One card for two challenges hooray! I started with the tone on tone background using faded jeans ink and a large striped background stamp from GKD. Then to make it work for the sketch I cut a small panel from a stenciled background I had made a while ago for my hubby’s photography. I added that piece and then a small strip of tone on tone paper on the side. I had a piece of vellum sitting on my desk so I added that as well. This keeps it close to the sketch idea. By photocopying some playing cards in a reduced size I hand cut them and added them on top of the vellum. From the year of flowers GKD stamp set I inked the two stamps and added to the vellum as well.

I had been playing with backgrounds on water colour paper but as mentioned in a previous post they didn’t work quite the way as intended. To rescue the larger piece I added colour burst powders over everything and then added some shimmer with both white and gold perfect pearls. It wasn’t quite enough and the panel was very dark so I decided to use glue and gold embossing heat setting to glam it up a bit. Once it was right I cut the piece up into smaller sections and this is one of them. I had the stitched rectangle on my desk and thought using it as the background would look good so I put them together. Sentiment is from the Vogue Vases set. Added some mizuhiki cord behind it and glued to the white card front. This morning when I designed and put it together I hadn’t even looked at any challenges so was pleasantly surprised to see that it fits the one at JUGs this week.

This is for the challenge at Little Red Wagon. First time I am trying one of their challenges. Got to hurry as it is almost ending. I had the two frames left over from another project and as I like putting frames together decided to do it again. This is actually a CASE from a card seen on Pinterest. I heat embossed the center leaves and then placed the frame around them. It is a little higher than I wanted but my measuring was obviously off. Stamped the flower onto the same gold as one of the frames and fussy cut it. It was a sketchy image from GKD Year of flowers set so I didn’t have to be too careful about cutting. I was curious to see if I could get colour onto it so used some gelly roll pens and liked the result. Added some bling to the center of the flower using some dots from a sticker set. Added the sentiment from the same stamp set.

Using an older, little used, stamp set called Vogue Vases from GKD and matching the Paper Player colours as closely as possible, I stamped the flower image onto the die cut stitched rectangle piece. Coloured using ink pads. I stamped the vase on a scrap piece and fussy cut. Popped it up over the flowers. Added some scrap strips to create a kind of shelf. I offset the panel over some left over gold cs and then glued to card front. Added some bling at the bottom and the angled sentiment at the top. I kept this as simple as possible and am happy with how it turned out. In daylight my green card front is very similar to the actual colour but looks lighter in the photograph.

I was playing with some watercolour paper and Distress Oxides the other day, trying to follow a video tutorial. My effort didn’t really go as planned and certainly didn’t look anything like the tutorial, but it was with some purples. Once it was dry I wondered how I could use it but it still seemed to need more ink. I had a stamp set on my desk by GKD called Tiny Textures and I took the splash/splatter stamp and added some more ink to the initial piece. It filled in more of the area and I liked how it looked. While it was drying I stamped the lavender onto some scrap paper using Blueprint Sketch which actually dried more like the real flowers look. I fussy cut most of it out and glued into a small bouquet adding the ribbon to finish it. I added some lavender(ish) mirri card to the card front and glued the focal piece on top. Then I stamped the sentiment with another GKD set called Scripty Sayings cutting it as shown and adding some ink around the edges. I also brushed some perfect pearl powder over the inked panel for some shimmer and set it with a bit of water.

I liked the sketch at Sunday Stamps and then saw the colours at CAS and decided I could combine the two challenges. Using a set by Lisa Hetrick I stamped the polka dots on a strip of paper in a neutral ink and added it to card front. I cut a tiny strip of gold to go down the side of this piece and using same gold die cut a circle for behind the focal piece. Stamped the images using distress oxides closest matches to above image and did a bit of masking to add leaves etc. Added the two circles together and put on card front. Taking a scrap piece of paper that was a similar lavender, but looks blue in photo, I stamped the sentiment using 3 stamps from a tiny SSS set. Added a bit of bling as well.

Feeling a bit more inspired today I took out one of my wave stencils and using some clear Gesso created the background piece. Once the Gesso was dry I sponged colour through the stencil using 3 different blue oxide inks. When dry I added some clear gel gloss on the top and again left it to dry. Die cut the circle and added it to card front. I also die cut the porthole which is from Cottage Cutz using some scrap cs. I added some silver to the porthole nuts and glued the copper piece on top. In my stash I had the little lighthouse so I dug it out and cut off the bottom so it would fit behind the porthole gluing it all as shown. During drying times I had stamped the anchor from a GKD set called My Anchor and fussy cut it as well as the seaweed piece. I added the seaweed near the bottom and then played with placement of the anchor. Before attaching it I took some twine and wound it around the anchor then I placed the long piece around the rest of the card using glue here and there to hold it in place. Glad this isn’t a timed card because it took forever. This is for a male friend but I don’t want a sentiment on the front and will add one inside when I’m ready to mail it.

Considering that purples and lavender are among my most favourite things you would think this theme would have been easy for me. That said, yesterday, when I made it, I had absolutely no mojo whatsoever so thinking about making a card was a challenge in and of itself. I had the outer die cut frame left over on my desk from another project and decided that it might work as a starting point. I also remembered I had this lavender stamp (red rubber type) from Impression Obsession so pulled it out to use. First I sponged the leftover frame with wilted violet ink and glued it to the lavender card front. I then used some text vellum paper gifted to me by a stamping buddy to stamp the image. I sponged green at the bottom and as much of the stems as I could and then added wilted purple to the top portion. Stamped it and liked the result so once dry I die cut it using the same type of die as the frame. Glued it on the angle and added the sentiment which is from a GKD incentive set. Added a few purple gems and called it finished. Not a bad result from a very uninspired mind.

I managed to make this card work for 2 challenges which is always a nice bonus. Smiles is the theme at PaperPlayers and to me this card qualifies, as these ladies always bring a smile, as does the sentiment. As well I masked them off so I could stamp the illusion of a table cloth so this fits the Anything goes challenge too. Stamps used are Art Impressions and one from CTMH which I’ve had forever and never inked until today. The image was coloured with both watercolor and Inktense pencils. I layered the image piece over some bright yellow paper and then onto the card front. According to our current forecast we are likely to be pulling out summer clothes this weekend. It is predicted to be hot. Truthfully I would dearly love to be with my friends in a group like this image – sigh!

This card is a wedding variation of something I did at Christmas using snowflakes. I liked the elegance of the look on those cards and decided a wedding card would be another way to use the idea. This is done on kraft cs with heat embossing flowers in gold after stamping them randomly up the left side with versamark ink. Added some gold washi tape to create a stripe and using the same washi I cut a gold heart with some stitched dies. Cut one in cream as well. Added the sentiment from an Altenew sentiment set and heat set it with gold. Put the 2 hearts together, added an embellishment from an old earring and some ribbon to finish it. Don’t have any weddings yet but having a card ready to go is a good idea.