CAS(E) this Sketch #55

Brrrr...it's cold. Hopefully the predicted storm will leave before Thanksgiving Day. A large number of people will be on the roads traveling to see their loved ones and I wish them all a safe journey.

With the holidays swiftly approaching it is more difficult to find time to play in my Butterfly Garden. I pondered over the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch since it was first posted. Last night during my "crop night" class...the light bulb finally lit up   :-) Kudos to the DT for such marvelous samples! some sketches are more difficult than others and the DT definitely outdid themselves with this sketch.

CAS is hard because there is no way to hide those little pesky smudges that suddenly appear on white paper. After 4 failed attempts to create a smudge free piece of card stock I finally was able to complete this card. I love white backgrounds on CAS cards but they don't necessarily love me. Perhaps it is time to pick a different background color! lol

Back to creating cards in  my Butterfly Garden.

CAS Leaves

This week Nance is challenging everyone to make a CAS card with leaves at The Paper Players. The leaves are all off of our trees and because of the wind, some have been blown into our neighbors yard. Gottta love it when the wind blows the right way. lol

Thank goodness the wind was no where near as violent as it was in Illinois. My heart goes out to all of those people who have lost their homes and to the people who have lost their loved ones. This makes the holiday season especially difficult for everyone who was effected by this storm. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Just minimal layers on this CAS card, a bit of ribbon and a button. Wood grain embossing plate from PTI. Easy Peasy!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Oh Christmas Tree

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in 'blog-land'. This card is for a few different challenges CAS-ual Friday  and Curtain Call have combined there challenges with a great inspirational photo and CASology challenge is the cue word 'triangle'.

After many years of adding embellishments to my cards, I am really enjoying the CAS style. There is beauty in simplicity! Memory box and Sizzix dies and red glaze pen were used to create this card.

This is the FAB inspirational photo for both challenges.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

CAS(E) this Sketch #54

Another great sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch.

The leaf embellishment on the front of this card was made with my long forgotten quilling tools. The dies are from Memory Box.

I really enjoy making "window cards" where the sentiment inside shows through on the front of the card.

The verse inside was place below the 'window'. The verse and sentiment are from Inky Antics.

This is the sketch that was used for the inspiration for my card.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Trio of Fall Colors

The Paper Players challenge this week is to use a Trio of Fall colors.

The image is an Inky Antics stamp that has been colored with Copic markers.

Great color combo to match the lovely autumn leaves.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

CAS(E) this Sketch #53

Woo Hoo...Got some time to play with a "new-to-me" sketch challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch.

Here is a close up of the sentiment:

Stamps from PTI were stamped using Adirondack Espresso ink.

Hope you'll play along with this CAS challenge....

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

OLC Thanks

Time for another great challenge at Less is More. This challenge is to make a "one layer card" that includes a "thanks" sentiment.

One layer cards are definitely challenging! You need a sterile environment free of anything that might touch the card front, this of course includes 'fingers'. Good luck with that one. There is no way to hide these smudges with embellishments or extra layers.  Please don't ask how many times I had to stamp this before a got a 'smudge-free' image. Grrrr

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Embossed Brown

This card is for two challenges. I am really enjoying CAS cards lately so when I saw the embossing challenge at CAU-ual Fridays and the brown challenge at CASology, I knew I had to play along!

I used white detail embossing powder and an embossing folder which raises the lower center medallion. (hard to see in this photo)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Wildlife

****This card received the "A Cut Above" award.****

If you need to increase your supply of masculine cards...this is the challenge for you! Jaydee is hosting a theme challenge at The Paper Players, to created a card using "wildlife" as the theme. Sandy picked the theme for this challenge.

The image was embossed with black detail embossing powder before the colors were applied with pieces of cut 'n dry.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Fireworks

****This card was showCASed for the LIM "Fireworks" challenge****

This week the gals at Less is More are challenging us to make a card with a dark background with a splash of colour(s).

If you saw this POSTING you will remember that I made 22 cards for a recent SCS get together. This is a sample of the cards that I made:

Needless to say...I used the negative for these cards, this left me with 22+ positive images. Since I mess up some of the die cutting (this was before the magic magnetic platform) I had about 26 die cuts! Being extremely frugal with my paper crafting supplies...I couldn't just throw them away.  I used 1.5 die cuts to create this card. Only 24.5 to go!!  Check back to see what I am doing with the remaining die cuts. :-)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

WNY Holiday Stamp-a-Palooza

Another great day of stamping with my fellow paper crafting addicts! Great fun, great inspiration, great food and great conversations with my fellow stampers. The requirement for this shoebox was to make a Holiday themed project, one sample of this item and 20 kits to complete this project. This is the card that I created.

and the inside:

Here are the paper crafted items that were created in the "odd numbered" room. I was assigned to this room along with 19 other lovely women....I don't think any of us could be called "odd"! I hope the numbers assigned to us were random picks and not attributed to our characteristics :-).

and the inside with a pull out paper that tucks behind the bottom ornament:

A couple more fantastic projects:

Hope you can see the embossing on the card on the left.

the insides of the two cards in the previous picture. The card on the right has a Mickey Mouse "Gift Card" attached so you can see how the gift card pops up when you open it! FYI...the gift card was NOT included with the project...wouldn't it be great if it was lol!

Two more of the delightful card from the "odd" room!

As many of you know I am always turning my sketches on the side...well.....never fear I am still turning things! The card on the left was designed to be vertical, I turned it horizontal.

Two lovely snowflake cards...I smeared some ink on the card on the left soooo when I got home I punched a few snowflakes and added them to cover my boo boo ;-)

And once again...I turned the card on the left to be horizontal.

Three delightful cards, the left one is a gate folded card.

 The card on the left is a 'shaker'card, the card on the right is from one of the swaps.

The snowman on the left has a 'light-up' nose, thanks to a battery operated tea light. The adorable box on the 

right is just large enough to hold a votive candle...BTW a candle was included....too bad a 'gift card" was not included in the other project....lol

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

SCS Review

I'm back to share some of the wonderful paper crafting projects from the Flower City SCS Get Together. What a fabulous day it was! Ideas galore, fabulous "make in takes", great fun with fellow 'paper addicts' and delicious food.

There were many wonderful gifts in the 'handmade' gift exchange.

This is the beautiful gift that I received. A fabulous mixed media idea! Definitely on my CASE list.

Here are a few pics of some of the other 'handmade gifts".

What a beautifully coordinated multi purpose gift!

A marvelous way to use those left over 1 " cardstock strips that are cut off from the 12" X 12" papers. Just coil them and attach to a Styrofoam wreath frame!

This is a wonderful mini album....for more info....just google.... "Follow the Paper Trail Mini Albums"...be prepared to be blown away by the creativity!

The card swap was exceptional here are some of the different cards from that swap:

Here are some more....

In addition to all these great ideas there were 'make-in-takes'!!!

These six cards were included in the days activities. And......

This FAB box with a surprise inside....

delicious Hershey Nuggets....yum, yum, yum! But wait there's more.....

This delightful box with.....

a pop-up slot inside to hold a gift card!

There were 41 different cards on display throughout the day.

and more....

and more...

 and more....

and last but not least....

You probably notice that there was a little overlapping from photo to photo but I wanted to be sure that I photographed each and every card/project on display!!!


These are the "shoebox" cards that were made at the table that I was sitting at....

In addition to all the delicious food and the GREAT projects....we each came home with a glue stick, pop dots and 9 plastic containers to recreate the 'gift card' box and the 'Hershey Nugget' box. :-) :-) There were also door prizes and one lucky lady won all 41 cards that were on display!!!

Let the 'countdown' to next year begin!!

I'll be back to share some of the other projects that were done and some close ups of various cards....

But before I do that....I am attending another get together on October 26, 2013 about 1 1/2 hrs from my home. This one is all about Christmas....each participant designs ONE card and 20 kits for making this card.  In addition to the kits, 4 assembled cards are also necessary (one for a sample at the crafting table, one for each of the 2 hostesses and one for a lucky 'door prize' winner). Christmas over load here I come!!! This particular 'get together' is 'NEW to ME' so it will be very interesting. I must thank Maria my Lilac Inkers friend to convincing me to go with her to this Christmas gathering.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.