CFC78 - HO HO HO

Happy Friday to all!  I hope everybody's week was great.  I know I'm ready for the weekend, and it looks like we're actually going to get some wintery weather here in Southern Arizona.  It's only supposed to be around 58 degrees for the high on Sunday, with rain and mountain snow.  Today was 90 and sunny, so I'm pretty excited for that change. Although it does make me a little nervous, because I'm supposed to do an 8.5 mile run on Saturday morning, and I might just freeze.  I'm SO TORN!!!  And speaking of being SO TORN, let's talk about this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge (see how I did that?  Hee hee):

CFC78: So torn

Tear something on your clean and simple project

The sponsor for this week's challenge is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps! If you haven't yet taken the plunge on these fantastic new stamps, you have the opportunity to win some by playing along with this challenge.  YAY!

So the challenge this week is to tear something on your project.  I gotta say, I had never really been a fan of this technique...until now.  I mean, I love the way it looks when other people do it, but my straight-lined brain just doesn't let me do it on my projects.  And even though I did tear my paper on this card, I still had some reservations about doing it.  So, instead of just free-form, I tore my papers against a ruler, and I really like the way it turned out!  Now for the paper yummies:

I tore both edges of the patterned paper as well as the cardstock sentiment panel.  I inked the edges just slightly with some Antique Linen Distress Ink to accentuate them.  The sentiment stamp is from a new CAS-ual Fridays set that will be sneak peek-ed next week.  I stamped it using Black Cherry Staz-On ink, and added Diamond Stickles to the center of each snowflake:

I punched a snowflake border using a Martha Stewart punch, and placed it below the patterned paper.  I inked it a little too:

I really love the way this card turned out!  I think the torn edges really add to the homespun look.  How about you?  Do you prefer free-form or "orderly" tearing?  Either way, we'd love to have you play along with this week's challenge!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to do so.  Thanks so much for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Recollections; patterned paper: Simple Stories; stamps: CAS-ual Fridays; inks: Tsukineko, Ranger; border punch: Martha Stewart; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers; twine: Recollections; button: craft supply

CFC74 - Baked with love

Happy Friday!  I hope everybody has had a wonderful week.  I am on my six day break from work until next Tuesday, so I've got no complaints!  I'm here today with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

CFC74: Put your {heart} into it

Use hearts in your clean and simple project.

And our sponsor this week is i {heart} papers:

The winner of this week's challenge will receive a gift certificate to spend in the i {heart} papers store.  They carry a ton of cute products, and even some exclusive stamp lines.  That is where I bought my first ever Paper Smooches stamp set back in January of this year.  Needless to say, I was hooked.  Nine months and 46 Paper Smooches sets later (LOL! But seriously...), I created this paper yummy:

So just like I've been playing around with the teacher from the Paper Smooches Smarty Pants set, I've also been experimenting (pun intended!) with the mad scientist from the Great Chemistry set.  I replaced his rubber glove with the oven mitt from the Yummers set, and paper-pieced it.  And it cracks me up!  Then I put the heart-shaped pie (iced sugar cookie?) in his mitt.  I colored him and the pie with Copic markers.  I stamped the sentiment onto the gingham paper (from Lily Bee Design), and paper-pieced the little {heart}.  The pink and blue patterned papers are Pebbles Inc., as is the floral oven mitt.  I scored a line along the top, bottom, and left side of the card.  Here's a closer look at the sentiment:

And here's a close-up of the scientist-turned-pastry chef:

Tee hee.  I love that guy!  I hope you will play along this week, and put your {heart} into it!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to join in the fun.  Also, don't forget about the HUGE announcement that will be made at the CAS-ual Fridays blog.  And if you put this special button on your blog and link up to the CAS-ual Fridays post, you could win an AWESOME prize!

Thanks so much for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Copic X-press It Blending Card; patterned papers: Pebbles Inc. (blue, pink, floral), Lily Bee Design (yellow); stamps: Paper Smooches (Great Chemistry, Yummers); ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black); markers: Copic; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers; scoring tool: Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board

CFC70 - Fangtastic

Happy Friday!  I'm here today with the CAS-ual Fridays challenge for this week.  You guys rocked the embossing challenge last week, and I can't wait to see what you all do with this:

CFC70: Use black, white, and one other color in your clean and simple project

And the sponsor for this week's challenge is Neat & Tangled, which is a new stamp company launched by the awesomely talented Danielle Walls!  The winner of this week's challenge will receive a $20 gift certificate to spend at Neat & Tangled!

So for this week's challenge, I couldn't help but go in a Halloweeny direction, but I used a somewhat non-traditional color in addition to the black and white.  Now for the paper yummies:

I actually quite like using yellow as a Halloween color, and just love the way it looks on this card!  The chevron paper is from a baby collection by Crate Paper, but I've been dying to use it on something other than a baby project.  I stamped the bats (from Paper Smooches Spookalicious stamp set) onto the patterned paper, then placed my "Polaroid" frame over the top.  

 

The sentiment is also from Spookalicious.  I placed a scalloped border under the yellow paper...

...then finished off the card with some black and white baker's twine:

So what will be your "plus one" this week?  I bet the gallery is just going to be chock full of stunning cards!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to link your's up to this week's challenge.  Thank you so much for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Recollections (black), Georgia Pacific (white); patterned paper: Crate Paper; stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Tsukineko; punches: McGill (Polaroid), Martha Stewart (scallop), We R Memory Keepers (corner rounder); baker's twine: Divine Twine

CFC69 - Boo!

Happy Friday!  I hope everybody has had a great week!  I've been super busy with a lot of non-card projects lately, so I hope to be getting back into the swing of things soon.  Maybe I'll share some of my other projects too.  Anyway, I'm here today with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge!  This week's challenge is super fun:

CFC69: Incorporate embossing (either kind) into your clean and simple project

And once again, we are sponsored by the FABULOUS Simon Says Stamp!  The winner of this week's challenge will not only receive a gift certificate to Simon's store, but will also win a guest designer spot at CAS-ual Fridays!  Fun stuff!

So I just love embossing.  Whether it's the dry kind or the heat kind, it just adds so much dimension and texture to all kinds of projects.  For this week's challenge, I couldn't decided which kind I wanted to use, so I went with both!  And now for the paper yummies:

I started off with a piece of plaid patterned paper from My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Halloween collection, and embossed it with this texture plate from Lil' Inker Designs.  I added some distress ink over the top of the wood grain to help define it a little bit.  

Then I masked the wood grain so that only the center rectangle was showing, and applied black distress ink inside the rectangle.  I stamped the spider web, spider, and sentiment in Versamark ink (only after using my Embossing Buddy so that the powder wouldn't stick to my inked background), and embossed each in a different color powder.  It's hard to see in the pictures, but the spider is embossed with a glittery embossing powder.

I added a simple ribbon tab, some tiny staples, and colored the diamond on the spider's back orange to match the ribbon:

Which kind of embossing do you prefer?  Show us in this week's challenge!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to play along!  Thanks so much for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Core'dinations; patterned paper: My Mind's Eye; stamps: Hampton Art (spider, web), Martha Stewart (sentiment); inks: Ranger (Tim Holtz Black Soot, Frayed Burlap), Tsukineko (Versamark); embossing powders: American Crafts (green, black), Recollections (white); texture plate: Lil' Inker Designs; embossing machine: Sizzix; ribbon: The Ribbon Boutique; staples/stapler: Ranger; marker: Copic

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

Happy botday! ("magic" card)

Happy Thursday!  Today I'm sharing a card I made for the Hero Arts May 2012 contest.  There are three categories for the contest: 1) theme (birthday), 2) interactive cards (any theme), and 3) color challenge (any theme).  I chose to combine two and make an interactive birthday card.  I had the perfect recipient in mind - my friend's daughter, Emma, who was turning 8.  She loves crafting with us and had even asked for a handmade birthday card.  I decided to use the Hero Arts Robot Trio stamp set and to make Emma a "magic card".  I used a combination of this tutorial and this tutorial.  Basically, a "magic card" has an image that appears black and white, then when you pull a tab, the image "magically" becomes colored.  Sounds confusing, right?  Well, lemme just show you what I'm talking about with this paper yummy:

Here is the card "closed".  The cute little robot is black and white. See that little pull tab at the top?

When you pull that tab, the image starts to emerge "magically" colored!:

Continue pulling, and he continues to be colored all the way.  He even has a special message for the birthday girl, or should I say "botday" girl? (Sentiment was created using Hero Arts Fanciful Swirl Alphabet)

Here's the cute guy all colored in:

And here's the whole card, fully extended:

The card also opens just like a regular card, so I could write my own special message to Emma.  I wasn't there when she opened it, but she told me she loved it.  This card took a little while to make, but was a lot of fun.  I will definitely try this technique again!  How about you?  The Hero Arts contest runs through the end of the month, so you still have plenty of time to enter!

I'm also playing along here:

A Blog Named Hero Challenge #4: Dust 'em off

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #169: Alphabet letter (use 3 elements beginning with the same letter.  I used R: robot, ribbon, rectangle dies)

Ooh-la-la Creations Challenge #105: Ribbon or twine (or both)-  I used both

The Pink Elephant TPE148: Polka Dots & Stripes

Truly Scrumptious Challenge #80: Anything Goes

Supplies: cardstock: Core'dinations (berry), Georgia Pacific (white); patterned papers: Echo Park (aqua stripe, cupcake, pink houndstooth frame), My Mind's Eye (yellow dot); acetate: Recollections; stamps: Hero Arts; inks: Tsukineko (Versafine Onyx black, Staz-On Jet Black), Close To My Heart (Hollyhock); embossing powder: Hampton Art; markers: Prismacolor; star dust pen: Sakura; white gel pen: Uniball; rectangle/scalloped rectangle dies: Nestabilities by Spellbinders; scalloped circle punch (for pull tab): Martha Stewart; eyelet: American Crafts; ribbon: Michael's; baker's twine: Divine Twine