Fusion1, CFC97

This card is for the newest challenge on the block - Fusion. There are two inspirations - a sketch and a photo - you can choose one or the other or both! How fun is that? The whole thing is set up like a science experiment, with a hypothesis (the challenge), data (the entries) and and findings (winners).

Fusion's Findings are like Muse in that the participants (and viewers) are the ones who vote on the winners at the end of the week. Jackie Rockwell is the genius behind this concept and I think she's really outdone herself this time (although I'm pretty partial to Muse as well! lol!) (ETA - Jackie has kindly reminded me that Lesley was co-creator of this challenge - way to go ladies - the response already is amazing!)

This week, I chose FUSION - to be inspired by both challenges. I made my chevron out of the flowers (and will link it up to CASual Friday's challenge to use chevrons and flowers). If I can find time this week, I'd like to come back and try the two separate challenges - I think it would be fun to separate them out and see what I can come up with! I hope you'll play along!

CFC97 - Chevrons and Flowers

I knew as soon as I saw this morning's CASual Friday challenge what I wanted to do.

This is a variation on a card I made previously - the use of the Stamps of Life chevron as the leaves is the same, but the flowers are made differently, using a leaf from Paper Smooches Leafy Greens.

Such a lovely spring feeling from this pretty row of tulips - I can't wait to see them for real!

Pinterest Inspired - thanks

Inspired by these two photos on my Inspiration board on Pinterest:

                               

I love the versatility of this geometric design. It's so simple, but the overlap of the stamping really adds interest.  You could easily (and very quickly) make a whole set of thank you cards as a gift for someone - just change the colour combination or leave it the same. I used a leaf shape from Paper Smooches Reflections and the sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

CTS22 - Happy Birthday!

It's Thursday - time for a new CAS(E) This Sketch! This week, it's by Karolyn Loncon:

I turned the sketch on its side and went masculine for this one. I used Papertrey's Watercolour Wonder stripes and a Michael's sentiment.

Now it's your turn! Don't forget to link up by next Tuesday at noon!

OLW134 - Threesome!

It's April 3 and time for another One Layer Wednesday Challenge. We all know that 3 is the magic number in design and architecture. So our challenge for this week is to use as many threesomes as you can. A threesome can be any group of 3 things - you could stamp 3 of the same image, use 3 different stamps or colours - wherever your imagination takes you!

For example - this card has 3 stamps, 3 colours (this colour scheme suggested by my sister, and very pretty it is!) and 3 'beads' of Stickles (I laid it on thick for some dimension as well as sparkle). It's a threesome of threesomes! (Does that make 9? lol!)

I used copics to add some shading to my crocus - a great way to add a little interest to a large solid stamp.

OLW134 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single piece of card stock folded in half. No other layers allowed!!!

2. Use as many 3's as you can - colours, stamps, images.... Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3. Post your card somewhere online and link to it using the InLinkz box on the sidebar of MASKerade. In your post, tell us how many threesomes you used in your card. If you link to your blog, please make sure it's to the individual post and not your home page.

4. The most important rule of all: HAVE FUN!!!!!

CASology 38 - Up!

This week's CASology Cue Card is UP!

Any Big Bang Theory fans out there? Remember when Sheldon (super geek) was trying so hard to be cool, and use current slang? He kept asking Penny "suh up?", giving sound to the apostrophe, making it two syllables, and of course, as a result, looking even geekier. We have adopted this saying in our house and often ask each other "suh up?" in remembrance of Sheldon. And get the smart alec answer "a direction" from my teenage son!

For this card, I used Hero Arts  Thought Bubbles (or is it Speech Bubbles), and Ali Edwards Handwritten alphabet from Technique Tuesday. I coloured the space between the outlines with copics, to add some colour to this very simple card front.

Now it's your turn to pony UP.  (I looked it UP, you know  - there are a LOT of UP phrases - cheer up, stand up, line up, tidy up, toss up, bottoms up, ease up, back up) -  plenty of inspiration to get your mojo going! We have a sponsor this week, too - Lawn Fawn is offering a stamp set of your choice - check out the details at CASology!

Don't forget to link UP by the deadline on Sunday at 4:00 pm CST.

Here are links to the other members of the Design Team - go see what they came UP with!

Tracey McNeely
 Rosemary Dennis
Melissa Chipperfield
Meghan McMillan
Maureen Merritt
Judy Marino 
Jen Wills

and this week's Guest Designer: Dena

Ugliest Card Ever

This is my second post today. For my Muse News, please scroll down to the next post.

Suzanne had the funniest idea for April Fool's Day - post your ugliest card ever. Everyone has one!

I didn't start blogging until I was pretty happy with my cards, so my ugliest card ever is not already on MASKerade. I did post some doozies pre-blog in my gallery at Splitcoaststampers. But even those paled in comparison with this one. I'm not even sure what possessed me to take a picture of it, way back in 2006.

Interesting to note that some of the components here are still favourites of mine - some white space, bright colours, dramatic use of black, bling and kaleidecolor. But somehow they didn't go together very well. Add in some deckled edges and rounded corners (back then, I just threw everything in!) and voila, my ugliest card ever. It was even uglier before I lightened it in Photoshop (but I promise that's all I did - just so you could get a clear view!)

I hope you're brave enough to play along - it's good to laugh at ourselves from time to time. It keeps us humble and it can even be fun!