Friday 31 July 2015

Muse 26 - Miss you!


Here is my card for this week's Muse challenge, where Tracey really challenged me with this summery card:



I focused on Tracey's
-theme (penguin)
-technique (sponging)
-colours (green inner tube, blue sponging)
-layout (sentiment under focal image)


I started by masking and stamping a penguin from the same MFT Set (Penguins in Paradise) set that Tracey used and then I placed a mask over him and used an oval mask and Tumbled Glass distress ink to create my water. I coloured the penguin with Copics and added some Stickles to the water  for sparkle.

I hope you'll get a chance to join us - the deadline is Monday morning at 8 am EDT. At that time you can vote for your 3 favourites until Tuesday morning. Voting results will be posted on Tuesday at noon.

Thursday 30 July 2015

MFTWSC239 - Tickled Pink


Here's my card for this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch challenge:



It's a little frillier than my usual style, but it's also fun and feminine and perfect for my sister who loves pink and will be celebrating her birthday soon.

I used
-pierced circle frames
-Blue Prints 25
-Tickled Pink stamp set
-Modern Blooms stamp set
-Modern Blooms dies
-Razzle Berry ink
-Limelight ink

ETA: August 25: Thanks to Kay Miller and Jill Dewey Hawkins!



See here.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

CASology 157 - Wings


This week's CASology Cue Card is Wings



Lots of ways to go with this one, but wings in my house always means something mechanical! For this card I used a Stampin' Up sun (Kinda Eclectic), A Hobby Arts plane and a Clearly Besotted sentiment.

Here's what makes this card CAS
1) one-layer
2) no embellishments
3) stamp a large image off one edge to preserve white space
4) limited colour palette

Now it's your turn - I can't wait to see how wings inspires you!

Monday 27 July 2015

Happy Birthday Geri!


Today is Geri's Birthday! I love Geri's clean and graphic style and decided to case this card she made a little while ago:



I used Lawn Fawn's Owen's ABC and matching die and a small unknown 'happy'.

Happy Birthday my friend - I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sunday 26 July 2015

MCV12 - Merry Christmas


Here's my card for this week's Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge, where we have the extremely talented Marika Rahtu as our guest. Here's her inspiration card:




I focused on these elements:

1) whimsical outline image including a gift
2) backwards "L" shape of image
3) similar colours
3) LOTS of white space
4) black sentiment with script and block font in upper left corner

My image is an old Sunshine Designs elf. He is tiny and my eyes were literally crossing trying to colour him in with my copics. Don't look too closely! lol!

Since my focal image was so small, I chose an equally small PTI sentiment and created a frame by cutting it out with a MFT Pierced Square and popping it up.

The deadline for this week's challenge is Wednesday morning at 8 am. Voting starts then and continues until Thursday morning at 8. Voting results will be posted on Thursday at noon.

Friday 24 July 2015

Muse 125 - Thanks


Here's my card for this week's Muse challenge, where DT Member Anita has provided us with this funky inspiration:




I took it a step or two further down the 'graphic' scale and simplified by focusing on 3 main elements

1) dots (although I kept all mine the same size)
2) colours
3) black sentiment in similar font, placed on the right

I used a Simon Says Stamp row of circles die, placed off to the right so only 6 holes were cut. I coloured the dots with copics - my colours aren't exactly right (should have tested them first! lol!) but I like them. I then inlaid them back into their holes so there's minimal dimension.

You have until Monday morning to join us  - at that time voting will open and you can vote for your three favourites until Tuesday morning. Voting results will be posted on Tuesday at noon.

We are just about to head up to pick up Kate from her horseback riding camp - expect pictures in my next post!

Thursday 23 July 2015

MFTWSC238 - High Impact Happy Birthday!


This is my card for this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge.


I decided to use the colour combination of the back pack I just bought for my nephew's birthday to make his card - Limelight and black.

I used the new Birthday Centre Piece die and cut an extra circle around it. I used the tiny star confetti dies that come with the birthday die and Memory Box numbers to personalize it.

Wednesday 22 July 2015

Dino-fun!





Look what I did! I took MFT's Piece of Cake (which I bought mostly for the fantastic, cheeky sentiments) and Stampin' Up's No Bones About It and made these fun cards!

I knew as soon as I saw the No Bones set, with its bones and solid bodies, that I wanted it even though I'm running out of little boys to make dino cards for. But once I paired it with these sentiments, I think they'll work for lots of people!

Awesome - I used the 'spots' that are supposed to be used on the dinos to create my awesomeness in bright colours.

How Old - I used a Laura Bassen technique to create my ground and sky with distress inks and some masking.

The World - I created my earth  by masking off a circle and then sponging with Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire and then adding some Mowed Lawn land formations. I emphasized T-Rex's short arms by including a Poppy Parade heart, coated with clear WoS.

Alone - I double-stamped the dino bones and did something we all did a LONG time ago - tore the sides and sponged with Antique Linen.




Tuesday 21 July 2015

MCV11 - Jingle

This is my second post for today. Please scroll down for my CASology post.


Finally, my card for this week's Muse: ChristmasVisions where Betty provided us with an elegant inspiration:



My card was inspired by Betty's:

  • colour scheme
  • white circle focal panel
  • green glitter cardstock
  • gold and dark red accents
  • bells
  • script black sentiment

I used a Hero Arts sentiment, Memory Box bells (can't find a link, sorry!) and Taylored Expressions Holly (I cut the third leaf off).

You've got about 18 hours left to play along with this week's challenge - hope you'll join us before Wednesday at 8 am EDT. At that time you can vote for your 3 favourites and the voting results will be posted at noon on Thursday.

CASology 156 - Line


This week's CASology Cue Card is Line



This card reminds us that lines come in all sizes! lol! My thick green line provides a high-contrast background for my little piggy, who's peeking at someone who hasn't been feeling well.

I used MFT The Whole Herd and SU! Cucumber Crush (I figure green is a nice, healthy colour!)

Now it's your turn! Make sure to check out the rest of the DT for some inspiration (a few are taking a break, but they'll be back soon!)

Hannelie Bester
Hazel Hodgkins
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino
Kimberly Wiener
Kymona Tracey
and this week's Guest Designer: Anita

ETA: August 11 - I've been spotted here!

Tuesday 14 July 2015

CASology 155 - Cupcake


This week's CASology Cue Card is Cupcake!



I did a couple of fun things to create this card:

1) I combined stamps. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant and actually has the word 'cupcakes' in the spot where I put cupcake images. The row of cupcakes is an old Michael's image.

2) I was too lazy to colour those tiny cupcakes, so I got out a dot stamp and stamped a rainbow. I made sure that the dots weren't straight because the cupcakes aren't straight and because I think it's easier better to make it look like they weren't supposed to be straight, rather than making it look like I tried (but failed!) to get them straight. (Do I hear an 'amen, sistah?' lol!)

3) To preserve white space, but add some interest, I matted my focal panel on white then onto a white cardbase.

Now it's your turn. Make sure to see how the other DT members interpreted this cue card:

Monday 13 July 2015

Muse 124 - Warm Thoughts


Guess who's the surprise Muse this week? I feel so bad - Michele was on vacation last week, and I'm away at Music Camp with Kate this week. Due to late communication on my part, well, here we are!

I do have to say it was fun coming up with this card, though. I actually stamped the Paper Smooches Twiggy Florets daisies a while ago, and the panel has been sitting on my desk for a while, waiting for inspiration. I really wanted the white to pop and figured a bold sponged background would be just the ticket!

So I masked the daisies to stamp them, and then masked all of them at once, created a 'horizon' line and sponged Twisted Citrus and Mowed Lawn on the bottom and Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire on the top. I finished with a sentiment from Sentiment Sampler that I usually use in the winter, but it's perfect for this card too!

I hope you'll play along this week - I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Sunday 12 July 2015

MCV10 - Joy to the World


This is my card for MCV10, where Chriss gave us this warm, wintry inspiration:



I know, you're sitting there wondering what the connection is right? Well, let's just say that this card was an evolution.

I knew for sure I wanted to use Chriss' fun colour scheme (I used SU! Real Red, PTI Bermuda Bay and MFT Limelight). I cut this curved shape from MFT's Blueprint #25 for Chriss' curved panel edge. And I used a sentiment with JOY in it (unknown, very, very old JOY and separate 'to the world'). Oh yes, and a red card base. Wow, that's more than I thought! lol!

I don't have any mittens (stamps or dies - how did that happen?). I did try adding texture and stamping to the curves. I thought about stamping the sentiment in red on the white (for the red and white twine), but it didn't feel like me, and at the end of the day, you need to feel like your take on any inspiration still feels like you, right?

Anyway, in the end, I love the feeling of the joy bursting from the sentiment and I think that the colour scheme is really enough to show that I was inspired by Chriss' card. And that's the whole point of this challenge!

I hope you'll get a chance to join us - the deadline is Wednesday at 8 am EDT. At that time you can vote for your 3 favourites until Thursday at 8 am. Results will be posted on Thursday at noon (hopefully; please read below!)

This morning, Kate and I are leaving for Music Camp. Kate is a student and I'm on faculty as piano accompanist and theory teacher. There is wifi up there but it's not always reliable and I'll be pretty busy, so if you notice that my comments are sparse and that voting posts go up empty, you'll know why! I will definitely fix everything that goes wrong when I get back next Sunday.

Saturday 11 July 2015

MUSE123 - Hello


I'm back with another take on this week's Muse, where our inspiration comes from Joan's card:




I focused on the black patterned background, the white sentiment and the pops of red.

This time, I used a Paper Smooches sentiment die along with Taylored Expressions flower die (watercoloured and coated with Wink of Stella). I created tiny faux enamel dots with a copic marker and glossy accents (and a steady hand!!). The tiny leaves are from an MFT die set and are the perfect scale!


Thursday 9 July 2015

MUSE123, MFTWSC236 - Better with Friends


This is my card for this week's Muse challenge where our inspiration comes from this card from Joan:




I used the layout from this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge:




I used Buildable Flowers (stamps and matching dies) in Razzle Berry (ink and cardstock) and Limelight (ink and cardstock), Tickled Pink (for the sentiment) and my brand new pierced squares.

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Mix-it-Up Challenge


This is my card for the July Mix-it-Up Challenge at The CLASSroom. This month we're mixing Essentials by Ellen with Paper Smooches.

I was inspired by some packaging and by this card by Anita (leaves don't always have to be green!!) and used Fancy Thanks and Reflections. I pulled out my old SU! Tempting Turquoise ink so that it would match the card stock. It still stamps very well (although I did use my MISTI to restamp just to be sure). The Sunset Adirondack ink is the perfect orangey-yellow, I think!

Tuesday 7 July 2015

CASology 154 - Repeat


This week's CASology Cue Card is Repeat.



Have you counted the happy's? There are 18. Sunday was our 18th wedding anniversary so this cue card could not have come at a better time!

I 'looked' (by using Evernote) through my stamps for all my anniversary options and came across this handwritten-looking one from 12 Days Companion Greetings by Essentials by Ellen and (as my friend Bev would say), my brain went 'ping'! Actually, my original plan was to have the 18 happy's down the side of the card (which is why this is not a square!) but it quickly became apparent that that idea was not going to work. But 18 is one of those nice numbers that divides, and 6 happy's fit very nicely on 3 rows.

I kept the card tall, to ensure that I had ample white space around the focal area, which is about one-third of the card. I finished with a heart from another Essentials by Ellen set (Love you So) stamped in Classic Cherry Ranger Dye ink.

I'm also linking up to Virginia's View 100% Stamped challenge.

Now, do you want to hear a funny story about the card Michael bought me? Actually, I think this is one of those situations where a couple of photos tell the story all on their own!

Imagine my surprise when I first turned it over to open it:


Right? I was laughing so hard! Here's what it actually said:


Now, it's your turn! Be sure to get more inspiration from the rest of the design team!


Monday 6 July 2015

Who's the Coolest?



This is a card I made the other day, just for fun. I was thinking about the Penguins of Madagascar and that made me think of my unused Penguins in Paradise set from MFT. A little masking and colouring and a big white panel over top of the messy stuff and voila - a clean but fun and summery little card!

On another note, our two-week break at Muse is over and we're back with all our new DT Members! Today at 9, Joan's first inspiration card will be up - hope to see you there this week!

ETA: This card was featured on the MFT "You've Been Spotted Feature"! Thanks so much!



Sunday 5 July 2015

VV16 - How Much?


Today is our 18th wedding anniversary. This is not the card I made for Michael (come back on Tuesday, for my CASology post), but one that came about while I was playing last week. I was looking at the Love You So set from Essentials by Ellen. I always thought that the arrow on this stamp did not extend far enough (sorry, Julie! lol!) to express how much a person might love another person, so a little simple masking allowed me to show an even bigger love. This idea seems so obvious to me now, that I'm convinced that I may have seen it somewhere, but I can't really remember - if it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit!

I left it very simple, and I may include it in Struan's bag - he's leaving today for a 6 week Aircraft Maintenance course through the Air Cadet program. He's never been this far away for this long (although I admit to days of wishful thinking! lol!). Seriously, we're very proud of him and will miss him (especially on lawn mowing days!) and we wish him the best as he takes this next step in his 'flight path'!

I'm linking up to Virginia's View 16 - 100% Stamped. There are some really clever cards in the gallery, make sure to check it out!

Friday 3 July 2015

MCV9, CTS130 - Merry Christmas


This is my card for this week's Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge, where DT member Kimberly gave us this elegant card for inspiration:



I stuck pretty close to Kimberly's card - I used her layout, but changed the navy to black, the ornaments to trees, and the woodgrain to grosgrain.

I used Papertrey's Holiday Cheer set, stamped in Versafine Onyx and embossed with clear powder. I cut the sentiment so that I could nestle the Christmas under the tree and also, follow the line of the tree with the y in Merry.

I cut a strip of Stampin' Up's Real Red and ran it through my Bigshot with my MFT grosgrain texture plate (retired, sorry).

I'm also linking this up to this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge where this week's Sketch is this:

I hope you'll get a chance to play along with us at MCV this week - I know for our American friends that it's a holiday weekend (Happy 4th!) - maybe that means you're too busy, or maybe it means you've got lots of crafting time! The deadline is Wednesday morning at 8 am EDT. At that time, you can vote for your 3 favourites until Thursday morning at 8. Voting Results will be posted Thursday at noon.

Thursday 2 July 2015

MFTWSC235 - It's Your Birthday, Darnell!


It's a big day in blogland! It's Darnell's birthday! Happy Birthday, my friend, I hope you have a wonderful day full of fun, friends and family! I'm thinking you may get a comment or two or even some cards in the mail! lol! (sorry that this one will be late - that's what happens when you have a birthday right after the flip of the calendar!)

I chose to use the layout from this week's MFT Sketch Challenge and a whole lot of products, for a card that is pretty clean! lol!


I used Happy Pandas (and matching dies), Tickled Pink (sentiment), BluePrints #16 (circle frame sponged with Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry distress inks), Blue Prints #25 (banner), the hearts from Written in Watercolour, and one of my all-time favourites (but retired, sorry) the grosgrain ribbon texture plate.

I'm thrilled to say that my panda card from last week won that challenge and I now have some money to spend at MFT! Woohoo!