FMS197 and CCMC336

Ever since we came back from holiday, almost a fortnight ago, I've struggled to get back in the creative groove. So today, after looking around the week's challenges, I decided to play around with some favourite tools and styles and just enjoy them. I've combined the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches with the colour challenge at Create with Connie and Mary, which only allows Stampin' Up products.

A great sketch and a deliciously dreamy, romantic colour combination.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Perfect Plum, Mint Macaron

Stamps: Dictionary, Butterfly Basics, Kinda Eclectic, Crazy for You

Ink: Sahara Sand, Perfect Plum, Mint Macaron

Other: Square Lattice embossing folder, Elegant Butterfly punch, brad base, Sahara Sand candy dot, linen twine, dimensionals.

Paper Players 255

I've been playing around with the sketch at The Paper Players for a couple of evenings now, which just goes to show that a holiday is not always good for the brain!

Such a delicious sketch, yet I kept changing my direction and changing my mind. Perhaps I was still in frame mode of thinking from last week's challenge! Anyway, here is the finished product...

It started out to be a masculine card but I'm not altogether sure that's how it ended up! But, I like it anyway.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Marina Mist

Stamps: SU Butterfly Basics, MFT Eye Chart

Ink: Black, Night of Navy

Other: Scallop Tag-Topper punch, corner-rounder punch, MFT Geek is Chic Glasses die, Marina Mist ribbon, SU Square Lattice embossing folder, dimensionals to lift the tag, Night of Navy marker pen.

Match the Sketch 82

I look at the Match The Sketch Challenge blog every week and have seen some lovely things here but have only entered once before. A friend asked me to make a silver anniversary card and I'd been a bit stumped for ideas but I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea using this week's sketch.

I liked the overlapping shapes and for this anniversary card, I liked the idea of using a lot of different textures, rather than DSP, to create a sense of opulence. Since the card is to be posted, I wanted to avoid using too much height. I decided to stick with elegant combination of white, plum and silver for colours.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Silver glitter paper

Stamps: SU A Dozen Thoughts

Ink: Perfect Plum, Versamark

Embossing Folders: SU Elegant Dots, Beautifully Baroque, Provocraft Swiss Dots.

Other: Silver embossing powder, Heart punch, sponge dauber to distress edges, Provocraft Olivia dies for the numbers.

Just Add Ink 272

I've made a lot of butterfly cards this year, so I was pretty happy to see that the theme this week at Just Add Ink is.... just add butterflies.

Turns out that you should be careful what you wish for because this turned into a hard challenge. Part of it was post-holiday lack of inspiration but then it was a case of trying to find something that I liked but hadn't done before. Quite often a card just makes itself in my head and I do it but in this case, there was a lot of trying, moving, altering, changing and occasional mild swearing before arriving at this...

I replaced my original ink-smooshed background with a band of semi-distressed I Love Lace in So Saffron. The butterflies are sponged with three inks, highlighted with silver gel and then have a coat of glossy accents applied, which has given them a deeper colour as well as a shine.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, So Saffron, scraps of Elegant Eggplant and Coral Calypso.
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, I Love Lace
Inks: So Saffron, Coral Calypso, Tangelo Twist, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant
Other: Elegant Butterfly punch, dimensionals, silver gel, W&W Big Bold and Party die

Freshly Made Sketches 196

It's amazing how soon after you get back from holiday that it seems as though you've not been away at all. It's all feeling like a dream now - a warm, relaxing dream after a week of winter and work!

Since my box of Stampin' Up goodies arrived the day before we left for Hawaii, they have languished in my craft room for a fortnight. So, the first outing for Summer Silhouettes was today with the lovely inspiration sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I've wanted this set ever since last year's catalogue and can't believe I waited so long as it's an exciting set to use.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Tip Top Taupe, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes

Ink: Mint Macron, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush

Other: Linen twine, Hello You thinlit dies, silver gel pen to add flower centres, Early Espresso marker to colour cut edges.

Paper Players 254 and In{k}spire Me 208

It's been quite hard to get time to get back to my craft room after a week's holiday in Hawaii. Between jet lag and going straight back to work, time's been a premium this week. When I finally got there, I discovered that it was quite hard to get back in the groove! But the holiday was great... so warm... it was a shame to come back to more winter.

Anyway, I've created a card inspired by both the challenge at The Paper Players and the lovely colour combination at In{k}spire Me.

Frames is such a cool challenge! Lots of possibility - layered frames, breaking the frame, spectacle dies and stamps.... In the end, I decided to play with film frames. I used the square frames of a stencil from 13Arts to lay down a background, using Mint Macaron at the centre, bleeding out into Lost Lagoon. Over that I stamped the flowers from Awesomely Artistic in Tip Top Taupe but coloured in the part of the bunch that was within the film strip frame. I was going to add in the dragonfly on top of the frames but it was just a bit too much, but I did add rhinestone centres to the coloured flowers within the filmstrip frames to give some bling zing. Then the whole panel is framed by the Lost Lagoon base.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Lost Lagoon

Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Happy Birthday Everyone

Inks: Mint Macaron, Lost Lagoon, Tip Top Taupe

Other: 13 Arts Square stencil, MFT Mini-filmstrip die, Lost Lagoon marker, rhinestones, sponges

As You See It 95 CAS 132

Ok, so Saturday is usually my big card-making day - but not today. Today was to be devoted entirely to packing our bags for our overseas holiday to somewhere warm and relaxing, along with sending the son back to university. Still, I didn't see the harm in checking out the challenge sites over a leisurely Saturday morning coffee. Big mistake. For what did I see at As You See It but a speed challenge... surely I could find ten minutes for a speed challenge????

So in amongst digging out the suitcases, sorting the togs, getting the passports etc I kept planning in my head. What could I do in ten minutes? The other thing that kept at me was the wonderful sketch this week at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Then, as fate would have it, a big box of stuff arrived from Stampin' Up - and all I could do was open it and promise to play with it next week... but the Zoo Babies were looking out of the box at me.

Eventually, I gave in to temptation. So here it is ...

The time: 9.09

Update: Delighted to be a top pick at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Blushing Bride DSP

Stamps: Zoo Babies, heart from Banner Blast.

Ink: Blushing Bride, Rose Red

Other: Blushing Bride twine, Oval scallop punch, Oval punch, Chevron embossing folder, sponge, dimensionals.