CAS Get Well card

The first day of Holy Week is today, which means we are only a few short days away from the great celebration of Pascha. I, for one, am ready to get back to a regular menu--Lenten food is all fine and good, but it will be nice to make meat and dairy dishes that we can all enjoy!

Rain again today; I had to dodge puddles and raindrops as I made my way to the midwives this morning for my 34 week visit. (Everything looks fine; baby's head is down, heartbeat is good, all very normal). I will confess that my mojo seems broken again--I have a few projects that I'm working on for etsy customers, but other than that, I don't seem to have much motivation. Chalk it up to third trimester blahs, I guess. I'm itching to get working on birth announcements, but have to wait for supplies to arrive next week. I have them all designed (except for the birth details, of course!), and will just need to spend a little bit of time with a paper cutter and scissors to get them ready to go. The picture and the birth details can be added later, minimizing the last minute work, which was my goal with them.

So my share for today is a card I made at the beginning of Lent for a friend who had a bad sinus/respiratory infection. I just never got around to posting it! I was saving it for a week like this when I knew I wouldn't be creating much but still wanted to share a few things.

I did make a little oops on it--I stamped the sentiment just a little too close to the stem on the flower, but oh well. It is a simple card and I figured it wasn't that noticeable and just left it.

Purty Butterflies

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Today is Lazarus Saturday, and marks the official beginning of Holy Week in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is the day that the Church remembers Christ raising Lazarus from the dead and is also the traditional day for bringing catechumens into the Church by baptism and chrismation.

I've been very busy the last two or three days working on Sesame Street invitations and adornments for three separate etsy customers--when it rains, it pours, right? On the one hand, that is a LOT of little eyes to glue together (335 to be exact) but on the other hand, it is nice to do a bunch all at once and just do it assembly line-style rather than in bits and pieces. I'm glad of the work right now, for it will help float me in the next few months when I'm out of commission with the new baby.

I made these two cards as part of a stamp camp that my upline held a few weeks ago. I was a helper at the camp, so I made the cards/projects a week early. It was so nice to just be at the camp and help and not have to think about trying to get my own stamping done at the same time. It was a great camp! Good attendance, despite miserable weather, and lots of cute projects. These cards are just so bright and fresh and seem like the day outside today. It is cool today, but the sun is shining, the trees outside my window have little white flowers on them and, the best part, I have a babysitter this morning until lunch time! Whoo-hoo! I'm thinking of getting a pedicure just to celebrate!

Supplies:
Gable Green, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Flight of the Butterfly, Dot-Dot-Dot ala cart stamps (Occ. mini)
Gable green, Tempting Turquoise inks
silver brads
Beautiful butterflies embosslits

Sock Monkey Birthday + Two-year old blues

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure. My son decided to throw two knock-down, throw-out tantrums in a row after his nap as we were trying to get out the door to run to the post office and drug store. The first was over shoe choice, the second over the stroller. He won on the shoes, I won on the stroller and have the scratches and scars to prove it! (This morning he tried again with the shoes and stroller as we went out to get a hair cut and I won on both counts today. Normally, I would just let him walk, but I didn't have the energy to run after him all afternoon and morning. And then there was the trauma of the haircut...being two is hard).

After all that, I was ready for my husband to come home and relieve me, but when he came home and was getting his bike put away and such, he managed to hit his head really hard on our old-fashioned twist-doorbell and gashed open his head and required 6 (!) staples! So he spent the evening in the ER and I stayed on duty. Luckily, my son was ready for bed earlier than usual, but I was pretty stressed by then. But wait, it gets better.

At about midnight, my son woke up freaked out and crying because somehow his diaper had slid down and he had soaked his jammies and his sheets and everything had to be changed and he needed to be calmed down. All I can say is thank God that Mr. Floppy (his lovey) and blanket were up by his head and were spared the mess so I didn't have to deal with that in the middle of the night as well. I thought I was home-free, but then this morning started off with a bang at 6:00 a.m. as the baby started his/her morning calasthenics routine on my internal organs. So it's been a trying day or so.

The good news is that Piglet (and I by extension) was invited to a birthday party/playdate this afternoon, so we will have something constructive to do when he gets up from his nap. Which brings me to today's card. I had to make a card for the birthday girl, of course, and it took a lot of tries before I had something I liked. I'm pretty happy with it--I like the bright colors and the balloons turned out well.

Supplies:
Pink Passion, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White cs
Sock Monkey stamp set
Chocolate Chip ink, close to Cocoa, Pink Passion, So Saffron, Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise markers/ink
Tempting Turquoise ribbon
Linen thread
dimensionals
paper snips

PPA Paschal Cards

My son's godfather asked me to make him some custom Pascha (Easter) cards and he wanted some image that represented Pascha as we celebrate it in the East. Unfortunately, Stampin' Up! didn't really have anything that fit the bill, so I thought I might have to pass on his order. Eggs (psyanky) are part of our tradition, so I got a (gasp!) contraband stamp and used it in conjunction with last week's PPA sketch to make his cards. I missed the PPA deadline for posting, but I still think it is a great sketch!

Christos Anesti is the Greek form of Christ is Risen, which is how people traditionally greet each other on Pascha night and through the Paschal season, which lasts for 40 days. In the East, the Church gives us seasons for fasting (Lent, Advent, the Apostles' Fast, Dormition fast) and seasons for feasting, so there is balance in everything! What I do find funny about this card is that psyanky are a Slavic tradition and my son's godfather specifically requested the Greek form of the phrase, rather than the English or Russian (Christos Voskrese) version. I had to smile at the pan-ethnicity of it.

Supplies:
So Saffron, Real Red, Taken with Teal cs
Always in bloom wheel, itty bitty backgrounds, non-SU! egg stamp
Jet Black Staz-On, Real Red, So Saffron, Taken with Teal markers, real red ink
Small oval punch, slot punch
So Saffron grosgrain ribbon

Juicy Limes

Well, the rain has stopped for now, but it is still cloudy today. Yesterday and all last night it poured buckets, so at least we could walk to the post office this morning without getting ourselves and our packages drenched! My mother-in-law is visiting for a few days and so she and my son have been having a high old time throwing rubber balls, reading books, playing with hand puppets and coloring with crayons. And this mama gets a bit of a break, yippie!


I got my color inspiration for this card from a dress I noticed on a little girl in church this past Sunday. It was a black background with white daisies on it that were edged with bright green (the centers were green too). I thought it was so fresh and striking that I made a mental note to remember the combo.I admit this card is only very loosely based on this week's Mojo Monday sketch, but I was fiddling a lot to get the look I wanted with the tart and tangy set and this is the result. Oh well.

Supplies:
Green Galore, Basic Black, Whisper White cs
Tart and Tangy, Sweet Sentiments (retired) stamp set
Green galore, Jet Black staz-on ink
Green galore grosgrain ribbon (retired)
scallop square, 1 3/8" circle and 1 1/4" circle punches
dimensionals

Two Cards in one post, oh my!

This morning was pancake morning at our house (I've discovered a lovely vegan pancake recipe for Lent that we've been enjoying. This morning was pumpkin with chocolate chips.) and then I got to run adult errands All By Myself while my hubby took care of the boy. I actually got a few things accomplished before noon, imagine that! Unfortunately, since the weather turned nice, my legs have started to swell and my feet resemble sausages more than feet (although my husband says because it is Lent I can't say that around him because it makes him crave sausages...okay, so my feet resemble Gimme Lean instead) so I'm thinking I'm going to have to spend more time with my feet up in the next month and half. Oh well. At least the swelling is late in the game this time 'round. With my son, I wasn't in regular shoes from the second trimester on!

Ok, so I have two cards to post and just wanted to post once today, so you get a special treat!
The first card uses this week's Diva Coffee Break Designs sketch and my own color inspiration. I saw a girl wearing a dress in these colors on St. Patrick's Day and thought it would make a great color combo for a card. I turned the sketch on its side (mostly because the piece of whisper white I wanted to use was that length) and got busy with my markers. I made the Taken with Teal ribbon by markering some white grosgrain, which worked well. The rhinestone brad was really a last minute addition.

As in, I was taking the photograph of the card and decided to add it. I pulled the card out of the photo tent, gently pried the panel away from the dimensionals (usually this doesn't work out well for me, but this once it did!) and carefully inserted the rhinestone brad. Voila! I think it added just the right finishing touch to the card.


The second card is one I made yesterday using the Splitcoast sketch for this week plus the Stamping 411 color inspiration for the week. My husband's cousin just had twins by C-section and I wanted to send them a nice card. The colors made me think of the Love Bug set for some reason and I thought it adapted well for a twins card. Plus the sketch worked great with the idea I had in my head! I watercolored the images using my Aquapainter and markers (the trick to doing this with a small image is blot, blot, blot. I had a tissue in my hand and after every stroke I blotted the tip of the painter on it). I created the Elegant Eggplant dsp by stamping the small bloom from Bella's Bloom very close together on the cardstock with Versamark.


Supplies, Together Forever Card:
Glorious Green, Night of Navy, Taken with Teal, Whisper White cs
Together Forever stamp set
Jet Black Staz-On, Glorious Green, Night of Navy, Taken with Teal Markers
white grosgrain ribbon
rhinestone brad
dimensionals
scallop edge punch

Supplies, Twin Love Bugs Card:
Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron (textured) Old Olive cs, Watercolor paper, Old Olive dsp
Love Bug, Hugs and Wishes, Yummy, Bella's Bloom stamp sets
Versamark, Jet Black Staz-On, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron, Old Olive markers
1 1/4", 1 3/8", scallop circle punches
Wide oval/large oval punches
modern label punch

A lovely card, just for you

Secondary post for today; scroll down for the first post (a "whale" of a baby card).

I did a bunch of sketch/color challenges one night this week--boy was I on a roll!--and am trying to get them all posted before the next round gets going again! This card features the Picture Perfect Creations color challenge, as well as The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge for this week. I like how the black really pops out of the lighter colors. I wanted to keep the stamping very simple because of all the busyness of the dsp in the background and Pocket Silhouettes just seemed to fit the bill for this card. Like my little bling-bling? I just pried the rhinestone center out of one of our clear rhinestone brads (the medium size) and stuck it on the button with a glue dot. Easy-peasy and just the right pop!

Supplies:
Basic Black, Rose Red, Bashful blue, whisper white cs, Washington Apple (retired), Rose Red dsp
Pocket Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamps
Jet black Staz-On, basic black marker (for dots on scallop border)
Sherbet buttons, rhinestone brad
scallop border punch
black satin ribbon
matchbox tag die (borrowed)
dimensionals

Sweetness Unlimited

Another nice day today! I think spring is definitely making an appearance in this part of the country. I'll take it. The sun helps me get my tired third trimester self going in the morning, which takes a bit of doing these days.

I found this card sketch on a listserv that I'm on and thought I would give it a try. I used last week's Color Dare and Animal Stories, which worked perfectly together! I don't know why these colors said Baby card to me, but they did. I tried to use Crystal Effects on the whale, but it got a bit messed up while drying (I didn't put it far enough out of the way of my other projects!) so I ended up just restamping it and leaving it alone. Still cute though!


Supplies:
Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip cs, Certainly Celery dsp
Animal Stories, Sweetness Unlimited stamps
Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate chip ink
Modern label punch, 1 3/4" circle punch
Circles #2 die (for template only)
Tempting Turquoise grosgrain ribbon

Colour Q + Mojo Monday: Butterflies in Motion

Good morning! It is a beautiful day, I have my grocery shopping done after a big Trader Joe's run (how I love you, TJ's!) and my son is in a good mood today. Yippie!

Today's card uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch and the Colour Q Color Challenge for the week, which I will admit was a bit challenging! (But that is the point, isn't it??)

I struggled a bit with this sketch because I couldn't decide what image to stamp in the little diamond panel. I fiddled and fussed, and tried a few things and it just wasn't coming together until I remembered old reliable, Great Friend. I often forget that set but am always glad when I pull it out. I'm not really a butterfly person, but this card just seemed to call for them. I just realized that I don't have a stitch of neutral cardstock on this card--nice!Our dear friends in Nebraska just celebrated 39 years of marriage and this seemed like the perfect card to send them. Khoreyieh Lily (who I've mentioned before is recovering from a pretty major surgery on her liver) loves getting cards and letters and so I think she will enjoy this one too! If you are interested in sending her a card (she can def. use all the encouragement she can get!) let me know and I'll send you her snail mail address.


Supplies:
Baja Breeze (smooth and textured), Apricot appeal, Cameo Coral, Rich Razzleberry cs, Urban garden dsp (retired)
Thoughts and Prayers, Great Friend, Sincere Salutations, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Curvy Verses (on the inside)
Apricot Appeal, Cameo Coral, Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze inks
white gel pen
1/2" circle punch
scallop border punch
1/2" rich razzleberry grosgrain ribbon
rhinestone brads
dimensionals

Hallmark Inspiration

I got the Girlfriend's Guide to Surviving the Toddler Years yesterday and I was in tears last night as I was reading it, I was laughing so hard! After watching The Time Traveler's Wife earlier in the evening and crying buckets over it (the book is really sad too), I needed a little comedy. My husband kept asking me what was so funny and I kept trying to say, you just have to read it. He read a few paragraphs and laughed a bit too. I love Vicki Iovine. I read her pregnancy book when I was pregnant with my two-year-old and completely appreciated the comic relief. The What to Expect books are okay, but kind of encyclopedic, and sometimes, you just want to feel like someone gets what you are going through and has a sense of humour about it. Vicki's books totally fit the bill!

Anyway, on with the show.

I sometimes get my card inspiration from commercial cards but don't always try to copy them exactly. Today's card was my attempt to copy a Hallmark baby card that we received when my son was born. I was cleaning out a chest of stuff and ran across all the cards and decided to go through them before recycling. The original card just said, CASE me! So I did! I wasn't initially happy with the result, but after looking at it sitting on my desk for a day now, I'm pretty pleased with it!

Here is the original:And here is my version (scaled down to A2 size):


How do you like my little fishies? The card has more glitter than shows up in the photo--the sun, star, and part of the sailboat have glitter on them, as does the little dsp panel up in the upper right corner.

Supplies:
Whisper white, Bashful blue, brocade blue, so saffron, kiwi kiss, certainly celery cs, animal tales dsp
nursery necessities stamp set
heart to heart punch, 1/2" circle punch
white gel pen
two way glue pen, dazzling diamonds

May Your Layers Be Many and Your Frosting Thick

Despite a break in the rain and a sunny day, I woke up crabby this morning. (My breakfast consisted of strawberries, angel food cake and whipped cream, which should tell you something...) and the morning didn't really improve much from there, but now my son is in bed for his nap and things are quiet, so I'm hoping to get in a nap myself and regain some equilibrium. (fingers crossed)

This week's Late Night Stampers' Challenge is to make a birthday card (can never have too many of those, although I tend to use Thinking of You cards more often). I wanted to use Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge for this week and kept thinking about a card layout from a swap I received this month at the Inkers' meeting.

I like the clean lines and the greens work very nicely together--I was afraid the Artichoke would drown things out, but it is a nice accent. Plus, I got to ink up my new SAB set, Birthday Bliss, which I've been itching to do since it arrived a few weeks ago.
Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Always Artichoke, Whisper White cs, Certainly Celery dsp
Birthday bliss stamp set
Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana inks/markers
Certainly Celery satin ribbon
1 3/4" circle punch
Circles #2 die cut (used for template)

Tart and Tangy for the Diva Coffee Break Design Girls

I had this card floating around in my head all last week, and finally got around to making it on Friday afternoon (after a nice can of Diet Coke to get myself going!). The color challenge from the Diva Coffee Break Design team had me scratching my head, but I wanted to use a sketch from Stampin' Addicts and pair it with Tart and Tangy and figured it would all come together in the end, which it did! The soft suede was the color that I had a hard time incorporating, but decided in the end that it just needed to be a very minor accent (on the stem of the cherries and the "For You" sentiment).

Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White cs
Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Tart and Tangy, Vintage Labels stamps
Versamark, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Soft Suede markers/ink
1 1/4", 1 3/8", 1", 3/4" circle punches
Bermuda bay grosgrain ribbon
dimensionals

Don't Throw Away Your Snail Packaging!

I got the idea for this card from Joanne Travis, over at Sleepy in Seattle--go on over and check out her blog! She's a creative lady with lots of great ideas. She thought that the plastic lid that our snail refills come in looks like a carrot (I thought it could be a carrot or a red chili pepper--you could fill it with red candy and do a Mexican theme too!) and decided to make a sweet-treat-cup-style card using the plastic piece. It's a stinkin' cute idea, if I do say so myself! I used orange Starburst jelly beans, but you could use any red or orange candy, really. I also made a little slider in the back so the recipient can get the candy out without destroying the card. I used my 1 3/4" circle punch to make the hole in the back--it isn't centered because the punch doesn't reach that far, but it is open enough to work. You can find a tutorial for the slider at Inking Idaho.

I used Kiwi Kiss as my base and Only Orange as the middle layer--this color combo is not for the faint of heart! The best way to get your carrot/pepper shape is to lay the lid on the cardstock with the front part flat on the page, and the open part facing up. Use a pencil to trace around the edges, then cut out using paper snips (I used a hobby blade to slit the middle so I could get the scissors in without leaving a mark on the edge). You will need to cut just a millimeter or so outside your pencil line so that the lid will fit without causing the cardstock to bubble. Use scotch tape to tape the edges of the lid down on the backside and that's it! I would recommend doing all the stamping before you put the lid in--it is a lot easier!

Supplies:
Kiwi Kiss, Only Orange, Whisper White cs
Forest Friends, Warm Words stamps
Creamy Caramel ink, Only Orange, Old olive, blush blossom markers
Old Olive striped grosgrain ribbon

Bright and Happy Birthday Wishes

This card uses this week's Color Throwdown Challenge, which was to use Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi and Marigold Morning. Well, the last two colors predate my time as a stamper, so I had to make do with Garden Green and Summer Sun instead, which I thought were reasonable facsimiles of those colors. I just couldn't work the green in with the other cardstock colors, but used it to color in the leaves on the stamped panel as well as to do the dotted accents on the edge of the Birthday Wishes punch piece. I struggled a little with the composition of this card because I'm not used to working with such bright colors together! I like this card, though. It kind of says fresh and happy to me.

You'll have to forgive the lighting on my photograph--we've had two days of gray overcast skies and drizzle, with rainy days expected until the middle of next week, so I got a little desperate! I didn't want to wait until the sun was shining again to take pictures (we get more rain in Philadelphia than Seattle, so I might be waiting a while...) but I wanted my photos to look good, so I had to tinker a bit with the lighting in my photo tent. I'm not completely happy with it, but it will do for now.

Supplies:
Summer Sun, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Whisper White cs
Together Forever, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Sincere Salutations stamps
Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Summer Sun, Garden Green markers, Jet Black Staz-On ink
Wide oval and scallop oval punch
Melon mambo grosgrain ribbon
mini glue dot
dimensionals
white gel pen

Think Green: PPA color challenge

Can I just say that life with a two-year-old is never dull? My son seems to have turned a cranky corner since turning two in January, and I keep waiting for the clouds to lift. There are times when he is funny and lovely and so sweet, but right now I feel like my days are consumed with managing melt-downs and fights over what he will and will not eat. Oh the joys. I keep reminding myself that this is a phase, and it will pass. I only hope that by the time this next baby arrives (in less than two months, yikes!) he will be a bit happier more of the time.
Like many others who saw this particular color challenge, my first thought was to do a St. Patrick's Day type card (and then who would I send it to??...) but my husband asked me to make a card for a student of his that is going through a personal tragedy and I thought that the muted color combination would make a perfect sympathy card. I combined the color challenge with Mercy Kerin's Tuesday Sketch, which I really like this week. I was tempted to use it again on another card, but ended up using something else. I'll definitely come back to this sketch, though! This card is the result of a lot of tinkering, and all I can say is, remember to go with your first instinct.

I initially pulled out Thoughts and Prayers, decided it wasn't right for the layout and set it aside for Pocket Silhouettes (in part because I'm trying to use more stamp sets that I haven't used in a while). I made the whole card, including the stamped panel, and decided it didn't work. So I pulled off the stamped panel and started again with Thoughts and Prayers and this time it worked! I did have to add a little layer of kraft under the stamped layer after the fact because I thought it looked unfinished without it (hence the multiple dimensional layering on the stamped panel!) I also popped the whole front panel up on dimensionals to accommodate the rhinestone brads. I'm pretty happy with the card now, and think it will do nicely for my husband's student. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but I used just a dash of dazzling diamonds glitter on the center of the flowers, which I think gives it just a little extra sparkle that complements the rhinestone brads nicely.

Supplies:
Kraft, Garden Green, Whisper white cs, Certainly Celery dsp
Thoughts and Prayers, Sanded stamps
Sahara Sand, Garden Green, Certainly Celery inks/markers
sponges
rhinestone brads/paper piercing tool/mat pack
two way glue pen/dazzling diamonds
green satin ribbon (non-SU!)
mini glue dot
dimensionals

Decor Elements: Fox and Friends

The view from the doorway (notice the brown curtains??); the toy box is doubling as a diaper changing center, at least until we can get him potty trained. We're working on it. Sort of.

At long last, the promised pictures of my son's new room. I should more accurately call it the children's room, because our ultimate plan is to put most of our children in this room eventually, but for now, it just has one occupant as the new baby will inhabit the tiny nursery room next to our bedroom until it makes sense to move him/her. Like all the rooms in our 1888 row home, it is small (probably 8'x10') and lacks a closet, but I think it turned out well. There is a closet in the adjacent room that I am using half of for his things. I think it will work out fine. This room is part of a much later addition onto the house, but one that predated us, so the way that the room is attached to the older part of the house is a little odd. The layout of the original house is such that all the rooms connect to one another, which means that very little space is lost to hallways and the bathrooms (part of the addition) are efficiently located at half-intervals on the stair case. Confused yet? Basically, we have three floors, with 5 small rooms on the upper two floors, with the living room and kitchen occupying the first floor. There are two full size closets in the whole house and neither is located in a room currently in use as a bedroom.

Standing in front of the rocking chair (the doorway is to the right of the pack-n-play)

Anyway, my son's room is connected to the back end of the old house on the second floor and whoever made the addition on the house basically just cut a rectangular hole up as high as the ceiling and didn't bother to frame it out or make it connect to the closet wall in the next room in an intelligent manner. And because it is a masonry wall, the doorway is about 12" thick. So the doorway between the middle room and my son's room is far larger than any standard doorway and would be difficult to frame out to accommodate a door. When we were renovating the house in 2007, it was a low priority, given the amount of other major things that needed doing in the house and we have opted to leave it alone for now and see how things work out. Hence the brown curtains hanging in the doorway. I bought some new ones that are supposed to help dampen noise (and keep out light) and I'm hoping that will do the trick. There is also a window at the back of the room, but I couldn't get a decent photograph of it because of the lighting, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

The view from the icon corner (see first photo for icon corner); like my Kyrgyz felt wall hanging of a yurt?

The room, which was formerly my office/craft room, had been painted a kind of peach (my husband says it is creamsicle colored) and I decided to leave it that color and put up the Fox and Friends Decor Elements to give it some little boy vibes. Three of the four walls in the room are plaster over concrete or masonry, so hanging pictures is a bit challenging in there (thank goodness for Command Strips!) and the vinyl decor elements seemed the perfect solution! I just bought the elements that featured animals (the entire set of 26 has various images--see the decor elements catalog on the sidebar for more information). I'm really pleased with how they came out! They were quite easy to apply and all the colors went very well with the creamsicle walls. :)

The view from the pack-n-play--my sister made the quilt for my son when he was born and my mom made the pillow cover.

Ready to Razzle Dazzle?

I'm still exploring the possibilities for this stamp set--I received it as a Christmas gift and have been slow to ink it up much. Somehow it gets buried in my stack of solid floral stamps and I don't get to it when I'm hunting for a set! When I saw the Mojo Monday sketch, however, I knew I needed a large central stamp and thought the main Razzle Dazzle flower would do nicely. I also used a new color challenge (new to me at least): the Cards & Things Color Challenge, which was to use Elegant Eggplant, Bordering Blue and Mellow Moss. The challenge with these colors is to keep the lighter two from fading into each other. The bold pop of the elegant eggplant helps, I think! I ended up using two neutrals, because I thought that white matting looked too stark, but couldn't do without a white stamped panel. So everything is matted in kraft, which works as a nice muted accent.

I was playing around with texture on this card--I used direct-to-paper texturing on my cardstock base and on the edges of the main stamped panel (you simply take your ink pad and smear it down the cardstock to create an effect). I also made my own dsp on the elegant eggplant panel by stamping the small flower from Razzle Dazzle in Versamark using Karen Barber's background technique. (I used it on Monday's card as well, if you'll recall!) I also added some stamped texture to the Mellow moss panel with Itty Bitty backgrounds--how did I manage before this set?? That little spritz stamp adds so much to a card! (And you can get it for free during Sale-A-Bration--ask me how!)

Supplies:
Bordering blue, elegant eggplant, mellow moss, kraft, whisper white cs
Razzle Dazzle, Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp sets
Versamark, elegant eggplant, bordering blue, mellow moss markers, bordering blue ink
kraft taffeta ribbon, mellow moss grosgrain ribbon

Confucius Say...Color Challenge!

I used Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge and combined it with Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch to come up with this card. This card is a great example of how fiddling to get the right composition can produce a very different card from the one you started with. My original base was red and the certainly celery was only a minor accent. I had punched out the flower/butterfly and layered it so that it was round, but just couldn't get the card to look the way I wanted! So I decided to make the red a background harmony rather than the main concert soloist and that made all the difference in the world! Suddenly the card came together quite nicely! I love this color combo--I will probably come back to it again. I resisted the urge to use my gel pen to add accents on the borders, and am glad I did. The card has a nice clean fresh feel to it that I like--like the feeling you have right after a nice hot shower.

Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Real Red, whisper white cs, Bashful blue dsp
Of the Earth, Asian Artistry stamp sets
Real red, bashful blue, certainly celery markers, real red ink pad
Real Red 3/4" polka dot ribbon
tombow mono adhesive glue (for the ribbon)
scallop border punch

Some niftyness to share

For anyone who reads this blog with any kind of regularity, you'll know that I enjoy using sketch and color challenges when I make cards. They really help me get my creative juices flowing and sometimes force me out of my creative comfort zone. I've been participating in these challenges for some months now and have been enjoying the comments and also looking at all the different ways that other stampers use color and sketches to produce such different results!

But you know how when it rains it pours? In the last two weeks, I've been featured on two different challenges for my cards! How cool is that? I'm flattered and wanted to give a big shout out to the gals at Diva Coffee Break Challenge for featuring my Valentine's Day card, and at the Color Throw down Challenge for this week, which featured my non-traditional baby card. (Click on the links to see their great blogs).

Thanks, ladies, you made my week!!

Color Inspiration is Everywhere, Part 5: Flowers on the vine

Good morning! It is a beautiful day here--the sun is shining, it is warm enough to wear only a light jacket and the first signs and smells of spring are in the air. I never was a big person for spring--I'm much more keen on winter--but this winter has really taken the stuffing out of me and I'm glad to see milder weather return.

Today's card uses the Stamping 411 sketch for this week as well as my own color inspiration, which comes from the quilt that is on our bed. The colors in the quilt (see photo at right) roughly translate to Real Red, Sage shadow (with Old Olive accents), So Saffron and Cameo Coral. I've had it in my head to do a floral-type card based on these colors for some time and the Stamping 411 sketch was the perfect chance to try it out! I've been seeing various takes on this type of card--using the Baroque Motifs as a vine and then adding punched out flowers--so I don't know who to give credit for the original idea. If it is yours, leave me a comment and I'll fix it!

I had a whole bunch of So Saffron Boho blossoms flowers punched out from another project and decided to use them for the flowers on this card. I don't yet have that punch (I had borrowed it from another Philly Inker way back when for the project), so I had to get creative with the colors. I used the largest flower as the base and sponged with old olive and sage shadow around the edges, to give it a leafy look, then layered on the middle size flower, which I sponged on the edges with apricot appeal and then crumpled up and flatted out to give texture. I went back over them with real red when they needed a little somethin'-somethin' extra. The round center is cameo coral, punched out with the largest hole on the crop-a-dile and then I used my real red marker to add the little stamens in the center.

For the flower accent on the end, I used the same base, but the middle flower is whisper white colored in with the cameo coral marker and sponged on the edges with apricot appeal and then the smallest boho blossom punch is so saffron layered on top with a real red circle added dimension. I used Karen Barber's technique of stamping a small image close together to create a background (I used the little flower in the same Baroque motifs set) which I think adds a bit of texture as well. Aside from all the sponging, this card was actually pretty simple to make!

Supplies:
Real red, Sage Shadow, Cameo Coral, So Saffron (textured), Whisper white cs
Baroque Motifs, Sincere Salutations stamp sets
Real Red, So Saffron, Cameo Coral, Sage Shadow, Old Olive, Apricot appeal inks
Real red marker
Boho blossoms, scallop oval punches, crop-a-dile
dimensional (for larger flower accent at corner)
tombow mono adhesive glue (to put the flowers together
corner rounder punch
sponges