Bonafide Cowboy

I made this card quite some time ago, but since I'll be taking it to an OWH card party to add to the box, I thought it was time to get it posted.

The cowboy is a snippet from a piece of My Mind's Eye design paper, and the "sentiment" is a portion of a single 12x12 sheet from either Michael's or A.C. Moore - not sure which, but I thought it would be perfect for "boy" cards.  With 4 nephews it's perfect for personal use and for OWH cards.

Time to go pack up for tomorrow's crafting adventure.

Thanks for visiting-
~Kathy

CAS - flowery smiles...

I found a little time to play with paper this weekend, and decided to try the clean and simple sketch from Friday.

 

I wanted to do something other than circles, which seemed to be the simplest way to make the sketch work, and decided to pull out some of my first stamp purchases, and some bright cardstock that I look at now and wonder - "What was I thinking??!!". 

In the end, I'm happy with my bright flowers on a pre-cut Kraft card base (the Kraft helps tone down the bright cardstock).  Fussy cutting all those flowers filled some tv time, and I have a few extras to use on another card.  As much as I like this card, I'm pretty sure I won't be making too many - fussy cutting is hard work.

Thanks for visiting!

~Kathy

A Bold Hello...

Took a break at lunch today to spin through some of my favorite crafty blogs, and meandered from Denise's The Paper Landscaper page to some of her Color Throwdown team member pages.  When I opened up Barbara Anders' page I fell in LOVE with her thank you card (here). 

On my way home I had a bit of shopping to do, and noticed that A.C. Moore was having a sale on Tim Holtz products.  Of course I stopped in, and along with some tissue tape I found the PERFECT design paper to CASE Barbara's design...  DCWV - the Cafe Mediterranean mat stack.  A quick stop at the single sheets for some matching solids of Bazzill textures and I was heading home to create!

Here's my take on the design...

This card came together so fast!  I love it, and have TONS of other patterned papers to play with from the mat stack.  I'm pretty sure this layout will become a fall back when I need some quick cards.  I used my Hero Arts Everyday Sayings and Tombow markers for the sentiment.  The design can fit a variety of sentiments as needed, so versatile - another reason to love it!

The final touch was a butterfly from the EK Success three part punch to coordinate with the tissue tape.  My appologies for the dark photo.  Card, photo and blog post all in a few hours - a record for me, I think!  {grin}  I tossed all the parts into a little bin to tote along with me to the OWH card party in a few weeks.  I don't think I'll be able to put full kits together, but if someone wants to toss a few together they can.

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

CAS in the air

The heat, humidity and olympics have been keeping us indoors, so I decided to spend a bit of time playing with some paper.  To make it quick I decided to try another CAS card and went to the clean and simple sketch #202 from yesterday.  I scanned through the Feline Playful list of challenges for a bit more inspiration and saw that the CAS-ual Friday's theme was something you see in the sky.

Here's my take:

My back yard seems to have seeds flying around all the time.  And I have to admit, I can't stop myself from blowing dandelion seeds into the wind and making a wish.

I used a small piece of fiber paper from a huge stash I've had for ages.  This photo shows it a little better.

I think the design paper may overpower the main image, but I like it just the same.

Thanks for visiting - hope your day is filled with sunshine and laughter!
~Kathy

Brighten my Day....

My crafty friend Carol invited me to join a card making party in August, and I'm so excited I've been playing with ideas all week!  It's an Operation Write Home get together, and I want to bring along a kit to share...  It takes me a l-o-n-g time to come up with a card design, so I went to the clean and simple blog to look through their sketches for a spark of inspiration.

When I saw sketch #105, I knew it was the one I wanted to work with...  here's the sketch:

I came up with a couple of designs that closely followed the sketch, but noticed that I had gravitated to monochromatic in shades of brown.  As much as I like the cards, I thought that some bright colors may be appreciated more by the troops who will be using them.

With that in mind I thought something bright and sunny would work, and modified the sketch into this:

Once the sunshine idea was in my head, the card fell together quickly.  I pulled out a bunch of My Mind's Eye: Fine and Dandy - Boy scraps for rays of sunlight.  The Lili of the Valley Set 9 Mixed Circular Sentiments worked perfectly and was stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I popped the sentiment up on foam tape to avoid a lumpy look where the ends of the design paper overlap. 

Pre-made card bases and envelopes have allowed me to put cards together a little quicker, and since the majority of this card is plain cardstock and random triangular scraps, I should be able to pull together the supplies for card kits pretty quickly.  The hardest part for me will be stamping the sentiments... 

Thanks for stopping by - hope your day is filled with happiness and sunshine!
~Kathy