Leaf Blessings

 I haven't played along with the Shopping Our Stash challenge in forever but this time the theme is plant life and I felt inspired.  These leaves are from a Craft's Meow set.  I've had them so long that the company doesn't exist anymore so I think this definitely counts as shopping my stash!  I used an ink smooshing and misting technique to colour the leaves and added an MFT sentiment, some twine and a few Nuvo drops to finish it off.

Supplies Used:

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

Stamps:  (Leaves from Beautiful Spring) The Craft's Meow, (Sentiment from Essential Sentiments) My Favourite Things

Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Cracked Pistachio, Lucky Clover) Ranger

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Twine:  Darice

Other:  (Nuvo Oyster Grey Crystal Drops) Tonic

Hogs & Kisses

 Today's card is for the sketch challenge at the Paper Players.  Yay for using up some patterned paper and also for finally using that sentiment!  I'm pretty sure it's main reason I bought that stamp set all those years ago and I've finally used it.  Yaaaaassssss!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Melon Mambo, Real Red, Basic Black) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Crush 6x6) We R Memory Keepers

Stamps:  (Pig from Hog Heaven) My Favourite Things, (Sentiment from Hogs & Kisses) The Craft's Meow

Inks:  (VersaMark, Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Dies:  (Heart) Taylored Expressions

Markers:  (RV29, R11, R20) Copic

Other:  (Nuvo Ebony Black Crystal Drops) Tonic

Chevron Flower Birthday

I'm playing along with the Tic Tac Toe challenge at the Paper Players.  I made this using the top row (flowers, girly, birthday) but it also works for the diagonal (flowers, die cut, embossing).  I used Jennifer McGuire's ink smooshing/faux watercolor technique on a Craft's Meow flower and leaves.  I really love this look especially with the Oxide inks - such rich colour!  I added some MFT chevrons in the background for a bit of drama and a Winnie & Walter sentiment to finish it off.

   

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Basic Grey) Stampin' Up, (Watercolour) Ranger

Stamps:  (Flower & leaves from Happiness Is...) The Craft's Meow, (Sentiment from Sentimental: Birthday) Winnie & Walter

Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Abandoned Coral, Fossilised Amber, Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover Oxide Inks) Ranger

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Dies:  (Chevrons) My Favourite Things

Other:  (Nuvo English Mustard Crystal Drops) Tonic

Oxide Smoosh

Today's card is for the Addicted to Stamps and More Anything Goes challenge.  I was looking back through my blog and was reminded of an ink smooshing/watercolour technique that I learned from Jennifer McGuire.  It's been a while since I did it and I wanted to try it again so I went digging for some large flower images.  I found this old The Craft's Meow set and thought it would be perfect for it.  I tried the technique with regular Distress Inks and Oxide Inks.  They come out quite differently but I like the richness of the Oxide inks on this one.  It's so pretty that I wanted it to take center stage so I simply added an MFT sentiment and a couple of gems and left it at that.

Supplies Used:

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

Stamps:  (Flower & leaves from Beautiful Spring) The Craft's Meow, (Sentiment from Geometric Greenery) My Favorite Things

Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Abandoned Coral, Fossilised Amber, Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover Oxide Inks) Ranger

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Gems:  Recollections

CASology #283

Welcome to Week 283 of CASology!  Take a look at the cue word for this week:

I immediately thought of "a glimmer of hope" when I saw this week's cue word and found this sentiment in an old The Craft's Meow stamp set.  For some reason I always put butterflies and hope together in my mind so I went with it here.  I used an NBUS MFT butterfly stamp and embossed it with silver.  This Nuvo silver embossing powder was recommended at my local art supply store and I LOVE it!  The other brand I have at home has never worked well but this is gorgeous.  They were out of the Nuvo gold but I will definitely be getting some at some point.       

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!

Anna Uhras

Deidre Payne

Jacquie Southas 

Janet Ribet

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Kymona Tracey

Melissa Chipperfield 

Rachel Bergfeld

This week's guest designer:

Lisa Lara

Link your creations to the CASology blog and remember that the deadline for entries is Monday at noon (CDT).

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White, Soft Stone) Papertrey Ink

Stamps:  (Butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies) My Favourite Things, (Sentiment from Hope Blooms) The Craft's Meow

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Volcano Lake) Altenew

Embossing Powder:  (Nuvo Classic Silver) Tonic

Markers:  (RV42, YR04, YR61, Y38, C1, C3) Copic

Gems:  Recollections

Paws & Leaves

Hi there!  

It's a long weekend for us here so I ignored all my chores today and hung out in the Craft Cave instead.  I got quite a few cards made and have two to share now.  First up is for Freshly Made Sketches with another appearance by one of the adorable new My Favourite Things Christmas pooches.  I paired him with some fun (and ancient) Pebbles paper and a Lil' Inker Designs pierced square.  

Supplies Used:

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

Patterned Paper:  (Christmas Stripes 12x12) Pebbles

Stamps:  (Dog & sentiment from Happy Pawlidays) My Favourite Things

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black, Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukeniko

Die:  (Pierced square) Lil' Inker Designs

Markers:  Copic

Glitter:  (White Wink of Stella) Zig

Gems:  Recollections

Next is a card for the Muse challenge inspired by Anita's creation.  I dug out some old leaf images from The Craft's Meow (sadly now closed) and used the Hero Arts autumn ombre ink pad to get a similar look to Anita's leaves.  A bit of green matting pays homage to the green on her design.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Old Olive) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (Leaf & sentiment) The Craft's Meow

Inks:  (Ombre Autumn) Hero Arts

Gems:  Recollections

Reindeer, Leaves & Flower

Hi there!  I had a little time to work on cards today and I started out by playing along with the design at Freshly Made Sketches.  I wanted to use some non-traditional Christmas colours so I dug out this ancient 12x12 sheet of Adornit paper and used it on the card base.  Then I tried to match my Copics to some of the colours from the paper and used them for the ornaments.  I added clear Wink of Stella to the ornaments and some Stickles to the baubles around his neck.  After going through all my Christmas sentiments I finally decided that the retro font of this one from Lawn Fawn worked well with the style of the reindeer.        

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper:  Adornit

Stamps:  (Reindeer) Tara Wakefield, (Sentiment from Let It Snow) Lawn Fawn

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Markers:  (R17, Y17, G00, G17, B95, E33, E35, 100) Copic

Glitter:  (Waterfall Stickles) Ranger, (Clear Wink of Stella) Zig

Gems:  Recollections

Other:  (Glossy Accents) Ranger

      

Next I played along with Anita's gorgeous card at Muse.  I was inspired by the overlapping leaf dies and it gave me the perfect opportunity to use these gorgeous leaves that were sent to me by the lovely Joyce.  I made a whole bunch of cards with this sentiment a while back and I'm glad I was reminded of it - I think it's a good one for a lot of occasions.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Kraft) Papertrey Ink

Stamps:  (Sentiment from Vintage Clocks) The Craft's Meow

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Dies:  (Leaves) Papertrey Ink

Gems:  Recollections

  

Finally, I recently got a couple of Winnie & Walter stamp sets and wanted to play along with some of their World Card Making Day challenges.  In the end I only had time to play along with one and chose Heather's Pinspiration challenge.  I love the yellow, black and white on that gorgeous cake.  I used a flower and leaf from two different sets and realized those sets don't have any sentiments so I used a Mama Elephant stamp and die cut to create the Happy Birthday.  The scalloped panel is also W&W.  I'm going to make a few more of these in different colours - I think they'd make a fun set!

That's it for now.  Hope your week gets off to a wonderful start!

Supplies Used:

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

Stamps:  (Flower from In Bloom: Eva's Favourite Flowers, Leaf from In Bloom: Lola's Bouquet) Winnie & Walter, (Happy from Labelled Messages) Mama Elephant

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Daffodil Delight) Stampin' Up

Dies:  (Scalloped rectangle) Winnie & Walter, (Birthday) Mama Elephant

Gem:  Recollections

To Every Thing There Is A Season

I mentioned earlier in the week that I was working on a new card order.  My client asked for a variety of cards that would express "something along the lines of one season is ending and another is beginning."  Luckily I had the perfect sentiment from the Vintage Clocks stamp set from The Craft's Meow (sadly now closed).  She was thrilled with the sentiment so I got to work making 10 cards.  I had fun using lots of patterned papers and dies and keeping the stamping to a minimum.  I always feel proud when I put a dent (no matter how tiny) in the patterned paper stash!  

CASology #124

Welcome to Week 124 of CASology!  Take a look at the cue word for this week:

My card this week uses "old" in a lot of ways.  All the stamps are from older collections, the penny farthing is an antique and the sentiment uses the word old in it.  A triple old play!  Be sure and check out the rest of the awesomeness from the design team and then play along!  

  

 Ardyth Percy-Robb
Gillian Ross
Joyce Mehrberg 
Judy Marino
Kimberly Wiener 

Melissa Chipperfield
May Sukyong Park
Meghan McMillan

Tracey McNeely

And this week's guest designer:

Maureen

Link your creations to the CASology blog and remember that the deadline for entries is Monday at noon (CST).

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Stamps:  (Penny farthing from Ladies & Gents) The Craft's Meow, (Stripe from Faux Ribbon) Papertrey Ink, (Sentiment) Hero Arts

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Lucky Limeade, Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry) Stampin' Up

Gems:  Recollections

Celebrate With Cake

Hi there!  I'm going way out of my CAS comfort zone with today's layered card.  I was inspired by both the pink in the photo and the sketch over at the Fusion challenge.  I'm joining the Seize the Birthday Sweet Treats challenge thanks to my sweet little cupcake.  The patterned paper allows me to play along with the current Virginia's View challenge.  And finally, because almost everything on this card is Never Before Used Schtuff I'm joining Darnell's 2nd NBUS challenge.  This particular Avery Elle sentiment was the whole reason I bought the set but, of course, hadn't used it yet.  The October Afternoon paper pad had to be dusted off before I cracked it open and The Craft's Meow cupcake is seeing ink for the first time.  I love how the flowers on the paper almost match the flower on the cupcake.  So perfect!

Supplies Used
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Daffodil Delight) Stampin' Up
Patterned PAper:  (Farm Girl 8x8) October Afternoon
Stamps:  (Cupcake & swirl from Sweet Birthday) The Craft's Meow, (Sentiment from Cake & Candles) Avery Elle
Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Red Royal) Hero Arts
Die:  (Nesties Classic Scalloped Squares Large) Spellbinders
Markers:  (R17, R20, R29, YG95) Copic

Elephant Wish

Hi there!  A quick post for a quick card.  I used the colours from the ColourQ challenge and the theme of masculine birthday cards from Time Out Challenges.  This colour palette is actually pretty good for masculine cards I think.  I broke out some NBUS in the form of these The Craft's Meow stamps and did some simple colour blocking.  I'm thinking now that perhaps it could use a scattering of black gems on it but I'll have to save that for next time! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Peach Parfait, So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Basic Grey) Stmapin' Up

Stamps:  (All from Birthday Puns Solid) The Craft's Meow

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Basic Grey) Stampin' Up

CASology #86

Welcome to Week 86 of CASology!  Here's the cue word for this week:

This week's cue word was the source of some good conversation amongst the design team and wait until you see all the different directions we went in!  This is why I love this challenge - you never quite know where it will take you.  For me, I got the phrase "Roots Rock Reggae" stuck in my head which then lead me to Bob Marley's "One Love."  I was inspired by a couple of images I found on Google.   I like the font on the first image and the distressed look of the second.  

Go visit the rest of the design team and then get cracking' on an entry.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Melissa Chipperfield

Tracey McNeely

Judy Marino

Maureen Merritt

Meghan McMillan

Gillian Ross

Kimberley Wiener

Joyce Mehrberg

May Sukyong Park

And this week's guest designer:

Claire

***PLEASE NOTE!***

In order to give participants more time to play along we are extending the deadline for entries to Mondays at noon (Central Time).  Due to this extension we will be announcing our winners and honorable mentions on Tuesdays at 7:00am (Central Time), one hour before a new challenge begins.  Challenges will begin at the same time as usual, 8:00am (Central Time) on Tuesdays.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Stamps:  (Swoosh from Typically Teen) The Craft's Meow, (Letters from Inline Letters) Mama Elephant

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green) Stampin' Up

CAS(E) This Sketch #64

Welcome to Week 64 of CAS(E) This Sketch!  Take a look at this week's sketch by N@ Ali:

I'm so glad I bought this Craft's Meow stamp set during their closing sale.  It's funny because I remember this set when it was first released and it just didn't grab me so I skipped on past it.  So glad I changed my mind!  I used it for this CASology card and now it's back again!  They're great stamps for CAS cards and they immediately came to mind when I saw this snowman without an outline.  Now it's your turn for a CAS CASE!  Be sure and visit the Design Team for they fabulous takes on the sketch and then play along! 

Supplies Used

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Stamps:  (All from Let's Face It) The Craft's Meow

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Tide Pool) Hero Arts

Gems:  Recollections

CASology #81

Welcome to Week 81 of CASology!  Here's the cue word for this week:

My immediate thought for this week's cue word was a design that I had actually already used for a CASology challenge here.  I couldn't use it again so I had to shake it out of my head and go for a new angle.  Instead I pulled out a sentiment that starts with the word "And".  It's my go-to sentiment for wedding cards.  And I'm loving these Craft's Meow face stamps.  They have lots of images to mix and match and they're perfect for CAS designs. AND now it's over to you!  Get those thinking caps on and create some more gorgeousness for us but first be sure and visit the rest of the team for oodles of inspiration!

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Melissa Chipperfield

Tracey McNeely

Judy Marino

Maureen Merritt

Meghan McMillan

Gillian Ross

Kimberley Wiener

Joyce Mehrberg

May Sukyong Park

And this week's guest designer:

Lorraine

Link your creations to the CASology blog and remember that submissions are due by 4pm CST on Sunday, 9 February.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Stamps:  (Glasses & mouths from Let's Face It) The Craft's Meow, (Sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes) Papertrey Ink

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Real Red) Stampin' Up

Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger

Gems:  Recollections