Day 104: Mojo Happiness Card

So I've said before on this very blog how I'm working to try and understand the CAS/Clean and Simple card philosophy. I'm kind of a more is more sort of gal when it comes to adding bling to my projects. So I kind of struggle to find the CAS Point to stop. adding. stuff.

I was over looking at the CAS-ual Friday challenge tonight, which is to use tan, white, and only one other color on a card project. I immediately thought of this dog from the June SOTM, eating a strawberry ice cream cone...and how cute he'd be in the circle from Doodled Designs. So I started cruising around looking for a good card sketch with a circle in the mix. It occurred to me I'd already made a card this week using a sketch like that over at Mojo Monday that was completely different. So this is my second, hopefully CAS take on the Mojo sketch 400. 

I'm not super thrilled with my coloring on this, but the rules said only tan, white, plus one color, so I used a tan and a pink marker plus the colorless blender. I had to stamp with a dye ink (Cashmere). The first time I made this pup I overstamped the coloring with black and I liked his definition better...but that's adding another color, so maybe he'll come play another day. I masked off the stamped circle and stamped the sentiment over the card base in second generation Cashmere ink. A couple pink hearts and a few touches of stardust glitter Gelly Roll pen and I was done. Nope. Had to go back and add wiggly eyes. I tried not to, but I couldn't. I just gotta be me. Happiness! I'm linking up to the Seize The Birthday Animal Challenge too. 

Now I'm back to culling my stamp collection. My neighborhood in Spokane (Eagle Ridge, just west of the South Hill) is having a community yard sale tomorrow and I thought it would be fun to throw up my craft fair booth and clean out my stash. I've sorted out 8 boxes of stamps, lots of oldies but still goodies, plus lots of embellies and even some precut card kits. If you're local, come on over to visit! If you aren't, don't worry. I'm going to be loading my facebook page with my stash soon. Hope to see you tomorrow - I'll be the one hanging out scrapping by my garage!

CAS-ual Friday quick Cricut Card

Happy spring weekend! The weather here is PDX is not quite warm and sunny, but the trees are blooming everywhere, and for the first time in FOREVER I am not dying of spring allergies! Hooray!

In tribute to my new found well being, I crated this adorable quick Cricut card using the new A Blossom stamp set (only $6.95!!). I cut the tree trunk and the flower pieces on White Daisy Cs using my beloved  Art Philosophy cartridge. Then I made a row of the dotty stamp in Sweet Leaf (inspired by the colors found in the Heart 2 Heart Photo Inspiration Challenge) and layered on the sentiment in Cocoa ink. I accented my flower tree with a shiny Green button and pierced a row of stitches all around the outside of my card.

Here's a close up of the stamping for the "tree". I inked the larger flower in Sunset ink, dragging the stamp across the pad to add texture to the stamped image. Then I inked the smaller flower in Smoothie ink, stamping it off onto scrap paper and rolling the tips of the flower back into the ink pad before stamping my final image.

I'm linking this sweet, simple card to the CAS-ual Fridays April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays: Opposites Attract

OK - I am not a CAS-ual stamper. CAS means Clean and Simple - a style I love and admire and have a very hard time pulling off. I figure stamping is like any other skill - I just need to practice and, though I may never lose my tendency towards lumpy-bumpy-add-one-more-layer projects, it's good to stretch, right?

And yes, I know there's not a lot of white space here...but there's only one thing going on the in background - the green Dotty for You paper, so that's pretty simplified for me! There's actually not a bit of stamping on this card - it's all pieces from the Dotty for You paper set. It's relatively flat (for a card made by me) and only took a few minutes to put together. Why am I concerned? Well, I made it for the CAS-ual Fridays Opposites Attract challenge. If you are a lumpy bumpy gal like me, get over there ASAP and see why I'm trying to expand my horizons - they make some simply ADORABLE flat and simple cards! I used Pale green (Sweet Leaf) and Pink (Smoothie) colors as my opposite ends of the spectrum.

I am particularly amused by my flower embellishment: I built it out of the butterfly images from the Dotty for You papers right down to the little green leaves! I was fussy cutting butterflies fro another project and got distracted...and cut way too many. I couldn't toss them out so I found a new use for them. (Caren C. I was thinking of you when I did this. Stinkin' butterflies...)

Maybe it's not the most CAS-ual card...but it's simplified from my usual seventy layers and I'm loving it!

One quick shout out - happy birthday to my baby boy, Gabe, who's turning 6 today. May you always make a heart with your hands when I take your photo in a field of tulips...and not kill me for sharing this adorable photo when you get a bit bigger....

Happy Friday, Stampin' Friends!

Stamping Rules Monday Motivations Team Card

I had such a fun time at the Monday Motivations team meeting tonight - lots of giggling girls and CTMH shop talk! We also made this CAS card (Clean and Simple) which if you've been following me, you know that CAS may not be my forte...I'm a lumpy bumpy, one more layer can't hurt, where's the glitter kind of gal.

I did do some fun techniques on this simple card though. I pierced a double row of stitches across the bottom using my handy dandy CTMH piercing ruler. I kid you not, this ruler is awesome! I just used the grid printed across the ruler to line up my holes perfectly before piercing across with my piercing tool. Now, I love the thick little mat that comes in our Piercing kit, but for something larger it isn't quite wide enough all the time, so I've taken to using three sheets of fun foam to get my 12" piercing done quickly, like on my Lucy Pages Club kit.

I also did some masking with a Cricut Art Philosophy Shape that I cut at 3 1/2 inches (Layer/Rectangle 5). I used the outer frame of that cut to make a mask (pictured below). I extended the mask with Post-it notes to make sure no stray stamping would appear on my clean white card base. Then I stamped the grid image from the April Stamp of the Month in Sweet Leaf ink and sponged the masked area with Sky Ink.

I stamped the banners and the sentiment strip in Black Ink. The Sentiment comes with dots underneath but not on top, so I cleaned my stamp and then inked just the dots to add the string of dots overhead. A Bitty Sparkle between each word finished off my sentiment strip. There are gobs of frames on the Art Philosophy Cartridge - I can't wait to try this with some new shapes!

Don't forget there are only 4 more days to get your Art Philosophy Cricut bundle for FREE by joining my team - that's $450 worth of CTMH goodness for just $99! Check out the Philosophy of FUN for more details - then click on Opportunities to sign up. See ya at the next Monday Motivations!

I got my color combo from the Heart 2 Heart Spring Color Challenge and the inspiration to add Black to my CAS card from the CAS-ual Friday The Bold & the Beautiful Challenge.  Both blogs are awesome - go check them out for even more projects or join the fun and play along!

You Rock & We're in this Together!

I've been reading this blog called CAS-ual Friday for a few weeks now. I've even completed a couple of the chellenges, but I never get them done in time to post them before the challenges close. But not this week! The challenge this week is Jest For the Pun of It! and I'm the type of gal who will giggle at her own (bad) puns, so this was a must do challenge for me.

I started with the sketch from Heart 2 Heart challenges - it was just perfect for the punny card I had in mind. CAS means Clean and simple, so I tried. I'm a lumpy bumpy gal at heart, so instead of grouping of embellishments I did a layer of white buttons on white CS for the background of the card. Then I stamped some lines down one edge of a scrap of Sunflower CS to make my ruler, and sanded my handcut rock with a twisting motion to simulate a rock texture. And I just love anything with googly eyes on it. Even a rock is cute with googly eyes! I've got one more card tonight, then go check out the rest of the punny goodness at CAS-Friday!

I also whipped up another Blue themed March SOTM card. This one came from the Heart 2 Heart Picture Perfect Challenge, where they have a picture of a lovely, beachy room with blue accents. I used the sketch 154 from Card Patterns. They always have lovely card sketches!

For this card I did a lot of heavy sanding on my Bamboo CS pieces. I also debossed my Blue accent color piece with a cuttlebug swiss dot folder (meaning the dots go into the paper instead of poking out). Then I used an Outdoor Denim marker on the fine tip side to dot each little dot. I'm so sad that these markers are all retiring! They aren't copics, but they are lovely little reliable markers at a very reasonable price. They are still available only on a while supplies last basis...maybe I need to restock up! I have all the colors, but a few extra of my favorite colors can't hurt, right? Back me up CTMH friends - my hubby thinks I'm nuts!

Here's a close up of the debossed/markered CS and the 3-D cricut flower. I stamped each layer of the flower with the Biggest damask circle image from the SOTM using Bamboo ink. Then I sponges the edges with Desert Sand ink and rolled the rounded end of my paper piercing tool over each petal to give the flower a slightly rounded shape.

I'll be back on March 1st with the March SOTM Blog Hop - my project for the hop has me practically hugging myself I love it so much!

 Hope you'll stop back on Thursday and check it out!

Welcome Home!

When I saw the sketch for this week's Mojo Monday I knew just what I wanted to do. It just took me a couple days to get the time to sit down and make my vision. Little boys take up a lot of time and energy! Finally tonight I decided to stay up late and get my fingers inky - or in this case, painty!

I have been pondering this challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays, a movie inspiration challenge! I was kind of casually (lol) planning a Princess Bride card when the Mojo Sketch came through - and I immediately saw that iconic ET image of the bike going over the moon! I was off to find a bike image...sure I had that set that went with the Lucky papers..no...aha! I grabbed my Pair-a-Phrase set and the adorable little flower basket bike image. Just what I needed!

I built most of my card in Moonstruck Cardstock. I embossed the background with my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. Then I cut a 2 1/2 inch circle on my Cricut and embossed that with my Big Dots folder. The moon got painted with Pearl Paint. Then I dabbed it thickly with a lightly blue tinted Pearl Paint (Lots of paint, one tiny drop reinker) for texture, and then I sprayed the whole moon with Silver Glitter spray. After I colored my bike in with Tulip and Grey Wool Markers I went over the rims with more pearl paint tinted Grey Flannel and added bitty sparkles to the wheels.

This movie challenge was a lot of fun - be sure to go check out all the clever movie cards on CAS-ual Friday! And here's the sketch from Mojo Monday. It's contest week, so be sure to toss your hat in the ring too!






P.S.: Don't forget to sign up for the next Creative Club Kit - Just $25 for a beautiful Pemberly Card box plus 15 cards! RSVPs closing soon!

Mojo Monday 225: Black & White

I'm so excited to share my card for Mojo Monday this week! I am in love with my new Pemberly stamp set, and when I saw the CAS-ual Friday Clean and Simple Penguin Awareness Challenge, I knew that my favorite new stamp set would look amazing in Black and White (even if I found them too late to play this time)!

I used the Mojo Monday 225 Sketch, which is a blocking sketch - love those! I filled each block on the background with one impressions of the largest paisley-ish flower image. That's it - one stamp per block! Each flower got a few bitty sparkles on the swirls in the flower centers.

I used my CTMH Piercing Ruler to pierce a line of holes 1/4" from the edge of of each block. Then I used my .05 tip My Legacy Writer to draw a dash from each hole to make a line of faux stitching around my blocks. I love faux stitching - whyen you do it with the actual holes pierced it looks so real, without the time consumption of actual hand stitching. I made my whole card in a half hour while my boys played at Munchkin Playland...with coffee. Woo!

Then I cut a frame on my cricut at 2 1/4" to use for the center bar of the sketch, which I rotated to be a tall card. I made a faux stitched box in the center of my Cricut Frame. The grid on the ruler makes it so easy - I just lined it up with the corners of my frame and poked away! Then I masked off the center of my box with a handy post-it and stamped the solid mum image repeatedly to fill in the outer edges of my cricut frame. I added one of the sentiments from the stamp set (Don't you just LOVE the mixed fonts?) and topped it off in the bottom corner with a couple of Rhinestone Designer Brads, an old retired black button, and a smidgen of Black Ribbon Rounds (on clearance on my site for just $4 for 6 awesome patterned ribbons!).

Finally, I finished it off with a couple of hand cut dragon flies that I stamped and cut out with my microtip scissors. I love it when you finish a project and you get the glowy, I-made-something-I-adore feeling!