PDCC170: Stone, Buttercream, Denim

When I saw this week's color story at The Play Date Cafe Challenge I immediately thought of a My Mind's Eye pp collection I own called "Moments":



And I decided I'd better try the faux chalkboard technique before it goes out of fashion:) 

The sentiment is from the PTI set called The Sweet Life and the motif is from an older SU set called Carte Postale - I like how this motif kind of echoes the motif in the pp.  After embossing both on a label die cut with a Spellbinder Nestie I added the hand drawn border with a white prismacolor pencil and sponged on some white pigment ink.  The banners were die cut using MFT dies and the hearts using a SU embosslit.  All edges were lightly distressed with Ranger antique linen distress ink.

I've been in CAS mode lately and it felt really good to throw caution to the wind and not worry about how much it's going to cost to mail out a card with so many layers!  What a rebel I am:)
Other Supplies Used:  Stampin' Up cs, Queen & Co silver pearls, Echo Park pp

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!  Tomorrow I'll have no hope whatsoever of wrestling the TV remote from my dh......guess I'd better pick a Daytona 500 race car driver to cheer for:)

You Warm My Heart

Another challenging cue this week at CASology:



My card didn't turn out exactly how I originally envisioned and after I put it together I was actually glad it didn't!



Instead of going literal with the flame (I was originally going to die cut logs and a fire) I opted to add some gradient color with distress inks to my die cut words to represent flame.  The Cricut cart I used to die cut the sentiment (Beyond Birthdays) also includes this cute heart wrapped in a cozy scarf:)  I remembered I had this SU heart border embossing folder and I really like how it adds just enough interest to the background.

Other Supplies Used:  Stampin' Up pool party, real red and soft suede cs, Stampin' Up lined pp, Papertrey ink rustic white cs, Teresa Collins Tell Your Story dotted pp, Ranger fired brick, spiced marmalade and squeezed lemonade distress inks

Not a lick of stampin' on this card.  I always feel some weird sense of guilt whenever this happens - do any of you ever feel that way????

See the flower froggie I used as a photo prop?  My friend Sue has been on the look-out for me and brought this one when we met for lunch (and a few margaritas!) yesterday.  I really love its larger size- thanks Sue!  

Happy Friday everyone! 

SSS: Have a Heart!

Happy Friday!  I finished up a Valentine for my hubby yesterday using my fave new Hero Arts stamp CG525 Tall Flowers.  And since the design included a heart I'm popping this into the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Have a Heart!

I first die cut 2 heart silhouettes using Cricut George and Basic Shapes cart from both black and white cs.  I ran the black heart through a Cuttlebug distressed stripes embossing folder to give it a little texture.  After embossing a portion of the Tall Flowers image in black on the white heart I colored the flowers with markers. 

I got the idea to pair a die cut word with stamped words from my blogging buddy Lisa!   Thanks Lisa:)  The stamped words I used (you dearly) are part of a sentiment from a Paper Smooches set called Pretty Phrases.  Now the "love" part of this sentiment is actually pretty similar to the font of the die cut word  "love" I used here but I wanted this word to be bigger so it would span the whole card front. 

Other Supplies Used:  Papertrey ink white cs, Michael's black cs, W R Memory Keepers corner rounder, Cricut Beyond Birthdays cart (love die cut)

You may have noticed that little stand I've been photographing my cards on lately and wondered what it was!  Well, during our recent getaway to Hershey, PA we spent several hours in a really cool and huge antique co-op where I found this old receipt holder!  It's got a square base with a spike that's perfect for holding my cards in place while I get a pic of them:) 

Well, I'm off to have coffee with a friend before we all get snowed in!  Happy weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Make a Wish!

This week's cue at CASology had me a little stumped:



I don't own any of the images one normally associates with fairytales like castles or princes or princesses.  Since I visited Disney World right before Christmas the words from one of their theme songs popped into my head...."When you wish upon a star....Doesn't matter who you are....".  I can remember picking spent dandelions as a little girl and "making a wish" before blowing on them to make "snow" :)

These Memory Box chloe stem die cuts kind of remind me of dandelions.  The sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly.  I am in LOVE with the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neopolitan pp collection and can't seem to stop making cards with it :)  CASology DT member Tracey covered her whole card front with pp for this week's challenge and cautioned against adding too much clutter to keep the design CAS.  I heeded this advice and refrained from adding bling to the die cuts.  I also tried to keep my design a bit flatter by embossing a frame on the card base instead of diecutting a window and popping the negative space on the card base with foam tape like I normally do.  I've been a bit more mindful about creating cards with less bulk as I don't know about you but these USPS increases are killing my wallet :(

Other Supplies Used:  Papertrey ink white cs, Spellbinder wonky rectangle nesties, Creative Impressions twine

Thanks for stopping by!  And be careful this weekend if you live in the path of the big Nor'easter they are forecasting!

Lawnscaping Challenge #51: Be My Valentine

Happy Wednesday!  It's been awhile since I've been able to participate in a Lawnscaping Challenge and when I saw the current challenge theme:



I knew I had to break out the Lawn Fawn My Silly Valentine set and give it a go:)

Other Supplies Used:  Lawn Fawn Critters on the Farm set (fence), Hero Arts Kiss from the Sun set (sun), Papertrey ink white cs and die (cloud), MFT grass die, American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neopolitan pp, glossy accents (added to heart)

I'm going to send this cutie pie to my mother-in-law who winters with her daughter in South Carolina. 

Thanks for all your sweet comments!  I need to get caught up on visiting everyone's blogs - my hubby and I spent a long weekend in Hershey, PA with our neighbors.  Despite the bitterly cold temps we had alot of fun:)  A highlight of the trip was a visit to Chocolate World where yours truly posed with a fave candy bar: