Happy Thanksgiving to anyone visiting here!

 

There's so much to be thankful for this year. Today we'll be with our son and his extended family and tomorrow it will be my husband's family - and I'm not cooking for either of these celebrations! I spent the entire day yesterday working on cards. It doesn't get any better than that. I have 3 new card designs to show, but I lost my patience while photographing so I may not post all 3 here today.

 

This first card is in response to the newest challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches by Cécile. The 2 stamps I used are ancient and I have no idea who manufactured them.

 

   

The paper I used for the card and matching envelope is PTI "Ocean Tides" cardstock and some silver cardstock I had on hand. The inks are PTI "Fresh Snow" and "Pinefeather". The star sequins are ones I had on-hand.

 

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2019/11/freshly-made-sketches-413-sketch-by.html

 

 

 

While I had the Ocean Tides cardstock strewn all over the room I decided to play with a Sizzix Jim Holtz #663117 die I bought last year that I hadn't used yet. I used the "stars" across the bottom third of the card and then cut out 2 trees from a Cricket holiday set, glued those to the front, and then cut the third tree out of the face of the card, inserting a patterned paper tree into the cut-out. I stamped the Impression Obsession greeting from their CL971 "Holiday Words" and embossed it with silver embossing powder.

 

 

 

And then finally, I believe we'll be using this one for our personal card to family and friends. I'm not entirely happy with the photos - the shimmery metallic paper doesn't really show off so I'll probably re-shoot these for a separate post. At that time I'll include all of the manufacturers' information about the papers, dies and stamps I used.

 

 

 

 



A FRIEND'S RETIREMENT

 

We're attending a friend's retirement party this evening so I spent the morning working on a card of congratulations for her. I used the layout at Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #412 as a jumping-off point.

 

 

 

 

Stamps: PTI's "Ribbon & Bows" and Avery Elle's "Loads of Wishes"

 

 

 

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2019/11/freshly-made-sketches-412-sketch-by-jen.html

 

 



Quiet Fall Day

A day to myself and a perfect opportunity to play with paper and twine! September and October are a flurry of family birthdays and anniversaries, and while all of the revelry is fun, it's nice to finally have a break from the last birthday passing on Sunday.  

  

I used some of the cold-press watercolor paper that was left over from my retirement announcements for this card because I love the texture. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession #CL698 "Early Sunsets". The leaves are dies from my stash. I think the rectangular die is from Lawn Fawn.

 

 

A detail of the leaves with twine bow.

 

 

I'm sharing this card at CAS(E) this Sketch #335 and AAA CAS Challenge #152

 

 

http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/10/case-this-sketch-345.html

 

 

 

 

https://aaacards.blogspot.com/2019/10/cas-game-152-maxi-white-space-optional.html

 





GIVE THANKS

This week I combined not one, not two, but THREE challenges for this week's card and coordinating envelope - very efficient, if I say so! I'm participating with Addicted to CAS #170 "Plaid", Impression Obsession Challenge "Halloween or Fall Colors", and Just Us Girls #509 "Frame it!".

 

  

This beautiful plaid paper is "Autumn Splendor" from Simple Stories. I purchased it at The Craft Warehouse. The ivory cardstock is from Reflections and the orange gingham is from PTI. I don't know where I got the filigreed die label, but I've had it for years. The pumpkin stamps on the face of the card and on the address label are both from IO "Shades of Autumn" #CL693. I made the coordinating envelope with a Martha Stewart scoring platform and bone folder. 

 

http://addictedtocas.blogspot.com/2019/10/addicted-to-cas-challenge-170.html

 

 

 

https://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2019/10/new-impression-obsession-challenge-halloween-or-fall-colors.html

 

 

 

http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2019/10/just-us-girls-509-trend-week.html

 

 

October 18, 2019

 

 

AUTUMN BLESSINGS

Thanks for stopping by today! I have another autumn card, combining 2 challenges - Impression Obsession "Pumpkin Spice" and Freshly Made Sketches #404.

 

The pumpkins image is a brand new stamp set, Impression Obsession CL698 "Early Sunsets" that I purchased as part of my winnings last week with their "Falling Leaves" challenge. The oval die is from Sizzix and the gold embossed "Autumn Blessings" is from a very old set in my stash. The gold embossed envelope flap is Impression Obsession CC262 "Pumpkins" background stamp.

 

 

To get the fancy oval border I first cut the oval opening from the kraft cardstock and then using the next size up oval die, dry embossed it.

 

 https://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2019/09/new-impression-obsession-challenge-pumpkin-spice.html

 

 

 

 

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2019/09/theres-still-time-to-play-with-sketch_28.html

 

 

 

 

AUTUMN THANK YOU

 

It feels like the perfect autumn afternoon for card making - blustery and raining. I have an excuse for not working in the garden!

 

I've combined a couple of challenges for a thank you card for a friend. I used the sunflower image from an Impression Obsession stamp set "Shades of Autumn" CL693. The background image is from a very old small stamp, stamped 3 times with PTI's "Terracotta Tile". "Thank You" and the little golden heart is Avery Elle's "Loads of Wishes".

 

 

 

 

http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/09/case-this-sketch-341.html

 

 

 

http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2019/09/just-us-girls-507-photo-week.html

 

 



RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

My newest card-crafting project is to send announcements of my retirement to long-standing design clients and colleagues. My "official" retirement will be at the end of the month and I wanted to get these into the mail or handed out personally by the middle of next week (specifically on September 25th, which is my birthday).

 

I owe a shout-out to the European ladies designing for Alexandra Renke, who have inspired me to bind these cards similar to the beautiful books and cards they're designing.

I used large 22" x 30" watercolor paper sheets and wanted to cut the papers to use the untrimmed edges for the right side of each of the cards - I think a couple of them might have ended up with the untrimmed edge on the top. The final cards measure 6" x 6" and the coordinating envelopes are 6-1/2" x 6-1/2" square envelopes from Paper and More (Sunset Orange). I lined them with "Blueprint" metallic text, also by Paper and More. I stamped the butterfly image on the fronts of the envelopes and embossed with Stampendous embossing powder in Pirate Gold.

 

The primary butterfly image is by Kaiser Craft - #DD928 "Butterfly" and the inside "Change" sentiment is from Impression Obsession's #WP684 "Leaf Set". Not obvious by the photographs is that the colored portion of the butterfly is embossed with navy embossing powder - the shine of the embossing doesn't show up. The die-cut rectangle (I think by Lawn Fawn) is colored with Copic markers. The rectangle is then mounted to red-orange stock, adhered to the butterfly, and then outlined with a gold Pen-touch pen.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

I printed the interior message with my computer. The butterfly image was stamped over the face of the copy with PTI "Spring Rain" ink. The Change image on the left by Obsession Impression is embossed with gold embossing powder and the rectangle was added with gold pen to repeat the same image as the face of the card. I made a total of 18 of these cards and had to be very judicious about who I send them to!



 

 

THINKING ABOUT FALL

I think I'm finally moving out of Halloween mode and more generally into fall! I haven't participated with Fusion Card Challenge for quite some time but this month's challenge caught my eye.

 

 

This stamp set is from Impression Obsession - WP684 "Leaf Set". I used PTI inks - Green Parakeet, New Leaf, Pinefeather, Summer Sunrise, Terracotta Tile, and Dark Chocolate. The dotted background is PTI "Polka Dot Basics" in Fresh Linen for both the card and the envelope liner. Sequins from my stash.

 

 

 

  

http://fusioncardchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/09/fusion-autumn.html

 

And also,

 

https://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2019/09/new-impression-obsession-challenge-falling-leaves.html

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

September 19, 2019

 



 

September 19, 2019

 





 

 



 



NEW STAMP IMAGE & BELATED BIRTHDAY

 

I got this new stamp image - Kaiser Craft DD928 "Butterfly" - with the express idea of using it for my retirement announcements at the end of this month, to suggest change. I loved it so much that I started immediately playing with it for a birthday card for my sister-in-law (whose birthday I managed to forget). I decided to make it square to play along with "Seize the Birthday" and navy, coral, mustard, and ivory for "Color Throwdown #599". I don't seem to have any light coral in my stash so used a darker coral.

 

So I got way down the road on this and printed the final little "wishes" crooked and couldn't figure out how to fix it - BUMMER!!

 

 

 

 

http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2019/08/seize-birthday-173-square-card.html

 

  

 

 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2019/09/color-throwdown-countdown-559.html

 

 

 

 

AND MORE...

 

Still having fun with Halloween! This time it's CASology week 351 "LOL".

 

This was another stamp set from Michael's - Recollections "Halloween". I used Memento "Tuxedo Black" and VersaMark "Watermark" inks, Zing! "Apricot" embossing powder, and Copic markers. CASology guidelines specifically say the cards should be limited layers and minimal embellishments - I hope this qualifies. I stamped the llama with the pumpkins first and then masked it to stamp the mummy llama.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 http://casology.blogspot.com/2019/09/week-351-lol.html 

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - AGAIN!

 

I'm continuing with playing around with using the challenges as inspiration for this year's Halloween card. If I make enough of them I can just send out these little experiments and each friend and family member will receive a different design!

 

Today it's CAS(E) this Sketch #337. The main die is a new one I just added to my collection from Recollections "Halloween" - purchased at Michael's. The background band is Obsession Impression "Spider Web", the sentiments are from Hero Arts, and the bats from Jim Holtz "Halloween Cutouts".

 

 

 

http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/08/case-this-sketch-337.html

 

 

 

September 7, 2019

 



CLEAN AND SIMPLE CHALLENGE

 

AAA CAS Game #147 - "Along the Edge + Optional Twist Inspired by a Song". My entry is inspired by the old 1945 Christmas standard "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow" by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. 

 

 

 

Die and Let It Snow stamp from PTI "Christmas Cheer"

Inks: Memento "Gray Flannel" and VersaMark

White embossing powder

Metallic envelop from Papers & More

 

 

I really struggled with this card because I wanted the die image to stand out. I tried multiple layers of white card stock but had a lot of trouble with the thin letters and glue. This version is using a layer of thin foam with card stock glued on top and then mounted on the card. If anyone who has happened upon this post and knows how to clean Tombow liquid glue from card stock, I would be most appreciative!

 

https://aaacards.blogspot.com/2019/08/cas-game-147-along-edge-optional-twist.html

 

AND CONTINUING WITH HALLOWEEN...

 

This is my entry to this week's CAS(E) this Sketch #336 - thanks to last year's Jim Holtz Collection "Zombies" by Stampers Anonymous. This collection was right up my weirdness alley!

 

 

 

Papers by Simple Stories "Happy Haunting"

Martha Stewart blood drip border punch

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Jim Holtz "Zombies"

Copic markers, small google eye, and safety pin - all from my stash

 

 

 

Edge detail with ribbons and safety pin

 



 

Custom envelope

 

http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/08/case-this-sketch-336.html

 

 

 

 

8/31/19