*Birthday Wishes*

I'm back with another card using that Stampin' Up! laser cut paper.  I love the way it looks... so many pretty designs.  I've kept it safe for more than a year because it was so pretty... but now it's time to cut in to it and play with it.

For this card, I carefully used a Life Changing Blender Brush to colour the white panel.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; Stampin' Up! Basic Black
*Patterned Paper:  retired Stampin' Up!
*Images:  Avery Elle Sentimental Too
*Ink:  VersaMark; Catherine Pooler Lime Rickey
*Dies:  Avery Elle Sentimental Too
*Tools:  Gemini Jr; Heat Tool
*etc:  white embossing powder

*A Million Thanks*

Just a quick card for you today.  Once again I used some scraps die cuts from previous cards that were in a dish on my desk.  I also grabbed a piece of the laser cut paper from Stampin' Up! from last year.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Cameo Coral, Melon Mambo, Almost Amethyst; Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Patterned Paper:  retired Stampin' Up!
*Images:  MFT Essential Elements
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne
*Dies:  MFT Stitched Flowers
*Etc:  Big Shot; large clear gem

*CAS#362*

Welcome to another two week challenge with the team from CASology.   For the next two weeks, we want to see how you interpret our challenge of TALL.  Share your card with us on the CASology Blog for your chance to win a great prize from Uniko and to be featured as a guest designer on a future challenge.  I hope you'll also head to the CASology Blog to see what the rest of the design team has been "up" to!

I decided to make a tall and skinny card that would fit in to a business envelope.... My first thought was to use giraffes, but when I saw what the rest of the design team was up to, I decided to do a tall and skinny card instead.

I spent a lot of time trying to photograph this card... but I just couldn't get one element to show up.  And of course, it's the one element that ties it all together.  If you look *really* closely, you might be able to see three embossed lines from the right top corner to the left bottom corner....  The flowers are scattered along these three lines.

Items Used;
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; Stampin' Up Wild Wasabi
*Images:  Avery Elle Loads of Wishes
*Ink:  VersaMark; Stampin' Up! Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Rich Razzleberry, Lost Lagoon
*Embellishments:  Studio Katia Iridescent Bubbles; Michael's Bridal flowers
*Tools:  Scor Pal; Perfect Layers

*Friendship Wreath*

Hello everyone!  I am posting to my blog a little early as I am on the Scrap 'n Stamp blog this morning with a great card....  I pulled out my Gina K Wreath Builder and some colourful inks and had a little fun creating another card with a Galentine's Day theme to go along with the month long challenge over at Scrap 'n Stamp.

To make this card, I started with a 5 1/4" square piece of white cardstock and placed it in my Misti with the larger of the two Gina K Wreath Builder templates.  For one of the turns in the Wreath Builder, I had to tuck one corner through the hinges to make it all work.  I knew I wanted my wreath more in the corner so I placed my first stamp off-centre, pretty close to the one edge of the square of white cardstock.  I just kept adding layers and colours until I was happy with the outcome.

Once it was all stamped up, I cut down the panel to 3 7/8" to 5 1/8", keeping the wreath off centre.  I was inspired by a card I saw by Jennifer McGuire several months ago so my placement and colours are similar to what she did...

The inks I used are ones I had on hand but you can certainly find some great inks at Scrap 'n Stamp...  like these Colorbox Inks or some of the new GinaK inks or the inks by Lawn Fawn (you can get some great colour groupings in the mini pads!).  While you can use the Tim Holtz inks for stamping I do find that they are better for ink blending than stamping.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 100lb; Lawn Fawn Cilantro
*Images:  Gina K Wreath Builder
*Ink:  Catherine Pooler Party Dress, Tempting Turquoise, Lime Rickey, Sweet Sixteen; VersaFine Clair Nocturne
*Tools:  Misti; We R Memory Keepers Layers Guides; Gina K Wreath Builder Template
*Embellishments:  Yellow bling

*AAA159*

Welcome to another challenge with AAACards!  For this challenge, our sponsor is Uniko Stamps....  if you create a card following the prompt and upload it to the inlinks tool on the AAACards blog, you will be in the running to win a free in stock stamp from Uniko!

For this challenge we want to see how you interpret a clean and simple card (lots of plain blank space) with the cue of One Corner.  We encourage you to use the optional twist of "Love Those Older Supplies".

Be sure to check out the AAACards Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the design team has come up with!

For my card, I pulled out one of the first Catherine Pooler Designs stamp sets I purchased... it hasn't seen much love!

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 100lb

*Images:  Catherine Pooler Spot On

*Inks:  Catherine Pooler Suede Shoes, Rockin' Red, Lime Rickey; Versafine Clair Nocturne

*Tools:  Misti

*Embellishments:  Studio Katia Iridescent Bubbles

*Perks of Friendship*

I have a lot of patterned paper in my stash that I find I don't use because it doesn't lend itself to my clean and simple style.  While some would look at this card and think clean and simple, I don't.  There's a lot going on in that background, which, at least to me, means it's not clean and simple.  It's not a bad thing, but you've all seen how I keep a lot of plain clean space on my cards.

But still, I like how this card turned out.

I really should use some of this pretty paper more often!

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; Stampin' Up! Basic Black
*Patterned Paper:  retired Stampin' Up!
*Images:  Picket Fence Studios Levels of Friendship
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne
*Dies:  Stampin' Up! Layered Oval Dies
*Tools:  Gemini Jr; Perfect Layers Tools
*Etc:  coloured bling

*New Baby Congrats*

A few weeks ago Cathy Zielske showed a card she received and I fell in love.  The card creator had used pastel colours for colour blending... something I never thought to do.  I've almost always done my ink blending with the intention of making a dark colour.  But I was so wowed by the gentle colours of this card I was seeing.

I immediately went to my craft desk and started to blend with some lighter shades of Catherine Pooler inks... and immediately wondered why I didn't do this ages ago!

I cut the floral background and then wondered what I wanted to do with the card... and then BOOM, my coworkers wife had their baby girl and I knew it had to go to them!

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; Stampin' Up! Almost Amethyst
*Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design Dancing Daisies Cover Plate; Pretty Pink Posh Congrats
*Inks:  Catherine Pooler Bellini, Limoncello, Mint to Be, It's a Boy, Sweet Sixteen
*Tools:  Gemini Jr

*Sending Big Hugs*

Another super simple card to throw together. I am going to be so sad when I run out of these Bridal Department flowers that I bought at Michael's many many years ago.... they are just perfect with the shimmer they have and they take ink so beautifully!

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Images:  Avery Elle So Kind
*Ink:  Copics; Versafine Clair Nocturne
*Etc:  self adhesive pearls

*You Got This*

Happy Sunday all... I hope you've all had a good weekend!

This would be a great card to throw together if you were in a hurry and needed a card...  I think the only thing that took time was the ink blending, and that's just because I like to layer the colour slowly to avoid ugly spots.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; Stampin' Up! Lavender Lace
*Images:  Hero Arts To Seize Or Not To Seize
*Ink:  Catherine Pooler Sweet Sixteen; Versafine Clair Nocturne
*Dies:  A Jillian Vance Designs Open Daisy
*Tools:  Gemini Jr; Perfect Layers; Life Changing Blender Brushes
*Etc:  Lawn Fawn Liquid Stardust

*Galentine's Blog Hop*

It's time for another blog hop with the Scrap 'n Stamp Design Team!!  For February, we are looking to see your Galentine's Day cards....  not sure what that is?  Well, it's a card you'd send to a very good friend.... kinda like a valentine but with a good friend theme instead of love.  Make sure to visit all the blogs along the hop and leave a comment at each blog....  one commenter will win a $50 shopping spree at Scrap'n Stamp!!!  The winner will be announced on or about February 18th on the Scrap'n Stamp Blog!

I had some fun with this card, using some new to me products.  I started out with a stencil from Gina K and I used a palette knife to spread Deco Foil Transfer Gel over it.  I set it aside for about an hour to dry.  I then grabbed this beautiful multicoloured Deco Foil and placed it on top of the stencilled piece and put it through my laminator a few times to adhere to the foil to the transfer gel.  There were a few parts that didn't take the foil quite right so that's how I decided where to put my sentiment!  I stamped up the MFT sentiment and used the We R Memory Keepers layer guide to create a 1/16th black layer under the sentiment (and under the front panel as well).  I can't wait to play some more with the Transfer Gel!

Items Used:
*Neenah Solar White 110lb; black
*Images:  MFT Sassy Pants Best Friends
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne
*Stencil:  Gina K Stellar Snowflake
*Tools:  palette knife, We R Memory Keepers Layer Guide; laminator
*Etc:  Deco Foil Transfer Gel; Deco Foil Transfer Sheet

Be sure to hop along with the rest of the Design Team!!!

Tara

Amber

Sandi

Kia

Nancy  -- you are here!

Susan

Chala

Deb

*Black and White Birthday*

I absolutely love how this card turned out....  nothing but black and white and a little bing.  Very crisp, clean and simple.  I think I'll have to try to do another sometime.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Paper:  MFT Black & White Stripes
*Stamps:  Penny Black Sprinkles & Smiles
*Ink:  VersaFine Clair Nocturne
*Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Big Happy
*Etc:  Lawn Fawn Glitter Pen; clear faceted gems

*CASology #361*

The CASology team is back with a new cue card!  For the next two weeks, we want to see your take on the word "sweetheart".  Be sure to link it up at the CASology blog for your chance to be a guest designer on an upcoming challenge!

As I said on Sunday, I don't usually make Valentine's Day cards.  In fact, we could probably count on one hand how many Valentine's I've made in 22 years of card making!  I couldn't resist the new Lawn Fawn Stud Puffin stamp set when I was at my local stamp store so I threw in some heart dies to round out my purchase... and I'm really glad I did!

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Patterned Paper:  silver glitter; MFT Black & White Stripes
*Images:  Lawn Fawn Stud Puffin
*Ink:  Gina K Amalgam; Catherine Pooler Rockin' Red; Copics
*Dies:  Hero Arts Infinity Hearts
*Tools:  Gemini; Brother Scan 'n Cut; Perfect Layers

*AAA#158*

Happy Sunday everyone!  And Happy February!

It's time for another challenge with AAA Cards... for the next two weeks we want to see your cards that use up to one third of the card front with the optional twist of hearts. Link them up at the AAACards blog for your chance to win a $20 gift certificate to Stamplorations!

I don't normally make cards for Valentine's Day so it was a bit of a challenge for me to add in the Hearts... but I'm happy that I was able to mix it up a little bit and make it a less romantic card.  To add a little more interest, the two smaller hearts are popped up on foam dimensional tape.

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb
*Patterned Paper:  MFT Over the Rainbow
*Images:  Avery Elle Loads of Wishes
*Ink:  Versafine Clair Nocturne
*Dies:  Hero Arts Infinity Hearts
*Tools:  Gemini Jr; Misti
*Etc:  foam tape

I really look forward to seeing how you interpret the cue card this week!

*Layout Revisited*

I was going through my Pinterest boards the other day and came across a bright and happy Christmas card that I wanted to make... but I challenged myself to make it a non-Christmas card.  And as I was putting the final touches on the card, I realized I've made a card almost exactly like this before.  Instead of a stamped sentiment, the other card was a die cut word...  but otherwise the colours and everything are basically the same.

oops.

But hey, I still like it!

Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White 110lb; assorted colours
*Images:  Right At Home Script Greetings
*Ink:  Versamark
*Dies:  MFT Impact Alphabet; Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banner Die
*Etc:  white embossing powder