Sample Cards for Ashley's Sketches

Hi, everyone,

A few weeks ago, Ashley sent me a couple of card sketches and a sketch for a 12 by 12 layout with an offer I couldn't refuse -- making sample cards!  :)

So, here are Ashley's card sketches -- and the cards that were inspired by them. :)

Card 1: Summer FUN!

  Card 2: splish, splash

NOTE: This card has been posted for CFC66. Click here to check out this CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

      

Card 3: Fun in the Sun

All three cards were made from Jillibean Soup's Watermelon Gazpacho Soup collection (6 by 6 pad and embellishments) and Ranger Distress Ink core paper.

I really do love Jillibean's papers, but find it challenging to combine the patterns. I love the way the patterns pop when paired with bright cardstock!

Stamped images and sentiments are from the Making Memories summer foam stamp collection.


With any luck, I'll be posting a card for the 12 by 12 sketch in a couple of days. Until then, happy scrappin'!

Monday Musings

Hi, everyone,

Boy, it was gorgeous here yesterday -- simply gorgeous!  Hope everyone had a chance to get outside for a little while this past weekend.

Saturday's Crop 

What a fun time on Saturday at the all-day crop!  What can be more fun than cropping with my best friend and other scrappers?! As if that wasn't enough, there was a make-and-take, a raffle, a book signing, and a garage sale!  More on the book signing on Friday. But, as far as the garage sale went, I found lots of goodies -- including 2 new pads of 12 by 12 Core paper, 2 new Distress Ink pads, lots of kid-themed stickers and chipboard embellishments, and some "new" ribbons and gems. :)  

I spent my day putting together some Dad My Hero cards and working on general sentiment cards for OWH's Muscle Card Challenge for Father's Day. The first 3 cards were made from Kaiser's Hippy Girl collection, the fourth from Kaiser's Lush collection. (Again, I apologize for those annoying shadows that appear when I scan cards with dimensional elements.)

simple

a little more adornment -- This one includes a few gems bought at the crop garage sale. :)

even more adornment -- Butterflies made with Martha Stewart's punch-around-the page and popped up with 3-D dots.

Adorned with "lush" flocked paper and pearls.

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC48

This week's challenge was to make a card using complementary colors. As I always do when I visit other sites, I started thinking about a possible OWH card. So, I decided to make the card below -- a card similar to a Father's Day card I made for our dads last year -- and reminiscent of OWH's necktie card.

Ranger Core Paper

To make a similar card last year, I sketched the design on an A2 envelope and then made templates for the shirt "halves", collar, and tie from an old gift box. (Luckily, I still had the design and templates.) When piecing together the shirt, I sanded the collars so that they would stand out but still be in the same color family.

Parting Thoughts

Kudos to everyone who participated in this weekend's Make Em Laugh blog hop featuring so many of OWH's wonderful vendor partners. Your creations were amazing!  Sorry I didn't have a chance to devote much time to this hop.

Plans for the week include finishing up cards from Saturday's crop -- adding a little glue and a few embellishments, doing some Stickling. My goal is to have cards ready to stamp, tuck, and box up Muscle Challenge cards next weekend. :) Once crop cards are done, I'll turn my thoughts to this week's sketch.

Hope everyone has a wonderfully creative week. Happy scrappin'!

Friday Night Writes

Hi, all,

Hope everyone's had a great week. It's been a week of being a bachelorette for me -- really quiet around here and just a little strange.

It's also been a week of card-making firsts -- three to be exact!

First #1: Stamping on Ribbon

I've been tweaking a 2012 birthday card -- to give to friends during the year and to sell at the annual McGraw-Hill Holiday Craft Show. This year's design features a cupcake and the sentiment "Make a Wish".

Lo and behold, I came across the most adorable "make a wish" stamp -- which got me to wondering if I could stamp a sentiment on a ribbon.

So, while I was working on Father's Day cards with that adorable Bo Bunny Konstrukt paper, I pulled out a "Thinking of You" stamp and a white ribbon. I was actually quite pleased with the results.

Sentiment Stamped on Ribbon
Paper: Bo Bunny Konstrukt
Kaiser rhinestones
Ink: StazOn jet black

While the stamping turned out very nicely, I'm not loving the glue dots peeking through the ribbon. So, this card still needs a little work before it gets my OWH stamp of approval. Any suggestions about the adhesive issue here?

First #2: A Cool Distress Background

I'm sure anyone taking Tim Holtz's online card class has just been amazed by the whole experience. What a talent! 



Since I don't have many Distress Inks, no stains, no markers -- yes, I know, woe is me -- I haven't tried many of the homework assignments. But, I did have just what I needed for Day 7's homework. And, the result was spectacular! There is no way to describe how gorgeous this background is. When the sun shines on it, it shimmers and glistens just like newly fallen snow. It is just so pretty!

 

Tim's Rusted Enamel Technique: Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Vintage Photo inks
Clear Embossing Powder; Paper: Ranger Distress Core Paper
Stamp: Whipper Snapper; Punch: EK Success
Cupcake: hand-drawn, hand-cut, scored, and highlighted with metallic pens

I embossed the sentiment before creating the background. I'm going to try creating the background before embossing on my next card -- just to see what difference it might make. Any advice or suggestions?

A pink/rose cupcake on blue background probably would've made more sense. But, there isn't any blue Distress Ink in my stash... at least, not yet! :)

Nonetheless, this design feels like it's getting close to being just right... And, this card's going to a friend at work who, ironically enough, gave up cupcakes -- actually all sweets -- for Lent. :)



First #3: Iris Folding

Last night, my LSS (Scrapbook Art in Lewis Center, OH) had an iris folding class. And, it was a wonderful experience!  Let me start by saying that if you've been interested in trying iris folding but have been a little put off by how intricate the cards appear, go for it!  The results are gorgeous and the technique is surprisingly easy.

Iris Folding



Iris Folding

Time for a big shout-out to the class teacher Alexandra Kimball. She was so kind, so patient, and such a great teacher. Thanks so much, Alexandra!  (Turns out the Stickles worked just fine!)

Parting Thoughts

So, it's been quite a week -- a wonderful week of card-making adventures!  And, I still have 3 more Tim classes to attend. :)

Not quite sure how many cards will be made this weekend. My men are returning home from a Spring Break trip. And, I'm sooooo excited to see them! :)

As always, thanks for stopping by. Happy scrappin' and have a nice weekend!

Monday Musings

Blog News

Hi, everyone,

I'm going to try posting on Mondays and Fridays -- Monday Musings and Friday Night Writes -- for a couple of weeks and see how that goes. So, welcome to the debut of Monday Musings.

OWH Sketch #110

I used remnants of my favorite patriotic paper for this week's Any Hero card. The layout is pretty true to this week's sketch, although I changed the rectangle dimensions to better fit the digi stamp. And, I rotated the sketch to fit with my pre-written Any Hero message.

This card came pretty quickly and seemed to turn out pretty well.

A New Twist on an Old Favorite

The stamp for the following OWH Mother's Day card was a Hampton Arts find in the Michael's $ bin. And, I've had the animal print paper since I don't know when. Nevertheless, this paper seemed to go perfectly with the shoe.

Heat embossed with clear powder over Ranger Distress Ink!
Stamp: Hampton Arts; Sentiment: Computer-Generated

What I love about the card is the image is embossed with clear powder over a Ranger Distress Ink. Did you know that you could do that? Well, I heard it was possible and got it to work! (When heating the image, it looks wet and bubbled up when it's done.)

A Card for a Friend

The following card is going to a friend in our workplace book club. She loaned me a fabulous book, The Book Thief, so many months ago -- and I finally got around to reading it. This card seemed perfect to thank her for letting me explore little Liesel's world.

One of my first ever cards -- waiting for the right moment.
Paper: Kaiser Secret Bird Society

News from the Homestead

Sound the alarm, call Brian Williams, and take an ad out in the paper... or send a tweat, text a friend, and publish a blog post.

Either way, the big news is that hubby and I entered the 21st century and purchased our first digital camera this weekend. Who knows what doors that will open?!

Think that's it for the first Monday Musings.  Thanks for stopping by and happy scrappin'!

2 Birds with 1 Stone -- CAS and ribbon challenges

CAS cards -- what a wonderful idea for an OWH Blog Skip!  Thanks to our CAS blog hostesses for posting such lovely cards.

There are so many OWHers and cardmakers who make fabulous cards -- with great vignettes, amazing layers of textures, and wonderfully colored images. And, then there are my cards. Well, for those of us who have seen Steve Martin in "The Jerk", remember the scene in which his character discovers his kind of music? I must say that's what I felt like when I first came across the term CAS!  :)

I, too, enrolled in last month's Clean and Simple class. The class was full of creative and inspirational ideas! Fortunately, there is lifetime access to the lessons because our desktop computer experienced some technical difficulties -- and I have not yet viewed all the lessons.


In spite of this, I'd like to share three cards inspired from this class. The first card will be included in my next OWH shipment. The second card was featured on last Sunday's OWH Sketch Challenge #106 post, while the third card is going to be linked to this month's ODBD challenge, which is to do something creative with ribbon. The last two cards were sent out in this week's shipment.


Card 1: Masking Technique, Tone-on-Tone Palette

Techniques: Masking and Heat Embossing;
Supplies: Hero Arts Cling stamp, Stampin' Up sentiment,
Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page butterfly punch

Card 2: Layering Elements

Technique: Layering Elements
Supplies: BasicGrey kraft, Creative Memories dp

Card 3: Stamping on Watercolor Paper

Technique: Stamping on Watercolor Paper, Embossing and Distressing
Supplies: DMC floss, Hero Arts stamp, watercolor paper,
Sizzix folder, Ranger core paper,

Time to make a couple of CAS cards for friends before starting on more Mother's Day cards for OWH! 

Thanks for stopping by. Happy scrappin'!

My First OWH Shipment of the Year!!!

First of all, my thanks to everyone who has left such nice comments about Sketch #106 and my congratulations to everyone for posting such great cards! And, for folks who left blogging advice, my sincerest appreciation. A techie colleague at work is going to help me out during lunch. :)

I'm thrilled to say that I sent my first box of the year to Kris! I am really pleased by this shipment's assortment. It was a nice mix of feminine, masculine, and patriotic cards. And, it had 5 Any Hero cards!!! Woot! Woot!


Some of the cards have already been posted for OWH challenges or featured here. So, I will just share the ones that have not yet made a public appearance.


Building on my "Your Service Means the World to Me" Any Hero card, I included 11 cards along the lines of the following made from the DCWV Travel Stack. The sentiment is computer-generated.

It also included 11 of the following cards, which were made distressing Ranger Core Paper and embossing with Sizzix folders -- including one of Tim Holtz's folders. As with the previous cards, the sentiment is computer-generated. Although I would have preferred to attach the sentiment with a little more pizazz, I was at a day-long crop at a school and out of pop dots. But, in all honesty, the less-embellished cards are the ones my hubby prefers. Here's hoping there are some troops that feel the same way.  :)

Finally, for the females, there were 8 of the following made from Kaiser's Secret Bird Society paper. I used Creative Memories square punches, Martha Stewart's punch-around-the-page butterfly punch, and Dixie's ribbon technique. Thank you, Dixie!

Think that's it for tonight. Thanks for coming by. Happy scrappin'!