CAS(E) This Sketch 314 Meets Fusion

We've got some great new challenges at CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion and as per my usual I combined them this week.  I ended up with a masculine birthday card...always a tough category for me!

I was inspired by the colors and patterns of the Fusion inspiration and I approximated the shapes of the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.  I've got triangles!

This is the second iteration of this card because the first one was horrible with a capital H!  I made it over the weekend, uploaded it to the respective design team blogs and then had second and, if I'm being honest, third thoughts.  So I rushed home from work on Monday and went straight into my craft cave to make some modifications.  I hope my fellow design team members didn't see the original!  LOL! 

At Seize the Birthday they are always looking for birthday cards and each week they've got an optional "topping."  This week the topping is dots and stripes.  I'm not sure this qualifies for the topping because my dots are square!  Is there a rule that dots have to be circles?  I'm not sure!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow design team members at CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion have made some GREAT cards to inspire you to play along with us.  I hope to see you one (or both!) of those galleries!

Supplies
Stamps:  Artsy (KaiserCraft); Simple Sentiments (Avery Elle); Sohcahtoa (Altenew)
Paper:  Desert Storm, Solar White (Neenah); Peach Parfait (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Modern Christmas die (Clearly Besotted Stamps)

Tag You're It 38!

TGIF!  This is the first Friday I've had to go to work in a couple of weeks and I've got to say that I'm not loving it.  I could get used to getting off early on Thursday then having a three day weekend every week!  But alas reality sets in and I'm back to my regular Monday to Friday thing.  But the good news is that we're back at Tag You're It for a new challenge!

Isn't Tracey's tag adorable?  I didn't have any elephants but I did have this cute polar bear and thought he'd be an ok balloon holding substitute.  Tracey's watercolored background made me a little nervous, since me and my watercolors are barely on speaking terms, but my friend Karren recently turned me onto a watercoloring technique from SonjaK that I thought even I could do so I decided to give it a try for this tag.

I'm pretty pleased with how this came out. I smooshed some pretty colors around until I was happy with the look then popped up my bear and gave him some heart shaped balloons to hold!  Easy peasy.  And since Seize the Birthday and Stampin' Royalty are looking for birthday projects I'm going to add this to those challenges as well!

Well that's it for me today.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Be sure to check out the other tags from the Tag You're It Design team.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Birthday Bears (My Favorite Things); Wish Big (The Alley Way Stamps); Distressed Grid (Creative Embellishments)
Paper:  Night of Navy, Real Red, Pretty in Pink (SU); Distress Watercolor Cardstock
Ink:  Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky,  Chipped Sapphire (Distress); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics
Accessories:  Birthday Bears die (My Favorite Things); Tag die, Tag Layers die (My Creative Time); black seam binding ribbon; black crochet thread; white embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 198

Happy Wednesday!  Of course today is the new sketch reveal at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is Cindy Lovell who has given us this very fun sketch!

I recently got these adorable new stamps and have been neglectful in getting them inked up. But the fun sketch got me thinking that this little bear, with his tower of gifts, would be a perfect image for it.  And I love that the topping at Seize the Birthday is embossing so I embossed the white layer with dots.  I always seem to forget that embossing is a great way to add some interest to white space.  Glad I remembered here!

Don't forget the countdown is on to our 200th sketch celebration at Freshly Made Sketches!  It's a wonderful milestone and to celebrate we've got a fun-tastic sketch and loads of sponsors to thank you all for playing along with us!  Stay tuned as we reveal all the details on August 19th!

But for now we've got this great sketch for you to play along with!  Our amazing design team has totally rocked the sketch this week so make sure you check it out.  And then get inky and join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Birthday Bears (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  White (Papertrey Ink); Sea Glass, The Everyday Collection (Avery Elle); Night of Navy (SU); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics
Accessories:  Birthday Bears die, Blueprints 20, Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Femme Frames die (Mama Elephant); Decorative Dots embossing folder (SU)

Butterfly Birthday for STB19 and PDCC186

I had some time last night to play around in my stamp room.  The Bruins were off, the Red Sox were tied, and the rain was coming down endlessly.  Perfect ingredients for crafting!  I was really struck by the colors at The Play Date Cafe and thought they were perfect for the sketch at Seize The Birthday.

I almost never take pictures of my cards from this angle, but it was the only way I could show that I layered the pink butterfly on top of a black cut out of the same butterfly.  I love how this looks in real life, especially with the line of black rhinestones down the center of the butterfly.  They are sparkly, which doesn't show up on the photo at all!

Well as I mentioned above it is raining here AGAIN.  This has got to be the worst spring I can ever remember because mother nature gives us one beautiful day followed by a week of cold, wet ones.  I'm worried that my annuals and vegetables will not be able to withstand all this rain and I'm worried that I'll never get a tan!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Extreme Elements, Papillon Potpourri (SU); Just A Number (Close To My Heart)

Accessories:  Elegant Butterfly Punch (SU); black rhinestones (KaiserCraft)

A Birthday Card for CFC100 and STB16

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is a tic tac toe to celebrate the milestone of 100 challenges!  That's quite an accomplishment so I really wanted to play along.  I based my card on the horizontal row in middle of square card, bling and text.  And I combined that challenge with the sketch at Seize the Birthday.

Instead of creating layers on my card I decided to draw black lines with a marker around this pretty floral image from the Verve stamp sets Let It Be and the birthday text from Take Note.  I added a black rhinestone to the center of the flower, then a few more scattered to the left of the flower.  I hope that black rhinestones qualifies as bling!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Let it Be, Take Note (Verve)

Accessories:  Black Rhinestones (KaiserCraft)

Happy Birthday to My Aunt

My aunt is celebrating her 80th birthday next week and today her daughter is celebrating the event with a little party.  I looked through my stash of birthday cards and didn't find anything that tickled my fancy so I thought I'd make something fresh for her.  And I've got a triple play going on here because the card I've made combines three challenges:  Seize the Birthday, Fab Friday, and Addicted to CAS.

The feminine sketch challenge at Seize the Birthday is, of course, perfect for my aunt and the colors from Fab Friday inspired me to make my card full of springy leaves and flowers which, in turn, was perfect for the Addicted to CAS challenge.

The only thing I messed up was the placement of the sentiment.  I seem to do that a lot {insert grimace here}.  But I still like this card.  And I'm sure my aunt will too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes, Happiest Birthday Wishes (SU)

Seize The Birthday Guestie

A little while ago my friend, the super-talented stamper Lesley, asked me to join her this week as a guest designer at Seize the Birthday.  I was so excited that she asked there was no way I was going to refuse!

That pink means the challenge is to make a birthday-girl-card using this very cool sketch.  And the sponsor this month is The Alley Way Stamps so I inked up my favorite splashy flower in Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple - two pretty colors that I neglect way too much!  

I found some washi tape that matches Primrose Petals pretty closely and paired it with this black washi with some script writing to create the horizontal  layer.  Some days I think I've got a bit of a washi tape addiction!  It's such an easy way to add fun color and patterns to cards and the best part is that you don't have to be careful about how you stick it to your project.  In fact the more crooked it looks the better I like it!

Thanks so much to Lesley and the ladies at Seize the Birthday for letting me join you this week!  I can't wait to see what everyone creates with this great sketch!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Awesome Blossom, Cover Ups (The Alley Way Stamps)

Accessories:  washi tape

colourQ 176

I'm so glad to be back in a crafting mood after the recent snow storm around these parts.  It took me a while to warm up once the heat came back on, but once it did I plunked myself in my stamp room and got busy.  First up is a card I made for this week's colourQ challenge.

I'll admit that I had a few starts and stops when I finally sat down to make this card.  I had something else in mind entirely for these colors, but wasn't happy with what I came up with so I scrapped it and went with this.  The polka dotted background is some pretty DSP called Orchard Harvest.  I followed that up with some Primrose Petals circles and some leaves and flowers stamped in Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral.  The layout I used is from the Seize The Birthday challenge where the assignment is to use the sketch to create a feminine birthday card.  And to me nothing says feminine like some pretty flowers!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  The always-amazing colourQ design team have got some great cards to inspire you this week so be sure to pop on by and check them out.  I hope you have time to join us in the gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Canvas (SU), Embroidered Blooms (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Beautiful Blooms Die #2, Turning a New Leaf Die (Papertrey Ink), crochet thread