simple and cute

Buffalo Check Christmas

Oh my, oh my!! I haven’t done a speed challenge for a while and I forgot what a rush it it!! Whoohoo! Making a card in less than 10 minutes isn’t easy and I don’t always like how it turns out, but it ALWAYS gets my creative mojo flowing!!

Here’s the inspiration for Shades of Red from the As You See It Challenge Blog:

After considering what I wanted to do and gathering all my supplies (no cutting ahead of time!), I started my card design. Why I insist on adding bows to speed challenge cards, I’ll never know. I probably would have been done under eight minutes if I avoided the Linen Thread all together!

My completed time: 9 minutes 52 seconds

I used Crumb Cake ink with the Sheet Music background stamp on the Crumb Cake card base. I cut a piece of Real Red cardstock the same size as my card front and used the Buffalo Check background stamp with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. I find it easier to use these background stamps so that the rubber faces up on the table. That way, I can place my cardstock on top of the stamp and have more control to make sure the image is stamped straight – particularly with any stamp image that needs to be parallel with the edge of my paper. I adhered my checked cardsock at an angle on my card, then trimmed the excess from the edges with my paper trimmer.

I still love the Half Full stamp set because it has images of one of my favourite things: wine! I love wine, particularly red wine. Sadly, wine isn’t very kind to my stomach these days, so I have started reserving it for Sunday dinners with my family.

I stamped the wine glass image on Whisper White cardstock with Crumb Cake ink, stamping off once on a scrap piece of paper so I could have a slightly lighter image. The Merry Christmas sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink over top of the wine glasses image. I then trimmed my Whisper White cardstock to the size I wanted and flagged the end with my Paper Snips. The Linen Thread is tied around the end of the Whisper White cardstock into a bow and the completed banner was attached to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Voila! This is what a 10 minute speed challenge card looks like! Sweet and Simple, don’t you think!?

Your turn! Give the challenge a try. Set your timer for ten minutes and see if you can beat the time. If you get it under, be sure to share your finished work with us at the As You See It Challenge blog so we can ooh and ahh at your creative genius! (we always do!)

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Happy stamping!!

Birthday Squirrel

Though I’m excited to get back into routine after a wild summer, September is always a crazy time in my home. Every year, I seem to forget how stressful the start of school is for my kids (and therefore also for me!)

To add to the stress, my youngest daughter has her birthday right at the beginning of the month and we usually end up postponing her party so we can get invitations to her friends at school and give the parents time to settle into September a bit before having to jump in to the birthday scene! My card today is the design that she and I came up with for her party invitations.

As always, we started with the As You See It Challenge. The theme this time is “back to basics”.

I think Back to Basics with stamping means no fancy tools, just stamps, paper and ink! I remember when I first started stamping and what supplies I had. I didn’t have a Big Shot or dies. I didn’t even have any punches, yet! I stamped at the dining room table into the wee hours of the night while my new baby rocked in her swing and my toddler was asleep in his crib.

Ah. Good memories!

My 10 year old daughter loves the Foxy Friends stamp set. She requested the squirrel image and the wood stump for her invitations. I stamped the squirrel with Crumb Cake ink and his little face was stamped with Soft Suede ink. I then created a mask using a sticky note so that I could stamp the stump to make it appear as though the squirrel is on the stump. To do that, I stamped the squirrel image on the sticky note and trimmed around the image. Then I placed it precisely over my good squirrel image. With the sticky note in place, I used Soft Suede ink to stamp the stump image to overlap the bottom of the squirrel image. Then I removed the sticky note mask and VOILA!, I had  a squirrel sitting on a stump!

Just for fun, I decided to trim down the paper around the squirrel. I used my Stampin’ Up paper trimmer as far as it could go without cutting off the tip of my squirrel’s tail, then I fussy cut around it.

Linen thread is tied in a lovely bow around the top of the Whisper White banner. The banner bottom was hand trimmed with my Paper Snips. The little heart was stamped with Real Red ink and hand cut before placing it in the little squirrel’s hands (paws) with a piece of a Stampin’ Dimensional. The banner was then attached to the Soft Sea Foam card base with more Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here’s the inside of the invitations. Of course, I still need to add the when and where for the party, but at least we are a few steps closer to getting these invitations to her friends next week.

Watercolor Watermelon

The background for this card is a total and utter CASE (Copy and Share Everything) from Kreativformat on Instagram. I loved the stripes, and the fresh vibrant colours. It was the perfect fit for today’s As You See It Challenge!Themes are so fun and completely open to interpretation. I feel like the colours on my card are bright and fresh, but the watermelon is also juicy fresh fruit.

I used an Aqua Painter to paint with my Stampin’ Up inks: Flirty Flamingo, Call Me Clover, and a wee bit of So Saffron. I drew in the watermelon seeds by hand using my journaling pen after the ink was completely dry, then I stamped the cheerful sentiment “happy life” from the Tabs for Everything stamp set with Tuxedo Black Momento ink.I die cut the watermelon image with a Stitched Shapes framelit circle, then matted it with the Cool Caribbean scallop circle , die cut with a Layered Circle scallop. The tag is created with the Scallop Tag Punch and a piece of the Share What You Love Designer Series paper. The background was created using a piece of Whisper White cardstock and 1/2″ strips of Gray Granite, Mint Macaron, Soft Seafoam, So Saffron, Petal Pink, and Flirty Flamingo cardstock.I loved the look so much that I tried it with another image as well.

Which card do you like best?