A Double Challenge Card

Today I have a card for the double challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.  When there is a fifth Tuesday in the month, CC&S has a sketch and color challenge using a previous sketch and retired colors.  It's a fun time to pull out those colors that aren't used so much anymore and sometimes even those stamps that aren't used so much.

This is the challenge and colors:

This card is very simple and pretty self-explanatory.  I water colored my card and used the Emerald as my shadow color.  The Primrose Petals is used for the ears and nose.

Stamps and Dies:Newton's Nook Newton Unwinds; Stampin' Up! Chalk Lines
Ink: Stampin' Up! Emerald Envy, Primrose Petals, Pistachio Pudding (all retired)

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How to Make Fast Card Design Decisions

My card today attempts to answer that question - what DOES the fox say?  I'm not sure what all foxes say, but we'll find out what this one says anyway. And I'll share some tips on designing a card quickly.  This card was created in under an hour including photographing the steps involved.  It was because I didn't need to think about the two biggest factors in card design - layout and color.

I started with this week's sketch at Splitcoaststampers. As I've said before - sketch challenges make designing a card much faster!  Most challenges allow you to rotate or flip the sketch so you don't have to feel constrained.  Similarly, you can usually interpret or omit small items from the sketch.  In this case, I eliminated the bow as it would have been too fussy for my design.  And if you aren't actually entering the challenge, you can just use it as a starting point and go from there!

I picked my patterned paper next and then the coordinating colors. This is a great way to shortcut card design - once the pattern is established, the colors come from that.  Often - especially when coloring an image with my Copic markers - I color first and then have to find a coordinating paper which can take awhile, a long while.

But for a card like this where the colors of the fox are established and neutral, I can use any colors for the presents and balloons.  I'll pick the patterned paper first and the other colors follow.  If I know my recipient's favorite colors so much the better, but if not (or I don't have them) I just pick a pattern that's appropriate.  It's hard sometimes, but I try not to agonize over the choice of pattern.  In the case of this card, the confetti was perfect for a birthday and the scale was right, so I ran with it!

In order to get variety in color for the presents I had to cut them in multiple colors and make multiple presents. 

Ultimately I ended up using only one present.  Those that weren't used I saved for a later card. I'll store the finished die cut presents with the die so the next time I use it I can see that I already have images ready for use. This is another way to make designing and assembling a card faster - pre-made images.

To finish off the front of the card I popped up the fox and present using foam dots and added gold sequins.

(And to answer THE question....the fox says CELEBRATE!)

Dies: Cottage Cutz Birthday Fox, Birthday Hedgehog, and Celebration Phrase
Stamps: Technique Tuesday Fredrick and Fiona
Paper: Retired Stampin' Up! DSP, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Night of Navy, Gold foil, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla

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More Christmas in July

I have another holiday card today and it does double duty for two challenges - CAS Colours & Sketches and Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge.  The color challenges this month all have the theme of Christmas  with mostly non-traditional colors.  And for whatever reason the sketch this week at CC&S really had me stumped.  So my card, although simple and quick to put together, took some time to decide what to do.

The sketch:

And the colors are Pretty Peacock, Bermuda Bay and silver.

I really wanted to have two snowmen side by side but believe it or not, I could not find a snowman in my stamp stash.  I'm sure I have a few, but I could not find one when I needed him!

I first blended the two blues together in two rectangles and then added the snowflake die-cut layer.  The simple addition of the heat embossed sentiment and rhinestones finishes it off.  Very simple to do!

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Beautiful Blizzard
Dies: Stampin' Up! Beautiful Blizzard coordinating die

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Bloomin Birthday

My card today is a SUPER fast and easy card to make.  I had a very busy weekend making cards for Splitcoaststampers (I was recently invited to be one of the Dirty Dozen!)  So, today I needed a card for CAS Colours & Sketches.  This weekend I was working with a set that is similar in feel - it's also floral and very graphic.  I enjoyed that so much I thought I would try this set for today's card.

The colors for this week are:

I really enjoyed working with them and these stamps.  I used my Stamparatus and stamped most of the images twice to get good solid coverage.  This made the mango in the dots somewhat two-toned as the ink got a bit heavy in places.  But it really is Mango Melody!

I toyed with not using the stitched panel and just leaving it one layer but ultimately I think the stitching adds just enough extra on the card.

 I hope you stop by the challenge and join in - we'd love to see what you create!

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom by Bloom (retired), Flower Patch - sentiment (retired)
Dies:  MFT Stitched Rectangles
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Mango Melody, Night of Navy
Accessories: Stamparatus

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Double Duty Challenge Card - Christmas in July

Last Friday I focused on using die cuts as your focal image.  I am doing that again with today's double duty card (for two challenges).  This month at Splitcoaststampers the theme for the color challenges is "Christmas in July".  Normally I think we (and by that I mean retailers) have gone a bit overboard with early Christmas.  However, for the crafting world (and associated retailers) I love Christmas in July.  After all, it takes awhile to plan and execute handmade Christmas cards.  By participating in this theme, I'll have several card designs that I can choose from in order to make enough cards for my list.  And if I don't wait until the last minute to get them done, I can sit back and enjoy the holidays!

The colors this week are Very Vanilla, Soft Sea Foam and Rococo Rose - a new color from Stampin' Up!.  I used the sketch  challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches for my layout.

This card was super easy to create.  It is all die cut.  For the poinsettia petals I used Very Vanilla card stock and inked the edges in the Rose.  This made the flower softer than if I had use the Rose card stock.

For my stripes, I scored them using a scoring tool and Simply Scored scoring board.

I have certain criteria for my holiday cards - they must be quick to make and not boring!  This one fits those requirements.   I usually don't send elegant style cards for Christmas, but I may this year!

Dies: Cottage Cutz Peace, Love & Joy, and Christmas Floral 2
Ink: Rococo Rose
Card stock: Very Vanilla thick,  Soft Sea Foam, Gold
Accessories: Pearls, Simply Scored, sponge daubers

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Die Cuts as the Focal Image

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!  Today I have a quick post that features cards where the main image is a die cut.  There are several companies that have such dies; I am on the design team for one of them - Cottage Cutz.  These cards are from their latest release, Magical Garden.

This card features the Flower Pot House die (without using the house portions) and a sentiment from Paper Artsy.

Using a die cut as the focal image gives a whole different look to a card from the usual stamped image.  It gives dimension and texture even in a card that I would call CAS (like the first one shown.)  Finding the right sentiment for a die image can be very creative.  I often choose my sentiment from a stamp set that has images not even close to the die cut image I'm using.

Most of the die cuts are colored with Distress Oxide inks.  Occasionally, I will use Copic markers to color smaller pieces, but I find I like the texture that DO inks create.

Dies: Cottage Cutz Flower Pot House, clockwise from upper left: 1. Magical Forest, Fairytale Birthdays, Forest Critters, Nested Wacky Stitched Rectangles; 2. Sleepy Gnome w/Mushrooms; Stitched Ovals, Spring Mushrooms; Magical Unicorn Dreams; 3. Wishing Well, Stitched Wide Rectangle Frames; 4. Stone Fairy Door, Home Sweet Home Phrase

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Double Challenge Tuesday - First Frost Birthday and Christmas in July

This Tuesday is another with two color challenges for me.  Once again they are similar - each has two pinks and a green, but I went in completely opposite directions with regard to style and theme.

The first card is for CAS Colours & Sketches and uses:

It is also for the challenge at Addicted to CAS - the theme is Weddings this week!

I decided to make a card that would be generic enough to use for multiple occasions.  I stamped the front but can finish the inside when I decide to give the card.  The sentiment  that I used is from Beautiful Bouquet and has several sentiments that can be used differently depending on what other sentiment they are paired with.  I plan to use this for a birthday card but given the colors, it could easily be used as a wedding card.  Beautiful Bouquet has sentiments for both events, and the font style is such that it blends well with a wide variety of images.

On this card, I used a sponge dauber to color the stamps in that were loaded in my Stamparatus in Petal Pink.  After the first stamp, I used it again to color around the edges of the stamps in Flirty Flamingo.  This gives the pretty two toned look.  Because the colors are so soft, I used Gray Granite rather than black for the sentiment.  Although hard to see, the  left side of the card is embossed with the Subtle 3D Embossing folder making it look like linen paper.  It is subtle but does give some contrast to the smooth right side of the card.   To give it just a little something extra, I added a clear flower embellishment.

Card 1:
Stamps: Stampin' Up! First Frost and Beautiful Bouquet
Dies: Stampin' Up! Frosted Bouquet
Ink: Petal Pink, Flirty Flamingo, Gray Granite
Paper: Soft Sea Foam, Whisper White Thick
Accessories: Frosted Flower Embellishments, Sponge Daubers, Stamparatus

July is bonus days at Stampin' Up!  and for every $50 you spend (before shipping and tax) you earn $5 to spend in August!  If you do not already have a demonstrator, please click the links above to shop with me.

My next card is for the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers, where I am the hostess this week.  I picked Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo and Granny Apple Green to go with this month's theme of "Christmas in July."

I used this new-to-me set by Waffle Flower called "Cookie Time" and a sentiment from the Gerda Steiner Designs set Smell Like Christmas.   The images are stamped in Memento ink and colored using Copic markers and color matching the challenge colors.  Since they are pretty small images I did not do a lot of shading on them, making  them quicker to color (but not exactly fast).  Although I had fun making this card, it may not make my list of "easy to reproduce in large quantities" for my Christmas card list.  That said, I do send my "one time only" cards to certain friends and relatives so this surely will make that cut this Christmas and be sent out!

Card 2:
Stamps: Waffle Flower Cookie Time, Gerda Steiner Designs Smell Like Christmas
Ink: Copic markers 
Paper: Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Granny Apple Green DSP

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