Monthly Archives: August 2012

Aug 30

CASE Study Challenge #106

Hi, gang! It’s time for the closing ceremonies within the CASE Study 2nd Anniversary celebration, and this time around we are asking you to CASE yourselves. Yep! It’s a perfect opportunity to take a look at your older creations, and revisit this one project that you think you’d do differently/better this time…

I thought it would be fun to go back to the first months of blogging, and tackle one of those old, embarrassing cards 🙂
My choice fell on this one, originally posted on my old bloggie HERE, in November 2009. It’s been three years, folks…

What I liked about it? The greens, a strongly defined focal point and a doodle pattern that added an interesting movement. Here’s my 2012 version:

I wanted to retain that fun look of patterned paper, with two ‘layers’ of swirls. I stamped the bottom one with PTI Fancy Flourishes stamp, in Old Paper Distress Ink. Then I stamped the dogwoods from WPlus9 Flora & Fauna set on top; in Memento Espresso Truffle.
The blooms were then coloured with Copics.
The redbird (also from Flora & Fauna), was coloured in as well, cut out and popped up on foam tape. The sentiment is from another WPlus9 set, Filigreed Frames.

This card was also prepared with the Movement Challenge in the Moxie Fab World in mind. Here’s how I see the movement on it: first up the eye lands on the focal point - the redbird, whose crest (and then the swirls) lead us up towards the blooms in the upper left corner. The flowers cascade down towards the sentiment, which leads the eye back to the bird, with its horizontal placement. How’s that, make sense? 🙂

The Design Team prepared some beautiful samples today as well! Click on the links below to be taken to their blogs.

Amy Wanford
Andrea Ewen
Christina MacLaren
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes
Jean Martin
Maureen Plut
Teneale Williams
Teresa Kline

We’d love you to play along with us at CASE Study too, so go ahead and share with us your inspired creations! Don’t forget, that we also have a Guest Designer search on 🙂
You’ll find the challenge details and a link list to share your project right there. Thanks for stopping by,

Aug 29

And more Flourishes…

I’m rounding up my cards for the Flourishes Birthday celebration tonight.
With a bit of cheating, mind you… one of the cards I’m sharing today, has been waiting to be blogged for the whopping two months or so. So, it’s not really a new creation, but it’s the first time I’m showing it, thus it counts, I hope 🙂

It utilizes Spellbinders circle dies in a variety of ways, I even cut some around the perimeter and shaped them to make flower embellishments. The stamps I used, come from the Love and Lace set from Flourishes. I distressed the main image with ink and Crackle Accents - hence the “fleecy” look of the silhouette.

The challenge for it is “Sprinkles on Top“. Perhaps not sprinkles in a true meaning of the word, I used some Liquid Pearls to decorate the stamped image. I hope it counts 🙂

…and here’s the card I made tonight, one of the few true CAS creations that utilize Flourishes stamps. These two don’t normally meat in my books.
The stamp set used is called Life, Love and Lemons. It was one of my first purchases with them and I still love it - plus, I swear I can never resist glittering these lemons, the very next thing I stamp them 🙂

I stamped them in a wavy lines and then pierced the cardstock directly above them. I used Copics for colouring and added glitter glue to the wedges.

This one’s for “A Banner Day” challenge. How do you like my twist on it? 🙂

See you tomorrow for the CASE Study challenge, and many thanks for stopping by!

Aug 28

Die frenzy

Hi there! I’ve been bragging about Cameo at length lately, but the truth is, I’d never turn away from my dies either. What I especially love about them, is that they all give a neat cut on the upper side, with the edges ever so slightly rounded, so that the finish is fabulously sleek. Anyone else noticed that? I’m a sucker for this look 🙂
I decided to give my dies some love tonight, and I somehow ended up with the look you don’t normally see on my blog. Channeling my inner Beate, perhaps? *wink*

Lots of Spellbinders dies here… I started by cutting A2 Fancy Weave Nestabilities® through the folded card, leaving a bit of a die above the crease so that the two flaps hold together.
Then I cut four rectangles with the A2 Matting Basics B Nesties, three out of white CS and one out of MME Miss Caroline patterned paper - for the front.
I adhered them in pairs, on both sides of each flap. They are just bigger enough than the inside edge of the weave, to get a good grip along the sides.
The Flourishes image from the Summer Blossoms stamp set, was framed with Standard Circles LG & Lacey Circles, and coloured with Copics.
The tag has a sentiment from the same set on it, plus a bit of a smaller floral image, and I sponged it with Versa Color Cinnamon ink. The tag was die cut with Back To Basics Tags Shapeabilities®.
The finishes include some baker’s twine and Liquid Pearls.

I’m slowly making my way up, through the Flourishes birthday challenges. This card was made for the “Colorful Celebration” challenge, with the given colour palette given as you can see below:

In my true fashion, I spiced up the pastel hues with some more “oomph”. Strong colours is what I usually end up with, when colouring 😉
Thanks for peeking in,

Aug 27

Pinwheels

Hi bloggers, I’m back!! Missed me much? No? 😉
I’m on a Cameo kick, as you probably noticed… I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of cardstock and often wasn’t happy with the results. The cardstock I use and love most (PTI, SU) is not very Cameo friendly - it cuts alright, but often not clean enough.
So I remembered this morning, about the “Cut Mates” packs of assorted cardstock from World Win Papers, that were hiding in a place I don’t look in often enough… They claim on the package that Cut-Mates cuts like buttah… and let me tell you, they couldn’t be more accurate! I love this stuff.
All in all, I decided to cut some, and out came this card:

The pinwheels and “wish” wording are cut files.
I combined them with assorted stamps; the jar from Waltzingmouse (Candy Jar Christmas Fillers), the sentiment and woodgrain background from PTI (Mega Mixed Messages, Background Basics: Woodgrain).
The background was stamped in Pumice Stone Distress Ink on PTI Fine Linen CS. I cut a PTI Half & Half border, from SU Soft Suede.
Here’s a tip on ‘closing’ the Waltzingmouse jar - ink again only the upper lid part and stamp upside down, so that the ends meet.

Here’s the challenge I designed this one for: (I had so much fun with these colours)

Smooches,

Aug 26

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #74

I’m rolling in LATE with a sketch this week, I wanted to give my previous posts some breathing space. All in all, there’s not so much of it and I apologize to giving your Google Readers a panic attack, over the last two days!
You can check out my previous entries below, too many to mention…

So… how ’bout a sketch now, huh? Remember that you can interpret the shapes however you want! While I take joy in incorporating little fun bits into my sketches, they don’t necessarily mean that the exact look is what we’re after 🙂

I received my much awaited order from WPlus9, and I’ve been slowly breaking into the new stamps and dies. Fresh Picked is possibly the most coveted set and I couldn’t wait to ink up this yummy fruit!

I die cut the label first and stamped it in Memento Cantaloupe. I added the burst (from the Super Star set) in Angel Pink and the sentiment in Espresso Truffle.
The strawberries/leaves were stamped in Angel Pink and Pear Tart, and die cut with corresponding dies.
For the paper part, I used the Pink Paislee beautiful striped paper from Nantucket for my base, and layered it with a Glitz Design Paper Layer.
The embellishments include a purple washi tape, some buttons and die cuts from October Afternoon and Melissa Frances.

I’m entering the card into the Asymmetry Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

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A few things to keep in mind if you decide to use my sketch:

- You’re kindly asked to save the image onto your computer first, and if you make a card based on it, please link back to this post.
- If you upload your card to an online gallery, use the code SSC74.
- Feel free to share the link to your creation via the Inlinkz widget, so that I can come and check it out!
- The colours/elements mean nothing towards the card. All styles, colours and supplies, as well as slight alterations of the sketch are welcome.
- A new sketch and sample is posted every Saturday, but you’re welcome to play any time! Just leave a link in the comments section after Inlinkz widget closes.
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Aug 26

Jay Gee’s Nook - Up and away

It’s time for another Sunday post for Jay Gee’s Nook, guys! Check it out…

I inked up the Sweet Stamp Shop Old Fashioned Afternoon stamp set, for this note card.

I stamped the images in Memento Espresso Truffle, on PTI Fine Linen cardstock. I filled in the alternating strips in the balloons with a Signo white pen, and drew the dots with Memento Rich Cocoa marker. Same marker was used to outline the card.
The puffy clouds were die cut from a self-adhesive felt, with PTI Cloud die.

Hop on over to the JG’s Nook blog, to see the rest of the Design Team’s creations. Thanks for taking a peek 🙂

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