ColourQ 121 and Cards & Things 105

Sometimes I see a sketch challenge and it's a no-brainer for me that I want to participate.  And sometimes I see a color challenge and I'm itching to get inky.  This week these two worlds collided for me with the ColourQ and Cards & Things challenges.

This is two days in a row that I've made a card with this flower stamp from Verve.  It's one of my favorite flower stamps.  This one is stamped in Riding Hood Red and finished off in the center with a More Mustard button.  I tied a little bow through the button with some bakers twine and I wish someone would explain to me why one side of the twine curls and twists every time I try and tie a bow with it.  (You can see it in the lower loop on this bow).  I'm sure there's a logical explanation for it, but it's very aggravating!

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 19

Wednesday is, of course, Freshly Made Sketches challenge day and this week we've brought you a sketch from me!

I love making square cards and my favorite are ones that are 4 1/4-inches square.  The size is adorable and as a bonus fit in an A2 envelope.  If you live in the US, this lets you avoid the surcharge that comes from mailing a square envelope.

My card base is Chocolate Chip (a color that I feel like I've been neglecting a lot lately) and I added a layer of So Saffron and some designer paper from the Sweet Pea designer series paper pack.  The flower  and sentiment are stamped in Rose Red and the leaves are Old Olive.  I found some So Saffron brads so I added those in the lower left corner.

Our Freshly Made Sketches design team have all cooked up some amazing inspiration for you so be sure to stop by and show them some love.  Then head on back to the FMS blog and link up your creation!

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Nina Forsythe

Jen Sannes 

Less is More 51

The other day I made a tent card that I was originally going to link up to this week's Less is More challenge to make a card with a hole it it.  But the card was a whole lot "more" than "less" so I decided to go back to the drawing board.

Then I thought I'd incorporate the colors from the ColourQ challenge while I was at it but I ended up wasting so much time trying to figure out what to do for my card that I missed the ColourQ deadline.  Rats!  I also discovered that it is clearly beyond my photographic capabilities to get a decent picture of a card with a hole in it.  I wanted to photograph the card open showing that the sentiment was stamped on the inside of the card and visible through the hole, but each photo I took was worse than the last.  The hole was creating a terrible shadow that I didn't know how to fix.  I ended up putting a bit of dotto on the inside of the card to hold it closed and took the photo you see here.

And the colors look way off too.  The sentiment is stamped in Rich Razzleberry and the edge of the hole is lined with Bravo Burgundy.  The other two circles are Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo.  I alwalys have trouble photographing cards that are predominately white, but this one was a doozy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Throwdown 175 and Just add Ink 101

The other day my blogging buddy and fellow Massachusetts cardmaker Kim made this adorable tent card.  I just had to give that technique a try.

At first I was thinking of making a card for this week's Less is More challenge to "cut it out" as in make a card with a hole in it.  Perfect for the tent card.  But I don't this qualifies as the type of clean card they're looking for so instead I used the Just Add Ink sketch and the latest Color Throwdown colors of ivory, kraft, olive, and red.

I think I over-dosed on the red shimmer paper, though.  It was incredibly hard to get a decent photo of the card because the glimmer paper kept creating glare and it was just about impossible to show that there's a big hole in the middle of this card.

But see, there really is!

It's snowing here today and I feel like having some comfort food so I'm off to make a pot roast.  Then hopefully I'll make it back into my stamp room so that I can get ahead on some of the cards I'd like to make for a few of my favorite challenges.  Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 18

Welcome to another exciting week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Last week an amazing 85 people participated in our challenge.  I guess that means there's a whole lot of love in the world for clean cards!  For this week's challenge, designed by Linda, I went way into the vault and found some retired designer paper called Parisian Breeze that hadn't seen the light of day in ages!

The designer paper is extra special because it's quite heavy-weight and is textured.  I love it, which means that I hoard it and have tons of it left!  I stamped the flower from Simply Soft in Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze onto watercolor paper because the texture of it is very similar to the texture of the dsp.  Then I highlighted the stamens of the flower with my Chocolate Chip marker to make them stand out a little more.  Finally, I used a bit of Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon adhered with a retired brad from a set called Sending Love.

The Freshly Made Sketches design team has some wonderful inspiration for you so be sure to stop by and show them some love.  Then head on back to the FMS blog and use the linky tool to show us your creation!

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Nina Forsythe

Jen Sannes 

A thank you card for three challenges!

Kind of by accident, I made a card that met the requirements of three challenges this week!  I hardly ever do that!

First, I thought the color challenge at the Paper Players was VERY interesting.  I never would have thought to put these colors together, but once I got going on my card I liked them very much.  Then I decided that the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge would be just the thing to show off this unusual color combo.

I stamped the flowers in Calypso Coral with my Greenhouse Garden stamp set, and cut the leaves from the Little Leaves sizzlet.  It's funny that at one time this was my "go to" stamp set.  I couldn't seem to get enough of it and found myself reaching for it again and again.  Then something new must have come along and I forgot all about it.  I always feel a little sad that some stamp sets seem to languish unused, while other ones seem to see ink all the time.  Maybe I'll try to use some of the oldies-but-goodies a little more often!

Once I had this card all together, I remembered that the Friday Mashup challenge this week was for a thank you card and some designer paper.  I was able to mash this one up and squeeze in two pieces of designer paper:  some Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz.

That's some challenge!  Thanks for stopping by!

Less is More 50 and Unscripted Sketches 141

I had a very productive card-making day yesterday - I just love when that happens.  And I've got the day off from work today so hopefully I'll be productive again.  This is the first of the cards that I've been making.

The challenge this week at Less is More is to make a one layer card with the subject of birds.  I remembered that I had this cute stamp from Happy Together so armed with the very CAS sketch at Unscripted Sketches I put this together.

I'm not sure why but for some reason this is the second time that I've participated in a Less is More challenge recently and felt the need to hand draw a square to fit around my stamped image.  I don't know - I just took one look at the sketch and that's where my thoughts went.  For this one I punched out two squares from cardstock and then used them as templates to draw them on the cardstock.  I stamped the bird in timber brown Stazon so that I could color it in with a Daffodil Delight marker.  Apparently I didn't wait long enough for the ink to dry, because it ran a smidge on the wing.  The square and the sentiment were done in Early Espresso.

Thanks for stopping by today!

ColourQ 119 and Sketchbook Saturday 45

Today is one of those days where I think everything has gone wrong with a card.  I actually started making this last night hoping I could get it finished before the football game started, but nothing was coming together as I wanted so I abandoned it.

This morning I thought I'd start fresh with a clear head.  I had been eye-balling the color challenge at ColourQ and although I found it a little lot intimidating, I wanted to try it.  Then I saw the great Sketchbook Saturday sketch and thought I could put the two together.  That's when everything went awry!

I couldn't find my Bow-Easy so I had to tie that ribbon by hand!  Not an easy feat for the worst bow-tier in history.  So as I'm fussing over that and struggling with getting all these colors to come together in some semblance of order I check the ColouQ blog and see I've got less than two hours to finish it and get it posted.  So slapped it together, ignored the bow, and here it is.

That was hard!  But thanks to the gals at ColourQ for including Going Gray in this challenge.  I really miss that color!