Sweet n Sassy Stamps Sketch 224 play time

Yikes! Has it really been a year since I posted anything on here?!?!  I've gotten spoiled using SCS to upload cards made for challenges to quickly link up minutes before their deadline, the rare moments I do play these days.  Well, I'll try to do a quick post & hopefully get back in the groove of writing here!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps posts weekly sketches on their The Sweet Stop blog.  I always hope to play along but the week seems to fly by. Next thing I know they're posting another one!  This time I had started a card for one of their monthly stamp release challenges and didn't finish it in time (due last Fri night).  Saturday morning they had a new sketch posted so I used it as my inspiration to finish the card.  Otherwise it would end up being added to the growing pile of bits & pieces of unfinished stuff...  This sketch also had a spin to use sunflowers, so to fulfill that part of the challenge I had to make another card! And finish & post them before the next challenge, whew!

Here's the sketch I used:

It's been dark, cloudy & rainy here these past few days, so the pictures are not great at showing the true colors. Here's my first card:

Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps-Landscape Silhouettes, Be Encouraged           Paper: DCWV

The paper was cut from a big scrapbook sheet that had a big swirl of sparkle, so no particular shape but I thought it added something here. :) 

Here's my second card using the sketch & Sunflowers:

Stamp: Penny Black             Paper: DCWV              Ink: Tombo Markers, TH Distress Ink

Other: Cuttlebug EF Leafy Branch, hole punch, Sakura Stardust pen, Glossy Accents

I colored - thumping & mixing colors, directly on the rubber stamp with markers, stamping & repeat until I got the image I liked.  (only took 3 tries, whew!)  Since I didn't have brads or other embellishments I liked for this I made my own brad-looking ones.  I used the green paper (yes, it's really green, looks better in real life) of the banner, hole punched circles, colored with the Stardust pen to add sparkle, then covered with Glossy Accents (the not so fun part - fighting with small circles & sticky glue, grrrr).  Once the glaze was dry  I was able to stick them on the card.  The smart thing to do would have been to stick the hole punched circles to the card before coloring & adding the glaze...but I didn't know for sure I would use them until I saw them finished....not to mention I didn't think of this till just now, while typing this (roll eyes, sigh)...

Thanks for looking!  Off to do the many things that keep me from posting here. Like sleep, for now :)