Freshly Made Sketches 73

It's Wednesday and, of course, that means Freshly Made Sketches in my house!  This week, the sweet Jen B has provided our sketch and as soon as I saw it I was in love!

This card is too late for the Color Throwdown challenge, but I really loved these colors and wanted to make a card with them so that's what I did!  I used some ancient Basic Gray DSP called Urban Oasis which I then layered with a Pink Pirouette circle that I stitched around the edge.  The horizontal layer is nothing but a bit of Very Vanilla that I embellished with some zig zag stitching and a bit of black washi tape.  The layered flowers are stamped in Riding Hood Red and finished off with a big ol' pearl in the center.

I hope you have time to join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  As always our amazing design team has got some great cards to jump start your creativity so be sure to pop on by and check them out.  And I hope you can join us in the gallery.  We love to see you there!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Secret Garden (SU), Hope Blooms (Verve)

Accessories:  Secret Garden die (SU), Basic Pearl Large (SU), washi tape

colourQ 176

I'm so glad to be back in a crafting mood after the recent snow storm around these parts.  It took me a while to warm up once the heat came back on, but once it did I plunked myself in my stamp room and got busy.  First up is a card I made for this week's colourQ challenge.

I'll admit that I had a few starts and stops when I finally sat down to make this card.  I had something else in mind entirely for these colors, but wasn't happy with what I came up with so I scrapped it and went with this.  The polka dotted background is some pretty DSP called Orchard Harvest.  I followed that up with some Primrose Petals circles and some leaves and flowers stamped in Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral.  The layout I used is from the Seize The Birthday challenge where the assignment is to use the sketch to create a feminine birthday card.  And to me nothing says feminine like some pretty flowers!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  The always-amazing colourQ design team have got some great cards to inspire you this week so be sure to pop on by and check them out.  I hope you have time to join us in the gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Canvas (SU), Embroidered Blooms (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Beautiful Blooms Die #2, Turning a New Leaf Die (Papertrey Ink), crochet thread

TAWS Guest Designer and Deconstructed Sketch

I don't usually do two posts in one day, but I had two different cards to show you that I made for The Alley Way Stamps blog.  The first one you can find here.

This card is a funky little card that could be a Valentine or a card to give "just because."  It uses the totally cool retro glasses and the punny sentiment from adoraBOWL.

It's been a while since I made a round card, but I really liked the fun Deconstructed Sketch this week, so I poked around my stamp room and remembered I had this fun new DSP called More Amore.  It's got a bunch of great patterns and pretty colors.

Well that's it for me this weekend.  Since the power came back on this morning, I've got a lot of catching up to do!  See you later!

TAWS Guest Designer and CAS(E) This Skech 14

I wasn't sure I was going to get this card posted because my power went out Friday night during the snow storm and didn't come back on until this morning.  It was a very chilly 39-degrees in my house and I was seriously bundled up trying to keep warm.  Thankfully, the utility workers are working around the clock to restore power and they're just about rock stars in my opinion!

So I get to show you a card that I made for my second week being the Guest Designer at The Alley Way Stamps. 

I've got about 2 1/2 feet of snow in my yard so I definitely needed a bit of cheering up and I made this card with some fun washi tape with nice spring-time colors and this pretty flower from Petal Pushers.  I stamped the sentiment from Jibber Jabber directly onto the washi tape and then left it alone to dry for a long time.  I probably should have used Stazon ink to stamp that because it probably would sit on top of the washi tape a bit better, but I think it will be okay.  Note to self in future:  stamping on washi tape could get messy!

I used a slightly modified version of the sketch challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.  I meant for the washi tape to show on the left side of the flower to better fit the sketch, but I ripped it a bit too short.

Ok, I'll be back a bit a later with another card that I made for The Alley Way Stamps blog.  Thanks for stopping by!

Muse #3 and Mojo 279

I wasn't at all sure that I was up to the Muse challenge this week (or ever).  I've never actually participated in an "inspiration" challenge because I'm more of a literal kind of girl.  Give me a sketch and I'm on it.  A color challenge and you need do nothing but point me to the ink pads.  But an inspiration picture makes me  hyperventilate because I can't decide between color, layout, theme or some overwhelming combination of all three.  But I was determined to overcome this irrational fear and participate in my first ever challenge that was inspired by someone else's card.

To point out the obvious, my card is the one on top and it was inspired by this incredible beauty by Laurie Willison.  And in order to make my card, I decided to focus on the colors of Laurie's card and made mine with some Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango and So Saffron.  The layout of my card follows (almost exactly) the Mojo sketch.  And what's fun about this is that it is not just a card, but it is a gift card holder!

Inside this little card is a pocket for a gift card!  I actually made this for my sister who needed a couple of gift card holders and I thought it would be fun to take a sketch that is normally used for a card and adapting it for a gift card holder.  I'm really pleased with how this came out!

I happen to live in Massachusetts and there is a pretty big snow storm heading my way for Friday and Saturday.  Thursday morning the weather forecasts were calling for about a foot of snow and as the day went on the snow totals were steadily climbing.  When I talked to my sister in the evening she said that some people may see three feet of snow.  She wasn't sure which people, but I'm hoping that I'm not one of them!

We're expecting blizzard conditions and the experts are warning that there's a good chance that we'll lose power but I'm praying that doesn't happen.  In any event, if you are in the path of the storm I hope that you stay safe and that you weather the storm with no serious complications!

Freshly Made Sketches 72

This week at Freshly Made Sketches, we've got a great sketch from Cindy.  It's got great classic lines and a spot for any shape that tickles your fancy! 

I used the red and pink colors from Dynamic Duos but decided against the obvious Valentine suggested by the colors in favor of some funky flowers.  I found some Pretty in Pink DSP in my stash and I combined it with some embossed stripes on the bottom portion of the card.  I stamped the biggest flower in Real Red then stamped off to do the smallest one.  It's amazing to me how much stamping off dilutes the color because the smaller one looks quite pink to me.

Ok, that's it for me, but be sure to head on over to Freshly Made Sketches and check out the inspiration from the DT! 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Great Friend (SU), Funky Florals (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Stripes EF (SU), Chevron Stripes Die-Namics (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 175

Well, Tuesday means some awesome new colors from colourQ.  I've got to admit that these colors looked so fantastic when I first saw them, but I couldn't quite translate all that fantastic-ness onto my card!

I think it was the Tangerine Tango that was throwing me for a loop.  After several starts and stops, I managed to finally incorporate it in the small vertical strips.  I had it in mind to make a card that used some cool graphic images because I was planning on giving it to my niece who had her tonsils out the other day, and I knew she'd appreciate the fun, modern design.  I understand that the recovery from the procedure is extremely painful and I wanted to give her a little boost so I grabbed this sentiment, which will put a smile on her face!  The classic layout is courtesy of the latest retro sketch.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to stop on by colourQ and check out the cards from the DT!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Grunge Me (PTI), Fight Like a Girl (a.muse studio)

Less is More and Unscripted Sketches 196

Less is More is celebrating their 2nd anniversary!  That's quite an accomplishment so I wanted to carve out some time to participate.  The theme this week is Kraft & Kreme so I got right to it with some help from Unscripted Sketches.  

I had some washi tape in my stash that I think is supposed to be sort of coppery in color, but it looks an awful lot like Kraft to me so I stuck it on my cardstock and happily found out that I was right!  Then I cut some beautiful butterflies using the Beautiful Wings embosslit out of Very Vanilla and I was done.....almost.  I thought it looked a bit naked so I added a birthday sentiment stamped in Crumb Cake.

As I'm typing this the Superbowl has resumed after the weird power outage, so I'm off to my comfy sofa to finish watching the game.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  WTF (CAS-ual Fridays)

Accessories:  Beautiful Wings Embosslit (SU), washi tape