Summer Card Camp 2011 - Week 1

Are you going to Summer Card Camp this year? I decided to sign up at the last minute and I'm some glad I did :) It's only been 2 days and I've already given this online camp 2 thumbs waaay up! Yesterday we were introduced to the color palette for week one and it's definitely summer colors, check it out:

 There were two great cards featuring these colors from our our lovely teachers Jennifer McGuire & Kristina Werner yesterday and today we got to delve into a technique video that shows how to make a window card and how to blend with markers (haven't been brave enough to venture into these two techniques yet). I did however make a card based on the color palette and here is what I made in CAS style:

 And a close up:

I went with solid cardstock colors, but dressed my rectangles up with punched circles of the same color to give it some dimension. The sentiment is a dollar stamp I found at Michaels and the baker's twine is from Stampin' Up!

Cheers to you Card

Cardstock: (Melon Mambo, Soft Sky) Stampin' Up!; (Summer Sunrise) Papertrey Ink; (purple) unknown source

Stamp: (Cheers to you) Studio G

Ink: (Melon Mambo, Basic Black) Stampin' Up!

Fiber: (white baker's twine) Stampin' Up!

Tools: (circle punch) Creative Memories; (circle punch) Stampin' Up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie

PDCC87 - Slate Blue, Barn Red and Grey

This week's colors over at the Play Date Cafe are patriotic and a great masculine color combo. Check out what Jaclyn pulled together for the inspirational photo this week:

I had all the intentions of making a patriotic card with banner flags with stars punched out of each banner, but alas my star punch was a tad too big for the triangles. I started playing around with my die cut triangles and discovered I could make a pretty nifty argyle pattern! Here's what my end result was:

And here is a close up:

It's a simple card and the only thing that took any length of time was gluing those triangles on straight! lol

For the sentiment, I kept if very clean and simple and just used chipboard letters colored black. I think the sun was too bright when I took the photo because in real life the blue looks more slatey (don't think that's a word lol) and the red was deeper. Oh well, I'd rather the picture be clear and a little off in color than fuzzy and the right color :)

Argyle Dad Card

Cardstock: (Blue Bayou, Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up!; (Taupe) Bazzill Basics

Chipboard: Maya Road

Die: (Banner Builders) Papertrey Ink

Thanks for stopping by and having a peek, hope your day is warm and sunny!

Julie

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger - Lovely as a Lullaby

I couldn't pass up playing the Tuesday Trigger this week over at Moxie Fab World because I fell in love with the inspirational photo, check it out:

I was inspired by the colors, the patterns and the tabs of ribbon...pretty much the whole thing :) Here is what I came up with going with a baby theme:

And a close up of the wee little giraffe :)

 I started off by stamping a dot pattern on basic gray and barely banana cardstock using whisper white. Then I cut varying widths of strips in soft sky, very vanilla, going gray, basic gray and barely banana. I glued the strips in a pattern on white cardstock and then used my new postage stamp punch to punch out squares from the stripe pattern I created plus the polka dot pieces. I mounted a 3x3 grid pattern onto another piece of cardstock and distressed the edges with a distresser. For the sentiment I used a stamp from Papertrey Ink and then stamped a wee giraffe, cut him out and added him to the sentiment block. Finishing touches were three ribbon tabs and a button :) 

Little Bundle Card

Cardstock: (Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Going Gray, Basic Gray, Barely Banana) Stampin' Up!

Stamps: (Signature Greetings) Papertrey Ink; (Fox & Friends) Stampin' Up!; (Dots for Sure) Ippity

Ink: (Basic Gray, Barely Banana, Whisper White) Stampin' Up!

Ribbon: (Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Basic Gray) Stampin' Up!

Button: (Basic Gray, Neutrals Collection) Stampin' Up!

Punch: (Postage Stamp) Stampin' Up!

Other: thread, foam mounts, distresser

Thanks for stopping by and having a peek!

Julie

June 2011 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

 I knew the Papertrey Ink June blog hop was soon, but then I forgot again and remembered 3 hours before the deadline :) This month there was a great photo to get our inspiration from, and here it is:

 For my card, I went CAS and created a color gradient using embossed pieces of cardstock. It's what I call my colorful approach to a sky. I added white clouds using the cloud die and topped it off with a sentiment from the Up, Up & Away sentiments set.

Colorful Sky Card

Cardstock: (Certainly  Celery, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Soft Sky, Crumb Cake) Stampin' Up

Ink: (Crumb Cake, Ruby Red) Stampin' Up!

Die: (Clouds) Papertrey Ink

Stamp: (Up, Up & Away Sentiments) Papertrey Ink

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the blog hop :)

Julie

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #8 - Getting Edgy

I think last week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge was one of my faves so far! There were so many ideas for color blocking in the gallery that I even discovered a lot of new ideas for my new cards. If you liked last week's challenge, you're going to LOVE the challenge this week! Break out those punches, dies, whatever you can find to make something "edgy" on your creation!

This week we have Market Street Stamps returning again for another fab prize to win and the chance to either become a T.G.I.F club member or a V.I.P.

The Girl Fridays had the opportunity to use Market Street Stamps for our projects this week and here is what I came up with using the "Here Comes the Sun" stamp.

I just had to make a warm and sunny card to counteract the real weather going on around here. There's been little sun and its been COLD! Summer has arrived, but I'm still waiting for spring lol. For this card I stamped the sun with daffodil delight on coordinating cardstock and then used a EK Success border punch to make my waves. I had a trio of blue colors from the Bazzill Basics Swiss dot collection and used the lightest color first and then went to the darkest color. It seemed only fitting to stamp a "warm" sentiment and top it off with a bright yellow button :)

The Girl Fridays have some great inspiration for you this week! Come on over to CAS-ual Fridays and play along with us, we'd love to see your "edgy" approach to this fun challenge!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great weekend!

Julie

Color Blocking with Patterned Papers

I had so much fun delving into my scrap pile for the CAS-ual Fridays Color Block challenge that I dug a little deeper and made another card using some patterned paper scraps. Yes, I used patterned paper and those of you who know me, know what a difficult time I have using patterned paper in my projects lol :)

I used the same template that I used for my CAS-ual Fridays card except I flipped the layout and here it is:

 The patterned paper is from the Stampin' Up! collection and I believe it's called Raspberry Lemonade. All materials used are Stampin' Up! except for the sentiment which is Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you had a great Monday!

Julie

Bright Bargello

I'm off to a good start this week...I finished my Play Date Cafe entry two days before the deadline! Whoo-hoo!

This week's color story by Jaclym Miller is bright and fun, check it out!

 I love these colors together and decided to enter my card in the Tuesday Trigger challenge over at Moxie Fab World titled "Rainbow Bright"as well. The bright colors  and the varying heights of the spools is what inspired me for my card (bargello technique) The spools made me think of the skewing of patterns. Here is the inspiration for the Tuesday Trigger. 

 I've been thinking a lot about my brayer the past week, so I tried something new with it and used my markers to color strips of color right onto the brayer. After a brayered my ink strip pattern, I cut strips and arranged them as my focal point using the bargello technique (click here for a great tutorial on this technique). Usually you use patterned paper to do this, but I went CAS and just used my ink colors.

After arranging my strips on a panel, I rounded the corners and applied a rub-on sentiment with a small, pink rhinestone. The panel is popped up with foam mounts.

Bargello Hello Card (all supplies Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie

Rub-on: Stampin' Up!

Sticker: Rhinestone

Tools: Brayer 

Other: Foam Mounts

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great start to your week!

Julie

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #7 - Color Blocking

Another amazing week over at CAS-ual Fridays! Lots and lots of fab ideas and beautiful CAS cards. This week's challenge is a trend that has been popping up everywhere in the fashion industry, from clothes right down to shoes! Color blocking is the challenge so dig out those scraps and put them to good use :)

 

 

 

 Our sponsor for this week is Crop Stop and that means another fabby prize to win, PLUS the chance to become an exclusive member of our T.G.I.F Club!

 

 

 

 For my inspirational card this week I went with bright colors and a simple shorthand sentiment.

 

 

 I haven't done color blocking in ages and I used to do a lot of color blocked scrapbook pages, so I dug out my deluxe cuts color block templates and used one of the card ones. After fitting all my pieces on, I stamped the "HB" in white, cut it out and popped it off the card front. The number two is a chipboard number that I inked black and then covered with crystal effects and lastly the "you" is a rub-on.

 

 

We'd love to have your CAS color blocked creations hanging in our gallery over at CAS-ual Fridays and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for this challenge. Our Girl Fridays have some great inspiration to share with you as well, so come on over and get blocky with us :)

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday!

Julie

PDCC85 with the NEW Color Story Coordinator, Jaclyn Miller

I'm back after having a 2 week hiatus from the Play Date Cafe Challenges. I think I encountered the worst creative block in a looonnggg time. I blame it on the running lol I vaguely remember a couple years ago when I was super dedicated to my running that I my card creativity took a HUGE nosedive. Perhaps I just need to work on balancing my time better :) Anyways...as you might have heard there's a new Color Story Coordinator in town and I am uber excited! It's none other than Jaclyn Miller who I also happen to work with on the CAS-ual Fridays Design Team and believe me this is one talented lady! See for yourself! Check out this beautiful color story she put together for this week's challenge:

 I especially love this color combo and was in a non card mood and felt like making something mini. Plus I've noticed when I'm in a non card mood I always seem to end up making something for a fridge! Go figure! lol Here is what I made for the fridge, well not necessarily mine, but somebody's :) 

Close up of the bottom half:

Close up of the pins:

And another close up of a rolled rose:

Yup, decorated magnetic clothespins. Super easy and you can put ANYTHING on these. I ended up with a wedding theme thinking it would be nice to have some of those candid wedding photos displayed on the fridge with these pretty magnets holding them, not that I have any wedding photos that I could use these with (insert sarcasm). Perhaps that's my jealous streak coming out for all those ladies who ended up with great wedding photos...something happened to the camera during my photo session and they were all underexposed and I mean p i t c h BLACK *sniff* and of course it was a film camera. Ahem, well moving along :) To make these, I just covered each clothespin with embossed cardstock, rolled some flowers in the two colors and added coordinating bows and pearls. The finishing touch were some lovey dovey related phrases stamped in coordinating ink. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great crafty week!

Julie

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #6 - Tic Tac Toe

Another AMAZING week at CAS-ual Fridays! There were so many fabulous takes on Laura's sketch, it was hard to narrow it down. This week's challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays is a fun game of Tic Tac Toe!

 Pick a line, whether it be horizontal, vertical or diagonally and use the three elements from the line in your card. So many fun combinations to try!

Our sponsor this week is Tami Mayberry who is also our very first Girl Friday Temp (guest designer), so you should hop on over to CAS-ual Fridays to check out what you can win plus take a look at what Tami and the other Girl Fridays have created for inspiration this week.

For my card this week I went uber simple and picked the diagonal row that uses chipboard, punch and twine.

 I was somewhat unimaginative when it came to my punch because I just used my corner rounder :) The chipboard element is the tree, which I covered with some Stampin' Up! paper from the Good Morning set and the sentiment and design down the edge are coordinating rub-ons from the same set. A little inking around the edges and some twine to the side finish off this 10 minute card. I think I may add some lined paper to the inside and use it as a small notepad to take to meetings :)

Thanks for stopping by and I can't wait to see what line everyone works with and what creations you all make for our 6th CAS-ual Fridays challenge!

Julie

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #5 - Laura's Sketch

Another great week at CAS-ual Fridays and tons of FABULOUS graduation card ideas, thanks everyone:) This week's challenge is based on a sketch by one of our very own Girl Fridays, Laura!

We'd love to have you play along with us at CAS-ual Fridays and show us your take on this fabby sketch. Plus we have another great sponsor this week, The Craft's Meow. Which means another fabby prize to win :)

I will admit that sketches are not one of my strong points. I have a habit of looking at a sketch and then going in a totally different direction and I tried not to do that here, but I may have a smidgen. Here is what I came up with this week:

 See? My interpretation of  the sketch is just crammed into a smaller area I think lol. The sun on the water represents the half circle section of the sketch and the sentiment/verse is represented by the wavy border part at the top (I know it may be bit of a stretch, but you get the idea). This card took maybe 5 minutes to make. The image and verse is a digi stamp from Tiffany's Doodles and then I just used my copic markers to color the sun and waves...super easy. Then I just mounted it on some yellow cardstock and popped it off the card base.

The Girl Fridays have some uber cool ideas using the sketch that you should check out over at CAS-ual Fridays and we would love to see YOUR creations using this sketch in a clean and simple style. Can't wait to see your creativity this week :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday!

Julie