Inkspirational Challenge - Designer's Choice Sketch

I don't often use card sketches, but I enjoyed using this sketch chosen by Shauna.

For my DT card I used a Lil Inker set (cat images and sentiment), a stitched-style circle by 49 and Market and a musical note by Clearly Besotted.  I particularly like the cat who's having a mug of tea at the party! 

Our Guest Designer is Izzy  and I hope you'll come over to Inkspirational  to see what she and the rest of the DT have made, and use our sketch for your own creation.

I'd like to enter:
Watercooler Challenge  birthdays
Creative with Stamps  celebrate

Seagulls

Earlier in the week I was worrying about whether a card I'd made was CAS enough for a CAS challenge.  I am sure that this is CAS!

A few days ago I was playing with making backgrounds using Distress Ink , water and an acrylic block. This is one I made then. I used two seagull stamps from Crafty Individuals. These are the little stamps from a set with some lovely bigger stamps but I've used these seagulls far more than the showstoppers in the set.

I'd like to enter:
Happy Little Stampers watercolour   blue
Shopping Our Stash  cas
Addicted to CAS  summer
Through the Purple Haze  wings
Little Red Wagon  thanks

After Snowfall

I noticed a few challenges for one -layer cards - a collaboration between Less is More and AAA Cards, and also Tuesday Throwdown .

This is a re-mix of a spring card I made a while ago. I used the same stamps by Papermania and Clarity (the sentiment here is by Hero Arts) but stamped in greens on white cs.  Here I imagined the same scene but after a heavy fall of snow.  For finishing touches I added some gems and went along the edges with a thin line of silver.

Trouble is, even though I made this card specifically for some cas challenges, I don't really know whether it's cas enough! Is there enough green space? Genres make me nervous!

Snow-Splattered Trees

I'm having a day off work today! It's time-off-in-lieu for extra hours worked on open evenings. My son's at school , so crafting is top of my to-do list.

Here I used Paper Smooches tree stamp and a Hero Arts sentiment.  I used two shades of green Brushos, pearl-gold  watercolour paint (actually doesn't look very gold) white spray mist (splattered on with a paint brush as my nozzle is blocked , as most of them are) and glittery enamel dots.

I'd like to enter:
My Time to Craft Christmas
Creative Craft Cottage  Christmas
Shopping Our Stash  cas

Pro-Am Showdown #9 - City Zoo

This year, my self-imposed challenge is Pro-Am Showdown, where I take on a commercially produced card I've received (the Pro) and see if I can beat the professionals at their own game with my amateur card.

This is the card I am using as inspiration:

the commerically produced card

This was a card sent to my son, and judging by how long I've kept it, I must really love this card - the senders kindly dated it - 2009 - my son's 2nd birthday!

For my card, I used five animal stamps from My Favorite Things Sweet Safari, masked, coloured with Promarkers and with a Distress Ink background. I think the sentiment is Hero Arts. The zoo sign is a Silhouette cutting file.

I'd like to enter:
Through the Purple Haze  spots and stripes (spots - giraffe, stripes - zebra)
Crazy Challenge  animals
Use Your Stuff all creatures great and small
A Gem of A Challenge  animals

City Crafter - Two Colours Only

I really love seeing simple colour combos, so I chose this week's challenge at City Crafter- Two Colours Only.

For my DT card I used a very old stamp from Stampington and a script stamp (Indigo Blu?) . My two colours are navy and minty green. I distressed the edges of my central panel and I dry embossed the navy panel and the base card.

This week we welcome a new DT member, Lucille , and I hope you will come over to the City Crafter blog, see what she and the rest of the DT have made, and enter our challenge.

I'd like to enter:

Penny Black and More for the boys 

Crafty Friends   man 

Butterflies

I copied Jennifer Maguire by rubbing distress inks onto an acrylic block , squirting with water and stamping with it.

I stamped butterflies (Papermania) and a sentiment. Then I did loads of gold paint flicking. (Not sure it shows up well in photo but it catches the light in real life). I mounted this onto an embossed card base.

I'd like to enter:

Alphabet Challenge insects
Country View  wings
Cardz4Galz butterflies
That's Crafty anything goes 

Wool

Some challenges are more challenging than others, aren't they? Compare, for example, 'anything goes'  against a challenge that says 'use some wool'. When I first saw the wool challenge at Crafter's Cafe, I didn't think I'd enter, but something must have been brewing in my brain because, doing a bit of early Sunday morning crafting, I decided to give it a try.

I used a Pure Innocence image , coloured with Promarkers, some wool found languishing in a box (all tangled up with rarely-used ribbon etc) and some pompoms (same box!) . The sentiment stamps are by Avery Elle.

Top tip - if you're going to use a stamping tool to place your sentiment, do it before attaching bulky pompoms- doh!

Finally, I added buttons - I just thought they'd go with the knitting theme and also to join in the challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters.

I'd also like to join in the little girls and boys challenge at Fab n Funky .

Thanks with Flowers

I tried something different here (well, different for me).

I stamped 'thanks' (Waffle Flower) , then stamped round it with flowers from Penny Black 'Flower Medley'. Then I added colour by inking with Distress Oxide Ink through a Prima bricks stencil.

Then I realised that I had dulled the 'thanks' by getting the ink on it (should have clear embossed it!) , so I went over it with a black marker, which I also used to create a thin border. Finally, I added black enamel hearts.

I'd like to enter:
4 Crafty Chicks  stamping, no digis
Penny Black Saturday Challenge flowers (all the flower stamps are PB)
Stamping Sensations  flowers

Blue Flowers

I made this card last week, playing around with my new Lawn Fawn Fab Flowers stamps. These are layering stamps and also needed lots of masking to make a bunch.  The girl is a stamped and embossed image sent to me by my lovely teamie Shauna - it was included in my birthday card , which used the same image. There were also some die-cuts which I will use another time. Anyway, I coloured her with Zig markers.

I'd like to enter:
Watercooler feminine
Paper Craft Happy  anything goes with a girl