What a Wonderful Weekend!!

I have had a truly wonderful weekend!!  A good friend in town, a dozen amazing card makers, an entire day focused on cards and fun and chatter!!  Yay for World Cardmaking Day!!  How many of these people do you recognize??





You may not recognize everybody from their bitty photos on their blogs - but I guarantee you know them all!  There's a picture of everybody with links on my Facebook page!!

Seven hours of crafting takes energy, so we were heavy on the snack food too!!

The whole event was hosted by Michelle, the creative mind behind CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.  She is a truly wonderful lady - a great hostess and an amazing talent.  I have to admit to getting a quick sneak peek of some new stuff that's coming from CAS-ual Fridays and it's going to be a great release. They started peeks today on their blog!

And to make it all even more amazing, the wonderful Stacey Schafer came in for the event (we gave her honorary Coloradan status for the day). We managed to do quite a bit of craft shopping and ate some huge meals (even after the feast shown above).  I took her to the airport early this morning so the weekend is officially over!!!

I had thought that she and I might spend a little more time celebrating over drinks - this was the first time we had met in person!!  But I totally wore out by the end of each day with all of the crafting craziness!!   I had made this card for her in advance of our wild times! (Stamps by Paper Smooches)

I also wanted to be sure to thank Michelle.  When you make a card for her you have to use CAS-ual Friday Stamps, right??

I did use the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for this card and the sequins and chevrons from the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

I did get some cards made yesterday, although less than you might think for seven hours of crafting.  But they are all for posts later in the week.  I am definitely going to take a day or two off (it's going to take me that long to put everything away that I had carted over to the event!) - I'll be back in a few!

CAS-ual Fridays: Count Me In

It's my husband's 55th birthday this weekend!!!  Of all of the cards that I make, cards for my husband are absolutely the hardest.  He is such a totally plain and basic kind of guy that any decoration is too much.  But..I'm a cardmaker...I have to add something.  I did want to use the number "55" to play along with CAS-ual Fridays Count Me In challenge.   Then I made two entirely different cards.

I think this looks like my husband - although those few little dots might put it over into the "too much" category for him!

I actually did this next card first.  I came up with the tag which I really liked - but then spent way too much time struggling with what to do with it.  I'm using a sketch from Lisa at dahlhouse designs but even with this fabulous layout, I'm still feeling like the background could be different/more/less/something...I don't know??  What do you think? (Keeping in mind my very basic husband for whom the three patterns is likely going to be too much!) 

Wowzers!

• Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Exlamations
• Paper: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red, Little Yellow Bicycle Just Because 6x6 pad
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy
• Accessories: WPlus9 tag die, Paper Smooches Numbers dies (the smaller ones), May Arts twine, Stampin' Up dots

Turning 55

• Stamps: Paper Smooches Digits
• Paper: Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Confetti Cream, Simple Stories Happy Day
• Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso
• Accessories: WPlus9 tag die, May Arts twine, Papertrey Ink Impression Plate

CAS-ual Fridays: Yay!

I am just thrilled today to be a guest designer for CAS-ual Fridays!!  It's a challenge I play in very regularly and even if I don't find time to play along, I always admire and learn from the design team's cards!

The new challenge is to use some sort of material in a CAS creation: canvas, felt, fabric, etc.

I have a decent collection of felt and a piece of burlap just recently jumped in my cart - so I layered a felt flower and added a burlap tag for a country feel!

I didn't select the sentiment until I was done - but I thought a relaxed little "yay!" worked well with the overall look!!

• Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Exclamations
• Paper: MME On the Bright Side 6x6
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy
• Accessories: Felt from a sample pack from Giant Dwarf on Etsy, Papertrey Ink flower dies, L'il Inkers stitched rectangles, May Arts twine, Teresa Collins He Said/She Said Enamel Dots, Crate Paper Random Buttons

CASual Friday: A Set of Banners and Flags

The current challenge at CASual Fridays is Banners and Flags.  I have dozens of banner stamps and dies and I still manage to bring more into the craft stash.  I recently picked up the Banner Up set by Technique Tuesday thinking it would make quick and easy cards with the simple use of a sentiment on top of the banner.  With the exception of two sentiments, all stamps on these cards are from the set.

Isn't it great how a simple banner can make a card look so festive!
They had to be quick and easy because it was a long, hot and disappointing weekend.  My youngest was in a big lacrosse tournament.  Thirty-six teams in their division and they were expected to be in the top 2 which would have won them a trip to a major tournament to Florida in January.  Actually, the top 5 teams in a division are invited (under the assumption that some won't be able to go).  Guess where they ended up?  Sixth.  The tournament was 5 hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday, and 7 hours on Sunday.    It was SO long.  And it was SO hot.  We got in our car on Sunday and the car thermometer said 108!!  (Of course, that was totally related to the silver sun screen in the front window focusing the heat on the temperature doohickey - but it's still a good story!!)  Here's my little athlete!!
I'm not looking forward to him waking up this morning because he is going to be a mass of aching muscles and bruises (it's really a brutal game)!  I think I'll settle him into the comfy chair in front of the TV, plug in his laptop and let him stare at bad TV and video games for the day!!  My husband is assistant coach and he'll be just as miserable (minus the bruises) - I'm not sure what I'll do for him!

A CAS-ual Mood Board: Way to Go!!

The current WPlus9 Monday Mood Board has a red, white and blue theme.

The current CASual Fridays challenge is congratulations.  

I have to make an 8th grade graduation card for a young man whose school colors are red and blue.

Hmmmm....

• Stamps: WPlus9 Label Layers 4 (sentiment), A Pocketful (stars)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Real Red, Simple Stories Snap Color Vibe
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Midnight Muse
• Accessories: Red, Silver, Gold Stickles

A CASual Red, White and Blue Dahlia

This is my second post today.

I have been wanting to play along with the Technique Tuesday Dahlia Fold challenge all month so since we are getting down to the last few days - I had to try something.  Technique Tuesday has a nice video tutorial on this technique.  They also later posted a slight variation that makes gorgeous flower buds - find it here.

I also had a pad of paper out full of reds and blues so also decided to play along with the CASual Friday red, white and blue challenge.

BIG NEWS: The downloadable Copic charts for color matches to Stampin' Up and

Papertrey Ink have been updated for the brand new Stampin' Up colors and the

most recent Papertrey Ink colors.  The link to these charts is on my side bar to the right!!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Framed Out 1
• Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle Just Because 6x6 pad, Stampin' Up Night of Navy
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy
• Accessories: 1 1/2" circle punch, Quickutz embossing folder, October Afternoon buttons

Day 5: Online Class Pattern Play

Yesterday was the fifth and last day of the Online Card Class: Pattern Play.  The topic was paper manipulation and it was FUN!!!

I chose to do paper quilting.  You might think this is one piece of pattern paper, but it is actually strips of all of my favorites woven together.


It's such a fun look and it was really easy!

And...I am flying high today...it's a bonus day at the Pattern Play class and they are showcasing 15 more cards from the teachers and 9 cards from the students.  My card is one of the nine!!!  It's an absolute statement of the quality of these classes and instructors because you truly did not see much patterned paper on my cards prior to this class!
I am playing along with Catered Crop: Flower Power and with CAS-ual Fridays: No Stamps!

• Stamps: None
• Paper: Pebbles Family Ties, Papertrey Summer Sunrise and Vintage Cream CS, Stampin' Up Old Olive, Night of Navy CS
• Ink: None
• Accessories: Cuttlebug "thanks" embossing, Sizzix Flower Daisies #2 die, Spellbinders leaves die, Papertrey Spring Rain button

A Floral Day with WPlus9

As I am watching the snow swirl outside my window (although once again, the 10" predicted is looking to be just a dusting), I decided to play along with two WPlus9 challenges that involved flowers.

The first is Cloud9.

Cloud9 has a picture inspiration.  I strayed a little further from it than I usually do.  I am not particularly creative with picture inspiration challenges.  If there are pink flowers, I stamp pink flowers.  In this case, I started with the swirly background.  I don't have a lot of swirly papers but I found a scrap that had a mass of flowers.  I thought it matched the inspiration until I started adding other colors and realized that the purple and greens were dominate.  I curved the flower a little to get the lean of the inspiration flowers (I love that acrylic stamps allow that!) then a bright butterfly to signify "hope". So...I was definitely inspired by the inspiration but, in the end, didn't come very close.

The second WPlus9 challenge today is the Monday Mood Board and for this challenge I was further inspired by the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to color block.

(Now, I'm going to take advantage of the snowy mood and make a couple of Christmas cards for some upcoming challenges!!!)

Cloud9 card

• Stamps: WPlus9 Woodgrain Silhouettes, Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions and Sweet Nothings
• Paper: Papertrey Plum Pudding, Stampin' Up Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray Kioshi
• Ink: Memento Espresso Truffle and Copics
• Accessories: ribbon from Hobby Lobby

Mood Board card

• Stamps: Wplus9 Mother's Day Bouquet (the flower), Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions (leaf), A Pocketful (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Daffodil, Gumball, Cherry
• Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Versamark
• Accessories: Timeless Twine Lemonade Yellow, misc button, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

CAS(E) this Sketch with Fun Angles!!

This week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch! is a little bit different with a unique angle.

I used the sketch exactly as is but so many of the design team found that they were making it upright that they actually did the sketch that way too.

I had this diagonally striped embossing folder on my desk and decided it worked perfectly for an angled panel.  I just got the You die and stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and I thought that the embossed panels looked a little like a spotlight - so a little glitter and a gem and I have a special friend card!

I hope you have fun with this sketch.  I found it to be just a little harder than the others - so I really look forward to seeing what you come up with!

• Stamps: Simon Says Stamp You
• Paper: black, white, Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz
• Ink: black
• Accessories: Simon Says Stamp You die, May Arts ribbon, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder, Martha Stewart Crystal Fine Glitter (on "you")
• Challenges: Besides CAS(E) this Sketch, I have to thank CAS-ual Fridays because I was feeling a little lost on this sketch until the idea of black and white plus 1!

Your Friendship Warms My Heart

I have a set from Flourishes that I loved when I bought it years ago and it has never seen ink.  (Of course, I could say that about the majority of my stamps!!)  But this one is particularly nice.  So when two challenges came up - "hearts" and "markers" - I knew what I had to ink up...


There is a little bit of sparkle on each flower.

I picked the colors because I had just gotten a package from Timeless Twine.  I had ordered when I saw seen this yellow/gray twine (Cape Code) on their design team's blog.  Just so that it didn't get put away and never used (as did the stamps!) I wanted to use it right away.
The sentiment is a fun set from Inky Antics that I just picked up when I treated myself to an Archiver's trip yesterday.  I had taken my son to take his home-school finals (finals have to be proctored at an official center).  I took my own homework and planned to spend a long two hours sitting in the car taking notes on Accounting 101.  But...it was cold...and I realized there was Archivers about 20 minutes away.  Hmmm....tough choice!!??  I'm not buying many stamps lately - mostly I like new papers, dies and embellishments.  However, this Inky Antics set - Simple Sentiments - is all innie/outies and they are just a little unique.  The innie for this stamp says "you add sunshine to my life".  I really like one that has an outie "sending a hug" and an innie "you can return it whenever you want".
I am playing along with Addicted to CAS.

And with CAS-ual Fridays.

• Stamps: Flourishes Hearts & Flowers, Inky Antics Simple Sentiments
• Paper: white
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Timeless Twine Cape Cod, Crafts-Too embossing, Stickles

Soft Kitties and Snowflake Blessings

There is nothing particularly unique or creative about the cards that I am sharing today except for the amount of thought that I put it into each of them (or perhaps it was simply avoidance.)

I have shared many cards with you that I have been sending to my long-time friend in hospice care.  Tammy passed away on November 29th.  It was what she chose and her death ended a long period of suffering.  I have spoken to her husband many times by phone, but I haven't sat down and made a card.  I've thought it about it daily, but just haven't gotten it done.  It's amazing how much harder cards are when they have to have meaning to the recipient (vs. all the cards that I make for design teams and challenges that I may or may not use someday.)

Tammy and Jeff made the decision not to have children, but Tammy had cats - and those cats were definitely her children!  I wasn't entirely certain how Jeff felt about the cats until my last visit in October when he showed me how he played tag with Blossom.  He would run around the house like a crazy man and that cat would take off after him...they stalked each other...they surprised each other...Jeff laughed...and I was so glad to see it.  So, whether or not it is the common thing to do, my sympathy card for Jeff HAD to have a cat in tribute of his wife and my friend...

This is a very deliberately simple card.  A few flowers in honor of Tammy, but no frills for Jeff.  Jeff is a firefighter and spends his free time helping his dad with the cattle - frills would not have worked.Then I moved on from this card and started thinking what I could do for him for Christmas.  "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" just didn't work.  I decided upon a single snowflake based upon a sentiment I found in my stash.Snowflakes are kissessent from above,falling from heavento show God's great love.

Thank you to the following challenges who made these difficult cards a little easier to make.
CAS - Colours & Sketches

The Paper Players: CAS Snowflakes

CAS-ual Fridays: Even the Score.  (I had punched the snowflake and stamped the sentiment, but it looked too empty.  A few score lines filled it in and kept it all very simple!)

Sympathy

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Summer Solstice (sentiment), Hampton Arts cat
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides, Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Naturals White, Pink Paislee Indigo Bleu
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides, Stampin' Up Going Gray
• Accessories: MME Follow Your Heart twine

Christmas Blessings

• Stamps: Hero Arts Greatest Gift, the inside sentiment that I quoted was a set from Clear Dollar Stamps - they are moving to digital stamps and a quick search did not turn up this stamp
• Paper: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze
• Ink: Stampin' Up Baja Breeze
• Accessories: Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Stampin' Up Baja Corduroy button, silver cord

Anniversary Wishes with a Score!!

There were two challenge that I wanted to play along with this week...

• Less Is More: Anniversary.  I have this fun Doodle Frame that I thought would be perfect for a truly CAS card.  I was thinking of my own husband when I kept this card to a little platinum embossing and one red gem - but I'm guessing he will think I went overboard.
• CASual Fridays: Even the Score.  I don't know why I don't think of using simple score lines more often.  I'm always looking for a stamp or a die cut to highlight an image or sentiment, but often a set of scored lines would do it better.  On this card, I thought the scored lines would support the frame so it wasn't left hanging.

Most importantly today, I just wanted to let all of my blog friends know that I've not made it around to comment much and probably won't until after the holidays.  I'm so sorry - but I bet you all understand.  I am still reading your blogs every day, but I often find myself scrolling through blogs in those few minutes between shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating and, quite honestly, a lot of wonderful coffee time with friends!!  Thank you for all of your inspiration!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Doodle Frames
• Paper: black and white
• Ink: black and Versamark
• Accessories: misc red gem, PSX Detail Platinum Embossing Powder