A Christmas card that takes no time

I am quite a big fan of making CAS cards.  I'd love to make sophisticated ones, of course, but only occasionally because between my job and my other committments, crafting is quite a luxurious activity for me and I do not want to put myself under pressure!

I saw the sketch at Merry Monday and I know I could make a Christmas time at no time.  The sketch is of course, CAS:

I stayed true to the sketch and finished this card in about 10 minutes:

I like to whip up cards quickly.  Do you?

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Sending birthday wishes

There is a new challenge in town!  It is called Seize the Birthday.  It has a sketch every two weeks - the first week is a girly card and the second week is a manly card.

Its very first sketch looks like this:

I've used the retired Roxie paper to make my card:

 

What I like most about it is the "patterned paper" in the middle - I used bamboo ink to stamp the same flower randomly then used cocoa ink, a darker ink to stamp the focal flower and the sentiment.  Honestly that was not my plan.  My original plan was to stamp the flower and the greeting on the cream-colored paper which is currently the background piece.  However, I've messed up the stamping and that was the last piece of paper I had.  Oops, it's time to make do and that's what I came up with.  Fixing mistakes is an opportunity to test our creativity and I think I've passed.

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I {HEART} YOU

I {HEART} YOU, said a little owl.

I love owls, especially when they are on a stamp.  They are simply irresistible.

I whipped up a quick little card for two challenges: OLW - Hearts and Color Dare #25 Ruby and Indian Corn Blue.  This card took me about five minutes from cultivating idea to finishing the end product, which is something I love!  Imagine you need a card for everyone in the class.  This will be my go-to card:

Perhaps I'll change it to "let's be friends" for the classmates.  I think either one looks good!

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Enjoy the Ride

It's a birthday card.

"Enjoy the ride" means two things.  One, as it suggests, enjoy life.  Two, the recipient is going to a theme park to celebrate, so I hope that he will enjoy the ride(s). 

I turned to the musculine Victory paper for this card.  The plaid pattern and the color combo are just perfect for a musculine card.  The stamp set "Enjoy Life" remains one of my faves.  To tell the truth because it will soon be retired I bought another Enjoy Life set just in case any one of the stamps gets lost or ruined.  Crazy?  I agree.

Let's take a look at this card:

The sketch is one provided by Mojo Monday:

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Sharing

I've got Susan's permission to put a link of her post on my blog.  Please check it out here!

I found Susan's blog accidentally and started to play the One Layer Wednesday's challenges last year. Susan's cards are stunning.  We do not see a lot of layers, embellishments or patterned papers, but you will be amazed by her talent and creativity and power.  Yes, power.  The seemingly simple card draws your attention, so strongly that you keep looking at it with awe.


Her post today is titled "Whats Makes You Unhappy? Part I".  Don't be discouraged to check out her blog because of the word "unhappy".  Her post focuses on certain things that make us crafters feel overwhelmed.  As I am searching for a more concrete crafting goal this year, her post is enlightening.  Her post reminds me that crafting is a fun hobby and I should seek joy, but not pressure in it.  

I think you'll find it inspiring and perhaps therapeutic.  Hope you enjoy reading her post. 

Elements tied together

I love background stamps because there is so much we could do with them.  Let me share a card where I tied all pieces together by a background stamp.  All the pieces were stamped with the same background stamp:  the grey tag and the red heart were stamped tone-on-tone, the black banner was stamped in Versamark and the image was then embossed with clear embossing powder.  Finally, the little white banner was stamped in the third generation hollyhock.  That gives a sense of unity and that's what I like about this card:

Needless to say, I also like the sketch provided by Retro Sketches and the color combo challenge presented by Pals Paper Arts:

 

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Embossing and Stamping

Did you know that embossed images resist ink? Learn this fun trick to ink the areas around your embossed images to make them really stand out!