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)

CAS(E) This Sketch 206!

I just checked the calendar and sure enough it's Thursday.  This week is just whizzing by!  And I don't usually say that about weeks when I'm at work!  But Thursday also means it's time for a new challenge from your friends at CAS(E) This Sketch.  So here goes:

For a brief moment I thought about sticking with the inspiration on the sketch and using a bird on my card - but then I came across this cute stamp set full of monsters and knew that would be way more fun!  I grabbed some blue and purple pencils and colored him a-la the challenge at Can You Case It then added some silver embossing paste through a dotted stencil.  I have no idea what occasion I would use this card for but I love the sentiment.  One day I hope I'll find the perfect person to send it to!

The CAS(E) This Sketch design team has some awesome cards to show you this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Monsters Ink (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Foil Paper (Recollections)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew); Pacific Point (Stampin' Up!); Prismacolor pencils
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Dot Fade stencil (Tim Holtz); Metallic Silver embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi)

colourQ 360!

I am on vacation this week from work and other than cleaning out the refrigerator I have no real plans.  I guess you can call this the ultimate relaxing stay-cation!  I have tentative plans to add crafting to my daily routine but I don't want to talk about it too much in case I jinx myself and it doesn't happen.  I usually spend a big chunk of my Sundays making all of my cards for the week but because I'm on vacation I didn't have to do that so this past Sunday I took my time and made just one!  Ooh-la-la!  The extra time allowed me to really think about my design and make a card that was a little more complicated than I usually do.

All of this is my lead up to the shaker card that I made using the new palette at colourQ.  I made a shaker because 1) I got a cool new stamp that is tailor made for shakers; 2) I have some cool sequins mixes that have names like Autumn Harvest and Festive Fall which fit perfectly with the colors of the challenge; 3)  shakers are way cool; and 4) the challenge this week at Can You Case It is, you guessed it, shakers.

Lessons learned on this card is to cut the circle from the cardstock first then stamp that bokeh burst image around the hole.  I did the opposite, and it was difficult to line up my circle die with the stamped image since it's done upside down.  If you look closely you'll see that it's off a bit.  It probably won't be all that noticeable to whoever receives this card, but I know it's not quite right!  I'm sure you can relate!!

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck cleaning out the fridge.  I am sure I'll find some expired salad dressing in there somewhere!

And don't forget to pop on by colourQ and check out our latest challenge.  There's loads of inspiration to be found there and I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Bokeh Burst Round (The Ton)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Soft Suede, Hello Honey (SU)
Ink:  Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Thanks Script die (Mama Elephant); Autumn Harvest sequins (Pretty Pink Posh); Festive Fall Mix sequins (Neat & Tangled)

Freshly Made Sketches 248!

Time for our first challenge of August over at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Linda is our hostess and she's cooked up a classic sketch that you will get a lot of mileage out of.  And don't be worried if you have no feathers in your stash - you can use whatever shape you'd like!

The color combo at Can You Case It is a favorite of mine:  gray, yellow, and black so I really wanted to play along with them.  Plus the tic tac toe challenge at The Paper Players was looking for masculine in the top row so I figured these colors would be perfect for that.  I got a kick out of the enamel dots being on the same line but I can see how those can be manly too!

I did layer my little stem with gray and vellum but I accidentally put too much glue on the vellum layer and the whole thing stuck to the card base making it really hard to see.  I tried to carefully pry it up so that there was some dimension to this card but it still is hard to see in the picture.  For the horizontal layer I stamped the sentiment then drew a box around it with a black marker to create the illusion of a separate layer.  I even cut the stem so that it seems like it is behind my faux layer!

The inspiration at Freshly Made Sketches is amazing this week so you'll definitely want to check it out if you haven't already.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Grateful (Concord & 9th)
Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Black (Simon Says Stamp); Basic Gray, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew);  Basic Black marker (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Chloe Stem die (Memory Box); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

colourQ 352!

It's July 26th.  How in the world did July go by so fast?  Before I know it, I'll be putting on heavy sweaters and shoveling snow.  Boo.  But waaayyyy before that happens I've got a new card to show you that I made for the latest colourQ challenge!

I got a new floral stamp set recently and thought the images in it would look good with the sketch at As You See It.  These flowers are so pretty and I wish I had stamped a few more!  There's a birthday challenge at Can You Case It so I inked up a birthday sentiment from a set I bought ages ago and never used before!  #NBUS

Well that's it for me today.  Short and sweet.  I've been doing a project at work that has my brain fried and my body exhausted every day so I've not been very diligent about keeping up with my blog visiting and commenting.  So if it's been a while since I've popped in to your blog, I apologize sincerely.  I appreciate each and every visitor to my blog and look forward to reading your comments and it pains me greatly that I haven't returned the favor lately.  Hopefully soon, I'll be back to a regular schedule!

Supplies
Stamps:  Floral Sketches (Papertrey Ink); Celebrate Big (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); So Saffron, Rich Razzleberry (SU)
Ink:  So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Rich Razzleberry (SU)
Accessories:  Festive Fall sequins (Neat & Tangled)

colourQ 350!

I was overcome with the need to make a baby card when I saw the latest colors from colourQ.  I don't really need a baby card (especially one that is sort of gender neutral) but I'm not one to question my intuition, so a baby card is what I went with.

Do not pay any attention to the crooked "baby" sentiment.  I always save the negative from my die-cuts so that I will have perfect placement when I glue it into its final resting place. But for some reason I decided to glue this one down without the aid of the template.  BIG mistake.  It's crooked and I hope that when I finally give this to someone my little boo-boo will go unnoticed!

The challenge this week at Addicted to CAS is Stripes and my layout comes from the sketch at Can You Case It.

My colourQ teamies have made some beautiful cards with these colors so be sure to check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Baby (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pool Party, So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Old Olive (SU)
Ink:  Old Olive (SU)
Accessories:  Wonky Stitched Rectangle die (My Favorite Things); Baby die (Simon Says Stamp); pastel sequins (Verve)

CAS(E) This Sketch 180!

 Hello, hello!  It's  Thursday and that means it's time for a new sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch.  This one made me think of a butterfly and I think you'll know why when you see it!

I'm not very good at following directions it seems because I put the butterfly in the wrong spot and took some liberties and used the "s" from my sentiment to represent one of the squares.  But I redeemed myself by using a couple of clear droplets for the other two squares and some sketchy lines for the horizontal part of the sketch.

My colors come from Can You Case It and the code word at Addicted to CAS is "fly" and who flies better than a butterfly!

Thanks for stopping by!  And I do hope you can check out the inspiration from my teammates at CAS(E) This Sketch and join us in the gallery with your creation!

Supplies
Stamps:  Papillon Potpourri (SU); Live Love Laugh & Be Happy (My Creative Time); Distressed Patterns (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point (SU)
Accessories:  Clear Droplets (Pretty Pink Posh)

CAS(E) This Sketch 178!

This week at CAS(E) This Sketch we've got a perfectly clean and simple layout for you.  I went one layer with this one using the colors from Can You Case It and the CAS celebration challenge at the Paper Players.

Over at the Paper Players they are celebrating their 300th challenge!  Can you believe it?  That's an amazing milestone to achieve and I couldn't be happier for them. My celebration card features some dandelions that are doing double-duty as fireworks and the coolest celebration sentiment there is!

Many, many years ago Lesley, who created the Paper Players, asked me to be a guest designer over there for a month.  Once I got over the shock that someone who wasn't related to me actually liked some of the cards I created, I replied with a resounding YES!  That was the first time I got to share some of my projects with a new audience and the experience gave me confidence to realize that what I was creating was pleasing to people.  What a cool thing that was.  Well fast forward a few years and here I am celebrating with them again.  Some of the faces have changed over there, but the inspiration and craftiness prevails!  So ladies, congratulations on this wonderful achievement and here's to 300 more!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I'll get to see you in the CAS(E) This Sketch gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Dandelion Dreams (Clearly Besotted); Exclamations (CAS-ual Fridays Stamps)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Real Red (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  sequins

Freshly Made Sketches 236!

Wednesday again?  How did that happen so fast?  I swear the days just keep going by faster and faster.  I recently came up with a good idea to have the weekend last three days instead of two (because two just isn't enough to get everything done) so now I just have to pitch it to my boss.  Somehow I don't think he's going to go for it!

Of course, the good thing about it being Wednesday is that it's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Rita is our hostess and her sketch made me dig into my never-going-to-be-depleted patterned paper stash.

The colors at Can You Case It gave me my palette and I had some of this patterned paper hanging around and even though it's meant to coordinate with off white I think it looks pretty good with white too (even in real life)!  I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with that big white space so I started perusing my dies and came across this bamboo one and cut it in vellum to give the card some subtle color.  It's big enough to take up some of that space without overpowering it.  I layered the flower in blue and stamped off on the top one so that my layers showed up better.  No sentiment on this one because I couldn't think of one I wanted to use and I like to have some blank ones on hand in case I need an odd-ball one at some point.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Our Freshly Made Sketches design team has some outstanding cards to show you this week so be sure you stop on by to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Modern Blooms (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Midnight Muse, Brushed Gold, Vellum, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Midnight Muse (SU); Black Tie (Ranger)
Accessories:  Bamboo Shoots die (Memory Box)

Land of the Free

Well, hello Monday.  It has been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog that was not made for a design team challenge. And I'm super excited to post this particular card because there's a bit of a story behind it.  I used the sketch at Can You Case It, which was perfect for what I wanted to do.

I flipped the sketch to accommodate the flag and used stars instead of flower shapes.  And now for the story:  My uncle was chosen for the Honor Flight New England which is a program that honors veterans by flying them on a VIP trip to Washington DC.  Before they leave on the trip each veteran is given a mail bag full of letters and cards from family and friends to commemorate the special day.  Since I'm the resident card-maker in the family I just had to make something or my name would be mush!  I'm really pleased with how this turned out (except for the crooked striped paper), so I'm hoping that my uncle doesn't notice that it's crooked!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Old Glory (Deep Red); USA 1776 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Real Red (SU)
Ink:  Crumb Cake (SU); Dark Chocolate (Papetrey Ink)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 332!

Did you know that there are only 11 more days until spring?  Yep, that's right.  The days are getting visibly longer, the birds are chirping more often, and I'm just about ready to put the ice-scraper I use on the car windows back in the garage for its long summer nap!  Ahhh, life is good!

Today we've got a new color palette for you at colourQ and don't be alarmed when you see it.  When I first took a gander at it, I stared at the picture for a really long time trying to figure out how I was going to use all those colors in one place!  But as usually happens, eventually an idea came to me.

I had it in my head to use the sketch at Can You Case It with these colors and to throw some washi tape on there in place of the two banners.  So my task was to figure out which colors to use for which element of the sketch.  Luckily I had some washi in at least one of the colors, the two blues went together for the flowers, and my background splotch (the circle on the sketch) by default was the yellow.  Done and done!  And also lucky for me the challenge word this week at Just Us Girls is flower.

I stamped the sentiment directly onto the washi and it's a bit difficult to see in the picture, but in real life it looks pretty good!  My fellow colourQ teamies have done some amazing things with these colors so be sure to head on over there and check them out!  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Extreme Elements (SU); Funky Florals (Papertrey Ink); Everyday Mini Sentiments (Whimsy Stamps)
Paper: White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point (SU); Jet Black (Stazon)
Accessories:  washi tape

Freshly Made Sketches 226!

Halfway through the work-week!  Yay!  And being Wednesday, it's time for a new sketch from your friends at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our sketch comes to you from Rita!

This is the second day in a row that I managed to use some of my DSP stash on my card.  I made a little pledge to myself the other day to use some of my supplies a bit more often and here I am using it again!  I tend to gravitate to the more subtle patterns and I particularly like this one because it is allows me to stamp the sentiment on it and still be able to see it.  The colors for my card come from the latest challenge at Can You Case It.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Be sure to stop on by and check our the amazing cards from the design team as well.  Loads of inspiration there!

Supplies
Stamps:  Modern Blooms (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Daffodil Delight (SU)
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 15, Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Leaves die (Penny Black); crochet thread

CAS(E) This Sketch 156!

Happy Thursday!  Today we've got a new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch and it's a great one that is open to lots of interpretation!

I haven't used this particular stamp set in a dog's age so it was nice to ink it up.  The challenge at Can You Case It gave me the idea to do this in silhouette style - just black and white - and I stamped the sentiment on vellum to keep it simple.  I put a bit of brushed gold cardstock behind the vellum to make sure the sentiment was visible.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to check out the inspiration at CAS(E) This Sketch and join us in the gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Going to Seed (Woodware); Oh Happy Day (Avery Elle)
Paper:  Pure Luxury (Gina K); Brushed Gold, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 218!

It's the first Wednesday of January and that means it's a return to our regularly scheduled programming.  We're back at Freshly Made Sketches with our very first challenge of 2016!  We've been on a bit of a stamping vacation over there for the last few weeks and we are now raring to go.  I hope you are too!  We had a whopping 218 entrants in our last challenge!  Wow!  I guess you guys like us.  You really do!  This week our sketch comes to you from the very talented Kim Singdahlsen.

This sketch allowed me stretch my CAS muscles a bit.  I wanted lots of white space with a couple of colors to go with it.  Along came the color challenge at Can You Case It and this card was born!  I chose to make Perfect Plum be the main color with accents from Soft Sky.  I was pretty sure that I had some old Perfect Plum patterned paper hanging around and sure enough found it as part of an old Halloween set of papers.  I love to re-purpose and re-use!  There is a sentiment stamped above the purple layers but it's pretty light and doesn't show well in the photo.  In case you can't see it it says "make today ridiculously" and, of course, the sentiment ends with that amazing die cut!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have time to check out our newest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Amazing (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Perfect Plum, Soft Sky, Cast-A-Spell DSP (SU)
Ink:  Soft Sky
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die, Doubly Amazing die (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 322!

Hello, hello!  I'm back after a bit of a blogging vacation to bring you a new color palette from colourQ!  I can hardly believe that it's been 12 whole days since I've posted anything here and I'm feeling a bit rusty in the ol' craft department.  But here goes!

I liked the celebratory feel of these colorful mason jars so I thought some stars would be a good idea to carry out that theme on my card.  I really need thank you cards after Christmas so I used an old favorite "thank you" sentiment instead of something a little more festive.  Duty calls, after all!

I'm also playing along with the 100th challenge at Can You Case It!  What a fantastic milestone and congratulations to them!

As you can imagine the colourQ design team has made some beautiful cards with these colors so I hope you have a chance to check them out and join us in the gallery with your own creation!  We'd love to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Much Appreciated (SU)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Coastal Cabana, Gold Foil, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Black Stazon
Accessories:  Starry Nights stencil (Memory Box); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver); 3 Stitched Star die (My Creative Time); Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things)