Project: Fairies and bugs for Sketch Saturday

This is one of the first times I've played along and got to play with my own sketch. Hilariously it's one of the hardest sketches I've ever played. Oy vey.

So this is what I came up with - after a few attempts I should add! I kept the sketch the same but played on a landscape layout as I struggled with the portrait approach. The image is from Paper Shelter, our sponsor this week, and I colored her with ProMarkers. Because she's a bit ethereal and sweet I decided to play with that and use some fun bug stanps. The bugs are from a little stamp set I got in a sale years ago, and I love how much color and weird perspective they bring. I added a little Tim Holtz sticker for the sentiment. and then die cut it so I could get a little dotted border.

Hopefully you like playing along with it as well!

Project: Texture cards for MAWTT

This week at Moving Along with the Times we have a fun challenge featuring texture. I played a lot with this but ultimately decided on a really fun (and girly!) card featuring three types of texture: foiled paper, layered dies and a big pop-up embellishment.

The foiled  spotted paper was a freebie from Crop on the Cape this year and I layered it against hot pink. The die cut sentiment is a Sizzix set and I thought the pink on its own wasn't standing out so I layered it over a black die cut and really like the shadow effect. Finally these incredible flamingos are from Claire from Paper Source. Aren't they too much fun?! This card is making me smile with how sweet and yet weirdly sophisticated it is.

Hope it provides some inspiration for you this week!

Project: Strawberry girl scrap card

I often color two images when I'm doing a DT make because I like to be prepared if I need to try something different after I've committed something down. I loved the image from Star Stampz and wanted to use the duplicate I had colored for Sketch Saturday.

I used a scrap of gingham paper as it's super summery and cheerful and fit with my spirit of using the duplicates/scraps on my desk. The blue background was already die cut so I cut the image in the smaller nested circle so it would work.

I chose a green background paper to pull the color out from the colouring and I love the way the gingham looked against it. And it's extra pleasing as everything was a scrap so it feels almost like recycling.

Project: Patterned paper simple thanks set

A really simple post today! I am going to be seeing my sister and mom soon and I like to give them little card sets when I see them, trying new or different things each time as they are happy guinea pigs of my designs!

I have all of these gorgeous busy-patterned papers that can be hard to work with in cards unless you make them the hero. I decided to pick some of my favorite prints from a set I got at Crop on the Cape and cut out 4 papers for each set. I used scraps on my desk and blended them in Distress Ink to get the rich mustard color that I could cut the sentiment from.

I die cut the sentiments and realised that the busy candy print needed a strip of white to support it against the busy paper. But otherwise these are super simple and modern and I think they will love them.

Project: Unicorns and dinosaur new kit

Claire gave me some amazing new stamps this week and I had to play with them straight away. The hero is this dinosaur on roller skates and the funniest little sentiments came with it. I tried a few layouts but decided the one you see here was the best. I blended a scrap of white paper with Distress Ink and them stamped on top in Distress Oxide for a chalky finish, and die cut him out.

The graph paper is actually a scrap and I thought it was perfect to give this a bit more masculinity. The 'Roar!' works well on the graph as you can see it through the text and to enhance the look I did a hand-drawn border around the card to make it look more intentional and not like it as too small a background sheet (which is kind of what it was...)

Now for some unicorns. This sentiment is too much fun - it actually says 'I am a unicorn (for reals)' but I masked that because I thought it was stronger without it. For a sense of scale, this is a 3x3 mini square and I wanted to make sure the unicorn die fit above the sentiment. The image is a Lawn Fawn Christmas set (if you'll believe it) and I had already stamped and die cut a few from last year's Christmas assembly line. I colored the accents and added a Wink of Stella.

The background is blended Distress Oxide. I tried a few variants as you can see in these, I think I like the pink and yellow the best. I also tried colouring in the letters of the sentiment or accenting them with shimmer but decided that the plain version was the best.

These are such fun additions to my kit, I'm kind of surprised I was able to do anything else as I stayed at my desk nearly the full weekend!

Project: Summery strawberry card for Sketch Saturday

I have to say I absolutely love the sponsor this week at Sketch Saturday, Star Stampz. This strawberry image just filled me with joy. And I knew it would work brilliantly in this week's sketch:

This lovely image got colored with ProMarkers and then cut out in an oval. The sentiment is an old one and I thought it would work well with this cheerful little image. I went for a gingham paper as I thought nothing is like a summery gingham - and it reminds me of a strawberry jam top. I didn't do much else - I added a lovely little flower for texture to complete the sketch -I tried a button but it was too twee. This is just right. I hope you have fun playing along!