Two sketches on Sunday

Hi everyone!  It's another rainy end to a hot weekend here in the deep South, which means it's OK to stay inside and craft!  I made cards for two different challenges today.

 

The first challenge is for Freshly Made sketch #92:

This sketch made me think of the American flag, so I made a patriotic card:

I used two embossing folders for each side and the sentiment is Simon Says Stamp, which I embossed in gold.  This will be an Anyhero card to put in my box of cards for Operation Write Home.

 

My second card is for today's OWH challenge and I love the sketch with all the layers:

 

 

The papers are from the June Simon Says Stamp card kit; sentiment is from Hero Arts.  I'm trying to finish the June kit because I just got the July one and I don't want my family to see me with multiple kits open!  Gotta use 'em up!

 

I was happy to see that we had 50+ cards for the June ODBD challenge!  Great job, everyone!

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 



Clean and Simple

Happy midweek to ya!  Nothing strikes fear into me more than CAS (clean and simple) cards.  I love playing with paper - I feel safe with that.  Stamping directly onto a card?  Scary!

 

I used a technique from the Clean and Simple card class for this card:

I white embossed the flowers onto black and then colored over them with Inktense pencils.  I've tried this technique with other watercolor pencils and couldn't get the color to stand out, but those Inktense pencils work so much better for me. 

 

This card is based on this week's Unscripted Sketch #216:

 

I used the same Hero Arts stamp to make a card for the OWH midweek throwdown CAS challenge:

I used an Impression Obsession woodgrain stamp for the background (stamped directly on the card - yikes!) and white embossed the stamp.  I used Crushed Olive and Wild Honey Distress Inks over the flowers.  The Happy Birthday is from the Hero Arts Big Hugs stamp set.

 

I wanted to add twine or brads or something else, but stopped myself. 

This was a good challenge today!

 

Thanks for looking.

 



Muse #23 - Hearts on a String

Monday's Muse #23 challenge is a beautiful clean and simple design:

 

I was immediately inspired and went through several designs before coming up with my final card:

 

Cardstock is from Papertrey Ink; stamp is from Simon Says Stamp.

 

I drew the lines with a Sakura pen; the glitter hearts were punched with the Martha Stewart multiple heart punch.  The glitter paper doesn't rub off, so it's safe for OWH.  I studied the inspiration card  closely and noticed that she kept to the Rule of Odds in the number of sequins she used.  I did the same thing with my hearts.

 

This card reminds of that song with the lyrics about "you've got my heart on a string".

 

Thank you to the Muse design team for changing the times for their challenge. I was ready to play in last week's challenge and discovered that I missed the deadline!  Boo hoo.

 

Catch ya'll later!

 

 



You're brilliant!

Hey there!  Today's OWH sketch went together pretty easily for me.  I used black/yellow/white paper that I've had in my stash forever, along with the Bright Idea stamp from Technique Tuesday:

 

That bright yellow will wake up anyone!  Here's the great sketch from Kristie

I'm finishing up my Sunday doing a bit of scrapbooking too (since I'm only 5 years behind!)

 

Thanks for checkin' in!

 



Saturday at the beach (on my card)

Thanks to the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop, I found Ranger's blog here which is full of ideas.  They've got a seasonal color palette challenge for June and I made a beach card using Distress Inks Aged Mahogany, Pumice Stone, Stormy Sky, and Chipped Sapphire. 

I used Sandy's beach card from last Thursday as my inspiration:

 

In my card, I started with an Impression Obsession splatter stamp and embossed it with white on white watercolor paper.  I used Pumice Stone to give it a sandy look and tore the top for that wavy effect.  The next layer is the ocean, which I inked with Chipped Sapphire and spritzed with water droplets. The last strip is the sky, inked with Stormy Sky and embellished with a small cloud.

 

The sentiment is from Ali Edwards, which I white embossed and rubbed over with Aged Mahogany.  The beach chair is from SVG Attic.  I like the chair facing the ocean because that's where I want to be!

 

After all that, I took a picture of my desk just to make ya laugh:

All that stuff on my desk allows me a workspace the size of a card!  I started with a clean table, honest!

 

Catch ya'll later.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

OWH MWT with an Unscripted sketch

Hi bloggers!  Happy Friday to ya.  I'm catching up with some challenges here...using this Unscripted Sketch - #215 :

 

 

The orange is a freebie file from Miss Kate's cuttables and the paper is from Jillibean Watermelon Gazpacho Soup.  The sentiment is computer generated.

 

I thought this would make a good Cards for a kid as well for our weekly throwdown over at OWH.

 

I'm entering this in these challenges:

Unscripted Sketch #215

OWH Cards 4 kids

SSS Summer Fruits

 

I am looking forward to the weekend - I'm sure you are too!

 

 

 



Through my window

Today's OWH tutorial is on making window cards.  One of the ladies I follow is Kittie over at KittieKraft and she rocks window cards!  While I'm nowhere on her level, I tried making a literal window on a card, looking out at a mountain range, which I'd love to see outside my window every day!

 

I popped the window off the card, although I didn't show you that.

 

My second card is for the June ODBD challenge, which is water this month.  I really struggled with this one, and when Bugaboo Stamps offered this freebie stamp I was inspired to create this card:

The embossing folder is from Tim Holtz, sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.  That little girl makes me feel like getting in the water!  Here's another version I made, with a diecut sun ray image I made:

 

 

I will be entry #41 in the June ODBD challenge - we only need 9 more to get to 50 and then ODBD will pay to ship another box of our cards!  Let's go, ladies!!!

 

Hope you're having a great week so far.

 



Happy Sunday to ya + blog candy

Greetings from hot hot South Carolina (high is 93 today)!  I accomplished many things this weekend for once and I need to go back to work and rest (ha ha- yeah right). 

 

The most recent thing I did was to follow this Sunday's OWH sketch and create a card:

 

 

I rotated the sketch and used papers from the May Simon Says Stamp kit.  For the sentiment, I masked the middle, stamped the flowers, then unmasked and stamped the sentiment.  The little fake brads are from Basic Grey.

 

I did another art journal page and found Julie Balzer's blog which has tons of info on a journaling and even a place to share our pages:

I'm still a beginner at art journals, but there's something so satisfying about it.  The stamp is from Tim Holtz - first time I used it.

 

My last weekend accomplishment is to finish a baby shower gift that I started two (!) years ago.  Yes - procrastination reared its ugly head and I started this gift for a co-worker and never finished it.  Then, I tried again for someone else and finally made myself sew it this weekend:

 

This is McCall's pattern 4858, if you're interested.  It will hold diaper items that the mother can tote around the house.  I'm thinking that the mother can keep this downstairs and change the baby without trotting to the changing table.  Two years to finish - can you believe it?

 

Finally, if you've read all this, I've got to tell ya that no one has claimed one of the stamp sets from the OWH Memorial Day bloghop.  I've asked 3 ladies and received no response, so is there anyone who would like the OWH "Thinking of You" stamp set?  Here's my blogpost OWH Memorial Day bloghop if you want to check out the stamp set.

 

Just leave me a comment and I'll email you to get your address.

 

Oh - one more thing -- I did fit in some scrapbooking too!  Yowza!

 



Freebie from Birdie!

There are so many sites that give us freebies, like Torico over at Birdie Brown.  Her June freebie is so cute and I used him on this card, based on this sketch from Unscripted Sketches:

 

 

I colored him with Copics to match the papers, which are from the June Simon Says Stamp card kit.

 

I'm looking forward to the weekend because I keep seeing techniques that I want to try. I've got many half-made cards on my table and I need to get them done before I move on!

 

Thanks for looking and hope your weekend is swell.

 

 

Father's Day Card + June Bootcamp

Well, it's Wednesday and here I am putting together a Father's Day card.  It will be a little late, but it's better than not sending one at all!

 

Papers: Simon Says Stamp June card kit

Sentiment: letters cut on cricut 3 times, stacked & stamped with Tsukineko Brilliance gold ink

Truck: Nifty Fifties Cricut cartridge

 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

OWH June Bootcamp (I used the repetition of color; drawing colors from the pattern piece into the truck, sentiment, and "road")

FCCB #164 - Father's Day

Paper Playtime - Anything Goes

 

My second card for today is for the OWH mid-week throwdown - Things with Wings

:

Sentiment: My Pink Stamper

Owl cut: Lettering Delights

 

Yes, it's a pink owl, but in my imagination, there are pink owls!  Ha ha!

 

Hope you're having a lovely day.

 

 

 



Ciara's makeover with a Retro Sketch

Ciara is our OWH mascot and she looks pretty good as a stamp, so we were challenged to give her a makeover for Flag Day (coming up this weekend).  I used the Retro Sketch 67 as a starting point for two cards:

 

On my first card, I colored Ciara using Copics and made her hat and kerchief in red, white and blue:

I put her on top of that ribbon with a brad in the middle.  The sentiment is computer generated.

 

On my second card, I colored Ciara using Inktense pencils and I used a different red/blue combination with brown as an accent.  Her hat and kerchief are paper-pieced:

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, which I embossed in gold.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it says "Thank you for your service to our country".

 

Both cards will be AnyHero cards that I'll put in my next box of cards for OWH.

 

Thanks for stopping by.



OWH Sketch #176

This week's OWH sketch is a great one for making lots of cards easily.  I took a different approach this time and cut the pieces for several cards at once and then pieced them together.  When I assembled the cards, I found myself looking for different embellishments to make each one unique.

 

I used up many of my brads - how did I get so many?  Do they grow at night in my containers when I'm not looking?  Ha ha - this is a good sketch to use them up!

 

and the sketch:

I see Seongsook posted a OSW (one sheet wonder) cutting template for this sketch - that may be fun to try too!

 

Have a happy Monday!

 



Today's card challenges

In between chores, I snuck in a few cards for two challenges. 

 

The first is a sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches:

and here's my card:

The stamps are from Hero Arts - "Right at Home" and the paper is "Beach Cottage" from Creative Imaginations.  I used an Impression Obsession die for the fence. 

 

My second challenge is for Mojo Monday 296 with this sketch:

and here's my card:

This is a 5x5 card for my sister, using the same Beach Cottage paper.  My sister loves magical women, like this mermaid, which I fussycut and mounted on the blue circle.  The stamp is from Tim Holtz and I added some Liquid Pearls on the side.  Such a girly card, and lots of fun to make!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 



Art Journal - my first page

I've been watching posts about Art Journals for a while now with Shari C and decided to take the plunge and start one.  The best thing about an art journal is that there's no right/wrong way - it's whatever you want it to be.  I bought a Strathmore "Visual Journal" and the instructions state that this journal is "whatever you imagine it to be" - which means, get creative, girl!

 

It will be easy for me to create pages using my cardmaking supplies.  I started my first page with my name.  I cut 3 of each letter and stacked them, then inked them with Tsukineko Brilliance Lavender.  The background is a mixture of Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks with white embossing over it using the splatter background stamp.

 

I cut the balloons on my Cricut as well, used Doodlebug Twine for the tails. The stamp is from Ali Edwards.  The paper around the edge is from my stash that I've been hoarding for years - time to use it up, right?

 

I plan on occasionally doing an art journal page and I'm going to keep notes when I get an idea that hits me.  I hope you get encouraged to do this - it's different than keeping a daily journal (which I also do).

 

Happy Friday to ya!



Back to blogland!

Whew!  It's been a few hectic weeks, but I'm back from end-of-school-year activities and another fun-filled scrap weekend with my girlfriends.  I was SO inspired by Kathryn's 6x6 OWH tutorial this week and I made seven cards from template 1!  Here's a sample of some of them:

 

What a timesaver this was for me!  I'm so grateful that she put the time into figuring out the measurements and sketches. 

 

The challenge for the Midweek throwdown is water.  I bought some Nautical digistamps from Birdie Brown and thought they might go with this theme.  I used the sailboat in one of my cards above and used the portly (shall we say?) sailor for this card:

The sentiment is also from Birdie.  The background paper is swirly like water, so that's how I'm claiming this as a water card!  Isn't that sailor sooo cute??  Love him.

 

That's it for me today - thanks for stopping by!