Operation Mars

A few days back, a picture was posted on the OWH facebook page of 3 children holding OWH cards that they had received from a parent overseas. Great picture, no doubt, and it definitely tugged at the heartstrings.  What it made me realize is how few (if any) cards I have made that are geared towards children.  So, tonight I worked on making OWH sketch challenge 106 kid friendly. 
And yes, once again I have strayed some from the original sketch.  But hey, its for the children, right?! LOL.

As you can see, I have rotated the sketch.  The stamp is a new one that I inked up for the first time from Sweet N Sassy stamps.  I paper pieced this space ship.  The card base is SU Night of Navy and the moon is Barely Banana embossed with a cuttlebug e.f.  The card edge was cut with the new edgelits and embossed with the new matching embosslits from SU.  

The only thing I wish I could change on this card is the sentiment- I really wish I had one that said "You are out of this world!"  

Thanks for stopping by!

Great Sketch + Soft Colors= Yes

These cards are based on this month's sketch over at Sketch For You To Try.  This was a fun, fun sketch and I am sure I will use it again.  It worked great with these beautiful papers from K and Co (Elegance).

SFYTT Sketch Challenge

Stampin Up cardstock- Whisper White, Pool Party, Basic Gray and River Rock are used for both cards. 
Happy I Do Day" is from SU's Word Play set.  The oval is cut with a Spellbinder and the oval edges are inked with SU's Soft Sky.  The sentiment is stamped in SU's Basic Gray.  The flourish is a die from Our Daily Bread designs(Cheery Lynn Designs) and the flower(Recollections) is sponged with Soft Sky. Crystal Snow White glitter on the "diamond" finishes this card off.




The second card uses the same papers and flourish.  The sentiment is one of my favs from Our Daily Bread Designs-"Full of Grace-Pray".  The pearl flourishes are from Recollections.  This card is entered in the SFYYT challenge as well as the Word Art Wednesday Challenge- to use scripture or encouraging words on your card-, and the Sentimental Sundays Challenge- to use die cuts.

Thanks so much for stopping by-your thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Belleek Pottery Technique

Today I noticed so many beautiful cards over at the Splitcoast gallery and they all had 1 thing in common-they were made using this week's Technique Lover Challenge(TLC361) technique- creating a card that looks like Belleek Pottery from Ireland.  I had not done a Technique Challenge before, but decided to give this one a try.  I combined it with the challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ, which is to have a heart/hearts be the focus of the card AND I combined it with the MOJO Monday sketch challenge over at Verve.  Phew!  I have not combined multiple challenges before and it was just that- a challenge!

I really liked this technique-I inked the negative image of an embossing folder with Crumb Cake ink(we were required to use a subtle color to resemble pottery).  I then punched out embossed/Belleek squares and cut out fleur de lis rectangles with a spellbinder.  The hearts were punched with a Stampin' Up punch and inked with Chocolate Chip ink, followed by Regal Rose ink.  I added them to the squares and then re-embossed them.  The "With Love" square was stamped with the sentiment at the time the heart was added.  The rectangles and squares were popped up on dimensionals, adhesive pearls were added to the "With Love" square, and organza ribbon and SU Crumb Cake seam binding finished off the card.  I think I like how this turned out, although this may be version 1 of 2 versions!

Thanks for looking!  Constructive criticism is definitely welcome on this challenging card!!

Update-There IS a Version 2

Just by adding flowers, I think the look of this card changed significantly-for the better. What do you think?

Sticking with Spring

 I continued with the spring theme when making a card for this week's OWH Sketch Challenge #105-
I used the sketch as a jumping off point, and strayed quite a bit from the original, but  I think you can still see the original sketch in my card.  I rotated the card and turned the 3 stripes into butterfly trails.  The 3 butterflies "create" the circle. 

Ingredients for this card include:

• SU whisper white, regal rose cardstock
•  basic grey ink; Memento black ink
• SU Shapes and Shadows stamps; SNSS Thinking of You
• thread
• Fiskars edge punch

I have to admit, this card was a bear to execute.  Ink seemed to get everywhere on the cardstock (admittedly, that is why there is a scalloped white piece of cardstock along the bottom edge-LOL).  But I do like the results.  Thanks for stopping by!

A Little Spring in Winter

So, it is a very dreary day here in St. Louis- seemed like a great time to "Think Spring" and participate in the OWH challenge, making a spring or Easter card. I started to go with a floral card, but then I remembered these adorable chicks from Stampin Up- Best of Cluck!  This is on of my favorite all time sets, so this is what got the ink for today's challenge.  I also took the challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches and used the current sketch, #18.
 

Ingredients for the card include:

• SU paper- Pool Party, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana and Whisper White
• Teeny Tiny Wishes,Best of Cluck SU stamps
• Stampin Up's latest and greatest edgelits and embosslits
• Copics
• ribbon
• CB embossing folder
• adhesive pearls

It is so hard to get a good picture with true colors and all on an overcast, gray day.  Sorry for the poor picture quality!  Thanks for stopping by!