Back to Diagon Alley

A few weeks ago I mentioned I really like strong diagonal elements in card layouts. This week's Mojo sketch had one, so I decided to try it.
The stamps are from Purple Onion, colored in pencils. There is a bit of Diamond Glaze on the glass. That's a sand-pail-shaped eyelet by the sentiment.  Someone must have given it go me -- while I will take the blame for buying regular eyelets by the hundreds, I have never purchased any in weird shapes. (I like my supplies to have at least some versatility, and how often do you need a bucket-shaped eyelet?)
The papers are all snippets, and if you look closely you can see a little patchwork I had to do. I'll have to figure out a way to cover that.

Entering the card in these challenges:
Mojo Monday -- sketch 405
Pattie's Creations -- make a splash
The Divas that Die-cut -- summer
The Paper Shelter -- summer vacation
Clear it Out -- Anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #191 -- anything goes
Loves Rubberstamps #159 -- anything goes
Catch the Bug -- Anything goes
Pixies Snippet Playground

Vintage girl

I won some images from Sweet Pea stamps, and I fell in love with this image from Conie Fong.  The girl seemed perfect for a vintage style card. 
The girl is colored with pencils, with Distress ink around the edges of the circle.  The doily under that isn't distressed; it's really old. I found it when cleaning out my parents' condo.  They had loads of stuff from who knows when, including a couple old paper doilies that had turned yellow with age.
The layout is the current Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  For the background panel, I stamped script in Antique Linen ink.
The little "bow" is a snip of crocheted lace tied with ribbon.

I'm entering these challenges:
Addicted to Stamps #147 -- Make your mark
Creative Inspirations #316-- for a friend
Sweet Sketch Wednesday -- sketch #56
Catch the Bug Challenge -- recipe B (image/ribbon/flowers) (flowers in image on on dp)
Word Art Wednesday #186 -- anything goes
Clear it Out -- anything goes
Loves Rubberstamps -- anything goes
Papertake Weekly -- anything goes
Sister Act #109 -- anything goes

Coral butterfly

I had to do a wax resist card for a swap. Instead of just crumbling the wax paper, I ran it thru an embossing folder to transfer the design in wax, then sponged on Cameo Coral ink to reveal the resist design.  In my opinion, a bit of it goes a long way, so I used just a strip on this card. It's accented with two different designs of adhesive paper lace. The butterfly is black embossed and watercolored with Cameo Coral ink, with Bliss Blue around the edges.

I'm entering these challenges:
Butterfly Challenge #29 -- butterfly and lace
Catch the Bug Sketch 309 -- sketch
Whoopsi Daisy -- Things with Wings
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -- coral
Papertake Weekly -- anything goes with option of no patterned paper
Loves Rubberstamps #150 -- anything goes
Clear it Out -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #181 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Anything Goes

Onions three ways

The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge was to use one stamp in multiple way. I've used this one three ways -- to make my own background paper, as the central image, and paper pieced. For the background, I stamped multiple images on the diagonal in a Colorbox Chalk ink called Amber Clay. I then stamped the image in Memento black on white card stock  and on orange vellum.  I fussy cut the onions from the vellum (which reminded me of the color of onion skin) and paperpieced the main image.
Yay me, I also found a way to use vellum and mulberry paper on the same card. (Let's bring back vellum and mulberry paper everyone!)
The image of Vidalia onion seeds is from a set by TPC Studio.


I'm entering these challenges
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- one image, many ways
Papertake Weekly-- A cut above (border punch and fussy cutting)
Loves Rubberstamps #144 -- make your own background paper
Catch the Bug Bingo challenge (border, free space, no DP, which I take to mean pre-printed DP)
Word Art Wednesday #176  anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Anything Goes.

All the girly elements

I don't do super girly too often, but this one has all the elements -- pink, fairies, ribbons, charms, pearls....
The image is from Fairie Song Art Stamps. She is colored in pencils, with her skirt paper-pieced.  There's some Spica glitter pen o her wins and stars, and the wings are tipped with teeny pearls. Ii used an out-of-the-box cut to fit her in the oval.
The sentiment is from The Alley Way Stamps, stamped on vellum. I used pearls to hide the adhesive.
I've bee want to try a "junk bow" for a while and had all the elements for this card.  It's snippets of four different ribbons, secured with some embroidery floss, with a charm hanging from it.

I'm entering these challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- girly
Inky Impressions #199 -- dots or stripes (how about both)
The Paper Shelter #193-- fairies
Crafting for All Seasons #97 -- girly girls
Crafty Ribbons 114-- ribbon, pearls, charm
Loves Rubberstamps 141 -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday 173 -- anything goes
CHCN patterned paper March -- patterned paper

Keep thinking spring

Yesterday we got a serious hint of spring. Today it's dreary winter again. But I'm going to keep crafting like it's spring.
This card is all about spring -- you can tell, because I broke out the Flower Soft. As I've mentioned before, the only jar of the stuff I have is this white/pink/green mix that looks like cherry trees in bloom, so every spring I use it to make a few blooming tree cards. (At my current rate of usage, this jar will last into the next century).
I used the current Mojo Monday sketch for this. The trees are stamped in Sepia. Before adding the Flower Soft, I die-cut the circle, sponged in sky and colored in grass. The color of the die-cut sentiment picks up the blue from paper, which is from an old Cosmos Cricket pack.
I found a blue button in a similar color, and added embroidery floss to that before adhering.

I'm entering these challenges:
Mojo Monday #387 -- sketch
Divas that Die Cut -- spring
Crafty Sentiments -- Spring colors
Creative Inspiration #303-- use something old (Flower Soft has been sitting around for 6 or 7 years, I'd say)
Papertake Weekly -- anything goes
Loves Rubberstamps #141-- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #173 -- anything goews
CHCN patterned paper challenge -- Cover your card with patterned paper

Christmas cardinal

It's snowing up a storm, so let's make a Christmas card.
The image is from Stamping Boutique, colored with pencils, with Antique Linen Distress ink sponged around the edges. I used the sketch from Papertake Weekly Challenge. There's crocheted lace along the bottom, and I wove red baker's twine through the center of it. The sentiment is a cardstock sticker, and the embellishmennt is a flower and brad.

This fits a lot of challenges, so here goes:
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge 217: Feature a Creature
Papertake Weekly : Take  your pick (I chose their sketch 98)
Rudolph Days Challenge, Feb -- Christmas card
Catch the Bug -- bingo: lace, sentiment, 3-D element (flower/brad)
Loves Rubberstamps #140-- lace or ribbon
Creative inspirations -- Luscious lace
Clear it Out -- Animal and striped paper
Addicted to Stamps -- holiday
Christmas Card Challenge #12 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Rock on

I had fun combining this cute image with a bunch of different challenges, including the Sketch Saturday Sketch, the Time Out theme -- rock around the clock, and Loves Rubberstamp's theme to "Make it sparkle."  They all made sense together.

The image is from Bugaboo, colored with pencils and sparkled up with loads of silver Stickles. The metal-rimmed, star-shaped tag (de-tagged by removing the string), made the perfect embellishment.  I just ran the sentiment off on my computer. (That's the understatement of the week. I spent 45 minutes fixing a paper jam, then trying to persuade the printer that it was not, in fact, still jammed. ERRGH)

I'm entering these challenges:
Sketch Saturday --sketch 349
Loves Rubberstamps #139 -- let it sparkle
Time Out challenge #25 -- Rock Around the Closck
City Crafter #249 -- Love metal
Word Art Wednesday #171 -- anything goes
Sister Act #94 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- anything goes

A case of red

Today I learned it's really hard to photograph scoring on white card stock.  I tried four times, under different lighting conditions, in multiple angles, and finally got a decent image. That was important, as the scoring is one of the things that really attracted me to the card I CASEd.
This is the card that the Time Out Challenge asked us to CASE. I loved the scoring, the delicate colors and the white-on-white.  In my version, the top half of the card is scored with diagonal lines, with three horizontal lines separating the diamonds from the plain bottom part of the card. For the tag, I used some chipboard stickers of red roses (My Mind's Eye) along with a die-cut branch (from a Tim Holtz die).  The red striped ribbon (Christmas clearance at Michaels a few years ago) is a little bolder than on the original and the sentiment (Stampin' Up) a little less bold.

I am entering these challenges:
Time Out Challenges #24: CASE this card
Clear It Out:  Use your red stash
Crafty Sentiments: Use some Red
Creative Inspirations #300: anything goes
Loves Rubberstamps #138: Show me some red
Word Art Wednesday #170: Anything Goes

Vintage Valentine

My normal style is not vintage, although I greatly admire all those talented stampers who do fabulous vintage. In fact, I admire them so much I gave it a try with this Valentine themed card.

The cupid stamp (I think it's probably a very old Impression-Obsession image, simply because my first purchase of unmounted stamps was a grab bag from I-O, and this dates to about that time) looks like an old-fashioned Valentine to me, so that encouraged the effort to make it look vintage. The image is stamped in Sepia on a cream -colored snippet, and I sponged Distress Tea Dye ink around the edges.  I colored certain areas of the image with colored pencil  to give it the look of an old hand-colored post-card. In person, you can see a little better that  her skin a has pinkish glow and her wings are white. There is obviously pink on the heart, which is also embellished with some pearls.

The image is mounted on a pink snippet, which is layered over half a doily (also sponged with Tea Dye ink) and a snippet of patterned paper -- it's practically covered up, but it has script on it.

Along the edge, I put in a strip of beautiful May Art crocheted lace, and over that a sweet plaid ribbon and bow.

I would like to enter these challenges:

Crafty Sentiments -- Girly
Loves Rubberstamps #134-- No black ink
Pixie's Snippet Playground #159  -- snippets
Crafting for All Seasons #93-- ribbon, lace, and pearls
Sister Act #88  -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #165  Anything Goes

A quick thank you

I love it when a card comes together without any drama (nothing gets lost or misplaced, everything fits as intended, colors don't clash ....).  This one was one of those.  I used the sketch from SCS and when with a bold background paper and a coordinating "unbold" paper to stamp my image on.  The image is from Inkadinkadoo, stamped in Memento black. I applied tiny black pearls in the center of the flowers and on the butterfly as a simple embellishment.

The image is mounted on black paper with a punched border. Sentiment is an old one from Stampin Up.

I would like to enter these challenges:
Butterfly Challenge #21 -- thank you with butterfly
Papertake Weekly -- Thank you optional
Word Art Wednesday #165 -- anything goes
Clear it Out -- Anything Goes
Loves Rubberstamps #133 -- anything goes
CHCN Patterned Paper Challenges -- anything with printed paper

Christmas bird

Wow, I can't believe Christmas is just a week away.  I have not done my shopping and I don't know what to buy. Yikes.
Here's another Christmas card for you.  Cardinals are such a beautiful bit of nature, I love to feature them, so of course I was inspired by the cardinal in the Simon Says Stamp photo collage inspiration.
This image is a digi from Stamping Boutique.  The twill ribbon that goes so perfectly with it has been sitting in my stash for ages; I got it at a Christmas clearance sale at one of the big-box craft stores years ago. I wanted to keep this pretty simple and naturalist, so the only other embellishment is die-cut holly leaves.
The layout for this is Sketch Saturday #340, turned 90 degrees.


I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #340
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Winter Inspiration photo
Word Art Wednesday #163 -- anything goes
Loves Rubberstamps #131 -- Holiday blitz anything goes
Clear It Out -- anything goes (stash is the ribbon)

Paper-pieced butterflies

Since I won the Butterfly Challenge a few weeks ago (thanks to Ms. Random.org), Mrs. A asked me to guest design for the Butterfly Challenge #19 that starts today. The challenge is "paper-pieced butterfly." Here's the funny part -- I love paper-piecing, and I have my fair share of butterfly images, yet none of them really lend themselves to paper-piecing.  I finally decided to work with an Inkadinkadoo image of a flock of butterflies, and try piecing a few of them -- the ones that had the more open patterns on them.
The butterflies are stamped in Navy, and the printed paper is from Lime Rickey by Basic Gray.  Once I'd cut the oval, there was a partial butterfly at the top, which I chose to cover with a punched butterfly.  (I put a solid orange butterfly behind the print/punched one so it didn't blend into the background.)  I also used the old trick of running the edges of the paper along an orange ink pad to get a little line of color there.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Loves Rubberstamps #127 -- Things with Wings
Papertake Weekly -- Soooooo Girly
Clear It Out -- anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #159-- anything Goes
Sister Act #83 -- anything Goes
CHNC patterned paper challenge, November -- patterned paper.

Pumpkin time

Pumpkins made from die-cut ovals were all over the Web several weeks ago; I finally got around to making a card incorporating one. 

The ovals were cut with a small oval Nesatbility. I cut five of them out of my last snippet of this lovely patterned paper, sponged the edges with orange and assembled them.  The stem is a tiny bit torn from a bit of corrugated cardboard. The leaf was cut from another snippet. The curlicue is a bit of mizuhiki cord; I wrapped around the point on my embossing stylus to get a good tight curl.
To make the background I masked off the center, then sprayed brown mist and splattered on yellow and orange in with a paintbrush.  Sentiment is by Mark's Finest Paper.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
CRAFT #282 -- Autumn
Loves Rubberstamps #123 -- warm colors
Pixie's Snippet Playground #147 (all the pumpkin pieces are snippets)
Word Art Wednesday #155 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp, Monday challenge -- anything goes.

Going all out for Halloween

 

I kind of miss the old days when my son would spend 3 months changing his mind about what he wanted for a Halloween costume. About now is when I'd tell him to make up his mind for sure so I'd have time to actually make the costume...

I kind of got into that spirit with this card.  The sketch is from Sketch Saturday  (#330). The haunted house is from QKR Stampede, and it's layered on purple. Behind that, I used a big spiderweb image, with just enough showing to suggest what it is. There are bats on the band running behind that.

I got the idea for the tombstone somewhere online, but mine might be a slightly scaled down version of the original. I took a chipboard tag and covered it with gray acrylic paint. My paint is old and rather thick, which worked out well for the effect.  After it dried, I sponged on black ink and black-embossed RIP.


This card is for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday #330
Whoopsi Daisy, Things with Wing (bats all over the place)
Loves Rubberstamps #121, anything goes
Papertake Weekly, anything goes.

Boldly to go

       Miss Carter, who taught 11th grade honors English when I was in high school, was a stickler for grammar. The Star Trek motto, she said, should not be "to boldly go where no human has gone" but "boldly to go ...." so as to avoid the split infinitive. I distinctly remember making a sarcastic comment that "boldly to go" sounded like a deli order.
       So, today I went boldly, encouraged by the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge to "be bold".  For me, combining a ton of orange and yellow is pretty bold.
       The sketch is Sketch Saturday sketch 232, which I pulled out for their current challenge to pick a previous sketch. (I substituted an oval for the circle but otherwise followed pretty closely.)
       The butterfly (Stamps on Fire), is black embossed, and I used an out-of-the-box cut on the wings before cutting the oval. The ovals are up on pop dots.
        The sentiment is from CTMH and stamped with Memento black ink.
        The yellow card stock is embossed with a Sizzix folder run thru the trusty Cuttlebug, and the swirly pattern sort of has a similar feel to the print on the orange paper.  A few gel dots finish the card.
I'd like to enter these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #325
Butterfly Chalenge #13, butterfly and sentiment
Cuttlebug Mania, Anything embossed
Simon Says Stamp Monday, Be Bold
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, Use a Stamp
Word Art Wednesday #148, Anything Goes
Loves Rubberstamps #119, Anything Goes

Christmas Ribbons

I’m back with another Christmas card. There’s actually a story behind this one.  One of the COTMs I do has a theme of “ribbon” for August.  I actually made the last card I posted – the little girl on the swing – intending to send it out; after all, it had a ribbon and a bow. But I decided that just tying a bow doesn’t really fit the “spirit” of a ribbon challenge, and I wanted to try something different.

 

I knew I wanted to do a die-cut with an array of ribbon showing through, and when I stumbled upon this little circle tag die, I knew I had a winner. ( I do mean “stumbled.” I bought a set of little Sizzix dies at a consignment sale and had totally forgotten about them. They were sitting in a baggie at the bottom of the box that holds all my dies.)

The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory. I die cut the ornament, stamped the pine bough (from Impression-Obsession) in Garden Green and added the sentiment.  I taped snippets of ribbon on the back side of the card stock, and the ribbons I had selected ended up being the perfect size the fill the die-cut hole.

 

The sketch is the current one from Sketch Saturday.  Going with a Christmas theme allowed me to use up some Christmas paper snippets, including that plaid that has been hanging around for years. I’m pretty sure that’s the last snippet of it – I had to trim one edge to get rid of a torn bit and used  the rest of it here.

I am entering this card in these challenges:

Sketch Saturday #321

Loves Rubberstamps #115– use stripes

Pixie’s Snippet Playground #136 – use snippets

Just us Girls #252 – use ribbon

Word Art Wednesday #144 – anything goes

Papertake Weekly – Anything goes.

Beach Break

We've had muggy, rainy weather all week, so it wouldn't have been a good beach week, but I can still dream, right?
This image is from Purple Onion Designs, and it always makes me think "Wish I were there." The image is colored with pencils, and I assure you there is blue sky (if somewhat pale) that simply didn't photograph. The lemonade has Glossy Accents on it.
I used snippets of a bunch of prints that look like beach blanket colors to me for accents, including the die-cut button (from MFT).  I cut three layers of card stock to give the button enough bulk to look realistic without it being too bulky for mailing.  The bow is made from two strands of baker's twine.

This card is being entered in these challenges:

Sketch Saturday, sketch 319
Die Cut Divas, Button and Bow
Loves Rubberstamps #113, Summer Fun
Creative Inspirations #275, Here Comes Summer
Simon Says Monday, Summer challenge
The Paper Shelter Summer Challenge, Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #134, using snippets
Word Art Wednesday # 142, Anything Goes

Not too much like a flag

I challenged myself to do a red, white and blue card with stars and stripes and keep it from looking like a flag. I think I succeeded.

The layout  for this is the current sketch at Sketch Saturday.

The image is from Impression-Obsession, colored in pencils, with the sentiment from Mark's Finest Paper.  I used a variety of stars and stripes DP snippets to provide the various layers, and added a scalloped edge to what is a rather thin strip on the sketch.

I wasn't really sure what to use for the embellies near the bottom of the sketch until I stumbled upon these snaps that were a perfect color match.  I have a hoard of snaps and of eyelets that I hardly ever use because, let's be honest, they are a pain. But I took my time, measured out exactly where each one should go, and they actually came out straight and even.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #317
The Paper Shelter #166, birthday card with sentiment
Creative Inspirations #273, your favorite occasion
Papertake Weekly Challenge, Stars and Stripes
Loves Rubberstamps #111, Red, white and blue
Pixie's Snippet Playground #132

Celebrate summer

Here’s a quick card to celebrate summer.

The stamps are from Purple Onion Designs, and while I’ve used the beach scene before, this is the first time the sentiment has seen ink.  I used a Technique Junkie Technique called Washi Medallion for the sentiment, and that Washi tape has been sitting around for months just  waiting to be used.

The image is colored with pencils.  Buoyed by my success with Glossy Accents on the parrot eyes (see last post), I used it on the lemonade glass in this scene. The blue panel is embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

I’m entering this card in these challenges

The Paper Shelter #162,  Summer

Simply Create Too #63 – your country’s colors (USA/red, white, blue)

Loves Rubberstamps #107, CAS

Sister Act #61, Anything goes

Paper Crafting Journey, Anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #136, Anything goes

Crafty Girls Challenge, Anything goes