2 Sketches 4 You - Spring Theme

Here is my submission for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge this week. I really like these soft colours and guess what? I got to use more of Baba's buttons! She would be so proud of me for reusing something that she had collected for years! There are literally hundreds of various buttons and I'm going to try to add some here and there to my cards. The stamp comes from A Flower for All Seasons. I acquired this set at a Mega Meeting for the AmazinkCanadians group I belong to in South Western Ontario. I wouldn't have purchased this set myself, but I have used it quite a bit. The sentiment was from an S-U rub-on package. I used celery ribbon that came from the Sale-A-Bration ribbon bundle. I layered a few prima flowers on as well. Thanks for taking a peek.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 2 and 2 Sketches 4 You Sketch Challenge

Two challenges in one!

This is my submission for Dawn McVey's Week 2 Color Challenge as well a 2 Sketches 4 You sketch challenge this week.The patterned paper fit so nicely with the colour challenge that I wanted that to be my focus. For embellishments, I used a giant brad with a cute flower pattern (dollar store) as well as one of my Baba (grandmother)'s buttons. She saved EVERYTHING because she lived through the depression. I "inherited" these buttons from her and use them occasionally. If I ever want to use them up, I'd better put them on every card I make from now to eternity! She was a great lady and I miss her dearly.

Ok, now that I've uploaded another card, I really have to get to bed!

An Apple a Day...

This is one of those cards that started out as a swirling mass of little inspiration sparks in the deep recesses of my brain combining all kinds of lovely details that I had collected over the past week in my travels through blogland. It began its slow journey with this sketch from the excellent 2sketches4you blog which posts a challenge every Monday. I loved the sketch and I really loved the samples the design team had come up with. In particular, a few of the ladies had used that Nesties lable shape I love so much, and one of them had added a gorgeous detail using eyelets and ribbon that I decided I had to try!

Then, as I was surfing around, I came across a simply fabulous tutorial at Paperfections on colouring fruit with Copic Markers. I was in love! But....I didn't own any images of fruit to try it on. So, hot on my (perceived) success at creating a hand drawn image of my dog, I spent a day coming up with some of my own drawn images of fruit. In particular, I was pleased with this image of a bushel of apples. And you know what they say about apples!

So I happily coloured my image using all the wonderful tips and tricks I had learned. And it looked pretty good, I thought. Then I thought of my friend Karen Motz over at Paper Playground and how she sometimes used Crystal Effects to glaze parts of her images and how much I like that. And I realized that I could make the apples....shiny! Even better! (I also borrowed the idea of a little bow made of two strands of twine from Karen's sample for this week's Chicks Challenge).

Finally, I traipsed down the street to my faithful blogging buddy Donna's house to steal some of her fabulous SU punches because my sentiments always look so boring and I love the layered look she always gets using these. Thanks, Donna!

And that, my friends, is the long tortuous road of begging, borrowing, and stealing that this card sent me on. It was a lot of fun!

I Could Get Very Used to This....

Before I post the card I just made, may I just take a moment to say that I am having a very good day?

Well, I am. I am finally over the flu that's had me down, I have finished digging out my home studio and I can finally get inside of it to play (and I can even find my stuff)! After six years in the scrapbooking/rubber stamping industry, I had gotten so used to trucking my bits and pieces back and forth to various stores to make samples and teach classes that my home studio became a dusty, disorganized and completely unusable disaster area. Then my husband and son started using it as a dumping ground and.... UGHHH!

But I have taken back my creative space and now I am feeling so inspired! Seriously, I could get very used to this unemployment gig! (Don't worry Brian, I swear I sent out a bunch of resumes this morning before I came into the studio!

So, without further ado, here is the card I made this morning in response to two challenges (see how efficient I am, now that my studio is clean)?

I combined this week's sketch from Laura at 2 Sketches 4 You, with this week's colour throwdown challenge to create this card.

I really had fun with it! The image just cracked me up when I found in Donna's studio this morning and I knew I had to use it. (Sorry Donna, from now on I promise to let you use your own new stamps first)! She is from an SU set called "Golden Oldies" and they are all equally fun. I stamped her with Memories Black Ink and coloured her with my Copic Markers. I followed the sketch pretty faithfully using SU Tempting Turquoise, Elegant Eggplant, and my fave green: Old Olive. I added a little texture to the Olive panel with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and added some detail with faux stitching around the edges. The sentiment was punched with an SU circle punch as was the scalloped frame. I used some turquoise rhinestones from Hero Arts for the 3 circle embellishments and she was done!

2 Sketches 4 You - Laura's Sketch 21

I wanted to get to both Sketch Challenges today (Mojo Monday and 2 Sketches 4 You) - I did it! This is the best form of stress relief I know (as long as I don't struggle picking the stamps or paper to use)! You are all probably sick of seeing me use the same Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper, but I just can't get enough of this stuff. I am certain I will stock up on these papers as well as the Baja Breeze card stock and ribbon. I used Gina K. 120 lb. white card stock as my base & Chocolate Chip as my panel behind the designer paper. I've had this sentiment stamp from Kolette Hall for a couple of years, but I've never used it. I usually sell anything I haven't used in a year or two (check out my stamp sets and re-inkers for sale in a recent post), but I really like this one. I know who I'm going to mail this card to tomorrow. I added brads around the circle as per the sketch and felt flowers from the Flower Fusion kit. I added a dollar store patterned brad in the centre. Thanks for taking a peek! Here's the sketch this card was based on: