ICS31

This is a quicky for Inspirational Card Sketches, ICS 31. I used a set of stickers a friend gave me, and stamped the background with snowflakes. That's an old All Night Media stamp; the ink is Ranger demin blue -- I stamped about four generations with each ink-up.

The stickers are by Stick-Abilities.

Etsy 51

The Etsy Inspired Challenge #51 is Red Crow Arts, a shop with handpainted pottery, raku and handcrafted clay pendants. I was inspired by a clay pendant called Tree of Life.

I did this card using masking and sponging on the color. The warm colors are all pigment inks, and the green is a dye ink. (No technical reason for that, those were just the colors that worked best. I actually thought the pigments would spread better, but I got good coverage with the green.) Am I the only stamper who doesn't own a brayer???

The big panel is glossy cardstock. Stamp by Impression Obsession. I stuck the leaves on because it needed something, but I'm not certain they will stay. What do you think?

CPS130, FTTC30

Yes, it is one of the goofiest images I own. I got this stamp of a, um, voluptious couple dancing in a grab bag I purchased from another stamper years ago, when I first started collecting UMs. It isn't the type of image I'd usually choose, but I've kept it around, and it came in handy this week, when I created a card for MotherMark's Tea Party Challenge, based on the game Clue.

The layout I used is CPS130. The half-pearls are for Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #30.

The image is from Viva Las Vegas (I'm pretty certain, anyway), with the sentiment from KI Memories. Half pearls from the Flourishes shop. Dp is from Making Memories.

I'm way behind this week; I've been helping out at my church's yard sale for missions. Volunteers got to shop at a presale today and I resisted buying the rubber stamps someone donated (they were really small stamps -- about 1-inch images, but one was a set of about 25 Christmas stamps for $2, I'm sure I could have found something useful in there...)

Etsy 50 ICS 30

The Etsy Inspired Challenge's EIC50 shop this week is Mrs. Kwitty's Cottage, which features sort of vintage-inspired cards, bookmarks and other items. I was inspired by a cute little bird tag.

I based my card in Inspirational Card Sketches #30, stretching and shrinking the three squares to fit my design. The paper the tag is had flowers similar to the paper I used for the bird, which is embossed in black detail EP. The pale orange layer has a sort of vintage fabric look, which fit in well with the overall feel of Mrs. Kwitty's, I thought.

The felt flower was a last-minute inspiration -- the color matches so well and the shape echoes the flowers in both the dps. I love it when that happens.

Bird is by Inkadinkadoo. Joy is from Another Stamp Company. Don't know who made the modern floral dp, and the vintage-y one is from a stack by Provo Craft.

This one just grew

This is one of those cards that started out one way and ended up totally different. The inspiration is Etsy Inspired Challenge #49, an Etsy shop called MelissaKate. Melissa Kate makes cards and prints. I chose this pretty original painting of tulips for my inspiration piece. I was thinking of doing my card in red and white, until. ...I realized the tulips in the painting are pink.

Plus, I had purchased a pack of Making Memories papers on clearance at Michael's and it had this cool die-cut paper that I thought would look good on the Card Positioning Sketch #129. It was silver, which would work with pink, so the color scheme ended up pink, silver, black and white.

This is what I came up with. True it doesn't look much like the inspiration, but it does have pink tulips.

The tulip stamp is by Endless Creations. I colored it with markers, spritzed with water and stamped in on watercolor paper to give it a painterly quality. The tulip pieces are edged with silver. So is the edge of the die-cut. The ribbon is from Target and the little pearls in the corner are from Flourishes.

ICS 29

It's Saturday; my husband is out fishing and my son is at a sleepover, so I get to stamp. Yay!

Here's my version of Inspirational Card Sketch #29. I used it for the first VSN challenge at SCS -- we had to use flowers and a circle.

Tulip stamp by SmARTworks, sentiment by Flourishes. The papers are from My Mind's Eye.

Have a good weekend, I'm off to stamp some more.

Another paint chip card

I used one of the paint chips I had left over from my VSN challenge for this card. The changing colors on the chip adds a lot of interest to the card, I think.
The elf is from Faerie Song. I stamped him three times in StaZon black ink, then trimmed the paint chip and rounded the corners. The Live Laugh Love is another Faerie Song stamp – but the words are stacked one on the other, so I cut them into strips to spread them over the space available. The polka dot background paper matched the colors in the paint chip and also reflected the dots of the elf’s shirt. The base card is a very dark purple, eggplant would probably be the best term for it.

Don't forget: Virtual Stamp Night this weekend at SCS. There are a couple challenges Friday night and a full menu on Saturday.

CPS128

You know how when you're watching a movie on TV and at the beginning there's a little message that says "This movie was edited to fit your screen"? Well, this image was edited to fit the piece of sticky paper I had left.

This card is for CPS 128 challenge, and also for the featured stamper at SCS, sleepyinseattle, one of the stampers I really admire. I was casing this card, but the only piece of double-sided paper I had was tiny. (And I went to two Mike's and Staples looking for more. I almost bought some at Michael's about 2 months ago, and now they don't appear to sell it anymore.) In a way, that made it easier to fit the CPS sketch for this week.

The flower (from SU's Heartfelt Thanks) was stamped on white CS, covered with the sticky paper and covered with glitter. The rest is just layering. I used a corner punch on the three little tabs by turning the punch so it punched onthe diagonal intead of in each corner, and the result was a nice little point. The larger white panel was embossed with the CB Swiss Dot folder.

Etsy Inspired #48

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge #48 features Vol25, a shop that sells prints and other graphics. I loved several of the designs -- especially the bookwormy stuff (after all, I am the stamping writer). She even has bookplates. I don't have any booky stamps, however, so I moved on to another inspiration. I had the perfect stamp and paper to interpret this T.S. Eliot quote, however. And you have to love that cute little RV on this poster, don't you? (We just have a boring square white pop-up, and this litte trailer has so much more personality.)

I have had this dp forever and finally found a good place to use it. (I'm not really used to letting a piece of dp be the main image, so this is a little stretch for me.) The quote is from All Night Media. I combined this challenge with the Ways to Use It challenge at SCS this week -- the theme was pleats, so I pleated the ribbons, both beside the sentiment and in the corner treatment. Pleating does add a new texture to the card. There's a a cute little car charm dangling from the corner ribbon (from a box of charms I bought at a stamping consignment sale last spring, I think it was Making Memories but I threw away the label).

I love paint chips

I have long been a fan of using paint chips on my cards. I think they are fun to work with and add an unexpected element to a card. They are very versatile -- you can stamp on them or use them like designer paper. They look fabulous when run thru an embossing folder -- an embossed paint chip really resembles an old embossed tin tile that's been painted.

The VSN challenge I hosted Saturday required everyone to use a paint chip in their cards, and people were wonderfully creative. This card is one I made as a sample, but didn't really use. I'm not sure I did it within the 45-minute time limit -- I was listening to a Braves' game while working, and probably doing a load of laundry besides, and just didn't keep an eye on the clock.

I loved the lemony yellows on this chip and thought it would go well with Flourishes lemon set. (I also entered this in Flourishes' birthday challenge.)

Etsy Inspired #47

This week's Etsy Inspired Design challenge (#47) is for JulieAnn's Jewels. Julie makes some beautiful beadwork jewelry.

For my piece, I was inspired by both the colors and the design of her "rock crystal quartz with aventurine and sterling silver necklace and earring set". I silver-embossed the butterfly (from Stamps On Fire) on green paper, trying to match her green beads. The flourish (in place of the white beads) is a rub-on. Sentiment is from Club Stamp. It's clean and simple, for sure.

If you've been wanting to try the Etsy Inspired Challenge, Ashley is encouraging new players by offering special prizes this week -- you could win a gift certificate from Julie or to a papercraft supply shop. Just tell her I sent you when you post a link to your creation on the Etsy-Inspired blog.