Jen's Saturday Sketch...

Not one, but two for Jen's Saturday Sketch For You To Try. Enjoy!

Double Challenge!

I had a little time to stamp after putting George to bed last night and came up with this double challenge card. The two challenges are Tuesday's Color Challenge 172 and Thursday's Ways To Use It Challenge 172 over at Splitcoaststampers. The colors for CC172 are Taken With Teal, White & Wild Wasabi, and the WT172 Challenge is to use birds. I was determined to NOT use any birds stamps that I'd recently purchased and so I spied A Little Birdie Told Me, half cut out, not seeing the light of day or ink in a looong time--poor thing, wonder it's alive. Well, I revived it with a tap-tap-tap of Palette Noir Black ink and all was well, ship-shape! You can see from the photo that my lil' birdie is paper pieced using the also much neglected SU! designer series paper pad from the Hostess Level 1 set. Instead of a sentiment from my birdie set, I used *hello chica* from CHF's The Landing Pad, just because! Of course, no card of mine lately would be complete without buttons, so I added two this time, breaking from my *3 buttons* tradition, and then finished 'er off with a length of Wild Wasabi stitched ribbon.

Finally, just in case you're *real* observant: yes, you're right--I've used this 3.25"x6.5" card size and similar sketch/layout quite a bit lately (not for at least 2 weeks though, snort!)??! Rest assured my friends, the sketch came into play only after I'd stamped and assembled my main panel...it was a *must* for the dimensions of the main panel! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it Ü

Sketch Challenge 182

Hi there! Today's sketch challenge at SCS is a fun one, originally designed by Jen del Muro, aka genie1314. You can take a peek at her card here. I thought it would be fun to use coordinating designer paper that is printed on a smaller scale, so I pulled open my designer paper drawer with smaller pads in it, and found an 8x8 pad of Daisyd's called Snowflakes & Holly. I started punching out squares of various prints using my 1 1/4" punch and then hand cut (using my guillotine cutter) 1 3/8" squares of True Thyme card stock for matting for each. Rather than measuring for exact placement of each matted square, I used the tried-n-true *eyeball* method per my own sanity, he he!

For the central image, I chose a Cornish Heritage Farms set called Garden Friends. This was one of those sets I *had* to have, and though I love it, it's not even completely cut out and hasn't seen much ink, with the exception of the *hello* stamp--love it! I stamped off the leaf stamp in River Rock for a subtle background on a piece of Whisper White card stock, then stamped *hello* in True Thyme and paper pieced the ladybug from a scrap of the same Daisyd's dp.

After searching and searching for the perfect ribbon, I came up empty-handed...does this mean I have too little ribbon? I'm thinking so! I decided on a strip of Blue Bayou with a few buttons (big shocker there, huh?! I've only used buttons on my last 10 cards!) to finish it off, and there it is!

Thanks for stopping by today...

TCP Tuesday!

I was breezing by my friend, Carole's blog today and lo and behold it's TCP Tuesday, so I decided I'd play since I had a little extra time on my hands (er, I mean I made a little extra time...*anything* to keep Carole happy, snort!). I absolutely love The Cat's Pajamas (TCP) stamps, so you'd think I'd own a whole bushel basket full of 'em, but I have to admit--I don't. I do, however, have a handful, and since today's challenge involved the colors--olive, dark red and sky blue, which reminded me a little of Christmas/winter, I decided my cute lil' knitting pooch was purr-fect!

Mosey on over to Carole's blog for all the details on playing along with today's TCPTuesday challenge...

Supplies

Stamps: TCP Knitting Pooch, So Much Yarn

Ink: Palette Noir Black, Pomegranate, Old Olive, Soft Sky reinkers

Paper: Holiday Harmony DSP, Soft Sky, Old Olive, Fabriano Medioevalis

Accessories: buttons, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain, blender pen, hemp, linen thread

...be a good one!

For today's Technic Lover's Challenge 174--watercoloring with reinkers. I decided to use the Wonderful Wings dragonfly, and as you can see there isn't a whole lot of watercoloring, but I just love the irridescent nature of a dragonfly shimmering in the sun. I tried to recreate the greens and turquoise colors using Taken with Teal and Green Galore reinkers. A mixture of So Saffron and Green Galore/Teal was used to lightly watercolor the wings. To highlight the torso of the dragonfly a bit more, I added Crystal Effects. Unfortunately, the CE took away the intensity of the colors, leaving my little dragonfly a little pale and washed out.

Sentiment is from Mona Lisa Moment's set, Motivational Centers available through Cornish Heritage Farms.

Supplies used
Stamps: SU! Wonderful Wings; CHF Motivational Centers
Ink: Palette Noir Black; reinkers in Taken with Teal, Green Galore, So Saffron
Paper: Kraft, Green Galore, Making Memories memo pad
Accessories: buttons, brown brad, ribbon, aquapainter

Reach for the ball!

A quick card to stick in my daughter's bag that is *almost* packed for volleyball camp starting today! I used Karen Stolper's image from American Art Stamp and a sentiment from AAS as well, changing the word *stars* to *ball*, as in volleyball, wink! The volleyballs are punched with 1/4" and 1/2" circle punches to replace the stars...c'mon, work with me--they look like volleyballs, right?! Designer paper is from K&Co's Marcella 4x6 pad.

I'd better get this in her bag and get myself off to summer school--chao!

Boys wil be Boys!

I was so busy outdoors yesterday, replanting a perennial garden with DH (that's a story for another day!), that I completely forgot, or as I like to say *frog-got*, to check out Jen's Sketch For You To Try Saturday. Needless to say I didn't do one lick of stamping either--oh, the horror! Here's Jen's sketch and here's what I came up with. Come play along, and if you do, remember to type in the keyword SFYTT.

Have a wonderful Sunday Ü

*ETA: Where are my manners?! Geesh...I *frog-got* to tell you to check out my playmates' versions of Jen's sketch!

Carole
Shannan
Susan

Supplies:
Stamps~CHF For The Men
Paper~Always Artichoke, K&Co. Marcella pad
Ink~Ranger Walnut Ink
Accessories~Mustard hemp, brads, 1/4" square punch, piercing tool/template