SSS228 Fall Playful Kitty

A fun sketch from The Sweet Stop

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-Pumpkin Kitty, Be Encouraged      Paper-DCWV Fall Stack    

Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, TH Distress Ink Dusty Concord     Other: Spellbinders-Squares, Prismacolor Pencils

The full image of the stamp used here is a kitty popping out of a pumpkin.  I carefully inked the head, paws & tail to stamp in various positions on the squares.  I stamped a couple of extra images on scrap, one to use as a mask to sponge the background purple to match the fall paper.  The 2nd was to cut out the tiny paws to glue on the center square, like he's holding onto the edge.  Since this wasn't intended to be a Halloween card, with the typical black cat, I left the kitty white, adding touches of color with pencils. Quick & easy, compared to coloring a black cat anyway!  Hmmm, could this be considered a contra-Halloween card? White cat, "be not afraid", with the cheery color combo?!  Or a just a fall colored kitty card?  I did stamp the full image of the kitty in the pumpkin on the inside of the card. I think he's cute. :)

SSS227 Trust in the Lord

Another fun sketch from The Sweet Stop

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-Landscape Silhouettes, Our Refuge        Paper: K&Company super stack   

 Ink: TH Distress Ink-Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot, Versafine-Black Onyx  

Other:  Spellbinders-Circles, SU-Square punch

Blue Poppies and The Sea

WhooHoo. I got 2 1/2 cards made this past week.  My neighbor grows blue poppies, they're almost 3 feet tall!  They were my inspiration to color a couple of  my digi poppy images from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps  and I used this week's sketch from The Sweet Stop SSS225  for one of them.  (The other blue poppy card is not finished yet.) 

I love how it turned out with this color combo!  (You can click on the image to make it bigger.)

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-Poppies (digi), Our Daily Bread Designs-Crochet Border    

Ink: TH Distress Ink-Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Antique Linen     Paper: K&Company, DCWV     

Other:  Prisma Colored Pencils, Sponge daubers, Seam Binding, water spritzer. Spellbinders-Ovals, 

Floral Oval dies, ODBD-Crochet Border die, Bow Easy

I used TH Distress Ink pads in Salty Ocean & Faded Jeans to dye the seam binding the shade I wanted it.  It was fun to do & I had blue fingers for almost 2 days. :)  Yes, I could have, and probably should have, used a baggie or a plastic glove on my hand but I was too lazy (?) to go down to the kitchen to get one. Well, more like impatient to get on with the fun!  The next day I received a few comments about my 3 dark blue finger tips from co-workers (You didn't get that from gardening...no that would be a green thumb, this here's a blue one, from inking! haha Huh?!), from an auto parts store clerk (like he hasn't seen filthy hands, well, just not blue ones) & from my hubby (They look dirtier than mine after working on my truck, use a scrubber like I do! Really?).

I had worked on this card over several days, and was finishing it up Thursday morning.  My hubby was packing up to go off to work for a few weeks and I had a few hours until we needed to head into the airport.  He called up to me, "are you working on a card for me?!"  Umm, hmm, "Nooo, I'm finishing up another card", I replied as tinges of guilt creep in, helped by his "ohhh" response. Thoughts running through my head: I didn't make him an anniversary card last week, and now he's taking off for a few weeks; he says he likes it when I leave him a note in his bag, which I haven't done in months (?)...oh boy... So I grabbed some stamps, think quick but don't overthink, or nothing will get made!  My inspiration - he's going to be on a ship at sea in the far north (tho not a sail boat like the image I used).  This is what I came up with, and handed to him as I chased him out the door to the waiting vehicle.  Wheewww!  Love ya dear!

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-The Sea      Ink: Versamark, TH Distress ink-Stormy Sea, Antique Linen     

Other:  Judi kins Embossing Powder-Lapis Lazuli (image), Ranger Super Fine Detail EP Black (sentiment) , sponge daubers

The JudiKins EP "Lapis Lazuli" is a mix of a dark blue & a bronze colored powder.  I hadn't used that EP in years and I wasn't sure what look to expect using it with this silhouette image. I just jumped in & tried it, no hours of hesitation....and, well, it gives it an interesting look!  I added a little sponging (maybe not enough) and called it good.  More like hubby called it time to go, so done it was!  

Cards

Here's a few cards I made back in July.

Using the above Sweet Stop sketch from July 6 I made the butterfly card below.  It was an experiment stamping the line image on the bold floral print.  As it is with experiments, sometimes when I look at it I like it, other times not so much. :)

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy-Butterfly Flourish, Inkadinkado-Creative Words set    Ink: VersaFine Black   

Paper: ki memories, DCWV    Other:  Spellbinders-Wonky Rectangles die,   Cuttlebug EF-Cane Back Chair, 

Black EP,   Flowers-JoAnn's & Bazzillbasics, flower brad

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Next, is the card I made for this Flourishes July Release Challenge - It's Sketchy  with this sketch and a window of any shape.  Most people made a window card (image stamped inside) so I went for something a little different, (more literal ?) using my new window dies from Memory Box!

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

Ink: TH Distress Ink- Tea Dye (brick EF), Versafine-Vintage Sepia (sentiment)       

Other: Sizzix EF Brick Wall; Memory Box Dies-Small Madison Window, Small Flower Box, 

Fairytale Flower Border; MS Branch punch; Clear plastic- repurposed packaging; Stickles 

I inked the brick ef to help it show up on the patterned paper. You almost can't really tell what the original paper looked like now (it would be the embossed color tho it doesn't look quite the same) but I like the effect! Behind the window frame is pale yellow cardstock, then vellum, topped with clear plastic. Yes, cutting through all those layers to place it in the corner of the card was a pain!  The MB Fairytale Flower Border die was used with green, yellow & red cardstock.  The colored flowers were snipped & glued onto the green die cut, then the green cut apart and arranged in the flower box. I thought it would save me work to do it this way rather than use separate punches or other small dies, but I'm not so sure anymore! 

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This next one is a wedding card for a gal at work.  Her favorite color is pink, followed by anything camo.  I really wanted to do something in pink camo but it didn't seem to work for me. Her girls wore pink dresses and her wedding bands have beautiful silver sparkle so for her card I went with pink & silver, simple style with alittle sparkle.

Stamps: Stampin'Up-Soft Swirls, Penny Black sentiment    Ink: Ranger Acrylic Paint dauber-Silver, Versafine-black, Versamark     Paper: echo park-Love Story pink    Other: Tim Holtz ideology Grunge Paper, Spellbinders Hearts die, eksucess corner rounder punch, Recollections Sparkle EP-Clear Silver, KaiserCraft-large pearl brad, 

pink flowers, Stickles, Offray ribbon

The heart was die cut from the grunge paper, (like light weight cardboard with a soft, velvety texture on one side) then coated with silver acrylic paint. I think coating that soft texture gives it some depth vs. using smooth cardboard. I added Stickles to the flowers & around the brad to add more sparkle.

Off to finish up another card!

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 :)

SSS171 and SNSDC66 Purple Poppies

The Sweet n' Sassy Digi Challenge for Friday is to use Greens & Purples with digital images and here's the  Saturday Sketch.  Not having much time or creative energy to make multiple cards, I combined them again this week!

After looking at images on the computer, I colored the Purple Poppies digi-stamp with pencils. Purple poppies do exist!  Not that it mattered that much but I was curious otherwise all I could think of were purple pansies but I didn't have a digi stamp of pansies!  Back to the card, the purple oval & the heart button are popped up with foam tape.  I typed the "Happy Birthday!" in a Word document using the Curlz font and carefully printed it out (took 2 tries) on the patterned paper, then cut & curved it into a banner.

Stamps: SNSS Poppies digi stamp

Paper: DCWV

Accessories: Prisma pencils, Spellbinders Classic Oval dies, Cuttlebug EF Floral Fantasy, ribbon, Dress It Up silver heart button

SSS170 and SNSDC65 Challenges with Rhubarb Bear

Yes, a Christmas card in August!  I made this card to cover 2 challenges from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  The Aug 3rd Friday Digi Challenge SNSDC65 was "Beary Special", to use bear image or elements, and digi stamps.  Below is the Aug 4th Saturday sketch SSS170 that I used.

The image is Rhubarb's Gingerbread Man, one of  Rhubarb the Teddy Bear images available as a stamp and as the digi image I downloaded from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  He's colored with Tombow markers with alittle glaze pen touch on his nose & on the cookie's decorations.  The bow is made from white seam binding that I dyed with Ranger TH Distress Ink pads.  I started with Peeled Paint, it was too yellow so I added Pine Needles but that was too dark & bluish.  I dabbed some of it off with a damp paper towel and it didn't look too bad wet, at 12:30 at night under a spotlight, in an otherwise dark room.  But this is the shade I awoke to when it had dried.  Back to the yellowish tinge yet edged with the darker green.  Kinda cool yet not quite the shade I wanted here.  It's looking a bit brighter in the picture above then it looks in real life, I think....  It was fun, and it took a little more than a day of washing my hands to get the green off my skin.  Next time maybe I'll remember to use plastic baggies on my hands or something. : )

Stamps: SNSS Rhubarb's Gingerbread Man digi, ODBD - sentiment

Paper: DCWV

Ink: VersaFine-Sepia, TH Distress Ink-Peeled Paint & Pine Needles to dye seam binding, Tombow Markers

Accessories: White Seam Binding, Glaze pens, brads, Spellbinders Oval, CB EF Distressed stripes

SSS168 Sweet n' Sassy Sketch & SNSDC62 Digi Challenge

In between cleaning projects I was able to make another card this weekend. Still have much cleaning to do, tho not absolutely necessary...(right?!).  My inlaws are coming to visit for a few weeks, we pick them up at the airport tomorrow night.   I picked up hubby at the airport tonight, he went straight to bed after being up almost 30 hrs! So here I am, in the quiet of the night, posting pics of a sketch challenge & digi challenge card I made last night. :)  I had hoped I could make a more Christmas-y card for the Digi Challenge - Christmas creations, but I don't think that's going to happen this week so I'm using this card for both challenges.

Here's my card using the sketch and Sweet Cocoa Mouse digi-stamp from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  Sweet n' Sassy Stamps is celebrating Christmas in July with some new pre-releases, a sale ('til July 25), a clear stamp blog hop and a Digi-stamp blog hop.  That put me in the mood to do a winter theme card for the sketch this week!  I had originally cut the image as a square but I didn't like how my coloring of the background was going so I cut her out completely and popped her up here!  Wow, these papers are still kind of overwhelming to me, not my usual style but thought I'd give it a try. The papers are from an old DCWV Winter set.

From this angle you can see that I used Glaze pens on the candy cane (over the marker coloring), a white Souffle pen on the little marshmallows, a StarDust pen on the mug flakes and Glossy Accents on the rim, base & handle of the mug!