CASology Cue Card 38: Up

Hello Everyone,
I am just getting this in under the wire. It has been the usual busy this week, but for some reason my energy has been low. When I saw the cue card at CASology,  I thought "Up" was great inspiration and yet nothing popped into my head. I was worried that I wasn't going to come "up" with anything to submit. Then last night - at some point during my dreams, this image popped into my head. Such a simple concept. So, I got up this morning and headed to the basement craft zone and this card came together in a matter of minutes. I love the way it turned out. Some things are truly worth the wait. The image is from PTI's "Happy Trails" set and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp "Handwritten Sentiments" by Kristina Werner. Now, I am ready "up" load my card! Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Ugliest Card Ever! Welcome to the Hall of Shame

Hello Everyone,
Well, I was blog hopping on this lovely April Fool's Day and came across the "Ugliest Card Ever" blog hop over at Suzanne Dahlberg's blog: Card Yard - it is too funny. I am shame-facedly posting this lovely as my submission. I spent hours on this card and what a disaster - not sure what I was thinking! The colours alone are enough to send you running in the opposite direction. Layers, colours, texture all in the wrong proportion. So I apologize for subjecting you to this travesty - but I just had to join in the fun! Thank God I have learned from my mistakes.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Muse #10 and CASology - Hope

Hello Everyone,
I wasn't sure if I was going to make it on time to participate in the challenges this week. My card has been percolating in my brain since I saw the beautiful card Ardyth Percy-Robb created for this week's Muse Challenge. Then when I saw the CASology cue card (hope) I felt that the sentiment for my card fit the theme perfectly! I was inspired by the layout/sketch of Ardyth's card and ran with that. I created a negative mask to sponge my clouds and then masked them off to stamp the sun. The senitment is from a Hero Arts set; the clouds are a Memory Box die and the sun stamp is from a Lawn Fawn set. I am really pleased with the result. Thank you Ardyth for the inspiration. Thanks for looking.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

CAS-ual Friday: No stamps

Hello Everyone,
This week's challenge at CAS-ual Friday's is "No Stamps" - Hmmm! That had me stumped for a little bit and then this card popped into my head. I used the paper bead die from PTI to create the rays. The cross is cut out from the SU! lattice die - when that die first came out I resisted buying it because I didn't think I would really use it even though I loved the design - boy am I glad I caved. I love its versatility. THe hills are also a PTI die. This is my Easter card for this year. Thanks for looking!

Happy stamping,
Meg

Cas-ology Song: Happy Birthday to You

Hello Everyone,
This week's CAS-ology is song. So I did the obvious, and went with "Happy Birthday to You". I had a birthday card to make for my best friend's daughter, so this is what I came up with. It doesn't look CAS, but it was actually very easy to put together. I used "Notebook Doodles" from Lil' Inker - I almost didn't get this set because it was a little more than I usually spend, but I am just loving it! It was very easy to take the various swirls and put them thogether to make the focal image. Then I just quickly coloured everything in. I also embraced patterned paper (took the online class "Pattern Play"). I have a fair bit of it, but use it sparingly. I added some rock candy stickles to the peace sign - you can't really see it in the picture, but itdoes add a little sparkle IRL. I had a lot of fun with this card - thanks for looking!

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Pattern Play Card Class Day Two: Part Two

Hello Everyone,
Yesterday I posted a card I made using the technique that Jennifer McGuire showed us in Pattern Play class. Today I am posting the card I made with the positive die cut from that card. I masked off the area where the "Thanks" was going to go and stamped some flourishes from the Lil' Inker "notebook Doodles" set. I used another technique that Jennifer had demonstrated in the "Clean and Simple 2" class - I stamped in yellow, then inked in yellow and orange to create some gradient colour; finally I inked in straight orange. The lighting wasn't great when I was photographing the card this a.m., but in real life it is more distinct. Love the way it turned out.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Pattern Play Online Card Class Day Two

Hello Everyone,
I am dropping in to share the card I made for today's Pattern Play class. I loved Jennifer McGuire's idea of using emboss resist and sponging to change up the look  of a pattern. So, that is what I did. I started out with a piece of yellow patterned paper that had white polka-dots on it; then I stamped my background with versamark and clear embossed. Next, I sponged all over with Spiced Marmalade distress ink and sponged just around the edge with fired brick. I love the way it turned out. I die the Thanks sentiment and popped everything on dimensionals. I will use the positive die cut on another card. Anyway, thanks for stopping by - if you haven't taken one of these online classes, you really have to try it out. They are fantastic.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Pattern Play Card Class: Day One

Hello Everyone,
I am thrilled to be participating in another of Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire's online card classes. This one is all about using patterned papers. I have to admit that I love patterned paper and have lots of it, but never really use it effectively. Today's class focused on how to combine different papers by balancing the large, medium and small designs. I cased one of Kristina's cards almost directly - I used her sketch. I was surprised at how easy it was to pick out the papers. The papers I chose all come from one pad and with the sketch in mind it was simple figuring out how I juxtapose them. Initially, I didn't have the thin strip of yellow between the bold floral pattern and the stripes and it looked too fragmented; just adding that thin little strip really pulled things together. The speech bubble and sentiment are from a new Neat and Tangled set called "Just Thinking of You". I just love it. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Muse Challenge # 9: Marion Vagg

Hello Everyone,
It is Monday, so it is time for a new Muse challenge. This week's inspiration comes to us from the fabulous Marion Vagg. If you are not familiar with her designs, you really need to hop on over to her blog and feast your eyes. Here is her inspiration card for this week's challenge.

The colours and the layout are gorgeous! I love the somplicity of this design. I was inspired by the colours and the white stamped image. Here is my card:

I chose to create a similar colour scheme in the background. I used three shades of blue Inktense pencils and coloured in wide stripes on watercolour paper.  Then I blended these colours together to create the gradient background. I dried it with my heat tool, and stamped the lattice background in versamark and white embossed. Next, I die cut the white flower (love my wafer thin dies). and stamped and mounted the sentiment. It makes for a lovely soft card even though the colours are "cool" tones. Thanks Muse for the challenge; thanks Marion for the inspiration; and thanks to all the "players" for leaving me comments! :)

 

Happy Stamping,
Meg



Muse Challenge 8: Therese Calvird

 

Hello Everyone,

Week after week the gals over at Muse just keep coming up with fantastic inspiration cards - this week's is no exception. Therese Calvird is this week's muse - be sure to check out her blog. All I can say is WOW! I was inspired by the layout, so that is what I went with. The flower is from Clearly Besotted's "With Love". Check out their stamps, because they are gorgeous and so fun to use. The sentiment is from Neat and Tangled's "Kindness Matters" - another great stamp company. The butterfly is a Memory Box die that I just love. I sponged Behind the window with distress inks and used the same colours to colour my butterfly. The flower is coloured with copics. I am really pleased with the way this turned out - I think I will send this one to my sister! Now I am off to see what other creations people have come up with at Muse!

Happy Stamping,
Meg