Casology 27: Blue

I made these cards a few days ago for the blue challenge at CASology, but am just now managing to get them posted.  I used the same floral image from Inkadinkado meadow flowers on both cards, but changed the shades of blue for a different look and feel.  On the first I used deeper blues and sponging for a sympathy card.  This was my second go round. If I did it over I would stamp the flowers slightly lower. 

 

On the second card I switched to Memento Bahama blue ink and did some quick stamping for a super fast, CAS thank you card.

Thanks for your visit today.

Ann

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Friends!

It's been nearly a month since I've posted or made a card.  I've been enjoying my family and the Christmas holidays and taking a bit of a break from blogland.  The other night, however, I pulled out my supplies and started creating again.

I made two cards for the CASology challenge 'New.' 

The first is a new baby card. I stamped the PTI banner in blue, green, and purple to make a baby bunting.  I also used my new twine from Lily Belle's Paperie on Etsy.  I had a stamp with the word baby in it that fit the circle tag, but it didn't fit, if you know what I mean.  Instead I used this tiny Joy sentiment from PTI Mega Mixed Messages.  It looked better in the circle , and I decided that 'joy' is the perfect word for new babies.  Sleepless nights, dirty diapers, colic . . . and joy.

For the second card I participated in a new to me challenge, Freshly Made Sketches.  As this is the 67th challenge, it's obviously not new to the world, but it's the first time I've ever participated in it so it's new to me. :)  I used Wplus9 Mother's Day Bouquet for the flowers and added a sentiment from PTI Mega Mixed Messages.  Again I used my new twine.  I love that sampler pack with so many beautiful colors. 

We were going to drive up into the mountains today to go snowshoeing, but when I checked the weather conditions it said it was 28 degrees and gusting up to 38 miles per hour.  I don't think our girls would enjoy snowshoeing into a freezing wind!  So instead, we'll be "taking down Christmas"  and then I'll enjoy catching up on all of your lovely blogs.

Thanks for your visit!

Ann

Inspiration:

 

Thoughts of You

I managed to make a card late last night and I'm just squeaking in for CASology 18: Orange.  I sponged an orange background and stamped an image from an Inkadinkado clear set called meadow.

Also entering into the Simon Says Stamp Thinking of You challenge.

Happy Sunday,

Ann

Thinking of You

Last night before bed I made a fast one-layer card for this week's Dynamic Duos and CASology challenges.  It was simple to combine orange and green with leaves to make a quick fall card.  I masked a panel and stamped my favorite leaf from SU French Foliage, using the rock and roll technique to add a bit of green along the leaf edges. This was a five-minute card, which doesn't happen very often for me. :)

I also decided to share one last Less is More card using silver that I didn't post yesterday.  I hadn't decided if I liked it or not, but this morning I decided that I do! :)  I punched flowers out of a shimmery silver paper to create a Christmas wreath.  I've seen a lot of wreaths made out of punched shapes lately, and I wanted to give it a try.  I tried it with a sentiment, too, but prefer it without.

Yesterday morning while tromping about in the woods with my dog, I was surprised by this lovely owl as it swooped down right in front of us.  It drifted up into a tree where it stayed long enough for some pictures.

Thanks for your visit today.

Ann

Inspiration:

CASology & Less is More

This week, I combined the CASology "shoe" challenge with the Less is More take three challenge.  For the shoe challenge, I used these baby booties, the only shoe stamps I own.  I used these shoes on my youngest daughter's birth announcements seven years ago and I don't think I've used them since.

The Less is More challenge is to combine three past challenges.  I chose the following challenges:

Week 5 : pastels
Week 68: baby or child
Week 12: off-center
Week 34: sketch 3 also works, I think

I used a Close to My Heart stamp set called argyle backgrounds to stamp the strips that hang behind the shoes.  I first made this card using different colors of inks for each element.  I much prefer it monochromatic, so I made one in light blue and one in lavender.

Unfortunately, I had a terrible time photographing these.  The pastel colors look very washed out and the baby booties don't stand out enough.  They do look much better in real life. :) 

Supplies:
Paper: PTI white
Stampes: All Night Media, Close to My Heart argyle backgrounds, PTI sentiment
Ink: memento lulu lavender,  VersaMagic Sea Breeze

CASology: Sky

I was walking through a discount store the other day when I stumbled upon some craft punches - big ones for $3.99.  One of them was this large dragonfly punch, which I couldn't resist. I was good to buy just one, right!?

At any rate, I was excited to try it out and it worked perfectly for the CASology theme this week, which is sky.  I pulled out some of my girls' art supplies and painted a sheet of watercolor paper with liquid watercolors, sprinkling some areas with salt for a more dramatic effect.  I love liquid watercolors and use them frequently in the art lessons I teach, but I've never used them for my own cards. 

When the paper was dry I punched out a gazillion dragonflies and used ten of them to make a set of notecards.  I fiddled around for quite a while before settling on this simple layout.  I first tried the dragonfly straight up and down with a sentiment below it, but it looked so much better angled with the sentiment tucked under the wing. I found black ink to be too strong for the sentiment, but Memento London Fog was just right.

I can't figure out how to take a good picture of several cards, so here they are in sets of two.  

A few favorites:

 

Less is More & CASology

I was determined to make a card last night so I played along with my favorite challenge, Less is More.  The challenge, ending today, was to use tearing.  Eek! I was determined to give it a try.  I paired it with the cue word from CASology: green.

I tore a piece of PTI rustic white cardstock and stamped it with SU French foliage.  I added it to a rustic white card base and added some button, twine, and a sentiment.  I had no idea what I was going to do, and I am pleasantly surprised by how this turned out.

While I'm at it, here is a card I made a week or so ago using colors from CR84FN 60: blue, purple, and green.  Obviously missed that one by a mile!  I also used the sketch from the Hero Arts August challenge.

And a card made for Retrosketches 24.  Missed that one, too, but I still had fun. :)

Cattails

The cue this week for CASology # 5 is "pond."  I don't have a lot of stamps with pond images, but my Wplus9 Guiding Light set has two cattail images.  I combined the larger of the cattail images with the gorgeous colors of Play Date Cafe 144.  I suppose blue and green would have made more sense, but I rather liked the idea of using pink, orange, and yellow instead. :)

I inked a square acrylic block with Memento dandelion, tangelo, and rosebud.  I spritzed it with water and then inked directly onto the card base.   I stamped the cattail and sentiment in Memento rich cocoa.

It's addicting to make these ink splodges, for lack of a better word, as you never know exactly how they will turn out.  Each one is slightly different.  My favorite is the first one that I have matted white on white.

Thanks for visiting!

CASology # 5

Play Date Cafe 144

 

CASology # 1

I've made a couple of quick cards for the brand new challenge blog, CASology.  Each week there will be a challenge to create a CAS card based on a single cue word.  The word for this week is sun. 

I used Hero Arts Sky's the Limit and made two cards.  I'm not overly thrilled with either of them but decided to post anyway.  The blue cardstock is impressed with my new PTI canvas impression plate.  So excited to finally have this as it had been out of stock the last few times I ordered.  I added a little glitter glue to the sun for some sparkle.

Thanks for visiting!
Ann