Newton's Nook for Paper Funday

Welcome all to the February 2024 challenge for The Paper Funday where Anything Goes. This is a monthly challenge which begins on the first Weds. of each month. We have sponsors for our challenges and this month I created a baby card with Newton's Nook Designs.

I am big fan of supporting small businesses and here is a short clip from Newton's Nook "About" page on their website:

"Newton's Nook Designs is made up of a husband and wife team located in Southern Wisconsin (Go Packers!) Our goal is to provide you with unique and whimsical stamp designs that are fun to use and make you smile!"

I often create CAS"ish" cards (Clean and Simple) for I find I am most happy with the design when it has plenty of white space.  I used Newton's Nook Designs Bitty Bibs and the coordinating die called Baby Bibs for this card - Just love all the images and sentiments!

I stamped the images on Distress Ink Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Crystal Clear Embossing powder.  They were watercolored with Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolors with my #8 Silver Black Velvet Watercolor Brush.

The simple ink blended background is from MFT Stamps called Cable Knit Sweater which seems to be discontinued, but really any design would do in the background. The background panel was cut with Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangles. The beautiful blue hearts are from Trinity Stamps - Berry Blue Mix Jelly Drop Hearts. Perfect for it has various sizes in the mix.

Is this just the cutest set? Thank so much for joining me and let's see what you create...just enter in The Paper Funday Challenge!

I will also be submitting to NBUS Challenge for I've never used this set before!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Snails with Hero Arts

Hi friends! Today's post is to play along with Addicted to CAS #202:

I love both CAS cards and Geometric, so I couldn't resist this challenge. I recently posted a blog about a Hero Arts set I purchased for their Summer 2021 Stamp Along  called Succulent Bouquet (Combo). In this set there is a tiny little snail, which is a creature my daughter just loves (bottom left corner).

I stamped them onto Ranger Watercolor Paper with Hero Art's Intensified Black Ink and watercolored with the colors from the ColorThrowDown #651 which is now closed, but still fun to use the colors from challenges. They are: navy, turquoise, magenta and green.

The Succulent Bouquet Combo has a coordinating die for the snail, too which really makes it easy.

For the Geometric part of the challenge, I choose squares.  Using Taylored Expressions' 6 X 6 Masking Stencil - Square Window, I ink blended Scrapbook.com's Caribbean Hybrid Ink softly in the set of 3 windows. I like to use Wendy Vecchi's Make Art Stay-tion when stenciling. It really helps to hold the stencil in place with no spray adhesive or tape involved.

If you are looking a a good versatile set of hybrid inks, Scrapbook.com has wonderful colors! They dry quickly and can be use with both watercolors and alcohol markers. Easy to use when ink blending, too!

Here are all the colors available in Scrapbook.com's Hybrid Ink line. I have them all (full set syndrome) and find them great!

I used a Flora & Fauna Clear Stamp set I have had for a long time and never used, called Slow Down Snail, now retired. It has some great sentiments and images and I made 2 more cards using it:

Thanks so much for joining me today! I am also going to submit to NBUS because I've never used the Slow Down Snail stamp set and don't know why. It is the cutest set!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

CAS Watercolored Seahorse

Hi friends - welcome to the last the Card Concept Challenge, Long Summer Days, before our summer hiatus:

I was so inspired by the indigo blue seahorse on the plate in the center with it's clean and simple border design that I wanted to mimic it in a card.

The Sea Horse is a digital stamp from Polkadoodles.co.uk from their Winnie Starfish/Sandcastle Collection. You know I am a fan of digital stamps, but one of my favorite digi stamp features is resizing, turning and flipping anyway which way! Since I wanted my little guy in the corner, he had to be just the right size, not too big and not too small - just like goldilocks! Easy to do with a digital stamp.

I used Ranger Watercolor Paper, rough side up, for my digital print through my Brother Laser Printer, watercolored with Winsor Newton Artists Water Colour Antwerp Blue using my Silver Black Velvet Brush #6. Those brushes keep a perfect point to get into all tiny areas without an issue!

To keep the Clean and Simple look, but add a smidge of shine, I used my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System with Spellbinders Essential Glimmer Rectangles Hot Foil Plates:

The Glimmer Hot Foil Roll in Gold is just lovely! I should mention that I cut the foil to just cover the hot foil plate and not the image. A laser printed image can and will pick up the foiling. I didn't want it for this card.

I used this Gold Foil shown above on the border and the sentiment from Spellbinder's Glimmer Everyday Sentiments II Hot Foil Plates:

I made 2 cards using the same supplies:

The card on the right, I simply scored a few lines, just to give it a little detail, still keeping it CAS! The card bases I use most of the time are made from Hero Hues Premium Dove White Card Stock. It's 100 lb. weight and I find it easier to score and fold than the typical 120 lb. - 130 lb. card stock, yet holds water colored panels beautifully.

Thank you for joining me today and as I mentioned The Card Concept Challenges will be taking the summer off, but back in September with more inspirational fun!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Fun with CAS Inchies!

Hi friends. Did you ever just want to play along with a challenge and make multiple cards? That seems to be my MO lately. I like the challenges that are at least 2 weeks long. It gives me time to mull over the design, take & edit photos and write a blog.

AAA Cards has a Clean and Simple Challenge going on now:

The rules are that your inchie must be a circle or a square and if you have a sentiment it has to be on the inchie itself. I went through a good part of my stash and found some NBUS stamps to use. This is really sad because these are wooden tag stamps from Stampin' Up! dated 2006. 15 year old stamp sets called: Terrific Tags, Tags So Much and Too Terrific Tags. Never used these particular ones before.

I used My Favorite Things Smooth White Card Stock for the bases of all 4 cards. Lately I have not been using my Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb. card stock for I am finding it hard to score for bases. This MFT Smooth White is 100 lb. and much easier to score and yet really sturdy for bases.

I stamped all the images with Altenew Obsidian Black Ink for that really crisp dark look. There were each die cut with the one inch square from Hero Arts Square Infinity Dies. If you need a square - this is the go to set. Every size imaginable:

I added a few dotted lines using a retired Stampin' Up! set called Swirly Frames. Lately I have been destashing my Stampin' Up! products on Ebay, but this one is a keeper.

All 4 images were popped up with Fun Stamper Journey Medium Foam Squares. 4 to each inchie and I really like these particular foam squares because I can move the image around until I press firmly down. 

Well that's it for today! Mostly retired products, but fun to look at them in a new way. If you've never tried a CAS card, they are not always the easiest. Keeping everything pristine is sometimes really difficult with black ink and a messy craft desk! I really enjoyed this challenge....thank you to AAA Cards and NBUS for hosting.

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

SugarPea Designs You're My Type

Hi friends! It has been raining and gloomy here in North Carolina for about a week and the forecast is calling for rain for another week. It's hard to take good pictures without the great natural light, so I apologize for the photos.

I am playing along with 2 challenges: One is a color challenge: As You See It #243:

and one is a CAS Sketch Challenge: AAA Cards #183:

I started with Sugarpea Designs' cute stamp called You're My Type. I have used this before (not NBUS) and wanted to make a few cards for Friendship Day at the end of July. If you look at all the sentiments in this set, you'll see that it covers almost any circumstance - get well, anniversary, Christmas, birthday, and general love and miss you. I really enjoy working with this set and it stamps beautifully!

In the spirit of CAS and a corner challenge I stamped the typewriter in the corner of an 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Card stock using Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink. Why do I always use this black ink? It is a rich, dark beautiful color and stamps thoroughly with an acrylic block. It also stays wet for a bit, so I can sprinkle clear embossing powder over it and heat set. I like to do this to prevent bleeding with both watercolors and alcohol markers. This card was colored with grey alcohol markers from several different manufacturers.

I stamped the sentiment onto the typewriter sheet. I've been brave lately and used an acrylic block and not my MISTI for these small stampings. But I practice on scrap paper until it comes out perfectly and I know how the stamp handles.

I stamped the typewriter again onto a piece of Gina K Masking Paper and fussy cut it. This sticky image I placed over the typewriter so that I could lay the stencil over it and ink blend with Ranger's Distress Ink Mowed Lawn. The stencil is from Scrapbook.com called Little Boxes. I just wanted the stencilling to fade to nothing from around the typewriter.

The background is paper from Stampin' Up! in Sahara Sand. I used the Lawn Fawn Just Stitching Double Rectangles around the A2 piece. It only pierces, does not die cut.  The little flower is from my stash, cut out of scrap of watercolor paper and colored with alcohol markers. A red enamel dot from my stash for the center, but Kat Scrappiness just came out with some new ones which would work perfectly.

I set the cover panel at a bit of an angle using Tombow Mono Liquid Adhesive. My preferred adhesive so I can move the card stock a bit before it sets up.

A Clean and Simple card, but I love it! It has some dimension and bright colors.

Thank you for joining me today and I hope there is some sun wherever you are!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.