Color Throwdown #273

Yes, I know it's January, but I'm still in Christmas card mode... it's gloriously sunny here, and -30 degrees Celsuis, so it's easy to still be thinking of the holidays.  I've used this week's pretty grey/turquiose colour combo from the Color Throwdown challenge, and used Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch with a few tweeks.  So far I'm sticking to my "always make two" mantra for Christmas cards:

 

Cardstock is Grey Mist, Heavenly Blue & White Daisy; Stamp sets are In the Background, Scandinavian Wishes & Remarkable Wreath; Inks are Grey Mist, Grey Wool & Heavenly Blue; Bitty sparkles; Button - all Close To My Heart; Ribbon from Michaels.

Sketchbook Saturday #100 & Case Study #148

If you've never tried Sketchbook Saturday before... check it out here!  Iwona does fabulous sketches every second Saturday, and her blog is pretty fabulous, too - tons of inspiration.  I took this week's sketch fairly literally, and used the pretty butterfly card at CASE Study (also owned by Iwona!) and their pretty colour combo as my starting point.  This is a very CAS card for me!  No patterned paper or cardstock, and other than the butterfly & flower that I've cut out, it's a one layer card.

Here is our sketch:

And our CASE Study inspiration:

Stamp sets are In The Background, Card Word Puzzle & It's Your Day; Cardstock is White Daisy & Topiary; Inks are Black & Hollyhock - all Close To My Heart; Copic Markers; Meadow Leaf die, Memory Box.

 

Inspired By #70

Laurel had a pretty floral blue/white bedroom photo as inspiration for this week's Inspired By challenge, so I pulled out some floral Jillibean Soup paper that I have, and used this week's Sketchbook Saturday sketch to put together a simple birthday card:
*Edited with a new photo after I added the leaf die cuts:

Here was our inspiration:

And our sketch:

Patterned paper is Grandma's Lima Bean Soup by Jillibean Soup; Cardstock is Pear & Colonial White, CTMH and Navy, Key Ingredients kit; Ribbon and butterfly pick, Key Ingredients kit; Prima flowers; Stamp sets are Stitched Together & Happy Birthday, CTMH; Ink is Outdoor denim; Meadow Leaf die, Memory Box.

Blue Valentine?

There are a few males in my life who I will be giving valentines to in a few weeks... so in an effort to make something a little more manly, I decided to use this week's colours from The Paper Players challenge #128.  It was all going rather well, until I decided to use some shiny Sassy Strands as a ribbon, and then added three little blue gems to the heart!  Oh well, it may not be the manliest card out there... but it is a valentine after all?  I used Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch #87 quite literally.  The funny thing is that everything on this card (inks/papers/doo-dads) are all retired... always feels good to use up some old stuff:

Patterned papers are Dotty For You; Cardstock is Dutch Blue & Grey Flannel; Ink is Dutch Blue; Stamp set is Card Word Puzzle; Summer Celebrations Sassy Strands & Mini Medley - all CTMH.

Sketchbook Saturday #86

I made some time for cardmaking this evening, and it was heavenly to be doing it at a leisurely pace! Over the last few weeks, there has usually been a reason to get a card made as quickly as possible and sent off somewhere... so this one represents the first of my 2013 Christmas card stash. I just received my Key Ingredients kit for December on the 24th, so I'm taking advantage of the lovely wintery papers to start my cards. I used the current Sketchbook Saturday sketch by Chupa:

 

Patterned papers are Winter Frost by We R Memory Keepers; Cardstock is Slate & White Daisy, CTMH; Stamp set is Seasonal Rememdies, Waltzingmouse Stamps; Ink is London Fog, Memento; Copic Markers; Ribbon, Bling & Blue cardstock are all Key Ingredients kit; Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, CTMH.

Sketchbook Saturday #83

Chupa has a very different sketch this week for Sketchbook Saturday!  I wasn't going to do a Christmas card, but these cute Cosmo Cricket papers caught my eye, and I thought they'd work nicely.  I have a real thing for retro papers, especially Christmas ones - and CC does it so well!  Here's what I put together:

Patterned papers are Jolly Days, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Vanilla Cream, CTMH; Sentiment is A Very Merry Christmas, CTMH; Ink is Black, CTMH; Buttons CTMH.

Sketchbook Saturday #78

I have a square Christmas card for you today... With the yummy new Handmade Holidays papers from Simple Stories & my favourite Verve snowflake.  I used Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch:

 

Patterned papers are Handmade Holidays by Simple Stories; Cardstock is Black & Colonial White, CTMH; Stamp set is Glad Tidings by Verve; Inks are Barn Red, Olive, Garden Green, Bamboo & Black - CTMH.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #75

It's back to some bold colours today, in an effort to boost my birthday card stash.  I've used my May Key Ingredients kit along with this week's Sketchbook Saturday sketch:

Patterned papers are Pebbles Fresh Goods; Cardstock is Bazzil; Canvas flowers are Key Ingredients kit by Taylored Expressions; Ink is Moonlight, CTMH; Stamp set is Say it in Style, CTMH; Buttons CTMH; Dies, Verve & My Favorite Things. Leaf is cut from the Cricut Artiste cartridge, CTMH.

 

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #73

At long last, I've finally broken into my Avonlea papers (new in the Fall/Winter CTMH catalogue) as well as my first project using my new Cricut and the Artiste cartridge.  (I've been working on some other projects already, but can't post them till September!).  So here is a little encouragement card using the Kudos stamp set that comes with the cartridge, based on this week's Sketchbook Saturday sketch:

Patterned papers are Avonlea; Cardstock is Slate, Colonial White & Avonlea Teal; Stamp set is Kudos; Inks are Slate & Twilight; - all CTMH; Baker's Twine, The Twinery.

 

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #71

Back to something fun & bright today... I used these fun little pop-up flower dies from Taylored Expressions for Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch:

Patterned papers are Hello Summer, Echo Park; Ribbon, Buttons, Cardstock all Key Ingredients kit; Cloud Duo, Petal Pop-Ups 1 & 2 dies all Taylored Expressions.

CAS Butterflies

When I saw both The Paper Players colour challenge and Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch today, my card idea came together pretty quickly.  I have my Dotty patterned papers and my new (to me!) Taylored Expressions butterfly dies, so I didn't stray too far from Chupa's sample:

Patterned papers are Dotty for You; Cardstock is Colonial White; Stamp sets are Universal Backgrounds & Card Word Puzzle; Ink is Desert Sand; Mocha Opaque Pearls - all CTMH; Charming Oval dies by Verve; Butterfly dies, Taylored Expressions.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #54 & Key Ingredients May Challenge

Yay!  I got my Key Ingredients kit in the mail today... so I immediately pulled it out to make something for the May Key Ingredients challenge which is "May Flowers".  I've used this week's Sketchbook Saturday sketch.  The little canvas flowers came in my KI kit... they have cute little resist hearts embossed on them, so that when I sponged them with ink, the little hearts appeared.

Stamp set is Bloom & Grow, Verve; Baker's Twine, The Twinery; Inks are Black, Heavenly Blue & Baby Pink, CTMH; - all other supplies are the May Key Ingredients kit.

Mother's Day card for CASE study

I've combined this week's Sketchbook Saturday sketch with the inspiration from the CASE study challenge to make a card for my Mother-in-law.  I loved the outline rose stamp on Agnieszka Malyszek's card, and thought they would work perfectly with the Card Word Puzzle stamp set.  I went with pretty colours:

Okay.  Now after colouring the images with my Copics, I knew that I didn't have perfectly matching pinks - my markers lean a bit more to the peachy side of things.  So I debated on flipping my background over to the creme brulee side... here's what it would've looked like.  I thought the green lost a bit of focus, even though the roses blended better, but I decided to stay with my pink background after all.  Thoughts?

Patterned papers are CTMH; Cardstock is Black, White Daisy and Sweet Leaf; Stamp sets are Card Word Puzzle & A Little Everything; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Copic Markers.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #56

Just sneaking in a card at the last minute for the April 22nd Sketchbook Saturday sketch challenge.  I was inspired to use my new Baby Jane papers by Cosmo Cricket, here's what I made this evening:

Patterned papers are Baby Jane Mini Deck by Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Tulip & Kraft, CTMH; Stamp set is State of Mind, CTMH; Inks are Crystal Blue & Desert Sand, CTMH; Tag is Key Ingredients April Kit; Paper Flower is Sassafrass.

Dotty For You

2nd post for today!  Please scroll down to see my Mojo Monday card.  I have another sneak preview for you of the Dotty For You paper pack that is available after April 17th!  I really love polka dots, and there are so many accessories (like the paper flowers) that coordinate with the promo, so card making is a breeze.  The stitching is the same pale yellow as the flower - it shows up a bit better in person.  I've used Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch:

Patterned paper is Dotty For You, Cardstock is Grey Wool & White Daisy; Just Blooms paper flowers, Opaque pearls, Stamp sets are Abundance Borders & Say it in Style; Inks are Grey Wool & Smoothie; Pewter brads - all CTMH; Charming Oval dies, Verve.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #51

Just a little fun floral card today using Chupa's sketch for Sketchbook Saturday:

Patterned papers are Sidewalk, October Afternoon; Cardstock is Colonial White & Kraft, CTMH; Stamp set is Flowers of Tomorrow, Verve; Ink is Rich Cocoa, Memento; Rose ribbon, CTMH; Pearls, Michaels.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #49

Just getting this done in the nick of time...  This was such an unusual sketch, that I just had to play along with Sketchbook Saturday, but when I started out, I had in mind a bunch of stitched vines, maybe some 3D flowers - and my card turned out to be the complete opposite!  CAS is definitely not my usual style, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I stamped the flowers up the left side in bamboo ink, then masked off the top and bottom of the card, leaving about a 2 1/2" strip.  I lightly sponged bamboo ink all over the exposed area, and then overstamped Universal Backgrounds in desert sand.  A little knotted organdy ribbon, and I was done:

White daisy cardstock; Bamboo & Desert Sand Inks; Ivory Organdy ribbon; Stamp sets are Card Word Puzzle & Universal Backgrounds - all CTMH; Sentiment is Blessings, Verve.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #48

If any of you have been following along on my blog for the last few weeks... you'll notice that I've started a little set of coffee cup cards using Verve's Better With You stamp set, and Basic Grey's Life of the Party papers.  Chupa's sketch this week for Sketchbook Saturday was perfect for the 3rd card in my set.  I'm hopeful that whomever I give the set to, will 'get' the coffee cup stains on this one!

Here was our sketch:

Patterned papers are Life of the Party, Basic Grey; Stamp set is Better With You, Verve; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento.

A little late...Sketchbook Saturday #44

I couldn't quite get last Saturday's Sketchbook Saturday card completed... but still had it in my head, so I used the sketch anyway!  Hopefully I'll sneak in today's sketch sometime this week.

I'll probably put a little piece of red tissue in the gift bag when I give the card to someone...  Here was Chupa's sketch:

Patterned papers are Odds & Ends Mini Deck, Cosmo Cricket; Spellbinder's & Taylored Expressions dies; Stamp set is Say it in Style, CTMH; Ink is Cranberry, CTMH; Red buttons, CTMH; Baker's Twine from The Twinery.

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #43

Sooo glad to be back making regular cards!  I really love Christmas cards, but once the day is over, I'm completely ready to move on...  so I've worked on this week's Sketchbook Saturday sketch.  I love the background stamping idea that Chupa's incorporated into this sketch.  Here's what I came up with:

Here was our sketch:

Patterned paper is Seven Gypsies, Five & Dime by October Afternoon; Cardstock is Kraft & Colonial White, CTMH; Stamp sets are Follow Your Dreams & Damask Tiles, CTMH; Ink is Desert Sand, CTMH; Red button collection, CTMH; Baker's Twine, The Twinery; Pink Collection ribbon, CTMH; Spellbinder's Die.