CASE Study #93 - You're Special

It's CASE Study time again, it's our final week with Agnieszka Malyszek as our muse, she sure has been inspiring! Here's Agnieszka fabulous card this week.

I CASEd the spattered background, layout, touch of lace and use of florals. I went for a more shabby chic version though.

I used one of my favorite sticker sentiments, Fancy Sentiments - Thinking of You by SRM Stickers. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

To create the background I misted a piece of card with some glimmer mist, left to dry, then embossed and sanded the surface. I like the textured effect!

The Yellow Saddle Stitched Grosgrain ribbon is from Craft Fairy. The Pearl Trinket Pin is from my Etsy shop. Don't forget to visit the rest of the DT's blogs for some more information. If you get a chance this week why not play along with us at CASE Study, we'd love to see your creations! Have a great day! : )

Chupa
Amy Wanford
Christina Maclaren
Debby Hughes
Jean Martin
Maureen Plut
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams

Some cheery cards!

Long time no posting! Eeek! I've been SO busy with commissions, I had some clashing deadlines, some other stuff going on and apparently I'm not super woman. I'm still playing catch up at the moment! Hopefully I'll get to bed before 2am tonight! Ok, so I have a few cards to share to make up for my lack of posts! I made these for the open audition round of Paper Crafts Gallery Idol 2012 (season 6), the theme is 'encouragement'. You should see the gallery of entries, WOW, there's lots of inspiration there!

I made one of my shabby rolled spiral flowers (I inked the centre with some green ink) and some paper leaves. The pretty patterned paper is from Basic Grey Konnichiwa Collection.

The sentiment stickers are from Express Yourself - Graduation by SRM Stickers, lace is from Wild Orchid Crafts. I went for a vibrant color palette for this card because I wanted it to be uplifting.

The second card I made I tried out some cool new dies I just received, it's a frame die by Sizzix,  Framelits Oval w/Ornate Edges. I love ornate frames and this one is a decent size! (5"x4") the background I embossed with a scrollwork embossing folder.

For the sentiment I used the 'Keep Calm and Carry on' font and just typed it up. The crown is part of the font set. I added a few pink gems to tie in the color combo.

Again I went with a pretty vibrant color palette but I kept it fresh with the white. I love the zing of lime in there.

The bright Pink Satin Ribbon is from Craft Fairy. (It's more of a hot pink but the photos turned out a little more yellow tinged for some reason!)

I wanted this to be a tone on tone card but to highlight the detail in the frame I propped it up on some self adhesive foam pads.

The royal blue ribbon in my stash was calling to me so I picked it out for this card. I teamed it with some fabulous large houndstooth, stamped using Heirloom Patterns from Waltzingmouse Stamps in Danube Blue (Memento).

I loved the pureness of the blue so I went with a primary color palette. It really jumps out at you when you use primary colors. Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The sticker sentiment is from Express Yourself - Graduation by SRM Stickers. For a change I added some red stitching, I usually can't be bothered changing the color in the sewing machine but I'm glad I did for this card.

Ok, I'll be back on Thursday with my CASE Study card! Oh and there'll be some special celebrations at the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge this weekend because it'll be the 100th sketch! You won't want to miss it! : )

Cardmaking & Papercraft Mag (UK) Issue 104

I'm crazy busy at the moment, working from deadline to deadline! So I'm stopping for a moment and a cup of tea! I'd LOVE to be out in the garden! It's nice and mild here. I thought I'd share a few of the cards I had published in the last issue (104) of Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine (UK). I used papers from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Collection by American Crafts. For the paper pieced baby card I drew a little template for the pram, the sentiment sticker is from Sticker Sentiments - Baby from SRM Stickers.

I cut out the balloon image from one of the papers and propped them up on some foam tape. The sentiment is from Sticker Sentiments - Birthday from SRM Stickers.

I love this gorgeous floral paper, here I teamed it with a sentiment from Fancy Phrases by Waltzingmouse Stamps.

And a little shabby goodness with a paper ruffle, sentiment from Big Day Additions from Waltzingmouse Stamps, Pearl Trinket Pin from my Etsy shop and flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. Here they are in the layout.

I also had to make some cards for the recycling feature, I had to use board game pieces. A fun challenge!

I used one of the pieces from Monopoly (not one from my own set, you can buy them individually online), I used the scotty dog. The sentiment is from Sticker Sentiments - Thank You from SRM Stickers.

I made it into a little charm using a couple of jump rings and a needle nosed pliers. I love how it turned out! Continuing the dog theme I drew a scotty dog template and paper pieced it.

Here it is in the layout, I also recycled some scrabble tiles (again purchased online, I couldn't ruin my own game!) and playing cards. Don't forget to check out Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine (UK).

CASE Study #91 - Hello

Hello! It's been a busy week, trying to catch up on some work. Isabelle's been home sick with conjunctivitis/pink eye. It's her first time getting it, she's been lucky to escape it so far but it has been going around the school (along with the chicken pox! really hoping she avoids that one!). It's nearly cleared up now.

It's our third week (already!) with Agnieszka Malyszek as our muse at CASE Study. Agnieszka has another stunning creation to inspire us with this week, check out her fabulous card.

I loved the woodgrain effect, the tag, shades of green, butterfly theme and touch of lace, so I CASEd these elements in my card.

I used a woodgrain embossing folder and inked the debossed side with VersaMagic Tea Leaves ink and ran through my Big Shot to create the tag. The 'Hello' sentiment is from Compact Sentiments - Part Two from Waltzingmouse Stamps stamped in Coffee archival ink. I also stamped a little of the background using one of the border stamps from Nordic Spring also from Waltzingmouse Stamps. The green and white (Honeydew) Baker's Twine is from The Twinery. The natural twine is from the hardware store!

I used a mix of Paper Barrel Roses (in Cream and White), Small Pink Tea Roses and Ivory Rose Buds for my little bouquet from Craft Fairy. The Green Chiffon Ribbon is also from Craft Fairy. The white butterfly applique is from my stash. The Light Cream Pearl Trinket Pin is from my Etsy shop.

The pretty white Guipure Lace at the bottom of the card is also from Craft Fairy. I was going to go all green for this card but I felt that it needed that little bit of pink! I just love that color combo! Don't forget to visit the rest of the DT's blogs for some more inspiration. If you get a chance this week why not play along with us at CASE Study, we've love to see your creations! : )


Chupa
Amy Wanford
Christina Maclaren
Debby Hughes
Jean Martin
Maureen Plut
Teresa Kline
Teneale Williams

Here's a little pic of Isabelle's new baby bunny, she named him 'Cheeky' because he IS very cheeky!! He's a sweetie really! Very friendly. He's going to be a house bunny and he's doing surprisingly well with litter training, he must be a super smart bunny because it's supposed to be quite hard to train them when they're young.

Nina B Designs - 3rd Blog Hop!

Welcome to another NinaB Designs blog hop. The NBD team and I have something exciting for you today. Nina challenged us to create something that uses the NinaB Designs Spellbinders die cuts from non-paper products on our projects. Did you know that Spellbinders dies can cut all kinds of material? Kim Hupke, the Educational Director of Spellbinders Paper Arts did a video showing all types of products you can cut with the dies that you can find HERE.

For my project today, I die cut Cotton Fabric with NinaB Designs' Sewing Elements  dies. To achieve the lovely look of cotton but still hold on to the detail in the embossing I adhered the cotton fabric to light card. (I adhered the fabric to card using strips of double sided tape). Since I used Cotton Fabric as my chosen non-paper material I decided to go with a sewing theme and made a trio of bookmark tags. I don't know about you but I don't make enough bookmarks and end up shoving a scrap piece of card into the book I'm reading. SO considering I'm a paper crafter there's no excuse not to have some lovely bookmarks and some to share!

I really didn't want to lose any of the fabulous detail in these dies so using the cotton fabric allowed me to have the best of both worlds, the lovely texture of fabric while still holding the detail of embossing with the card. For each bookmark tag I used Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles as my base.

I accentuated the details of the embossing more by rubbing the surface with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I also added some touches of fabulous bling from Want2Scrap, here I used Beautiful Bling Borders - Endless Waves by Nina Brackett and Beautiful Bling Borders - Fancy Waves.

The pretty sentiment is from Sew Lovely by Nina Brackett at The Crafts Meow, I stamped it using Coffee archival ink. The natural crochet lace is from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The patterned papers I used for each tag are from Echo Park This & That. I also added some little buttons from my stash.

I really found backing the fabric with the card gave a lovely crisp finish and being backed with card gave the fabric more rigidity so I could prop them up with foam tape to add some dimension.

The sentiment I used here is also from the Sew Lovely stamp set from The Crafts Meow. The bling is from Want2Scrap.

I think this one is my favorite of the three. I'll give it to my mom though, she's a seamstress and I think she'll like it!

I was pleasantly surprised how well even the smaller elements in the die set cut so well. Really crisp and sharp.

On each bookmark tag I used some beige seam binding at the top and tied some garden twine into a little bow for some added texture.

Here are the dies I used on my project:

Sewing Elements

Of course there are some fabulous prizes to be won. Here they are! Enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

The Craft's Meow's Cherished Stamp Set

The Craft's Meow's Giddy Up

Spelllbinders Aster Flower Topper dies

Spellbinders Bauble Blossoms One

Winners will be picked randomly from 5 of the designers' blogs:

Nina Brackett * Beatriz Jennings * Clare Buswell * Heather Jensen * Jennie Harper * Julie Overby * Lea Lawson * Linda Lucas * Mona Pendleton * Viola Mahr

Card Patterns - Sketch 165

It's time for a new sketch at Card Patterns. I decided to make a new home card, I don't have any in my card box, it's always handy to have one ready. Here's this week's sketch. (I flipped it on it's side)

I used the fabulously detailed A Cottage Home stamp set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I don't usually enjoy coloring stamps but this one was a real pleasure. I used some regular watercolor pan paints to color it. I have some very small brushes!

To add some dimension I stamped the house three times, cut out different sections and layered with foam tape. Isn't that door gorgeous, I love those brackets!

The sentiment on the tag is from the same set, stamped in Coffee Archival ink. I also used some of the fab new Button Twine Claire has in the Waltzingmouse Stamps Store. It's such a wonderful texture!

The lace is from Wild Orchid Crafts and the patterned paper is from Echo Park This & That. Don't forget to check out the rest of the creations from the Card Patterns DT.

It's been a fun day, we somehow came home with a new pet rabbit! Well, we had promised Isabelle one for her birthday (still 4 weeks away!) and we have been looking in various pet shops the past few weeks. Well we found 'the one' today, an adorable little black and white mini lop. He is the friendliest little bunny we have seen and we all fell in love him. So rather than miss the opportunity, we pretty much got everything for our new little bunny. It's Isabelle's first pet and she's so excited. I'll post some pics of our new hoppy friend soon and yes I do have a rather a large soft spot for bunnies! : )