CAS Limited Supply Challenge

Time for another challenge blog hop with the Center Stage Spotlight Alumni. I hope you arrived here from the blog of Karen Knegten but if you didn't and would like to start from the beginning of the hop, go to Stamp TV and start out at the top of the hop.


These challenges are such fun and they really do challenge me, especially this time. I'm not usually a clean and simple (CAS) stamper. I really like the look of many of the CAS cards that others make but somehow I've always felt mine looked too unfinished. But this challenge was to do the following:


Create a CAS card or project that contains only the following items and no others:

• Your design must be CAS - Clean And Simple: lots of white or open space with one main focal point
• One image
• One sentiment
• One layer card - your card base plus only one more layer
• Embellishments - you can use any number of embellishments you want, but they all must be the same color

I managed to follow the rules (I think!) and made not one but two CAS cards for the hop. Here is the first one, which, as you can plainly see, is a Thanksgiving card!

This card was made with Gina K Designs Pure Luxury cardstock in Pumpkin Spice and Ivory. I scored the ivory piece using my Scor-Buddy at 1/4" and 1/2" on each side. The image and sentiment are both from the Gina K Designs set by Rupa Shevda called So Grateful. The image is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. The greeting is stamped in Memento Potter's Clay and I sponged just a bit around the edges with Distress Ink Rusty Hinge. I added some adhesive nailheads as my embellishments since the requirement was to make all the embellishments the same color.

Moving on to Christmas, here is my second card.

I have to say that I really live the way this card turned out! It is made using Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart as the base and Ivory as the snowflake panel. I embossed the ivory panel with the Cuttlebug embossing folder called Distressed Snowflakes and then went over the snowflakes and the open area at the bottom with a glue pad. I sprinkled Stampendous Crystal Snow glitter over it to make it sparkly. Then I stamped the adorable image from the Gina K Designs Warm and Cozy Christmas with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copics. I sponged around the image with some Memento Summer Sky. Now here is where I have to admit to needing all my creative powers! LOL! I stamped the greeting from the GKD set Warm Winter Wishes in black onto the white piece of cardstock right where it is now in white, but it came out crooked!! What made me even more mad was that I even used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to position it! I must have bumped it before stamping the greeting since I had it positioned just fine with the Stamp-a-ma-jig. I can't stand it when things are crooked on my cards so I got creative and punched the oval, stamped the greeting in white onto the cranberry tart paper and trimmed around the edges with some Flower Soft Polar White. I think I like the way this turned out better than the way it started out, so the mistake was a good one!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed seeing my two CAS cards. Now pop over to the blog of Lori McAree to see what she has in store for you. 

CSS Alumni Sketch Hop

It's time once again for another Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Alumni blog hop. I hope you arrived here from the blog of Karen Knegten but if you didn't and you want to start the hop from the beginning, jump over to Stamp TV to see all of the great cards the CSS Alumni made based on this sketch.

I am really a fan of sketches because they save me so much time. When I have a sketch I can just jump to figuring out the paper and stamps I want to use instead of trying to figure out the design. They are especially helpful when I need a card quickly and I can just plug in the elements I want rather than agonizing over the layout of the card. I don't use sketches for everything I make but I do like to use them on occasion.

Here is the card I made using this sketch. Even though it is almost 80 degrees here in southern Wisconsin (very un-fall like!), I decided to make a holiday card. It's about time I get started on those, so here is one to get me (and you) going!

I just love this little snowman from the Gina K Designs stamp set called Warm Winter Wishes. The sentiment is from the same set. The cardstock is Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Papers in Ocean Mist and  Rocket Red. The designer paper is from a really fun holiday paper pad from Imaginisce called Cottage Christmas.  I stamped the snowman and greeting with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored him with Copic markers. Those spots you see on his hat are actually glitter -- Stampendous Crystal Snow -- but I couldn't get it to photograph without making it look like spots! There is a touch of glitter other places on the snowman and on the ground also but they don't show up very well. The Ocean Mist strip was embossed using the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder and then swiped with some Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, which I also sponged around the edges of the white image piece. The snowflakes were made using the Spellbinders Create A Flake One and are held together with the silver brad. The brad doesn't adhere the snowflake to the blue strip, however; I decided to give it a bit more dimension and popped the snowflakes up on a pop dot.

I hope you enjoyed my little snowman card. Now hop on along the trail to the blog of Melissa Cash. I know she will have something wonderfully creative to share with you!