You Party Animal

There's a sketch challenge going on over at the Avery Elle blog.  The challenge is to use a sketch from the talented Nina Yang, and the winner of the challenge earns themselves an upcoming guest designer spot. As most of you know, I don't do clean and simple designs.  In fact, I do quite the opposite.  But I do like to challenge myself by using the unexpected while keeping true to MY vintage/retro style.  And that's what I did here.

Ever since I received the Avery Elle tag dies, I have been making tags out of EVERYTHING.  Here I made a tag from a vintage photo and I used the Simply Tags: Everyday and the Party Animal stamp sets in my design.  I tried to stay pretty close to Nina's sketch.  Since the background paper had a lot of dots, I cut vellum circles to mimic the circles in the sketch.

The rebel in me wanted to use contemporary images in a retro/vintage project.  So that's what I did!



What We Could Be

Happy Memorial Day! Today I'd like to share a card that I made using this week's sketch at Unscripted Sketches.  I rotated the sketch as you can see here:

The sentiment is an older stamp from Stampers Anonymous.  I am also linking this to The Simon Says Stamp and Show "Into the Woods" Challenge.  I love woodgrain papers and this one by Crate Paper is my favorite. :)

Sew Cute!

I used the Needle Little Love set from Paper Smooches for their current Designer Drafts sketch challenge this week.

 

I am also linking this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show "A Little Paper" Challenge.  I used a 6x6 pad of the new Crate Paper, "The Pier" papers.  I think it's my new favorite line!  I have really been enjoying sketch challenges lately.  Thanks for letting me share them with you!

A weeks worth of fun...

There's a blog that posts challenges every day.  I've always wanted to try this.  But maybe that's too much right now.  So, I will try a week's worth.  :)

Sunday's challenge at 365 Cards was a sketch challenge.  And there was a photo challenge at Paper Smooches Sparks challenge involving buttons.  I do love buttons!  I combined the two and this what I designed.   I used Paper Smooches Needle Little Love Stamps and Basic Grey's Lucille paper.

 

I really like that needle stamp. :)

 

 

I wonder what other challenges 365 Cards will offer this week. ??  Wish me luck!

 



Scrappy Card

I seldom create something with little or no stamping on it, but for this card I left the inks on the shelf.  I just got a big box of scrappy supplies that I had ordered, so I felt compelled to cut into it.  Here I used Glitz papers and Crate Paper papers.  I made the little flags and the bow came from the Maggie Holmes line.  Being that I am severely bow-challenged, these little cuties are my new favorites.

 

I am linking this to the Cardabilities sketch challenge as well as the Simon Says Stamp A Bit O' Green Challenge.

 

Retro Robin

I find it really hard to do a "Clean And Simple" type card.  So for me, this was a stretch. I created this card by using the #54 sketch from Retro Sketches. I used the DIY paper from Crate Paper and the bow is from the Maggie Holmes Crate Paper line.  The sweet little robin is from Artistic Outpost's Birds of a Feather plate. Artistic Outpost has a monthly referral program I am linking this card to.

Gold Lame'

I don't do monthly kit clubs and I don't have any plans on joining any in the near future, but I do love the current Jenni Bowlin kit.  I was able to purchase it this month, so the layout below is almost all from that kit, with the exception of the washi tape, doilies and chipboard hearts that I covered in glitter. 

I am a messy scrapper.  Ink gets smudged, lines don't always go straight and glitter gets everywhere.   OMG...I love glitter!  I had a lot of inspiration this week.  At City Crafter Challenge, the theme is All that Glitter's. I started out with the sketch from this weeks Let Get Sketchy sketch, but after awhile, it morphed into this and the only hexagon remaining became an accent piece.  A Twisted Tuesday Challenge!

At Use Your Stuff, Challenge #72 All in the Family, there is a challenge to document something about your family.  I was too late to link up, but I had to give a shout-out because they really did inspire me.  :) The layout is about a skirt my daughter wore her senior year of high school.  She's graduating from college in three months, so as you can tell, I don't scrap chronologically. :)

 

Let's Bond

I tried something new here.  Which is half the fun, right?
Paper Smooches has a weekly challenge and this week it's a sketch challenge.  They call it A Designer Drafts Challenge.  For the challenge, I loosely followed the sketch and embossed the Great Chemistry stamp set along with a vintage prescription. 

 This is intended as a Valentine for a guy, (my hubby) but I had to girlie-it-up a bit with a ruffle. The ruffle is made with crepe paper and stamped with the Geo-Graphic stamp set for the polka-dots. (that's the "tried-something-new" part) I use that set a lot. I love that stamp set.

I love polka dots too. <3

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

There's another fantastic layout sketch at Let's Get Sketchy this week.  For this layout, I some of the Pink Paislee Portfolio and some of the  Crate Paper On Trend.  The On Trend line was a favorite of mine for 2012.

This layout came together super-fast because I followed the sketch closely. I love it when that happens.  :)

Time Flies

I love the latest sketch at Let's Get Sketchy.  I've been wanting to use it ever since they posted it, but the holidays and lack of power prevented me from to getting to it earlier.
This layout incorporates a mish-mash of products.  I had an old Heidi Swapp clock face that I've been meaning to use.  There's some "On Trend" Crate Paper, some Echo Park "For the Record", and some Prima and Pink Paislee too.  And I had to include some stamping as well. :)

And to compensate for my inadequate photography skills, here's some close-ups.

 

Cardabilities Sketch

They have some of the coolest card sketches at Cardabilities. I used their sketch #60 and the Winter Wonderland cricut cartridge for this winter card. 

 

Stamp Blast from the Past...Thinking of you Sketch

At Pamela's World of Scraps there was a fun sketch challenge for both cards and scrapbook layouts.  I used the BasicGrey Serenade papers and an old stamp I purchased years ago for the card sketch.  The stamp is from a "Paper Ornaments" sheet of rubber designed by Nina Bagley.  The stamp originally said, "a new-found friend", but I covered that part up with a Jillibean Soup wooden flag embellishment.  I love those little flags, even though the printing on them is a little "off".

Silhouette Stamped Card

This past Saturday there was a lovely card sketch at Two Peas in a Bucket.  I replaced the "sentiment" with a Hero Arts Silhouette stamp and this is the result.  I've always loved silhouettes.  Don't you?

Just a Note

I am loving card sketches right now!  As I continue on my papercrafting bender, I'd like to share with you this card I made from the sketch here.  The stamps were from the November Simon Says Stamp "Just a Note" Card Kit using the Basic Grey Serenade line of papers.

National Cardmaking Day!

In honor of National Cardmaking Day, which was yesterday, I created a new card.

The card was made from a sketch I used from the weekly challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket.   I LOVE this sketch! The card was easy and a lot of fun with my new stamps from Paper Smooches.

In case you're wondering why its been a LONG time since I posted. Over a year ago, I was happy posting about my awesome deals and freebies, but I had some dental work done and when I came home from the dentist and was prompted to create a more secure email password, so I did....even though I was taking the pain killers. And to make a long story short, I hadn't been able to access that email account or the blog.  But after a LOT of searching, I figured it out!  YAY!  So now I can share again!  And this time I'd like to include my creative endeavors.  So please feel free to post a message.