Hello, Dahlia

Hello again! I have card #2 for you. I have always wanted to play along with the Play Date Cafe but hadn't had a chance until today. The idea of black and white with a splash of apricot really intrigued me as a challenge. I decided Crisp Cantaloupe was close enough and went with that color. Such a clean and modern color scheme seemed to pair really well for the new challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also considering this a one-layer card (in my mind, dimensionals are required and don't count!) for the Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

Here is my card featuring the new stamp set called Regarding Dahlias:

This is something very different for me and I'm really pleased with the result. On the white card layer I used the Simply Scored borders plate to emboss the left side, then I stamped the flower and sentiment in Basic Black. Stamping the flower again in cantaloupe on a scrap allowed me to cut out and pop up the center for the splash of color. I felt like the color needed to come in somewhere else, though, so I colored some pearls with a Sharpie and added them as accents to the scalloped border.

I have to say, I have had so much fun this week. It's been such a treat to spend so much time creating. This will probably be the end of my stamping for a few days, but I will be back as soon as I can to keep the creations coming!

I'm in. Are you?

It seems like everyone is really thrilled with the new In Colors. I have to confess, I didn't love them right out of the gate. I didn't rush out to use them. But the CASE Study challenge I came across this morning seemed to cry out for Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, and Baked Brown Sugar. I figured I should just dive in and try these colors, and I really love how they work together. I used Crisp Cantaloupe last week, so now I just have Pistachio Pudding to break out. (That could be a tough one for me.) Anyway... Here is the card, which shows you a bunch of new goodies.

I wanted something kind of punched/pieced to emulate the original card, so I picked out this new set called Polka Dot Pieces. You can't go wrong with the bird punch. I took my layout from the inspiration card also, but I flipped it - I felt like the bird needed to face the center of the card. Do you like my "layer" behind the circle? I couldn't figure out what to put behind my 2 1/2" circle and then it occurred to me, the new ruffled stretch trim could probably work if I put sticky strip around the edge. Just cut notches in your sticky strip before you adhere it to the edge of the circle, and then go around the circle attaching the trim. The buttons are retired (Crumb Cake makes a close approximation of Baked Brown Sugar here) but I opened up my new In Color embellishments called Boutique Details. I used Eastern Elegance, Etcetera, and In Color DPs for my banners, and the hexagon embossing folder for the background. I also sponged all the edges with brown sugar ink.

Thanks so much for visiting today - I have one more card I'd like to make today, so hopefully I'll be back with that a little later!

Quick tutorial: Layering with Framelits

I was working on some cards for my Etsy shop tonight and stumbled across something I thought was cool and wanted to share. I was using the window Framelits and wanted to layer my image, but the die the next size up was just too big - it didn't fit my 3" card and the border was just too wide for my taste. I started looking through my punches and dies to see if I had something else that would look good as a layer. Here is the final product - can you tell what I did? Here's a hint: we have a brand-new product that made this possible...

Did you guess? It all hinged on the new square Framelits. It happens that the set includes a die that gives a 2" square, and that was the perfect size for my 2.5" stamped image from the Best of Flowers set. Then I just needed some circles to finish it off.

Cutting the circles in half gives the perfect layer for each round side; just attach the square behind the label and then add the half circles. Pretty nifty, eh? This might also work for other sizes of labels/squares/circles - remember we also have the new circle Framelits so I'm sure there must be other sizes you could try.

But I have one other little thing to show you. I still had my 3" brown label that I'd cut earlier, so in the interest of using scraps, I cut my first square from the inside of that label. Look at the result:

I'm not sure what I'll do with this little piece, but it was too cute not to save for something! Now I'm very curious what other combinations of dies might create even more shapes. If you try this out, I hope you'll share. Happy crafting!

CAS, day 2

Last night my husband asked me if I had a Father's Day card I could send to his dad. I said I didn't, but of course I could make one! The challenges for today: CAS(E) this Sketch and Pink Elephant (Father's Day).

Here is my card:

Clean and simple was the style of the day again today - my weekdays are usually jam packed. This new stamp set called Wetlands seemed perfect for the sketch and the occasion - my father-in-law spends a lot of working outside at his house by a small lake. I used generation stamping for the wheat background and stamped the goose twice so I could pop up the top layer. For colors I chose some masculine stand-bys: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla. The sentiment is retired, and I used the Stamp-a-ma-Jig to fit the three words inside the tag punch. I made the border between the stamped panel and the DP with thin strips of card stock that were left over from cutting. I added some linen thread to my tag and that was it! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Short and Sweet

Happy Monday! I decided to squeeze in time for a quick card today, and the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple challenge was the perfect thing. It's a color challenge this week: Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake and white. For me this is a small amount of colors, LOL. I also took a peek at the Mojo Monday sketch and decided I could make it work for CAS. It doesn't have a lot of white space, but I would call this card CAS because it doesn't have much layering and it came together really quickly. You could say it was the opposite of my card from Saturday!

I'm still having fun playing with all my new stuff. This card features one of the images from Flower Shop, along with the coordinating pansy punch. Just a heads-up: it can be tricky aligning this punch with the image since it's not symmetrical - but I kept turning my flower and eventually I got the right spot. It's definitely worth the effort - gorgeous stamp set and punch. I also used the new hostess set called Banner Greetings, the Gingham Garden DP (again), and the candy dots. These are perfect if you put your card together and realize that a corner needs a little something (ahem). Super cute and easy! The rest of the card uses Crumb Cake card stock with embossed dots, punched melon borders (one strip from the ribbon punch, cut in half), and retired pear DP - oh, and I made quick little leaves with the wing on the bird punch and embossed those with the houndstooth folder.

This is one of the things I love about stamping - I can spend a long time crafting something elaborately detailed, or I can quickly put together an adorable card that still packs a punch! (Pun intended!) I hope you'll pull out your supplies and stamp something today. Have a great week!

My happy place

Twice in one weekend - crazy, right? I posted my card yesterday, even though I wasn't super happy with it - you spend enough time on something, you figure you'll just throw it out there anyway. But today I felt like I needed to boost my stamping confidence a little. I spent all afternoon on this card - never mind that one of my Copics blobbed all over the image when I was almost done coloring it, and I fussed a lot over just about every decision I made. It's been a long time since I devoted that much of my day to one single project, and looking at it now I feel happy.

There are three challenges at work here: Color Throwdown (I used Melon Mambo, Crisp Cantaloupe, Kiwi Kiss, and a mix of Daffodil Delight and Barely Banana), CAS-ual Fridays (banners) and Deconstructed Sketches. The featured stamp set is brand-new and called Backyard Basics - these stamps are gorgeous, and how great that we have dies to go with them. I did the large group of pink flowers and three tulips, then "tied" them into a bouquet with a bit of ribbon. Here are the Copic colors I used:

It's been a long time since I did much with Copics, but I had a blast using them (apart from the aforementioned blob incident). There are a bunch of products used here: Delicate Doilies sizzlit with DP from Birthday Basics, Window Frame framelit (I cobbled together my own piercing "template" since the one that goes with these framelits doesn't include the teeny tiny die), A Round Array stamp set for the sentiment, banners from Gingham Garden DP (pink and yellow) and one from my stash (green), and retired melon DP for the background.

My life is crazy right now, and I don't know what lies ahead - there could be some big changes for me in the coming months. For the time being I think I'm going to try to do more challenges and post more often, because like I said, it makes me happy. Thanks for visiting and enjoy the weekend!

Cute Zoo Babies

Oh my, I've been so busy lately - but yesterday my order of goodies from the new catalog arrived, and today I just had to crack something open and make a card just for fun. I don't even know when the last time was I did that. Is there seriously any better therapy? This one is for two challenges: colourQ and Create with Connie and Mary's sketch.

I loved the color combo the colourQ team came up with:

I substituted the new Smoky Slate and the recently returned Pear Pizzazz, plus I added Early Espresso just to give more depth. These colors seemed like great matches for the animals I chose from the new set called Zoo Babies. I don't know what it is - I'm not a big cutesy stamper, but I can't resist animal sets like this one! I tried my hand at cutting hexagons to go on the embossed banner - and I'm joining the ranks of people who are hoping we get a mini hexagon punch soon! The DPs are a mix of old and new patterns. The sentiment from Label Love seemed like the perfect choice, and I added one of the new neutrals buttons threaded with a tiny piece of the pear DP. Now all I need is someone to have a sweet baby boy so I can send this card out - I seem to be past the era of friends having babies, but I still love to make baby cards!

Happiness Always

I get the pleasure of going to three cousins' weddings this summer - and of course that means I get to make some wedding cards! It's not a category I need very often, so I'm looking forward to it. This weekend is the first of the three weddings, so here is my first card. I'm entering in a few challenges: Pals Paper Arts (sketch), Fusion Card Challenge (inspiration photo), Friday Mashup (monochromatic), and SUO Challenges (retiring stamp set: Happy Thoughts).

From the Fusion inspiration photo I took the flowers and dots, and the CAS look of the photo. I chose brown because it became clear to me, after looking at their registries, that the bride and groom love brown! This is Soft Suede with the naturals ivory card stock. I featured the Pleasant Poppies stamp and added some pearls and distressing. I layered the crochet trim and Soft Suede taffeta ribbon under the sentiment, which is so beautiful - I'm sad it's retiring because I didn't get to use it very often. All in all this card came together quite quickly - which is perfect since I didn't have a lot of time. But I hope my cousin and his future wife will love it!