I am absolutely smitten with the Concord & 9th Sophisticated Script Stamp Set! I may be overly enthusiastic because I have never liked my own handwriting, but WOW, I just love how with this stamp set anyone can create cards or paper crafting projects with beautiful script writing! I stamped the script fonts in two colors to highlight two messages: “believe in yourself” and “be you.” I used Simon Says Stamp Rose Apple Premium Ink to stamp out the “be” in believe and the “you” in yourself. The rest of the letters I stamped out in Versafine Onyx Black Pigment Ink.

Then all around the edges of the card front, I used a beautiful Magnolia Floral Stamp Set from Cherrylana Designs (a Ukrainian stamp company). Magnolias are a striking flower because the magnolia blossoms are so large and they are associated with perseverance, dignity and femininity — all things that I associate with my niece as well as the South, which is where my niece grew up. I stamped a flower, created a mask with scrap paper and washi tape to mask off the edges of the flower, stamped a second adjacent and overlapping flower, created another mask to mask off the edges of this second flower, stamped a third flower, etcetera. As I was stamping around the card front, I found I could re-use the masks so I only needed to cut out 4 masks and re-position them as I went along.

I didn’t want to detract from the CAS single layer card design with too much color, so I simply used a 0.05 pt. Copic Multi-liner Pen to just add hash lines to indicate shadows on the underside of petals and back petals. As a finishing touch and a little bit of sparkle, I added a dozen or so dots of Nuvo Glitter Drops in White Blizzard in varying sizes. I popped this card front onto a card base made from Stampin’ Up! Watermelon Wonder card stock (which seemed to perfectly match the Simon Says Stamp Rose Apple Premium Ink!).

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
CASology Season Challenge
Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Where Creativity Meets C9 One Layer Challenge #8

Sue Ann said Krista is a bright young lady who likes the CAS style so I thought I could made a fun shaker card, spelling out “OHIO U.” with the Lawn Fawn Cole’s ABC’s Die Set (also available HERE in the UK) and a small 1/8″ hole punch and filling a shaker pocket with dark green and black sequins — perfect for St. Patricks Day (which happens to be today!) and are the colors of Ohio University.

Since the Ohio University mascot is the bobcat, I decided I could try to alter 3 kitten stamps from the Clearly Besotted “You’re Purrfect” Stamp Set and color up some of cats like bobcats. I used the following Copic colors and drew them all with a stripey bobcat look: E41, W3, W5, W7, E99 and R20. I docked their tails when I fussy cut them out, and I also doodled more almond shaped eyes (for the leaping kitty) and wispy ear tips to make these kittens look more like bobcats.

Lastly, for a little more interest, I used a small paw print stamp and some Simon Says Stamp Cobblestone Premium Dye Ink as well as a Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Pumice Stone to add some fun, whimsical paw prints across the card front. I didn’t want the paw prints to distract from the cute bobcats, and I thought this grey color was a nice coordinating saturation level. I put the popped up the card front with shaker pocket with double sided foam adhesive onto a black card stock card base to finish off the whole look.

The following is a video share of this card:

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Krumspring Think in Thirds Surprise Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Bit O Green Challenge
Addicted to CAS Doodle Challenge
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge
Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Through the Craft Room Door Anything Goes Challenge
Creatalicious Anything Goes Challenge with Optional Gems or Pearls
Penny Black and More Anything Goes Challenge
Seven Hills March Tic Tac Toe Challenge – Animals, Big Letters and Die Cutting

I love the limitless possibilities and the spirit of fun and adventure that hot air balloons symbolize, and, of course, I love my dogs, so why not combine them together? 😀  I hope you like “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!”  (inspired by the Dr. Seuss book of the same title)

I drew and colored this digi for my niece, who is graduating from high school in a couple of weeks. I wrote her a note on the back congratulating her, and this will go into a copy of the Dr. Seuss book I bought for her along with a gift check.  🙂  I thought the image nicely represented the encouraging sentiment: “The sky’s the limit!”

I used the following Copics to color up this digi:
Hot air balloon: C1, 3, 5, and 7
Blue accents: B00, 01 and 02
Poodle (Biscuit): E51, 21, and 33
Havanese (Bandito): W1, E33 and E23
Golden yellow basket and base of hot air balloon: YR20 and 31
Sandbags: W1 and 3

The following is a short video share:

This colored drawing is being entered into the following challenges:
The Pink Elephant Graduation Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday Yellow Challenge

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful crafty day! WOOF

For this card, I used an existing card base and matching envelope in pale swirly blue and just layered a top piece of white card stock that I stamped and punched.  I used a fabulous stamp set called “Puppy Love” from www.RaisinBoat.com and stamped out the little pup wagging his tail 3 times. I stamped one onto the white cardstock, and I stamped two out on white card stock scraps that I could then fussy cut.  I fussy cut the head from one so that I could layer that over the top of a little rolled up diploma (a sticker from Jolees Boutique, but you could easily make this with a little paper and string). I fussy cut the last one out completely to add to the envelope (I love things that match).

The punch I used is a Fiskars paw print punch. These hand held punches are great for quick impact, and this style of punch is really easy to use for those with arthritis (or kids).  I figured the 5 pads of a dog’s paw would go with the handwritten sentiment of “High 5s!”  LOL

This card is being entered into the Raisinboat Graduation Challenge and
the CAS Study 194 Challenge

The following is a video share of this card:

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! WOOF

I used an SP& Company stamp that was a gift from Sami (YT: thescrapmaster) when I purchased 4 other stamps from her store closing sale. When I first saw this stamp, I thought of new years eve and did not really think I would have much use for it. However, once I really took a look at it, I saw that it could easily be transformed and used for any celebratory event!

I just swapped out the party hat for a graduation cap from a Jolee’s sticker package, colored up the cute little guy with my Derwent Inktense water color pencils and my Pentel waterbrush, and added a little metal and epoxy embellishment with the sentiment, “Carpe Diem” (seize the day).  It was a relatively simple card, but I think it came out super cute (and so did my mom!).

This second card was one that I whipped up in a flash. I used a bit of left over card stock, some fun cloud paper, and some remaining stickers from that graduation Jolee’s sticker pack. The sentiment I just wrote out with a Uniball pen and cut into a banner shape, dabbing some blue ink around the edges to coordinate with the card stock. It could not have been easier! Sometimes we crafters are our own worst enemies, making things harder than they need to be. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! Big hugs, Kristina WOOF!

The following is a video share of the first card:

This first card is also being entered into the Raisinboat Blog Challenge
the Simon Says Stamp Masculine Challenge
and the Naughty or Nice Challenge

I used the hippopotamus and the word “hippo” from a little Lawn Fawn stamp set.  The whole sentiment actually reads “Hippo Birdie to You” and is meant to be used for birthday cards, but I just masked off the rest of the sentiment with scotch tape when inking up the image and word then took the tape off before stamping. The coloring was simple with just Copic C3, C5 and R20. I hand wrote the “hooray!” in my best efforts at a similar font style, and I think it came out pretty close. LOL

I rounded the corners of the white card stock card base as well as the stamped top piece with my We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper. Then used my old school McGill hand held hole punches in 3 sizes to make little holes all over the top piece.  I think it created a kind of flying confetti look (yipee!).  I could have left the base card white for a more sophisticated look, but I decided to use my Recollections spray ink in yellow, blue and green shimmer to add some color onto my card base. The color and sparkle peaking through the holes of the top piece are light and bright.

I did add a little dimension to this card by just adhering the top piece with foam adhesive (I couldn’t help myself! I wanted that little shadow and interest!) to the card base.  It didn’t add any weight to the card, but it added a lot of interest IMHO. 🙂  In any event, this card (with a congratulatory check) can be mailed with 1 stamp. YAY!

The following is a video share of the card:

This card is also being entered into:
Case Study Challenge #194
Raisin Boat Graduation/Congratulations Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Masculine Challenge
Naughty or Nice Challenge

Thanks for stopping by. Please subscribe if you wish, and have a great day! WOOF!