Sassy & Sweet Notes

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Layout

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday task was to create a card that was any other shape than a rectangle. I chose to make a square card, and whoops! What do you know... here's yet another sneak peek at an image AND sentiment from the next unmounted set being released by Whipper Snapper next Friday, March 14th!

Can you guess the theme of the next set yet!?  

I'm SUPER excited about the release, if you can't tell!

I stamped the image on shimmery white paper and colored it with a variety of markers before I watercolored lightly around the image with a water brush and reinkers. I used a glue pen to add Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the duck.

The green paper is part of an Amuse note card, a Christmas gift from my friend Vivian. Thanks Vivian!! I scalloped the bottom edge with a Martha Stewart punch that I purchased at Michael's a month or two ago. This card was easy peasy! Just a cute little 3.5x3.5 note card that would be perfect on top of a nicely wrapped gift. Good thing I know people expecting babies soon!

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Layout

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday was to create a card using the layout on page 44 of the Stampin' Up catalog. It's a fun layout to use, so try your hand at it too!

I chose to use stamps by Rosie's Roadshow to create this little springy scene.

The four stamps I used to create the scene are Leif, Flower, Long Grass, and Sabine the bird.

The images are stamped in black Stazon and colored with Copic markers. The background around the scene was then watercolored with a light wash of color.

Exciting news about Rosie's Roadshow! Rosie has opened an online store! If you've had trouble finding the stamps at your local shops, you can now order them online directly from miss Rosie! Yay, Rosie!! LOVE the new shop!

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Layout

The challenge for this week's Blogger's Challenge Friday group was to use the layout of the birthday card that's on the cover of the Stampin' Up Sale-A-Bration catalog. It's a very cute layout! I really enjoyed making this card.

Rather than making a standard A2 sized card, I chose to make a slightly smaller card - this one is 3.5 x 5 inches.

This image of the bunny in the bathtub is a Whipper Snapper stamp by illustrator Shelly Comiskey. This is another stamp that arrived at my house this week. I love getting new stamps!!

I stamped the image in Black Stazon and painted it with a water brush and Stampin' Up reinkers. I used Spellbinder dies to cute the rectangle shape and the scalloped rectangle. Have I mentioned how much I like the Spellbinder dies?! Lots and LOTS! I still have (and use) my hand-held Marvy scalloped punches, too. They come in handy as well!

I think this layout would make really cute baby cards. Maybe that's why I used such soft colors!?

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Layout

The Blogger's Challenge Friday theme for the week was to use the layout from a card in the Stampin' Up catalog on page 141.

My card is a rather "loose" representation of the layout, but I'm happy with it. I chose to squish the layout into a standard card size.

I used the chubby daisy and butterfly from Posies for You, and colored the images with Copic markers. I added some faux stitches around all layers (hard to see on the white in the photo).

I'm so glad it's Friday...

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Color

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday theme is a color challenge. We were to use Blue Bayou, Real Red, and River Rock.

I played with various layouts using colored cardstock and decided I wasn't diggin' the color combination in paper. I decided to use the colors of ink instead.

Oddly enough, it snowed here this morning (not enough to stick), so I thought it might be appropriate to use Pudgy!

I stamped Pudgy on a white Fabriano note card (thank you, Vivian!) with black Stazon ink. I used a water brush to paint Pudgy with Stampin' Up reinkers in the three colors for this challenge: Blue Bayou, Real Red, and River Rock. Because I do so love things that sparkle and shine, I brushed a bit of white Pearl-Ex over the entire card. It's just enough to give it a nice "chilly" feeling without using glitter.

While I think the other Blogger's Challenge projects look great this week (most of them used paper combinations),this is what worked for me. Easy Peasy!

You'll find a list of other Blogger's Challenge players here.

If you would like to take this challenge and make your own project using the colors given, leave a comment here and provide a link. I'd love to see your stuff!

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Layout

Some things are better not shared. But then, where's the learning!? This card is one of those things!

Blogger's Challenge Friday this week was a layout challenge. We were to use the card on page 37 of the new Stampin' Up catalog as our layout design. The card in the catalog is a really nice card, with clean stamping and crisp colors and edges.

My card: a mess! Stripes and dots and wacky flowers - oh my! Not to mention a slightly skewed layer! See how the stripes below the brown cardstock layer aren't even with the brown cardstock!? *ugh!*

But, here I am, sharing it with you anyway. Giggle away! I sure am!

On a side note, I also created (and posted) another card using this layout earlier this week. See my "A Perfect Summer Day" card from Wednesday using the Thomas Kinkade image with the cottage and horses. I think that makes up for this goofy attempt at something "cute".

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Color

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday theme is a color challenge using pink and brown. This is a color combo that I happen to love, even though I go back and forth on whether or not I actually LIKE the color pink. Today, I think I like it.

I used a couple of images from the new set from Hanna Stamps called Celebrations to make this little 4x4 valentine. I think I might just wear these lips OUT! They're just the right size, and oh so cute! You can see them on the pink layer, but they're really tough to see where I stamped them on the cocoa brown layer. I colored the champagne glasses with Copic markers. I like the blend of the pinks from light to dark - it looks fruity and sweet! The xoxo is stamped with Karen Foster Snap Stamps which were VERY popular early last year. It's a shame they stopped making them. They're GREAT!

Happy Friday!

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Motion Cards

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday them is MOTION! We were to make a card that moves, or shakes, or slides, etc. I don't make motion cards very often, so this was a good challenge for me.

It also worked out well because I needed to make something to sort of "package" a gift card, and this card has plenty of room on the back of the main image to easily adhere a gift card.

I spied this sliding pop-up card template on my friend Diane's blog (CookieStamper). She did an adorable version of the card using a frog theme - VERY cute! She has excellent directions, so please refer to her blog for details on putting this kind of card together. She even altered the template a bit so the card fits in a standard A2 envelope! THANKS, Diane!

This was my first attempt at making this kind of card, and it was quite easy! I think the biggest challenge was getting the red backing off of the sticky tape I used to adhere the ends of the "box" together.

The main image on this card as well as the little yellow bows is Hanna, from Hanna Stamps. I used a new pencil eraser to make the polka dots. The lightly stamped flower pattern on the front of the slider is a new background image from Cornish Heritage Farms. The Holiday Sparkle sentiment is by A Muse.

....time for dinner!....

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Sympathy

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday theme was Sympathy. While sympathy cards aren't always "fun" to make, they are certainly appreciated by those who receive them. I chose to do a pet themed card and unfortunately, this was a fitting card for us here on the farm this week. Last Friday night, one of our wild farm kitties was hit by a car. She was a solitary little long haired yellow miss named Curly Two. She spent most of her time in or around the pastures, or around the big hay bales. She didn't usually come near the house or the road, so Alan fed her daily out at the hay. I made this card in honor of miss Curly Two.

The kitty stamp is by Claudia Rose and is watercolored, and then over-painted with Twinkling H2Os. She really shimmers. The paper is a Fabriano note card and envelope (from DickBlick), which I also stamped with a flower from the main image. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

I poked around the other Blogger's Challenge Friday sites today and there are some really wonderful ideas being shared. If you'd like to visit them as well, you'll find a complete list of participants and their blogs here.

Have a peaceful weekend!

PS: Edited to add photo of Curly Two. You can see Curly on her firetruck, here. (See why we had to call them Curly and Curly Two? Spittin' image...)

Blogger's Challenge Friday: Watercolor

This week's Blogger's Challenge Friday challenge is watercoloring. This is a technique I do on almost all of my projects, so for this challenge I thought I'd try something a little different than my usual watercolor process.

My friend Crissy is an artist for High Hopes Rubber Stamps. She's an outstanding illustrator, and she's also amazing when it comes to giving her illustrations life through color.

I recently asked her about the technique she uses to watercolor her images using water-based markers. I encourage you to visit her gallery on SplitCoastStampers to really see just how wonderful the results of this technique can be.

I stamped the snowman and sentiment images in Timber Brown Stazon ink on cream cardstock. I watercolored the snowman with Crissy's technique using water-based markers. I used markers by Stampin' Up and Tombow.

Once the image was dry, I added a bit of additional color and shimmer to the image by watercoloring some areas with Twinkling H2O's. If you're not familiar with Twinkling H2O's, they are a hard caked pigment color infused with itty bitty shimmery particles. Ooooh sparkles... In the close-up of the snowman you can see the watercolor detail, and the sparkles. (Click the image for a larger view.)

Big thanks to Crissy for recently sharing this technique with me! Perfect timing for this week's Blogger's Challenge Friday topic!

Stamps on this card by Stampin' Up (Wishing You Cheer); Designer paper by BasicGrey (Figgy Pudding).