CASology Cue Card: Candle

Hello Everyone,

For a long time I have been mourning the loss of my favourite local craft store: Heather's Stamping Haven. I was not only an enthusiastic customer, but I also taught classes there too. When Heather decided to retire, she was not able to find a buyer for the store:( Recently I discovered another store in the Ottawa area. It is a little far for me - it is in the very east end of the city and I now live 40 minutes west of the city - but, let me tell you it is worth the drive. So, what does all this have to do with CASology's cue card: Candle? Well, when I went to check this store out, I bought a most beautiful Memory Box Candle die. How perfect is that. Here is the card I made.

I die cut several candles and layered them for dimension. I love the white on white look, but I wanted just a pop of colour - hence the red sentiment from Paper Smooches. I also went over the die cut with my glitter gel pen for just that added touch of sparkle. I love the way it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by. I love to hear your feedback, so feel free to leave a comment.

Happy Stamping,

Meg

CASology Cue Card: Soft

Hello Everyone,

This week I am playing along with CASology - the current cue card is "Soft". Well we have had our first real snowfall of the winter season and I always think that the white blanket of snow gives the world a hushed softness - that was my inspiration for this card. I wanted a white on white soft touch with a highlight of soft colour. Here is my card:

The house die is an old one from Memory Box that I forgot I had. I used MFT stitched hill dies to create the hill and sponged the back panel with Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks. I wanted the colour to fade softly from dark to light. I added some texture paste snowfall with the SSS Falling Snow stencil. I left the house white and used a soft yellow to illuminate the windows. The "Joyeux Noel" sentiment is from SSS last year. I love having the French sentiment as I live in a bilingual area and many of my co-workers are francophone. I am pleased with the result! I did add a touch of sparkle to my sentiment with a gel glitter pen.

Happy Stamping,

Meg

Merry and Bright CASe this Sketch 193

 

Hello Everyone,

Time to play along with CASe this Sketch 193. I will admit that I find Sketch challenges hard. When I saw that vertical stripe, I immediately thought of this fabulous glitter washi tape that I just purchased at Michaels. I am not a huge user of washi tape, but I just loved the textured glitter of this selection. Here is what I came up with:

I cut my cardstock focal panel to size and ran two strips of the gold washi down the left side. I covered a piece of scrap cardstock with my silver glitter washi and die cut the snowflake from it - the snow flake is from Simon Says Stamp. Next I die cut the merry from some glitter cardstock and stamped the "and Bright" (PTI "Wonderful Words" and "Wonderful Words Holiday Additions") in versamark and heat embossed with silver (SSS). The sparkle in real life is quite dazzling. Here is a close-up:

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the challenge. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Happy Stamping,

Meg

One More for CASology: Frame

Hello Everyone,

Time to play along with CASology again. When I saw the MFT background stamp "Bundles of Blossoms", I just knew I had to have it. It is so intricate and funky; I just love using it. At first I thought I would love colouring it, but I have to say that I love it just as it is, especially in simple black. So, I decided to use it for this challenge.

I stamped it with versafine Black Onyx and then clear embossed it. I used the Simon Says Stamp "Big Hello" die and die five hellos in black and then one from the stamped panel. I layered the five black hellos to create the shadow and glued the stamped hello slightly off-set. I love this camouflage technique. I then cut two of the largest stitched frames by Lawn Fawn and glued them together. I inked the frame with versamark and clear embossed that as well. Finally everything was adhered to a white card base. As a last touch, I added some clear Wink of Stella to the shadow and that just really finished everything perfect. Here is a close-up: it is hard to capture, but the glitter on the shadow is quite striking in real life.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Happy Stamping,

Meg

Playing along with CAS(e) This Sketch

Hello Everyone,

I am playing along with CAS(E) this sketch 191 this week. At first I was stumped; but, as I was photographing my entry for CASology this week (see post below), I had an "aha" moment. I decided to remake the card with a slight twist in the design to fit with the sketch. Here is the result:

This Santa is from the MFT set called "Jingle All the Way" and I think he is just too stinkin' cute! I think Mrs. Clause must have been working on a family photo album, and left a stack of polaroids on the coffee table *wink*. I love the way it turned out. By the way, the polaroid frame is from the Avery Elle set "Picture It".

Hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment - I love the feedback!

Happy Stamping,

Meg

CASology Week 216: Frame

Hello Everyone,

Today I am playing along with CASology. The cue card for this week is Frame. I saw this card on Ardyth Percy-Robb's blog and fell in love with that Santa. So, I finally bit the bullet and bought the "Jingle All The Way" set from MFT which features this little guy.

I also had the "Picture It" set from Averyelle, but had never used it. So I pulled it out and decided to frame my little Santa in a Polaroid snap shot! I love the way it turned out. The frame and the speech bubble are from the Averyelle set and the sentiments and Santa are from the MFT set.  The little holly is from a CASual Friday set called "Merry Kiss-mas". I love the way this card turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and as always, i would love to hear your feedback!

Happy stamping,

Meg

Wow - What a way to comeback!

Hello Everyone,
No card to post, but hopefully I will have one later today. I am floored that my come back card was honoured with a win over at CAS(e) This Sketch. Here is my winner's badge. You can scroll down to the post below to see my card! Hmmm... Can't seem to figure out how to grab the badge. Here is the link to their blog.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

Back in the saddle with CASe this Sketch 189

Hello Everyone,
It has been a looooooooong time since I last posted. No real reason other than regular getting in the way. I think I also lost my blogging mojo. Anyway, here I am trying to get back in the swing of things. I am going to get back into playing along with some challenges again. I have been in the Christmas card mode recently and when I saw the sketch over at CASe this Sketch, I knew I had to take the time to post.

This card uses three different stamp sets: the holly is from CASual Friday's "Merry Kiss-mas"; the globe is from Concord & 9th's "Map Love"; the Peace die is a Simon Says Stamp die, and the "...on earth" is from PTI's "Wonderful Words Holiday additions" - I cut it from a longer sentiment. I stamped the earth, the holly and the sentiment in Versamark and then heat embossed with Simon Says Stamp rose gold embossing powder. I coloured the holly with Copics and then cut the Peace out twice. Once from the panel and also from white craft foam.I backed the whole panel with foam and then pieced it back together, popping each letter up with its foam counterpart. It is super CAS and the rose gold is really striking in real life - it was hard to capture its glitteriness.

Anyway, it feels good to be back - I would love to hear your feedback. Promise to be back again soon.

Happy Stamping,

Meg

CASology: Aquatic

Hello Everyone,

Just dropping in quickly to get this card into the CASology challenge for this week. The cue card word is Aquatic. This made me think of the Simon Says Stamp Stencil "Waves". I love this stencil. First I masked off my panel and sponged the area completely with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink. Then I layered the stencil over and sponged again with Salty Ocean - I love this colour and the way it combines so beautifully with Peacock Feathers. I die cut the Simon Says Stamp Daisy and layered it on top of a fun foam die cut to give it dimension. I couldn't resist adding some Wink of Stella to the flower. I capped everything off with the bold black sentiment from Altenew's "Label Love" - this set has been out for awhile, but I just got it and am absolutely loving it.

I think the flow of the waves, the delicate glittery flower is the perfect juxtaposition for the bold sentiment. I am thrilled with this simple card. I will be making more with different colour combos. Thanks  CASology for the inspiration. Thanks also for stopping by and commenting!

Happy Stamping,

Meg

Paper Smooches Sparks: Anything Goes

Hello Everyone,
I am posting a card for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks challenge. I find this summer I am really struggling with my creative mojo. For this card I am following a tutorial that you can find on Jennifer McGuire's blog: here. She created this really cool faux metal look with Distress Inks and Perfect Pearls.

For my card I masked off the center of my cardstock piece and sponged Squeezed Lemonade in a circle in the middle. Next I added Spiced Marmalade around that and finished with a bit of Festive Berries just around the edges. While everything was still masked off and the Distress Inks were still wet, I added some gold Perfect Pearls over the top and burnished it with a paper towel. I embossed the panel with an embossing folder. Finally I die cut the word Hello from Paper Smooches "Hello Words" die set. I think the swirly hello fits with the embossed pattern. I layered several of these die cuts together to add some dimension. Finally, I covered the sentiment with versamark ink and then brushed it with white perfect pearls. Here is a better look at the metallic sheen the Perfect Pearls gives:

It is hard to capture, but trust me it is spectacular. I am thrilled with the way this turned out - simple and classic.

Thanks for stopping by - feel free to comment!

Happy Stamping,

Meg