Monday, May 31, 2010

Sheep in the Meadow

Ever wonder what sheep do when no one's looking? LOL This is my card for the final challenge in the semi-finals of the Summer CAS DT Call on Splitcoaststampers. We were required to make a card with a moving part. When I read that I started panicking because I've never made anything like that before. I had to do a lot of research and found some really amazing cards but I wanted to do something more original. I love cute so my card had to be cute. It's been ridiculous hot lately and that means two things: lots of time at the park and popsicles. Then the idea of a seesaw dawned on me!

Of course I had to put animals on the seesaw and I decided they would be sheep. I pulled out a much-neglected set fittingly called Happy Baa...thday. If the sheep were to rock back and forth, then it was perfect that I would hide one half of the sentiment behind each sheep. To complete the scene, I used the flowers from Lily Valentine Ballerina and the outline of the sheep's bodies as clouds. Oh, how I love those dotted lines from Top Ten. Let me count the ways! Much like the border on this card, they were a nice subtle touch to finish off this card. I left out the left and right borders because the sheep's legs would extend past them. Leaving the lines makes the card feel open and airy, much like a real meadow. :)

As soon as my son saw my card, he started "Baa..."-ing at the sheep and thought it was hilarious that they could rock back and forth. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't let him play with it because he would've destroyed it in ten seconds flat.

Sources: SU Kraft & Bashful Blue cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Local King Rubber Stamp Happy Baa...thday; Pink Cat Studio Lily Valentine Ballerina; PTI Top Ten; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Vivid Sky ink; SU large oval punch; SU silver brad; popsicle stick; cordless drill

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Relax.

I can't tell you how happy I am that I made it to the semi-final round for the Summer CAS DT call on Splitcoaststampers! I'm thrilled and scared at the same time. :) The third challenge for the DT call is to incorporate pop-dots into a CAS card. Since it's been so beautiful here (almost too hot if you can believe it), I knew I wanted to use my only TE set Beach Bum. The only time I used it was to make this wedding card but today's creation is making me want to use it again already.

Ever since I bought Background Basics: Retro, I've been wanting to use the scaly-looking stamp as both sand and water so here it is! I also thought this card needed a much bigger sentiment than anything I have so I decided to create my own using Outlines Alphabet. I masked off the first two letters before stamping the water and sand. All three beachy items are popped but the sunblock and beach ball are raised higher than the bag. To finish, I sponged warm, sunny colours around the edges of the card. I hope my card makes you feel relaxed!

Sources: SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Taylored Expressions Beach Bum; PTI Background Basics: Retro; PTI Outlines Alphabet; Vivid Red & ButterScotch inks; SU Summer Sun, Ballet Blue & Brilliant Blue inks; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Generations dimension squares; Forever in Time Pop-Dots

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ May 27th Digi Release!

Good morning, everyone! Today we are featuring beautiful birds and flowers from the Dots & Delights collection that was introduced last week. My son loves animals and birds are no exception. He loves to imitate their sounds and even called out to my card when he saw the bird on it. LOL I used Tweet on a Branch with some of my newest Copic colours and added a sentiment from Lily at the Beach to finish.

I hope you enjoyed the new release today. Don't forget there is a freebie with purchase today only so hurry on over to the Pink Cat Studio digi store now! Also check out the all the other fabulous creations by the rest of the PCS DT whose links are on my sidebar. Have a great day!

Sources: AC textured green & black cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Tweet on Branch; Pink Cat Studio Lily at the Beach; SU Garden Green ink; Copics; Gutermann black thread

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

A Brand New Bike

This is my card for the second Summer CAS DT challenge as well as this week's CAS68 challenge on Splitcoaststampers which has a summer theme. When I think of summer, I think about my son getting his first bike! He already has a Nutcase helmet which he loves. We got it for him this winter because we were going to take him tobogganing but, if you can believe it, we didn't get any snow! That was a disappointment but at least nothing can stop him from riding his bike. :D For this card, I used a stone background stamp on kraft to create the path and added a punched picket fence. Then I coloured in Billy riding a bike, popped him for a little dimension and added the sentiment to finish. It was easy peasy.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you again tomorrow for another Pink Cat Studio digi release featuring avian additions to the new Dots & Delights collection!

Sources: AC textured yellow cardstock; SBD white cardstock; SU Kraft cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Billy Rides a Bike; PTI Enjoy the Ride; Chapel Road Artstamps stone background; SU Basic Gray ink; Memories Black ink; Copics; Martha Stewart Picket Fence border punch; Forever in Time Pop-Dots

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Happy Thoughts

I thought I would throw my hat in the ring for the Summer CAS DT on Splitcoaststampers. I don't expect to win by any means because the field of talent is so deep but I thought it would be a lot of fun to participate and see how far I get. ;) So let's get inspired, shall we? The first DT Challenge is to create a bright and cheery card featuring a person, character or group and add a bit of bold, flashy ribbon. For my card I decided to feature a pondering Lily framed by a gorgeous European-style window. I masked off the panes and actually cut out a second set to place on the sides like shutters. I left them off in the end because it made the card look too busy and overwhelmed the sentiment. If I had made the card horizontal, the panes would've worked well with a larger sentiment. For the bows in Lily's hair, I had to colour some pale yellow ribbon using my Copics. This was the first time I tried my Copics on ribbon and it worked very well. Thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is lovely!

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Local King Rubber Stamp Welcome Inn; Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Sweethearts; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Offray ribbon

Monday, May 24, 2010

CAS67 {Shabby Chic} Congratulations

I'm just a teensy bit late but this is my card for the CAS67 challenge on Splitcoaststampers. Last week's challenge was shabby chic. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant but I hope you like my interpretation of it! My cross stitch fabric was just sitting in a box doing nothing. I used to cross stitch a lot and was a very advanced cross stitcher but that almost seems like a lifetime ago. I've had several unfinished projects sitting in various closets both here and at my parents' house for the past ten years or so. Yikes. I keep telling myself I will do something with them one of these days. I guess cardmaking and childrearing are the priorities now. ;)

Anyhow, back to my card. I stamped out a background using Words and Fancy Flourishes. Then I frayed a small piece of cross stitch fabric and stamped another flourish on that and a sentiment from Butterfly Dreams. This was also my first time using dies to cut felt. It was amazing and addictive!!! I wanted to cut more and more. LOL I added a button and antennae to the butterfly and lightly sponged the edges of the card to finish. This was so much fun and I can't wait to give it to a friend in New York who just graduated from nursing school.

Sources: SU Kraft cardstock; Local King Rubber Stamp Words; PTI Fancy Flourishes; PTI Butterfly Dreams; Memento Rich Cocoa & Tuxedo Black inks; Memories Artprint Brown ink; ColorBox Burnt Copper pigment ink; PTI Butterfly die; QuicKutz Epic Six; CPE Inc. Cardinal, Cocoa & Ivory felt; Lewiscraft Ivory 14 count Aida Cloth; Basic Grey button; Darice hemp cord

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Birthday Girl

I made this card for my friend Lexy's first daughter who's turning four next month. She's having an animal birthday party where a herpetologist will be bringing all sorts of animals for edu-tainment. The animal she wanted most was a turtle so this Pink Cat Studio image of Lily riding a turtle was perfect! On this card, I used the dotted lines from Top Ten to create the frame and lines for the sentiment. The sentiment itself was created using a combination of three different stamps from three different sets, Tiny Treats: Valentine, Outlines Alphabet and Butterfly Dreams. I also initiated two more recently acquired sets, Polka Dot Basics II and Outlines Alphabet. This card is unlike anything I've made before and I really love how simple, yet bright and cheery it turned out! Remember, the colour pink and I don't mix well and I rarely choose to work with it. However, this card may completely change my mind about that. ;Þ

Sources: Bazzill Basics textured pink cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Lily at the Beach (rubber) or Lily Riding Turtle (digi); PTI Polka Dot Basics II; PTI Top Ten; PTI Tiny Treats: Valentine; PTI Outlines Alphabet; PTI Butterfly Dreams; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Kiwi Kiss & Pink Pirouette inks; Copics; Fiskars Threading Water border punch; Forever in Time Pop-Dots

Friday, May 21, 2010

OLW5: Pretty Little Buttons

I made this card for Susan Raihala's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge. This week's challenge is to incorporate a faux embellishment and I chose buttons! I tend to gravitate toward baby boy cards so today I decided to make one for a baby girl. This is most definitely a one-layer card but after finishing it I'm not sure I would call it CAS. After I cut out the window, stamping all those buttons took about 30 minutes. To finish, I lightly sponged the inside and outside edges with Pink Pirouette ink. A CAS card shouldn't take an hour to finish, should it? LOL

I have a question for those of you who make window cards. How do you photograph them? Do you lay them flat and photograph them from above like this?

Or do you stand them up like usual and try to capture the inside as well as you possibly can?

I think laying it flat looks better because at least the sentiment lines up straight with the window but the outer border of the card looks bent or warped. What do you think?

Sources: SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; PTI Tiny Treats: Valentine; PTI Inside & Out: Baby; SU Pink Pirouette, Pink Passion & Rose Red inks; Vivid Red & ButterScotch inks; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One; QuicKutz Epic Six

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ May 20th Digi Release!

Surprised? I was delighted to see such unexpected and unique images from Melissa for this week's release. Dazzling is how I would describe this new collection of flowers, butterflies and sentiments!

I picked Butterfly on Flowers, grabbed some green Copic markers and started colouring. Picking the new few colours was automatic and, by the time I was done, I knew how I was going to lay out my card. This card basically created itself! I wanted two butterflies in this image so I printed a small version of Pretty Butterfly Side and hovered it over the flower with pop-dots. The sentiment is from the mini set Lily Hot Cocoa and I split the two words for balance.

Thanks so much for stopping by! For more creative goodness, just click on the DT links on my sidebar. Oh, and don't forget to enter the Pink Kitty's Choice contest for this week if you haven't already done so! Have a wonderful day and see you again soon. :)

Sources: SU Kraft cardstock; AC textured green cardstock; Bazzill Basics textured blue & black cardstock; GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Butterfly on Flowers; Pink Cat Studio Pretty Butterfly Side; Pink Cat Studio Lily Hot Cocoa; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Forever in Time Pop-Dots; scissors for distressing

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Trading Car(d)s

Ever since my son liked this card with the yellow car so much, I promised I would make him a few to play with. I don't really need an excuse to use Enjoy the Ride and its matching die! ;) I stamped some scripted words from Tiny Treats: Valentine to match the adorable little animals from that same set. I didn't want to use doggone or just dog so I used dig which is a good license plate for the little dog. I also could've used catch which would've been cute, too! My son was ecstatic when he saw all the cars with the little animals in them. He's also been surprisingly gentle with them. He's been playing with these cars like trading cards, laying them out and restacking them in a tiny little bucket from his recycling truck. It's awfully cute to watch. I think I'll make more in different colours and perhaps stamp the images on both sides. Making these gave me so many ideas for future cards and other projects!

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; PTI Enjoy the Ride; PTI Tiny Treats: Valentine; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Vivid Red & ButterScotch inks; SU Summer Sun, Garden Green & Ballet Blue inks; Memories Artprint Brown ink; PTI Enjoy the Ride die; Copics

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pink Kitty's Choice: Week 2

In case you missed it, Melissa started a new weekly contest last Tuesday on the Pink Cat Studio blog! We hope you'll play along again. This week, Pink Kitty's love of spring has her thinking constantly of flowers. She has chosen a PCS digi stamp that has at least one flower as part of the image. It could be a large flower or a tiny one and it's up to you to guess which digi she has picked. Everyone who guesses correctly will win a digital stamp of her choice. Please visit the Pink Cat Studio blog to enter for your chance to win. Have a wonderful day!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Enjoy the Ride²

I have two cards to show you today using my new sets A Little Argyle and Enjoy the Ride plus die. Oohhh, I love my new shaped dies so much! As you can tell by a lot of my cards, I love to cut out the main image and dies make it so much easier on my poor hands which have been suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome for the past few years. Even if I didn't have these dies, I'd still be cutting by hand. I'm in the market for new paper snips so if you have a favourite I'd love to know what you use!

The first card completes my friend Geno's order and is a Father's Day card for his Dad. Part of the reason I purchased A Little Argyle and Enjoy the Ride is to build a collection of mature masculine images. The other reasons are that I'm an argyle freak and I just love that little car because there are so many possibilities for it! I wanted to cut out the window of the car to show off more of the argyle background and I did it by leaving a bit of ivory border to match the outside edge. I think it looks more refined that way. The sentiment is from Dad's Day.

My second card is a birthday card for none other than Geno himself. I love the bright yellow car and this is the one that caught my son's eye. He immediately started shouting, "Car? Car? Car?" and wanted to have it. I told him I would make some cars just for him and I think I'll throw in a few animals just for fun! ;)

Sources: SU Kraft & Naturals Ivory cardstock; PTI A Little Argyle; PTI Enjoy the Ride; Verve Dad's Day; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; SU Summer Sun & Taken With Teal inks; PTI Enjoy the Ride Die; QuicKutz Epic Six; X-acto knife; Forever in Time Pop-Dots

Sunday, May 16, 2010

OLW4: Baby Moments

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend so far! I decided to take a break from working on cards to fulfill Geno's order and show you a little card I created for Susan Raihala's One-Layer Wednesday. This week's challenge is to use ribbon. I knew I didn't want to use ribbon in the usual way of tying it around the card so how about an itty bitty bow?

Baby Firsts is one of my favourite Stampin' Up sets and I never tire of the adorable images. When I mention crafting to my son, he loves to exclaim, "Baby! Baby?" Let's just say that I've let him play with these blocks a few times. He loves to stack the babies but when he starts throwing them wildly I have to take them away. :) Anyway, back to my card which represents sudden toddler tantrums. Heehee! I so wanted to leave it completely black and white when I finished stamping. It looked great the way it was! In the end, I decided to add colour to the screamer just to make it fun.

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Baby Firsts; PTI Inside & Out: Baby; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Offray ribbon; SU Crystal Effects

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Birthday Butterflies: Part 2

I used Butterfly Dreams again as the focus of this birthday card which Geno will be giving to his Mom for her birthday. I love CAS rainbow cards like the ones I made here and here. This one is no exception and I love these colourful butterflies dancing across the card.

For starters, I stamped Text Style II on a diagonal in gray and then subtlely in the opposite direction on the inside rectangle using watermark ink. Then I stamped the five butterflies across the bottom. If you look closely, you can see the words coming through the colours in the butterflies. I'm still experimenting with watermark ink and I think this feature is so cool! To finish, I used black ink to stamp one of the sentiments from Birthday Basics and added the word Mom from Because of You.

Sources: SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; PTI Background Basics: Text Style II; PTI Butterfly Dreams; PTI Birthday Basics; Verve Because of You; Versamark Smokey Gray ink; Versamark Watermark ink; Vivid Red & ButterScotch inks; SU Summer Sun, Garden Green & Ballet Blue inks; Memories Black ink; Forever in Time Pop-Dots

Friday, May 14, 2010

Birthday Butterflies: Part 1

Followers of my blog already know that I was never a butterfly person...that is, until Papertrey Ink came out with Butterfly Dreams. My first PTI order arrived yesterday after six days in customs. The wait was brutal, I tell you! I spent the better part of the evening putting together the eight stamp sets that I ordered while watching Survivor and Grey's Anatomy. Ya, I wanted to stay up all night and stamp but I have a 21-month-old who wears me out so I had to wait 'til today to ink up some of my new goodies! This is a simple card I created for my dear friend Geno from San Diego. Geno placed an order for some birthday cards and a father's day card. I'll be showing you cards for Geno's order over the next few days.

Sources: SU Kraft cardstock; PTI Background Basics: Woodgrain; PTI Fancy Flourishes; PTI Butterfly Dreams; PTI Butterfly Die; QuicKutz Epic Six; Versamark Watermark ink; Memories Black ink; PSX Red embossing tinsel; Hobby Hot Boss; Forever in Time Pop-Dots

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Pink Cat Studio ~ May 13th Digi Release!

Hooray for the graduates! I remember all my graduations very well and they were momentous days to cherish. As you can see, today's release is full of adorable graduate images. For the little ones, we have Itty Bitty Betty and Itty Bitty Bobby. For the more mature crowd, there are Lily and Billy. Of course, animal lovers have to be fulfilled, too! Who wouldn't want to be the smarty pants owl?! ;)

I chose the pair of ecstatic owls running out on a branch to celebrate. I kept my card CAS with an add-on banner and here's a close up to show the embossing on the banner.

I also wanted to show you a close up of the owls. Although my card is CAS, there are so many opportunities to add dimension to this image! Are the possibilities just flooding in now?

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the incredible projects from the rest of the design team. Melissa has a lot of new and stunning designs for everyone next week. You won't want to miss it and we can't wait to show you!

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; SU Real Red cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Owls Graduate from School; PTI Inside & Out: Baby; SU Whisper White ink; The Old Island Stamp Co. clear embossing powder; Hobby Hot Boss; Copics; SU 3/4" circle punch; Sharpie Fine Black pen; dimension squares

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

OLW2 and OLW3: You Float My Boat

I've been meaning to participate in Susan Raihala's One-Layer Wednesday challenges for the past two weeks but never got around to them. I decided to catch up by combining OLW2 and OLW3 in this CAS card. I knew I wanted to use the bracket from Top Ten as the punctuation requirement for OLW3. It reminded me of the cross section of the hull of a wooden boat and I immediately thought about the little animals in Tiny Treats: Valentine. The cat and dog were a perfect pair so I put them in my boat. You will notice in the close up that the boat is two different colours. I originally embossed it with platinum and it turned out lighter than I liked so I decided to make the boat red since it matched the hearts and gave the card more impact. I purposely spaced the red slightly lower so the boat would have some dimension. This is also the first time I've sponged anything. I created a mask with SU's scallop border punch and using a cotton ball sponged in the two shades of blue ink. It was a lot of fun and I know I will do this again!

Sources: GinaK 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; PTI Tiny Treats: Valentine; PTI Top Ten; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Vivid Sky ink; SU Ballet Blue ink; Copics; SU scallop border punch; ColorBox Platinum pigment ink; Rubber Stampede Red pigment ink; Ranger Ancient Gold embossing powder; PSX Red embossing tinsel; Hobby Hot Boss

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Pink Kitty's Choice

There's something new and exciting happening over at Pink Cat Studio! Starting today and every Tuesday you will have a chance to win a free digi from PCS. What could be better than that? Visit the PCS blog to get all the details and enter now!

Monday, May 10, 2010

CAS Rainbow Birthday

I felt like making a CAS rainbow card with a stamp from Up, Up and Away that had never seen ink. I used one of the accents to create the rainbow strip and stamped the sentiment Birthday Wishes in the centre. It was nice and easy!

Sources: SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; Verve Up, Up and Away; Verve Birthday Wishes; SU Pink Passion, Summer Sun, Garden Green, Ballet Blue & Elegant Eggplant inks; Vivid Red & ButterScotch inks; Memories Black ink; SU 1-3/8" circle punch

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there! So far I'm having a wonderful day and I hope you are, too!! This morning, my husband and son served me French Toast Bake with Brown Sugared Peaches. The lining is actually not toast but croissants! We ate the entire thing with maple syrup. Yum.

Then they presented me with this card and some treats for later.

See that little dinosaur? It's Pink Cat Studio's Itty Bitty Bobby and I had coloured in the face but never finished. My husband was so proud of his colouring and exclaimed that he thinks he's getting better. LOL Then it was my turn to say, "Oh my gosh! Where did you get that stamp of Goldbug?!" He said he drew that in by hand. It's so perfect! Goldbug is a character in Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go which is my son's favourite book. I can't tell you how many times I've read it to him. Sometimes we just like to go searching for Goldbug who is hiding on every page.

We've been trying different Argentinian Malbecs lately and this is one that we haven't tried yet. Galerie au Chocolat is also one of my favourite chocolate brands. I don't eat a lot of chocolate but these are amazing.

My big Mother's Day gift didn't arrive on time and has been sitting at Canadian Customs since Thursday night. It's a huge Papertrey Ink order and I hope they release the package tomorrow so I can have it in my excited little hands on Tuesday. LOL

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!