Inkspirations & Stampin Celebration Inspiration Challenges

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Today's card is for 2 challenges.
Inkspirations Sketch Challenge #63 - It's been a long time since I played along with Inkspirations.  Makeesha creates great sketches for us!  Take a look...

Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge SCIC #45 is a color challenge.  I just found this challenge last night, and I was really drawn to the colors in the inspiration photo.  So elegant!  Check it out...

And, my card:

When I decided to combine these two challenges, I knew right away that I was going to pull out my La Creme patterned paper pad.  I chose one of the pieces of flocked paper.  I think the colors are perfect!
These challenges were so easy to put together, and fun :)
I stamped my sentiment panel with a stamp from SU's Always Elegant stamp set in Crumb Cake.  The shapes in the flourish are so similar to the flourish shapes in the patterned paper.  Before I removed the panel from the die, I sponged it with a bit of Crumb Cake ink.  I stamped my sentiment in black, right over the flourish.  I love the soft look of that background.  As a finishing touch, I applied two pieces of a black rhinestone flourish.  It's difficult to see them in the photos, but they really "pop" in real life.

Thanks so much for stopping in.  I hope you'll come back again!

Supplies ~

Card stock: whisper white, crumb cake (SU)

Ink: crumb cake, basic black (SU)

Patterned paper: La Creme stack (DCWV)

Stamps: flourish from Always Elegant, sentiment from Kind and Caring Thoughts (SU)

Die: labels four (Spellbinders)

Black rhinestone flourishes: Recollections

Seam binding: crumb cake (SU)

Play Date Cafe #73 - Easter Blessings

March 20, 2011

Julie's colors over at the Play Date Cafe just drew me in.  I HAD to find time to play along with the challenge.
Take a look...

Aren't these gorgeous?!?  And...you know what?  I challenged myself to make a one layer card.  I almost never do that.  Seriously.  I love to embellish.  I love to layer.  But...I restrained myself...lol.
 * Edit - I found a sweet challenge today (3/23) at Simplicity.  Susan has a great blog...and my card fit right into her One Layer Wednesday challenge.  She's challenging us to use eggs on our card!

Here's my card ~

    * To get a better look at the details of the card, just click on a photo to see a larger version. *
I used Stampin' Up! Naturals White card stock for my card.  I love the look of this cs for something "nature" related.  It's such a soft white, with those natural flecks of color in it.
I used the eggs stamp from the Nature Walk set - love this set!  I used peach parfait, rose red and perfect plum SU markers to color my stamp.  Then used my stamp-a-ma-jig to place the eggs exactly where I wanted them.  I used an elegant eggplant marker to draw the border around the eggs.  Then used a Stardust clear glitter pen to draw lines inside and outside of the eggplant border.  I know ~ it's difficult to see.  I had so much trouble getting good photos of my card...the weather is so gloomy this afternoon.  Oh, I almost forgot...I stamped the sentiment in eggplant, too.  The sentiment is from the Abundant Hope set, by SU.

I would be so interested to hear what you think of my "rare" one-layer card.  I'm rather pleased with it, I think.  It's growing on me  :o)

Thanks so much for stopping in!

Card Patterns Sketch 107 & Just Us Girls #76

March 19, 2011

Oh my.  When I went looking for challenges this morning, I found SO many that I wanted to do!  I've combined two of them in this card.
Just Us Girls #76 - is a color challenge.  Take a look.

Don't you love those colors?  So spring-y...which is what our weather is feeling like today.  Finally.

Card Patterns Sketch 107 - here's this weeks sketch:

I think these two challenges were a perfect fit together.  What do you think???

I used baja breeze cs for the card base.  I ran a piece of so saffron through a cuttlebug embossing folder, then swiped my vanilla craft ink pad across the raised areas to soften the color.  I used a distressing tool along the edges of the panel.  Then I cut a piece of wide lace, over that a piece of edge punched pink piroette dsp.  Over that I attached a length of baja breeze seam binding (I love this seam binding!)  My panel of confetti white cs was run cut with a Spellbinders, sponged with some bashful blue ink (since I don't have a soft sky ink).  I paper pieced the little tea pot, added some stickles to the 3 flowers (and the knob of the teapot lid) and popped it up on the confetti panel, adding a sentiment beneath it.  Finally, I added loops of baja breeze seam binding, tied up with some pink floss and a cute SU button.
This was such a fun card to make...I hope you enjoy it, too  :)

I hope you enjoy your weekend.  I managed to do some work in the yard this morning and, got some house cleaning done.  Then...I sat down at my craft table.   Ahhhhhh.....work... then PLAY!