CFC92 - Irish you a magical day!

Happy Friday!  Can you believe it's already March?!?  Wow...time does fly when you're having fun!  And speaking of fun, I'm here today with a new challenge from CAS-ual Fridays!

CFC92: Wallpaper

Stamp your own background for your clean and simple project

And our sponsor this week is the fabulous Ellen Hutson!  The winner of this week's challenge will receive a $25 gift certificate to spend here.  Awesome, right?

So since it is March, I chose to make a card to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, and I knew the perfect stamps to use to make the background for this paper yummy:

For this card, I went straight to the A Magical Spring stamp set from Paper Smooches.  I knew the shamrock would make the perfect stamped background, and how could I resist that leprechaun?!?  I stamped and colored his skin, hat, clover, and shoes on some Copic X-Press Blending card stock, then paper-pieced his clothing and hair with some cute patterned papers.  I added some gold Stickles to his buckles and bow tie.  I fussy-cut around him, and stood him on the flag-cut sentiment panel. Here's a close-up:

Heehee.  He makes me happy!  I 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 base: The Paper Studio; card stock: Copic X-Press Blending Cardstock; patterned papers: Lily Bee Design, Doodlebug; stamps: Paper Smooches; markers: Copic, Prismacolor; ink: Tsukineko; glitter glue: Stickles by Ranger

CFC91 - Just for the record...

Hello, and happy Friday!  I hope everybody had a great week.  I sure did!  We actually got SNOW here yesterday.  IN ARIZONA!  Snow!  That stuck!  I was pretty excited about that, since it really never happens.  And speaking of pretty exciting, I'm here today with a new challenge from CAS-ual Fridays!

CFC91: Incorporate silver into your clean and simple project

The sponsor for this week's challenge is Ribbons Unlimited.  This week's winner will receive a wonderful prize from this great new sponsor!

For this week's card, I incorporated silver in the form of a metallic embossing powder.  And now for the paper yummies:

So, it's difficult to see in the picture above, the word "AMAZING" is embossed with a silver embossing powder.  I stamped the entire sentiment using gray ink, used a VersaMark pen to selectively add embossing ink, then applied and heat-set the embossing powder.  All the patterned papers are from the My Mind's Eye School Daze 6x6 pad, and the stamp and talk bubble die are from this Simon Says Stamp set.  Here's a close-up, showing the silver embossing:

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: card base: The Paper Studio; patterned papers: My Mind's Eye; stamp, die: Simon Says Stamp; inks: Tsukineko; embossing powder: American Crafts; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Paper Smooches Sneak Peeks

Happy Friday!  For this week's CAS-ual Fridays post, click here or scroll down.

If you're here for a Paper Smooches sneak peek, you've found the right place!  Thanks so much for hopping over!  I am over the moon excited that Kim invited me to help sneak peek her new product release!!!  Here are the deets:

Paper Smooches is showing off their CHA release during the entire month of January.  37 designers are participating along with the PS DT, so there will be a ton for projects to inspire you this month.  Paper Smooches is known for their fun and whimsical hand-drawn stamps.  They decided that it was time to broaden their product line to include DIES and wood mount stamps!  

I have a project to share using NEW PS product that releases on February 1, 2013 at www.papersmoochesstamps.com along with many retail stores around the globe.

You will find a new blog link (or two) to follow every day in January at the PS Blog. 

Paper Smooches is giving away $500 worth of product!  Hidden on FIVE of the participating blogs is a prize package worth $100 each. The prize includes a variety of stamp sets, wood mounts and dies.  Comment on as many blogs as you can to increase your chances to be one of the five winners.

Deadline is January 30^th – winners will be announced on the PS Blog on January 31^st.

The product I'm giving you a sneaky peek of is one of Kim's new dies, Prickly Bloom.  I've used it to create these paper yummies:

The large flower shape is the Prickly Bloom die.  I cut it from some fun polka-dot paper, then added some stamped stitching from the Santa Paws stamp set. For the stem, I used the clothesline from the Pip Squeaks set (which is also where the little heart is from), and the leaves are from Daisies & Paisleys.  The sentiment is from Flap Happy.  I stitched around the edges of a Ranger kraft tag, then added the stamping and die cut.  Here are some other views:

I also made a second card using the Prickly Bloom die:

On this card, I wanted to use the die cut as a stand-alone focal point, without the stem and leaves.  Again, I die-cut it from some patterned paper, but then used Copic markers to add some shading.  Then I scored each "petal" from the tip to the center and folded them upward.  I stamped and fussy-cut a butterfly from the Flap Happy stamp set for the center of the Prickly Bloom.  I created the sentiment using the We Connect set, and stamped it in white ink.  I also created the stamped scalloped edge using a solid circle stamp from Hullabaloo.  Here are some other views of this sweet card:

Thanks SO MUCH for looking!  I am honored to be a part of this sneak peek blog hop.  Have a great day!

Card 1
Supplies: card base: Recollections; patterned papers: Basic Grey; tag: Ranger; stamps, die: Paper Smooches; ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black); sewing machine: Kenmore; quilting thread: Americana; seam binding: Hug Snug; baker's twine: Divine Twine

Card 2
Supplies: card base, rhinestones: The Paper Studio; card stock: The Paper Studio (kraft), Georgia Pacific (white); patterned papers: Basic Grey; stamps, die: Paper Smooches; ink: Joann Craft Essentials (white), TPC Studio (blue); markers: Copic; seam binding: Hug Snug  

CFC84 - Thanks

Hello, and happy Friday!  I'm back with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, and I think you'll really find this to be quite a timely challenge: 

Yep, the challenge is to create a thank you card.  Perfect, right?  With Christmas just behind us, who doesn't need a thank you card (or 10?)?  And the wonderful sponsor for this week's challenge is Ellen Hutson. 

Not only will the winner receive gift certificate to spend in the store, she'll also win a guest designer spot at the CAS-ual Fridays blog!  YAY!  And now for the paper yummies:

For this card, I wanted to paper-piece the butterfly and have a layer whose wings I could pop up.  So I stamped the butterfly image 3 times: once on the background (where the blue and gray papers meet), and twice on the yellow patterned paper. I fussy-cut the two yellow patterned butterflies, then adhered one of them flat onto the background.  With the second yellow butterfly, I placed adhesive only on the "body", not the wings.  I adhered the body of the second on top of the first, then folded the wings upward.

I lightly penciled in a "trail", then machine-stitched over the top with yellow thread:

I added some bling to the butterfly body, and along the trail down to the sentiment:

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

I'm also playing along here:
Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge - Anything Goes


Supplies: card base: The Paper Studio; patterned papers: My Mind's Eye; stamps: Paper Smooches (Flap Happy, Simply Said); ink: Tsukineko (Memento London Fog); rhinestones: The Paper Studio; sewing machine: Kenmore; quilting thread: Americana

CFC79 - Season's Greetings

Happy Friday!  I hope you all had a wonderful week, and enjoyed all the sneak peeks of the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps November release.  To see the entire release, and to see if you're a winner, click here.  And to purchase the newly-released sets, click here.  But first, I'm here with the new CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

CFC79: Winter blues

Use blue in your winter-related clean and simple project

And the sponsor for this challenge is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!  

So you have yet another chance to win yourself some awesome new stamps!  Like the ones I used on this paper yummy:

For this card, I used the Snowflake Greetings set.  First, I used the back side of the snowflake stamp to create the solid circle pattern on my white card stock.  Then I flipped the stamp over and used the correct side to stamp the snowflake in the same ink against the solid circle on the top two rows and the bottom row. Then I used a darker blue ink to stamp a single snowflake on the remaining row, and then stamped a circular sentiment around it.  I put a glittery brad through the center of the darker snowflake and mounted the white card stock onto a kraft card base to finish off the card:

Do you have the winter blues?  We hope so, because this is a TWO-WEEK CHALLENGE!!!  You'll have plenty of time to play along AND enjoy the Thanksgiving season!  You have until Thursday, November 29th at noon EST to link up your card(s).  Thanks so much for looking!

Supplies: card stock: The Paper Studio (kraft), Georgia Pacific (white); stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps; inks: Hampton Art (light blue), TPC Studio (turquoise); brad: craft supply; corner rounder: We R Memory Keepers

October Afternoon 9 to 5 contest - hello

Happy Wednesday, everybody!  I am super excited today, for a couple of reasons.  One is that I just put a deposit on a new (to me) SUV this morning, and I can't wait to get it!  I've been wanting one of these for a few years now.  The other reason I'm so excited is that October Afternoon is having a sketch contest using their 9 to 5 line, which I happened to pick up recently.  It's such a cute collection!  Here's the sketch:

I think this sketch lends itself more to a layout than it does to a card, but I haven't done a layout in years, so I went ahead and turned it into a card.  And now for the paper yummies:

I really loved working with this sketch, and I think the card turned out so cute!  I used Nestabilities dies to cut different sized circles out of several patterned papers, then arranged them according to the sketch.  I popped some of them up with dimensional adhesive:

Then I used some of the cutie buttons from the same collection and arranged them in place of the hearts in the sketch:

I used the alphabet stickers to create the "hello" sentiment.  Then I punched a heart from the black chevron paper, popped it up on dimensional adhesive, and applied Glossy Accents:

I finished the card off with some machine stitching around the edges and under the sentiment.
Thanks so much for looking!

I'm also playing along here:
Crafty Creations Challenge #172: Running in Circles
Little Red Wagon WOOD you? Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge

Supplies: card base: The Paper Studio; patterned papers, alphabet stickers, buttons: October Afternoon; Glossy Accents: Ranger; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer

Special birthday blog hop - Sweet birthday wishes

Welcome and happy Monday! More importantly, happy birthday to Michele Gross, owner of CAS-ual Fridays!
Some of us Girl Fridays got together and arranged a super-double-top-secret blog hop to show Michele how much we appreciate her and to celebrate her big day. If you've been hopping from the beginning, you should've arrived here from Suzanne's blog. If you're just now joining in, welcome! Be sure to go back to the beginning and check out everybody's wonderful celebratory creations (I'll post the order after my pics, in case you get lost along the way). Okay, now for the paper yummies:I used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch:

I really liked this sketch, and I chose it specifically to challenge myself and my brain. See that rectangular element that's off kilter? Things like that HURT MY BRAIN! I love straight lines and even numbers and symmetry, so I'm trying to do more of this kind of thing to get me out of my comfort zone. I even put the ribbon on at the same angle. ACK! Anyway, I replaced the flower element in the sketch with this cute lil' lollipop, then based my color scheme around the 4 colors from the lollipop. I don't know that I would've ever put together these colors/patterns on my own, but that little sucker pulled them all together (pun intended, LOL). Thanks, lollipop!

I used my favorite alphabet stamps from American Crafts to create this sentiment. This set never ceases to amaze me, with how the letters match up so perfectly to make it look like a "pre-made" stamp or a computer-generated sentiment:
Well thanks for joining this special blog hop. Next up is Jenny. Enjoy the rest of the hop, and don't forget to stop by and send Michele some more sweet birthday wishes! Here is the order, in case you get lost:

Karen <--who arranged this and created the fantastic badge above

Dana

Stephanie

Karolyn

Angie

Debby

Lorena

Suzanne

Kimberly <-- you are here

Jenny

Virginia

Julie Ranae

Christina

Laurie

Lisa

Deb

Gayatri

I'm playing along here:

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 157

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #129: Stripes or checks ( I went with checks)

Paper Crafting Journey Challenge 7: Three or more patterned papers

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge PWC202: Create a card for a girl

Supplies: card base: The Paper Studio; patterned papers: Crate Paper (yellow, red), KI Memories (blue); sticker: Crate Paper (green strip); punch out: Crate Paper (lollipop) stamps: American Crafts; ink: Ranger; ribbon: Making Memories; sewing machine: Kenmore; thread: Singer