Celebrate- CAS(E) this Sketch

Hello! I have a new card to share today! I started with this sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch:

I still had the light blue pieces laying around from a previous project, so I decided to incorporate those into this project. I cut the background panel and stamped it with a background stamp and heat embossed it with glitter embossing powder. I then added the light blue pieces. For the sentiment, I cut out the word "Celebrate" three times from gray cardstock with my Cricut. I heat embossed the top layer with silver embossing powder and then I glued all the layers together for some depth.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my card!

Birthday Cards- Stick It Down Guest Card Designer

Hi all! I have a couple of cards to share and some exciting news! I was selected as guest designer at Stick It Down this month! Here is the card sketch:

I ended up making two cards with the sketch, one for my nephew and one for my son. They are very similar, but with different balls to reflect their interests. All of the die cuts were made using my Cricut and the "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge. For the backgrounds, I used some Distress Oxide inks and smooshed them on plastic, sprayed them with some water and pressed the ink onto my cards. Once that was dry, I added some washi tape and my die cuts. I finished off the cards with a stamped sentiment.

Make sure you check out the design teams creations here.

Birthday and Anniversary cards- CAS(E) This Sketch

Hello! I have a couple of new cards to share. I started with this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I started by stamping and heat embossing the card base with a background stamp. For my image panels, I used translucent Yupo paper and alcohol inks. I played with mixitives and splattering blending solution to add texture and interest. Once that was dry, I stamped my images. I made the wedding card first. I tried stamping the dress with Alcohol Ink Lift ink, but the image was too fine and the background to busy that it didn't stand out enough. I ended up stamping and heat embossing the image over the top. For my second card, I chose a bolder stamp and used the Lift ink to make the butterfly image. I stamped the lifted ink onto a plain white panel for later use on another card. I stamped and heat embossed my sentiments and then attached those to the cards. I finished it off with a couple of dots of Liquid Pearls.

Play Learn & Grow

Hello! I put together a quick layout today. Being (gulp!) 7 years behind has made me realize I need to get photos to paper and create pages and spend less time worrying about making my pages "perfect." I started with this inspiration from CSI:

The sketch was perfect for these photos! The inspiration image made me think of October Afternoon papers and motifs, so I pulled a bunch of October Afternoon papers in blue, orange and yellow. Every piece of paper I used for this layout (besides the background cardstock) was a scrap! I tried to use the smooshing technique with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide Ink on the dark blue paper, but it didn'r show up very well, so I pulled out some splatter stamps and created some splatters that way. I then added my papers, photos and title. I then dug through my embellishments and found some stickers, brads, and tape and added those in clusters around my page. At this point, I looked at my page and felt like it needed something around the edges so I pulled out my sewing machine and stitched the border. 

Fairy Fun

Hello, I have a new layout to share! I used some more Renaissance Festival photos, this time for my second oldest's book. I was inspired by the "Girls Rule the World" challenge at Paper Issues. I had fun playing with some girly colors. I fussy cut the butterflies from a sheet of patterned paper and placed them in various places around my page. I liked how the wings mimicked my daughter's fairy wings. I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot to cut my title. I played around with photo placement quite a bit on this page. I decided to add some weight to the right side of the page with the yellow strip since my photos are on the left side of the page. I finished off my page with some brads, a badge and sequins for some dimension.

Mother's Day Cards- Fusion Card Challenge

Hello! I have some new projects to share, starting with some Mother's Day cards! I started with the current inspiration at Fusion:

I started by stamping a butterfly background stamp on watercolor paper. I used Distress inks and water to add color to my panel. Once that was dry, I punch the circles. The butterflies are pretty subtle, so they are hard to see here. 

For the background, I used a woodgrain mask and distress inks on grey cardstock. I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it on vellum. I used foam adhesive to add the circles to finish off the cards.

May Calendar Page

Hello again! I finally got my May calendar page finished! I started with this sketch from Stick It Down:

I started by cutting wedges from different patterned papers. Once I had them adhered, I decided there was too much white space between the wedges, so I decided to ink blend some more wedges. I used a couple of pieces of plastic as my mask and went to work with Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber, and Crushed Olive Distress Oxide Inks. I then added all of my photos. Usually I do my journaling next, but this time I pulled out the stickers and went to work with some embellishing. I finished things off with the journaling strips. I thought about adding more embellishment, but felt like there was enough going on with the giant sun burst, so I let it be. 

Happy Birthday- Altenew Inspiration

Hello! I have some new cards to share using the Altenew inspiration challenge from April:

I used the clematis set for my flowers along with several shades of yellow and pink inks. While there wasn't green in the main inspiration colors, I needed to put some stems on my flowers, so I added a bit of green. The funky blue shapes were what was cut when I cut the background for this layout.  I added those to my background for interest. The sentiment was from another Altenew set. I stamped it on white and matted it with the same yellow used for the card. I put that right up against the edge. I finished it all off with some blue liquid pearls.