FMS 252

I was intrigued by the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week.

Since the Rich Razzleberry ombre ink pad and Swirly Bird set were both still out from my last week's class, they entered a happy marriage with the sketch.

The top portion of the front panel is raised up using the new foam adhesive strips. While it gives more height than dimensionals, it does give more support to the panel.

The sentiment is from Sunshine Sayings, a set that is growing in usefulness the more I look at it. I like that, with this sentiment, the card is quite multi-purpose.

Ingredients
Card: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Old Olive
Stamps: Swirly Bird, Sunshine Sayings, Playful Backgrounds
Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Rich Razzleberry ombre pad, Old Olive, Tuxedo Black
Other: Swirly Scribbles thinlits, Rich Razzleberry enamel shapes, Softly Falling embossing folder, foam strips, dimensionals

Paper Players 310

I always look at what's happening at The Paper Players, although I usually only play during school holidays because of the the timing of it so with a bit of time off school, it was a pleasure to play this week.

I really loved the sketch that was put up this week.

 I also wanted to give my Touches of Texture stamps another try out, so here's how that ended up...

Some of the flowers have been stamped off first to give some tonal variations.

The flower centres have been stippled with a metallic copper pen. The bee's wings have had Wink of Stella applied and some of the small flower centres have been embellished with pearls.

Ingredients

Card: Dapper Denim, Very Vanilla, Delightful Dijon

Stamps: Touches of Texture, Labeller Alphabet

Inks: Dapper Denim, Delightful Dijon, Old Olive, Early Espresso

Other: Moroccan suite washi tape, Sparkle embossing folder, dimensionals, pearls, Wink of Stella, copper pen.

CTS187 AAA72

 I know it's a technique that's been around for a while but I've never tried baby wipe stamping before. After some experimenting, I found that it was much better to use reinkers than to try scraping up some excess ink off of the inkpads as the images are a lot crisper that way. I also discovered that the kind of images you get differs between the earlier and the later impressions of the baby wipe. I only have a handful of reinkers so was pleasantly surprised at the tiny amount of colour that you need to use to get a really lovely result.

Two challenges framed this experimentation. One was the challenge at AAA Challenge.

The other was the sketch at Case This Sketch.

And here is how it ended up.

This is definitely a technique that I would use again, although it may require the purchase of some more reinkers!

Ingredients

Card: Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon, Very Vanilla

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches, Timeless Textures, Sunshine Sayings

Inks: Blackberry Bliss, Pool Party and Lost Lagoon reinkers, Lost Lagoon and Blackberry Bliss inkpads

Other: Beautiful Branches thinlits, Seaside embossing folder, dimensionals, babywipes.

Retro Rubber 46 - Guest Design Card

One of the many lovely things about Retro Rubber Challenge is that it lets you get out your old stamps and rediscover why you loved them in the first place. Stampin Up Aviary was the second set I got. Ever. I suppose that technically it was first equal since I got it in the same order as another set but I think of it as second. Anyway this critter challenge had me reaching for it. Birds are critters, right? They were certainly the only critters in my old stamps pile!

These quirky little birds, along with the owl  - who does not appear here - are just adorable, especially when paired up with the birdcages in the set. But in this card, they're roaming free.

The 'Just Because' comes from a set called A Dozen Thoughts, which retired with the last catalogue and I've had since it first came out. The curly font appealed to me and I couldn't help but use it as a perch for the smallest bird critter. Thank you, stampamajig, for letting me get that right!

Somehow, I managed to channel the challenge graphic because it wasn't until I came to write up this post that I realised the background of this card owes a lot to the graphic in both colour and style! I masked off the strip, sponged it with Cucumber Crush and Delightful Dijon and flicked it with water to lift some of the colour. I thought about adding in some more to the silhouette but in the end, less is more.

So, in the end a simple, quirky-critter general purpose card.

Ingredients
Card: Cucumber Crush, Watercolour paper
Stamps: Stampin Up Aviary and A Dozen Thoughts
Inks: Cucumber Crush, Delightful Dijon, Tuxedo Black
Other: Cucumber Crush baker's twine, sponges and water.

Pals Paper Arts 315

Last night in bed, I planned in my head a card for the colour challenge at Pals Paper Arts which was going to use the beautiful Dapper Denim ruched ribbon.

This morning, all was going well until I reached for the ribbon only to discover that I'd never actually purchased any. The Plan B I never knew I had came into action instead!

I used the one of the new Seasonal Masks from the soon-to-be Holiday Catalogue to create a ground for the flower using Old Olive and So Saffron. My missing ribbon was replaced with a strip of Dapper Denim embossed with the Seaside embossing folder. So while it didn't quite turn out as I'd planned, it's still turned out well.

Ingredients
Card: Dapper Denim, So Saffron, Whisper White, scrap of Old Olive
Stamps: Wild about Flowers, Thoughtful Banners
Inks: Old Olive, Dapper Denim, So Saffron
Other: Seasonal decorative mask, Seaside embossing folder, Thoughtful Banner punch, So Saffron enamel dot, sponges, dimensionals.

Freshly Made Sketches 251

This week's Freshly Made Sketch was perfect for a baby boy card I wanted to make with a set I haven't used nearly enough, Best Birds.

For this card, I've rotated the sketch and also broken out the watercolour paper so I could use ink washes to colour my bird.

The background vellum is embossed with copper using the hessian textured stamp. It both picks up the light and the copper embossing on the sentiment.

Ingredients

Card: Soft Sky, Watercolour paper, Vellum, scrap of Calypso Coral

Stamps: Best Birds

Inks: Soft Suede, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark

Other: Copper embossing powder, Burlap ribbon, Sparkle embossing folder, Soft Suede marker, dimensionals, Clear embossing powder

I

CAS Colours and Sketches 188

The beautiful clean sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches this week lent itself nicely to a Christmas card I'd been thinking of.

I've rotated the sketch and used the tree from Thoughtful Branches as the focal point of the card.

Update: Delighted to be a Top Pick at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Gold foil, scrap of Gold glimmer paper

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches, Embellished Ornaments

Inks: Soft Suede, Garden Green, Versamark

Other: Gold embossing powder, Holly embossing folder, dimesionals, Mini-treat bag thinlits (for the star), Oval framelits