Muse 102 - Be Mine

It's the weekend and that means you need to hurry if you want to play along with our Guest Muse, Julie, for this week's Muse challenge! Here's her inspiration (isn't the shading on the bears just amazing?):

I focused on the colours, the heart element and the gold embossed sentiment in a fun font. Instead of the two bears, I used a two word sentiment.

I used a Simon Says Stamp die and a Papertrey sentiment.

The deadline for this challenge is Monday morning at 8 am. Voting starts then and continues until 8 am on Tuesday morning. Voting results will be posted on Tuesday at noon. Hope to see you there!

CASology 131 - Birthday!

This week's CASology Cue Card is Birthday!

In fact this week is my husband's birthday, so this challenge is very timely! For this one-layer card, I chose an MFT image (do you ever buy whole sets because you're in love with one stamp? This was the stamp in this set!) and a Simon sentiment. They work together because they both have a heavy, solid, square-ish portion (the all-cap HAPPY and the gifts) and also a lighter, curvier portion (the script birthday and the ribbons). Keeping all 'the action' in the bottom one-third of the card preserves white space and makes the card feel very clean. I finished it off with tiny pops of colour by using enamel dots. They add a festive feeling!

Now it's your turn! Before you make your birthday card, make sure to check out the other DT members for more inspiration!

Gillian Ross

Hazel Hodgkins
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino
Kimberly Wiener
Kymona Tracey
May Park
Melissa Chipperfield
Tracey McNeely

and this week's Guest Designer: Hannelie

Muse 101 - Hearts in Blue

Marion's card for Muse this week is so pretty that I found it difficult not to just remake it!

I tried several different options, and ended up with this clean, graphic and playful card by using similar colours, the heart element (Simon Says Stamp heart dies) and my Creative Memories curvy cutter (retired). I skipped the heat embossing (I can never get my white embossing that clean!) and used negative cuts instead.

There's still time for you to play along - the deadline is Monday at 8 am EST. At that time you can vote for your 3 favourites until Tuesday morning at 8. Voting results will be posted on Tuesday at noon. Hope to see you there!

CASology 130 - Friend

This week's CASology Cue Card is Friend!

I went with a famous CAS icon to make my card. I created my focal image by cutting a square and then cutting a Memory Box 'f' out of it. It was very simple to combine two dies to create one die-cut!

I finished it with a sentiment from Mama Elephant.

And since Less is More is also having a friendly challenge this week, I'll be linking up there as well!

And now it's your turn! Before you go, make sure to check out all the inspiration from the other DT Members!

Gillian Ross

Hazel Hodgkins
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino
Kimberly Wiener
Kymona Tracey
Melissa Chipperfield
Tracey McNeely

and this week's Guest Designer: Ren

CTS106 - Happy Birthday!

Did you see the big news at CAS(E) This Sketch? Michele is the newest DT member. Just like she's the newest DT Member at Muse. I'm getting a theme here! Congratulations, Michele - very well-deserved!

For my card, I started with a solid Gina K Happy, stamped in some lovely bright colours, slightly not straight so that they could overlap a bit like the sketch. I finished it with a Papertrey birthday die.

Muse #100 - Hole-Hearted

This came to me as I fell asleep last night - I couldn't wait to get up and make this card for Muse #100 inspired by Michele's card

and for LIM206 - One-Layered, New Beginnings (this will be the card I use for my sister's wedding next month) and for Virginia's View #11 (my first time playing, finally!) Clean Slate.

To begin, I scored my card and then masked the inside panel before sponging it with Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries and Seedless Preserves (I was actually with Virginia when I bought this colour of distress ink!). I left it to dry.

Then I cut a simple heart from the front, outlined it in Stardust Stickles. Done.

The song (for the Muse Challenge) is "Hole-Hearted" by Extreme. And I think it works for their other hit song "More than Words", in a weird way.

I hope you'll play along with us at Muse this week - it's Michele's first week as our newest DT member, it's our 100th challenge and it's our second anniverary! We've even got prizes for 5 random participants! Hope to see you there before the deadline on Monday at 8 am EST!

CASology 129 - NBUS

This week's CASology Cue Card is NBUS!

Confused? NBUS is a term coined by the Queen of Words herself - Darnell, who just happens to be the CASology Guest of Honour this week!

NBUS stands for Never-Been-Used-Schtuff and it refers to all the stamps, inks, papers, tools and supplies that you just HAD to have but then haven't gotten around to using. Most of us have some of it. And many of us have new goodies after the holidays - so now is the time to use your NBUS!

You can link up at CASology and at Darnell's NBUS#3 Challenge, too. (the deadlines are different - CASology will close next Monday, January 19, NBUS closes on January 22).

I used my new Papertrey Phrase Play Hooray die. I was inspired by this card by Michelle. I love how she cut the 'hooray' out of the journal-card-sized die. I cut it once in black and then once in white. I coloured the white centres with Copics and placed them back into the black word, and then cut up the stamp that said 'you did it' so that I could change the arrangement from the one that you would expect based on the die's original layout.

Now it's your turn! Be sure to get more inspiration from the other DT Members:

Gillian Ross

Hazel Hodgkins

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Judy Marino

Kimberly Wiener

Kymona Tracey

May Park

Melissa Chipperfield

Tracey McNeely

this week's Guest Designer: Ashwini

our NBUS Creator and Guest of Honour: Darnell