Beachy Birthday

Since our son-in-law will be celebrating his birthday the day we all gather at the beach for a week of sun and surf, I used the same design as the previous post.  I wanted to use the sand dollar in place of the bird, so I used beach colors.

I think it turned out a little bit more masculine!

CASEing the Catalog--Bluebird

Once again, I used the SU catalog for my inspiration.  This time, for a second card on page 25.

This time, I turned my bird into a bluebird and used some blue cardstock and sequins to bring in more of the color.  Before assembling, I splattered some brown ink on the front using a technique I learned from Julie Ebersol on YouTube.  She mixes ink with a little water on her acrylic block and then flicks it off with a wet brush.  Works like a charm--so thanks, Julie! 

CASEing the Catalog Again!

Once again, I "stole" ideas from the SU catalog.  I just loved the softness of this card--it seems fresh and light for summer.  The card is on page 25, and  I CASEd it almost exactly.

This is also an example of using whatever sets you have that are similar in duplicating the look.  Mine is from Simply Sketched for the blueberry branch and Touch of Nature for the bird.  Since the bird's legs were too difficult to cut out, I drew legs for my bird directly on the cardstock and glued the bird over them.  (Much easier!)

The striped border is from the English Garden dsp collection and matches the bird color perfectly.  I added the jute and a tiny black gem for the eye, and I also used a pale green card base instead of the white shown in the catalog.

Stay tuned for more catalog CASEing as I keep looking for ideas!

CASEing the Catalog--Butterflies

SU catalogs are so helpful when you run dry on ideas.  I just look through the cards, whether I have that particular stamp set or not, and go for it.

This card is CASEd from the one on page 107.  Their card with the butterflies in circles inspired a design of my own with the butterflies on top of the circles.  Using the Boho dsp really helped keep it coordinated.

Their card is square, and they used the negative punches for the butterflies.  Mine is rectangular, and I used the positive punch outs with another small butterfly on top.  For embellishments, I used purple gems for the bodies and a turquoise sequin on the banner.

I just love the bold colors in this dsp collection!

CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGN

Brandy Cox did a YouTube demo of this design which I have CASEd for some of my Christmas cards this year.  This first version  features a flap that goes over the entire opening and is held in place with the greeting.  She actually CASEd the new catalog (p. 127) for her version!  I thought this would work nicely for a Christmas card, so I came up with this one.  However, to mass produce it (I send 100 cards/year) the flap closure would take up more time, so I came up with the second version below.   I also reversed the colors to see which looks better.  Instead of the flap, the pieces are simply glued down on the front as shown.  I could still do it either way colorwise, but can't decide which color scheme I like better.  Which do you like best?

CASEing the Catalogs--Floral set

What drew me to this card on Page 83 of the new SU! catalog is the fact that I have this set, but seldom use it.  After trying this layout, I definitely will be using it more often!

First, I found a large scrap of pale green cs which I cut down to 4 x 5 1/4".  I stamped the Filigre background in Soft Stone ink and distressed the edges of the paper.  Since it's a fairly heavy cs, slightly textured, the edges "fluffed" up nicely.  I then inked the edges with Soft Stone and taped it to the white card base.

Next, I stamped the leaf from the Fabulous Florets set onto a piece of white cs using Peeled Paint Distress Ink and cut it off-center with a Nestabilities label die.  Then I spritzed it with a gray marker and laid it aside while I stamped the flower with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple, cut it out by hand and attached it with a SU dimensional.  The butterfly is from a piece of scrap that I die cut with the Embosslits Beautiful Wings and attached with a glue dot under the right wing.  The banner is stamped, cut out, curved with my bone folder and attached with another glue dot just to the right of the green gems.

Finally, I mounted the label to the card with dimensionals.  Although there were quite a few steps to this card, it was very easy to do. 

CASE-ing the Catalogs--Repeating

The apple card on page 96 of the SU Idea Book reminded me of the value in repeating an image 3 times (or sometimes 5, usually an odd number.) Here's a card that repeats one of the blossoms from the SU "Growing Green" set.

With Spring around the corner, I thought yellow flowers would be appropriate. After stamping them on a scrap piece of dsp and cutting them out, I painted them with yellow Twinkling H2O's. For the centers, I used green mini beads held down with Crystal Lacquer. Once they dried, I mounted them on the card with dimensionals.

The ribbon on the side was glued down in one flat strip. The "bow" is actually another piece of ribbon, knotted and attached with a glue dot. Very handy way to do that for those of us who are "bow impaired!"

The greeting was stamped, cut down and mounted onto the card. Then the flower strip was mounted over it with double-stick tape so that just the words would "peek" out.

CASE-ing the Catalogs--Scallops

I got the idea for this card from the Christmas card on p. 69 of the SU Idea Book. Since I used such a dark cardstock for the base, I went bananas with the scallops to lighten it up. It makes me think of all those crinolines we used to wear under our full skirts--remember???

The stamp I used is "Elizabeth" from Stampin'Up and a Hello! stamp from Hero Arts. The brown gems add a little sparkle.

CASE-ing the Catalogs

Thanks to the card shown on P. 110 of the SU Idea Book, here is the card we'll be doing in Mothers Class next week. Since I wanted to use blue for the card base, I used blue chalk in the one flower. There is also a blue gem in the center, surrounded by mini-pearls.

The stamp sets I used are Fabulous Florets for the flowers and Abundant Hope for the words inside and out. I also used a crimper for the green floral strip, and added three larger pearls beneath it.

Just for variety's sake, I also made another card using the same pattern but different flower and greeting. Isn't it amazing how the same sketch can look so different!

HERE'S A TIP: When I need to make sure I stamp a greeting perfectly straight, I mount it on an acrylic block with grid lines etched into the other side. When I go to stamp it, I look at the grid line instead of the stamp itself. Works every time!

NEW SERIES

Here's the first card for a new series I'm featuring called, "CASE-ing the Catalogs." (CASE stands for Copy After Someone Else.)

The idea for this card came from Page 12 of the 2011-12 Stampin'Up Idea Book. I especially liked the texture on the long strip. It is shown there vertically, but I turned it around to make a horizontal card. The stamped piece was on a card I received from one of my Silver Stamper friends (thanks Alice.) The rest was added using the bird punch for the leaves and a Martha Stewart edger punch.

Enjoy!

CASE-ing the Catalogs

Here's another CASE of a card in the SU 2011-12 Idea Book, page 74.

What drew me to this card was the color combination of the red and lime green, which I also carried through in the embroidery floss on the side. Although I basically used the same color scheme, I did move the side strip to the opposite side and placed it under the label image instead of over the point.

I like the idea of cutting the words apart and placing them where I want them. That's nothing new, but I always forget to do it.

It's also handy to make a card with just one set, don't you think?