CASology #389

 Welcome to Week 389 of CASology!  Take a look at the cue word for this week:

Both this Lawn Fawn stamp and the Cosmo Cricket patterned paper have been in my craft room FOREVER!  I have used them both before so they're not NBUS but it's certainly been awhile since they came out to play.

Looking forward to seeing what direction the cue word takes you.  Check out the gorgeousness from the rest of the design team then play along!

Deepti Stephens

Deidre Payne

Jacquie Southas 

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Melissa Chipperfield

Milka Gubo 

Nancy Elrick

Sandie Munroe

Sue Symens

This week's guest designer:

Tenia

***You've got 2 weeks for this challenge!***

Link your creations to the CASology blog by 9am Monday, 10 May (CDT).

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper:  (Circa 1934 6x6) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (Just My Type) Lawn Fawn

Ink:  (Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukeniko, (Rockin' Red) Catherine Pooler

Markers:  (YR23, YG63, BG93) Copic

Other:  (Nuvo English Mustard Crystal Drops) Tonic

Peas Love Happiness

Today's card combines the sketch from the Paper Players along with the Paper Smooches Happy Things challenge.  Those peas are from one of the very first Paper Smooches releases and the polka dot paper is from an old Cosmo Cricket collection.  I even used a Corner Chomper to create the rounded corners on the kraft panel.  I brought out all the antiques for this one - I knew I'd kept everything for a reason!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Real Red, Old Olive, Garden Green, Crumb Cake) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Garden Variety 12x12) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (All from Vegtastic) Paper Smooches

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Dies:  (Hearts) Simon Says Stamp

Other:  (Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss) Tonic

Inspired By All The Little Things Guest Designer

I was absolutely thrilled to bits when the lovely and talented Karren of Stamping Stuff invited me to be her guest for this week's Inspired by All the Little Things challenge!  If you've never visited Karren's blog you are missing out.  Her creations are gorgeous and I'm in awe of her colouring skills.  

Here is this week's inspiration photo.  I was inspired by the pink behind the placard and the white sentiment framed by the flowers.  I wish I could say that I inked up the coloured panel on my card but alas, I am not that talented.  Instead it's a gorgeous piece of Cosmo Cricket paper.  The sentiment is stacked multiple times for dimension.  For the flowers I embossed them on vellum, keeping them simple so they wouldn't compete with the coloured panel.

I hope you'll join us and play along this week.  It's wedding season after all so it wouldn't hurt to have a wedding card in your stash!  Also if you have a moment I'd love it if you popped over to the Inspired By... blog and checked out my little interview.  :)

Have a great weekend!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Vellum), (Basic Black) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Hey Sugar 12x12) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (Flowers & leaves from Doodled Dasies) Lil' Inker

Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukeniko

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Die:  (Mr & Mrs) Paper Smooches, (Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frame) My Favourite Things

Glitter:  (Clear Wink of Stella) Zig

Other:  (Nuvo Oyster Grey Crystal Drops) Tonic

Papertrey Ink September 2016 Blog Hop

When I saw the inspiration photo for Papertrey Ink's September 2016 Blog Hop I knew I had to play along.  I had a couple of Branching Out die cuts on my desk that were just begging to be used and this was the perfect opportunity.  I paired them with kraft, black and white cardstock and a touch of twine, all inspired by the photo, along with sentiments from Botanical Silhouettes. 

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Black, Kraft) Papertrey Ink, Watercolor) Ranger

Patterned Paper:  Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (Sentiments from Botanical Silhouettes) Papertrey Ink

Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Intense Black) Simon Says Stamp

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Dies:  (Branching Out) Papertrey Ink

Paint:  (Gansai Tambi) Kuretaki

Twine:  Darice

Gems:  Recollections

Oh Ship!

Hello!!!  I am ecstatic to be typing up this post right now! My internet has been down since late Friday night and I've been wandering around like a lost soul all weekend.  Luis and Atti have been treading very carefully around me - no internet makes for a VERY grumpy Jen!  LOL! Anyway it's back and I have lots to catch up on but first I wanted to post a card for the Simon Says Wednesday birthday challenge and for the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge.  This is the card I sent to my brother this year.  I didn't actually forget his birthday but I knew this card was going to be really late.  He enjoyed it and I has some fun using some red embossing powder and some old Cosmo Cricket papers.  Okay.  Off to catch up on blog surfing!  Yay!!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Kraft ) Papertrey Ink, (Real Red) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  ((Salt Air Mini Deck) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (All from Naughty Nautical) Simon Says Stamp

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Zinc Rouge) American Crafts

Dies:  (Tag Sale #5) Papertrey Ink, (Stitched Banner) Lil' Inker Designs

CAS(E) This Sketch #21

Welcome to Week 21 of CAS(E) This Sketch!  Take a look at this week's sketch designed by Lisa Arana:  

It's not often I look at a sketch and have an image immediately come to mind but this time the first thing that popped into my head was a typewriter.  I also knew I had some patterned papers with letters in circles buried somewhere and after a bit of digging I found this Cosmo Cricket paper - perfect!  I did some tone on tone stamping to the red strip for a bit of texture, popped up the typewriter and voila!  What do you see in these shapes?  Play along and show us!  Check out the rest of the design team cards and then get to work!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Kraft) Papertrey Ink, (Real Red, River Rock)  Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Circa 1934) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (Typewriter and sentiment) Hero Arts, (Cane background) Market Street Stamps

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

RetroSketches #35

Happy Saturday!  I'm back with the latest challenge from RetroSketches and this week the sketch is based on one of my cards (originally seen here).  I was in a patterned paper kind of mood when I worked on this and broke out some old Cosmo Cricket paper - the Everafter collection.  This is an older Hero Arts stamp set too but then I'm usually a bit behind on the trends!  :)  I can't wait to see how the sketch inspires you!  Happy crafting!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Basic Grey) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Everafter collection) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (All from Sew Artsy) Hero Arts
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black)  Tsukineko

Sweet Sunday Phone

How awesome is that telephone die cut?  It was a gift from the fabulous Jenny of Crafting in the Country. She sent me some X-Cut dies and also a bunch of die cuts including this phone in red and black.  As you can see I did a little mixing and matching and thought the black phone was more fun with a red centre!  And look at all that patterned paper!  I love it!  Fun and funky methinks.  :)  Not only did I used patterned paper but I also followed the sketch from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  Patterned paper and a sketch on one card??  What is this world coming to!  I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.


Cardbase:  Handy Hippo
Patterned Paper:  (Circa 1934) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps:  (Sentiment from Just Saying Hi) Hero Arts
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger

Die:  (Nesties Large Labels) Spellbinders

Mix It Up!

***This is my 2nd post for the day.  Please click here for my Friends With Flair/Paper Players post!***

I thought I'd have time to post this after I got home from work but I just realised that one of the challenges closes in only 4 hours!  This card is for the Wee Memories Birthdays & Parties challenge and also for the Use It Tuesdays cooking challenge. I love the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird and Garden Variety collections and have been hoarding them for ages now.  I also have a million Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers that I use very sparingly.  I really don't know what I think I'm saving all this stuff for. I'm sure all my stash would be much happier to find itself on a card than collecting dust in the Craft Cave.  Thanks, Use It Tuesday for kicking my butt into gear and getting me to put this stuff to use!  Okay, really gotta dash now - back later with the blog candy!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (Real Red) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Sunday Picnic from Garden Variety collection, Image from Early Bird collection) Cosmo CricketStickers:  (Tiny Type) Cosmo Cricket

What's Up, Chickadee?

My card for this week's CAS-ual Fridays embossing challenge is pretty simple in the embossing aspect as only the birdie is embossed.  I tried a few other cards with dry embossing and such and they all just got too busy so I came back to my original attempt. I love this Purple Onion bird and paper pieced it with some Cosmo Cricket paper.  PO designs really seem to lend themselves well to paper piecing.  My inspiration for this came from Courtney Kelley's blog which is full of fun and colourful paper pieced creations.  Check her out if you haven't yet.  I'm also going to enter this in this week's Less Is More challenge - Things That Move.

Supplies Used:
Cardstock: (Kraft) Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: (Get Happy collection) Cosmo Cricket

Stamps: (Bird & sentiment) Purple Onion Designs

Inks: (VersaMark & VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder: (Black) Ranger

Punch: (Threading Water) Fiskars

Chipboard Cheer

Just a quick post today as it's been a busy couple of days.  I got called in to work unexpectedly yesterday so didn't have my usual "Monday Time" in the Craft Cave.  I did have a bit of time over the weekend though and put together a few cards using Basic Grey Offbeat papers and chipboard and Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers.  These items are great for whipping up a few quick cards for the ol' card stash.  Have a great evening!

Three Valentine's and a Baby

Hello hello!  Hope all is well with everyone today.  I've just come back from a nice long walk with the hounds - well, 2 walks actually.  First I take Jem and Atticus, the crazy boys.  Once I've (somewhat) tired them out I take Scout for her walk.  She's the oldest of the bunch and has terribly arthritic elbows so she can't quite keep up with the other two these days.  It's quite nice to have a leisurely stroll with her after bouncing all over the place with the boys!


I had a busy morning carding and ended up with 3 Valentine's cards and one for a baby shower.  The mum-to-be doesn't know what she's having yet so I couldn't go for the usual pink or blue.  Here's what I came up with instead:

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Cardstock: Paperbilities; Patterned Paper: HOTP; Stamp: Hero Arts stork & Elzybells sentiment; Ink: Memento black & Palette purple; Other: Nestabilities Labels Fifteen, Copics, Making Memories thread, misc buttons


And finally some sunshine without gale force winds so I could take some pictures outside.  Whoo hoo!


The first Valentine card is a quickie using Cosmo Cricket paper and chipboard stickers.  Love this stuff - simple but effective!

Next is a simple one layer card.  The backgrounds are SU ink but at this moment I cannot remember the name - Melon Mambo maybe?  I have no idea who makes the little hearts and sentiment stamps.  They have no labels on them and someone gave them to me several years ago from their stash.  At the time I thought they were kind of cheesy and that I'd never use them but never say never I guess!  The first one I made I very meticulously lined up all the squares and had the hearts perfectly centered but it looked "too" perfect.  So I did the same design but this time free hand.  Lots of crookedness but I kind of like it...

The third Valentine's card was super simple.  I've had this roll of velvet ribbon sitting around for ages and today it was screaming at me to be stamped on.  So I obliged:

Now I'm off to plug in some heaters.  I may be in Bermuda and it may be 60 degrees but it's damp here and we live in a stone house with no central heating.  Thank goodness for space heaters and warm doggies!  Have a lovely evening!

Even More Cosmo Cricket!

I'm probably beating a dead horse with these Cosmo Cricket cards but I'm still having fun with both the Early Bird and Garden Variety collections so as long as it's fun I'm going to keep on going!

More Cosmo Cricket

I realise I'm being a bit of an eager beaver bogging twice on my first day but I don't think I'll get back on here in the next couple of days.

I carried on with my exercise of seeing how many cards I could make from one paper collection and came up with a few more from Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety collection:

Cardstock: The Stampin' Place card blanks, Bazill Basics, Paperbilities  Stamp: Paper Source  Inks: Palette, Ranger Distress Tea Dye  Other:  Jillibean Soup Journalling Sprouts, Doodlebug Design rub-ons & buttons, I-Kan-Dee twine  

I'm really having fun with this and it's definitely helping me produce more cards.  Hope you enjoy the results!

Joining The Blogosphere

I have spent the last few months perusing multiple card blogs and not only loving them but wondering how everyone keeps up with them. All these busy working moms manage to produce these gorgeous and fun blogs on a regular basis - I really doubted I could do that. The more I read them though the more I've been wanting to get in on the fun so here I am. Not sure I'll be as prolific as some others but I'd like a place to post my cards and my random thoughts!

I've been dabbling in card making for about 3 1/2 years now. Initially I used my photographs to make note cards and then I discovered a few card making magazines and started to explore that a little further. To be honest, I've spent most of the last few years "collecting" card making supplies and not making all that many cards! I've filled up a room (my Craft Cave) with all sorts of goodies and it's only in the last few months that I've really made some progress in actually creating cards. I seem to have just as much fun collecting and organising my goodies as I do putting them to use! I figured if I set up a blog then it might help to spur me on to make cards as well as just oohing and aahing over everyone else's - and also to finally make use of all my goodies! So here I am.

One of my problems is that I have so much stuff that I'm often overwhelmed as to where to start and what to use. Sometimes too much choice is not a good thing - especially for indecisive types such as myself. So I recently decided that I would pick one thing (a stamp or a paper collection) and see how much I could come up with using that as a springboard. I started digging around and found the Early Bird paper collection from Cosmo Cricket. It came with patterned paper, chipboard and stickers. I love the retro look and quickly produced 4 cards:

Carstock: The Stamp Pad Co. card blanks, Paperbilities cardstock  Other: Nestabilities Labels One

Simple, quick and cute!  It was a good exercise for me as I can spends hours and hours dithering over just one card.  This forced me to focus and work with what was there and not keep wandering off to look for something else.  I then pulled out Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety collection to try the same exercise but only got one done before I had to dash off to other things:

Other:  Jillibean Soup Journaling Sprouts


I'm definitely looking forward to trying this some more and will let you know how it goes!