Love Birds

Today's card was inspired by not only a sketch, but a talented blogger as well. Tracy did an amazing card with mini-tutorial on creating a hidden window for your card. When I saw the card I couldn't wait to try it out myself. The Fusion Card Challenge was just the ticket to get my creative juices going too.

I used a PTI mat stack die to cut out the frame. The banner was created by placing some washi tape onto vellum and then using a banner die to cut it out. Once glued down I did some faux stitching all the way around to give the frame and banner something to anchor them. The scene on the card base was created using PTI's Little Bitty Bird set because I really liked the birds from the photo of the challenge. First I stamped the image with brown Momento ink and then used my copics to color in the images. I thought the green leave accented the bird nicely and allowed me to use the colors from the photo too. To get my sky I simply coated the birds and leaves with glossy accent and once dried I lightly sponged Tumbled Glass around it. I didn't feel it was complete so I added the sentiment from the same set as well as the heart. I then colored in the heart with copics and went over it with my glitter pen. I then popped up the cover piece with the window and banners over the scene. I had so much fun with this that I created another card that I will share later this week.

Open Challenge

A little late with this week's Flutterby Challenge card, but I am here now. This is an easy one as it's a favorite: open challenge with a butterfly or fairy. I kept my card really simple this week too. A little washi along the top with a sentiment on the bottom to go with my rainbow of butterflies. The only layer would be the washi tapes. I am also putting this in with Simon Says challenge since it's all about things with wings :) ETA: I was just informed about another CAS challenge called ATCAS and the code word for their current challenge is Rainbow. I think these pretty little butterflies would work for it. Thanks for brining a new challenge to my radar :)

CASEing Ms. Maile

After creating my cards for the CASE DT call I found the time to not only play along with this week's challenge but to post it too. This month's CASE Study is none other than the fabulous designer and crafter Ms. Maile Belles. I was first introduced to her through PTI and have been a fan of her style in cards and stamps ever since. I guess you could say that she is one of my blog crushes, lol. One think I really love about her cards is the building of them from a strip of something lovely along one side. You can see an excellent example of it here with this week's inspiration piece:

Love how that one element really pops a CAS card up a notch! I also love the stamp set she used here: PTI's Friends Till the End. This was the first flower card I bought because of the modern feel I got from it. I also really like how it looks with just the centered colored. In fact, for my first try at this challenge I went pretty literal. Just to get the mojo going ya' know. Here is the result of that.

Not my favorite. The flower is too high up and the center of this flower doesn't do anything for me.Even my bow wasn't really doing much for me. I did love the color combo I used though. I had just gotten two more things of washi tape and wanted to play with them. I knew I could do better and had just seen a sketch over at Fusion that would work amazingly with this challenge, so I combined the two. I made this work for me, kwim. I don't do buttons so added some glitter instead.  (something I do love). I also die cut the whole flower out and popped it up so it layered over the three washi tapes I used. The yellow flowery one also was used to line the edge of the base layer. Also added some half pearls that I colored to match my flower. To finish it off I added my sentiment and rounded the corners. Much better and I know a certain mom that will too :)

Long time between posts

I can't believe it had been over a month since I last crafted. I have missed it greatly and was excited when I had the chance to create again the other night. I was able to catch up and complete the WMS Christmas Card Challenges for 2012 and was excited to do so as I greatly enjoy these challenges. The November challenge was to include a light of some kind so I used my new WMS Little Lantern set to create a rather simple card. the sentiment is from a PTI stamp set.

The top and bottom layer of washi tape was created by my stamps and some tissue paper. The red washi I had laying around. I would love to get more of this stuff as I only have two (same pattern but different colors).

The December challenge was to use green. I used one of my favorite WMS stamp sets: Festive Foliage. The banners were created with spray inks, stains, stamps, alcohol inks, and embossing folders. The each have a little something on them even if it is hard to see the details on the white ones.