Finish Strong for OWH

Hello -

Sharing a couple of cards today. First uses the PTI Hooray set which I've never used for a fun birthday or congratulations card.  I stamped the streamers in the colors from this week's ColourQ challenge. I split the panel and added a few fun enamel dots.

Next card I'm sharing is for the new Pinterest Inspired challenge. This beautiful pattern was the inspiration for this month.

I was very inspired by the colors and the graphical florals so I decided to create my own graphic focal point using PTI Round Repeats. I split the panel horizontally again to create some interest. Sentiment is from the PTI Scripted collection. 

And just wanted to say goodbye to Operation Write Home which is winding down operations this year. Thanks for Sandy and everyone at OWH for their support of our troops and giving crafters an opportunity to help them as well. 

I sent in my last OWH package last month - 235 cards. It was a lot of work getting the cards ready - inserting white liners, stamping the backs of the cards with the OWH stamp, and prepping them with envelopes - but I made their final deadline! I was excited to send in one last package to help. 

My Thank You cards....

That's it for me today. Hope you are having a great weekend! Thanks for popping by!

Background of Wings

Background Check is the latest in the lineup of classes at Online Card Classes. Haven't had a chance to watch the videos this week but have been looking at the beautiful creations in the each day's lessons. Day 4's lesson was all about backgrounds using die cut techniques and reminded me of the tone-on-tone look that I love so I used it to make this card - 

I've had this card design for a sympathy card swirling around in my head for a while now. This week's CASology cue word is WINGS so I had one of my girls die cut two butterflies (love it when they want to help!) in Enchanted Evening which I adhered directly on Enchanted Evening card stock for the tone-on-tone look. Not a big fan of birds so butterfly wings are the only ones I got for this challenge. 

I was inspired by the colors at Colour Me (Hi Team Hayley!!) this week which I thought would be perfect for a subdued sympathy card. Love the little pop of color with the Berry Sorbet sentiment banner popped up with foam tape for some more subtle dimension. And the final classic touch were the pearls to finish off the color combination. Here's a closeup of the larger butterfly...lighting was a little wonky when I took the photo so  the color is a bit off from the original. 

 Thanks for checking in! Gorgeous weather this weekend. Went kayaking for the first time yesterday - fun stuff! Hope you are enjoying the weekend too!

Create Along With Us - July 2015

Hi friends -

Long time no see. Its been a while. I had to live through some home renovations in April and May and we are all settled back in but it took a LONG time for me to get my crafty mojo back. I've been reading blogs and websites but hadn't created anything in ages. Seriously, I didn't think I'd make it back into my craft room but decided to just stop thinking about it and jump back in.

I was inspired by this beautiful card by Dawn during July release.....

Here's my take....

For my card, I used the blooms and leaves from Mums The Word to stamp the flowers at the top of the panel. I used Scarlet Jewel, Hibiscus Burst, and Autumn Rose inks as well as Hawaiian Shores and Aqua Mist for the leaves. I stamped a scattering of polka dots across the panel and added a sentiment from Swoosh at the bottom. I didn't have the same Edgers die Dawn used but just used the one I had. Dawn left a little space at the top of her card panel. I left space on the sides of my panel so that more of the Hawaiian Shores card base would show. 

So much fun to use a DT release card as an inspiration piece....love this new monthly PTI challenge! 

Thanks for looking! Hope you had a great weekend. 

CAS(E) This Sketch #117

Hello friends - Long time no blog. Things are exceptionally busy here with some minor home renovations and cleanup. Probably gonna be end of May before everything goes back to normal and we are settled in again. It was so frustrating to get the PTI March release stuff and the MISTI and not have any time to play with them! 

I did find a few minutes here and there over the past couple of days to make card using the new Brushed Blooms set. I really like the watercolor look for these stamps but had some trouble with double stamping to create the beautiful flowers. Thought the flowers would make for a nice focal point in this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. 

I love the softness of the flowers and thought it would look great against the black cardstock...kinda like the matting of a painting. Sentiment is from Swoosh. 

And also wanted to share this little two step flower color cheat sheet I made for myself. Of course, even with this, I stamped two of the flowers in the darker one first so had to come up with two new combinations. Worked out though and will have to add those two to the sheet. 

Really hoping to pop in here once in a while during this renovation process.... I'm reading all your great blogs and saving the posts I love and want to CASE. So sorry I don't get to comment as often as I should.

Thanks for stopping by!

CASology:Basket

So I have to admit that I was a little stumped when I saw CASology's Cue Card: Basket this week. I don't recall having any baskets in my stamp collection. Baskets of flowers just aren't my thing. I did have hot air balloon baskets but someone on the DT already used that set so didn't want to copy it. 

So I went through my stash of wooden and non-PTI stamps and found the AMuse Sports set. SCORE! 

I was inspired to keep it simple by the Colour Me....Monochromatic challenge so I stamped the basketball hoop and ball in black but colored the basketball in with Copics. Matted the white card on orange and adhered the whole panel with foam tape on a polka dotted card base made from AMuse card stock. LOVE that I dug into my stash for both the paper and stamp. 

Thanks for taking a peek!

Orange You Glad...

....that this is not the view outside your window??!!

Another 6-8 inches today in NJ on top of all the snow we have already. Kids get a snow day, DH working from home, pot of Chicken Mushroom Wild Rice soup on the stove, and thankfully a little bit of crafty time while all were outside shoveling. 

And speaking of orange....I am inspired by the  Colour Me....Monochromatic! challenge this week. My first card uses the pretty medallion from PTI Giga Guidelines set. I stamped a row in white on kraft card stock then turned the stamp 45 degrees and stamped over it in Orange Zest. Sentiment is from Fancy That and an orange rhinestone in the center of each medallion completes it. 

Love how the white looks on kraft. 

Second card uses the new Swoosh set. Funny how I was so excited to get this set but once it go here, I totally forgot what I wanted to do with it.  I decided to keep it simple and played along with the One Layer Simplicity challenge this month - WORDS, WORDS, WORDS.  

I masked off a column and stamped the hello swoosh in several fun colors. I scored the ends of the column for more interest. 

Hope you are having a great week. Thanks for stopping by. 

PTI February 2015 Blog Hop

Its the 25th so its Papertrey Blog Hop day! This month there's a gorgeous work of art as inspiration - 

For my card I heat embossed a similar pretty background (Penny Black All Over Pattern Background Cling) in white on white card stock. I added three of my current favorite Papertrey colors in with an ink blending tool - Tropical Teal, Limeade Ice, and Aqua Mist.  I think I'm getting a little better at ink blending but still need lots of practice! I stamped the birthday (KIS:Birthday) sentiment on a strip of Limeade Ice and adhered it to the bottom of a Tropical Teal card base. 

I cut my blended embossed panel into two and added it to the card using foam tape so it floated slightly over the sentiment strip. 

 Hope you will join in on the Hop and check out the other creations. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone made. Thanks for stopping by!

Blocks of Color

Sharing a couple of colorful 'pick-me-up' cards I made in order to pull myself out of these winter blues. Feels like this winter has been WAY too long and I'm sick of shoveling and 1 degree temperatures. Not kidding, it was 1 degree yesterday. 

First card is a bright orange card - like how I wish the sun would make me feel just about now. lol. I used monochromatic colors for the CASology challenge this week. 

 

I was inspired by an older PTI release sketch. I masked off triangles and used an ink blending tool with Terracotta Tile, Orange Zest, and Summer Sunrise. Sentiment is from Thank You Kindly and of course added a couple of orange enamel dots. Love how clean and simple this card design is by keeping all the bright color at the bottom. 

This second card is bright and cheery. Love this color combination from ColourMe....! this week. I stamped some blocks from PTI Building blocks in the challenge colors and added the diecut sentiment from Simon Says Stamp in the bottom corner. I think the blocks being clustered in the center with white space on both sides keeps the card CAS. 

And on the storefront, I made this fabulous Italian Chicken Soup from Pioneer Woman. One good thing about winter...SOUP! This one was a hit with the family, warm and comforting.

Hope all is warm and wonderful for you this weekend. Thanks for stopping by!