Diamonds and Butterflies

This card doesn't really look like my typical card, but I like the way it came out. It's the result of combining three different challenges.

Etsy Inspired Challenge EIC93 is a shop called White Birch Designs, which sells lovely jewelry, mostly made from beads. I was inspired by this one called Black and White Flower Necklace. I loved the combo of black, white and silver, especially the bold diamond shapes. That was pretty much the guiding element in putting the card together.

I used the sketch from Card Positioning Systems, CPS 172. And for RES-Q Challenge RESQ50 -- a celebration of getting to the 50th challnge (we had a choice of several old challenges to choose from), -- I chose adding a felt embellishment, because I thought the pink butterfly brought some real life and contrast to the card.

I used two different diamond stamps -- the one embossed in silver on the left is from DRS; the one on the right is from Studio G. The sentiment is from SU. Other ingredients: silver brads, silver metallic paper and nesties.

go ahead, make my day.

This week's challenge for Kim's Off the Wall Craftiness blog OTWC12 is to use mint green, black, white and possibly red. I combined her challenge with the Queen for Day CASE at SCS to create this card. (It's cased from one by zgirlsgranny, but I changed colors, theme, layout, stamps and embellishments, so it is more "inspired" by Linda's card)

Love the light-green dotted paper here, and I think this was the last piece I have. Poppy image from Stampin' UP and the sentiment is from SmART Works (the owner sent a goodie out to everyone who participated last month in the SmART-Words challenge, and this was part of what she sent). And since Susan was nice enough to do that, I'm entering this in the June SmART Words challenge to use ribbon.

I took Kim's challenge to be "really daring" and add a touch of red to the combo, and the other colors really make the red pop.

Baby, it's hot outside

Yikes, it's been 90+ for a week, with no end in sight. How about a popsicle to cool down?

The Technique Challenge at SCS this week was to create a one-layer card. If it's one layer, it has to be CAS, right? Somehow, clean and simple seems like the way to go when the themometer is showing 94 degrees.

I used CPS sketch 171 to create this simple card, which features ice cream treats from Studio G. Colored them with pencils and OMS, added a little pierced frame and a few gem-stones, and it's done.

Fun with new techniques

I created this card for this week's Off The Wall Craftiness challenge, OTWC11 which is to use brown and robin's egg blue on a card. The inspiration photos included a bird's nest, so I pulled out this bird's next stamp by Impression Obsession. It's stamped with Colorbox Chalk chestnut roan ink, and sponged on the egdes with SU Blue Bliss.

I used a Technique Junkies technique called torn frames to highlight the image. Now, normally, I don't go for distressed anything, but I really like how this came out. I added some silk flowers (sponged with the SU ink) and a little tag. Once I had all that put together, I decided the card needed a little more, so I tried faux stitching -- piercing holes around the edge and connecting them with gel pen. I must say, when you're at just a short distance away, it really does look real.

Neither TJ techniques are "new" -- as in from the latest newsletter -- but I hadn't tried either of them until now, and I am really pleased with what they add to this card.

Sponged dragonflies

Purple and green -- especially pale purple and an olive or celery green -- is one of my favorite color combos. I have a nice stack pack of papers in that combo that got buried in my stamping area and I recently uncovered it. (Someone at SCS refers to this as "shopping in your stash" -- what a great way to put it.) (I should note the base piece photographed much more blue that it is in real life.)

I used the papers to make this sweet and simple card for CPS sketch 170. The dragonfly stamp is an old Stampcraft one, colored with pencils. I added some piercing to give the dragonflies a flight path and sponged Versacolor Petunia ink around the edges. The sketch calls for scallops along a horizontal layer, so I pulled out the rope border punch, which always adds a nice touch.

Impossible Things

This is one of my rare 4-fers -- Off the Wall Craftiness, Etsy-Inspired, SmArt-Word and SCS CAS challenge.

Let's start with Off the Wall Craftiness -- the challenge this week is to do something related to Alice in Wonderland. Since I have no Alice stamps, I thought perhaps something related to a tea party combined with an Alice quote would be good, so I went looking for quotes.

Etsy-Inspired Challenge EIC91 is a shop called howbeadyful, which features absolutely wonderful vintage, fabric covered buttons. I found some adorable tea-cup buttons that gave me the color inspiration.

CAS -- was to use a quote. Since I already had the quote, but a more complex layout in mind, I just simplified the card to make "CAS".

The SmArt Word challenge this month is to use ribbon. I sort of collect ribbon, but probably don't use nearly as much as I should, based on how much I own. For the challenge, I wanted to do a slightly different treatment (than just wrapping a ribbon around the card), so I used a brad that has a "eye" and tied a ribbon through that.