Project 136: Double (and double) craft buddy challenges

I have been secretly working for the last few weeks on some crafts that Claire has set me. Every few weeks we like to set each other challenges so that we can pretend we're having face to face craft playdates and give us an excuse (not that we need it) to have a Skype chat.

The first cards address these challenges:

 And here is my first take, very true to sketch:

 

I gotta say, it's cute, the colors and everything are pretty much spot on but it's busy and I'm just not sure. I love that fan/leaf (not sure?) paper in the background, it's from the cherry blossom Recollecions set. Just not sure about the finished piece 

So I decided to revisit the sketch, choose just two colors and deconstruct the sketch so it was just a panel on the right, a big shape and some banners. And that's how I arrived at the headline card. The purple paper is from Chronology by Do Crafts, the bicycle is a stamp and die set from Sizzix and the banners all feature these micro geetings Claire and I found somewhere ages ago. Such a big fan of this card. 

Now this challenge was actually from a scrapbook layout and Claire said she wanted me to try it/kill me if I managed to do something with it. Challenge accepted. 

I had to break away from the color scheme for it, but I think I got there:

 I had a revelation at some completely inappropriate moment at work when I actually said out loud, "I could use little flowers instead of papers!" Cue rushing back and working it out using green and blue flowers in place of the little checks. The stamp and sentiment are both Little Claire and I love how it's come together.

After this challenge, I was SO UNWELL (food poisoning absolutely leveled me for 3 days. bright side was I lost 4 pounds but itw as not worth it) so we couldn't catch up as planned. We decided to add another layer of challenges and go through all of them back to back.

This time, instead of sketches and color ways we went for "In the style of..." so you could use a finished card as inspiration and go from there. First up: this card: 

My take: 

 I "watermarked" the paper with a set of heart stamps using a colour just darker than the card stock. I punched 2 Woodware punch hearts, a plain and a pattern, and layered them with a mini heart that Claire had punched for me ages ago. I used bakers twine to further case the card sample and then added a stamped greeting. I didn't intend to make more than one but after the first I thought it would work really well in different colors and decided to make a little set of them:

 

My sister commissioned a bunch of sets so this is definitely going into the mix for her collection! 

Next up was this card to case: 

And my take: 

I stuck pretty closely to the sketch on this one because I really wanted to use these cool vintage-patterned paper flowers I bought at Michael's over Thanksgiving in a Black Friday sale.

I used a damask pale yellow paper on the top half (which I have always struggled to use but loved too much to get rid of) and then the bottom is from a Chronology set by Do Crafts. The border is actually a tape that I bought years ago and the greeting is from the first sentiment stamp set I ever got. It feels like a real throw-back, classic layout but with some nicer kit to top it.

All in all, super busy but I loved every minute of it - and on Friday we get to have a real life playdate. So. Excited.