CSS Group Project!!!

Hi there!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  We sure did.  It was really a nice long weekend and my husband and I attended a Bengals game yesterday.  So much fun!

Today is Group Project day at Clear & Simple Stamps.  This challenge was, for lack of a better word, challenging.  I can tell you I made my fair share of recipes for Thanksgiving, but today we are talking about card recipes, not food recipes.  For my card, the design team was asked to follow this recipe for their cards:
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• 1 Button
• 1 Image
• 2 Dies / Die Cuts
• 1 Sentiment

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My card uses my new favorite neutral color, Pressed Greige Linen.  The card base uses one die (Labels 5) and the sentiment strip uses another die (the smaller die from Tags 1) that I modified to be a smidge narrower.  The floral image I chose comes from Well Preserved Jars: Small.  I colored the image with watercolor pencils and an aqua-painter.  The sentiment is from Well Preserved and the button came from my stash.        

Also worth noting, my card is very small.  It's more like a tag.  It's about 2.5" x 2.5".

I can't wait to find out if my fellow designers had a hard time with this challenge like I did.  Please check out their creations:

• Lori Tecler
• Jaclyn Miller
• Kim Duran
• Tracy Schultz
• Laurie Willison
• Jennifer Rzasa
• Clear & Simple Stamps

Have a great day!

{Thank You}

Stamps: Well Preserved, Well Preserved Jars: Small (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Card Stock: Pressed Greige Linen, VIP Purple (CSS)

Ink: Perfect Little Black Dress, Purplicious (CSS)

Dies: Labels 5, Tags 1 (CSS) 

Accessories: Button, Twine, Watercolor Pencils, Aqua-Painter, Glue Dots

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CSS Group Project!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just a few days away?  Crazy, huh?  Appropriately, today's Clear & Simple Stamps design team group post is all about giving thanks.  Each of us has created a THANK YOU card to share on our blogs today.  

My card uses traditional fall colors and is pretty clean and simple.  I created a sort of collage using different elements, colors and textures.  

Be sure to hop around and see what each designer created!  

• Lori Tecler
• Jaclyn Miller
• Kim Duran
• Tracy Schultz
• Laurie Willison
• Jennifer Rzasa
• Elena Roussakis
• Clear & Simple Stamps

I have many, many things to be thankful for.  One of them is that I have a creative outlet in this blog and that I have the nicest people stop in and see what I created and share my enthusiasm for this craft.  From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

Have a great day!

{Thank You}

Stamps: Leaflets, Designer Lines, Label Frames 1, Well Preserved (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Card Stock: Kraft Like a Rockstar, Cre'me de la Cream, Brown Leather Satchel (CSS)

Ink: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Dare to Be a Diva Red, Orange You Fabulous (CSS)

Dies: Leaflets (CSS) 

Accessories: Edge Distresser, Brown/White Twine (CSS), Foam Dots, Corner Rounder Punch

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CSS Group Project! It's Seasonal!!!

Hello!  The CSS Design Team and I have another group project to share.  This time it's an inspiration challenge.  Check out the photos below, they are all seasonal.  What is your favorite season?

My favorite season is Fall.  I love the cooler weather, wearing tee shirts and jeans, sipping apple cider, making chili, what's not to love?!  

I created a Fall card to share today.  As soon as I saw the new Leaflets stamps and dies, I couldn't picture stamping them in any other colors than fall ones.  As you can see here, I stamped each leaf with three colors: Dare to Be a Diva Red, Orange You Fabulous, and Say Yellow to All Your Fans.

The sentiment "thank you" comes from the newly release set Well Preserved.  I am in love with that font!!!

Those woodgrain squares are from a previously set that I just adore called Mini Squares.   One of these days I am going to photograph my cards before I erase all the pencil lines.  Every card I make pretty much has pencil lines made using a ruler to make sure sentiments are straight and items are centered if needed.  

Please join me in checking out all of my fellow designers creations:

• Jaclyn Miller
• Kim Duran
• Tracy Schultz
• Laurie Willison
• Lori Tecler
• Jennifer Rzasa
• Elena Roussakis
• Laura Bassen
• Audrey Tokach (guest designer)

• Clear & Simple Stamps Blog

Please stay safe if you are in the path of hurricane Sandy, you are all in my thoughts.  Have a great day!

{Thank You}

Stamps: Leaflets, Well Preserved, Mini Squares (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Card Stock: Kraft Like a Rockstar, On the Catwalk Cream (CSS)

Ink: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Dare to Be a Diva Red, Orange You Fabulous, Say Yellow to All Your Fans (CSS)

Dies:  Leaflets (CSS)

Accessories: Foam Dots

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CSS Release Day: Well Preserved

Hey guys!  Another exciting day of releases from Clear & Simple Stamps here!!!  Today CSS is releasing Well Preserved, a collection of jar stamps and coordinating images, sentiments and dies.  When I first saw this set, this was the card I envisioned!  I just love those flowers and the simplicity of the jar.  

I started by stamping the sentiment first, masking it off and then stamping the jar and then the flowers, all in Perfect Little Black Dress ink.  I colored the flowers with watercolor pencils and an aqua-painter.

I peeled the original label off the candle and replaced it with my own label.  I chose an image from Label Frames 1 and used both Say Yellow to All Your Fans and Creamsicle Cardigan ink to create a color of ink to match the flowers on the card.  I cut out the label and left tails on both sides that wrap around the candle.  I added some gems to kick it up a notch.

• Kim Duran
• Stephany Zerbe
• Elena Roussakis
• Denise January
• Laura Bassen
• Laurie Willison
• Lori Tecler
• Clear & Simple Stamps

Have a great day!

{A Well Preserved Friendship}

Stamps: Label Frames 1, Well Preserved Jars: Extra, Well Preserved, Well Preserved Jars: Medium (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Card Stock: On the Catwalk Cream (CSS)

Ink: Perfect Little Black Dress, Say Yellow to All Your Fans, Creamsicle Cardigan (CSS)

Accessories: Watercolor Pencils, Aqua-Painter, Gems

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CSS Release Day: Perfect Harvest

Today Clear & Simple Stamps is releasing some super yummy sets!  The collection is called Perfect Harvest and includes lots of fruits, veggies, sentiments, and coordinating dies.  As you can see from my project above, I really had fun with all those fruit images.  I made a card and tag combo!

Here's my card!  I used a new background stamp called Distressed Linen.  I die cut all the fruit before I stamped the images on them.  Most of these stamps are two or three step stamping, which allows you to add more color to your image easily.  For example, the pineapple is three stamps. Each color is a different stamp.  I love that!

Once all the fruit was cut and stamped, I arranged them on the card base using varying heights of foam dots.  The "platter" is a Word Window die.  The words "Organic Thanks" comes from two different sets (Trendy Tags 2 (older set) and Well Preserved (more details on that tomorrow).  The sentiment is stamped on a die cut circle that I cut in half.

I didn't want the tag to be match-matchy with the card, but I did want them to have similar elements.  I used the larger Labels 5 die to create the tag base, just cut two shapes and adhered the two at the top.  I used the same Distressed Linen background stamp.  I pulled the purple color from the grapes and the red inked sentiment from the apple of the card.  I also used a full circle, instead of the half circle on the original card.

 This is such a fun release day, I can't wait to see what my fellow designers created!  I hope you'll check them out too!

• Stephany Zerbe
• Kim Duran
• Elena Roussakis
• Laurie Willison
• Clear & Simple Stamps

Have a great day!

{Organic Thanks}

Stamps: Perfect Harvest, Trendy Tags 2, Label Frames 1, Distressed Linen, Well Preserved (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Card Stock: Kraft Like a Rockstar, On the Catwalk Cream, Dish All the Dirt Brown, VIP Purple (CSS)

Ink: Say Yellow to All Your Fans, Creamsicle Cardigan, Orange You Fabulous, VIP Purple, Green With Envy, Glamazon Green, Dish All the Dirt Brown, Dare to Be a Diva Red (CSS)

Dies: Mini Fruit, Word Window, Shapes: Circles, Labels 5 (CSS) 

Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch, Foam Dots

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