Hippo & Butterfly

Hiya!

I've got two cards to share this evening for challenges at My Favourite Things.  First up is for their colour challenge.  I've been wanting this adorable hippo stamp set for a while and finally got my hands on it.  I thought he and his balloons would be perfect to ink up for today's challenge.  I had these stitched circle die cuts on my desk which were the perfect colour so I decided to make use of them.

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Bermuda Bay, Basic Black) Stampin' Up!

Stamps:  (Hippo & balloons from Happy Hippos, Sentiment from Safari Friends) My Favourite Things

Inks:  (VersaMark, Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow

Die:  (Stitched circles) Lil' Inker Designs

Markers:  (BG34, BG49, B29, C1, C3, C5) Copic

Other:  (Nuvo Ebony Black Crystal Drops) Tonic

This next card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I love these butterflies and the large sentiments that compliment them although every time I use them I curse myself for not getting the matching dies - those little antennae are a nightmare to cut out!  Maybe I'll grab them during the next sale...

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper:  (Its Bitsy Polka Dots Pastels 6x6, Calm & Cozy Chevron 6x6) My Favourite Things

Stamps:  (Butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies, Sentiment from You Give Me Butterflies) My Favourite Things

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Limestone, Silver Stone, Industrial Diamond) Altenew

Die:  (Stitched rectangles) Lil' Inker Designs

Other:  (Nuvo Liquid Mercury Crystal Drops) Tonic

Tall Triangles

This is one of my favourite Christmas cards this year.  It was jointly inspired by Heather Hoffman and Tracey McNeely.  It uses lots of different companies - Reverse Confetti (triangles), Lil' Inker (star), Mama Elephant (merry) and Winnie & Walter (christmas).  I love it when all my goodies play so nicely together!  When I was making my Reverse Confetti thank you cards (here, here and here) I found the RC triangles so decided to make a few more cards with them and make another Just for the Heck of It post.

I die cut the triangles with two different RC patterned papers and then used them all to make two cards.  All the stamps are Reverse Confetti.  On the last card I used some coloured embossing powder and had way too much fun with my Nuvo drops.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Various greens, Bermuda Bay, Basic Black) Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper:  (Every Little Bit 6x6) Reverse Confetti

Stamps:  (Flowers from Blooms 'N' Buds, Birthday sentiment from Birthday Wishes, (Bike & Ridin' by sentiment from Rollin') Reverse Confetti, (Christmas) Winnie & Walter

Inks:  (VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black, Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko, (Party Dress, Tiara, Lime Rickey, Aquatini) Catherine Pooler

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White Super Fine) Wow, (Leaf Zing) American Crafts

Die:  (Tall Triangles, flowers, bike, speech bubble) Reverse Confetti, Stitched star) Lil' Inker Designs, (Merry) Mama Elephant

Other:  (Nuvo Turquoise Crystal Drops) Tonic

Gems:  Recollections

Bird in a Frame

Hello!

I've got a card for the Colour Throwdown challenge today using one of my favourite WPlus9 stamp sets.  These birdies are so cute and I love their graphic feel.  I paired this one with a Paper Smooches frame and a Heffy Doodle sentiment and speech bubble.  I gotta say, the HD sentiment and speech bubble set is SO handy and is getting plenty of use especially when I have cards where I'm not quite sure how to fit a sentiment.  These ones usually solve the problem for me!

  

Supplies Used:

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

Stamps:  (Bird, branch and leaves from Happy Birds) WPlus9, (Sentiment from Whatcha Say?) Heffy Doodle

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black, Memento Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko, (Soft Suede) Stampin' Up

Die:  (Frame 2) Paper Smooches, (Speech bubble) Heffy Doodle

Marker:  (YR04, Y08, Y17, YG03, YG67) Copic

Other:  (Nuvo English Mustard and Ebony Black Crystal Drops) Tonic

Crafty Friends Are The Best

Hello hello!

I'm playing along with Freshly Made Sketches today.  I think my card may be a little too busy  for the challenge but I still wanted to share it.  My incredibly generous bloggy friend, Claire of Ham'n'Mule Designs, sent me this fabulous Pinkfresh stamp set after I oohed and ahhed over this gorgeous background she created with it.  I've already made two cards with it but realised I haven't taken a photo of the other so I will share it another time.  I had fun rifling through my patterned papers to find the perfect collection to use and finally settled on these My Mind's Eye papers that have some beautiful shine to them.

Supplies Used:

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

Patterned Paper:  (On Trend 2 6x6) My Mind's Eye

Stamps:  (All from Dream On) Pinkfresh Studio

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

Die:  (Stitched rectangle) Lil' Inker Designs

Gems:  Recollections

Bright Birthdays and Babies

I've got some more Just for the Heck of It cards today.  I became obsessed with these Pretty Pink Posh Stacked Edges dies thanks to Jeanne Jachna and cards like these and this and this.  They add so much movement and colour to her cards and are a big change for me from my usual white card bases. 

For the first two cards I used a Papertrey Ink birthday die cut.  I stacked it 3 times and then covered it with Glossy Accents. 

For these next two cards I uses a Simon Says Stamp sentiment and a little teddy bear from Mama Elephant.  I really wanted the backgrounds to be the star of the show so I kept the rest of the cards pretty simple.

Just for the Heck of It

Pretty much all of my posts are challenge-related but in my never ending quest to use up stash and reduce the number of NBUS products I'm trying to make a few cards with each stamp set/die/product.  I used to heavily rely on challenges to get my mojo going but I've been doing pretty well lately at making cards just for the heck of it.  I realize there is nothing groundbreaking about this but I don't do it often because usually as soon as I finish one card I want to move on to some other shiny new thing.  So I'm going to try this out for a while and see how it goes.  

I love this Lil' Inker Designs reindeer especially as you can make him look sweet or naughty - yay for versatility!  For the first card I gave him a little ribbon scarf inspired by these cards from Savannah O'Gwynn.  Savannah's style couldn't be more different from mine but I LOVE it!  It's fun and whimsical and feels so much more relaxed than mine.  I love that about this community - how inspiration comes from so many amazingly different people and styles.  The stitched and pierced rectangles, the swirly background and the Merry Christmas die are all Lil' Inker Designs.

CASology #325

Welcome to Week 325 of CASology!  Take a look at the cue word for this week:

I had already made a card for this challenge when I stumbled upon this hilarious Unity stamp and just couldn't resist it so I went back to work.  I though this fun orange pattern would really make the mighty whiteys pop and also look bright and fresh!  

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

Bharati Nayudu

Deidre Payne

Jacquie Southas 

Janet Ribet

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Karen Haman

Marcie Sharp

Melissa Chipperfield 

Rachel Bergfeld

Sue Symens

This week's guest designer:

Ishani

** We're back to weekly challenges now that the holiday are over!**

Link your creations to the CASology blog by Monday, 7 January at 9am (CDT).

I'm also going to enter this in the Simon Says Wednesday Anything Goes challenge!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White, Kraft) Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper:  American Crafts

Stamps:  (All from Change) Unity

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

Die:  (Stitched circle) Lil' Inker Designs

Marker:  (C1) Copic

Other:  (NuvoRipened Pumpkin Gloss Crystal Drops) Tonic