Happy Birthday

My third attempt at the Less Is More challenge this week. I know the white space is busy so I won't enter it but I'm happy with it. I used this combination of challenges-

Week 14-White on White
Week 11-Acetate
Week 9-A Touch of Red
Week 16-Butterflies

There are many fantastic takes on this challenge.

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-30-recipe.html

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

This is one of the cards I was going to use for the LIM challenge until I got carried away with the bling and it started to look too busy for a CAS card. It took me FOREVER to get that bling on too! Next time I'll just use Stickles. lol I was going for a one layer card but I might trim it up and put it on a colored card stock base. It just seems to be missing something and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe re-do the birds in a more vivid color?  Oh, well...I'm open to suggestions.

You're cool

The challenge at Less Is More this week is to combine 3 of their previous challenges into your design. Here are the 3 I chose for this card-

week 11-acetate (jar)
week 18-monochrome (yellows)
week 25-ribbon or button (along the bottom)

I guess I could also count week 12- off center too.

 I had a lot of ideas for this challenge but it was harder than I thought to create something that was truly CAS with what I had in mind. So I'll post the other card I made in a separate post and submit this one. Regardless, I've got more cards done from the inspiration and that's always a good thing. Here's the link to the LIM challenge-

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-30-recipe.html

I Just Love You

It's been exceptionally hot for this time of year in Colorado. I am longing for autumn! I was running errands yesterday in a town that has a LSS. They had the new Bo Bunny fall line which I had to snatch up. When I sat down to create a card for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge those fall colors were calling me. The challenge was to use stickers (or rub-ons) to make a card. I don't have many stickers in my stash but I do have a few rub ons. I used some old Fancy Pants rub ons to make this card. They are so old they didn't rub on as easily as they used to-I need to start using instead of hoarding my supplies. lol Here's a link to the challenge if you'd like to use up some of your stash.


http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cfc17.html

Game on!

My son will be turning 17 in 3 weeks...how in the heck is that possible?!? He has been obsessed with all things gaming since he was old enough to play Candy Land. Chess, Monopoly, cribbage and dominoes have all been faves at one time or another. Video and computer games reign supreme though. That was the inspiration for this card. The video playing boy is a digi stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil. I made the background using words that gamers use. I hope he likes it.

This weeks challenge at DYSU is "Just for boys or men". I'm sure if it weren't for this challenge I would have been hustling at the last minute to make him a card. lol I think we can all use masculine inspiration in our card making. Go take a look at some of the awesome card creations at the DYSU challenge. Here's the link-

http://doyoustackup.blogspot.com/2011/08/dysu-challenge-34-boy-or-man.html

How About A Bike Ride?

I felt bad for entering an inappropriate card into the Less Is More "Things That Move" challenge yesterday so I decided to attempt a re-do. I got carried away with my patterned papers-I do that sometimes. lol Here's the link to the challenge (where the rules are clearly stated)-

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-29-theme.html

I've had this bicycle stamp for a while. I have other bicycle stamps but just HAD to have this one. I love the basket of flowers and the suitcases that add that little extra something to the image. I wish I'd chosen brighter colors for the flowers, but am pleased with the look of the Glossy Accents on the bicycle's red frame. Most of all I am amazed that I could manage to color it at all. You can see that I didn't do such a great job keeping the Glossy Accents within the lines, but IRL it's not as noticeable as it is in the picture.

Wish You Were Here

I absolutely love using these brick wall digital backgrounds for cards. They are such a cool way to change things up. I'm entering this in the Simon Says Stamp "Food/Drink" challenge. Here's the link-

http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/08/simon-sayswho-wants-some-food-drinks.html

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

Who doesn't like flying kites? I made this card for the Less Is More "Things That Move" challenge. The tail of the kite swings freely on this card. There are a lot of cool interpretations of this challenge. You can check it out here-


http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-29-theme.html

Merci

I bought a new shimmer paper card stack that I've been wanting to use so I broke it out for this week's DYSU challenge to create a Thank You project. I don't think I captured how pretty the papers are in this picture but IRL they are sooo yummy! Here's a link to the challenge-

http://doyoustackup.blogspot.com/2011/08/dysu-challenge-33-thank-you.html

Let's Chat

I made this card for the Simon Says Stamp challenge to use food or drink in your project. This image reminds me so much of my mom as I was growing up. Always with a cup of coffee in her hand. She likes STRONG coffee-we have a separate coffee pot for when she visits as no one else can drink it the way she likes it. lol

Here's a link to the challenge if you'd like to play-


http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/08/simon-sayswho-wants-some-food-drinks.html

Embossed Birthday

I made another card for the CAS-ual Fridays embossing challenge. This time I only used heat embossing. I used clear embossing powder for the leaves and sentiment on this card. Pretty simple but I like it none the less. The link to the challenge-


http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cfc16.html

Wild & Crazy Birthday

This week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to use embossing. Love embossing!! I use it on a lot of my cards so this was a fun challenge. For this card I used a PTI embossing plate for the background, and heat embossed the spots on the giraffe. My daughter has called dibs on this one. lol Here's a link to the challenge if you'd like to give it a try-

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cfc16.html

The inside-

Birthday Wishes

I really need to create a stash of birthday cards. I seem to go through them faster than I can make them. I used the sketch from the CAS-ual Friday and Clean & Simple combined challenge again. Amazingly, all 3 cards look different.  Links to the challenges-

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc15.html

http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/2011/08/special-casual-fridayftl-153.html

And no, I didn't do any shading. It was 1 am when I made this card and my eyes were blurry. Darned menopausal insomnia. lol

Thanks A Bunch

When the kids and I went to NC my aunt cooked us a huge meal with all the foods she knows we love. She also sneakily stuck some cash into my camera bag. She is so sweet. So I made this thank you note for her. I used the sketch from the CAS-ual Fridays and Clean & Simple Stamping challenges.


http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc15.html

http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/2011/08/special-casual-fridayftl-153.html

Since I did some embossing on the fence, I'm going to enter it in the DYSU challenge too.

http://doyoustackup.blogspot.com/2011/08/dysu-challenge-32-emboss-it.html

Sweet 16

Another birthday party for my daughter, another card to be made. I used the sketch from a challenge coordinated with CAS-ual Fridays and Clean & Simple Stamping. I'm not much of a sketch person, particularly for cards, but this one was very nice to work with. There are some stunning takes on this challenge. Here are the links if you'd like to take a look.

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc15.html

http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/2011/08/special-casual-fridayftl-153.html

Here's mine.

I also entered this in the DYSU challenge-Emboss It!

http://doyoustackup.blogspot.com/2011/08/dysu-challenge-32-emboss-it.html

Whale Of A Happy Birthday

Considering I'm not a big fan of all that sparkles, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed using the Glue Dots for glitter application. It is a technique I never would have thought of on my own but I'm glad I've learned it. I decided to make another card using this technique for the Cas-ual Friday challenge. Here's the link if you'd like to give it a go.

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc14.html

Graduation Card

I made this for this week's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge. The challenge is to use Copics to create your own custom ribbon. What a cool idea! I can definitively see using this technique often. Here's the link if you'd like to give it a shot.

http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2011/08/make-it-monday-27-custom-copic-striped-ribbon.html

Sweet As You

What crafter can live without Glue Dots?!?! The. best. adhesive. ever!! Glue Dots are sponsoring the Cas-ual Friday challenge this week. The prize is Glue Dots-of course I'm going to enter. lol Here's a link if you'd like to play-

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/08/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc14.html

The challenge is to use glue dots to add glitter on a CAS card. Here's what I came up with after I raided the Girl Scout craft stash to find some glitter..

Just Because, Giraffe

I wanted to do a silhouette type card and the DYSU challenge, black with a pop of color, seemed to be a great fit to finally give it a shot. I used a stamp for the background, dies for the tree and giraffe and a border punch for the border. Here's a link to the challenge if you'd like to play-

http://doyoustackup.blogspot.com/2011/08/dysu-challenge-31-black-with-pop-of.html

Oh say, can you see...

I LOVE the Stampin Up word flag digital brush!! How cool is that? I recolored the words to red and the stars to blue and was sooo happy with it. I also love the PTI flags from the new Friendship Jar Summer Filler stamp set. I'm thinking this will be a good card for the next time I make cards for soldiers. I'll have to find more ways to use these images. I decided to enter it in the CAS-ual Friday 4x9 challenge even though it doesn't have a lot of white space. I think it's still a fairly clean and simple card.

http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/07/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-cfc13.html

Soaring By

I made this for the Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday decreasing apertures challenge. This technique does require some planning but has a cool outcome.  The instruction video showed a neat way to make a glitter window, but since I don't have any glitter I just used a glitter pen on the hot air balloon.Here's the link if you'd like to give it a try-

http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2011/08/make-it-monday-25-decreasing-apertures.html

Birthday Card

My daughter has a birthday party to attend this morning. Oops, we needed a card. I forgot all about making one yesterday, but I think it turned out pretty cute. Hey, it's got money inside-the kid will love it for that if nothing else. lol I ordered some Stamping Bella stamps before I went on vacation and they came while I was gone. Woo hoo! They are adorable and so much fun!