Arizona colors

I was really intrigued by this week's "Your State" challenge at Speedy Fox and Friends, so I tried my hand at an idea my friend had while he was visiting. I have some cut-out masks from a cityscape project, and I used that to make a mountain like you see in Arizona. Although I now live in Maryland, I consider Arizona my other home... that's where my folks live, and where I was living when I met my friend. I used the same wood-stamping technique that I used on my Portlandia card to make the little "quail".

Inks: SU! Barely Banana, ColorBox, Versamark watermark ink, Versamark chalk ink
Wood bird used as stamp: Prima
Stamps: sentiment from Verve's Let It Shine set, cactus from My Favorite Things' Fred Bear Out West set, bubble border by Annabelle Stamps
Papers: SU! Whisper White, Core'Dinations
Embossing Powders: ZING! Brown Sugar, Lemonade Scentz by ColorBox  
Dies/Cutting Files: Card frame and Cityscape/Mountains designed in SCAL and cut on my Cricut, Banner die from a•muse studio, Button from SU! Embosslit, scallop scissors for corner rounding

Inspiration/Challenges:
Annabelle Stamps Challenge #157: Sketch
Color Throwdown #231: Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Lucky Limeade
CAS-ual Fridays #92: Stamp your own background
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 148: Your State

Thank you for visiting,

Roman Bath & American Ink

So I had a little "retail therapy" at JoAnn's yesterday, and bought one of Cuttlebug's gorgeous new embossing folders with matching border folder, the Roman Bath one. I thought it would work nicely to stamp with too, and it is! Well, it's not exactly stamping, you just rub ink on the raised portion and emboss, but I really like the effect.

I just had to try this week's sketch at Annabelle Stamps, it's so interesting. Their DT projects are amazing, but I ended up interpreting the sketch much more literally. Many thanks for the inspiration!

The circle design is a stamp I received in a random pack of unmounted rubber stamps I won in a contest. They are so beautiful. I'm out of foam, so I stamped this very "professionally" by stepping on it! I inked the stamp, put it on a mat and put the whole thing on the floor, put my paper on top, and stepped on it with the ball of my foot. Works every time!


For the inside, I stamped the sentiment with a DO Crafts stamp and used the border embossing plate to emboss the matching design over the sentiment. I then added the top border, one of my favorites from Annabelle Stamps.
 

Inspiration/Challenges:
Annabelle Stamps Challenge - Sketch*
Card Mania - Embossing
Charisma Cardz - Feeling blue
Everybody-Art-Challenge #212 - Embossing

Thank you for visiting,

Less is more Easter

I think I'm going to try to do at least one CAS card a week, to practice my stamping & design skills. Boy, they do require a lot of time, planning & precision! I had some great inspiration for this; see my challenge list at the bottom of this post.

Less is More Week 61

The color combo at Less is More (right) gave me quite a challenge, as I really wanted to capture the lovely grayish-pink but didn't have a matching ink (or marker, or paper...). I ended up inking the stamps with a silver and then a pink to create this soft impression. I'm so glad I had to get creative!

I stamped right onto the white card; no glue involved. I added adhesive MS flower gemstones. The flowers are colored with a pink SU! watercolor crayon; I actually applied the crayon to a separate piece of paper, and painted the card itself with a water brush. The ink ran a bit, but I like how it softened the lines.

This is my very first ever one-layer card! I didn't have to make it one-layer, but the design I chose really lent itself to that, and it seemed that an great extra challenge. I have the talented & supportive Less is More Design Team to thank for this, especially Mandi, with whom I had a lovely email conversation about CAS. Having spent my twenties in creative academics, I totally understand the concept of perfecting the rules of something ... once you get those rules down, you can break them! So I'm still in "following the rules" mode ... and it's fun!

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #154

Inspiration/Challenges:

AnnaBelle Bling Sketch Challenge #48 (right)

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #154: Photo Inspiration (right)

Less is More Week 61: Color/Photo Inspiration

Stamps:
Dotted frames: Fiskars

Flower border: Studio G

Bunnies: stash

Inks:

Silver: ColorBox

Pink: Martha Stewart

Pear Tart & Rose Bud: Memento
Spanish Olive: VersaMagic

Update: This card was chosen as Favorite for AnnaBelle Bling Sketch Challenge #48! I'm blown away. Definitely a sign that I should keep up with my CAS cards!

Vellum Obelisk

My childhood best friend's father is turning 72 this week, and, for probably the first time in the 29 years I've known him, I made a card in time! I'm not very good at keeping up relationships, so I love being able to make & send cards to people; it helps me say much more than I ever could in words.

The birthday boy was also the High School art teacher. I took some lessons with him, but we both understood that I was much more inclined to concept than production; I remember him saying once: the perspective in this piece is interesting; everything is coming from a different perspective! He is a very talented and generous artist in his own right, and when I look back I realize that between him & my mom, we always had the best art supplies. Coincidentally, he's going to be visiting my parents this week as well. I really need to call his daughter!

I learned a lot about art from him, mostly by example. He had some gorgeous pieces in their home, including a wonderful collection of Obelisks, which is what inspired this card.

This was my first attempt at the Faux Silk technique. Right after making my card for the Gingersnap Creations' Faux Technique Challenge, I saw this technique on the Annabelle Stamps blog. Please do check it out, especially if you have a sticker machine, which makes the whole process much easier!

This is the second time I've entered this Color Combo challenge at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards; I just love it! What can I say, I love working with brown. My first card is here.

For the "silks", I stamped a Ditto pattern stamp with teal Versamark chalk and watermark inks.

For the Obelisk pieces, I stamped the same pattern in brown Memento ink onto Recollections Transparent paper (vellum), cut it into strips, and pieced them together and onto the white piece with vellum tape. I colored-in the pattern with a Copic marker.

Inspiration/Challenges:

Annabelle Stamps Challenge: Background stamps

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards Challenge #6: Brown, Orange, Teal

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #111: Sketch (right; missed the deadline garshdarnit!)