Friday, July 5, 2013

Live Inspired

If you are looking for the Color My Heart card, please go here.

This morning while cruising around Pinterest, I found a tutorial on masking.  Since the Heart2Heart challenge is masking, I decided to copy the idea from the tutorial and use this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.


As suggested in the tutorial, I pulled out a boatload of stamps and just kept going.  All supplies are CTMH unless otherwise noted:
  • stamps: Live Inspired, You & Me, Air Mail, and Make It Count (all retired, sorry)
  • ink: Slate, Black, Ruby, and Versamark for embossing (with silver detail embossing powder from somewhere not clearly marked on my jar)
I love how this turned out because it's not my normal style.  Usually I'm too intimidated by the graphic, almost grunge look.  The tutorial made it look so easy I thought I'd give it a whirl!

Until next time,
Becca

happy...

Sometimes you need a happy birthday card, sometimes happy anniversary, and sometimes it's happy whole other occasion.  Why not create a couple happy (fill in the blank on the inside) cards?


This week's Color My Heart dare uses a paper packet I don't have, "Surf's Up."  I used Crystal Blue, Sorbet, and Ponderosa Pine (which are regular-line colors included in the pack) then substituted Honey for Surf's Up Gold.  I cut several strips in various widths and glued them to printer paper before cutting with Artiste.  Even though the printer paper is thin, it's still two layers of paper so I set my cutting machine gage to full pressure and a slow cut setting.  It should also be noted that I recently replaced my blade as I'd been using the one that came with the machine for the past four years.  I'd say I got my money's worth!

The only non-CTMH product on these cards are the sequins on the top card and Baker's Twine on the bottom one (Island Indigo from Stampin' Up!). 

I already have plans for these cards.  I've got a couple teenage family members with birthdays soon.  I think the fun and funky look will suit them perfectly.

Until next time,
Becca

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Beach Baby Birthday

My sister's birthday is July 4th.  I usually do something patriotic, but when I saw the Less is More: Sand challenge, I immediately thought it would be a perfect fit.

Cork letters, "Happy" stamp and ribbon is from CTMH.  Flip Flops are Stampin' Up!  I used Copics Y0000, Y02, B26, and R29 to color them.  Both the sentiment and flip flops were stamped in Momento Rich Cocoa.

I am also linking this up to Shop Your Stash: Use Your Oldest Embellishment.  That ribbon has been in my stash for...hmmm, I have no idea how long.  And this is the first time I've even pulled it out.  And, since I got a comment inviting me to join up with a challenge I've never heard of before, I've linked this up to A.R.T. Card Challenges: Anything Goes.  How cool is that?  To find a whole new challenge!!

Happy Birthday, big Sis!

Until next time,
Becca

Friday, June 28, 2013

Cranberry, Hero, and Pacifica

Last month, several of the Color My Heart design team participated in the OWH Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop.  There were almost 150 participants and a ton of great ideas.  For this week's Cranberry and Pacifica challenge, I stole this idea from Beth's Beauties and combined it with this card I saw on Splitcoast Stampers a couple years ago to bring you these two cards.



I am also linking this up to the following challenges:
Heart2Heart's Color Me Happy challenge because Cranberry is my all-time, number one favorite color
CASology: Free because where would we be without our military heroes? 
Operation Write Home: Clean and Simple with texture

There are a ton of photos to show you how I did this, but if you want the short version, I used the star and banner cuts from Artiste.  For the top card, I stamped "Hero" from the coordinating stamp set Kudos in White Daisy.  The stitching was done with a white gel pen I probably got at Micheals.

Here's the nitty gritty...

  Star is from p. 68 at 3 inches. Using the slant feature (cursor arrow is pointing at it) on my Design Studio-- which should be the same as Cricut Craft Room--I slanted the star to the left.
The banner is on p. 58. I started at 1 inch and had to make it smaller using the bottom right dohickey (just below the cursor arrow in this picture). Yeah...there's probably a better word for it, but I can't think of it right now. Then, using the stretch feature (cursor arrow is pointing to that dohickey), I pulled each banner just a little longer than the last one.






 When I was done, my screen looked like this.  I put a 4x4 piece of Pacifica on the left lined up at the 0 inch mark, and a 4x6 piece of Cranberry on the right lined up at the 6 inch mark (center line).  I later trimmed the Cranberry piece to 4x5.25 to mount on my second card.








One of the tricks I learned about using negative images is that you need to use lots and lots of foam mounting tape so your cut outs don't bend or droop.  And to get the image centered, you peel back the center sticky but only partially peel back the edge pieces.  When you put it on your card, the bent pieces will keep your panel off the main card until you can line up the edges.  Then you can press down the center, peel off the remaining pieces, and voila!





My first attempt at the second card looked like this.  I liked it, but it seemed to be missing something.  Just sponging the edges of the stars (two different punches, but you could use your Artiste and make smaller, stars as needed) wasn't enough.  So I added the white stitching lines.  I don't recommend doing this after the card is already put together.  Yeah.










The top and bottom larger stars have double foam mounting so the stick up at the same height as the others.

Wow!  Lots of pictures and explanation.  Thanks for sticking with me.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll reply.

One of the things I promised to do during the OWH Hop was to make two "Any Hero" cards.  I'm proud to say, I fulfilled my promise with these two cards!!  If you've never heard of this organization before, I encourage you to click on the Rosie the Riveter picture on my sidebar.

Until next time,
Becca

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Smile

Smile and the whole world smiles with you. 

Today, I'm smiling because my very good friend, Paula Moldenhauer, is smiling.  Her debut novella, "You're a Charmer, Mr. Grinch", is a finalist in the Carol Awards.  I was there when she found out she'd been selected for her first writing contract--almost two years ago--in a room full of other writers and hopefuls.  So, being me, I just had to send a card with lots of sparkles.

The stamp is CTMH Love Doiley.  Sentiment is from Stampin' Up!  Colors are CTMH Desert Sand, Lagoon, and Blush.  The embossing powder is Stampin' Up! which has an off-white hue.  All together, they are pretty good substitutes for this week's Color Throwdown.
 
Congratulations to my friend!!!
 
Until next time,
Becca

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Birthday Snail Mail

I'm really late getting my brother-in-law's birthday card out.  Needing a little inspiration, I decided to play along with Fusion Card Challenge #12 and Less is More: Birthday.


All supplies are CTMH but the only thing current is the sentiment (Card Chatter-Birthday).  The inside reads, "I'm just extending the Celebration!"  The paper is Dotty for You, and the snail comes from an old, wood-mounted super set. I colored with Copics R05, Y0000, Y02, YR23, BG10, BG72, and BG75.

Quick, simple, and snails.  How can you go wrong with that?

Until next time,
Becca

Friday, June 21, 2013

Topiary & Smoothie Color Dare

I love blog hopping and finding inspiration from people much more clever than I am.  One of the blogs I frequent posted this card which I have CASE'd for this weeks Topiary & Smoothie Color Dare.


The waxy flaxy is old CTMH, probably Watermelon (retired) but it was close enough in this small amount to work.

I used pigment ink because I wanted it to stand out better against the Kraft paper.  I will probably try this again using dye ink just to see the difference. The frame is from Frame It Up, the border is from Snowflakes, and the sentiment (stamped in White Daisy) is from A Friend Like You.  All of them are current...which is rather miraculous for me.  In fact, I chose the Snowflakes border specifically so I could use all current stamps.  Well, that and because it's always fun to pull something off a Christmas/Winter set and use it in a completely different way.

If you want a tutorial on the flower, link through to the card I copied.  And then browse this woman's blog. She does amazing cards in a very clean style.

Until next time,
Becca