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!

Project 463: A country-walk inspired card

A colleague asked if I would make a card as a thank you for a weekend stay in the country. Specifically they wanted a card that was country-inspired without featuring too many flowers or animals.

The headline card was the one inspired by the brief. I used two magazine freebies to create the tree and fence scene which I heat embossed in black. I blended the background after die cutting the rectangle to make it a bit more atmospheric, I added the sentiment and birds using dye ink instead of embossing as I wanted the textures to be different. The touch of string was to add texture though truthfully I don't love it now!

This was another card I was just playing around with on my desk and it doesn't really work with the brief (too flowery) but I do like the simplicity. I die cut the tree and used distress ink to get the color and texture. I added these sweet little flowers that I got at Michael's just after christmas. I was going to add them to a square but decided the hexagon was a bit more modern. The thank you is also a magazine freebie.

A fun little session and a good mid-week brief.

Project 462: A celebration sketch card

I saw the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches this week and thought it would be a fun one at my desk.

I remembered the champagne bottle die and thought it would be a good one for the big shape. Gosh I forgot how fussy that die is! I used thicker card, a black glittery stock that I had a final scrap of in my stash. I ended up having to use a fair amount of scalpel cutting to get it to come away, and I put it through the machine a good few times. Still. It makes an impact.

For the left hand side I used a diamond stencil that was new from my birthday present from Claire. I used distress ink to get the color variance. The little oval tag features a sentiment that is ancient in my stash.

With the fussy cut of the die, this ended up taking a lot longer than expected. But never mind, it's still a fun card for the challenge!

Project 461: Masked blending animal cards

I had a play at my desk this weekend and decided to make a very card for a good friend. They both feature some masked blended features and fussy cut components. The headline features two stamp sets, the sentiment and rocket are from one set that is over 4 years old. The planet admittedly  was a new gift from Claire this Christmas. I heat embossed them, coloured them using Gelatos and a water brush and then fussy cut them out. I masked a circle and used Distress Oxides in two colours to get the space sky. I splattered it with water drops to give it bleached stars and then added actual stars to make it a bit more bright and cheerful.

Because of all the little dots and circles I thought I would enter it in the Retro Rubber blog challenge this week.

I had the chance to make another little card so I include this here as a bonus. I saw this Pinterest post and even though I lacked a panda stamp I thought it would be simple enough to try and draw. It's not my best freehand work but I think it's playful enough to be ok. I masked a stripe and used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink to make it nice and bright. I used a sentiment from Stampin' Up that is a couple of years old now. Maybe 3? The banner was stamped and then fussy cut out. I added little stars from the same Stampin' Up set. The little detail on the border of the die actually makes it fit the spots and dots theme as well which is a happy accident!