CFC63: Thrilled for you

Happy Friday to all!  I'm excited to be back with another CAS-ual Fridays challenge!  This week it is a color challenge, and I really LOVE these colors together:

CFC63: Use lime, aqua, and navy in your CAS project.

And this week's sponsor is Stop and Scrap.  The winner of this week's challenge will receive a gift certificate to spend in their store:

This week's card came together pretty easily, I think because I love these challenge colors so much!  And it gave me the opportunity to use some new stamps I picked up recently, and try a technique I'd never tried before.  Ok, now for the paper yummies:

I recently picked up some stamps on clearance at Michael's, and was lucky enough to find both the solid image and the outline of the petal stamps I used on this card.  Originally, my plan was to stamp the solid petals in lime, then stamp the outline in navy.  But then I decided to try the kissing technique, which I had never tried before.  As silly as it is, I've never tried it because I don't like the name.  I think it's dumb.  LOL! But I managed to get over it, and I'm glad I did.  I inked up the solid petals with lime ink, then stamped it onto my Hero Arts Designer Wood Grain stamp.  Then I stamped the wood grain-patterned petals onto white cardstock.  I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the outline stamp over the top of the woodgrain petals:

I tied some baker's twine on the right side of the white cardstock. I used a sentiment from the Paper Smooches Simply Said set, and I stamped it onto a strip of aqua Echo Park patterned paper, which I then adhered over the twine using dimensional adhesive:

I finished off the card with some aqua pearls by Kaisercraft:

I hope you'll play along with this week's challenge!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to do so.  Thanks for looking!


Supplies: cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white), Core'dinations (navy); patterned paper: Echo Park; stamps: Hampton Art (solid petal, outline petal), Hero Arts (wood grain), Paper Smooches (sentiment); inks: Tsukineko (Memento Pear Tart and Paris Dusk); pearls: Kaisercraft; baker's twine: Divine Twine

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge - thanks

Happy Monday to all!  I hope everybody had a great weekend.  I'm back today with the new Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge for this week!  YAY!!  Since it's the fourth week of the month,you know what that means:

Yep, it's a photo inspiration challenge.  And here is the very cool inspiration photo for this week:

From this photo, I was inspired by the 3 panels.  I wanted to incorporate a similarly colored background, so I chose kraft for my panels, against white.  I also wanted to include some non-traditional flowers, so I got creative and made my own in this paper yummy:

   
Do you recognize those big Paper Smooches "sunflowers"? No?  Oh, maybe that's because they're not actually flowers!  Check it: these "flowers" were made using only the Space Cadet stamp set.  The centers are one of the planets, and the petals are the flame.  I LOVE the way they look together!  I cut down 3 pieces of kraft cardstock to the same size, then adhered them onto my work surface so that the edges were touching and they looked like 1 piece.  Then I stamped my "flowers", colored them in with Prismacolor markers, and adhered them to the white card base with some space in between each one to simulate the 3-panel artwork in the inspiration photo:

I used the Circle of Honor set (and some masking) for the sentiment.  Then I added a brown gingham bow to finish it off:

I left my card pretty CAS this time.  How are you inspired by this week's challenge?  I'm really excited to see how other people interpret this photo!  You can play along with the challenge here. You have until Sunday, August 5th (yep, it's a 2-weeker!) at 11:59 PM EST to play along.  The winner will receive a $30 credit to the Paper Smooches store!!  And don't forget the check out the rest of Team 2's wonderful creations, and give em' some love!

Angeline

Erica

Jackie

Savannah

Thanks so much for looking! 

CFC62: You simply amaze me

Happy Friday to all!  I hope you've all had a great week.  I know I did.  My friend Amy and I took her kiddos up to Phoenix for one last hoorah before school starts again.  We stayed at a hotel with a water park and also went to the aquarium.  Aside from the "incident" (water pipe bursting = no water to our hotel room = having to go shower at the athletic club = me accidentally leaving my running shoes behind), it was a great trip.  And of course, we had to hit up Hobby Lobby and IKEA while we were up there, so it wasn't just fun for the kids!  Okay, onto this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

CFC62: Use a black card base for your clean and simple design

And the sponsor for this week's challenge is Lil' Inker Designs.  The winner will receive a gift certificate to spend in their store.  I had never tried their goodies until just recently, and am super impressed.  I love all the stamps and coordinating dies!  They have some really cute sets, the shipping was fast, and the products are great quality!

Okay, onto the challenge. While I don't use them as often as I should, I really love the look of black card bases.  And if you've checked out the other Girl Fridays' cards, you've seen why.  There are some super striking cards in this week's inspiration parade!  And now for my paper yummy:

This card was slightly difficult to capture in a good photo.  The red embossing looks much better in person.  The embossed wood grain frame, sentiment stamp, banner die, polka dot stamp, and decorative label die are all Lil' Inker.  See what I mean?  This card went together so smoothly since the products all coordinate to nicely!  

We'd love to see you play along with this week's challenge!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to go Back in Black with us.  Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Recollections (black), Georgia Pacific (white); stamps, dies, impression plate: Lil' Inkers Designs; ink: Tsukineko; embossing powder: American Crafts; baker's twine: Divine Twine; button: craft supply; white gel pen: Uniball Signo

CFC61: Love you to my core

Hello, and happy Friday to all!  I hope you're all surviving the weather in your neck of the woods.  Personally, I'm wishing for some rain.  It's ridiculously hot here, and our summer monsoon season is the only time of the year we get any humidity to speak of here in Arizona.  Only, it keeps getting humid without a whole lotta rain. The clouds build, and then nothin'. Just stickiness. Kinda' makes you wanna strip down naked (as a jaywalker, my friend's daughter would say. LOL) and lay under a fan.  And speaking of STRIPPING, let's talk about this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge!

CFC61: Use strips of color or pattern in your clean and simple design.

That's right!  We're stripping this week. And the sponsor for this week's challenge is Freckled Fawn.  They have some seriously cute things in their store.  And the winner will receive $25 to spend there.

For my card, I wanted to try something I've never tried before. I adhered a bunch of strips of patterned papers onto white cardstock, then stamped an image onto the strips, cut it out, and used it for paper-piecing.  Now for the paper yummies:

I have long wanted the Falling For You stamp set from Paper Smooches, and I finally got it a few days ago.  I thought it would be so cute to use for this challenge.  I stamped the apple onto my strips, paper-pieced it, then added some zig-zag stitching along a few of the strips.  I stamped the sentiment on my white card base, as well as on the kraft banner die cut, and centered the kraft sentiment over the white sentiment .  I colored in the hearts, stem, and leaf with Prismacolor markers.  Here are some close-ups:

I hope you'll play along with us and STRIP for this week's challenge.  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to do so.  Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white), Core'dinations (kraft); patterned papers: Echo Park, Lily Bee Designs, Simple Stories; stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Tsukineko; markers: Prismacolor; scalloped heart punch: Martha Stewart; corner rounder punch: We R Memory Keepers; banner die: Lil' Inkers Designs; die cutting machine: Cuttlebug by Provocraft; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge - You're out of this world!

Happy Monday, everybody!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Today I have a card for this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.  Since it's the second week of the month, that means it's time for a designer drafts challenge:

Yep, it's another one of Kim's awesome sketches.  I'm tellin' ya, these sketches have been some of the most challenging sketches I've done.  They're not your typical straight-lines-and-shaped-elements type sketches.  She's really left a lot to interpretation, and thrown in things that "scare" me: diagonal lines, curved lines, asymmetrical elements, etc.  And I've created some of my FAVORITE cards by using her sketches!  And this week is no different.  Here's the sketch:

Since I tend to follow sketches pretty literally, that curved line was really throwing me for a loop.  I didn't know what to make of that for the longest time.  And then, Kim Hughes to the rescue!  My problem was solved with the July Paper Smooches stamp release.  The new set Space Cadet set gave me the idea to create this paper yummy:

I stamped the rocket ship onto white cardstock, stamped the flame coming out the bottom, then repeated the flame using generational stamping. I had never really used that technique before to depict movement or distance, and I'm thrilled with the way it turned out:

I masked the rocket, then stamped one of the aliens "inside" the ship.  I colored everything in using Prismacolor markers.  I added Glossy Accents to the window to make it look like a bubble window:

I used some Core'dinations cardstock to create my moon, and sanded it to give it some color variation.  Then I used the champagne bubbles and wedding band stamps from the Hubby and Wifey set, and the solid circle stamp from Metropolis to create "craters" on the moon.  I also used Metropolis for the small white stars on the black cardstock.  I finished off the card with a sentiment strip I created using Space Cadet and Alphadot:

I'm really excited to see how other people interpret and use this sketch!  You can play along with the challenge here.  You have until next Sunday, July 15th at 11:59 PM EST to play along.  The winner will receive a $30 credit to the Paper Smooches store!!  And don't forget the check out the rest of Team 2's wonderful creations, and give em' some love!

Angeline

Erica

Jackie

Savannah

Thanks so much for looking!  Now get busy with that sketch! :)

Supplies: cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white), Recollections (black), Core'dinations (yellow-orange); patterned paper: Echo Park; stamps: Paper Smooches (Space Cadet, Hubby & Wifey, Metropolis, Alphadot); inks: Tsukineko (black), ClearSnap (ochre), Joann (white); markers: Prismacolor; glitter glue, Glossy Accents: Ranger; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers; sanding block: Making Memories; white gel pen: Signo Uniball 

CFC60 - Thank you

Happy Friday!  Today I'm back with this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays:

CFC60: Text me

Use text in your clean and simple project

And this week's sponsor is the fabulous Simon Says Stamp:

Not only will the winner of this challenge receive a $25 gift certificate to spend at Simon Says Stamp, she will also win a guest designer spot at the CAS-ual Fridays blog!  For this week's challenge, I wanted to use text in a way I hadn't before.  I had a couple ideas in my head, and finally decided on this paper yummy:

I applied a white flower rub-on to a panel of black cardstock.  Then I colored over the rub-on using Prismacolor pencils.  I wanted to stamp my text onto the black panel, but really only have it show up against the rub-on.  So I used black Staz-on ink, and it still shows up, ever so slightly, against the black.  I really like the way it looks!  And I was able to position the flower just where I wanted on the stamp so that the "thank you" would show up.  Here's a close-up of the black-on-black stamping:

I finished off the card with a simple strip of ribbon, some stitching, a glittery brad, and some rounded corners.  I hope you'll play along with this week's challenge.  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to do so.  We'd love to have you!

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white), Recollections (black); rub-on: American Crafts; colored pencils: Prismacolor; stamp: Hero Arts; ink: Tsukineko; ribbon: Hobby Lobby; brad: craft supply; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper