Saturday Sketch!

I am back with another of Lauren's FABULOUS sketches.

Here is the sketch.



And here is my card



I used the Chocolate Chip designer series paper from SU for the background. I used a brayer to add the pink to the paper. I am totally in love with pink and chocolate brown!

The stamp, and the smaller brown and pink paper are all from the Kim Hughes collection, available at CHF.



The felt flowers are from the accents and elements kit from SU. The brads are covered with pink perfect pearls because I didn't have any pink brads. I went over the "love", the bird's wing, and some of the flowers on the background with my clear spica glitter pen. It is really sparkly!

Be sure to check out the rest of the sketch team, including Lauren's blog for her changes for the upcoming sketches.

Lauren
McKenzie
Dawn
Maria
Kendra
Kirsten
Kristy


Also, I missed last weekend because I was busy with Easter, so I whipped something up for that sketch as well. I really don't like my card, and I hope to have time to do another one this weekend to vindicate myself with this sketch.



It didn't really turn out as I envisioned. I thought the flowers would be more white, and not so clear. In order to make them stand out more, I drew around them with a white pencil crayon.



The sentiment is also hand written with a white pencil crayon. Then it looked kind of bland, so I added some doodles, but my doodles are not too good, and now it looks very amateurish. I am going to *try* to fix this card, but I am not holding out too much hope.

Pink challenge *3

WOW!! I have been so busy with work and all of my volunteer activities, and it seems like FOREVER that I have had the time to stamp. So, in order to get my mojo flowing again, I used some challenges so that most of the thinking was done for me.

This card actually fulfills *three* separate challenges! First, Lauren's Saturday Sketch, second, Kristina's Colour challenge, and third, the Limited Supply Challenge on SCS.




Here is the sketch:



here are the colours:



And the SCS Limited supply challenge was to use a leaf stamp or punch, and include pink somewhere on your card.

I think my card fulfilled all of these challenges!



The card base is made with Purely Pomegranate paper (SU, retired). The first layer of "paper" is a paper towel dyed with some diluted ink, and crumpled to add a distressed look. The leaves are stamped in Pixie Pink, Rose Red, and Pink Passion using the maple leaf from Autumn Fest (SU, retired) It's hard to tell, but the leaves are stamped on pink designer paper from SU.

I chose the sentiment because all of the leaves are maple leaves, and being canadian, that is a source of pride for me. The sentiment comes from The Great Canadian Stamp Set from CHF.



I wanted to keep the distressed feeling that often comes with falling leaves and autumn, so I distressed all of the edges of the punched pieces. I even dragged the sentiment block over my Purely Pomegranate ink pad.

I hope you will play along with the challenges, particularily Lauren's sketch challenge! You can find even more inspiration for Lauren's Saturday Sketch by visiting the rest of the sketch team.


Lauren Meader http://laurenmblogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/

Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/

Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com

Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com

Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Alicia Weimen http://happystamp.blogspot.com/

Sketch-tastic!

Here we go again!

I am really sorry for my absence, but I started a new job 2 weeks ago, and it has thrown my whole routine out of whack. For the past 10 months I have not been working outside of the home, so I had LOTS of time to stamp, clean, cook and all those other things that need to be done, but now that I am working I am scrambling to fit everything in, and unfortunately, it is the stamping that is suffering the most.

Anyways, I am back this week with Lauren's sketch challenge, and I think I am settling into a routine somewhat.



For my card I used the crayon resist technique. Gina K did a few GREAT cards using this technique a few days ago, and I loved her cards, so this has been in my brain for a while.


The stamps are from CHF, the punch is retired from SU and I hand wrote the greeting.

As always, please visit the rest of the sketch team, and play along yourself and share a link so that we can all see what you have made.

Lauren Meader http://laurenmblogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/

Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/

Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com

Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com

Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Alicia Weimen http://happystamp.blogspot.com/

Back on track with Lauren's Sketch Challenge

Last week I missed out on Lauren's sketch challenge because I had so much going on. This week though, I needed a thank you card for a friend that hosted a party at her house on Friday night, so I used Lauren's sketch as the inspiration. It's kind of hard to see, but this is a regular sized card, with a white background in the sketch.



I actually had some troubles with this sketch because I wanted to tie all the pieces together, but I didn't want to stamp too much because I was in a bit of a hurry. The paper from Stampin' Up! was the perfect solution. The colours all go together, and the only stamping is the "thank you" from Kim Hughes' set U R a Hoot.




I am realizing more and more that I *love* Purely Pomegranate paper, and I wish I would have ordered more before it was retired.

Please check out the great creations of all of the other members of the sketch team, and if you upload to SCS or any other online galleries, use the keyword mytimess05.

Lauren Meader http://laurenmblogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/

Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/

Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com

Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com

Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Alicia Weimen http://happystamp.blogspot.com/

Gina K sketches

Last night was the Gina K release party in their member forum at SCS. I joined late, and only stayed for about 30 minutes, but the pages of comments were flying up. This morning I was able to get some time to look at the sketch challenges, and complete all three :)

My coluzzle got quite the workout with the first two sketches.


Sketch 1 by Julie Koerber (Out to Impress)




I really like how this turned out with the band of "thanks". The scallops are circles that are punched out and taped to the back of the circle. The thanks stamp is from Papertrey, and the flower pot is from Gina K.


Sketch 2 by Erika Martin (Stampin Mama)



When I saw Erica's sketch I immidiately thought that the round bum of the hippo would fit in with the oval card she had designed.


I curved the sentiment from the Just so Hippy set to make it fit along the oval. I would have like to have curved it a bit more, but it wouldn't stay.


I stamped a second hippo and cut out the hips and popped them up to add dimension. I couldn't find my white gel pen, so I used my liquid applique to colour the tooth and toenails.

Sketch 3 by Joanne B. (Stamped by Hand)



Joanne's sample was very masculine, and I not only used the sketch, but her sample as inspiration.


Stampers often say it is difficult to make masculine cards, but this one was easy-peasy. The image is stamped with brown ink on Kraft cardstock. No colouring needed, as it fits with the simple and two-toned card.


This is a view from the top to show that the card is like a book where the jumbo brads create the binding, and the card opens from inside the line of brads.

Stamping Bloggers ROCK!!

A while ago I won some blog candy on Lisa Strahl's blog. I had actually forgot about it, until last week this arrived in the mail.



Not only did it have this great backgrounder from CHF, but also flowers, pins, inchies, tags and this fabulous card.




She was thankful for my patience in waiting for the blog candy, but *I* am the one who is thankful for the awesome treats!

Although I should probably make a card using some of my new supplies, I am sending her this card that I made during the last CHF release party.




I hope she likes it :)

Lisa's Birthday Bash

I first go into stamping because of Stampin' Up!, and as a demonstrator, they are still my first love. However, there are LOTS of other stamp companies out there, and I have started to expand my collection of stamps. The background stamps designed by Lisa Strahl available at Cornish Heritage Farms are GREAT!! 16 new background stamps were just released today.

Today is also Lisa's birthday, and to celebrate there is a 12 hour party going on here. There are challenges, prizes and lots of really friendly people.

I am participating in some of the challenges, and hope to have lots of photos to upload later today or tomorrow. I do have one of my challenge cards done. The technique challenge I did was masking. I *LOVE* masking. I think it is a great way to add dimension to one layer cards. It can also allow for images to pop off the page. This is the first time I have ever done a card where I have used both parts of the mask.


This is a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card using Almost Amethyst. I cut out an oval from a piece of printer paper using my Coluzzle, then used the oval cut out on the centre of the card before I stamped French Script for the background (I used the retired stamp, but here is the new version). Then I put the frame of printer paper over my card, and sponged Almost Amethyst ink in the opening. I stamped French Flair in Blush Blossom, the flower from Carte Postale in Almost Amethyst, and the bird from Carte Postale in Lovely Lilac after it had been stamped off once.

I think this card still needs some bling (ribbon, glitter, embossing or something) but I am not sure what. I do like the simplicity of this card, but it doesn't look quite done.