges and make some of your own!

Note of Thanks...

The latest A muse Lounge challenge is "2, 4, 6, 8 who do we appreciate?"
I swear, Jennie is one of the most creative challenge hostesses on the planet! This was perfectly timed as I needed to make a thank you card and gift for my son's music teacher. He's been going to this wonderful group music lesson since he was 2. Monday is his last day as he is starting kindergarten and can't go anymore, 'cause the class is during the day. Anyways, onto what I made!

I actually started out my making the notecard set. I absolutely love A muse's 4 bar notecards...they make it easy to create a quick set of cards! I got these pink ones by winning one of the Lounge challenges...

I pierced a line across the bottom of the card, perched the song bird on the line, added the sentiment below, the music notes and coloured the bird with sparkly at you spica glitter pens (turquoise and purple). I boxed them up and added a pretty ribbon to match. Pretty quick gift!


Supplies:
Paper: A muse notecards
Ink: palette hybrid burnt umber
Stamps:A muse (song bird, just a note), PTI (birds of a feather)
Accessories: Atyou spica glitter pens, paper piercer, ribbon (Michael's)

When I made the card, I used the same concept of the bird on the line. I stamped off big bl once then stamped it on a scrap, cut around it and distressed the edge a bit with my nail. I matted it in some woodgrain paper. The rectangle was looking kind of bare, so I stamped the clouds in the top left, then paper pieced them with white to make them look more real. I like how the one hangs over the edge! That wasn't planned to begin with...

Supplies: Paper: PTI white, A muse (woodgrain)
Ink: palette hybrid burnt umber, SU (soft sky, bashful blue)
Stamps: A muse (clouds, song bird, just a note, big bl), PTI (birds of a feather)
Accessories: pop dots, paper piercer

Thanks for coming by...be sure to head over to the Lounge and play in the challenge, there are prizes to be had!!!

Punctuation...

LateBlossom has started to post One Layer Card Challenges on Wednesday! What is a Clean and Simple gal to do but play along!! This week it's all about punctuation. Susan posted some pretty gorgeous and clever samples...here is my card:


Stamps: SU (supersize symbols), A muse (thank you for everything)
Ink: Versamagic (aquatic splash, ocean depth)
Paper: SU (Kraft)
Accessories: SAMJ, liquid pearls, glimmer mist

Can you guess which symbol I used? I pulled out a never-inked SU set, Supersize Symbols for this one and used the quotation marks to make a border. They were stamped along a line and then stamped upside down again to make the pattern. I added some liquid pearls at the point where the quotation marks joined each other to cover up the slightly inconsistent spacing between them (what would I do without my Stampamajig???). I added the sentiment on top and spritzed the whole card with Tattered angels glimmer mist. I overdid it a bit with the mist and the card dried pretty wonky. It was pretty wonky still after a night under a big book...

Oh well...it was a super fun challenge...I look forward to more of Susan's challenges! Thanks for stopping by.