Embrace Satin Ribbon

I stamped the cross in soft sky ink and colored it in lightly using wasabi ink and an aquapainter. Supplies: stamps - Everyday Blessings(PTI) paper - wild wasabi, soft sky, whisper white, Afternoon Tea dsp ink - wild wasabi, soft sky, chocolate chip acc - chocolate satin ribbon, dimensionals

Embrace... Satin Ribbon

Like I said earlier this week, we're keeping things simple and elegant! If you're into making simple, yet elegant cards too, I'm sure you already have a plethora of satin ribbon. The type of ribbon you use on a project can really help to convey different things. Every so often we'll be focusing on a different type of ribbon. This card actually started because I was determined to use some 1/2'' satin ribbon. I have some in two colours- Berry Sorbet or White. I was inspired by them being side by side, so I ended up with a Berry Sorbet base with the white ribbon. I find that I never have anniversary cards on hand when I need them, so it's always nice to have one available. Supplies: Stamps: 3 step roses & hearts (kitchen sink) Paper: white, berry sorbet, sweet blush Ink: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Belle Rose, Toile Pink, Spring Moss, Landscape, Pear Tart, White Accessories: Oval Nests (regular), white satin, pop dots

FTL 7

Love this layout! I ran my white card base through my Cuttlebug with the tan embossing mat and a scalloped oval nestability to get the raised edges. I took a coordinating regular oval nestability and used it as my mask. I sponged on Lemon Tart ink, stamped the owl and branch, and added a sentiment in Summer Sunrise ink. I took my white gel pen and went over the owl's eyes so he didn't look so jaundiced, lol! A bit of Summer Sunrise grosgrain finishes off the card. Supplies: stamps - Bird Greetings (Hero Arts) paper - whisper white ink - (all Palette) lemon tart, summer sunrise, burnt umber, landscape acc - summer sunrise grosgrain (PTI)

Fall to Layout #7 Friendship

This was a really fast and easy card to make. I used an oval nestability to cut out a mask for the card front. I used temporary tape to tape the mask to the card and sponged in the colors. The I stamped the butterfly image and the sentiment. I finished it off with the ribbon. Supplies: Stamps - Lizzie Anne Designs Au Naturale; Ink - Marvy Blending Block, Versafine Black Onyz; Misc - sponge, nestabilities, scrap paper, ribbon

Fall to Layout #7

In case you hadn't noticed, I was keeping this week's themes ultra simple, and ultra elegant. So, this week's layout is one that is definitely not mine. I'm not sure who really came up with it. It's just one of those layouts that works, you know? The idea is to keep a neutral card base. Add an image (in the sketch I've called it a panel, but that doesn't mean you have to have a separate layer, it's just a guideline as to where a stamped image works decently). For the finishing touch, add in some of your favorite ribbon. I made a card using the reversed masking that I talked about on Sunday. Once again, I started off by cutting my shape out of scrap paper, I centered that on the card base, did some two toned sponging and then some word stamping. Next, I added in a larger image, stamped a sentiment, and added some brown polytwill ribbon. I find that this layout is especially good for when you have a need for sympathy cards. Thankfully I do not have a need for one at this time, but unfortunately, they are a good type of card to have a few extras on hand. Supplies: Stamps: Out on a Limb, Beautiful Blooms (PTI) Ink: Desert Sand, Rich Cocoa Paper: White Ribbon: Brown twill from DWB

Tips- Sponging a masked area

This tip/technique goes quite nicely with the CAS style. Basically, start out with a neutral card base, then get a piece of scrap paper that is the same size as your card front. Cut or tear a shape out of your scrap paper. Using temporary adhesive, attach the reverse mask to your card front. Decide on a colour palette and start sponging colours into your shape. Next, add in some images and a sentiment. Remove the mask, finish off with ribbon if you like. The effect makes quite the impact. This has been a favorite technique of mine for some time now, so I thought I'd show you a few items I've made over the years.

This first one is really not much of a CAS style, but I wanted to show you that you don't have to make your reverse mask be card front size. Also, this shows how a torn shape can make a very effective look.

This next one is card I made for last year's Dare to Get Dirty celebration at SCS. For this one, I cut out the rectangle free hand, sponged a few greens, and stamped over with leaves and definitions. I went with a rectangle on this one as well. I kept with browns and nature themed images again. So even though each of these card has a more elaborate collaged type look, they come together quite quickly and look really impressive. If you need a gift set for someone, I highly recommend doing something along the lines of the bottom two.

CAS Friendly Techiques: Overlays

Overlays are definitely a quick and easy way to add a little bit of WOW to a card. There are several amazing ones available for purchase. Of course, if you have a bit of vellum or acetate and a decent permanent ink, you can go ahead and make your own.

For my card, I did the flowers and leaves on the vanilla base. Then I attached the vellum (tape hidden under the ribbon) and stamped the daisy prints and the sentiment. In case you were curious, Memento inks dry almost instantly on the vellum. It's quite nice. This card also fits Laurie's challenge at SCS (got vellum?)

Technique: Overlays

This is the first time I have ever used vellum. I used the PaperTrey Linen Vellum cardstock for the card base and stamped the leaves on the card front. I then used Black Staz-On and stamped the sentiment on regular vellum and attached it to the card front with mini glue dots. I added the ribbon at the top to finish it off. Supplies: Stamps - Verve Serenity; Paper - PaperTrey Linen Vellum, PaperTrey Vellum Cardstock; Ink - SU! Old Olive, Black Staz-On; Misc - Ribbon, glue dots.

Fall to Colors: In a Jam

I think this is the first time I have actually used these colors together. They remind me of the 60's and 70's which reminds me of the original VW bugs so that is why I picked this image to use. This is another quick, 10 minute card. The image is colored in with SU! markers. I used the nestabilities to emboss a frame around the image embellished with Amuse Twinklers on the headlights and the antenna. The inside sentiment says "It's nice to have a friend." Supplies: Stamps - Inkadinkado; Paper - PaperTrey Stampers Select; Ink - Pallette Noir; Misc - SU! Markers, Nestabilities, Amuse Twinkler Stickers

Fall to Colours

This week's fall to colours are fun and fabulous for summer: orange, pink, and green!!! This card came together quite quickly. When you have a colour palette all set out and you know that you want to keep the card simple, it's amazing how quickly things fall into place. For this card, I wanted to add a little something else to a flat white 1-layer card. So... I went with a square card base. I ran that through the cuttlebug to make it nicely scalloped. My final touch was stamping the pink flower once on scrap paper, cutting it out, then popping it over the base image at a slight tilt. Stamps: flowers by Inkadinkdoo, sentiment by Verve stamps

Cute as a Button

I really like the look of a word border and with acrylic stamps it is so easy to create. This is pretty straight forward - I centered the 3D sticker in the middle of a 4x4 card and stamped the sentiment around it. Then I added the buttons in the corner and an Amuse Micro Dot Twinkler sticker on the sail. Supplies: Stamps - Studio G; Paper - PaperTrey Stampers Select; Ink - SU! Real Red; Misc - MM 3D sticker, buttons, glue dots

Word Borders

Word borders are a quick and easy way to jazz up the area surrounding your main image. With all the clear stamps out there, this concept is even easier than ever to use! On my example, I didn't have a sentiment that was the whole length of the main image. Instead I used the small one twice, using a cute flower as a spacer.

Supplies:

Stamps: Nature Set (a muse)

Ink: Memento

Accessories, etc.: brown flock, copic markers

Embrace Punches

I used a flower punch and a small circle punch to create a whimsical garden. First I ran the yellow paper through the Cuttlebug in the Swiss Dots embossing folder and then used the small circle punch to cut out the flower centers. I attached them to the flower petals with coordinating brads. I then stamped the stems/leaves from PaperTrey's Women of Life set directly on the card stock. I dry embossed the top half of the card with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and then attached the flowers to the card with mini glue dots. I finished it off with the sentiment across the bottom. Supplies: Stamps - PaperTrey Women of Life, Hero Arts sentiment; Paper - PaperTrey Stampers Select, Memory Box; Misc - Queen & Co brads, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Mini Glue Dots, Paper piercer

Embrace...

Punches! These tools are absolutely fabulous for making card making that little bit quicker. Punches can also provide you with options that wouldn't be so easy to come by using simple, but time consuming hand cutting techniques. There are so many cool shapes out there. I went with circles for this design. Using a nice vanilla card base, some chocolate paper, and some coordinating pattern paper, I had a card in minutes!

Supplies: Stamps: sushi set by a muse Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Au Chocolat

FTL6

This sketch was the perfect opportunity to use up some scraps and make a card in under 10 minutes too! I used my nestabilities to cut out the 4 squares. I like the creme card stock showing through so I didn't have to make any adjustments to the squares. Added the sentiment and was done! Supplies: Paper - PaperTrey Creme CS, SEI dp; Stamps - Savvy Stamps

FTL 6

My cutter is less than precise, like Natasha's, so what I did for this layout was to cut my card base to an even 5" and the squares to 1-1/4". I added a button and the sentiment and was done! Supplies: stamps - Paper Tray (PTI) paper - Ginger Blossom dsp, kraft ink - chocolate chip acc - neutral button, crochet thread

Fall-to Layout #6

In keeping with the colour blocking theme, I thought this sketch would be a good one for this week! This design works well with plain cardstock, stamped cardstock, or patterned paper. If you're wondering about measurements. I made each square about 1-1/8, then I placed the middle one first, and lined up the rest. The two on the ends went over the side just a bit, so I trimmed it. Also due to the awkward size of each square and my less than precise cutter, I decided to add a border. This adds nicely to the design and hides the fact that one of my squares was a bit too small. I like to round the corners of this design. I find it completes the card nicely. This design is great for mass producing (if you have a more precise cutter) and also for using up those awkward sized scraps that we all feel compelled to keep!

On my card I went with the colour challenge from last week at SCS. I stamped some polka dots over top, added my border, and a greeting. That's it!

Supplies:

Stamps: Nature Set (a muse)

Paper: Guava, Banana, Chocolate, White

Ink: Brown, White

Accessories, etc.: corner rounder

Color Blocking

This may not look simple but it was a really quick card to make. The 9 blocks of patterned paper is really one piece of paper - I downloaded this patterned paper from PaperTrey and it was already in blocks. I trimmed one piece to just 9 blocks and adhered it to my card base. I stamped the smaller square using a stamp from PaperTrey's Gridlines stamp set and embellished with a brad and some Amuse Twinkler Micro Dots. Supplies: Stamps - PaperTrey Gridlines; Paper - PaperTrey; Misc. - Amuse Twinkler Micro Dots, Brad, pop dots

Tips: Colour Blocking

Colour blocking can be a really fun and quick way to jazz up a card. If you're looking for a quick way, I suggest sticking with squares. Different sized rectangles look quite neat, but the measurement calculation can be a bit annoying at times. For this card, I stuck with 2 inch squares and a 4-1/4 square card base. I call it colour blocking, but really, you can use cardstock or patterned paper. It's the same effect! I ended up stamping the cardstock on my sample. Supplies: Stamps: Pretty Flowers by Inkadinkadoo, Little Lady Ink: Groovy Guava, Cool Caribbean Paper: Guava, White, Caribbean Accessories, etc.: brads, double ended tag die

Embrace Brads

I love brads! Here I used them as decoration, a row of them and a single one on the sentiment tab. The flowers on the sentiment tab were stamped off on scratch paper once to lighten them up. Supplies: (all SU except where noted) stamps - Always, Simple Alpha (PTI) paper - ww, sky and celery dsp, sahara sand ink - chocolate chip, soft sky, certainly celery acc - vintage brads, chocolate taffeta ribbon

FTL 5 - Blooms and Baubles

The largest flower was cut out and attached with dimensionals to hang over the edge of the "box" of the main layer . Supplies: stamps - Beautiful Blooms (PTI), Hugs & Wishes (SU) paper - (all SU) olive, black, ww ink - (all Palette) l'amour red, landscape, noir acc - dew drops, black brads, polka dot brad

FTL5 - Butterflies

I strayed a bit from the sketch but have the same out of the box idea. I stamped the butterflies image (all one image) on My Minds Eye paper, then with a see through ruler penciled the box around the image up to the butterfly's wings on each side. I used my paper trimmer to cut 3 sides, then hand cut the top and around the butterflies. Supplies: Stamps - Inkadinkado, Papertrey; Paper - PaperTrey Stampers Select. MME dp; Ink - Versamagic Jumbo Java; Misc - brads, dimensionals.

Fall To Layout #5

If you struggled with the Out of the Box idea, here's a sketch that may inspire you! I find that this technique works really well with large flower images. However, anything that has a circular element would work well on here! So the "stem" part of the sketch is strictly optional! The smaller circles are brads or some other round embellishments- gems, eyelets, whatever you fancy! I've had this sketch stored in my book of sketches for quite some time now. Only when I sat down to put a card together did I realize how perfectly this dandelion image from gel-a-tins Big & Wild Things worked with it! It's always nice when you have a sketch in mind and find a stamp that totally works with it! Supplies: Stamps: Big & Wild Things (gelatins), Heartfelt Phrases (Verve) Ink: Pear Tart, Dandelion, Black Paper: Light Blue and Brown (Bazzill), White Accessories, etc.: Brads (Scrapbook Sally)

Outside the Box Friends

I received this stamp off from a friend. I placed my circle cutting tool (Coluzzle) ontop of the image and cut out the circle stopping at the girls' hair. I then hand cut around the rest of the image. The image was colored with watercolor pencils and an aquabrush, adhered with dimensionals on the yellow scalloped circle. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the side. Supplies: Stamps - Whipper Snapper; Paper - Amuse Kitchen 4 Bar Note, LI, PaperTrey Lemon Tart; Misc - Watercolor pencils, awuabrush, Gelly Roll Stardust pen, Coluzzle, Nestabilities, MS border punch

Outside the Box Hibiscus

At least, I think this is a hibiscus! I stamped the flower on white cardstock, masked it, and stamped two more flowers around it. I then placed my oval cutting template (Creative Memories) on the paper and cut the oval, stopping short of the flower petals. I hand-cut around the flowers that were hanging off the edge of the oval. I colored the flowers with copics. The entire oval layer is popped up with dimensionals, as is the sentiment tab. Supplies: (SU except where noted) stamps - Embrace Life paper - black, ww, ruby red, river rock dsp ink - Palette black acc - copics, oval cutter (CM), black gingham, large oval punch, dimensionals

Tips: Out of the Box

Today's tip is something that brings a fun twist to any regular layout. It's just that little extra something different. When I use the term out of the box, I don't mean coming up with different ideas for your stamp images (although that's always a good idea!). I mean the technique where you have your image emerging from the image panel. It goes beyond the typical borders. I made 2 cards featuring this technique. It really doesn't matter where you choose to have the image emerge. One the one card I had the cupcake spill over on the right side. On the other card, I had the bow coming out over the top of the panel. I find there are 3 tools you need to help make this technique a success. You need a pencil, a clear ruler, and a decent pair of scissors. I start by stamping my image on a larger than necessary panel. Then I take my clear ruler and go over the image on each side, seeing which way would look best. Next I draw a faint line, excluding the image. I cut out along the pencil line, then go around the image. An easier way of doing this technique is to stamp your image partially on one panel, then cut out the part that will be emerging over the edge and adhere it over top with a pop dot.

CAS Friendly Techniques

Once again, it's time to bring out the glossy paper and a brayer. It's time for spectrum backgrounds. These don't have to be monochromatic. They can be very effective that way, but really, any group of colours that can be arranged in a spectral fashion work well for this! I made my background using Certainly Celery, Cool Caribbean and Lavender Lace. I had originally tried it out on ultrasmooth white, it just absorbs too fast and you don't get as nice of a blend. The glossy white paper definitely provides a forgiveness of sorts. Next, I attached my spectrum panel to a card front, softened it up a bit with some white organdy ribbon. I added a sentiment with Stazon, then stamped and cut out a few flowers and leaves in matching colours! This one ended up being about a 12 minute card. Supplies: Stamps: Bodacious Bouquet, Heartfelt Phrases Ink: Celery, Caribbean, Lavender, Black Stazon Paper: Glossy White, White, Caribbean Accessories, etc.: Organdy Ribbon, pop dots, brayer

Fall To Colours

I used SC183, the SCS sketch for this week, for this card. I used bashful blue, taken with teal and tempting turquoise. To add some texture I used the swiss dots embossing folder on the bashful blue panel and I stamped a flower in Versamark on the turquoise panel. I also added brads and some bling to the main image and mounted it on pop dots for more interest. Supplies: Stamps - SU!, Hero Arts; Paper - Papertrey Stampers Select, MME; Ink - Versafine Black Onyx, Versamark, SU! Markers; Misc - brads, Amuse Twinkler Micro Dots, Hero Arts bling, pop dots

Fall-To Colours

In keeping with the monochromatic theme this week, this colour combination comes from the same hue family- Taken with Teal, Cool Caribbean, and Soft Sky. These three colours work really nicely together. The lighter blues really help to mute the loudness sometimes associated with the bright teal colour. I used some older designer paper that had the teal and Caribbean tones in it. The ribbon is by American Crafts. The card measures 5x5, however, I cut an inch off the front and adhered the patterned paper inside the card. Supplies: Stamps: DoodleFactory Animal-Percy, Verve Visual Fluttering By Paper: White, Teal, Soft Sky, Loves Me DP Ink: Black, Taken with teal Accessories, etc.: aquabrush, ribbon, pop dots