STAMPlorations CAS February Challenge - choose happy

This month's STAMPlorations CAS Challenge is:

Here's my card with the color twist:

[How I made the card]
1. Swiped the Distress Oxide Ink pad (Salty Ocean) over a piece of white cardstock.
2. White heat-embossed the sentiment on the swipe.
3. Die-cut the swiped paper with the frame die.
4. Die-cut a little heart from red glitter paper and glued it to the panel.
5. Dry embossed the card base.
6. Slightly tilted the front panel and popped it up on the card base using a rectangle piece of craft foam. 


This is actually a card for myself. I bought this sentiment stamp to remind myself of what I sometimes forget. 😉


Thanks for stopping by! 


Stamp: Choose Happy (STAMPlorations)
Paper: Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Glitter Paper (Red - Recollection)
Ink: Distress Oxide Ink (Salty Ocean - Ranger), VersaMark (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions (Stampin' Up!), Dies (Antique Frame - Penny Black, Mini Hearts Set - Simon Says Stamp), Craft Foam, Connect Glue (Gina K)

CAS Christmas February Challenge - peace

Hi everyone,

Colleen is hosting the CAS Christmas Challenge this month and she chose Peace as the challenge.

Here's my card:

[How I made the card]
1. Dry embossed the birch trees on a piece of white card stock.
2. Die cut the bird and attached it to the dry embossed front panel.
3. Die cut the sentiment from a piece of cork sheet (*1) and glued it to the front panel.
4. Glued sequins to the front panel.
5. Adhered the front panel to the card base.

*1. Glued a piece of copy paper to the back of the cork sheet as backing.


This is so simple that you can easily mass-produce it. I may thank myself in November. ;-P 


The challenge is open until February 24th.

Thanks for visiting me today!

Paper: Whisper White, Bashful Blue (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Embossing Folder (Woodland Textured Impressions - Stampin' Up!), Dies (Winter Words - Reverse Confetti, Peaceful Wishes - Penny Black), Cork Sheet (Recollections), Sequins (Raspberry 4 mm, Mossy Green 4 mm - Pretty Pink Posh)

CAS Mix Up February Challenge - happy birthday

Hi everyone,
I'm here with the reminder post for this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge.

There are a few great tutorial videos (the links provided) on the challenge site.
I watched the Ali's "camouflage die-cuts" video and made this card:

Using Dimensional Die-cuts, stenciling, and stamping

[How I made the card]
1. Die-cut two rows of houses and sponged one piece with light blue.
2. Stenciled the sun ray with Distress Inks and stamped "HAPPY" on the card base.
3. Die-cut "BIRTHDAY" 3 times from pink cardstock, and stacked them together for dimension. I also die-cut the word from the stenciled card base and glued it on top of the pink die-cuts.
4. Glued the white backing panel (a little smaller than 5-1/2 x 4-1/4) to the back of the front card base and inlaid the die-cut sentiment.
5. Glued the light blue row of houses to the card base and attached the white row to the blue piece offset with foam tape. Trimmed both sides of the houses.

I liked how the houses and the sentiment look dimensional.

Check out the challenge blog for more inspiration. The beautiful cards our Designers and Arlene made are waiting for you. Then play along with us!
The challenge is open until February 24th. 

Stamp: Birthday Builder (Altenew)
Paper: Whisper White, Melon Mambo (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Distress Oxide Ink (Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Stormy Sky)
Accessories: Die-namics (Our Town, Block Happy Birthday - My Favorite Things), Stencil (Warp Speed - Altenew), Foam Tap (3M)

CAS Watercolour February Challenge - love

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and I think the challenge Marcia is hosting at  CAS Watercolour is perfect for the season.

Here's my card:

[How I made the card]
1. Painted a freehand heart with dark pink watercolour.
2. Die-cut the watercolour paper with the cross-stitched frame die.
3. Painted a piece of watercolour paper in pearlescent red.  Punched out a small heart and die-cut the sentiment from the piece.
4. Punched out a small heart from silver glitter paper.
5. Glued the red & silver hearts and the sentiment onto the front panel.
6. Adhered the front panel to the card base. 

It sounds easy, right? But it actually took me a lot of trial and error to get to this point.

Here's the picture of the first 2 original heart ideas.

[Left] Shimmery red watercolour on black cardstock. The color turned out to be shimmery BROWN, not red...
[Right] Dark pink watercolour paint on regular watercolour paper. Hmmm...it looked flat, so I pasted glass beads over it. It looked great but now it kind of lost the watercolour look and looks more like a card/heart for CAS Mix Up Challenge...

On to another try and I even took a picture to link it up. 

Painted a dark pink wash on watercolour paper and spattered Perfect Pearl solution over it. Drew the outline with Silver Stickles to give definition.

I still didn't like the "overworked" feel with this card.

Being at my wit's end, I asked my handsome in-house critic and one of his suggestions was to draw a heart freehand. I did it and I liked the results much better!

Thanks for stopping by today!


Paper: Whisper White, Distress Watercolor Cardstock (Tim Holtz)
Ink: Gansai Tambi (Dark Pink - Kuretake), Pearlescent Colours (Red - Fine Tec
Accessories: Dies (Hearts Collection, Expressions Thinlits - Stampin' Up!, Cross Stitched Rectangle - Cat Scrappiness), Itty Bitty Accent Punch Pack (Stampin' Up!), Ice Stickles (Silver Ice - Ranger), Perfect Pearl (Ranger), Thin 3D Foam Squares (Scrapbook Adhesives)

CAS Stencil February Challenge - thank you

The CAS Stencil February Challenge is hosted by the talented Nancy, and she chose Powdered Inks as the challenge. I love Powdered Inks. Thanks for choosing such a fun challenge, Nancy!

Here's my card:

[How I made the card]
1. Put a stencil on a piece of watercolor paper, sprinkled black Brusho, and spritzed some water over it. Left the stencil for a few seconds and gently removed it from the watercolor paper.
2. After the watercolor paper dried, heat-embossed the sentiment with black embossing powder.
3. Die-cut a frame from watercolor paper and adhered it to the front panel. Cut a few thin strips of the silver paper and adhered them onto the watercolor paper frame to add more definition.
4. Glued the front panel to the card base.

I liked how the Brusho reacted with water through the stencil so much that I used it as it is, like a framed picture.


You have until February 24th to link up your card.

Thanks for visiting me today!


Stamp: Thoughtful Banners (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Watercolor Paper (Extra White - Fabriano), Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Textured Silver Paper (gift from a friend)
Ink: Brusho (Black), VersaMark (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Stencil (Dot Fade - Stampers Anonymous), Die-namics (Single Stitch Line Rectangle Frames - My Favorite Things), Embossing Powder (Black - Stampin' Up!)

CAS Mix Up February Challenge - rain or shine

It's the 1st of the month and time for a new challenge for CAS Mix Up.
I am excited to be hosting my first challenge here and I chose Dimensional Die-cuts as the theme because die-cutting is one of my favorite techniques.

We have a wonderful Guest Designer, Arlene (Sundaystamper Papercrafts), for February.

Here's my card:

Using Dimensional die-cuts, Heat-embossing, Sponging, and Stamping

[How I made the card]
1. Heat-embossed the balloon string background stamp on the card base with White Satin Pearl. (*1)
2. Sponged a piece of vellum with the light blue distress ink, dried it well, and die-cut it with the rain drop dies. Then I curled the die-cuts with a size 2 watercolor brush handle (*2).
3. Die-cut an umbrella and shaped the spaces between the stays with a stylus. Brushed the stays and the handle with Aqua Shimmer pen.
4. Die-cut letters to make "rain" and "shine" from Island Indigo cardstock.
5. Glued the tip of the raindrops onto the heat-embossed card base. (*3)
6. Put some Dimensionals behind the umbrella to add dimension and adhered it to the card base.
7. Glued the words, "rain", and "shine" onto the card base. Stamped the "or" of the "Naughty or Nice?" stamp to complete the sentiment.

*1. I brushed off some embossing powder before heating it so that the pattern is only partially heat-embossed, not the entire card.
*2. It worked better than a stylus handle because the die-cuts were very small.
*3. Gina K Connect Glue didn't leave any marks on the vellum after it dried.


If you're mailing this kind of card with dimensions, a protective case is helpful.
I use A2 Clear Card Boxes from My Favorite Things. (Sorry, they're discontinued, but other companies make similar items.)

The challenge is open until February 24th. I'd love to see your CAS card with dimensional die-cuts in the gallery!

Stamp: Balloon Strings, Gift Tag Greetings (My Favorite Things)
Paper: Whisper White, Island Indigo (Stampin' Up!), Translucent Vellum (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Island Indigo (Stampin' Up!), Distress Ink (Broken China - Ranger), VersaMark (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Die-namics Color Drops STAX, Layered Umbrella, Birdie Brown Alphabet & Numbers), Embossing Powder (White Satin Pearl - Hero Arts), Nuvo Aqua Shimmer (Glitter Gloss), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)