CAS(E) this Sketch! #331

My second post today! Brian King has come up with an inspirational sketch this week for CAS(E) this Sketch! http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/07/case-this-sketch-331.html.

 

 

 

This is my take on it...

 

 

Dies: Impression Obsession "Birch Trees" and MFT leaves

Versamark ink and white embossing powder

 

 

I had a small piece of handmade rice paper that I thought was perfect for the trees. I know, here we are in the middle of summer and I'm already projecting to the fall - my favorite season of the year.

 

7/27/19



Twin Birthday Cards

 

Back on May 18th I made a shaker card for my grandson's 10th birthday as part of a Seize the Birthday Challenge and have been intending to make a matching one for his twin sister. Now that my office/craft room is starting to get organized and I can make cards again I decided to do the second matching card this morning. Their birthdays aren't until September 9 so I'll be ready when the time comes!

 

These cards were made completely from scraps in my stash. the little birds are MFT's "Birds of a Feather" dies. The numerals are from PTI.

 

 

 

 

Colin's card has scraps from the twins' second birthday party invitations - shows you how long I hang onto scraps! However, the move to a new room did permit me to deep six a lot of small pieces that were no longer serving a purpose, other than to take up space.

 

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Christmas in July

It's been a while since I've participated in any of the challenges - life happens! I'm actually retiring in September and I have been in the process of breaking down my old home office and transforming it into a craft room, which is no easy task. I still don't have things organized so that I can actually make cards easily because I have an existing interior design project that still requires some of my attention.

 

                                 But here I am playing with AAA CAD Game #144

 

 

My entry:

 

 

I thought it might be fun to do an all-white card, playing just with texture.

Dies: Hero Arts "Snowflake Edge Fancy Die" and PTI "Holiday"

Embossing Folder: Darice

Stamp: PTI "Wonderful Words: Holiday"

Embellishment and twine from my stash

https://aaacards.blogspot.com/2019/07/cas-game-144-maxi-white-space-optional.html

 

 

 

 



SPOTS

BUMMER!

 

I thought to participate in this week's Less Is More challenge and spent some time coming up with a card with "spots" on it. I completed the card, photographed it, and then went to upload it to the site and realized it was to be a one-layer card with spots. This is hardly a one-layer card! If I'm inclined tomorrow I'll see how I can translate this idea to a single layer.

 

 

 

I have no idea who manufactured these stamps - they've been in my stash for so

long. There were 2 stamp sets, one dogs and one cats. The inks are Memento

"Tuxedo Black" and PTI "Fine Linen".

 

You can see by the photo to the right why this stamp set is a favorite of mine! We have a

beloved yellow lab (Sara, also known as "Sarabella", "Sara Berry", "Sarabellum",

or whatever pet name we come up with at the moment) and 2 black cats. The cats

love to rub up against her but she doesn't really appreciate it much. 

 

July 4th and Freshly Made Sketches #393

I've been struggling the past couple of years with new ideas for the 4th of July cards I send to all of our family and friends. How many potential design options are there for stars and stripes and red, white, and blue? I haven't purchased any new stamps, paper, or dies for this holiday for a couple of years, so I feel like I'm in a design rut that I can't seem to break out of!

 

Using the design layouts in the challenges is helpful, so I played along with Freshly Made Sketches this week. I'm not sure if I will use this for this year's card edition but I'm running out of time.

 

 

Rubber stamps for both the Declaration of Independence signatures

and the Statue of Liberty are older ones from Stamp Francisco. The stars

die is one from my stash, manufacturer unknown. Inks are PTI "Spring

Rain" and "Enchanted Evening".

 

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2019/06/freshly-made-sketches-393-sketch-by-lee.html

 

 

 



 

Color Throwdown #546

 

While I'm delighted to be the Guest Star Stamper for Color Throwdown #546 this week, it's been a mostly up-hill week - so many things in the fire (son's birthday, assisting with grandchildren, professional responsibilities, and root canal). I produced more than one design for this challenge and then started second-guessing myself on color interpretation. The carpet and library shelves in my living room are what I think of as "teal", but the photo for the throwdown is a brighter tone. I checked online for "teal" and found that I was completely wrong! One would assume that an interior designer would know what teal is! So... start over. 

 

 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2019/06/color-throwdown-546.html

 

 

Finally, here is my rendition of navy, coral, teal, and cream. I wanted to do something that suggested a quilt square. The sentiment is from Avery Elle's ST-18-07 "Loads of Wishes" and it's printed with PTI's "Enchanted Evening". The papers and envelope are all from my stash.

 

 

 

 

Sometime in the next couple of days I may post the cards I designed with the wrong "teal" 



 



Thanks a Bunch

 

No card challenge today. In Friday's mail I received a very nice personalized spiral binder from a Portland hospitality furniture procurement firm that I worked with on my most recent hotel project. I want to send them a thank you note for their generosity, so I made this one. I'm madly in love with the Alexandra Renke dies that I bought recently at Craft Warehouse - this one is "Magic Flower 2". I cut it out from some PTI "Bitty Dots" paper in "Hawaiian Shores". I made the top band by blending some PTI "Blueberry Sky" ink and spattering a bit of water on it. Then I overprinted the leaf branches from a couple of different stamp sets (PTI "A New Leaf", W+9 "Botanical Bunch") in PTI inks - "Hawaiian Shores", "Ocean Tide", and "Blueberry Sky". The sentiment is Hero Arts. I punched 2 holes in the face of the card and threaded the flower stem through and then added gems and enamel dots from my stash.

 

 

 

 

This photo shows the card and lined envelope.

 

 

 

Coordinating envelope flap and close-up of die and sentiment.

 



 

Color Throwdown #544

 

This week's Color Throwdown is using the colors coral, aqua, and navy blue. The aqua rectangular background is cut from a previously-embossed piece of scrap. The flower die is "Magic Flower 2" by Alexandra Renke. I die-cut twice and then trimmed the 2nd cut to make the leaf. The stitching die on the right side is from PTI, as is the sentiment ("Winter Hills" stamp). Finished with Versamark Water Mark Ink, navy embossing powder, and Ranger Glossy Accents on coral tiny punched circles.

 

 

 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2019/05/color-throwdown-544.html

 

 

 



 

Check back on my blog on June 5th when I'll be Guest Designer for Color Throwdown #546! 

CAS(E) this Sketch #322

Here's today's offering to CAS(E) this Sketch. The little happy face that showed up when I glued "for you" onto the face of the card was an unintended surprise!

 

Stamps: Stampin' Up! "Hello, Doily"

Inks: PTI "Spring Rain" and "Enchanted Evening" and Versamark

Dies: Alexandra Renke "for you" and old square die from my stash (probably Sissix)

White embossing powder, white 100 lb. card stock, blue card stock scrap

 

 

 

http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/05/case-this-sketch-322.html

 

 

 

Color Throwdown ctd543

 

Wow - 2 cards in one weekend! I'm still nursing this bronchial thing and it seems that crafting is the only thing I can manage to do.

 

I can't believe how long it took me to make this card. My process is usually to start designing and then edit, edit, edit - an old design school thing where I was taught to draw something and then determine how few pen or pencil strokes it takes to complete the idea. Although I have a strong preference for clean & simple, my personal style tends to be all over the board. I usually land somewhere between CAS and fancy. What's the descriptive word for card designs that are not CAS?

 

At any rate, here's this morning's offering to Color Throwdown - "Aqua, Green, and Gray".

 

 

 

 

I had a metallic graphic envelope in my stash, which I lined with green polka-dot paper and then stamped with PTI's "Songbirds" leaves. The dies on the card are from PTI "Songbird" for the larger branch and MFT's leaves in bright green. The bird (which you'll recognize from yesterday's card) is also MFT and I think the ovals are from Sizzix.

 

 



 

Here's another view in which I added bright green embossed leaves to the front of the envelope.

 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2019/05/color-throwdown-countdown-543.html

 

 

   

Birthday Balloons

 

I'm playing with Seize The Birthday Challenge for the first time today. The topping is "Balloons" and I decided to make a birthday card for my soon-to-be 10-year-old grandson (I'll also need to come up with a card for his twin sister). I haven't had much experience with shaker cards, so I have a long way to go in that direction!

 

I'm continuing with using existing paper scraps and the balloon printed paper is from the twins' 2nd birthday invitation 8 years ago. The bird die is from MFT and the numbers are from PTI.

 

 

 

http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2019/05/seize-birthday-165-balloons.html

 

"Balloons"

                                                 (selected by Shirley)

 

   

BIRTHDAY HUGS

 

Freshly Made Sketches 387

 

On Saturday my youngest granddaughter arrived at our home with a terrible cough, to spend a couple of hours with us. I thought she was having an allergic reaction to the dog and cats, but then the following day she ran a fever and was sick all day. Thank you, Kaitlyn! Yesterday I started coughing and today I feel like complete crap, with deep cough, headache, and muscle aches. If I hadn't gone to bed so early last night I would have stayed there this morning, but I felt the need to get up and move a bit. I managed to crank out this card, but this is all I've done all day. I'm sure that all of the work I should have done today will be sitting there waiting for me tomorrow...

 

 

I did a reverse of Cécile's banners for some dimension. The paper is all from my scrap bins, the leaf die is PTI's "Songbirds" and the stamp is from their "Stylish Sentiments: Birthdays", printed in "Ripe Avocado". The banners are a single die from Cricket Cuttlebug and it was quite a task to get each banner cut straight. 

 

 

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2019/05/freshly-made-sketches-387.html

 

 

May 14, 2019

 



Turquoise & Red-Orange

One of my favorite color combinations on cards!

 

 

I had thought to enter this one in a CASology challenge but with the printed background I don't think this really qualifies as clean & simple. Ink: Versamark with white embossing powder and fill-in between petals is Copic marker. I had the turquoise envelope in my stack and lined it with the same red-orange paper as the face of the card.