CFC104 - Celebrate

Happy Friday!  I hope everybody had a great week.  I'm here today with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge.  This week's challenge is especially near to my heart, because this is my last challenge as a Girl Friday. :..( I have SO enjoyed being on this design team for a multitude of reasons.  One, it was my first ever design team "gig", so it'll always be extra special to me. And I felt so honored to be part of such a wonderfully talented team.  I mean, these girls do CAS like nobody's business.  For reals.  And the players are so talented too!  But mostly, I enjoyed being on this team because Michele is so wonderful to work for.  She's got it together!  Ladies, if you ever get the chance to become a member of her design team, DO IT!  I will really miss being a Girl Friday.  But...I do have some very happy news!  (And commenter JanR. guessed my secret last week, so she will be getting a little something special from me.)  What is the secret, you ask?  Drum roll please..................I'M HAVING A BABY!  Yep, I'm pregnant with my first baby, and we could not be more excited!  For another chance to win a little prize from me, leave a comment guessing when my due date is. The first person to guess it or come closest will be the winner.  Okay okay, less talky, more CAS-ual Fridays challenge.  That is what you came here for, right?  Ok, check it:

And the sponsor for this week's challenge is the wonderful Ellen Hutson.  The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to spend here.  YAY!

Okay, so when I first thought about what to make for this challenge, my mind immediately went to the Happy Pinwheels stamp set from Unity Stamps and Simple Stories.  This set not only has these super cute pinwheels, but it also has a bunch of cute little sentiment flags, perfect for this paper yummy:

This card came together pretty darn quickly.  Two stamps, some paper-piecing, and a couple of buttons, and BAM!  Done!  Here's a close-up:

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

Supplies: card stock: Georgia Pacific (white), Core-dinations (kraft); patterned papers: Echo Park; stamps: Unity Stamps/Simple Stories; ink: Tsukineko; buttons: craft supply

CFC81 - Believe

Happy Friday!  I hope everybody has had a wonderful week.  I'm here today with the super-fun CAS-ual Fridays challenge for this week!  Here it is:

CFC81: Knotty or nice

Incorporate knots into your clean and simple project

And since it's the first challenge of the month, that means we're sponsored by the fabulous Simon Says Stamp!  But not only will the winner of this challenge receive a gift certificate to spend in their store, she will also be a future guest designer at the CAS-ual Fridays challenge blog!

So, onto the challenge.  I really had a hard time deciding how I wanted to incorporate knots onto my card.  I kept thinking about the knots in a wood grain pattern, but wasn't sure if that would count.  So I decided I would learn how to make French knots to use on this paper yummy:

I used this tutorial, which was great and super easy to follow.  I used the All Yule Need stamp set from Paper Smooches to stamp and paper-piece the tree and star.  I made the French knot "ornaments" using red embroidery floss.  I cut the December calendar from the Simple Stories Handmade Holiday 6x6 pad, and stamped the "believe" from the Paper Smooches Christmas Sampler set under the numbers.  I stamped a star over the 25.  Here's a close-up of the knots and calendar:

We'd love to have you play along with this week's challenge!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to get knotty with us.  Thanks for looking!

Supplies: corrugated card base: Recollections; patterned papers: Simple Stories (red plaid, calendar), Lawn Fawn (green chevron for tree, yellow for star), Echo Park (tree trunk); stamps: Paper Smooches; ink: Ranger (Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in Frayed Burlap); embroidery floss: DMC

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

CFC71 - I ♥ fall

Happy Friday!  I'm so excited that the official start of fall is almost upon us, even if we don't really have a fall season here in Arizona.  It is refreshing to feel that change in the air though.  And that's exactly what we're celebrating this week at CAS-ual Fridays!  Check it:

And our wonderful sponsor for this week's challenge is Great Impressions Stamps.  The winner will receive a  $25 gift certificate to spend in their store!  How cool is that?!?

For this challenge, I knew I HAD to use my Simple Stories Harvest Lane collection.  It is to fall paper crafting what their Summer Fresh line was to summer: absolutely PERFECT!  It made it so easy to create this paper yummy:

So, I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, and just so happened to have a leftover piece of ruffled fabric.   It was the first thing I've made using my new ruffler foot.  Has anybody else tried one of those?  AWESOME!!!  It makes ruffling so. much. easier.  And serendipitously, the yellow in this fabric matched the yellow in the Harvest Lane collection perfectly.  Thanks to that, and the collection pack sticker sheets, this card came together pretty darn easily.  I adhered the ruffle to the card...

...then adhered the alphabet stickers to the card, starting at the right and working backwards to make sure it all fit.  I popped the wood grain house sticker up on foam tape, and popped a punched heart up in the middle of the house's heart.  With a white gel pen, I drew a heart between the two hearts and a line around the edge of the card.  I finished it off with a button:

Of all the things to love about fall, my favorites are the color schemes, warm-scented things to melt and make the house smell delicious, and being inspired to create different kinds of crafts, i.e. sewn projects.  What do you love about it?  Show us in this week's challenge!  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to do so.

I'm also playing along with the Gallon/Quart/Pint challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: The Paper Studio; patterned paper, cardstock stickers (alpha and house): Simple Stories Harvest Lane collection; fabric: Joann Fabrics; sewing machine: Singer; quilting thread: Americana; button: Buttons Galore & More; white gel pen: Uniball Signo; foam tape: American Crafts; heart punch: Fiskars

CFC65 - Get well soon

Happy Friday to all!  I'm here with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

This week our sponsor is Stampotique.  They have such a wide variety of stamps in very different styles, so you're sure to find something you love.  They were also generous enough to provide all the Girl Fridays with our choice of stamps.  How cool is that?!?  AND, the winner of this week's challenge will receive a $30 gift certificate to use in their store!  Woohoo!

Okay, so on to this week's challenge: square cards.  There is just something so cute about a square card.  I love 'em so hard!  And here is this week's paper yummy:

The chicken soup and the frame are all one stamp, and the "Get Well Soon." is a separate stamp.  The denim with the graph pattern inside was cut from a piece of patterned paper (part of that yummy Summer Fresh collection again!).  This card came together so quickly and easily.  I just stamped right onto that graph pattern, colored in the frame, the chicken, and the top and bottom of the can, then paper-pieced part of the can's label. I cut down a piece of hexagon patterned paper with a perforating blade to give it a bit of a rough edge.  I stitched around the edge, added a ribbon, and voila!  Here's a close-up of those cute Stampotique stamps:

And the ribbon:

I hope you'll join in the fun of square cards this week.  You have until next Thursday at noon EST to play along with this week's challenge.  Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Core'dinations; patterned papers: My Mind's Eye (hexagons), Simple Stories (journaling spot, red gingham); stamps: Stampotique; ink: Tsukineko; markers: Prismacolor; ribbon: Michael's; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Coats & Clark

CFC64: Sending you sunshine

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

CFC64: Use things you might find in the sky on your clean and simple project

And once again, our fabulous sponsor is Simon Says Stamp. 

They are so generous to sponsor our challenge regularly!  The winner of this week's challenge will receive a gift certificate to spend in their store.  And speaking of this week's challenge, let's get to it!  The timing for this challenge couldn't have been more perfect.  So the theme is "On Cloud 9", but you can use anything you might find in the sky.  While I am on cloud 9 (my first publication is in print this month! YAY!), I chose to bottle up some sunshine in this paper yummy:

                        

I know I've said it before, but the Summer Fresh collection from Simple Stories is the quintessential summer line.  It just screams summer and sunshine-y goodness.  So when I saw this coordinating stamp set from Simple Stories/Unity Stamps, I couldn't resist.  I love that the jar stamp in this set is so big - it's perfect to create a shaped card (about 5 inches tall!).  I stamped it onto white cardstock and also onto some scratch paper.  I cut out the inside of the jar from the scratch paper, and used the negative cut as a mask to stamp all the sunshine inside the jar.  Then I scored and folded the card on the left side of the jar.  I placed some temporary adhesive inside the card to keep the two layers together, then fussy-cut around the outline.  For the sentiment, I used a stamp from the Hero Arts/Studio Calico Heyday Sentiments set.  I masked off the "you are my" above the "sunshine" so that I could hand-write "sending you" instead.  Here is a close-up:

Are you on cloud nine, or could you use a jar full of sunshine?  Either way, 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: Stampin' Up! (Whisper White), Bazzill (red); stamps: Simple Stories/Unity Stamps (jar, sunshine); Hero Arts/Studio Calico (sentiment); inks: Tsukineko (Memento London Fog, Versamark), TPC Studio (yellow); embossing powder: American Crafts; white gel pen: Uniball Signo; baker's twine: Divine Twine

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 - HELLO SUMMER!

Happy Monday to all!  I hope everybody had a fantastic summery weekend.  It sure is hot here, but we might be getting a little rain today and tomorrow.  I don't love too many things about summer in Arizona, but one thing I do love is our monsoon season.  The smell of rain on the desert is one of my summer faves... and speaking of summer, let's talk about the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge for this week!  YAY!!  Since it's the fourth week of the month, that means

Yep, it's a photo inspiration challenge.  And this photo just SCREAMS summer to me:

I love that cool tiered tray with the red and white checked tissue paper, and those de-freaking-licious looking cupcakes with the flags are too cute for words (and I'd like to eat all of them. Right now).  That scrumptious photo inspired this paper yummy:

Another thing that screams summer to me is this paper line by Simple Stories.  LOVE IT!  I couldn't NOT use it on this card, especially since they included that awesome red gingham patterned paper!  I used a little journaling card from the 6x6 pad, that already said "HELLO SUMMER!", and based my card around that.  One of the flags from the Paper Smooches Circle of Honor set fit perfectly around that sentiment.  I used a ruler and a pen to draw in the "toothpick" that sticks into the cupcake (from Yummers).  I paper-pieced the cupcake wrapper with the gingham paper, and paper-pieced the icing with some text patterned paper, to which I added some sprinkles:

 
I added a little ribbon tab and a button with brads through the holes to balance out the card a little bit:

I used the chevron stamp from the Geo-Graphic set and some Versamark ink to add some subtle detail to the navy paper:

I'm really excited to see how other people interpret this photo!  You can play along with the challenge here. You have until next Sunday, July 1 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! 

Supplies: card base: Recollections; cardstock: Core'dinations (kraft); patterned paper: Simple Stories; stamps: Paper Smooches; inks: Tsukineko (Onyx Black, watermark); ribbon: Michael's; button: craft supply; brads: American Crafts; black pen: K & Company; glitter glue: Ranger

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge - Sup, grill-friend?

Happy Monday to all! Today I have a card to share for the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge.  It's the first week of the month, so you know what that means...

Yep, it's the Trend Watch, where you create a card based on a current trend.  Even though I'm in group 2, I still created a card for today's challenge. It will be linked up to the challenge gallery rather than in the blog post itself.  The inspiration for this week's challenge is this:

I was inspired by all those different patterns mixed together.  Now, my card may take a minute to "get", but stick with me, and I think you'll get a kick out of it.  I still giggle every time I look at this paper yummy:

Get it???  HOMEGIRL GOT HERSELF A GRILL!!!  BAHAHAHA! She's his "grill-friend"!

The idea for this card was actually spawned when I was helping my friend's daughter, Emma, make a Father's Day card.  She wanted to use the little farmer from the new Green Acres stamp set, but wanted to give him yellow teeth.  We ultimately decided to keep his teeth white except for one gold tooth, which was done with a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen (in Clear Star) over a light yellow marker.  Then I thought it would be funny to make another card and give him a grill.  Then my mind went to the Alfresco stamp set with the sentiment "sup grill-friend". I know Kim Hughes designs Paper Smooches sets to work well with one another, but I don't know if this is exactly what she had in mind.  LOL!

The sentiment is normally all on one line, but I masked and stamped each word individually to make it fit into my speech bubble.  The whole time I was making this card, I was remembering back to the time when my family went to Oklahoma City for my brother's wedding, and my sister wanted to go dancing at this club.  We went to the Skky Bar in Bricktown, and this guy came up and tried to dance with her, which was cool...until he smiled and had A FULL-ON GRILL!  Her reaction was so funny!  I don't think she even said anything, just pointed and laughed!  He got the point...  When I showed my sister this card, she started laughing and said "that guy!"

Ahem...back to the SPARKS challenge.  I used a total of 6 different patterned papers on this card.  I still crack up looking at it.  Here's my guy, and his grill-friend in the background:

I had so much fun making this card, even though it involved a lot of fussy-cutting.  I think these guys look so awesome paper-pieced!  I especially love her flowery overalls and gingham shirt...and of course, her grill!  (And a little side note, both the farmer and his grill-friend are the same stamp. Kim included a little "leaf" shape stamp in the set that doubles as pigtails!  Genius!)


I hope you will play along with this challenge.  For each challenge, there will be a PS PRO. This PS PRO will receive a banner for their blog and a $30 credit to the Paper Smooches store.  You have until Sunday, June 10th at 11:59 PM EST to play along.

Did you know?  Paper Smooches is now on Pinterest! Come follow the entire team and company here!!! 

Thanks for looking!

I'm playing along here:

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge: Prints are Charming

The Gingham Challenge in the Moxie Fab World 

Lily Pad Cards Star Challenge

Paper Play Challenge '12 - Week 22: Double Delight (use two of something - I used the farmer stamp 2 times, and added pigtails to one)

Paper Pretties Monday Challenge: Use Bling

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge

Supplies: card base: Recollections; cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white for stamped images); patterned papers: Simple Stories (red gingham, flower denim, green dot), Authentique (blue dot, blue gingham), My Mind's Eye (stars); stamps: Paper Smooches (images, sentiment), Hero Arts (speech bubble); ink: Memento; markers: Prismacolor; glitter pen: Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer