Addicted to CAS - Guest Designer

Happy Saturday!  I am super excited to being joining the team over at Addicted to CAS once again as their guest designer!  The code word for the challenge is "fishy" and that had me pondering and then some!  Ultimately, I turned to Etsy and the plentiful supply of digital images there to fulfill my fishy quest!

There were actually quite a lot of digital fish images to choose from, which kind of surprised me, until I saw that many were being used as fisherman themes for screen printed t-shirts or vinyl decals on vehicles.  

But there were also some cute fish clearly made for card-making and scrapbooking.  I chose this image because I loved the long swoosh behind her (which I took to be the movement of water but now that I look again maybe it's part of her tail???) and her pursed lips.  I colored her in shades of blue then I then hunted around for some fish-appropriate sentiments and settled on this one that I simply printed on regular paper, cut, mounted to some cardstock for stability and stuck down with foam tape. 

All in all this went together pretty easily!

Thanks for stopping by!  And I owe a huge thanks to Kylie and everyone at Addicted to CAS for liking my cards enough to invite me to play along with them for this challenge.  I can't thank you enough!

Supplies
Stamps:  Pretty Fish (2cuteink)
Paper:  Ultra Smooth Premium White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Copics

Freshly Made Sketches 498

I've got a quick post to share with you using the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Jen Timko and I know you are going to love her design!

That oval layer initially had me a bit stumped.  And when I am stumped I take a day or two to obsess ponder over possible designs.  When I am really stumped I try and CASE one of my own designs and that is what happened with this card.  As I was driving home from work Tuesday (nothing like cutting it close) I remembered this card that I made and thought with some new stamps and colors I could make a brand new design.

So using the shades of blue theme at Less is More I stamped these gorgeous leafy images and highlighted one of them with the dotted image that I heat-embossed in white.  Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have got some great cards to inspire you so check them out and play along with us!

Supplies

Stamps:  Dot Botanicals, Leaf Clusters (Altenew)

Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)

Ink:  Sea Glass, Dusk, Desert Night (Altenew); Versamark

Accessories:  Pierced Oval STAX (My Favorite Things); Opaque Bright White embossing powder (WOW!)
 

Fusion - Kitty Butterfly

Our new Fusion challenge is an incongruous mix of a butterfly and a cat - along with a sketch, of course.  Being a cat mom, I love cats.  And as a card-maker butterflies are a favorite element I like to use on my cards.  But in real life...never the twain shall meet!  One is an enemy of the other and I'm sure you can guess which is which!

So for my card I chose to create a bit of fusion - using the sketch, the butterfly, and a couple of colors from the inspiration photo.  As you can see I went uber CAS on this one with an all white background.  For the horizontal and vertical rectangles I simply raised up some white cardstock on foam tape.  The butterfly was die cut with a fairly close approximation of two of the colors from the photo and I added a bit of Wink of Stella so that, in real life, it has a bit of shimmer.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Fusion teammates have made some fantastic cards for this challenge so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tons of Type (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Calypso Coral, Taken With Teal (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Taken With Teal (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Vivienne Butterfly die, Darla Butterfly die (Memory Box)

Freshly Made Sketches 497

Hi friends!  It's Wednesday so that means it's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess and sketch designer is Jacquie.  Her fabulous design has lots of white space to spark your creativity.  I used that white space to break in a new-to-me stencil.

I sat at my desk with a vague idea to sponge on some colors through the stencil and really didn't know how it was going to turn out.  To my delight the colors looked really good together then I got the bright idea to tap my Versarmark pad through the stencil and heat emboss some WOW! Clear Sparkle Embossing Glitter over the leaves.  Let me just say they don't call it WOW! for nothing.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but the shimmer and shine from the embossing glitter turned this from a nice card to a super card!  

Thanks for stopping by!  As always, my Freshly Made Sketches teammates have put together some amazing cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tons of Type (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Cocoa Bean (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Brushed Corduroy, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Wild Honey (Distress Oxide); Cocoa Bean (Papertrey Ink); Versamark
Accessories:  Turning Leaves stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Clear Sparkle Embossing Glitter (WOW!)

Freshly Made Sketches 496

My card for Freshly Made Sketches this week is a study in coincidence and serendipity.  The layout is brought to you by our hostess this week, Judy, and I love her design.

So I made a card for this challenge on Sunday but I wasn't really happy with it.  With no shame, I can say it was quite boring.  So Monday I decided to scrap it and sat at my desk looking for some inspiration.  I stumbled on the Color Hues challenge and loved the colors.  I scrolled down to look at their design team cards and found this beauty by Sheri.  I loved her design and what a coincidence that it had some colorful blocks, just like our FMS challenge.  So borrowing her idea I cut some blocks of cardstock in the colors of the challenge and then pondered whether to add a sentiment or some other focal point.  

And then - out. of. nowhere. - this layered snowflake literally appeared in the middle of my desk.  I actually know where it came from.  It was on a card I made a few weeks ago and put aside on my desk.  It was no where near the area where I was working and I have no explanation as to how it unattached itself from that card and appeared in the middle of my work space.  But since one of the snowflakes was in a color compatible with the challenge I knew right away that I needed to use it on this card.  Serendipity, I say!

Thanks for stopping by!  We'd love to see you at Freshly Made Sketches - our design team has some great cards to inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tiny Words Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink); Sea Glass (Avery Elle); Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (amuse.studio); Let it Snowflake Too die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 494

Hi all!  It's time for a brand new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Narelle and she's given us her signature clean design which can be dressed up to your heart's content!  For my card I went clean and simple.

It's July so that means CHRISTMAS right?  Sure it does!  I don't know how the Christmas in July thing started but I like to take advantage of it to add to my holiday card stash.  And of course a couple of other challenges helped me along.  Addicted to CAS and Less is More are both looking for Christmas themes and since all that white space fits their criteria I decided to play along with them too.

This card was super simple to put together because as I was perusing my stash for something to use as the long vertical layer I happened upon these trees that were already stamped and cut.  They were long and slim and fit the design perfectly so it was just a matter of adding a sentiment and I was done.  I think I spent more time cutting out small pieces of foam tape to mount them to my card front than I did creating the design!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow teammates at Freshly Made Sketches have some amazing cards to wow you with so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peaceful Forest (Ink to Paper); December Typed Words (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Fusion - Blue Decor

It's time for a brand new challenge from your friends at Fusion.  After a few weeks of playing along with just the sketch, I decided to create some Fusion this time around and combine the sketch with the inspiration photo.  As you will see I interpreted that photo quite literally!

I really liked the geometric shapes in the photo so loosely following them I added a few to my card front.  I chose Not Quite Navy cardstock from Stampin' Up! as the blue background and in real life it looks very close to the dark blue wall in the photo but in my pic it looks quite bright.  Not what I intended!

I liked the idea of a pop of a different color to break up the shades of blue so I took my cue from the red ottoman and the circular shapes that make up the tall pineapple stand in the photo and added a line of small red circles.  I hemmed and hawed about whether to add a big sentiment to all that blue space but couldn't decide on one that didn't detract from the clean, geometric lines of the card so I left this one blank.  I can always add one later!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Fusion teammates have made some great cards for this challenge so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Paper:  Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy (Stampin' Up!); Cherry (Avery Elle)
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 die (My Favorite Things); 1 1/2-inch circle punch

Freshly Made Sketches 493

I've apparently got Christmas on my mind because for the second sketch in a row at Freshly Made Sketches I incorporated another Christmas theme.  Our hostess is Karren and she's given us a great sketch that I broadly interpretated.  😉

In the interest of full disclosure I ask that you don't look too closely at the birch tree on the left!  This is the first time I used this layered stamp set and they are long and a bit unwieldy when trying to use a stamp positioner to get good placement.  I was doing ok until I got to the final stamp when it came out a bit off to the left.  Ugh.  So I put it aside and attempted the layout all over again.  BUT I DID IT AGAIN!!!  Version number one looked better than version number two so that's what I went with and covered up the worst of my transgressions with the sentiment and a sweet cardinal.

My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates had no such problems with their cards so be sure to check them out!  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Birch Impressionism (Altenew); Joy (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red (Stampin' Up!); Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Limestone, Silver Stone, Industrial Diamonds, Pure Graphite (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Forest Majesty die (Whimy Stamps); Branch punch (Martha Stewart)