CASE study, 4th anniversary blog hop

I am so pleased to be part of the CASE study 4th anniversary festivities!  As they celebrate their 4th birthday, the CASE study team is bringing you special blog hops each week of this month, comprised of past muses and the design team (past and current.)

Each blog hop will be open until the next midnight of the following Tuesday (so, August 12th in this CASE!) and there are sponsors and prizes set up for playing along!  You must comment on all blog posts along the way to be eligible for prizes from

Waffle Flower ♥ Serendipity Stamps ♥ Penny Black

The winners will be announced on the CASE study blog the following Wednesday.

My inspiration came from this artwork I spied on pinterest:

I love the girl, holding her cake, with stuffies at her feet, the blue doily frame around her and the bunting in the background.  I pulled out a dear lizzy stamp that my friend Wida sent me and got busy:

 

Do you see the art-print elements pulled into this card?  I combined stamp sets from a few different companies: the bunting from lawn fawn, the scribbled circle background from PTI, the fox and sentiment from avery elle.  They all work together so perfectly. 

I think the trick to combining stamps from different companies is to pay attention to the width of their stroke - the dear lizzy stamp has a heavier outline, so I chose to pair it with the avery elle stamps, which also have a bit of uneven whimsy to them, so they work especially great together. The thinner-lined circle scribbles are in the background and in a lighter color, so they don't compete with the main stamps.

There's more to see on these blogs today, and a special thanks to Chupa for having me along with this amazing list of card-makers:

Joni Nina Andaya

Teri Anderson

Laura Bassen

JJ Bolton

Nina Brackett

Clare Buswell

Keisha Campbell

Andrea Ewen

Pamela Ho

Jeanne Jachna

Anna Kossakovskaya

Elena Roussakis (that's me!)

Lisa Spangler

I hope you decide to play along this week! CASE any of the projects you see along the hop!

♥.

birthday flowers.

I knew it.

I knew I would have to make double the amount of birthday cards for my dad and sister this week.  My mom high-jacked the ones I'd already made (ok, high-jacked seems harsh.... she complimented my cards and asked if I would make a few special ones she could use... hee hee.)

I hope you don't mind the break from all things Christmas (I actually found it refreshing to put Christmas crafting aside for a bit!)

I inked up an acrylic block in pool party ink (SU) and stamped it on a piece of white cardstock.  Into that blue square, I stamped images from PTI's "daydreamer" set.  I then created a mask for the blue square, and stamped a hero arts background image ("happy definition") over the entire area.  The sentiment is from hero arts' "life of the party" set.  To tone done the vibrancy a bit, the edges were all inked up with antique linen distress ink.

I added a few bands of cardstock, and a button with constrasting thread, to tie in all the colors.  If I were mailing this card, I would have left out the button.  Without it, the card is perfectly flat - but with so much inky texture!

Thanks for looking!

Thank you, Leigh!

I got some new stamps in the mail the other day, courtesy of the awesome Leigh Penner (click on her name to check out her blog - she's got serious scrapbooking/cardmaking chops!)  

I'm only sorry that my first card with the "daydreamer" images had to be a sympathy card.... but I think it turned out so soft and pretty, and will hopefully lift the spirits of a family going through a tough time...

Apart from the button and the embroidery floss frame, the card only has 2 layers:  a kraft card-base, and a mat of PTI's "guide lines grid cardstock."  I used the negative of a mat-stack 5 shape to create a mask on my white paper.  I then sponged in some tumbled glass distress ink and then stamped images from the set in various soft colors.  The sentiment was added once the mask was removed.

To stitch the frame all around, I used a little SU kit that comes with a paper-piercer and a paper-piercing template.  I made the holes, and then made quick work of passing the pink floss through them all.

Thanks for stopping by!