Muse #5 Happy Birthday

Earlier this week I found this new Muse challenge blog/Card making club where crafters are challenged to let themelves be inpired by the weekly muse.

And here's the card by Marion Vagg that inspired me:

I was inspired by the layout and the bold colours/patterns, so I dived into my new paper pads to see if I could find sth. similar to the washi tape Marion used and found some in the Baby Jane collection by Cosmo Cricket.

I stamped the flower (unknown brand from Dutch bargain retail store) on watercolouring paper in Memento Rich Cocao and coloured it with distress inks. The sentiment (Paper Smooches) was also stamped in Memento Rich Cocao, onto Neenah solar white cardstock and cut out with a Wplus9 die.

CAS2 - Day10 - Loving hugs

On day 10 of the online CAS card class we were presented with not 3 but 6 different ways to use the same stamp set. So inspiring!

Our assignment was to try and using 1stamp in three different ways (creating 3 cards) or to take a stamp and use it in a super creative way. I took inspiration from Teri Andersen's minimalistic design and came up with the following card, using stamps from 3 different sets.

Things did not go according to plan with this one. I started out by stamping the sentiment (Paper Smooches) in clear distress ink and heat-embossing it in black. I had forgotten to use my new powder tool and found that the black embossing powder was everywhere, including the back side. So I started fresh, this time powdering like mad and after heat embossing there were only a few specks of black where they did not belong. To balance the sentiment weight with the brackets I decided to stamp and emboss the sentiment again to give it a little more body (this time using my stamp press to get the placement right). Somehow I was not really paying attention while heat setting it, because I thought I was done, I touched the embossing powder to check and the powder went everywhere. I decided to include the specks as part of my design (no one will know it was an accident unless I tell them LOL) and did another round of heating it with my heat tool, this time making sure I did it right. I stamped the brackets in charcoal to avoid making them too heavy. I added a smaller heart inside the stamped red heart with glitter glue and applied some Glossy Accents when this had fully dried. I used my corner chomper on the corners of my panel and my card and adhered the panel with foam tape.

I'm entering this into the following challenge:

Great Impressions - Have a heart

CAS2 - Day9 - Embossed butterflies2

For my second butterfly card, I applied the distress ink on the inside of the embossing folder before embossing. After embossing, I applied a little more distress ink on the edges.

I love how you can never predict the resultThis time I used the largest banner from the banner die set and pleated the ends because it was a trifle too wide. The sentiment was (Marianne Design) again heat-embossed in white. I finished the card off with some Kaisercraft pearls.

CAS2 - Day9 - Embossed butterflies1

Day 9 of the online CAS card class was all about adding texture to you clean and simple design. I have this new long and narrow Darice embossing folder and this seems a good opportunity to use it.

I created 2 cards using different parts of the embossing folder and using 2 different inking techniques to hightlight the embossing. For this one, I first embossed the butterflies and then applied distress ink, working from the outer edges. The banner was cut with a W9plus die and the sentiment (Paper Smooches) was heat-embossed in white onto Colorcore cardstock. The button is from my recycled stash.

CAS2 - Day7 - Christmas in the air

On day 7 of the online card class our teachers showed us how we could use all sizes of stamps to create an impact on our clean and simple cards. Guest designer Cristina Kowalcyk proved that you can create a great card with a lot of tiny stars and one heart. She inpired me to make the following card.

I discovered I had quite a few tiny stamps hidden away in several stamp sets, including quite a few snowflakes (much smaller even than this one by Verve Stamps) and several heart stamps. This online class does make you look at your stamps in an entirely new way, which is great.

Materials used:

Snowflake & sentiment stamp - Verve Stamps (Christmas in the Air set)

Heart stamp - Brandless 'love and marriage' set (from Action shop, the Netherlands)

Inks - Memento tuxedo black & Tsukineko VersaColor scarlet

Cardstock - Neenah solar white

I'd like to this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Ho Ho H2O!

Great Impressions - Have a heart

7 or less challenge #1 - Use a maximum of 7 items on your card

CAS2 - Day4 - Hey there

Day 4 was all about using white space or negative space to make the design pop. After creating my rainbow card, I was left with with a number of smaller rainbows, a couple of clouds I had already die cut. So this card actually came together fairly quickly.

My corner chomper arrived earlier this week, and this seemed like the perfect opportunitly to try it out. Love it!

CAS2 - Day3 - Winter sky

After 10 days, the online CAS2 card class is coming to a close, and I have been working like crazy today to get some more cards finished. So I'll get right to it and show the cards I have made so far.

Day 3 was about inking and stamping techniques and our assignment was to try out a new technique of bring back an old favourite.

I have quite a collection of distress inks but I have not used them as much as I would like, so I decided to try and create a winter sky using some of my distress ink. This card turned out to involve two 'happy accidents'. Applying the distriss inks did not go as smoothly as I intended, but I do love the end result. The blotchy sky makes a nice contrast with the snowy landscape on the foreground. The sentiment stamping did not stamp correctly the first time, so I tried to stamp it again, which caused the shading (I now know I should/could have used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to align it LOL). However, I decided to leave it as is, since it reminds me of fuzzy prints in the snow.

Materials used:

Dark blue cardstock from my stash

Neenah solar white cardstock

Die - Country landscape by Memory box

Sentiment stamp - Christmas Wishes set by Wplus9

Ink - Mememto tuxedo black

Distress inks - Ranger (spiced marmelade, tumbled glass, faded jeans)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Ho Ho H2O!

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - 25 Anything goes

CHNC extra - Anything Christmas goes

Bunny Zoe - Anything goes

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes

Bearly Mine - 72 Anything goes

CAS2 - Bonus day - Warm thoughts

I was so inspired by the ideas and projects from Saturday's bonus day class that I instantly had an idea forming in my head. The class was all about making a clean and simple card using die cuts. So I skipped the assignments for days 2-5 for now and immediatlely started to work out the ideas I had in my head.
JJ Bolton created this gorgeous arrow consisting of a row of chevrons by using a number of nested square dies to cut a small and long strip of chevrons in one go (using the dies at a diagonal angle) and then repeating this with different colours. Apparently, JJ mentioned off-hand that this technique could also be applied with circle dies. I totally missed that remark, but when one of the students repeated that remark in the comments section, wondering what it was about, something clicked inside my head and I was thinking RAINBOWS!

Perhaps I'd better show you my first card to make things a bit more clear:

Just like JJ did with her square dies, I taped down my nested circle dies (Lifestyle Crafts) using paper tape to distribute them evenly and keep them together so that I could die cut all rays of my rainbow (not complete circles) in one go. I repeated the process for every colour of the rainbow, which means that I first cut a rectangle piece of red colorcore cardstock giving me 7 red rays in 7 sizes, followed by 7 rays in orange and so on. For my current card I used the biggest ray in red, the second biggest ray in orange, the third biggest ray in yellow and so on. In fact I decided to cut not 7 but 11 rays (= 11 circle dies) so that I could create at least 5 rainbows in decreasing sizes (1+2+...+7 & 2+3+...+8 and so on). If you're not looking to create rainbows in the 'official' colour sequence, you could of course mix and match to you heart's content.

I created a horizon by scoring a line on my score board and then adhered my rainbow with strips of foam tape. The die cut clouds (C.C. Design) were glued together and then also adhered using foam tape. The sentiment is by Paper Smooches (Sentiment sampler) and was stamped in Memento Tuxedo black ink. I finished the card off with a few Kaiserkraft pearls.

Cannot wait to finish my next card...
This online class is so much fun. What I like most about it is that I'm now playing with ideas and trying out new techniques without having to produce a card every time. I know that the cards will be created in the end when I don't rush it, so I'm enjoying the journey as much as the destination (for now LOL).

BTW The size of my card is 13.5 x 13.5 cm (white Papicolor cardstock)

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
MAWTT - Punch it out

CAS2 online class - Day #1

Last week I enrolled in my first online card making class focusing on Clean and Simple cards. I have had a week filled with wonderful inspiration, but little time to play. I hope I can catch up with the assignments this week. The class is loads of fun but creating CAS cards is hard work and not simple at all LOL. But hey, that's why I'm taking the class in the first place, so that I can try and create my own CAS cards and become better at it.

So here are 2 cards that I made for Day #1. I used one of the 3 available sketches and used the spraying technique that Kristina Werner was showing in her video.

For the second card I used the exact same ingredients, except for the cardstock (kraft instead of Neenah solar white):

And here's an image of the two cards side by side:

Kristina used a mask for her card. Since I did not have a mask, I used what I did have, namely the grid that came in my tub of feta. Since I'm living in Greece, I always have some feta in the fridge. I had already salvaged this particular grid a while ago, though, thinking I could use it as a mask or stencil or something. How right I was LOL.

Since it was a last-minute decision to join this class, I do not have most of the supplies the teachers are using, which means I have to improvise all the way. Since I love making Christmas cards, my supply of Christmas stamps is growing, so I'll probably turn to these stamps a lot for this class.

Similarly, I only had two (shimmer) mists in my stash (Slate & Spring Rain by Tattered Angels), so I based my colours on the dark slate colour. Despite the colour, I think the mist gives a lovely impression of a snow storm. After I was done, I added some Spring Rain, which gives a lovely pearlescent sparkle in real life.

I stamped the snowflake (Verve Stamps)  in VersaColor Smoke blue and heat-embossed it with Clear frosted embossing powder (Ranger's). The sentiment (from the same Verve Stamps set (Christmas in the Air) was stamped in clear embossing ink (Ranger's) on some dark blue cardstock and heat-embossed with white embossing powder (Artemio). I adhered the top panel and the sentiment strip on foam adhesive for added dimension. I finished the snowflake with a silver pearl (with a stale blue sheen)  from my stash.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Ho Ho H2O!

CHNC - Use sth. starting with a P (there's only 1 pearl on each card, but who's counting?)

CHNC Extra - Always Anything Christmas goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - 25 Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Winter Wonderland - Monochrome/monochromatic
MAWTT - Punch it out
Christmas at Sweet Stampin - 2 Cold and frosty
Beccy's Place - Birthday Bash #1: sth. starting with B
(blues - blue ink, blue mist, blue cardstock)