Deconstructed Birthday Card for CASual Friday, Simon and Love My Tapes

I've been wanting to try our both the Deconstructed Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Challenges for a while now, and this week provided a perfect storm of challenges for me.  The challenges at Simon Says Stamp, CAS-ual Friday, and Love my Tapes are all birthday related, and you can see the Deconstructed sketch above.  Here's my take on the sketch:

When I saw the sketch, I immediately thought of candles, but I wasn't quite sure what to use for them.  I considered paper and washi tape, but when I saw this ribbon (which came in an Express the Moment bulk ribbon sale bundle) I was sold.  The ribbon is 1/2" wide, so I cut pieces of cardstock 3/8" to adhere the ribbon to and so I could just fold the top and bottom over to get a finished look.

The flames as well as the bracket/oval/letters were all cut with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.  The flames are actually a leaf shape.  I cut them from Buttercup cardstock and then used my blending pen with Honey and Goldrush ink to add shading.


Normally, when I think of CAS, I think it's got to be a white card, but I really wanted to amp up the color on this card, so I used that great turquoise cardstock.  I love how saturated the colors on the card are.  What do you think?  Still CAS?  I'm kind of on the fence, but I'm gonna link it up at CAS-ual Friday's and see what they think.

I know I promised another layout, and it's coming.  Tune in tomorrow to see it.  Have a great night!

Supplies Used
Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy, Black, Buttercup; CM - Turqouise
Ink:  Honey, Goldrush
Other:  Ribbon from Express the Moment bulk bundle; CTMH - Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, Blending Pen, Bonding Memories Adhesive; 3L - Small Dodz, Black adhesive foam; Tombow adhesive runner

Sending Hope and Love (My Tapes!)

This is not a normal card for me, I don't consider myself and girly girl, and I tend towards the non-frilly/lacy in life. BUT, I received some fabulous goodies from Love My Tapes about a month ago which included both their pink and green lace tapes, and I've been waiting for the perfect project to use them on. When I saw that the Love My Tapes challenge for this month was all about lace, I knew I had to play along.

It was easy as pie to create these flowers since there is already adhesive on the lace. I punched out two circles (1 1/4" and 3/4") and just turned/pinched/stuck, and it was done in a jiffy and my hands weren't covered in glue.



To create the flower centers, I used chocolate twine from the Twinery. I tied a knot in the twine, and then another knot over that, repeating this several times until I got a big enough ball/knot....maybe about 1/8" in diameter. The next part is kind of hard to describe. I should have taken pictures, although I'm not sure how I would have done that since you need two hands for this and everyone else was already in bed, but anyway, it's kind of like making a frosting rose. I used the knot as the base, added some liquid glass to the sides, and twirled the twine around it until I got it the right width. I really like those flower centers....they might be my favorite part of the card, so I'll definitely be doing that again.



For the flower stems and leaves, I used pieces of the green tape. The great thing about lace crochet which already has adesive backing on it, is that you can cut it without a lot of, if any, fraying. I used the thin portion along the straight side of the lace to create the stems, and then cut out some of the curved shapes for the leaves. The green lace tape was used as is for the grass.

The sentiment is from the All Things are Possible Ippity by Unity stamp set.

Like I said, this is a different sort of card for me, but I like how it turned out, and it actually looks a lot better in person than it does in the photo....one of these days I'm going to have to come up with a real photo set up at home.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Cardstock/Paper: CTMH - White Daisy and Kraft cardstock
Stamps: Ippity by Unity - All Things are Possible
Ink: Chocolate
Other: Love My Tapes - Pink and Green Lace Tape; The Twinery - Chocolate twine; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape, Liquid Glass

Pumpkin Decorating Layout

This is another project for the Bella Blvd challenges that are currently going on.

The challenge was to use patterned paper as an embellishment.

I had a great time putting this together. I used two different Bella papers from the Winter Wonder collection. The first is that yellow chevron paper. It's an allover pattern, and I just cut it after one 'zig', and then into smaller pieces. Similarly the second paper with the blue stripes was cut vertically where the pattern is offset.



I took four of the chevron pieces that I cut and put them together to create those flower/burst elements which kind of remind me of a quilt. I thought about putting an embellishment in the middle, and tried a couple things, but in the end I like seeing the color underneath peeking through.



The gingham strips are Love My Tapes fabric tape...SO easy to use and it adds some great texture and pattern to the page.

I 'gulp' did the title free hand using Zig chalk markers and a white gel pen. I want to try doing more of my titles freehand, and working on lettering. This method is quite forgiving. I used the chalk marker first, and then traced around it using the gel pen. This lets you fix some things...make certain areas a little lower/wider, etc.

This is the darkest background I've ever used for a layout, but I really like how the embellishments, photos, and text stand out. Definitely something I'll be doing again!

Hope you are enjoying your extra day!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: Bella Blvd - Winter Wonder Icy and Ski Slopes papers; CTMH - Chocolate cardstock
Other: Zig Yellow Chalk marker, Love My Tapes Yellow Gingham Fabric Tape, White Gel Pen, CTMH Bonding Memories Glue

Love My Tapes Sketch Challenge

Thought I would try out a new sketch challenge this week - at Love My Tapes. I love simple sketches because they are so open to interpretation, but for this one I went really simple. This card also presented the perfect opportunity to work with some of my new goodies.

I used two different types of spritzs/mists on this card.

First, was some Clearsnap Smooch Spritz in grape (which was in my stocking this year). Love the pretty sheen that this gives. I used the Smooch spritz on the white background as well as the purple frame.

Next up, some Tsukineko Fireworks Danube Blue shimmer spray that I won a while back form i heart papers. The sprayer part of it seems to have gotten stuck, and I can't figure out how to unstick it (if any of you have suggestions, I will gladly take them), so I improvised. I just unscrewed the top and kind of flicked/dotted it onto my little strip of Lagoon cardstock. I actually really like the effect, it almost looks like water droplets, so cool.



The faux water kind of goes along with the sentiment "Blue Skies are coming your way" from Verve's Blue Skies stamp set. I cut the frame and the piece for the stamp set using the Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge. I sponged the edges of the white piece lightly with Lagoon ink and then offset the two pieces just the tiniest bit so that you get a little bit of that blue peeking up.

Finally, I added some adhesive sparkles...I'm not great at the random look. Some might call me a bit uptight and I tend to like order/symmetry so 'sprinkling' things is a bit of a challenge for me. I definitely tend to overthink it, but I like how this turned out.

Supplies Used:
Paper: CTMH - White Daisy, Lagoon, Gypsy cardstock
Stamps: Verve - Blue Skies
Ink: Lagoon
Other: Clearsnap - Grape Smooch Spritz; Tsukineko Danube Blue Fireworks; CTMH - Sparkles, Cricut Art Philosphy Cartridge, Dimensional Foam tape, Sponge Tool.