Kindness in Blue

Whew.  This week was hectic!  I have been crafting up a storm.  I have a few holiday craft fairs coming up, and need to build my stock.  This time of year, finds me a bit overwhelmed.  It seems like I never have enough time to get stuff made.  That darn  'j-o-b' takes me away from home, and out of my craft room {frown}.  (just kidding.)  I am grateful to have work.  I just need to figure out a way to get an extra hour out of my day, to get an extra paper craft done.

I took a break from making holiday themed paper crafts, and created a card that seems like a complete opposite of Christmas.

The lovely and talented Robbie, over @ Sketch Frenzy Friday has a creative sketch for you to work with this week. 

here is what I did:

I have to admit, that I did get my inspiration from a Pottery Barn Baby catalog.  I know how crazy, huh?  But, they have some beautiful pages.  Their pages are filled with a clean, elegant, modern look.  I wanted to add bits of grey.  This color is showing up everywhere!

The card base is pool party cardstock.  I added a matt with slate cardstock under the dry embossed white cardstock.  The white panel looked to 'flat', so I jazzed it up a bit with some polka dot dry embossing.

I cut a piece of pool party dsp with the top note die.  I added a strip of pool party seam binding, and tucked in a decorative scallop trim border using some silver glimmer paper.  I wanted to add some sparkle. 

For my blossoms, I heat embossed silver embossing powder onto shimmer white cardstock.  I color washed the blossoms with pool party re inker and my aqua painter.  I fussy cut the blossom, and adhered them to the top note piece.  

For my sentiment flag banner, I stamped my sentiment in slate classic ink onto white card stock.  Then matted the sentiment piece with pool party cardstock.  I adhered the sentiment banner to the card front, then stapled it to the card front, to give it some visual interest.  

Instead of a photo corner, as in the sketch, I added some butterflies.  I finally added some pearl jewels to the center of each blossoms, and for the butterfly bodies.

I hope you get a chance to play along with us @ SFF.  We would love to see what you create with Robbie's sketch {smile}.

School Days

I hope this week has started off nicely for you.  Me?  well, I think I will always be busy until I retire from my paying job.  So, until then, the lovely ladies over @ Nacho Average Challenge, have a great sketch for you to play with this week!  Here is the sketch:

Now, don't let this bold, plain sketch deflate your creativity.  Let's take a closer look.  The rectangle shape of the main piece can easily be changed into a shape.  The thick matt can easily be changed to a thinner matt.  The space on the main panel can easily showcase a large stamp, show-off a background stamp, or allow you to wow us with a technique.  

Here is what I did:

If you have searched the internet recently, you have seen alot of paper crafts with this faux chalkboard technique.  I think this look is 'old school', since most public classrooms have dry eraser boards than chalkboards.  A crime I say!  Anyways, I saw this fabulous tutorial, and decided to use the open space on this sketch to illustrate my take on the faux chalkboard technique.

I used one of my favorite 'thank you' stamps from the From My Heart stamp set.  I first stamped the image in Versa Mark ink and used white embossing powder.  Heat embossed this fabulous image.  I then sponged basic black classic ink along the edges.  I then sponged whisper white craft ink over the embossed image to represent chalk dust.  I then stamped over the image with the same image again with the stamp inked in whisper white craft ink.  I love how this turned out.  I used the top note die to create this fabulous shape.  I wanted to add something to the corner of this piece, so I did another layering.  I stamped the double-line heart from the Hearts a Flutter stamp set onto very vanilla card stock and fussy cut it out.  I added a multi-loop bow made from pool party seam binding.  I attached the bow to the front of the heart with a vintage trinket brad.  I added a blossom from the Flower Trim and a tiny tag, that says, 'Thanks'.  The school line paper is from a DSP pack.

I hope that you have found some inspiration, and join us this week with this fun sketch @ NAC!

Happy Crafting!  hugs, Sharon W.

(love this card? you can purchase it, here)