Yeah, I Wanna Sketch!

Hello!

Today I have a VERY CAS card.  I wanted to play along with Lisa Arana's Wanna Sketch Challenge #8, because it is awesome.  And because she is awesome!  She's always got cool sketches, and her sample/inspiration cards will knock you off your feet every time!  The sketch has been up for a bit (I love that it is a monthly challenge which allows more time for ideas to brew!) and I had been a little stumped as to what images I was going to use for the focal point.  The sketch has been kind of etched in my mind ever since it went up, waiting for the right idea to float into my head. 

Fast forward to last night.  I was lazy, and I mean lazy.  I had a bit of a busy day that kind of tuckered me out a bit.  I came home and plopped myself on the couch like a giant slug.  I even missed my workout, which I am normally very committed to.  And it was raining out - just that kind of day when you want to just hunker down and do nothing.  I was so lazy in fact, that I decided at about 5:00 p.m. that I needed a nap.  Ridiculous really!  But I climbed under the covers, laid my head down, and I was just drifting off to sleep, when BAM, my idea for the sketch popped into my head!  Well, naptime was over, and card making time began!  It was a very simple idea, which resulted in a very CAS card.  I did play around with backgrounds/patterned papers, adding little embellishments like a few stars here and there, but it just looked better plain.

Without further babbling ado, here's the sketch:

And my card:

Pretty much as CAS as you can get!  I even debated not adding the white hand-drawn border on, but I decided to go for it to punch it up a bit.  The earth is Paper Smooches (Space Cadets), the moon and the baby hearts are from the Lawn Fawn baby set (some masking required on the moon), the love you is TAWS, and the arrows and the "to the moon and back" are Studio Calico.

Hope you like it!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by :)
Shannon

On the Slant

Hello!

Today's card is for this week's Paper Players Challenge #160.   I really wanted to play along - it's been a while, and I just love playing along with this challenge blog!  They mix up their challenges between sketches, colour schemes, themes, etc.  And, I love how they take the time to describe why cards were chosen as a winner (Headliner!) or runner-up (Cut Above!) - I really think that this adds such a special touch.  I noticed that other blogs do this as well, and just love it!  I'm also going to enter this into the Case Study Challenge this week - always a source of amazing inspiration.  The one and only Jennifer McGuire is the muse!

This week the challenge is a sketch.  Anything on a diagonal is always a stretch for me, but I really wanted to try it out.

Here's the sketch:

Here's the Case Study inspiration:

And here's my card:

I used the wood veneer heart and arrow in place of the chevrons, but other than that I kept true to the sketch.  I used a few things that were already on my desk, including the word bubble, which I had originally cut out for yesterdays card, but later decided to go with a more oval bubble on that one.  I also used a flower stamp to subtly fancy up the background in grey ink.  You might also recognize that stamp from yesterday's card  (although it was much less subtle on that card!).  Other stamps used are from The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS), Paper Smooches and Studio Calico (the arrows).  My sweet discovery today: I was able to easily snip the wood veneer arrow with just my craft scissors so that I could nestle the wood veneer heart in between both ends!  Loved that!!

That's it for me today!
Thank you as always for visiting!!
Shannon

YOU are so nice!!!

Hello!

I just wanted to start this post out by saying THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who leave me such sweet words and encouragement on my posts.  They mean the WORLD to me!  I can't express enough how I am truly touched by every one who takes the time to do this for me.  It honestly makes my heart smile!  So I made a card for all of you today to say thank you for being so nice (and so awesome too!)!!!

Playing along with Case This Sketch #42 and with Dynamic Duos #67.  Although I think I might have already disqualified myself from Case This Sketch!!  I have convinced myself that it is CAS just based on the layout alone, but there's not a whole lot of white space, so I'm not sure everyone would agree!  But I'll throw it in the mix anyway because it was definitely the inspiration behind the card :)  I fell in love with the Dynamic Duos colours for this week, and was thrilled to make them the focus of the card!  I did throw in a few neutrals (the black and grey) just to tie it all together. 

Here is the sketch:

And the colour scheme:

And here's my card for you!!!
 

I think this is the first time ever (and there have been a lot of attempts!!) that I have created a stamped background that I really like!  For some reason, I can just never get it right.  I was just so pleased that this time, it came out just as I'd envisioned it!  The flowers are a mix of Paper Smooches and some very old Stampin' Up stamps that I kept after "the big purge" a couple of months ago, and I'm sure glad I did! 

Thank you all, again, ever so much, for being my friends, my mentors and my inspiration!
And thank you for coming by to see me!!
Shannon xo

The Bee and the Wood Pecker!

Hello!

I think it has been at least a million years since I played along with the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge!!  So at long last, I decided to play along for this week's challenge.  It's a "Cool Shades" colour challenge and at first, I was a bit intimidated by the colours.  But that's kind of the point of a challenge - to take you out of your comfort zone and let the creativity go to work.  And I had a ton of fun making this card!

Here are the challenge colours:

And here's my card:

I wanted to make a birthday card (you can never have enough of those on hand!) and I was totally inspired by the bee.  I bought this set as a Valentine's set, but loved that I could it in another context!  The happy and the day are from Sentiment Sampler and the Bee is from the Valentine set (can't remember what it's called, but it is the sweetest set ever!).  I did a bit of masking to achieve the sentiment I wanted, including masking out the "a" in happy and replacing it with a heart.  The flowers are from Reflections and the kraft coloured leaves were punched from a very old punch I have in my stash.  I STILL do not have any dies or a die cutting machine!!!  Good grief!!!

I also wanted to share a photo with you that I took last weekend.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a wood pecker perched on a tree in our backyard.  We are so fortunate to have a lot of sweet little creatures come and visit us regularly in our backyard - birds, bunnies, squirrels and rumour is there are deer that come by as well (although I haven't seen one yet).  But this little wood pecker just took my breath away, and he was happy to pose for pictures for quite some time before he fluttered off.

I hope he comes back to visit soon!  And hope you enjoyed your visit to see me today - THANK YOU for coming!!

Shannon

A Quick and Easy Thank You

Hello!

It's been a while.  Way too long, actually!!  Things have been busy and my card making has had to go on hiatus :(.  I squeezed a little one in today, which I had intended to make for both The Paper Players #158 challeng and for CAS(E) this Sketch #41, but I missed the deadline for Paper Players :(.  

Paper Players was a colour challenge this week, and here's what I was working with:

And here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

As soon as I saw the "bow tie" image as part of the sketch, I knew I wanted to used a very old Amuse Stamp that I had, and build the rest from there.  I paired it up with one of my fave TAWS birdie stamps, and it was pretty much done!  Easy peasy!  This is just a little thank you card for a friend who had a few of us over for a BBQ this past week - and when I say a few, I mean about 20 of us!  We all had a fabulous time, and the food was sooooo good!!

I have really missed playing along with challenges lately - hopefully I can play along a little more often in the next few weeks!

Thanks for dropping by!
Shannon

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Hello!

Well, yesterday I shared a card that I made for my Dad's retirement and today I'm sharing the card I made for his birthday, which is also coming up.  That makes three, count 'em, three guy cards in a row!  Record for sure!  For this card, I took huge inspiration from Savannah O'Gwynn!  I just love her style - fun, fresh, funky, and always just so unique and creative!  I'm not sure if I accomplished Savannah's look entirely - but I did incorporate some of her signature chevrons and a staple!  Hopefully it makes her proud!

Here's the card:

I really love the look of the slanted top/bottom borders I've been seeing lately, so I thought I would give it a shot for this card.  The "thanks" is a stamp from one of the TAWS sentiment sets that I white embossed on white paper, then cut out.  Yup, it was painful, but I do like the results!  The "for being my" is from a mish mash of PS sets, the chevrons, the happy birthday and the little red hearts are also TAWS, the Dad is Lawn Fawn.  Wood veneer heart is from Studio Calico.

I'm hoping to get back into playing along with some challenges really soon.  I've got a few more upcoming occasions to make cards for and I'm hoping to turn to challenges for the inspiration.

Thank you as always for dropping by!
Shannon

Happy Retirement, Dad!

Hello!

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday!  Today I'm sharing a card that I made for my Dad's retirement.  After sixty, yes SIXTY years of working, he has decided to retire at 72 (well, almost 73!).  We thought we would never see the day!  And I don't think it's sunk in for any of us yet - including him!  He really did start work that young!  He was a coal miner in Wales up until he was 25 and decided to immigrate to Canada.  He spent his last 25 years owning his own business, contracting out engineering services to one of the city hall's out here.  I think that's why it has been so hard for him to give up - it's his very own, something he worked so hard to build, something he has so much pride in.  And, he loved it!  Not many of us can say that!

My Mom is throwing a little retirement party for him this coming Friday.  Of course I made him a little card:

It's a little busier than I normally like to do, but I really wanted to include all of the elements that I did.  It's quite personal for him - he loves to golf, and his happy place - the Mayan Riviera in Mexico.  He and my Mom have been going there at least once every year (sometimes twice) for over the past ten years.  And for the "relax" - who doesn't want to do that?!  That's what retirement should be all about - especially after 60 years of working!

Here's a little picture of me and my Dad taken last year on a family trip to his happy place.  He is wearing his cool dude sunglasses - because he is one cool dude (self proclaimed, in fact - ha ha!!)

Have a good day - thank you for coming by!
Shannon

The Dreaded Guy Card

Hello!

I can't believe I have been gone from my blog for a week!  Felt good to get back in my little card room to get creative!  First on the agenda: making a card for my husband's bestie (although I'm pretty sure they don't call each other that!) whose birthday is coming up next week.  And I really wanted to play along with Lisa Arana's Wanna Sketch #7 challenge again this month.  The bigger challenge - making a guy card!  They are SO HARD to make!  But using Lisa's sketch was a huge inspiration and I was actually able to come up with something I didn't mind!  Those occasions seldom happen in the "guy card department"!!

Here's the sketch: 

Lisa's take on it is awesome - you have to check it out!

And here's my take:

The gray background is just laying the paper into wet ink - it gives such a cool look.  I stamped the hexagons in versamark and white embossed them.  Made my own little happy birthday banner, added the clip from Paper Smooches (I've been wanted to use that for so long!), a few sentiments in red, yellow chevron stamped 3/4 across the panel and some polka dots from TAWS.  Finished it off with some splatters. 

Hope you're enjoying your day!  Thank you so much for stopping by to see me!
Shannon