JUST US GIRLS - TREND WEEK

WHEW! This week's Just Us Girls Challenge is for a card with NO stamping! I didn't realize how much I use stamps to set the message of my cards until this challenge. I did a very deep dive into my stash to see what I could find that could be used for a card, and although I have a number of word dies, I decided not to use any of them and instead go with a quote sentiment from an old Graphic 45 "Kraft Reflections Collection" as the basis of my card.

I started with an ivory watercolor paper that I blind embossed a rectangular die on and attached it to one of the print papers from the Graphic 45 as a mat and added one of the quotes. I selected one of the sillier cut-out figures from Tim Holtz "Idea-ology Group Paper Dolls" and mounted her to the face with dimensional foam. Then I die cut some tiny ivory hearts and glued one to her shirt and three at the end of the quote. This was then all mounted onto a dark brown 6"x 6" folded card base. That's just about as simple as it gets, but I think it took me hours to make this card!

The process of making a CAS card always seems to take me more time than one that is less simple, because I put all of the elements together and then start editing. How much can I take away from the design but still maintain the purity of the idea?

These are the instructions for this week's challenge and I challenge you to try it!

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #588 - Trend Week

TIME TO UNPLUG

This will probably be the last card from me for a couple of days as I'm working toward a design presentation early next week for the project I agreed to take on (in my retirement). Also, this morning I'm avoiding what I "should" be doing, which is cleaning house because we're having a small group of guests over for dinner tonight - for the first time in more than a year!

Having said all of that, this card is a message to myself about expectations - a reminder to relax them a bit. Everything will get done. I'm submitting it to the Color Throwdown #646 - Light Gray, Aqua, and Navy. 

I've been playing with a couple of new layering stamp sets from Hero Arts. The clouds and palm trees are from #CM317 and the waves are #CM316. The sentiment is from Simple Stories "Great Escape". The inks I used were PTI "Aqua Mist" and "Enchanted Evening" and Hero Arts Pigment Ink "Unicorn" and Memento dye ink "London Fog". I blended a bit of PTI "Blueberry Sky" onto aqua cardstock before stamping the layered clouds and palm trees and then mounted it behind a couple of die cut circles. (The stitched circle is cut into the pre-stamped top layer of the card and the second circle outline was cut from white card stock and mounted onto the face of the card.) All of this was mounted onto a white top-folded card base and some small clear gems were added for shine. I lined a white A2 envelope with a scrap of printed light-weight paper.   

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown #646 

Now it's time to get busy, but I will be reminding myself to relax a bit and enjoy the day as it progresses toward a fun evening of lively conversation and good food and drink!   

THANKS FOR YOUR KINDNESS

I'm really pleased to announce that I've been invited by the ladies at Just Us Girls Challenge to participate as Designer for the Month of June! 

This first challenge of the month is Word Week #587 - Kind/Kindness. I have to admit to having some difficulty getting started and had a couple of false starts, but I finally settled on a thank you card that could be masculine or feminine - and in my favorite CAS style.

I started by inking some light green dots onto a white card base, then gluing 2 die cut white flower branches (Tim Holtz #661808) directly on the card and overlapping a die-cut tag (Stampin' Up "Framelits - Chalk Talk") on which I had stamped the sentiment from two different stamp sets (PTI "Embroidered Blooms" and Hero Arts DC152) in Memento "Tuxedo" and Stampendous white embossing powder respectively. I attached a third flower to the face of the tag after smudging a tiny bit of green ink on it. Then because I can never pass up the opportunity to hang some twine off my cards, I tied a short length of black and white baker's twine through a hole I punched in the tag.

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #587 - Word Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com) 

Well, despite the fact that June is a very busy family month of birthdays and barbeques, I am looking forward to filling out the month with the JUG challenges. Although I am "officially" retired I agreed to do one last interior design project for one of my favorite builders and it's a large medical research facility, which will probably seriously cut into my free time for the next several months. Oh well, I'm accustomed to keeping several balls in the air at once! 

  

ADDICTED TO CAS - BEACH

It's time for a new challenge here at Addicted to CAS! Today's code word is brought to us by the "Simply Beautiful" Ceal. It's a great opportunity to get out all of those new summer "beachy" stamps and dies you've been stocking up on!  

I have to admit that I really didn't have anything in my stash, so I went shopping and picked up a couple of new Hero Arts Color Layering stamps. I haven't done much in the way of color layering but these Hero Arts CM316 and CM317 were great fun - so many images to choose from.

 

I decided to combine the beach layering image with a fun Tim Holtz die set that I've had for about a year but haven't really used. It's "Happy Hour" #664435. Now that I've officially broken it in, I can see that I'll be using it much more in the future.

I started with some blending of sky and sand and layered PTI die inks "Spring Rain", "Aqua Mist", and "Ocean Tides" (appropriately-named!) for the background image and then got the idea of repeating the same within the cocktail glass, so I stamped it twice so I could use it for the inside of the glass. I die-cut the glass from glossy photo paper and layered on all of the die-cut accessories included in the set, using some Ranger "Glossy Accents" on the ice cubes. I mounted the background scene to a 5-1/2" square card base and die cut an opening from an old die and stamped the sentiment with PTI's "Ocean Tides". Once all of the components were completed the final layering turned into an engineering challenge getting everything lined up properly.  

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #199 - Beach

As I write this it's a long Memorial Day weekend here in the US and we're all thinking about summer vacation. With the pandemic appearing to have peaked here, restrictions have been eased a bit - here's hoping people don't get too careless so that we can continue to enjoy some freedoms away from face coverings.

NAUGHTY KITTY!

Today's card is an homage to one of our favorite past kitties, William of Orange. That cat had so much personality that it could hardly be contained within his small body. He was such a naughty kitty, into everything. I immediately thought of him when I saw the current Color Throwdown #644 with all of the wonderful cats! I selected this slimline format for the Freshly Made Sketches #487 Challenge.

I used an old cat image from Inkadinkado, stamping him with Hero Arts Shadow Ink "Butter Bar" and adding whiskers and features with a fine Sharpie pen. Then I masked him off and printed all of the blobs and squiggly stuff with Memento "Gray Flannel" and added the yellow splatters from a Tim Holtz Halloween set and some paw prints from the Inkadinkado cats set. Finally, I used black embossing powder on the sentiment from Lawn Fawn's "Scriptly Sentiments". I mounted the white base with yellow and black mats onto a folded gray card, after which I added some more blobs to the right side of the card. I had this yellowish #10 envelope in my stash and I stamped another kitty image and sentiment from Photo Play #S152150 "Made By Me".

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown #644

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #487 - A Sketch by Jen T

HELLO SWEET FRIEND

I was inspired to create a card this morning for the latest Just Us Girls #585 - Photo Week. I searched through my stamp stash to find a Mason jar type arrangement and found this one from Impression Obsession ("Shades of Autumn" CL693). It's meant to be a vase of sunflowers but I decided they could stand in for daisies in a pinch. I stamped it with Memento "Tuxedo Black" dye ink, colored it with  markers and Prisma Color pencils, and fussy cut it out. I added a kraft paper collar on the vase and wrapped twine around it.

I die-cut a white cardstock with a stitched rectangle to provide a background for the vase. I stamped "sweet friend" (HA+Gina K PR401), which I cut away from the "hello") and embossed it in white on a kraft strip. Then I ran the strip through my Big Shot with a PTI texture plate to make it look like burlap. I mounted that on both the card base and the smaller rectangular die and stamped "hello" in black and added a strip of white lace paper to suggest a lace tablecloth. The fussy-cut vase was mounted with dimensional foam and three little tan pearls completed the card. Here's a closer look:

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #585 - Photo Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

ADDICTED TO CAS - OMBRE

Back in my craft room again today after a week hiatus to take care of a lot of personal stuff. Barb is the current hostess for #198 "Ombre" - a technique I haven't used much. I approached it by blending two tones of green from dark to light (PTI "Pinefeather and "New Leaf" dye inks) onto a scrap of white card stock and die-cutting a single branch image from it (Penny Black "Airy" #51-423).

I die cut a 3-1/4" x 4" rectangle of white card stock with a stitched circle die opening. Using a small scrap of printed blue paper I stamped the sentiment from HA+Gina K "PR101" with the Pinefeather ink. I slipped the sentiment piece behind the circle cut-out and mounted it all on the folded card with dimensional foam. I then attached the branch and added a couple of white sequins and tiny clear gems. Very simple. Here's a closer look:

That's it from me for the day - now it's your turn! Just remember to keep it CAS and be sure to check out what the other design team members have done as they translate Barb's idea.

 

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #198

    

IN MEMORIUM

Sara the Wonderlab was put to sleep today, leaving a huge hole in our hearts. This is one of my favorite photos of her because she's looking so majestic.

Sara Wing

January 9, 2007 - May 13, 2021

She passed very peacefully, having fallen asleep across Hal's lap after a particularly hard morning. This is how I want to remember her.

LAYERS

The current "Just Us Girls" Challenge - #583 Layers was a perfect opportunity to use up some bits and pieces that have been languishing in my stash. It's a beautiful morning and I'm automatically drawn to sunny yellow.

I started with a white card base that had already been blind-embossed with a plate image. The white die-cut Sizzix Tim Holtz flower silhouettes on the right are strategically covering up a pink ink finger print. When I began working with this I had thought to make an all-white layered card to use up a bunch of white flowers, but then the morning sun got the best of me! I stamped the birthday sentiment from PTI's "Stylish Sentiments - Birthday" clear stamp collection with their "Summer Sunrise" dye ink. I mounted it on a yellow-gold mat and a white top-folded card and added the flower dies, die-cut butterfly, and a couple of yellow-gold gems. That's about as many layers as I could manage on one card base! 

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls #583 Trend Week (justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com)

BUGS!

It's no secret that I have a particular fondness for bugs - always have had. So when it was my turn to be the Addicted to CAS Challenge #197 host this week, I couldn't resist sharing my fascination with all of you! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you guys, with all of your creativity, come up with. Just remember to have fun and keep it CAS!

A couple of months ago I got this rubber stamp set from Katzelkraft (#KT234 "Les Nounounes") with the most wonderfully whimsical creatures and I've been playing around with them. I used the praying mantis on my Valentines cards and couldn't really decide which one(s) I wanted to use for our ATCAS Challenge, so I made two. This is the one I decided on:

I started by stamping both bug images with black ink on white card stock and coloring them with my COPID markers. Then to ground the images I made a stencil with a PTI heart die, masked off the bugs, and blended some pink ink into the heart stencil. The image was finished off with little hearts and the "Bugs & Kisses" sentiment. I punched double slots  on the heart and wove a rose-colored paper strip that I had heat embossed "Sending You" onto. The white cardstock was mounted to a printed cardstock mat and both layers were mounted to a white side-folding card base. The rose strip wraps around to the inside of the card.

While I was playing with these little guys, I also made this card:

 Again, I stamped this little lady in black on a white die-cut rectangle and colored her with my COPID markers. It's not really very noticeable, but I added sun glasses from a Lawn Fawn stamp set ("Simply Celebrate Summer"). I masked her off and stamped the greeting (Lawn Fawn "Scriptly Sayings") and the pink background (Stampers Anonymous "Haunted House" # CMS308 by Tim Holtz) and then over-stamped the small sentiment (Hero Arts #CM351). Before mounting this to a white top-folding card base, I extended the greeting onto the card base and added the printed stripe strip from my stash. I liked these stripes because they already had dark pink stipples. I finished the card with three tiny teal gems. I know exactly who's going to receive this card!

Well, now it's your turn! 

Be sure to visit our other designers' blogs to let them know how much you love their creations.

  

CAS CAT

And a happy good morning to all!

Hal's aunt will be having her birthday next week and she's a cat lover so this one is for her. I decided to take inspiration from both Seize the Birthday #213 - "Furry Friends" and Freshly Made Sketches 484.

This very elegant cat is from an old Inkadinkado stamp set. I stamped her with Memento "Tuxedo Black" dye ink and masked off her body to stamp the square of dots with PTI "New Leaf" and Tim Holtz stencil with PTI "Hawaiian Shores". I used a coordinating turquoise mat and mounted both to a top-folding white card base. The sentiment is heat embossed in white, tied with turquoise and white bakers twine, and mounted to the face with dimensional foam. Tiny green gems were added to her eyes. That's it - very CAS. 

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #484 - A Sketch by Amy 

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #213- Furry Friends

GIRAFFE/TAG FUSION

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! A good day to share a pitcher of margaritas on the patio with friends - surely it's 5:00 somewhere in the world!  

This morning's share is a card for the current Fusion - Mother's Day Challenge. I didn't think I could do a fusion of both a tag and a baby giraffe, but I remembered this PTI stamp set and matching dies - "Sweet Baby" - that I've had for quite a few years. 

I chose to use the tag die in reverse so that the little baby giraffe could insert his head for a "peek-a-boo". It was all very simple. I die-cut the tag (Stampin' Up "Framelits - Chalk Talk") from white cardstock, mounted it to a PTI tiny kraft print plaid with some dimensional foam and attached all of that to a folded card base. The little giraffe was die cut and stamped with Altenew "Rocky Shore" dye ink and tucked behind the opening. The tiny sentiment (Hero Arts CF351) was also stamped with Rocky Shore and the larger sentiment was heat embossed in white on kraft card stock, cut out and attached to some alphabet printed paper, tied with brown and white baker's twine, and mounted to the face of the card. The coordinating envelope is also one of PTI's printed papers.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day - it's lovely here today in southern Oregon, with an expected high of 90 degrees. The morning glories that my granddaughter and I planted a couple of weeks ago are starting to poke their heads out of the ground and it's amazing how quickly they grow once the ground warms up! Now to find my margarita pitcher and lost shaker of salt (sorry, couldn't resist).

Fusion Card Challenge: FUSION - Mother's Day

 

Added May 14, 2021:

  

MOTHER'S DAY CARD

Hello, all

It's been more than a week since I visited here last. I took a bit of a break while I had my final cataract surgery check-up, ordered new glasses, started back into a regular fitness program, and continued the struggles with our beloved Sara. 

I don't recall if I mentioned that Sara turned 14 in January. We've had her for 13 years and she has been the world's best doggie companion. Her hips are bad and some days it's really difficult for her to keep her back feet under her. We continue to walk her daily but it's harder and harder for her to make it around the block. A couple of months ago she started exhibiting signs of dementia and it's full-on now. She wanders around the house bumping into everything and falling. I spend a good part of my day tending to her needs - picking her up when she falls and making sure she gets outside to take care of all of her elimination. She still eats well. Did I say how expensive this is, with the vet bills and special food and medications? YIKES! While we're very cognizant of the inevitability of the outcome, she is still a very loved and important part of our family.

Having said all of that, I do have a card to share today that I made for my daughter-in-law for Mother's Day. I never miss the opportunity to tell her what a great mother she's been to our grandchildren! This is a small card - only 4 1/4" x 4 1/4". Because of the odd size I also had to fabricate a matching envelope. For inspiration I looked to two challenges: Freshly Made Sketches #483 and Color Throwdown #640.   

I'm not sure why these photos are making the pinks look more peach, because they are definitely pink. I stamped the Impression Obsession D20737 wreath on two pieces of cardstock, pink and white, with Altenew "Espresso" dye ink and colored the leaves with a green felt-tip pen. Then I overprinted the background dots from Stampers Anonymous "Haunted House" DMS308 set with PTI's "New Leaf" dye ink and die-cut a circle from the white top layer. I trimmed down all four sides of the white top layer and mounted it with dimensional foam to the top-folded card layer. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment onto a strip of brown paper by combining words from a couple of different old stamp sets in my stash. I also heat embossed a portion of the wreath where the brown strip overlapped the pink layer. Finally I die cut flowers from darker pink and coral papers using MTF's "Birds of a Feather" die set. The green stem is cut from Penny Black's "Airy" 51-423 die and then clipped to size.

  

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown Countdown #640

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2021/04/freshly-made-sketches-483-sketch-by.html