TCP Tuesday 212-Enjoy Every Cuddle

Julie's our hostess for this week's TCP Tuesday challenge and she's challenging us to use paper pleating on our projects.  In case you haven't tried paper pleating before and aren't exactly sure about how it's done, you can check out a tutorial here, written by the Cat Pack's own Amy Rohl.

I incorporated a pleated element on this sweet card based on the current Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  With Father's Day coming up, I thought I'd ink up the Quality Time set with PJ and little PJ all cozy on the couch for my card.  The pair and the couch are colored with Copic markers and accented with a coordinating light blue pleated strip.  To anchor the pleated strip, I added a copper brad at each end.

I used two coordinating papers with a masculine color scheme for the panels on the card.  After adding the set's "enjoy every cuddle" sentiment to the end of the image panel, I set it on top of the cardfront.  I had just enough room left to add a pair of ribbon scraps to the top left corner as an accent.

Be sure to check out Alma's blog for all the details on this week's challenge and how you can play along for a chance to win this week's Cat Cash prize.

Materials Used:
Quality Time stamp set, Neenah White cardstock (The Cat's Pajamas); Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Tsukineko); markers (Copic); Soft Sky cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Pumpkin Spice cardstock (Gina K Designs); Prairie Hill 6x6 paper collection (Pink Paislee); copper brads (Recollections)

Back to Work . . .

The long weekend went by way too fast and I'm not ready to go back to work in the morning, but I guess I will . . .  Between my being sick and also being on a break from work, Chloe the cutie puppy has been spoiled with all the time I've been home with her over the past week--she's in for a shock today when I leave her at home to go to work all day!  With the extra time off, I did get a bunch of cards done to share this week.  Here are my cards for the final two Viva la Verve sketches for the month of May.  I made a thank you card that's going out in the mail today and a graduation card to keep in my stash.

First up is a feminine floral thank you.  I used Verve's Kind Words set for the focal image.  To get the image to be two colors--purple for the flowers, green for the stems--I inked the image with tear drop shaped ink pads.  The image was stamped so that there was room at the top of the panel for a sentiment.  It took me a while to find a thank you one that was both elegant and small enough.  The "thanks" from the Circular Sayings set fit the bill--and the space!

I used a pretty floral patterned paper from an older Basic Grey collection for the cardfront's large panel.  I layered it on a piece of dark purple cardstock, then set it on a lighter purple card base. The patterned paper has a bunch of pink in it, so I used a piece of pink paper for the strip that runs across the cardfront.  Now that I look at the card again, I probably should have found a paper with a subtle pattern . . .

The image panel is matted on a light green circle and set on the card.  I added a little piece of knotted ribbon as an accent at the edge of the image panel.  The last thing I did was to dot on a teeny, tiny bit of Liquid Pearls at the center of each flower.  The knotted ribbon and the Liquid Pearls give  the card a few nice details while keeping the card mailable.

Materials Used:
Kind Words and Circular Sayings stamp sets (Verve Stamps); Memento Lulu Lavender and Pear Tart inks (Tsukineko); Pink Pirouette, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Lovely Lavender cardstock (Gina K Designs); Euphoria 6x6 paper pad (Basic Gray); Sweet Blush satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink); White Opal Liquid Pearls (Ranger)

And, here's my card for this month's final sketch.  I made a clean and simple graduation card using colors from the current Dynamic Duos color challenge--Bashful Blue and Marina Mist.

I used a light blue striped patterned paper for the trio of panels on the Marina Mist card base.  The "dream big"sentiment from the Words of Wisdom set is layered over the panels. 

To accent the sentiment panel, I punched a trio of stars from shimmery silver cardstock.  I arranged them on the panel, using foam tape to attach the large star to add interest.  A Marina Mist ribbon tab on the right side of the panel balances out the design.

Materials Used:
Words of Wisdom stamp set (Verve Stamps); Marina Mist Classic ink, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, and Whisper White cardstock, star punches, Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!); shimmery silver paper (Recollections); Dots & Stripes-Candy Shoppe designer paper (Echo Park); foam tape

Trendy Tree Top Anniversary

It's been a lazy day around here--a great way to end a long weekend! I made this quick card for today's SCS clean and simple and technique lovers challenges.  It combines the CAS love theme with the TLC challenge of distressing in one simple design.

The card's focal image is one of the trees from Papertrey Ink's Trendy Tree Tops set.  To go with the loe theme, I used the plaid treetop with the heart cutout.  The plaid's stamped tone on tone in pink ink and the open heart's backed with a bolder pink scrap for a fun, contrasting pop of color.

I did a little distressing on the grass pieces underneath the tree.  I tore two cardstock strips, then did a little more distressing along the torn edges with my fingernail before layering them and attaching them to the aqua card base.  For some more texture, I added a pair of fluffy white felt clouds peeking out from behind the tree.  The "happy anniversary" sentiment from the Mega Mixed Messages completes the design.

Materials Used:
Trendy Tree Tops and Mega Mixed Messages stamp sets, Sweet Blush, Raspberry Fizz, and Kraft  inks, Cloud and Trendy Tree Tops dies  (Papertrey Ink); Kiwi Kiss, Melon Mambo, and Crumb Cake cardstock (Stampin' Up!); white felt; foam tape

Rock Star

Here's my entry for this month's My Favorite Things guest designer challenge.  This month's challenge is a sketch and I put my a la modes Rock Star set to work for the challenge.

The rocker girl is colored with Copic markers and cut out.  I used foam tape to set her on a dot embossed light blue panel.  The set's "rock star" sentiment is stamped in red on a mini tab die cut and attached to the left edge of the panel.

I used two patterned papers from a My Mind's Eye paper pad for the cardfront--a multicolored chevron pattern for the panel underneath the image and a more subtle yellow piece with white dots to cover most of the cardfront.  Once I'd layered the papers, I attached strips of red cardstock across the cardfront.  They looked a little plain, so I found some gold glitter cardstock and cut narrow strips of it to place at the center of each red piece.  The image panel is layered over that.  To match the sparkly cardstock, I added a big gold glittered chipboard star at the bottom corner of the image panel.  It seemed like the perfect accent piece for a rock star themed card!

Materials Used:
a la modes Rock Star stamp set, Die-namics Mini Tag Foursome dies (My Favorite Things); Marshmallow cardstock (Bazzill); Memento Tuxedo Black and Lady Bug inks (Tsukineko); markers (Copic); Bashful Blue and Riding Hood Red cardstock (Stampin' Up!); On the Bright Side-One 6x6 paper pad (My Mind's Eye); gold glitter cardstock, gold glitter chipboard star (Recollections); Swiss Dot embossing folder (Cuttlebug); foam tape

Congrats to the Grad

I'm in the middle of doing a little reorganizing and cleaning in my craft room, but I took a little break to create this quick seasonal card for this week's SCS featured stamper challenge.  It's based on the Christmas card seen here.  It was easy to make this one into a great graduation card.

I kept the layout the same, using a trio of punched out stars across the cardfront with a shimmery gold line beneath them, separating the stars from the sentiment.  My stars are punched from silver and gold shimmery papers.  To add interest to the design, he center star is attached to the card with foam tape.

Instead of using double-sided tape and glitter for the line across the card, I cut a narrow strip of gold paper and used that--less mess at a time when I'm trying to clean up!   I stamped the "congrats to the grad" sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Congrats All Ways set underneath the gold strip to finish the card.

Materials Used:
Congrats all Ways stamp set (Papertrey Ink); Memento Tuxedo Black inks (Tsukineko); silver and gold papers (Target); star punches (Stampin' Up!); foam tape

Tuning In

This super simple masculine card I'm sharing today fits 3 current challenges--CAS-ual Friday's masculine card challenge, the new sketch on the Clean and Simple Stamping blog, and the Lawnscaping embossing challenge.  It may be simple, but like lots of cardmakers, I tend to have a hard time with masculine cards, and I really like how this one turned out.  The mix of neutral colors and patterns looks great!

Can you find the embossing on here?  If you said the television screen, you're right!  After stamping the TV image from Lawn Fawn's Stay Tuned set in brown and gray inks, I made a reverse mask and stamped the narrow chevron from the Chevron Backdrops set on the screen in silver ink, then heat embossed the lines to create my own version of a retro test pattern.  You don't see those very often anymore--LOL!

The television image is cut out and placed on a panel of grid patterned paper using a dimensional dot.  The set's "tuning in to say hi" sentiment is stamped next to the image in brown ink.


Materials Used:
from i {heart} papers: Lawn Fawn Stay Tuned and Chevron Backdrops stamp sets, Tsukineko Memento Rich Cocoa and London Fog inks, My Mind's Eye Sweet Caroline-Dilly Dally 6x6 paper pad, Sticky Thumb dimensional dots


other:  Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, and  Whisper White cardstock, Crystal Clear embossing powder (Stampin' Up!); Encore Silver ink (Tsukineko)

Patriotic Thank You

The theme for this week's Our Craft Lounge challenge is to celebrate our troops in honor of the USA's Memorial Day.  I don't have any patriotic themed OCL stamps, so I decided to go with patriotic colors on this simple design based on this week's I Spy Sketches challenge.  This week's sketch is based on a card created by my talented TCP design team teammate Amy Rohl, so I couldn't miss out on this one!

I used the wide chevron image from the Every Heart Beat stamp set to stamp a trio of chevrons in red, white, and blue--of course!--on a kraft panel.  The panel's edges are inked with distress ink for a warmer, more weathered look, then layered the panel on a navy card base.  The card's small image panel features more red, white, and blue stamping using the set's small star image.  I stamped the "thank you" image in red ink on a kraft scrap and after matting it on a navy strip, set it on the card overlapping the image panel just a bit.

For all the details on the OCL challenge, check out the OCL blog here--there's a gift certificate up for grabs for one of this month's challenge players . . .


Materials Used:
Every Heart Beat stamp set (Our Craft Lounge); Memento Lady Bug and Paris Dusk inks (Tsukineko); Antique Linen distress ink (Ranger); Fresh Snow ink (Papertrey Ink); Night of Navy and Crumb Cake cardstock (Stampin' Up!); foam tape