Thursday 31 May 2012

Fun Four


Fun with Dots

Stamped the largest circle of Papertrey's Dots in Sahara Sand and then coloured in with Copics. Despaired because it's SO VERY TRICKY to make perfect circles with Copics - especially as they get smaller and smaller. Put stickles on top, which had the immediate effect of dazzling your eyes and distracting you from noticing that the dots are no longer perfect circles. Added little Lawnfawn Harold's Alpha banner (ah, but THANKS has 6 letters and I only used 5 colours, so add one more!) and mounted on fun orange and white card base. Done! (Linking this one to Old Back Porch's 52 Card Pickup, Week 21)





Fun with Colour

Cut a mask from the largest Star Nestability. Sponged colour around the edges, added stickles and sentiment. Rounded corners (broke corner rounder (the plastic corner locator thing), darn!). Done!



Fun with Flowers
Looked at Pinterest - inspired by a plate. Cut a negative mask using circle nestability. Stamped various Papertrey and Lawnfawn flowers in black. Removed mask, stamped Papertrey sentiment in Melon. Stickled some of the flower centres. Done!





Caribbean Fun

Asked to make a baby boy card. Located sparkly blue cardstock and cut star with nestability. Matched sparkly blue star best with alarmingly low and never to be replaced supply of Cool Caribbean cardstock. Stamped Papertrey swirls (Cool Caribbean, while contemplating how much better and less warped the new Stampin' Up pads are supposed to be- yay! but I won't be able to get one in Cool Caribbean - boo!). Stamped  Stampin' Up sentiment (Island indigo). Glued on star, added stickles. Done!

Wednesday 30 May 2012

OLW #90 - Superstar



This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to make a card for the man in your life. My poor husband deserves this card this week, after trying so hard to negotiate the minefield otherwise known to my family as my birthday.

Every year he tries to surprise me with something to make me happy (but never a card - how could he possibly find something better than what I make (his words, not mine!)). This year, he tried to achieve that just by buying pretty much everything he could find - a cake, some ice cream, some fudge and an article about how to buy a new couch (don't get me started on the student-days leather monstrosity in our family room that I've been BEGGING him to replace); hopefully SOMETHING would be pleasing to me! I ate some of  the ice cream last night - that made me happy. And I tried the lemon and raspberry cake this morning (yes, at about 10:00) - and was pleasantly surprised (I'm usually a chocolate-or-nothing kind of a girl - doesn't he know that?! But maybe it's time to try something new...).

I really don't understand what makes me so difficult on my birthday - I honestly don't know what I expect to happen, but it never does! lol! At least it's over now until next year! Let the couch shopping begin!

(Edited to add): Cut circle from computer paper, adhered negative mask onto cardstock with repositionable tape. Stamped stars (started with biggest and worked to smallest, trying to ensure that most of the edges of the circle had stars stamped so that your eye can see the edge of the circle). Chose colours as I went. Removed mask, stamped sentiment and added stickles. If I did it again, I may sponge (very lightly) on one side of the circle (left and lower) to make it look 3 dimensional). Colours are limeade, not quite navy, mustard, baha breeze, sahara sand, summer sun soft suede and cherry cobbler.

Retrosketch #13 - For my Niece


Last week, my niece auditioned for "The Next Star" - a Canadian kid/teen talent search for YTV, one of our television channels for that age group. Thousands of kids try out for this across the country and of course only about 12 get through to the 'voting' phase of the show before one is chosen. In addition to talent, it takes guts, stamina and grace to do this kind of thing.

She didn't make it through to the next round, but we're so proud of her for trying and we want to let her know that she's certainly a star in our eyes!





I used this week's Retrosketch again. Glitter Ritz micro glitter (feels like velvet on the page), adhered with Sookwang creative tape for the stripe and the inside star.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Happy 13th Birthday

My son's 13th birthday is next month, and I've been thinking about different ideas for his card. He's a Canadian Air Cadet, so this week's Play Date Cafe colours are perfect for him.







I played around for a while with the three colours of paper, putting together strips and then cutting them and replacing them into squares (is that called bargello?) and then I remembered the double-coloured stamping I did for my sweet card last week and I wondered if it would work with three colours. It does, but only if two colours are related because you have to ink one colour over another. I inked each letter with 2/3 Brocade Blue, then inked 1/3 Navy over the Brocade, leaving 1/3 blank for the Real Red. Have I confused you? LOL! If you really want to know and that explanation is not clear, let me know and I can do some photos to show you.

I used Clear and Simple's Duo Alpha, a little Waltzingmouse "Happy", Stamps of Life tear drop for the flame, and I don't know whose numbers or little stars those are.

The layout I used came from this week's Fall To Layout:



And here are the Playdate Cafe Colours:



Monday 28 May 2012

Catch Up

A quick post to catch up on a the featured stamper challenge I didn't get to play this weekend:




Here's Susan's card that I cased:




I love the idea of starting with one big stamp in the centre and then adding and working your way out to the edge. I started with one of the big round doilies from "Decorative Doilies, Hands of Time" from Uniko Studios and then I just added various dots and circles.  Coloured with Copics and stickles.

RetroSketch #13 - For My Nephew

One of the best things about cardmaking and blogging is all the new friends you meet in cyberspace.

I received a friendly little 'nudge' from one of the designers at Retrosketches the other day, when I commented on her beautiful card HERE  and mentioned that I found this week's sketch a little fussy.... (I think it's the ribbon - I really almost NEVER use ribbon! lol!)

Jackie pointed out that none of the design team's cards for the sketch were fussy, so I should have no trouble participating this week! That's not exactly a direct quote, but that was the drift! lol!




I set out to make a card for my nephew's graduation from Grade 8 (how did that happen? Just yesterday he was a cute little baby! Good thing I'm not getting any older - at least until later this week, lol!).  I used his school's colours, Papertrey's Faux Ribbon, Paper Smooches "Congrats" and Lawnfawn's Harold's Alpha to personalize it with clear embossing powder. I used Wonky Rectangles nestabilities to cut a white 'tag' and then a separate red tag. I measured with a ruler and the nestability and drew on the back in pencil before cutting out the T by hand, so that it fit perfectly on top of the white layer. The tag is popped up with dimensionals, and of course no card would be complete without some sparkle, thanks to Stardust Stickles.

Thanks for the kick in the pants oops, I mean encouragement, Jackie- I'm really glad I tried it!

Sunday 27 May 2012

Outlawz CAS Week 4 - Modern Love

It's my last week as Guest Designer on the CAS Challenge at the Outlawz blog - where did the month go? It's been so much fun and I've 'met' lots of new people in this very active community!

This week's challenge blog is to make a card representing something you love. Well, I love a lot of things, but I still had a hard time coming up with an idea for this card.



In the end I decided to go literal and make a "love" card and to use Jason Mraz's "Love is a Four Letter Word" graphic and minimalist design as inspiration (I love that design!). I added part of a Hampton Arts sentiment (and who doesn't love the Beatles?) and ended up with a card that looks like it should be called "Modern Love" (and I LOVE David Bowie). Not bad, if I do say so myself!

Saturday 26 May 2012

CASE Study 92 - Monogram Fun



I haven't played along on the CASE Study Challenge for a while - this week's challenge card is a real beauty.



I don't know what Aga used to get that amazing texture, so I just focused on making a cool and slightly unexpected monogram. I used fun colours and a lot (a LOT) of masking to create this "K" card with an old outline alphabet (sorry, I don't know who makes it). Then I cut it out and attached it to the black circle to make it pop. Stickles for some sparkle, and my daughter Kate will love this!


Friday 25 May 2012

Man-Tastic Take 2

This is my second card for this week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World.


I used one of the Papertrey Polka-dot backgounds and a birthday sentiment and coloured with copics.

Here's the trigger:



And I liked it so much that I made another, in different colours:



Thursday 24 May 2012

Man-Tastic Take 1

For this week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World, I used one of those 'extra' stamps that you get in sets but rarely use.


The 'c' stamp is from a set from The Stamps of Life - you use it to colour in the edge of a petal or butterfly wing. I love how it fits together and I predict more cards using this. The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse.

Here's the trigger, with its fantastic colour combination:


This is my favourite card for this week, so I'm also linking it to "The Old Back Porch" 52 Card Pick Up - Week 20.

See you tomorrow for Take 2!

Wednesday 23 May 2012

OLW 89 - A Sweet Suite

Today's one-layer-Wednesday challenge is to make a card with something sweet. I thought watermelon and then went a little nuts! lol!



I cut a large circle with one of my Grand Caliburs (this is about 5 1/4 inches in diameter, so it will fit into a regular envelope). Sponged with distress inks, Stamps of Life 'seed' and sentiment


I used an even bigger circle, folded it in half and then cut to make this juicy piece.



Then I masked onto a white cardbase and while looking for a 'sweet' sentiment, came across this alphabet:




 (Lots of Dots by My Stamp Box) and decided to half-stamp in each colour - I like the effect!

I think I'm done now!


Hex Appeal

I got a couple of new background stamps from Impress last week. One of them has these tiny little double-outlined hexagons that I thought would go perfectly with Lisa's little Bumble from Clear Dollar Stamps.




 I coloured each hex  with copics to make a flower pattern for the bee, fussy cut the amount of the background I wanted to use, added Stickles and used a Papertrey sentiment. I added Lisa's sweet little Bumble and used the sketch challenge from Clearly I Stamp.





Tuesday 22 May 2012

The Blues

It's been a sunny, glorious holiday weekend here and I haven't made a card in over 2 days! We visited my parents and some friends and I saw "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy, and Imelda Staunton and Tom Wilkinson - it's really a great movie with terrific acting from an outstanding cast.

I'm full of ideas and inspiration for tomorrow, but for today, here's a card that I made a while ago:


This is a stamp from Ditto that I got at Michael's (the one stamp has all nine 'flowers' on it). I also have the same stamp where the flowers are outlined rather than solid. I stamped in Versafine Onyx  and embossed with iridescent embossing powder before adding the Doodlebug gems (I'm running out of these - they are my favourite because of their bright colours and hemispheric shape!)

Monday 21 May 2012

Digital Stamps

Lisa has created the most adorable digital stamps that you can buy at Clear Dollar Stamps and she's giving away blog candy HERE. All you have to do is leave a comment to enter.

I'm still pretty new to digital stamps - you print them from your computer onto cardstock and then make a card, so this was a really fun learning experience. Using digital stamps gives you flexibility in sizing the image which is something I've had fun with while making these cards.

Here are the cards I made with "Ties for Him".


This one will be for my dad from the kids. I used the "Grandpa" as background (it printed straight - I just cut it on an angle) and coloured the "Tall Stripes" tie with copics and stickles. I attached the tie only at the top, so it has a hidden surprise.....







For this card, I resized and lined up a bunch of the different ties and centred them over the sentiment (the first and fifth tie are the same one I used for the previous card, just shrunk way down!).


Then I made a baby card with "Bumbles".


For this card, I chose two bees, positioned them and then sized them to represent a new family (papa, mama and baby). I coloured the wings on the whisper white panel, and then printed the image again onto vellum and stickled and paper pieced the wings for sparkle and dimension, with the colour underneath the wings showing through. I added black pearl pen for the eyes and finished off by creating a border with the chisel tip ends of the same copic markers I used to colour the bees. I made up the somewhat cheeky sentiment, so please don't blame Lisa if you don't like it! lol!

I'm not sure that I'll convert completely to digital stamps quite yet, but I've definitely learned enough to want to try it again!

Sunday 20 May 2012

Outlawz Week 3 - Pink, Yellow and Green

Week three of my month as Guest Designer for the Outlawz CAS challenge and I'm so pleased with this card for this week's challenge, which is to use pink, green and yellow:


Nothing fancy or clever here - I simply stamped this old Magenta stamp twice, coloured the images with copics and then cut them out using scissors. I went around the edge with my black copic marker so there were no unsightly white edges and then popped them up on dimensionals, and added stickles (they're a little subtler in real life!). I love how the colours seem to just pop right off the page.

Saturday 19 May 2012

IC337 - Red Envelope

This week's inspiration site is  Red Envelope. Wow! There are so many cool things and they're photographed beautifully (to entice you to 'need' them! lol!)

I made two cards:



Anyone who knows me will see the irony here. I rarely drink (brought up in the Salvation Army) and even more rarely go to bars, but the graphic shape really caught my eye I used a Papertrey flower die and my long oval nestability to make this. I'm also going to put this in CASual Friday - use a die or punch.






Anyone who knows me will not be surprised at all that I chose jewellery to inspire this card!  The sentiment is Stampin' Up, and the 'necklace' was stamped using 3 rings stamped fairly randomly. Everything embossed in silver.

Play Date Cafe on a CASual Friday






This colour combination is this week's Play Date Cafe colour challenge:



And the second one works for CASual Friday's challenge to use punches or dies.


Black and white is always dramatic and graphic, so I used my current favourite graphic flowers from Mixed Bunch and from Uniko Studio's Time Set to make these cards. I also used Clear and Simple's Bold Alphabet for the second card.

I'm so glad it's finally the weekend - it's been a busy week and we have an extra day off on Monday for Victoria Day, which includes fireworks, which is always fun! And even better, we have a beautiful warm and sunny forecast!

I hope you have some fun planned for this weekend!

Friday 18 May 2012

RIC 12



Have you ever had a card take on a life of its own? That's what happened here. I looked at this week's Runway Inspired Challenge inspiration:


and I decided to focus on that red and blue butterfly-type thingy in the middle of her bodice. Somehow it became a "Superhero" kind of a card and I decided to just go with it. I used my grosgrain texture plate from My Favourite Things and stamps from There She Goes (Numbered Days). The sun is a Papertrey die.

I normally like to have more control over what I'm making, but sometimes you just end up with happy surprises!

High Drama



This card came from a bunch of things on my desk. I think I can honestly say I've never used chipboard on a card before (and yet I have a whole bunch of if for some reason! lol!).  I simply coloured it with a copic marker - it looks like suede in real life. And the red and orange 1/4 inch paper stripes were inspired by a t-shirt worn by someone on Hoarders or some other gosh-awful show I'm embarrassed to admit to watching! Stamped the Papertrey sentiment and a few dots (this is the Ardyth-version of spatter - there's still some control - I'm working up to actual random spattering!) and added the requisite (for me) stickles to finish off this high-impact card.

Thursday 17 May 2012

Heroic One-Layer Trigger

Today's first card is for this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge, being hosted by Heather.

The Mini Masterpiece challenge is that your image can only be 2 inches by 2 inches. I've used an old Stampendous flower stamped four times and coloured with copics and stickles.



The next card uses an old Hero Arts stamp, which is the requirement for this week's  Dust 'em Off challenge at A Blog Named Hero. The flowers are from a very old retired set called "Asterisks".




And both qualify for this week's sweet Tuesday Trigger:



I wish I had ink in these 4 exact colours  - they are the perfect mix of brights and pastels. I keep trying, but have never found that pinky-red or the green or that creamsicle orange. Stampin' Up - are you listening???

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Time for Mother's Day

Now that I'm sure my mom has her Mother's Day card, I can show you.



Very simple layout, the flowers from Uniko Studio's Time stamped in Cool Caribbean and quickly (very quickly, since it's dye ink) embossed with iridescent embossing powder. Papertrey sentiment in Island Indigo and pearls and voila!

Tuesday 15 May 2012

LIM 67 - One Layer, Three Stamps

This week's Less is More challenge is to make a one layer card with three stamps. Not two, not four.



So I used one long wide strip from Papertrey, and then I looked for a sentiment. Most of my clear Happy Birthday stamps have been cut in half so that I can separate them or colour them differently or stack them. But, I'm happy to say, that this Happy came separately from this Birthday (both Waltzingmouse), so I really did use three stamps!

The inspiration for this card came from a pair of sandals in this month's Toronto Life:



A card like this takes precision because there's nowhere to hide. Precision in measuring and placement of stamps, and full coverage in ink. I'm proud to let you know that this is only the fourth attempt (I had problems in all 3 categories)!! (and I still think that 'birthday' is a hair lower than 'happy', but I'm done! lol!)

This is my favourite card for this week, so I'm also linking it to 52 Card Pick up (Week 19) at The Old Back Porch.

FTL 190

I made two cards for this week's challenge. And I used Designer Paper for both, which is very unusual for me!




This one has a Stampin' Up! Sentiment and birthday elements from My Stamp Box. Everything stamped in Versafine and embossed with iridescent embossing powder, for glitz.




I love the soft grey with the pops of purple and turquoise in this paper. I used a Papertrey stamp and flower die, along with my Creative Memories curvy cutter.

Both of these came from this sketch: