CASADIA-I adore you

I am constantly browsing other card makers blogs. One day I clicked on a link and found this blog that had these fantastic cards. Wilda at Beacharado also had a challenge where you CASE one another. How fun is that? If you want to come and play, all the information is here. Don't be surprised if you get lost in her blog because this woman is oh so talented!!

The chain began with Wida CASEing the card below by Laura Basson.

It continued more then thirty cards down to Mynette Kitchen's card below, which I had to CASE. Isn't it fabulous?

The creative aspect that really struck me about this card are the heart cut outs. I wanted to do something that had cut outs in it. I also liked the idea of a valentine since this week is Valentine's day. I chose to take Mynette's love theme and try to use cut outs on my card. Below is what I came up with-

I knew I wanted to incorporate the Lawn Fawn border stamp somewhere on this card. I also decided to use a Papertrey ink heart die for the tiny cut outs. I adhered different patterned Washi tape where the hearts were die cut. I also pop dotted the card front, the large pink heart and the little red hearts for added interest.

Here are a few close up's so you can see the details:

Please come on over to CASADIA and browse the other amazing cards that are on this blog. You will definitely get some fabulous ideas!! Have a great day!!

Nora

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge

Happy Saturday...or I should say happy snow day. We got whopped with storm Nemo (or storm Charlotte as the CT stations call it) and have more than two feet of snow. A perfect day to stay in my pajamas and do some crafting.

On the 5th, Nichole Heady has been posting fun anniversary challenges on her blog for Papertrey Ink's 6th anniversary. I have been wanting to play along but either have not had the time or the stamps!!

Today's challenge was to go to pick an inspiration photo from Pinterest and create a wrap, tag or gift package inspired by the image. I chose the image below that was originally taken from House of Turquoise blog. I LOVE the rooms this women posts. They are stunning!!

Here is what I wound up making.

I actually dragged out my sewing machine and used some of the fat quarters I have been collecting over the past couple months to make a fabric gift bag. I then die cut some lemon tart paper using the tag sale #6 die and embossed it with the Herringbone Impression plate. I die cut and stamped a flower and leaves using the Rosie Posie stamp in Aqua Mist and Spring Moss ink. To make the flower pop, I used some Copic markers to shade in parts of it. I then stamped a sentiment from the 2012 Birthday Tags with Smokey Shadow ink.

Here is a close up of the tag:

I adored this little project so much that I sewed 4 other bags. I will post them another time because I did not have time to make any tags.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Nora

Scrapjazz January Card Challenge

I post challenges every month over at Scrapjazz.com. One of the challenges I posted this month was to create a card by drawing an image free hand or tracing one and using it as a focal point. I used to do this before I started stamping and I forgot how much I enjoyed it.

Here is the card I created for this challenge. I "doodled" the mums on this image free hand, as I did the "vase" (not my best work but ok.) I then colored in with Prismacolor pencils. I need to get more mineral oil to blend my images more but this will do for the challenge.

I had so much fun drawing this card that I bought a sketch book to doodle in. I haven't done anything like this in years and I forgot how much I enjoyed it.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a great Friday!!

Nora

Winter Layouts and Cards from a Sketch

I write articles for Scrapjazz.com occasionally and this month I created a sketch. I cannot post the sketch but I wanted to post what I created using it as a guide.

The first page I created was of my daughter in the snow.  I pretty much used the sketch as is. I inked the heck out of my embellishments and used some of my plethora of punches for the snowflakes. I also used glitter glue to make the snowflakes shine. We haven't had snow like this in two years and I hope I don't see that type of winter ever again!!

Don't these photos look so peaceful? This is part of the complex where my father and step mother bought their condo. I flipped the sketch to the right to create this page. The brown spatters are on purpose. I used a mist spray to get the look I wanted. I am looking forward for a return to that weather!!

The next two projects I created were cards. One was a birthday card for my niece, Sydney and the second a holiday card. Syd is a little fashionista and the circle embellishment was perfect for a card!! I used a lace stamp from "Cutie Pie" from My Mind's Eye. This is one of my all time favorite sets. I cannot tell you how much I have used it. It works for layouts and any card theme you can think of.

I created a ribbon poinsettia for my second card-not a technique I would try again!! I think it came out all right but unless I was sitting down and making them like an assembly line, this flower was too labor intensive. Perhaps it was the satin ribbon but it took too long for me to make it to want to give this card away.

Thank you for looking. I hope you come over to Scrapjazz and browse the many articles they have over there. If you do, introduce yourself on the message board. We would love to have you!!

Nora

A Couple Scrapbook Pages

I am back!! Wow!! This must be a record for me in the amount of posts I have written in one month!!

Today I am sharing a couple scrapbook pages I created. Last February we drove to Florida (crazy!) during February vacation to see my father. On this visit, we went to Kilwin's Ice Cream in Stuart, FL at LEAST three times. The ice cream was the BEST I have ever tasted in my life. As you can see, Charlotte enjoyed it too!!

I had fun creating the photo frames on this page. I die cut them with my Silhouette machine and then stamped them with "Cutie Pie" stamps from My Mind's Eye. I love how it came out!!

The second page I created is about the animal park we visited on the same trip. We didn't have high hopes for it but it wound up being pretty fun. The lions were behind a fenced in area, of course, but they had trees by the fences so they were up close and personal. I don't think I have ever been as close to this type of animal before. Most zoos I have been to the trees are in the distance and the big cats tend to be far away. It was a treat to have them this close to the public. A ton of other animals we were close enough to touch, though we followed the rules and kept the windows up. I need to find the time to scrap those photos though. There were a ton!!

I had fun using Washi tape on this page and another stamp from the "Cutie Pie" stamp set. I think my favorite part is the title. I like the effect of the different letters.

The last think I am posting is a card I created using My Mind's Eye papers and a phone die cut from Ellison. (The tag and circle die cuts are from Paper Trey Ink.) I really wish I had one of these "vintage"phones. I guess I shouldn't say that they are vintage because we had one of these when we were growing up. Does that make me old?

That is all for today!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Nora