CAS(E) This Sketch 215

In like lion, out like a lamb.  That's how March is usually described.  I didn't see either one of those this month but I did see this pig, albeit on Facebook, who had wandered from his pen and was roaming the streets of my fair city recently.

Turns out his name is Alexander Hamilton and he frequently escapes to visit some of his horse friends at a home near his own.  You gotta love it when someone posts something like this on Facebook just for fun!

But enough of my local news!  I think you came here because it's Thursday and it's time to reveal a new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.  I tried my hand at a little white on white design , praying fervently all the while that I'd be able to photograph my card with some hope of having the design actually show up!

First of all I will just start off by saying that attempting to do a white on white card when there are cats roaming all over your stamping space is really hard.  I usually joke that all my cards come with cat hair at no extra charge, but when you are seriously trying to make a card look pristine all of a sudden that free cat hair isn't so funny any more!  There are lots of die cuts on this card so I'm adding it to the AAA Challenge as well.

You don't want to miss the cards the CAS(E) This Sketch design team created for you this week.  So much inspiration!  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

And if you'll indulge me just one more time here is a little pic of Alexander Hamilton with one of his horse friends. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies
Stamps:  Label Love (Altenew)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Anémones die (4enscrap); Petit Assortiment d'automne die (Simply Graphic)

Freshly Made Sketches 281

We've got a great new sketch for you this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess is Kim and if you are one of those who like to put three of something on your cards you're going to love this one!

I think I've mentioned a time or two that when I have to put three of something on a card I tend to zone out and can't figure out what three things I should use.  So full truth here:  on this card I alternatively considered patterned paper, washi tape, and stamped images before finally settling on some baker's twine wound around a layer of cardstock.  That's actually a favorite little thing I do because I love how the baker's twine gives the card some texture and dimension.

I felt like a flower would fit nicely with the circle shape so I dug out an old favorite Verve set and stamped a big flower in purple.  I am quite sure it doesn't show up but the center of the flower is actually a little circle I punched of glimmer paper so it's quite sparkly in real life!  I got my colors for this card from the Sunday Stamps challenge.

Incidentally as I was perusing my stash of washi tape I discovered something.  I store my washi in little bins on my stamp desk and the spot where they are happens to get some afternoon sunlight.  I've got several rolls that are manufactured by Scotch and the washi is unique in that it has a bit of a shine to it.  (All my other washi is that thin papery style that has a matte finish).  Well, apparently the sun and that Scotch tape don't mix too well because all of those rolls have basically been cooking in the sun and the tape will no longer unwind because it's glued to itself.  When I do manage to get a piece off it is gummy and sticky and pretty much useless.  So word of warning:  keep your shiny and/or Scotch brand washi out of direct sunlight.

I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Our design team has made some beautiful cards to inspire you so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Dream Big (Verve)
Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Solar White (Neenah); Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Royal Velvet (Papertrey Ink); Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades (Altenew)
Accessories:  Scalloped Flowers die, Dreamy Leaves die (Verve); baker's twine (American Crafts)

Butterfly Thanks

The inspiration photo at Just Us Girls gave me an excuse to use an old favorite color:  Kiwi Kiss.  I've even got some Kiwi Kiss patterned paper that I've been hoarding saving so I was able to use both on my card.

And since spring has sprung around here I thought it would be appropriate to use a pretty butterfly on my card.  I used the sketch at Can You Case It and the square on the sketch became the butterfly on my card.

Short and sweet today.  It's Monday so that means it's back to work for another exciting week at the old desk!  Blah...

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Hennah Elements (Altlenew)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Kiwi Kiss, Garden Green, Basic Black, Vellum, Walk in the Park DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Papillons die (4enscrap); enamel dew drops (Freckled Fawn)

Lesley's Baby Girl Blog Hop

The secret is out!  Today is the day!  For these many long weeks friends of Lesley Croghan have been secretly planning a special baby blog hop just for her!  Our fearless leader in this super-secret mission is Lori Turner and I just want to start out this post by giving her a huge shout-out for conceiving of this idea, inviting a vast stamping community to play along, and for organizing the whole thing!

I am sure that many of you reading this know Lesley.  And if you don't know her personally I am sure that you have been touched by her in some way (even if you don't realize it).  She's been the driving force behind a multitude of stamping challenges all across blogland, many of which you might play along with every week.  She always has a word of encouragement for her stamping friends, a smile to offer, and is someone who I would really like to meet some day in real life!

Many years ago, back in early 2011, I got an email from Lesley asking me if I would like to be a guest designer at The Paper Players for the month of April 2011.  I was just a girl that liked to make cards and play along in challenges and here this rock-star was asking ME if I would like to join her band of merry card-makers.  Once I contained my excitement I said yes and I am forever grateful to her for giving me a chance to flex my card-making muscles and for encouraging me in this wonderful paper crafting community.  Although she probably didn't know it, she gave me the courage to continue on this crafty journey I had set myself on.

So today I get to be a small part of another community of friends that collectively thanks Lesley for her friendship, her mentorship, and her endless crafty inspiration.  Lesley is expecting a baby girl soon and I wanted to send her and her husband my heartfelt wishes for a healthy and beautiful baby with this wee card.

Now, there are quite a few of us like-minded crafty souls who have also made cards for Lesley and you can find them all here on Lori's blog.  There's a link party going on over there and we would love to have you join us.  Just make a baby themed card and link it to the gallery.

Over the last several weeks Lori collected all of our cards, packaged them up and sent them to Lesley with strict instructions to not open the box until today.  I wish I was there to see the look on her face when she saw what was inside!

Finally I am sending many blessings to you, Lesley and Corey, for a beautiful, healthy, and happy baby!

Supplies
Stamps:  Welcome Baby (SugarPea Designs)
Paper: Solar White (Neenh); Pixie (Avery Elle)
Ink:  Pink Pirouette (Stampin Up)!
Accesories:  Welcome Baby die (SugarPea Designs); Alpha Whimsy die (Paper Smooches)

Tag You're It 68

Not only am I flabbergasted that it is Friday already, but also March is nearly over.  How did THAT happen?  Time marches on and so do papercrafting challenges!  Today I'm pleased to show you the latest challenge at Tag You're It with inspiration provided by the amazing Gayatri Murali.

How cute is Gayatri's tag?!?!!!  That dog!  I tried to recreate some of the elements of the tag with the supplies I have so I started by embossing some brickwork with embossing paste on the actual tag then I added a little dog house and my furry friend.  I placed my sentiment vertically too.

There are a couple of die-related challenges this week and since I used three on this tag I'll be including it at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge as well as AAA Cards challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to check out the inspiration from the Tag You're It challenge design team.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Who Let the Dogs Out (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Riding Hood Red, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew); Prismacolor Pencils 
Accessories:  Dog Icons die, Quote Tag (Paper Smooches); Mini Brick stencil (The Crafters Workshop); embossing paste (Dreamweaver); baker's twine

CAS(E) This Sketch 214

The calendar says spring but someone needs to tell Mother Nature!  We started out this first official week of spring with some beautiful weather and warm temperatures (warm for Massachusetts in March, I mean)!  But then old man winter decided he needed an encore and came back with cold weather plus lots and lots of wind.  Temporary, I am sure, but enough already.  Bring on spring for real!

For real, though, we've got a great new sketch for you at CAS(E) This Sketch.  It put me in mind of lots of leafy die cuts so that's the direction I went in.

And the colors this week at Color Throwdown gave me an excuse to dig into my stash of Baja Breeze card stock!  There's a die cut challenge at AAA Cards too so I think this qualifies there as well.

My teamies at CAS(E) This Sketch have interpreted this sketch in some beautiful ways so be sure to check them out.  I am sure you will be inspired to join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sweet Treats (Verve)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Really Rust, Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Leaf Filled Flourish die, Blueprints 13 (My Favorite Things); Curvy Leaves die (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Berry Sprig die (Poppystamps); Physalis die (Simply Graphic); Frightful enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Freshly Made Sketches 280!

This week at Freshly Made Sketches we have this great sketch designed by Linda.  Those may be butterflies on the sketch but you can, of course, use any shape you'd like!

I actually had no idea what shapes I was going to use on my card.  So I started to peruse some of my dies and found these clouds.  Once I saw those I immediately thought of this little flying bunny because what's more natural than an airplane, piloted by a big-eared rabbit, flying through the clouds?  It didn't help that Linda and I were chatting the other day about a Copic coloring class so I had coloring on my mind.  It's been a while since I've used my Copics so it was good to put those to work.

The sentiment on this card is an old one from The Alley Way Stamps, which is no longer in business.  I love how it fits perfectly in the space between the cloud and the plane.  Plus it's a pretty cool sentiment for my little adventurous rabbit.  I'm pretty sure it's about five or six years old so I'm going to add this to the "anything goes" challenge at Retro Rubber.

Thanks for stopping by.  And please join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches where you'll find awesome inspiration from our always-amazing design team!

Supplies
Stamps:  All About You (The Alley Way Stamps); Rabbit Traveler Airplane (Zlatoena Designs)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Blueberry Sky (Papertrey Ink); X-Press It Blending Card; Gingham-Linen Rainbow Petite Prints (Doodlebug Design)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew); Copics
Accessories:  Puffy Clouds die (Memory Box)

Tag You're It 67

I have been a busy beaver in my stamp room this week.  I don't know when I've had so much time to get my fingers inky but I won't question it!  Today I've got a tag to show you that is based on the inspiration at Tag You're It and the holiday foliage challenge at Jingle Belles.

I loved the embossed clockwork on featured artist Marion's tag and imagine my surprise when I discovered a clockwork stencil in my stash!  That was the first feature I decided to copy on my tag but since there was a big snowstorm in the forecast that made me think of winter and not summer flowers, I used a poinsettia and made a Christmas tag instead.

Incidentally the snowstorm ended up being a dud around here.  First impressions had a forecast of 12 to 18 inches of the white fluffy stuff but, fortunately for me, the storm tracked further west than originally thought and I ended up with about 6 inches of snow followed by a lot of rain.  And the reason why I had so much extra time in my stamp room is because my boss cancelled work in an anticipation of all that snow so I had all day on Tuesday to putter around the house!!!  I didn't do so much puttering as creating, but who cares!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Cherry Cobbler, Old Olilve, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Spruce & Sprigs die (Papertrey Ink); Clockwork stencil (Tim Holtz); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver); Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, silver cord (Stampin' Up!)

CAS(E) This Sketch 213!

Hello there!  It's Thursday so that means it's time for a new challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch!  The sketch may have clouds and raindrops but I had a different interpretation in mind.

My ink splatter has drops around it that echo the raindrops on the sketch.  And I die cut the sentiment right out of the center of it and popped it up so that it could be seen better.  They are looking for green and white creations at The Paper Players and I think this fits the bill!  

My teamies at CAS(E) This Sketch have some fabulous cards to inspire you to play along with us so be sure to check them out.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Stamps:  Ink Splats (Neat & Tangled)

Paper:  White (Catherine Pooler)

Ink:  Lime  Ricky (Catherine Pooler)

Accessories:  Happy Hellos die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 279!

Today is the 15th of March.  And you know what that means.  Beware the Ides of March!  Actually it's the day when we unveil a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  Assassination of Julius Caesar aside, the 15th of March isn't so bad!  Our sketch this week is designed by Rita.

I had another, entirely different, card made for this challenge on Sunday but I kept thinking about it when I was at work on Monday and I decided I wasn't happy with it.  I turned to the Merry Monday Challenge for some inspiration.  Their challenge was to use bronze, gold, and turquoise on a card and I knew I could do that.  What I knew I couldn't do was photograph my card properly so that you could see the difference between the bronze and the gold.  Aaaannnnd I was right!

Just so we're clear, the dots and the fa la la sentiment are embossed in gold while the layer underneath that is bronze.  I promise.

So thanks for stopping by.  And don't forget to pop on by Freshly Made Sketches to check out the inspiration from the design team.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Confetti (The Ton)
Paper:  Ivory (Flourishes); Tempting Turquoise (Stampin' Up!); Kraft Core Metallic (Tim Holtz)
Ink:  Golden Glitz Delicata (Tsukineko)
Accessories:  Lindeman Snowflake die (Memory Box); Blueprints 21 die, Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX (My Favorite Things); Winter Wonderland sequins (Neat & Tangled); gold embossing powder

Just a Note

There's a big snow storm (read: blizzard) heading my way for Tuesday.  Oh joy.  On the off chance that the power goes out I did a bunch of stamping Sunday to get some of my DT commitments out of the way and I actually had a bit of extra time to make a card just for fun.

The other day I was perusing the Papertrey Ink sneak peeks for March and one of the cards featured a bunch of punched out circles in bright colors.  I loved how simple and colorful the card was so when I saw the latest challenge at Match the Sketch I knew that I wanted to use the same idea.  I got my colors from Color Throwdown .

The only good thing about a blizzard in March is that the snow generally melts pretty quickly after it's all over.  Summer can't come soon enough for me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Keep It Simple: Just a Note (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Night of Navy, Wild Wasabi, Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); 1/2-inch circle punch (Stampin' Up!); black embossing powder

CAS(E) This Sketch 212

Hey there!  We've got a brand new challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch to introduce to you this fine day.  It's pretty awesome and I'm also pretty sure that you are going to love it!

The other day on my Facebook feed a video popped up about stamping a plaid background.  It reminded me that I used to create my own plaid backgrounds with post-it tapes and lots of sponged colors.  This sketch seemed perfect for that technique so, inspired by the colors at Sunday Stamps, I sat down at my desk and spent a relaxing time swirling color around on my card front.

I added a bold sentiment (with a few cat hairs interfering for good measure) and I was done!  I'm pleased with how this came out and I think I can use this for that oh-so-difficult man-card!  A birthday sentiment on the inside would be perfect.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the cards that our amazing CAS(E) This Sketch design team has made for this challenge.  You're going to love them!

Supplies
Stamps:  Celebrate Big (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  White (Catherine Pooler)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Dusty Durango (Stampin' Up!); Simply Chartreuse, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink); Jet Black (Altenew)

Freshly Made Sketches 278!

This week I am the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches!  I designed the sketch so that there would be plenty of room for creative interpretation.  At least I hope I did!

I was feeling a little nostalgic for some of my old stamps apparently because I grabbed an old SU set and stamped these grassy images.  And since it's been a while since I've made a butterfly card I decided that a butterfly would look quite nice resting on some of those blades of grass.  I actually made a big boo-boo on this card and if you look closely you'll probably see it.  I wanted to make sure that I got a good image of the grass and was pressing the stamp with a bit more force than was probably necessary because it ended up moving a smidge and I got a bit of double image.  I actually liked how it looked so I didn't re-do it.  I remember this old adage very well:  there are no mistakes in stamping!

The colors for my card come from the latest challenge at Cupcake Inspirations.  Incidentally I didn't set out to make a sympathy card, but as I was perusing my sentiment stamps my eye happened to fall on a set of sympathy sentiments that I got recently and one of them fit perfectly on that panel.  The strange thing is that some friends of mine lost a family member recently and I really think that I was being guided to make this particular card at this particular time.  Amen!

I really hope you have a chance to play along this week with my sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  If you need some inspiration you need only to hop on over there to see some amazing creations from the design team!  See you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Inspired by Nature (Stamin' Up!); Keep it Simple: Sympathy (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Pure Ivory (Gina K); Chocolate Chip, Bermuda Bay, Regal Rose, Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Bermuda Bay (Stampin' Up!); Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Papillon die (4enscrap); Wink of Stella

My Hero

There are some fun colors this week at Color Throwdown.  Whenever I see colors like that it makes me think of my super hero stamps!  So I grabbed one of them and sat down to color.

A couple of years ago I made a tag using the female super hero version of this stamp set and it's one of my favorite projects.  I keep it on a shelf around my stamping desk and I took it out for a little inspiration as I contemplated this challenge.  I ended up CASing myself and now I've got a matching set!  And I'll also admit that the tag challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge was a big influence on my design too!

The other day I had a terrible time getting a good photo of a card that I had made so I did a little photography experiment with this tag.  Although I think I've got a decent amount of light on my cards the colors never look quite right when I'm looking at the pictures that I take.  I have no idea what I'm doing wrong and I'm so envious when I look at other blogs and see cards that are photographed so well.  So for this tag I used my phone (which has a very nice camera) and I took the photo from directly above (while the tag was flat on some patterned paper) to see if I would get better results.

Well, the experiment results are that the colors are WAY OFF in this picture!  The red looks like Cherry Cobbler and the blue looks like Baja Breeze but I actually used Real Red and Bashful Blue (which are quite different).  And you can barely see the green that I used on the belt and top of the boots.  I think I'll go back to the old way of taking my pictures :(

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Super Boy (My Favorite Things); Super (Paper Smooches); Bright Days (Avery Elle)
Paper:  Real Red, Bashful Blue (Stampin' Up!); White (Catherine Pooler)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!); Jet Black (Altenew); Prismacolor Pencils
Accessories:  Basic Bookmark 2 die (Papertrey Ink); baker's twine

CAS(E) This Sketch 211!

Boy we have rolled around to another Thursday awful quickly!  One day closer to the weekend, yay!  But first we've got a brand new challenge for you at CAS(E) This Sketch and our design this week comes to you from Michelle Ferguson.

I went a bit literal with the sketch because the flowers on it put me in mind of these pretty poppies.  Plus I had the colors from the inspiration photo at Just Us Girls in my head so the two just went together perfectly.  There's also a one layer challenge at CAS-ual Fridays so I put that in the mix too!

I love it when you can take an idea and translate it to paper and it actually comes out how you envisioned it!  That's exactly what happened here.  And the bonus thing with a one-layer card is that it usually comes together fairly quickly!

There are some fabulous interpretations of this sketch from the CAS(E) This Sketch design team that you don't want to miss.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Take Note (Verve)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 277!

I've been a very lazy stamper!  I haven't spent a lot of time in the old craft cave lately but I did manage to get my act together for the newest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess and sketch designer is Jen Timko.  Check out the beautiful blank canvas she's given us:

I found myself a bit undecided about that blank space - should I fill it with stamped images, use patterned paper, or something else?  As I searched through my supplies for the answer I stumbed on this patterned paper with wee stars and, inspired by the "cats" challenge at Cupcake Inspirations, I grabbed this fun kitty cat die.  After that the sentiment was a no-brainer!  There's a "critter" challenge at CAS on Sunday, and although my own kitties probably wouldn't like it if I referred to them as critters, I'm going to enter this card over there as well.

Thanks for stopping by.  Pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out the beautiful cards made by the design team.  There are so many great interpretations of the sketch, you will surely be inspired.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  You  Crazy Cat (Concord & 9th)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Sea Glass, The Everyday Collection (Avery Elle); Black (Simon Says Stamp)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  feLINE die (Penny Black)