Watercolor inspired

I've been playing with my watercolor crayons after being inspired to pull them out for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge. I think I need to spend a lot of time playing with them to get a good understanding of what they can do, but I'm relatively happy with this Etsy-spired piece.

This week's Etsy store (EIC123) is Nanny's Room, owned by an Arizona artist who works mainly in watercolors. I was inspired by this pendant of her's, and after doing lots of hunting among my collection of floral images, decided this one from Stampin Up's Nature's Wonders set gave me the space I needed to try blending some water colors.

Rope border, a few graduated half pearls and a tiny bit of piercing finish it off.

Birds on the Brain

Seems like I've done a lot of bird cards lately -- maybe I'm longing for spring. This card is for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTCW42) and also for this week's RES-Q challenge (RESQ67). I cased a card for this week's Queen for the Day challenge at SCS for the layout.

The orange and blue color scheme is the challenge at OTWC this week (see the inspiration photo at right). RESQ's challenge this week is dry embossing.

As I was working on the card, my husband reminded me that his sister, a singer, was having a birthday, so happily I could turn it into a birthday card for her.

Details -- bird stamp and sentiment from SmArtWorks; sheet music is unknown. Ink is Ranger "Stream" color. Ribbon from Target.

Inspired by birds

Two cards, five challenges. I love it when a problem turns into an opportunity.

The owl card uses this week's Card Positioning System sketch (CPS201). The colors were inspired by this week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC41) colors -- purple, black and lime green (see inspiration photo at right). Yeah, the potential for a Halloween card was definitely there, and I'm happy with the alternative I up with.

The owl (Inkakinkadoo) is black embossed on purple paper as is the sentiment (SmArt Works). Green layer features a punched rope border. There's paper piercing by the bird and up in the upper right corner of the card.

I originally had planned to use the perched bird on this card and enter it for the Etsy Challenge as well, but it was too wide because of the sentiment. So, I set it aside, and then found it would work for the SCS technique lovers challenge (silhouettes); I used the SCS CAS sketch for this weel as the basis for the layout, and it's still an Etsy inspired card (EIC122). This week's Etsy shop is Modern Bird, which features silver jewelry -- much of it with bird images. I was inspired by this pretty necklace.

This bird is also from Inkadinkadoo, and I recycled Kim's color combo because it matches the awesome ribbon.

Snowed in, so I'm stamping

We woke up to 4 or 5 inches of snow and a layer of ice. Where I live, that's a snow day for sure. Looks like tomorrow will be another one. Happily, I found a little time to stamp.

This card is a three-fer. The basic design is this week's Card Positioning System sketch (CPS200). The colors come from this week's Off the Wall Challenge (OTWC40). As you can see from the inspiration photo (right), the colors are tan, white and burgundy.

Finally, the vintage French inspiration for the card is from this week's Etsy Inspired store (EIC121), La Pomme, which specializes in vintage French items. I was inspired by all the wonderful vintage French ephemera, including this sheet music.

The image is from Lost Coast, stamped in maroon Colorbox Chalk ink. The darker tan layer is embossed in French Script and sanded to give it a more aged, vintage look. I also incorporated some maroon ribbon and flowers into the card.

A little mermaid

You really have to see the Etsy-Inspired shop (EIC120) for this week. It's called Muffa, and it features handmade miniatures that are incrediby small. Some are crocheted (and as a crocheter, I cannot imagine how hard it is to to make anything that tiny), and others are made of oak. I was inspired by this cute mermaid.

I used CPS sketch 199 for the basis of the card. The images are both from Faerie Song Art stamps. The mermaid is colored with colored pencils and OMS, and this was my first attempt at doing an out-of-the-box cut with my nesties. Tan layer was embossed with the Swiss Dot folder and sanded. There are touches of glitter pen on the bubbles around the mermaid and the stars around Dream.

Back to stamping

Happy new year everyone.

What with the holidays and a house full of guests, it seems like weeks since I stamped. It was so nice to finally get back to my craft desk and make this card.

This card is for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC39), which uses the colors of black, white and silver. (That's the inspiration photo at right) Black and white is such an elegant combo, and silver is just icing on that cake.

This typewriter is a new one I picked up at Michael's dollar bin. I love the vintage look, and it called to mind this sort of art-deco paper from Making Memories. I simply matted the typewriter on metallic silver paper and added a couple silver brads. Can't get any easier than that.