Rylee's first CASE

Hi everyone.  I'm just stopping by to share a little card that was made by someone very special.  When my 9 year old niece Rylee comes over to spend a weekend with me, we always make a little time to make cards.  She draws a lot of her inspiration from card videos.  We curl up in my chair and we tune into various videos around the web to soak in some new ideas and techniques that she may want to try.  Then we hit the craft room so she can get her hands dirty! LOL!

This weekend we headed over to StampNation to soak in some of the awesome CASE-ing Christmas class videos.  She learned what CASE means (Copy And Share Everything) and she learned the whole philosophy of CASEing another person's card.   It was great for her to see all of those CASEings in action and she was so excited to try her hand at it.  So, we headed off to my craft room and she started by picking out one of my Christmas cards to CASE.  I let her have free reign with her creation and I was delighted with the results.  Here's her adorable card:

Here is her card next to the card she chose to CASE.  You can see some similarities in the colors and the bear but she was very good at changing some of the elements to make this card her own creation.

I think what impressed me the most about her creation is that she wanted to incorporate the stripes from the scarf on my bear but her bear didn't have a scarf.  Instead she created her own striped design on the bear's sweater.  She is really getting good at thinking outside the box and I'm so proud of her.  Great job Rylee!!

Have a great day!!

Black Friday and that oh so gorgeous red cup.

Hey my friends!  Just wanted to give you the heads up on a freebie.  Catherine Pooler has a black Friday freebie for all her email subscribers coming up that I thought you might like.   Who can say no to free right?  Go --------> HERE to watch her video about it or click on the image blow to sign up today!

There's the black and here's the red!  Who says a red cup can't be festive?  Cheers!!

Clean and simple on the outside with a little white embossing to make the snowy background.  That solid red Coffee Cup die from My Favorite Things and the Joy Word die from Lil' Inker Designs really stands out against the light colored background.  This color combination of  light blue and red has always been one of my favorites.  Of course I wanted to include a gift card so I needed to spread some of the cheer on the inside also,  with some snow and a sentiment to coordinate with the front.

I used the following supplies from:

Lil' Inker Designs:

Border Builder Dies

Stitched Flag Die

Joy Word Die

Snowflake Dies

Stitched Stars Dies

Instant Camera Christmas stamp set

Jolly & Joyful Sentiments stamps

My Favorite Things:

Blueprints #15 Die-Namics

Coffee Cup Die-Namics

Perk Up stamp set

Confetti Background stamp

I also used:

Inks: Hero Arts Pale Tomato, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark Clear

Simon Says Stamp cardstock:  sea glass, lipstick red and green leaf

silver foil cardstock, white embossing powder, silver tag twine.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

This week in cards - Being Thankful

Thanksgiving is right around the corner so I spent this week thinking about all those people who live far away from me and how grateful I am to have them in my lives.

And remember this one?  I made this for a challenge while I was guest designing over at Stamp Nation last month.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Star of the Show Challenge - Lil' Inker Designs

Lil' Inker Designs has a fun challenge going on over on their blog this month..

Since I'm still working on my Christmas cards....and I always love breaking into my LID stash I figured what the hay!  I jumped on the star theme and added some silver sparkle cardstock.  I also decided to coordinate that gorgeous navy into the design.  I love this color combination, keeping it clean and simple.  I'm still on my 4.25" card kick as you can see.  I don't know why but this size card has really been appealing to me this year for my Christmas cards.

For this card I used the following supplies from:

Lil' Inker Designs

Stitched Stars dies

Stitched Mats: Rectangles dies

Border Builders dies

Jolly & Joyful stamp set

Winter Greetings stamp set

I also used:

My Favorite Things Silver Sparkle cardstock, Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy cardstock, Versamark clear ink, Ranger Silver embossing powder, silver ribbon, silver sequins

I just want to throw in one more card today.  This one is actually one I made for a StampNation CASEing Christmas Challenge but I used all Lil'Inker Designs stamps and dies.  I thought it turned out cute and it's my first time using this adorable little Santa stamp set.  It also gave me a chance to play with my Zig Real Brush markers.

For this card I used the following supplies from:

Lil' Inker Designs

Christmas Bits dies

Jolly Word die

Dear Santa stamp set

Simon Says Stamp

Be word die

I also used:

Wink of Stella glitter pen, Versamark clear ink, Wow Superfine embossing powder, Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to stop back again soon.  I'll be posting more Christmas cards before the end of the month.  Have a great day!

This week in cards: CASEing Christmas at StampNation

  This week I'm  having a blast with my sistahs over at StampNation playing along in their CASEing Christmas event.  The inspiration is phenomenal!  Each day thru November 11th,  the designers are posting a video of a CASE (Copy And Share Everything) and  explain how they are inspired by each others cards.  They show you how to CASE a card but put your own spin on it.   It's an awesome way to stretch your imagination while being inspired by your fellow cardmaking friends.  Want to play along? Stop on over to StampNation.  We'd love to see what you can do!

Earlier in the week I showed you this card that I made from Day #1 in the CASEing Christmas Series.  I used inspiration from Catherine Pooler's card.

Day #2 I pulled inspiration from a card by Maureen Merritt and made this card using that fabulous Village Die from Simon Says Stamp and the gorgeous Holiday Lyrics sentiment stamp by The Ton.

I loved it so much, I made two!  I fell in love with her background using an embossed resist and ink blending technique using Ranger Distress Inks.

Day #3 it's inspiration from Catherine Pooler again.  Her card had so many fun colors so I pulled those into my card along with this awesome Woodland Wreaths stamp and die set by WPlus9.

Day #4 Heather North rocked an awesome combination of navy and white and I just couldn't resist CASEing her card using CAS-ual Fridays Funky Flakes dies from Stamp of Approval's Holiday Magic Collection.  Here's what I came up with.

Day #5 I was inspired by a cute little card by Catherine Pooler again.  In her video she showed us how to make our own glitter paper background.  Isn't this little polar bear from My Favorite Things Cool Day stamp set adorable?

Are you noticing a theme to my cards this week?  I'm completely stuck on making 4.25" square cards for some reason.  They have been so easy to work with and I thought they would be cute to use with my Christmas gifts in place of tags.   So here are a couple more......just for fun!

Check out that awesome textured background using Gesso medium and a Stampers Anonymous stencil!

And then there's this really cool Ring Wreath die from Simon Says Stamp that fits perfectly onto a 4.25" square card.

I know this was a super long post today but I just had so much fun making cards this week. Learning how to CASE a card really does make cardmaking so much simpler and more fun.  Remember, if you find a card that is truly inspirational and want to CASE it and share it, be sure to acknowledge the original designer for their inspiration. It's the NICE thing to do.  ;)   Hope to see you over at StampNation real soon!!

The Simple Beauty of Scribble Roses

I have a few different layered roses stamp sets but I have to say, none of them are as easy to work with as this beautiful Scribble Roses set by My Favorite Things.  I had a great time stamping this  floral background and I'm proud to say this was my very first try at it and NO do-overs!  Wooohoo!  There is definitely a forgiving quality about scribbles.  Stamping the lines just a little off actually adds to the whimsical look of these stamps.  

First I stamped the solid base of the flowers using two slightly different colors of pink.  I wanted the roses to have a two tone affect around the edges so after I inked up with the lighter pink, I did some rocking and rolling around the edges with the darker pink.  This added just a little touch of shadow around the edges.  Since this is a birthday card I wanted to keep the colors bright and fun.  I used a darling little stamp that came in the Stamp of Approval Friendship box: CAS-ual Fridays Eva's Favorite Flowers to fill in the areas between the roses.

 For this card I used:  

Scribble Roses Stamp set and Label Maker Sentiments (My Favorite Things)
Friend frie-die and Eva's Favorite Flowers Stamps set (CAS-ual Fridays and the Stamp of Approval Friendship Collection)
On The Diagonal Die and Stitched Mats: Rectangles (Lil' Inker Designs)
Inks:  lime green, field greens, ultra pink, soft pink (Hero Arts Shadow Inks),  pink lemonade (My Favorite Things), onyx black (Versafine), 
I also used:  doll pink cardstock (Simon Says Stamp), White 110 lb. cardstock (Neenah), silver and pink sequins.


The coordinating Scribble Roses Overlay from My Favorite Things is also so cool!  And one layer just didn't do it for me.  I wanted lots of "scribbles"!   First I stamped the base in ultra pink and then glued a layer of scribble diecuts in cotton candy cardstock, followed by a layer cut out of white.  I scribbled the heck out of these roses!!

For this card I used:  
Scribble Roses Stamps, Scribble Roses Overlay, Thanks so Very Much Stamps (My Favorite Things)
Inks:  ultra pink, lime green, field greens (Hero Arts Shadow Inks), onyx black (Versafine)
I also used:  Believe paper collection (Heidi Swapp), cotton candy cardstock (Simon Says Stamp) white 110 lb cardstock (Neenah)

Thanks for stopping by!

CASEing cards for Christmas

Happy November everyone!  I don't know about you but I just can't believe we're in our 11th month of 2015 already.  Where, oh where has the time gone?  My guest designing stint over at StampNation has ended.  I had a blast creating some fun cards for World Cardmaking Day, weekly challenges and for that awesome Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic Collection.  I am still going strong with those supplies.   Through the month of November I plan on cranking out about 30 more Christmas cards so I can get them mailed by the first week in December to my friends and family.  So keep checking back because I'll be throwing them up here on my blog all month long.

This is also going to be a fun month over at StampNation.  This week they started posting some new, awesome inspiration challenges in a series called CASEing Christmas.  CASE stands for; Copy And Share Everthing.  You basically lift all of the elements you find appealing in the inspiration card and make it your own.  This is a Christmas series so I am so excited to get some new ideas for my 2015 Christmas cards.  Did you know you can look at a birthday card and by CASEing it you can turn it into a Christmas Card?  Now that's some real Holiday Magic!!  ;)  Check out this sneak peek of the inspiration this week.  Isn't it gorgeous??

Catherine Pooler posted a video for StampNation members also.  It gives you lots of  great tips on CASEing.  And wowee, her cards are awesome!!

Here's my CASE! 

I used the following supplies from:

Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic Collection:

CAS-ual Fridays Snowy Sayings Stamp set

Neat & Tangled Bright Baubles Stamp set and Little Bits Dies

Inkadinkado: Branches Stamp set

I also used:

Ranger Distress Inks:  Cracked Pistachio, Crushed Olive

Hero Arts Shadow Inks:  Forever Green, Red Royal

Versafine:  Onyx Black

Versamark clear embossing ink

Recollections: Glitz embossing powder/glitter

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope to see you over at Stamp Nation soon!