Thursday, January 16, 2014

CAS(E) This Sketch #60


Welcome to Week 60 of CAS(E) This Sketch!  Take a look at this week's sketch by Sam Simpson:



Hiya!  We're back with another fabulous CAS sketch.  I used some new (to me) CAS-ual Fridays stamps that I got a couple of months ago.  I also pulled out my 12x12 Koshi collection from Basic Grey.  Old school paper!  That's some real UWYH (Use What You Have) action there!  Be sure and check out the rest of the gorgeous designs from the Design Team and then play along with us!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Perfect Plum) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  (Sayuri, Yuriko, Ume from Koshi collection) Basic Grey
Stamp:  (Flower from Truth Is) Cas-ual Fridays, (Sentiment from Vintage Clocks) The Craft's Meow
Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Glitter:  (Gunmetal Stickles) Ranger
Other:  (Black Enamel Accents) Ranger

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Seize the Washi Tape

**This is my 2nd post for the day.  For my Lawnscaping/CAS-ual Fridays post please scroll down or click here.**  


Hello again! I'm back with another two for one challenge card.  I used the colors from the Paper Players challenge and the design from Seize The Sketch.  I love the bright and cheery colors in this palette - so perfect for a birthday card!  Instead of using patterned paper I pulled out 3 different washi tapes to decorate the stars and banner.  They are almost perfect matches for the colours and so fun to play with!  They're also NBUS (Never Before Used Sctuff) so I get a little pat on the back for that.  :)  


Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Pear Pizzazz) Stampin' Up
Stamp:  (Sentiment from Birthday Bash Sentiments) Papertrey Ink
Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Dies:  (Nesting Star) Lifestyle Crafts, (Double Ended Banner) Papertrey Ink
Washi Tapes:  (Pink) My Mind's Eye, (Yellow) Pebbles, (Turquoise) Scotch
Gems:  (Bubblegum, Bumble Bee, Limeade, Swimming Pool) Doodlebug

Celebrate!


Good morning, all!  Today I'm playing along with the Lawnscaping Let's Party challenge and the CAS-ual Fridays In A Word challenge.  

The gals at Lawnscaping are celebrating their 4th year of challenges with birthday themed cards. I remember when this challenge first started - I can't believe it's been 4 years already!  

Over at CAS-ual Fridays we're to choose a word that describes what you hope for the New Year.  I thought Celebrate was pretty appropriate for a lot of reasons.  We're celebrating the end of mom's treatment and how quickly she's recovering and getting back to a normal routine.  We're also celebrating an upcoming trip to the Azores to visit Luis' family - we haven't been in 4 years!  And in general, life is really good so what's not to celebrate?  

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Handy Hippo
Patterned Paper:  (Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm 6x6) American Crafts
Stamps:  (Balloon from Admit One, Letters from Quinn's ABCs) Lawn Fawn
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Punch:  (1" square punch) Marvy Uchida
Sequins

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Starry Congrats

** This is my 2nd post for the day.  For my CASology post please scroll down or 



Did you see that this month's muse at CASE Study is Donna Mikasa?  She's a super talented CAS designer who rocks bright and cheery pops of colour.  This week we're to CASE her sweet thank you card.  I immediately thought of this star from Fresh Squeezed Stamps and wanted to use my Hero Arts inks.  I'm really digging the fun colours!  I think I may do a couple other designs with monochromatic stars in blues and pinks for baby cards as well.  I was kind of wishing I had a Wink of Stella pen to add some glitter to all of my stars but since I don't I added a dot of Stickles to the centre of each one for a little sparkle.  I also want to link this card to the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge.  I don't make too many one-layer cards as I'm not that confident with my stamping.  Maybe this challenge will help me to get a little braver?  The challenge this week is to restock your card stash.  I was thinking maybe I should focus on a big occasion like birthday cards or something but congrats card are often needed too so I can now consider my Congrats card stash 1 card richer (making a grand total of… 1).  

ETA:  I had also intended to link this to the Moxie Fab Trendy Star Power challenge!


Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill
Stamps:  (Star from Weather Through, Sentiment from You Said It) Fresh Squeezed Stamps
Inks:  (Bubble Gum, Orange Soda, Butter Bar, Green Hills, Tide Pool, Stone Wash) Hero Arts
Glitter:  (Star Dust Stickles) Ranger
Gems:  Recollections

CASology #78


Welcome to Week 78 of CASology!  Take at look at this week's cue card:


This week's challenge is sponsored by Neat & Tangled!

Along with my Use What You Have efforts this year I also want to start making use of my CASE File.  Before I discovered Pinterest I used to dump inspiring projects into a file on my desktop.  I still do that sometimes but I'm trying to remember to pin things too - it's a lot easier to pay homage to the original designer that way!  

Today's card was inspired by this card by Kalyn Kepner (it's the 5th one down).  I like the layers peeking out from the corner and thought this would be a good chance to break out my Lil' Inker stitched circle dies. I used the current Stampin' Up In Colours (they're perfect for a cheery Hello card) but I inlaid mine instead of layering them.  The initial design only used the die cut circles but then I started questioning myself because the cue word it Dot not Circle right? However, after some pondering, I decided that a circle is just a really big dot. And I was going to leave it but then I found those cool dots in Neat & Tangled's Sparkle & Shine set and I thought they would make my circles into a really funky multicolored sunshine!  Can't go wrong with dots of all sizes.  And now it's your turn to go dotty!  Before you start be sure and check out the awesome creations by the rest of the DT and then get crackin'!





And this week's guest designer:

Link your creations to the CASology blog and remember that submissions are due by 4pm CST on Sunday, 19 January.

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Crisp Canteloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Hello from Swirly Twirly Tags, Dots from Sparkle & Shine) Neat & Tangled
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Strawberry Slush) Stampin' Up
Dies:  (Stitched Circles) Lil' Inker
Gem:  Recollections

Monday, January 13, 2014

Butterfly Birthday Wishes

**This is my 2nd post for the day.  For my Colour Throwdown/RetroSketches post please scroll down or click here.*


As soon as I saw the dreaded Summer Starfruit in this week's ColourQ palette I turned to run but I really have to stop letting a little bit of yellow scare me so much.  :)  So I sucked it up and pulled out some more oldie goldies to work with.  I remember how everyone HAD to have Papertrey Ink's Modern Basics set when it came out (including me). However, while everyone else busily put their sets to work and produced an endless stream of beautiful creations… my set collected dust.  I think I may have used it once or twice but it's pretty close to NBUS. Or perhaps it's just SNALTD - Severely Neglected and Left to Die.  (These acronyms are getting a little out of hand I think…)  Anyway PTI's Leafy Vines also came out of storage to make an appearance and I finished it off with one of PTI's Think Big sentiments.  Now THOSE puppies I use a lot. Thank goodness there are a few things that see the light of day more than once!


Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (Poppy Parade, Bravo Burgundy, Summer Starfruit, Basic Grey) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Butterflies from Modern Basics, Sentiment fromThink Big Favourites #7) Papertrey Ink
Ink:  (VersaFine) Tsukineko
Die:  (Leafy Vine border) Papertrey Ink
Other:  (White Opal Liquid Pearls) Raner

Retro Throwdown Gratitude


I really fell off the challenge wagon last year so I'm slowly starting to reconnect with old favourites and get playing again.  For this card I used the palette from Colour Throwdown and the RetroSketches layout.  Lots of oldie goldies and NBUS here.  I love the Hero Arts flourish background stamp and Papertrey Ink's woodgrain impression plate and Beautiful Blooms dies.  The heart is from a bunch of packets of Studio Calico wood veneers that I've been squirreling away and I think it's the first time the Sweet Stamp Shop sentiment has seen ink.  Looking at the card now I think perhaps the flower should have been bigger.  I may have to revisit the design at some point…


Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill, (Peach Parfait, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Flourish background) Hero Arts, (Sentiment from Sweet Victoria) Sweet Stamp Shop
Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Early Espresso) Stampin' Up
Dies:  (Flower, circle, frame) Papertrey Ink
Punches:  (1/8" & 1/16" hole punches) McGill
Impression Plate:  (Woodgrain) Papertrey Ink
Wood Veneer:  (Heart) Studio Calico