Freshly Made Sketches 248!

Time for our first challenge of August over at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Linda is our hostess and she's cooked up a classic sketch that you will get a lot of mileage out of.  And don't be worried if you have no feathers in your stash - you can use whatever shape you'd like!

The color combo at Can You Case It is a favorite of mine:  gray, yellow, and black so I really wanted to play along with them.  Plus the tic tac toe challenge at The Paper Players was looking for masculine in the top row so I figured these colors would be perfect for that.  I got a kick out of the enamel dots being on the same line but I can see how those can be manly too!

I did layer my little stem with gray and vellum but I accidentally put too much glue on the vellum layer and the whole thing stuck to the card base making it really hard to see.  I tried to carefully pry it up so that there was some dimension to this card but it still is hard to see in the picture.  For the horizontal layer I stamped the sentiment then drew a box around it with a black marker to create the illusion of a separate layer.  I even cut the stem so that it seems like it is behind my faux layer!

The inspiration at Freshly Made Sketches is amazing this week so you'll definitely want to check it out if you haven't already.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Grateful (Concord & 9th)
Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Black (Simon Says Stamp); Basic Gray, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew);  Basic Black marker (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Chloe Stem die (Memory Box); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

colourQ 353!

Hello!  This week at colourQ there is a color combo that gave me a little case of the hiccups!  But never one to back down from a color challenge I persevered through a couple of iterations until I ended up with, of all things, a baby card!

Ha!  And now that I've posted this here I see that I completely forgot to use green!  Believe me, I had every intention to but I think I must have been so obsessed with explaining why I would use these colors for a baby card that I forgot that I had one more color to explain!

I should also mention that I am also playing along with the Sketch Saturday challenge, which is to pick a past sketch.  I chose #225.  And I'm also playing along with Addicted to CAS where the cue word is "welcome."

I was going to make a floral card using these colors but I kept coming back to the "welcome" challenge and couldn't get a baby card out of my head.  I really don't know why because these are some pretty strange colors for a baby card!  I didn't want it to be too pink or too blue, rendering it useless in those instances where the gender of the baby is unknown, so I thought the coral would draw some of the attention away from those colors and make it a little more neutral.  Too bad it drew the attention away from the green too! Yikes!

Despite my faux pas I hope you won't hold it against me and that you can join us in the colourQ gallery this week. We love to see you there!

Supplies
Stamps:  Grunge Cirque (Tim Holtz); Onesie Twosie (Taylored Expressions); Onesie Two-sie (Wplus9)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Night of Navy, Calypso Coral (SU)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Night of Navy (SU)
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Baby die (Simon Says Stamp); Decorative Dots embossing folder (SU)

CAS(E) This Sketch 183!

I'm not afraid to admit that I was a little daunted by the latest challenge designed by Chrissy Larson at CAS(E) This Sketch.  But then I saw the inspiration challenge at Just Us Girls and a light bulb went off in my head!

I stamped several horizontal lines in some of the colors from the JUGS inspiration photo then added a popped up a die cut sentiment and a star in orange.  This ended up being easy peasy, despite my initial misgivings!

My fellow CAS(E) This Sketch teamies have made some beautiful cards with this sketch so I hope you have some time to play along with us this week.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Abstract Art (My Favorite Things); Seeing Stars (SU)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Midnight Muse, Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Accessories:  Awesome die (Neat & Tangled)

Freshly Made Sketches 247!

Hello, hello!  It's Wednesday so that means it's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our guest designer Shannon is our sketch hostess.  I actually owe a deep apology to Shannon because I thought I would be clever and rotate the sketch to accommodate a certain sentiment die that I wanted to use and somehow became spatially disoriented because said sentiment ended up in the wrong place.  Even so, I think you get the spirit of the sketch from my card.  At least I hope so!

I love these how these colors look together and they come from the latest challenge at Cupcake Inspirations.  I wasn't actually sure I could pull off the white die cut sentiment but I think it looks pretty good.  In real life it's a little sparkly because I went over it with Wink of Stella, but you can't see it here because my photography talents don't extend to whatever skill is needed to make that show up!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you've got some time to join us at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our design team has got some wonderful cards to inspire you so I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Night of Navy, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Accessories:  Circle STAX 2 (My Favorite Things); Thank You die (Heidi Swapp); Wink of Stella

colourQ 352!

It's July 26th.  How in the world did July go by so fast?  Before I know it, I'll be putting on heavy sweaters and shoveling snow.  Boo.  But waaayyyy before that happens I've got a new card to show you that I made for the latest colourQ challenge!

I got a new floral stamp set recently and thought the images in it would look good with the sketch at As You See It.  These flowers are so pretty and I wish I had stamped a few more!  There's a birthday challenge at Can You Case It so I inked up a birthday sentiment from a set I bought ages ago and never used before!  #NBUS

Well that's it for me today.  Short and sweet.  I've been doing a project at work that has my brain fried and my body exhausted every day so I've not been very diligent about keeping up with my blog visiting and commenting.  So if it's been a while since I've popped in to your blog, I apologize sincerely.  I appreciate each and every visitor to my blog and look forward to reading your comments and it pains me greatly that I haven't returned the favor lately.  Hopefully soon, I'll be back to a regular schedule!

Supplies
Stamps:  Floral Sketches (Papertrey Ink); Celebrate Big (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); So Saffron, Rich Razzleberry (SU)
Ink:  So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Rich Razzleberry (SU)
Accessories:  Festive Fall sequins (Neat & Tangled)

Tag You're It 52!

It's finally Friday!  Yay!  And it's time for a new challenge at Tag You're It.  This week the amazing and sweet Amy Tsuruta is our featured designer and she gave us an equally sweet tag as inspiration.

I went through my stamp stash at least twice looking for stamps that had a vase and some flowers.  No such luck.  So I decided to focus on the floral theme and the colors.  I stamped the flowers in shades of orange and red and added some green leaves.  To complete the look I added a little yellow half circle at the top of the tag, some taupey-gray for the sentiment, and the blue water line on Amy's tag became some enamel dots on mine.  Voila!

The color challenge at  Sunday Stamps was a great influence on my tag.  Too bad I don't have a parakeet in my stash or I would really wow you with my design!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will stop by Tag You're It and check out the inspiration from our design team.  You will be amazed I am sure!  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Reason to Smile (SU); Label Love (Altenew)
Paper:  Smoky Slate, Garden Green, Crushed Curry (SU); White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Real Red (SU); Smoky Shadow (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); Curvy Leaves die (Elizabeth Craft Designs); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

CAS(E) This Sketch 182

Hello, hello!  And welcome to Thursday where I get to share my latest project for CAS(E) This Sketch.  This week our sketch is brought to you by N@ Ali and is deliciously CAS!

I spent a lot of time thinking about this sketch.  I thought of sponging with some stencils or doing something cool with embossing paste.  A friend made some suggestions ranging from doilies to umbrellas to strawberries to upside down leaves.  I thought of feathers and, in desperation, even briefly considered an upside down Christmas tree!  So with all these ideas swirling around in my head I sat down at my stamp table and as often happens to me when I think too much, a simple idea occurred to me.  How about a leaf, some flowers, and a wee sentiment.  Lucky for me I had a leaf whose shape echoed the flourish on the sketch - a little wider on one end as it tapered down to the other.

I was helped along with my design by using the colors from the latest challenge at Global Design Project.  I love using gray for leaves (something I learned from my friend Narelle who is not afraid to think outside the box when it comes to color) and I would just like to say that I used an old black stamp pad for the sentiment and it looks gray in the picture but it really is black!

Be sure to check out the latest sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch as well as the inspiration from the design team.  We'd love to see you in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes (SU); Everyday Mini Sentiments (Whimsy Stamps)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Smoky Slate (SU)
Ink:  Melon Mambo (SU); Noir Black (Palette)
Accessories:  Leafy Greenery die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 246!

I'm very excited that it's Wednesday and time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  Our  beautiful sketch, designed by Rita, has a tag on it which put me in mind of Christmas.

The colors for my card were inspired by the latest Christmas Card Challenge, although I took a little artistic liberty and added some silver sparkle!  Originally I was going to use patterned paper in these colors for the different layers on the tag but then came across an old tag I made that had a sparkly circle on it.  I used that idea for the circle and then added the two triangular trees in green and red to make it extra festive!

The Freshly Made Sketches design team has some great cards to inspire you to play along with us this week, so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Modern Christmas (Clearly Besotted); Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Baja Breeze, Silver Glimmer (SU)
Ink:  Mossy Meadow (SU); Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Ruby Red (Altenew)
Accessories:  Femme Frames (Mama Elephant); Small Stitched Rectangle die (Lawn Fawn); Pierced Traditional Tags STAX, Washi Tape die (My Favorite Things); Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon (SU); crochet thread