I love my scrap bins!

 Scrap bins come in handy!

Hi all!  It's time for another AAA Cards Challenge!  This time we have a sketch challenge...and I was able to use items from my scrap bin to make it!

Do you have a scrap bin?  When I mean scrap, I mean extra-made pieces.  For example, I tend to make multiple sentiments for a card and pick the best one.  The rest go into my sentiment scrap bin.  I also stamp multiple images for a card and try different color combos.  The ones I don't use, off to the stamp images scrap bin.  Yes...I have multiple scrap bins.  4 to be exact.  It does come in handy when life is INSANE and I need to make a card super quick!  Since life is SUPER crazy for us, the scrap bins came to the rescue!

This flower from Altenew's Japanese Cherry was stamped on vellum paper with embossing ink and heat embossed with white powder.  It was then colored on the back side with alcohol makers which gave it a soft color.  This is a simple stamp set with coordinating dies for less than $15.  A total bargain.

The sentiment is also from Altenew called Essential Sentiments.  It's a foil set with a coordinating die, so you create 6 sentiments at once!  My kind of set...  This sentiment was foiled with gold foil.

So what about you?  Can you create a card for our challenge using casted-off items like I did?  I'd love to see them in our gallery.

Have a colorful day!

EASY CAS card with an Altenew Craft Your Life kit!

 EASY CAS card with an Altenew Craft Your Life kit!

Hi all!  What a crazy start to summer!  In the last 5 days, I brought my oldest daughter home from college this week, hosted a cookie decorating class which meant I needed to bake 12 dozen cut-out cookies, it was my youngest's last day of school yesterday and I left today for the holiday weekend with my hubby to camp in Petoskey Michigan.  It will be nice to get a little break from life, but it's hard to leave when there is so much that needs to be done around the house to prepare for the summer!

CAS card designs are PERFECT for a busy mom.  This is for our new challenge at CAS on Friday BIG HUGS.  To make this card even easier to whip out in no time...using Altenew's Craft Your Life kit.  Seriously, it comes with EVERYTHING you need to make gorgeous cards....dies, stamps, embossing folders, and stencils.  I just love them!

This card uses Altenew's Sunshine Flowers CYL kit.  Perfect for this challenge since the sentiment in the kit has 'big hugs' in 2 different sizes included...total score.  Altenew's Molded Lines stencil was ink blended with Warm Sunshine onto the card base for the background.

Using the kit's stamp and coordinating stencil, the flower was created with Altenew's Wisteria, Hydrangea and Ultra Violet for the petals; Buttercream and Warm Sunshine for the center and Minty Mint; Volcano Lake and Lagoon for the leaves.  After stenciling, the black outline stamp was added and die cut with the coordinating die.  Finally, it was also embossed to give it some subtle texture with the matching embossing folder.

After the flower was finished, it was cut in half...gasp....and added to the bottom of the card.  To finish the card, the bigger 'big hugs' sentiment was stamped with Obsidian ink and 3 enamel dots were added.

Now go make a huggable CAS card and share it in our gallery now!  We love to see your work!  Have a colorful day!

 Tic Tac Toe Guest Designer with CREATE finds!

Hi all!  I'm excited to announce I'm the guest designer for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog this fortnight!  I was lucky to have gone to Simon Says Stamp's CREATE event earlier in the month....which was AMAZEBALLS btw....and was able to pick up some fun items.  I had to break them out for this challenge!

The challenge is focused on masculine cards, and I really don't have much in the way of masculine items...except for this lovely die I picked up!  We have a Jeep Grand Wagoneer, so I had to get it to use for our Christmas cards this year.  This is a possible design...thanks TTT!

Following the challenge of the diagonal from right to left the card started with gold mirror paper from Altenew that was die cut using Concord and 9th's Sunburst Card Front die.  Christmas cards need a bit of shimmer or shine, don't you think?

When I spotted this Simon Says Stamp die at CREATE called Vintage Christmas Station Wagon, it went straight into my basket!  Since our Woody is ivory colored, this cardstock was the closest in color.  It was a mistake because it did NOT take to alcohol makers.  As you can see, the red bled terribly.  If this is the design for our cards this year, a different cardstock will need to be chosen.  All the pieces and parts of the car were done with alcohol markers and the silver bits were done with a paint marker.

Finally, the banner is from The Stamp Market called Layered Banner Die and the sentiment from Simon Says Stamps Circle Sentiments Christmaswas heat embossed with gold.

Are you going to join in the fun?  I hope you do!  Have a colorful day!

Happy Birthday AAA Cards Challenge!

 TONS of GIVEAWAYS for AAA Cards Challenge’s 10th Birthday!

Hi all!

I am very excited to share. We are celebrating AAA Cards Challenge blog 10th birthday today!  Isn’t that exciting! 10 years of continued inspiration… I am honored to be a part of the design team.

For the celebration, the design team has assembled, not only beautiful cards to inspire you, but also fantastic products for you to win! After all, what’s a birthday without presents? to qualify, make sure you share your CAS designed card with us in our gallery.  Be sure to head over to the challenge blog to see all the fantastic, fantastic goodies we are giving away! In the meantime, here is my inspiration for you.

One of my favorite companies, Altenew, is giving away a $25 gift card to one of our lucky winners! I decided to use one of my favorite Altenew kits, their Craft Your Life Splended Bouquet kit. Altenew CYL kits are my favorite subscription. They literally come with everything you need to create gorgeous cards! And boxing folders, dies, stamps, and stencils are generally included in these kits.

For my card, I use the stamp set, and it’s coordinating stencil set. I only used pinks, yellows, and blues to create this rainbow flower. The color, families of cherry blossom, pocketful of sunshine, and Sweet dreams blend together perfectly to create the rainbow.  The rock collection color family was used for the leaves.

Finally, Enamel dots were added from the same collections for a little shine.  I kept my card CAS in design by keeping it one layer. A piece of Post-it note was cut to mask where my sentiment was going to go when I did my stamping and Ink blending.

All right! Let’s see what kind of CAS cards you can come up with! Have a colorful day!

CAS on Friday May 10

Spellbinders NEW Leafy Helix and Sprigs BetterPress plates!

Hi all!

It’s time for another CAS on Friday Challenge!  I have another project sharing some new Spellbinders product.  The theme is FLOWERS!

The card started with using the new Sprigs BetterPress plate.  The cool thing about this set, is they are solid images that you can ink in various different ways.  I opted to use a blending brush with my Altenew fresh dye inks to add ink to the plates in various colors.  Sprigs also has coordinating dies To easily cut out the images! I also die cut a few out of vellum as well.

Next, a panel from Spellbinders Petal Labels dies was cut, then embossed with the Leafy Helix embossing folder.  This piece, along with the sprig pieces were then assembled on the front of the card.  Splatters using watercolors and matching colors as well as gold metallic Add some interest.

 The fabulous Hello wax seal was created with the same colors used for the inking with added gold paint marker to help make the word pop.  Even made a few blobs To match!

Now let’s see your creations! Be sure to link it to our gallery so we can check them out. Have a colorful day!