Dream Big with CAS-ual Fridays

What perfect timing!

I have a niece whose graduation party is this

weekend, so the inspiration was easy!

Have you played along in the Break Room over at

CAS-ual Fridays yet?  We have a 'Girl Friday Pool'

that specialize in some of the most

creative CAS card-making around.

This week's challenge to 'Graduation...Clean & Simple-Style'

I have always loved my 'Dot Spots' stamps from PTI.

It was the very first set of PTI I ever purchased, but they

don't get used enough, so I am glad to have used them here.

They are really beautiful with the inks that I used

from A Muse Studio.

These have become my 

absolute favorite inks on the planet!

They are silky smooth on paper and so vibrant.

One of my favorite sponsors is on board this week

I finally had a chance to meet the very sweet

Angelica Suarez, the owner of Market Street Stamps

at the Milwaukee Rubber Stamp Expo this past

weekend and what a sweetheart!

We are both on the design team for The Twinery

and live just a few hours from one another, but this

is the first time we have had a chance to meet.

So I hope you will pop over and check out all the fab

designs from our Girl Friday Designers and then

make plans to play this week...those stamps from

Market Street just might be yours!!!!

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock & Designer Paper: A Muse Studio
Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Scrappy Cat, Wordsworth
Ink: A Muse Studio in Cranberry, Slate & Ocean
Misc:  Embossing Powder by Stampendous, 
Rhinestones by Recollections

A Farewell Blog Hop with a Splash



This week's challenge at The Play Date Cafe is a very

special one as we say goodbye to one of it's creators...

Our Senior Designer & my bestie Sarah

is officially leaving us to pursue a wonderful

opportunity in her hometown in the UK.

All of the details are over in The Cafe....so I hope you

will read the story of our humble beginnings

and the story of what's next on her creative journey.

Of course, we will always be close and connected

and I thank her from the bottom of my heart

for all of the inspiration she has brought to the challenge.

Sarah LoVeS doing the color splash challenge and I

thought it was a terrific way to send her off to new adventures.

This week's splash of color is GREEN

and is sponsored by

The images used on this card are from our sponsor.

To honor Sarah, our design team wanted to do a

blog hop with each of our designers and when you

hop along to each of our designers' blogs and leave

a comment, you will be entered to win a prize

from The Play Date Cafe Prize Menu.

You'll find each of the links

over in The Cafe.

 

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock & Designer Paper: A Muse Studio
Stamps: Skipping Stones Design
Ink: Memento in 'Tuxedo'
Markers:  Copic

Bringin' the Bling at CAS-ual Fridays!

It's time for another challenge!

Any ideas from this little snippet what it might be?

I'll give you a hint...it's CAS....  LOL

It's time to add something shiny to your CAS design!

What's not to love about CAS?  

I mean, I am loving the fact that once I come up with a design

concept, I can usually get it done within 30 minutes!

Yes, I love to layer...and layer...and layer...

But if you'll notice, there are a few layers to this card

and it's STILL Clean & Simple.

I hope you will consider joining us in 

the 'Break Room' over at CAS-ual Fridays.

There's a whole bunch of inspiration from 

our 'Girl Fridays' and a each week, there is a 

gallery of beautiful creations from our players.

If you play, you just might win the fabby prize from

so I'll see you there!!!

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock & Designer Paper: A Muse Studio
Stamps: A Muse Studio 'Friends Fur-ever' set
Ink: Memento in 'Rosebud'
Tools:  Big Shot, Spellbinders Standard Circles, Fiskars Border Punch
Tim Holtz Distress Tool

Embellishments: Rhinestone flourish by Prima

A Little Hello from The Play Date Cafe

I am really excited to share this week's challenge 

with you over at....

I adore this color story and the palette that Ruby created!

I started out by creating this fabby background using 

stamp images from Martha Stewart.  No, it's not patterned

paper...it's hand-stamped using two different ink

from A Muse Studio, Sky & French Roast.

I then created the flower using my Spellbinders Dahlia dies

and MME's 'Stella & Rose Hattie' DP.

The blue layer was embossed with my Cuttlebug EF.

The rest of the details are below in Today's Recipe Section.

I did want to mention that the distressing that I did around

the edges of this card is pretty hard-core so I used one

of my favorite tools from Zutter, the Distrezz-it-all.

Here is a close-up of the colors and pattern I created.

We are very happy to welcome the very popular

designer, Laura Davis as our guest this week

and a returning sponsor

So make sure you skeedaddle over to The Cafe

and check out all the wonderful inspiration by

our most fabulous design team!

Thanks for popping by...hope you'll leave

a little love in the form of a comment...

I'd love to 'chat' with you, so make sure

you leave an email address where I can reach you!

Today's Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye 'Stella & Rose Hattie' Collection
Stamps: 'Clear Patterns' from Martha Stewart, sentiment from The Paper Studio
Ink: 'Sky' & 'French Roast' by A Muse Studio
Tools:  Big Shot, Spellbinders 'Dahlia' die cut, Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dot' EF,
Distrezz-it-all by Zutter

Embellishments: Rhinestone pebbles by Recollections

Deadlines Looming...So This is Quick!

Anyone else out there cringing this week when it comes

to even thinking about doing a blog post on Blogger?

It's been an up and down week for sure, but I thought

it was time to share just a little something with you!

I've actually been a busy bee in my studio working

on a variety of deadlines this week and have had this

and a few other cards sitting in the wings.

I am still so loving MME's 'Stella & Rose' collection

and all of the fabby embellishments that go along with it!

The die-cut letters for the sentiment were embellished
with teeny tiny pearls and the top border was punched
using the new Martha 'Star Burst' border punch.
Look at how dimensional those die cuts are!!!

Before I go, I just wanted to share that I have
a project in the current issue of...

I always enjoy being published here and am honored
when they choose my work.
In case you missed it, I hope you will check out
THIS ARTICLE on 'Building the Shabby Chic Look'
that I wrote for them as part of my
'Building Block of Design' Series.

Well I know it was quick, but....
I am working on a projects for 3 upcoming blog hops
and I was asked to be a guest designer for a great
creative blog which requires quite a few cards to be done.
I am happy to say that I am already finished with this
coming week's challenges for
The Play Date Cafe & CAS-ual Fridays...thank goodness!

I'd love to know what creative things you have 
coming up and what you might be working on.
Please leave a comment...
I love hearing from you!

Today's Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye 'Stella & Rose Hazel' Collection
Tools:  'Star burst' Punch Around the Page by Martha Stewart/EK Success

Embellishments: All embellishments by MME unless noted
Crochet flower by Prima, twill ribbon by A Muse Studio in 'sky',
pearls by Recollections, vintage heart lace

Go Fly a Kite at CAS-ual Fridays!

Well...it's definitely Friday the 13th in blog land!

If any of you have been 'away from the planet'...

Blogger has been down for over 36 hours and

has wreaked havoc for me as a DT Coordinator!

But I am happy to say that we are now able to

share the much anticipated 2nd challenge from...

We had an amazing 

ONE HUNDRED & EIGHTY ONE

players for our very first challenge!

Thank  you to all who are already enjoying

the concept...believe me, there is more fun to come!

So this week it is 'Buttons & Twine'!

We are happy to welcome our sponsors

and

Make sure you check out the details over at

CAS-ual Fridays!

I had a great time playing with the fabby DP

from Bo Bunny's Ad Lib Collection.

The stamps are from A Muse Studio

'Vintage a muse' Set & 'Hand scripted' Set.

You can see & order these stamps and more

from my web store here.

Pop on over to see our new challenge,

some amazing inspiration from our design team,

a great prize and a discount on baker's twine

AND

our very first players who made it into the club!!!

Today's Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Bo Bunny 'Ad Lib' CollectionStamps: A Muse Studio 'Vintage a muse' & 'Hand scripted'
Ink: Memento
Tools: Fiskars Corner Rounder

Embellishments: Baker's twine by The Twinery,
Buttons from DeNami Design

Love is....

It's a beautiful color combo...

And here is the CAS design I played with...

I love these stamps from this week's sponsor...

Make sure you pop by

and play along with our most amazing design team!

Today's Project Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampotique Originals

Ink: 'Slate' from A Muse Studio, 'Wisteria' & 'Lime' from Colorbox

Embellishments: Diamond Glaze

Wishing for a Play Date in The Cafe

I do hope you will forgive my quick post....

I have been with a bad back all week long and

the last thing I am able to do right now is 

sit in my studio.

There was no way though, that I would let the day go by

without giving you our brand new color story

for The Play Date Cafe.

I hope you will stop by and check out the 

AmAzInG Inspiration

from our design team.

They never cease to amaze me

and this week is no exception.

We have a wonderful new sponsor....

and a terrific guest designer, so please do

stop by and play along this week!

I hope to be back soon....

Coffee with Girly-friends

Gosh!  How quickly a month goes by!
It's time once again for the......

If you arrived from Jenny's blog,

then you are in the right place.

If not, why not pop back to the DeNami Blog

and get started there because when you

*pop* by each stop on the hop,

you just might win a $20 shopping spree!

You will have until 11:59pm PST

Monday, May 9th

to visit all the blogs and leave

your comments

The theme this month is 'Girly Girl' and I have a

hunch my projects will be a little unconventional. 

I can't think of anything more 'girly' than
getting together with a girlfriend for coffee 
at a favorite cafe. 
So I decided to use

my 'Espresso Petit Fours' stamp set from DeNami.

Along with the 'For You' Circle Frame stamp, I created my

own background for this card.  It's a bit difficult to see all the

ink colors that were used (I really must get a new camera!),

but no worries because I will share those with you a bit later.

 Here is another little CAS take on the same theme....

I went with a different color scheme.

*As a little side note...I just love that 'Ring' EF from QuicKutz.

It's become one of favorites to use because you can use

either the embossed or de-bossed side.

Here are the featured items I used for these projects:

All of the cardstocks and patterned papers

are by A Muse Studio

(which can be purchased from my web store here)

I hope you enjoyed your visit to

The Open Window

Next stop on the hop,

my teammate over at the brand new

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge

Karen Baker

Make sure you leave a comment here to be

eligible for a $20 Shopping Spree from

DeNami Designs.

Today's Project Recipe:

All Cardstock and Designer Paper: 
A Muse Studio
Stamps: 'Espresso Set' & 'For You Circle Frame' from DeNami Design
Ink: 'Sky', 'Lichen', 'Ocean' & 'French Roast' by A Muse Studio
Tools: Big Shot, Embossing Folders by QuicKutz & Cuttlebug,
Spellbinders Dies in 'Scalloped Circles' & 'Standard Circles'
Border Punches by Martha Stewart & Fiskars, Corner Rounder by Fiskars

Embellishments: Stitched Ribbon in 'Lime', 'Sky' & 'French Roast'

by A Muse Studio, pearls by Recollections

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge is Live!!!

The time has finally arrived!!!

is officially live online and ready to issue 

the first challenge!

What a story behind this little challenge....

I've spent a great deal of time thinking about

the genres of challenges out there and so many

have come and gone.

After spending lots of creative time with

Michele Gross on another 'little' challenge I created,

I felt she was the *perfect* person to approach

about creating a new challenge.

I confess, I figured once I asked her if she would be

interested in partnering up with me, it might be a

a month or two before we would start the process.

But lo and behold, within 30 minutes of that

first email, the challenge concept was designed

and five days later a DT call was issued!

I hope you plan to play along with our amazing

'Girl Fridays'

They are one talented group of women!

Oh...here's the rest of my project featuring 'text'...

Clean & Simple indeed!

I love this little 'shirt' image from A Muse Studio

and with their sentiment to match, well...

I now have a Father's Day card for my Father-in-Law!

Of course, A Muse Studio can be found in 

my web store here

I hope you will plan to join us for this week's

challenge!  Head on over to the

CAS-ual Fridays Break Room,

get one of our fab badges for your blog

 

and join in the fun!

Today's Project Recipe:

Designer Paper:  Echo Park 'On the Record'
Stamps: 'Brief Notes' & 'Essential Elements' by A Muse Studio
Ink: Memento in black

Tools: Fiskars Corner Rounder punch