CFC #132: Gold Medal Winner

Almost 300 cards in the gallery for the last CAS-ual Fridays Challenge, wow-ee!! Time to get a little tougher though .. this time the challenge is to make a masculine card with ribbon, but the catch is to not use kraft. I know, makes you think, right?!

This card showcases a medal made from the CAS-ual Fri-dies Funky Round Tag. The ribbon is folded at the bottom and ironed to a point in the middle. A jump ring is stitched to the back and threaded through the hole in the round tag. To get more definition and dimension for the medal I layered an outline of the die cut on top, and another layer of chipboard on the bottom. The sentiment (from Wait for it) is broken up and embossed in gold.

I really wanted this medal to be functional so it's removable from the card. Here you can see the holder is made from two holes punched and a line cut between, kinda like what you'd see at a store to hold jewelry on a card.

Here's my "awesome" model. His big brother will be getting the card, and the medal, when baseball season is over. He's all about trophies and medals.

Here's a quick story: after losing a game last week, Logan was feeling down. His younger, 6-year-old brother said, "It's not about winning or losing. What's important is that you have fun." I couldn't believe it. I was so happy and proud to hear that. They actually listen to things we say!! Logan's answer? "Well, when there's a trophy or medal on the line, I don't care as much about having fun." Hahaha, he's focused!

Here's a picture of him in last weekend's Memorial Day tournament after his team won bronze. Lovin' that medal!

Anyway, I sure hope you take on this [masculine + ribbon - kraft] challenge and link your projects up in the CAS-ual Fridays gallery. You're not going to want to miss the inspiration that these talented ladies have waiting for you:

Amy

Ardyth

Donna

Jingle

Laura

Mayuri

Tracey

Thanks so much for looking! 

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Scenery: Big Bang Bling + The Big, the Bold and Fun

Hi Folks! The last two sets of the Winnie & Walter release are sequels to the most popular sets (Scenery: Big Bang Confetti and The Big, the Bold, and the Happy). I've been waiting for these!! Both sets are combined for this post. The Scenery set includes SEQUIN stamps, and they're in different sizes ... love these! I've used them on this card and it was embarrassing how quickly the panel took to make. Like, minutes! I added some real sequins to fill it out, and some gold thread swished behind the panel a la Laura Bassen. And seriously, how PERFECT could the sentiment be with shiny sequins? It's almost like they planned it that way : )

This card uses both sets, as well as yesterday's Bubble Talk for the word balloon. I thought it would be fun to split up the sentiment and have all the suggestions to "smile" bouncing around the bottom of the card with the confetti.

For the circle confetti you can either color them in with marker, or take the easy way and use the solid stamp included in the set. That's what I did. Just do three or four of each color and you've got a balanced design! I selected a few of the confetti to add glitter to so there would be a little something extra. I picked most of the colors from the patterned paper that's lining the inside of the card (American Crafts My Girl).

 For more inspiration, head on over to the winner of our Play Date #1 Challenge, Shirley-Bee, our guest designer Chaitali Narla from Iron Craft, Julie and Shay themselves on the Winnie & Walter blog, and the rest of the Winnie & Walter talent:

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Vanessa Menhorn
    

For a chance to win all seven stamp sets comment here. You can also comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the Winnie & Walter blog. 

      

Thanks for looking, and get ready for tomorrow, May 25th when all the sets will be on sale!
-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Bubble Talk + The Write Stuff: Picture Perfect

 

Hi Folks! Two more Winnie & Walter sets for today (I know, can you even stand it?!) Bubble Talk includes two-step word balloons. I've just used the solid word balloon here a bunch of times in "boy" colors and then embossed the sentiment in white. I thought about white embossing an outline around the two word balloons with the sentiment, but at the last minute I chickened out. There's too much stamping on this card to risk it! I wanted the two words to be close together, but after they were embossed they looked unbalanced in their balloons. So I filled the space on the left and right with some sequin stamps from a set you'll see tomorrow.

And, wait until you see the sentiments on this set. It contains "HEY" and "DUDE". Seriously, I can't wait to send these cards out!

 This card uses three of the sets ... the bubble talk set like the last card (that font!!), a scenery filler for the background that you'll see tomorrow, and the camera from Picture Perfect. The camera totally begs to be paper-pieced, and let me tell you it looks awesome that way. I didn't get a chance to put it on a card though. However, it looks awesome just stamped in Staz-on on a linen metallic paper (American Crafts).



The camera pops out quite a bit (3/4") to really be obnoxious, going along with all the photos that are being taken of the recipient (snap, snap, snap, snap, snap ...)

But don't worry, it folds flat for mailing. I took a strip of 110 pound paper, folded it into a rectangle, and attached that to the camera and card. You can see part of the folded rectangle to the left of the camera here.

As a Mom who has 110,896 photos in her Photoshop catalog, the sentiment on this card sums up many of my days. Although, I've definitely dropped the "smile" introduction and just get down to business snapping photos. A "HEY" will come out if the boys aren't cooperating. And what do you know, there's a "hey" sentiment in the Bubble Talk set. I could have totally customized this card! 

 Like the other sets this week, we've got tons more inspiration over at the winner of our Play Date #1 Challenge, Shirley-Bee, our guest designer Chaitali Narla from Iron Craft, Julie and Shay themselves on the Winnie & Walter blog, and the rest of the Winnie & Walter talent:

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Vanessa Menhorn
    

Want to win all seven sets? Comment here for a chance. You can also comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the Winnie & Walter blog. 

      

Thanks for looking, and we'll be back tomorrow!

-Kelly

Fusion: Faux Brush Script Birthday Card

please click here or scroll down for today's Winnie & Walter post.

Hi Folks! Lots of great black, white and yellow entries for the last challenge, did you see the gallery? It looks awesome! Going out on a limb here, and thinking this challenge will bring a lot of crisp, black/white/red cards. I sure went that route, and picked up the red with white polka dots, the black text, and the music notes. From the sketch I grabbed the circle with the horizontal band going through it.

I used a watercolor technique that I saw on Joni's blog, where you ink your stamp and then dab it with a watercolor brush before stamping. I really like how it mimics the brush script look we are seeing everywhere, especially Kal Barteski's designs for AC Amy Tangerine's Plus One line.

Hope to see you in the gallery!

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team!

Betty J.

Cathy Weber

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

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 Parentville Extras + The Big, the Bold and Extras

 

Hi Folks! We've got two Winnie & Walter "extras" stamp sets to share today. The first one is the Parentville Extras with lots of alternate names for "Mom" and "Dad", including this elegantly scripted "Mother". It makes me happy how the "love you" fits perfectly in the scribbled rectangle from yesterday's Rectangled and Triangled set. The adorable wooden hearts are also part of the set. Fuzzy twine is from American Crafts.

  Here's one for "Pop" ... I can't believe there is a stamp for "Pop"!! My husband will be getting this one, as that's what we call him.

 The secondary sentiments are quite useful for this and other cards to enhance the main sentiment. I like having the 5 stars to break up the text. Finally, the blue triangle borders are from yesterday's Rectangled and Triangled set. 

 

These two-step flowers are part of The Big, the Bold and Extras. A little masking is all it takes to get a pleasing bunch of flowers. I ended up using watercolors to color the flowers, but you could certainly use the solid stamp as well. The gaps are filled in with black marker. 

  Being impatient, I used the embossing gun to dry the watercolors, and decided to use the curled panel as-is. It's strange to say, but I kinda like it that way, like it's been posted to a bulletin board for a long time. I had one extra floral panel so I made another card instead of tossing it in the scrap pile.

I'm thinking I like this one a little better. I also had the burlap out from one of yesterday's cards, so this card is really right from my desktop. The large safety pin gave me a little trouble since it wouldn't lay flat, so I used some glossy accents to hold it to the panel.

 

 Don't forget to check out the winner of our Play Date #1 Challenge, Shirley-Bee, our guest designer Chaitali Narla from Iron Craft, Julie and Shay themselves on the Winnie & Walter blog, and the rest of the Winnie & Walter talent:

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Vanessa Menhorn
    

I can't wait to find out who the lucky winner of ALL SEVEN stamps sets from this release will be ... give yourself a chance and comment here. You can also comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the winnie & walter blog. 

      

Thanks for looking, and we'll be back tomorrow!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Scenery: Rectangled & Triangled

 Hi Folks! I am so excited for the next few days ... it's the third release for Winnie & Walter and I'm pretty sure you're gonna fall in love with just a few of the SEVEN stamp sets (and cut files). It's crazy!

The first set has an amazing amount of rectangles and triangles, both solid and outlined, for you to play around with for days and days and days. This card was ridiculously easy to put together. The outlined triangles are in a big row, so I only had to stamp five times to get the panel. Then pick the spaces you want to fill, and stamp your sentiment (which, as you may have guessed, will be making an appearance later this week!)

Given the "adventure" sentiment, I was going for a rugged, outdoors look, and tried to make 3 mountains out of my triangles (can you see 'em?) The "adventure" is lined up with the tip of the brightest triangle. The "go. see. do." is positioned at the top of the highest mountain. Background paper is AC Amy Tangerine Yes, Please.

Just like the last triangle card, there is a row of outlined rectangles that you can easily stamp all at once, and then fill with your choice of patterned goodness. For this card I've used the same color for each row of pattern, but you could use the same pattern and vary the color, use alternating patterns, leave some empty, the possibilities are endless. 

Would you believe the squiggles on the red patterned rectangle are actually the initials of the design team? Yep, that's just how creative and clever Julie and Shay are. How cool is that? Seriously.

Here's the tag that is slipped in the pocket I sewed. Again, more goodness for later this week : ) Background paper is AC Amy Tangerine Yes, Please.

This card just uses one of the rectangle filler stamps. So fun just to stamp it randomly and see the design develop. I overlapped the colors to go for the orange and purple hues. Inside is lined with American Crafts My Girl paper.

Cousin Helen's thread never leaves my desk, so it's easy to add to everything! I love it winding behind the sentiment to 1) break up the rectangles, 2) add some shine, and 3) move the eye down to where the sentiment, and the cluster of loops, are. Virginia and Alexandra, I think this sentiment was made for you (and Ryan).

Finally, another one of the patterned rectangles, with a triangle in it! Stamp it overlapping in a circle and you get a neat sunburst/compass pattern. Like I said, the possibilities are endless.
 
Believe it or not, we've got 6 more sets to share over the next 3 days so don't go too far away! Inspiration is waiting for you with the winner of our Play Date #1 Challenge, Shirley-Bee, our guest designer Chaitali Narla from Iron Craft, Julie and Shay themselves on the Winnie & Walter blog, and the rest of the Winnie & Walter talent:

Heather Pulvirenti | Joni Andaya | Vanessa Menhorn

I'm generally not one to enter on-line contests, but this is one you won't want to miss ... one lucky winner will receive ALL SEVEN stamps sets from this release! You can also comment-to-win a stamp set each day of the release on the winnie & walter blog.
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Three Washi Tape Cards for Gallery Idol

As many of you know, this year's Gallery Idol auditions are kicking off with a challenge to make a card using washi tape. Here are my three entries! 

This card features washi tape flowers for Mom. Each flower is created by punching a circle, then gathering and sticking washi tape around the edge of the circle. I repeated that another time to make a second, inner layer. The sentiment is winnie & walter Parentville, and the brads are American Crafts Elements Pearl Brads. I liked using navy and gray instead of black for the sentiment. 

 

The second card features washi tape wrapped around paper straw sections to make beads. I made a similar string of beads on this card, but without using washi tape. I hesitated using a few of these washi tapes because they are ridiculously NOT sticky. I had to put adhesive on the ends, and even then the edges curled up after several days. So tonight I glued them, laughing all the time at the idea of me gluing washi tape down.

The sentiment and background are both from winnie & walter. A few of the circles are colored in with marker. After some debate, I used some awesome sequins from the 1960's that I got at an estate sale last weekend. They are so thick, and are a perfect combination of gold and platnium. Must not hoard these.

The string of beads goes through holes in the corners of the card and is loosely tied together on the inside, so that ...

it can be worn as a necklace if you want! Obviously, it's not advised to wear while jumping in puddles with your children, but any dry situation will do fine. Since it's made of paper, it's nice and light around your neck.

The last card is my favorite. As I was thinking about what kind of card to make for the washi challenge, I first thought about what properties make washi tape special (transparency and stickiness) and then how can I take advantage of that. That's when I got the idea to make a jellyfish, since they are transparent. I drew and cut the top of a jellyfish on firm acetate (rescued packaging material) and then covered it with washi tape.

For the lower section of the jellyfish, I cut long strips of washi in-half lengthwise and then sewed a long running stitch so I could gather them. Once they were gathered, they took on some nice, random curves that you just can't plan. I was so excited about the background paper ... it has great streaky lines AND they are yellow.

The large sentiment is CAS-ual Fridays Shenanigans and the "jellyfish" sentiment is made with the Martha Stewart alpha stamps. Highlighting the transparent nature of washi, I overlapped the jellyfish on the sentiment. I got the idea for the sentiment from a rhyming book my Kindergartener brought home. See ya later alligator; chop chop, lollipop; let's go, buffalo; and swish swish, jellyfish were some of the pages. I changed it to be more birthday-card-friendly with "make a wish, jellyfish."

Here's the jellyfish before I attached him to the card. 

 

He reminds me of the incredible jellyfish we saw at the Shedd Aquarium last year. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

-Kelly

CFS Feature: Lots of Stampin' on This One

I haven't stopped playing with these adorable playing card stamps and dies since they came out with the last CAS-ual Fridays release! This time it's for a graduation card. I love how the stamp set comes with a large and small version of the card suits. Both are used here ... the large heart/diamond/spade/club suit is stamped on the card base, and the small suit is stamped on the playing card die cut. In between the large suits I stamped the sentiment several times. I intended for this to act as a stripe to break up the line of suits, and to reinforce the sentiment. I was a little bummed to put the black panel across the card since it covered up a lot of stamping, but the vellum didn't seem to separate the card dies from the busy base enough. The background got some color spray so the white cards would stand out more.

In the Cards, Shuffle Fri-Dies

For the sentiment, I stamped the second line upside down, just like a playing card would be. As much as I love the playing card images, Michele sneaks a ton of great sentiments in this set too, like congrats, birthday, graduation, friendship, and generics.

This card is over at the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog today.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Moxie Fab World Hip on Handwriting

Hi Folks! Here's a card for the Moxie Fab World Hip on Handwriting Challenge.  Doing this with a paintbrush and paint, as is such the hot trend this year, would be ideal. But I don't have a small enough and controllable brush for lettering this small. So marker it is. And a fuchsia one at that. The letter loops are colored in with alcohol markers, and the stars are from winnie & walter Scenery: Big, Bang Confetti. For a few of the solid stars I sketched an outline over them with a darker marker.

A Sakura gelly roll pen that I've had for years (which I assume is the equivalent to the Wink of Stella marker) adds some sparkle and shine to the markered insides. I was going for the dreamy, whimsical look, which is well outside my comfort zone : )

I sincerely hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's day with your family, your Mom, your Grandma, or whoever you celebrate with. Mom's totally rock!

-Kelly

Here's a pic of me and Mom on my birthday earlier this year. Love you mom!!

Fusion: 10th Birthday Card for My Son

Please scroll down or click here for the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Sunbeams release post

Welcome to another fun Fusion Challenge! I had a super-difficult time picking a winner for the last challenge ... so much pressure!! Everyone made it so difficult. If you haven't seen, check out Sian's winning card with all of that individual embossing. Crazy good!

For this challenge, I chose to go with just the sketch, as I needed to make a card for my son's 10th birthday, and neither yellow, nor flowers, would go over very well. Playing cards, however, certainly fit the bill. He was absolutely thrilled, moved me to the front of the couch, took two steps back, and lunged at me for a giant hug/tackle. Oh yeah, totally worth the work!!

The card die and stamps are the new CAS-ual Fridays Stamps which will be released today!

Here's the birthday boy. Each year I have a number on the door and we take a picture. I was a little stumped what to do about his 10th birthday, since a large "10" wouldn't fit. So I spelled it out. It didn't seem right to end it on a "9", so I'm happy that we got this one in.

He's been in "cool guy" mode and hasn't been smiling for pictures recently. I asked him for just one smile showing some teeth. "Like this?" he asked, I snapped, and then he realized what had happened. "Mom, please delete that one right away!!!"

All the other photos looked like this : )

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team!

Betty J.

Cathy Weber

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

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

CFS Sunbeams Four Different Ways

Hi folks! Here are four different ways to use the last set of stamps debuting this week at CAS-ual Friday Stamps! The Sunbeams set has a really neat half-sun image. This card uses it in the standard way, as a sun setting or rising on the horizon. I stamped an extra set of rays in yellow to fill out the sun a little more. 

To make the reflection in the water, I turned the sun stamp upside down and stamped it a second time for a lighter image. The sentiment was a little more tricky because it had to be upside down and backwards to act like a true reflection. So I used my old mirror image stamp (just a large, plain rectangle of rubber). This was actually the very first thing I stamped on the card, since the mirror image stamp is not see-through. Everything else was built around it. Since the reflected sentiment was stamped from the mirror image stamp, it didn't hold the embossing powder too well in the middle. How I wish I would have blown more powder off the sides to match ... it looks more like a reflection that way!

The clouds are the Bubble Label Die.

I used two impressions of the half-sun image to make a full sun image on this card. I could have stamped the half-circle a few more times to even out the ink and avoid the seam that shows in the middle, but I decided it looked kinda cool and just left it as-is.

This card took maybe 5 minutes to make (always a HUGE challenge for me, this rarely happens). The smiley face is a tiny stamp meant to go on the sun. Instead, I just cut a wonky circle in copy paper to use as a stencil for distress inks. The face was then stamped in the same ink on the circle. Done!
  

This last card uses the bottom straight edge of the sun design to make a rectangular panel on the card. I was going for a slightly watermelon look, with the pink/dark green/light green colors that were selectively inked on the stamp. This was a fun one to play with, especially with the different patterns the sun rays made in the middle depending on how close you stamped the images together. I had a couple different versions : )

More inspiration waits for you with the rest of the inspiring CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Design Team:

Virginia

Piali

Jingle

 Angie

Check back at CAS-ual Friday Stamps for the release of the treble clef, the music note, the playing cards, and this sunshine stamp and die sets! Thanks for looking!

-Kelly