Sweet Sunday Sketch

I needed a quick card & I liked the sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge, coming up with this:

The card base was from my stash; the patterned paper is from the Teresa Collins Urban Market pad, and the stamps were by Papertrey Ink & Paula Pascual  for Personal Impressions, inked up in Memento Paris Dusk. The embossing folder is by Papermania.

Watercolour Allium

This card was an experiment with some Reeves watercolour wax crayons I picked up cheap somewhere but had never used. I'd made several failed attempts to create a watercolour background with my Inktense pencils, so dug these out instead. Once the background was dry I stamped an Inkylicious allium which I coloured with a more concentrated form of the paint.

In an effort to maintain the CAS look I simply pierced the edge of the card then stamped the greeting and numbers, finishing off with some bright white pearls from Papermania. I've decided to enter this for Lucky Dip week at Less is More where the theme is "round and round". I'm sure there'll be more inventive entries but never mind!

Stamps: Inkylicious, Personal Impressions (from "Love is the Thread" set)

Inks: Hero Arts, Versacolor Heliotrope

Paint: Reeves Watercolour Wax Crayons

Papermania Pearls

Love is the Thread

My sister is an accomplished seamstress so when I saw a range of sewing-themed stamps by Sue Dix for Personal Impressions I just couldn't resist them.  The sets are called "Lace and Thread", "Vintage Sewing" and "Love is the Thread" and this card is a mix of stamps from all 3.  And no, I hadn't been drinking when I took the photo above!

As teal is her favourite colour I used Memento Teal Zeal ink to randomly stamp some of the images onto a K & Company backing paper.  The main image was stamped onto an Inkylicious tag with some of the details of the sewing machine coloured in using a Cut 'n' Dry nib & more of the Memento.  The charm is by Crafty Bits, and the ribbon was coloured with Promarker Duck Egg.

Detail from card insert

Detail from back of card

Cardstock: from stash

Stamps: Sue Dix for Personal Impressions
Backing Paper: K & Co Addison Paper Pad 628052

Ink: Memento Teal Zeal

Charm: Crafty Bits

Balloons 65th Birthday Card

My old (now VERY old!) boss turned 65 the other day; we shared an office for more years than I care to remember so he's also one of my best friends.  He didn't really want to be reminded of his age but I couldn't resist it - after all, he'll always be 15 years older than me!

Of course, men's cards are always difficult for card makers but the idea for the main image of this one came to me quite quickly.  Finishing it took ages though, and I'm still not entirely happy with the end result but, as ever, I ran out of time.

The hills & sky were both sponged onto Personal Impressions canvas paper.  The balloon stamps were free with Craft Stamper magazine & I paper-pieced them then stamped the numbers on.  I created the backing paper by embossing the small balloons with white embossing powder then inking over the top.

I chose an easel card format but struggled to know how to fill the white space around the main image; I eventually decided to keep it simple by stamping more of the small balloons.  I'm not happy about 2 of them being partially covered by the central image but I needed to get the card in the post so had to call it a day.

Stamps: Craft Stamper freebie, Inkylicious birds & Elzybells greeting (no longer available).