Paper Hugs

Today's sketch is awesome - I will be saving this one for many future cards, as it is so well-balanced and interesting.  I chose one of the bears from the Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set  Rhubarb's Birthday Wish  for my focal image, and used an assortment of papers from the 6x6" pad by Amy Tangerine, called Ready Set Go.  The bear image has been coloured with Copics, and a light shade coloured around the image with a very pale blue grey.  It was cut out using a Spellbinders circle die, and mounted on the Spellbinders Lacey Circles die.  I used black machine stitching around most of the papers rather than a black mount, and I like the informal look this gives the card.  I added two banners to my circle rather than the two circles from the sketch, and used glossy accents on the cake frosting. Now it's time for you to see what the other DT members have in store for you.  Don't forget to load up your own creations ...

My post today is to wish Jen from LIM a very happy birthday, and a safe return from Istanbul.  The challenge this week at  Less is More Week 125   is to make a card that Jen would like, so I have made a blue butterfly, which I believe she is very fond of.  I used a border cut by Annabelle Stamps and stamped the butterfly which is by Kaisercraft onto fine blue striped vellum, white embossed it and cut it out.  The sentiment is by Sweet 's Sassy from a set called Rhubarb's Birthday wish.  The vellum in truth is a pale aqua colour, matching the card base, but somehow looks darker after I enhanced the photo.

I chose the Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set  Across the Miles  for my version of this sketch.  I stamped the world map in Versafine brown ink, onto a parchment coloured paper, and used one piece of brown cardstock as the mount for all the panels.  The remaining dp is from a 6x6' paper pad by Amy Tangerine, called ReadySetGo which I felt complemented the map stamp with its tones of orange, brown, blue and green.  I used a die cut by Provo Craft for the globe, an arrow by Mama Elephant and a plane cut from paper from my stash to complete the embellishments. Now go and check out what the other DT members have in store for you.  Don't forget to load up your own creations to the link on the blog site. Cathy McCauley ,  Korin Sutherland ,  Ceal Pritchett ,  Faye-Wynn Jones ,  Marlena Peduzzi ,  Melissa Shultz , Robin Parker ,  Stephanie Serrano ,  Cynthia Olheiser ,  Debbie Owens , and  Jamie Moore ....

Just a quick post today, as I would love to enter the  Less is More   challenge this week - which is Hexagons.  Yes, Hexagons are everywhere right now, and I must admit I would love to do more with them.  Thank you for your inspiration, Jen and Chrissie!  I had also seen some super inspiration on Youtube, where Laura Basson  demonstrated a beautiful ombre card, using sticky paper and a mask cut from the hexagon full card size die - you really must check it out as it is beautiful.   The reason I am mentioning it is because I attempted to imitate her card, but only had the MFT hexagon border dies.  I set to work and cut out several border strips and then adhered them to a card front, and copied Laura's method of inking up each hexagon empty space.  I am quite happy with my result, although it is not perfect, having to join each border.  Well, of course, you can see where I'm going with the story, I hope??? - I had all the little...

The sketch this week for the Sweet Stop Challenge has a spin: It's a girl thing! Here is my take on this great sketch - I have used the Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set called Bottom of my Heart  (which comes with coordinating dies - not used this time, but very useful) stamping an assortment of hearts with Versamark on white card, then embossing them with white embossing powder.  I then sponged over these embossed hearts with Distress Inks in blue, yellow and pink.  For the floral heart (in place of the oval in the sketch), I used punched flowers in blue, yellow, pink and green.  My banner has been dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder called 'Candy Stripes'.  I stitched the card top to a pink base, then adhered it to a white card with top fold.  The mini sentiment is from the Sweet 'n Sassy set called Pennant Party, and was cut with a die from another SNS set called Mini Tag Dies (a set of 8).  I hope you like this soft and pretty style for a feminin...

A quick post today to enter two challenges:   Simon Says: Transport , and Less is More:   The Need for Speed. I have used a Paper Smooches stamp set, and my choice of image was inspired by my drives to work heading towards the city of Melbourne, where, on a clear Spring day, I would see several hot air balloons rising above the city.  What a wonderful form of transport, I would think - and the need for speed?  Well, they would most likely achieve more speed than the poor drivers below, stuck in traffic jams!

Here is this week's challenge at Addicted to CAS   and below is my entry: I hope I'm not straying too far off the mark of including a circle, but I figured a slice of watermelon is a circle shape, and this is just a portion of a slice.  Does that qualify I wonder?  Anyway, I was inspired by the word circle, and I just love this little stamp by Lawn Fawn, with the ant leader mustering his troops to enjoy a slice of summer.  Happy summer to my blog friends in the northern hemisphere- we are just getting started on winter here, and it is wet and watery all over Australia, though not too cool, thank goodness.

Back from holidays now to rejoin the Sugar Babies with this week's super sketch. For the focal image, I used the lovely Sweet n'Sassy set ' Poppies and Greetings'  which was the perfect size for the central rectangle, which I cut with a Spellbinders curvy rectangle die.  For the flowers themselves, I stamped them again with Versamark and black embossed them, before colouring them with Inktense pencils, following a technique demonstrated by Darlene deVries recently - check it out here .  I love the impact these pencils give used in the way Darlene describes.  I cut them out and popped them over the stamped image using dimensionals.  The dp on the right came from an old Kaisercraft pad called 'Miss Nelly', and the aqua blue stripe on the left is from my stash.  I added a sentiment from the Sweet n'Sassy set ' Tickets and Sentiments' which has so many useful sentiments in the block style I needed for the small bottom square. The small scallo...