A Day Ahead of Schedule...

Two quick cards today, both based on this week's Clean And Simple (CAS) challenge, which was to use the colors pink, white, and celery green on a clean-and-simple style card.

The first card came together in a flash, because I had an "outtake" of my color blocked card from last week's CAS challenge sitting on my desk, and it had pink and green color blocks.  I again stamped the dress form and sentiment that I used on my other recent card, added some pink and green background paper and layered all onto a white card.  Bazinga!

I dug into my drawer of paper scraps for the next card and found some delicate looking striped and floral paper in white (well, cream), celery and pink.  They looked a little lonely floating on the big white card so I added another layer of a celery green paper that has a subtle texture design, which made the prints work better.  Keeping it simple, I stamped the text with a Michael's dollar bin stamp using Colorbox pink pigment and embossed with clear powder.  It made the image show up much better and even "pop" a little.  I layered the sentiment onto a slightly darker green scrap, and finished off with a dollar store flower held together with a Making Memories pink flower brad.

Pretty happy with the end results of both cards, and it always feels good to use up scraps and "out-takes"!
Thanks for looking!

More Challenges!

I am continuing to be inspired and motivated by the challenges that appear daily on Splitcoaststampers.  Yesterday I took on the Featured Stamper challenge.  This is where one member of Splitcoaststampers is named the "Featured Stamper" for the week, and the challenge is to view that person's gallery and pick a card to use as an inspiration for your card.  Unlike some of the challenges, the connection to the inspiration has to be pretty strong because you are supposed to describe exactly what you changed from the Featured Stamper's card onto your own.

This week's Featured Stamper is Kim Hahn, AKA Luv Flowers.  She has posted over 900 creations on the site!  It took me awhile to figure out which card I wanted to use as my inspiration but I enjoyed going through the gallery while I was deciding.

This is the card I made:

I used the same basic structure as my inspiration card, but substituted a different color scheme and used a flower sticker rather than a stamp.  The "stitches" around the sticker are actually rub-ons (Doodlebug Designs).  I got to hit the stash for several stickers that I had been wanting to use:  the flower sticker is a "Softly Spoken" design from Me and My Big Ideas; the definition sticker is from Making Memories, and the small chipboard button and heart are from Crate Paper.  The background paper is from Basic Grey's Cupcake line.  I love the paper that looks like cookie or icing sprinkles.

This card is also a birthday card for our niece who turns 17 (ack!  it seems like only yesterday she was a toddler jumping on the bed to wake me up!) this week, and who is definitely a "Delight"!

A second card came together from one of those serendipitous moments when several pieces of paper or embellishment end up in a pile together and show a combination that I never would have thought of on my own:

 In this case, a scrap of gold-foiled Valentine's Day paper from Sandy Lion ended up on top of sheets of red and blue background paper from that Basic Grey Cupcake pad.  Dark red with tomato red?  Blue on a Valentine's Day card?  But I kept looking at it and playing with it and decided I really liked it.  Then I realized the piece of Valentine paper didn't need any further addition of sentiments as the paper happened to have been cut in a way that put "Love Thinking of You" right in the center of the piece.  I added three metallic gold paper hearts from Jolee's, popped up on mounting tape, and called it done.  I especially like that one heart forming an end to the spiral of gold foiling on the paper.  Super easy card that looks like it took more effort than it did--gotta love those!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Clean and Simple and Inspiration Challenges

My most recent cards were inspired by challenges over on Splitcoaststampers.  Yesterday was the "Clean and Simple" (referring to design style) challenge.  We were challenged to use a card by Loll Thompson as a sketch/inspiration for making a color-blocked background.  Here is Loll's card:

And here are the two I made:

The first used a stamp by SavvyStamps as the background.  I stamped it 3 times in light rose ink, then stamped the Inkadinkado dress form over it in brown, and finished with the word stamp, also from Inkadinkado.

I layered this onto a piece of brown cardstock and punched the corners, then used mounting tape to layer it on top of some of the pink and pink and brown plaid pattern papers I have been using like crazy lately.  I really had to remind myself that the idea is to be "clean and simple" and hold off on adding more and more embellishments.  It looked a little unfinished to me at first, but has grown on me until I really like it!

For the second card I experimented with sponging ink through a stencil to form my background.  I initially had a vague idea of some sort of tiki/fruity drink theme inspired by the stencil shape, but realized that the color went perfectly with a Christmas sticker I had and hadn't been able to figure out anything to do with, so it became a Christmas card!  I applied the sticker over the background, layered that onto some green cardstock and added light green eyelets at the corner.  It didn't look quite right alone on the card, so I went back into my scrap drawer and found some blue cardstock that complemented the blues and greens from the sticker perfectly, and really set the card off.   I will be revisiting the CAS challenges soon, I really liked having to pare down a bit and make a simpler card.

Today I tried the Inspiration challenge.  Every Saturday the challenge moderator posts a website with some kind of art or design elements, and the challenge is to pick something on the site as an inspiration and make a card based on it.  It's very open, so you can make a card using a similar color scheme, or design shape, or anything reflecting some aspect of the inspiration piece.

Today's inspiration site is Land of Nod, which is a subsidiary of Crate and Barrel specializing in decor and items for babies' and kids' rooms.   I found so much inspiration it was very difficult to narrow it down!  But this pull toy caught my eye:

and reminded me that I have had a sheet of stickers featuring pull toys for ages that I have been meaning to make a baby card with.  Today was the day!

The stickers are from Frances Meyer.  I stuck them to card stock and used an X-acto knife to cut them out so they had a little more sturdiness to them.  Since they are pretty large, I decided to go with a 7.5" by 4.25" inch long card.  I layered dotted patterned paper onto the card, then added the striped paper, layered onto plain yellow cardstock for some contrast.  Finally I used mounting tape to stick the three pull toy stickers on, which gave the card some dimension while making a place for me to stick the purple fiber that connects the three toys into a little baby-welcoming parade.  I finished it off with the sentiment, also from Savvystamps.  So glad I finally used these stickers!

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

Card Patterns #148 Purple Valentine

I frequently find card inspirations from something that doesn't turn out quite right.  I will make a background or focal piece or embellishment for a card and end up setting it aside, and when I rediscover it, it will inspire a card of its own to better suit it.

That's what happened in this case.  I stamped the Rubber Stampede heart in Adirondack eggplant ink, and added some bluish-purple glitter glue.  Once it all dried, it didn't seem right for the card I was working on (though in the end, nothing turned out well on that card, as you can see in yesterday's entry).  So I set it aside and when I came to putter at my table this morning, it had ended up on a partial sheet of purple background paper that went well with it.  But that was all I had, not enough for a complete card yet.

Searching for inspiration, I came across the CardPatterns blog and its most recent sketch challenge, Sketch 148.  The purple background paper was perfect for the 4-strip background, and cutting it apart with another layer underneath broke up the monotony of the background alone.  I ended up not following the sketch precisely because the rest of the embellishments didn't quite work for my design (putting the flower by the heart kept looking like a barette or flower behind the ear somehow).  But I loved the sketch and loved having my unloved little glittery heart from yesterday's session get redeemed on its own card that fits so much better:

As mentioned, the stamped image is Rubber Stampede.  I think this is the first heart-shaped stamp I ever bought and it still seems to be my go-to Valentine's image!  I don't know the origins of the various papers in the layers except for the bottom piece, which is a watercolor-look floral from Keeping Memories Alive/Simple Expressions.  While it made a good background here, I will have to find a way to put this gorgeous paper front and center on another card soon!

The trim (Trimtex) came from the aisle in Hobby Lobby where they sell the paints and bling for customizing t-shirts and bags and the like.  If I look hard enough, I can find something for my paper addiction in any aisle of the craft store!  I was excited to find a use for this as it was one of those clearance sale finds that has languished in my stash for several years.

The banner is from K & Company from the current Valentine's collection.  The brad is Making Memories, and the flower is from a deconstructed dollar store flower.

I recently returned to morning watch (the overnight shift from midnight to 8 AM) on my "day job" and was worried that it would get in the way of this project, but unwinding after work with a little mesing around at the craft table works as well at 9 AM as it does at 5 PM, thank goodness!