Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Love You Tons

Today I broke out a Lawn Fawn set I HAD TO HAVE back in May, and I finally used it to make this:


I began by stamping and die-cutting the elephants. I love that they face each other! I used three different T (Toner) Copic markers to color them. 

In addition to finally using a stamp set I've had for seven months, I pulled out my A Muse Skinny Oval I've had forever and used it to ground the elephants instead of just scribbling with a Copic marker. It was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Fog ink, which is a bit warmer grey than the Toner Copics, but I'm okay with that.

After I stamped the sentiment and heart from the set, I trimmed down the white panel and rounded the corners. I might have done this three times before I got it to the size I wanted.

I chose a gradient striped paper for the background, and felt it needed a spot of another color in addition to a vertical element. I took my cue from the green papers in the same 6x6 pack and put a piece of washi tape under the white panel. Wow, I used five whole inches of washi tape. Only 4,857,392,048 miles of tape left. ;/

This was pretty quick to make, and I'm happy with how it came out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: A Muse Skinny Oval wood stamp (bought back when you could buy A Muse stamps in stores and online from their site), miscellaneous washi tape, and the following:



Tuesday, December 30, 2014

SOS #182: Thrice As Nice

Happy Tuesday! It's time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash. This week's theme is Thrice As Nice, and we'd like you to use at least three different patterned papers on your project.

I took a major departure from my recent CAS cards, and I made this:


So. much. purple.  And it's dangerously close to (gah) pink!  I followed this Deconstructed Sketch:


I was hugely influenced by some pretty ribbon gifted to me by sweet Miss Lauren, and these papers went with that color green. Sometimes we must make sacrifices for our craft.

I chose the busy paper for the background, and cut a piece of the green for the horizontal strip. The shaped paper at the top of the strip is a punch-out from the paper pack, and I cut a thin strip of another purple for the bottom of the green strip.

The green ribbon is on elastic, and that gives it a mind of its own, so I forced it into submission with some Be Creative (Sookwang) permanent tape. It's still a bit off.

For the small banner and the back of the oval, I cut from the same purple paper I used for the thin strip, and I cut the large banner and small ovals from white.  The sentiment was stamped in Hero Arts Charcoal, and the pretty heart was in a pile of hearts sitting on my desk.

Before I added the banner to the card front, I decided to add another piece of the floofy ribbon to line up with the other ribbon, mostly because I could.  The banner was attached to the card front with foam tape, the better to span over that floofy ribbon.

I've used a total of four different patterns of paper. If you have 6x6 paper packs laying around, this is a great way to get matchy-matchy papers you can easily use together. So come on over to SOS and play along!

Thanks for stopping by!


Stuff I used: Crate Paper Trims: Peppermint, Kaiser Craft True Romance 6x6 paper pad, and the following:




Monday, December 29, 2014

CASE Version 2

Earlier today I posted a card I CASEd, and in that post I mentioned I had another idea. After a little playing around this morning, I ended up with this:


I used the same three colors: SSS Coral Reef, SSS Soft Navy, and HA Soft Sky, but this time instead of stamping an image, I used daubers and applied the colors through a stencil to make a plaid. It's not perfect, but I like how it turned out.

I've now put away all those toys and will come up with something new, I hope.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: SU Night of Navy and Calypso Coral card stock, and the following:



Another CASE

I follow many, many, many crafty blogs in Feedly, pretty much equal parts challenge blogs and personal blogs. I read ALL the challenge blogs every few days, but I mostly look at personal blogs when I have some extra time, or need some inspiration. I'll get to them eventually. The Mark All As Read rarely happens in my world.

One of the blogs I follow is Stamp With Brian. He's an SU demonstrator, and he makes awesome cards!  I have a few in my CASE file, including this one, which I CASEd to make my own version:


I loved his design, and the colors in his paper. I first drew a diagonal pencil line across the white panel as a guide, then used a small butterfly from a Hero Arts set to stamp randomly in three different colors (SSS Coral Reef, SSS Soft Navy, and Hero Arts Soft Sky) above that line.

I cut strips and circles from SU Calypso Coral and SU Night of Navy (still the best navy card stock I've owned). Tip: cut the strips longer than you think you'll need and just trim them. That diagonal measurement can be tricky.

I layered the blue strip, blue circle, orange strip, orange circle, then topped it with the white circle on which I'd stamped the sentiment with SSS Soft Navy.

I like that SSS Coral Reef is close enough to SU Calypso Coral for me to mix and match. I just don't have the space for every color from every company, and it's nice to be able to use what I have.

I just had another idea for this, which I hope to get to later today. Gotta strike while the brain cells are awake!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: SU Night of Navy and Calypso Coral card stock, and the following: