CFC #130: Ovals

Wow, what a great response to the first CAS-ual Fridays Challenge in the new format! It was so much fun looking through the gallery, but also hard to choose a favorite!

The next challenge is to make a project featuring ovals. Our sponsor is Pretty Pink Posh!




For this challenge I knew I wanted to use the CASual Fridays Stamps Oval Tag Fri-Die. But I wanted something a little more different than an A2 card or a tag.



So I made a birthday fan! Each panel is an oval tag, secured in the middle by a button on either side. They are stamped with the graphic, open flower from Beanstalks and colored in with alcohol markers. I used a very light blue towards the center to keep it from looking too stark with the white background. 

The back is secured by ribbons, because ...

... it folds ...



... completely up like a real fan. You could do so much with a design like this. It's only limited by what you stamp on it. You could even do an entire scene across all the panels. And with the die it makes it so easy to do. 

You're not going to want to miss the inspiration that these talented ladies have waiting for you:

Amy

Ardyth

Donna

Jingle

Laura

Mayuri

Sylvia

Tracey

Can't wait to see your creations in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge gallery!

Thanks so much for looking!
-Kelly

Fusion Challenge: Textured Sympathy Card

Hi folks! We've got another Fusion! This time it turned into a challenging (for me) sympathy card.



The textured mustard and print are picked up from the photo, and the layout is loosely followed. I was really happy when the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Casual Trees die cut through the felt and remained intact. There's something about the thin cut of a textured material that gets me excited! The tiny, subtle Prima flowers have a pearl in the middle. A gold sentiment finishes it all off. I like making the subdued sympathy cards interesting by adding lots of different textures (felt, pearl, gold, newsprint, vellum).

As a reminder, here are the guidelines on the challenge:

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.
5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team!

Betty J.

Cathy Weber

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

Geri Freeman

Julia Aston 

Katie Brooks

Lynn Mangan

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu

Stephanie Severin

Winners: Will be chosen by all of our teammates in two weeks. We each will choose one favorite. The winners will be announced at 4 am (PST) in two weeks!


Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Craft Hoarders Anonymous; Sparkle, Glitz or Glam

 Hi all! One last post as a Guest Designer for Gloria Stengel's Craft Hoarder's Anonymous Challenge Blog. This challenge is a fun one ... to show some sparkle, glitz or glam! 

 

 

When I'm at a flea market, my eyes light up whenever I see a box full of bits and pieces of things, especially jewelry. These things are gold mines! Vintage pieces that are broken, or orphaned, are usually sold for less than a dollar.

   

This heavy metal heart pendant was 4/$1 ... almost cheaper than buying a mass-produced embellishment made to look like it! I watercolored a background on 110 lb paper. The wings are white embossed on vellum to give it a light, heavenly feel.

 I added some glittery gold stars with winnie & walter Scenery: Big Bang Confetti. The sentiment is also winnie & walter  - The Big, The Bold, and You. Coming up with different sentiments from all those little words is so much fun!

I would like to extend a sincere thanks to Gloria for including me with her new, successful challenge blog. It's been fun to have permission to use my hoarded items : )

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Happy 50th Birthday maria f.!!!

 A huge, warm, happy birthday to maria f. who is enjoying her big 5-0 with family and friends right about now!! And a big thanks goes to Shirley-Bee for getting us all together to celebrate!

As I'm sure you all know, maria is extremely gifted in this whole card makin' thang. She gets published regularly and is not afraid to try ANYthing. At all. I love to pop by her blog and see what craziness she's up to. I started scrolling through to pick a card to case, but I couldn't do it. There were just too many (like this card, this card, and I can't leave out this card either) that a decision was taking much too long. So I went with a new design.

The "happy"s are stamped in diagonal stripes, and united by blocks of color. I kinda like the sentiment all cozy in the corner of the card. Maria is definitely one of my faves to visit, so I wanted to let her know that. The 50 is die cut from a metallic vellum so all those individually stamped "happy"s still show through (gotta get credit for that, darn it!)

Add your own birthday wishes, or check out maria f's other cards here on Shirley-Bee's blog. Happy Birthday, maria f.!!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Play Date #1 - Guest Design Spot!!

Want to win a guest spot for the winnie & walter third release (along with all the third release stamps)?! Of course, right? The prize is yours for the taking at the new winnie & walter playdate challenge.

The challenge is to make a card based on the inspiration photo with one winnie & walter product (no product? no problem! check out the FREE cut files!) Then link it up before March 31st, and winnie & walter will select a winner.

I took inspiration from the little girl's shirt in the bottom right corner, specifically the yellow writing over a purple image. 

Never would have used these colors together, even though they're across from each other on the color wheel. Probably not my favorite combination, but I enjoy making something that's a little different. The purple mom silhouette and the word "mom" is from The Write Stuff: Leave it to Mom. The "thanks" is from The Big, The Bold and You (which did end up selling out as I predicted!!)

A double layer of gold thread is strung through the holes. That's where I left the card at one point, and then I thought it would be fun to hang something from the lines of thread.




So fun picking out words from The Big, The Bold and You to hang. They are embossed in white on vellum ... such a hot trend now. The little flourish is from The Write Stuff: Leave it to Mom. 

I hope you give it a try and link up your winnie & walter project. Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Happy Birthday, Anita!!

HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES

to my friend

Anita in France

Anita, it's a pleasure to join so many lovely ladies who are eager to wish you nothing but the absolute best on your birthday! My apologies for being a bit tardy to the party (I'll get it right next time!!) but my wishes are no less sincere. You are such a positive personality in our section of the blogosphere. I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

A big shout-out to Darnell for being the hostess for the party once again, and Bev for the idea to get everyone together. Two more positive personalities we are lucky to have : ) If you haven't already, please check out the link on Darnell's blog to all of Anita's other cards.

Anita, I wanted to CASE one of your cards for today, and initially picked my most recent favorite, but I couldn't think of a way to do it justice. I love how you've been experimenting with so many techniques, especially the watercoloring. So I picked this gorgeous card of yours that showcases the technique so well:

I knew I wanted to use a white embossed & open flower, and watercolors.

I used a bargain stamp from Stampendous that I bought even though it wasn't clear. I figured with something this big I won't need to line it up anywhere too specific : ) Then colored the flower in circles of water colors, and went back to color some individual petals for more definition. I was happy to find this set of watercolors left over from my 4th grader's old school supplies. There was black in just about every well of color that I had to scrape off first : )

 The sentiment is winie & walter The Big, The Bold and The Happy (back in stock!) I embossed the black "Happy" to make sure it was solid over the white embossed and watercolored flower. Envelope is We R Memory Keepers Love Struck.

 The inside counts too, for a special friend : )

xoxo,

Kelly

Winnie & Walter - The Big, The Bold and You

This is the set that you are absolutely going to keep out on your craft table because you use it all the time. It's winnie & walter's sequel to the The Big, The Bold and The Happy set that sold out on the first day. Just wait until you see all the different combinations of sentiments you can make with the small typewriter font!

 

Confession: I have completely, madly fallen in love with the potty people cut files in Leave it to Mom and Leave it to Dad. I'm starting to think of them like I think of speech bubbles. Where speech bubbles represent that you're saying something, I think the people represent you and what you may be feeling or doing. In this case, with the open arms and the heart on the chest, I'm trying to convey the big hug that you would give someone when you are giving them a million thanks. This person would also be good for someone cheering and giving congratulations. 

I made this person by using the negative cut from my Daddy-o card as a stencil. Since the original cut file has the two people holding hands, I had to do some pre-planned inking to get a single person with his hands raised. I inked all but the hand that was connected, flipped the stencil over, lined it up over the inked person, and inked the single hand from the other side.

Here's the notebook I use to try my ideas out (and also stamp on since it has a nice give to it ... I think the impressions are more crisp that way). I wanted to show you how I got the tiger stripe across the stenciled person. It's a pink packing peanut! My 9 year-old actually brought it to me thinking I could use it somehow. !!! I was so excited after I stamped with it (the first time was in green in the lower right corner) and it gave such a clear, dark impression without much effort. Loved it!! Here you can also see what the people holding hands looks like (in blue).

 The sentiment is from this new set: The Big, The Bold and You. Love the bold "thanks." The secondary sentiment "million" is stamped several times. Not exactly a million times, but lots. The gold diamonds are from Leave it to Dad.

 

More obsession with those cute potty people. I wanted an accent in that area of the card, and really, the person was perfect to represent "you" who is talented. This time, I did the surgery to remove the child she was holding in the Silhouette software.

This card was made with the delicious colors in Taheerah's new card challenge in mind, The Cure for the Monday Blues. She's on her 8th challenge already, and each one has been really inspirational. Go check it out if you haven't already done so!

 Here you can see the dimension of the person, layered with 3 cuts of 110 pound white paper. I also outlined her on the top layer with a white gel pen. You can also see the dimension of the panel, with the recessed oval sentiment area. It's a piece of chipboard with a slightly larger oval cut out. Love that I don't have to worry about massive amounts of foam tape.

I am definitely a thinker when I create. I can't just feel my way through a card, putting elements here and there and having them all magically work out. I am so jealous of the people who have that sense and just "know" what to do. I do NOT. I have to spend lots of time thinking. If you're interested, I thought I'd share with you my thought process on the flow of this card.

 

I wanted your eye to start with the pop of color, the chartreuse "you," then follow the swish and secondary sentiment across to the woman's head. Here's where I was excited ... I put the woman's head right where the period would be for the sentiment. I thought that would unconsciously be pleasing to the eye. Yes, I think WAY too much. Anyway, once your eye is at the head, it would follow down the body to where the skirt is pointing to the right and the star that is pointing back. I extended the gold embossed stars (scenery: big bang confetti) on the top panel for this reason, and to make the talented lady shine a little more.

The frame is from an earlier set in the release, Leave it to Mom. And, isn't the secondary sentiment so cool? I could easily give this card to any one of you! You are all so very talented : )

More inspiration waits with our awesome guest designer Angie Tieman and the rest of the design team:

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Suzanne Dahlberg

  (Vanessa Menhorn's projects will be available later this month due to shipping issues)

Don't forget to comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the winnie & walter blog. And finally, all sets will be available tomorrow, March 15th at the winnie & walter store! The corresponding cut files for each stamp set will be free with purchase until the 30th. If you have a digital die-cutter, you're really doubling your design options, as many files are different than the stamps.  
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Fusion Challenge: An Honest to Goodness Fusion!

Finally, I have made Fusion.

Seems like each week I lean only to the photo or sketch, but this time it's a pretty literal interpretation of both.  It was fun creating the background pattern with the new winnie & walter stamps available tomorrow (The Write Stuff: Leave it to Mom). Totally reminds me of an antique needle work sampler.

Cousin Helen's gold thread still has not left my desk top.

As a reminder, here are the guidelines on the challenge:

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.
5. Please read the other considerations on the Our Rules Page before playing along.

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team!

Betty J.

Cathy Weber

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

Geri Freeman

Julia Aston 

Katie Brooks

Lynn Mangan

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu

Stephanie Severin

Winners: Will be chosen by all of our teammates in two weeks. We each will choose one favorite. The winners will be announced at 4 am (PST) in two weeks!


Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Winnie & Walter - The Write Stuff: Leave it to Mom

A companion set to yesterday's winnie & walter The Write Stuff: Leave it to Dad, we have The Write Stuff: Leave it to Mom. Again, so many different images to pick from, wait until you see it!

Not sure if you remember the man silhouette from yesterday, but here is a coordinating woman silhouette. I liked the overlapping spaces that somewhat highlight her facial features. And so happy to find that the "you" (from another set coming up in this release) fits the silhouette perfectly. The rest of the sentiment "are amazing" is also from that upcoming set that you'll want to keep your eyes on.

Keeping the brand new Virginia's View challenge in mind, the background was colored with Inktense Wax Crayons and blended with a water pen. So excited to see Virginia's challenge take off so quickly, and even get its own blog!

This next card is headed to Virginia's View as well. I brushed watercolor paint on the three differently sized flowers included with this set and then stamped. Love how each time you get a different result ... it does all the work for you! On several of the flowers I stamped a smaller flower in gold pigment ink for the center. Since the overall card has a soft feel to it, the sentiment is stamped in gray instead of a harsh black.

The deeper shade of pink on the inside of the card provides some balance, I think. You may have noticed that I line many of my cards with patterned paper. I've been asked about writing a message on the inside of the card. When it's time to send the card, I typically grab from a stack of white marquis shapes, slice off a side, line that up with the right edge of the inside of the card, and write my message on that space. Then add a few scrap embellishments from my drawer of misfits.
   
       

This last card caused some shock with Logan, my 9 year-old. I stamped MOM in orange, rotated it slightly around the "O" and stamped again. At this point, Logan peeked over my shoulder and exclaimed, "Mom, what are you doing?! You messed up on your card!!" Ye of little faith. I continued rotating and stamping until I got a circle, colored in one of the MOMs with marker, and colored the remaining MOMs with colored pencil. Then I showed Logan the MOM flower. "Oh wow, that looks really cool Mom!!" Boy did that make me super-happy : )



Here's the rest of the card, with all three MOM flowers. I had Dr. Seuss' The Lorax in mind when I made these. The simple sentiment in type writer font is from tomorrow's set, and the stars are from Scenery: Big Bang Confetti.

Only one more set left. You will seriously not want to miss this one! I predict that it will fly off the shelves faster than the Big Bold and Happy sentiment set from the last release. Will be anxious to see. There are some amazing projects waiting for you by the Talent, and our awesome guest designer Angie Tieman!

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Suzanne Dahlberg

  (Vanessa Menhorn's projects will be available later this month due to shipping issues)

Don't forget to comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the winnie & walter blog. Winners are announced on Saturday, the 15th! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter - The Write Stuff: Leave it to Dad

Hi all! Here's a preview of winnie & walter's second stamp set, The Write Stuff: Leave it to Dad. It was really difficult to pick which stamps to use for this post ... so many possibilities with all of them!
  

Here's a card that uses the large male silhouette image. I particularly enjoy this more contemporary silhouette of a man in a business suit, vs. the more traditional Victorian silhouette image of a man with a top hat. Since it's more contemporary, I thought it would lend itself to an "Andy Warhol" treatment with the different colored embossed images. Love that this set includes a "Pops" stamp. We use that term often around the house. Much more than "Dad" : )

At first I reached for the white embossing powder for the Pops sentiment, but changed to purple to give it more of a quirky pop art feel. I like that there is no white on this card. Well, until you get to the inside I guess! It's lined with We R Memory Keepers Simply Spring paper.

And did you know that winnie & walter offer coordinating cut files? Yes they do! They are actually free with the purchase of the coordinating stamp set until March 30. Not interested in the stamps? You can just purchase the cut files separately if you'd like.

Here's one of the cut files that is just so charming. Potty People holding hands! I layered two potty people together to give them a little more substance, and added the sparkly heart to the little boy who is lovin' on his Daddy-O. Yep, that's right, there is a stamp that says Daddy-O! How awesome is that?! We also use that term around here, although Pop/Pops is more common. 

Love is from The Big, The Bold, The Happy (sold out again, but will be back), and You is from a set debuting in a couple days. The stars on the top are from Scenery: Big Bang Confetti (sold out now, but will be back).

The envelope is made with the same paper as the potty people, and it's tied it in with the matching potty people stamp

Here's another cut file that's included free with the stamp set for a limited time. To make the shaped card, I made the Dad silhouette solid, copied it, flipped it horizontally, squished the two silhouettes together slightly, cut and folded it over. That's the bottom white layer. Then I cut a black layer as-is and adhered that on top of the white card base. The bold "DAD" is from yesterday's Parentville. Super quick and easy once it was set up and cut out. 

Half way through the second release! Check back and see the final two sets. Like yesterday, be sure to check out the amazing projects from the Talent, and our awesomely talented guest designer Angie Tieman!

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Suzanne Dahlberg

  (Vanessa Menhorn's projects will be available later this month due to shipping issues)

Don't forget to comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the winnie & walter blog. Winners are announced on Saturday, the 15th! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter - Parentsville

(For the CAS-ual Fridays Release Day post, please click here or scroll down)

Hey everyone, it's time for the sophomore release from winnie & walter! I think you will like these sets just as much as the inaugural release, and I can't wait to show them to you! They all have a family theme, and this first set is a mix of Mom stuff and Dad stuff.

 

 Here we have a bow tie for Dad, generationally stamped several times on the base of this one layer card. There is a slight linen texture from me kissing it onto another stamp first. The fonts for the sentiments are again outstanding and make quite an impact.
   

The next one I've been totally chuckling at this last week as it's been on my desk. We're thanking dad for his support. More specifically, as indicated by the open wallet, his financial support! I think I may pick this one to send to my dad this year. It's fun to send a quirky card sometimes : )

 

I intentionally changed the orientation of the card from the typical top-fold-card to a side-fold-card, just like the open wallet : )

Finally, for the impeccably stylish and together mom, a collection of purses sure to rival the ones she has tucked away in her closet. I'm generally not so successful at the random placement of images, but I'm pretty happy with the flow of this one. Again, the bold sentiments with the mixed fonts really grab your attention and make it look like a Hallmark card.

We've got more goodies to share over the next three days, so hopefully you can come back and see what else is coming out. If you get a chance, be sure to check out the amazing projects from the Talent, and our awesomely talented guest designer Angie Tieman (my long-time CAS-ual Fridays teammate!!) who won the guest spot from the last release!

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Suzanne Dahlberg

 
Vanessa Menhorn's projects will be available later this month due to shipping issues.

Don't forget to comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the winnie & walter blog. Winners are announced on Saturday, the 15th! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

CFS: Wait for it

This last set of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is perfect for any teen boys or girls that you send cards too. You instantly become twice as cool as you were before using them : ) This first card uses the "awesome" stamp embossed in silver sparkle and then again in blue sparkle. My original intent was to stamp this as a background, but it was a little difficult to read and the contrast was too low. So I decided to cover it up with gold mesh fabric and make it even more difficult to read, almost like it was planned that way!

 

More doily parts were on my desk, so I used some here too. I attached the small ones with a french knot, and the two larger ones are stitched through the center.

Can you believe there is actually a stamp set that includes "totally stoked"?! Right? How fun and different! I was going to make a card set using this sentiment stamp embossed on colored card bases, and perhaps I still will. But for now, here's a single card that consists of an embossed sentiment and two strips of patterned paper. Quick!

And speaking of fun, I totally giggled when I saw "wait for it" ... so many ways to play around with that one! I used the "dude" and arrow stamps from Rad (which is a perfect companion set to this one) to visually lead up to the "legendary" declaration. Stamping it in triplicate helps emphasize the message and create a focal point on this text-only card.

All three of the stamp sets are available starting tomorrow, March 12th, in the CAS-ual Fridays Store. Check out the store blog and comment on any of the three release posts for a chance to win the entire release! More inspiration waits for you with the rest of the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Design Team and with Deepti, our super-talented guest designer:

Virginia

Sylvia

Piali

Jingle

 Dana

 Angie

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly