Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Diagnosis Design

Hi everyone! A while back, Wida Miller contacted me about doing Diagnosis Design. She wanted to diagnose me. Ha ha. Actually, she wanted to diagnose my card design style. Yeah! I haven't seen her post yet, but you can check it out on her blog HERE.

As part of her post, she asked me to make a video about the process I use to make a hybrid card. I hemmed and hawed and told her I had no idea how to capture the process. Then I thought about it, and I came up with this video:




The video is clearer if you select the full-screen mode (the arrows on the far right). :)

I have to admit, for the card in the video, I didn't come up the idea and execute it in 2.5 minutes. I had to practice making the card a couple of times before I filmed the process. ;) Here's the finished card:



I used a digital brush from the Planetarium Card Kit Digital Brushes at Studio Calico and a mist brush from Splendid Fiins. I misted over the stamped image to make the digital misting look shimmery. I cut the top of the card at an angle to let the gold show at the top. Here's a close-up:


The stars are die cut using the Holiday Shapes die from Simon Says Stamp--I love that the die has several sizes for the hearts and stars.

Thanks for stopping by, and please be sure to stop by Wida's blog. (Thanks, Wida!)

Have a great day!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI; (gold) Bazzill
Other paper: (Premium Matte Photo Paper) Office Max
Digital stamps: (sentiment from Planetarium Card Kit Digital Brushes) Studio Calico; (digital mist from Knock-Outs series) Splendid Fiins
Ink: (Pearl spray mist) Tattered Angels
Die: (stars from Holiday Shapes) Simon Says Stamp

Monday, April 22, 2013

A Birthday Wish

Hi everyone! Today, some of the Girl Fridays at CAS-ual Fridays are having a blog hop for Michele Gross's birthday.



Michele is such a nice, supportive, and generous person. She's a doll! I'm thrilled to be participating to wish her a happy birthday. :) If you would like to start at the beginning of the hop, you can start at Leigh Ann's blog:


Jocelyn <--You're here!

To celebrate, I made a little ray of sunshine:



For this hybrid card, I started with a digital journaling card from Designs by Dani and stamped a digital sentiment from Hero Arts. I printed the image twice and fussy cut the sun to add a little dimension. Isn't the sun cute?

I printed some digital gingham papers from the same collection and stitched around the edges. Easy peasy. Here's a close-up:



The Ink Squad girls from CAS-ual Fridays are also hosting a blog hop for Michele! Is she loved or what?! You can follow along with them too: DanaKarenKellyLaurieLynnMichellePiali, and Virginia

Next on the hop is the fabulous AJ. Thanks for stopping by!


Thursday, April 18, 2013

All About You

Hi everyone! I tried to think of something clever or noteworthy to open my post, but I couldn't think of anything. I think I'm in a blogging haze. ;)

It's time for another CAS-ual Fridays Challenge, though, and this one is a great one. It's Michele's birthday during this challenge period, so the theme is:


Make a CAS birthday card (or project). You'll have two weeks for this challenge. :)

I went with a little scrappier my card:



True confession: I almost never make birthday cards. In fact, I typically only make "happy birthday" cards for publication. In real life, I use sentiments more like this one.

I started by stamping the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays' Only You set. Then I stitched around the heart--even though I wasn't going for perfect stitching (clearly!), I was still sweating with the blind stitching.

I finished off the card by adding the cute Mini Wooden Hearts from Simon Says Stamp...I wanted the tip of the heart to point toward the "you." Here's a close-up:


There are three manufacturers' papers on this card (American Crafts, BasicGrey, and Carta Bella)...I was feeling brave. Ha!

The winner of the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge will win a whopping $45 from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps:


You can link up your birthday projects HERE.

I wanted to give a big shout out to Kim Hughes. Thanks, Kim, for picking my card for the May Guest Designer spot at Paper Smooches! Eek! I'll be back with some PS projects in a couple of weeks. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend.


Supplies
Cardstock: (Natural) My Favorite Things
Patterned Paper: (coral from So Noted) Carta Bella
Clear Stamps: (Only You) CAS-ual Fridays Stamps
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Memento
Ephemera: (banner, heart from Lucky Charm) American Crafts; (label from Maggie Holmes) Crate Paper
Embellishments: (wooden heart) Simon Says Stamp

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Gold Doubloons

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great week. We had a huge ice storm, and we still have four down power lines crisscrossing our yard. Yikes! Since school is closed, my kids have watched way too many episodes of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The show was an inspiration for today's card. :)

It's time for another CAS-ual Fridays Challenge:


The challenge is to use glitter. Pretty easy, right?

I started out with a different approach, but for some reason (probably all of the mentions of gold doubloons on the Jake show), I decided to make gold coins. Here's what came up with:



I started off by making the brown bag using the Mini Shopping Bag die. I used some recycled kraft paper instead of cardstock--the thinner weight looked better.

For the money, I used a paper hold puncher to make the coins out of glitter cardstock, and the bills are from the Paper Smooches Market Fresh set. I finished the card off by stamping the sentiment and mortarboard from the Smarty Pants set. Here's a close-up:



The card is supposed to be for a graduate--with the card shape, I figured I could put cash inside. When I got done, I showed my husband. He asked why you would give a graduate money in a brown paper bag? ha ha He's right...I'd at least put washi tape on it.

The winner of this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge will win a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp:


Want to play along? You can link up your CAS glittery project HERE.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!


Supplies
Cardstock: (True Black, white) PTI; (bronze glitter) Doodlebug Design
Clear stamps: (sentiment, mortarboard from Smarty Pants set; money from the Market Fresh set) Paper Smooches
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Memento; (Gumball Green) Stampin' Up; (Antique Linen Distress Ink) Ranger
Die: (Mini Shopping Bag) Memory Box

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Going Abstract

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great week. We're finally seeing some signs of spring--I love it! One of our trees even has buds (it's the little things--ha ha).

I'm excited for my first CAS-ual Fridays Challenge post as a Girl Friday! This week's challenge is to use chevrons and flowers.


I went a little abstract on the flowers and made this card:


I started off by making a chevron mask and misting over it. I don't have a chevron mask, so instead, I die cut some My Favorite Things chevrons. Once I got the placement I wanted, I sprayed over the chevrons with Mister Huey's Taxi.

Since I have to put something digital on a card (ha ha), I created the black and white flowers in Photoshop. I used a pie chart digital template and clipped eight copies of the same patterned paper to the different wedges. I rotated the papers to get the cool radial look. Yep, a little abstract for a flower, but I wanted something graphic.

After I printed the flowers, I stamped the There She Goes sentiment and layered the flowers around it. I finished the card by layering some gems and sequins. Here's a close-up:


This week, we're being sponsored by Ellen Hutson. The winner will receive a gift certificate!


To enter your flowers and chevron project, click HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!



Monday, April 1, 2013

Sweet Stamp Shop Spotlight

Hi everyone! First, a big thank you for all of the kind comments about CAS-ual Fridays. Y'all are nice. :) Second, if you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a wonderful day.



I'm excited to share two Sweet Stamp Shop cards today! I've been one of their Guest Designers for March, and today my cards are on the shop's blog. (You can check out my other cards from the March release HERE and HERE).

My first card is a little whimsical approach to the stamps:




I used the Alpha Tabs set for the sentiment--I'm in love with this alpha set! I started by using two different digital elements from Splendid Fiins--the computer from School Elements and the speech bubble from Blah Blah Blah. I recolored the computer, printed it and fussy cut it.

For the sentiment, I printed the speech bubble and stamped the sentiment from the Alpha Tabs letters. I like how this set has so many keyboard characters plus the cute little heart. Here's a close-up:




I'm entering the card in the Moxie Fab World Speech Bubble challenge. The challenge ends tonight, but there's still time to enter!


For my next card, I wanted to show a soft approach to the Kiss Me set:




I used the "You + Me" hearts from the set and masked off the equal sign. Then, I used the small circle and heart stamps in the Kiss Me set to create a faux bokeh (I do love my bokeh!). For most of the colors, I stamped off before I stamped onto the oval.

Here's a close-up:






For the rest of the card, I die cut the My Favorite Things frame out of a matte silver cardstock, and I also cut a strip of blush vellum. The lighting is so bad in my craft room in the evenings that I didn't realize the vellum was colored until I set it against the card base. Ha ha I like how the vellum looked, though, so I didn't add another color. I love happy mistakes. :)

Be sure to head over to the Sweet Stamp Shop blog to see the other releases! Thank you to Nicole for inviting me! 

Thanks for stopping by. :)


Supplies
@Dad Card
Cardstock: (Pure Poppy) Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper: (black from Bowties collection) BasicGrey
Other paper: (Premium Matte Photo Paper) OfficeMax
Clear stamps: (sentiment from Alpha Tabs set) Sweet Stamp Shop
Dye ink: (Real Red) Stampin' Up; (Tuxedo Black) Memento
Digital elements: (computer from School Elements; speech bubble layer from Blah Blah Blah) Splendid Fiins at JessicaSprague.com

You + Me Card 
Cardstock: (white) Papertrey Ink; (blush vellum) Archiver's; (matte silver) craft supply
Clear stamps: (You and Me hearts, solid circle, solid heart from Kiss Me set) Sweet Stamp Shop
Dye ink: (Tuxedo Black) Memento; (Pixie Pink, peach) Stampin' Up
Die: (Vintage Cameo Frame) My Favorite Things
Marker: Copic
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