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hi there, penguin

Aug 252017

Hi there! Today’s post is just a really quick one before the current challenge at The Paper Players ends. They wanted to see clean and simple styled cards that incorporated coloring. I also wanted to make something for the current Cards in Envy challenge to use a thought or speech balloon on a card.

I’ve put together a card from bits and pieces left over from other projects. The penguin was already stamped; all I did with him for this card was color him and cut him out. I found a scrap on my desk that was just the right size for the speech bubble. I painted some shimmery white paint on another scrap of cardstock that I’d cut for the snowbank/ice for the penguin to stand on. And the card base was a half sheet of cardstock left over from another card. So yay for using up stuff!

Thanks for stopping by today! Comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Supplies:
Stamps: Critters in the Snow, Sophie’s Sentiments, A Birdie Told Me (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Cool Caribbean (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Frost White shimmer paint (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #236

6 Responses »

Aug 152017

Hello! It’s the third Tuesday of the month, which means it’s color challenge time again at CAS Colours & Sketches. Karen has chosen some bright, playful colors for us to work with this week.

Despite the cheeriness of the colors, I seem to have a hard time working with them whenever they come up separately in our challenges – so putting them all together had me wondering what to make for a while! Oh, but that’s what makes it a challenge, right? 🙂 Finally I settled on using a musical stamp that I’ve had for years but I don’t think I’ve ever actually used. I thought that combined with a sentiment, it would make a pretty decent birthday card. I’ve trimmed down the focal panel so that I could use a colored card base to mat it, for an extra pop of color. I used a stitched border die for the bottom edge, but because I didn’t have any stitched detailing on the rest of the card, I turned the die so the stitching would be on the cut off portion.

Now it’s your turn to create a clean and simple styled card using these colors, and share it with us at the CC&S site! You have until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 21 to link your card. We hope you’ll join us!

Supplies:
Stamps: unnamed musical notes stamp (Inkadinkadoo); Handwritten Notes (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: Crushed Curry, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral (SU)
Other: Landscape Trio die (Mama Elephant)

Christmas Card Throwdown - August theme challenge

2 Responses »

Aug 122017

Hello! Today starts the second week of the August theme challenge challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown. It’s a different one this time: Tropical Christmas. Well, at least for people like me who have always lived where it’s winter time at Christmas, it’s different!

I will admit that I was struggling for ideas last week before the challenge went live, but I finally got a card made this week to share in the challenge reminder post at the challenge blog. I’ve taken extreme liberties with nature and made a very brightly colored snowflake. Because it’s pretty unique, I thought the “snowbody like you” sentiment went well with it. Hopefully this will cheer up somebody who receives this card through Send a Smile 4 Kids. The layout for this card comes from the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the card base is textured cardstock, which gives a little extra visual interest to the card.

How will you interpret the theme of Tropical Christmas? Share your card at the CCT blog by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, August 18. We’d love to see what you make! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Festive Flurry (Stampin’ Up); Kissmas & Mistletoe (Unity Stamp Company)
Cardstock: Summer Sun textured, Real Red, Ballet Blue, Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Fiesta Spectrum pad (SU)
Other: Snowflakes embossing folder (Darice); dimensionals (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #235

3 Responses »

Aug 082017

Hello! It’s time for the first sketch challenge of the month over at CAS Colours and Sketches! We have a very easy peasy one that allows for a lot of creativity from our participants. It allows for a non-rectangular element to extend off the edge of the card. (That will make more sense when you see my sample card and the sketch graphic.)

I’ve reached back into my digital images for this week’s card and used one that I’ve always thought was pretty cute. I couldn’t bear to cut off the mouse’s tail, though. In retrospect I wish I’d rotated the image a little differently so that I could cut off more of the heart shape, in keeping with the sketch, while still keeping the tail intact. I originally planned to make this a one-layer card, but my thicker cardstock doesn’t like to feed through my printer. So I had to use a lighter weight cardstock to print the panel and then mount it on a card base. I colored the mouse with my Copics, and chose a card base to coordinate with the grey mouse. I offset the panel, lining it up even with the card base along the top and right of the card, and letting the base add a pop of color along the left and bottom of the card. Oh yeah, the sentiment was generated on the computer, too, printed along with the mouse image.

And there’s another card for the stash I’m building for Send a Smile 4 Kids. Be sure to visit the CAS Colours and Sketches blog to see the terrific cards the rest of the design team has made. I’m sure they’d love it if you left them comments, too. Then show us what you can do with this sketch! Link your card to the CC&S site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, August 14. I hope you’ll join in the fun there!

Supplies:
Digital Image: Cocoa’s Heart (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Smoky Slate (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: printer ink
Other: markers (Copic)

CAS Colours & Sketches #233

5 Responses »

Jul 252017

Hello again! It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month, which means it’s sketch challenge time again at CAS Colours & Sketches.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve used my floppy-eared bunny stamps, so I decided to pull them out and use one on today’s card. Being summertime, I felt that ice cream was an appropriate thing to include. I stamped the bunny on a piece of plain white cardstock, colored him, and then fussy cut him so I could adhere him to a piece of textured cardstock. The texture is subtle, but it does add a bit of extra visual interest. Having the bunny’s ears extend past the borders of his background panel was an intentional design choice to balance with the sentiment banner. I wanted to do a little something different to the ends of the banner, so I used an old corner punch. The narrowness of the sentiment banner combined with the punch gives the curvy, pointy result.

I chose the pink card base to coordinate with the strawberry ice cream on the bunny’s cone. Hopefully, this is enough pink to qualify the card for the “Baby Blue or Pretty Pink” challenge at Cards in Envy.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what our challenge participants at CC&S create this week! Be sure to link your card at the challenge post by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, July 31. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Two Scoops for Flopsey (My Favorite Things)
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink (Stampin’ Up); Solar White and Solar White textured (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); ticket corner punch, dimensionals (SU)

Christmas Card Throwdown - July color challenge

4 Responses »

Jul 152017

Hello! It’s time for July’s color challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown. This time we’re pulling out all the stops and instead of limiting our participants to using only a certain few colors, we’d like to see you use a rainbow of colors! You should use a minimum of five colors on your card.

I knew I had some very colorful Christmas-themed designer papers, so I pulled them out and looked through them to see what I could use. I had some scraps that fit perfectly into this week’s sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch!, so I decided to join in that challenge. I turned the sketch 90 degrees on its side. My sweet little Lawn Fawn birdies fit right in with the colors and the music. I stamped them onto a scrap of white cardstock, colored them, fussy cut them, and finally glued them to the sky blue panel. And there’s another card for the stockpile I’m creating for Send A Smile 4 Kids. Their current challenge is “Christmas in July 4 Kids”, so I’ll add this card to their linkup.

And now it’s your turn to show us what you can create! We’d love it if you joined our challenge. You have until 7:00 pm Eastern time Friday, August 4 to link your card at the CCT site. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Sparrows (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Early Espresso, Soft Sky (Stampin’ Up); designer papers from Holly Jolly Christmas 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Other: markers (Copic)

CAS Colours & Sketches #222

7 Responses »

May 092017

Hello again! This week at CAS Colours & Sketches we have a simple little sketch challenge up for the offering.

There is a myriad of things that can be done within the blocks on the sketch – and of course, the sketch can be rotated if one pleases. I decided to keep true to the way the sketch was drawn and create a little scene in the square, and add the sentiment in the rectangle to the right of it. I used watercolor pencils softened with blender pens to color the image. This is not one of my best coloring jobs, but I wanted to keep it sort of sketchy looking to go with the look of the stamp. Not adding color at all would have made the card look a little too “bare”. Even though the sentiment says “thank you”, when it’s paired with the scene, I think it could work as a Father’s Day card, too. The card base is textured cardstock to keep the card from looking too plain.

What will you do with this sketch? There are so many possibilities! I hope you’ll try out something and share what you create with us! Link your work to the CAS Colours & Sketches blog by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, May 15. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Seaside Sketches (Stampin’ Up); Thank You Note (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Sahara Sand textured, Soft Suede (SU); The Langton Prestige Extra Smooth Hot Press watercolor paper (Daler-Rowney)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: stitched square die (Lawn Fawn); watercolor pencils, blender pens (SU)

CAS Colours & Sketches #207

11 Responses »

Jan 242017

Hello! We have a fun sketch challenge for you this week at CAS Colours & Sketches and I hope our participants like it as much as I do! I think it’s a pretty versatile one.

I’m trying to get some more love-themed cards made to donate to Send A Smile 4 Kids before Valentine’s Day, so that helped determine what I was going to do with the sketch. I originally planned to do something with different shades of pink cardstock, using a light pink for most of the card and using a darker pink for the curved part of the sketch. When I was looking through my folder of light pink cardstock, I found a scrap of of some coordinating background paper I’d made a few years ago. For that project, I’d splattered pink ink over some textured white cardstock and then sprayed it with gold pearl mist. I decided to cut hearts from this and use them to decorate the curved part of the sketch. To give the hearts better definition from the pink card base, I backed them with a scrap of brushed gold cardstock. A simple sentiment in gold ink finished off the card. The pink panels are raised up with shims of scrap cardstock so they are a little higher than the hearts.

I’m going to enter this into the current challenge at Shopping Our Stash, where they’re asking their participants to use gold on their cards, and the current Uniko Studio challenge, “Anything Goes, with an optional twist of love”.

Be sure to visit the CAS Colours & Sketches blog to see the terrific cards the rest of the design team has made. I’m sure they’d love it if you left them comments, too. Then show us what you can do with this sketch! Link your card to the CC&S site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday, January 30. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamp: Short & Sweet (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Brushed Gold, Whisper White textured (SU)
Ink: Gold (ColorBox)
Other: Stitched Rectangle die, heart die (Lawn Fawn); Landscape Trio die (Mama Elephant); Pink Pirouette ink refill (SU); Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist (Ranger)

awesome little animals

6 Responses »

Nov 212016

I’m just writing a quick post today to show a card I’ve made for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge that will be closing soon, as well as the current AAA Cards challenge. The two challenges worked together so well that I couldn’t resist joining in them.

I thought it would be cute to have animals peeking through round windows. I created the front panel of the card first by adding a strip of light green cardstock to the bottom of a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of white cardstock and adding a sentiment. Why green? Because it was a scrap that was lying on my desk, and because it seemed like it would work as a “ground” or “grass”. And because I used a scrap, I’m going to enter this into the Shopping Our Stash challenge, too. Then I used my circle dies to cut the circles from the panel. I laid the die cut panel over a white card base and traced the outlines of the circles so I’d know where to position the animals. After I stamped them, I colored them with colored pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits. The colored pencils tend to give a softer look than my Copic markers do, plus the pencils don’t bleed through the cardstock like Copics often do. Once I was done coloring, I attached the die cut panel to the card base. I think it turned out pretty well, considering I was running out of the odorless mineral spirits!

And there’s another any occasion card for the stockpile I’m creating for Send a Smile 4 Kids. Thanks for stopping by today! Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Supplies:
Stamps: Skater Kids (Mama Elephant)
Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Certainly Celery (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Houston Arts); standard circle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - November color challenge

4 Responses »

Nov 122016

Hello! It’s time for November’s color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. We have an updated twist on a classic color combination for you – bright red and lime green.

I’ve used this week’s sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches for my layout… which, truth be told, is a sketch I’d originally drawn for 52CCT back in 2013! A strand of Christmas lights seemed to be a good way to show off the 52CCT challenge colors, so I pulled out my Christmas lights stamps. I like that the bulb image is separate from the wire image, so that the bulbs can easily be stamped individually in whatever colors one chooses. I think the sentiment stamp echoes the idea of twinkling lights. I’ve added a couple of rhinestones to dot the letter “i” where it occurs in the sentiment. I’m not sure how well the texture of the red cardstock shows in the photo, but in real life it helps give a little extra visual interest to the card.

And now it’s your turn to show us what you can create! We’d love it if you joined our challenge this week. You have until 7:00 pm Eastern time Friday, November 18 to link your card at the 52CCT site. Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Holiday Baubles (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Magic of Christmas (Technique Tuesday)
Cardstock: Real Red Core’dinations, Green Galore, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Real Red, Green Galore (SU)
Other: rhinestones (Recollections)

CAS Colours & Sketches #199

5 Responses »

Nov 102016

Hello again! This week is sketch week at CAS Colours & Sketches. I hope you’ll consider joining in the fun and creativity there by creating a card of your own with this sketch!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I first drew up this sketch several years ago for a different challenge blog. And there are probably very similar sketches to it out there in challenge blog land. But I figured since I drew this one, I could use it again for CC&S.

I had the sweet little elephant image left over as a “reject” from a card I made a few months ago. Since the stamp set name is “Ellie”, I’m going to assume it’s a girl elephant. She’s been sitting on my desk since July (good thing she’s just a little cardstock elephant and not a real one… heh heh, bad sense of humor, sorry). I decided it was time to put her to use on a card. This time I was able to match her pretty well to one of my brown cardstocks, so I’ve used that for the angled panel. I figured some green grass would be a nice way to give the elephant some “ground” so she’s not seemingly floating on the focal panel, so I die cut some grass from a scrap of cardstock and put Ellie between some shorter and some taller grass. I used the same shade of green cardstock for the card base. The sentiment was stamped in the same shade of green, too. Using a stitched die for the focal panel gives it a little extra interest than if I’d used just a plain piece of cardstock. And now there’s a cute any occasion card for the box I’ll be sending soon to Send a Smile 4 Kids!

Addicted to Stamps and More is having a CAS challenge this week so I’m going to enter this card there.

Supplies:
Stamps: Ellie, Simply Said Hello (Avery Elle)
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Baked Brown Sugar (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Grassy Border and Stitched Rectangle dies (Lawn Fawn)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - October Pick a Previous challenge

3 Responses »

Oct 292016

Hello! It’s the fifth Saturday of the month, and that means at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, it’s “Pick a Previous” week! This time we’re asking our participants to choose a previous 52CCT sketch and create a card based on it.

I chose to work with the sketch from January 2015. I’ve had this little penguin colored and matted, left over from our family’s Christmas cards from a few years ago, and I decided it was time to finally make a card for him. The penguin panel seemed like it would fit well in place of the star-shaped element of the sketch. The polka-dotted designer paper worked well with the green leaves and the cherry red hat and scarf, but I felt something else was needed. So I added some brown coloring to the frame around the penguin to tie in with the kraft-colored dots and used kraft cardstock for the other triangular panel of the sketch. I added a black mat to tie in with the penguin, and attached the whole card front to a cherry colored card base. Looking at it now, I realize that I inadvertently flip-flopped the triangular panels, so my card is actually the mirror image of the way the sketch was drawn. But I think the inspiration is obvious!

Once you’ve been inspired by the design team’s work, make a Christmas or wintry card of your own using one of our previous sketches. Share it with us by linking it at the 52CCT site by midnight GMT Friday, November 4. We’d love to have you join us! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cozy Friends (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps); Warm Penguin (Lizzie Anne Designs for Gourmet Rubber Stamps)
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Kraft, Season of Style designer series paper (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic)

CAS Colours & Sketches #197

4 Responses »

Oct 272016

Hello there! Once again, it’s time for a sketch challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

My first idea for the sketch didn’t work out the way I’d envisioned it in my head, so late last night I had to go back to the proverbial drawing board… and I went waaaaay back, to some of my very old, long-retired Stampin’ Up products! I’ve been making a lot of Christmas and wintry cards lately, and I decided to step off that train of thought for today’s card. The designer paper is seriously about 10 years old, and I probably bought the buttons around the time I bought the paper. The pale yellow cardstock is textured, but I’m not sure how well that shows up in the photo. The stamp is the most recent product I’ve purchased. I’ll be donating this card to Send a Smile 4 Kids, and I think it’ll be suitable for a teenage girl who might not be into the little-girly pink stuff any longer.

If you need more inspiration, check out what the rest of the CC&S design team and our October guest designer have made. Then create your own card using the sketch, and share it with us at the challenge site by 6:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, November 2. We’d love to see what you make! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamp: So Much to Say (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Barely Banana textured, Spring Showers designer paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)
Other: buttons (SU); embroidery floss (DMC)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - October theme challenge

8 Responses »

Oct 152016

Hello! This week is theme week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and this time we have a theme that I think will be fun for a lot of people: Christmas Critters. Any type of animal critter you’d like to use will be fine, so long as it ties in with the Christmas season.

I turned to one of my stamp sets that features animals that live in cold climates, and chose one of the penguin stamps from it. My Santa hat stamp from another set fits this penguin pretty well. I stamped both the penguin and the hat on scrap cardstock, colored them, and fussy cut them. It’s not easy to see in the photo, but I added some Wink of Stella to the white trim on the hat. In real life, it’s pretty shimmery. Then I had to figure out a layout and a color scheme for my card. The current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches looked like a good one. I had a banner with a heat-embossed sentiment left over from another project, and it fit perfectly with the sketch. A variety of designer papers makes up the background for my penguin. I don’t often use black for card bases, but it was the half-sheet of cardstock left over from the card I shared yesterday, and it tied in with the penguin. And now I have another card to add to the ones I’ll be sending to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

What kind of critter(s) will you choose for your card? Be sure to share it at the 52CCT site before the challenge ends at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, October 21. Check out what the rest of the design team has made, too! Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Stamps: Critters in the Snow, Hats Off to You, Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); scraps from Aspen Frost 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); gold (ColorBox)
Other: markers (Copic); Wink of Stella pen (Zig); detail gold embossing powder (SU)

popping up

5 Responses »

Oct 142016

Hello! Today I took a crafting break simply to create. I wanted to join in the color challenge at The Paper Players before it expired, and I decided to combine that with the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch! I’m trying to get a few more cards done before I send a shipment off to Send a Smile 4 Kids, so I decided on a cute love-themed card that would work well for a kid of any age. Even though the sentiment and the image came from two different stamp sets, I thought they worked well together. I snipped the edges of the two green designer papers really closely to resemble grass. It’s been so long since I’ve used my grass-shaped dies that I’d forgotten I had them until I was taking the picture of the card. As Homer Simpson would say, “D’oh!”

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a terrific weekend!

Supplies:
Stamps: Critters in Costume, Love ‘n Breakfast (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Naturals White (Stampin’ Up); Solar White (Neenah); scraps from Bright Side petite paper pack (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Stitched Rectangle die (Lawn Fawn)

Older Entries Newer Entries

hi there, penguin

CAS Colours & Sketches #236

Christmas Card Throwdown - August theme challenge

CAS Colours & Sketches #235

CAS Colours & Sketches #233

Christmas Card Throwdown - July color challenge

CAS Colours & Sketches #222

CAS Colours & Sketches #207

awesome little animals

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - November color challenge

CAS Colours & Sketches #199

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - October Pick a Previous challenge

CAS Colours & Sketches #197

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - October theme challenge

popping up

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