Freshly Made Sketches 250

It seems way too early to be thinking about Christmas but when my pre-order holiday catalogue box arrived, it seemed that I was destined to start working on Christmassy things. The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches lent itself to an idea that I wanted to explore using the beautiful background stamp, Merry Medley.

So, here it is.

With the abundance of sentiment already present, I opted to leave out the sentiment suggested in the sketch. The Christmas wreath was made by layering up some of the Swirly Scribbles dies, leaves from the same set and some feathery leaves from Botanical  Builders.

Simple, but cheerful and Christmassy.

Ingredients

Card: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, scraps of Gold Foil, Garden Green and Cucumber Crush

Stamps: Merry Medley

Inks: Cherry Cobbler

Other: Cherry Cobbler thick baker's twine, Enamel shapes

GDP49 and Casology Dream

I was on Facebook chatting with some crafters the other day about favourite challenges. This card is inspired by two of them, even though I don't play them as often as I'd like.

Global Design Project has a lovely colour challenge and Casology's cue word is 'Dream.'

An interesting couple of things to combine really. Add into the mix that tonight, after my Thursday card class, I wanted to play with Touches of Texture because that's my featured set next month - and I just like it a lot! So, here's where I ended up:

The masked and sponged strip has been flicked with water to lift some of the ink. Pear Pizzazz at the bottom leads up through to the Daffodil Delight, leading the eye from the earth upwards to the sun and the bee taking flight: a kind of visual journey to support the sentiment. The lacy pattern splats run through from horizontal to vertical up to the sun and bee also to lead the eye upwards.

The bee's wings and the flower centres have a wee coat of clear Wink of Stella, not so visible in the photo.

And a little peek inside...

Ingredients

Card: Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White, Watercolour paper

Stamps: SU Touches of Texture, Clearly Besotted Say It In Style.

Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Tuxedo Black

Other: Wink of Stella, Pear Pizzazz marker, sponges, spritzer.

Freshly Made Sketches 249

I'm under some time pressure tonight for two reasons. Firstly, a friend and I had a bit of a crafting day on Saturday and lent each other some sets to play with. I promised to give her sets back to her this morning, so feel I really need to give it back to her in tomorrow morning. Secondly, in playing with Jar of Love I ended up making a card for Freshly Made Sketches and it's closing very soon! It's also very late and past my bedtime.

I think we'll swap again - but maybe Jar of Love needs a longer visit!

Update: Utterly delighted to be a Freshly Made Princess at Freshly Made Sketches!

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Soft Sky

Stamps: Jar of Love

Inks: Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky, Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi.

Other: Everyday Jars framelits, Pearls, Sweet Sugarplum ruched ribbon, dimensionals.

Create with Connie and Mary 418

Oh, such a beautiful colour combination at Create with Connie and Mary! I'm still in my "I can't get enough of Thoughtful Branches" phase and this combination seemed just perfect for it.

You could almost say that I just couldn't resist...

Ingredients

Card: Sweet Sugarplum, Mint Macaron, Whisper White

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches

Inks: Sweet Sugarplum,  Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Versamark

Other: White embossing powder, sponges, Affectionately Yours washi tape, Sweet Sugarplum ruched ribbon, dimensionals, a pearl

Retrorubber 44 CTS184 Casology Watercolour

The colour challenge at Retrorubber this week worked exactly as I imagine it was intended to. The gorgeous colours made me think of watery pools with leaves floating on them, which made me think of one of the first ever stamp sets I ever got - French Foliage. My children got it for me for Christmas the year I discovered Stampin' Up, so maybe three catalogues ago. Certainly a set more than a year old!

The sentiment is also more than a year old as I bought it second hand at a retired stamp sale in February.

The background watercolour started out as a colour wash in a masked area. Once the tape was removed, I stamped and embossed the leaves then added in more accents of colour to accentuate them. Finally, I overstamped using the script and splatter stamps from the same set. And then, the sequins started begging to be included.

I do think the result does give the idea I started with - a deep, cool pool of water and leaves floating.

I was also inspired by the sketch challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch, which I just couldn't quite get out of my head. The resulting card is perhaps not as CAS as I usually go for but I had such a great time making it, I'll enter it anyway. And the same goes for the Watercolour challenge at CAS-ology.

Update: So very delighted to be a Top Pick at Retrorubber and to get a guest designer offer as well!

Ingredients

Card: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Cucumber Crush, Watercolour paper.

Stamps: French Foliage, Four You

Inks:Pacific Point, Cucumber Crush, Versamark

Other: Copper embossing powder, aqua painter, dimensional, random sequins.

Fab Friday 93

The winter storms and cold temperatures continue and sadly, it's back to work tomorrow. Still, it was much better in my craft room today with electricity - so there was light and heating and embossing ability again! This morning I spied the sketch challenge at Fab Friday and have used that as inspiration for this card which is part of my continuing fascination with the Thoughtful Branches bundle.

Having made a similar sort of card recently, and  having spent a lot of time cutting up dimensionals into micro-dimensionals, I decided to just cut two extra layers of the flower heads to add in some dimension instead.

I added in some copper embossed flower centres to tie in with the washi tape that I've edged the cut-down Lots of Labels die with.

Update: Delighted to be picked in the  Fab Four at Fab Friday.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Watermelon Wonder, Pop of Pink DSP

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches

Ink: Tuxedo Black, Watermelon Wonder, versamark

Other: Copper embossing powder, Thoughtful Branches thinlie dies, Lots of Labels dies, Affectionately Yours washi tape, dimensionals.

Pals Paper Arts 312

Friday night at home feels extra specially good when the wettest, coldest weather of the whole winter is raging outside. I nipped into my craft room after work (once the heating had kicked in) to make something for the sketch challenge at Pals Paper Arts. I love this sketch! So many possibilities...

I was very late to the Thoughtful Branches party but my set arrived last week and I'm in love with it! So I've used it here for this challenge as I'm still in experimental mode with it.

One leaf is silver glimmer paper, one is cut from paper that has been sponged with Bermuda Bay. The two small leaves have been stamped using the new ombre stamp pad, which is a real favourite of mine.

The rhinestones pick up the bling of the silver accents and reflect the shapes of the patterned paper and the roundness of the font.

Update: So delighted to be a Top Pick at Pals Paper Arts!

Ingredients

Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, scrap of Winter Wonderland specialty DSP from a couple of years ago, silver glimmer paper.

Stamps: Thoughtful Branches

Inks: Bermuda Bay, Bermuda Bay ombre pad, versamark

Other: Beautiful Branches thinlits, silver embossing powder, circle framelits, silver cord, dimensionals, rhinestones, sponges.