Retro Sketches 10 and Our Creative Corner Color Challenge

I think I must be feeling somewhat nostalgic about some of the retiring things at Stampin' Up! because for this card I dug very deep into my stash.  The color challenge this week at Our Creative Corner was to use Yellow, Kraft, and White or Ivory.  Well, the first yellows that came to mind were So Saffron and Daffodil Delight but I thought they didn't look so good together so I had to come up with Plan B.  And Plan B involved one of the first InColors:  Marigold Morning.

The bottom layer here is Marigold Morning, a color that has not seen the light of day in my house in years!  And in a strange twist of fate, I used some More Mustard brads which match freakishly well with the cardstock.  (If you haven't seen these colors in real life, they really aren't all that close.  I would say the tone is the same, but the color is off a few shades).  The top layer incorporates some So Saffron cardstock and DSP from Sweet Pea.    

I wrapped these layers with some linen thread and finished it off with a Crumb Cake button.  The adorable sentiment is Verve.  My layout is the latest retro sketch and I am also cautiously going to enter this into the yellow challenge at Less is More but I'm not sure that it's got the "white space" they're looking for.  Hopefully it passes muster!

Well, this morning I'm off to the garden to dig up some plants to bring to a plant sale where I'm volunteering. I should have done this yesterday, but the weather wasn't great so I opted to run some errands and spend some time in my craft room.  Duty calls!

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Butterflies, Sketches and Colors, Oh My!

I don't do this all that often, but I managed to make a card using three different challenges.  Usually I go for two, like a color and a sketch.  Today I did that with the FTL sketch and the colors at Simply Stampin'.  But then I added the butterfly challenge at Our Creative Corner!

This is the first time that I used the Flower Garden embossing folder.  I've seen some cards where people have lightly sponged the embossed image to give it some depth, but I was pretty sure that I would wreck it if I tried that so I left that layer alone in all its CAS glory.  I stamped the Marina Mist circle from the Simple Shapes stamp set and the Pink Pirouette circle from Frames With a Flourish.  Each is layered on a cardstock circle of the same color.  I added a couple of buttons - and yes, the pink one is Pretty in Pink (not Pink Pirouette) and a couple of layered butterflies cut from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit.  

Even though my circles are out of whack with the sketch and I totally forgot to add a sentiment I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.  I hope the FTL ladies will excuse my lapse!

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FTL 171 and Our Creative Corner Holiday Color Combo

This has been a busy week and today is the first day I've had a chance to set foot in my stamp room and do something meaningful in quite some time.  And I was very discombobulated when I got there!  It took me a long while to get my thoughts together and figure out what I wanted to do.

I ended up with this card which I made for the FTL sketch challenge and the color challenge at Our Creative Corner.

I used some designer paper from the Sweet Pea collection and I paired it with a Baja Breeze layer behind it.  The I found some nice Real Red scraps from the Ski Slope designer paper pack, which I used on the center square.  I used the Northern Frost decorative strip die to cut the snowflakes from the silver shimmer paper and some Pink Pirouette, whereby I discovered that the shimmer paper is just a tad too thick to cut cleanly with the decorative strip die.  It made a tight sandwich through the Big Shot, but I ended up fussing with the cutout quite a bit to release it.  In fact, the small snowflake ended up with a tear and some missing shimmer because I was apparently a bit too rough trying to wrestle it out.  I'm pretty sure that no one but me would notice that it is missing a tiny bit, but I know it and it bugs me!

Right now this is a card, but I may alter it a bit and put it on the front of a gift bag because I just discovered that a gift certificate I bought for my godparents is languishing without some pretty Christmas packaging.  Must remedy that!

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Inkspirations 57 Thank You

For the last few days I have been eyeing my Lap of Luxury dp.  I never thought I would like it so much, but I suspect that I do because I really like Concord Crush.  When Stampin' Up! first introduced Concord Crush, I wasn't too thrilled with it.  Purple just isn't really my thing.  But I've grown to like it.  It reminds me of grape soda, which I LOVE.  I know that seems weird, but there you have it!

So I decided to use both Concord Crush and Lap of Luxury when I made this card for the Inkspirations challenge.

I even cut out the floral image here which qualifies me for Our Creative Corner's Cut It Out challenge.  I was a little apprehensive about cutting this image out, but it really wasn't all that difficult when it came down to it.  I should have adhered it with dimensionals to really make it stand out, but I used glue dots instead.  Rats!  In real life you can see the difference in the layers, but it's hard to see in the picture.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!