Paper Strips and CHA

I finished up a couple cards tonight, and unfortunately have had to photograph them in the dark. Reason being is that I will not be home tomorrow. I have successfully been able to convince hubby to work from home and watch the kids so I can go back to CHA! I've included a few CHA photos at the end of this post, and will share more tomorrow.

Back to the cards, they all use the same technique of lining up the new PTI sun ray triangle die cuts and slicing them into strips. Each card uses a variation of this theme.

The pattern of the first card is inspired directly from the Tuesday Trigger:

The technique is inspired by CAS-ual Friday's challenge to use strips of paper.

 I don't have any tone-on-tone striped paper, but I do have an ancient Stampin' Up stamp that is part of a set to make your own plaid. Turns out it makes a pretty decent stripe background.

Here's another card using this same technique.

   This one uses pre-made patterned paper, a space between each triangle, and an offset placement of the strips.

Here are the triangles lined up, leaving a small margin in between so you can see the yellow background paper.

Then slice into 3/8" strips and stagger so you have a rippled/chevron effect.

I decided to turn this section on its side, so the green arrow is pointing in between the words in the sentiment.

Finally, here's one more card.

This one uses white triangles adhered to red paper (no, that's a lie, it's really white paper colored with a red Copic marker). The panel is then sliced into strips of different widths, and separated on the background paper. To mix it up, some strips I turned upside down. Kinda reminds me of birch trees now that they are on the card. So out comes the bird die again! The bird made for a handy place to stamp the sentiment.

It was pretty fun to play around with the patterns. 

There are so many ways you can change up this technique (different patterns/colors/textures; spaces between the triangles/flush triangles; spaces between the strips/flush strips; uniform widths for the strips/varying widths for the strips). 

On top of all those variations, you can also start with something other than triangles. Use even strips, or random cuts. Lots of possibilities.

OK, now for some fun CHA moments 

(Helen, if you're reading this, you ROCK!)

My super crafty friends and Heidi Swapp!

Yep, you know this guy too. Tim Holtz!

Silhouette had so many C U T E things in their booth. A fabric elephant baby mobile, printables, T-shirts, you-name-it. 

LOVE the gray messenger bags we got to make at the Silhouette booth. I chose a yellow bicycle "Celebrate Today" heat transfer design for mine. So surprised how quick and easy it was to peel off the negative spaces with their hook tool. Fool proof.

 

Fabric tape! Love how simple their display is. And to the point.

 Silhouette again. OK, OK, I'm sold!

Self portrait. Me and my stuff going home.


If you're still here, thanks for sticking with me! I'll share more CHA goodness tomorrow.

Superstar 9th Birthday Card [CFC #61, LIM #75]

Here's a superstar birthday card for a nine-year-old (but of course would work well for any age under 10 with this die set). The sentiment looked a little lonely so I did some generational stamping above and below it.

The gold is an amazing paper from American Crafts that I still had on my desk from the gold tree branch. And since it has such a sheen it really stands out with a tone-on-tone treatment. The "ribbon" is made from paper strips that are embossed to make it look like grosgrain ribbon. 

Linking this card to the strip of paper challenge at CAS-ual Fridays, and the "Gold" challenge at Less is More. 

Supplies used:

stamps:  Michael's dollar bin
impression plates: PTI stripes
dies:  PTI by-the-numbers
ink: American Crafts gold foil
other: corner rounder

On a side note, I made this (belated) birthday card for our dear neighbor Amanda.

She held her own with the boys at my son's recent baseball party and got a huge base hit.

Amanda has Dravet Syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilepsy that is resistant to current anti-epileptic drug therapies. There is no known cure and she will never outgrow it. This Syndrome causes every type of seizure, as well as progressive mental and physical developmental delays. 

One of her limitations is that she cannot function as well in temperatures above the low 70s. So summertime is an indoor time for Amanda. As such, she does not get to participate in many sports. At the baseball party she took her first ever turn at bat and was insistent on swinging herself. Well, she got a huge hit and became our superstar of the day!

Here's an extreme close up so you can see her proud face coming back from the field. (the vest she is wearing is filled with ice to help keep her body temperature cool, allowing her to be in warmer weather for a short amount of time). 

We are all so proud of Amanda, her baseball success, and how far she has come over the years!

To read more of her story, and about the disease, her parents have set up a website:

http://www.hopeforamanda.com/

As always, thanks for looking!

Rainbow "Thank You" Text Card [CFC #60]

What a fun challenge this has been, to use text in your design.  

Here's another card where text is the design.

 

 For this one, I made a pencil mark every 3/8", lined up the sentiment, and stamped it down the card. Towards the end of the rainbow, like around the color lilac, I got nervous something would go wrong. I will admit there are 2 new additions to my scrap pile. Third time's the charm!

 

The card base is embossed with small stripes, which looks cool in person, but is totally invisible here!

Thanks for looking!

PS. Anyone going to CHA next week? I'm so excited to attend. It will be my first year going. It would be so neat to meet people there. 

Supplies used:

stamps: PTI Mat Stack I
impression plates: PTI stripes

Mehndi Medallion Bird [LIM #75, PDCC #139]

I love having scraps lying around on my crafting table. This bird started out life as a mask for the plaid text medallion card I just made. The mask didn't turn out too well (the negative bird image was kind of "blobbish," maybe because I didn't use thin copy paper for the mask). But, I did like the bird. And I liked how the circular middle of the medallion ended up where the bird's wing would be.

I wanted to keep this card simple, so for the silver in the Play Date Cafe challenge I just added a rhinestone eye. The orange is substituting for nude (no nude ink here). 

 

I knew I wanted to use the gold branch for the Less Is More gold challenge. This paper is amazing ... it's American Crafts Gold Foil. Super thick, so when it goes through the die cutting machine, it has a ton of dimension. On a die this thin, it almost looks like a real 3D branch.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies used:
stamps:  Micheal's Dollar Bin, PTI Mehndi Medallion
dies:  Memory Box Branch, Memory Box Bird
ink: Color Box Tangerine, PTI True Black
paper: American Crafts Gold Foil
other: Rhinestone

Inspired by Family: Focus on the Sentiment

Hi everyone! Please stop by Inspired by Family to check out some cards featuring the sentiment that can be adapted for any occasion. There's a small tutorial that goes along with them.

While you're there, be sure to take a look at the Summer Magazine that is chock full of all things summer. Watermelon pops, s'mores, a picnic party, pool noodle crafts, dyed baby jar luminaries, mini banana splits, DIY sidewalk chalk, it's all there!

On a side note, I found tutorials to be much more difficult to create than they seem. I'm not usually a step-by-step person, and it's hard for me to stop in the middle of creating something to take pictures. You really have to think ahead and plan things out (definitely not that way I typically work!)

It's all a leaning process.


Anyway, as always, thanks so much for taking a look!

I'll also link this up to the CAS-ual Fridays text challenge.

Plaid Text [CFC #60, Tuesday Trigger]

 I've got a thing for plaid today. So I made a happy birthday card with a plaid background ... out of text. Happy birthday text. It was pretty quick to set up. I used a 1/4" and 5/8" strip of paper as guides to pencil in the lines, and then stamped on top of them.

My original card was a true One-Layer-Card. Until the last step. Yep, the simple "happy birthday" in the middle came out crooked. Arrrgh! I so admire the OLC creators. They are so darn tough to execute! So I had to stamp on a punched circle and adhere it over the blooper. Nice and straight!

The checked center in the poppy from this week's Tuesday Trigger was still in my head, so as long as the OLC status was shot, I made another circle for the center. This one was ... you guessed it ... plaid.

  I'm also adding this to the Make It Monday challenge to stamp on patterned paper, and Stamp It! Cards Birthday Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies used:

stamps: PTI Mat Stack I, PTI Mini Medallion, Martha Stewart Backgrounds  

ink: PTI Hawaiian Shores, Color Box Lime Green, Color Box Tangerine, PTI True Black

other: circle punch

Crepe Paper Poppy [Tuesday Trigger]

My first time linking up with Tuesday Trigger, and what a happy challenge it is this week:

 I'm a newbie, so I went literal for this one. A poppy. Just like the photo. I was pleased to still have some red crepe paper left over in our party drawer, so got to work figuring out how long to cut the petal so it would look right once it was gathered at the bottom.

 
I really loved the large checked brad in the center of the inspiration flower, but I don't have any "fancy" brads like that. So I stamped a pattern on cardstock and then tried to cover a button with it. It worked reasonably well, but there were still some hard edges so I glued a piece of fiber around the side for camouflage.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies used:
stamps: Martha Stewart Backgrounds, PTI Think Big Favorites
impression plates: PTI Woodgrain
other: crepe paper, button, fiber, corner rounder