hello

I've used the bonus sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You and the colors from The Play Date Cafe. Many thanks to all the lovely DT ladies from these two challenges, I've been a bit of an addict for these two blogs over the last few months and I always love the comments you guys leave on my cards. My road trip starts in less then a week, and while I've got a whole slew of cards to be posted, I wont be able to make any cards specifically for challenges while driving around NZ. (Okay I say that and I've scheduled a few crafting pit stops along the way b/c I am that much of an addict). So please enjoy this rather rush job card... I swear I'm really going to start packing up the craft supplies... (okay maybe tomorrow, b/c I've still got the PTI blog hop one to do!).

Materials: Lawn Fawn telephone and sentiment, Stampin Up Kiwi bliss card stock, purple and grey card stock from stash, purple ribbon, Versacolor black ink

kraft/orange/red fall cards

I'm still trying to make my fall cards for my girlfriend and last night I discovered a great use for my Waltzingmouse Stamps Big Blooms leaves. Love the way they look in red and orange on kraft.

This card uses the sketch from this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.

This card uses this week's 2 Sketches 4 You sketch. And both cards work well for the Jenny's Wee Memories "Fall into Autumn" challenge and Mark's Finest Papers Speedy Cat "fall colors" challenges.

Materials: Waltzingmouse Stamps Big Blooms leaves, PTI kraft, brown twine, Stampin Up red card stock, orange art paper from stash, Fiskars rotary scallop cutter, Studio G orange ink, Versacolor camilla red ink, orange paper ribbon

Embellish Colors- take 3

I wanted to try to make a card for the latest Embellish challenge (see colors at the bottom of this post) and I have made a few different cards. I liked Kelly Marie's blog post yesterday where she said she just uses what's in front of her, so with that in mind here are my three cards, all attempting to find something fun and cute to go with the colors.

I wasn't going to do a card for this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge b/c this sketch really needs a die cut machine, which I don't have. But then Claire decided to throw in a free set of stamps for a random participant, so I decided to motivate and think outside the box. I love all the amazing DT cards, and mine follows the sketch, sorta... I used some die cut flowers I won through Unscripted Sketches and then cut two them apart to make the scalloped border, working with what I've got ladies. It's hard to see in this photo the layer of vellum, but it's there.

This is me trying another take on the colors. I'm not sure I've ever made an Easter card before.

On this one I used the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch and I tried to figure out how to use my Lawn Fawn stamps (since that's the prize for Embellish!), but in the end all I managed was to use the sentiment on the inside. Simons Says Stamps is celebrating paper piercing this week and I've cut out these cute little fish.

So there you go ladies, three totally different cards all trying to use the above colors... I think I like my couch color project better, but I tried... now off to figure out how to make a brown paper bag into a card for the PTI blog hop.

Materials: First Card: PTI kraft card stock, die cut flowers from Unscripted Sketches prize, blue card stock from stash, vellum, Fiskars free hand cuter, Fiskars circle punch, Sharpie marker, blue button from Unscripted Sketches prize

Second Card: PTI stamps and sentiment, American Crafts ribbon, corner rounder punch, Stampin Up black ink, PTI kraft, Versacolor white ink, Stampin Up circle punch

Third Card: Paper Source fish, PTI cloud, Lawn Fawn sentiment, white rope recycling from package, PTI kraft, card stock scraps, Fiskars rotary scallop cutter, Stampin Up black ink.

Congrats cards

A girlfriend asked me to make her a congrats card for a boy and a girl and I thought this week's 2 Sketches 4 You would be a good layout for a new baby card. The top card uses patterned paper that came in a scrapbooking kit that a friend gave me when my oldest son was born, he's now 5, aren't you ladies proud of me for using some of the stash?

Materials: First card: Stampin Up Congrats stamp, Stampin Up square scallop punch, Versacolor Blue ink, patterned paper from my stash, corner rounder punch, cream cardstock, Fiskars scallop rotary cuter,

Second card: Stampin Up congrats stamp, Stampin Up square scallop punch, Studio G pink ink, patterned paper from my stash, vellum, Making Memories white eyelets, pink and purple twine, Fiskars scallop rotary cuter

Good friends, good books

Well, I must admit that my final card doesn't really come very close to the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch, but I tried. I tried, took the card apart, tried again, smeared ink all over the card stock, tried again... and in the end I love the yellow polka dots so much I'm posting the card (finger prints and all- shall I blame a small child?).

Materials: PTI All Booked Up stamp and sentiment, Cosmo Cricket Early Riser patterned paper, Stampin Up black ink, Versacolor red ink, cream card stock

keep in touch/blue & yellow

I used last week's 2 Sketches 4 You with Kim's Off the Wall Craftiness colors, but since I said I had another lovely sunflower waiting for a home, I thought I'd use the same colors for this week's 2 Sketches 4 You. I'm also really excited about this month's Hero Arts theme- keeping in touch. I love general cards like that and I've got a few HA sentiments that are just perfect. I started off with little white dots along the top and the bottom (b/c I'm literal to a fault and want to copy sketches almost exactly most of the time), but then I decided I'd do some faux stitching, love how totally off it is, just like how I'd sew if I owned a sewing machine.

Materials: Hero Arts sunflower and sentiment, W Plus 9 woodgrain, PTI kraft, Spotlight yellow card stock, Stampin Up blue card stock, Versacolor blue ink, white gel pen, versamark, Stampin Up watercolor pencils and blender pen

Sunflower hello

I have been giving Kim at Off the Wall Craftiness a hard time for her colors, which is silly because I keep making cards even though I don't love pink and teal, but this week she, not only picked my card from last week as the winner (it's a random draw, but I like random prizes), but she has picked some colors that I like. I've used the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch. I have to admit that I am normally in awe of the coloring jobs I seen out there in the land of card blogs, but last night I had my girlfriend's set of watercolor pencils and I copied the exact coloring of this Hero Arts sunflower (how nice of Hero Arts to give me such a great coloring job to copy!). I think it turned out really nice (I made two, so be warned, another sunflower is waiting in the wings). Since I stamped the sunflower, I'm going to enter this in Jenny's Wee Memories challenge, it helps that Kim and Jenny are real life friends, congrats again ladies that your respective challenges are growing up and getting design teams, woo hoo!

Materials: Hero Arts sunflower, Hero Arts tiny background stamp, PTI sentiment, Stampin Up blue card stock, Spotlight yellow card stock, strips of yellow scraps, white gel pen, versamark, Stampin Up watercolor pencils and blender pen, Stampin Up black ink

let's get together for coffee

I'm not sure why this card took me an hour to make. I love CAS cards and I love it when the card magically appears. For this card I stamped the coffee pot on pink with black ink, then I stamped it on white with black ink, each time paper piercing it out and then I stamped it on white with pink ink. After I finished the card I thought perhaps I should've cut out the handles on the mugs too... oh well. I'm using the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch and the Off the Wall Craftiness colors (Kim, please forgive me when I say again that these are not my colors, yet I keep making cards for you...). I'll also enter this in Hero Arts July food challenge. Did you guys know that those lovely Hero Arts hostesses are awesome at commenting on cards? They blow me away... every time. Thanks gals.

Materials: Hero Arts coffee pot and mug stamps, Hero Arts dot background stamp, PTI sentiment, Stampin Up purple & pink card stock, teal scrap card stock, Fiskars rotary scallop cutter, versamark, Stampin Up pink passion ink, teal ink from Spotlight, Stampin Up black ink

Stripped Enjoy the Day

I made another card like this one last week and I liked it so much I sent it away. So best to make another one for my card stash. I tried the caravan (or trailer for some of you) in a number of different colors on different colored card stock, I tried cutting it out as a circle and then I tried paper piercing it, the whole process took awhile. I finally left the card to sit in pieces on my messy craft table and revisited it in the morning. So you will probably see the other inked trailers in some other form soon, because I've got a half dozen of them all waiting for the perfect home. I've used the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch and I've used a Hero Arts sentiment so I'll enter it in their July travel challenge.

Materials: Paper Source trailer stamp, Verscolor blue ink, Hero Arts sentiment, Versacolor white ink, Kazzo Kids Blue Stripe paper, green & blue card stock from Ben Franklin, white gel pen, Fiskars rotary scallop cutter

Red coffee card

This card uses the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch. I was trying to do a summery food card and it wasn't working, so I went back to my standard fall back- coffee cards. I love how the woodgrain looks stamped in white, might have to try that again. I'm going to enter this in the Hero Arts July challenge, which is food. Coffee counts as food right?

Materials: Stampin Up Red Riding Hood card stock, black paper, vellum, Dawn Hauser for Inkadinkado coffee stamp, Hero Arts sentiment, W Plus 9 woodgrain stamp, Hero Arts dot background stamp, Versacolor white ink, Stampin Up black ink, Making Memories mini eyelets (which are seriously not worth the trouble, they're soooo hard to work with), white gel pen

Patriotic Card

This patriotic card is based on the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch. There are a number of 4th of July themed challenges at the moment,Paper Cutz, ABC Design Blog, Wee Memories, Pals Paper Arts and Diva Stamper.

Materials: Card stock from various scrap piles, red ribbon, Fiskars rotary scallop cutter, Stampin Up Circle punch, Paper Source circle punch, Joilee's embelishment, Karl corner rounder

Quality of Coffee quote card

If you can't read the quote it says "The powers of man's mind are directly proportional to the quality of coffee he drank" by Sir Jesse McKintosh.

I have to admit that my first attempt for this sketch didn't work at all. And then after a bit of playing around I put these pieces together and I really like this version. The sketch is from 2 Sketches 4 You. The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge said to use a quote. The Just Us Girls Challenge said use something digital. (The quote is from a free digi kit on Two Peas and A Bucket, click here to download it.).

Materials: Inkadinkado Dawn Houser Coffee cup stamp, Brenda Walton for Inkadinkado frame stamp, My Mindy's Eye Kaleidoscope paper, vellum, black ink, Stampin Up scallop punch (trimed), Wilna Furstenberg Digi Kit Cupcakes and Coffee for the quote, Chocolate Chip card stock, black paper

Rome

A simple card using a vintage Cavallini & Co sticker. This uses this week's 2 Sketches 4 You sketch and the travel theme for Papertrey Peeps. I'd love to go explore Rome's streets...

3 Flowers

I have been trying to come up with an idea for this week's 2 Sketches 4 You challenge all week and I keep drawing blanks. I finally decided I'd give another go at Susan's Simplicity Challenge of repetition using these fabulous W Plus 9 stamps. All in all I'm happy with this version, but I will be truthful and say that it took several attempts!

Materials: W Plus 9 stamps, eyelet setter for the whole, versamark pen for coloring with VersaColor inks

2 Sketches 4 You- Flower card

A very clean and simple card for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge this week. Tried to use my W Plus 9 stamps b/c they're sponsoring the challenges, but decided to stick to the trio of stamps I had on the desk. I think I'll try this card again and maybe add a few more layers to it... but in the mean time I'm off to do the preschool pick up.

Bicycle card- 2 Sketches 4 You

I have been busy entertaining this week and haven't had the time to make as many cards (I think I might be going through withdrawal symptoms). This card is from the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge. I thought it was a good exercise for me b/c I don't have a large circle scallop punch, so my little brain got stretched a bit. I'm not going to post the rejects, but I'm happy with this version.

Materials: Hero Arts stamp, Stampin up oval punch, Fiskars cutter, very cool Thai paper from my trip to Thailand, pink Stampin Up cardstock and a random white piece of paper from the scraps bag and pink and red scraps. I can't remember how I colored in the flowers in the bicycle.

2 Sketches 4 You- Thank you Card

I'm not sure about this one... I used the sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You and made a rather colorful thank you card. Stamps: Hero Arts and Inkadinkado, Stampin Up Round Circle Punch, Velum and circle paper that I can't remember where I got it from.