Happy Birthday

Today's card was created for the Paper Players Sketch Challenge #255. This card is kind of a first for me in that I used no patterned paper on it at all. First I created my side border by adding some pink and white striped washi tape to the card base. I stamped the stitched border from the Simon Says Stamp Cupcake Party stamped set onto some white cardstock using a pink Hero Arts shadow ink and created a plaid background. I layered the panel onto the cardbase and then cut a stitched border tag using a My Favorite Things tag die. I punched a hole in the top using a simple hole punch and then added some of the star bursts from the same stamp set and the happy birthday sentiment in Versamark ink and then heat embossed it using some Recollections detail white embossing powder. I added some faux stitched lines around the edge using my Uni-ball white gel pen for a little more pop. I cut a lacy doily die from My Favorite Things and then mounted the stamped cupcake that I stamped using Gina K dye inks. I stamped the sprinkles using more Versamark ink and heat embossed them using the same white powder. I think added some pink sequins from The Ton and then topped the tag off using some light pink satin ribbon and tied it off using some white cross-stitch thread. It's very girly and a bit over the top with all of the pink but I think my grand-daughter will love it when her birthday comes around!

The Cat's Pajamas Summer Blog Hop

Hello and thank you for joining me! You should have arrived here from Lori's blog. If you feel you've missed anything along the way you can always start back at the beginning at The Cat's Pajama's Blog.  Okay, are you ready to hop? I have to admit, I got a bit carried away and made several cards using the fun new products available now in TCP store. For my first card, I stamped the Seas The Birthday stamp set onto some watercolor cardstock using black pigment ink and then embossed the images using clear embossing powder. I colored the adorable images using watercolor paints and then created the background using distress inks and a smooshing technique. I heat set everything using a heat tool and then added some white droplets using distress stain in white. I added some shimmer to the whole project by spritzing on some sheer shimmer spray. I stamped, embossed, and fussy cut the party hats and then popped them up using foam dimensionals and mounted them over the sea critters and then added some small googly eyes for some added fun. I went around the outer edge of the cardstock with some dashed lines using a white gel pen. I love this adorable birthday card and may have to mass produce it!

For my next card I used The Lemons stamp set. I stamped the adorable bunny and lemonade stand out onto some 110 lb cardstock and colored the images using Copic markers.  I fussy cut everything out and edged all of the images using a black Copic-friendly marker. Using some Doodlebug patterned papers I die-cut the new County Fair Cut Ups to create the sun, the grass, and the little banner behind the bunny. I used chalk ink to create the sky on the circle panel and then added a few panels and a fish tail banner behind to add some interest. Some enamel dots top it all off nicely and create the most adorable and fun summer card!

For my next card I used the Simply Stacked Sentiment stamp set to create a clean and simple sympathy card. I created a few fish tail banners using patterned papers from Chickaniddy. I stamped the sentiment onto a basic oval shape that I die cut using a Spellbinders die and then stamped a bit of flair from the same stamp set to accentuate the sentiment. I added a punched butterfly, a few black sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and a few clear rhinestones and this card was done. Love how quick and simple it was to create!

Ready to keep hopping? Your next stop on the hop is Jesse. If you want to play along simply create a new project using TCP stamps/dies and add a link to your project using the linky widget on the TCP blog. One lucky participant will win a voucher to the TCP store!

CAS(E) card-Nuts About You

Today's card was created for CTS #133. I had so many ideas for the sketch but kept coming back to scattered leaves. I'm not sure why...I guess I just love fall. So, I reached for my Avocado Arts Nuts About You stamp set and stamped the leaves over and over onto some 110lb white cardstock using VersaMagic inks in Gingerbread, Mango, and Pumpkin Spice and some Colorbox chalk inks in orange, red, and green overlapping as I stamped to create a realistic pile of fall leaves. I fussy cut the leaf panel and mounted it onto another panel that I had dabbed with some VersaMagic seabreeze blue ink to create the sky. I then stamped the adorable squirrel image, the stump, and a few of the acorns onto more 110lb cardstock and colored them in using Copic markers in various shades of brown. I fussy cut them out and mounted them onto the focal panel using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. Love how they pop off of the page! I die cut the word nuts from some chocolate chip card stock from Stampin' UP using MFT's little lower case letter dies and mounted them onto the panel with foam dimensionals. I stamped part of the sentiment from the same Avocado Arts stamp set above and below the die cut letters. I framed the focal panel using more chocolate chip cardstock and added some dashed lines using a brown Memento dual brush marker. I mounted the whole thing onto my chocolate chip card base using some patterned papers from American Crafts Fall Crisp paper line. I just think it turned out too super cute!

CASology: Week 156-Line

This week's CASology challenge is to create a card using lines. I thought it would be cute to do a card with some birds on a wire. I stamped out three of the adorable little birds from Fresh Squeezed Stamps The Sweet Life stamp set (no longer available). I colored them in various shades of pinks using Copic markers RV000, RV02, RV52, RV55, AND RV66 and then added a bit of clear Wink of Stella to their wings for a bit of shimmer. I fussy cut the images out cropping off the legs and then went around the outer edges with my Memento tuxedo black dual marker to give them a nice, clean look. I cut my white 110lb cardstock down to create a smaller panel than the base and used my We R Memories Corner Chomper to round the edges off using the 1/2" setting. I used an oval ceramic platter from my kitchen to create the telephone wires on my focal panel since I didn't have a line stamp long enough to stamp from edge to edge horizontally on my card and then popped my little birds up using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I stamped the Hello sentiment from the same stamp set and added a few sequins from The Ton's Sweetheart Mix. I love this little card and think it would be cute to reproduce as a set using different colors for the birds and other sentiments. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Sarcastic. What's Your Superpower?

I realized today that it had been a week since I had posted a card.  I don't know how time slipped away from me but I guess work just took over this week. Anyway, I decided to crack out a few of my favorite Riley and Company stamps and have some fun. I started with a base of new leaf cardstock from Papertrey Ink and layered on some pretty patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket's Tea For Two 6x6 paper line. I die cut a circle using MFT's pierced circle dies from a piece of grid paper from My Mind's Eye's Be Happy honey flourish 12x12 paper and added some dashed lines using my Memento tuxedo black dual marker pen. I stamped the Winking Gal image from the Retro Folks line in Memento tuxedo black ink and colored her in using Copic markers. I added some clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to her pretty red dress and a few clear gemstones from The Paper Studio to add some additional bling. I stamped the sentiment from Riley and Company's Funny Bones line and then matted it and the focal image out on some more leaf green cardstock and popped them up on some foam stamping dimensionals from Stampin' UP. Love the way it turned out! Thanks for stopping by!

Hero

Today's card was created for the Operation Write Home sketch challenge #258. I had just picked up an inexpensive 6x6 pad of Americana paper by Pebbles at Tuesday Morning last week and thought it would be perfect for this sketch. I started with a kraft cardstock base and stamped out the sentiment using Paper Smooches Circle of Honor stamp set in Not Quite Navy ink from Stampin' UP onto some 110 lb white cardstock from Staples. I used the coordinating marker to add the dashed lines around the sentiment. I die cut the banners using the 1" banner die from Jillian Vance Designs and the stars using the Lil' Inker stitched stars dies in the patterned paper and some 110 lb cardstock. I added some red, white, and blue patriotic sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to top it all off and a "welcome home" sentiment on the inside. Love the way it turned out!

Happy Thoughts Coming Your Way

Today's card was designed for the Paper Players Theme Challenge: The Great Outdoors. I started by stamping the Hero Arts Leaf and Floral background onto some 110 lb cardstock from Staples using Tim Holtz Faded Jeans distress ink and then re-inked the stamp using Tim Holtz Broken China and shifted the cardstock over by an 1/8th of an inch to create a sort of blurred two-tone effect. I stamped the chevron from A Creative Journey's I Just Love You stamp set continuously on a 1/2" strip of cardstock and anchored it in the center of the card for a bit of visual interest. Then I stamped the Cherry Blossom Bird image from Stampabilities onto some 110 lb cardstock and colored it in using my Copic markers. The sentiment is from the Avocado Arts Perfectly Perfect Day stamp set and I punched it out using The Modern Label Punch from Stampin' UP. I took a scrap piece of cardstock and inked it all over using the Tim Holtz Faded Jeans again and then punched the Modern Label again as well as two pieces of edging from a Fiskars postage stamp punch and affixed it the trimmed down focal panel. Love the way it turned out!

You Make Me Happy When Skies Are Gray

Okay, I'm on a card making roll here today and wanted to share one last card that I made for the Retro Sketches challenge before I go watch some women's soccer. I chose Stampin' UP's See Ya Later stamp set for the start of my card. I love this cute sentiment but have only used it a few times. I masked off the sun and clouds with some painter's tape before I stamped the sentiment because I wanted the rainbow and clouds to be the primary focal image on the card. I cut the rainbow out of some 110 lb cardstock using a Paper Smooches die and then colored each individual arch with the following Copic colors: R29, YR07, Y08, G02, B24, and BV17. Love the way it turned out. I punched the clouds using a Fiskars punch and added some dashed lines around them edges to make them stand out. I added the same dashed lines around the inner white panel to really make it pop. I used some thin satin ribbon to add the bow around the main panel and adhered it to my white card base. Love this happy little card and I hope you do too!

Scooting By

For my second card today I chose the fun and snappy little scooter stamp from the Paper Smooches stamp set Spiffy Scooter. Using the fabulous color combination from the Color Throwdown #349 I used a similar card layout that I found on Pinterest and put my own twist on it. I stamped the scooter in Memento tuxedo black ink onto white, mango, and kraft cardstock and paper pieced them together. I used some Gina K premium dye ink in sweet mango to stamp the background on the circle panel. I used an R29 Copic marker and Uni-ball Signo white gel pen to add some detail to the headlights and taillights, a touch of clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to add some shimmer to the scooter, and stamped the sentiment in Versafine onyx black ink to give it a crisp image. I added some black dashed lines around the outer border of the card with my Memento tuxedo black dual tip marker and really love the way it defines the whole card. I love this card and may have to duplicate it using other color combos to make a set!

Have A Sweet Day

Today's card was created for Sketch Challenge #235 over at My Favorite Things. I pretty much stayed true to the sketch with no changes with the exception of placing my fishtail banner more toward the center than is shown in the sketch. I colored the adorable cupcake girl from MFT's ala mode Birthday Girl stamp set using Copic markers E00 and E11 for the skin, YG11, YG03, and YG63 for the dress, shoes, and crown, E18 and E29 for her hair, and E49, Y04, Y08, B00, B01, and B02 for the cupcake, and the candle is Y08 and YR07. The patterned paper is from K&Company's Color Basics designer mat pad and the cardstock is from Momenta's Cardstack Mats paper pad. I die cut the circles using the dies from MFT and layered it onto a piece of vellum to tone down the patterned paper below. I stamped that sweet sentiment from the same stamp set and then finished it off with some coordinating sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, some rhinestones from Recollections, and gave the cupcake some shimmer with my clear Wink of Stella glitter pen. Love the way it turned out!