Under 10 minutes!

Here's a nice quick card, and it really works well for any occasion. This card just happens to be for a retirement. I don't have a really nice retirement stamp, so I just went into Photoshop, and chose one of my favorite fonts and printed out a few different sizes all over some white card stock. I chose my favorite one, then cut it to a card front proportion size. I wanted to use some specific patterned paper, so I chose that, then chose my cardstock colours accordingly. Next, I ran the papers through the cuttlebug with the smallest circle nestabilities I own, then positioned them all around the sentiment. I popped that up with pop dots (of course!). I even had a few circles to spare, so I adhered some inside the card as well. This card also works well for a monochromatic card.

Supplies:

Paper: SEI Winnie's Walls, River Rock, Wild Wasabi, White

Accessories, etc.: circle die cuts, pop dots, computer

Monochromatic Greens

Many shades of green here! I hardly ever use Garden Green and was pleasantly surprised how well it works with wasabi and celery. I also snuck in a Palette green (landscape) on the small star - it's slightly different than celery. Supplies: (all SU except where noted) stamps - Classic Backgrounds, It's Your Birthday paper - certainly celery, wild wasabi, whisper white ink - garden green, landscape (Palette) acc - artichoke brads, wasabi striped grosgrain, large & small star punch, page pebble (MM), circle nestabilities (Spellbinders), dimensionals

Tips: Monochromatic Colour Schemes

Using the same hues on a card can have a really stunning effect. Monochromatic colour schemes are always a good go-to for clean and simple style cards. It can also help speed up the process, since you are restricting yourself to using only supplies of a certain colour. For my card today, I went with PINKS! In keeping with the feminine theme, I stamped a few purses, then coloured them in with pencil crayons. I went searching for some nice pink patterned paper. Would you believe that I don't have any that matches Pixie Pink or Pink Passion very nicely? So, I stamped a few small flowers on some Pink Passion instead. Just as good! My bow was inspired by the one on the right-most purse. I added a little sentiment tag, and voila, a cute little invite for a girl's night out!

Another brief CAS tip for you, shaped cards can really jazz up your card. What might be a bit dull or too small for a normal 4.25x5.5 card can really work on a smaller shaped card!

Supplies: Stamps: Dress Me Up! (gel-a-tins) Ink: Versafine Black, Pink Passion Paper: White, Pixie Pink, Pink Passion Accessories, etc.: Koh-i-noor Woodless Colour Pencils, Nestabilities Petite Ovals and Tag sets, Pink Ribbon, Dental floss, pop dots, grey marker

Corner Rounder Sparkly Bird

I used the corner rounder on this card because it compliments the corners of the Dreamweaver stencil I used. To color the image I used small stipple brushes and stippled on the colors from SU! dye ink pads. Then I used clear embossing paste over the stencil. After lifting off the stencil I sprinkled Art Institute Crystal glitter over the paste and let it dry. I used a part of an Ornare piercing template on the corner. Before mounting the panel with pop dots I used my Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the sentiment. The DCWV cardstock has a white core so I sanded the sentiment so the white would show. Supplies: Dreamweaver stencil, SU! dye inks, stipple brush, embossing paste, temporary tape, glitter, Cuttlebug embossing folder, pop dots, sanding block.

Embrace...

Corner Rounders! Whenever the clean and simple style crosses my mind, I can't help but think of corner rounders. These punches are the greatest. With the guide on they make adorable, perfect every time, rounded corners. With the guide off, you can make scallops. It's always nice to find a tool that does two awesome things. Anyway, I always like the way rounded corners finishes things off. One this card, I went with the bottom 2 corners. I also really love this look with textured paper, it just seems ultra classy. If you have a CAS style card featuring corner rounders, we'd love to see it!! Supplies: Stamps: Birds of a Feather (gelatins), Here for You (verve visual) Paper: Basic Grey DP, Rose Red, White, Textured White Ink: Rose Red, Old Olive, Black Accessories, etc.: Corner Rounder!, Olive grosgrain, pop dots