commencement adventure

I know an amazing young man who will be graduating from high school in less than a month, and I didn't want to send him something frilly or fussy.  The current Cue Card at Casology is Commencement; I think this card fits the bill:

card stock - Basic Black, Silver Foil, Real Red; Big Shot with Large Numbers framelits and Sunshine Wishes thinlits

The white background is unusually yellow here; I don't know whether I accidentally nudged the white balance setting, or if it's just interference from the shiny silver foil.  The red - one of his school's colors - looks a bit orangey, too.  This card would be easy to do in any school's colors.

"Just us Girls Watercooler" challenge

Stefanie has designed a wonderful sketch for the watercooler.  I needed a Father's Day or Graduation card for this month's card buffet, so I combined her sketch with the colors from the inspiration photo at Just Us Girls (for some reason my fingers type gurls every time - argh!):

stamp set: Something to Say, World Map; ink - Calypso Coral, Pool Party; card stock - Naturals Vanilla, Pool Party, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral, Whisper White; seam binding ribbon - Soft Sky

I had a bit of a brain malfunction, using Soft Sky ribbon and Pool Party card stock and ink, but before I realized that, I did it again:

stamp set: Delightful Dozen (retired), World Map; ink - Calypso Coral, Pool Party; card stock - Naturals Vanilla, Pool Party, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral, Whisper White; seam binding ribbon - Soft Sky

I wish I'd thought to photograph the insides - the congratulations card says "now go change the world" and the father's day card says "I think the world of you"  (I just think I'm so clever)  ;)

When I thought up the post title, a watercooler just for girls sounded like it might be fun, but then I gave it a bit more thought.  In real life, it would just be dumb, except for something like the occasional "girls night out".  Even  for those, it's fun to let the guys tag along now and then.

online learning adventure, day 2

Yes, I'm still behind - I don't think anyone is surprised.  The good thing is that I have 20 days to post my projects and permanent access to all the class files!  While everyone else was learning techniques to get more use from alphabet stamps today, I was working with my new collage stamp.  I tried watercolor resist:

stamp sets - Postage Due, Netting; ink - Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Versamark; card stock -  Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, watercolor paper, white vellum; designer series paper - Twitterpated; punch - Postage Stamp; embossing powder - clear and white; Stampin' Dimensionals, stamping sponge

The color palette is new this week at Color Throwdown for their 200th Challenge Celebration, and the layout is the newest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

Then I tried ironed-off embossing and masked color blocking:

stamp sets - Postage Due, Itty Bitty Banners; ink - Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Versamark; card stock - Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Whisper White; Big Shot with Labels Collection and Bitty Banners framelits; embossing powder - clear; Stampin' Dimensionals, stamping sponges

I did this one in monochrome for this week's challenge at Card a Day, a blog I just discovered, and chose blues for the challenge at Addicted to Stamps Challenge Blog, which I just found last week.

I hope to be working with alphabet stamps tomorrow, but there's still collage squares, the floating focal point, and multiple embossing from Day 2 as well as the pigment powders and paint resist that I probably won't get to at all...

Oh, before I forget, I made this clever little number last night using Julie Davison's tutorial, which I found on Pinterest, and then discovered that the challenge this week at Shopping Our Stash is for an extra fold or pleats:

stamp sets - Curly Cute, Happy Grad (retired); ink - Real Red; card stock - Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Window Sheet; Crystal Effects, white Bakers Twine, Simply Scored Scoring Tool and Diagonal Plate, 5/16" white brad (retired)

I'd like you to know that taking time from my Stretch Your Stamps "homework" to make this card is one reason I'm behind, but then I'd probably have to admit that Carly's open house was Saturday, and I should have mailed a card to her last week, so let's just not go there.  At least I'm only one day behind now, instead of half a week ;\