Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 86

Having received my order from Elzybells I just had to ink up some and give them a go. I discovered their site while blog hopping to discover they are closing down. Never one to miss a sale I purchased a few and have sent another order since. Such a shame as they are such fab designs and fun to work with. So stamps in hand I headed to one of my favourite sketch blogs the sweetest thing for the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge. Karen has great designs and inspiration. It has been a while since I did a challenge and have just managed to sneak in for the cut off.

I knew I wanted purple as the base colour and found some papers to use. I used my spots to create the patterned paper I was after to tie the colours together. I was really pleased with the end result. It just needed the finishing touch which I found with the antique button. Looking forward to inking up some more.

Colour: lovely lilac, old olive, whisper white
Stamps: rubbadubadub and bubbles border (elzybells), lots of spots (CDS)
Finishing touches: apron lace border punch (fiskars), black embossing powder, antique button

Sympathy card

The inspiration for this card came from a bed of flowers that I often pass as I head into New Plymouth. It is a mass of white flowers with peach coloured poppy type flowers. I thought it fitted well with the muted tones while still adding a bit a colour. I also had the chance to use my spellbinder Label Two for the first time. Despite them having been around for some time spellbinder nestibilities dies have been on the one day wish list. They really are a great tool to turn a card from fair to fab

Colours: orange, very vanilla, white
Stamps: oh so lovely and inspired by nature (SU), alpha (unknown)
Finishing touches: apron lace punch, cotton twill tape, spellbinders nestibilities 2, White embossing powder.

September Stamp Club

I always look forward to our monthly get togethers at stamp club. It is just as much about the fun we have as the awesome projects that Cherie comes up with. Love it. This months challenge was to create a birthday card for a 7 year old boy. Those male cards seem to always create a mental block. I had the inspired idea from one of my sons sweatshirts and had a go at creating the look complete with zip using Stampin Ups spiral punch. This one was all complete and ready to go ahead of time when I got all inspired again the night before and had to have a go at a card using banners. They seem to be on loads of projects. They are a great embellishment as there are so many ways to do them. I made mine by cutting a triange in the different colours and stamping different background stamps on to it. I finished with a bit of faux stitching a great thing when you don't have the time for the real thing

Colours: crumb cake, night of navy, taken with teal, certainly celery, so saffron, tangerine tango, riding hood red
Stamps: in the stars, little pieces, background sampler and whimsical words (SU)
Finishing touches: round tab punch and linen thread (SU), buttons, faux stitching

Colours: brocade blue, basic grey
Stamps: background stripes and square (own design),party punch hostess (SU)
Finishing touches: spiral punch, round tabe punch, designer label punch and horizontal slit punch (SU), thread

The pages I was going to post

Despite having finished the album it has taken some time to get a chance to post the pictures that I had taken. Having hung up my scrapbooking hat for some time it took a bit to get back into the swing of things. I have been picking up different ideas during my time off and am looking forward to doing more. Several of the pages I have used sketches from Page Maps. They were a great starting point. While I kept most of the pages fairly simple I enjoyed having a go at paper piecing on the hanaumu bay double layout. I think a bit like my cardmaking I am a freestyle scrapper. When I see something I like I enjoy having a go at it.