CAS-clean and simple – My Crafts are Like a Box of Chocolates

Welcome to a New Year!

January 5, 2019 beccreates1

And a new challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges! This week we were asked to make our favourite kind of card. My faves are always interactive, in particular shakers, and summertime themed. I combined both into this card.

This fun little shaker element uses dies from WPlus9, Making Waves. There is enough room for some foam under the top edge of the waves so I could make the shaker with two different colours of fillers. The top has plain white confetti and the bottom has a mix of sequins and beads from Lucy’s Little Things. I created a circle mask for the sun. If you do this, be sure to keep the negative portion of your mask too as you will need it. The circle part to keep the sun white while you ink the sky and the surrounding paper to keep the yellow for the sun from getting into the blue sky.

The little fishy is from an older Echo Park die set with a sailboat. The sentiment is from Hello Summer from Neat & Tangled, both the die and stamp. I make summer cards even in the winter, clearly, so I agree 100%.

I hope you will join us at C4C for this first challenge of the year. What challenge could be easier? Actually, I had to decide what was my favourite! I do have a lot. That’s why this blog is called what it is! I can never decide what my favourite is! I thought about making a shabby chic or vintage card. Or maybe one with watercolouring. Or how about some Copic colouring? ooh, or maybe some Prismacolour or Faber-Castell pencils? oh, I know, what about a mixed media masterpiece? See, hard for me to decide! I went with using a new-to-me stamp set and die.

Thanks for reading. Please pass my blog address on to anyone else you know who enjoys card making! I’ve got a HUGE bunch of cards I made this week to show you using the October Spellbinders Watercolour Card Kit. Can you believe I got 13 made with one kit and have a ton left? Never mind the stamps and dies which never run out! What a value! Stay tuned…

Enjoy, Rebecca

Cards

Swing High, Swing Free

December 1, 2018December 1, 2018 beccreates1

When you were a kid, did you love swinging? I know I did! I was able to swing higher than any other kid in my school in grades 5 and 6, my favourite activity at lunch! Did you ever have a tree swing? That would have been the best thing ever but alas, we didn’t have a tree large enough with an overhanging branch.

c4c 18 tree girl swing

At Crazy4Challenges this week, our theme was to create a project with a tree. The obvious move is to make something holiday. But as you know if you’ve been here a while, I don’t celebrate any holidays. So I went in search of something cool to use for my card. This summer (spring?) Hero Arts released a tree kit. I love the awesome frame dies they’ve included lately that almost fill a 4.25×5.5″ card base. Amazingly, I think I only used the kit twice since I got it! So it felt good to get some more use out of it for this card. I always feel guilty if a kit arrives and I don’t make at least 4 or 5 cards right away. Do any of you feel that way?

c4c 18 tree girl swing2.jpg

The background was watercoloured with a few Daniel Smith watercolours. They are amazing for their depth of colour and I adore the ones with real gemstone pigment and the ones with sparkle, I think they are called Duochrome. Most of the time, I use cold press, aka mid textured watercolour paper but when I’m making a background, especially one with minimal stamping, I like to use rough paper, aka very textured paper. (Hot press is very smooth, like it’s been ironed so that a way to help you remember hot vs cold pressed. If you use a cold iron, you’d have far more texture in your clothing than with a hot iron right?)

The sentiment was hard for me to choose. I find when I make cards with basic sentiments, I use them up from my stash or sell them far sooner than the others. But this one might be perfect for someone from More Love Letters so I used it anyway.It wouldn’t surprise me if you are going to make a tag or card with a tree in the coming week so don’t forget to link it up at C4C!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Revisiting Old Card Kits

August 14, 2018 beccreates1

If you buy card kits, do you ever use them up before the next one arrives? Leave me a comment and let me know! I have to admit, I NEVER finish a card kit right away! in fact, I have ones going back to 2014! I think only 2 in that time are all used. So sometimes when I have some time, I pull out an older kit and try to make at least 3 cards with it. I don’t always manage three but I try even if I have to make a simpler card or CASE* one of the cards shown on the insert.

*CASE stands for Copy and Stamp Everything, basically using someone else’s design as inspiration but changing it up to make it your own. As long as you don’t pass the card off as your own or try to sell it, you can even copy it exactly!

I was in a gold mood when I made these cards. Do you ever get in a mood to use a certain colour, a specific technique or product and use it over and over for a short while? I work in spurts like that. Then I move on to a new one for the next while. This card comes from a Simon Says Stamp kit all the way back from September 2015! I created a ‘background stamp’ using some of the small bows, triangles, circles and half-circles included in the Birthday Bits stamp set. I needed some more bits so I trimmed a couple of tiny shapes off of the small borders. I don’t prefer to cut my stamps apart but these are wonky borders anyway so realigning them perfectly isn’t important. I found a matching ink to the cardstock in the kit and stamped the grouping of stamps I put together on entire card front. Sometimes when I find a grouping I really like, I stamp an example and keep it with the stamp set.

I gold embossed some balloons on two of the papers by Pinkfresh Studio from the kit and on some scrap cardstock. I added some dots on the cardstock balloon. The strings are made of stretch gold cord which is my preference over plain gold string. The stretch means that you don’t have to be as precise when tying the strings together to make sure they all stay straight. I glued the knot to the card with glossy accents using a clothespin to keep it in place while it dried. The sentiment from Celebration Sentiments by Honey Bee Stamps is embossed with gold sparkle powder by WOW. I used banner dies by PTI but I trimmed the points so they weren’t so long.

In keeping with the gold theme, I made this card using the October 2015 Simon Says Stamp kit. The center panel is one of the journaling cards included in the kit. The cards and the patterned papers are by My Mind’s Eye, one of my favourite paper companies. The panel underneath has a gold-leafed I applied over Scor-Tape, then I rounded the edges to match the journaling card. I hand cut the balloons because the dies I have are too large. I added the same gold cord but this time decided to allow the strings to hang to the side whimsically. It’s hard to tell from this photo but the ‘Let’s Celebrate’ sentiment is gold foiled. A few gold confetti bits from Studio Katia finished off this card.

Thanks for joining me for these fun cards. I’d love to hear how you use your card kits. Do you subscribe or just buy a few here and there? Do you buy more than one? If you get any other than the MFT, SSS or Hero Arts ones, let me know which ones and how you like them! I’m dying to sub to the Spellbinders ones but I only have so many $$$!

Enjoy, Rebecca

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Watercolour Butterflies

May 25, 2016 beccreates1

Today I am playing in the PTI blog hop! I just loved the inspiration photo they picked this month!

Here is my take on the photo. I decided to use butterflies; I had thought about using ice cream cones but the die is too large to use in this pattern on a card. In the future it might make a nice canvas though! I used my professional watercolours from various companies and some Arches watercolour paper. I’d normally save such nice paper for larger paintings but I flubbed the other side so at least it got used right? The white panel was splattered with some grey watercolour and I added a vellum strip with a white embossed sentiment across the panel. The card base is made from aqua mist cardstock! Last but not least, I added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Enjoy, Rebecca

PTI Supplies: white and aqua mist cardstock, butterfly die, vellum, thanks sentiment

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Autumn Bouquet Thanks

October 22, 2015 beccreates1

I have to admit it is autumn here. The air is crisp and I really need the alpaca scarf/shawl my sister brought me from Peru.

I used last year’s Simon Says kit for the paper and some new dies for the bouquet. I was playing a clean and simple challenge so I didn’t doll up the card like I might usually. I’ll be sending this to my sister to thank her for the scarf.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered in:

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS
Ink: archival brown-Ranger, various Distress inks
Paper: SSS kit, various SU! CS
Accessories: dies-Marianne and Elizabeth Craft, WRMK cork

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Freesia Sympathy Card for The Shabby Tea Room

October 4, 2015 beccreates1

Once again I used the colour combo from this week’s The Shabby Tea Room sketch. There’s ivory, white, black and the little tidbits of purple on top of the hat.

I recently bought this freesia stamp set and coloured it with the no-line colouring technique. I used a very light green Memento ink so it wouldn’t show once I finished. Then I watercoloured it with my Kuretake watercolour set. Those colours are amazing! I also have the Derwent Inktense Pencils and honestly, I am not a huge fan of them. Save your money for the Kuretake!

Our sponsor this week is Paper Sweeties! The owner is also the owner of The Shabby Tea Room so I’m sure she would love it if you checked out her little store. She has great stamps, dies and embellies. I got the sweet little flower sequins and the seam binding from Paper Sweeties. So head on over to the challenge blog or the store to see what is on offer!

I’m also entering this in the Winnie & Walter watercolour challenge.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: freesia-Altenew, sentiment-SSS
Ink: archival black-Ranger, pea sprout-Memento
Paper: Windsor & Newton watercolour paper, vanilla, eggplant CS-SU!, DP-Echo Park
Accessories: sequins, seam binding-Paper Sweeties, foam dots-The Sticky Stuff Store, Kuretake watercolour

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Happy (Belated) World Card Making Day!

October 4, 2015 beccreates1

Yeah, another WCMD! I found a few challenges to play so here’s what I came up with.

This one is for the Winnie and Walter watercolour challenge. I had fun using my new Kuretake watercolours and the latest Simon Says Stamp card kit. The colours are more vibrant IRL, I don’t know what is with some cards and how they photograph!

I hope you had fun working on your WCMD projects!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SSS October kit I See You
Ink: versamark, archival black-ranger
Paper: W&N watercolour paper, vanilla CS-SSS kit, My mind’s Eye paper and journaling card
Accessories: embroidery floss, hello die-kit, gold twine, EP-SU!, Kuratake watercolours

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Thanks Card Set

March 18, 2015 beccreates1

Sadly my great-uncle is in the hospital dying. My poor great-aunt has been there as many hours as is humanly possible. Lots of people have been helping out, bring food etc. So I figured she will need some thank you cards shortly.

This first card is for the Sweet Sunday Sketch. I liked the wonky panel. I like my banners to point to the right though so I flipped the sketch. The banner is actually made from white CS swiped with Tattered Rose ink. It took ages because my pad is a bit dry. But the colour was perfect with this Theresa Collins paper.

This next one is one of my favourite CAS sketches. I die cut the Thanks and coloured it with Copic markers. I only used two so the ombre isn’t that pronounced but it looks nice. W5 and 7. Very simple but interesting.

The last card layout was one I stumbled upon. I started by trying out the colours I was thinking of using on a scrap in the bottom. I didn’t like the colours so I stamped another bunch of hexagons higher up. This colour combo was much better but when I looked at my scratch paper, I had a much more interesting layout than the single cluster I had planned. I added two more clusters, to balance everything out, and ta da!

I had one more happy accident. I had planned for a totally flat card. Very mailable but boring. But I couldn’t think of what to add. Then I goofed and inked the stamp I always stamped in yellow in the aqua ink and stamped. Not a pretty colour, NUTS! So I stamped it on scrap paper, cut it out and added it with foam dots.

The top left and bottom right most hexagons are up on foam dots. I hope my aunt likes these. I kept her in mind when I made them as she loves soft colours and quilting. I think the hexagons look like quit squares, don’t you?

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE

Thanks for Your Support and Ombre Thanks
Stamps: Thanks all ways-PTI
Ink: cup o joe-HA, tattered rose, frayed burlap-Distress
Paper: Theresa Collins DP, kraft, white CS-PTI
Accessories: die-Mama Elephant, W5, 7

Hex Thanks Cards
Stamps: Hexagons, Thanks all Ways-PTI
Ink: harvest gold, sweet blush, melon berry, aqua mist-PTI
Paper: white, harvest gold, sweet blush, melon berry, aqua mist CS
Accessories: foam dots-Sticky Stuff Store

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Butterfly Shaker Card

March 18, 2015 beccreates1

This is for the latest CAS(e) this sketch Challenge.

I immediately thought about the center rectangle as a recessed area leaving the outer edge was a frame rather than elevating it as a panel. So what to fill the frame with? Of course, a shaker pocket!

I used Lawn Fawn and Pretty Pink Posh sequins along with Martha Stewart heart glitter which is so big it’s more like small confetti pieces. The inner panel was cut from the middle after stamping. It was a bit tricky getting the inner panel aligned correctly after adding all the foam without letting the sequins fall out. So I closed the back by replacing the panel and attaching it to the foam on the frame with a piece of copy paper. Then I added the entire thing to the card base.

Click on the sketch to visit the challenge.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Altenew
Ink: chocolate, hawaiian shores, hibiscus burst, raspberry fizz-PTI
Paper: white, aqua mist, hibiscus burst CS-PTI
Accessories: foam tape-Dollar store, sequins-as above, rectangle die-Spellbinders, Wink of Stella pen, love you die-SSS

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Watercolour Smooshing for Make It Monday

March 15, 2015 beccreates1

I have to be honest, I prefer this technique with Distress inks but it was fun using some bright new colours. I’ve actually been doing this technique for a long time as it’s pretty much the same as Tim Holtz’ no wrinkle distress technique. I tried it on regular card stock and I’ve got to tell you, I didn’t like the result. The paper was all bumpy and yucky. No idea why, I used good cardstock!

I placed this panel on a hibiscus burst notecard which you can’t tell from the front view. I forgot to take a side view. It’s quite a fun surprise when you open it! To get the gold edges without using a big piece of pricey gold paper, I used a gold paint pen on the edges of the card base (disguising the bright pink from the front) and on the white panel under the aqua mist panel. It’s hard from this view to even see that it’s another panel and not just a gold edge on the aqua one but trust me 😉

I’m entering this in Make It Monday.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Thanks all Ways-PTI
Ink: hibiscus, melon berry, harvest moon, blueberry sky, winter wisteria-PTI, certainly celery-PTI, versamark
Paper: W&N watercolour paper, white, aqua, hibiscus CS-PTI
Accessories: Krylon gold paint pen