St. Patrick's Day NBUS

Saturday Sketch #401 with NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff)!!

and Tic Tac Toe #5

Elephant in the room CCC#301

 Excited to use my new St. Patrick's Day elephant from Bugaboo and new washi tape from Little B on Cathy's sketch at Saturday Sketch. The washi is edged with Shimmer Trim from Close To My Heart. NBUS is Darnell's own special thing. Darnell has been an inspiration, a supporter of my crafty efforts, and I think of her as my blog-friend.  In September I was traveling and missed her NBUS challenge - I am sooo happy she is having a spring event!!
For Tic Tac Toe I used Green, Gold and some shamrocks from the photo inspiration. AND of course, there is an elephant here, and a new to me challenge place City Crafter!  
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
The Bugaboo image was cut with a 21/2" punch and colored with Copics. The buckle was colored with a Close To My Heart metallic marker.  The green scallop was cut with the 3" punch, and all popped with some foam tape on the center panel. Stash twine and flower finished it off.

                
 

Atlantic Hearts #149 Happy Birthday

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #149 this week!  I really wanted the sentiment to be transparent...but I've had limited success with vellum. So I was thrilled when I managed to not only use it, but heat emboss on it. Wow! Thank you craft angels.

                                               

The paper is from the Zoe collection, sentiment from the Happy to be Friends set. The Zoe paper reminded me of pinwheels, and I used a tiny brad to fashion the pin wheel. Card stock is Sorbet, Glacier, and White Daisy. The White Daisy was embossed with a Cricut  folder called Twill Stripe. The puffy butterfly embellishment helps hold the vellum in place.  I very carefully used some Ranger Multi Medium Matte behind the letters so no 'glue' would show.  It did show at first, but dried and vanished!

Thanks for looking in!  Check out the challenge and give it a try.

 

Distress

To a non-stamper, this might not make sense!  My first (cheerful) thought when I saw this week's challenge at CASology, was Distress Ink, then the distress technique.  We crafters are cheerful folk.  Finally, of course, I realized that I often send cards to friends who are having some tough times....

 

The sky is a combination of several shades of Distress ink, clouds punched with Fiskars, and sun fussy cut from an older Close To My Heart stamp set that also had the raindrops.  The sentiment is a recent purchase from Impress, inked on another new purchase of Hero Arts Ombre ink pad.  I also gave the sun and drops a brush of Wink of Stella for subtle sparkle.

Egg

I have two cards made today for the challenge at CASology.

 On the first, I made a small oval cut on the card front. On another panel I used a wide brush to apply several spring colors from my shimmer water color set (Yasutomo). I adhered it to the inside of the card. The sentiment is Verve, inked with Distress ink (seedless preserves), and embellished with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins. The card base and panel are watercolor paper.

 

This is soft and pretty. But I had another idea simmering....Susan R. posted a card here and I wanted to try her technique with the egg shape.  I used a solid egg stamp, inked it with a blue marker, spritzed and stamped.  Masking and stamping also with some yellow ink.  Color choice was because I really wanted to use the sentiment - embossed with Hero Arts white....I cut the side panels with a Simon Says stitched die, and popped them with foam tape.  The yellow marker just didn't react as nicely with the spritz.  This doesn't feel right...but I will need to think about what to change. Perhaps fewer eggs?

 

 

 

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 147

A great sketch this week at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  My first thoughts were to use the Botanicals set (Close To My Heart) with some solid pieces...but the contrast was wrong. So I used the leafy stamp for those.  The flower blocks were stamped and clear embossed before water brushing in the color with Canary, Pixie, Glacier and Pear.  I cut a flower on the Cricut from Pixie card stock, and added some Liquid Pearl to the center.  Butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The leafy panels were simply stamped with Pear ink and water brushed with same.  The yellow patterned paper is from the Babycakes set.

Of course, now that I look closely, I realize I missed a small right panel...sigh.  But I think I still kept the intention of the sketch. 

Please be sure to check out the amazing sketches from the design team on Wednesday.  It is so delightful to see how many unique variations can be created from the same sketch!! And link up your own version. 

 

Heart 2 Heart Color Dare!

Double the fun challenge for both Heart 2 Heart and the Color My Heart Dare.

Heart 2 Heart is shades of red, black and white.  Color Dare is Black and White and 1,2 or 3 shades of red.  I chose Cranberry to go with my La Vie En Rose black and white stripes. 

What a fun, bold card.

Just A Note

Freshly Made Sketches #222 seems perfect for creating a masculine card.  Those are often difficult, and nature images usually work best for me.  I embossed a panel of Chocolate card stock with the wood grain folder. The image is from a Close To My Heart set called Friend Tree, stamped in Chocolate and Sweet Leaf.  The top notched piece is from the end strip on a retired paper set. I collect those ends strips and save them in a zip lock bag. They come in handy!!

I have missed the link-up time on this challenge, but it is a great sketch that I will use again.