giving gallery idol a go! . one (PC, ATCAS, ABNH)

Morning.  Broke my heart to hear about the tornado victims in Oklahoma.   Cars and horses flying through the air???  Are we responsible for the crazy changes in weather recently???  Even got an email from Mom saying that in MI last night they had crazy storms and then a "totally pink sky" like she's never seen before...

Well, maybe it was the holiday weekend in Germany (the third this month already... can you say lucky?) but something moved me to create cards for this year's Gallery Idol competition over at Paper Crafts.  I'm not expecting anything out of it, but it's kinda like the challenge of all challenges in my book.  And as a wise man once said, it's all about the journey, not the destination.  Get your thinking cap on and give it a go too!

The theme for the Open Auditions is "Birthday Cards for Teens and Kids".  Now that is truly challenging for me.  Introducing "for-a-four-year-old-in-primary-colors":

The mug in the mirror - moi!  Just add a "9" to the "4" and it'd be true.  Playing in the Birthday challenge #13 at Addicted to CAS and the Clean Up Your Act challenge over at A Blog Named Hero.

Thanks for visiting and stay safe.

Supplies look who's 4:

Paper: CS Bringmann, mirror card

Stamps: Stampendous

Ink: J Versafine

Tools: square punch EKS, die Memory Box

Other: sticker Lego

took me... fishing (WPlus9, ABNH)

Here's Mood Board #12 at WPlus9.  At the risk of repeating myself...I love that company.

But alas, I'm still limited to my two and a half stamp sets.  So when Dawn said "use the mood board as a starting point for a card, tag, layout or any project...where ever the inspiration takes you! " it took me fishing.  Birthday, bold stripes, masculine, primary colors.  Never would have imagined how happy this stamp set makes me!

We've got a neighbor who loves to fish.  This card'll be bobbin' his way .  It's also bobbin' over to A Blog named Hero where the current challenge is Clean and Simple.  Yep.  Have a good one.

Supplies wiggle it:

Paper: CS Bringmann, scrap

Stamps: WPlus9

Ink: Jenny Bowlin, Versafine

Tools: 

Other: crochet thread

yippie... (CASE, Inspired By)

...I've used up some letter stickers!  That's certainly not what you were expecting, eh?  But after thinking of "the best laid plans..." and "neglected children " as post titles, it occurred to me that something positive occured here.

Backtrack.  DS takes a final exam in German today.  Four hours long.  DD has a Math test and let's just say she and Math don't get along well.  And there's this saying in German that loosely translates to "the shoemaker's kids have the worst shoes in town".  I'm whipping out cards all the time, but rarely for my own kids.  That's about to change.

Since I had two cards to cover and Alicia T.'s bitty bag had been playing in the back of my mind, this is what I did.

Printed the "yes you can" (nod to a certain presidential campaign) then placed the "you" stickers on one card and misted with blue Dylusions and the "can do it" stickers on the other card and sprayed with pink Dylusions.  Took the letters off the cards and adhered them to the "other" card - get it?

TIP:  If you want the letters to look clean after they've been misted... they probably won't.   Maybe they would if you wiped them quickly with a baby wipe.  But I didn't.  So I now have some yellow-misted-pink  stickers back in my stash replacing the clean ones I had to pull out to use on the blue card!

I'm hooking up at CASE Study - #141.  I had Maile's hearts in mind when choosing the colors to use for the two cards and I just love the words-on-top-of-gobs-of-color idea.

And I saw this cool photo at Inspired By #45 and that stark "E" at the top inspired me to use strong black letters in the pink mist with the design flowing from upper left to lower right.  Cool photo Laurel.

Thanks for visiting today.  May the sun be with you this weekend, wherever you are.

Supplies you can do it:

Paper: CS Bringmann, copy paper

Stamps: none!

Ink: Dylusions

Tools: 

Other: letter stickers Pebbles and KI Memories

gift tags in a bag (Catered Crop, Lessology, Moxie)

Big post comin' at ya.

I was thrilled to win a spot as Guest Designer for the Fabric of Friendship Recipe Swap at Catered Crop so the plan began.  Fabric.  Hmmm, make a flower?  Use fabric for a card front?  Well, if you check out the challenge, you'll see a board of ideas Linda has put together including two CAS beauties which look like they have an element of the design done in patchwork.  So my gears started rolling.

Tomorrow is girlfriend's bday.  Guess what she's getting?  Gift tags. I sure hope all my friends think they are just as good for hanging around the neck of a wine bottle as I do...  Maybe I should just start making wine bottle tags like Erin T....

So how about if I edged the tag with "patchwork" - that looks fabric-y - and stamped a simple image onto fabric (recycled canvasy stuff)?  Then it occurred to me to use PTI Button Bits in keeping with the fabric theme.  Done deal.  Here's my fave of the bunch:

And here's the bunch:

Die cut tags in two different sizes - once from CS and once from canvas.  Cut strips of PP (it's a Christmas PP pack from Penny Black! - wanted primary colors) and cut the strips into different sized pieces.  Adhesive  around the edges then I stuck them on randomly  (such fun for all you control freaks out there).  Stamped the images with Versafine and sewed on the buttons.  Glued and stitched the fabric tags to the paper tags, punched a hole and added seam binding.  Hmmm, how to package them?

Just bought a T-shirt at Aldi and was throwing away the packaging when I thought "hey I could sew myself a small pouch out of that and the tags will be visible through it."  Done deal.  TIP:  Sewing machines don't like slippery plastic.  Use temporary adhesive to lightly adhere the plastic to a piece of paper (the feed dog - is it really called that? - likes paper better than plastic), sew and then carefully tear away the paper.  I even stitched at the top of the packaging so I could use the sticky foldover flap.  A die cut patchwork heart, a sentiment stamped on a fabric scrap and a tiny clothespin and she's good to go.

Whew.  Oh, I'm also playing at Lessology - #25 For the love of fabric and Moxie Fab's The Gift Tag Challenge as well as The Gift Packaging Challenge.

Note:  I'm still reeling from my watercolor related wins over at Moxie Fab.  Playing with colors is SO MUCH FUN and there is so much inspiration over there to be had.  The challenge is over but you must check out the gallery if you haven't.

Supplies tag set:

Paper: CS scraps, PP Penny Black

Stamps: Papertrey

Ink: Versafine

Tools: die MFT, sewing machine

Other: buttons Sew Sweet, needle/crochet thread, seam binding

CASEing retro style (CASE, Retro, CFC)

One of my cardmaking heroes, Maile B., is the muse at CASE Study #140 this month.  Remember this beauty of hers?

 I actually have that Dogwood stamp and die, so a visit to Retro Sketches #63

and the decision to use my new gray CS going monochromatic led to this card:

Inspired by the subtle BG stamping on Maile's card, I pulled out a mesh BG, stamped with Versamark and sprinkled a tiny bit of black embossing powder for added interest.  Distressed the edges of the panel and added some embossed powder to the cardbase in a nod to the sketch.  Knowing I was making a sympathy card I didn't want to get carried away with embellies.  My flowers are stamped on gray too, so I used a pink colored pencil to highlight the areas shaded on the stamp for a teensy bit of color.  The strip of washi across the bottom nods to Maile's ribbon and the sketch.

Also playing at CASual Fridays - Tic Tac Toe (die/text/B&W)

Appreciate your visit.

Supplies Thinking of you:

Paper: CS Bringmann

Stamps: BG CHF, flower Hero Arts, sentiment Tech Tuesday

Ink: Versamark, Versafine

Tools: die Hero Arts/Sizzix

Other: washi Freckled Fawn, black embossing powder, dimensional adhesive

the thing with wings (PDCC, SSS)

Let it be said that all card challenges should run for at least two weeks.  OK, it's been said.

Made this one with three challenges in mind:
Fusion #5 - totally about the sketch but way too late
Play Date Cafe - #181 Steel blue, peach and apricot
Simon Says Stamp - Things with Wings

Here she is:

Take a bird die cut from distress-inked and water-splattered CS, a PC generated sentiment and a sewing machine and this is what you get.  I am a total fan of Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the thing with feathers", I just changed it up a little.

Thanks for looking.

p.s.  Great giveaway over at The Ribbon Girl - hemp twine.  Check it out.

Supplies the thing with wings:

Paper: CS Bringmann, white Neenah

Stamps: sentiment PC

Ink: Distress Inks

Tools: die Tim Holtz Sizzix, sewing machine

Other: 

dainty and delightful (WPlus9)

Don't have a lot of WPlus9 supplies, but what I do have I love.  And I love putting them to work for the Cloud9 photo inspiration blog hops.  Look at this beauty.

This spoke to me and said... you're not going to believe this... raised dots around the inside edges of the little frames.  See 'em?

So that became this card.

So happy that I finally used a Spellbinders die I'd never used before.  It's really not my style, but I bought it when the world was on a doily craze and I thought the hearts motif at least was my style. Well I die cut three, glued 'em together and used them to dry emboss my frame on the card front. A PP circle, some die cut leaves and handmade blooms and a super sentiment later I was ready to add my perfect pearl raised dots to my frame :)

Appreciate your visit.

Supplies you are simply amazing:

Paper: CS Bringmann, green Papermanic, PP Kars, crepe paper

Stamps: sentiment WPlus9

Ink: Versafine

Tools: frame die Spellbinders, leaf die WPlus9, flower die PTI

Other: perfect pearls, brads