Goodbye to OTWC challenge

     This week is your last chance to take part in the Off The Wall Craftiness Challenge. Kim is stopping the challenge, which I have participated in regularly since the start.  We'll miss you Kim -- good luck with your future plans.

     The color combo for OTWC#58 is navy and coral (see inspiration photo to the right).  I combined the colors with the sketch for this week's CardPatterns sketch (Card patterns #129) to create this card. 

     The image is from Inkadinkadoo, stamped in SU Night of Navy ink.  The squarish panel and the coral panel are both stamped with the same flourish background stamp to tie the pieces together and add a little depth and interest-- I used versamark on the coral and looks quite subtle on the photo.

     I went punch crazy as well, adding punched corners to the square panel and using a new border punch on the white strip  (it's a new punch for me, and it appears I'll have a bit of a learning curve getting things to line up on it.)

     Hope everyone is having a great week.

Texture all the way

I made this card for a couple of challenges. It's a case of a card by jandjccc at Splitcoast, who is the subject of the week's Queen for the Day Challenge. She's a big user of embossing, so it was natural to pull out the cuttlebug folders for this card.
This is also for the current Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTWC54), which features the color combo of brown, blue and white. (see inspiration photo at right).

Both the stamps are from Club Stamp. I used the Cuttlebug Script folder on the background and Dotted Swiss on the heart. The ink is Colorbox Chalk Chestnut Roan. Ribbon is from Michael's.
See you all Monday when I start my term as June Guest Designer for Paper Cupcakes and the Magical Monday Challenge at There's Magic in the Air.

Embellished Circles

I've been wanting to try a technique from the latest Technique Junkies newsletter for a while. It's called embellished circles, and the title pretty much says it all. As part of my haul of goodies from last week's yard sale (see previous post), I have a new pack of Autumn Leaves stamps that are all variations on circles, so I'm fully prepared.

I used the color scheme from the current Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC53, inspiration photo at right.)

I like the fun, casual effect of the technique.

Supplies -- Large circle is Impression Obsession, the rest are Autumn Leaves (except sentiment).

Inks -- Colorbox Prussian Blue; Ice Blue and Dark Moss; Versamark Sand and Bamboo.

Bow (Martha Stewart), rhinestones, silk flower and mini brad.

Easter fun

Easter is coming so late this year, the weather where I livewill be summer-like rather than spring-like. Here's a quick and simple Easter card.

The design is the current sketch from Card Positoning Systems, (CPS214). The sketch calls for do-dads betwen the diamonds, and it was a perfect chance to pull out my almost-new butterfly punch (rescued from my local Big Lots, where the stamping/scrapping supplies seem to be routinely abused by shoppers so I rarely find anything useful.)

The card was inspired by the current Off The Wall Craftiness (OTWC51) challenge. As you can see from the photo at right, those colorful Peeps are the color inspiration.

Supply list.

Stamps -- bunny from Stampin' Up; sentiment from Purple Onion Designs

Punch -- McGill.

Ink -- I inked the stamps with a marker to match the butterflies.

Have a happy Easter.

Pastel pleasures

I love pastels. They're pretty and easy to work with, so I'm always happy to use them. This three-fer card uses the lovely pastels for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness Challnge (OTWC50) -- see the inspiration photo below.

It's also for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC134), Think Fast Designs, a shop that sells both jewelry and fabric items. I loved this vintage-looking quilt that incorporates these pastel spring colors and also features a mix of prints with polka-dots, inspiring my dotted panel.

Finally, this card incorporates this week's Mojo Monday Sketch (MOJO186).

Supplies: Stamp by Inkadinkadoo; sentiment computer generated. Striped paper is by Heidi Grace. Yellow ribbon is by Martha Stewart; plaid ribbon is from Michael's. Nesties, Swiss Dot embossing folder and border punch also used.

Maybe I'm overthinking it

At first, I thought the color combo for the current Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTWC49) was a little odd -- red, green and yellow (see inspiration photo below). Then I started looking around, and I saw the colors everywhere. Seriously, I was flooded with ideas that were all too complex and didn't work out.

I finally settled on this layout, courtesy of week's CAS challenge at SCS. And it also qualifies for the current Victorine Originals Challenge (#10) to use a circle on your card.

Ink: Kiwi Kiss

Dragonfly: Inkadinkadoo

Sentiment: Impression Obsession.

Supplies/tools Nesties and eyelet punch in two sizes to make the little flight path for the dragonfly.

Going old school

This week's queen for the day stamper at SCS does lots of tearing on her cards. I learned tearing at the very first SU party I ever went to (the SU demo jokingly described it as a "highly technical" trick), and for I while I probably tore every piece of paper I laid hands on. That kind of fell by the wayside, and it was fun to have an excuse to do it again when I made this card.

In CASEing a card by Luv Flowers at SCS, I used the colors from this week's Off the Wall Crafitness challenge (OTWC48). This week Kim has us using the pretty pastels of pink, yellow and blue, and how can you go wrong with such springlike colors. They just called out for a sweet flowery card.

You can see the OTWC inspiration photo at right.

Purple and more purple

This week's Off the Wall Craftiness (OTWC47) challenge was to use purple -- dark purple and light purple -- and white in a card. (See in the inspiration photo at right). I combined that with a VSN challenge to use a background stamp without using the whole stamp. To meet that challenge, I inked a script background in light purple, die cut ovals from it, then added a flower silouette in dark purple.

The layout for this card is based on Card Positioning System's current challenge, CPS207.

Credits: flower stamp by Endless Creations, sentiment by CTMH, script background unknown. Inks are Versamark Petunia and SU Eggplant Envy. Ribbon is Martha Stewart.

Sponging up

I don't know why, but I don't do much sponging of ink. I like the way it looks but I guess I'm ususally in too much of a hurry to get the card done. Anyway, the Queen for the Day stamper at SCS this week is a big sponger, and to honor her properly, I had to do some sponging around the main image in this card.

The colors for this card are taken from this week's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTWC46). You can see the inspiration photo to the right, although, as usual, my colors may be a little more muted.

The giraffe (Rubber Stampede) is stamped in Color Box Chestnut Roan ink and embossed with clear EP. Papers are from Making Memories. I did some piercing in the upper corners, and added a few brads to repeat the diagonal line of the dotted strip. And of course, lots of sponging in SU Bliss Blue and Color Box Cadmium.

Vintage -- and organized

This week's Off the Wall Crafitness Challenge (OTWC45) is to do a vintage or heart card. The inspiration photo is at lower right. I decided to go vintage, with this stamp of a vintage dress form, and lace and other Victorian elements. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the TONS of sponging around the image panel, the card edges and the lace. It really does look quite vintage.

Dress form stamp is from Lost Coast; sentiment from Endless creations. Faux stitching around main panel. Adhesive lace from K&Co. Sepia ink on Dress form and sentiment.

The layout is this week's Card Positioning System sketch CPS 205. CPS is celebrating its 4th anniversary this week.

Organization is a good thing! Last weekend I organized all my tiny embellies in a bead organizer I had bought about 18 months ago. For once, when I went looking for the tiny buttons, I knew exactly where to look and didn't waste 20 minutes digging through piles of supplies. Why did I wait so long to use that organizer???

Playing with new toys

The rubber stamp show was in town last week. I only picked up a few things --one was a clear stamp set Impression-Obsession was clearing out. I love this tall, thin base and simple flowers.

The layout is this week's Card Positioning Sketch, CPS 244. The colors come from this week's Off the Wall Craftiness (OTWC44) inspiration photo (at right). And the inspiration comes from this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC125) shop, Daisy Petal Designs, which is a shop full of cute and girly things, mostly to wear in your hair, although my inspiration piece is a brooch.

Stamps both from the same I-O set, colored with pencils and OMS. The red panel is texturized with the Cuttlebug textile plate. Narrow, sheer ribon completes it. It's quick and simple, but for once I used new stamps without letting them sit for weeks!

Birds on the Brain

Seems like I've done a lot of bird cards lately -- maybe I'm longing for spring. This card is for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTCW42) and also for this week's RES-Q challenge (RESQ67). I cased a card for this week's Queen for the Day challenge at SCS for the layout.

The orange and blue color scheme is the challenge at OTWC this week (see the inspiration photo at right). RESQ's challenge this week is dry embossing.

As I was working on the card, my husband reminded me that his sister, a singer, was having a birthday, so happily I could turn it into a birthday card for her.

Details -- bird stamp and sentiment from SmArtWorks; sheet music is unknown. Ink is Ranger "Stream" color. Ribbon from Target.

Inspired by birds

Two cards, five challenges. I love it when a problem turns into an opportunity.

The owl card uses this week's Card Positioning System sketch (CPS201). The colors were inspired by this week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC41) colors -- purple, black and lime green (see inspiration photo at right). Yeah, the potential for a Halloween card was definitely there, and I'm happy with the alternative I up with.

The owl (Inkakinkadoo) is black embossed on purple paper as is the sentiment (SmArt Works). Green layer features a punched rope border. There's paper piercing by the bird and up in the upper right corner of the card.

I originally had planned to use the perched bird on this card and enter it for the Etsy Challenge as well, but it was too wide because of the sentiment. So, I set it aside, and then found it would work for the SCS technique lovers challenge (silhouettes); I used the SCS CAS sketch for this weel as the basis for the layout, and it's still an Etsy inspired card (EIC122). This week's Etsy shop is Modern Bird, which features silver jewelry -- much of it with bird images. I was inspired by this pretty necklace.

This bird is also from Inkadinkadoo, and I recycled Kim's color combo because it matches the awesome ribbon.

Snowed in, so I'm stamping

We woke up to 4 or 5 inches of snow and a layer of ice. Where I live, that's a snow day for sure. Looks like tomorrow will be another one. Happily, I found a little time to stamp.

This card is a three-fer. The basic design is this week's Card Positioning System sketch (CPS200). The colors come from this week's Off the Wall Challenge (OTWC40). As you can see from the inspiration photo (right), the colors are tan, white and burgundy.

Finally, the vintage French inspiration for the card is from this week's Etsy Inspired store (EIC121), La Pomme, which specializes in vintage French items. I was inspired by all the wonderful vintage French ephemera, including this sheet music.

The image is from Lost Coast, stamped in maroon Colorbox Chalk ink. The darker tan layer is embossed in French Script and sanded to give it a more aged, vintage look. I also incorporated some maroon ribbon and flowers into the card.

Back to stamping

Happy new year everyone.

What with the holidays and a house full of guests, it seems like weeks since I stamped. It was so nice to finally get back to my craft desk and make this card.

This card is for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC39), which uses the colors of black, white and silver. (That's the inspiration photo at right) Black and white is such an elegant combo, and silver is just icing on that cake.

This typewriter is a new one I picked up at Michael's dollar bin. I love the vintage look, and it called to mind this sort of art-deco paper from Making Memories. I simply matted the typewriter on metallic silver paper and added a couple silver brads. Can't get any easier than that.

Ready for Spring

OK, enough cold. I'm ready for spring. Luckily, several challenges this week let me indulge that urge. First off, Kim introduced pink along with Christmas red and green for this week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC 38) -- see inspiration photo below. And Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC 119) this week looks at the beautiful pendants made by artist Ling Glass, which feature glass and delicate metalwork. I liked this one called "love stained glass pendant." Finally, this week's Teapot Tuesday challenge was to do something artistic or painterly, so I made a still life.

Stamp is an old one, purchased from the company now known as Sparkle and Sprinkle. Sentiment is by Impression-Obsession. It's colored with pencil and OMA. The Ling Glass pendant gave me the inspiration to use the heart-shaped clip, to which I added a little gingham ribbon. (Someone else liked that pendant too. It moved from "for sale" to "Sold" between the time I picked it out as an inspiration and the time I'm posting this card.)

Merry Christmas everyone.

This week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC 36) is a monochromatic challenge -- using shades of brown. (The inspiration photo is to the lower right) Actually, I like monochromatic brown, which is kind of a peaceful calming combination.

My monochromatic brown card will probably be a birthday card for my Dad. I've probably given him a shirt or tie in every shade of brown in the card -- he's a real traditionalist when it comes to clothes, so brown is right down his alley.

There's only a little stamping on this. The sentiment is from SmArt Works, stamped in Chestnut Roan (Colorbox fluid chalk ink). I've had that marbled paper for ages, and haven't wanted to cut it before, but it worked perfectly for this challenge. (And marbled paper is a pretty tradional design, too, along with the polka dots.)

Girly Christmas

This week's Off the Wall Craftiness (OTWC33) colors are springy pink and grass green. (See the inspiration photo below -- it sounds like Kim is trying to put winter off as long as possible.) Nothing says Christmas like pink and green, right? OK, I just have Christmas cards on the brain, but I also had this plaid paper that worked perfectly for the challenge, so I paper pieced the tree. The card is also for a VSN challenge calling for "floating sentiment" (the sentiment is popped up on pop-dots and "floating" into the main image.)

Once I'd gotten all that done, I needed something down in the lower right corner corner, and added a few ribbon tabs. And since it still needed something, a little paper piercing. (Seriously, I so rarely go into these things with a plan, it's amazing anything ever comes out useable.)

I kind of like it, non-traditional colors and all.

Let's try "elegant"

This week's Off the Wall Craftiness challenge (OTWC31) challenged us to use the "Halloween" color combo of orange, black and white. But Halloween is history now, so I got as far away from Halloween as I could. Instead, I went elegant, focusing on the black and white with just a hint of orange. (And elegant realy seems more fitting for the inspiration photo at right, especially the chandelier.)

The flourish is from Purple Onion Designs, embossed with black detail EP. The layout is CASEd from a recent "queen for the day" challenge at SCS -- she used a long quote in place of an image. The sentiment is stamped on a tiny acrylic oval, adding just a touch of orange to the color scheme.

Non-traditional Christmas colors

This week's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge (OTCW30) uses the colors of brown, white and green (you can see the inspiration photo below). I used them to make a Christmas card in somewhat non-traditional colors. The card is also a CASE of this week's Queen for the Day at SCS.

The stamps are really old ones -- the tree is from SU and the other a cheapy from Hobby Lobby. I used winter wonderland (sparkly white) EP. I love how it shows up on dark colors, and I use it a lot instead of white ink (which I have no luck with). The lace is an adhesive paper lace from K & Co. and the snowflake is actually a button.