CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #7–Color Blocking!

 

Hi Kids!

 

Wow!  We had another week of incredibly clever and delicious answers to last week’s CAS-ual Fridays Challenge – you all just continue to knock our socks off!!

 

This week’s challenge is something that is uber trendy these days – Color Blocking!!  You see it everywhere in fashion, advertisements, home décor – really when you look around you’ll see it in every aspect of design.

 

This week’s challenge sponsor is Crop Stop, a company that carries a plethora of die cutting folders, machines, and embossing products, among other things.  If you’re in the market for the latest die cut machines and related products, Crop Stop is the place for you.  I know there’s an amazing prize in store for this week’s T.G.I.F. winning entry, so you need to head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog to see what the prize is!  Thanks for sponsoring, Crop Stop!

 

You can imagine that I had a freakin’ hay day with this challenge!  I loves me some clean and simple, but throw in some graphic and I’m a very happy girl!!  I was inspired by this photo that I saw on Pinterest.  I loved the graphic feel of this photo and took the colors and shapes from the photo and translated them to my card.  You, too, can be inspired by what you see around you!!  Do it!!

PRODUCTS USED:

STAMPS:  PRACTICING CREATIVITY (Look Up Additions)
INK:  TSUKINEKO (Onyx Black VersaFine Dye Ink)
PAPER:  FRENCH POPTONE (Blu Raspberry and Black Licorice CS); NEENAH CLASSIC (Ultra Smooth Solar White CS); PAPERTREY INK (Orange Zest CS)
ACCESSORIES:  WE R MEMORY KEEPERS (Corner Chomper); STAMPIN’ UP! (Stampin’ Dimensionals)

 

I so hope you’ll give this week’s challenge a try – it really is a gas and has so many possibilities!!  Looking for more inspiration?  Head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog and get a load of the eye candy that the other Girl Fridays have provided for your creative pleasure!

 

That’s it for me today, chickies!  Hubby is basking in the sunshine in AZ for a week, watching some baseball (Go, Sox!) and drying out from the cold and rain here in “sunny” Washington!  LOL  So I hope to have lots of dedicated stamping time while he’s gone.  Thanks so much for stopping by today – your kind comments are the highlight of my day!

Chevron Chic–Another Moxie Fab Challenge!

NERD ALERT:  I mistakenly said below that the DARLING inspiration for Cath's challenge was created by Courtney Baker (who IS the genius behind Practicing Creativity Designs).  But in fact the card was created by Courtney Kelley - another amazingly talented designer.  I so apologize for getting these two very talented ladies mixed up.  Thanks Jen W. for letting me know!!  No doubt, I should have had more sleep before I drafted this post.  LOL

Hola Chicas!

I am DRAGGING today after my long weekend in Las Vegas with my sister.  Got home at 2:00 AM yesterday morning.  I’ve decided that I’m just too freakin’ old to be staying out late and surviving on just a few hours of sleep.  LOL  But we had a blast – didn’t win anything, but had a blast!


I had to pop in today to share the card that I made for the current Moxie Fab Challenge – Chevron Chic.  I know I’ve told you a million times how much I love Cath’s challenges.  She stretches me in ways I never knew I could stretch, and I so appreciate that about her.  Today’s challenge is no exception.  Chevrons – what?!  Now don’t get me wrong – I’m a clean and graphic girl all the way.  It seriously never occurred to me to use something as graphic and linear as chevrons. But they are so the rage these days, so I decided to give it a go (do a search on Pinterest and you’ll see what I mean!).

Not sure how I came up with the idea – it just kinda popped into my head.  The lines of the chevron remind me of the gradient effect of a rainbow when stamped in rainbow colors.  The inspiration photo from the challenge was this card by Courtney Baker – the genius and proprietor behind Practicing Creativity Designs.  [SEE CLARIFICATION ABOVE!]  So, of course, I had to use Courtney’s Retro Christmas Backgrounds set to create the chevrons.  I stamped the image in several different colors, leaving a slight white gap between colors.  The clouds were created with some cloud dies from My Favorite Things and Papertrey Ink.  The sunshine image is from the Scattered Showers Additions set, and the sentiment is from the Up, Up & Away Sentiments set, also from Papertrey Ink.  The button was a last minute addition to add a bit of interest and dimension (like there isn’t enough already, right?!).  Can’t decide if I should have “dressed” the button or not – decided to go with the cleaner look.

That’s it for me today, kids!  Be sure and come back tomorrow for the newest CAS-ual Fridays challenge – it’s a goodie!!  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you have a great day!

Celebrate!!

 

Hi Stamping Friends!!

 

 

I’m back today to share another entry for the Moxie Fab World Cityscapes Are the On The Rise challenge.  Cityscapes are so much fun, and so appropriate for fun celebrations like a new job, a graduation, girl’s night out – the possibilities are endless!!  I do find that there aren’t very many sentiment stamps that go with a fun, celebratory occasion, though.  I was happy to find the “Celebrate” sentiment from the Practicing Creativity set called For the Love of Dots.  It’s sort of blingy, like the city lights and the stars in the sky.  I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.  The cityscape image is from the My Stamp Box set called Neighborhoods.  I stamped it three different times – once on Soft Stone CS (with black ink), once on Basic Gray CS (with black ink), and once on Smokey Shadow CS (with light gray pigment ink) – and then “fussy cut” each of them out.  The moon was punched out of Harvest Gold CS with a 1-1/2” circle punch and adhered to the Smokey Shadow card base – I love the graphic pop of color that the contrast of the bright yellow moon gives against the dark gray CS.  I;m also really loving the gradient gray hues of the city.  I used the silver cording to “ground” the city, and then added self-adhesive rhinestones for stars.  I’m so happy with how this turned out.  I hope Cath likes it, too!

 

That’s it for me today, kids.  I’m off to crop with a friend so I’ll be back in a day or so to share again.  Thanks so much for stopping by – your comments truly make my day!!

Moxie Fab Cityscapes!

Hola Chicas!!


How are you?!  I’ve been creating like a fool lately, but can’t show you most of what I’ve made just yet.  I still have a few Go-To Sketches for Cardmakers 2 rejects to share with you, which I’ll do in the next few days.  But today I’m here to share a card I made up for the latest Moxie Fab World challenge – Cityscapes Are On the Rise.  I promise not to go on and on about how much I adore the Moxie Fab World Challenges – I know you’ve heard it all before.  But it bears repeating just one more time – Cath has her finger on the pulse of current trends and when she presents a challenge, I MUST obey!  LOL



So today’s card features a fun little cityscape image from Stampabilities that I happened to pick up at Hobby Lobby ON SALE!  Woohoo!!  The color scheme was inspired by the Moxie Fab World blog header, although I’m not sure I really captured all the amazing dimension represented in that graphic.  The rays were created with the super fun Practicing Creativity Designs clear set called You’re Dandy.  The sentiment is from Big & Bold Wishes by Papertrey Ink.  The cityscape image was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with black ZING embossing powder.  The rays were stamped with Pool pigment ink from Fresh Ink – ADORE that stuff!!  Easy peasy!!

There’s still a few days left before the challenge is up, so you really should play along.  You can find all the details HERE, and the deadline is March 28th.  I have a couple more ideas in my head but I may not have time to implement them before the challenge expires because I’ve got a very busy social schedule the next couple of weeks.  Today I’m lunching with the best shortbread cookie maker known to man (no, SERIOUSLY!), and Saturday I’m throwing a bachelorette party for one of the sweetest and most talented girls I know.  Then there’s the matter of a mani pedi next Thursday, the rehearsal dinner next Friday, and what no doubt will be the most beautiful wedding I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of on Saturday.  So you see, I’m a very busy chica these days!!

Thanks for stopping by today – I so appreciate you all!!  Hope you have a great day!

Thank You!

Hello!


I hope you’re enjoying a beautiful Tuesday – I know I am!  I wanted to share a card with you all that I made for the last Paper Crafts Magazine/Stamp It! call.  They wanted cards featuring heat embossing.  Well, I think you all know about my love affair with ZING/American Crafts embossing powder, so I figured that challenge was right up my alley.  Apparently, I was the only one that thought so since it was a REJECT!  LOL  But I’m over it now . . . I doubled up on my meds and I’ve moved on.  Hahahaha

The center doilies were stamped using some brand spankin’ new Maya Road stamps called Doilies – duh!  LOL  I stamped the large doilies in Versamark on the Kraft squares and then heat embossed with White ZING EP.  I then stamped the same doily image again on white cardstock in Versamark, and heat embossed with Black ZING EP.  I punched the center of the black doily out with a 7/8” Circle Punch and adhered it to the center of the white doilies using dimensionals.  I then adhered a turquoise rhinestone to the center of the black doily circle.

I stitched a horizontal and vertical line through the center of the Hawaiian Shores square.  The four Kraft squares were then adhered to the Hawaiian Shores panel with more dimensionals.  The sentiment came from a new clear set of stamps that I received from Practicing Creativity called Chatterbox.  Isn’t that font amazing?!!  I stamped it in Versamark in the bottom right corner of the card base, and heat embossed with the black ZING EP.

This was the only card I submitted for the Stamp It! call – the other two possibilities were thrown into the trash by the time I got done working and reworking them.  Even though this wasn’t picked up, it hasn’t completely discouraged me from continuing to play the publication game.  You can’t win if you don’t play, right?!

That’s it for me today.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope to be by tomorrow (or maybe later today) with a picture of my blog candy that you’ll have a chance to win with every order placed at ABC Toys & Crafts using the discount code listed on the blinkie below.  Just click on it, and it’ll take you directly to the store – enter the discount code at checkout and receive 20% off your entire order as well as a chance to win my blog candy.  It’s guaranteed to be in excess of $100!!  You can use this code as many times as you like between now and September 30th.  You’ll get one chance to win for every order you place using that code.