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

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

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

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

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

Honey of a Color Dare

This week's challenge at Color My Heart is to use Honey.  No...not the sticky sweet stuff, the color!  Since we could use any other neutrals, I paired it with Slate and Black.

When I was done with this one, I got the inspiration for this one:

I could have kept going.  Lovin' that gray and yellow combo.  I think I mentioned that a couple Color Dare's ago.

Anyway...I owned some retired CTMH Gray Wool and Flannel so I was reluctant to purchase the new Slate and Whisper colors.  What sold me was how the new Slate and Whisper have a warmer undertone which makes it work with the yellows and Honey in particular.

Here's the lowdown:  On the first card, I used Sightseer and the Word Bubble set that comes with the Artiste cartridge.  I inked just the edges of the "thanks" Word Bubble in Slate so I could use "Oh snap!" from Sightseer instead.  The second card is just the Word Bubble set.  I inked it in Slate, then went back over the "hi" and a few parts of the flowers in black pen.  After the ink dried, I colored the flowers with a Honey marker.  I don't have the alcohol markers, so I can't tell you if that would have smeared the ink.  Anyone out there in blog land know?  The other accents were Slate Washi Tape and a few pearls (Hobby Lobby or Michaels).

Can't wait to see what you all come up with on this challenge!

Until next time,
Becca

Pretty Piroutte

I. Love. This. Stamp.

Which is why Pirouette is the prize for participation in May Color My Heart challenges. (See this post for another Color Dare card using this stamp.)  This week's challenge was to use yellow, orange, and pink (our choice of which ones).

Here's a close up of the center.  I chose all my colors from the Whimsy Mini Pigment Pad Set: Buttercup, Sorbet, and Smoothie.  Using Buttercup, I inked just the outside edge of Pirouette and stamped it on my card base which was larger than this final image.  More on my reason for that later.

I had my clear embossing powder handy and covered the image, shook off the excess, and melted the powder immediately.  Next, I inked the center of Pirouette with Sorbet, stamped in on scratch paper, and embossed again.  I then inked the center again in Smoothie.  (Be sure you clean your stamp between inkings.)  This was also stamped on scratch paper and embossed.  I then fussy cut the Sorbet circle and Smoothie shape out and layered them on top of the Buttercup image.  (One of the reasons I only inked the edge of the Buttercup layer was because I get better adhesion when it's paper to paper vs. paper to embossed image.)

Once I had all my layers stuck down and dry, I laid down the button and poked holes through where the waxy flaxy would go using my paper piercing tool.  Again, because waxy flaxy doesn't adhere well, I poked the holes through all three layers of paper, threaded the waxy flaxy through, and that held my button in place.

Now it was time to trim the image panel to size.  If you try to do the image panel to size first, you are going to have a terrible time trying to get a clean cut of your Sorbet and Smoothie layer.  Just start with a bigger piece than you need, layer your pieces, then trim the whole thing at once.  Trust me.  I know of what I speak.

I cut a matte panel out of Dream Pop paper, just 'cause those little circles of shiny stuff are so cool, but you could use regular Smoothie just as well.  The banner, also from Dream Pop, was embossed with "Hello" from For Every Occasion using Buttercup embossing powder.  It's been retired for years and years, but one of the testaments to CTMH's quality is that it not only still works but is still the same Buttercup color as the current catalog.  I could have used white embossing powder just as easily.

I. Love. This. Stamp!  Have I said that already???

Until next time,
Becca

Burlap & Lace Best Wishes

My friend just got engaged!!  She's planning a vintage, shabby-chic wedding with burlap, canning jars, and peonies.  So...I got into my stamp drawers, pulled out some oldies but goodies to bring you this:

I'm not sure what was up with my lighting, but I never felt like I got a picture to do this card justice.  It's amazing in person!

Here's the list of supplies:

• CTMH: Canning Jar and Paris Floral stamps (both retired), burlap ribbon, doily
• Verve: Sentiment (Friendly Phrases)
• Momento: Rich Cocoa ink
• Copic Markers: BG0000, R0000, R00, R01, R24, G0000, G21,G24
• Stampin' Up!: Baker's Twine (Calypso Coral)
• Lace trim sewn onto burlap: Decorative Trim (Hobby Lobby)

I used the sketch from this week's Viva la Verve challenge.  Not sure where I've been, but this is the first I've seen of these challenges.  Doh!

And even though you can't see it, I did stitch the white lace onto the burlap, so I'm going to link this over to the Heart2Heart: Nip & Tuck challenge, too.

Now I know why people decorate the insides of these cards.  It's so heavy in the front that it kept tipping over while I was trying to photograph it.  Gotta say, though, it just might be  my all-time favorite.

Until next time,
Becca