Amy Butler Butterfly and a Jemmy Burrito!

Good evening, all!  Hope you had a lovely weekend.  Friday was Luis' and my mom's birthdays so on Saturday night we went to a fantastic restaurant and had one of the best meals I've had in a long time.  Super yummy stuff!  Luis spent most of the weekend playing with his birthday present (tools for Mr. Carpenterman) and I did a bunch of sorting and tidying in the Craft Cave.  I have a huge bag of stuff that I'm giving to my friend who's a teacher - I think she'll be able to make good use of it.  :)


As you can see I used up some more patterned paper for today's card.  It's stuff I've had for ages too - Amy Butler for K & Co.  Yeah,  I had to blow the dust off of it first!  The card is for the CASE Study challenge. After Jen Rzasa's stint ended I promised myself I'd still play along even if the next muse wasn't quite as CAS.  Don't get me wrong - I find these shabby/vintage cards beautiful but I'm just not so good at pulling them off myself.  So I focused on the colours, the butterflies and the banner and came up with something a little more me.  I'm also going to enter this over at  Lily Pad's patterned paper challenge.


I thought I'd share a couple of photos of Jem who apparently was a little chilly the other morning!  I don't know why I bother to make the bed because Jem rolls himself up like a burrito and completely undoes it all!

Cardstock:  (Night of Navy) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  (Amy Butler Belle collection) K & Co

Stamps:  (Doodle from Happy Trails) PTI, (Sentiment from Wish You Were Here) Hero ArtsInks:  (Night of Navy) Stampin' Up

Dies:  (Butterfly, Double-Ended Banner) PTI

Punch:  (Corner Punch) Marvy Uchida

Gems:  (Nightfall Ice Rox) Queen & Co.

    

Birthday Mushrooms

This was the last week that Jen Rzasa was the muse over at CASE Study which is a real bummer as I love her work.  She was part of the reason I finally got around to playing along with CASE Study at all. I think in the past I've found a lot of the cards very busy and was unsure how to CASE it in my style (which is silly really because there are/were several great CAS cardmakers on the DT like Cristina Kowalczyk, Christina MacLaren, Amy Wanford and Debby Hughes).  I'm going to try and stick with it when the new muse comes along though no matter what her style!  I'm also going to enter this card over at the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge - who couldn't use a SSS gift certificate these days?
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill Basics
Stamps:  (Mushrooms from Forest Whimsy) Paper Smooches, (Sentiment from Think Big Favourites #7) PTI
Inks:  (VersaMark Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Real Read, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo) Stampin' Up

Publications!

Since I'm catching up on things these days (like RAKs), I thought I'd also do a little horn tooting and show you guys my first publications!  The above card can be found on page 44 of the January/February 2012 issue of Paper Crafts.  Interestingly, it was the first idea I had when I read the call for submissions.  I couldn't seem to get it right though so I made and submitted a bunch of other cards instead.  Then at the last minute I gave it one more try, sent it in and this was the only one to be chosen.  Funny how things work...  


I also had two cards published in the December 2011 issue of Cards.

Please excuse the appalling photos!!  These were taken way back in April or May when my photography skills were still extremely raw (ie non-existent).  I'm grateful they chose them despite the photography!


I also wanted to thank both Jen of The Sparkle Within and Jane of Create and Show for passing the Liebster Blog Award on to me.  You should stop by their blogs and check them out if you haven't before.  They both have lots of gorgeous cards and layouts on show!    

Very Belated RAKs

I spent a lot of time at the beginning of the month merrily scrolling through people's Christmas RAKs and thinking about how I must post mine.  But have I done it yet?  No. Why? Because I'm a bit useless really and not a very good bloggie friend!!  I was at the point where I wondered if posting them now would be insulting but I decided I was going to post them anyway so everyone else can enjoy them too.

The first Christmas card I received was from Emily of Art From The Heart.  I love the non-traditional colours of this card and the subtle touches of colour on the leaves.  So sweet! (Excuse the holes in the corners of the card.  I pin them to the board above my desk in the Craft Cave so I always have inspiration on hand.)

Next up are more fabulous non-traditional colours from Amy of Tsuruta Designs.  Her stitching always blows me away as well as her bold and bright style.

I won some blog candy from Lindsey at Bashful Blogging and she sent it along with this sweet little mini card.  How cute is that polka dotted penguin??

This card came with some stamps that I bought from Amy (again of Tsuruta Designs). She's trying to dehoard so I thought I'd be a pal and take a few items off her hands!  :) More lovely stitching and polka dots on the house!  Love me some polka dots!

Hope you enjoyed seeing these fabulous cards and if you haven't checked out any of these ladies' blogs then you must take a minute and do so.  That's an order!  :)

Rainbow Chick

I've really been enjoying Jen Rzasa's Runway Inspired Challenge despite the fact that I am so completely fashion challenged - jeans and a sweatshirt all the way for me thank you!  I love seeing everyone's interpretation of the pictures and it's forcing me to examine things more closely and with a more open mind.  Always a good thing.  Anyway this week is this totally cool chick in a fabulous rainbow dress so where did my brain go?  To a rainbow feathered bird of course!  I've had the feathers kicking around for a while so I was pleased to put them to use along with a few more scraps of patterned paper and some more Purple Onion Designs stamps.  :)  


Cardstock:  (Kraft) PTI
Patterned Paper:  (Quince and Smoke from the Ambrosia collection) Basic Grey
Stamps:  (Curly Bird, sentiment from Flower Framed Doodle) Purple Onion Designs
Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Copics:  R29, BV23

White Bulb

CAS-ual Fridays is celebrating Penguin Awareness Day this week with a black and white challenge. No other colours invited to this party!  I busted out the white embossing powder for my card and guess what I did AGAIN???  Yep, I spilled that entire pot o' powder.   Thankfully this time I spilled it on my crafting mat and not all over the floor.  *Phew!* Crisis averted (although I still said a few naughty words in that initial moment of panic).  Maybe I need to have mellower music playing so there's less bopping about...  


ETA:  I do have extra pots of white EP - I ordered 3 after the last disaster - but no matter how many I have I still hate to spill it!


Cardstock:  (White) Pacon, (Basic Black) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Lightbulb from Faith, Hope, Love...Live By It) Unity Stamp Co,  (Sentiment from Giddy Bugs) Paper Smooches
Inks:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko
Embossing Powder:  (Seafoam White) Ranger
Punch:  (Corner Punch) Marvy Uchida

Bright Butterflies

For this week's CASE Study card I followed the Cristina Kowalczyk method of CASEing a card - I looked at the card then walked away from it and wrote down what struck me about it.  I remembered squares with rounded corners, bright colours, brown matting and a thank you.  And above is what I came up with using my list.  More patterned paper (courtesy of a blog candy win from Lynn - thanks, Lynn!), some bright Modern Basics butterflies and a Think Big sentiment.  I'm pretty sure this is the first time those MB stamps have seen any ink.  Hopefully it won't be the last!




Cardstock:  (Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Early Espresso) Stampin' Up
Patterned Paper:  (Confetti Cake from Life of the Party collection) Basic Grey
Stamps:  (Butterflies from Modern Basics, Sentiment from Think Big Favoutires #3) PTI
Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) TsukinekoPunch:   (Corner punch) Marvy Uchida