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

Starry Congrats

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

click here.**

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'!

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:

Radhika

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

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

Faithful Friend Fusion

A minute ago I was finishing work on Friday and now somehow it's Sunday night already!  *Sigh*  At this rate Christmas will be here again in no time. Ack!  Anyhow, despite the speed with which the weekend passed I did manage to get some cards done.  I'm always in need of pet sympathy cards for work and the sketch and colours at this week's Fusion challenge gave me an idea for using my Paper Smooches Dog Icon die.  I also used some Authentique paper that's been kicking around for a while and an Avery Elle heart stamp that is NBUS.  I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Early Espresso) Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper:  (Carefree 6x6 Bundle) Authentique

Stamp:  (Sentiment from With Sympathy: Loss of a Pet) Papertrey Ink

Ink:  (Early Espresso) Stampin' Up

Dies:  (Pawprint heart from Dog Icons) Paper Smooches, (Small heart from Icon Fill in the Blank) Avery Elle

CAS(E) This Sketch #59

Welcome to Week 59 of CAS(E) This Sketch!  Take a look at this week's sketch by Leigh Penner:

Feathers were all the rage last year and it looks like they're going to carry into 2014.  I've got quite a few feathers in my stash now but for today's card I went with these cute little ones from Fresh Squeezed Stamps.  I flipped the sketch upside down and added a little heart shaped button that's been around forever!  Can't wait to see how this sketch inspires you and remember - you don't have to use feathers!  Be sure to check out the gorgeous creations by the rest of the design team and then play along!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (Soft Stone) Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper:  (Love Story 6x6) Echo Park

Stamps:  (Feather & sentiment from Tickle My Fancy) Fresh Squeezed Stamps

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Gems:  Recollections

Embroidery Floss:  (Fuchsia) Making Memories