CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release: Day 5

Hi Folks! Welcome to the last sneak for CAS-ual Fridays!

You've seen both the Thanks and Tin Roof stamps sets in use on prior cards. I love, love how the different pieces of the sentiment fit together so snugly. The bottom is stamped with the Tin Roof pattern, masked, and then inked overall with a sponge. It's a true one-layer card! Hooray! I don't create many of them.
  

Remember the tuxedo from Day 4? Same concept here. Do you get this one? It's a take on the yellow smiley face, only instead of two eyes and a smile, there are two dotted "i's" and the word "smile".

Mirroring the word "smile" ends up in a pretty neat shape on its own! This one is ultra simple, just a die cut adhered to a card base, but still interesting. I think this one is my favorite of the bunch.

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps.

Thanks so much to those who came back and looked at the sneaks all week! Everything you've seen will be available to purchase in the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps store on Saturday.

-Kelly

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release: Day 4

Hi Folks! Welcome back to more peeks from the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps release!



I love a good cheerleader card, and the new Bravo stamp set is perfect to create one, especially with a stamp that says "hip hip hooray!" Stamping the "hip hip" multiple times in rainbow colors is an easy way to fill up a card base.

I could have left it all text, but for fun I added some flowers from the first day in coordinating colors. And sequins from Lucy's Cards. Gotta have sequins! This could easily be a one-layer card if I stamped "hooray" directly on the card instead of a solid piece of cardstock.

Here are today's sets, Bravo and Smiling Fri-Dies.

This one I was particularly happy with, especially since my husband "got it"in the first few seconds after I held it up.

 Does it make sense to you?

It's supposed to look like a tux with a white shirt and outlined details in purple glitter. The "outlined details" are actually more than that.

Yes? No?

It's the word "bravo" mirrored and turned on its side. 

To get this look, you overhang the word die slightly past a folded piece of cardstock, run it through the die machine, and then open it up. You can do this with any word die that has a fairly straight edge across the bottom. It's an easy way to make your sentiments a little more interesting and challenging to figure out.

 
The "B" makes a great bow tie, and I thought the vertical lines of the rest of the letters turned sideways make good shirt ruffles/wrinkles.

 

Our cousin just finished med school, so he will be getting this one in the mail. The tux theme is great for a special occasion that needs celebrating. I still can't get over how perfect it is that the "B's" resemble a bow tie. For the jacket, I made a cut down the middle of the black cardstock, and then bent the lapels backwards. Pretty darn easy.

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps:

Thanks for looking, and come back tomorrow for our very last day!

-Kelly

New Hairstyle!

       

Hi Folks! I'm excited to share a project on the Winnie & Walter blog today! It's another scrapbook page in the "Hello xxx" series. Last month it was "Hello Iso, Aperture, Shutter Speed" documenting the beginning of my journey to learn how to proficiently shoot photos in manual mode. This scrapbook page is saying hello to a new hair cut, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but I've been going to the same hair stylist for 19 years and she'd always talk me out of a new style. It was always shoulder length and one length instead of long layers. So I finally got up the nerve to change stylists (and, unfortunately, salons, because I'd be too embarrassed if my old stylist saw me with someone else in that salon!!)

 

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release: Day 3

Hi Folks! Two cards for you today with the new CAS-ual Fridays Stamps release:

The sentiment "little card, big thanks" made an appearance in one of the first CAS-ual Fridays stamp sets, which is now retired, so I was happy to see it come back in this new Thanks set.

 

The letters in "BIG" are nice and thick so they were easy to cut out. That allowed me to layer them over the patterned paper and doily, and run the first part of the sentiment on a strip through the letter "G". I like connecting the sentiment together like that. The "thanks" is from another die set called Smiling Fri-Dies.
   

Here are the two new sets. Lots of fun combinations for sentiments.

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps.

Thanks for looking, and hope to see you tomorrow!

-Kelly

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release: Day 2

Hi Folks! Welcome back to more sneaks of the latest CAS-ual Fridays release!

This one uses more of the awesomely stylized leaf from yesterday's stamp set as a background for the main panel. I thought it looked a little predictable with just having the center panel on the card base. Originally my plan was to die cut more leaves so I could completely fill all the spaces around the panel, but I was running late and needed to get the card photographed so just made do with the number of leaves I already die cut. Turns out I like the space left between the leaves for a little breathing room. I also went with colored leaves embossed in white so they did not draw attention from the wide white mat around the sentiment.

And here's the fun subway-type sentiment with a nice mix of fonts. I like it when the sentiment is beefy enough to be the main focus of a card, and you don't feel the need to add anything else. Very efficient with your card-making time!

Here's the new Dream Then Do set. Lots to pick from here!

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps. A little birdie also told us that there are several sets on sale at CAS-ual Fridays, which is even more of a deal if you use the special KELLY2016 code for an additional 15% off.

Thanks for looking, and I'll see you back tomorrow!

-Kelly

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release: Day 1

Hi folks! Welcome to another release week for CAS-ual Fridays Stamps! We've got 5 days of sneak peeks before the entire release is available on Saturday. Let's get started!

For this card I wanted the flowers to be backwards, in that the outlines are colored and the flowers filled in with black, instead of colored flowers with black outlines. This is where the sentiment comes in, as I thought the flowers might be ones you'd see in a dream vs. real life. They're all on a watercolor background.

Here's the stamp set they come from, called Pretty Poises (coordinating die also available).

Here's another card with this set. Love the stylized leaves. I think I used them on 3 or 4 cards from this release! These were stamped in a line and then cut out. I was going for the backwards look again, this time with the leaves acting like the stem of a flower. And then the flower head being on the bottom instead of top.

The scripty sentiment is also from this set. The flower and a few leaf halves have been watercolored.

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps. A little birdie also told us that there are several sets on sale at CAS-ual Fridays, which is even more of a deal if you use the special KELLY2016 code for an additional 15% off.

Thanks for looking, and I'll see you back tomorrow!

-Kelly

Stretch your Sentiment Stamps

Hi Folks! I always love personalizing cards when I can. The cards we make are one-of-a-kind, so we might as well play that feature up, right?  In this instance, I wanted the recipient of my card to sing "Happy Birthday" to herself, so I needed to stamp out the song lyrics. The HB2U stamp from CASual Fridays The Whole Shebang is an easy way to get most of the song on there : )

For the rest of the song, I picked out "happy," "birthday," and "deal" from the In the Cards set. Obviously, "deal" is not in the song, but "dear" is. So I inked up everything on "deal" except the bottom right line of the "L" and then drew in my own curve with a white gel pen on the top to make it into an "r". For the birthday girl's name, I just wrote it with a gel pen in a similar font as the other words. Not everything has to be stamped! Sometimes it's easier to just write it yourself : )

  

  

This card is over at the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog today if you'd like additional information.
 

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Altenew 2nd Anniversary Blog Hop

 
Hi Folks! I can clearly remember Altenew's very first release two years ago, and aside from figuring it was going to be a pretty darn successful company with Tasnim and Jen at the helm, my thoughts were solidly confirmed when I saw the wonderfully detailed and unique stamp sets, especially the painted flowers and sketchy cities America sets.

Fast forward two years, and a wild amount of successful releases, and I'm super excited to be celebrating Altenew's 2nd Anniversary along side some pretty darn amazing designers!

For today's birthday celebration, I'm going to be playing with Altenew's Sketchy Landmarks set, which features a wonderfully detailed Westminster Abbey. I was so inspired, I ended up making FIVE cards, some of which are spinoffs of each other. Let's get started!



I started off using the cathedral as a background by turning it around to fill in the white space, like a jigsaw puzzle. The focal point cathedral is stamped on heavy weight paper that's been saturated with water. Then holding it vertically, I dripped watercolor at the edges and let it run down the image. To enhance the rose window in the center I filled it in with a white gel pen. I neglected to leave room for the sentiment, so it ended up going right across the image on two strips.



For the next card I went with the same background-filling formula, but this time I wanted to make the cathedrals pop more by loosely coloring the negative spaces. To get an old-world look, the stamp is pressed lightly so some areas wouldn't transfer ink. I like how different sections are missing from each image. This style seems to fit with the more somber sentiment of the card. And this time, I remembered to allow room for the sentiment! A few of the Vintage Flowers in soft pinks draw attention to the sentiment.



The third card uses those Vintage Flowers as a base for a fairy-tale, floating castle. Sequins are all from Little Things by Lucy's Cards.



The castle is white embossed on vellum to enhance the dreamy feeling, and to let those gorgeous flowers show through.

Now let's try a little 3D action ...



To make this dimensional cathedral, I white embossed the cathedral four times. The two sides are actually just the middle sections cut away from the cathedral. For the back cathedral, I stamped the image in black ink so you could still see some details (more-so in person than in the photo here).




To give the illusion of height I stamped the tops of the trees from Shadow Play on each side.

To mail the card you just fold the cathedral to the side.



For the last card, I had fun with the cathedral AND the sentiment. The first part of the sentiment is on the flag waving over the castle (wrapped around a colored toothpick, with a ribbon flying in the wind). The second part of the sentiment is scattered in the stripes of the patterned paper on the base of the card.

The cathedral is again stamped and fussy cut four times, but this time different parts of the cathedral have been cut away to expose various layers. Since each layer is mounted on fun foam, the thicknesses are easier to see.

This one folds flat too, although the thickness of the fun foam will make mailing a little more difficult. I usually bring my card to a wedding, so that shouldn't be an issue as long as I have it in an envelope.

The many towers and detailing make this particular stamp great for the foam layering technique. It really comes to life!

And there you have it! So much fun playing with this set.

To add to the celebration, these fine companies have all donated prizes, as well as several special offers from Altenew:

 

Altenew Special Offers

• First 100 orders : 1 free mini stamp set (Starting April 7th at 9:00 AM EST)
• Orders over $75 : 1 free mini stamp set (Now through Sunday, April 10, 2016)

Prizes

Leave comments along the way for the opportunity to win one of THREE prize packs valued at over $100 from Altenew! There are 8 awesome companies who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

• Pretty Pink Posh : $30 Gift Certificate
• WOW! Embossing Powder : $30 Prize Pack
• Simon Says Stamp : $30 Gift Certificate
• Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L : $30 Prize Pack
• Ellen Hutson : $50 Gift Certificate
• Freckled Fawn : Gypsy Kit valued at $27
• My Sweet Petunia : Mini MISTI
• StampNation : Three 3 Month Subscriptions

Be sure to leave comments on each stop by Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST for a chance to win! 13 winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs in the hop list and will be announced on the Altenew blog on April 14th.

Your next stop is the fabulous Isha Gupta! 
 
If you haven't already, be sure to check out the Altenew blog for the last two days to see the rest of the festivities. Inspiration overload!

Altenew 
Laura Bassen 
Therese Calvird 
Ellen Hutson
Amy Gray
 Joni Andaya
Freckled Fawn
Debby Hughes
Lydia Evans
My Sweet Petunia 
Kelly Griglione <-- almost there, you are here!

Isha Gupta

Key Supplies:
The following supplies have been used to create the projects in this post. Where available I use affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!

Altenew Clear Stamps, Sketchy Landmarks

Altenew Clear Stamps, Vintage Flowers

Altenew Clear Stamps, Shadow Play