colourQ 128

I think I mentioned the other day that my mojo had decided it needed a spring break.  Hopefully it was enjoying pina coladas on a tropical beach somewhere while I was toiling away in my stamp room.  It seems like every time I attempted to make a card over the last few days, something about it bugged me and I felt like I needed to go back to the drawing board.  Even my colourQ card this week was worked and re-worked until I came up with this.

Arielle's colors seemed to be all about St. Patrick's Day and that's the card that I wanted to make.  In fact, that was the first card I made.  Then I decided it was no good, so I made a card with some green flowers.  A quick mental review of my own garden revealed that I don't know of any green flowers, so I scrapped that idea and I found myself back to St. Patrick's Day.

The shamrock is stamped in all those greens with the Lucky Shamrock stamp.  They are strung up with some Going Gray "string."  And the snarky sentiment is nothing but a cheap $1 stamp that I got at Michael's a couple of years ago.

Now, don't forget to head on over to colourQ and feast your eyes on the design team's amazing creations.  Then link up your own creation!

Retro Sketches 2 and The Paper Players 86

There's a new sketch challenge in town but unfortunately I ran out of time last week to participate in the kick off of retro sketches, so I set to work early for sketch #2.  

I think my mojo is on spring break because I had a hard time in my stamp room this weekend.  My table is littered with cards that I started and cast aside because something wasn't right.  Even this card ended up being something other than what I had originally envisioned, but I was determined to make a card with this awesome sketch.

I was sure that the springy-color challenge at The Paper Players was just the thing to get my crafty juices flowing.  The colors are fabby!

I think I wanted to add a sentiment on this card, but I forgot.  This is sometimes a good thing because this card can become whatever I want when the occasion arises!

And thanks to everyone who emailed me with tips, tricks, and even a video tutorial (you know who you are!) on creating bows.  I'm going to try out my newly-learned skills soon!  I hope I'm not a hopeless case.  Donna, my super-talented upline has shown me on many occasions how to tie a bow, but I think I must be all thumbs because they never look as good as hers!

Deconstructed Sketch 42 and Just Add Ink 108

Despite the fact that the calendar still says winter, it has been decidedly spring like around here the last few days.  And I think this balmy weather is going to continue next week too!  I'm no fan of winter, so this is great news to me.  To celebrate all this yummy spring weather, I've been busy making flowery cards.  The first one I've got to show you I made with the gorgeous colors at Just Add Ink and the very fabby Deconstructed Sketch.

I love Island Indigo and I can't believe that I don't use it more.  For this card I used some Island Indigo DSP for the vertical layer.  I even paper pieced the flower from one of the other patterns in this pack!  I crinkled up some Pool Party seam binding ribbon then used my Bow-Easy to make this bow.  I really wanted to make one of those crinkly and loosely gathered bows that I keep seeing everywhere but I haven't got the hang of it yet.  If anybody wants to help a girl out and point me toward a tutorial I'd be much obliged!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Paper Players 85 and MOJO 231

The challenge this week at The Paper Players is all about spring!  Jaydee is asking us to make a card telling our own story of "spring has sprung!"  Since I love flowers and in my book spring is all about flowers I made a card celebrating those wonderful garden additions!

During spring and summer you will find me in my garden most days.  There always seems to be a weed or two (or a thousand) that need some pulling!  So my card celebrates the flowers as well as the love that goes into growing them!

I got some help for this card from the latest MOJO sketch with this very cool and clever layout.  The sketch inspired me to add lot of DSP on my card.  In fact, I don't think that I've ever combined this many designer papers on one card.  The DSP is from Everyday Enchantment, the flower and leaf and adorable notebook paper are Verve.   I finished off the flower with an Everyday Enchantment brad.

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 25

Today I've got my card for Freshly Made Sketches but first I want to welcome our two new guest designers for March.  Allisa and Narelle have been long-time players in our challenge and the Freshly Made Sketches team is delighted to have them on board!

Linda has got an incredibly versatile sketch for us this week.  I know you're going to file it away for future use!  For my card this week, I grabbed my Twitterpated DSP and was determined to make a card with it no matter what. I had no idea that Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red looked so fabulous together but once I got a look at these colors in this paper pack I was off and running.

I love how these two colors look together.  It's like soft and subtle meets bold and bright.  The label and sentiment are Verve, and are tied at the top with some Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon.  The flower is from PTI and is finished off in the center with a Twitterpated Baja Breeze button.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stop by the Freshly Made Sketches blog and check out the design team inspiration.  Then upload your creation so we can see how you have interpreted this sketch.  Here's our amazing design team:

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Allisa Chilton

Narelle Farrugia 

colourQ 127

Much to my surprise I decided to CASE myself for my colourQ card this week.  Arielle's colors are, as usual, fantabulous (I made that word up in case you're wondering) and for some reason called to mind a card that I made a while back that I thought would be a good fit for this challenge.

I actually made another card for this challenge first, but I wasn't happy with it so I went back to the drawing board.  I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden I remembered the card I made back in March of 2010 and I decided it would be a good thing to recreate it.  The only things that are different are the image stamp (the retired Artfully Asian) and the ribbon.  The sentiment is from All Holidays and is stamped within  the rectangle from Framed With Love.

This is a pretty big card and I made it to fit in a #10 envelope, which is the standard business-sized envelope.  I'm used to making our standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 -inch card so this giant was fun!  It's quite pretty in real life, despite my lousy photography.  One of these days I'm going to invest in a decent light so that I can capture a decent photo.

Now, our colourQ design team has got lots of inspiration for you, so be sure to pop on by and check out the creations there.  Then I hope you have time to join us for this fabulous challenge!

Deconstructed Sketch 41 and Stamping 411 Color Inspiration 168

I had forgotten that on the first Thursday of the month Stamping 411 hosts a color challenge.  This week I happened to discover it as I was checking out their latest sketch challenge.  And once I got a look at it there was no way I was not going to participate.

I love a card that has some basic black and a pop of color.  And lucky me, this one has three pops of color!   I used a wonderful piece of herringbone DSP from the retired Night & Day collection.  The flower is cut from the Flower Daisies #2 die and is finished off in the center with an antique brad.  I almost got away with no stamping on this card, until I decided to add a little sentiment from Tiny Tags.  My layout sketch is this week's Deconstructed Sketch.

 

This card has lots of wonderful layers that add some lovely heft to this card.  I know I'm usually pretty clean when it comes to my cards, but I must confess that I secretly love lots of layers.  There's something about picking up a card that feels somewhat heavy because it's got a lot going on!  Even still, I think I've stayed true to my clean and simple style.

And I can't forget to mention the ribbon.  I dyed some seam binding ribbon with Pink Pirouette reinker and it actually worked!  I know it seems rather white in the photo, but in real life, it is pink!  My last attempt at dying ribbon didn't work so well so I was very excited to see this little bit of success!

Thanks for stopping by!

MOJO 230 and Color Throwdown 181

I took a mini break from stamping the last couple of days.  But I kept seeing the latest MOJO sketch in my mind and it was calling to me to end my break and get busy in my stamp room.  So last night I sat down to tackle this sketch along with the Color Throwdown challenge.

This color challenge actually reminded me how much I like Certainly Celery.  It used to be one of my go-to colors, but for some reason I've neglected it lately.  Once I realized this, it prompted me to try and figure out why I'd been ignoring a favorite color.  I think it's because I like the color challenges I find so plentiful in blogland.  Back before I tried a color challenge, if I needed green I turned to Certainly Celery. If I needed brown I turned to Chocolate Chip.  You get the idea.  Then I discovered the diversity to be had in color challenges.  Participating got me to try other colors that I might not have used otherwise, sometimes at the expense of colors I used too much.

So, the good news is that I challenge myself creatively with a diverse color palette.  The bad news is ... Well, what do you know?  There is no bad news!