Encouragement Squad - Dec 2017

Hello crafty friends,

Here's a link to this month's Calling All Sistahs Challenge blog and our inspiration colors are Red, Green, White and Black.  

The card I made has a "I'm thinking of you" sentiment on the front, which can be easily pared with a "during this holiday season" or "at Christmas time" on the card's inside.  The sentiment "I'm thinking of you" and the flowers are from the PRETTY POSIES stamp set.  The Holly from the SLEIGHRIDE stamp set and the sleigh from the SLEIGH FRI-DIES set.

Thank you for stopping bye today.  This is my last card for the Cas-ual Friday Encouragement Squad Design Team, as I will be moving over to the Cas-ual Friday Inspiration Squad Design Team in January.  It's been very rewarding being on this team and I'm super excited for the opportunities being part of the Cas-ual Friday Inspiration Squad Design Team will offer me.  

Wishing all of you a VERY Happy Holidays... take a little time for yourself if possible and consider submitting a card to this month's challenge.   

Encouragement Squad - Nov 2017

Hello crafty friends,

Here's a link to this month's Calling All Sistahs Challenge blog. 

I think this month's inspiration board is very relaxing, with it's two shades of greens, white and brown color combo.  I bet you can create something wonderful with this color combo.  Here's what I made with just one leaf stamp:

I used the largest leaf in the Pretty Posies stamp set to create my leaf pattern.  The Bravo die is from the Smiling die set and the sentiment is from the Sassy Smiles stamp set.

Thank you for stopping bye today.  Please consider submitting a card to this month's challenge.  Until next month... take care.  

Encouragement Squad - Oct 2017

Hello crafty friends,

I have to admit that I had to give this Inspiration board some extra thinking, because of the colors.  When I think of October, I think of Fall and Halloween... oranges, black and purples, definitely not pinks.  But sometimes it's good to step outside our normal...

I picked the dark brown (which I later found out was actually black... LOL) and the light pink as my colors.  Using the largest leaf from the Pretty Posies stamp set and letters from the Flower Alphabet  stamp set I created this card:

Basically, I die cut a panel, stamped my leaf several times at the bottom of it and then I cut openings into it each of the leafs w/a craft knife, so that the pink of my background paper could be seen.  Next, I added my sentiment and as a finishing touch some sequins.

Thank you for stopping bye today.  Please consider submitting a card to this month's challenge.  Until next month... take care.  

Encouragement Squad - Sept 2017

Hello crafty friends,

I love the strong deep colors of our inspiration board for this month:

I reached for my go to flower stamp set, the Pretty Posies (I can't stop using this set) and with lots of masks (the dies makes creating masks soooo easy) on hand I started stamping the one of the flowers. I wanted two rows of each color (red, orange, yellow) and a little room at the bottom for my sentiment.  I also masked the edges of my card panel for a clean finished look.  I used zig brush markers to make the centers of the flowers bolder.  As a finishing touch I placed matching card stock behind my card front panel.

Thank you for stopping bye today.  Please consider submitting a card to this month's challenge.  Until next month... take care.  

Calling All Sistahs - Sept 2017

Hello craft friends,

It's time for your reminder from the CAS-ual Fridays Encouragement Squad to do your monthly breast self exam and scheduled your yearly mammogram.  

Thank you for stopping by today.  Come back tomorrow for September's Encouragement Challenge!  Until tomorrow... take care. 

Encouragement Squad - Aug 2017

Hello crafty friends,

Our color inspiration board for this month has soft beachy colors... perfect for the last few summer weeks:

I created an ombre spiral with the navy, blue and tan colors.  I used Distress Inks, starting with my darkest color in the center.

Once my inked background was done, I randomly stamped the smallest of the flowers from the Pretty Posies stamp set using my darkest ink color.  The sentiment is also from the Pretty Posies stamp set. The tiny blue flower is from the Exclamations stamp set.  The Smile comes with two other dies in the Smiling Fri-Dies set.  In order to give dimension to my "Smile" die cut... I die cut it three times from a beige pearl finish card stock and glue them together for impact.  My final touch was adding some baby blue glitter glue onto the flowers centers.

Thank you for stopping bye today.  Please consider submitting a card to this month's challenge.  Until next month... take care.
 

Calling All Sistahs - Aug 2017

Hello craft friends,

It's time for the CAS-ual Fridays Encouragement Squad reminder to do your monthly breast self exam and scheduled your yearly mammogram.   Here's a little inspiration for you:

I used stamps from the Calling all Sistahs and the Ribbon Hope sets for this card.  

Thank you for stopping by today.  Come back tomorrow for August's Encouragement Challenge!  Until tomorrow... take care. 

Encouragement Squad - July 2017

Hello crafty friends,

Our color inspiration board for this month has strong summer colors...

I used two of the colors (Red and Blue) for a patriotic encouragement card.  

I started with a stitched rectangle front card panel, which I inked with red and blue using a 12x12 stencil (TCW166).  I added three Zig colored Pretty Posies flowers, which I die cut using the stamp set's matching Posies Fri-Dies onto the middle right corner of the card front.  I next added a red glitter card stock "Smile" die cut using the Smiling Fri-Dies set.  In order to give dimension to my "Smile" die cut... I die cut it three times and glue them together for a nice big impact.  My final touch was adding some white Nuvo Crystal Accents onto the flowers centers.        

Encouragement Squad - June 2017

Hello craft friends,

Our color inspiration board for this month:

I love the deep red and purple in this month's color skein.   Similar to my card from yesterday, I created a one layer card using the Pretty Posie stamp and die sets.   I created masks and stamped my flowers around a center heart, which I first masked off and later die cut to create a shaker element. The one layer card front is raised up with foam tape and the centers of the flowers have sequins.  The flowers were all colored with my zig watercolor brush pens. 

Thank you for stopping bye today.  Please consider submitting a card to June's challenge.  Until next month... take care.

Encouragement Squad - My Intro Day

Hello craft friends,

This news has been bubbling up inside me for weeks and I'm so happy to FINALLY be able to tell you all it.   Drum roll please....  I made the CAS-ual Friday Encouragement Squad!  How freaking awesome is that.

If you are not familiar with the new Encouragement Squad, let me tell you a little about it and link you to our new website.  Michele Gross' goal for the monthly Calling All Sistahs blog hop was to remind our sistahs to do their self breast exams and in doing so to spread awareness about the importance of early detection in a fun and light hearted way.  I took part in several of these monthly blog hops and when Michele was looking for Designers for a new team, I jumped at the chance.   You can read more about what makes this team different and special here. 

So here's how this is going to work:

On the 17th of each month,  a post featuring a parade of projects from the Encouragement Squad design team.  

The next day on the 18th, an encouragement challenge will begin for anyone and everyone who wants to participate! It will be a photo that features color chips. Players can use the color chips or draw inspiration from the photo, or both to create an encouragement card with no product and no genre restrictions. It could be for someone who was just diagnosed, going through treatment, recovering from any sort of illness or surgery, going through a rough time in a relationship or job, or experiencing a crossroads in life. There are a bazillion reasons that we might need to make an encouragement card to let someone know we are thinking of them, and that will be the main focus of this new challenge. 

Now that you know what's going on, let me show you the card i created for my intro post:

The first thing you have to know about me, is that I love penguins, so my first card w/CAS-ual Friday had to have a penguin on it.  Now, I'm sorry to say that the penguin is not one of Michele's stamps, but don't worry, in the coming months I'll work on her to bring us some animals stamps ;)

The main focus of this card is the floral speech bubble and I created it with the lovely Pretty Posies stamp set and coordinating dies.  I started by stamping and water coloring several of the flowers and leaves with my zig brush pens on watercolor paper.   I use strathmore mixed media 400 series.  Once all my flowers and leaves were done, I set them aside and die cut the bottom of my speech bubble.   

Next i started placing my flowers within the speech bubble trying to cover as much of the black glitter card stock speech bubble.   Once I liked their placement and they were all attached.  I die cut the bottom of the speech bubble again to get a clean bottom edge.  I added some teal enamel dots and using dimensional tape attached the floral speech bubble to my card front.  

Since I had a few flower leftover, I decide to make the inside a little special and glued them directly onto the inside panel along w/a die cut hello and the "I'm thinking of you" stamped sentiment from the same Pretty Posies stamp set

Thanks for stopping bye...  I'm beyond excited to be part of this new team and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of you on social media and at craft fairs.  Until next time... take care.