Sketch #31

Good afternoon crafty friends and welcome my post to announce a new sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations. I do like a sketch so I had real fun with this one. Here is my take on it.

This is the sketch that we are asking you to use.

I saw a post from Cornelia that referred me to a link to a video by Laura Basson at Make it Monday. It was all about double partial die cutting. I love finding new ways for combining dies and I loved this idea as well as the colours she used. I used an Avery Elle word die and a Spellbinders Label 25 die to make the die cuts. The first time I managed to cut the whole word out, so be careful with the cutting!  I used Bloom Sketches text for the embossed white sentiment and Vignette: Electic Florals to stamp the flowers and leaves before cutting them out. I used DI in matching colours so you have to look hard to see the stamping.

You can see the orange and green but not so well on the yellow. I added some punched circles to the centers of the flowers. I haven't coloured the panel under the hello as Laura did, as the word takes up quite a lot of space. I popped up the panel on pads onto a A6 white base to finish.

Don't forget you can use stamps by other companies in projects that you enter to our challenges but we ask that you please not use our challenges for the sole purpose of promoting another stamp company if you are a design team member of that company. If you have our stamps and/or stencils in your stash, we'd be tickled if you use them!

As usual Shery is offering the following prizes:-

Winner

(voted by the design team)

prize: 2 stamp sets (3" by 5") if you use STAMPlorations stamps, 1 stamp set if you don't

+ guest designer spot in a Sketch Challenge

Top picks

prize: 3 digi stamps 

+ the option to be a guest designer too in a Sketch Challenge if you will use  STAMPlorations digi stamp (to be provided )OR if you already have STAMPlorations clear stamps

All winners and top picks will receive a personalized guest designer badge that they can display on their blogs, as well as a STAMPlorations guest designer watermark.

Frequent Players Spotlight. Play in all 3 challenges for the month for entries to the random draw. Prize is always going to be a stamp and stencil pack valued at $10.

So no excuses to have a go and join us.

Pop over to the DT's blogs for more inspiration and info on their designs and check out our fab GDs.

Kim GD

Pooja GD

Becca DT

Laura Jane DT

Sari DT

Tenia DT

Wei Wei DT

I would like to join the fun over at -

Love at Fantasy Stampers

Good morning crafters.

I hope the weekend will give you a respite from the awful weather we are having here in GB and on the East coast of America.

As it's Saturday it means a new challenge over at Fantasy Stampers  (entries don't need to be of a fantasy nature just plain old stampin!). This week Jan has chosen the theme of-

PS I LOVE YOU

Make of that what you will! I went literal with my interpretation here.

I've wanted to try this camouflage die technique for awhile so with only a couple of large font dies this was really the first chance I've had.

The die is from Avery Elle and the stamps are from STAMPlorations, Vignette: Eclectic Florals and the 'you' is part of a phrase from their Bloom Sketches set.

The choice of colour is down to the challenge over at  Colour Q

These are SU colours, so not having any I used DI's in similar colours.

I stamped the flower panel then die cut the word LOVE across the middle. I cut four more 'LOVEs' in plain white and layered them up before gluing the panel onto an A6 white card.

OK, that's about it from me for the moment. Pop over to the main Fantasy Stampers site for more inspiration and have a go. 

PLEASE REMEMBER NO DIGIS

If you feel like joining our little band we are having a DT call see the details here.

If you don't fancy the full DT thing why not try a stint as a GD to try it out. All you have to do is add GDT after your entry or contact Jan as above.

I shall also enter at the following challenges:-

Creative Inspirations - Roses (I think the large red ones are )

Allsorts - Flower Power

TIME OUT - Valentine's Day with a twist of hearts (no twist this time)

Less is More meets Muse

Good morning all.

I meant to post this yesterday but time just flew away! (The winds were quite strong here last night but happily not as bad as in Scotland and the North of England.)

As the title of this posts suggests, it's a fusion of two challenges, Muse and Less is More.

This is the Muse card from Vicki Dutcher.

I was inspired by the central words, dots aperture, gold and the colours, well pretty much everything really! 

When I first saw this Muse card I thought I knew what I was doing as I have this MB die but then I thought that the word love deserved a heart, and my large LOVE die didn't really fit the opening of the circle burst.

I embossed a panel of white card then inked it in Festive Berries DI before cutting out the large love word, then cut out the heart using my Little B hearts die. I searched the stash for some gold sequins but couldn't find any, could have sworn I had some left over from Nich's dancing costume making days! Anyway, I improvised with some shaped gold mirror card tiny punched circles. I was going to pop the panel on white but tried it on black and it was a much richer effect so stuck with that and added a white die cut 'you' from a Spellbinders set.

As I said at the beginning the card was also inspired by the colour challenge at 

Less is More - Black, metallic and one other, this being red!

OK, that's about it. I should take Max out for a walk soon before that wind gets up some more and blows us up the drive!

Muse

Evening all.

The weather has finally broken with a heavy downpour earlier and now the rain is steady if not heavy.

I managed to get Max out while it was drier but Al has just taken him out in the rain, so towels at the ready.

Thought I would share a photo of the little monster, he's in the wars at the mo having got too close to a rabbit which kicked him in the chest, it being bigger than Max!

He's a 2 year old Chihuahua Jack Russell cross who thinks he's a sheepdog!

Any way enough of that, a new card for you.

I made this for the latest challenge over at Muse. This week the Muse is Bev Buenker and this is her card.

I loved the contrast between the shiny primary blue and the secondary orange background. Well if I was going with a direct link it would have been yellow and purple  or green and red but I went with one of my fave colour ways lime green and purple. The only large word die I have is this new Avery Elle 'Love ' die which I picked up on my spree, so the card ended up a more feminine design than the muse. I used a piece of NitWits  lime green striped paper and some pretty floral paper from them that I had left over for the center of the panel. The striped paper along the edge was from the stash. I love NitWits papers they are my favourite, love how they co ordinate and being digital you can access them at a click of a button!. I hadn't got any sequins that matched so I improvised with some dots from the shiny purple from the stash.

I shall also enter the challenge at As you like it - Your favourite papers

OK, Max and Al are back so I suppose its a wrap for tonight, see you.