Goodbye to "Seize the Sketch" -- a challenge blog I've enjoyed.

I haven't participated with challenges for very long.  I think my first challenge was back in June this year.  It's only August.  That's under three months.  In that time I've been fortunate enough to win or be considered in the Top picks of several challenge blogs.  The Seize the Sketch blog is one of them.  I've enjoyed their sketches and am lucky enough to show their badge in the right margin of my blog.  It was an honour to be among those picked for their sketch challenge.  And now they're closing their challenges forever.  Of course I'll participate in their last challenge but it is with a heavy heart.  I will miss them.

I like the sketch.  It is simple and yet allows for a lot of imagination.  A good sketch is like that.  My choice for a stamp set was the wonderful Wetlands set.  I still haven't run out of ways to use this stamp set and love every opportunity to try something new with it.  

My base cardstock is Naturals White with a layer of Baked Brown Sugar and then an embossed layer of Pool Party.  For the embossing I chose to use the woodgrain pattern sideways because it makes it appear like ripples and waves on water.  I stamped the images on Whisper White using Baked Brown Sugar, Pool Party, and Early Espresso inks.  The sentiment is also stamped in Baked Brown Sugar but, after being cut with my Word Bubbles framelit, I sponged a bit of Pool Party ink around it.

Stamp sets used were:  Wetlands (of course), Just Sayin' and Work of Art.  The fringe under the image squares was cut from the Burlap Ribbon.  The embellishment at the top right corner is from the Essentials Wooden Elements topped with an Early Espresso candy dot.

For more cards in this last challenge at Seize the Sketch, check them out here.

Festival of Trees

There is a new punch in the Holiday Catalogue that is super cool.  Just think, this punch cuts out your Christmas tree.  The trees in the Festival of Trees stamp set co-ordinate perfectly with the new Tree Punch.

The trees are very simple trees and are therefore perfect for a very clean and simple card.  I decided to design one that showed off the trees and also met a colour challenge that had intrigued me all week.  The Pals Paper Arts colour challenge:

I also wanted to follow a very clean and simple design at the AAA Cards:

I chose my base cardstock to be Naturals White and left a wide margin before adding a layer of Pear Pizzazz and then a layer of Basic Black.  In the centre I attached the Whisper White layer onto which I had stamped two trees and attached a centre, punched-out tree.  My trees were stamped using Pear Pizzazz ink and the baubles were all coloured using my Strawberry Slush Stampin' Marker.  As a final touch, I added three rhinestones---one for the top of each tree.

Like I said, it's a clean and simple card.  It spotlights the Festival of Trees stamps and, of course, the colours.

For more cards using these colours, check out the Pals Paper Arts Challenge.

For more cards using this design, check out the AAA Cards Challenge.

Fab Friday Theme Challenge for Baby Ian

Babies are exciting news even when you haven't met the parents or the baby in person.  Mindy Backes, a very talented Stampin' Up! demo who is the leader of the Fab Friday challenge team, just gave birth to baby Ian on August 5th.  So the Design Team changed out the challenge as a surprise for Mindy and made it all about the baby.  What fun!

Because baby Ian is a little "Leo", I wanted to put a little lion into my design.  I also wanted to use the Something for Baby stamp set.  So I checked out some other challenges to see if anything fit the bill.  The striking colours from the Colour Me...! challenge were absolutely perfect:

 as was the design from the Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

So, armed with a theme, colours to use and a design, I proceeded to make baby Ian's card.  My base cardstock is Naturals White followed by a layer of Tangelo Twist which I had embossed using my Decorative Dots embossing folder.  The next layer was a smaller rectangle of Whisper White embossed with my Alphabet Press embossing folder.  Then I cut out a piece of Tempting Turquoise into a frame of a banner using the largest and second largest of my Banner framelits.

For the little "onesie", I first used Tangelo Twise ink to stamp just the lion's head from the Zoo Babies stamp set, once on Whisper White and another time on a piece of Post-It note.  I cut out the head stamped on the Post-It note as my "mask" and stuck it to my Whisper White over the stamped lion's head using my Two-Way glue.  Then I stamped the "onesie" from the Something for Baby stamp set, centred over the lion's head.  After I had removed the mask, I went over any still-white spots with my Tempting Turquoise marker and then free-handed a pattern over the "onesie" with the marker as well.

The additional little details were stamped using the Teeny Tiny Wishes, Truly Grateful and Baby, We've Grown stamp sets using either Tangelo Twist ink or Tempting Turquoise ink.

For more cards for baby Ian and Mindy, check out the Fab Friday Challenge.

For more cards using this sketch, check out Freshly Made Sketches.

For more cards using these colours, check out Colour Me...!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa meets a couple of challenges.

So happy to have learned that this card was picked for the Fab Faves.  Yay!

I enjoy the Fab Friday Challenges and am glad I managed to get a card together before this one was over.  The sketch is perfect for one of the new stamp sets that I just received in yesterday's order.

Another challenge that I enjoy and for which my planned card would be great is the Stampin' Royalty one which calls for Glitter.  I planned to make a very clean and simple card but I also planned to use a fair bit of glitter.  Perfect!

The stamp set, Santa Stache, that I used for this sketch is from the new Holiday Catalogue that will premiere on September 1st.  It's perfect for some fun and also for the Blendabilities.  I chose to use the Santa image for the large shape in the sketch and then a word bubble containing the "ho! ho! ho!" from the Hostess Good Greetings set for the medium shape and, finally, a star cut from Silver Glimmer Paper for the smallest of the shapes.  

I used Cherry Cobbler for my base cardstock and stamped or adhered all the shapes onto a layer of Whisper White.  I kept it clean and simple and love the final result.  I hope that you do as well.

For more cards included in this challenge, check out Fab Friday Challenges.

For more cards using glitter in a challenge, check out Stampin' Royalty.

New Products and a New Friend---Life is good!

I was so excited last night!  I finally received my pre-order from the brand new Holiday Catalogue.  It's always so much fun to actually have the stamps and paper and punches and framelits, etc. in hand rather than just see it on a page.  I definitely loved everything I ordered.  That's always a good start.

Today I got up early and prepared to meet someone that I've only known through the Internet.  Marilyn Meadows is from New Zealand and she's "liked" my Facebook page and follows my blog.  How great is that!  She and her husband have been travelling in the U.S. and here in Canada and she asked if she could visit.  Of course!  I was ecstatic.  I thought it might be fun and a way to keep our hands busy if we made a card while we got to know each other in person.  After all, the Internet, while wonderful in bringing people together, is limiting.  I also thought Marilyn might be as excited about all the new Stampin' Up! products as I was.  Yes, she was!

The stamp set we decided to use was the Christmas Bauble.  We first heat embossed the image in Silver embossing powder on Whisper White and then decided to do some fancy colouring using the Blendabilities.  Unhappily both of us wound up going slightly outside the embossing and so we mutually agreed that this would become a fussy-cut image.  I like it when there's an easy fix---especially when it gives the finished card a bit of an extra "wow".

Since Marilyn's husband had chosen to snooze outside in his vehicle, it couldn't be too very long a visit and Marilyn had to leave before the card was completely finished.  Since she has Blendabilities back in New Zealand, however, she can easily finish up.  I continued working on my own after she left and added a bit of an extra element by stamping a layer of Whisper White with the new Ornamental Pine stamp set before attaching the fussy-cut ornament.

The base cardstock is Naturals White and then I've added a layer of Coastal Cabana.  The sentiment is from the new Good Greetings Hostess set.

Thanks for a great time stamping together, Marilyn.  Wish you lived closer so that we could do it often.

I've decided to enter the card into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  It's for anything "Holiday" and so the card definitely qualifies.  For more cards in this challenge, just click here.

Bloom With Hope

The hostess stamp set, Bloom With Hope contains so many stamps.  There are so many flowers to choose from as well as terrific sentiments.  For those who earn hostess credits, it's a terrific stamp set to get.

I decided to enter a colour challenge and, because one of the colours was Crisp Cantaloupe, immediately thought of a flower.  I also thought of a special fold I had seen and decided to combine the two.

The card stands on its own because of the way it has been folded.  As a result, one has "wings" to work with as well as a centre panel.  I love it when that happens.  The base cardstock I chose was Naturals White.  For the wings, I layered a piece of Island Indigo and then a layer of the Cirsp Cantaloupe polka dot 2013-2015 In-Color Designer Paper stack.  On top of that I scattered small stars in Crisp Cantaloupe, Wild Wasabi, Island Indigo and Dazzling Diamond Glimmer paper.

For the centre panel I first layered a piece of Island Indigo and then a piece of the Crisp Cantaloupe polka dot paper.  Then I stamped a piece of Whisper White, first with Wild Wasabi leaves from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set and then with an Island Indigo sentiment from the Sassy Salutations stamp set.  Then I attached that to the centre of the layers.

On a piece of Whisper White, I stamped the largest bloom from the Bloom with Hope stamp set using Memento black ink.  After colouring the bloom with my Crisp Cantaloupe Stampin' Write Marker, I fussy cut it out and then attached it onto the leafy area using Dimensionals.

For more cards in the colour challenge, check out Pals Paper Arts.  These are the colours:

I also entered the card in a challenge to use markers or pens.  You can check that out at the Inkspirational Challenge.

WCC06 -- A Birthday Spinner Card

This challenge is a different one than most.  Our challenge was to CASE a card or project that one of the Watercooler gang has posted on their blog.  Well, there are a lot of us in the Watercooler gang and we seem to post quite prolifically.  Finding something that I wanted to CASE wasn't a problem.  Finding one thing out of all the great projects was definitely a problem.  Finally, growing bleary-eyed and overwhelmed from all the great projects, I decided that I would CASE the circle card thinlits die spinner card that Kath Ricks shared with us for the May Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop was the one that I really wanted to try making and, if I was going to make it, why not for this challenge?  It helped a lot that in her next post, Kath was generous enough to give a comprehensive tutorial with great photos.

Now the fun began.  I wanted to make Kath's card but I didn't want to copy it outright.  To CASE is not necessarily to make a carbon copy, of course, and I wanted Kath's card with my own spin on it.  (Notice that play on words with which I'm entertaining you?)

The thing about spinner cards is that something has to spin (obviously) and so it's always a good thing to have an image that can easily be glued together back-to-back.  Kath's butterflies are an excellent example.  I quickly discovered that I don't have a whole lot of images that would fit inside the circle and also be identical enough to glue back-to-back.  Finally I decided on a sentiment using the Artisan Label Punch.  I could work with a birthday theme and the punched image was the perfect size for the circular space.   My stamp sets would be the Label Love, Sketched Birthday and the Hostess set, Life's Adventure.  I also decided that I would stick to a limited colour scheme and chose vanilla as my neutral, Crisp Cantaloupe and Calypso Coral.

And so my card was born.  You can see all the details on how to make it here, on Kath's posting.  I can't say it any better than that.  As for the stamping and such, I think everything is pretty obvious.  The images are all coloured using the Blendabilities.  I also coloured the Rhinestones using the Blendabilities (love the way they match).  I did go out of my colour scheme for the platter holding the cake by using the Gold Glimmer Stampin' Marker and, of course, by using the black Memento ink for the images.  I did the sponging with Crisp Cantaloupe ink.  The Designer Paper is perfect for the birthday theme and is part of the Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Paper.

What the picture doesn't show you is how that "Happy Birthday to you" in the centre of the circle spins freely.  By winding it up before putting the card into an envelope, the recipient gets the happy surprise of this cute spinning element in the card.  How sweet is that?

World of Dreams meets several challenges and wins with two!

Sometimes a sketch can catch one's imagination and sometimes a colour challenge can do that.  In the case of this card, it was both.  I loved the sketch at Mojo Monday and knew it would work beautifully with the wonderful colours at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I like it when things like that happen.

        

I chose to use the beautiful World of Dreams stamp set.  There is something about silhouettes that I love and these particular silhouettes are simply gorgeous.  Because I chose to use Night of Navy as my base cardstock, I chose to heat emboss the main silhouette for this card in Pool Party on a piece of Night of Navy.  For my other silhouettes, I first had to prepare a piece of Whisper White with a wash of all those beautiful colours in the pictures shown above.  After that dried, I sprayed the piece with some Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz and then let that dry.

During these drying periods, I stamped my background layer using the Handcarved stamp and Wisteria Wonder ink.  The next centre layer was a piece of Pistachio Pudding Designer Paper from the 2013-2015 In-Colors stack.  I backed that with some Pistachio Pudding cardstock before attaching it to the card.  By this time my spritzed piece was dry and so I stamped it with the leaves image from World of Dreams using Wisteria Wonder ink and Coastal Cabana ink.  Finally it was ready to attach as well.  On top of that at an angle I adhered the main silhouette using Dimensionals.

Then for the "girdle" I cut a piece of the new Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper and put it through my Big Shot in the Delicate Designs embossing folder.  The effect was subtle but because it was no longer flat, the piece was even more dazzling than before.  A Night of Navy banner heat embossed in white with the sentiment from For the Birds followed and then I went a bit over the top for my accent.

I used my Chevron Border punch to cut two Night of Navy chevrons and two Pool Party chevrons.  I cut each one in half and then mismatched them so that they pointed towards the banner.

For more cards with these colours, check out Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Chosen as an Artist Pick!

For more cards with this sketch design, check out Mojo Monday.

For more cards that feature a handstamped background, check out Stampin' Royalty.  Top pick for Challenge.

A Button and Sketch challenge --- Oh my!

*Yay!  This card was chosen for the "Featured Artisans" at the Paper Craft Crew!*

You've hear the term "cute as a button", right?  Well, that's how they begin the challenge over at The Paper Players.  The card must include one or more buttons.  Easy?  I don't use buttons in my creations very often.  But then I found a sketch challenge over at the Paper Craft Crew and everything came together.  I could actually "see" myself making a card that included a button and enjoying it.  And so we begin...

The sketch that changed my mind:

I decided to keep to a limited colour palette and kept the card to a neutral of Very Vanilla (that would be Naturals Ivory for the base), Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black.  For what I had in mind, this would bring attention where I wanted it most. 

On top of my base of Naturals Ivory, I layered a piece of Cherry Cobbler and then a layer of Very Vanilla.  The Very Vanilla was first run through my Big Shot using my Decorative Dots embossing folder and spritzed with a bit of Cherry Cobbler ink using my (unfortunately retired) Spritzer Tool.

The next detail was a bit more complicated.  I began with two squares, one Very Vanilla and one slightly larger one Basic Black.  On the Very Vanilla I stamped the largest flower from the Everything Eleanor stamp set using my Memento black ink.  Then I coloured the flower using my Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities.  Once that was dry, I coloured the filaments of the flower using my Gold Stampin' Dazzle marker and then covered each anther with a Basic Pearl jewel.  

At the top right I stamped a sentiment from my new Good Greetings hostess stamp set also using the Memento black ink.  Then I took a piece of Cherry Cobbler seam binding and pleated it into a piece of Sticky Strip.  I took another piece of Sticky Strip and sandwiched the seam binding between the two strips.  I attached the pleated ribbon along the right edge of the Very Vanilla square and then attached that to the slightly larger Basic Black square. Finally I adhered the square to the lower right corder of the card using Dimensionals.

After the square was attached, I took the largest of my Designer Very Vintage buttons and tied a piece of Cherry Cobbler Baker's twine through that.  After I attached it to the right bottom of the little square with glue dots, I added a large pearl to the centre.

I didn't want to add pennants to the top left of the card.  The mood of the card just didn't support pennants and therefore I chose to add butterflies.  First of all I braided three strands of the Cherry Cobbler Baker's twine together for a more solid "rope" effect.  Once that was attached, I added four small butterflies which I had created by heat embossing Vellum cardstock with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set.  I bent the wings upward, glued the butterflies to the "rope" using Tombo and added pearls to the centres.

And that finished off my card.  I'm very pleased with the effect of just those three colours.  I love my butterflies and, of course, the flower coloured with those wonderful Blendabilities.  What I didn't expect to love was the button, because I'm not a button-type of cardmaker.  In this case, however, I'm very happy with it.  The button actually adds a final detail that enhances the card.  I may yet begin using those buttons a bit more frequently.

For more cards using buttons, check out The Paper Players.

For more cards using this sketch, check out the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

A Pom-Pom? Why not?

I found a challenge that asked for a card in which a pom-pom was featured.  Well!  How could I resist that?  Especially since I had some tiny pom-poms in Daffodil Delight.  A card was just asking to be created.

I used a base cardstock of Tangelo Twist.  Then I added a layer of Daffodil Delight from which I had cut a star in the upper left portion and then I had run it through my Big Shot using my Decorative Dots embossing folder.  I loved how that let the Tangelo Twist come through in a star shape.  Then I cut a smaller star from Whisper White and stamped that with the party hat from the Sketched Birthday stamp set.  I coloured the hat using my Daffodil Delight Blendabilities and then sponged a bit of Tangelo Twist ink around the perimeter of the star before attaching it in the centre of the star cut-out using Dimensionals.

I also stamped a balloon from the Sketched Birthday stamp set and fussy-cut that out after colouring it with my Tangelo Twist marker.  I attached the balloon on dimensionals and drew a long black "string".  Then I stamped the "Happy Birthday" from the Sassy Salutations stamp set in black ink on a piece of Tangelo Twist cardstock.  I cut that out curving around the letters and then sponged some black ink around the perimeter before attaching it to the bottom left using dimensionals.

Finally I attached a small pom-pom to the top of the party hat.  And my card was complete.

For more cards in this challenge, check out The Friday Mashup.

Wetlands --- New ways to use my old favourite

It's no secret that I love the Wetlands stamp set.  I've said it many times and continue to say it each time I use the set.  From the reeds to the sandpipers to the Canada Goose, all the images are so beautifully sketched that I enjoy each one.  This tag-within-a-card makes use of them all.

Just Add Ink is a challenge blog that I enjoy a lot.  Having to use a set of colours for a card makes me stretch my usual boundaries to be sure.

Those colours would not have been my first choice for a card using the Wetlands images, but that's what makes it a challenge.

To add to the challenge, I decided to use the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch! 

This sketch is being offered in conjunction with the sketch at Tag You're It! which is, as the name implies, a challenge blog devoted to tags.

I chose So Saffron as my base cardstock and then added a layer of Basic Black and then a layer of Smoky Slate that I had first run through my Big Shot using the Woodgrain embossing folder.  For the tag I put a piece of Whisper White through the Scallop Tag Topper Punch and then stamped the Canada Goose, masked the image, and stamped the reeds.  I added a bit of So Saffron using my Blender Pen and then mounted the tag onto Basic Black.  I cut around the tag carefully, leaving a skinny border of black.

I wanted something different along the left side but didn't want to add any Designer Paper and so I cut a strip from the So Saffron die cut that I had made using my Hexagon Hive Thinlit and then stamped a couple of the sandpipers in each of the solid hexagons using Memento black ink and shaded the edges using Smoky Slate and a sponge.

Before I added the tag to the card, I wrapped Whisper White Baker's Twine around the centre of the card three times.  Then I stamped the sentiment onto So Saffron using Memento black ink, cut that with my Large Oval punch, and shaded the edges using a sponge and Smoky Slate before mounting it onto the card using dimensionals.

As a finishing touch I added three Basic Black Candy Dots to the top right.

For more cards using these colours, check out Just Add Ink.

For more cards using this sketch, check out CAS(E) this Sketch!

For more tags using this sketch, check out the Tag You're It! challenge.

For more cards with a bird theme, check out Make My Monday.

Welcome---fun with the Life's Adventure stamp set

The hostess stamp set, Life's Adventure, offers some very versatile images.  I've already used the bicycle and fox in two previous posts and this time I'm using the house.  It's great when you can get so many different types of cards from one set.

The house reminded me of some of those quaint beach houses one sees in beach towns along the Oregon shore.  That's why I decided to colour it in vibrant, welcoming colours because that's exactly how those houses along the shore looked.  The Blendabilities did a great job with those vibrant colours.

My base cardstock is Chocolate Chip.  It has a lot of warmth in its tones and looks great with the Tangelo Twist which is in the next layer.  The designer paper is from the 2014-2016 In-Colors Stack.  I followed the sketch offered by Paper Craft Crew Challenge closely except that, instead of making my card a square, I chose to make it rectangular.  It simply compliments the skinny house better than a square would have in my opinion.

My mother used to find four-leafed-clovers almost everywhere she went.  She was drawn to them almost magnetically.  So clover has always been something important in my life.  Shamrocks, too, have a special meaning for houses.  I know that I have been gifted a Shamrock as a house-warming gift because, apparently, it brings good luck to the house for as long as it lives.  So far my Shamrock has been with me for more years than I can remember.  That's the reason for the clover/shamrock that I've placed at the bottom right and top left of the card.  

For more cards using this sketch, check out the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.  If you get a moment, please vote for my card when voting opens late Tuesday night.

Thank You---with An Open Heart (Runner up at the Seize the Sketch Challenge)

I love the "An Open Heart" stamp set!  The sentiments are lovely and the image of the bird and berry-filled branch are very natural looking.  The set struck a chord with me and I knew I would have to buy it.

For this card I've decided to keep things very neutral.  My base cardstock is Naturals Ivory.  The next layer is Basic Black and then I've used Very Vanilla, more Basic Black and the Typeset Specialty Designer Series paper.  I heat embossed the bird and "thank you" in White embossing powder on Basic Black cardstock.  The "girdle" is Very Vanilla stamped with the berry-filled branch.  Then I coloured the Berries using Cherry Cobbler and finally used my Delicate Designs embossing folder to give it some texture.

The card looked unfinished to me and so I added some Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding ribbon at the bottom of the "girdle" and then added an embellishment I had created using the Simply Pressed Clay, stamped with the "for you" from the Flamingo Lingo stamp set, and coloured using my Cherry Cobbler marker.  When that was dry I covered it liberally with Crystal Effects.  I think that it is the perect finishing touch, attached to the ribbon with a little piece of Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.

I entered this card in the Seize the Sketch Challenge.  Just click on the sketch below and you can see more of the cards entered in this challenge.

Hello Love

There is an adorable hostess stamp set in the Annual Catalogue called Hello Love.  It features little birds, sunshine and clouds raining hearts.  Cute?  Very much so!

I decided to use the stamp set in a swap that I joined and, as luck would have it, it also fit quite nicely with a challenge.  How great is that?  The challenge was for either a sketch or colour or both.  I went for both because it just made me work that much harder and sometimes it's fun to make all the pieces fit just so.

My base cardstock is Naturals White and then there are layers of Early Espresso and Cajun Craze.  There is also a designer piece of Crisp Cantaloupe from the 2013-2015 In-Color stack.  My inks are Early Espresso and Crisp Cantaloupe.  I also added some accents of Old Olive and love the way it makes the circle pop as well as adds some interest to the banners.  As a final detail I added a feather from the A Happy Hooray stamp set which I off-stamped twice before stamping on Whisper White with Cajun Craze ink.

For more cards in the Challenge, check the blog out here.

Sometimes a card is so hard to make -- Top Pick at the Fab 'n' Funky Challenge

*Making this card was an emotional ride for me and I was thrilled to discover it was Top Pick at the Fab 'n' Funky Challenge*

A friend of mine approached me yesterday.  She wanted me to make a card for her to give to her mother.  She'll be going to the Netherlands in another couple of weeks and really wanted a special card.  You see, this is her goodbye visit.  Her mother is losing her battle with cancer.

I felt both honoured and panicked by the request.  Honoured because my friend obviously loves my work enough.  Panicked because this is a card that means so much to her and will mean so much to her mother.  The criteria for the card were that her mother loves animals and flowers.  Then this morning she added that it would be wonderful if the card could have a Canadian theme.  And she also gave me the sentiment she wanted, in Dutch.

I really wasn't fazed by any of the criteria except for one.  The Canadian theme had me stymied.  I have no Beaver stamp and really didn't want to settle for a maple leaf.  Then I thought of my Walk in the Wild stamp set and I knew I would use the moose stamp.  I know, I know---moose are not only indigenous to Canada.  They are, however, frequently used as a type of Canadian "mascot" and that would have to be it for my "Canadian content".

 I wanted the card to be special and so I worked on a different style than normal.  I decided to make a square twisted easel card measuring 5 1/4" x 5 1/4".   I also decided that I would make a scene comprised of the Lovely as a Tree stamp, moose stamp, and bull-rushes from the Wetlands stamp set.  That, of course, meant making a mask of the moose so that I could stamp the trees without stamping on my moose.  The stamping took some time.

To complete the scene, I drew in some details freehand using my Project Life 01 journalling pen.  I used that because it is waterproof and fade-proof.  I extended the grasses beside the moose, creating a shoreline.  Then I turned my paper and sketched in a "reflection" of the grasses.

I did all the colouring using my Blendabilities.  I have to say that I probably couldn't have gotten the degree of shading or detail without those Blendabilities.  They really work well together, even from colour to colour.  I even coloured a "reflection" of the moose and then coloured over that with the blue and it really did look like a reflection in water once the alcohol in the inks fully evaporated and the true colours set.  The sky, however, was done using my Marina Mist ink refill and Aqua Painter.

For my base cardstock I used the Naturals White.  Then a layer of Marina Mist and then the painted Whisper White for which I made a frame using my Square framelits and Early Espresso cardstock.

I decided to add Lupines to the left and bottom border of the card and that was made possible by the stamp in the Forever Florals stamp set.  Stamping and colouring took some time but nothing compared to the fussy-cutting required to cut those flowers out.  But the end result was worth it when I used glue and Dimensionals to put them in place.

I cut 8 simple flowers using my Filter Paper and Flower Frenzy Bigz L die.  I coloured 4 using the lightest of the Night of Navy Blendabilities and 4 using the medium of the Night of Navy Blendabilities.  Then I pierced them all and put them onto an Antique Brad, alternating colours.   For the inside of the card and also to make the "stop" to hold the easel in place, I layered Early Espresso and then Marina Mist (cut with the scalloped square framelit).  Then I mounted the brad and flower to one corner of the layers and adhered them to the base cardstock, making sure that the flower "stop" was in the right position to hold up the easel or front of the card.

I love the finished card.  There is a rectangle of Whisper White on the inside for writing but I kept it small enough that when the easel is open, only the card shows.  

Because it's what I do, I decided to enter the card into a challenge.  It really is a lovely card and deserves some showing.  The Fab 'n' Funky Challenges is having a "Walk on the Wild Side" this week and what could be more perfect than that?  

And then I discovered that the City Crafter Challenge Blog is having an "animal magic" week so all cards must feature animals.  What perfect timing!

And last of all, I'm entering the Friday Mashup sketch challenge:

...and more challenges! (Chosen for Top 3 at Freshly Made Sketches)

Have you ever looked at a group of colours and wondered what on earth you could do with them?  I was in that position when I decided I wanted to enter a colour challenge that included a number of colours that I don't frequently use.  But that's what makes it a challenge, right?

That is my finished card.  The spatter is gold embossing thanks to that wonderful Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.  I've used real Washi Tape, the Calypso Coral design from the Epic Day set, as well as a strip of Washi tape wannabe, thanks to the Tape It stamp set and Gold embossing powder over Elegant Eggplant.  The skinny ribbon is Melon Mambo 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon.  The sentiment is from the Hello Love stamp set and cut with the cute little Banner punch.

That gorgeous tag is two layers, one of Gold Foil and the other Whisper White.  Both were cut using the Chalk Talk framelits.  I stamped the Pink Pirouette using the Work of Art stamp set and the Elegant Eggplant using the Choose Happiness stamp set.

Would I have chosen to use those colours?  Probably not.  But I have to admit that they add a lot of life to the card and make it very cheery.  And that's why I enter challenges:  because they force me to go out of my comfort zone and try new things.

This is the sketch challenge I entered at Freshly Made Sketches:

This is the colour challenge that I entered at colourQ:

Because I haven't been with Stampin' Up! long enough, I had to change out Concord Grape for the current Elegant Eggplant and Pretty in Pink for the current Pink Pirouette.  The Melon Mambo, Calypso Coral, Whisper White and Gold are still current and were used.

This is the photo inspiration challenge that I entered at Addicted to Stamps and More!:

It's always great to read comments from people who come to see my post.  If you have a moment, please leave one.  Thanks so much.

WCC05 -- A Colour Challenge

This time the challenge over at the Watercooler Challenges is a colour challenge:

I wasn't sure of the colours to begin with because I wouldn't have picked them for a card.  But then, that's what challenges are for:  to push you into territory that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable.  Still, it took me a while to decide just how I would use the colours together and what direction the card design would take.

I used Naturals White as my base cardstock.  I wanted something neutral that would compliment all three colours.  Next I cut a layer of Rich Razzleberry and used my little star punch to cut stars along two sides.  I attached that to the base with my Snail tape runner, pushing it as close to the top and right hand side as possible while still leaving a narrow border for the base to show.  Then I cut a piece of Whisper White and stamped it using my Hardwood background stamp and Crumb Cake ink.  I cut a matte for the piece out of Crumb Cake cardstock, leaving only a narrow border.  I attached that to the card with Dimensionals, pushing it as close to the bottom and left hand side as possible while still leaving a narrow border for the base to show.

Remember all those stars that I punched out of the Rich Razzleberry?  I took six of those and attached them, using Dimensionals, along the left and bottom of the Hardwood layer.  I coloured some rhinestones using my Daffodil Delight Blendabilities and then mounted those in the centres of the empty star shapes.  Then I mounted some uncoloured rhinestones in the centres of the Rich Razzleberry stars.

Finally I was approaching the finish line and had to decide on my sentiment.  I knew it would include Daffodil Delight because I didn't think the coloured rhinestone were enough to represent the colour.  So I cut a star from Daffodil Delight cardstock using my Stars framelits.  Then I used them to cut a smaller star our of Whisper White.  Prior to cutting the Whisper White, I had stamped it first with Rich Razzleberry (off-stamped once) using my Work of Art stamp set and then with Black Memento ink using my Yippee-Skippee stamp set.  I used Snail to attach the Whisper White onto the Daffodil Delight and then Dimensionals to attach the matted star onto the card.

I didn't like the empty top left corner or bottom right corner and so I attached Candy Dots in Crumb Cake.  That seemed to finish it off.

For more cards in this challenge, go to Watercooler Challenges.

Sketched Birthday --- PCCCS #102 -- Top Pick for Challenge

Have you ever had a stamp set that you bought and then, months later, still hadn't used?  For me that stamp set was the Sketched Birthday.  When I made birthday cards I turned to just about every other set rather than this one.  Why?  I really couldn't say.

All that changed today when I saw the Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch.  For some reason it really appealed to me and immediately made me think of using this stamp set.  Here's their sketch challenge:

I really didn't want the Designer Paper that I used to take over the card.  I also had in my mind that I wanted to use Strawberry Slush as one of the colours for my card.  After rejecting all my Designer Paper, I suddenly thought of my 2013-2015 In-Color Designer Series Paper Stack.  The polka dot design was my instant choice.  

I planned to have the cake slice be strawberry mousse with chocolate icing so, of course, I chose to use Chocolate Chip as one of my colours.  Things were falling together quite nicely and I was on a roll.  For my base cardstock, I chose the Strawberry Slush and then followed that with a layer of Chocolate Chip.  Then I added a strip of the polka dot Strawberry Slush to the left side and a narrower strip of Whisper White to the right side.  

The banner at the top was easy because I wanted to use the party hat for that.  By colouring it Strawberry Slush and Daffodil Delight, it became a bright an cheery piece of interest.  For a bit of sparkle, I added three Strawberry Slush sequin stars.

I decided that I wanted balloons on the card as well since they were part of the stamp set and serendipitously the sketch was perfect for a trio of balloons just to the right of the main image.  Since I had added Daffodil Delight to the party hat, I also added it to my balloons.  I absolutely love the sentiment from the Yippee-Skippee stamp set and added it to one of the conversation bubbles.

Like I said, I wanted the cake to be strawberry mousse with chocolate icing.  With a Daffodil Delight plate and a striped Daffodil Delight and Strawberry Slush candle, I think it looks simply delicious.  

I had a lot of fun making the card.  I really didn't want any embossing or even spatter or shading on the Whisper White because I felt it would detract from the details of the card.  Sometimes less is more.  Now that I had a chance to introduce this stamp set to ink, I'm sure I'll be using it again soon.

For more cards created for this challenge, check out the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

Traveler & World Map --- A good combination

It is almost as if the Traveler stamp set was made for the World Map stamp.  The two really compliment each other so well.  For my latest challenge entry I used the two stamp sets together again.  The challenge was put on by Just Add Ink, a great challenge blog from down under---that's right, Australia.  I may not be travelling the world, but my challenges certainly are.

This was the sketch for the challenge:

I love the way the circle is cut apart like that.  The way it's laid out, one could either make a circle card or, as I chose to interpret the design, put a circle inside a square.

My base cardstock is Naturals Ivory because I want to give the design a bit of a vintage feel.  On top of that I adhered a piece of the print pattern from Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper which I had sponged around the border using Early Espresso ink.  Along with that I also used Early Espresso cardstock, cut into a circle and then embossed with my Woodgrain embossing folder.  Then I cut Very Vanilla cardstock into a circle and cut it apart as shown in the sketch.  I laid out the pieces of Very Vanilla with a slight separation between the pieces and then stamped the whole using my World Map stamp and Pool Party ink.  

Then I stamped the vintage camera image and world globe image from the Traveler stamp set onto Very Vanilla using my black Memento ink.  The worst part was the fussy cutting for the images, but I wanted to attach them to the design using Dimensionals, so they had to be cut out.  Then I used my Blendabilities and a touch of the Silver Stampin Dazzle marker to colour the images.

Finally, after assembling the pieces and attaching them to the card, I stamped the "adventure bound" from the Project Life Remember This stamp set on Very Vanilla using Early Espresso ink and cut that into a skinny banner.  To finish the card off, I added one of the Essentials Wooden Elements arrows with a strip of Early Espresso Seam Binding tied around it.

For more cards using this design, visit the Just Add Ink Challenge Blog.