Clean and Simple to DIE For!

Since there were five Thursdays in January, you have the opportunity of having some extra time to link your CAS creations for the monthly challenge. But, before you head off to do that, check out what the Dream Team is inspiring you with...

My card features the brand new, and my favorite, Leafy Branch Die. Be prepared to be seeing this one over and over again on my blog. Fun and versatile, I've only just begun to create all the ideas that are swimming in my head.

Since we are keeping it clean and simple, I die cut one from thick black cardstock, and one from teal metal and adhered them to the card. I finished off by pasting the sentiment in Matte Black. And that's it!

Here's the list for the team:

Dream It Up!
Louise Healy

Cyndi Bundy

Terrece Siddoway
Cherylynn Moser
Lyn Bernatovich
Pam Hornschu

Lea Kimmel

Dreamweaver Stencils: A Birthday Party for Losing Weight? Hmmmm...

Did you know that we're celebrating the Queen's birthday this week? Well...the Queen of Stencils, Lynell Harlow, that is. Actually, her birthday is on Saturday, but we're surprising her by posting birthday cards in her honor today. Nothing like making you feel OLD sooner than necessary, right Lynell? You'll even see a few familiar names in our lineup, as some of the teaching team are whooping it up for her as well.

In addition to our birthday party, we are also beginning a new year and a new monthly challenge. In honor of all those resolutions we hope to achieve, our challenge is "Losing the Weight...AKA Clean and Simple (CAS)". If we all try really hard to simplify our design-work without losing our creativity, we can all say at the end of the month that we've lost some weight! Maybe not off of our waistlines, but at least off of our cards! Gotta start somewhere!

My card today features the super quick and deceptively simple Molten Magic technique using the Flower Corner stencil. Simply paste with one of the glossier sheens, sprinkle with Metallic F/X powders, and apply your heat tool until bubbly! No waiting for paste to dry, and no excuse for standing around eating cream puffs and jalapeno poppers leftover from New Year's Eve either!

I created a pocket on the front to add my sentiment tag and a gift card as well. (I'm working on getting Lynell addicted to coffee. So far, it's just sugar free vanilla lattes with soy milk...*snore*.)
The end result is a card that took 10-15 minutes to make (really!), and looks amazing!

So, now is your opportunity to see how the rest of the team is celebrating the Queen's birthday and losing weight at the same time. Think it's possible? Why don't you play along with us, and post your light as a feather creations to the linkytool on the Dream It Up! blog!

Dream It Up!
Laura Drahozal
Lyn Bernatovich 

Pam Hornschu
Heidi Erickson
Louise Healy 
Cyndi Bundy

Lee Kellogg
Liz Martin
Terrece Siddoway
Lea Kimmel

Cherylynn Moser 
Kristi Parker Van Doren

CAS Frosty Fun

Pulling out another oldie but goodie from last year for the Frosty Fun challenge on the Dream It Up! blog this month. Less than two weeks away from Christmas, this is the perfect set of cards to create...CAS for multiples, and wonderful as a gift set as well.

Featuring the Antler Snowflake design with the Merry Winter sentiment, each card with a slightly different take on the theme. The two vertical cards were paste-embossed with Silver Embossing Paste. When dry, they were run through a hot laminator with silver or turquoise foil for plenty of shine. The carrier sheet from the turquoise one was saved to be laminated onto the square panel of the center card.

The sentiment was paste-embossed on the first card, and machine-embossed on silver cardstock with the other two cards.

The center card was also punched for added interest, and all three cards have additional bling in the form of turquoise rhinestone stickers.

Come play along with our Frosty Fun challenge, and email a link to your own creation, or email pics to lynell@dreamweaverstencils.com, for an opportunity to win one of two great prizes! For more info, visit the Dream It Up! blog. Be sure to check out the rest of the Dream Team post for this week:

Dream it UP  

Laura Drahozal  

Louise Healy  

Terrece Siddoway 

Kristi Van Doren 

Georgia Sommers 

Lee Kellogg 

Liz Martin

 Cyndi Bundy 

Cherylynn Moser
Wendy Jordan 

A Splash of Blue

The Woodware UK girls are adding a splash this week...of blue! The challenge is to use black & white with a splash of blue, so of course, my splash is aqua blue. The design of the card follows the Split Coast Stampers' sketch challenge, so I'm covering more than one base this week.

For the background, I stamped the newly-released Stampendous Cling Lacy Background with Onyx Versafine ink on a white base. For the focus panel, I used the Perfectly Clear Chandelier set, and glitzed it up a bit with aqua crystals.

The sentiment is from the Perfectly Clear Cherub Wishes set, and is stamped inside one of the ornate frames from the Chandelier set. Very CAS, and perfect for many occasions. Try this challenge on for yourself. Meanwhile, check out the rest of the team blogs linked through the Woodware UK blog all this week.

Sentimentally Simple

CAS cards can be simply rewarding. They don't take much time. They don't leave a mess all over your workspace. And if you have the opportunity to get two challenges out of way by creating in a Clean and Simple fashion...it's just bonus!

For the month of August, the Stampendous team are highlighting sentiments as a perfect way to celebrate a huge variety of unique sentiments that have just been released. And if you play along and link on the Stampendous Impressions site, you can win one of three prizes of the sentimental variety.

For this card, I kept it CAS and navy and white to follow the rules for this week's CAS182 challenge at Split Coast Stampers. The Cling Breathe was stamped with Tsukineko Danube Blue Memento ink on a white card. Torn blue paper with a white core mimics the crashing waves of the sea. The shape of the jumbo brad hints at a starfish to finish off the theme.