Inspired balloons



Paper Cupcakes inspiration photo

      This week's challenge at There's Magic in the Air asks us to be inspired by this bright and cheerful photo. I loved the greens and purples and wanted to be sure to incorporate them into this card.
     I even found a Paper Cupcakes image that works well with this inpiration. It's called (surpirsingly enough) Balloons with Envelopes.
     I used this week's sketch from SCS, and there's nothing that needs explanation on this card.
     The details:  Image by Paper Cupcakes; papers by Martha Stewart.  Image colored with pencils and OMS.  Accessories include Beads in a Bottle, decorative-edge scissors and skinny ribbon.
     I'm also entering this in the current Victorine Originals Challenge, which is "anything goes,"  so I'm pretty sure this qualifies.

Bluebird of Happiness

I had to make a monochromatic card, and I used the current Card Positioning System sketch (CPS252) for the layout. 

This card is pretty self explanatory.  The bluebird image is clear embossed. I hand-sewed the lace to the ribbon because it seemed like the easiest way to make sure it stayed where I wanted it to.  The silk flowers started out white and I sponged blue on them to fit the theme.

The details:  Stamp by Inkadinkadoo.  Papers by Stamping UP.  Ink is Cobalt Blue and SU Bliss Blue.  Accessories include nesties, brad, lace, ribbon, and clear EP.

Happy Bday

This week's sketch at Card Patterns (#149) called for a circle card.  I had to make a birthday card for my sister-in-law, and a circle card just seemed kind of small (based on the nesties I own), so I used the sketch and put it on a square card (like one of the DT did).

My SIL enjoys gardening, so I did a gardening theme. The wide variety of different stylized flowers on this card really strikes me as sort of funny, but I think the common colors make them all work together OK.

The stamp is from a very old SU set, and it's fun to give it new life occasionally.  Image is colored with pencils, and Colorbox Ice Blue ink is sponged around the edges.  The panel is sewn onto the card. The Nestie circles feature Cosmo Cricket paper, flower embellies are from a yard sale bargain box, and the super wide ribbon is from Offray. 

Poof, it's spring

It's completely a coincidence that the last post was a  winter scene and this one is a spring scene. Well, maybe it's wishful thinking. Once Christmas is over, I'm ready for spring.

This card was designed for the current Card Positioning System sketch (CPS251) -- it's been fun to see how different stampers have created the half-circles on either side of the main image panel.  I used dimensional paint to make my little dotted flourish.

The card is pretty self-explanatory, so here are the details:
Stamps -- Posh Impressions and Purple Onion Designs
Ink -- Colorbox Chestnut Roan
Accessories -- border punch, Flower Soft  (Sweet Pea is the color) and Tulip Beads in a Bottle (metallic gold).

Cleaner technique

      That's cleaner as in "I used a cleaning product" on it, not that it has less dirt than the average technique.
      The card began its life several weeks ago, when I tried to do a Virtual Stamp Night challenge to use the salted background technique (apply reinker to glossy cardstock, spritz with water and sprinkle on salt). I wasn't pleased with the results, so I washed off the salt and spritzed the inked background with spray Lysol cleaner, which creates a wonderful splatter background. I've only tried a few cleaners on this technique, but I don't think any particular brand is needed. It's probably some basic ingredient in spray cleaners that works its magic this way. If you have some other brand, try it and let us know if it works!
      The resulting design on the paper reminded me of a snowy night, hence this card.  I stamped the tree, then used a white gel pen to add the accumulated snow in the branch joints.  The sentiment features a TJ tecnhique called spirelli -- I found embroidery floss that matched the purple paper and used two strands to get what looked like the perfect weight for that technique.

      The layout here is the sketch that is current challenge at Victorine Originals (VO25).

The details: Trees by Posh Impressions; Sentiment by Hobby Lobby. White gel pen, embroidery floss, Oval and scalloped oval nesties.