Apologies for the late post today – I was all ready to start blogging this morning when the rather excessive wind outside meant that we had a power outage. After about five minutes, it came back on and I was happy, but it was a momentary restoration and then it was out again for the next couple of hours. Still, we used the time to go to the mall (and walk around and have a coffee because it doesn’t open that early) and look at stand mixers. I’ve been pushing the limits of my 4.5 quart mixer and I’m upgrading to a 6 quart. In purple. I can’t wait!! Anyway, to get back to the card making…I’m still using the Happy Home set – I really love the line drawn images and they keep making their way onto my cards. Today I set out to make a card for the sketch challenge at Pals Paper Arts and somehow Happy Home insisted on being included. Endless Birthday Wishes gets pretty insistent as well.

Here’s the challenge banner which inspired this card

I inked up the stamp with my archival basic black ink, but didn’t include the clouds that are part of the image. I’d decided to use the Sweet L’il Things DSP for my clouds. First, I stamped my sentiment onto the very vanilla layer in archival basic black  and then glued my piece of DSP onto it. Next I cut three pieces of thick very vanilla baker’s twine and firmly attached them to the back of the card with fast fuse. I then popped this card up with plenty of dimensionals and added it to my very vanilla card base (otherwise the twine would make lumps in the card). After that I used the ovals collection framelits to cut out my image and that is also popped up with dimensionals – note – you want the dimensionals on the top and bottom of the oval so that they aren’t on the twine. The twine stops the middle of the oval from sagging. Here’s a side look at all that dimensional use.

I then used the same paper to line the envelope so that it coordinated. I used to make short liners so that I could get 8 out of a 12 by 12 piece, but I’m never in danger of running out of DSP and you can often see the end of the liner through the envelope. So now, I’m making full sized liners and I like the extra luxury that it gives, finishing off the handmade card perfectly.

I hope you’re having a power filled and wind free Sunday!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

This week we have an exciting challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Since this is the fifth Thursday in the month, it’s a double. As in, there’s a sketch AND colours to use. It’s the first this year and therefore the first since I’ve been on the design team. I’ve been mulling this one over for a while.

Here’s the challenge banner:

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and applied a wash of pacific point getting paler towards the bottom. I used the aquapainter and really squeezed it so that the paper was really wet and the colour would flow. The heat tool was really useful to dry the paper afterwards so that I could get onto the next step which was stamping the image from Happy Home in chocolate chip. I used the Stampin’ Write marker in daffodil delight to colour in the shirt. I really love this image, the line drawing and the child remind me so much of the illustrations in Winnie the Pooh. I remember my mother saying that she couldn’t read the story about Tigger to us because she would start laughing uncontrollably and just couldn’t continue.

I also stamped the sentiment (from Endless Birthday Wishes) in chocolate chip onto a small piece of very vanilla. All that was left for the sketch was the stripe – and this is made with a piece of seam binding ribbon wrapped around a layer of very vanilla. I don’t like the edges of my ribbon to show, hence the layer. I use fast fuse to fix the edges of the ribbon securely before gluing that layer onto a card base of very vanilla.

I found this sketch a little intimidating to start with – especially since the colours were also set, but in the end I really enjoyed making this card and am pleased with it. As was Doug, one of my work colleagues, whose birthday was on Monday.

I hope that you’ll have a go at this one yourself. Don’t be intimidated by having the sketch and the colours defined – just let the challenge banner work in the back of your mind for a couple of days and see where you can go. Take a look at the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

Don’t forget that the Sale-a-bration promotion ends today! So do yourself a favour – spend $50 with me (using the Rewards code on the left), get free enamel dots from me, get a freebie from the Sale-a-bration catalogue AND get a start on working towards your $40 in free product! Or sign up to join my team for $99 plus tax (free shipping) and get $155 of product. It’s an awesome deal.

See you tomorrow,

Liz