GCW - Week 1

Greeting Card Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

I am back.  My full time job was very busy in January and February leaving me little time to craft and even less time to blog.  The job has calmed down. No more six days work weeks, so I am focusing on how I would like to grow this blog.  I am starting off with Greeting Card Wednesday. 

Greeting Card Wednesday is my commitment to post a new greeting card each Wednesday for the rest of 2018.   I will still be doing the Cas(e) this sketch (CTS) challenge, but not necessarily every week will be challenge inspired greeting card.

This week is the CTS challenge number #261, which was a retro sketch challenge.  The sketch originated on there blog at #93.  I really liked this sketch, and had several ideas pop into my head immediately.  I had also just received an order from Stampin' Up, so I just had to play with those new items.  

I love how this card came out.  It was super fun to make and I made it in very little time.  The lavender sprig is a multi-layer stamp that was very fun to stamp out.  I am definitely going to stamp out more of these. The outline is one stamp and then the color pieces are each their own stamps.  This makes using a lot of different colors very easy, because you don't have to worry about inking to much of the stamp.  

         Products Used:

Stampin' Up Marble Stamp

Stampin' Up Lots of Lavender (Salebration stamp set available from January 2018 through March 31, 2018)       

Stampin' Up inks: Soft Suede, Blushing Bride,Delightful Dijon, and Wild Wasabi       

Stampin' Up Very Vanilla Cardstock       

Neenah White Cardstock for Card base       

Dollar store Gold Poster Board       

Pop Dots       

Tombow Xtreme tape runner

Mini-Misti

The marble background stamp is very lovely.  I used Blushing Bride to stamp the background on Very Vanilla cardstock. Looks like designer paper, doesn't it. I also stamped out the lavender sprig on the same cardstock.  I love Very Vanilla cardstock.  It is the perfect shade of cream. The marble background is cut to 4x5 1/4 inches, and the mirror gold is the full 4 1/4x5 1/2 inches. The gold strip is 4x1/2 inches. I taped it onto a card base that is also 4 1/4x5 1/2 inches.  I like the inside of my card to be white, so I typically always use a white card base. I think this card came out very elegant and pretty.

I didn't add a sentiment on purpose. My style is to have the sentiment inside of the card instead on the outside. This allows me to use the card for several different occasions.  It also encourages people to open the card to see what is on the inside.  This card could be used for so much.  It can be an easter, birthday, anniversary, sympathy, wedding, or thank you card and so much more.  I do want to try to utilize some of my sentiments stamps more, so I am thinking of challenging myself to use them in an unusual way.  Such as a background instead of a focal element.

Please leave me a comment below.  Relax - Craft -Repeat!

Happy 2018!

A new year needs a little love. 

I created this card from some left over pieces from different projects.  The squirrels came from a christmas 6x6 pad that I am using to create a mini album that I will be posting soon.  Tease, tease.  I wanted to use those cute little squirrels in a way that didn't scream christmas.  Sometimes you can use an element or paper from a themed pack in a completely different theme.  I did have to fussy cut each of the squirrels out of the paper. I kept a small border to help them pop out from the background papers. Fussy cutting this way makes the elements appear die cut, and means you don't have to worry about getting inside small places with your scissors. 

The hearts are a sticker that I had in my stash.  I backed it on white cardstock to give it more stability.  Then I used some foam dots to pop it up.  I rounded the corners of all the pieces with a 1/4 inch corner rounder.  

The image on this card can be used for more than one occasion, so I left a sentiment off of the front. All focus on the cute squirrels. I can add the right note or sentiment on the inside when I go to send the card.  I think of this as more of a note card.  I like making note cards, because it allows me to use my cards for a lot of different occasions.  

Keep it creative in the new year.

CTS #250

JOY!

I decided to make a one layer card colored two ways for this weeks CAS(E) this sketch! challenge number 250.

The sketch just screamed for a clean and simple card.  I love to stamp and color, but have not done much of that lately.  I dug through my stamp stash and found these lovely stamps to color.

These cards are 3.5 x 5 note card size, instead of a standard A2 size of 4.25 x 5.5.  I did use my mini-Misti to stamp multiple cards at one time.  I could easily make this in a high quantity quickly.

I did want to make a few more Christmas cards this season, but I think these card could be colored for any season.  We can all use a little more joy year round.

Supplies Used for Both Cards:


Ranger's Archival Ink -- Jet Black
Paper Smooches Stamp set -- trees and joy sentiment
Stampin' Up (from paper pumpkin kit) -- heart

Right Card Colored with Soho Colored Pencils:

Permanent Green Light 181
Cadmium Green Light 183
Moss Green 182                 
Indian Yellow Ligh 109
Sanguine 215
Pink Coral 132
Rose Dore 126
                                                                      Carmine 116
                                                                                 
Left Card Colored with:

Tombow 195 and Stickles Xmas Red.

I only put one heart on the card with the Stickles, because I knew I wanted to add glitter.  I didn't want to take away from the clean and simple by adding to much glitter.

Wishing you some crafting joy today!

CST #249

Here is my card for the CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge #249.  This was a retro sketch design for the blog, it originated as sketch 104.  I wanted to create a Christmas card using no traditional colors.  I ended up with a monochromatic card that is very stunning.

The stamp set, ink and solid cardstock are all from Stampin' Up.  The stamp set is called Flurry of Wishes, the ink color and cardstock color is Blackberry Bliss.  The Flurry of Wishes stamp set is still available for purchase at the time of this post.  The ink color and cardstock have been discontinued as it was a one of Stampin' Up's In Color collections several years ago.  If you are not familiar with Stampin' Up products, they feature 5 colors for two years which are called In Colors.  Once the two years is over the colors are discontinued.  Stampin' Up's inks come very juice, so even though  I didn't by the reinkers for this color, it is still very juice pad.  I think I will be able to get many uses out of it before it is dried up. The juiciness of the ink pads is one of the reasons I love Stampin' Up ink.  I also love that all of the colors work well with each other. Lastly, they watercolor die ink that you can use as watercolor paint (similar to Distress Inks) that dry quickly.  They also stamp very evenly, so many reasons to use these inks.

When I bought this stamp set, I also bought the matching punch for the small snowflakes. The punch is being discontinued, but I believe there are still some available at the time of this posting.  I wanted to have some dimensional elements on this card to balance out the dimension on the bottom of the card.  I also stamped the background with second generation stamping, so the ink is not as dark as the focal snowflakes.  I think this helps the focal snowflakes from being lost in the background.  I love the pattern of these snowflakes, but you could use any snowflake stamps you own to make a similar card.

I also added rhinestones to the middle of raised snowflakes to give them some shimmer and to tie in the silver die cut at the bottom of the card.  The die cut is a silver mirrored poster paper from the Dollar store.  I cut the image with my Cricut Maker from the cartridge Give a Hoot.  Normally this design has a second cut for the background, but I deleted that layer.  I already knew based off the sketch above that I was going to cut a layer from the solid blackberry bliss cardstock.  I think that the image gives the card a little bit of whimsy. 

Overall I think this card is a very elegant non-traditional Christmas card.  I really enjoyed this sketch this week and think it can be used for so many different types of cards.

I would love to hear if you like or dislike Christmas or Holiday cards that use non-traditional colors. Please also subscribe to my blog, so you don't miss my next posting.

Happy Crafting!

CTS #248

 Joyful, joyful I have my entry for CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge, sketch #248.  

This sketch was a little more challenging due to it having an odd shape.  I wanted to use up some of my scrap papers , so I selected them first.  The pattern paper is from Snowglobe by American Crafts.  I have had this paper in my stash for a copy of years.  It was just a small 12 pack of 6x6 papers.  I then selected kraft paper for Recollections.  I cut the poinsettia paper at 3xf4 and then used another scrap paper to figure out the angle I wanted, lightly traced it on the poinsettia paper then cut it out.  I then took two small 1/4" pieces of the candy can paper and taped them behind the poinsettia paper. The kraft paper behind the poinsettia paper is a 3x4 piece.  I did pop up the poinsettia paper with some Scotch foam tape. 

The joyful letters are from a sticker set I have had in my stash for a long time as well.  I am not sure what company made them anymore.  I love the kraft paper with these pattern papers, but thought it was a little plain in that area, so that is why I moved the sentiment up. This is a change to the original sketch design, but that is okay. Remember sketches are just for inspiration and a jumping off point.  You can change the elements around to make the card your own.  I also rounded the corners of the green striped paper which was not on the sketch either. 

Even though the shape of this card is unique, I really enjoyed making this card.  There will not be a new sketch next week on the CAS(E) this Sketch! blog due to it being Thanksgiving in the USA.  I will be posting a second card though.  I think I may make one more card of this sketch with the rest of the left over scraps I have from the paper pad.  I have one more full sheet of 6x6 for the main background piece.  

I hope this card inspires you to try some thing new in your crafting endeavors!

CTS Sketch #247

Here is my CTS Sketch #247 done on the same day it posted, hurray me!  CAS(E) this Sketch! website has a challenge that starts every Thursday.  I am going to try and play with them for the rest of the year.  I can't promise to have my card done on Thursday every week, but I am going to try. 

The sketch this week inspired me instantly, especially when I looked around me at the beautiful fall foliage outside.  Winter is trying to move in but I don't think fall is quite done yet for this year. 

My layers are composed of Kraft cardstock and Strathmore Watercolor paper. I stamped the leaves with Archival Ink: Coffee.  I love using Ranger's Archival Ink for watercoloring images. I really wanted the leaves to look like fall leaves that have fallen from the trees.  I noticed this year that most of the veins on the leaves have turned brown, so I thought the Coffee ink would give the same effect.  I then colored the leaves with Tombow dual markers.  The number of the colors are 847, 985, and 946.  I used my glass cutting mat as a palette with a water brush to add the color to the leaves. They came out stunning and very similar to the color of leaves I have seen this fall. 

  

The leaves stamp is made by Inkadinkado and the Birthday sentiment is from Unity Stamp Co.  I used my mini Misti to stamp the sentiment multiple times with the same ink as the leaves.  Then I lightly water colored the sentiment with the same colors as the leaves.  This gives more interest to the sentiment and helps to pop out the leaves.  I just couldn't stop myself from grabbing and adding some bling to finish off the card with gold rhinestones.  Birthday cards should be flashy, don't you think?

I hope you give this sketch a try. Happy Crafting!

Happy Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween!

 I created these three cards for Halloween greetings this year.  I was inspired by sketch 242 from CAS(E) this Sketch! blog.  I really like the simplicity of this sketch.  It allows both the focal image and sentiment to pop. I may have to play with this sketch for Christmas cards as well.

The Jack O'Lanterns where cut from the Cricut cartridge A Frightful Affair on the Cricut Maker.  I also used the Maker to cut out the scalloped circle using the Basic Shapes cartridge.  I love how each face is uniquely scary.

 

Have a spooky Halloween!