Washi rad

 

Washi tape- is it still a hot trend? I know I love it but don't use it as often as I should. Lord knows I have tons of it. So I was a happy camper to see this week's challenge at The Male Room- use washi tape on your project. I pulled out my tapes and went through them. I used this washi tape as my jumping off point and the rest just fell together.

 

I even decorated the inside of my card. My crafting buddies know I rarely do this, but with washi tape it is so easy! Just tear off a few strips and lay it down and there ya have it.

The saying is from CAS-ual Friday's Rad set.   Which I have to say was on sale when I made this link! The rocker is a very old StampinUp stamp. He is an old stand by when I need to make a hip card for a young dude.

If you haven't used your washi tape lately dust them off and show all of what cool things you can do with it and play along at the Male room!!

Best friend

Welcome to a fun color challenge at the Male Room this week. Khaki, pool and olive green. Perfect guy colors don't you think? Today I used that incredibly popular set from My Favorite Things- "you make my tail wag". You have to hit the stores at the right time to get it, as it seems to always be out of stock. I am still trying to get the matching dies! Soooo- I had to do a bit of fussy cutting.

The borders on my card were stamped with Papertrey Ink's "ombre builders".

Now personally I am a cat person, but they say a dog is man's best friend, so this card is perfect for The Male Room. I hope you will join us share with us how you use this great guy color scheme.

Berry Bird

I have been on a roll in my studio. stamping my wee heart out until school starts again. Today's card is for the bird challenge at  Addicted to CAS that Ashwini a new blog friend shared with me and even better yet they are having a DT call. They are looking for CAS folk who want to join a fun and exciting family oriented team, well that's me!!

For today's card, I went to my Memory Box roots. Before MB became the source of all things dies, Dave the owner made the best stamps. I am happy to see that he is creating some stamps again. Mybird stamp is older and I could not find it at the MB web site, but they still have it at Ellen Hutson!

The bird is paper pieced and I added pearls for the berries. I cut a partial window to show case my little bird and added a sentiment and this CAS card was complete.

Now that I made this bird card, I have an idea for another using a new stamp set from Essentials by Ellen.

Ombre blooms

So once again I was out walking with my good buddy Miss Patricia and we were yakking about stamping. the topic of Hero Arts ombre inks came up. I mentioned how I had them on my wish list at Simon says Stamp and Ellen Hutson. Pat said she had three, but she wasn't feeling them. She just didn't see the ombre. When we finished our walk she lent me the three HA ombre inks she had and said play with them. See if you like them any better than me. Well, if that wasn't a challenge!

I went right home and starting playing. Guess what? I thought they were amazing!! I want all of them. You definitely should use them on bold stamps with a lot of surface to stamp on. I started with the pink to red ombre  and the mint to green ombre inks and used the bold bloom set from Ellen Hutson. I loved how they worked and I could totally see the ombre. Can't you?

The bold pinky ombre blooms with the minty leaves totally felt like this inspiration picture from the Card Concept. And while my card is a bit more muted than this photo at Time Out challenges the blooms reminded me of the wall paper.

The pink card is going to my friend Margarita for her birthday. She is all about pink. But for Miss P, I made the same card with butter to orange ombre ink. I think the ombre is just a little more difficult to see with this ink than the pink to red ink.

Shopping Our Stash is having their 200th challenge!! Can you believe that! They want something BIG, BOLD and BEAUTIFUL. I used big and bold blooms and bold beautiful inks. I mean entering this card was a no brainer. Congrats to Shopping Our Stash for such an awesome milestone!

I hope you enjoyed this review of ombre inks. Let me know if you have any and what you think of them.

Hello sunshine

When we were having lunch today, my sweet George commented on how today felt like the summer. I said it looked like summer with the hazy blue sky and bright warm sunshine. It's only early May, it makes me think we are in for a sweltering summer. But after the bitterly cold winter we had here on the  East Coast, I will take it.

CAS(E) this sketch always have the best yet simple sketches. I have to admit they can be a challenge to me with their simplicity. But I used today as my inspiration and created my "hello sunshine" card.

I used Lawn Fawn's  "hello sunshine" set and a variety of cloud dies. I added a coating of glitter to make my sun really appear hot.

Be sure to check out CAS(E) this sketch  for this week's challenge. Bye for now, I am going to grab a book, my chair and head to the back yard to say HELLO SUNSHINE! 

Bon Voyage!

I just got back from walking 3 miles around my neighborhood. I was walking with a friend and we spent the entire time talking about stamping. The time flew by and before I knew it we were done. But wouldn't have been fun if I was in Italy walking around Rome or walking the country side of Tuscany? That got me thinking about trips and traveling. Naturally a bon voyage card began formulating in my mind.

Happy Little Stampers has a CAS challenge asking us to use die-cuts or punches. They are also having a DT call for all their sites- HLS CAS, HLS sketch, and new HLS Christmas challenges which I applying for.  I had so much fun with this month's sketch challenge. (See my entry here.) Naturally, I had to join in on the CAS challenge, especially since I am basically CAS chick at heart!

I used Papertrey Ink's Fly Away set and the matching die set. Haven't matching die sets just changed the course of stamping? No more fussy cutting!! Love those matching dies!! What about you? Do you always buy the matching dies when you buy the stamp sets like me?

My gals over at Just Us Girls have a word week and the word is twine. I love to play along my good buddies when I can and "twine" fit in perfect with my card concept as you can see.

Curtain Call must have been reading my mind when they chose a travel theme for this weeks challenge!

I love it when challenges work together like they did today!

Well that's it for today, I have to get outside and enjoy the sunshine even if it isn't Italy, it is still a beautiful Sunday in the neighborhood>

Shower of flowers

Spring has finally sprung and I am feeling a shower of flowers. So when Happy Little Stampers (isn't that the best name for a  challenge!!) had this sketch challenge I had to play along. I saw visions of flowers falling all around me!

I used one of my most fav flower sets- "flower friend" from Simon Says Stamp. I love the mix of nice big flowers and smaller accent flowers. Surprisingly many flowers sets, either have mostly small flowers or mostly big flowers, so this set is just right.

I used a variety of happy spring colors to stamp the flowers added the sentiment and this pretty one layer card was complete!

I am entering this over at the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge where Heather Telford is hosting and the word is blossom. Allsorts is having a flowers and or showers challenge- well duh! I had to enter!

Happy Little Stampers is having a DT call and I am entering- after all haven't I always said I am a stamper- all the other stuff are just embellishments to the stamping

The House of Cards- bokeh effect

The bokeh effect is the hottest trend these days in crafting. It looks like our vendors are jumping on board also. This month at Simon Says Stamp they are featuring bokeh stencils.  For most of us we have made our own bokeh stencils. 

This month at House of Cards we are challenging you to bokeh! Check out what the DT has come up with for inspiration.

I have tried a few different techniques and for todays card, I combined several techniques. It might not be the more "traditional" bokeh technique, like this one I did a few months back.

Life is all about diversity and there are no two ways to do things. So, While the blue card might be the more standard bokeh, the green bokeh card makes me happy. I like the texture of the clear and white embossed circles. Hey, that's why there is chocolate and vanilla!

Come play along with us at the House of Cards and show us how you bokeh!!