7/30/2021

O-fish-ally Awesome

I have a fun card for his Friday.  It features some die-cut sea creatures from Cottage Cutz.  These critters are so cute and I LOVE that jellyfish.

I wanted this card to look like portholes although you probably wouldn't see under the sea from a porthole.  Oh well, I think it's a cute idea anyway.  

I cut my critters from scraps of cardstock but used vellum for the jellyfish so he really has that translucent look.  Art Glitter Glue allows you to glue vellum with little to no see-through of the glue.  I used it all the time with my vellum.  No more covering up glue spots with embellishments for me!

I hope you've enjoyed my card today.  I have complete instructions for this card on the Cottage Cutz blog and instructions for making the water on this Cottage Cutz blog post

Products used:

  • Dies: All Cottage Cutz - Jellyfish, Crab, Tropical Fish, Circle Windows Slimline, Wide Stitched Circle Frames, Nested Rectangles Slimline
  • Stamps: The Stamps of Life morefishtank2stamp

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7/28/2021

Game On!

I have been a guest designer for the sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers for the past six months.  Time sure flies!  It has been fun working with the sketches and the fun fold cards.  I definitely tried new things with the fun folds!


 

My card today is my last one as part of the team.  After looking at lots of patterns (and stencils to make my own DSP) I decided to go with solid papers on this one.  The red, white and black color scheme seemed to fit perfectly.

I took a little liberty with the sketch and instead of a square in the center I am using the cards as the center shape.

I have decided that I love sketch challenges.  They take away a lot of the decisions and yet still offer many creative possibilities.  I hope you will join us this week!

Products used:

  • Stamps: Stampin' Up! Game On
  • Dies: MFT Inside Out Stitched Circles
  • Cardstock: Real Red, Black, Basic White
  • Ink: Real Red, Versafine Onyx

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7/27/2021

Poinsettia for July

My card today does double duty for the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers and the sketch challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.  Since the colors are Cherry Cobbler, Shaded Spruce and gold, I knew a poinsettia would be perfect.


 

This stamp and die set from last year's Stampin' Up! Holiday catalog is one of my favorites.  I'm happy I kept mine and have no intention of getting rid of it. 

I love how this tropical flower has come to be associated with Christmas.  Growing up in Southern California you could grow these outside.  We would get one or two every Christmas and my father would plant them against the back fence.  After a few years we had a pretty, green hedge on our fence most of the year and then it would be become this beautiful explosion of red and green! 

On this card I edged the flowers and leaves in Cherry Cobbler ink; it's a bit hard to see here.  To make sure it was CAS, I did not use a sentiment on the front.

I hope you will find time to join us in one or both challenges this week!

Products used:

Dies: Stampun' Up! Poinsettia

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Shaded Spruce, Basic White

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Washi tape, Gold glitter Dots

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7/23/2021

Aloha Friday!

Aloha!  I have a very fun and tropical card for you today featuring all die cuts!  It was quite easy to create and reminds me of my husband's aloha shirts (don't call them Hawaiian shirts!).

The slimline background leaves are colored with Distress Oxide inks and adhered to a darker background.  I cut the flowers from various colors of cardstock and inked the edges.
I stacked the sentiment with three layers of dark brown underneath and gold foil on top.  And...a tropical thinking of you card!  More detailed instructions are on the Cottage Cutz blog.

Products used: all Cottage Cutz

  • Dies: Tropical Bouquet, Aloha & Ukulele, Leafy Background Slimline, Nested Rectangles Slimline
  • Cardstock: various scraps
  • Inks: Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Old Paper

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7/22/2021

Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Time for another Team O challenge at Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  I chose the left hand column.


This is one of those cards that really should have been fairly easy (and it was).  I had it pretty much planned out when I started.  My only hang up came with the embossing paste.  Apparently, it gets pretty hard after you open it!  Yup.  The last time I used embossing paste was probably two years ago.  So I ended up throwing out three jars of the stuff (in various colors.)  My first choice for the background was not this sparkly one, but oh well.  It was what I had that wasn't either a totally random color or a brick!  I could have used ink in the background but I really wanted it tone on tone.

And so my card sparkles!  A lot!

Products used:

  • Stamps and dies: Stampin' Up! Art in Bloom stamp & die bundle; Itty Bitty Birthdays
  • Stencil : MFT Scattered Bars
  • Ink: Stampin' Up! Highland Heather, Elegant Eggplant
  • Embossing Paste: Cosmic Shimmer Icicle Blue Sparkle

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7/20/2021

Two Color Challenges and One Layout

I have two cards that maximized my time for two color challenges.  If you're like me you sometimes run short of time.  Designing and planning a card often take up most of my time in cardmaking.  Both of these challenges had two greens and another color which made them perfect for foliage based cards!

I knew immediately I wanted to use the Plentiful Plants Bundle from Stampin' Up! for the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge.  Houseplant stamps seem to be trending right now and this set is super cute.  My favorite is the planet hanger die (which I did not end up using on this card.) 

As I was designing the card I realized that the Season's Blessings Bundle is very similar in theme and scale and would be perfect for the Splitcoaststampers color challenge which has Christmas in July as its theme.  I could design one card and just swap out the plants, colors and sentiments.

 

I used two different embossing folders on the base and popped up the smooth rectangles using foam tape.  A sentiment from Season's Blessings is on the Plentiful Plants card and one from Words of Cheer is on the Season's Blessing card.  All these sets coordinate beautifully.

Products used: All Stampin' Up!

  • Stamps and Dies: Season's Blessings Bundle, Plentiful Plants Bundle
  • Stamps: Words of Cheer (available August 3)
  • Ink: Mint Macaron, Evening Evergreen, Rococo Rose, Bumblebee, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green
  • Embossing Folder: Macrame 3D, Wood Planks (available August 3)

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7/14/2021

Life's a Beach

I loved this sandcastle stamp set from The Stamps of Life as soon as I saw it.  For one it is different.  I know of no other sandcastle set.  And it coordinates so well with other beach themed dies.  I decided to use it for the sketch challenge this week at Splitcoaststampers, which was to make a bridge fold card.

You know I love 3D cards, so this was right up my alley.  I started to think about how I could make this type of fold a beach and just ran with it.

I stenciled the sky and waves using Distress Oxide ink.  The sand is die cut from  a neutral cardstock, then edged with TSOL Gingersnap ink and given some texture with Copics.

The castle and other pieces were colored with mostly Copic markers.  At first I was unsure of how to color the sand but it was super easy.  You can see that it is mostly swirls of various colors with dots of the two darkest markers.  The hardest part is lightly making the dots; it's so easy to get heavy handed when dotting something.

This was so fun to make and I'm keeping this one.  I'm setting it out in my entry as a decoration.  I often do this with my box cards.  They take a lot of time so they are always very personal either to me or the recipient.

Products used:

  • Stamps: The Stamps of Life Sandcastle2stamp, Moresand2stamp, Sayings4sandcastles
  • Dies: TSOL to match above, Party Suns Die
  • Inks: Distress Oxide Tmbled Glass, Faded Jeans, Vintage Photo
  • Markers: Copics: sand - E40, E41, E42, E43, E44; Pail and flag - R21, R22, R24, R27, R29; Shells - E41, E42, R21, B60, B63; Spectrum Noir Tri-Blends: Shovel and Flags - True Blue Blends
  • Stencils: MFT Making Waves, Lawn Fawn Slimline Cloudy Stencils

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7/13/2021

All Squared Away Sketch Challenge

The challenge this Tuesday at CAS Colours & Sketches is a sketch challenge using a diamond shape.  Perfect for one of my favorite stamp and die sets from the Stampin' Up! 2021 catalog.  I just turned the die 45 degrees.


 

These dies make lovely cards that are very easy.  Depending on the layout they do take some measuring.  Like here - I drew a very light pencil cross to line up the diamond and make sure I got it even and straight.  Then I erased the lines.  Not difficult but it took a little planning.  I have other cards made with these dies in this post.

I took the colors from a photo of white flowers with a pinkish-purple tips to the petals and yellow centers.  The background was kind of turquoise so I added the Bermuda Bay.

Products used:

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7/08/2021

I Wish Everyday was Sundae

This week I have the pleasure of being the board designer at Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  I wanted to do something fun and summery.  My card actually can go one of two ways: the bottom row across - lace/doily, checks, ice cream or the right column down - pink, glitter, ice cream.


 

Very often with these challenges I use extra elements from other squares and occasionally I end up using two (or more) rows!

I colored my image with Copics and die cut the main image.  I did fussy cut the cherries.  I added Wink of Stella to the ice cream scoops for my glitter, then added Crystal Effects (aka Glossy Accents) to the cherries.

I'm not certain I love the brown card base, but white was a bit stark and I couldn't find a pink to match.  The brown goes with the chocolate theme so I went with that.  Sometimes you just don't have time to agonize over choices.

I hope you'll find time to participate in the challenge this week!

Products used:

  • Stamps/dies: The Stamps of Life bananasplit2stamp, sayings4bananasplit
  • Dies: Cottage Cutz: Stitched Slimline
  • Copic markers: Fudge - E27, E29, E59, E23; Chocolate Ice Cream - E30, E23, E25, E27; Vanilla Ice Cream - E30, E31; Strawberry Ice Cream - RV00, R81, R83, R85; Banana - Y00, Y11, Y21
  • Paper: TSOL Trendy Twig Collection

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7/06/2021

Color Challenge Tuesday

Hi everyone!  I took a bit of a break in June - just too many  things going on.  I'm back at CAS Colours & Sketches and will be posting a bit more this month.  My card today is for their first color challenge of the month.


The colors really said fall to me but I'm not quite ready for that (although I am ready for Christmas in July - go figure).  I decided upon a floral and I toned down the Cajun Craze by just using it in the center of the orange flowers.

I will probably use this as a birthday card.  I toyed with adding a sentiment but because of the die cut background I would have needed to go with some sort of banner.  In keeping with the CAS nature of the challenge I opted to leave it out altogether.

Stamps and dies used:

  • The Stamps of Life - Flowers2layer stamps and die, Lattice background die, small flower stamp from March 2021 card kit (Sweet Moments)
  • Markers: Copic markers and Stampin' Blends (sorry I forgot to write them all down)


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7/05/2021

Christmas in July

The Color Challenge at Splitcoaststampers this month is celebrating Christmas in July!  I do love getting a head start on my Christmas cards, although I realize that compared to some I'm already way behind!  And I confess that one year everyone got a different card.  I just divvied up my design team sample cards.

Barbara gave us some great "retro" colors - at least they're retro to me.  Certainly non-traditional colors for the season.  When I saw the colors I knew I'd use these two stamp sets.  I bought them several years ago (2017) with the intention of using them as I have here; this particular sentiment with this image.  It's taken me four years but I finally made my card!

And the colors are perfect for it!  I color matched the colors (Polished Pink and Coastal Cabana) with Copic markers.  Silver is the third color so I used silver embossing powder.

I hope you'll find time to join us this month.  Even if you don't make a card please visit the gallery to see all the early bird Christmas cards and get some inspiration!

Products used:

  • Stamps: Stampin' Up! Add a Little Glitz, Christmas in the Making
  • Dies: Stampin' Up! Stitched Rectangles
  • Copic markers: E11, E50, E51, E35, E27, E29, BG10, BG11, BG13, RV10, RV11, RV13, RV14
  • Accessories:  Queen & Co washi tape, rhinestones

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