Freshly Made Sketches 47

The process for deciding how I'm going to make a card for a particular challenge is always a little entertaining for me.  Sometimes it's like watching a bad movie where the story is lousy you know the ending is going to stink but you have to keep watching because you've invested so much time in it already and it's too late to back out.  Sometimes you cut your losses and switch the channel and hope there's something better to watch.  Card making is similar in some ways.  When I sat down to make my card this week for Freshly Made Sketches I had some very clear color choices in mind.  But once I got more than halfway through my card, I thought "yuck" but I was a little too far in to it to change the channel, as it were.

So I fretted, and paced, and checked my watch to verify that the clock was indeed ticking.  And then I had an epiphany and realized that I was trying to make my card more complicated than it needed to be.  So I took a step back and thought of the things that appeal to me in a card.

I used lots of white space and background colors from Early Espresso and Wisteria Wonder.  I thought a little color was in order so I added a Calypso Coral piece of DSP from Berry Blossoms and some leaves from Summer Silhouettes stamped in Lucky Limeade.  The pretty flower is stamped from my new favorite Everything Eleanor.  Once I colored it, I added some shimmer with a clear Atyou Spica pen which is impossible to see in the picture so I thought I'd give you a different view here:

I happen to know that our amazing design team has created some fabulous inspiration for you so please stop on by Freshly Made Sketches and check them out.  Here are some quick links to the design team:

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Allisa Chilton

Jen Sannes

Ann Schach

Linda Suarez

Jennifer Brum 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a chance to join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

colourQ 147

When I first sat down to make my card for this week's colourQ challenge I was a little stumped.  I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do so I started looking through my stamp sets for inspiration.  That's when I spied the adorable Birthday Bunny stamp from The Cat's Pajamas.  

I think this bunny is about the cutest thing ever and I smile every time I see it.  I mean look at those big floppy ears.  Adorable!  I think this stamp is heaven sent for this challenge because coloring that big pile of gifts is the perfect way to show off these diverse hues.  And don't you just love the HB stamp from It's Your Birthday?  It's like text message shorthand for cards!  LOL!  {text message shorthand again}

And a funny thing happened on the way to making this card.  I was looking through my personal compendium of sketches that I keep around for inspiration and found one that I thought would be perfect for this stamp set.  But as I got going putting it all together it suddenly occurred to me that with a few tweaks it would be perfect for the sketch challenge at The Paper Players.

I did change it up a bit and made my card square, but other than that I remained true to this beautiful CAS sketch.  Sometimes lots of white space is just what the doctor ordered!

We've got a new face over on the colourQ blog so hop on over and say "hi."  I'm sure she's no stranger to you!  I have long admired Tracey's style and we're all very excited to have her join us!  And this week we also say goodbye to fellow DT member Suzanne who's got some exciting things of her own on the horizon!

Now that I've said my piece, you should pop on over to colourQ and see what the design team has cooked up for you this week.  I'm pretty definitely sure that you will be awed, amazed, and inspired to join us!

CAS-ual Fridays 62 and Just Add Ink 127

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge and Just Add Ink challenge are a match made in heaven, so I took this as a sign that I needed to participate.  The CFC62 challenge was to use black as a card base and at JAI127 we are to use black, white, and a color of our choice.  I picked Summer Starfruit.

I stamped the flourish from Everything Eleanor in Versarmark then went over it with clear embossing powder.  I experimented with layering the flower from that set, but it looked horrible so I just used the biggest one that I colored with a marker.  I thought it needed a little something extra so I went over it with a clear atyou Spica pen.

I popped up the flower using Deanna's Dots.  I love these things.  They're about half as thick as a dimensional and perfect when you want something popped up just a tad.  I think this picture shows it a little better.

And since the glitter from the Spica pen is still somewhat elusive in these pics I tried one last one to show that off.  Not a great picture, but I think you get the idea.

Well, I'm off to run some errands then to enjoy this beautiful sunshine by relaxing on the patio.  Thanks for stopping by!