CASE Study #82 and Clean and Simple #181

Hello!

The CASE Study muse this month is Laura Bassen. I wish I had had time to enter all of the challenges. I love Laura Bassen. For CASE Study #82, this is the inspiration.

My interpretation doesn't come close, but here it is:

I used PTI Tiny Tags and cut my stars from Stampin' Up! Ruby Red (retired), Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, and Old Olive. I strung them up on Twinery twine. The sentiment is Think Big Favorites #13. The card base is PTI basic white.

Edited to add: I just realised that this card also fits with the sketch over at Clean & Simple #181, so linking up now. :-)

Skip this paragraph if you don't want to listen to me whinge... I have spent most of the past few days in bed. I am aching all over, including a massive headache, I have a sore throat, and I am very tired. I was lying in bed (very bored) thinking "Maybe I feel worse because I am just laying around? Perhaps if I just got up and got moving around a bit, I'll feel better?".  I got up, made a sandwich, threw on a load of washing, and made this card. I can now report that I do not feel better, I feel worse, and I'm off to jump back into bed, sigh! I really don't like being sick. I am ready to get better now. :-)

Thanks for coming by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

For Your Inspiration #21

Hello!

Welcome to my post for the first challenge of the year over at For Your Inspiration.  We are up to challenge #21 already, gee time flies when you're having fun!

There is lots of fun to be had, as always, and there are prizes too! Our sponsor is The Wax Fruit Company and the prize is a $15 store credit. Go take a look, there are lots of lovely digi stamps to choose from.

The image I chose to work with for this challenge was Heart Quilt. The reason for this is that the inspiration photo is a church, which made me think of LOVE.

Here is the image for this challenge:

And here is my card:

Yep, the photo of my card isn't great, LOL!  Here is another view:

And another close-up:

Thinking my light may not have been the best when taking those photos.

I used SU! Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, and Soft Suede (sentiment). I used The Twinery Blossom twine as my washing line to hang the quilt on. The "white" paper is PTI Vintage Cream.

Now, have you thought you might like to be on a Design Team one day?  Well, the call is out for some more Design Team members over at For Your Inspiration. I can tell you that this team of ladies is fantastic to work with, and Steph's inspiration photos for each challenge make it EASY to come up with ideas. If you haven't already been there, pop over to the For Your Inspiration blog for more details on how you might join the team.

The rest of the DT has come up with some gorgeous work for this challenge, why don't you pay them a visit too?

Debbie

Debby

Peggy

Rochelle

Sara

Steph

Vicki

Michelle
xxx

CAS-ual Coffee

Hello!

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you have all had a wonderful, joy-filled celebration. My family and I certainly did. I haven't been stamping much lately due to the rush and busy-ness involved in Christmas preparations. Now I can take a breath, and I've sat down to make a card that has been brewing in my imagination for a few days.

Over at CAS-ual Fridays this week they are teaming up with Market Street Stamps. I don't own any Market Street Stamps (yet), but they have kindly offered a free digi to join in their Block Party fun. I signed up at The Neighborhood and took a little time wandering around, familiarising myself with what was there (and collected lots of ideas, stamp "needs", and inspiration) and then collected the digi and set my mind to work on forming a design idea.

The theme at CAS-ual Fridays this week is Kraft and Twine, with a bonus offer of joining in the Market Street Stamps Block Party.

 

So, today I had my idea and set to work. Do you sometimes find that your idea was much simpler to execute in your head?  For a simple card, I sure had some troubles putting this one together, LOL!  If anyone has any good suggestions on how to adhere twine down on a card, please let me know.  This time I used sticky dots, but I don't think this is the ideal solution. Argh!

The Coffee Cup image is from Market Street Stamps. I reversed it to get the two cups facing each other.  I printed the image onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then put that panel through the Big Shot with Swiss Dots folder.  The sentiment is from PTI Embellishments. I paper-pieced with Crumb Cake and Real Red.  The card base and sentiment strip are Soft Suede, and the card base has been put through the Big Shot with PTI Canvas impression plate. The twine is The Twinery Maraschino.

What do you think? I quite like it.

Michelle
xxx
       

Delightfully Random friendship card

Hello!

I have been wanting to make this card in response to the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World ever since the Delightfully Random trigger photo was released.  I have mulled over ideas, but always came back to this gingham fabric, which I was envisioning as a picnic blanket in my card.

Here is the trigger photo:

Lovely, isn't it?

And here is my card:

I have created a thrown-down picnic blanket, and a flower for my field in which I am picnic-ing. *smile*  My little flower is actually a twine pom-pom, which I created around a fork (the idea for which I found on Pinterest). I frayed the edges of my fabric to create a tasselled edge on the blanket. I sponged the vanilla panel in pink and blue and then spritzed it with shimmer mist.  And I did a little sewing (don't look too close).

The card has lovely depth, it will definitely be a hand-delivery card, this one.

What I used:
Card: SU! Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Real Red
Stamp: Janes Doodles Pretty Peonies (sentiment)

Not my usual style. It is a hit with my girls, so I'm happy.

Before I go, I thought I'd show you a card my 8 year old daughter made up yesterday. I was working on something else and didn't even look until it was finished. I really love the way she's put the images and the sentiment together, and I think I'm going to steal her colour scheme for something similar on a card of my own. :-)  It is a little card, but very cute:

So, do you like my pom-pom flower?  What do you think?

Michelle
xxx

One Layer Friendship cards

Hello!

I have a friend who has been having a bit of a tough time lately. Luckily she has been receiving lots of loving support from friends and family.  I was thinking of her. I already sent a card. I already sent messages. I already offered my companionship and services. What else could I do? I thought maybe a set of little "thank-you" cards for her to use. I have made a few of them in response to the One Layer Wednesday Challenge #66, which is over at Susan's blog this week, so I thought I'd share.

The challenge this week is to "get inspired by Janelle". Janelle is going through a difficult time right now. She is totally inspirational in her positive attitude and her generosity while she is undergoing medical treatment. It is worth taking a look through her blog, there are some beautiful posts in there. I particularly like her "travel" labeled posts, not for the destinations, but for her chat about the people involved in her travels.  I was inspired by plenty on the blog, but I chose two cards in particular as my starting point, this one and this one. I'm going to go back and do more, because I'm still inspired by these. These are the pictures of Janelle's cards:
          

I used the SU! set Lifelong Notes.  It is an old retired set, but it is new to me. I'm liking it.  I did the cards plain, but my friend likes a little bit of embellishment, in EVERYTHING, so I added a little bling and I added twine. I think I like them in the plain version (imagine the twine missing), but I like ultra-CAS.

The photos are a little fuzzy. The skies are quite grey here today. And it's turned cool again. So much for our beautiful, hot (32c/90f degrees last week), Spring we were having.

The cards are 10cm x 10cm (3 x 3), just little note cards. The pinks are retired SU! Pink Passion and Pixie Pink (how I love that pink). The other card is Soft Suede and Real Red. That is a combination I will use more, I was surprised at how much I liked it.

So, what do you think?

Michelle
xxx

CTD#160 Take Two with a Kite

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

I told you I'd probably come back for Color Throwdown Challenge 160.  I meant it, I love these colours!  It is very last minute, but I think I'm going to beat the deadline, LOL!

Yesterday I spent the day with my stamping friend, Manda, having a stamping play date together while our kids had a more traditional play date (building tents in the back yard, riding the scooters, filling the living room with every little toy in the house. . . you know how it goes when the Mummies are distracted by stamping. . . ). At the end of the day, I decided to use her Big Shot and punch out some shapes to take home. One of those shapes was her brand new, not yet used, Die-Namics Fly A Kite die. Manda commented about making a baby girl card with a pink and chocolate kite, and I thought, "That's it! That's my other Color Throwdown card!"  Not only could I use Manda's brand new kite die, but I could use my own brand new twine, yippee!

I didn't make a baby card, I made a birthday card. I'll keep the baby card idea in mind for later.
To remind you, the Color Throwdown colours are:

And my card is:

It's a really simple card, but I like my cards that way.  And I like this card.

What I used:
Card: (all SU!) Chocolate Chip, Pretty In Pink, Very Vanilla (yes, this time I remembered I was using Vanilla)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: a retired SU! paper in Pretty In Pink
Die: Die-Namics Fly A Kite
Twine: Twinery Capuccino and Blossom (oh, I just love my new twine)

Here I am going to throw a plug in for Jay Gee's Nook. For those of you in Australia (and International customers, the postage will just be a little more), who haven't yet discovered Jay Gee's Nook, go and take a look. Jay Gee has a great selection, great prices (and low postage prices because she's in Australia), and excellent (outstanding) service. I got my Twinery Twine from Jay Gee (and the Die Namics die, and the Jane's Doodles stamps, and some other wonderful things. . . ) and with every order, I have never had to wait or follow up, I just order, and it arrives with perfect service. With my email enquiries, no matter what time of night or day, I get REALLY FAST responses. I truly LOVE great service like this. Thank-you, Jay Gee!

So what do you think of my little kite?

Michelle
xxx

One Layer Monochrome

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

Over at One Layer Wednesday this week, the idea is to let the sentiment take centre stage, or at least have equal billing with the images. I'm not sure I've achieved this here. I did discover that I am very short on sentiments in my stamp collection.

For CAS-ual Fridays Challenge 21, we are being asked to use three shades of one colour and to add brown.  With this challenge, I discovered I need more colours!  I did find that I have quite a few greens in my collection.

With eight hours to go over at "Less Is More", I thought I'd throw in another card for their Anything CAS Goes challenge, where they are hoping for 1000 entries this week. They might make it, if Mr Linky doesn't succumb under the pressure of all those entries!

So with those instructions, this is what I came up with:

I don't usually embellish my one layer cards, but this card needed something extra, so my new twine came to the rescue.

What I used:
Stamps: PTI Take Three: Summer, and PTI Botanical Silhouettes (sentiment)
Ink: SU! Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip

Now, I'm a little weary, so I might toddle off to bed. Tomorrow I go to visit my new nephew, who will be around 24 hours old by the time I get to him. I'm smiling already.

Michelle
xxx