Life is a beach

This week's Card Patterns Sketch (#154) inspired me to do a simple beach theme.
The images are both from Impression-Obsession (I'm 90 percent sure). The larger one is embossed with Winter Wonderland EP, which gives it a nice sort of sparkle, like sand in the sunlight.
The smaller is stamped with Chestnut Roan ink, which is also sponged around the edges of the oval.
The blue strip actually has a linen texture, so it's a little more interesting in person.  The ribbon matches the paper quite well and provides a nice feminine contrast for the kraft paper and brown ink.  It also qualifies this card for the current Victorine Originals Challenge (#28), to use lace on your card.

You've got style

I made this card a few days ago and forgot to post it until now. It's been another crazy week, with the car in the shop (again), which always throws me off my rhythm.
I made this for Really Reasonable Ribbon's current challenge, (RRR #42), use pink and brown.  It's a great color combination.  I used a couple of challenges at SCS as a jumping off point -- the sketch is from the sketch challenge, and I used a decorative edge scissors to meet the Ways to Use It challenge requirements. It was a good reminder of why I don't usually use decorative-edge scissors -- it's too hard to cut straight (even though I draw a line to cut along) and the corners always come out funny.
The details of this card:
Dress form images from Lost Coast; sentiment from Endless Creations.  The dress forms are paper pieced with some SU polka-dotted paper.
Ink is Colorbox chalk Chestnut Roan.
Embellishments are pink velvet rickrak and a varigated brown ribbon.

Birthday Fun

Like most stampers, I assume, I have lots of birthday images and sentiments, because I make a lot of birthday cards.  So I was delighted to have a chance to use some of the smaller images with this layout from Card Patterns (sketch 153).  Even better, this is for Teapot Tuesday at SCS, which is collecting birthday cards the staff of a children's hospital can give to kids who are in the hospital on their birthday. The collection is the idea of a 9-year-old who was in the hospital for serious surgery and wanted to thank the staff. Don't you love it when kids do that?

Each image is clear embossed and punched with a one-inch square punch.  I alternated images and bright blank squares because I thought too many little images would just be distracting.  To be clever, I used baker's twine as a string on the balloon (the stamp is wierdly stringless, and I wanted to be sure kids knew what it was). Normally I wouldn't use black on a kid's card, but it really brings out the brights and that way I didn't have to worry about additonal colors clashing with the squares.

I'm not even sure where most of these images come from. The cupcake and sentiment are from Clearly Defined, the others are random unmounteds.  The inks are all from Colorbox's Petal Point Primary Colors (pigment ink) and are clear embossed.

Salute to Spring

     We got a blast of winter today, but no sleet, snow or slush, thank goodness. In hopes of enticing spring to come back, I have a very spring-like card today.
     Daffodils are already in bloom here, thanks to the mild winter, so tulips should be the next up.  This lovely tulip stamp is from SmArtWorks.  I like the more subtly shaded tulips, so mine here are white with pink at the base.
      I used the current Card Patterns sketch (#152) for this card.  The color scheme comes from There's Magic in the Air, which challenged us to use pink, white and another color -- green, in my case.
     The sentiment is from CTMH and is stamped in Baby Pink ink. The pink patterned paper is an old Stampin' Up set.
     Hope your day is wonderful, no matter the weather.

With a flourish

     I guess flourishes are still "in," because I do see them a lot as a way to use bling, but I haven't really thought about using flourishes for a while. One of the Virtual Stamp Night challenges at SCS was to use swirls or flourishes. 
     As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I wanted to use this bird by Inkdadinkadoo. I had seen it used on a card somewhere in the last few days, so it was fresh in my mind. I usually use the larger birds from this set, so it was good to put some ink on this.
     I used the Mojo Monday sketch (MOJO227) as the basis for this card. The bird is stamped in Ranger Denim ink, then clear embossed. I also sponged the denim ink around the edges of the oval and on the top silk flower to done down the white.
     The papers are from Stampin Up  and the lace is a paper adhesive lace from K&Co. (I love this stuff; got it at Tuesday Morning and would grap another package if I found it anywhere.)
     I'm really starting to like the look of monochromatic cards.  What do you think?