Less Is More and Trying Out a Trend...

Hello friends!!  Happy weekend to you!  Boy is it GORGEOUS here in Western Washington!  Just checked the forecast and it says temps will be in the 90's by evening!! Yikes... a bit too hot for me, but going to enjoy it just the same!  Have a little card I made last night, but didn't get a chance to post until this morning.   As the title of my post indicates this is for the current Less is More challenge to use blue and green.  But what is the trend I'm trying out?  Washi tape!!  I have resisted it for a while now because it is just one of those things that I like when I see other people use it, but when I give it a try my results always appear less than stellar.  Anywhoo... I decided to be brave and give it a try!

For my layout I used the current Retro Sketch.  I pulled out a favorite Hero Arts set, Antique Flowers & Butterflies because it has a little butterfly perfect for the little grouping you see on the sketch and because it comes with matching dies!  But much to my dismay I discovered that the die for the little butterfly is missing!! Ugghh!!  So instead of die cutting all the butterflies I had to cut them out!  Oh well... they still look pretty.   The Washi tape I acquired during my last shopping trip to Impress Rubber Stamps.  I think my biggest problem with Washi tape is the two rolls I had I did not buy and sometimes when I have a paper crafting item that I did not buy it is hard for me to use because it isn't necessarily something I would have picked out.  I did a bit of fiddling with the tape to get the look I wanted and so I'm relatively happy with it and may purchase another roll this week when I go to Impress to pick up some dies I had on order.  My card would also work for CAS-ual Fridays, but not sure if I will include it in their challenge.  The current challenge at A Blog Named Hero is freestyle... anything goes so I will pop it into that challenge.

Thanks for stopping by....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Ink:  Stampin Up! Night of Navy; Washi Tape; Hero Arts gems

3 Flowers....

Hey there.... happy Wednesday!  Have a little card I made for three challenges:  A Blog Named Hero's Topsy-Turvy,  ColourQ and Retro Sketches.  I love it when I can make one card and have it work for several different challenges!

The ColourQ combo this week was another tough one for me, but I knew that the graphic style of this week's Retro Sketch would work well with them.   I had planned on using one of the text image stamps from PTI's Text Styles border set to create the strip across the card front, but when I saw the new A Blog Named Hero challenge to use sentiment stamps in a way different from what they were meant to be used as I decided to use a couple of sentiments from the HA set Year Round Sentiments.  The flowers are from another HA set Bold Pop Designs.   Despite the fact that the flowers do cover up some of the sentiments, you can still figure out that it says "I miss you" and "Thinking of you".   I was quite impressed that I managed to get everything to line up so well just by eyeballing it!   I stamped a flower in the following colors, Ruby Red, Pool Party & So Saffron and then cut them out using the matching die.  Clear rhinestones were added to the centers.   The sentiments were stamped using Early Espresso.  I rounded the opposite corners of the card front to add an additional bit of interest.

Thanks for stopping by.....

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; Stamps:  Bold Pop Designs & Year Round Sentiments; Inks:  Stampin Up!; Dies:  Sizzix; Rhinestones: Want2Scrap & Stampin Up!

dear heart....

Hey there!!  Hope your week is going well!   I have a card I made for the brand new challenge blog, A Blog Named Hero!  For their first challenge they are asking us to "play favorites" or to use our favorite HA stamps.  For my card I used a new favorite HA stamp, Fleurettes, and an old favorite HA stamp, Classic Fabric Design background stamp. After I finished my card last night I started thinking that I had been channeling my super sweet (and super talented) bloggy friend, Sue, as I made it.  The card has a very soft and kind of romantic feel to it that is reminiscent of many of her cards.   I hope she likes this when she sees it!!   The design for my card is based on the current Sketchbook Saturday sketch.

I colored the fleurettes image with very pale colors using my Copic markers and then soften the image a bit more with some Tattered Rose distress ink.  The Classic Fabric Design was stamped using kraft ink and then the edges distress with Tattered Rose as well.  All the edges of the papers were distressed with my distressing tool.  To add to the romantic feel I used patterned papers from The Scrap Cake One Moment in Time 6x6 pad.  Love, love, love the papers from The Scrap Cake!   I created the fleur dis lis pieces using my Spellbinders Fleur Dis Lis Motifs.   The sentiment is from another Hero Arts set, Sweet Hearts and was stamped in kraft ink on a tag made using the PTI Tiny Tags die set.

I will also be putting this into another new challenge blog out there, Frilly & Funkie, as I think this fits into  their challenge of your favorite vintage style... for me it is to go just a bit shabby.  Thanks go out to Sue, for pointing me in their direction!

Thanks for stopping by...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white; PP:  The Scrap Cake One Moment in Time; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Ink: Stampin Up!, Memento & Ranger; Dies:  Spellbinders & PTI ; Lace:  unknown; Pearls: Stampin Up!, Copic Markers