Another CAS Card

Well, I took the weekend off from crafting.  Friday's Scrap Expo was a huge success.  I didn't break the bank and met two Bloggy friends in person for the first time.  KatieO recognized me from my Blog pic and fortunately approached me while I was deep in shopping mode.  We met up with Diana (DL.Art) who was rockin' the workshops and had a fun chat.  LOVED seeing those guys and hope we can get together again soon.   The rest of the weekend I enjoyed the weather with a bit more shopping (since I didn't shoot the entire wad on Friday) and a road trip to St. Helena for lunch on Sunday.  Yesterday I tried to catch up with a little yard work and managed another CAS card for this week's Outlawz Challenge which is Monochromatic Green.

I'm not so sure about this one.  It was kind of an experiment.  I recently purchased some Dylusions Sprays beacause I wanted to dabble in making my own backgrounds.  Have to say I'm a chicken when it comes to that, but although I knew what stamp I wanted to use, I couldn't find Dp that I liked and thought perhaps a little spritz would do the job.  Ok, still enough "white space" for CAS, I guess, but now what?  My inclination was to stamp and fussy cut the image, but instead I tried stamping right over the background. (Yikes, but what's the worst that could happen?)   I kinda thought the little spots sort of looked like part of the froggy skin so I colored the rest with Copics, paper pieced the eye, olive, and the drinky in the glass with vellum so it would be translucent and added Glossy Accents to the glass and eye for shine.  One adhesive bead in the olive for the pimento and a computer generated sentiment that is shadowed in lime (although you can't tell it) and it was done.  WAY out of my comfort zone but certainly not the worst thing I've ever done.

I'm also entering this in the Critter Sketch Monochromatic Green Challenge, Make My Monday CAS Monochrome Challenge, and My Craft Spot Embossing or Glossy Accents.

BBTB2 Birthday Balloon Challenge

Did you miss us last week? Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter break, and I certainly hope you had a chance to stop by BBTB2 and get all the deets for our current DT call. There's still time, so if you missed it check it out HERE. But this week it's time for a new challenge. Our fabulously talented DT sister Jeri chose a birthday challenge with BALLOONS! What's a party without balloons, eh? And these may be from any Cricut cart so we hope you have a ball with this one. I'm afraid I interpreted this a bit differently than my teamies, but I've always had a thing for hot air balloons and the fact that I don't think I've ever used my Summer in Paris cart sealed the deal. When I started designing this in DS I had full intention of using the intricate swirly top cut for the balloons and was afraid to go too small so this ended up being really too big for a card (sorry Jeri!) so I made it into a birthday door hanger. None of the cuts (except "It's your day" from Celebrations) had shadows which would be a problem for the design I had in mind, so I made my own. The clouds from Create a Critter worked ok with a little fussing with an 1/8" smaller cut. The balloon shadows, however, were built with welded shapes from George. These were all welded in DS and then the fun began.
After cutting the swirly layers I decided the whole thing looked just too busy with the 3 balloons so I went back to the drawing board and decided embossing was the ticket. I trimmed the ropes from the colored cuts and also a section so I could emboss and pop the baskets separately. Each basket is done with a Stampin'Up folder. The deep orange is embossed with the Daisy Pattern European edition Cuttlebug folder, the tangerine with the Sizzix Bow Strings, and the bright yellow with Happy Birthday from ??? (hmm, have to look that one up, I'm having a senior moment). The cloud embossing was already in the Dotted Swiss paper by Bazzill.

Embellies included Prima flowers, a banner cut from the Carousel Cart and a liberal sprinkling of adhesive pearls.

I have to say, the layering took on a mind of it's own. I really wanted to create real depth and since it isn't a card...well...I guess I got sort of carried away. (I kinda have to say I love it, though. LOL) The rest of the DT has fabulously inspiring projects so pop on over to BBTB2 and have a look see. We're excited to see what you some up with as well, just be sure to follow the rules, stated at the top of the blog and have fun!

I'm also entering this in the My Craft Spot Make it Pop Challenge, and Simon Says Stamp and Show Anything Goes.

Ad Day For Daisies It's a Twine Thing and My Craft Spot 'Sew' Much Fun Challenge

First I need to apologize to my bloggie friends for not visiting regularly this month. To be honest, I'm just totally out of gas. I bit off more than I could chew in August...WAY more and I've been scrambling to complete my DT and guest DT projects as well as a comission (that I can't show you yet), but Thank GOD! it's finished and in the mail. (Just in the nick of time, I might add. Did I mention I'm the world's WORST procrastinator and slowest crafter on earth?) Also, being on a design team means commenting on the challenge participants entries and there have been LOTS!!!!!

I wasn't even sure today if I had it in me to craft. But I WANTED to, so I decided to do a sweet simple card for the A Day For Daisies Twine Challenge. I loved the free image provided for joining the challenge and since there wasn't much coloring... The image was colored with Copics and cut and matted with Nesties. All I needed was to add some twine.

But the My Craft Spot Challenge this week is "Sew" Much Fun. HHmmm...I've been dying to try my Sew Easy Stitch Piercer so I used the Scallop wheel. At first I tried stitching with 2 tone baker's twine but I didn't like how it was turning out, so I dug around in my fiber drawer and found this delicate hemp twine. The neutral color was the inspiration for the kraft paper and fairly monochromatic color scheme. Once I'd done the stitching, it was too late to run it through the computer to add a sentiment and my confidence in my stamping ability is pretty darn low (I would have DIED had I mess this up after all the hand stitching) so I used the Cuttlebug Friends Forever Card-Making Combo. The delicate font was just perfect. I don't do CAS very often, but I LOVE how this turned out!