Lucky Clean & Simple

I'm back from my business trip and so glad to have had a snow day today. I know. I know. Everyone is sick of winter and snow. Not me! I'm still thrilled every time it snows and I love the bonus of a snow day!   

Today I'm playing along with the Addicted to CAS crew. The codeword for the challenge is LUCK. Well, it is St. Patrick's Day, but I don't really celebrate it and I don't have any St. Paddy's day stamps. I wanted to go for something that was less obvious that green leprechauns and pots of gold. I was having trouble coming up with something, so I looked up the word "luck" on the online dictionary. I found that a synonym for "luck" is "blessing" and I do have the "Blessings from Heaven" set that I love, but rarely use.

I went way off the obvious and used Blushing Bride, Whisper White, and Basic Black. I think this color combination lends itself to clean and simple. Of course, I can't leave the blank background blank, so I embossed the Blushing Bride panel with one of my favorite embossing folders: Perfect Polka Dots. I also thought the Whisper White Organza Ribbon was a little lost, so I tied on a piece of Basic Black 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon.

(Stamp Set: Blessings From Heaven; Ink: Basic Black; Card Stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Blushing Bride; Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Deco Labels Collection Framelits, Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Basic Black 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon)

Addicted to CAS challenge

Welcome to day two of my series on stamping challenge blogs.  I hope you'll play along with me!

Today's challenge is from the Addicted to CAS blog--another blog that I found on my new friend Shana's blog.  The ATC challenge this fortnight (they're in Australia) is:



The ATC blog describes the clean and simple style like this: "a project with very few embellishments, clean lines and lots of 'white' space.  White space just means an area of your card with nothing on it at all. It doesn't have to be 'white'. It could be brown, pink or red. Any colour as long as there is lots of SPACE."

I've admitted before that CAS is not my forte and it's much, much harder to pull off than you would imagine.  But I thought I'd have a go at it.  What do you think?

(Stamp Sets: Gently Falling, Blessings From Heaven; Ink: Early Espresso; Markers:  Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Summer Starfruit; Card Stock:  Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; Accessories: Simply Scored Scoring Tool)

I knew I couldn't let all that "white" space go without some kind of texture, so I added a couple of lines using the Simply Scored Scoring Tool to add a frame.  Since Gently Falling is a two-step stamp, I first stamped the outline of each leaf in Early Espresso.  To fill in the leaves, I used a variation of the "Shana technique"--I scribbled with my marker on the stamps themselves and then spritzed the stamp with alcohol before I stamped the image onto the outline.  I did this with each of the three colors, so I stamped the leaves a total of four times:  once with the outline and three times with each color.  Then I fussy cut (another term I learned from Shana) the leaves and adhered them to the card.


REMINDER:  I'll be selling new and used retired Stampin' Up stamps, inks, papers, tools--and other non-Stampin' Up items at the 3rd Annual Cropmania Fall Scrapbook Indoor Yard Sale on Sunday October 13.  Details below. Hope you'll come out and get some great deals!

HUGE MARKDOWNS AND GREAT DEALS AND BARGAINS!!!
Sunday October 13th
9am-2pm

Elks Lodge #622
2 Pythian Dr (off Rt 2)
Edgewater, MD 21037

51 Tables of Marked Down Scrapbooking/Stamping Supplies!
5 online stores (2-3 tables each), 8 Consultants,  30 ladies with way too much stuff!!!!

$5 at the door to get in

Bottled water and snacks available onsite for purchase.

For more info and directions, go to www.cropmania.com and click on Yardsale.