fresh & fun

Today’s Sketch challenge  isn’t the easiest sketch I have seen or done. It took me a while to get my card finished. It’s definitely not one of Valeries little warm up cards.

I still had my Crafty Secrets supplies scattered all over my table from yesterday’s Luggage tag card. So I kept on using those. The blue paper is from the Radiant Paper pack from Crafty Secrets, the pink paper from the Pristine Paper Salon pad.

I started out by taking a 3 3/4″ x 5″ piece of that blue paper and cutting it at an angle to make my two triangle.  Next those were layered on chocolate chip cardstock and cut with my scallop scissor.

I stamped one of the border stamps from the French Mail set on the paper with Brown Palette ink and set both triangles aside.

Next I cut a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of the pink paper and sanded it down. I know, I know…but I love sanding designer paper. I just can’t help myself.  Next I punched a scallop border on the bottom with my Stampin’ Up! corner rounder and punched eyelets in the center of each scallop. Then I sanded that border as well :). I stamped more border designs and the greeting all over. I wish now that I hadn’t stamped the heart and had moved the greeting down a bit. It’s always easier in hindsight.

Underneath that eyelet border I added a strip of chocolate chip that was the same wavy border as the pink paper.

My card base is a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of chocolate chip cardstock folded in half. On the bottom I added a 1″ x  5 1/2″ piece of shimmery white cardstock. the pink paper was taped on top of that to make the border pop a little better.

Before taping the triangles to the card, I added white wide organdy ribbon from Stampin’ Up! as well as May Arts double sided pink satin ribbon and white ric rac.

I love the little guy in the center image. I know my Mother in law will love the card, greeting set too high or not. She loves chubby cherubs!

Amy Westerman has Try Something New Tuesdays. She made an Acetate pocket card. Well….of course I didn’t read the whole thing and I used a luggage tag. The outcome still looks the same.

My center image is an image from the Crafty Secret booklet Wacky & Wonderful. I layered it on whisper white cardstock and cut a border with my Fiskars Postage scissor to make it look like an old photograph. I layered that onto chocolate chip cardstock.

I cut the tag of the luggage tag off with scissors and cut a half circle into the top with my coluzzle. I stapled May Arts double sided pink satin ribbon, Stampin’ Up! white organdy ribbon and May Arts white ric rac on the top of the image.

For the card base, I used a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of chocolate chip cardstock folded in half. The 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of decorated paper is from Radiant paper pack from Crafty secrets. The color was a little bit too intense so I sanded it down quite a bit with Stampin’ Up!’s sanding block.

I stamped the paper with images from the French Mail  set from Crafty Secrets in Brown Palette ink. The luggage tag was taped to the main card with glue dots. I finished the card of with double layered prima flowers that were attached with Vintage brads.

 You can find Crafty Secrets products in Anna Wight’s store Sassy and Sweet Crafts.

If you are interested in a tutorial for the Explosion box card, click on More. I don’t want to post a big long thread on the front page, so I don’t clog up the email of my subscribers.

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Those Crafty Secret stamps are GORGEOUS! (If you are looking for them, check out SweetMissDaisy’s online store. She has lots of gorgeous Crafty Secrets merchandise. ) I had to try out my new Cherub set.

I wanted to write this tutorial for my blog since two fresh and fun freebies ago. Well…today I took pictures for it. I thought I share the final project with you now….and then write the tutorial. I hope to have it posted tonight!

This is the top view of the box. I love that little Cherub. I got the set because my MIL LOVES cherubs. Loves them, loves, them, LOVES THEM. (you know….we crafters never run out of excuses why we need something!) I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did. The set comes with some three adorable cherubs, smaller swirls (like the corner ones on top and the middle edges of the lid) as well as bigger ones ( box bottom), angel wings, the word Love and a heart.

I stamped my little cheeky cherub on watercolor paper with black Palette ink. It really works well with acrylic stamps. Much better then black stazon. Then I colored the cutie in with blush blossom for his skin, skin shading and wings with pretty in pink, hair with more mustard and close to cocoa, book with creamy caramel and surrounding space with bashful blue classic ink and aqua painter (all Stampin’ Up! products).  I sprayed my watercolor paper with my water mist bottle before I started coloring. I layered the image on on a black Mega Oval Scallop punchout from Urchida.

The lid top is made with Tres Jolie paper from My Mind’s Eye. I can’t wait for Daisy and Joy to get their My Mind’s Eye order into their store!!!!

The bottom of the box is made with Always Artichoke cardstock by Stampin’ Up!. I stamped the bigger swirl on it with Black VersaMagic Dew Drop ink.

I cut the lid edges with a scallop scissor and added the scallop border stamp with the Black Dew drop.

I spend most of the morning uploading the Scrapbooking purse I posted earlier here, on SCS and the Creative Imaginations gallery. I knew I wanted to do today’s challenge. It was a relativ easy limited supply challenge. We could use anything we wanted, but we only had 45 minutes. I was using every single second of that, but I think I stayed in the limit.

By the way….Jen70, our Limited Supply challenge hostess has her birthday today! What’s up with all of us being born in April? Those July nights….LOL I have Jennifer’s address if you would like to send her a birthday card!!!

When I first started stamping, I hardly ever ventured out of the Earth Element group. That is definitely my comfort zone. Bold and Brights….very much not! LOL I did change and learned to love the Bold and Brights…at least some of them…but Earth Elements are my roots!

I started with watercoloring paper from Stampin’ Up! and these cute birds from Crafty Secrets. (Yes, I got another sweet box in the mail and yes, my husband doesn’t know about it. Yes, I am broke….but boy oh boy….is it sweet to have new stuff! If you dare to look at my new loot, click on more.) You can purchase Crafty Secrets merchandise at Sweet Miss Daisy’s store Sassy and Sweet Crafts. She is out of the bird stamps right now but already ordered more and should have them back in next week.

I stamped the birds in black Palette and sprayed the watercoloring paper with my water mist bottle. Then I used aqua painter and lots of different Stampin’ Up! classic inks (So Saffron, More Mustard, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Sage Shadow, Always Artichoke and Bashful Blue) to color the birdies in. Usually I don’t like my watercoloring at all. But I do like it this time. When I was done coloring, I turned the paper around and scored a 1/4″ border around the image. I then used the paper piercing mat, a ruler and a stylus to make that scoring deeper and let the image appear dry embossed.

I used the cutter tool kit from Stampin’ Up! to distress the edges of the watercoloring paper and it’s chocolate chip mat. Then I ran a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Really Rust through the cuttlebug machine.

I used a cuttlebug die to make the little buckle and stamped the saying on it with palette ink. Next I watercolored it with the same colors I used on the birds.

The patterned paper is from the Wanted collection of Cosmo Cricket. I distressed the top border and taped it onto the rust background. I then taped the birds on that and ran a ribbon with the ribbon buckle underneath the bird image. I held the ribbon in place with brads.

Last I layered the whole thing on chocolate chip cardstock.

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