Saturday, June 30, 2018

Celebrating Independence Day

Just a quick post for my submission to the Red, White and Blue challenge at Shopping Our Stash!

I ran across this challenge last night and decided to clean the dust off of another purchase that has never been used.  The die is from My Favorite Things and if I remember correctly, I bought it to make a masculine birthday card.  Of course I never go around to it so the die has been collecting dust ever since.  


The card stock is all Stampin' Up; Real Red, Pacific Blue, Whisper White and their Red Glimmer paper for the stars, which I think might be a couple years old.  

The beads and sequins are from various companies; each color is a mix of different elements: beads, sequins, bling and such.  

Thank you for stopping by.  
Carole

Friday, June 29, 2018

CASology Cue The Bear UP

This little card is for Week 306 Challenge at CASology.  The cue card this week is "bear".  




This adorable stamp set is by My Favorite Things and there is no telling how long it has been sitting in the MFT bin waiting for some attention.  My Farber Castell color pencils saw the light of day for the first time with this card as well.  Those were a gift from my dad, who passed away in 2011; yes, that is how long they have been sitting on the shelf collecting dust. 

Though it's not visible in the photo, I used my bone folder to curve his face so that it pops out from the flat surface of the balloon.  

I have always admired crafters that can make CAS cards.  I used to avoid them because I could never get the right balance, they always fell short or were too plain.  Even when I would case a card, I still felt mine was lacking.  And one layer cards like this one, would have kept me up all night with worry.  

Admittedly, I'm my own worse critic and far to often I go back and keep playing with a card until I truly like it, or have completely ruined it  beyond repair.  This card will suffer no such backtracking.  I like this sweet little bear just the way he is.  He will be my grandson's birthday card come September.

Thank you for stopping in, I appreciate it.  
Carole

  

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Sail Away........

This card is for the Addicted to CAS Challenge #139.  The theme this week is Girl Power.  While the card doesn't actually have a female on it, the sentiment is the Girl Power element for this card.  The card does have a few elements but I hope it is still within the challenge rules.  



Two SSS sets were used here, the first is Sailing which is the water and the boat, the second is Sail Away which is the sentiment.  The cloud die is also SSS called Cloud Bank.  

I like cards with dimension, which is the reason for the die cut clouds instead of just stamping out clouds from another set.  The water was stamped on a separate piece of card stock, roughly colored in with SU markers, then fussy cut and trimmed down (the stamp actually has 9 waves).  The clouds were cut twice, then glued together and 2 of the 6 clouds were trimmed away.  The sailboat is colored with SU markers, listed below, then popped up with dimension tape.  

I haven't added any Wink of Stella, but I'm thinking about it.  However, I really like how this card turned out so I may not do anything else.

Thank you for stopping by.  
Carole

  

SU Markers: Soft Sky, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Barely Banana, So Saffron, Hello Honey, Strawberry Slush.    

Monday, June 25, 2018

CAS(E) This Sketch 277

A fast, fun and almost CAS card for this weeks' CAS(E) This Sketch #277.  






The card base is SU! Dapper Denim, with a layer of Soft Sky and topped off with Whisper White.  Thought the ink looks black on my computer screen, but the sentiment and anchor were stamped in Dapper Denim.  The enamel dots are from three different packs from My Minds Eye.  The sentiment is from SSS set Sail Away.

Thank you for dropping in.  
Carole  

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Colorful Owls

A quick post to submit a card for this weeks' The Card Concept #95.




Using some old Lily of the Valley DP, the image was stamped out on scraps and the main background.  The eyes, feet and hat were stamped onto plain white card stock then colored in with Copics. 

The stamp set is from The Craft's Meow and the card stock is Neenah Solar White. 

Thanks to the design team at The Card Concept for the wonderful inspiration this week.  

Thank you for stopping by.
Carole

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Lovely Mossy Meadow

A sympathy card for this weeks' CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge #276.

Edited to add:  There are some wonderful cards submitted for this weeks'  challenge.  




As usual, what I envisioned wasn't what I ended up with.  Still for a sympathy card I think it is simple and calming.

When this weeks's sketch was posted the dark stars reminded me of shadows more then a different color.  That lead to the idea of die cutting the leaves and offsetting it against the negative space as the base, while using a dark color under the base. 

A separate negative template was made to add texture paste, but in hindsight that may have been too much.  After pulling this all together, I realized that just the die against the negative  base and the sentiment would have been just right.

The die is by SSS, the sentiment is Technique Tuesday, the card stock and ink is Mossy Meadow by Stampin! Up.  

Happy Tuesday and thank you for stopping in!
Carole 

Monday, June 11, 2018

Color Throwdown #496 - Black White and Aqua

For this weeks Color Throwdown Challenge #496 and just getting it in at the last minute.  



When I saw the color combination for this weeks challenge, I got a huge smile in my heart.  The first thing that came to mind was a long gone "In Color" from Stampin Up called Cool Caribbean!  When the color first came out, every card I made for months was using those three colors.  I could not get enough of the basic B&W with the Cool Caribbean.  There is something very fresh and clean about the combination.  I still have several packs of the the card stock (which I hoard) but the ink has sadly dried out.


  

The card has no stamping, only dies, with ink used just for the circles and sentiment.  The inks were Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon (just barely) blended on Neenah solar white card stock.

The main image die cut is SSS Drifting Stitched Circles; the sentiment is from Create A Smile.  The black enamel dots are from My Minds Eye.  

This has to be the truest CAS card I have produced in a very long time.  It took about 20 minutes to create and that time includes pulling out the supplies and fussing with the gluing of the two part sentiment.  
  

Thanks for stopping in and Happy Monday!
Carole     

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Purple Aqua and Lime ...... Oh Boy!!

The following card is for two challenges, the first challenge is Stamp Ink Paper Challenge #152 which is to use purple, aqua and lime; three wonderful colors on their own or together.  The second challenge is CASology #302 which is to include "Squiggles" on the project.  



This is the 4th or 5th card I tried making for the SIP challenge then last night I decided to go in a different direction.  The Memory Box die used here is called Playful Petal and has been trimmed down in size.  The die is more of a large "C" or wishbone shape so after coloring it I laid it all out and decided it was too busy.  Once it had been trimmed down, I thought this card might also qualify for the CASology challenge; though it might be just a bit on the "not so quick to make " side for a true CAS card.  

Thank you for stopping in.  I'll be away from my craft table for this next week due to an extra heavy work load. I'm in Accounting and it's time to close the books.  We are down two people so it makes for very long and stressful days.  

I have a few cards in the works for other challenges, but I won't be able to completed them in time. 

Carole

Supplies:
Stamps: SSS Friends For Life
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White
Die: Memory Box Playful Petals
Inks/markers: Distress Tumbled Glass, Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron, MFT Hybrid Ink Black