CAS Colours and Sketches #385

 
Hello Tuesday!  We have a new sketch up at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog.  There are lots of possibilities with this one.

I was in a flamingo mood so of course I managed to work one into my design.  :-)

I started by creating an stamped gradient of green palm leaves using three different colors of green dye inks.  I then die cut the piece using a banner die.  I die cut the flamingo from pink card stock and did a bit of shading along the edges with ink.  The sentiment was heat embossed in pink onto a banner of olive card stock.  I double matted the elements onto a card base of Neenah Solar White 110 lb card stock and finished it off with three sequins and some transparent drops.  Here's a closer look at the details. 

Supplies:
Simon Says Stamp - flamingo die
Fun Stampers Journey - Palm Fronds stamp
Ellen Hutson - Handful stamp sentiment
The Stamp Market - dye inks and card stock

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

Seize the Birthday #197

Rainbow Colors is the new theme over at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog!

And I enthusiastically slathered my entire card panel in rainbow colors.  :-)

I began by ink blending Distress Ink over top of a stencil, going in rainbow order from left to right (top) and then right to left (bottom).  Before removing the stencil I slathered on a layer of glimmer paste to give it some sparkle.  I wanted to keep the rest of the card simple but felt like it needed something to break up the colors a bit.  I decided on a thin frame that I cut using two stitched card panel dies, one inset inside the other.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white over top of white card stock that I colored with Distress Ink to match my card.  No further embellishments needed.  

Supplies:

Altenew - Beveled Squares stencil

MFT - Stitched rectangle dies

Altenew - Birthday Greeting stamp set

Tonic - Glimmer Paste in Moonstone

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #167

It's time for another challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge blog.  Edna is braving the ocean today and I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what's coming.

da-da   da-da  da-da...

I know what you're all thinking .... "Julie's Gonna Create Yet Another Shark Card."  Well, SURPRISE!  I went out of my comfort zone just a bit to use a NBUS stamp set of these cute but oh so hungry little piranhas. 

I began by stamping out my images using Memento ink and followed that with some alcohol ink coloring.  I did some ink blending with a wave background stencil to which I added both some water droplets and white ink splatters.  I then did a bit of tone on tone stamping to add a bit of seaweed to the background.  I stamped out the greeting using a combination of two stamp sets and then adhered the images to the card panel using a combination of liquid glue and foam adhesive.  I used the orange alcohol marker to color in the edges of a white panel to use as a mat and then adhered the whole thing to a white card base of 110 lb Neenah.  For a final touch I added three clear droplets above one of the piranhas.  As for the surfer?  Do these fish look hungry or satisfied?  I'll leave that up to your imaginations.

I do hope you'll show us your salty creations!  I'll be submitting this to Darnell's Never Before Used Schtuff once this goes live.  I've had these hungry little guys for quite some time and am so happy to finally put them to good use.  

Supplies:

Avery Elle - That Bites stamp set (piranhas and sentiment)

Studio Katia - Jawesome stamp set (surf board)

Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental stamp set (well)

MFT - Make Waves stencil

Altenew - Alcohol markers and dye inks

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

Tic Tac Toe #078 - Guest Designer

One of my favorite online card challenge blogs has invited me to Guest Design for them this week and I couldn't be more excited!  Today I'm joining the ladies over at the Tic Tac Toe card blog for challenge #078.  Here's what's on the board this week.

For my card I went with the reverse diagonal of Balloon, Celebration and Any Color Ink.  And just to mix it up a bit, I went with a slimline design.

I chose three colors of Distress Oxide inks and did some overlapped blending of a large balloon stencil.  I used a fourth color for the balloon strings.  I stamped and white heat embossed the celebration sentiment onto a strip of black card stock and mounted the panel onto a black card base.  I finished it off with assorted matte enamel dots in coordinating colors.  I'm really happy with the look of this one.  Here's a closer look at the overlapped blending.

Supplies:
MFT -Big Balloon stencil
MFT - Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set
Distress Oxides - Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Hickory Smoke
Assorted Manufacturers - matte enamel dots

Many thanks to the gals at the TTT challenge blog for featuring my today!  I hope to see some of you playing along!

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

Inspired By #137

I'm heading off to visit my son and his family but I couldn't resist squeezing in one more card before I hit the road.  The current inspiration board over at the Inspired By challenge blog is just too danged cute.

Am I right????  I have several critter dies that I use quite often but today I chose another NBUS.  Yay Me!  And now that I look at her I have to shake my head as to why it took me so long to use her.

Isn't this kitty just the sweetest?  Her body and shadow are cut from soft gray card stock.  Her little pieces are cut from pink and white card stock.  I used a marker to color in her nose and eyes.  I mounted her on a panel of blue that I ran though with a cloud cover plate.  (This is also a NBUS.  Yay Me Again!)  It's hard to see but the card front is embossed with a fine crosshatch pattern.  The hearts were cut from an old punch.  The white sentiment was cut with a die as well.  

I love her so much!  I may have to make more when I return.  Maybe a black cat version for Halloween???

Supplies:

PaperTrey Ink - Kay's Cat die

PaperTrey Ink - "Crosshatch" cover plate  (Not sure of the name and believe it's been discontinued)

MFT - Simply Hello and Love You die set

Kat Scrappiness - Cloud cover plate

Martha Stewart - heart punch

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

CAS Colours and Sketches #384

The team over at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog is back with another color trio for you to play with this week.  We're in the middle of a very hot Florida summer so I'm finding this set of spring colors very refreshing.

For our color challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colors. You may also use neutral colors; however, the challenge colors should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colors as closely as possible. 

You know how I love cards created with die cuts.  For my card I chose three card stock colors that closely matched the challenge colors and went to town.    

The balloon string appears more blue in the first photo however you can see in the close up that it is definitely pool in color.  

To create my card I started by applying some white texture paste to the purple card stock and then set it aside to dry.  I next die cut out the bear and the balloon.  (It took three passes in three colors to get all of the bear's components.)  I assembled all of the components onto a small stitched rectangle of white card stock and then added some highlights in with a white gel pen.  I chose to stamp a Hugs sentiment which makes this card very versatile.  Once the background panel was dry I adhered it to the card base of 110 lb. Neenah Solar White and centered the white panel on top.  

Supplies:
Simon Says Stamp - Picture Book Bear die
Simon Says Stamp - Best Hugs stamp set
Lawn Fawn - Party Balloons die set
Hero Arts - Diamond stencil
Ranger - Texture Paste 

I hope you find some time to join us in our gallery this week! 

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #077

I'm sure by now you can all tell that I love this Tic Tac Toe challenge.  Here's the new board.

I don't have a school bus stamp or die so that pretty much cut out three of the challenges.  Because I love Clean and Simple designs I ended up choosing the middle row of CAS, Tag and Presents.

I used an open presents die that I ran through my die cutting machine four times, once with each color of card stock.  I then pieced everything back in place with liquid glue onto a panel of white card stock.  I die cut a small tag (it's actually much longer but I trimmed it down) and used a very tiny alphabet set to stamp out the abbreviated "For You".  I fastened the tag to the card using some purple twine tied to the bow of one of the presents.  Finally I stamped the greeting with pigment ink, adhered the panel to a black card base and finished it off with a sprinkling of bling.  

Supplies:

Simon Says Stamp - Brilliant Gift die

MFT - More Essentials Sentiment stamp set

MFT - Gift Tag die set

HoneyBee Stamps - Sentiment Alpha stamp set

American Crafts - twine  

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #076

The folks over at the TicTacToe blog have a new board up and for some reason I found this one extremely challenging.

 

I was in total avoidance of the crayon/pencil coloring square while also mildly ignoring the smile and glitter.  What's left?  

Animal --  Square --  Primary Color

Once I nailed down my chosen elements, the card came along fairly easily.  I die cut and assembled the elephant and adhered it to a small square of die cut blue card stock.  This particular square die has an accompanying frame so I chose a mid hue of blue for the border.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white onto deep navy card stock and the entire panel was adhered to a white card base of 110 lb. Neenah.

Supplies:

Simon Says Stamp - Picture Book elephant die

MFT - Square Shaker dies

Altenew - Birthday Greetings stamp set

Misc blue card stocks 

What I love most about these challenges is the ability to avoid/ignore the elements that make me squirm....and still get a really cute card out of the challenge.  :-)

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

MFT Summer School 2020

Last week I participated in MFT Stamps Annual Summer School.  Their designers provided prompts and demonstration videos for five different design principles which we were to use on our cards.  Here are the cards I created and shared with them last week.  

VISUAL TRIANGLE

RAINBOW

SYMMETRY

OMBRE

WHITE SPACE

It's always fun to create with a purpose and I love each and every card from this batch.  If you have any questions on the products and/or techniques I used, please leave me a note in the comments.  Thanks everyone!

Supplies: All MFT stamps, die and stencils

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules 

CAS Colours and Sketches #383

It's time for another sketch challenge over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog.  Our hostess this month is Holly and here's the sketch she's created for us all.

After a lot of trial and error with numerous iterations, here's my "final answer."  

I did some masking to create my hexagons and then used a piercing dies to outline each image.  They're a bit more visible in the photo below.

I also ink blended the edge of the card base to get the matching stripes.  I stamped the sentiment and added a few clear droplets as embellishments.  And because I had the masks made I decided to create a second version.

These were both extremely difficult to photograph for some reason.  I couldn't get the "whites" white.  They're actually very beautiful in real life. 

Supplies:
Spellbinders - Hex dies
Fun Stampers Journey - Pierced Hex dies
The Greetery - Thinking of You stamp set
Distress Oxides

I hope to see your cards in our gallery this week!

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #166

It's time for another challenge prompt over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers blog.  I will warn you, Edna's being a bit inappropriate this fortnight.  Because I do not want to offend those that I don't personally know, I'm not displaying our challenge badge this week but you can find it HERE if you're curious.  (I do hope some of you are curious.  LOL!)  

The prompt this week is 

V is for VULGARITY

A few of us made some fairly crude (but hilarious) cards.  Others chose implied vulgarity.  My card straddles the line with a humorous front and a bit of profanity on the inside.  (Don't say you weren't warned.)

A closer look at the coloring and sentiment.

I stamped and COPIC colored my Sassy Gal.  There's an coordinating stamp set that has a similar sentiment but I changed it up a bit and printed it from my computer.  I adhered the panel to a red/white striped piece of card stock and then adhered the whole thing to a navy note card.  

Now for the inside....

If you read this far, I hope I haven't offended you too much but I have several friends who would definitely appreciate the humor.   One cannot be a lady 24/7.  *wink*

Supplies:

PicketFence Studios- #GirlBoss stamp set

Computer Generated - Outside sentiment

AveryElle - Inside sentiment

Paper Issues - Inside sentiment

MFT - striped paper

COPIC markers

Choose your level of vulgarity and come play with us this week!

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS Colours and Sketches #382

If I'm here, it must be Tuesday!  Today we have a new color challenge for you over at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog.  Our beautiful trio of colors are courtesy of Holly.

For our color challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colors. You may also use neutral colors; however, the challenge colors should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colors as closely as possible.

I used a mix of alcohol markers today to achieve my color scheme.

I first stamped, colored and fussy cut the floral image.  I adhered a small strip of gold foil card stock to the left hand portion of the card base and then adhered the floral panel adjacent to it using foam tape.  The two part sentiment was cut from white and gold foil card stocks.  I finished off the design with a sprinkling of gold foil pearls.

Supplies:

PinkFresh Studio - Leafy Decor

Altenew - Bold Thanks

Studio Katia - Gold Foil Pearls

Come show us what you got this week!

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #075

Hello friends.  I'm happy to report that Hurricane Isaias was downgraded to a tropical storm overnight and turned out to be just a small blip on our radar.  Florida is now back down to only one State of Emergency. *shameful eyeroll*

Today I'm sharing another card I created yesterday during my productive pre-hurricane crafting session.  This card was inspired by this week's board over at the TicTacToe challege blog. 

For whatever reason I just wasn't in the mood for water, pool or sun (probably due to our weather) so I went for the middle row of blue, square and flower.

I started by die cutting the square of flowers from a both a blue card stock panel as well as a scrap piece of white card stock.  Fortunately for me, this die has all sixteen flowers embedded in it so there was no measuring involved.  I only needed the negative space for this design so I set the blue flowers aside for another project.  I created a stitched border panel in silver and adhered the smaller blue panel to its center.  I inlaid the white flowers back into the two middle rows but chose to pop up the top and bottom rows of flowers with foam dots to create some dimension.  I used a two piece sentiment die to create a stacked sentiment in blue and silver.  For the finishing touches I added silver gems to the centers of the popped up flowers.  Here's a closer look at the details.

Supplies:
Fun Stampers Journey - Tattered Blooms die
Altenew - Bold Thanks die set
Tonic Studios - Sliver Silk card stock
HAI- Silver Crystal gems

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Inspired By #135

What does one do when in the midst of a Florida CoronaCane????  Make cards, of course.  :-)  On a serious note, we are currently predicted to be the center of the landfall of Isaias (what's new?) but we're just rolling with it. 

Rather than stare at The Weather Channel radar all day, I took on the Inspired By Fruity Sentiments challenge where I was totally inspired by the design on that fabulous pillow in the front. 

 When life gives you lemons, pull out the peaches.  

I really, really wish I had this sentiment in stamp form.  I will not even tell you how many tries it took to pull this one off.  *sigh*  It's not perfect but hey, it's handmade.  

I began by first penciling in a curve which I used to stamp out my sentiment alphas...ONE by ONE.  Once I got one I liked, the pressure was off.  LOL!  I stamped the peaches down below as in the inspiration photo and added the little star stamps from the alpha set.  I inked the edges of the bordering card stock with the same ink as I used in the peaches and finished off the card with a sprinkling of clear gems.  

So my dear punny friend Michele, how did I do?  

Supplies:

WPlus9 - Punny Produce - Peaches

The Ton - Sparklers Alpha

Catherine Pooler - Bellini and Lime Rickey inks

I had the sweetest comment today from Darnell who runs the NBUS challenge blog.  (Never Before Used Stuff)  I've seen the term gazillions of times but have never thought to play until now.  Both the sets I used today were virgins..as in never seen ink.  I'll be linking to her blog regularly as I go through my new pile of schtuff.  

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules