Bold and Bright

My card today features bold, bright colors that I typically shy away from.  I have to do a COTM in orange, red and yellow, so I figured I might as well embrace them big time. Boldly I went. 

The sketch is Freshly Made Sketch #92.  There was something about the curve on the design that really attracted me.  I guess because it's not a shape you generally see. I simply drew the curve on a piece of copy paper and used that as a pattern to cut my layers.

The flowers were first inked in YoYo Yellow, and then I added another layer of  color by using a marker on the stamp as well before applying it to paper.  The butterfly is black embossed, cut out and popped  up.  Flower stamp  is from Autumn Leaves, sentiment from Stampin Up; and butterfly is from Stamps on Fire (I'm fairly sure on that last one).

This is also for the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge, "Anything Goes."

It's pool time

Summer has definitely settled in, and floating in a pool with an icy drink in my hand sounds like a great way to spend the afternoon.  I won't be doing it, but it sure sounds enticing.

I made this summery card using Feeling Sketchy #63, which I rotated 90 degrees to accommodate the image I wanted to use.  The image is colored with pencils, and I added some Glossy Accents on the icy glass, which probably isn't showing up in the photo.  The image is by Hambo, and the little "what 'cha wadin' for" ticket is from Paper Cupcakes.  I had printed out a sheet of tickets for a previous card, and this was one of the ones left on my desk.  It was perfect for this card. I added bakers twine in two different colors in place of ribbon.

I'm also entering this in Stampin' For the Weekend's Anything Goes challenge.

Flight Behavior

I just finished reading "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver. It's fictional, but the action centers around the migratory habits of the Monarch butterfly, and I learned way more than I ever expected to about butterflies. (Kingsolver was trained as a biologist before she started writing novels.). Turns out butterflies are even more amazing when you actually know some science.

So, that brings me to today's card. Not Monarchs, obviously, as there's no orange or black in sight. Actually, they are ice cream colors, inspired by the current photo inspiration challenge at The Alley Way Stamps. And the current sketch at Sketch Saturday sort of mimicked a butterfly in flight, so that's why I've been
yakking away about "Flight Behavior."

This card is a clean and simple as it gets, thanks to my handy butterfly punch. I actually started out with a bigger flock of butterflies, but less turned out to be more in this case.  Sentiment is from The Alley Ways Stamps -- Delicate Doilies set.

I am entering this in these challenges:
The Alley Way Stamps Be Inspired #30
Sketch Saturday #263
Tammy's Scraping Corner #67, Anything with Wings.

Enjoy the ride

I love this image of a frog on a Vespa.  How cute is that?
The image is colored with pencils, and there's glitter pen on the chrome parts of the bike, as well as on the wings of the little bug hanging onto froggie for dear life.  (Like I said, how cute is that?)
All the images on this card are from Paper Cupcakes, which sadly closed up shop about a year ago. I did a guest designer stint with them, so I have several iamges and they are all quite cute.

I am entering this card in several challenges:
Feeling Sketchy -- sketch 62
Simon Says Stamp -- transportation (Vespa)
Victorine Originals #61 -- animal or insect (I have one of each)
Stamping for the Weekend -- Cute (we've established this is a cute image, right?)
Simply Create Too, #39 -- masculine card
Tammy's Scraping Corner #66 -- Masculine card

Have a banner Christmas

I wanted to do CASual Friday's banner challenge (CFC104) and was looking around for inspiration when 52 Christmas Card Throwdown put up a challenge for a card using only green (and a neutral). That was the seed that grew this card.

The stamps are all from Impression-Obsession.  The wreath is embossed in a sparkly white EP and the "Merry" is in Forest Foliage ink.  Even the baker's twine the banner is hung on is a shade of green.

Splattered butterflies

I didn't use to like splattered backgrounds, but I think they are starting to grow on me.  I made this splattered background for a Virtual Stamp Night challenge at SCS.  The challenge was to used watered down paint or ink to make splatters.  The ink I used was Prussian blue, which is quite dark, basically navy, but I apparently watered it down a good bit, as it ended up more like robin's egg blue and lavender.

I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday (#262) to complete the card.  I black embossed the butterflies in flight (from Inkdadinakdoo), and cut it out with an oval nestie.

I had made a bunch of the white butterflies, mixing paper that had been embossed with regular paper -- sometimes using the embossed pieces on the inner part of the wings and sometimes on the outer part. However, there really isn't enough embossing on the paper for the kind of contrast I wanted, so I just used one of the white butterflies and added a couple punched butterflies in coordinating shades.  I also added some stitching around the central oval.

One cool dude

This image always makes me smile.  The idea of a cat in a floatie is funny enough, but add the tall, cool drink and whoa, you have the makings of a perfect day. A perfect dude's day (though probably the drink would be a beer....)

The digi image is from Hambo, with the sentiment from Purple Onions. The image is colored with pencils and cut out with nesties. The sketch is from My Favorite Things.  The yellow round metallic thingie is from my stash. The package says it's a brad, and since it attaches with prongs, I guess that's an accurate word, it's just not what I thinkof as a "brad."

I'm entering this cool dude in the following challenges

Simon Says Stamp Challenge-- masucline card
Simply Create Too #39, masculine card
Clear It Out Challenge, Masculine cards with metal

Masculine card

I made this masculine card as a father's day card.  I got the image as an RAK, and someone did a lot of work on it, because that image is repeatedly masked and stamped. I was happy to feature it prominently. But I can't tell you who made the image or what color ink it was stamped in (black or dark brown).

To enhance the masculinity of the card, I also created a faux leather background (I was a little sad so much of it got covered up -- I love the results of this technique.).  A row of eyelets seemed like a good way to embellish this -- they always seem masculine and vaguely Western looking,

I'm entering this card in several challenges:

Clear It Out Challenge:  Male card, use metal from stash (my metal is eyelets. I have a lifetime supply and am always happy to clear a few out of the stash).
Victorine Originals #60: Father's day/Masculine
Tammy's Scrapin Corner #65: Add texture (the faux leather is dry embossed)
Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes
C.R.A.F.T Challenges #209: Father's Day/Masculine.