Inspired by my blog header!

The CAS-ual Friday Challenge had a great challenge this week. Create a project inspired by your blog header.  I haven't played along with this challenge yet, but that was great inspiration and I finally jumped in!

Southwest Garden

When I thought of triangles for this week's Cameo Spotlight theme, I got an image of a southwest motif in my head.  Maybe because I live in the southwest? Anyway, I opened my Silhouette Studio Designer software and got to work creating a cutting file that would capture my image of southwest triangles.

I haven't created too many of my own files yet because the Silhouette Online store has so many great files to download. I have been pleasantly surprised how good the Silhouette Studio Designer software is.  It manages to be both easy to use and powerful at the same time. I was able to create the frame for this card very quickly using the replicating and alignment tools. I downloaded the vase, flower and stems from the Silhouette store.

I think my favorite part of this card is the rik-rak trim on the vase. I was scrounging through my embellishment box and spottted this rik-rak which is the perfect shade of turquoise and helps repeat the turquoise triangles from the frame.

I didn't even realize realize that I had a "Gracias" Stamp.  I was on a sheet of clear "thank-you" stamps...I don't know which brand...and I found it while searching for the right stamp to use on the card.  So "Gracias" to the Cameo Spotlight design team for a great theme!

Dynamic Duos #21

Although Kermit the Frog may have thought that it is not easy being green, I found it quite easy to be green with this week's Dynamic Duos challenge.  The biggest challenge for me was sorting through my Stampin' up cardstock and trying to figure which green sheets were Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery.  After a complete reorganization of my cardstock I was able to get under way.  

I was thrilled to find I had a Designer Series Paper Pattern Pack with Certainly Celery (although I later figured out that the color was actually Pear Pizazz...oh well!) and combined that with the Always Artichoke cardstock.  I hope my card captured a cool greenhouse feeling. 

One side of the designer paper has sweet little pin dots and the other side has a nice brocade pattern, which I used under the sentiment. I thought the flowers with the green buttons would help complete the garden feel.

And I wanted to stitch around the outside of the patterned paper, but I had already secured the paper to the card, sooooo.....I drew the stitches on the paper with a white gel pen!

I like how the card turned out and it won't last long in my card box before I sent out to a friend!

Dynamic Duos #20

One of these days I'm going to have to experiment with making my own cutting files for my Silhouette Cameo, but I'm having trouble getting motivated to do that because the Silhouette Online Store has so many great files from so many great designers. Like the bamboo file I used for this week's Dynamic Duos Challenge.

I had a mental list of things that are green and bamboo popped right to the top of my list. I used the Silhouette to cut the bamboo out of black paper and then used Stampin' Up dimensionals to raise the black paper off the green to give the bamboo more depth and interest. I finished the design off with the Chinese symbol for longevity and then added a birthday greeting.

Thank you Redo

After I made my card for the first Cut It Up! challenge I decided to remake the card with some papers I had been collecting here and there.  I also used my tiny tag punch from Stampin Up! and a magnetic alphabet rubber stamp set I found at Tuesday Morning to make the "Thanks" across the bottom.  The letters on the magnetic alphabet stamp can be lined up on a piece of metal so that you can arrange them any way you want. In this case, I just stamped one at a time on to the tags.
I think I like this version of the card even better!

New Challenge - Cut it Up!

There's a new challenge in town!  The Cut It Up! challenge invites participants to submit projects that have die-cuts as part of the design.  The very first challenge is "anything goes" so...here goes!

The flower, leaves and the tags were all cut on my favorite craft room tool...my Silhouette Cameo. I had fun embellishing with rik-rak and attaching the tags with jump rings.  I can't wait to see all the other entries for more inspiration.

The Cameo Spotlight - Color Challenge

I really love the soft color palate chosen for The Cameo Spotlight Challenge #3. To me they feel like nature so I found a nice serene nature graphic at the Silhouette Online Store and incorporated it into a clean and simple card.

Check out the other entries on the Cameo Spotlight Challenge Website!

Dynamic Duos #19

Here in the Phoenix area the temperature has been below 100 degrees for several days now. Not exactly the chill of fall but a glimpse of some relief from our oppressive summer heat. I'm sure we'll still be topping 100 on and off until October but we welcome the respite for now.

With that in mind, the Dynamic Duo Challenge colors were just screaming fall to me so I found a nice little oak leaf graphic at the Silhouette Online Store and combined it with some cut out lettering to make a simple fall themed thank you card.

Dynamic Duos Challenge #18

This August I played along with my first challenge ever, The Cameo Spotlight, and I had so much fun with that I went looking for other challenges.  I found the Dynamic Duos Challenge and decided to join in on the fun there, also.

Challenge #18 is to use Poppy Parade (red) and Lucky Lime aid (green).  Well, with back to school happening all over the country that made me think of apples.  Beautiful red and green apples. My two favorite apple varieties are red...Honey Crisp and Jazz. But I do like to use Granny Smiths to make apple pie so I have a place for both reds and greens in my life.  

I used my the "Print and Cut" feature on my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the red and green apples.  I downloaded the apple file from the Cameo Online Store. To get the apples on the card in even rows I used a technique using dry wall mesh that I learned in this YouTube video.  I used the same technique to position the phrase "You're One of a Kind", which I also cut on the Silhouette Cameo.

Mmmmmm....I think I hear an apple calling to me from my fridge!