Deconstructed Sketch Challenge 161

Woah, I better pace myself.  This is post number three in the same day.  It's raining so I am alternating between binge watching Call the Midwife, and making cards. 

I've never made a card for this challenge but but was in love with the sketch as soon as I saw it.  Tape It is a new set I haven't used yet and this seemed the perfect chance to put it to work.  My hubs is back from a long stretch away at work next week so I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to make him a card.

Double Whammy! Colour Q 251

Whaaaaat?  Two posts in one day?!  Found this little gem of a challenge over at Colour Q.  These are colours I would never have thought to put together, but I'm in love.

I had a friend over crafting with me yesterday and I was looking through my sets thinking I wanted to do another collage set soon.  As soon as I saw this challenge I knew exactly what I was going to get up to.  Concord Crush retired a few years ago, but I held on to mine since I love the coolness of the shade.  I thought the Pretty in Pink got a little lost, but it's there nicely in the background softening up the white.  For collage purposes, this set couldn't be any better.  It's got enough images that you can make a full collage without consulting another set (perfect for my new hostess club) but the images are matchy-matchy so much that it's boring.  If you don't have it already (Kinda Eclectic) get it now.  Like right this minute.

For a final little step I gave the card front a light mist with a spray adhesive and tossed it in some glitter.  It took what was a nice enough card up the next level with a little oooooh factor thrown in.

Swallowtails

After a long hiatus, I'm back to running a hostess club.  Though I haven't been doing much stamping over the past year, I've still been doing a monthly get together with a small group of friends.  For the summer, we decided we would each bring a card and enough supplies for everyone to make a card.  It's been a nice break for me since I actually get to make cards that night!

For our final club of this set up we've decided we'd try and wrangle in a few more ladies to  become junkies join us.  So the challenge was for each of us to use Swallowtail to make a card.  Since I'm trying to grow our group, I decided I'd demo three cards that you can do with just this stamp (pretty much).  I want them to get the picture that you don't need 800 sets until you're addicted and then you NEED them to make beautiful cards.

The first card is a simple mask and then some sponging with Strawberry Slush and Melon Mambo.  To give it a little more depth I added in some Blackberry Bliss, just around the edges.  The picture doesn't do the colours justice sadly, but feel free to make one yourself to see how luscious it truly is.

This set is stunning on its own, but also almost always pairs itself with En Francais.  I had it in my mind to stamp this on vellum and am super happy with the result.  It's a lovely any occasion card but I think it could easily serve as a wedding card as well.

Though I liked last year's In Colours, I am in LOVE with this year's (except the orange.  Sorry Tangelo Twist, orange isn't my cup of tea, never has been, likely never will be).  Lost Lagoon is a stunning colour, which I can foresee making its way into the regular line up in a few catalogues from now.  It's another masking card, and again, En Francais features.  And not that I had it in mind for a wedding, but it's screaming, "Make me a gift!"

Yay for stamping again.

Hello again... (Freshly Made Sketches 145)

Wow.  They don't delete your blog after an 18 month hiatus?  Nice.  Long story short, I've been doing a master's program.  It finished in May, but I needed some time to clear my head before venturing into anything new (or old) again.

So for my first challenge back, I headed straight to an old favourite, Freshly Made Sketches!  My personal preference is for messy, distressed cards, so I love this challenge.  It forces me to do something out of my normal zone.

I always seem to have 9,432 cards on hand, 3 of which are masculine.  So, in an effort to bring that total to at least 10, here's the first.  I love this set (Wetlands).  I'm a Canadian girl from an area that is teeming with Canadian Geese (which I love, except when their poop is all over the beach), so he makes me pretty happy.

I coloured him in but the image was just too stark so I cut out a mask and did some sponging - much better.  I really wanted to distress the edges, but this is not that kind of card, so I left it nice and clean.

So after a long haul away from stamping (like going in my room once every 6 months) I am thrilled to be back at it, and thanks to the girls from FMS for helping get my mojo back!

Colour Q - Blast From the Past

Sigh...  Last day of holidays.  I should probably spend the day cleaning and organizing, but that's far too boring and productive for the mood I'm in.  To the craftroom instead!

As you can see, this palette is from last year over at Colour Q.  These aren't colours I would necessarily put together on my own, but I thought they looked pretty darn good together.  Here's my take on things.

I went on a bender with wheel stamps a few months ago.  I don't like using the roller (the ink runs out and I can never get it straight) so I peel the rubber off the wheel and then mount it on the foam you can buy to switch wood block stamps over to cling mount.  The result is a lovely little strip that's easy to place and ink.  Another bonus about this technique is how cheap wheel stamps are!  They're less than $10 a pop, and there are a ton of really cute images.

Not-so-Freshly Made Sketches #67

 I woke up this morning with the crafty vibe.  I made a nice big pot of coffee and headed online for some inspiration.  Freshly Made Sketches had a lovely layout this morning, so into the crafty room I went with the sketch on my head.  I've got a bunch of this paper left over from the last annual catalogue so I decided on a manly card.  I never seem to make those just for the heck of it.  Must plan to do that more.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after completing this one, however it then dawned on me which challenge it was for.  FMS is a "clean" challenge, and apparently I forgot that as I distressed away.  Whoops!  I'm sure the girls over there won't mind terribly  - sorry ladies!  They're quite a lovely bunch so hopefully this will just slide on by under their noses.....

Still loving Clockworks.  I think I might try and bust out a few cards with this set today.  Tomorrow is the last day of holidays before I go back to work and it will be my only day alone for the past 2 weeks.  Looking forward to putting my head down and getting inky!

Hand Stamped Sentiments #150

Sooo, looks like I haven't blogged in over a month.  I was thinking about it, so does that count?  No, I don't think it does.

However, today I finally sat down and took time to take a picture of something that I made.  Again, Hand Stamped Sentiments had a lovely colour challenge to work with.  It's the same palette that you can find on one of the new DSPs in the new catalogue.

Pool Party and Primrose Petals are both fairly gentle colours and the black makes them really pop.  A little background embossing adds a gentle girly element, and you can't go wrong with butterflies!