fresh & fun

Yesterday’s Limited Supply challenge was to make a Sympathy card. I am glad Jen, picked this theme, because Rick had just asked me to make a card for one of his working collegues. She lost her brother this week. He wants to have a card on her desk when she gets back. He is such a caring man.

We were allowed to use Flower Stamps, one background stamp, no designer paper (ouch!) and really limit our embellishments, everyone depending on their style.

I haven’t been over at CPS for a while and decided to use their current sketch for this card.

I knew I wanted to stay away from Chocolate Chip, punches, paper piercing and as much hardware as I could to make it a limited supply challenge for me.

First I looked through my stamp stash. I have not a single stamp saying With Sympathy. Wow! I need more stamps. LOL

I settled on a saying from God’s Blessings for the sentiment.

For the flowers and background stamp I thought of Priceless. I just love this set! The color combo that I thought would be good for my sympathy card was Bashful blue, Basic Black and Basic Gray.

My card base is a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of Basic Black cardstock folded in half. Next is a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of sponged Basic Gray cardstock.

I took a  3 3/4″ x 5″ piece of Bashful Blue cardstock, and sponged one inch down from the top and bottom across the cardstock. Then I cut three pieces of Basic Gray Cardstock. Top and bottom panel measure 1 1/8″ x 3 3/4″, the middle panel 2 3/8″ x 3 3/4″.  I pushed the panels together and stamped the swirl stamp from Priceless all over. Then I sponged the edges and adhered them to the Bashful Blue layer.

I added Gray Taffeta ribbon around the top and bottom panel, placing the knot on the right of the top, and on the left on the bottom layer.

The saying was stamped in black ink on Shimmery White cardstock. I stamped the swirls in Bashful blue (2nd generation) around the edges of the cardstock and sponged the edges lightly. That was layered on a 1/8″ bigger piece of Basic Black cardstock and a 1/4″ bigger Shimmery White piece. The later was sponged with Bashful Blue and Going Gray.

I inked up the flowers in Bashful blue, stamped it off once and then added Going Gray ink around the outline with Fantastix. The flowers were stamped on Shimmery white and cut out. The flower on the right I didn’t stamp off  to make it a bit different then the two flowers on the left.  I added vintage brads in the center and mounted them around the saying with dimensionals.

 Daisy had sent me stamped images in my last order of a few of their new stamps. I had to try out the Delia Chick image right away.

I made this card last week Thursday for the Way to Use it challenge Better Sharpen Up.  We were supposed to use Pencil crayons to color in our image.

I had a bad migraine all of Wednesday afternoon (last week). Thursday morning the pills finally started working, but I was still very nauseous. I had to stamp though, because I didn’t want to break my challenge streak. 

I colored the image in with my Pure Colored Pencils and blended them with Gamsol and Tsukineko Fantastix.

I cut down the image to a 2″ x 2 3/8″ rectangle, doodled the border with my 03black Micron pen  and added AMuse Card candy. I also added Stickles Stardust on the icing and Gelly Roll Stardust on the ribbon, on the darker parts of the cake and the chick.

I then layered it on a 1/4″ bigger piece of Black cardstock. I cut a 2 1/2″ x 2 7/8″ piece of Purely Pomegranate and sponged the edges to make it darker and was about to tape my main image on it, when I smudged the nice white center image. I didn’t feel good enough to repeat all the coloring and embellishing, so I sponged the edges. Not as pretty as before, but it hid my mess.

The card base here is a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Garden Green cardstock. I used my retired Stampin’ Up! Stripes template and a sponge to add the stripes,  stamped All in a Row dots between them and highlighted the stripes by adding a doodled border with my 03black Micron pen.

The horizontal layer measures 2 1/4″ x 3 3/4″ and is a piece of Holiday Harmony Designer Paper. I stamped the dotted border from In the Spotlight around the side and top edge and adhered a 1/4″ x 3 3/4″ piece of black cardstock on the bottom.

May Ribbon was added around the Designer paper and AMuse Card candy on the black strip on the bottom.

The saying is from the Stampin’ Up! set It’s all Good. It was stamped in Black Palette ink on Shimmery White cardstock, punched out with the 1 1/4″ circle punch, layered first on a 1 3/8″ black circle, then on a sponged scallop Purely Pomegranate circle.

Last I added a small black photo corner on the top right and topped it with three little AMuse Card Candy jewels.

Gretchen Belanger sent me this great card.

She used the Dryer Sheet technique for her main image.

 Gretchen has a tutorial for a version of that technique on her blog: Make time for Creativity

Thank you, Gretchen!