Muse #60+ AEI♥︎U #3 Ombre/Gradient

When I saw the card from Lyndal Higgins for the Muse Challenge #60, with the stenciled white trees and dramatic inked background, I was reminded of a card by Karen Walker that I had pinned a few weeks ago (you can see Karen's card here). Both are sympathy cards that involved white trees.

Muse #60 by Lyndal Higgins 

Unfortunately, I am in need of a few sympathy cards with the passing of a family patriarch last weekend. The Seattle branch of the Southas family welcomed us with open arms when we moved to that area years ago. For seven years we enjoyed many happy events, including the big, fat Greek Christmas & Easter celebrations - even occassionally luring them over to our home on the Eastside (it is not easy to get a Seattleite to cross Lake Washington).

My husband, having lost his dad a couple years earlier, had a close bond with Pete and was always receiving little gifts from him. Just before we moved to California, Stefan came home with Pete's John Wayne movie collection. I have to smile, because this isn't a DVD collection - no, this is a box of VHS "recorded off the TV" movies. We don't have a VHS player anymore, but the box of tapes is still in the garage :)

Oops, you were here to see a card.

I masked part of the card base and blended three Distress Inks (Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass and Weathered Wood) working from a light color in the center out to darker edges. The white MB Arboscello Tree was adhered to the inked panel and then I held my breath while stamping the Avery Elle sentiment on the card base, working it carefully over the tree trunk.

I am linking this card to Avery Elle's AEI♥︎U Challenge #3 - Ombre/Gradient and the Avery Elle May Guest Designer Search.

I want to give a shoutout to Southwest Airlines for helping us a reasonable airfare to Seattle this weekend. No one seems to offer bereavement fares anymore, but Southwest found us a seat at half the price we were able to access online and we are grateful for that. Thanks for indulging my little tribute to Pete.

Jacquie

Color Throwdown #282 Guest Star Stamper + MFW Hexagon + Avery Elle May Guest Designer Search

I am so excited to be joining the talented Designers at the Color Throwdown as the Guest Star Stamper for CTD282 and this fun, fresh palette!

Remember if you don't have the exact colors, it’s OK to substitute whatever is close to this week’s colors.  I used My Favorite Things Electric Red and Jellybean Green inks along with Mustard Seed Distress Ink to make this card.

Avery Elle's Thanks a Bunch stamp set is used to create the bouquet and tag. They are masked and the chicken wire stencil is added in the background. This is definitely one of my favorite looks right now!

A little Wink of Stella clear glitter pen was added to all the red flowers to finish off the stamped panel.

You have until 6:00 p.m. EST on Monday to link your project over at the Color Throwdown blog.

I am also linking my card to the Avery Elle May Guest Designer Search and the Moxie Fab World Hexagons: Happy for Hexagons challenge - there is plenty of time to join on these too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

AEI♥︎U #1 + RIC#54 & Cardstock Comparisons

Avery Elle has a new blog for the AEI♥︎U Challenge and Challenge #1: Birthdays is happening now. I created this card using stamps from several Avery Elle sets and taking my color palette from the Runway Inspired Challenge #54.

I took the Happy Birthday stamp from Simply Tags: Everyday and stamped it multipe times to create the background panel framed by the Oh Yeah die (the red image was stamped first to get it in the right spot).

The small speech bubbles are inked after being stamped and heat embossed with sentiments from Thanks a Bunch and To The Point stamp sets. 

The main panel is cut slightly narrower than the card base so that a sliver of Harvest Gold shows on each side.

I want to give a huge thank you to a couple of bloggers that have provided a great service to their fellow papercrafters!

About a month ago Kara at KandRdesigns had a great post comparing white cardstocks - as you can see, she covers quality, weight, price & color. Well, Heather, from Housesbuiltofcards, was inspired by Kara's post and took it a step further. A picture is truly worth a thousand words when you are trying to find the exact right shade of green (or blue, or red, or pink, etc.) and Heather has given us those pictures in this fantastic post.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I won Heather's cardstock giveaway, but my linking to her post is only because I don't want anyone to miss this terrific information.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CTD280 + Curtain Call: Cozy Quilt + Avery Elle April GD Search

This may be my quickest post ever!

The Avery Elle April Guest Designer Search, Color Throwdown #280 and Curtain Call: Cozy Quilt inspired this card.

I paired a Taylored Expressions cutting plate with a favorite Avery Elle sentiment for this card.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you what I did with the rest of the quilt pieces, right now the girls are gathering and I'm taking them down to San Diego for dinner & a concert.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Happy Valentine's Day!

I didn't get any crafting time today, but after looking through the current challenges I realized this card works for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge to Get Krafty.

I needed a few Valentine cards that were not about romance and love - this Avery Elle sentiment is perfect.

The framed panel is popped up to give the sequins a bit of room to move. I made a rectangular version of this card too, but was under pressure to get it in the mail and didn't get photos. With a lifetime supply of sequins begging to be used, I plan to use the design again.

I am also linking this card to the Avery Elle April Guest Designer Search.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Avery Elle April Guest Designer Search + Card Concept #3 + CASology: Bold

I love when a few different challenges help pull a card together. This card started as a submission for the Avery Elle April Guest Designer Search and, based on the dies and stamps I wanted to work with,  is also perfect for incorporating the elements of The Card Concept #3: Use Monochromatic Pink and CASology Week 82: Bold challenges.

I cut three rectangles with the Avery Elle Pinked Dies from white cardstock and used a Fill in the Blank stamp to heat emboss on two of them. These panels were then inked with Picked Rasberry Distress Ink. The third panel is inked with Spun Sugar Distress Ink and the pinked circle and heart die cut layered on top.

A sheer ribbon is wrapped around the flags and they are all adhered to the card base with foam squares.

The heart was a little flat, so clear Wink of Stella is brushed on - now it has a similar finish to the embossed letters.

I always have a little trouble determing which category I fit in with the Card Concept challenge - Clean & Simple or Clean & Graphic? What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

December AEI♥U Challenge

I picked up a couple of the newer Avery Elle dies and haven't really had a chance to play with them until today. The December AEI♥U Challenge Sketch is perfect for using the Simply Tags Love Notes Die.

As you can see, this one is being used as a gift card holder. I recommend checking out Nina Yang's tutorial to see how fun and versatile this die set is.

I used the same opening shape on the front and back of the pocket - extending the back piece and cutting into the front piece.

A circle die cut is paired with one of the new AE Pinked Dies to provide a home for the sentiment from the All Squared Up stamp set.

The tags are not adhered together which allows a little bit of movement as they hang from the twine bow.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Avery Elle October AEI♥U Challenge + Festive Friday #20 + Simon Says Stamp

When I first saw the sketch for the October AEI♥U Challenge at Avery Elle I saw the circle panel as a wreath and couldn't shake that idea.

My original plan was to use the stamps from AE's Rounded Diamonds set to stamp a wreath, but  I started playing with the matching dies. The more I played, the more I liked the idea of using patterned paper die cuts and before you know it I had created the wreath on this card.

The diamond die cuts were attached to a die cut ring base. I adhered all the green ones first to get the spacing even and fit the holly paper ones in between them. The wreath is popped up on the card base with foam adhesive.

A sheer red ribbon bow and sentiment from Oh Happy Day finish off this clean & simple card.

I am also linking this card to the Festive Friday Challenge #20: Wreath and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Blog Challenge where Anything Goes this week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Tuesday Trigger: Honoring Ombre + Avery Elle August Challenge + Simon Says

When Cath at Moxie Fab World posted the Tuesday Trigger : Honoring Ombre yesterday, it gave me the final push to make this card for the Avery Elle August Sketch Challenge.

This is my first time entering the Avery Elle challenge, but I have their delightful Bonjour stamp set and really wanted to play with it. 

I took a little poetic license with the sketch, changing the orientation and pulling the long vertical panel in front of the square panel. 

The inside lines of the macaroon outline stamp are masked to create the perfect frame for the sentiment. The crepe paper adds texture and mimics the idea of a box of macaroons being packaged at the local patisserie.

I used three Memento inks to create the ombre effect: Angel Pink, Lulu Lavender and Rose Bud. I played around a little bit with scrap paper and combining layers of ink until I had the color profiles I wanted before creating my masked tower. 

The centers of the macaroons were filled with an Ice White Viva Pearl Pen - they are more white in real life, but coming across as a bit silver in the photos.

I'm editing this post because Simon Says . . .  Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog this week, so I am linking this card to their challenge as well.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie