OLW76 and Barbles2

I always think it's interesting to see how cards emerge and how they often look so different from the way we first imagine them!  All week I've been pondering Susan's OLW challenge to use gray, white, and a pop of one color.  

Also inspired by this ridiculously adorable photo of Barb's cat in her second Barbles Challenge, I decided to use pink as my accent color.

As a one-layer card, things didn't work out quite as planned.  So I scratched that and pulled out this beautiful new thank you stamp, which came as a gift in a recent PTI order.  I first stamped it in Memento London Fog and added some bling for my pop of color.  For the second card I decided to mask the the upper and lower parts of the image with post-its and stamp "THANKS" in turquoise.  Then I removed the masks and carefully stamped the upper and lower parts in gray.  I think these are just okay, but I'm out of time so I'm going with it!

So whatever happened to the gray and pink?  While it didn't turn out to be a good one-layer card, I cut down the stamped area, which was stamped using PTI turning a new leaf and a tiny flower from one of the tag-its sets.  I matted it in pink and placed it on a gray card base.  I added a flower and a sentiment, and at least it wasn't a total waste!  I do love the gray and pink together.

Less is More & Barbles 2

I've been absent for the past week due to a busier than normal schedule, but I'm back for the 52nd challenge at Less is More.  I love the Less is More challenge and look forward to participating every week.  Mandi and Chrissie have inspired so many of us with fabulous challenges and great feedback, and the community of stampers at Less is More is truly special.  I'm happy to be a part of it.

This week they gave us a sketch and asked us to stick to the sketch by using a rectangular card in the horizontal position with a vertical band.  It's a lovely sketch, and I immediately wanted to mask the vertical panel and sponge a background scene.  I also had the beautiful photograph from the Barbles Challenge at KinsaleCreations in my  head, so I used the yellow, orange, and purples from the sunset photo with a tree silhouette stamp. 

I wasn't thrilled with the first card.  The moon bothered me a bit and I felt it needed a dark edge.  I made a second panel which I matted with black and placed on a kraft card base.

Finally, I wanted to make a card for the sketch that did not use masking and sponging.  I ran a piece of white paper through my the Cuttlebug and used the embossed panel as the vertical element.  I stamped two Hero Arts butterflies, colored them with Prismacolor pencils, added sparkle to the wings with a Sakura sparkle pen (doesn't show in the photo), and cut them out.

Now I'm looking forward to browsing through the gallery at Less is More.  There is always so much inspiration to be found.  Thanks for visiting. 

Fabulous Inspiration:

CR84FN #46

Yesterday I posted some masculine birthday cards made for Susan's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge.  Today I went in the complete opposite direction and made a soft and feminine card for the CR84FN challenge to use soft pink and yellow. 

I stamped Hero Arts edged fabric with flowers in VersaMagic pixie dust and cut it out.  I used a Martha Stewart punch to cut out the butterfly and added a few gems for sparkle. Finally, I added a simple sentiment stamped in Memento London Fog, as black seemed too harsh on such a soft card. 

A super simple design, yet I'm embarrassed to say how long I fiddled around with it! :)

One Layer Wednesday 75

For One Layer Wednesday #75, Susan has asked us to make a one-layer birthday card for a guy.  Guy cards are tough!  I don't have a lot of masculine images and so I often turn to my Hero Arts leaf prints set.  

For this card I chose the fern image and some Memento bamboo leaves ink.  I stamped a PTI frame and then masked it before stamping the fern leaves.  I stamped each fern off on another sheet of paper before stamping on the card, so they would be lighter and more textural.  I finished by scoring lines above and below the stamped area.

I think it's pretty easy to make cute little boy card with the PTI fly away mini-set, but I wanted to try to make a more grown-up looking card with it.  I experimented a little bit with layering a variety stamps and came up with this design.  First, I stamped a Close to my Heart background stamp in Memento Desert Sand, stamping it off on another sheet of paper first.  Then I added the airplane in Memento rich cocoa and finally a PTI sentiment.

On this card, I stamped the plane much lower and felt it needed something up high.  I added an image from PTI Mehndi Medallion that looked somewhat "compass-y" to me, off stamping it first so it wouldn't be as dark.  This was fun and challenging, as I rarely layer stamps in this way.

We've been snowed in all week, but the temperatures are warming up and things are starting to melt.  We don't see snow very often here in Western Washington, so things come to a bit of a halt when we do get hit hard!

Supplies:

Paper: PTI white

Ink: Memento bamboo leaves, desert sand, rich cocoa

Stamps: Hero Arts, Close to my Heart, PTI

Less is More 50

The challenge at Less is More is to make a one layer card with the theme of birds.  While visiting family in Portland over New Years, I stopped in at Craft Warehouse, one of my favorite craft stores.  They often seem to have the items I can't find at the other chain craft stores.  All of the Christmas stamps were on clearance, and I picked up two winter scenery stamps by Northwoods Stamps.  I love that I got them on after Christmas clearance, yet they work for non-Christmas cards as well!

I had to have this beautiful stamp called 'eagle pair.'  We're lucky to live on a narrow peninsula in Puget Sound.  Living so close to the water, eagles are abundant here and an eagle nest is visible from the lower part of our yard.  We love watching them soar over us and seeing young ones in their first flights.

Coloring is not my strong suit, but I gave it a go with Prismacolor pencils, adding just a bit of color to the stream, sky, trees, and of course the eagle pair.  I'm not thrilled with my sky, but it will do.  I added a touch of sparkle to the snow with a Sakura clear sparkle pen.  It doesn't show at all in the picture, so I took a close-up to try to capture it.  I love that bit of sparkle. :)

It is a cold and frosty morning here in the Pacific Northwest.  There is a light dusting of snow on the ground and more snow is predicted in the coming days.  We often go a whole winter without seeing any snow at all, so of course the kids are excited!  When I took the dog out this morning, our eagle pair was screeching in the trees above me.  Such beautiful birds.  Here is a photo I took of them last spring, when they were sitting high up in one of the trees in our yard.

Thanks for visiting today.

Supplies:

Paper: PTI white

Stamps: Northwoods eagle pair, PTI sentiment

Ink: Making Memories

Other: Prismacolor pencils, Sakura sparkle pen

One Layer Wednesday 74

One Layer Wednesday is back, and the challenge is to make a one layer card using only red and pink.  I pulled out Stampin' Up Greenhouse Garden, thinking the flowers might be pretty in pink and red.  I do love the way they turned out.  The two-step stamping is a little tricky though.  It took several tries to get the red streaks lined up and it's still not perfect.  I stamped a simple layout of three flowers in a row and then added a PTI sentiment from lily of the valley.

Thanks for visiting today!

Supplies:

Paper: PTI white

Stamps: Stampin' Up Greenhouse Garden, PTI sentiment

Ink: Colorbox pink, Brilliance rocket red

CFC35 and ric#3

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use scallops on a CAS card fit perfectly with what I was already planning to do - make some simple late Christmas thank you cards using scraps from my scrap box.  Two of the Girl Friday cards use a similar layout with a strip or strips of paper along the bottom of the card.  Love them!

For my first card I chose a gray argyle scrap and gray twine to finish it off.  I don't think the sentiment is perfect, but I felt it was the best of the choices I had. 

This one uses some leftover Christmas scraps.  I'm not loving this one as much.

As I was going through my scraps I came across this black and white paper.  Normally I would have passed it by, but the black and white geometric shapes reminded me of the Runway Inspired Challenge I've seen floating around in blogland.  So I tried it . . . and it's my favorite of the three!

Predominantly Purple Again

I was at the craft store yesterday getting paper for my daughter's birthday invitations, when this gorgeous stamp ended up in my cart.  It was on clearance and too hard to resist.  Last night I had to ink it up.   It just called for purple, so here are two more quick cards for the predominantly purple Less is More challenge. 

Supplies:

Paper: PTI

Ink: Memento

Stamp: Inkadinkado

Predominantly Purple

Hello, friends!  I hope you've all had a great start to this new year!  It's been a bit crazy here, which is why I've taken a bit of a blogging break for the last couple of weeks.  Now I'm back with my first card of 2012 for my favorite Less is More challenge, where the theme is predominantly purple.

I've had this Hero Arts real flowers set for quite a while, and I don't use it very often.  I have a hard time with it, but I was determined to find a way to use the large flower from the set.  I masked a panel and sponged with dusty concord distress ink and Memento lilac posies.  Then I stamped the flower in Memento grape jelly.  I added a PTI sentiment and that was it - a simple, one-layer card.

Supplies:
Paper: PTI white
Ink: Ranger dusty concord,  Memento lilac posies and grape jelly
Stamps: Hero Arts real flowers, PTI communique curves sentiments