Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge 193 and Inkspirations 60

I decided that I had not used my Beautiful Butterflies Sizzix die enough, so I thought I'd dig it out for the card I'd make with the Inkspirations and Stamping 411 challenges.

I just love a square card (despite the fact that they cost more to mail).  But since I have a stash of stamps at the ready for mailing these cards, I went ahead and made one that is 5 1/4 inch square.

And despite the fact that the sketch graphic was calling for me to use the big stamp from the Petal Pizzazz stamp set, I resisted!  I thought a butterfly made from layers of So Saffron and Wild Wasabi would be just the thing.  I stamped the small butterfly with Fine Flourish and the sentiment is from Upsy Daisy.  And to make sure my little butterfly really stood out, I gave her a little bling in the way of some rhinestones down the middle.

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

Color Throwdown 131 and SC322

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted on my blog.  It's actually only been since Thursday, but thanks to the wonderful ability to schedule posts to publish ahead of time, in reality it's been quite a while since I've tapped the keyboard here!  I've been busy putting bridal shower favors together and they are almost all done so I had some time to make a card with the fabby colors this week at the Color Throwdown and the intriguing sketch from Splitcoast.

I hemmed and hawed over this card for quite some time before I decided that it was ok.  My original thought was to go with some kind of floral stamp on the large white panel, but I couldn't find anything that caught my eye.  (I've taken this to mean that I need more stamps!!).  In the end I went with a couple of the flower images from Punched Posies and the sentiment is from Well Scripted.

After some very chilly temperatures this past week we're supposed to be in for a warm-up this weekend so I'm off to run some errands and take advantage of the warm air.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Color Lab Challenge 31

It's Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab!

More wonderful spring-time colors this week.  When I first saw this challenge I immediately thought of flowers.  Lovely, soft, flowing flowers.  And that brought to mind A Slice of Life stamp set.  There's a stamp in that set that is just a lovely bunch of flowers overflowing a vase.  I've used it quite a bit and it inspired me to do a SUPER SIMPLE clean and simple card this week using the Waltzingmouse sketch challenge.

There were lots of possibilites with this sketch challenge, but I decided to follow the sketch to the letter.  (I'm a bit like that)!  If you're ready for lots of white space here goes:

I'm very unsure about whether I like this card.  I looked at it over and over again and seriously contemplated doing something else, but in the end I decided to go with it.  I'm not sure who I'll ever send this to, but it was a nice exercise in minimalist!  (At least I think so)!

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to pop on over to the Color Lab, check out these gorgeous colors and create something!  We'd love to see what you do!

MOJO 180 ColourQ 74 Gratitude

I almost didn't attempt the Colour Q challenge this week.  Once again the swatch looked great, the design teams cards were beyond inspirational, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to pull it off.  I'm always a little apprehensive when I see loads of colors that I'm expected to put together in one card.  In the end, since I figured that challenging myself is the ultimate goal here, I decided to give it a go and paired it with the MOJO sketch challenge.  Here's what I was dealing with:

As usual, the last MOJO sketch of the month is a choice between round or square.  I decided to go with square.  I almost did the round one (because it's been quite a while since I did one of those), but I think I'll wait until next month to try that!  As for the color challenge, unfortunately I don't have any more Bordering Blue (which is a shame since it was an awesome color), so I substituted Baja Breeze instead.

It was a little tricky putting those circles together and the middle one is a bit low, but I think they pass muster.  To make them I punched a 3/4-inch circle then positioned the 1-inch circle punch around the hole to make the circle outline you see here.  It's a neat look and easy to do if you don't have one of those fancy border die-cuts!

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

A Very Sweet, Picture Perfect Birthday

Today I decided to combine the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge with the Picture Perfect Creations color challenge.  A birthday card was my final result.

I'm pretty sure that I need to get an Early Espresso re-inker because I had a rather difficult time inking up the center of my flower here:

It's funny how sometimes my ink pads are super-juicy and other times not so much.  This is one of those not-so-much ones.  Funny how, for me, these tend to be the darker colors.  I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not!  I'll have to conduct some experiments to find out!

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

Curtain Call 71 - Dare to be Fabulous

Hold onto your hats, So Saffron is everywhere!  I have nothing against So Saffron, and for some reason it keeps cropping up in color challenges this week.  I used it the other day with this card, and here it is again with the Curtain Call color challenge!

It's a great color and I'm happy to use it, especially since I've been neglecting it of late.  Sometimes I find myself reaching for the same colors over and over again, forgetting about all the other great colors that I've got.  I guess that's one of the good things about doing color challenges.  They make you remember that there are loads of colors and you don't need to use the same things all the time.

For this card I used the Fabulous Flowers stamp set that is retired, but still fabulous!  I stamped the big flower twice in So Saffron, cut them out so that the layers would be different sizes and then sponged the edges in More Mustard.  I added an Antique Brad to make in the center of the flowers to make it a little more interesting!

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

Color Dare 98 Birthday

I do so love a clean and simple card. 

When I saw the color challenge this week at the Color Dare, I thought that these were the perfect colors to showcase with a very simple card.  The colors are Perfect Plum, Always Artichoke and a neutral of choice.

For my layout I went to "the binder."  I've mentioned a time or two before that I print out sketch challenges and keep them in a binder for when I need inspiration.  I turn to it often when I'm making a card.  I keep one section with FTL sketches and I find that part especially useful when I'm contemplating a color challenge with three or fewer colors.

So I made this card using the FLT 13 sketch from September 2008.   The Pocket Silhouette stamp set is perfect for it!

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

Friday Mashup #33

Another great color challenge got me thinking again.  This time it was the Friday Mashup blog that got my creative juices flowing!

I think it's been a while since I used So Saffron and I thought it looked great with Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler.  Originally, I planned to use the latest FTL sketch for my layout, but in the end something else emerged!

I added a rectangular sentiment panel and completely forgot the bow at the top!  Oh well, in the end I did manage to use some scallops which means that this qualifies for the Pals Paper Arts challenge this week!  Serendipity, I say to myself!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have to stamp today!