Sketchbook Saturday 15 and Creative Sketches 36

I'm kind of new to the Creative Sketches challenge blog but I liked these colors and thought I'd give their latest challenge a try.

With colors like these I should really use the opportunity to get a head start on my Christmas cards, but I ended up going in a different direction.  I paired the colors with the cute square Sketchbook Saturday sketch.

I love making square cards, I just wish that the post office didn't charge extra postage when you mail something square.  I don't really know what the point of that is, but I usually make cards like these 4 1/4 inches so they fit in an A2 envelope.  And that size is super cute to boot!

I know that you're shocked to see these faux-mother-of-pearl flowers, but I can't seem to help myself.  I'm fast dwindling my supply of glossy card stock because I keep making these, too!  I actually end up wasting a bit of the cardstock, because it's very slippery when you try to stamp on it with an inked-up stamp.  You have to be very careful that the stamp doesn't slide around and leave a bad impression.  That's the voice of experience there!

The weather here this weekend has been absolutely terrible.  We went from sunny, 90+ degree weather a few short days ago to wet, soggy 50-degree weather.  It's been a good opportunity to stay in the house and get some cleaning done, but I've had enough.  Why is it that we get all the good weather during the week when I'm at work and can't enjoy it and the lousy weather comes when I'm home on the weekend?  Grrrrr!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sketchbook Saturday 13 and Color Inspiration 157

It's late on Saturday, but I finally finished my card for the Sketchbook Saturday and Color Inspiration challenges. 

I've been watching movies on TV while making this card, which is VERY distracting.  I'm pretty sure I could have finished it hours ago if I was concentrating a little harder!

I stamped the background of my oval layer with En Francais.  I think it makes a nice background for the floral images from the Fabulous Florets stamp set, which you may have noticed that I watercolored.  And I'm pretty sure that I have had a watercoloring epiphany!  Previously, my attempts at watercoloring involved my very unprofessional attempts at shading and applying the colors "just so."  Well today, quite by accident, I applied the color in a rather slap-dash method.  I sort of swirled the colors around, left some "white" space and I've got to say that I really like how it turned out.  It really looks like watercoloring to me!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sketchbook Saturday 9

Today I went to the bridal shower for my cousin's fiancee.  Tomorrow I will go to their wedding and though I made a card for the occasion many weeks ago, I didn't really like it.  So when I got home from the shower, I was determined to sequester myself in my stamp room until I made something that I liked.

I checked out a bunch of sketches and then I realized that the Sketchbook Saturday challenge just might fit the bill!

I took a bit of liberty with the sketch so that in my card the main image layer is not as wide as the layer in the sketch.  (I hope this doesn't disaqualify me).

I had this very cute stamp of a bride and groom so I really wanted to use it for my card.  I embossed the bride and groom as well as the sentiment in copper embossing powder since that seemed to match the colors the bride and groom had chosen.  I'm actually basing the colors of my card on the colors of the wedding invitation that I got.  It was mostly blue and a deep shimmery brown and I had some cardstock that seemed to be pretty close to the colors of the invitation.  I thought it would be a good idea to make a card that coordinated with that.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Sketchbook Saturday 6

As expected, I'm really loving the Fabulous Florets stamp set that is in the new, soon to be released, Summer Mini catalog.  And I'm also loving the new embossing powders that are just tailor-made for this stamp set.  The other day, I played around with the Tangerine Tango ep and for my card today I tried the Melon Mambo.  I've been stamping with Stampin' Up! products long enough that I remember when the catalog carried bunches of embossing powders in a variety of colors and I was sorry to see them retired.  So it's nice to see them back again, and as usual, the quality is excellent!

A few weeks back I discovered a new sketch challenge, Saturday Sketchbook.  This week, the sketch was too cute to pass up!

I challenged myself a little bit with this card.  I used designer paper that was covered with flowers in Pacific Point.  This is one color that I only use sporadically (at best), but it's really quite lovely and I am resolved to use it more often.  I wanted to use the new Beyond the Garden dp so I purposely chose one of the images that was all about Pacific Point, and I'm very glad I did.  I actually think I like it very much!  It's a color that is very far outside of the colors that I normally use, but that's what this stamping journey is all about, right?  You never know if you're going to like something until you try it!

Thanks for stopping by today! 

PPA83 and a New Sketch Challenge

I have discovered a brand new sketch challenge.  As I was checking out the participants in the latest PPA challenge I was lead to the blog of Iwona Palamountain who just this Saturday started a new sketch challenge.  Well, being a sketch challenge junkie, I had to give it a try.  Here are the two challenges I tackled:

These colors are right up my alley.  They are all that are earthy and wonderful.  And when you scroll down the participants in the challenge on the PPA blog, I think you'll agree.  And it's no surprise that I'm a big fan of CAS cards, so it took no time for me to figure out that I would have to participate in the first Sketchbook Saturday Challenge.  Here's what I came up with when I put the two together:

Once I put this card together, I realized how fabulous these colors really are together.  I knew they were wonderful, but I think I under-estimated how wonderful they are!  I used a little bit of the Christmas Cocoa dsp from last year as my background and finished it up with the very pretty flowers from the Fast & Fabulous hostess stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!