fresh & fun

I made this sample for today’s sketch challenge as well as this weeks Color Challenge on SCS. Now looking at the sketch again, I see that I didn’t follow my own sketch! Oopsie!!!

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Basic Black cardstock.

The next layers were put together before adhering the 4″ x 5 1/4″ Western Skies Designer Paper layer on top of the card base with dimensionals.

The horizontal designer paper is also from the Western Sky pack and measures 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″. A thin white strip was adhered to the left hand side. Over it a 1 1/4″ black circle punchout was placed and a Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet with Striped Pumpkin ribbon added.

The Pumpkin horizontal layer is from the Bali Breeze Designer Paper pack and measures 2 1/2″ x 3 7/8″. A small scallop border was added on the bottom part. That scallop border was cut with a long rectangle Nestabilities die template. The top part of the pumpkin layer was paper pierced.

For the sentiment I cut a black scallop rectangle with my Nestabilities and cut Soft Sky and Whisper White layers to match. Then I went looking for a set that would fit and match the designer papers I picked. I ended up with True Friend and stamped the sentiment in black in the center of the white layer, with a second generation stamping of the flower in Soft Sky behind it.

Three 1/4″ black circles on the bottom with Ruby Red brads and a double photo corner with black brads finish off the card.

Back in January I saw a card by Corinne Somerville and really liked the layout. So here it is as our sketch challenge for this weekend:

To participate in the challenge and be entered in the  raffle, make a card with this layout and upload it either to your blog, or to an online gallery.

 If you upload your card on SCS, put WSC48  (NO SPACE INBETWEEN WSC AND 48) in the keyword section. That way we can look at all of them at once!

Post a link to your card to this blog entry as a comment. Please add your entry# to it.

I will determine the winner  with Random.org on Monday at 11:00 a.m. CST

To see samples made with this sketch now, check out the blogs of

Cambria Turnbow

Charmaine Ikach

Jenn Balcer

Laurie Schmidlin 

MaryJo Albright

Sharon Harnist

Have fun creating! I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

SCS submissions

Here is my last Grid technique sample.

I made this card to show off a grid on a rectangle, a non stamped grid as well as a grid with a border around it.

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Basic Black cardstock, layered with a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Berry Bliss Designer paper.

The designer paper corners were punched with the ticket corner punch and a dotted border was added with the white gel pen.

For my grid panel I started out with a 3 1/8″ x 4 1/2″ piece of Shimmery White cardstock. I scored 1/2″ border on each side, then scored my diagonal panel inside the border. After I was done the 1/2″ border seemed to big for this piece, so I cut it down to a 1/4″.

The now 2 5/8″ x 4″ border was layered on a 1/8″ bigger piece of Basic Black. Double Stitched Purely Pomegranate ribbon was tied about both layers.

Next is a Purely Pomegranate scallop rectangle. The rectangle was made by cutting a long scallop rectangle with Nestabilities, cutting it down some and putting it back together to make the perfect layer for my grid. The grid layers were attached with dimensionals to the scalloped layer.

I knew I wanted to keep the sentiment small so I wouldn’t cover up the grid. I chose a stamp from the Bursting with Joy stamp set. I stamped the image twice, once in Black Stazon, once in Purely Pomegranate on Shimmery White Cardstock. I cut the heart out of the Pomegranate image and taped it over the black one. It was punched out with the 1 3/8″ circle punch and was layered on a black scallop circle. Dimensionals were used to adhere this layer to the card.

 And yes…I go through a LOT of dimensionals! I love them!
 

Today’s tutorial on SCS is the reason yesterday’s card looked the way it did. It’s about the Grid technique.

I made three samples for this technique, all a bit different. I will show two today, one tomorrow.

This is the card I made for the main tutorial.

The card base is a 5″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Old Olive cardstock folded in half and stamped first with the Flannel Plaid background, then with the outlined fern leaves from Wonderful You. The edges of the card front were sponged with Old Olive.

For the main panel, I scored diagonal lines in 1/2″ interval both ways on a 3 3/8″ Whisper White square. Next I inked up my Canvas background with Creamy Caramel ink, layed it down on it’s wooden side, placed my cardstock on top of it and just pressed the cardstock down unevenly by walking my fingers over it. Then I sponged the edges first in Creamy Caramel, then in More Mustard and last a little bit with Chocolate chip.

I stamped the outline leaves from Wonderful You in Chocolate Chip, the solid leaves second generation (stamped off once) in Old Olive. The square was layered on a scalloped Chocolate Chip square, that was cut out with Square Nestabilities, a paper pierced border was added  and it was attached to the card front with dimensionals.

The sentiment from Wonderful You was stamped in Chocolate Chip on Whisper White, punched out with the large oval punch, sponged, paper pierced and attached to the right side of the main panel with a Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware book plate over it. The hardware was tied in with three addtional Aged Copper Brads over 1/4″ chocolate chip circle on the lower right hand side.

To show the difference it makes on what side you stamped on, I repeated the center piece, but this time, stamped on the side with the score lines facing up to create this card.

Here the card base is a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of Chocolate chip cardstock, followed by a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Old Olive Prints Designer paper.

I added paper piercing to the bottom of the Designer Paper, distressed the paper with my sanding block and sponged More Mustard over it.

5/8″ wide Chocolate ribbon was tied around the bottom with three Aged Copper brads placed through it.

The sentiment is also from Wonderful you and was stamped in Chocolate Chip on Whisper White cardstock. It was punched out with the small oval punch and a small Aged copper book plate was added over it.

I knew I wanted to incorporate the quilted lines of the bed cover, the straight lines of the layout and of course the very elegant looking color combo from today’s inspiration piece. Here is what I came up with:

I picked Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky and Whisper White as my colors.

Bordering Blue and Close to Cocoa were a little closer to the inspiration piece, but I thought this combo was more elegant and went with that.

The card base is a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock folded in half.

Adhered to that is a 3 7/8″ square of textured Soft Sky cardstock with a dotted white gel pen border.

For the center layers I took a 3 1/4″ piece of Whisper White cardstock and scored it with my Scor-Pal every 1/2″ diagonally both ways to get my  grid lines. Next I stamped the swirl from Baroque Motifs over it in Soft Sky and sponged the edges heavily, the rest of the cardstock lightly in the same color.

It was layered on a 1/4″ bigger piece of Chocolate Chip and the edges were paper pierced. 5/8″ wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon was tied around both layers before those were attached to the card base.

I stamped Thank you from Holiday Blitz in Chocolate chip on Whisper White cardstock and punched it out with my 1 1/4″ circle punch. That was layered on a 1 3/8″ chocolate chip and a sponged and dotted Soft Sky scallop circle before the inner circle was paper pierced.

I stamped the small flower from Baroque Motifs in Chocolate Chip on Whisper White cardstock, cut it out adhered it to the circular layers with dimensionals and added a Circular Ice Rhinestone brad in the flower’s center. The sentiment layers were attached to the card with dimensionals.

I made a 8 1/2″ x 11″ scrapbook page this weekend so I could use the Weekend sketch as a layout.

The page base is a sheet of Chocolate Chip cardstock. Layered over it are a 4 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ piece of Brocade Background Designer paper and a 3 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ piece of Spring Silhouette Designer Paper. Chocolate Satin Ribbon was tied around the layers.

I layered my 5″  x 7″ photo first on a 1/2″ bigger piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock, then on a 6″ x 8″ piece of Always Artichoke. A dotted white gel pen border was added to the Chocolate layer and the Artichoke layer was paper pierced.

The two ovals were cut with the largest of the Nestabilities templates. Celebrate and good times are from the stamp set Celebrate Everything. They were stamped in Chocolate Chip on Whisper White cardstock. I paper pierced underneath celebrate and added journaling with my Artichoke marker around it.

I want to wish every Mother out there a Happy Mother’s Day! I hope your day is filled with lots of love, hugs and kisses!

This week’s color challenge was not that easy for me, it included LOVELY LILAC. I hadn’t done a challenge in so long, I thought I would just skip another. I don’t know what changed my mind. I just did it (like ripping of a bandaid).

I love the Pretty Petals background stamp. It is so pretty!

I inked it up with Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and Lovely Lilac Markers, sprayed it lightly with water and stamped it on a 3 1/2″ Whisper White cardstock square.

Three of the corners were punched with the ticket corner punch. It was layered on a 3/8″ bigger piece of Lovely Lilac cardstock and paper pierced. Next I added a double photo corner to the unpunched corner on the top right, that was topped with three black brads. I added sparkle over the flowers and butterflies with my Clear Spica Glitter pen. It adds very subtles sparkle, almost like the images you add the glitter to are on Shimmery White cardstock.

The sentiment is from Many Happy Returns. It is stamped in Black Stazon on Whisper White, punched out with the small oval punch and layered first on a 1″ lilac circle, then on a celery Designer Label punchout. I punched a hole with my Crop-A-Dile where the sentiment would be placed and ran Pink Taffeta Ribbon through it. The sentiment was attached with dimensionals.

The card base is a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Certainly Celery cardstock folded in half and toped with a 4″ black square, that had three corners punched with the ticked corner to match the upper layers. Those were attached to the card base with dimensionals.

What stamp set do you use when you can’t decide on one? One of your favorites of course. After thinking a long time about what to put in the oval of today’s sketch challenge, I decided on my old faithful bird from Always.

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Chocolate Chip folded in half.

It’s layered first with a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Old Olive cardstock, then  a 1/4″ smaller piece of Spring Silhouettes Designer paper.  Each corner of both layers was punched with the ticket corner punch.

The Chocolate Chip scallop rectangle is pieced together out of two rectangles cut with rectangle Nestabilites templates and layered with two pieces of Bali Breeze Designer Paper. Chocolate Chip Poly-Twill Ribbon was rapped around the designer paper piece layers. On the bottom right the sentiment from Always was stamped in Chocolate Chip. On the top right, three 1/4″ Chocolate Chip circles were topped with Old Olive brads.

Both the Shimmery White and the Purely Pomegranate oval layers were cut with Oval Nestabilities templates. I taped the Shimmery White layer on top of the scalloped Pomegranate one and paper pierced the edges. I inked up the bird from Always with Purely Pomegranate, rocked it’s edges in Chocolate Chip and just to make sure traced the edges with a Chocolate Chip Marker before stamping it on my Shimmery White layer. Felt Flowers from the Flower Fusion Tin finished with a Circle Ice Rhinestone brad topped that layer off. 

 Check here for a tutorial on how to paper pierce curves.

Here is another card I made with this week’s BIC color combo.

I pulled out another old favorite set that had been neglected for too long.

I stamped the girl from Summer By The Sea in Brown Palette ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and colored her in with Watercolor Crayons.

It was layered on a 3 1/4″ square Old Olive cardstock and a 3 5/8″ square of sponged and distressed Chocolate Chip cardstock.

The sentiment is from One Smart Cookie and is stamped in Brown Palette ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and punched out with the small oval punch. It was layered on a 1″ sponged Pumpkin Pie circle and sponged Chocolate Chip Designer label punchout. I adhered the sentiment layers to the top right after adding a Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware piece with Olive Poly-Twill Ribbon.

The card base is a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Ruby Red cardstock, folded in half. The card front was stamped with the swirl stamp from Baroque Motifs and sponged around the edges. A dotted border was added with white gel pen . Once it was dry, I sponged Pumpkin Pie over it to tone the white down and match it more with the rest of the card. The other layers were added with dimensionals.

Today’s tutorial on SCS is written for the Tilt card. It’s written by my sweet friend Charmaine Ikach. Since I couldn’t think of a cool set to use for this type of card, I turned mine in a twist card.

I inked up the puff fish from Whale Wishes in Wild Wasabi and rolled it’s edges in Blue Bayou.

It was stamped on Whisper White cardstock along with three Blue Bayou fishies. I cut all three out and set aside.

Next I stamped bubbles from the background set Sprinklesin Soft Sky on a 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ piece of Soft Sky cardstock and sponged it’s edges. I added grass/algae from the same stamp set on the bottom of the piece with Wild Wasabi. Last I added a dotted border on the upper part of the layer with my white gel pen and added a 1/4″ bigger piece of Blue Bayou cardstock behind it.

I cut a small square out through both layers where I wanted my big fish to be and secured him with two pennies and dimensionals. The three little fish were adhered with regular tape and all four of them got a layer of Stardust Stickles to make them sparkle.

My card base is a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of  textured Wild Wasabi cardstock folded in half.

A 3 7/8″ x 3 1/8″ piece of Whisper White was adhered to the top of the card front and the main layers were taped over it with dimensionals. Striped Wild Wasabi ribbon was tied around the card base underneath the image layers.

The sentiment is from Many Happy Returns. I inked up each word separately and stamped it on a 1″ Soft Sky circle. A dotted border was added with Not Quite Navy Marker (it’s close enough to Blue Bayou to use it for this border). I sponged the edges of the circle, added more stamped bubbles with my Sprinkles stamp and taped it off center to a 1 1/4″ Whisper White circle. That circle was paper pierced and adhered with dimensionals to the card base.