Addicted To CAS No. 120 With Florals and Gina K. Designs

Hello everyone!  Thank you so much for all the love given to the "googly-eyed skulls" card that I made for the current challenge on the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.  Remember, you have until September 22nd to add your own card to the "Anything Goes" challenge.  

Today I have a super simple and special card - for a special lady.  A friend of mine asked me to make a card for her aunt Maria.  Maria loves to garden and is always telling people here "Onde uma flor cresce há esperança.", which basically translates to "where a flower grows there is hope".  When she told me this I immediately thought of this set by Gina K. Designs that has the same sentiment!!  

Then I saw that the current challenge over on the Addicted to CAS Challenge Blog is all about "florals".  So that's where I am also entering this card.

I started by placing a piece of white cardstock into my Misti.  Using black ink I stamped the two images from the Hopeful Flowers Duo set by Gina K. Designs.  

Then I cut (1) the cardstock using the large stitched rectangle die from the Bundle of Stitched Shapes set by Simon Says Stamp, (2) colored the flowers yellow (Maria's favorite color) with a Sharpie marker, and (3) adhered small crystals to the small dots in the image.

After this, I made a top folding A2 card base out of purple cardstock to which I adhered the white cardstock with the images.  Lastly, I adhered 3 purple sequins to the front and a piece of white cardstock to the inside.  

Done!  I told you....super simple.  I hope you enjoyed this card and tutorial. Feel free to leave me a comment below - I do normally answer all comments left and love reading them.  Until the next time....

Hugs from Brasil - 

Michael

Guest Designer With Retro Rubber Challenge No. 71 - Anything Goes

Hello all.  Well, Mother Nature is certainly pissed off at the world lately.  This has kept me up at night since I have friends and relatives in the Houston and Miami areas.  But everyone survived with minor damage.  I hope all my readers also got through this unscathed.  

Today I am happy to announce that I am the guest designer with the amazing team over at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog for their current Challenge No. 71 - Anything Goes.

I had a hard time deciding which theme to go with - Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving...but I settled on Halloween.  I went through my stash and pulled out a few stamps to use - all over a year old.  Probably over 5 years old.  But hardly ever used.  

I started by making a top folding A2 card base out of black cardstock.  I then cut 2 pieces of white cardstock using the large stitched rectangle die from the Bundle of Stitched Shapes set (Simon Says Stamp).  One of them I adhered to the inside of the card to be written on.  

With the other I stamped, in black ink, the spider's web from Tim Holtz' Halloween Cutouts in two of the corners and then adhered this to the card front.  

Next I cut a piece of black cardstock using the 2nd largest die from the Nested Stitched Scallop Rectangle set (Cottage Cutz).  I stamped the Skull Stack (retired/Stampendous) onto a piece of white cardstock, which I trimmed to 2.5" x 3.5", so it would fit inside the black cardstock.  I also die cut a piece of white cardstock using the banner die from Tag Me Confetti Cuts (Reverse Confetti) on which I stamped the phrase "Trick or Treat" from a really really old set from Inkadinkado. 

Next I adhered the skulls to the black scalloped cardstock, which I then adhered to the center of the card front.  I then adhered the banner with the phrase over the skulls with some pop dots.

The last thing I did was to adhere googly eyes to each of the skulls and a few metallic orange sequins to make this card even more fun!  

That's it.  Done!  

I hope you enjoyed this card.  If you want to add your own card to the challenge, just click HERE to be taken right to the challenge page.  You have until September 22nd to enter a card.  Please let me know if you do!!  Until next time - 

Hugs from Brasil - 

~Michael

Retro Rubber Challenge #70 - Back To School

Hello everyone and Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is well.  It's been a crazy week here.  Ruy and I had a photo exhibition last weekend at the Belle Epoque Cultural Center here in town, which we did as a benefit for a charity.  It was nicely received and was a great feeling to see everyone's reactions to our photos.  I will try to get a post done this weekend about the show.  Of course afterward, I got sick for a few days, but am finally back up and running.  Today is Brasil's Independence Day so everything is closed and I finally found some time to do a new blog post.  

Yes, 2nd post about "back to school".  This time for the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog - 

I started with a piece of white cardstock.  Using some washi tape I taped down the "Numerals" stencil (TCW200S) by The Crafter's Workshop.  Next, using a mini blending tool (Ranger) with some inks from Reverse Confetti (Piggy Bank, Salsa, and Bumblebee Yellow), I applied the colors through the stencil.   

I removed the stencil and heat set the inks (just to be safe).  Then I used an alphabet stencil from StencilGirl Products and applied some Aqua ink (Reverse Confetti) to a few of the letters, also using the mini blending tool.  Heat set again (just to be safe).  I then die cut this using the large stitched rectangle die from the Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp).

After this I pulled out a stamp set called Book Border (SSC259) by Stampendous.  I have owned this set for YEARS and it has never felt the touch of ink to it's polymer skin.  LOL

So I inked the row of books and the phrase and stamped it on a piece of white cardstock.  I die cut it with a stitched rectangle die I own and colored it in with Sharpie markers.  I then adhered it to a piece of red cardstock. 

Lastly, I adhered this to the card front.  

That's it.  Done!  I think this would be a great card for a teacher on the first day of school.  As a thank you!  I hope you enjoyed this project.  Let me know by leaving a comment below.  Thanks and until next time -

Hugs from Brasil - 

~Michael