love grows here...

Hello friends!!  I made a card today... woo hoo!!  This is for the current ColourQ challenge.  When I saw the colors I knew I wanted to make my card using the new MFT/Lisa Johnson Designs Homespun Hearts stamp & die set.  

I had actually made a card yesterday using the Homespun Hearts set and the ColourQ colors, but when I got to the point where I was finishing up the card I noticed that at some point water had gotten on the card and created a big blog of color!  It isn't surprising to me that water got on the card as I do all my papercrafting at my kitchen counter and while I was making the card I was also working on getting dinner ready... an accident ready to happen, ya know?   After that I was feeling pretty defeated so I gave up and decided to try, again, later.    Today things went much, much better.  Probably because I waited to make the card until after dinner was over!   Card is pretty self explanatory.  I was going to die cut a the heart from cardstock and then stamp it with the corresponding heart image and then I remembered that I had die cut some felt hearts the day before and since the felt is a close match to the Primrose Petals color I decided to use the felt heart and then added a little button.  Despite being a bit plain I quite like how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Vintage Cream; Stamps:  MFT/LJD Homespun Hearts & Hearts & Stitches; Inks:  Stampin Up!; Felt:  My Favorite Things

CCC #29....

Hello friends!!  Tuesday is here and that means time for a brand new CASology challenge!!  This week is going to be a fun one as the cue word is "game".  Given the creativity of everyone who plays along with CASology on a regular basis I know there are going to be some super creative cards in the line up.   You can get all the deets here.   Our guest designer this week is the very talented Christine.  And this week we have a sponsor:  Fresh Squeezed Stamps!!

Okay... going to admit this cue word was really a tough one for me.  I spent alot of time figuring out what I was going to do.  I even made a trip to my favorite stamp store for some inspiration.  Thankfully that trip did the trick and I came home with several different ideas.  I ended up using my MFT alpha dies to create my tic tac toe board.  I created the grid using some strips of hot pink card stock and then die cut the "Xs" and "O".  I backed the negative space with dark red card stock.  A fishtail flag was cut and then stamped with the sentiment.  A bit of bling finished things off.  Despite the grid being relatively large in size I still managed to keep things CAS by limiting my die cutting and embellishments. 

Thanks for stopping by.... make sure you check out the cards from the rest of the design team: Melissa, Tracey, Jen, Ardyth, Judy, Maureen, Meghan and this week's guest designer, Christine. Can't wait to see what you come up with using this week's cue word!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SU! dark pink and dark red; Dies:  My Favorite Things alphabet and fishtail flag stax dies; Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black; Rhinestone:  Want2Scrap

with love...

Hello friends!  Monday has rolled around again.  The boys have the day off from school so they are very happy!  I have a little card I made for several challenges, Dynamic Duos (soft suede & crumb cake), CAS Colours and Sketches (a sketch) and Our Creative Corner (use woodgrain & a button).  My sweet bloggy friend, Sue, is a Our Creative Corner dt member and when I saw her amazing card Ijust had to play along with the OCC challenge this week.

I followed the CAS Colours and Sketches sketch very faithfully and used a heart as my center image.  I have had the Spellbinders plain and scalloped hearts dies for ages, but never really used them... this was the perfect opportunity.  I die cut the kraft (crumb cake) cardstock using a MFT jumbo fishtail flag stax die, then put it in my woodgrain embossing folder and ran it through the Big Shot.  The hearts were die cut and the image from the SU! set Vintage Fresh was stamped on the plain heart using Crumb Cake ink.  A flower from the same set was stamped using Hero Arts Latte ink (a dead ringer for Soft Suede), trimmed out and popped up as you see.  The sentiment from the SU! set Field Flowers was stamped with Latte ink.  Then everything was assembled and a little button and twine embellishment added.

ETA:  adding this to the current  Addicted to CAS challenge... heart.

Thanks for stopping by...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SU! Crumb Cake; Stamps:  Stampin Up!; Ink:  Stampin Up! & Hero Arts; Embossing Folder:  Stampin Up!/Sizzix; Button:  DeNami Designs; Twine:  Montana Misfits

i {heart} you....

Hello friends!!   Finally got a chance to make something for this week's LIM challenge.  A great sketch provided by the fabulously talented Jen!!  At the beginning of last week I found out that I was the lucky winner of a $52.00 gift certificate to My Favorite Things!!  I earned this certificate by completing 52 weeks of MFT sketch challenges over the course of 2012.   Of course I spent my certificate immediately and yesterday all my new MFT goodies arrived... YAY!    Today I got to put some of them to good use and made this little card:

 

I used the MFT/Lisa Johnson Design Homespun Hearts, Hearts and Stiches stamp sets and the matching MFT/LJD Homespun Hearts dies.  I stamped the row of hearts from Hearts and Stitches using Crumb Cake ink and then stamped the sentiment from Homespun Hearts using black ink.  The hearts were die cut and then stamped using Cherry Cobbler ink.  I inked up two of the stamps and then stamped them off on scrap paper before stamping on the die cut hearts so that they were a shade lighter than the 3rd heart which was inked up and then stamped directly onto the 3rd heart.  The hearts were popped up with foam dimensionals and then the card was finished off with a little button and twine bow embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Rustic White; Stamps:  My Favorite Things; Dies:  My Favorite Things; Inks:  Stampin Up! and Memento; Button:  DeNami Designs; Twine:  May Arts

thanks for everything.... PTI January Blog Hop

Hello friends!!  Have a card today for my first ever PTI blog hop!  I have been purchasing PTI products for four years now, but have never participated in their blog hop.  At the end of last year I decided that this year I was going to try.... so here I am!!

Had lots of ideas for this month's challenge to use a black background, but as per usual with me... never got around to making anything until the chips were down this morning and I need to get something made.  So I went super simple.  I embossed the true black cardstock using the circles cover plate die (I love to emboss with the cover plates!) and then trimmed it down.  After die cutting the flowers from the anniversary set Pretty Peonies I stamped them using SU!'s Pear Pizzazz and Rich Razzleberry inks.   The rectangular label image was die cut from Smoky Shadow and then the image was stamped with VersaMark watermark ink, clear embossing powder applied and heat set.  It was at this point in the process that I created a big mess with the embossing powder.  The heat gun blew the excess powder all over my stamps!!  Yikes.... anyway... got it all cleaned up and moved on to finishing the card!  I don't like how the sentiment turned out... need to get a new pad of white ink. 

Thanks for stopping by.....

Supplies:  Cardstock: PTI white, true black & smoky shadow; Inks:  stampin up! & VersaMark; Embossing Powder:  Ranger clear; Stamps & Dies:  PTI

what's the buzz....?

Hello friends!!  Got to make a card today!!  I used to make cards every single day, but now I don't.  Sometimes I don't make a card all week... just depends on how I'm feeling.   And today I felt like making a card.  I'm going to try to make another one later this evening... we shall see how that goes!   Anywhoo.... this card is for the current ColourQ challenge, as well as CAS(e) this Sketch. 

The other day I needed some inspiration for a card I needed to make and so I took a little drive to my favorite stamp store, Impress Rubber stamps.   While I was there I spotted a set of embossing folders from LifeStyle Crafts that I just had to buy.  One of the folders has a honeycomb design and the other little bees... too cute!  I used the honeycomb folder for my card, as well as a cute little set from The Craft's Meow called Thanks Bee to Thee.   This week's ColourQ combo was a bit of a challenge for me to find good color matches, but I think I succeeded.  I used cardstock from PTI, Close to My Heart, Bazzill and Stampin Up!  The hexagons were cut with a set of Taylored Expressions Hexagon Stacklets from the Bazzill and PTI cardstocks.  When I originally finished there were only three hexagons, but then I looked at the sketch, again, and decided I needed to add one more.  In retrospect I think I should have left it off.  Oh well... 

Thanks for stopping by....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI, Stampin Up!, Bazzill & Close to My Heart; Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa; Stamps:  The Craft's Meow; Embossing Folder:  LifeStyle Crafts

CCC #28... a cup of thanks

Hello friends!!  Tuesday has rolled around once, again, and that means time for a brand new CASology challenge!!  Love, love, love seeing all the fabulous entries each week!   This week the cue word is "drink"!   So many fun directions you can go in with that cue word for sure.   Our guest designer this week is the amazingly talented Heather Telford!!

A few weeks ago the Less is More challenge had "drink" as it's challenge theme and I seriously struggled trying to come up with an idea.  I'm telling you this because I had the same struggle with this word, again!!   I was ready to use the same stamp set that I had used for my LIM card when I decided to rummage through my stamps and see if I could come up with something else.  Found a little stamp in a SU! set I have that features three little hot drinks, but after trying a couple of things using that stamp it just wasn't working for me.  Then I remembered my newly acquired MFT ALM "Your My Cup of Tea".   I decided to use that and do some spotlight paper piecing.   The papers I used are from the BasicGrey Serendipity 6x6 pad.  I matted the image with some kraft cardstock.  I wanted to show that you can take a rather large image and keep it CAS by spotlighting a portion of the image.

Thanks for stopping by.... make sure you check out the cards from the rest of the design team: Melissa, Tracey, Jen, Ardyth, Judy, Maureen, Meghan and this week's guest designer, May. Can't wait to see what you come up with using this week's cue word!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white & kraft; Stamps:  My Favorite Things ALM; Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black & SU! Pear Pizzazz; PP:  BasicGrey

love... is in the air

Hello friends!!    I have another stampy card today.  This time for the current Dynamic Duos color challenge.  The color duo this week is red and black with the option of making your project with a Valentine theme.   I didn't really go with the Valentine theme other than I used the sentiment "Love is in the air".

One of my favorite red inks is Stampin Up!'s Cherry Cobbler so I used that for my card instead of SU!'s Real Red which is a much lighter red.   I stamped the butterfly (Penny Black's soft wings) at an angle with some of the butterfly going off the edges and then I matted it with black cardstock.  The sentiment is also from Penny Black (in the air).  Was stamped with Cherry Cobbler and then die cut using a My Favorite Things Fishtail Flag Stax die.  The card was finished off with a button and twine embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white & black; SU! Cherry Cobbler; Stamps:  Penny Black soft wings & in the air; Button:  unknown; Twine:  The Twinery  

hello... friend

Hello friends!!   As I type this post Saturday is winding down in my part of the world.   The boys are off entertaining themselves with something other than the tv set... yay!!  With all the quiet I was able to get a card done the new Less is More challenge.  I combined LIM with the current ColourQ challenge and used the sketch from CAS(e) this Sketch.

This week the LIM challenge theme is friend(s).  We can use a sentiment with friend in it, images of friends (human or animal) or activities that you do with a friend.  I decided to use a friend related sentiment and this cute little balloon bouquet from the new Hero Arts/Operation Write Home set "Happy Birthday".   The lattice background stamp is also Hero Arts and that was stamped using grey ink, trimmed to fit the card and then adhered with foam dimensionals.  The balloon bouquet was stamped on white cardstock and trimmed out.  The the image was stamped on dark pink, bright yellow and red papers from BasicGrey, trimmed out as you see and then paper pieced onto the main image.   The balloon bouquet was then adhered and the sentiment (from Penny Black) was stamped. 

Thanks for stopping by.....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; PP:  BasicGrey:  Green at Heart & Shine On; Stamps:  Hero Arts & Penny Black; Inks:  Memento Tuxedo Black & London Fog

merci....

Hello friends!!  So now it is not only cold, but it is foggy... YUK!!  Oh well... things could be worse!  Have a another stampy card that I made for a new challenge blog I found recently:  CAS:  Colour & Sketches.   The challenge alternates between a sketch challenge and a color challenge.  This week the challenge is a color one:  light pink, dark pink and olive green... a super pretty combination.  

For my card I used a Hero Arts cling set called "Greetings".  The set contains two images one with a typewriter on it and the one I used for my card.  I stamped the image using SU! Old Olive and then trimmed it down.  The butterfly portion of the image was then stamped again using SU!'s Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo, the butterflies trimmed out and popped up on the main image.  Some Diamond Stickles was brushed on the top butterfly.  Once that was dry a few pink rhinestones were added to the body.  I finished off the piece by adding some sheer pink ribbon, a olive green button and dark pink bakers twine.  

Thanks for stopping by..

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Inks:  Stampin Up!; Ribbon:  Stampin Up!; Button:  PTI; Bakers Twine:  The Twinery; Rhinestones:  unknown

just sharin....

Hello friends!!  The cold weather continues and I'm getting kinda tired of it, but at least there isn't any snow!   Have a couple of cards I made earlier this week that I thought I would share.  Both were made for challenges over at Splitcoaststampers, the CAS challenge and the color challenge. 

The CAS challenge this week at Splitcoast was a color one to use brown, red, lime green and turqoise blue.  I used a couple of my favorite Stampin Up! sets (Vintage Fresh & Summer Silhouettes), a favorite Hero Arts sentiment set (Year Round Sentiments) and did some simple stamping.  I'm basically a simple stamper at heart and while I do like to do tihings like layer and use patterned paper stamping is what makes me really happy.... and this card makes me really happy.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  

The colors in the Splitcoast color challenge are wisteria (a bluish-purple color), light pink and red.  I used the Year Round Sentiments set on this card as well and yep... simple stamping.  To add a bit more interest I trimmed out the pink heart and popped it up, added the gems and punched the corners of the main piece with a ticket corner punch.  I really like how this one turned out, as well.

Thanks for stopping by....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Stampin Up! and Hero Arts; Inks:   Stampin Up! and Memento; Rhinestones:  Stampin Up!; punch:  Stampin Up!

CCC #27.... hey in blue

Hello friends!!  Tuesday has rolled around once, again, and that means time for a brand new CASology challenge!  This week the cue word is "blue" and when I saw it I was happy, happy, happy because blue is one of my favorite colors.  I think there are just so many directions you can go in with this one.  All the deets can be found here.   This week we are being sponsored by Avery Elle stamps.  I don't own any Avery Elle stamps, but I have checked them out and they sure are lovely.   Our guest designer this week is the very talented May.

As indicated there are many directions you can go in with a cue word like "blue".   But for me there was only one:  I wanted to use my MFT zig zag border dies and varying shades of blue cardstock.  As I considered what cardstock I would use I remembered that I had these cardstock packs from Hero Arts and Penny Black that contain coordinating shades of various colors (blue, green, etc.).  One of the packs I had contained three coordinating shades of blue... YAY!  I die cut each shade using the large zig zag die and then arranged them to create an ombre look on the card.  To make the sentiment stand out I die cut the letters from black card stock.  Absolutely no stamping on this  super simple and super clean card.

Thanks for stopping by.... make sure you check out the cards from the rest of the design team: Melissa, Tracey, Jen, Ardyth, Judy, Maureen, Meghan and this week's guest designer, May.   Can't wait to see what you come up with using this week's cue word!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Hero Arts Hero Hues cardstock; Dies:  My Favorite Things Zig Zag border die; Memory Box alphabet dies

trendy trees...

Hello friends... night has fallen here in my part of the world, the little kiddo is fast asleep, the big kiddo will be shortly and the house is relatively quiet.  I decided to post a card I made this afternoon for a couple of challenges:  Dynamic Duos and CAS(e) this Sketch.

I have had this Memory Box stamp called Trendy Trees and the matching die for quite sometime and had yet to ink it up.  Sadly it was a bit forgotten!  Then my bloggy friend, Judy, made a card using the same stamp which reminded me that I need to show this little stamp some love and I thought it would make a nice card using the current sketch from CAS(e) this Sketch.  I had to change the orientation of the sketch to make it work, though.  Anywhoo.... I stamped the trees using green ink onto some green patterned paper from a WeRMemoryKeepers 6x6 pad of papers and then die cut it using the die.  I then die cut the trees from some white cardstock cut to fit the front of my yellow card base (the Dynamic Duo this week being yellow and green).   I stamped the sentiment using black ink and then adhered the white piece to the card front using foam dimensionals.  Once that was done I applied some adhesive to the back of the patterned paper trees and inserted it into the opening created by the die.  I had to had some rhinestones because for some reason this particular die has these little loops on either end that created nice little holes that I didn't want!  Despite that little mishap I quite like how the card turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white and lemon tart; Stamps:  Memory Box & Hero Arts; Ink:  Memento Bamboo Leaves & Tuxedo Black; Die:  Memory Box;  Rhinestones:  SU!; PP:  We R Memory Keepers

life is like....

Hello friends!  Well it is still stinkin' cold here in Western Washington... like down in the low 20's cold, but thankfully NO SNOW!!

I have  a card for this week's Less is More challenge.   As I normally do on a Saturday morning I checked out what the new challenge would be and my heart sank a bit... the challenge was to make a card with a sports or exercise theme.  Once, again, I don't have many stamps that fit into that category.  Then I remember this fun Our Daily Bread Designs set I have called Bicycle.   People use bikes for exercise all the time and I have been wanting to make something using that set for ages.  So...since time was short (the boys and I had a hair appointment in the early afternoon and then church after that) I got to work, but I forgot one little thing... this week is the dreaded ONE LAYER week at LIM.  As I drove away from my house I suddenly realized that my card did not fit the challenge because it was more than one layer... darn!!    With the stamp set still out on my counter this morning I got to work.  The idea for the card came from a fellow crafty blogger, Christine, who made a lovely card using a bicycle.  She colored only portions of her image, which is exactly what I did here.  I stamped the bike and sentiment using Tuxedo Black ink and then colored only the flowers in the basket using the following Copic markers:  G20, G21, G24, R81, R83 and R85.   Probably took me about ten minutes.   

Thanks for stopping by and thank you Christine for the inspiration!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Our Daily Bread Designs, Ink:  Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers

happy birthday...

Hello friends!!  Happy Friday (if it is still Friday in your part of the world!)!  Have a card I made for the current Cloud9 Blog Hop.   The Cloud9 Blog Hop was set up to celebrate WPlus9Design stamps and since I have a few sets (as in exactly four!)I have wanted to play along.   This month's inspiration photo is just beautiful and presented some problems for me when it came to putting together a card.  None of the sets I own have any kind of large star shapes in them, but the Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions set has these leaf images that are kinda star-like (yep... I'm stretchin' it, hee!).  The layout is based on Chupa's current Sketchbook Saturday sketch.

The color scheme I pulled from the photo is cream, black, kraft and silver.  I stamped the large leaf image on kraft cardstock using cream ink and then stamped a second image, trimmed it out and adhered it over the top of the first image.  I then added some silver rhinestones to each leaf.  A strip of silver cardstock was punched and adhered to the kraft piece and then the piece was wrapped with black ribbon.  To bring in the musical aspect of the aspect of the photo I adhered some Tim Holtz music tissue tape to cream cardstock and die cut it with a MFT Fishtail Flag Stax die.  The sentiment (from Hero Arts) was stamped with black ink and then die cut with the same fishtail flag die.  A small leaf was stamped with VersaMark ink, silver embossing powder was applied, heat set, trimmed out and a rhinestone applied.  The banners were adhered together along with the silver leaf and adhered to the piece.  Then the entire piece was adhered to a cream card base.  

Thanks for stopping by...

Supplies:  Cardstock: PTI cream & kraft; Ink:  PTI Cream, VersaMark watermark ink; Tuxedo Black; Stamps:  WPlus9Designs Woodgrain Silhouettes Addition & Hero Arts; SU! Rhinestones; Ranger UltraFine Silver; Ribbon:  PTI True Black; MFT Fishtail Flag Stax dies

let it snow....

Hello friends!!  Here with another winter themed card for a couple of challenges, the monthly Craft's Meow sketch challenge and this week's ColourQ challenge.  It is stinkin' cold here in Western Washington, but I seriously DO NOT want it to snow and so far this winter we have managed to escape the white stuff here.  Fingers crossed that continues!  Anywhoo... on to my card.

Back in December I got this fun set from The Craft's Meow called Christmas Cheer.  It has a cool retro kinda look to it that I really liked.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make anything with it during the holiday season so I was determined to use it this month.  The ColourQ combo this week is yellow, navy blue, grey, kraft & white which I think works well for a winter card.  I stamped the snowman using navy blue ink and then trimmed him out.  The large snowflake in the background is a cool new die from My Favorite Things called the Snowflake Doily die.  The banner was cut with my favorite MFT dies... Fishtail Flag Stax dies.  Not sure I really like the snowflake embossed white cardstock piece, but maybe it will grow on me, lol!

Thanks for stopping by....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white, yellow & kraft; SU! navy blue; Stamps:  The Craft's Meow; Ink:  SU! Navy Blue; Memento London Fog; Buttons:  PTI; Dies:  MFT Snowflake Doily; Fishtail Flag Stax; Sizzix embossing folder

CCC #26... winter wishes

Hello friends!!  Tuesday has arrived and that means time for a brand new CASology challenge!! This week the cue word is "winter"... a perfect choice for this time of year wouldn't you say?    All the challenge details can be found here.   This week our special guest designer is Marlou!!  I know you will be wowed by her sample!  

I had several ideas as to what I would make for this week's cue word, but honestly I was feeling a bit lazy and opted to use the current Retro Sketch to help me put my card together.  I have said it before and I will say it again... if you are having a problem figuring out how to put together a CAS card a clean and simple sketch can be very, very helpful!!   The stamps I used are from a fun Taylored Expressions stamp set call Love Grows here.  The image was stamped using Tuxedo Black ink on white cardstock and then die cut using a Spellbinders Labels 18 die.   I colored the image with Copic markers, as well as a Tuxedo Black marker and then added the little snowflake button (a gift from my sweet friend, Nat) and a twine bow.  The image was then mounted over some My Mind's Eye All is Bright washi tape.  Once that was done I stamped the sentiment.   You can still add embellishments to a CAS design, as long as you keep them to a minimum.

Thanks for stopping by.... make sure you check out the cards from the rest of the design team: Melissa, Tracey, Jen, Ardyth, Judy, Maureen, Meghan and this week's guest designer, Marlou, Can't wait to see what you come up with using this week's cue word!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Taylored Expressions; Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; Washi Tape:  My Mind's Eye; Twine:  My Mind's Eye; Snowflake button - unknown; Die:  Spellbinders

start each day....

Hello friends!!  I'm back with another try at the chalkboard technique.  This time the card is for the current PTI Make it Monday and the current Less is More challenge.  This week's MIM is what got me interested in giving the chalkboard technique a try in the first place.   And since this week's LIM challenge was to use black & white with a pop of color combining the two seemed the perfect fit.  

Just like the card I posted the other day using the chalkboard technique this card took several tries for me to finally end up with something that I was happy with.  I went with a bit more modern look since the card is for the LIM challenge.  The chalkboard technique is a pretty fun one to try and I learned that using my finger to swipe on the white ink gave me the best results.   I used two PTI sets:  Stitches & Swirls and Lovely Layers.   I die cut the fishtail flag using my MFT Fishtail Flag Stax dies and then stamped it with the sentiment.   In keeping with the modern feel I decided to add clear rhinestone to the center of the button to jazz things up a bit.  The button is actually a deep pink, but iin the photo is looking more like red! 

Thanks for stopping....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white and true black; Stamps:  PTI; Button:  PTI Raspberry Fizz; Inks:  Tuxedo Black & VersaMark watermark ink, Brilliance Moonlight white; Embossing Powder:  Filigree white; Rhinestone:  Want2Scrap



Courage....

Hello friends!!  Got a chance to make a card today.... YAY!   One of my favorite stamp companies is My Favorite Things.   They have fantastic dies (the Fishtail Flag Stax & FF Stax Layer dies are some of my favorites) and super cute stamps (Pure Innocence and A la Modes to name a few).   Each week they have a sketch fun challenge over at Splitcoaststampers and on a monthly basis they give one lucky crafter the opportunity to be a guest designer during their release week festivities!!  I have often thought I would play along with these monthly guest designer challenges, but to be honest I haven't because I lacked a bit of confidence.  But I decided that this year I'm going to try to play along with each monthly MFT guest designer challenge if for nothing more than to improve my papercrafting skills.  So, here is my card for the MFT January guest designer challenge: 

So I got out my MFT dies and stamps and got to work.  I used two different MFT stamps sets:  Vertical Greetings and Complimentary Greetings and the following dies:  Vertical Greetings, Wonky Scallop Border, Fancy Flourish, Mini Royal Roses and Fishail Flag Stax.  The color combo comes from this week's ColourQ challenge.  I chose to use the color combo of red, black, green, kraft and white.   And I tried my hand at the new chalkboard technique.  I had to admit that it took me several tries to get a finished chalkboard piece that didn't look a mess!   I distressed the edges of all the papers and cardstock and made the roses using MFT kraft felt.    I finished off the interior of the card with a sentiment from Complimentary Greetings.   Stamping the sentiment on the polka dot paper wasn't the best thing to do, but it does actually look okay in real life.  If you haven't ever checked out My Favorite Things, you really should.  Their current release week is in full swing and their super talented design team has lots of eye candy for you to check out!!

Thanks for stopping by...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SU! Pear Pizzazz & Crumb Cake; SU! Real Red Polka Dot DP; Stamps:  MFT; Dies:  MFT; Ink:  VersaMark Watermark ink; Tuxedo Black ink; White Embossing powder

CCC #25.... Happy New Year!!!

Hello friends!!  Happy New Year and welcome to the first CASology challenge of 2013 and welcome to our new design team members:  Judy, Maureen and Meghan!!!   So excited to have these super talented ladies joining the CASology team!!  Given that today is the first day of a brand new year our cue word is "new".   All the challenge details can be found here.  And to add to the excitement we are joined by this week's guest designer, Deb!! 

 

Initially I had a different idea for my card, but when I finally got a chance to put the idea to the test the other day it wasn't working and I was running out of time.  So I went to plan b and put together a little "welcome new neighbor" card.  The row of houses stamp is a woodblock stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped the entire image using brown ink on the white cardstock.   I then stamped the various houses using different colored inks, trimmed them out and adhered them at various heights using foam dots.  The sentiment is from a PTI set Spring Time Doodles.  I finished the card off with a little bit of twine. 

Thanks for stopping by... make sure you check out the cards from the rest of the design team: Melissa, Tracey, Jen, Ardyth, Judy, Maureen, Meghan and this week's guest designer Deb, Can't wait to see what you come up with using this week's cue word!