Way to Go!!

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Hello and welcome to another fun sketch challenge from the Pals Paper Arts Design Team!

Isn't it fun? I wanted to make a special card and this sketch turned out to be perfect for it!

This card is for my youngest son who just finished his first marching band season as a band director. It has been a season of joy and struggles, triumph and defeat, but through it all he has been a trooper and is excited to move to the next phase and still wants to be a teacher!!

Woo Hoo! I'm soooo proud of him and wanted to let him know :)

For this card I chose colors that I knew would suit my son. Soft Suede is perfect, and I adore this chevron pattern! To break it up I added Crumb Cake as a complimentary color and just added a POP of Soft Sky.

Clean, simple lines and no fru-fru for him at all. One Crumb Cake button as an accent. If you need a particular color for thread and you don't happen to have it, no worries. Just snip two thin strips of cardstock in the color you want and then thread them through the button holes. Fold them over onto themselves on the back and adhere a glue dot to keep them in place. One side of the glue dot hold the strips of paper in place, the other adheres your button to your card...easy peasy!

I hope you've enjoyed my card and that you will pop on over to the see the rest of the inspiration from the Pals Paper Arts Design Team!

Thanks for stopping by!!


A Sweet Thank You - Retro Rubber Challenge #1

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Today I'm excited to participate in a brand new challenge called Retro Rubber! And it's a fun and different challenge...using our much-loved-even-though-they-are-retired Stampin' Up! supplies!!

How cool is that?!?

The challenge this week is to ink up your oldest Stampin' Up! stamp set. I can do that as I still own it and will never part with it...just sentimentally attached:) It's a stamp set called Watercolor Trio. I chose it because it was pretty and I thought it looked fairly mess-up-proof...it was after all, my first stamp set!

I pulled out all the stops for this challenge, digging into my supplies for the Floral District Designer Series Paper, featuring a much loved retired color, Baja Breeze!

I just love the look of this stamp, to acheive it, I simply stamped in the center with full coverage ink in Rich Razzleberry, then immediately stamped off to on side without re-inking, and then again on the other side, also without re-inking. So I've stamped the same image three times without adding ink to the stamp. It's helpful if you huff on the stamp before the third stamp to get all the last remaining ink to transfer.

I also inked up the butterfly stamp in Baja Breeze and fussy cut him out. I had a hard time deciding which way was up, so I hope he's not flying upside down!!

When I was done...I wasn't quite ready to be done so I decided to keep going!

I kept this one very clean and neat. I couldn't resist using Baja Breeze again. I actually had to re-ink the stamp pad as it has been so long since I used it! I'm so glad I still have it. It's like re-reading a favorite book, warm and comfortable :)

Retired paper, retired ink, retired ribbon retired buttons...yep, I think I have this challenge covered! so much fun to play along with!!

I hope you've enjoyed this detour into Stampin' Up!'s past...which was your first stamp set? Or the one you'll never be able to let go of??

Can You Case It #44 - Simple Get Well Wishes

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It's Sunday! A wonderful day to relax and get some stamping time in! And the Can You Case It Design Team has an awesome color challenge for you to jump start your creative juices!

I actually just did a similar color combination with the Pals Paper Arts challenge! That's okay, the colors are beautiful! I pulled out the colors and laid them on my desk and stared at them for awhile. Then I went through my stamp drawer and was drawn to the Summer Silhouettes stamp set. It has such an elegant, romantic feel to it! And this is what I did with it!

Can You Case It #44 - Simple Get Well Wishes

I can't believe how well Mossy Meadow and Blackberry Bliss look when paired with Very Vanilla! This color combination is absolutely stunning! You MUST try it!!

I haven't made a truly clean and simple card in a bit so this was the day:)

One leaf, stamped in Mossy Meadow; one flower stamped in Blackberry Bliss and fussy cut out and popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional, and one perfectly sized sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set. It doesn't get much more clean and simple than that!

Can You Case It #44 - Simple Get Well Wishes

I felt that the card needed just a teeny bit more so I pulled out my Beautiful Wings Embosslit and created an itty bitty butterfly in Blackberry Bliss. I adhered it with a mini glue dot that I folded into fourths with my Paper Piercing Tool. A few Basics Pearl Jewels finishes the design out with a bit of panache!

Can You Case It #44 - Simple Get Well Wishes

Do you like today's card? I want to carry it around with me and just stare at it, it just makes me THAT happy!

Thanks for stopping by!! Please visit the Can You Case It? Challenge Blog to see the rest of the design teams fab creations!

Can You Case It #43 - Christmas is Coming!

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Happy Sunday and welcome to another challenge from the Can You Case It Design Team! Congratulations to our winner and to all who participated...so many pretty cards!! Today we have a sketch for you...

Isn't it fun?!? I love all of the design team's interpretations of the sketch, here's mine!

Can You Case It #43 - Christmas is Coming!

Now that Halloween is over, we jump right into Christmas, right???? Lol, I can hear the grumbling out there! Nope, we still have a wonderful holiday coming this month to celebrate our gratitude, but I must admit that I am currently preparing for Christmas! You will probably see more Christmas cards from me in upcoming posts!

I fell in love with this pattern paper from the Trim the Tree Designer Series Paper Stack! It's just soooo pretty! It's a very bold pattern though, so I paired it with a lot of white space and clean design. We want it to be the focal point of the card!

Here's a little closer look at it...

Can You Case It #43 - Christmas is Coming!

This card also features the new Note Tag Punch...what a great size tag! I chose to stamp directly on it with the Christmas stamp from the Embellished Events stamp set and followed it up with a Christmas greeting from the same set stamped directly onto the top layer. Isn't the "HO HO HO" cute with the Santa hat? But I've been humming "Ho, Ho, Ho...Green Giant!" all night!

I L-O-V-E this ribbon! It is also featured in the holiday catalog...Cherry Cobbler 1" Sheer Linen Ribbon, and it is a dream to work with! I'm definitely going to use it to wrap up gifts! Also, I needed a button for my tag but couldn't find one that worked well in Cherry Cobbler. So...I made one! The button I used on this card is actually the white button from the Nordic Designer Buttons (also in the holiday catalog)! How did I do it?!? Well, I just pulled out my cherry Cobbler Blendabilities and started coloring! I used the darkest marker and laid on a few layers of color...(cough)...okay, quite a FEW layers of color! But I love the result!! Word of warning, if you try this, make sure you give the button time to sit and dry completely. Don't ask me how I know this!!

So that's it! Crisp, clean and simple! And easy to mass produce if you are so inclined! Isn't the matching envelope just dreamy?? It really finishes the card off and makes the whole package soooo classy!

Thanks for stopping by and please enjoy the rest of your weekend! We're pretty excited here in Southern California because it rained  A LOT last night (luckily after the Trick-or-Treaters were done) as well as this morning, and now we have clean air and cool temperatures...feels like Fall! Woo Hoo!

 

Can You Case It #43 - Christmas is Coming!

Please hop on over to the Can You Case It Weekly Challenge Blog to see the lovely cards the other members of the design team have created for you and I sure hope to see you play along with us this week!