Playing With Sketches

Hello Everyone!

There are a bunch of fun challenges going on this week around the card making community, and I thought I’d sit down and play with a few of them today!

Thinking of You…

This first sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches, and I love the clean and simple design of it. I decided I wanted to alter it up a little, so I rotated the sketch onto its side and shrunk the card base so that the focal point was taking up more space.

For this card I used the Avery Elle “Weather It” stamp set; I stamped the umbrella in StazOn Timber Brown ink before watercoloring it with Tim Holtz distress inks (Festive Berries, Wild Honey, Dusty Concord, Peeled Paint and Broken China). On a separate piece of cardstock, I stamped the clouds in gray pigment ink, and the sentiment in the same StazOn ink used for the umbrella.

Once the image was dry, I used the Simon Says Stamp “Tiny Dots” stencil and some Ranger Texture Paste to add the polka dot pattern on the umbrella. The umbrella and clouds were fussy cut out and adhered on top of the three layers of patterned paper already on my card, while the sentiment was cut out in a banner shape and adhered behind the umbrella handle.

I love the happy feel of this card… with its bright colors and clean design, this is sure to bring some sunshine to someone’s day! :)

This card has been entered in the Avery Elle “Paper Piecing” challenge #20, the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge#10.

Birthday Wishes…

For this next card I combined two different challenges into one to create this elegant birthday card. The layout was inspired by My Favorite Thing’s Wednesday Sketch Challenge, and the colors were inspired by the Color Throwdown Color Challenge #324.

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With the Technique Tuesday “Budding Poppies” set, I stamped them in Versamark ink and heat embossed them with white embossing powder. Taking some Tim Holtz distress inks and a paint brush, I applied multiple layers of red tones to my flower petals; the inks I used were Tattered Rose, Festive Berries and Fired Brick. After the petals were painted, I took some Peeled Paint and added a few blades of grass to ground the flowers within my scene.

Continuing with my stamping, I brought in the Simon Says Stamp “Celebrate” set, and stamped the words “birthday wishes” in Versamark ink, before heat embossing them in black powder. Finally, I stamped and embossed a flourish stamp in the top right and bottom left corners for some interest using some glitter powder. With some Spun Sugar distress ink, I lightly sponged a bit of it to the edges of the flower panel as well to add shading to the background.

The panel is layered upon a piece of scalloped cardstock and a piece of red patterned paper from the Colorbök “Beach House” paper pack. To finish it off, I added some rhinestones next to the sentiment, so Wink of Stella glitter to the flower petals, and a bit of Black Diamond Distress Stickles to the centers of my poppies.

This card has been entered in the My Favorite Thing’s Wednesday Sketch Challenge, the CASology “Date” challenge and the Color Throwdown Color Challenge #324.

Thanks for stopping by this afternoon, and I hope will join in on one, two or all three of these challenges at Freshly Made Sketches, My Favorite Things and Color Throwdown!

PS… I put together a bit of a slideshow for more views on today’s cards. Enjoy!