Clean and Simple

Happy midweek to ya!  Nothing strikes fear into me more than CAS (clean and simple) cards.  I love playing with paper - I feel safe with that.  Stamping directly onto a card?  Scary!

 

I used a technique from the Clean and Simple card class for this card:

I white embossed the flowers onto black and then colored over them with Inktense pencils.  I've tried this technique with other watercolor pencils and couldn't get the color to stand out, but those Inktense pencils work so much better for me. 

 

This card is based on this week's Unscripted Sketch #216:

 

I used the same Hero Arts stamp to make a card for the OWH midweek throwdown CAS challenge:

I used an Impression Obsession woodgrain stamp for the background (stamped directly on the card - yikes!) and white embossed the stamp.  I used Crushed Olive and Wild Honey Distress Inks over the flowers.  The Happy Birthday is from the Hero Arts Big Hugs stamp set.

 

I wanted to add twine or brads or something else, but stopped myself. 

This was a good challenge today!

 

Thanks for looking.

 



Muse #23 - Hearts on a String

Monday's Muse #23 challenge is a beautiful clean and simple design:

 

I was immediately inspired and went through several designs before coming up with my final card:

 

Cardstock is from Papertrey Ink; stamp is from Simon Says Stamp.

 

I drew the lines with a Sakura pen; the glitter hearts were punched with the Martha Stewart multiple heart punch.  The glitter paper doesn't rub off, so it's safe for OWH.  I studied the inspiration card  closely and noticed that she kept to the Rule of Odds in the number of sequins she used.  I did the same thing with my hearts.

 

This card reminds of that song with the lyrics about "you've got my heart on a string".

 

Thank you to the Muse design team for changing the times for their challenge. I was ready to play in last week's challenge and discovered that I missed the deadline!  Boo hoo.

 

Catch ya'll later!

 

 



You're brilliant!

Hey there!  Today's OWH sketch went together pretty easily for me.  I used black/yellow/white paper that I've had in my stash forever, along with the Bright Idea stamp from Technique Tuesday:

 

That bright yellow will wake up anyone!  Here's the great sketch from Kristie

I'm finishing up my Sunday doing a bit of scrapbooking too (since I'm only 5 years behind!)

 

Thanks for checkin' in!

 



Saturday at the beach (on my card)

Thanks to the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop, I found Ranger's blog here which is full of ideas.  They've got a seasonal color palette challenge for June and I made a beach card using Distress Inks Aged Mahogany, Pumice Stone, Stormy Sky, and Chipped Sapphire. 

I used Sandy's beach card from last Thursday as my inspiration:

 

In my card, I started with an Impression Obsession splatter stamp and embossed it with white on white watercolor paper.  I used Pumice Stone to give it a sandy look and tore the top for that wavy effect.  The next layer is the ocean, which I inked with Chipped Sapphire and spritzed with water droplets. The last strip is the sky, inked with Stormy Sky and embellished with a small cloud.

 

The sentiment is from Ali Edwards, which I white embossed and rubbed over with Aged Mahogany.  The beach chair is from SVG Attic.  I like the chair facing the ocean because that's where I want to be!

 

After all that, I took a picture of my desk just to make ya laugh:

All that stuff on my desk allows me a workspace the size of a card!  I started with a clean table, honest!

 

Catch ya'll later.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

OWH MWT with an Unscripted sketch

Hi bloggers!  Happy Friday to ya.  I'm catching up with some challenges here...using this Unscripted Sketch - #215 :

 

 

The orange is a freebie file from Miss Kate's cuttables and the paper is from Jillibean Watermelon Gazpacho Soup.  The sentiment is computer generated.

 

I thought this would make a good Cards for a kid as well for our weekly throwdown over at OWH.

 

I'm entering this in these challenges:

Unscripted Sketch #215

OWH Cards 4 kids

SSS Summer Fruits

 

I am looking forward to the weekend - I'm sure you are too!

 

 

 



Through my window

Today's OWH tutorial is on making window cards.  One of the ladies I follow is Kittie over at KittieKraft and she rocks window cards!  While I'm nowhere on her level, I tried making a literal window on a card, looking out at a mountain range, which I'd love to see outside my window every day!

 

I popped the window off the card, although I didn't show you that.

 

My second card is for the June ODBD challenge, which is water this month.  I really struggled with this one, and when Bugaboo Stamps offered this freebie stamp I was inspired to create this card:

The embossing folder is from Tim Holtz, sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.  That little girl makes me feel like getting in the water!  Here's another version I made, with a diecut sun ray image I made:

 

 

I will be entry #41 in the June ODBD challenge - we only need 9 more to get to 50 and then ODBD will pay to ship another box of our cards!  Let's go, ladies!!!

 

Hope you're having a great week so far.

 



Happy Sunday to ya + blog candy

Greetings from hot hot South Carolina (high is 93 today)!  I accomplished many things this weekend for once and I need to go back to work and rest (ha ha- yeah right). 

 

The most recent thing I did was to follow this Sunday's OWH sketch and create a card:

 

 

I rotated the sketch and used papers from the May Simon Says Stamp kit.  For the sentiment, I masked the middle, stamped the flowers, then unmasked and stamped the sentiment.  The little fake brads are from Basic Grey.

 

I did another art journal page and found Julie Balzer's blog which has tons of info on a journaling and even a place to share our pages:

I'm still a beginner at art journals, but there's something so satisfying about it.  The stamp is from Tim Holtz - first time I used it.

 

My last weekend accomplishment is to finish a baby shower gift that I started two (!) years ago.  Yes - procrastination reared its ugly head and I started this gift for a co-worker and never finished it.  Then, I tried again for someone else and finally made myself sew it this weekend:

 

This is McCall's pattern 4858, if you're interested.  It will hold diaper items that the mother can tote around the house.  I'm thinking that the mother can keep this downstairs and change the baby without trotting to the changing table.  Two years to finish - can you believe it?

 

Finally, if you've read all this, I've got to tell ya that no one has claimed one of the stamp sets from the OWH Memorial Day bloghop.  I've asked 3 ladies and received no response, so is there anyone who would like the OWH "Thinking of You" stamp set?  Here's my blogpost OWH Memorial Day bloghop if you want to check out the stamp set.

 

Just leave me a comment and I'll email you to get your address.

 

Oh - one more thing -- I did fit in some scrapbooking too!  Yowza!