Namaste

Therese Travis of PaperFacesDesigns makes custom digi stamps, and she recently created a gorgeous one for fellow PFD DT member Jeannie. I was so excited about Angel Judy that Therese shared it with me. It comes in two versions: an SVG cut file and a digi stamp.

Jeannie used the image to create incredible, incredible gifts for her friend Judy. Please, please take a moment to read her post and learn more about the origin of this image.

Incredible, right‽ I also love what she says about religion; right on.

So I took the image and acted like I didn't know the backstory. Several years ago, my family was blessed to attend a wedding in Bangalore, India, so I channeled that experience to create a card for my mom. Man, shopping in India was SO FUN. Everything was bright, detailed, feminine, comfortable (although wearing a sari takes a fair amount of skill, so we stuck with the "pajama" styles). One of the most moving experiences for me was the appearance of Puja spaces in every home.

For the card itself, I was inspired by a lovely sheet of decorative paper I had in my stash (the wings, circles, and flower cut-out) and the fun sketch at Midnight Madness. I used mostly scraps.

Inspiration: Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #92

Supplies: Core'dinations, Hammermill and Recollections cardstocks (plus scraps from my stash), MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, HP printer & ink, Fiskars papercutter and texturing plate & tool, bone folder, emery board, InkItUp! and ColorBox inks, Michaels brads, Sakura Gelly Roll and Elmer's gel pens

Copic markers:
skin: E11, E33, E51, E02
hair: E17, E47, E35
sari: RV21, RV23, RV04
shirt: RV21, R02, RV42
sash: V06, RV21

Like a Rhinestone Cowgirl

I was totally excited to see the current challenges at Crafty Cardmakers (fairies & 2 punches) and Drunken Stampers (Rhinestone Cowgirl), because it gave me an excuse to use the sweet Angel Cheyene digi stamp by PaperFacesDesigns and my border punch. As you can tell, I had TOO much fun! The idea to put PFD's logo in the kerchief was respectfully scraplifted from Jeannie of the Polka Cabana (from her gorgeous project for PFD's Blue Challenge; There's still time to enter, no deadline!), and the pattern is the corner stamp from the K&Company Lotus Floral set. Who would've thunk it? My husband actually owns a much-traveled handkerchief that looks a lot like this one.

Thanks for the inspiration...this is another card I never thought I'd make!

Digi stamp: Angel Cheyene by PaperFacesDesigns

Inspiration:
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #40: Fairies & at least 2 paper punches
Drunken Stampers Challenge #56: Rhinestone Cowgirl

Supplies: Core'dinations, Hammermill and Recollections cardstocks, MS detailing scissors, gemstones and border punch, ZipDry glue, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign and Rosewood typeface, Fiskars papercutter and circle punches, InkItUp! inks, corner stamp from K&Co. Amy Butler Lotus Floral set, Stampendous white embossing powder, Marvy heat tool, Michaels cord, Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen, emery board, Sculpey clay

Copic markers:
vest: E17, E37, 0, E51
skin: RV21, E50, E11, E51, E33
jeans: B32, B23, B05, B39
T-shirt & belt: C-1, C-5, C-7
hat & kerchief: V17, BV08, V06, BV04

Stampin' an' Stitchin'

Considering how poor I am at keeping up with correspondence, I joined my fifth online crafting community this week: Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack. The Shack also has a physical, local location that I'm super excited about visiting for a crop sometime soon. I was really intrigued by this great video for creating a shadow effect, something I'd always thought was beyond my skill level. The video calls for watermark ink, which I never understood but now really want, but out of necessity used "Antique Linen" distress ink instead. Wow, what a groovy technique!

I so much fun machine-stitching on my last project that I added these "straight" stitches. I haven't sewn in years, so there's certainly a made by hand feel.

The medallion was so worth the not-much-work-at-all it took for me to make it. I stamped "plum" clay with the flower in "artichoke," cut it out, baked it 25 minutes at 275°, and bam. I did edge it with green before gluing it down.Inspiration:
Color Dare #98: Perfect Plum, Always Artichoke, Neutral of Choice [white]
Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge #192

Supplies: Hammermill, DCWV and Core'dinations cardstocks, ColorBox, Tim Holtz and InkItUp! inks, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, Post-it notes, stamps from K&Co. Amy Butler Lotus Floral set, Sculpey polymer clay, sewing machine and thread

Thinking of blossoms...

One of my favorite parts of living in Baltimore is the brief and beautiful flowering of the trees. Neighboring D.C. is famous for their Cherry Blossoms, but Baltimore puts on its own show...my favorite part is the "Spring Snow," when the blossoms drop and the streets are filled with pink, peach, and white petals.

With Spring just around the corner, this seems the time to practice with my new Cherry Blossom Branch stamp. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect color combo for inspiration than this week's Color Throwdown Challenge: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip. I pulled out my chalk inks and carefully inked on the separate colors; I found that a makeup sponge works great for applying ink in small areas. Happily, I've seen blossoms exactly these colors. Our neighbor has an bright-orange-flowering tree that's simply breathtaking. Can't wait!

Although it was very difficult to keep it simple, Allsorts' Handmade Flowers challenge inspired me to add a little paper blossom on the front. Coincidentally, I have a bag of different-sized tiny flowers and leaves that I designed and cut with SCAL and Cricut last year and never used. I worked the paper with an emery board, and sewed the blossom and leaf to the backing paper, including a orange seed bead for the center.

I had so much fun sewing the front panel with my machine, that I added some stitching to the message portion inside. Also for the inside, I found a complementary branch stamp and stamped it several times in the same soft brown I used for the branches on the front image.
Inspiration:
Color Throwdown #130
Allsorts Challenge #92: Make your own flowers

Supplies: Hammermill, DCWV and Core'dinations cardstocks, emery board, Cricut & SCAL, ColorBox and Martha Stewart chalk inks, Cherry Blossom Branch stamp from Inkadinkado Asian by Design set, branch stamp from K&Co. Amy Butler Lotus Floral set, sentiment stamp by gstudio, stash plastic bead, sewing machine and thread

Hipster McMillan's Magic Guide to Language

This fortnight's challenge at Aud Sentiments is especially fun: we're challenged to use "trendy sayings." To say that I went slightly overboard with this challenge would be to say that the movie Overboard was slightly ill-conceived. I love slang, but have always been more of a linguist than a hipster, so I reached out to my FaceBook friends for ideas:

• "I heard this dude say, 'it's trill!' because something was cool. Unsurprisingly he didn't know what the word trill actually meant."
• "My teenagers are always saying now, No Big Deal. It is often said just with the letters NBD. Another is SERIOUSLY? How 'bout 'are you freelin me?' Mash of for real. And a lot of people are saying FO SHO now for for sure! NOT me, but lots of other people."
• "This is getting old but: sweet and bad are both good."
• "In my college years we used to say, Yak! when we meant chill out and be cool as not to draw attention. I think the term was cooked up because Platoon was on in the smoking floor TV lounge and the scene when everything is getting blown to shit and the yaks are just eating grass all nonchalantly seemed quite descriptive at the time."

Between these suggestions and some of my personal favorites, my head was swimming with too many ideas and I simply couldn't choose, so decided to throw caution out the window of the skull and make a Fortune-telling Cootie-Catcher, like we did in Junior High. Of course, I now have the PhotoShop-ready Cootie-Catcher template by Creations by Julie instead of an old sheet of math homework to work with, so it's a true homage to hipness. Every subsequent decision was made with respect to hipness: Gotham typeface, Tim Holtz classic-product-packaging paper, bright-colored-camouflage clip, "Rock On" sentiment stamp, fuzzy yarn, stamped stitching. And if anybody's thinking, Gee she's down on Hipsters! please keep in mind that all of these items were readily available in my home. The most passionate name-calling happens in front of the mirror!
Inspiration:
Aud Sentiments Challenge #22: Trendy Sayings

Cootie Catcher template by Creations by Julie for Gingerscraps

Supplies: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Seasonal Paper Stash, Fiskars papercutter and deckle scissors, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz distress ink, StazOn ink, sentiment stamp by gstudio, stitch stamp by the Paper Studio, HP printer & ink, Adobe PhotoShop, Gotham typeface, 1000Flowers.org "Shape the Oval Office" emery board, Lion "fun fur" yarn, mini-clip from Oriental Trading Co.

I love the idea that you could throw this in your European Shoulder Bag or clip it on your Hello Kitty key chain and pull it out when necessary at your local art-space coffee-bar. For more Hipster silliness, may I recommend:
If Superheroes Were Hipsters
Hipster Triangles
Typestaches
Hipster Bingo

Robot shaker card

I'm beginning to feel a bit like a Tiddly Inks groupie, but I just couldn't rest until I had tried their Shaker Card Challenge with Christy's adorable Dr. Love Boto (the digi stamp that led me to Tiddly Inks in the first place!)

This is my third shaker card, and it's certainly my most complicated; I was really inspired by the DT examples for this challenge, plus the many shaker cards I've been seeing around the craftosphere. Note to self: try not to make the window frame 1/4 inch and rounded. I mean really, what was I thinking. I colored the edges of the foam with matching copics, which helps it look clean. I cut the interiors by hand, which seemed faster than trying to do it in SCAL, my usual favorite trick.

For the sentiment, I did something I've been threatening to do for some time: I used CSS/HTML code instead of real typography. This isn't a new thing (see poet Jenny O'Grady's fantastic series Homepages), but I chose to use in-line CSS and colored the text as it appears in HTML editors. If you read code, you'll see that some of it is redundant and some things are missing, but the HEX code is in fact the text color. And yes, I was nerdy enough to use Courier New for the 1s and 0s I cut out with SCAL and my Cricut. Oh how I love a good binary joke!


Inspiration: Tiddly Inks Challenge #39: Shaker Card

Digi stamp: Dr. Love Boto by Tiddly Inks

Supplies: Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, clear plastic, emery board, Fiskars papercutter, finger swivel-knife, and deckle scissors, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Cricut and SCAL, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz & MS detailing scissors, Recollections eyelets, Crop-O-Dile II

Copic Ciao markers: R27, RV29, C-1, C-5, C-7, B32, BG10, B23, B39, 0


Update 2/4/11: This card placed in the Top 5 of Tiddly Inks' Shaker Card Challenge. Wow, thank you!

Bookish

As I've mentioned before, I just purchased some of my favorite Tiddly Inks digi stamps; including the wonderfully complete SchoolGirl set, which includes three complementary images. For color inspiration, I looked to the combo at Scrapmaster's Paradise, which seemed to lend itself well to books: Daffodil Delight, Sahara Sand, Rose Red. I used the "leather" texturing plate to emboss the yellow and beige papers before printing the digis on them. I've found that starting with the Fiskars texturing tool and then going over it with my bone folder results in a really nice, durable paper.

I kept my color palette very simple, playing off the color combo challenge. I'm very pleased with how my copicing came out. For a final touch, I used the two titles that came in my Alice in Wonderland rubber stamp set for the front book. Ah, is there anything more beautiful than a book spine?!
Inspiration: SPCC #88

Digi stamp set: SchoolGirl by Christy Croll for Tiddly Inks

Supplies: Stampin' Up! paper (Subtles Patterns 2010), Paper Studio, XPress Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, Fiskars papercutter, deckle scissors, and texturing plate & tool, HP printer & ink, ZipDry glue, MS detailing scissors, Adobe InDesign, Memento ink, rubber sentiment stamps from Alice in Wonderful set, Offray ribbon, stash glass bead

Copic markers:
pages: E51, E33, YR00, E50
skin: E51, E33, YR00, E50, RV21
hair: E37, E17, E08, R59, E35
socks & shoes: E50, C-1, 0, C-5
dress & bow: RV29, R59, R29, R27
books: RV29, R59, R29, R27, E08, E17, 0
background: E50, E02
edging: E17

So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

One of my newest discoveries is Tiddly Inks digi stamps (and their great blogs); I've been eying their work for a while now on cards around the craftosphere, but I could never find where the images were from. So once I discovered them, I bought four sets of stamps! I simply couldn't pass up their adorable doggy-balloon set, because it reminds me of my own dogs, Allen and Walt (left to right in this photo).

Then I decided that I wanted to use the image for this week's Tiddly Inks Challenge, and since their theme is Monochromatic, I found myself using a palette of black and white / gray and silver, to match my puppies. I just couldn't help myself! I'm not sure if it meets the challenge exactly, but I'm totally tickled with the result!

I started by pulling out my three gray copic markers for the Walt/black dog and the balloons. I used the blender to remove a shine mark on the balloons; I need a lot more practice, but they came out okay. I decided that silver was just like gray, so I added glitter with gel pens to make the balloons more fun. I went ahead and cheated just a little bit more on the color theme by blending in a bit of pink to the dogs' noses.

For the Allen/white dog, I simply used a Marvy snow pen; I painted on two thick layers before puffing it up with my heat tool. (There's no way my 35lb Allen could get airborne, but he is this adorable!)

I was very excited to have an excuse to use some of my Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock, but the project almost ended tragically when I realized I didn't have a good emery board to use for sanding...But then I discovered a 1000Flowers.org "Shape the Oval Office" emery board in my makeup bag. Can you believe it's been waiting for this moment since 2004‽​ At least I got something good out of that election...

I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to use the Party Balloons font I had downloaded ages ago. I printed the wordart on Recollections silver paper, added some detail with silver and glitter gel pens, and tied a strip of black-glitter ribbon to the balloon shape. I broke out my SCAL software to create the frame (using "basic borders.svg", an online freebie set, but I can't find the link now...) and the clouds. I may have obsessed a bit about the clouds...I finally ended up using the Talk Bubble 7 shape that comes in SCAL2 because it gave me three shapes. I cut the clouds onto a linen-textured white paper, and then created a shadow layer in silver.

For the background paper, I stamped a curly design in silver onto white cardstock, and heat-embossed it in white. Like little, silver-lined clouds....

Have a great day everybody!


Digi stamp set: Whaz'Up....or Down? by Tiddly Inks
Font: Party Balloons by pizzadude

Inspiration:
Sketch: Card Positioning Systems #206
Color/Theme: Tiddly Inks Challenge #38: Monochromatic

Supplies: DCWV, Core'dinations, Hammermill, and Recollections cardstocks, emery board, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Cricut & SCAL, ColorBox silver ink, silicon stamp by the Paper Studio, Stampendous! white embossing powder, Marvy snow paint pen and heat tool, Offray ribbon
Copic Ciao markers: E04, RV21, C-1, 0, C-5, E50, C-7

Blog title from the Paul Simon song

Goin' Green

I had the such a fun time coloring Clara by Fairydoodler for a recent card that I just had to play with her again.Digi Stamp: Clara by Fairydoodler

Inspiration:
Sketch: Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #91
Color: Color Throwdown #129

Supplies: Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, stash decorative paper, HP printer & ink, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, ProvoCarft scallop scissors, CraftSmart ink, sentiment stamp by Hero Arts, Offray ribbon

Copic Ciao markers: E33, E11, YR00, RV21; B39, B05, 0; BG49, BG15, BG10, G21, G02, YG41, Y02
Copic Sketch: E17

Dream Fairy

I was very excited to discover Fairydoodler's Fortnightly Friday Freebie Challenge, and had the best time coloring the current image, Teddy Bea.

I couldn't resist giving her blue skin (although it isn't coming out great in my photos...)! What a fun technique, I'll have to try it again. I printed the image three times: on Copic paper, vellum, and Core'dinations Glitter Silk. I used the transparency part for the wings and the lace.

For extra funsies, I used colourQ Challenge #72 (although I'm not sure I got the white bit in...) and PaperCraft Planet Saturday Sketch Challenge #021211. Plus, I discovered Sparkles Forum just in time for their Fairies challenge!

Inspiration:
Digi stamp: Fairydoodler's Friday Freebie Challenge No 7: Teddy Bea
Theme: Sparkles Forum Challenge #5: Fairies
Color: colourQ Challenge #72
Sketch: PaperCraft Planet Saturday Sketch Challenge #021211

Supplies: Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, Recollections vellum, HP printer & ink, Cricut & SCAL, Fiskars papercutter, StazOn and Versamark inks, Sentiment stamps from stash, flower stamp by Inkadinkado

Copic Ciao markers: YR00, E50, BG10, B05, B32, B23, BG15, BG49

...be sure to wear a flower in your hair

I've been super-excited about this fortnight's Crazy Hair Colour challenge at Mad for Markers. To say that I've obsessed about what image to use would be an understatement; I knew what hair color scheme I wanted to use, however. See, I once decided to color my own hair some crazy colors, and after much, much thought I chose blue and purple stripes. Seemed like it would go with my clothes and my eyes. My partner-in-crime since age 5 (we were 18 by this point) helped paint on the color, which is the reason it came out so nicely. Of course, the sink in my folks' house is still a slight violet, but for the most part it worked out great! There were several cultural issues with my changed hair color, and in my advanced age I much prefer calling attention with cute cards than my own appearance!

I found this cute Clara digi stamp by Gayle Cook (Fairydoodler) on sale for free, which was just within my budget and was TOO perfect for this card. Because I'm not particularly confident with doing all of my own shading, I enjoy working with images that already have pre-shading. I'm so glad I found her art; I'll definitely be a customer.
So I started by coloring the hair and skin (since I had lived with the real thing), but for the "petal" dress I asked my wise and handsome husband for help. He suggested turquoise, which was perfect. I found a lovely turquoise-ish cardstock in my Core-dinations stash, and actually used the shimmer side for the inside of the card. For the outside, I stamped alternating blue and purple flower-themed border blocks to create a striped effect. Don't you just love when a card comes together? I had just obtained this border stamp, a Valentine's gift from that awesome husband I mentioned earlier. The stamped lines came out pretty well, considering I just eyeballed it.
I had figured I'd use a mix of bright purple and blue for the accent pieces, but then I discovered a piece Raspberry Cordial cardstock from Core'dinations' Chocolate Box collection. Yum! Really wish I had something better than my Hello Kitty foam-core emery board to sand with, however.

I used a yellow, textured Core'dinations cardstock for the flower, and covered the back with orange ink before running it through my Cricut (I used a raindrop shape to create the petal pairs.) I wore a flower in my hair when I went to San Francisco/the Haight for the first time (picked for me by a fellow traveler at an Oakland gas station) and that famous song actually came on the radio. I like to think they play it all day long...




Inspiration: Crazy Hair Colour challenge at Mad for Markers

Digi Stamp: Clara by Fairydoodler

Supplies: Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, HP printer & ink, Cricut & SCAL, 09 KutUps dingbat font for flower shape, Fiskars papercutter, CraftSmart ink, Recolletions brad, emery board, flower border stamp by Inkadinkado

Copic Ciao markers:
E33, YR00, E11, E50, E51; B05, B23, V17, V06
YG41, BG49, BG15, Y04, Y08, Y02, Y06
BG10, 0

A little gem

Another week, another awesome Embellishment Challenge over at CDAC. This week's is hosted by VN Digital Art, who's asked us to use lace and rhinestones. Having just this weekend purchased some cheap-o lace, I was pretty excited. To make it even more fun, I used the sweet My Flower freebie offered for use in this challenge. My husband says she looks a bit like StarFire.

To give myself a bit more direction, I used Curtain Call Color Challenge Act 69: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla & Real Red. This was a fairly challenging combo, but it allowed me to use two of my favorite papers: the red-and-white flower pattern, and the tiny-heart pre-embossed, off-white paper. For the "crumb cake" backgrounds on the front, I painted Cinnamon Stickles onto a kraft-colored cardstock. For the sentiment, I once again turned to You make my life sparkle by TLC Creations.

I highly recommend checking out the other entries to both of these challenges; they are beyond gorgeous!

Digi stamp: My Flower by VN Digital Art
Sentiment digi stamp: You make my life sparkle by TLC Creations

Theme and image: CDAC Embellishment Challenge hosted by VN Digital Art
Color: Curtain Call Color Challenge Act 69

Supplies: K&Company, PaperStudio, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, HP printer & ink, Fiskars papercutter, Simplicity ruffled lace, Tim Holtz scissors, Recollections gemstones, emery board, Sakrua gel pens, Atyou Spica clear glitter pen, Stickles

Copic Ciao markers: E35, E51, E11, E08, R59, R27, R29, R02
Copic Sketch marker: E17

'Mum's the Word

I so enjoyed using the chrysanthemum stamp from the K&Company Amy Butler Lotus Floral set that I couldn't get it out of my head! So I found myself using it again for this week's iCopic and Mojo Monday challenges, a coupla of my favs. As I too-often do, I rotated the sketch 90°, which changes the energy of this sketch, but works. There are many gorgeous, creative examples from the Mojo DT.

How could I resist this delicious challenge at iCopic (image on right)?! Unlike most of the color challenges I participate in, this is a coloring challenge, so the color choices are usually simple instead of name-brand colors, making it a little easier to follow creatively. A little. Again, be sure to check out the DT projects for some beautiful inspiration.

I just got my hands on the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Seasonal Paper Stash, and because I wanted to use the aged-pink piece, I got the pink-and-brown letter block image side as well, which brought this card together. The photo doesn't show it, but the white frame and circle is pre-embossed, vine-themed paper. For the un-colored flower, I blended some olive-green with sienna-brown right onto the stamp. And to make this card extra-special, and to send some good blessings to the receiver, I added a real Tiger's Eye stone bead.

Inspiration:
Sketch: Mojo Monday #178
Color: iCopic Color Challenge #17

Supplies: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Seasonal Paper Stash, X-Press Copic cardstock, Fiskars papercutter, ProvoCraft zig-zag scissors, ZipDry glue, Martha Stewart and Versamark liquid chalks, Memento ink, sentiment stamp by gstudio, K&Company Amy Butler Lotus Floral silicon stamp, Cricut & SCAL, CelebrateIt! ribbon, Tiger's Eye bead
Copic Ciao markers: RV23, RV04, RV21, R42, E17, G21, G99

You Make My Life Sparkle

If you follow this blog, you may remember my odd Sand Dollar Shaker Card, which remains one of my personal favorite projects. It's just too much fun. This kind of card has been popular for some time (Mom's taken several classes and made gorgeous ones), and Natacha at CardScrapper recently posted a great tutorial. So when I found myself with a pile of teensy hearts I gathered from the scraps made by my heart-themed border punch, I knew just what to do with them!
Sentiment digi stamp: You make my life sparkle by TLC Creations

Inspiration:
PaperPlay Challenge Week 6: Hearts & Flowers but not Valentine
Cute Card Thursdays Challenge #151: Hearts & Flowers

Supplies: Recollections, Hammermill, and Core'dinations cardstocks, textured and vintage flower double-sided papers by the Paper Studio (I think), Cricut & SCAL, ZipDry glue, pop-dots, Fiskars papercutter, HP printer & ink, Recollections border punch, Crop-O-Dile II, brad from Oriental Trading Co., CelebrateIt! ribbon, Hero Arts gemstone flowers, Copic Ciao marker RV29, Sakura and Elmer's gel pens

Cheat-blocking

I ran across a gorgeous card at Snappy Stampin' with Arielle H. Gordon that used the color-blocking technique, and it was so nice that I used it twice! What a great technique for color challenges...there are so many options, and the result always looks impressive. Arielle links to a tutorial at SplitCoastStampers, which is very helpful and full of inspiration. She also has a version using circles that is incredible, but I'll have to practice a little more to pull that off!

---

This is my first attempt at colorblocking; I used one of favorite paisley rubber stamps because it's so full of detail. The sentiment is actually the second line of the Made Just/For You stamp that came in my rubber Alice in Wonderland set. I'm such a risk-taker! I mounted this front onto black card and made a message space from the purple. However, I put it in the mail before taking photos! What can I say, I needed a last-minute card!

Inspiration: Color Throwdown Challenge #128 (palette on right)
Supplies: Recollections & Core'dinations cardstocks, Fiskars papercutter, ZipDry glue, ColorBox liquid chalk, Memento and StazOn inks, sentiment cling-mount rubber stamp from Alice in Wonderland set, Paisley rubber stamp by Stampabilities

---

This is my second attempt at color-blocking, and it came out so well because I'm a great big cheater. I decided to work with my pretty flower silicon stamp set, which I just discovered is by K&Company, and this week's sketch at Card Positioning Systems. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up importing the sketch image into SCAL (at 5% brightness, to create the gaps between the sections) so that I could cut exactly the pieces I wanted onto four colors of paper. After running it through the Cricut, I stamped the Copic (white) paper while it was still on the mat. I decided to try the emboss-resist method, which led to a sad story of yet another Cricut mat succumbing to fine embossing powder and a heat tool. I guess that's what I get for cheating and stealing that layout! Totally worth it. I think the best choice I made with this card was using this pre-printed, vintage-y, dotted green paper as the base. So glad I saved it!

Inspiration:
Sketch: Card Positioning Systems #205
Color: SPCC #86
Supplies: Recollections & Core'dinations cardstocks, Fiskars papercutter, ZipDry glue, Martha Stewart and Versamark liquid chalks, Memento ink, sentiment stamp by Hero Arts, K&Company Amy Butler Lotus Floral silicon stamps, Cricut & SCAL, Stampendous! embossing powder, Marvy heat tool
Copic Ciao markers: YR 04, E08, R02, G99, G21, BG93, YG41