Tag You're It! #91

We have a luscious inspiration photo for you at Tag You're It!

Since it's Cherry Festival time in northern Michigan I decided to make cherries my summer fruit.

I stamped a background grid from HA onto a scrap of white cs and cut my Frantic Stamper tag, adding a polka dot top. The cherries from Sunny Studio are layered with Altenew ink and covered with Glossy Accents.  A PB sentiment and some red ribbon finish the tag off.

The Design Team would love to see what summer fruit(s) you use for your tag. 

Addicted to CAS #153

It's Bobby and I'm your host for this latest challenge at Addicted to CAS.

That's right.  I'd like to see a grid on your card.  Here's what I did for mine.

I heat embossed the grid from Hero Arts in white on watercolor paper.  Using Distress Inks on wet paper, I dropped the colors in working them around with my paint brush.  To keep my card CAS, I added a white PTI frame.  The PB flower is layered three times.

The design team has some wonderful cards to inspire you so why don't you head over to the blog to check them out.  We hope you'll want to make a CAS including a grid for our gallery.

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Touch - Day 2

My last tag for the 12 Tags with a Feminine Twist challenge is up today.  I wish I had time to do more but things are getting busy and I don't need any more to use.  This tag was inspired by Carissa Wiley on Day 2 of the challenge.  Here's my take on her tag.

This will go nicely with my black and white plaid gift bag.  The greens are TH, the tag HA, the grid SSS and the sentiment CPD. 

And here's Carissa's tag.

Off to get myself prettied up for the holidays and pick up a few last minute gifts. I'll be back later with one last Christmas card - or two. ;)

Inspired by #27

It's been a while since I've played at Inspired By but the vintage linens caught my eye. I actually have a few that look just like these.

I had to cut a smaller panel to fit on my SSS background grid on the diagonal so I slanted it in the corner and added red roses from WPlus9.  The NBUS sentiment stamp is from HA.

Thanks for dropping by.

CASology #269

I'm guesting over at CASology today because of my win with this card.   When the lovely Melissa asked if I wanted to guest of course I said 'yes' although there's always the thought in the back of my mind "What if I can't think of anything for the cue word."  This is the word she sent.

I have a number of grids in various sized, both stencils and stamps.  So it wasn't a matter of what to do but which to use.  I happened to see a technique from Jennifer McGuire (I seem to be using a lot of her techniques lately) that I thought would be perfect for my card.  You can check it out here, but only after you finish reading my post. ;)

I covered a scrap of cardstock with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with Verdigris embossing powder.  When it was cool, I heat embossed the SSS grid over it with black.  I trimmed it down a little along the grid lines before adding it directly to my card front and popped up a gold embossed sentiment from HA.  I think it makes a great masculine card.

Thanks for dropping by and please check out what the CASology Design Team has for your inspiration.

Tic Tac Toe #10 and Seize the Birthday

Tic Tac Toe challenges are a fun way to pick a design for your card. Stamping Smiles Designs has such  a challenge and I've made a card using the middle row across.

I clear embossed the SSS grid on some watercolor paper and made an ombre' wash with a Zig.  This panel is covered with  Neenah that has an oval cut with Spellbinders and is mounted on thick foam.  The daisy is a die from Penny Black that I added a little Distress Ink to.  PB also makes the sentiment that is stamped in Soft Granite.  There you go.  Resist, ombre', grid.

The topping at Seize the Birthday is 'Dimension' and this has it so over it goes to join the gallery.

Thanks for taking the time to drop by.  I love it when you do.

Inkspiratonal #80

It took a little marinating for this card to come to it's final stage and I learned a few things along the way.  Here's the photo inspiration for the Inkspirational challenge.

The first thing I saw was eggs, and then the grid that contained them.  I made my background and was happy with it but then came to a standstill.  I cut a couple of egg shapes but didn't know what to do with them.  The half finished card sat on my desk for days.  Then I finally took a hit to the forehead and said "You don't have to do a literal translation." I've known this all along but it just didn't sink in far enough.  

Stamps:  SSS grid and Artful Flowers

Ink: Versamark, Distress Ink and markers

Paper:  Neenah white and Desert Storm, vellum

Other:  Platinum embossing powder.

Another thing I learned is that I need a middle ground.  I went from a card maker with lots of layers, patterned paper and inking to cards that I was trying to make so clean and simple that I wasn't enjoying the process or the final result.   Now that I understand that, I hope I can find my style and be true to it.