Stamping 411 - Saturday Sketch Challenge #171

In the spirit of challenging myself, and having done a "hard" challenge, I decided to do a sketch challenge from Stampin 411 which was a little easier as I could choose my own colour scheme. This is the sketch we had to go off ...

For my colours I chose to go with Very Vanilla and a new favourite Cherry Cobbler. Stamp set was Punch Potpourri which I absolutely love as it goes perfectly with a number of Stampin' Up! punches so you don't have to cut things out.  You can earn this stamp set really easily by hosting a workshop so contact me if you are interested in learning how.  I used the flowers stamp and lined them up with my Stamp-a-ma-jig on the three panels.

I have such a long wish list from the new Idea Book and Catalogue and still haven't bought myself any of the lovely brads, so with necessity as the mother of invention (as my own mother used to always tell me) I punched out some Cherry Cobbler with a small punch 1/8" I think, then used some Crystal Effects mixed with Dazzling Diamonds to make my own brads!

I wanted to finish off with something instead of the bow, so used the heart stamp from the same stamp set and sponged the edges in Cherry Cobbler, and finished of the card with a layered strip of Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla with the sentiment from the Occasional Quotes stamp set. 

I really enjoyed making this card for the challenge, and am planning on doing more challenges in the future.

ESAD - Secret Sister

Since joining ESAD - Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators - I have met some lovely people and been exposed to some great inspiration.  One of the lovely things that is organised is a Secret Sister, which is run over 3 months.  For each of the first two months you send off 2 cards and a small gift, and for the final month 2 cards and a larger gift.  Because its done in a circle, with each participant sending off to one person you also receive these things too. And while you do know who you are sending too, the secret part is that you don't know who is sending you things until the very end.  I am really enjoying this as its the first Secret Sister I have been involved in, and I thought it about time I linked some of the things my SS has sent me so far.

This is a lovely card made with the Sense of Time and Artistic Etchings stamp sets and the new DSP Newsprint.  I liked the way the images were double stamped in two colours to give a blurred effect, and the antique feel to the card.

This is the second card my SS sent me, I had written in my list of likes the Baroque Motifs set and my SS chose to use it on this card for me.  I like the softness of this, I usually use bolder colours so its nice to receive work from someone else that's different.  There is a simple elegance to Baroque Motifs that is really lovely.

 This lovely little gift came in the mail for me at the end of August and included the corner bookmark on the left, using the Vintage Vogue friends stamp, and the slider box on the right.  I love the little embellishment on the slider box, and the tiny tag and clip.  Inside was a coffee bag and a chocolate two things I love.

This beautiful card was the first one I received in September and I love love love the simplicity of it.  I love the use of a splash of colour with the new Cherry Cobbler (this was my first look in person at this great new colour), I love the use of ribbon, and also love that my SS used the new Platinum Shimmer Paint to stamp the 3 Cute By The Inch images.  While I love all my SS cards so far this is probably my favourite!

 This next one I took two pictures of as the inside was as impressive as the outside.  Again my SS has used Artistic Etchings stamp set and the Newsprint DSP, but in this one has done some tricky punching and folding to create a little window that looks through onto a stamped image behind. I love the effect of this and will be trying my own version out very soon I think.

So those are my SS cards and gift so far.  I will post the rest at the end of October and will then be able to reveal who my talented SS is!

Just Add Ink Challenge #37

I have decided that I need to challenge myself a bit more, and one of the ways I have decided to do this is to join in challenges set by other websites.  The first one I chose was Just Add Ink colour challenge 37.  For this challenge the four colours I had to use on the card were - Rose Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Always Artichoke.

When I first looked at this challenge I thought that I wouldn't be able to join in, as I only own Old Olive in a Classic Stampin' Pad, but when I shuffled through my Stampin' Write Markers I found I also had Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie.  So lack of colours was no excuse not to join in. 

While I decided what to do I decided to get a piece of off-cut card stock in each colour and just lay them on my desk shuffling them around until inspiration struck.  Here is my resulting card, which interestingly enough has 3 of the pieces of off-cuts on it lol ...

I was happy to be able to use my new stamp set Elements of Style, as well as my new Scallop Border Trim Punch which I love to bits. While these are not colours I would normally put together, I was happy with the result, and felt suitably challenged by it!