Saturday, July 12, 2025

Just Saying Hi

This is a card I just made for the CASE It July 2025 Instagram Hop. We are a group of cardmakers who have come together to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) and share cards we have seen on Instagram. It's so much fun to see which cards the other participants chose and how they made those designs their own! I used a variety of pinks and matte gold metallic card stock with the Playful Pieces cover die by Concord & 9th to CASE Channin Pelletier's card on Instagram. I love how she used bold colors and swiped the color on. I want to try her beautiful method soon.









Channin's beautiful card below.








The die and stamp set has so many variations that you can make using the one die and the accompanying sentiments. My photos don't do the gold justice but I think you get the gist of the colors I used.

Our CASE It Instagram Hop is once a month on the second Saturday at noon eastern. You can go to my Instagran account to see all of this month's cards here: @sawithadtomakeit along with all of the other cardmakers involved in our hop. Stop by!

Thanks for visiting!

Carol




Thursday, July 10, 2025

You Are My "Person"

Our Just Us Girls Word Week Challenge #783 is Water. A great theme chosen by our teammate Vicki for this time of year, right? I knew exactly what I wanted to make for it and grabbed some stencils and dies. Be sure to check out the cards made by the team and our talented guest Donna Mikasa on the Just Us Girls Challenge blog.











Products I used:

Sugar Pea Designs - Beach Sunset Stencils

Spellbinders - Oh, Buoy die set, Betterpress Friends sentiment

Distress and Distress Oxide inks

Stenciling came first, then a lot of die cutting and piecing together of the birds and nautical elements. The sand dunes were stenciled using the front and back of the stencil to have different shapes, then fussy cut. I decided to pop up the seagulls, sand dunes and pilings on foam tape. To me it looks like that after-sunset time of day when it is getting dark and the water is calming down. This could be a masculine card, but my next one will be quite different. Stay tuned!

We hope you will join us for some fun with water this week. Hope to see your creations in the gallery!

Carol







Sunday, July 6, 2025

You Had Me at Sunscreen

Summer cards are my absolute favorite and that's what I'm having the most fun with right now. When I saw the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge 693 I tried to figure out a way to use the current sketch and keep it "clean" (CAS) in a summery way. Here is what resulted: 





I stenciled and die cut the umbrella, then die cut the ladies and bathing suits. It was like playing with paper dolls. I wanted a pool deck with a brick/paver pattern in it and remembered this cover die. I popped up the umbrella on foam tape so they have room for cool drinks under there and added a premade sentiment that goes with the reason they are lying under an umbrella. (I put seashells around them in the picture so we can assume the pool is by the beach!)

I'm also playing along at Inspired By Challenges IB 343.




Products I used:

Simply Graphic - sunbathers

Waffle Flower - umbrella

Concord & 9th - cover die

Ranger - Distress oxide ink

Card stock scraps

Rhinestone

Simon Says Stamp - sentiment

Can you imagine the fun and laughter with that many friends together in the sun? Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!

Carol





 

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Miss You Already

It's summertime and I am the hostess this week for our Just Us Girls #782 Die Week - Summer Things. I chose this theme because there are so many things you can die cut that are for summer: A sailboat, sun, sunglasses, seagulls, flamingos, lighthouse, pool/pool floats, beach, beach ball, beach tote, flip flops, ocean waves, ice cream cones, summer drinks and fruits, lemonade stand, watermelon, palm trees, bicycles, vacation items, suitcase/travel items, baseball, etc. And you can accompany them with summery sentiments!

Here is what I came up with for the challenge! I used the airplane window dies and tropical location dies for the view.






I used the Concord & 9th Plane Amazing stamp and die sets. I made this card for our daughter and sneeked it into her carry-on bag when she had to leave to fly "home" yesterday. This is her view when she leaves here...she does miss the tropical zone. So my airplane window (travel) and the scenery (tropical) are the summery things that I die cut for our challenge theme.

I'm also playing along at Insipred By IB343 with my summer card.





I hope you will join us this week and that you will visit the team's blogs to read about their cards! Our guest this month is Donna Mikasa and she has a wonderful card for you as well!

See you in the gallery!

Carol


Have So Much Fun!

Our Time Out Challenge #292 starting today is all about Travel, so I used my Concord & 9th Plane Amazing stamp and die sets to create moving window shades inside the plane. Making the windows isn't difficult and it's fun to have an interactive element on my card.


This Time Out challenge is wide open to interpretation - places to go, places you've been or dreamed of going, adventures to have, methods of travel, books about travel, songs about travel... anything travel related.













The first picture shows the windows open, the second shows them almost closed, and the third view is for you to see the shiny windows made with acetate. The stamping inside the windows is of clouds with a pinky-orange sunset. I took the liberty of making the plane's interior pink (maybe the sunset outside the plane is reflecting on the inside walls) and used gold for the window pulls and the little plane below. Pink and gold are one of my favorite combos!

I followed a video on the C & 9th website to learn how to make the interactive windows and now I want to figure out how to make the large window in the set have acetate and a moving window shade.


Our wonderful sponsor, Angie Blom Digital Designs, is generously offering a $20.00 Store Credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner. Angie's designs are all fabulous, and there are some wonderful travel related designs too! We greatly appreciate Angie's sponsorship of this challenge and support of Time Out.

Last but not least, we are joined by Sherri Schmidt, winner of Time Out #287, as our Guest Designer for this challenge. Sherri posts her work on Flickr as SherrisonlineEven if you are not a Flickr member, you can still view her gallery. Sherri's designs are fun and her style is eclectic. Do treat yourself to a stroll through her gallery for some great inspiration.

We hope to see you in the gallery with some travel fun!

Carol




Thursday, June 26, 2025

Saying Hi

I am sure you have seen all of the different versions of cards out there using this Waffle Flower Postage Collage Envelope die and stencil. I saw a card using patterned paper a while back and can't find it now to show how I was inspired. I kept it in mind and finally tried it out for our Just Us Girls #781 Stencil Challenge this week, chosen by Bobby. 







I am also playing along at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes and Inkspirational Challenges #344: Optional Geometric, the the triangle, square and rectangle shapes of the envelopes.







Products I used:

Waffle Flower - Postage Collage Envelope die and stencil sets, Overlapping Hello Additions stamp and die sets, Postage Collage Mini Seals die set

Concord and 9th - Enamel hearts

American Crafts - Patio Party paper pad

Gold wrapping paper

Altenew - Obsidian black ink pad

Distress and other random ink pads

Foam tape


To start my card, I die cut, then stenciled the body of each envelope. I chose my papers first, then had to test ink colors to match. Next, I traced the envelope flaps on patterned papers through the second stencil and fussy cut them. The papers are all from the same paper pack and I just love the prints. The honeycomb and larger floral patterns have gold foil on them.

I adhered the papers to the flaps and cut a piece of gold wrapping paper to adhere to the back side of my panel. (I saw a video where someone backed the die cut panel with patterned paper and also kept that idea in mind for making my card.) I love real envelopes with glimmery, shiny liners!

Enamel hearts are added to most of the flaps and I included one die cut wax seal. I just got the Waffle Flower Overlapping Hello Additions stamp and die set and couldn't wait to use one on this card.

In the second photo you can see the gold paper I used for the envelope liners and the "wax" seal. The panel is popped up on foam tape on a white A2 card base.

We hope you will find a stencil or two to make a card with this week...stenciled cards are so fun and pretty quick to make! Hope to see your card in our gallery!

Thanks for visiting,

Carol

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Summertime

I just love the colors of summer...bright, cheerful and fun! I used a few of my favorite Simon Says Stamp products to make this stenciled and die cut 6" x 6" card for the Inkspirational Challenge #344: Use Stencils with an optional Geometric Twist. I am also playing along at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.









Products I used:

Simon Says Stamp - Dimensional Rectangles stencil set, Summertime Die, Holographic sequins

Ranger Distress and Distress Oxide ink pads

Vellum


I stenciled first, then hunted down a square sentiment. I  love that the sentiment is a solid piece so that I could adhere the vellum behind it without showing the adhesive. I added sequins after I posted, then added the sequin picture. Which do you like better? I can't decide.

Hope your summer day is treating you well,

Carol