ADDICTED TO CAS #203 - RAIN

Raga has chosen "Rain" for our next challenge here at Addicted to CAS, and boy do I wish that could be a weather forecast here in southern Oregon as our drought continues and the wildfires burn. 

I met all of my professional design deadlines at the end of last week so I have a bit of a respite for some cardmaking. This is my entry for "Rain".  

I used a Strathmore watercolor card base and matching envelope for this card, first stenciling the background Tim Holtz "Dot Fade" with Memento "London Fog" dye ink. On a separate piece of white textured cardstock I stamped the small Rain or Shine image from Hot Off the Press, Inc. in black ink. I've used this image on several cards over the past 5 or so years. I die cut the stamp frame and colored and blended the sun and clouds. I heat embossed the sentiment on dark gray cardstock, cut it out, and attached it to the postage stamp die. Finally, I attached the postage stamp to the card base with dimensional foam and stuck on 3 yellow enamel dots from my stash.

I hope you all will have as much fun on your rain challenge as I did! And check out what the other designers have come up with.

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #203 - Rain

TRIP AROUND THE SUN

When I saw Seize The Birthday #219 - "Travel" I wanted to participate, but couldn't come up with an idea. I really don't have any travel-related stamps or dies to speak of - other than one stamp set that's based on exploration, and I didn't think it would really work. But then I remembered this PTI sentiment from years ago and I thought I could use it. Wouldn't a 365-day trip around the sun count as travel?

The sentiment is from PTI's "Stylish Sentiments: Birthday". This stamp set has been in my collection for quite a few years and I've used it again and again because of the variety of sentiments in the set. I had to do some masking to open up the sentiment so that I could do a reverse strip through it. I won't tell you that wasn't tedious! After printing the black ink and adding the white heat-embossed strip I cut a circle die and used it for the sun background. I used a new blending brush I just purchased and I have to say I need some more experience with these to get an even blend! I stamped a sun image from Hero Arts #CM357 "Dream & Discover" in PTI "Orange Zest" dye ink, colored it with Tombow ABT Pro alcohol-based pens, fussy-cut it out, and mounted it over the blended circle with dimensional foam. Finally, I punched a hole in the black band and tied a small piece of ribbon from my stash and mounted all of this onto a white card base. I lined a white envelope with a scrap of paper from my "yellow" paper stash. 

And off to the Seize the Birthday challenge!

 Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #219-Travel

 

FIRST HALLOWEEN CARD

Yup, I start thinking about Halloween cards this early in the year because they're honestly my favorite cards to create. So, as soon as I send out my 4th of July cards I start looking for ideas and challenges to get my ghoul on!

Today I was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #494 as my jumping-off point.

Using a piece of mottled gray paper from my stash, I masked off a vertical rectangle and stamped some KaiserCraft "Fading Dots" with Memento "Tuxedo Black" dye ink. Then I added the sentiment from Simple Stories #13820 "Boo Crew" and heat embossed it with Zing! "Apricot". I attached the top die-cut ghost and re-stamped and embossed over it so that the sentiment overlapped the image. The second Tim Holtz ghost went on and all of this was attached to a black folded card base. BTW, these are my favorite ghosts and and I find myself using them over and over.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #494 - A Sketch by Narelle

 

  

ADDICTED TO CAS "GEOMETRIC"

It's time for a new Addicted to CAS challenge! The very talented Vicki is our host this week and she has chosen "Geometric" for us to play with.

I've been away from my craft desk and supplies for a couple of weeks and it feels good to be jumping back into the fun. It's stacking up to be a much busier summer than I had anticipated and I find that when I can steal a couple of moments for myself I prefer to take a nap!

For this challenge I chose to make a birthday card for my grandson for his 12th birthday in early September. (I'll use another challenge sometime soon to encourage me to make his twin sister's card.)

I landed on squares, rectangles, and a circle for my geometric shapes. It was pure happenstance that this red and white striped paper lined up perfectly with some black and white checkered paper in my stash. I just glued the checkers and stripes to the bottom of a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" folded white card and stamped the sentiment from PTI's "Doodle Do" in Memento "Tuxedo Black" dye ink. I cut out a circle of black cardstock and die cut the numbers from PTI and layered them on. Done!

It's now your turn - just remember to keep your card clean and simple and let all of the designers know if you like their designs.

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #202 - Geometric

  

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

The new Addicted to CAS challenge is #201 "Christmas", hosted by Nancy. Under other circumstances I would welcome a change of pace and the first Christmas card of the year, but can you imagine how difficult it is to be creating a Christmas card when the temperature is a record-breaking 115 degrees F? It's even hotter than that north of here in Portland.

I used some old PTI images for the stamping on this card. The bow is inked with PTI "Ripe Avocado" with their "Ribbon and Bows" stamp set. For the sentiment I used their "Season's Greetings" and gold heat embossed most of it, but used "Pure Poppy" ink on the last line. I added a little image from Impression Obsession's "Holiday Words" #CL971, fussy-cutting the berries from a scrap of red card stock. When all of the inking was completed I ran the card through my Big Shot with a square die to make a blind embossed box. I had cut this card into a 5" square of Strathmore watercolor paper card sets. To get an envelope that fit, I disassembled one of the matching Strathmore envelopes, cut it to size, reassembled it, and lined it with lightweight red iridescent vellum.

Well, have some fun with Nancy's "Christmas" theme. And for any of you here in the Pacific Northwest, do stay cool and safe!  

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #201 - Christmas