TSOT #545

 

Wonderful new sketch challenge at Try Stampin On Tuesday with an optional theme: animals.

I didn't use an animal as you can see. I used a die cut Triangle Collage, from Birch Press Design to cut a stencil, then blended with some Gina K Wild Wisteria ink. The flowers and greens are from Altenew, Pen Sketched Flowers, colored with pencils and Gamsol.

Check out the amazing cards of the rest of the design team here.  This is a sketch with many options! 

Happy as a clam

 Saturday morning and welcome to sketch # 695 at Sketch Saturday!

I am late this morning, but had to wait for sunrise to get a picture of my card and wrestle with a cranky computer.

I had a lot of fun blowing bubbles with water, dish soap and reinker to get this fun bubble under-sea background. An option with the sketch this week is to try a monotone design, which was how I began...but ended up adding the neutrals and just using the sketch.  What will you try?  

Link up your creation HERE so we can see♥

Allsorts Debut

 

   I am honored to join the design team at Allsorts!  

My inspiration card for Challenge # 665 uses a beautiful floral Primula from Ruth Hamilton, who is one of the sponsors for this challenge.  For a UK winner, there is a prize of a die from Colemans Craft

The challenge is to hand color your image or to paper piece.

For my card I chose to color with pencils and shade with Gamsol. The stitched panel behind was very lightly blended with an Altenew stencil, Flowing Leaves, and then splattered with black.  I added a few dew drop embellishments.

I hope you will join the challenge and link up here at Allsorts this week.

Spring Daffodils

 

This card was inspired by Make the Cards sketch challenge #48.

I did some ink 'smooshing' with Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed Distress inks on some bright white water color card stock.  When dry I stamped flowers with Gina K Designs Easter Spring set, and cut them into small squares with My Favorite Things stitched squares. The strip behind came from my black & white scrap folder, with the sentiment from Altenew's Paint-a-Flower Hydrangea set. (I've been using that a lot this week!)   I did emboss the white panel with a chevron folder for a little dimension. Panels cut using GKD Master Layouts.

Just couldn't decide about any embellishments...so I left it plain. 

No Rain no flowers

 

Good Morning!  Monday means a new sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, and today my inspiration card for #461 used many products from my stash and a new-to-me technique I watched recently. 

The background is a cover plate die from Altenew adhered on a white card base. The paper strips are MFT gingham and some CTMH pieces from my scrap files. I hoard even tiny pieces in color files...and used them here to paper piece the boots and for center stripe and sentiment flag.

I used a cut die from Simon Says Stamp. I think it was part of a kit a few years back and a stamping buddy gifted it to me. I cut it from white twice and also from the blue patterned paper. I cut one of the white pieces and blue just for the boots. Since I did not have a stamp for this, I used some Copics to add shading to the boots and then to color in the flowers on the base white piece. The sentiment from Altenew Paint-a-Flower Hydrangea was just right for my image. I added a few dew drop embellishments.

Chrissie Stokes is a designer I have long admired. She is the ultimate in creating CAS cards and just generally inspiring!  Her idea was to give die cuts dimension. After I colored the flowers, I turned the piece over and used a large embossing tool in a circular motion on the tulips. This made a little 'bowl' that I put a tiny piece of foam tape inside. Not a CAS card today, but this technique is wonderful.  It gives the flowers dimension.  So fun!

Well, I hope you will try crafting something with the sketch this week!  I look forward to seeing your creations.

Happy Easter FMS523

 

Hectic day in the craft room!  Had this card for Freshly Made Sketches planned out two days ago, and then had to clean up to find the dies I'd pulled out for it.  

I used some paper from my stash, MFT stitched square dies, the smallest from Simon Says Stamp Nested Eggs die, tiny bunnies from Impression Obsession, and a sentiment from Gina K's Easter Spring set.  I made the blue paper using a technique Gina K used last week sponging dye reinkers on glossy paper with alcohol drenched cotton balls. I made several backgrounds and this one reminded me of died eggs so that inspired my card. Hard to see the blue/green/yellow swirls in the photo. 

AAA Cards Challenge!

 

I am thrilled to be a Guest Designer on the AAA Cards Challenge #209.  The challenge is to create a CAS card using only 1/9th of the card.  I measured and masked the center off before lightly ink blending. I stamped the sentiment and popped the image inside that area.

My granddaughter's favorite animal is the cat - ANY cat♥  She has a giant furry pet named Clover who hates me because I'm the evil human that appears when her family is away. The image on my card is from My Favorite Things Cat-astrophe set and colored with pencils and Gamsol to look like Clover. 

I hope you will check out the challenge and all the amazing cards here and give it a try!