Sketchbook Saturday 105

I'm so excited to share this card today.  I recently received an email from the amazing and talented Chupa and she asked me to be a guest designer for her newest Sketchbook Saturday sketch!  Woo Hoo!  I couldn't possibly say no.  Chupa makes the most beautiful cards and I admire her talent immensely.  And I share the guest honors today with Wanda Cullen, another crafter who makes my jaw drop on a routine basis when I see her cards!  So without further ado, here's my card and the sketch.

The colors from Pals Paper Arts were perfect for what I had in mind with this card.  I found some October Afternoon washi tape that matched the colors pretty closely and used that at the bottom of my card.  Then I randomly stamped a bunch of background images on some card stock then layered these pretty flowers on top.  I've been randomly stamping background images a lot lately and I've got to say that I really like how it makes the card just a bit more interesting.  At least to me anyway!  I did use a little license and reversed the image and the sentiment because I'm a left to right kind of girl, I guess!

So, before I go I'll send a big cyber hug to Chupa for thinking that my work was good enough to warrant a guest spot on her sketch challenge.  I'm in good company over there and I'm grateful to be able to participate!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Funky Florals (Papertrey Ink); Gorgeous Grunge, Extreme Elements (SU); Textures 1 (Florileges Designs)

Paper:  Neenah Natural White; Very Vanilla, Baked Brown Sugar (SU)

Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Calypso Coral (SU)

Accessories:  Chevron Woodland Park washi tape (October Afternoon)

BE Inspired 37

TGIF!  I'm on vacation after I finish up work today (yay!) and I'm so happy about that!  Nothing like a week off to re-charge the old batteries!  And today is also the newest BE Inspired Challenge at The Alley Way Stamps blog.

I took my inspiration from the green color and the filigree design of the clock.  I didn't have a green that matched perfectly so I used an old favorite, Lucky Limeade.  I thought the images from Delicate Doilies would be a nice approximation of the ornate design of the ormolu style clock so I stamped a few of them in black and then heat a bit of clear embossing powder over them.  The sentiment comes from the brand new  Give Thanks.  The challenge this week at CASology was to use a silhouette.  I thought these doily images stamped in black would qualify as a silhouette.

Don't forget if you play along with the BE Inspired Challenge you could win a free stamp set from The Alley Way Stamps.  All you have to do is use an image from The Alley Way Stamps and make a project inspired by the photo above.  Easy peasy!  And if you don't have any TAWS stamps, you can find freebie images here!  Click HERE for all the challenge details!

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 103

The color challenge this week at The Paper Players is gorgeous so I decided to use that with my card this week for Freshly Made Sketches.  The very talented Jennifer Brum is our FMS hostess and I absolutely love the sketch that she has created for us!

I used this beautiful dahlia stamp from Papertrey Ink.  It's basically a "three-step" stamping set and although initially I found it a bit tricky to line up the three images properly I finally figured out a way to do it that is nearly fool-proof.  Layering on those darker images gives the flower such depth that I was determined to get it right!

Summer has come back for a little visit today.  It's supposed to be at least 90-degrees which is definitely not typical for a September day in Massachusetts.  I love it and I hope to go out for a little walk with my sister on my lunch hour. 

The Freshly Made Sketches design team have got some great cards to show you this week, so check them out.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Off the Grid (SU); Delightful Dahlias, Embroidered Blooms (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Enamel Dew Drops (Freckled Fawn); washi tape

Thankful

It's been a while since I participated in the challene at CAS(E) This Sketch and since the sketch was intriguing to me I wanted to play along.  I finally got some time to create this card just under the wire!  

I changed the orientation of the sketch to portrait and once I had my card made I realized that I probably should have changed my sentiment to vertical too and in true sketch flipping fashion.  But I liked how this came out so I decided to keep it as is.

The lovely polka dotted tear drops and sentiment are from the brand new Give Thanks set from The Alley Way Stamps.  Those tear drops also do double-duty as the plumage on a turkey so this is one versatile set!

Thanks for stopping by!

colourQ 206

It's been a dog's age since I've participated in the sketch challenge at Clean & Simple Stamping so I thought I'd use their latest sketch with the colors at colourQ to create a little grungy card.  The colors are fun and bright and are inspired by this pretty scarf.

I feel like I went to town with these cool colors and the fun stamps.  I especially like the washi tape layered over the images.  It's so bright and I love that you can see the ink underneath.  Once I had all the images stamped I wanted a kick-a$$ sentiment so I picked this one, which says it all!

As always our amazing colourQ design team has knocked it out of the park this week with gorgeous creations so make sure you head over there to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge (SU); Grunge Me, Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink); Textures 1 (Florileges Designs)

Accessories:  Gingham Garden washi tape, Dimensionals (SU)

Blimey!

In preparation for Talk Like a Pirate Day I couldn't resist making a card to celebrate the day.  (Incidentally, while I'm typing this I'm watching Pirates of the Caribbean so what better inspiration is there)?  I inked up my favorite pirate from Land Ho and positioned him in front of an honest-to-goodness pirate map from Treasure Island.  

I tried to make the map look like it was old-fashioned so after I stamped it I crinkled up the card stock, smoothed it out, gave it a few spritzes of Log Cabin Smooch Spritz then lightly sponged it with some Walnut Distress ink. I wanted it to look like old, crinkly vellum and I think I did a pretty good job.  

The layout for my card comes from Sketch Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gratitude for CTD258 and NAC53

I spent the last couple of days puttering around my stamp organizing some of my supplies.  To the casual observer it doesn't look like I did a lot, but a sharp eyed stamper would know otherwise!  By Friday night, I was done with organizing and wanted to get inky so I found a couple of challenges that looked good together and sat down to make this card.  The colors are from Color Throwdown and the layout is from Nacho Average Challenge, back from a summer hiatus.

I'm not entirely happy with how this turned out.  I was trying to create a bit of a shadow effect using the two green colors of the challenge, but I didn't quite get the look I was going for.  On the plus side I tried something new.  After stamping the sentiment on the little flag I was confronted with some blank space and decided a staple would be the perfect embellishment to take up the slack.  I've seen others use staples and always thought it was a nifty look, so I thought I'd give it a go.  And it is a pretty nifty look!

I've got a busy crafting week coming up so I hope to be wildly prolific in my stamp room this weekend.  Wish me luck!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Meadow Greens (Papertrey Ink); Gorgeous Grunge, Fabulous Phrases (SU)

Accessories:  First Place Award Ribbon die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 102

I love Wednesdays.  Not only does it represent the halfway point in the workweek, but it also means a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!

This week, Cindy is our hostess and my first reaction when I saw the sketch was hmmm.  Oval.  Then I remembered the clever hint that we could use whatever shape wanted and my card was born! By the way, we're cool like that at Freshly Made Sketches.  You can adapt the sketch to whatever shapes float your boat!

The oval on the sketch quickly morphed to this fun die shape, which in turn was perfect for this sentiment.  I hemmed and hawed a bit about what do with the vertical layer.  I started out with a piece of patterned paper before deciding these two pieces of washi looked pretty good layered together. In the end, I like how this turned out.  I hope you do too!

As always the Freshly Made Design team have got some cards that will amaze and delight you.  So be sure to head over there to check them out.  There's plenty of room in our gallery, so I hope you can join us this week!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Brighter Days, Lean on Me (Verve)

Accessories:  Vertical Greetings II die (My Favorite Things); Onyx button (a muse studio); washi tape