Project: A hoot of a little owl card for Sketch Saturday

This week it's the 5th Saturday at Sketch Saturday which means you can pick a sketch from 215-506 and go to town!

I decided sketch 498 was just up my street and suited the image from our sponsor crafty Sentiments Designs perfectly. I chose Hootie - Rain rain go away. I do love an owl image! I loved the idea of making it very light and cheerful so I stuck with a yellow theme. I colored the image using ProMarkers and then die cut it using a stitched circle and added glitter glue to the rain. The patterned paper has been in my collection for a very long time and I'd never used it. I decided now was the time. The sentiment was stamped using a banner stamp and then fussy cut. The sentiment actually comes from a Hero Arts set and I thought it suited the image perfectly.

I originally left the right column white but it looked half done. The kraft stock made it look more intentional and I think the yellow pops more as a result.

Hope the sketch challenge inspires you to have some fun this week!

Project: A pickle card for MAWTT

Sometimes the card-making gods want you to have a great time in your craft room. This week at Moving Along with the Times we hope you find our food and drink theme inspiration to have a silly time as well! I decided out of all my wine/cocktail/martini stamps to go for food, and ignoring all my cake stamps was hard. But I LOVE this Big Dill stamp and decided he was perfect for our challenge. 

And, as I'm all about making things hard on myself I decided to go sketch shopping at The Paper Players: 

I started with the stamped image and colored it with ProMarkers then used the matching dies. The sentiment is part of the set and I stamped it directly on a die cut hexagon. I cut little black banners at the top and made them shorter - I tried them long but they were too distracting for the busyness of the paper and image so I cut them so they come off the top. I drew a border with a marker pen and a ruler. I tried adding string but decided it was too much. 

What a fun little card, I was just really pleased to get my mojo going as I've been a bit too distracted to do a proper project lately. But this was a hoot. I hope you join us for a MAWTT bit of fun! 

Project: A foxy card for Sketch Saturday

I have been on a bit of a mission to use more of my patterned papers this year and so the sketch this week at Sketch Saturday is perfect for a strong featured background.

Our sponsor this week is Oddball Art Co and I loved this little Mr Sweets the Fox image. I colored him with ProMarkers and then die cut out the oval. I added a touch of glitter glue to the heart and some Wink of Stella shimmer to the tail. The sentiment is an ancient one from my stash, must be at least 3 or 4 years now.

The little border details are a grey satin ribbon and some plastic red gems. The paper came from a set from Claire. I had added a few more touches but I took them off - gotta know when to call it quits and leave the project alone!

Hope you enjoy the sketch and play along! x

Project 464: A sweet 1st birthday card

My niece's birthday is coming up and I decided early on to make her an owl card. I have given her a lot of owl gifts and books and decided that it would be perfect to match this with her birthday present.

I chose a Unity Stamp Co image that is 2 years old (maybe 3?) and I loved the challenge at Retro Rubber - the sketch was perfect for a cheerful kid's card:

The owl is heat embossed on a white circle (in hindsight I think it's too big and I should probably have cut it down smaller) and then I added some punched balloons with hand-drawn strings. I added the blingy 1 for my niece as well. The backing paper is from my stash - I've had it for years and years and thought it was really fun for the card. The sentiment is die cut from a Sizzix set.

I love that little owl, I think it will go so well with the little owl gift I have planned for her present :)

Project: An early Christmas card for Sketch Saturday

This week at Sketch Saturday we have a fun little sketch for you. I love that it was designed by my buddy Claire as well :)

Our sponsor is Fabrika Fantasy and I've featured the Skating Dog stamp - too cute right? I decided that as we're getting to the end of winter I wanted to save him for Christmas. I die cut him out on a spotted rectangle die and colored him with ProMarkers. I used a touch of glitter glue on his hat though can't really see it in the photo.

The sentiment is a new one from Claire - she got it in the post-Christmas sale - and I thought it went well with the cheerful image. I added some spotted ribbon for a bit more texture and plain colors for the vertical stripes.

Such a fun challenge, I hope you play along!

Project: A rainbow texture paste card for MAWTT

I absolutely LOVE our rainbow challenge at Moving Along with the Times this week. I decided to do something a bit artsy and I loved where I ended up. I used a big block stripe stencil to create my rainbow with Distress Oxides.

I then used a cloud stencil with white texture paste to create the clouds. I went over them a few times and I liked the texture being a bit irregular. I had to be very careful to make sure the clouds were fairly consistent as the thin initial layers were too transparent and didn't look white enough. The sentiment is one I got second hand and I think it works so well with the layout.

I wanted to keep everything else simple - I tried bling and glitter and all sorts of things but decided clean was the best way.

Hope the challenge inspires your entries as well!