Allie's Birthday Card

It's my crafty niece's birthday today!  And like me, she is a creative soul.  We both love the Art Impressions watercolour line... and I used a couple of sets for the first time to make up Allie's birthday card.  Ai came out with a sweet little boy set, along with benches/logs/wharves to put them on, so that's what I used, since she has a little munchkin of her own.

I used a combo of my Tombow & Marvy markers to stamp the little boy, then masked him & added the bench & puppy.  Then I had to create a scene behind him.  Since they live on the edge of the Rockies, I wanted to make something similar to their backyard, so I sketched in the mountains and hillsides directly with my markers and paintbrush.  He's looking off in the distance at something, so I grabbed the kite from the Cottage by the Beach set, making it look like someone was flying it just over the hill.

Stamp sets used are: Foliage Set 1, WC Dogs Set, Cottage By the Beach, WC Mini Flowers Set, WC Sitting Places Set, WC Little Boys Set, WC Tree Set 1 - All Art Impressions;  Canson Watercolour Paper; Cardstock is Tulip, and patterned paper are both Close To My Heart; Maya Road Twine; Marvy and Tombow markers.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #300!

I was so happy that Michelle asked me to be a guest designer for the 300th challenge (wow!) for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog this week.  There are a whole bunch of guests joining the team this week, so I hope you'll join us and play along.  Here's what I've come up with:

Now, if you scroll down and take a peek at our sketch... you'll see that it has quite a lot going on.  My normal go-to is a bunch of coordinating patterned paper, but for some reason I decided to make it a mostly one-layer card, and I represented all of the shapes with stamps.  Once I picked which stamps I wanted to use, I decided to make it a rainbow effect.

I started by blending four colours of Distress Oxide inks lightly into the top and bottom corners, and then stamped over them with the polka dots in dye based inks.  I added the sketchy circles to represent the circles on the sketch, and sprinkled on a rainbow of sequins in lieu of the flowers.  I stamped the Hello sentiment inside the red circles, then matted it with black and adhered it to the base with pop dots.  I have a small arrow die, and almost adhered a little black one onto the card, but decided that with my rainbow colours, it was busy enough!

Stamp sets used: Better Together by Verve; Hello and Doodled Designs by Close To My Heart; Inks are Black Oxide by Versafine; Pear, Creme Brulee, Sunset, Tulip, Gypsy & Sapphire by Close To My Heart; Mowed Lawn, Honey, Wilted Violet & Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide inks by Ranger.  Black and White Daisy cardstock by Close To My Heart.

Sketchy Saturday Christmas cards

It took me a couple of days to complete these... but I am happy to say that I got four Christmas cards done this week using Laurel Seabrook's current Sketchy Saturday sketch.  It's a great sketch for using busier papers, so that's what I did.  I used some CTMH papers from a few years ago called City Sidewalks, that are really pretty.  Here's what I came up with:

 I'm going to dig out some tiny red gems that I have in my stash - and will add them as the dot in the i!  I add some red zigzag stitching and attached part of the sentiment with my stapler.

Patterned papers are City Sidewalks, CTMH; Cardstock is White Daisy, Cranberry and Peacock, CTMH; Dies are Stitched Alpine Snowflakes by Poppy Stamps, and the word die is Verve; Stamp set is Baking Penguins by Inky Antics.

A Sketchy Saturday Valentine

I am using Laurel's Sketchy Saturday sketch for a valentine card today.  I just bought this 1canoe2 plaid paper at The Crafter's Workshop... and I'm a little obsessed with it.  I wasn't thrilled with the card I made with it yesterday - but this one I really like.

 For the little strip down the middle... I was searching through my stash, trying to locate my vellum, and came across this 12x12 sheet of rust coloured mesh?  I only vaguely remember getting it, and had never cut into it!  It fit perfectly with the vibe that I wanted for this.  I used my Cricut to cut a heart from the metallic rose gold paper, and die cut the word from some older paper.  I used my stapler to attach the mesh strip .

 I'm trying to get better at staging my photos this year... improving the lighting, and trying a few new angles.  Here's my attempt at a flat lay shot, too:

Laurel will have a new sketch up again tomorrow, I'm sure, but for now, I'm happy to have my first valentine ready to go.

Mojo Monday & Inspired By

Finally getting around to posting in 2019!  I am happy to play along with both the sketch from Mojo Monday #506... and the snowman inspiration on the Inspired By blog.  I have been using my Art Impressions Watercolour stamps a lot recently, and don't think that I've ever posted a card using this sweet snowman?  First Christmas card for 2019 is added to my stash:

Patterned papers are Merry & Bright by Carta Bella; Alpine Stitched Snowflakes by Poppy Stamps; Snowman is Art Impressions Watercolour stamp; Tombow & Marvy markers.