colourQ 344!

I think the long weekend did a lot to restore some of my mojo.  The palette this week at colourQ is eclectic, as always, and I made a card on Sunday using the colors but I was not entirely happy with it.  Luckily I had Monday off (to celebrate Memorial Day here in the US) so in the afternoon I took another crack at the colors using the tall and skinny sketch at Mojo.  The results are much better than my first attempt, I can assure you!

Coastal Cabana is close enough to green that I used it for my leaves and I substituted Pacific Point for Brilliant Blue and used it on my flower.  I found a button that is a spot-on match for Coastal Cabana so I used that in the center of the flower.  The challenge at House of Cards in May is to use vellum or acetate so I cut a banner in vellum and used it as the layer to stamp my sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!  And I hope you have some time to check out the inspiration from my colourQ teamies and join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Dream Big (Verve)

Paper:  Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Vellum (SU)

Ink:  Pacific Point, Coastal Cabana (SU); Jet Black (Stazon)

Accessories:  Fishtail Flags STAX (My Favorite Things); Dreamy Leaves die (Verve); Woodland Park button (October Afternoon); crochet thread

Tag You're It 48!

All I can say today is TGIF!  It's a long weekend coming up for us in the US and it will be so nice to have three days off in a row!  It's the unofficial start of summer and more importantly, Monday is Memorial Day where we take time to remember and honor those who died while serving in the armed forces.  Our latest inspiration at Tag You're It, designed by Bobby, honors this day.

This is my one and only flag stamp.  It's got a bit of a faded look to it and I love it.  I stamped some firework images in kraft ink behind it to break up all the white space and added a simple, heartfelt sentiment.  There's an Anything Goes challenge going on at Simon Says Stamps so I'll be adding this over there as well!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop on over to Tag You're It and check out the tags from my fellow teamies.  You'r going to love them!  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies

Stamps:  Old Glory (Deep Red); USA 1776 (Waltzingmouse)

Paper:  Night of Navy, Real Red, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Night of Navy, Real Red, Soft Suede (SU)

Accessories:  Tag Sale Quilted die (Papertrey Ink); seam binding ribbon; baker's twine

CAS(E) This Sketch 174!

Oops!  Totally forgot to post this Thursday morning!  Must be from lack of sleep!  Read on....

Here we are at  Thursday again.  I may have had a sleepless night last night because the night crews were out paving my street (I don't really know for sure because I'm typing this Wednesday night so I don't know if I slept good or not! LOL)!  But it's all good because Thursday means a new sketch from your friends at CAS(E) This Sketch!

I had a bunch of different ideas about how I wanted my card to go for this sketch, but then I saw the masculine theme at The Challenge and decided that using some of the colors in the inspiration photo would be perfect.  I don't have nearly enough masculine cards in my stash so any excuse to add one...

I made a card very similar to this a couple of years ago and for some reason it came to mind when I saw this sketch.  From there it was easy to pick out some of the colors from The Challenge and CASE myself with a thank you inspired card.  The sentiment was embossed first and the ink sponged around it using a stencil.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've got some time to join us in the CAS(E) This Sketch gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Big Words (Mama Elephant)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Kraft, Smoky Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Ruby Red (SU); Versamark
Accessories:  Splatters stencil (Tim Holtz); clear embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 238!

My card for this week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches has a few stamps on it that I haven't used in a while.  Our sketch is designed by Kim and I love all the layered shapes on it.  I replicated those layers with stamps and a few flowers  popped up on foam tape.

When I sat down to make this card I went through my stamps and came across SU's Off the Grid.  I love that stamp and for some reason I had forgotten all about it.  I decided it would make a great little base layer image.  Then I dug out another SU set that I've had for ages and hadn't used lately and added the flowers and stem.  A little sentiment in a hand-written style plus a few enamel dots and I was done!  Easy peasy.

The colors for my card come from the latest challenge at Sunday Stamps.  The inspiration photo is so beautiful with these vibrant colors.

Only a few more days until the long weekend!  Yay!  I hope to do some puttering in the garden this weekend because the weeds have already come a-calling!   Thanks for stopping by and be sure to head on over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog to see the inpsiration from the rest of the design team.  I hope you've got some time to join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes, Off the Grid (SU); Mini Stamp Thank You (Heidi Swapp)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Mossy Meadow, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Mossy Meadow, Pacific Point, Night of Navy (SU)
Accessories:  Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); enamel dots (Studio Calico)

colourQ 343!

After a shaky start spring around these parts has turned out to be pretty nice.  Almost every day the sun is shining, the breeze is gentle and warm, and the flowers are beginning to show their pretty faces!  And speaking of flowers, some of those inspired my colourQ card this week.

Oh, what a fabulous color combo this is!  I love the gold and used a bit of washi to take care of that.  The layout for my card comes from the Sketch Saturday challenge.

The colourQ design team has put together some beautiful cards this week with these colors so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Thanks (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White Linen (Ellen Hutson); Basic Black, Cameo  Coral, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Cameo Coral (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Bitty Butterfly punch, Basic Pearls (SU); washi tape

CAS(E) This Sketch 173!

It's Thursday and time for a new sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch!  As I sat down at my stamping desk over the weekend and contemplated how I wanted my card to look I had a sudden vision of speech bubbles!  Never one to ignore a good vision, I went with that idea!

I did shift the focal point of the card to the opposite side to accommodate the direction of the speech bubbles and I put my sentiment a bit low - but you get the idea!  I used colors inspired by the Fusion challenge and I'm so pleased with how this came out!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a chance to check out the cards from the design team at  CAS(E) This Sketch.  There is a lot of inspiration to be found there!  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Real Red (SU)
Ink:  Night of Navy (SU)
Accessories:  A Birdie Told Me die (Lawn Fawn); Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 237!

I am woefully behind on my Christmas cards this year.  Worse than usual, even!  So I took the opportunity to use Linda's new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to add one to my meager collection.

This card, simple as it looks, gave me all sorts of trouble when I was trying to put it together.  I was using the colors from Cupcake Inspirations and the challenge at CAS Mix Up was to use stamps, heat embossing, and another thing of my choice (in my case washi tape) so I thought I'd emboss my sentiment in gold.  Bad idea.  My first three or four attempts didn't look embossed at all so I finally blamed it on a somewhat dry Versamark pad.  I finally had good luck with a gold pigment pad so I moved on to the ribbon stamps.

After I stamped the first image I found an ink smudge.  So much for adding another card to my Christmas card collection!  But the smudge was small and I knew I could edit it out so that at least it would look ok posted here.  I kept stamping away and by the time I had all those ribbons done I had about a million smudges all over the place.  I don't know where they came from, all I know is that I had to start over again.  This is the last attempt and I'm sad to report that there is a small smudge on here too, but thanks to the powers of photo editing software you can't see it!

I love this sketch and I predict that you will too and that the Freshly Made Sketches gallery this week will be filled with beautiful cards.  The FMS design team has made some beautiful cards so be sure to check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Bows (The Ton); Joyous Noel (Verve)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler (SU); Gold (Encore)
Accessories:  washi tape

colourQ 342!

Happy Tuesday! And that means it's time for a new challenge at colourQ.  The colors this week are kind of bold and I got to work on my card right away with some new floral stamps.

I don't have a lot of Coastal Cabana left so I substituted another color that is a bit lighter.  I chose this color because it looked so close when I was perusing my stash of card stock but my pic makes it look so much lighter!  Rats!

The layout on my card comes from the latest Mojo challenge.  It has been ages and ages since I've played along there.  I actually checked and the last time was July 14, 2015!  How time flies!  This time around I was inspired by the tilted layers and that little round focal point, which I interpreted with my flowers.  I hemmed and hawed about adding a sentiment but decided to leave it blank so that I can use it for whatever occasion comes up in the future.

Thanks so much for stopping by and please head on over to colourQ to see what the rest of the design team has got up to with this sketch.  I hope you can play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Wildflower (Concord & 9th)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Midnight Muse, Vellum (SU); X-Press It Blending Card; Sea Glass, Sorbet Collection (Avery Elle)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics
Accessories:  Inside & Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Leaves die (Penny Black); Black Rhinestones (KaiserCraft)

CAS(E) This Sketch 172

Hello Thursday! We've got a brand new sketch for you at CAS(E) This Sketch.  It's got some angular features that I tried to duplicate with some broken glass.  Take a look.

I smeared some sparkle medium across a stencil in an attempt to replicate the angular features of the focal point on the sketch.  I must have been thinking circles as I swirled the paste around because this certainly isn't a square (or a diamond for that matter)!  At least I got the sentiment in the right place!   By the way, this sparkle medium stuff is amazing.  The photo, of course, does not give it justice.  But trust me when I say that there is a lot of sparkle going on here!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the amazing inspiration from the CAS(E) This Sketch design team.  I hope to see  you in the gallery this week!

Supplies

Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Melon Mambo (SU)

Accessories:  Many Thanks die (Ellen Hutson); Broken Glass stencil (Prima); Silver Sparkle Medium (Imagination Crafts)

Freshly Made Sketches 236!

Wednesday again?  How did that happen so fast?  I swear the days just keep going by faster and faster.  I recently came up with a good idea to have the weekend last three days instead of two (because two just isn't enough to get everything done) so now I just have to pitch it to my boss.  Somehow I don't think he's going to go for it!

Of course, the good thing about it being Wednesday is that it's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Rita is our hostess and her sketch made me dig into my never-going-to-be-depleted patterned paper stash.

The colors at Can You Case It gave me my palette and I had some of this patterned paper hanging around and even though it's meant to coordinate with off white I think it looks pretty good with white too (even in real life)!  I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with that big white space so I started perusing my dies and came across this bamboo one and cut it in vellum to give the card some subtle color.  It's big enough to take up some of that space without overpowering it.  I layered the flower in blue and stamped off on the top one so that my layers showed up better.  No sentiment on this one because I couldn't think of one I wanted to use and I like to have some blank ones on hand in case I need an odd-ball one at some point.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Our Freshly Made Sketches design team has some outstanding cards to show you this week so be sure you stop on by to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Modern Blooms (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Midnight Muse, Brushed Gold, Vellum, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Midnight Muse (SU); Black Tie (Ranger)
Accessories:  Bamboo Shoots die (Memory Box)

colourQ 341!

It's finally looking a bit more like spring around these parts.  After a week of rain and temperatures more suitable to November, May is finally stepping up and acting like the warm spring it's supposed to be.  Here's hoping it lasts!

It's Tuesday and that means there's a new palette at colourQ and the colors this week definitely called a bit of spring to my mind.

I thought I had sold my Peach Parfait stamp pad and was originally going to substitute with that horrible cantaloupe color but luckily I came across the right color before it was too late.  Good thing too because the cantaloupe was totally wrong when it comes to being peach!  The layout of my card comes from the latest challenge at Match The Sketch and instead of using actual layers on my card I've simulated them with stamped images.  The butterfly, of course, is not stamped but is a beautiful new stitched die that I recently got and is meant to take the place of the smaller rectangle on the sketch.

These colors are gorgeous and if the cards the colourQ design team have made are any indication of how the gallery will look this week (and you can bet they are), we are all in for a big treat!  So please come and play along with us and show us how you see these colors!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Mesh (Darkroom Door); Painted Greetings (Altenew)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Melon Mambo, Cameo Coral, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Peach Parfait (SU); Black Tie (Ranger)
Accessories:  Blueprints 20 die (My Favorite Things); Daphne Butterfly die (Poppystamps); Clear Droplets (Pretty Pink Posh)

CAS(E) This Sketch 171

The month of May has started off dull and dreary around here.  We are having lots of rain and the temperatures are chilly -  more like November than May!  Hopefully things will turn around soon and we can progress to warm temperatures and some beautiful sunshine to get those flowers and trees blooming!  And speaking of blooming, my card for this weeks challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch has a little blossom on it!

I went quite literal with the sketch and inked up a new little grungy stamp for the background, added some wee paint splatters, a flower (which took me three tries before I liked what I saw) and a sentiment tucked into one of the folds of the flower.  The colors I got from a recent color challenge but the challenge was closed before I could get this posted - drat!

As you can imagine the cards from the CAS(E) This Sketch design team are amazing so be sure to check them out.  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Artful Flowers (Simon Says Stamp); Screen Print (Impression Obsession); Textures 1 (Florileges Design)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Cameo Coral, Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Basic Gray (SU)

Freshly Made Sketches 235!

It's my turn to be the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week and my sketch is a bit clean and simple.  Of course, you can dress it up or down however you want!

I love big sentiments, both stamps and dies, and thought it would be fun to use that theme on the sketch.  The flower is from Altenew and I think it is just a wee bit too big for this layout.  But it is so beautiful the way it layers together and always looks fantastic that I decided to go with it.  I used the colors from Fab Friday (with the addition of some black on the flowers and leaves).

Well that's it for me!  The ladies at Freshly Made Sketches have got some beautiful cards to show you this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Layered Lily (Altenew)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Hello Honey, Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon (SU)
Ink:  Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon, Crumb Cake (SU); Black Tie (Ranger)
Accessories:  Snowfall embossing folder (Tim Holtz); Hand Lettered Thanks die (WPlus9)

colourQ 340!

Hello, hello!  There is a beautiful new palette of colors at colourQ this week!  I decided to use them for a graphic design.

As is my usual I was poking around blogland this weekend for a good sketch to use for my colourQ card this week.  I checked out the challenge at Sketch Saturday which was to choose one of their previous sketches.  As I was perusing their past sketches I found a one that was perfect for a new honeycomb die that I got recently.  

I cut the honeycomb in one of the colors then filled in some of the holes with the other colors.  I love how this turned out.  It's graphic and kinda cool!

The colourQ design team has made some beautiful cards with the colors this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope you are inspired to join us in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Stamps:  Painted Greetings (Altenew)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery, Poppy Parade, Rose Red (SU)

Ink:  Rose Red (SU)

Accessories:  Honeycomb Remnant die (Memory Box)