Musical Christmas

I loved Just Add Ink's sketch challenge #431:

I especially loved that I thought of a way to use the Musical Season stamps and dies - I think they're great, but I haven't had much success with them. (Until now!)

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up card (Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler), water colour pencils (Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Gorgeous Grape) stamps (Musical Seasons), dies (Musical Instruments), gold embossing powder, Botanical Gardens vellum
Other Products: Stazon Black ink, gold card

Love Heart

The current sketch from Thank God It's Friday (#tgif159) made me think about hearts, so that's what I went with, when making this card. To do the clouds I had to fight my brain's spatial ineptness, so it took me a while to work out that I should use a die to make cloud shapes in post-it notes, then use the hole rather than the shape to sponge onto the card, first onto white card at the top, then onto previously sponged card, in the same colour, to make the v-shape at the bottom. Phew!

Card ingredients:
Stampin' Up ink (Pool Party, Lemon Lime Twist, Melon Mambo), card (Lemon Lime Twist, Pool Party, Shimmery White), stamps (Heart Happiness, Sure Do Love You, Lift Me Up), dies (Rainbow Builders, Up and Away, Lots to Love Box), enamel shapes

Framed Butterfly

I loved the colour combination in Hand Stamped Sentiment's challenge #282 and utilised Freshly Made Sketch's challenge #322 to showcase them. I love the sentiment, and followed its instruction as I made the card!

Made using: Stampin' Up paper (Rose Red, Cherry Cobbler, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Love Blossoms DSP), ink (Rose Red, Cherry Cobbler, Perfect Plum (pen)), 

Also: francheville rhinestones, Sizzix Thinlits 'Hello Summer' (sentiment), Kaisercraft Flutter dies

Romantic Roses

For The Card Concept's challenge #76 (Romantic Roses), I made a clean and layered card. My response was a fairly literal take on the inspiration photo - well, what better than a bunch of red roses? - although I'm using the peony roses from Stampin' Up's new Beautiful Bouquet suite. Here's the photo:

and my card - I used the embossed panel to try to capture the texture of the shutters, and black glitter card for the wrapping for a bit of bling. 

Made using: 

Stampin' Up products:

Beautiful Bouquet stamps and dies; Stitched Shapes framelits

Whisper White paper

Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Garden Green and Basic Black ink

Christmas embossing folder

Other products:

Craftwise metallic twine, Rosie's glitter cardstock

Just another love card...

I loved sketch 255 from Freshly Made Sketches - I can see myself returning to it again and again. The white space is an invitation to get creative, and the layout keeps it CAS.

I began with a simple interpretation see bottom of post for that card, but then, looking at the colours of the flowers on this card, started wondering if it was possible to make a card in dark, rich colours that fitted the criteria 'clean and simple'. I'm not sure if the resulting card is CAS, but I'm still happy with the result: I think the contained nature of the sketch helped keep the lines of the card clean, as did the repetition of one simple shape (the heart).

The background for the hearts is sponged in Rose Red and Watermelon Wonder, and for the hearts I used a nifty little emboss-and-cut heart set from Stampin' Up that is now retired. 

Made using:

Paper: Stampin' Up Blackberry Bliss, Gold Foil, Bermuda Bay, Marina Mist, Pretty Petals DSP; Rosie's Studio Designer 'Birdsong' Scrapbook Pad, TAD Watercolour paper

Ink: Stampin' Up Rose Red, Watermelon Wonder, Blackberry Bliss

Other: Sizzix Fashionable Hearts Embosslit, Stampin' Up Thoughtful Banners stamp (sentiment) 

Here's my first attempt: