Hello Fall!

Nothing is better than cool 70 degree days filled with sunshine and beautiful breezes, especially when one has been cooped up with 60 7th graders all week in a hot and humid school building. I'm glad that our Wisconsin weather has decided to give up a break. 

My favorite season is fall and the cooler temps are making me more and more excited for that time of year. I feel bad for people who don't get to experience this. However, I wouldn't mind skipping winter altogether, which is something many of you don't have to endure. There is nothing quite like a WI winter. 

Fall, though, inspired my card today. I am in love with the new Hello Fall set from Stampin' Up and adore the rich colors of Hello Honey and Blissful Blackberry. It also allowed me to play along with Pals Paper Arts Challenge #218, which is in fact a color challenge this week. I also used the Freshly Made Sketch #152 because it offered a very clean layout. 

To create the illusion of DSP, I cut my White cardstock at desired lengths, made a pencil mark so I could see where the cardstock would start, and alternated washi tape from the Fall/Winter Stampin' Up mini catalog to create a funky pattern. I love how if I put the washi tape down wrong, I could easily pull it back up and reposition. I am over the moon about the card! 

A Fabulous Cup of Joe

My last free time act before returning to school next week was to bust out some card challenges because, let's be honest, I kind of forget to update my blog during the school year. I hope I can change that, but I know it won't be easy. 

I am completely obsessed with black and white right now. Good thing I got my Stampin' Up order with the new Back to Black DSP. I'm in heaven. I combined a couple challenges and whipped a birthday card for the teacher across the hall from me. My birthday is September 1st and her's is the 2nd (also our first day with students.)

Once I had it in my mind to make her a birthday card, I knew that I could incorporate Cas-ology's JAVA challenge and Freshly Made's Layout #150. 

Lisa loves her coffee and tea. I am in love with Stampin' Up's Perfect Blend coffee cup. I love making cute wraps to go around the cup. I paired it with PTI's Signature Greetings. I added a touch of sparkle by using a strip of gold sequins. Simple, clean, and classy. I'll add a Starbucks gift card and hope she does indeed have a fabulous birthday!

Simple Celebrate

Do you ever find that your craft space, no matter how big or small, seems to have no room at all? Mine didn't and that meant it was time for a clean up. While I was doing this, I found a bunch of bits and pieces from previous projects, bits of stamped paper here, bits and baubles there, punched out shapes. You name it and I felt like I had it. Well these bits and pieces were the muse, along with Freshly Made Sketches #143 layout for my newest beauty. 

We have lots of birthdays and other celebrations coming up in July and August, so these little gem will come in handy. 

I used PTI's Ombre Builder for the swatch of green, it almost looks like grass. The circle is a Project Life journaling card. A small piece of Afternoon Tea DSP and the wood element come from Stampin' Up. I also had a small piece of Crumb Cake cardstock that had been stamped with the Hardwood stamp from Stampin' Up. All these pieces came together to create a super simple and easy card. 

Monochromatic Watercolor

I guess painting and watercolor are all the rage in paper crafting right now. How did I miss that? Well this week I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do a little watercolor painting of my own. I just bought some watercolor paper and might I add that this made the process a bit easier and less watery. 

I was inspired this week by Cas-ology #84 Challenge: Paint

 Friday Mash-up #144 Challenge: Monochromatic and Flowers

and Freshly Made Sketch #125

and I ended up with this...

I used Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, and Pool Party to make a watercolor ombre effect and then I embossed the large dahlia in white from the Regarding Dahlias stamp set. I punched out the corner instead of adding a shape and added my sentiment in Bermuda Bay ink. I'm loving sequins right now so I added some silver ones for a bit of bling. 

Happy weekend and thoughts of spring!

Go BOLD or Go Home

All this snow is making me want to brighten things up a bit. That's why Cas-ology's BOLD challenge

Dynamic Duos Challenge #90 with Black and Daffodil Delight

and Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #123 

made perfect sense together this week. 

I used my banner punch to make many sizes of arrows in Black, Daffodil, and a piece of Afternoon Tea DSP. I just hodge podged them together is two simple arrows and the focal point was complete. 

I used PTI's Simple Sketches set for the sentiment and a bit of black and white twine woven through a shiny silver button finishes off the card. 

Hoping sun and warmth are just around the corner! 

You & Me

I made a card inspired by Pals Paper Arts Color Combo Challenge #190 this week

and Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #122 provided a simple and clean layout

and Cas-ology's AND challenge. 

Although I contemplated for a while whether this really qualified as a CAS card, I decided that it did because why shouldn't it?

Countless Sayings 2 provided the quaint "You & Me" phrase while many of the items to make this card came directly from the Sale-a-Bration catalog which I got for free when spending $50. I used the Dots embossing folder to make the background. I also used the Petals Parade stamp set to create my own little gray DSP. I'm a big fan of sequins right now and I picked these up from Archiver's when they were 30% off. 

Pumpkin Time

It is no secret that fall is my favorite season. I love the cool nights, baked goods, craft fairs, and leaves turning color. We also love visiting the pumpkin patch. We bought several pumpkins last weekend for cheap and we plan to do all our photo op stuff at the patch. 

This card was inspired by my serious love of pumpkins and fall. I combined a bunch of challenges for a seriously simple Halloween card. 

Color Throwdown #263 provided the perfect fall color assortment. 

Freshly Made Challenge #107 provided a super simple layout. No frills! 

Friday Mash-Up #131 with Spooky and Cas-ology #65 provided the inspiration. 

Last, but certainly not least, CAS-ual Fridays #117 provided a small finishing touch. 

The result is a spooky little card with lots of white space and a few fabulous details. I'm a bit obsessed with the weird white/cream colored pumpkins right now, but for my card I made a gray one. I love Stampin' Up's Jack of All Trades set...too bad it's retired!

Happy Fall y'all!

Falling Gently Thanks

I love autumn. It is by far my favorite season. I'm sad for people that don't really get to experience it in their part of the country or world. The downside is that this means winter is on the way; and if you know Wisconsin winters, you know that they feel like 10 months out of the year. 

I wanted to embrace this beautiful time of year with a fun fall card. I played along with a couple challenges and I was super excited with the results. 

First, I joined Dynamic Duos Challenge #73. Their color palette this week was rich and beautiful with Cajun Craze and Island Indigo as their two choices. 

Next, I mixed those colors into a clean layout from Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #106. I loved the idea of having a circle behind a simple banner. I chose to paper pierce mine. 

Last, I played with the Friday Mash-Up Challenge #130 by cutting out my fussy and time consuming leaves from Stampin' Up's Gently Falling set. I just love the sktechy look of it and they turned out even cuter once I watercolored them. I also used the leaves as a part of CASology's Week 64 Harvest Challenge. 

My finishing touch was a "Thanks" sentiment from the Stampin' Up set Yippee-Skippee! 

Happy Fall everyone!

It's Time for a Wedding

Our cousin, Jason, is getting married today and I needed to throw together a quick wedding card. I took the PPA Challenge #171 colors Baked Brown Sugar, Calypso Coral, and Very Vanilla

as well as Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #103

to put together a simple and rustic card. 

I am a big fan this summer of using Stampin' Up's Sweet Essentials and Embellished Events stamp sets together for weddings and baby cards. They are a perfect match. I love the two champagne glasses and rhinestone bubbles. It is sweet, but not overdone. I also took a play on the sketch and instead of adding brads or buttons (which I was about to do) and I hand stitched twine X's along the two colors of paper. I think it gives the card a shabby chic quality. 

Family is in town, going to eat great wedding food, and can't wait to get my groove on. Looking forward to a great night!