What a pear pair

This is a quickie card I made CASE-ing a a card I saw on the Simon Says Stamp blog a few weeks ago. I used the pear from the Alley Way Stamps, using basic masking to create the cute couple.  I stamped in Versamark, embossed with clear EP,, then did a watercolor wash over them. 
(Originally this was going to be a Valentine's card, but I decided hearts were just too much). 

This card is for these challenges:

Little Tangles #53 -- watercolor
The Alley Way Stamps -- February Link Up
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge -- use patterned paper

Hey Chickie

I had some fun playing with a set called Chick Magnet from The Alley Way Stamps, mixing the cartoony chicken with some bright and fun papers.
The sketch is from STAMPlorations, sketch 27. It's a nice, clean sketch, although I scooted the sentiment to the left just to slow off more of the flowered paper (I didn't want to cover up that yellow flower because that's the only bit of yellow showing that ties to the yellow chicken).  And every single piece of paper here is a snippet, so I'm going to the Snipppet Playground as well.

I'm entering these challengs

STAMPlorations, sketch 27
Catch the Bug -- anything goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #163
Word Art Wednesday #169 -- anything goes
The Alley Way Stamps Feb link-up -- TAWS stamps

Bunches of...

Hearts, hearts, everywhere in blogland this week. I've seen several people use heart-shaped balloons, and I borrowed the idea for this CAS card.
As cards go, how I put this one together is self-explanatory, so I won't bore you with an explanation.
The sentiment is from The Alley Way Stamps. (Not even from a Valentine's set; it's from a fall-themed set.)

Since hearts are everywhere, including a bazillion challenges, I'm entering this card in a bazillion challenges.
The Ribbon Girl -- romance in the air
Cuttlebug Mania -- I (heart) you
Crafty Sentiments -- include a heart
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- H is for
Creative Inspirations #299 -- Love is in the air
The  Paper Shelter #189 -- Be My Valentine
The Alley Way Stamps -- monthly use TAWS stamps challenge
Pixie's Snippet Playground #162  -- use snippets (pinks)
Word Art Wednesday #169 --anything Goes
Clear it Out Challenge -- Anything goes

What's shaking this Thanksgiving?

I could not resist an opportunity to use the turkey from TAWS It's Fall About You set when I saw the photos for their BE Inspired challenge this time.  Who could resist that cute turkey in the right corner?

With a little bit of basic masking, I created this image of the turkey hiding in the basket (from the same set). The images are stamped in Sepia ink. I colored the turkey with pencils, picking up colors from the photo. Then I created a little acrylic pouch around him to make a shaker card. I punched a bunch of tiny leaves and added them and some gold microbeads to the pouch, then attached it to my card base with seasonal washi tape. It's a fun Thanksgiving card, don't you think?

This card is for these challenges
The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired #59 -- inspiration photo
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Thanksgiving
CHNC patterned paper Challenge for November
Word Art Wednesday #159 -- anything goes

Quick thank you

Isn't this die cute? It's one I had admired on several cards, and lucky me won it on the Sketch Saturday blog hop.
This card was inspired by the current BE Inspired challenge at The Alley Way Stamps. I love the delicate little flowers on the tin of cookies, and pink and pale green are one of my favorite color combos, so this seemed like the perfect occasion to try my new die. I cut the die once in green, then a second time in pink, and applied the pink bits where I wanted some colorful flowers.
The sentiment is from The Alley Way Stamps, Delicate Doilies set. Embossed with white detail EP.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:

The Alley Way BE Inspired #54: Photo inspiration
CRAFT Challenge #265: Thank you cards
Creative Inspirations #271: Clean and Simple.

Rainbow of parrots

I love rainbows, including rainbow colors on cards, so when I saw The Alley Way Stamps latest inspiration challenge, I was all in. If you follow the parrots from right to left, you'll see the old rainbow ROY G. BIV in neat little pairs on the birds: red/orange; yellow/green; blue/violet.
I knew I wanted to use bright colors, so I decided to try paints instead of my usual pencils. (No matter how bright or dark I think I've colored something, people always leave comments: "Love your soft colors.")  I found an old set of dry watercolors (so limited I had to mix my own orange and purple). Just for fun, I flicked a contrasting color on each parrot rectangle.
Since I set the parrots to dry  before assembling the card, a though occurred to me while they were drying -- why not use Glossy Accents on the eyes?  It worked out brilliantly; they look like goggly eyes, only better.
The parrot is from TAWS set Land Ho; the sentiment is a freebie download from their  website.

The card is entered in these challenges:

TAWS BE  Inspired #53.
Simon Says Monday Challenge: Paint 
Creative Inspiration 269:  Bold,Bright Colors
Word Art Wednesday #136: Anything Goes
Loves Rubberstamps #107: CAS
Sister Act #60:  Anything Goes

Watercolor wash

I have really liked some of the watercolor effects I've seen on various cards, so I wanted to try one for myself.
This card was inspired by the photo for The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired photo challenge #52.  I white embossed the largest doily from TAWS Delicate Doilies set on watercolor paper, then made a wash from re-inker (Ranger Stream), and washed over the image with a brush. I used a paper towel to soak up a little of the ink and help get variegations in the color.

The sentiment is stamped in Stream in its regular strength.  Scattered sequins seemed the perfect embellishment.

The card is for these challenges:

TAWS BE Inspired #52, inspiration
Paper Take Weekly, pretty pastels
Word Art Wednesday #131, anything goes
Sister Act #56, anything goes

Three and three

Here's a CAS card inspired by the BE Inspired challenge at The Alley Way Stamps. As you can see, the inspiration photo was all about red and white polka dots. I thought it would be fun with a leaf cascading down the page, and maple leaves are red, right?

The leaves (from TAWS set It's Fall About You) are paper pieced. The stems are colored in pencil. Sentiment is from TAWS set Delicate Doilies.

The art of casually placing the embellies around the card escapes me; I hope these gems don't look too random.

I'm submitting this card to these challenges:
TAWS BE Inspired #51: Photo inspiration
Word Art Wednesday #128: Anything goes
Sister Act #52: Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #120 

Cute as a puppy

Don't you love it when you find a use for something you started then set aside? I made this paper-pieced dog a while ago and just couldn't figure out what to do with him. Finally, it came to me -- it would work in a

sketch from SCS.  I used a snippet of bright yellow from my scrap file to add an unexpected color to the card and counteract the rather dull blue background paper.  I used some gel dots as the pup's nose and in place of the "i" in the sentiment for another fun touch.

The puppy image is a freebie from The Alley Way Stamps, which you can get from their website.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday, Birthday
Word Art Wednesday #126, Anything Goes
Sister Act 51, Anything Goes
Pixie's Crafty Workshop 119, Anything with a snippet

A bushel of flowers

Here is the latest card I've made. I like the combination of the very feminine elements -- flowers, glitter, bows -- with the sort of masculine background paper. All in all, it's very much a girly card, I'd say.

The card is inspired by the current inspiration challenge at The Alley Way Stamps, a green bike with a basket of flowers.


The bushel basket is from The Alley Way Stamps (It's Fall About You set).  I stamped it on the white paper, then paper-pieced it in green. I punched a bunch of flowers in lavender and purple and filled the basket with them, then added tiny glittery centers to each one.

The button die is from MFT, there are four buttons in the set, so I always end up with more than one button.  I used an additional one on the inside of the card along with more of the white twine.

This card is for these challenges:

The Alley Way Stamps, Be Inspired #50
Created with Love #78, Girly
Sketch Saturday, Sketch #301
Craftyhands Challenge #10, button and bow
Simon Says Wednesday, for a special girl
Sister Act Challenge #48, anything goes
Word Art Wednesday 123, Anything goes

Non-traditional Christmas colors

Almost all the Christmas cards I have made this year have featured traditional red and green, or at least red (sometimes with silver or kraft). So it was fun to make a card with non-traditional colors.

This card was inspired by the BE Inspired photo at The Alley Way Stamps, and features TAWS stamps as well.  The ornament is a free digi, which was cut out, colored with pencils, and   glitter was added to the top part. The strip along side it is meant to resemble snowflakes, and it includes stamps from Delicate Doilies set by TAWS.  Everything was stamped in Ranger Stream colored ink, but I used several generations of it to get some variation in color.

The card is for the following challenges:

The Alley Way Stamps Be Inspired #43, inspiration photo
Totally Papercraft challenge, Christmas with non-traditional colors
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, use a stamp
Sister Act Card Challenge #37, Anything Goes
Just 4 Fun Challenge, Merry Christmas

Too late for Talk Like a Day

I needed a birthday card for my brother-in-law, so I decided to try injecting a little humor into the card. I used the Land HO set from The Alley Way Stamps, and the color scheme was inspired by The Alley Way Stamps Be Inspired Challenge #37.

To me, "arrgggh!" is a fun sentiment. And on the inside, a pirate completes the idea, shaking his fist and saying "another birthday," (which I computer-generated.)

The layout on both the inside and outside is CAS(e) this Sketch #46.

The images are colored with pencils and fussy cut.  The green paper has a nice shimmer to it.

This is also for Tammy's Scrapping Corner challenge #81, "Happy birthday."

Batty and Dotty

Here's a CAS card I hope makes someone smile.  It is inspired by The Alley Way Stamp Be-Inspired Challenge #35 and features TAWS images as well.

The bat is paper-pieced and has micro-beads on his dots.  He's also popped up popdots for added
dimension.

I was going to sew around the edges, but that didn't quite seem to fit the goofiness of the bat, so I decided hand-drawn dots would be a good border element. They were done with white gel pen.

Since there are dots everywhere in this card, I am also entering it for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, "dotty."

Bird-day greetings

This is just a fun little birthday card inspired by The Alley Ways Stamps' Be-Inspired challenge #33. You can see the inspiration photo on the right here.  The stamps are all from The Alley Way Stamps.  The birds are paper-pieced in bright yellow, and I wrapped twine around the blue panel -- both inspirations coming from the photo, along with the entire color scheme and gray-striped background. 

The layout for this is Sketch Saturday Sketch #268.

Flight Behavior

I just finished reading "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver. It's fictional, but the action centers around the migratory habits of the Monarch butterfly, and I learned way more than I ever expected to about butterflies. (Kingsolver was trained as a biologist before she started writing novels.). Turns out butterflies are even more amazing when you actually know some science.

So, that brings me to today's card. Not Monarchs, obviously, as there's no orange or black in sight. Actually, they are ice cream colors, inspired by the current photo inspiration challenge at The Alley Way Stamps. And the current sketch at Sketch Saturday sort of mimicked a butterfly in flight, so that's why I've been
yakking away about "Flight Behavior."

This card is a clean and simple as it gets, thanks to my handy butterfly punch. I actually started out with a bigger flock of butterflies, but less turned out to be more in this case.  Sentiment is from The Alley Ways Stamps -- Delicate Doilies set.

I am entering this in these challenges:
The Alley Way Stamps Be Inspired #30
Sketch Saturday #263
Tammy's Scraping Corner #67, Anything with Wings.

Parties all around

Just sitting here on a rainy Sunday waiting for a bunch of teenage boys to arrive and celebrate my son's 17th birthday. Exactly 17 years ago, it was also a Sunday, but extremely hot and sunny. Seems like yesterday...

While waiting, I discovered that The Alley Way Stamps is having a linky party. Just make a card featuring TAWS stamps and link up by midnight tonight.  Since I just got a set of TAWS stamps and wanted to play with them a little more, why not?

The stamp set is called Delicate Doilies, and the images are so pretty and delicate.  I used the current CAS(E) This Sketch, #28, and was inspired by the colors of the TAWS Be Inspired Challenge (oddly enough, also #28). The central image is stamped in Ranger Slate, clear embossed, fussy cut and popped up.  The other ink I used is from Colorbox and is called Papaya.

Chevron Rainbow

Today's Technique Challenge at SCS was to make chevron strips.  It's pretty simple -- you just score a 1-inch strip into 1/2-inch squares and cut at 90-degree angles to make the chevron.  Here's the card I made using the technique.  I used Retro Sketch #61 as the layout, and the current Be Inspired Challenge (#27) photo at The Alley Way Stamps as my inspiration.

Since I had a little left over from the various chevron strips, I used them to decorate the inside as well. I'm trying to do more to make the inside of my cards interesting.

humming along

Every time I see this image and sentiment from The Alley Way Stamps, I can't help humming "just keep swimming, just keep swimming...."

This is a quickie card, CAS but fun and cute, too.  The inspiration is the Be Inspired Challenge photo #26 for The Alley Way Stamps (see right.)  And the layout is based on the current CAS(E) This Sketch, #25. 

Stamps are by The Alley Way. I fussy cut the fish and placed them in an ocean made from a Spellbinders die. I used white gel pen on the eyes -- possibly not a wise choice, and I may end up paper piecing some eyes on them.

Flying free

Between travels and houseguests, it feels like I haven't made a card in ages.  I finally got to make one today, and I was inspired by the cheerful spring colors and images in the photo inspiration for The Alley Way Stamps Be Inspired Challenge #25.  For the layout, I used the Sunday Sketch from 365 Cards (challenge #97).

The butterflies are paper pieced with the same dotted paper I used for the framing panel.  I added a double row of rick-rack and used a border punch along the bottom of the panel.

Stamps are from The Alley Way Stamps (go to the website, where they have a freebie image every month, incuding the butterfly).  Papers are Heidi Grace and Stampin Up.

Add a little color

Using black, white and one color always seem to produce a crisp and attractive card, so I was excited to see that as the theme for CAS-ual Fridays challenge CFC90.  I took my inspiration from The Alley Way Stamps Be-Inspired challenge # 22, which uses this eye-catching photo for inspiration.

The black-and-white striped background that the fence creates and the green on the furniture really jumped out at me, so that's what I based the card on. I wanted to play with the idea of changing the neutrals to a bright color. Adding a little color to the sentiment -- by printing it out a second time on green paper and cutting out a few words -- added emphasis to the sentiment and added a little color balance to the card as well.

Sentiment and brush stamp are both digital freebies from The Alley Way Stamps.  The brush is colored with both marker (green) and pencil (black). The brush is raised up on pop dots.